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Truths
Mar 31, 2019 18:12:47 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 31, 2019 18:12:47 GMT -6
Xiaolian snorted with amusement. "Fair enough. That's way above my pay grade, I can't do any magics." She added sadly. Magic was the one thing that Xiaolian had not been gifted with, unlike most of her co-workers. Instead, the woman broke almost any spell or charm used on her, which is why the Council had seen her as so valuable to train. It wasn't the presence of magic, or the lack there of, but a distinct void like absence. Xiaolian didn't absorb it, or deflect it, but instead it just seemed to dissipate once she came in contact with it. Evaporating like mist into the aether, never to been seen again. Where it went she didn't much know or care to know. Instead she just assumed it went somewhere, like the law of all things that dictated what was or wasn't conserved.
"But I know you, you're curious.. what else did you want to know?"
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Truths
Mar 31, 2019 18:19:46 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 31, 2019 18:19:46 GMT -6
Molly tapped her chin and considered it. "A question for a question." She reminded the other and thought it over. "How do you teleport so quickly? Even when I'm going short distances I'm not that fast." And it took concentration to travel that sort a distance. The longer the easier it was for her to walk. The shorter the harder the path. It was more like a toe wiggle than a walk and she had no clue how the other managed it so well.
Maybe if she could find that out, she could finally win one of their spars and not just get her ass handed to her. Sometimes, the rest of her team made her feel like a complete rookie. Then she reminded herself she was probably the youngest on the team anyway, so at least she had that going for her.
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Mar 31, 2019 18:29:50 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 31, 2019 18:29:50 GMT -6
A thoughtful look crossed the other woman's face for a moment as she considered Molly's question. "I'm not sure.. it's really just if I can visualize it, I can go there. Unknown places are a bit more difficult, I need to have a focus. Longer distances are much the same." She offered with a shrug. Xiaolian just knew she could do it without much thought, and the Council's Lotus program had taught her to let her subconscious take control on that end.
"I mean.. it's something I've done since I was a kid. The Lotus program wasn't or maybe isn't easy, I'm not sure if it's still going.. But what they taught me was to use it reflexively, kind of how they teach you to shoot in the academies." Xiaolian clarified. She didn't ever think much about how she did or didn't do it, just that it was. "The drills were intense, they would time us and those who didn't make the appropriate time mark were punished, and made to repeat it until we got it right. Many of us quickly learned not to make the same mistake twice."
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Truths
Mar 31, 2019 18:35:18 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 31, 2019 18:35:18 GMT -6
"It's kind of similar for me. If I can visualize it, it's a short trip. I have...I have..." Molly trailed off, then glanced around and twisted her wrist. A chain appeared, linked to a manacle around her wrist and a floating book. "This. It's...kind of like an address book?" She didn't know how to describe it. Molly held it out to Xiaolian to look and flipped it to an image just inside her own apartment. Her cat was sleeping on the couch, tail flicking. "This is how the Ratatoskr get around. It won't hurt you, if you want to look through it." And she didn't mind sharing. It wasn't like the other could use it after all.
"I have to think of where I want to go. I don't think I could do drills for it. It's so much safer to walk and not run. Still being punished for being slow?" That sounded insane. She grinned, and ran a hand over the page. "Our mentors take us on field trips to teach us how."
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Truths
Mar 31, 2019 18:59:23 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 31, 2019 18:59:23 GMT -6
Xiaolian looked at the book with mild trepidation. Anything that could be chained permanently to a person's wrist for all eternity wasn't something to mess with in her opinion. She was more afraid of damaging the book than the magics associated with it. Carefully turning a page in the tome, she skimmed past places she'd already seen in one time or another. Places that the Council in it's curiosity had requested that her team investigate, and places that made Xiaolian shudder from the memory of what had happened there.
Unsure of what to say, she pushed the book back towards Molly. "That's... interesting but not quite how I was taught. We were or rather I was taught to keep a mental map, a knowledge of things. To go where I needed to and how I needed to." She finally said.
"Molly, I don't think you're understanding. The Lotus program was created by the eastern branch of the Council to use those who they deemed expendable to bring back dangerous artifacts and.. things that they identified elsewhere. There were no mentors Molly, this was not fucking pre-school. This was get in, get out, kill if you have to."
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 11:59:46 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by demikara on Apr 1, 2019 11:59:46 GMT -6
Molly hesitated a moment taking the book back and paging through what Xiaolian had just gone through. Surely, the other was joking? She didn't look like it but surely? She swallowed. "Okay, first. You aren't expendable. You're important and wonderful and are not expendable. Second..." She trailed off and turned the pages the showed the page to the other.
