017.6 Jaela, II

[Corwin]

[21:48] <Kotono> Annalise watches, "Hm." She lingers outside as Elena follows Jaela. "You alright," she asks.
[21:48] <Jaela> "He bit me but--" Jaela glows with an inner golden light, "--I'm already better. And that took care of any potential diseases, too."
[22:02] <Kotono> "Oh," Elena follows along, "I don't think he has any diseases...does he?"
[22:04] <Jaela> "Beats me." Jaela shrugs. "Can you keep an eye on him so that no assholes poke him with sticks or something?"
[22:07] <Kotono> "Okay," Elena agrees, "It's not like it can do anything in Ysgard anyway."
[22:09] <Jaela> "It's just dickish to do after a proper duel." Jaela then turns to Annalise. "Any tips for me? I know I've gotten better, but what should I work on?"
[22:16] <Kotono> Annalise falls in line, "Right now? That style's a powerful one, but it will get you killed sooner or later," she says, "It does work, but the practitioners of it keep dying for entirely obvious reasons."
[22:19] * Jaela laughs. "You noticed? Yeah, but that's because it's incomplete. I'd normally emulate a troll when I fight like this." She glances sideways at the vampire. "I've been trying to decide if I should do the Elrisa thing. That force of personality thing. I got to see its weakness in battle, so I'm pretty sure I could fix that one if I did it myself. But it's a hell of a training regime for me."
[22:21] <Kotono> "It's a fine style," Annalise allows, "Mmmm, speaking of," Stretching, "I need to return to my own. I'm starting to recover...mmmm. I think that with just another meal I'll recover some of my lost power." She looks at Jaela, "If you'd be willing, we could retire to quarters for that. Your blood would make recover that much easier."
[22:27] <Jaela> "Yeah, we could...." Jaela trails off, sighing in frustration. "It's not the blood. It's the quarters. I mean, we just go there or go fight horrible shit. Let's, I dunno, take a few hours and go somewhere? If there's a place where no one bothers you and I can be at without starting a fight right away, maybe we could make a date out of it?"
[22:28] <Kotono> Suddenly Annalise smiles, stopping and heading back out. "There may be. There may just be. If not..." She trails off, "Well, a fight can be enjoyable for you as well."
[22:29] <Jaela> "Maybe we can have a bit of fun, and then end it on a fight? From all the dumb jokes it's like I'm ashamed or hiding this or whatever, and that's not even close to the truth. So yeah, let's go somewhere together."
[22:32] <Kotono> "Close your eyes," Annalise says, taking your hands, "Tell me when you're ready."
[22:45] * Jaela does so, trusting in Annalise.
[22:49] <Kotono> There is a moment of absolute vertigo, followed by stomach-wrenching nausea. Then Jaela's feet touch the ground (They were off the ground? Jaela thinks they were!) and her stomach quiets. There's a moment before Annalise chuckles, "Well, well, well, well."
[22:50] * Jaela takes a peek!
[22:56] <Kotono> You stand in darkness. Walls of slightly less-dark matter rise up and around, no solid walls but instead just interlocking curves. A single, high backed and deeply plush chair sits in the middle of this space. Sitting on one of the armrests is a bowl, filled with what looks to be red berries. The red is the only non-black color in the room, save for yourself and Annalise.
[22:57] <Jaela> "You know, when I said 'date', I expected...." Jaela struggles with a good description, before finally saying, "Wel, not this."
[23:03] <Kotono> Annalise goes to the chair, running her hands over the armrest. She gently takes the bowl of berries and sits, placing them in her lap. One seated so, "This is technically a demiplane." She picks up a berry, sniffing it once. "Aaah. They're still intact? I never got around to testing how long they'd last." Putting that single berry back down, "It's not safe - it's defensive magics were
[23:03] <Kotono> shredded and I didn't have a chance to restore them. But it seems that nothing's taken up residence in all these years. How utterly fortunate."
[23:04] * Jaela snorts. "So you have poor me here at your seat of power, all at your mercy?"
