Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

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Spoiler: Application Link

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Hype Train???????

 

{ Chapter 2 apps are now open. Pardon the intermission }

Spoiler: Application Link

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After an eternity in both directions, the five find themselves in front of a podium with a human in all blue clothes and a dragon that looks rather close to Sgavrinn.
None of them can see either's face.


"You're awful lost, if you ended up here. I'm sure you already realized that things aren't quite ready, so to speak," the human says, patting the dragon on the snout, "but to be honest? I didn't expect things to be quite this unstable with you."

 

"Who are you?" The first asked.

"Bringing us back to torment our undying souls once more? Cruel." The fourth added.

"What do you mean 'unstable'?" The third asked, annoyed.


"So we existed almost exactly the same in another reality?" Stephanie asked.

"There were many subtle differences between us, and it's history, but yes," Vai responded, "I've been reading through that tome of yours, I've never seen anything quite like it before. Using the crystal on the front, we should be able to look into it."

"And...she was there too?" Stephanie asked, pointing to the demon sitting at the study desk in the adjacent room.

"It would appear so. She's been quite quiet on her origins, but she seems to be an anomaly of sorts. It's mainly how I learned about this dead world though." Vai explained.

Stephanie gazed into the crystal eye set in the front of her tome, seeming to almost get lost in it for a moment.

"Should...we tell Aith and Artemis about this?" Stephanie finally asked after a few moments of silence, "Maybe even...who was that fire guardian we saved?"

"Abigail, but I don't think it's exactly safe to go near her yet." Vai said, grabbing a remote and turning on the TV opposite them. A news broadcast appeared, showing the mangled corpses of several fire guardians with 'Murders at Fishbowl incident still being investigated' as it's headline, "Besides, I don't think they'd exactly be happy to see their alternate selves. I don't even know how a version of me had a relationship with a version of Aith like that..."

Stephanie nodded, not quite paying full attention to the Shadow next to her, instead turning her violet eyes back toward the demon sitting at her study desk. Other than the strange horn-like patterns of her dark hair, Stephanie wouldn't have thought her a demon at all. She sat drawing, pencil lightly scratching the paper, seeming to keep to herself. A cup of tea sat steaming near to her, contained in a simple white and black mug. She'd cleaned it up and made tea in it herself as if she owned it; despite Stephanie knowing she didn't bring it with her when she'd appeared.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the front door, catching the attention of the demon. She wore an expression of fear and panic for a moment, caught off guard. After a moment, she calmed down, returning to her art after briefly catching Stephanie's eyes. Something always unsettled Stephanie about the way the demon's green eyes seemed to stare right through her. Almost as if they could see her soul.

"I'll deal with this." Vai said, getting up and heading to the front door. Stephanie opened her tome again, disregarding the dead world for a moment, returning to the page on Artemis. Like most pages, it had an almost unfinished look to it, empty spaces beneath the pages where the entry ended, as if asking for more information to be added. So much had happened because of this page, especially after showing it to Artemis herself. On reflection, Stephanie would be creeped out to find a page detailing her own life too. Something always unnerved her about the section of the tome detailing the gods of the world, she'd avoided it like a plague for some fear of what she might find.

I'll have to read it eventually, though... Stephanie thought.

 

"I... would love to be more polite on this front, but I don't think you're going to last much longer than our conversation," he sighs, leaning against his companion.
"I can't take responsibility for bringing you back, though. I'm not quite sure which you you are, but your original reality is now gone... relatively speaking. You're sort of floating aimlessly about in the space between proper realities at the moment, and you'll probably be collected by one of the gods soon.
Regardless... I suppose while you're here, a chat wouldn't be a terrible way to pass the time. Hearing me rail on about you lot as the last thing you hear would probably suck, anyways."

 

"We already know we're in a dead world. I'm more curious as to who's continuing our existence." The second clarified.

"I'm scared..." The fifth said.

 

"I am, for now. Whoever was holding on to you up until this point? Beyond me. The way things ended was rather... fitting, given you lot. The end of everything rippling through a rift is rather beautiful to watch from the outside, but I can only imagine how brutal it was on the inside. I suppose I just wanted to see you off, one last time... or something along those lines. I can't say I'm proud of what you've done, but you certainly did make it far.
Well... far enough, at least."

 

"I...can't even remember what we were doing before everything ended. It just...happened." The first said.

"It's how these things tend to happen. We're not meant to know." The fourth said, sounding almost mournful.

"Since when do you know about worlds ending?" The third asked.

"We've been in contact with gods, ~@%^'*$, not to mention *(!?@'%£& was a demigoddess." The second said flatly, "We learned to listen when they thought we weren't able to hear."

"But...where is *"?/%£!;$?" The fifth questioned.

"Hopefully not here, and at rest. Though...my form seems to be holding." The fourth said, concerned.



"Oh, did she leave?" Vai asked, looking at the empty chair and half-drunk tea where the demon once was; walking back from the front door.

Stephanie looked up from her tome, greeting Aith with a wave, "I didn't see her go."

"Who?" Aith asked.

"A demon just sort of...appeared a few hours ago. She was kind of cryptic about where she came from and what her name was, but she wanted to stay here for a bit. Stephanie said we should let her, so we did." Vai explained, shrugging.

"Sounds interesting," Aith said offhandedly, seeming to have checked out of the conversation. He stopped at the desk as he passed however, looking down at the mostly finished drawing the demon had done.

"Hm, neat." Aith said, heading into the kitchen. Vai stopped to glance at the drawing too, noticing a note tucked beneath it that Aith seemed to have missed. That, or he didn't care enough to point it out.

'Be back soon. -IC'

 

"Well... sounds like you were better off than your gods. You're already separated from yourselves, for what that's worth to you. You're holding because you're effectively just a snapshot of what was left just before the end. Or, at least, that end. Other versions of you will carry on, but you being here seems to mean that these versions of you have made a mess of things for the last time."

