The Dresden Files RP- "Edge Town"

"Well, our modus operandi is telling the laws of physics to go cry in the corner, so..."

Jarl shrugged and skipped across as the first person. With all the gear he was carrying he was probably the heaviest of the lot, and he was the only one who could properly mend the bridge if something happened.

"Just remember that the laws of physics may just get up from their corner and slap you down when you don't look." Tim added, looking at the bridge warily.

"I just fuck around with biology. 'S safer, probably."

"I am very sure your werewolfing does violate conservation of energy and mass in various ways." Tim just answered.

"Really? Because being able to poof some of your mass away when you shift is a big deal. Chick out in Baltimore's famous in those kind of circles for being able to go mouse because of that."

"And this does not strike you as avoiding conservation of mass? "

"Not when I do it. Wolves are bigger than mice."

"The average north-american wolf weighs 36 kilograms. How much do you weigh in your human form, Terrance?"

"Nothing I can calculate to kilograms in my head, furriner.

"And I'm a pretty big wolf."

edited 3rd Sep '14 4:12:01 PM by rikalous

"The biggest ever recorded gray wolf, the biggest extant member of the genus lupus, came at 80 kilograms. That is 160 pounds. Found in Soviet Russia."

"And that's just the biggest they survived meeting."

edited 3rd Sep '14 6:30:53 PM by rikalous

Reinette's words probably should have come as a balm.

It was all very seductive. The idea that everything that went wrong was outside out of his control. That he had no need to take responsibility. That he didn't have the power to change things-if he hadn't made different choices, everything could have gone better. There's a terribly freedom in being powerless, the freedom from any consequences.

He wished he could believe her. He wished he could remember how to breathe correctly.

He felt the floor of the cave, rough and cool beneath him, strangely intense, vivid. His clothes felt tight-harsh against his skin, constraining and tight.

"I could have-should have done differently. Known better. So many choices. I can't change them. And I can't fix them all."

He tried to focus on breathing. His hands still shook. Where had he dropped his gun?

"The truth."

In a sudden rush, what he had momentarily forgotten rushed back-his goal, the hunt for Bethany. Or was it for Loki? Or Vegas? What was he after? Revenge? Power? His sister? Why was he still trying to prove himself to a man he had killed?

Why the doubt?

Had he really come this far without knowing what he was after?

It bubbled up in a rush, a quiet, racking laugh, strangled and out of breath, eerily reminiscent of his last meeting of Reinette.

She's right. I'm a fool.

"The truth."

His breathing was still choked, his hands still shook, but words came out, quiet, strangled, but there.

"I want power. I want wealth. I want fame. I want men, and women, and everything human and otherwise. I want my name to echo in ears across the globe. I want admiration and respect and fear. I want to roll in silk sheets with panting, sweat-streaked tangled bodies, and I want to fight, and fuck and win. I will kill to get what I want, and I will face death to protect what I have. I can be cruel, and bloody-minded, and ruthless, and sometimes I need to be. I want an empire. I want people kneeling at my feet."

He let other another breath, his mouth dry, words shaky, but a curious sort of joy filling him, the wild certainty of a the condemned facing the hangman.

"I want a legacy. Not of terror. Of peace. Of protection, and security. I want to build a better world, brick by brick, body by body, safe place after safe place. Not just to feed. Not just to spite my father. But to prove that I'm more than my Hunger. And because I like humanity. Stupid and sheeplike as they-we can be, they deserve far more than my Court gives them credit for."

Alexander Thorne raised his head, still laughing, still choking, kneeling on the floor of the cavern next to the ghost of the woman he had shot.

"And one last, final truth. A truth that trumps all others."

He grins, his face streaked with tears, laughter and coughing mixing, choking.

"I've been lying to myself. Doing this all for the wrong reasons, because I felt weak. My power didn't protect me. It just painted a bigger target. Attracted threats. I can't stop my family from making bad choices by forcing them not to, or shielding them. All the time I was growing up, I kept reaching for the sun, no matter how much it burned. I became what I am to protect my family. I let Giovanni get everything he wanted from me-mold me to protect my family, I killed him and took his place to protect my family, and I shot you to protect my family. And none of that helped my family. Except maybe killing father."

He swallowed, drawing in a breath.