[23:10] <Kotono> "Why yes, I suppose I do. If you want to strip down and lie at my feet like a captured toy, you're welcome to do so," Gesturing grandly as she picks up a berry, "I could feed you this berry and grant you things you never imagined."
[23:13] <Jaela> "I'm fine with my imagination." Jaela can't help but grin, and comes over to Annalise. "But I don't even need that with you." She snorts again. "I wonder if you're so used to using magic or your insane hotness and all that stuff on people to realize that I'd like you even without all of that. So I'm fine, thanks."
[23:16] <Kotono> "Imagination, hm?" Annalise murmurs, taking a berry, "Were I of a mind, I could take this to a Prime Material world and plant it in the winter. Come summer an entire bush of these berries would grow. When villagers, serfs or whatever inconsequential mortals came to eat the berries, they would rise the next night as vampires. A relatively simple trick when I was in my prime." Taking a
[23:16] <Kotono> berry up and popping it into her mouth, "Mmmm. Do you still like me so much? Scan these if you care to - the evil you would see would leave you twitching and dazed."
[23:22] <Jaela> "I'm sure you'd want to have me twitching and dazed, but I'll take your word for it." Her grin does slip slightly, because the subject is too serious to just joke about. "It's not easy, and I'm not blind to any of that. How could I? Helm and Lady Angharradh were all too happy to show me, and I doubt they'd need to lie over something like this. But I'm still into you. I guess it's a compromise?" That's not the right word, but Jaela decides to go with it and ask, "You're making them too, on your side, aren't you? Like you said, you could just go and do all that. But you're only drinking blood from me or our enemies... or cattle, I guess, which is okay." She frowns, trying to stay on track. "I like to think you're trying your best for me, too. It doesn't matter if you have some weird plan for me. What I see is that you value me enough to try, for my sake. For now, having just that is enough for me."
[23:29] <Kotono> Slowly eating another berry, licking it twice before swallowing, "You're missing one important point. Good is too principled to compromise forever, or even for long. How long before they declare you impure? Perhaps they brand you a necrophilic from contact with me and shun you, hm? You're making more and more compromises, trying to hold on. With all you've seen and done, do you think
[23:29] <Kotono> they can last forever?"
[23:33] <Jaela> "People've always called me names, I've got thicker skin than that." Jaela shakes her head with a smile, taking Annalise's hand in hers once she's licked it clean. "I'm not worried about that. As long as you keep on trying for my sake, I'll face the world together with you. That's how I really feel." The urge to look away is strong, but Jaela overcomes it somehow. "Okay? I'm serious about this."
[23:38] <Kotono> "So am I." Annalise murmurs, "Even laying with me could be an unforgiveable sin, Jaela." Her smile is gone, eyes red and boring into Jaela's, taking another berry with her free hand and putting it to Jaela's mouth, "If you choose to be with me and accept all this, you should eat this berry and accept your destiny. Why fight it so hard, when you accept me more and more? How can you face
[23:38] <Kotono> the world with me when you do not accept my gift?"
[23:42] <Jaela> "Because I wanna do it my way," Jaela says, gently pushing her hand aside. "I want to be with you. You don't need to tie me to you with that sorta stuff. It's something I chose on my own, and I'm not gonna change my mind because I learn something scary about you." She drops her head. "Do we really have to argue about this every time? I just wanted to spend some time with you. Have some fun. I don't know, visit a theater or a market or just walk together somewhere. Why can't we be like that, too?"

[Corwin]

[19:56] <Shao_Koahn> With a smile that makes Jaela want to shiver, Annalise takes another berry, "A fair question." Popping it into her mouth, "I still believe you'll fall, sooner or later and probably sooner. Better to turn your back on them rather than be cast down and castrated of your powers, no? Why sacrifice your pride to them when I believe you're doomed to be rejected? Yet you still believe." Seeming to ponder that, a finger drumming on the armrest of her chair, "Moreover, you deserve better than what they've given you. You deserve more power."