It wasn't of this plane. It was of another all together, one rich in magic that was done in the open. "Did you go here?" If so the other wasn't teleporting at all was she?
She ignored the comment about the program not being pre-school. She knew that all too well. If the other traveled the world tree it wasn't remotely pre-school. It was dangerous as hell, especially without some sort of guide. That was why her Book existed, to mitigate some of the danger. The idea of traveling blind, to some place she had never been, without her guide was madness. That was how people got lost in the In Between.
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Apr 1, 2019 12:26:46 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Apr 1, 2019 12:26:46 GMT -6
"Hm.. I believe so, I seem to recall the Council asking my team to retrieve a scroll similar to the one we found in the casket." She hadn't asked why initially, but instead just kept her head down and did as she was asked. "Why are you suddenly so curious about this?" Xiaolian asked suspiciously. Keeping her mouth shut had been part of the deal with the Eastern branch when she requested a transfer after an incident between her team and a malicious entity intent on using humans as batteries. Many of her companions had fallen victim and Xiaolian herself had narrowly escaped, teleporting herself back through the Ba-Shu's now desolate plane in an effort to loose her would be captors.
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 12:58:02 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by demikara on Apr 1, 2019 12:58:02 GMT -6
Molly bit her bottom lip, sounds around and rapidly cast a privacy ward for the cube, then turned back to her partner. Brilliant. This was brilliant and she had no clue of how to handle this at all. "That's not on this plane." She kept her voice even. "You get there either via a key, some sort of totem, or by being Ratatoskr. Did you use some sort of item, anything at all?"
She was trying not to be too intense, she really was but this was important. She had seen the other teleporting. It was instant, and as far as Molly had seen short range. If that wasn't teleporting...if that was flickering instead... The other had been robbed a birthright and the council had been inviting disaster.
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 13:25:38 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Apr 1, 2019 13:25:38 GMT -6
The expression on Xiaolian's face bordered on exasperated for the second time that day. "You are either incredibly dense or incredibly incapable, Bronson, I'm just not sure which one." She chided. How long had they been talking around or at one another? If Molly couldn't understand, then Xiaolian didn't know why she was bothering explaining. "Stop waiting for your turn to talk and listen." She said crossing her arms and waiting for Molly to pay attention.
"I told you, the Ba-Shu fled to here seeking safety." Xiaolian explained again, this time her voice lacking the steady patience that had been there previously. "Teleportation is uncommon, but with the help of individuals like us we were able to escape to safety after things took a turn. There just weren't enough families with the gift to help everyone, so our telepaths and empaths opened to the universe and sent a cry for help." She knew the story well, and knew how hard it had been for those like herself to adapt to a new world without the same rich culture or magics as their own had been. But it was either that or perish; and while some did stay behind to seal themselves and the incursion off, others like Xiaolian's family had managed to escape.
"How hard is this for you to comprehend? The Council indentified individuals, like myself, to pilot a test program through their research in access and occlusion. The lotus program was designed to train individuals with potential to slide easily between realities, like how water droplets fall off a lotus blossom. This program also had the purpose of retrieving information and things that had been previously declared lost. Children were ideal to start with, as we were malleable, impressionable, and had a desire to please."
She couldn't believe she was having to repeat herself to the other, it's as if everything she'd said hadn't been heard by the other. "There is no key, no totem that I know of that makes this work. It's not a gate and it's not a mirror." Xiaolian said harshly. "I don't go much further than short distances because of the things I've seen. Molly, you don't know how good we have it here!"
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 17:12:40 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Apr 1, 2019 17:12:40 GMT -6
Flickering. The other’s teleportation was trained, drilled, memorized flickering! The other was Ratatoskr and Molly had never know and Xiaolian had never been told because…
Entire families of Ratatoskr, when no one Molly knew had any idea of how to make their gift breed true, had saved a people and by the sounds of it, received aid from people like Molly. And the council had decided to take advantage of them, to put children through a training program, that from the sounds of it didn’t have the gentle kindness that made facing the In Between easy. That didn’t have the gentle leadership of a caring mentor to keep them safe.
Magic crackled around Molly and she took a deep breath, visibly forcing herself to breathe and calm down. That her, no their gift had been abused in such a way, just to retrieve things on other planes of existence entirely…
Molly was furious, and she kept her eyes closed as she responded. “The In Between is a terrifying place where nothing and no one can lie. There are monsters there. The most important thing though, is to walk. Not sprint, not run, not flickering. Flickering attracts their attention like moths to a flame. It’s why Ratatoskr train children who begin to show the signs, who begin to not teleport, but to flicker.”
