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  1. #1
    Avis's Avatar
    Avis
    Avis

    Vulgar: Color drains from the immediate area and depth perception becomes temporarily skewed, everything seeming to draw in uncomfortably close, making rooms smaller and all but distant objects seem in reach.
    Vice: Color drains from Avis and her facial features seem indistinct and grainy, as though her identity is growing less defined.
    Virtue: Colors appear more vibrant and everything seems to become grander in scale.
    Merits

    2
    PRE

    It had been too long since they'd spoken. Avis knew that it hadn't been fair for Star. She knew she was being selfish, but after what she'd seen in Florida...She needed time. Time to think. To remember, but reconsider. There was so much that had changed, so much that she now saw. When she'd given that little boy a message, when she'd given Star those words to live by, she'd changed so much more than just his past. She'd changed hers, too, and one other's...

    She sniffled a bit, wiping the arm of her sweatshirt under her nose, as she thought about it, and she didn't even pause to blame it on the bite of from the chill night wind. Instead, she looked behind her, towards the Portal she'd wrought between a motel room and here. Any minute now, she knew Star would step through so that they could talk. She'd sent him a message, telling him to meet her in the room, but to put on his goggles so he wouldn't miss her invitation.

    She hoped he'd like the surprise she prepared for him, because as soon as he stepped through the portal, he'd find himself looking out over the place they'd shared their first real kiss. She'd wrought the portal between the motel and Tower Bridge...the top of the west Tower, giving them a view of the dark waters of the river stretching off to the north and south and the glittering lights of the city stretching off to the east.

      2 successes, portal!
    Date Action Roll Result
    2017-04-03 16:04:40 Avis rolls 5 to Think with portals! (gnos4+space5+2 HS-6encountered) (10 Again) 8, 8, 5, 6, 2 2 successes
    "Aw-Vee". Pres 2 (Moody). Mastigos, Adamantine Arrow. Trace of a Cajun accent.
    Defense: 8. 3 cloaked spells. Phone (pot 6), Belt (pot 5), Self (pot 2 +3) Spell tolerance: 1/3, Accumulation: 3/7

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  3. #2
    Star's Avatar
    Status
    (Entertainment)
    Status
    (News Media)
    New Identity
    (Jack Hoyle)
    Nimbus

    The Mirage: Star appears translucent with overlapping and slightly offset images of himself in different identities/disguises.
    Supernal

    1
    OCC
    2
    PRE

    No-Tell Motels.

    Some people might have found an invitation to a motel room from their significant other titillating, an invitation to an assignation. Even a year ago, when We were whole, he wouldn't have. That's the thing about two plus years with Vee Tee and an Arrow caballero. Hotel room could mean anything from 'I have a Banisher we nee to question/dispose of' to 'I need help to steal/Dispel a thing'.

    Aether Eyes studied the grey glyph spinning and sparking, reading the signature that he knew as well as sable brows that could arch impossibly high or remain inscrutably motionless in a total lack of expression that had confounded him for years. Lately more than ever.

    Well. At least this wasn't 'I've dissolved a body in the bathtub and it won't drain and I've clogged the toilet'.

    He stepped through the rupture in Space, sneaker skidding on pavement rather than industrial carpet, feeling the cool outdoor wind brushing across his hands and face. For a moment he just stared. More than a moment. They say you can never go back, but that isn't True. There are some places you can go back, and some of them you even avoid so that you don't. This was a place where secrets had been softly spoken; things he'd never told anyone, things he heard for the first time. A place where something new and frightful and wonderful had blossomed, even now withered and dry petals and leaves cracking and falling off.

    They'd shared a kiss here. They'd shared tears here. Not the last time for either, but the first.

    They had made circles so many times before, finding beginnings where there were endings. But maybe not this time. Maybe she'd chosen this place because it was a beginning, or because it had been where a mistake had been made that was tinder for their last tiff. His eyes stung and something hot and unpleasant threatened to choke him. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, balled tightly into fists that dug nails into his palms rather than spinning coins or cards.

    "...Hey."