"Empty Night. I'm like a beaten dog...or maybe a lost boy, hoping if I snarl and bite enough, they'll back down, and not realize how vulnerable I feel. I didn't even know I was doing it. So. I save my sister. Protect what's left of my family-for real-not by getting more power, and painting more targets, and let them to what they want. And then, when I go back to Vegas-and I will rule Vegas, I do it because it's something I want. Not for any other reason. Possibly also find someone to talk to other than my mental image of the woman I murdered."

The grin spread, wild and euphoric, and he coughed-laughed, eyes sparkling in the dim light grey, human grey, Sprinkled with flecks of white.

"So. How's that for your truth?"

edited 7th Sep '14 11:06:59 AM by DrTentacles

"Go fuck a duck, Puck." Leon extended both of his middle fingers as he held his sword, twisting it about to better show the extended digits to the ghost of Puck.

"And/or bring out the mini-boss already. Freaking playing video game music then give me a ghost that mocks me instead of a proper fight. This is the lamest supposed deathtrap door ever."

She sighed- exasperated but smiling. But she didn't answer, instead looking back at the child.

"Thank you." The voice was quite, soft...familiar but also...odd. Like hearing a recording of yourself and realizing this is how I really sounded.

She hooded figure pushed past Reinette, tiny and small fluttering, and shed the cloak. Scuffed and bruised, messy knot of blonde hair, glasses with one of the frames cracked...There was something....broken...already behind those eyes- long before the bitterness and rage and Hunger had set in. Something hurting. But the boy, the much much younger Alex, was also smiling.

Lost boy.

A scared little lost boy in over his head. Lasing out at the world to try and keep control of it. Hurting others because he was hurting himself, inflicting pain without understanding the consequences of it. Trying so hard to hold on to what he had that he had become something....Something he never set out to be.

Scared lost little boy.

"The first step." She said- and her voice was soothing, calm. "To recovery is acceptance. The Lost Boys are locked to Puck's will because they refuse to admit they are lost at all. But in some hidden part of their hearts, all those who are lost wish to be found." She had stood at some point and circled around the real older Alex, stroking his hair gently. "I think you know what you have to do."

The boy extended his hand, eyes crinkled waiting for Alex to take it.

"Oi- I'm just hear because your imagination conjured me." The specter said, continuing to float. "And really? A mini boss? You think it's that easy?" He snapped his fingers and lowered down a bit.

He spun. "That's half your problem honestly- you think everything is that simple when in reality it's not. And you can't quite wrap your head around that concept. It's a pity really."

-pulse-

There it was again, Tim thought. It had started once they went down between the roots of the Tree. The World Tree. Yggdrasil. Ashwath Vriksha. Jievaras. All names for the same concept: Axis Mundi. The connection between Earth and...beyond.

And since they had arrived here, slowly but steady, Tim's staff had...pulsed. Without pausing he looked down on it. Long and dark of wood, adorned with laser-carved runes according to micrometer-exact plans and designs, wrapped around a core of solid clear crystal and tipped by a twin set of foot-long dark grey blades forged by the dwarves of Niðavellir and enchanted by his own hand in months of work.

Some people called it a spear, but in Tim's mind it had always been a staff. A tool - a weapon too, yes - but ultimately a tool, a focus, a physical form of his intent and knowledge.

-pulse-

Feeling his grip tighten, Tim suppressed a frown and moved on. Puck and his scheme lay before them. He would deal with this after...provided there was one.

edited 9th Sep '14 10:27:31 AM by 3of4

"I was led to believe this room would likely be a deathtrap of some sort. Coupled with video game music greeting me, miniboss was the likely conclusion. There's thinking in simple lines and then there's needlessly complicating things. Like now, it's become more evident that, turns out my initial thought processes were wrong and the music was to just throw me off."

Leon sheathed his blade slowly since it had become evident that a fight wasn't going to happen instead he was stuck debating with a ghost of Puck apparently conjured out of his subconcious.

"I really don't have time for this. But I'm guessing I'm not getting out of here til I figure out what's really going on with this room. Alright, not a test of courage, or power. Leaving wisdom, if I continue to be influenced by the Zelda music. Supported by the "can't wrap mind around things" comment. Which seems decidedly unPuck like. Perhaps he doesn't have as great of control over the area as we were led to believe."

Alex stands, shaky, chest still tight, spot swimming before his eyes, picking up his gun and holstering it. No need for a weapon, now. There were many types of battles, and just as many paths to victory. He reached out, and took his younger self's hand.