[20:03] <Jaela> "Maybe the Seldarine will kick me out. Maybe I'll even deserve it." Jaela shrugs. "It's not like I'm blind to the possibility. But I believe in them, and I think they believe in me. You want to convince me of--" Jaela gestures at the bowl of berries. "Of that? You've gotta wait for them to do it, first. I'll need to hear it from them properly."
[20:03] <Jaela> She concentrates, and Val'Finnegan starts glowing with a silvery light. "How can you stand it being so dark and samey?" Jaela asks rhetorically, before shaking her head. "Anyway, I'll get my power with my own hands. That's the best way. If someone else just hands me any, it's pretty much an insult, no other way about it. This spear?" She glances at it. "It wasn't some handout. I put in the effort, I get things out of it. If people start thinking about what they deserve, they'll just break because the world's not fair."
[20:06] <Shao_Koahn> Raising an eyebrow, before chuckling, "Samey? Oh of course, you wouldn't be able to see." Listening to the rest of it, "I'll give you something like what you want. Sit in my lap and rest." Putting the berries aside, "I will show something you'll enjoy."
[20:07] <Jaela> "You should help me with my armor first, or I'll crush you. Probably," Jaela says, sounding slightly embarrassed. "Getting in and out of armor quickly, now there's a power I'd wanna have."
[20:10] <Shao_Koahn> "No need." Annalise doesn't even bat an eye, "Just make sure your neck is exposed, that's enough." With a sudden rise of mirth, lips twitching up, "I'm stronger than most bare-chested warriors. Physical might is a trifling thing, easily obtained for one such as I."
[20:12] <Jaela> "Yes, yes." With an eyeroll, Jaela hops on Annalise's lap. Centering herself with one arm around her, she removes her helm. "You're strong and pretty and flawless."
[20:15] <Shao_Koahn> "Close your eyes." Annalise murmurs, "Go with the dream, you'll understand better once you get there."
[20:17] <Jaela> "Sure, if you say so." Her eye closed, Jaela leans her head on Annalise's shoulder.
[20:19] <Shao_Koahn> The pain of the bite is a momentary jolt...then the world fades. It melts behind Jaela's eyes as she feels faint. None of the normal pleasure. Instead, she drifts along in a sea of black. A jolt and another jolt and then...the sound of murmuring voices. It's warm in here. Warm. It feels good. The feeling of her armor is gone, replaced by tight but much ligher material.
[20:21] <Jaela> "Can I look now?" Jaela whispers, feeling as lethargic as she often does like this.
[20:22] <Shao_Koahn> "Yes," Annalise says, but her voice is farther away. You don't feel her against you now - you're standing? It feels like you're standing.
[20:23] <Jaela> Then she should open her eye and look around.
[20:28] <Shao_Koahn> You stand in a small dome - there's space for two rows of ten chairs. Each one is deep and plush, connected to one another. Just past this are several strange things - tall metal bars, strings head in a ten-fold pattern in the air, untethered to anything and yet taut, a long tube riddled with snaking gashes, a bowl of water with metal buttons floating on the surface. In most of the seas are things - one is dazzling to look at. A celestial, glowing with radiance. Six wings curl around its body, no gender easily told. It seems as much light as physical form. Another is a tall gray thing, surely fourty feet tall - yet sitting in the chair and fitting without difficulty, both tall and able to fit. After a moment your eyes look away, a debilitating stab of pain from even glancing at it. Other things yet - things you have no name for, things alien to you...save for one. Annalise is besides you, wearing a black dress. It fits her body, cut daringly down her chest. Jaela notices she's wearing the same. Above, the dome you are in shimmers, made of semi-transparent force. Outside you can see...shadows and shapes, whirling. Nothing that stays the same, things you can't make out. "Sit," Annalise murmurs, "The show is about to start."
[20:31] <Jaela> "Alright," Jaela whispers, holding Annalise's chair for her and then sitting down herself. "Are we in your memory?"
[20:33] <Shao_Koahn> "How perceptive," Annalise murmurs, "Yes. Don't worry too much about anything you see here. There are purposes and meaning here you could spend eons trying to understand. Accept that this place -is-. Don't look long that gives you a headache, especially the too-tall gray creature. Don't look at it, try not to think of it, and don't try to figure out what it is.  Just wait a few moments then lose yourself in the music."
