There is tension in the air. And in the bones, blood, ground and everything else at the moment. For Tasha, it's difficult to tell if it's internal or external - a manifestation of leaky minds. And speaking of manifestations, Horus is out of his Marker, and the big Vartan standing next to Tasha with a look of concern is...
"Yes, I appear to be Melchior," the Vartan says to Tasha. "I do not know how I am present in this external simulation, however. Can you explain it to me?"
Tasha does not explain, at least not at first; instead she begins to walk around Melchior with her brows up so high they threaten to invade her hairline. At one point she pokes him. "You do sound like you," she observes. She stops in front of him again and looks up, searching the man's eyes. "How do you feel? I think Persephone did this, or this pocket universe did. Something about souls and their containers maybe?" She then tries to touch his beak.
As Tasha does all this she finds it's tough for her to maintain her concentration with so much going on, and even this wonder is amid so many -- as well as horrors and pains -- such that the world feels hazy and less distinct. She was worn beyond thin, came back, left again, she probably just fought a war, then there's Persephone again and maybe the world is falling apart -- quite literally, this world is falling apart. It's a lot to take in, so tries to focus on one thing at a time, and for now it's this possible Mel.
He certainly feels real. Not too far off (and perhaps too close), Kainudy has stopped scowling at Persephone and turned her angry gaze upon the Harlot.
Tasha decides that, for now, she accepts this new Melchior as Melchior, and so snatches up his hand in her's and starts walking towards Galatea, who is near the Harlot. If anyone might help dispel hostilities, it would be Kainudy's long lost daughter slash world slash giant building tree escape pod.
Tasha does do a double take as she passes Horus and Thoth, but she further decides that's a ball of problem that she can deal with later. The Vril'ya are stubborn, but she's rarely found them to be hasty. She suspects they could stare at each other for a thousand years before one or the other made a move.
Samael is also seeking safety next to (behind) Galatea, who does not look like she knows what's going on. But she isn't ashamed to ask out loud, "What's going on?"
"Family problems," Tasha replies, trying to keep her voice down before she's next to be glared at. She's well aware she triggered this situation on a level, though on other levels, she knows it's more complex than that, and maybe it needed to happen one way or another. "And Hi Sam. I was worried you'd gotten lost in all the fighting."
"Oh my, you're her daughter and don't realize this is you mother's true state of being?" the Harlot asks in a honeyed tone that is at odds with her gruesome appearance. "Or did she lie to you like she does to everyone else? Did she hide behind false frailty, and just manipulate others to get what she wanted?"
"I can't leave here," Sam explains. "This is all very terrifying."
"Harlot.." Kainudy growls, with black flame still bubbling out with each breath. "Get to the point so I can tell you 'no' and deal with more important things."
"I think a lot of us hide how dangerous we are, for fear of rejection," Tasha remarks to Galatea, using her free hand to reach out and rest it on the woman's shoulder in a show of support. "I just want you to know that whatever happened, and maybe because of what happened, I'm here to help. But, I think you should tell Kainudy who you are now." She catches Samael's menaing a bit late, filing that in the 'to do soon' pile.
"Well then, for the benefit of the witnesses: you've become the thing you've most feared," the Harlot notes. "You couldn't even deal with the power you originally had, and since Vorhoun you've been worse. Now? Demonic power, steel dragon power, fey power.. you're bursting at the seams. The Queen of Demise is born. Now.. I can offer you peace. Remove that burden from you," she offers, and pats the box she sits on. "You can get into one of my boxes."
"No," Kainudy says. "I know what you would do with this power."
"Then join me," the witch offers next. "With my army, and your power, we could dethrone Nyarlothotep. You're going to rampage anyway, so why not direct it at a deserving target?" She also looks over to Sam and gives him a wink.
"I see why you can't leave now," Tasha whispers under her breath to Samael. "I don't know if I can stop her, either." Tasha goes from patting Galatea to Samael, having a pretty good idea what will happen to Samael if Kainudy accepts the offer.
Kainudy sits back on her haunches, and the fire draws back into her, only to erupt in a halo or crown above her head. "No more crusades," she says, and narrows her eyes at the Harlot. "And I don't appreciate you coming here to force my hand," she growls.
To Samael, Tasha asks, "Just how strong is The Harlot? She wants to supplant Thotep from the Dreamlands, is she limited to the Dreamlands? Is she almost as strong as he is?" It's hard for Tasha to let go of the war mindset, but she thinks she might need it again at this rate, so it's not much of a problem.