There was a difference, if not an obvious one. Flickering involved moving in and out of the In Between. Teleportation took place all on one plane, and didn’t touch the In Between at all. And that was what Molly had thought her partner was doing.
She was dead calm, dead serious as she spoke. “I understand what you are saying. But I’m incredibly angry that it was done to you. I am listening. Please forgive my disbelief. I was found quickly, before I could attract the monsters. Not everyone is. You weren’t.”
And it was clear to Molly that the other was Ratatoskr. From a different plane entirely, perhaps, but that had never stopped her people. She was quite certain that her ancestors got around and did so with unmitigated glee. If they could breed, they often did.
Well, at least that explained why the station was a monster hot spot. Xiaolian had been drawing them near every time the two of them spared. Oh God. Xiaolian was Ratatoskr and Molly had never known.
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 18:06:19 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Apr 1, 2019 18:06:19 GMT -6
Xiaolian wasn't the only reason that their branch attracted things, and was really just a drop in the bucket compared to the leylines that Dallas lay atop. While it for certain didn't help anything, it didn't much harm things either. Instead of her normal parry to each of Molly's words, the other woman was silent, feeling that she had already risked too much in telling her partner what she had.
While it was a relief to finally say something to someone who wouldn't judge her based on her original training, at the same time it was extremely distressing to think of what would happen if the Council learned that she had said anything. Molly wasn't exactly good at keeping secrets in Xiaolian's opinion either.
"Well you sure as hell don't walk through it either... but I've said too much."
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 18:17:15 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Apr 1, 2019 18:17:15 GMT -6
"I walk through it." Molly pointed out and then shrugged. "Look. I'm pissed as hell this happened, that someone else got to you before you could be gently trained. But I'm not going to say anything to any one. This is your secret." She said simply and ran a hand through her hair, tugging on the end. She was angry, but it wasn't the others fault. She'd take it out on her punching bag, or pick a fight with her mentor, not with her partner.
"Let's just...we were asking questions, weren't we? I think it's your turn to ask me one." If she kept on the subject she'd just get more angry. Molly dropped the ward and sighed, then managed a smile. "So lay it on me. What do you want to know?" She was open and they were trying to actually get to know each other, and not just the shallow knowing they had. Besides, she wanted to do right by her partner, and sharing seemed at least one way she could do it.
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 18:35:18 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Apr 1, 2019 18:35:18 GMT -6
"You can be pissed, but for my family it was auspicious and very prestigious for their daughter to be admitted to the academy." Xiaolian said bluntly, not particularly caring if Molly was pissed or not. The other hadn't had to watch friends meet their unfortunate ends, with each mission fewer and fewer of them returning. "For us, it was a way to contact home again." She added, trying to make Molly understand the lonliness that had come with a new home.
"But fine, I'll ask. That ring you're so damn obsessed with. What's the story behind that?" Xiaolian asked, her blunt and charmless nature beginning to get the best of her. It was easy to see why the woman had a distaste for any public facing position, it meant biting her tongue and keeping her opinions to herself. While she could, Xiaolian much preferred to be direct and efficient; hardly the model of elegance for women of her culture.
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 18:40:38 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Apr 1, 2019 18:40:38 GMT -6
Molly fell silent at that, and grabbed her ring, holding it close. "Her name was Emile. She died in 1986. Bronson is her last name. I took hers because it was the closest we could get to being married. She would have loved that we could do so legally now." Molly wiped at her eyes and managed a smile. "She was...she was my queen as far as I was concerned. She was gentle and kind and sweet. Had a hell of a temper if you roused it, which I did way too much." The officer swiped at her eyes again, annoyed with herself for crying.
She managed a shrug. "We exchanged vows and rings in front of our friends. We might have been legally married, but it was as close as we could get. AIDS took her from me. She had AIDS and developed chronic pneumonia. Her grave is in New York, in Albany. That's where we lived then." She swallowed and smiled, uncertain. "I took the ring off my finger, but this one was hers. I can't imagine not wearing it."
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Truths
Apr 1, 2019 18:48:15 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Apr 1, 2019 18:48:15 GMT -6
"Oh fuck, Molly.. I'm sorry." Xiaolian sputtered, seeing that now she too had been the one to step in it. She hadn't expected Molly to have even ever been married. As much at the other seemed to like sleeping around, Xiaolian hadn't ever figured her for someone to settle down. "But I am fairly surprised someone actually put up with you for that long." She added turning the details over in her mind for a moment. Each of them had had a life outside of MCU, but to talk about it was almost unheard of.
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