[20:34] <Jaela> "Alright," Jaela repeats, accepting the confirmation and trying very hard to stop herself from looking expectant.
[20:42] <Shao_Koahn> Vision splinters. As it does, of their own accord, music happens. The strings vibrate, the buttons in the water push, the bars clang together. It makes no sound, but in your head you hear it. Music, music like nothing before. It is always changing, always something it was not before and becoming. If music could constantly be changing and never the same, shifting in your memory, this would be it. The sounds are sounds you have a growing certanty you couldn't hear with your ears, but in your mind do they sing! THey merge together, a voiceless, wordless song that makes your body shift. You can feel your body changing, moving, constantly growing and shifting with the music! As this happens Annalise sighs, a happy little sound, "Mmmm, the first movement is the best," she murmurs, "Tri-unlinear tonists have just the right mix of elements."
[20:45] * Jaela just nods absent-mindedly at the nonsense, staring down at her body in disbelief. But she remembers Annalise's earlier advice and the warning of a headache from before, and her gaze doesn't linger. Annalise knew how to have fun after all! Why didn't she just say so from the very start?
[20:47] <Shao_Koahn> Green, blue, red. Her skin changes as she grows four more arms, then they merge into her previous arms, before wings replace them. Then her eyes grow on her knees, as she spins as a ball! The music becomes sharper, more discordant somehow! Jaela folds into a sphere, into a rectangle, blossoming into a flower! A flower that withers and dies in what feels like an eternity,r eborn into a sunbeam that explodes out! You soar as light, fading into night time. A speck of the moon, plummeting to the ground like a tear. The ground explodes around you, becoming bars. As a ten sided face you sit in a cell, listening to the musical cries of the lost within. The cries that transform you, becoming a musical note that drifts away in the wind, shifting from note to note in time with the music, impossible angled things that dazzle your mind! "Mmm, the second movement," Annalise murmurs again, the feeling of her hand in yours, even as you don't have a hand.
[20:50] <Jaela> Annalise is probably controlling it, since it's her dream she pulled Jaela into. And Jaela can't help but feel touched at the gesture.
[20:51] <Shao_Koahn> Then...colors. Red, blue, green, all of them. Jaela is all of them, fading away into the rainbow. The rainbow, the rainbow, the rainbow. Sleepy. So sleepy...mmmmm. You feel your armor again, so tired. So faint. You want to fall asleep, sleep for so long. "Mmmm," Annalise purrs, breath on your neck, "Are you awake now, Jaela?"
[20:53] <Jaela> "I think so." She sighs in satisfaction. "Yep, I'm sure now."
[20:54] <Shao_Koahn> "Mmm-hmm, restore yourself...unless you want me to continue?" she whispers.
[20:55] <Jaela> A silly, girlish giggle escapes Jaela. Looking mortified, she buries her face in Annalise's shoulder and gropes for her diamond dust.
[20:58] <Shao_Koahn> As Jaela restores herself, she sees Annalise again. Her eyes gleam red, her entire body seeming...more. You can feel her presence, almost enough to overwhelm you all over again. She licks her ruby red lips, "Mmmmmm. Yes, that was exactly what I needed."
[20:58] <Jaela> "You restored some of your, what was it, lost powers?"
[20:59] <Shao_Koahn> "A little of them," she replies, "Mmm yes, I can feel them bubbling up. Really, walking around with such limited power has lost what little charm it has."
[21:02] <Jaela> "I like your golden eyes more," Jaela muses. She reaches out to cup Annalise's cheek. "But red is fine too, really. And once we get that blue dragon what'shisname, we can restore you as much as you need without worrying about running out of diamonds."
[21:05] <Shao_Koahn> "We shall see." Offering a hand out, "Shall we return now?" A moment later her eyes shift back, becoming gold once more.
[21:07] <Jaela> "Let's," Jaela agrees. "And next time, I'll bring you somewhere. I doubt you'll change shape or color, but we'll still have a good time!"