"How can I possibly force you to do anything?" the Harlot asks. "It's your choice. Just as it was your choice to let all these people die. Friends, family.. witnesses? You're the only survivor of the battle with Vorgulremik. What did you have to do, hmm? An army wiped out because you were afraid to let loose. But then that's hardly a drop compared to the Evepetren war. How many more memorials will you plant for the people you chose not to save?"
Sam whispers to Tasha, "Individually she is no match, but her army is vast. So many come to her to learn things. Secret things. And she exacts a price from them all.. and those that want the big secrets, they go into one of her boxes. And she controls them from that point. Nobody knows what it's like in one of them, because only she can let someone back out again."
"Are you trying to provoke her?" Persephone asks the Harlot.
These are all things Tasha does not know, but she's never been very happy with standing by and being silent. And at the risk of drawing more ire than she wants right now, she says, "Sometimes letting loose doesn't help that much, either." And so she gestures around her at the devastation she helped create.
Samael gets a nod, the information filed away. Not wanting to be overheard, she tries something. Shadows, can you share messages with Sam only he can hear?
"Knowing her level of restraint is valuable information," the Harlot says, and looks at Tasha next. "What would you give for the knowledge you seek. The past, the future, who is using you.."
"Not sure without risking being eaten," Blackwings answers. "He's like falling into a bottomless pit if we touch him."
"That's enough, Harlot," Kainudy grumbles. "You've done what you set out to accomplish by coming here. I know that the Crawling Chaos will be next, now that you've no doubt shone a spotlight on me. Depending on how that meeting goes, I will contact you or not. You'd best hope for not."
Tasha finds herself laughing before she can even stop herself; she blames fatigue and the weight of murder on her shoulders. "Not what you would charge me. I already have enough dangerous gift-givers around me, and I have traveled enough to know answers can be found if you just put in the effort. There are no shortcuts, just illusions and pain."
To her shadows she offers, I see. We can't risk that. I was hoping to find a weakness in The Harlot in case she became hostile. She has an army, but if we kill her fast enough, maybe she can't use it and her boxes are our boxes.
"Far be it from me to pick a fight I can't win," the Harlot claims. "I will show myself out, Demise." She stands and leaves, her box following behind her.
Then ask Persephone and Kainudy if we should kill her now, Tasha tells her shadows. Fear and pain draw her to the immediate and complete removal of a source .It almost feels natural, but she knows there's something off about that, and she feels a latent concern for the innocents around her, such as they are.
"I try to ask the one that isn't seething," Blackwings offers.
Please do. I'll try Kainudy. And so Tasha leaves Melchior, Galatea, and Samael together and steps forward, moving to catch Kainudy's attention. She gives her one, solid, I know what happened and what I did look, meeting her eyes, but then she nods towards The Harlot; what do you want to do about that? She even reaches up and taps where the stiletto rests, leaving no question as to what she is asking.
Kainudy looks down at Tasha and takes a long moment of just staring at her. It makes Tasha's mind itch. Then the dragon holds one hand out, palm up. "The dagger," she says.
Tasha meets the gaze, to her credit. She's been hammered on enough these last few days absorbing guilt and blame feels welcome, a relief. She pulls out the dagger and carefully hands it over. She considers mentioning Galatea now, but it feels like the wrong time, so she doesn't.
The dragon looks at the dagger for an extended moment, then crushes it. There's a burst of black flame from her hand as a result.
Tasha regards the black flame for a moment then heaves her shoulders and exhales, glad to see the thing gone. When she's done with that she asks, "Questions?"
It's actually Galatea who seems to respond to Tasha's query, and not Kainudy. "Is it true, what that witch said?" she asks the dragon.
Kainudy looks from Tasha to Galatea, and does not look calm. This is dark territory apparently.
Tasha steps aside to let Galatea approach, if she wants to. She casts one last glance back at where The Harlot walked off to, then shakes her head and returns to watching Galatea.
"She left out crucial context," Persephone says, trying to draw Galatea's attention away from Kainudy. "To understand, you need to know that your mother was essentially a slave in the beginning. And after the creation of the Stelya-rhyan and a new world, Daniarood suppressed her abilities further. She never had a chance to learn how to manage her full power. So when she was freed.. she chose to suppress it herself. She didn't want to be a god. For her, a god is just someone enslaved by their own power."
"A god seems like a being caught in the consequences of an immense amount of options, or limited through deific incarnate or uncarnate representation," Tasha remarks, feeling spurred to share knowledge and opinion by being surrounded by one too many teachers. "But then, we're all enslaved by our powers, or lack-there-of. It may just be a matter of scope and personal comfort."