The dragon sits down, seeming to look at the first with nonexistent yet sad eyes.
"...I asked him to do this," he says, in a voice only familiar to the first, "I wanted to see you one more time before you left. Both because I love you so much and you hurt me so badly. But... do you even remember me, ______?"

 

The first looks on with almost soulless eyes, a bare flicker of the energy they once had residing within.

"I...think so?" The first says, confused.



It was like pushing through a thin sheet of film, the boundaries between trying to restrict and push back. She wasn't sure how exactly it worked, but by merely focusing on the starting point and the destination, the demon could push her way through realities. She pushed a little harder, and like water through a sieve, she slipped through. It was always an odd sensation returning from the nullspace between realities, feeling her senses flare alive again after everything seeming to be so muted. Colours returned to her eyes, sound to her ears, the temperature of the air on her skin, and the smell of the world around her to her nose. The first time she'd done it, it had been blinding and overwhelming, going from nothing to everything in barely a second. Now, she just had to quiet her senses for a moment, and slowly adjust them, like lowering oneself into a pool of freezing water.

The world around her was far darker than the one she'd just inhabited. It's presence near null made the adjustment far easier, cool water over freezing. She needed to open her third eye - the tearing of the skin over it always causing blood - in order to see properly, the stars long since snuffed out by the invisible caretaker's hand. The air, however, wasn't cold. It wasn't warm either. In fact, the only sense of temperature she could feel was her own blood, and the wisps of body heat coming from the figures she saw in the near distance. They stood out like specks of colour on a bland grey canvas, even the dark ones contrasting against the drabness of the dead world. For now, she'd wait and observe. Monitor the thinner barriers between this world, and search for the eye gazing through should it do so. Even watching a dead world could cause a dangerous leakage should the eye peer too close. While the demon had never bet an alternate version of herself, for she was the only one, she'd seen it happen to others.

The consequences were dangerous.

 

“No… it’s okay if you don’t. Just know that I’ll still miss you, even if I died for it.”
“He was a gift to you from a dear friend. I take it none of you remember her name, either?”

 

"The dragon girl whose name started with I?" The second asked, form seeming to becoming a little more present.

"Who was she?" The fifth asked, confused, focusing on her thoughts.

"I...think I remember." The first said, nodding, as if rusty cogs straining to return to their duty had finally found passage within her mind.


The world shifted. It was subtle, unnoticeable by one who wasn't so well versed with traveling between realities. As the figures in the near distance continued to talk, they began to inspire life back to the world around them. As if grasping at life from the throes of death, a buried seed pod beginning to sprout anew as memories were recalled. It wasn't undocumented, a dead world finding itself momentarily alive, though they didn't often get far before they were silenced once more; like the cutting of an errant thread from a piece of clothing.

The demon hesitated. To act would be to reveal herself, and should this world follow the course of all, she'd simply need to find her way home again from the empty space between. But should it not...

 

"Ihra, yes. The young goddess, one that your next selves will unfortunately likely never meet. You saved her from one death, but not every death. You became reliant, and you lost control from there."


"Trust him," an omnipresent voice whispers into the demon's mind, "And if not him... me."

 

"Hardly seems important now. We're just remnants." The queen said, shrugging.

"What happened to her?" The water guardian asked.


She'd been noticed.

A voice whispered into her mind, it's words seeming to betray it's ability to read it. Beings that were able to read into her thoughts weren't uncommon, such were in fact common when dealing with those with even basic psychic powers; though it always unsettled her slightly. It was difficult to plan anything when you weren't certain what could and couldn't be seen, especially within the sanctum of the mind. As she waited, focusing on the presence, she searched for any attempt at manipulation; subtle nudges toward one action over another. Falling to them before didn't make her immune, but it did tend to grant her a better idea on when they were happening.

The nullspace behind her seemed to hum, the thin barrier seeming to strain slightly as the world further shifted. Escape was still an option, for now, at least.

 

"None of this is important to you, but it may be to us. As for the question, she grew tired. She could make endless space for herself to exist in, and give herself endless energy to make endless space. Yet, she grew tired anyways - and she let the unraveled threads pull her apart."

The human hops onto the dragon's back, before laying down on his companion.
"A shame I couldn't find a snapshot of your gods. I suppose they wouldn't take well to me talking to them like this, so perhaps it's for the better anyways."


There is no attempt manipulation of the demon's mind - only the lingering thought that the presence would prefer she did not respond, left in a way that makes it clear the thought was planted.
Even then, nothing is stopping her from doing so - should she choose.

 

The king takes out a blade of immense power, poking at one of the large corpses scattered about.

"Strange seeing someone so powerful so...dead." The king mutters.

"By what I know of Gaia, our existence is questionable as we're not strictly alive." The forest guardian says, thinking.

"I think everything about this is questionable." The fire guardian retorts.


The demon continued to watch, waiting, planning.

A gaze oversaw the world once more.

 

"You're all dead. Once the two of us finish up here, you'll be part of this scene as well... not that this scene will outlast you by much. The janitor's pretty much just waiting for me to let them know when to clean up. If you're lucky, someone else might stumble across it some day - though I suppose whether that is or isn't fortunate is a matter of opinion," he says with a yawn.

 

"And how long are you going to keep us for?" The queen asks.

 

Hmm

 

Yep. App link.

I've got apps from two different people thus far. I'll need a minimum of four to get going (two on each front), but there's still a fair bit of prep work on my end before things get going again.
I will be less active now than I used to be because of college, but I'm still hopeful the ball might get rolling again by the end of the year.

To the two people who sent in an app (you know who you are), I'll respond after August 11th. More came up as of late than I anticipated.