    Greenish eyes fixed on the rolling darkness below, avoiding the fen-waters above.
    Nimbus in MiniSheet 2. Cloaked spells, no overt magical res. Scrut for deets.
    '...Watch With Glittering Eyes...'
    - Roald Dahl

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  5. #3
    Avis's Avatar
    Avis
    Avis

    Vulgar: Color drains from the immediate area and depth perception becomes temporarily skewed, everything seeming to draw in uncomfortably close, making rooms smaller and all but distant objects seem in reach.
    Vice: Color drains from Avis and her facial features seem indistinct and grainy, as though her identity is growing less defined.
    Virtue: Colors appear more vibrant and everything seems to become grander in scale.
    Merits

    2
    PRE

    Avis didn't start at the sound of the voice behind her. She'd heard it a thousand times in her mind as she stood waiting, but not one of them compared to the word that reached her ears, with all the emotions contained within it and all the emotions it brought up within her.

    "Star..." Avis breathed in return, a shaky smile blooming, and before she could stop herself she closed the distance between them, throwing her arms about his neck, both to embrace, and to trap him, so that she could press her lips against his.

    There was a microsecond before their lips touched, a moment that was like plunging hundreds of feet down into the dark icy waters below, a moment of fear that he wouldn't respond, that what they'd shared...had already fled, just like the shared dream that had already found its way into that same river...
    "Aw-Vee". Pres 2 (Moody). Mastigos, Adamantine Arrow. Trace of a Cajun accent.
    Defense: 8. 3 cloaked spells. Phone (pot 6), Belt (pot 5), Self (pot 2 +3) Spell tolerance: 1/3, Accumulation: 3/7

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  7. #4
    Star's Avatar
    Status
    (Entertainment)
    Status
    (News Media)
    New Identity
    (Jack Hoyle)
    Nimbus

    The Mirage: Star appears translucent with overlapping and slightly offset images of himself in different identities/disguises.
    Supernal

    1
    OCC
    2
    PRE

    His eyes widened and body tensed.

    Surprise. Confusion. But everything else was the only thing he wanted. Against his lips, on his tongue, even under the over-sized folds of cotton sweatshirt when his hands finally slipped out. When was the last time they'd kissed like this? Maybe the only thing he'd ever wanted, or would ever want.

    So kiss me like you would kiss me
    if it were the last time
    Hold me now, hold me like you did
    hold me when it was the first time


    He remembered everything; like the bridge bringing back a single night, the girl in his arms brought back all the memories of when they'd been together. In synch. Long fingers tightened, and he finally had the courage to push back. Pushed her away like she'd pushed him the first time their lips had met.

    "Avis... Daisy...,"
    his voice cracked lightly. He even used her Name so she'd listen. "I can't. I can't do this. I thought I could, but I can't. I'm sorry. It's... it's making me crazy. I love you. So much. I always will. But I can't... I can't be your... lover... and... share... you." He dragged a breath inward as something red hot escaped an eye and slid down his cheek. "Anything else. Everything else. I promise. I have been, and always will be, your friend."

    A ghostly attempt to smile escaped at the last; a bit of humor, a movie quote to hearken back to where everything had begun with a faux-bal she had almost not joined. Maybe they could just go back. Do it over. And just be the very best of friends.
    Nimbus in MiniSheet 2. Cloaked spells, no overt magical res. Scrut for deets.
    '...Watch With Glittering Eyes...'
    - Roald Dahl

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  9. #5
    Avis's Avatar
    Avis
    Avis

    Vulgar: Color drains from the immediate area and depth perception becomes temporarily skewed, everything seeming to draw in uncomfortably close, making rooms smaller and all but distant objects seem in reach.
    Vice: Color drains from Avis and her facial features seem indistinct and grainy, as though her identity is growing less defined.
    Virtue: Colors appear more vibrant and everything seems to become grander in scale.
    Merits

    2
    PRE

    Avis felt her breath catch when his hands met the meat of her torso and shoved her backwards, that feeling of ice rushing over her once again, seizing her lungs as she realized that, maybe, maybe it was already too late.