"I know about the Paths," Galatea says. "The rules that keep powerful beings from abusing their power. But.." she turns on Kainudy again, and is clearly upset. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you make me think you were weak. That you were always hiding how bad things were from others.. when you could have handled it yourself! You could have saved me! And everyone else! All our friends, everyone I knew, my whole world! Would that have been too much? Where you even honest about anything with me or was it all just another act?"
Tasha steps back to exit herself from the exchange, deciding she's probably not much help and may make things worse. Instead she goes over to sit where Galatea had been, pulling Melchior down to sit with her, and Samael to her opposite side.
"Do you think Thotep's going to pop up next? Like she said," Tasha asks Samael as she watches the three. "Any idea why Horus and Melchior are here now?"
"Every time I used my power, the victory came at too great a loss," Kainudy says. "It never made anything better. Using it would have just led to this situation earlier, when I wasn't isolated. When I was stressed. All my power up until now has been focused inward to keep this from happening. And there's nobody to stop me, Lothrhyn. Everyone who could died in the war against the Steel Dragons. Whenever I get involved, things get worse."
"Absolutely," Samael says. "This is the ultimate hornets nest, and he will want to poke it to see how much chaos results."
"You didn't need to take Kraken at all," Galatea says quietly. "She wouldn't have made a difference in your fight if you had fought it. But she would have made all the difference to me."
"I guess now the question is how soon," Tasha remarks of the imminent Nyarlathotep. She leans forward and puts her head on her hand, elbow resting on a knee. This is, she decides, quite a predicament. A predicament at the end of disaster which came after collapse. A series of even longer problems before all of that, leading well in to the past before she ever arrived. Well, at least she can comment on this last part. "I'm not even sure what to do about it. I think I used to be good at talking things out, but now I don't know. I relied too much on self-delusion."
"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" the dragon roars. "Persephone, Horus, Thoth.. I need you here when the Crawling Chaos shows up. That means the artificial soul and the robot stay too, so Horus can stay. Everyone else needs to leave!"
"You don't have time for the daughter whose tree you curled up under when you thought you were going to die?" Tasha stands up, arms crossed. "You could at least say something like, "I'm sorry, I made poor decisions and I'm fallible. I thought my plan was the best one available and it failed. I love you, and I wish I could answer all your questions now, but you're in danger and I don't want you to die again. I just want you to know I missed you terribly, that's why i made this tree I tortured myself with for who-knows-how-long.""
"And I will, when I'm not struggling to keep from melting everyone's brain," the dragon growls. "I am too dangerous for you to be around right now, and I'm only going to get worse when Thotep shows up, because I will not be able to deal with him and not exploding at the same time."
"That's probably the best you'll get right now Galatea. I don't know if she's right, but maybe you shouldn't risk it? I know you're not suited to fighting, and that's what this may well be." But then Tasha blinks as she realizes something, and points to herself. "Wait, do I have to leave too? Because I am not leaving Mel alone right now."
"Stay and you'll die," Kainudy says. "Or worse. The artificial one is going to be fine, he's not vulnerable to psychic damage. And I'm not sending Galatea off to be by herself. The demon goes too."
"You plan on sealing this place," Horus says.
"I want everyone's thoughts on this before I do anything," Tasha declares, very aware she's the lowest woman on this totem pole of gods and god-like figures.
"As soon as he gets here, I'm disconnecting it," Kainudy says. "So that I can't get out."
"I can't let you stay if you're going to come to harm, Tasha," Melchior says. "And I can record the events for you to see later."
"Can't let me?" Tasha puts her hands on her hips, Melchior has never stopped her from doing anything before. She did want him to be his own person, uncomfortable with owning what may be a slave, so she supposes this is it, she just wishes it wasn't so frustrating. Knowing Mel wouldn't tell her that if he didn't believe it she doesn't argue with him further, but instead turns to Kainudy. "Isn't this just going to imprison you further?"
"Nothing can imprison me anymore," Kainudy says. "But I don't need an endless series of idiots trying to save the world tracking blood everywhere."
"She can do pretty much anything I can, she just didn't have an unlimited power source before," Persephone claims.
"Why should you care what happens to us anyway," Galatea says, sounding like a rebellious teenager more than someone who's been around for a thousand years already.
"You're taking my remote with you," Kainudy says, if she hadn't heard any of the objections. "When it's safe, I will contact you and transport the mechanical giant, the AI and Horus back to you."