He had a feeling he'd be having less dreams of his father.

edited 9th Sep '14 10:42:22 PM by DrTentacles

The child broke into a cloud of golden lights- and there was a....breath. Like a string un-relaxing, a bow un-tightening, a spring uncoiling.

The light in the cavern returned to normal- and behind Alex, back the way he had come the door opened up to allow him to rejoin the others.

Back in said cavern, Max watched as a section of wall burst into golden light- and when it faded there was a metal gate overlain with veins and locked with an old stone looking seal facing outwards.

Step one- completed, seemed to be the message.

The ghost Puck shrugged. "He sets it to auto-pilot when he's got other things to worry about." And then spun around. "Also- right on the money. See, this room...your thoughts become manifest here. The roots of the world tree blur the boundaries between all things- partly because it IS boundry, or a confluence of all things. It's all really complicated, but the short version is that your mind oozes over and is made real, then World Tree takes that back matter- some might call it Imagination- and uses it to shape a trial, based not so much on what you can do, but on what you need to do. Or learn." He lowered himself. "It's a trial of the self- you're facing your own biggest weaknesses and deficiencies. In this case....A riddle."

He rose up again and spun. "It's simple really 'The wise alone can make the leap'." He grinned. "Some might say...deceptively simple."

"Really? That's it? A riddle? Couldn't you have led with that and just saved me some damn time?" Leon grumbles a bit more in irritation as he moves closer to the edge of the chasm. The riddle was fairly self explanatory. Figure out a way to get across. Which probably meant floating invisible platforms. Shame the ground wasn't gravel or the like.

Invisible platforms would be easy enough to spot with his Sight, but he wasn't going to skip to the figurative nuclear option right from the get go. Instead, he turned around and moved towards one of the glowing crystals and attempted to yank it out of its setting. If he couldn't manage with his bare hands he'd use his durability enchanted gladius to pry one out. Once that was done, he'd walk back over to the chasm edge and toss the crystal as hard as he could across. To see if there was something else to get to or if it might illuminate a path or the like on the way.

By the time Alex makes it back to the rest of the stealth team, sans Leon, he is calm and composed, no hint of anything that had happened in the caverns behind. He looks over the group, frowning slightly.

"That was...interesting. I'd suggest not going there. Where is Warden Lichenburg?"

Aiden breathed out audible as Alex returned, almost dropping his weapon to hug his brother.

Captain James shrugged. "He decided he wanted to die like a hero apparently." He said gesturing to the place where Leon's door had been- it had vanished just like Alex's after had gone through. Now there was only the gap in the wall Alex had come back through....and the overgrown gate. "We aren't in any legal jurisdiction that counts negligence of children as a war crime right?"

Riff was interestingly silently, watching the place where Leon's door had be as if it where a high-definition TV.

The crystal, after firm prying with the gladius, goes hurtling into the abyss, flying as far as Leon could chuck it and then tumbling downwards into a dizzying point of light that winks out after a bit- either from being extinguished or just vanishing, Leon can't possibly know.

The ghost-Puck clapped. "Bravo. There's something no one's ever thought of before."

The rest of the away team sets down foot onto the rocky shore, all at once.....At the far end of Puck's garden.

Before them is a pair of great oak doors carved with beautiful perfectly exact murals and friezes of roots, leaves, and suns- Puck's personal crest at the very center.

They had arrived.

"All right, find the trefoil Avenda-whatsit leaf and move that to get us into the Ways. Or just kick down the doors and run like hell." Terry poked at the crest in the center, being careful not to actually touch it. "What's this jazz, anyway? It looks important."

"Don't give me lip ghost Puck."

Leon frowned at the entire lack of results the crystal chucking had brought. No visible other end to the apparently bottomless chasm and not even a glimpse of a possible walkway or platforms.

"Only the wise can make the leap. Alright, wizard came from the word wise or something to that effect. So, it could be saying only a wizard can cross. Not exactly something I want to test by making a leap of faith like Indiana Jones."

The child sized wizard sheathed his blade over his back got down on his knees near the edge of the chasm and began reaching out with his hands seeking something solid that might support his weight.

Tim simply sighed and went to inspect the gates carefully, to see if he could find any inscription or warning signs.

Kat meanwhile stage-whispered from behind him:" Try mellon!"

"I'm guessing the obvious solution is out? "