    Somewhere, beneath that icy press, a feeling of cruel warmth suddenly bloomed, rushing up towards her eyes and threatening to spill melt water down her face as she listened to Star. But, denied release, everything pooled inside her throat, and for a moment all Avis could do was swallow, and stare, choking and unable to form words. She wanted to reach out to him again, to force him to her, to hold him tight, and keep him from escaping, but her feet were still frozen. It was only once the warmth finally escaped from behind her eyes, a mirror to the Star across from her, that she was able to speak.

    "But--It's not--But Star,"
    she pleaded, unsure what else to say. How could she explain that it was different now? How could she explain that the chasm that had been forming between them didn't exist for her anymore?

    "We can get through this,"
    she said, demanded, "We can--Don't you remember what I told you? 'Conflict helps me learn?' We're...we're just learning..."

    The words felt hollow even as she said them, but in that moment, that was all she could say...
    "Aw-Vee". Pres 2 (Moody). Mastigos, Adamantine Arrow. Trace of a Cajun accent.
    Defense: 8. 3 cloaked spells. Phone (pot 6), Belt (pot 5), Self (pot 2 +3) Spell tolerance: 1/3, Accumulation: 3/7

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  11. #6
    Star's Avatar
    Status
    (Entertainment)
    Status
    (News Media)
    New Identity
    (Jack Hoyle)
    Nimbus

    The Mirage: Star appears translucent with overlapping and slightly offset images of himself in different identities/disguises.
    Supernal

    1
    OCC
    2
    PRE

    That's not fair.

    He'd rain fire from the heavens to keep her from crying about anything, ever. A hand twitched, forearm swaying slightly as he almost reached out. He liked the demand better. Yelling. Cussing. The things that were signature Avis were a million times easier to handle than the girl that only cried for people long gone, never were, and him.

    "Yeah, I know."
    He moved toward her, then past, gripping the railing of the bridge hard enough to turn his knuckles white. It physically ached to not reach out to comfort his Warlock, and he only refrained for his own sanity and conviction. "Me too, kind of."

    Usually figuring out what he didn't like or what he was willing to fight for. But she always took it further... There's always two people, though. He'd run and jumped with her, except he'd been the one to blink first. There were things he wanted to say, things he was mad about, but they'd tried that already. Tried cauterizing the wound until all they could do was leave the scab alone and let it scar over.

    "I think one of the things I learned," he leaned into her shoulder but kept his hands affixed to the rail, "Was that you and I... we can't be We when we're... when we want different things and try to change what we want to try to keep what we have. You know? You tried for me. I tried for you. At least this way we won't end up just... hating each other. Right?"

    He knew part of himself was in shock. The words were finally out there, lifelessly echoing far away as if from someone else's mouth. That awful pang where she'd been for two years, though, that was all his. His, and hers, because there wasn't another puzzle piece out there that fit the hole. She would be his phantom limb, torn away and leaving a rawness without relief in that visceral absence.

    "You need... contrast... and I need someone who... only wants me. I don't know what else to do."
    Last edited by West; Apr 10th, 2017 at 07:59 PM.
    Nimbus in MiniSheet 2. Cloaked spells, no overt magical res. Scrut for deets.
    '...Watch With Glittering Eyes...'
    - Roald Dahl

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  13. #7
    Avis's Avatar
    Avis
    Avis

    Vulgar: Color drains from the immediate area and depth perception becomes temporarily skewed, everything seeming to draw in uncomfortably close, making rooms smaller and all but distant objects seem in reach.
    Vice: Color drains from Avis and her facial features seem indistinct and grainy, as though her identity is growing less defined.
    Virtue: Colors appear more vibrant and everything seems to become grander in scale.
    Merits

    2
    PRE

    Star's words weren't like blows, they weren't cruel or cutting, or even unexpected, but that didnt't make them any easier to hear. Hearing those words spoken aloud, those ideas given voice, was like feeling the inexporable, freezing press of an ocean current slowly dragging her deeper out to sea.

    "That's...no...It's not like that,"
    Avis protested, the words as querelous, yet halting as the strokes of a swimmer who had long been fighting thee freezing tide.

    "I'm not...I don't know what I need, ok? I don't know...besides you," she tried to explain, wishing that she could reach out with something beyond touch, or words, but fearing what might happen if that most intimate gesture was cast away.