Well that stung. "Is that what you think of me, then? You've definitely got the god ego, though more direct than most. Unless you're just trying to get me to hate you so I'll go away. " Tasha throws up her hands and turns to Persephone now. "Is this what you want? I know I don't exactly have my hands clean right now, but you sent me here to learn something. Is this that answer, then? Get tortured, stab Kainudy, unlimited power, get lost? Was that why you sent me here?"
"I didn't expect you to run into her at all," Persephone claims.
"What? Then why did--" Tasha stops mid-sentence, and actually freezes. Her hands drop and her head shakes. "Oh. Oh I see now. Of course. Of course." And then she whirls on Samael. "Did you arrange this, then? Or was it Hastur? Send the puppy to the sad would-be godling to play on her emotions, knowing they're both unstable, and trigger this?"
"I WASN'T TALKING ABOUT YOU TASHA!" Kainudy yells. "You just faced a small armed force that tried to get to me. They will try real armies next, or else decide it isn't worth getting me worked up! So I'm removing that possibility altogether until I'm altogether."
"Why would I be told anything?" Samael asks. "I didn't suggest Ymir!"
But Tasha waves Kainudy off for a moment, feeling she's on to something. "So you didn't send me here, Persephone? Because I distinctly remember Kainudy saying "That's why Persephone sent you to me.""
"This is more the sort of thing mother would set up," Galatea mutters.
"Do not seek an architect behind every event, Tasha," Thoth suggests. "That is not a fruitful line of thinking, and you will soon suspect everyone."
"You wanted them to contact faeries," Samael accuses Thoth. "Faeries can't be trusted!"
"But it's not like you can just get here by accident, and ... " Tasha heaves a sigh. Maybe it it was just coincidence. But then she looks up at Samael's outburst. "I do have the Marker. You all know I carry that. Did you know that Kainudy exis-- Wait, yes you did, you said you'd met before. She knows your name."
"Aargh, my own paranoia must be leaking out," Kainudy complains. "That's it! You each get to say one more thing, and consider it may be the last thing said to everyone that is staying behind."
Tasha pauses open-mouthed, then settles. She takes a deep breath, exhales, and then says, "Come back, and don't die. I'm glad that I got to meet each of you and I appreciate the time you spent on my ship, as part of my crew. And to you Mel," she turns to him now, "You especially. Thank you for always being with me, through thick or thin. I love you." And then she goes over to hug him.
Melchior hugs back. "We have been through worse, and come through," he tells her.
"I.." Galatea starts to say, then just seems frozen. "I never expected to see you again," she tells Kainudy. "I wish.. it wasn't when everything is falling apart."
A swirling black vortex opens up nearby. "Well, I'm leaving with the interesting people anyway," Samael says, and goes to wait at the edge of the portal.
"Yeah, this one time we faced an army and got yelled at by some sort of annihilation granny dragon," Tasha agrees, the edge of her muzzle quirking up in a smile. She fist bumps his chest, bows her head to him, and then steps away and towards Galatea. "Don't forget to tell her that you dragged me back here all to save her from being killed by things. You can't fight and you still came here. That's caring."
"I had to bring your fighting machine," Galatea points out. "Let's go, I can feel her psychic limit approaching."
"I guess I shouldn't kick her in the leg for eating my soul, then," Tasha remarks as she snatches Galatea's hand and walks away with her. Her other hand is held out for Samael. "Lets go home, grandma is out of cookies."
"It's never worth trying to argue with her," Galatea says, and then they are surrounded by noise, smoke, and also there's a naked woman with them. "Oh.. my ship. I guess the dimensional drive really did explode."
Tasha looks around at the destruction, the only anxiety of fire on on a vessel making her hackles go up. "We should find out how bad this is. It'd be really embarrassing to have survived all that just to die up here right after." She then snaps to looking at the naked woman, frowning now that she's noticed her. "Sam?"
Tasha pauses, then corrects quickly. "No wait, the remote. I remember Kainudy asking me to stab her."
"This ship seems awfully small," Sam comments, as Galatea heads for the bridge and starts banging on things until the fire suppression system starts working. This makes everyone.. not wet, but covered in some sort of gel.
Tasha, gelled or no, is relieved by not having the instinctual panic of a ship fire hovering over her. She walks to the bridge and to the external display, peering down on Ymir. "Are your stealth systems functioning and can you verify we're where we should be, temporally?"
"Every system is independent," Galatea says, "so one failing won't affect the others. The ship chrono looks correct, but I haven't looked for whatever network you might have in your reality for keeping track of time. But in an hour we should be over the end of the continent you're parked at." Then she's down on her hands and needs looking at something under the console.
Tasha plops herself on the command chair and starts wiping gel off herself. "Let me know if I can be of any help. I'll just be here trying to figure out what I'm going to say when I get back, I'm not sure I'm up for a ... third? Fourth? Fifth? Round of family drama, or any drama. I'll be glad to be home, though. You'll be staying with us, won't you?"
"Well, I'm going to have to land the Astraea to see how bad things are," Galatea notes. "I don't have any navigational data or.. anything.. for dealing with this galaxy. Do you use money?"
"Extensively, with the common currency being the shekel, and mostly ... electronic? The others usually handle that. My home world is the leftover world of a hyper advanced civilization we remade in to what Gabriel calls a 'fantasy paradise,' so I'm still learning about the culture and and life outside our protected barbarian system." Tasha looks down at herself, but she didn't bring her datapad. Or much of anything besides camping supplies and guns, and all of that is back in Kainudy's world. "I think I can clear your arrival with the spaceport and arrange a birth next to the Dark Horse. I can also pay for it from our accounts, once they confirm my identity. You might need to mask your vessel as something more boring. If you can hide it, maybe we can just land on the tree and return to the city some other way."
"More boring than what?" Galatea asks. "Will the Port Authority need to board it? Do they use a registry system? I had someone who was good at arranging that sort of thing a while back, but they left. I don't know that my stealth system would well on the surface, but how far away would I need to land to be effectively hidden?"
"These are all great questions I don't really know the answer to. Private spacecraft are unheard of in this society, I know that, especially ones capable of travel beyond a star system. As for how far ... I don't know that either. We may just have to pick one and wait and see if the air defense force or whatever they use intercepts us, or if the port authority becomes a problem. I can probably do better with the port authority, but it's your ship." Tasha knows better than to tell people what to do with their ship. "At least on the ground at port I can get the others to help smooth things over and arrange supplies. If we fail at hiding the ship we'll be looking at military response."
Galatea comes out from beneath the console to look at Tasha. "How many spacefaring civilizations do you have in this galaxy?" she asks.
"Officially? The Celestial Empire, the Star Empire, he Terragens, the Confederacy, and the Khattan trade fleets. The first and the last ones are the most influential by relative power, but the rest are significant. Anyone else would raise a lot of eyebrows, since this universe, or at least this galaxy, sees cycles of genocide by the makers of my home world. Something about resources, probably souls." Tasha then points to herself. "I get past the sensors by being considered a 'mezzode', a custom life form made by the rich. You can probably claim that, too. In fact maybe we can say your vessel is a Khattan art piece. If I'm with it, it would explain a lot. Maybe we can even say I'm flying it for my non-existent superiors. Whatever we chose there's risk and probably questions. Hiding the ship is safer if it works, landing is safer if the plan fails."
"That few, and.. you never just get aliens showing up then?" Galatea asks. "I doubt anyone would consider my ship art, since it's mostly scavenged bits on an old frame. I can pass for human though, easily enough. I've seen the inhabitants here after all. But if the ship is going to be that much of an issue.. I saw shuttlecraft in your hangar. Do they work? Would it be difficult for one to come up here or would that require a lot of bureaucracy too?"
"It might be difficult to explain why a shuttle launched, stopped in orbit, then came back down. Maybe if we have it then land at the space station, we can say it stopped here to enjoy the view and, you know, other things." Tasha wiggles her fingers at 'other things'. "If it's a pleasure cruise, they probably won't care. This isn't a home world and we're a bit out of the main galactic space, so it should work. Uh, if I can reach the Dark Horse covertly."
"Oh, you can't just call them?" Galatea asks. "My transport system is out of commission too right now. I had to tie it into the dimensional drive to handle the titan."
"Well, I could go down to the surface," Samael claims.
"Normally I would contact them but as it turns out space-to-ground communications are complex and highly regulated and refined using Library proto-" Tasha pauses, turning to Samael, and then nods to him. "Lets do that. Get our co-ords and speed and they can calculate our position and meet us up here. Have them say it's a pleasure cruise in to orbit, then on to the space station. They can bring whoever wants to go to the space station, we don't need it to be a total lie."
"And it won't be a problem to have two extra passengers?" Galatea asks. "If Sam can take the ansible down, then I'll know where the shuttle is and can move to meet it. By then I should know if anything else is damaged."