    "I'm still trying to fumble everything out, and to learn to understand, and, and I know that that's not an excuse, I'm not trying to make it one, I just want you to understand that, that I didn't cause all of this to happen because you're not enough. Or that you're not what I want. That we're not what I want. That's not it. It's...It's because I'm not Wise."

    The confession fell awkwardly from her tongue, malformed and incomplete, but not stillborn.

    "What I was trying to experience, what I was going on and on about, about contrast, and...and all of that stuff, that's all just fragments. I mean, what I was wanting, what I was yearning for wasn't a fragment, but what I was trying to do was like searching for a full reflection in only a few shards of glass. It was a mistake. And...and it wasn't the first one I made."

    She almost reached out, then, desperate, yet hesitant, a half-forzen swimmer finding another amidst the waves, but afraid to accidentally pull them under, so instead she made a different gesture, a different confession.

    "I never accepted your present, you know," Avis assured him. "I mean, I took the flight, but I just took it to say goodbye. We shared a meal, but that was all."
    "Aw-Vee". Pres 2 (Moody). Mastigos, Adamantine Arrow. Trace of a Cajun accent.
    Defense: 8. 3 cloaked spells. Phone (pot 6), Belt (pot 5), Self (pot 2 +3) Spell tolerance: 1/3, Accumulation: 3/7

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  15. #8
    Star's Avatar
    Status
    (Entertainment)
    Status
    (News Media)
    New Identity
    (Jack Hoyle)
    Nimbus

    The Mirage: Star appears translucent with overlapping and slightly offset images of himself in different identities/disguises.
    Supernal

    1
    OCC
    2
    PRE

    Everyone is learning.

    Some people just make a bigger mess. It was a lot for the hamster wheel to absorb. The idea, remembering, the huge vacuum of experience she had. It's always hardest to hear over the keen of your own hurt. Or maybe even accept it when you've been moving towards something for so long, conditioning yourself to accept it a bit at a time so it wouldn't break you.

    There was a terrible freedom in the moments before Avis spoke, but all of that liberty and pain could be held in a single in-drawn breath. Equal parts hope and fear, listening. He leaned forward over the rail until the mop dangled towards the water and his toes left the ground; see-sawing like the splash of feeling inside, the press of the rail on the hollow ache inside.

    "I haven't seen much of you since then,"
    he finally said, looking over. "I thought..." Blue-green eyes blinked with curiosity and confusion. Maybe surprise and relief. It was hard to tell when everything kept turning upside-down and he was trying to look-not-look at the will-o-the-wisp that maybe... "Why?"

    He tipped back downward until his feet touched solid ground again. The handful of words were uncharacteristically sparse -- doubly so for The Last Starfighter. But right now? He needed to hear her.

    I don't know what I need, ok? I don't know...besides you.

    Maybe he could say the same, except he already knew more about what he didn't need. A white-knuckled grip slowly released the railing and reached out to tentatively twine wiry scarred fingers with long ones.
    Nimbus in MiniSheet 2. Cloaked spells, no overt magical res. Scrut for deets.
    '...Watch With Glittering Eyes...'
    - Roald Dahl

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  17. #9
    Avis's Avatar
    Avis
    Avis

    Vulgar: Color drains from the immediate area and depth perception becomes temporarily skewed, everything seeming to draw in uncomfortably close, making rooms smaller and all but distant objects seem in reach.
    Vice: Color drains from Avis and her facial features seem indistinct and grainy, as though her identity is growing less defined.
    Virtue: Colors appear more vibrant and everything seems to become grander in scale.
    Merits

    2
    PRE

    Even though she'd been wishing, only a moment before, to feel the sensation of his skin against hers, the unexpected press of his fingers on her hand startled her, as if the gesture, along with his question, was a trap tightening around her. Avis could feel her pulse quicken, as if she'd scented something threatening on the wind, and as if in imitation of Star, the Warlock refused to meet his eyes.

    "Because..."


    Because I knew it would hurt you? Because that wasn't what I wanted? Because I wanted more?

    Avis swallowed, and began again.

    "Because, some part of me realized that it wasn't actually what I was wanting. It felt too, I don't know, tawdry, to fly just to meet her there, and then pretend like it didn't matter that I'd probably never see her again afterwards, or, ya know, that the cabal had never mattered before. I don't know if that's what you were trying to do,"
    Avis hedged, her gaze sliding sidelong towards the Illusionist's face.

    That was, after all, exactly the sort of thing an Illusionist would do.

    "But, either way, it really put things into perspective. That, and what I was doing to Tuesday. I really feel like a shit about that,"
    Avis confessed with a sigh, looking back out over the constellation of light reflected of the river's dark waters.

    "She might be a beacon of whimsy, but that's because the whimsy is there to fight back the pain. What she needed was a cabal that was more than a cabal, a family, and a home, and I fucked all that up. I didn't listen to her, or to you. And...and I don't know. I needed some space to see that. To see that I was getting too caught up in myself, and too caught up in fragments."


    She fell silent for a moment, watching the reflected light ripple over the water as the wind begin to stir, plucking at their clothing and disturbing the water as it gusted past.

    "Is it too late?"
    Avis finally asked, salted water mixing with the wind as it brushed past her face.
    "Aw-Vee". Pres 2 (Moody). Mastigos, Adamantine Arrow. Trace of a Cajun accent.
    Defense: 8. 3 cloaked spells. Phone (pot 6), Belt (pot 5), Self (pot 2 +3) Spell tolerance: 1/3, Accumulation: 3/7

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  19. #10
    Star's Avatar
    Status
    (Entertainment)
    Status
    (News Media)
    New Identity
    (Jack Hoyle)
    Nimbus

    The Mirage: Star appears translucent with overlapping and slightly offset images of himself in different identities/disguises.
    Supernal

    1
    OCC
    2
    PRE

    "I eventually thought about it, but it wasn't why."

    Even now, looking back, it was a monkey's fist of reasons -- a dozen different and wrapped tightly around a core that might even be a mystery to himself. But it couldn't be the reason, because the Deal was still The Deal and he wouldn't have done that. Lied to her. That she kind of asked? It was a profound statement of how far they'd drifted. Like a fresh new wound of sadness and truth.

    "It was a lot of things. I didn't want to be all Mister Ultimatum or, you know, tell you how to live. I didn't think it was fair that Tuesday was still around but Varyx wasn't. I wanted... you to be happy. And, I guess, to see if that made you happy. Not like the way you said, not a test, but... a question."

    He looked over, brows furrowed. The reasons had been a jumble, coming at different times; some borne of love, some of fear. But never a test. They say all that stuff about love being setting something free, but in in the end maybe it's just wanting someone to be happy. Not standing in the way of it.

    It didn't mean he didn't know who Varyx was, though.

    "Tuesday and I... kissed."
    Fair's fair. "And, no, it was never fair to her but she's a big girl. We talked about it. Before. And, honestly." Cheeks puffed out as he paused. "I like her. A lot. And... I could fall in love with her."

    Maybe a part of him already did. In some ways, Willow was the opposite of Avis. Easy. Effortless.

    "...But I couldn't."
    He swallowed at the swell in his throat, jagged and caught on the self-consciousness and frightful candor. "Because... because I'd always have one foot out the door..."

    He'd told her before she'd always be That Girl. The one he wanted to find when he reached out, the one he wanted to hear laugh. The one that felt like home.

    "...For you."


    He remembered. She'd even told him, explained it to him. It was conversation he kept going back to, that had been lost in his own hurt and confusion. Blueberries. He moved closer, dipping his head to press his lips against a cheek and taste the salt streak on the soft cheek and feeling lank sable brush at his own. Her tears, knowing she cried for him and for We, brought a tightness to his throat again. It hurt, but it was a sweet, sweet pain filling an unbearable void. It terrified him, too, wondering if they would go through this again. some day.

    But...

    "How can it be too late when I'll always be yours?"
    Last edited by West; May 22nd, 2017 at 10:02 PM.
    Nimbus in MiniSheet 2. Cloaked spells, no overt magical res. Scrut for deets.
    '...Watch With Glittering Eyes...'
    - Roald Dahl

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