"We'll stay on the shuttle until the shuttle returns to the Dark Horse on the planet. If we don't get off, they'll never know. Or so I hope. Actually, most of these plans are fraught with problems thanks to the exacting security of modern Galactic travel, so we may have to improvise, or maybe leave very quickly." This makes Tasha blink, then she perks up. "Maybe that's the answer. I'll just order the Dark Horse to leave and both ships can depart. I can probably call a Titanian assist and have everyone dock; I need to arrange things with them anyway."
"Oh.. do you have a base of operations I can go to instead then?" Galatea asks. "I just need to make sure the ship is safe for FTL, and go there directly."
"We have the asteroid base near Caltrop Station. If both ships move away, we can share information and then transit there. We had planned to infiltrate Daltoona Station after leaving Ymir, but we can put that off a little while, unless Hastur or Hake-bear decide otherwise." Tasha spreads her hands. "It's unfortunate my vacation ended up being worse than the thing I took a vacation for."
"Well, I've never had a vacation, so I'll keep avoiding them for safety's sake," Galatea asks, and hands something over to Sam. "It might be easier for them to pick you up on the way back from the space station. Samael can look like you, can't he?"
"Of course I can," Sam says.
"Of course he can," Tasha echoes. "So I guess I'll just wait here until we're ready. Which plan do you want to go with, departing for our base plan, the orbital shuttle plan, or one of the landing plans?"
"If you can manage the shuttle, that will give me time to see what sort of shape my ship is in," Galatea says. "So by the time they leave the station and rendezvous I can say whether any of the other plans are viable. Timing will matter, since you don't want to stay aboard for too long."
"Radiation or hyper-dimensional magic particles?" Tasha perks her ears, looking over. "Well, either way I want to sleep in my bed tonight, so I am all for getting off when I can. Lets get this done then. Sam, grab the ansible and head down. We'll be here waiting."
"Oh, nothing like that," Galatea says. "But my food rations may be a few decades old."
"I think I have a food bar in my pocket," Tasha admits. She digs around and sure enough, it's a food bar. She puts it in her lap. "I may just survive. Wow, though, am I exhausted."
"You can use the bed while I do my diagnostics if you like," Galatea says. "I'm glad I have something to focus on."
"I probably won't be much help, I'm more useful for reducing structures than fixing them, and my cadet training doesn't cover pan-dimensional grab-bag gizmos. I'll go take a nap. Wake me up if you need me." And with that Tasha strips off her jacket and begins heading aft, giving a little wave.
Tasha eventually wakes to the sound of.. radio chatter? It seems to be coming over the ships ancient intercom system, if that's what the little grills are with a few buttons next to them.
Tasha's eyes open, though she doesn't move. She simply lays there letting the immensity of things roll over her, as it has every time she's woken up these last few days.
The chatter is.. chatter. It's unintelligible, even more so than the PA system back at the Winged Citadel. There are also a lot of beeps and boops mixed in among the garbled static that might be voices.
Tasha decides that this is weird, but also that it isn't something trying to get her attention, so she closes her eyes and tries to see if she can sleep again.
This nearly works, until there's a horrible screech of feedback followed by sudden silence from the tortured box on the wall.
Tasha's eyes open again and she resists the urge to destroy the box. The box gets eyed at, perhaps it's feeling cheeky and tempting her, but no, nothing. Eyes go closed.
Crackle crackle crackle. "Ith-th anyone th.. ssss.. ere?" it hisses.
"We're trying to sleep, stop asking," Tasha replies. She puts the pillow over her head, half awake.
"Nobody ever ssssleeps here," the intercom insists. "You must-ttthhh be popnew."
"I'm pretty new," Tasha replies, pillow over head. She has that little itch now, the one that tells her things aren't quite right, even for being in a extra-dimensional space craft cobbled together from random items that escaped a world where a giant dark grandma dragon lived, who she stabbed yesterday after her soul was chewed on. or maybe it was the day before. Her days are running together. "Are you the creepy voice of some disembodied demon, ghost, spirit, AI, or other such thing? Is this a call from Mr. Yellow? Mr. Thotep?"
"I am the intercom. Zzzzt," the box claims.
"Oh. Intercoms are for intercommunication. If you're an intercom that's speaking, you're more of a com, or a messenger. An intermessanger." Tasha can't explain why she said those things, other than that she's tired and her life is weird.
The intercom just buzzes with white noise for a bit after that. "Would you like to zzzzet a wake-up alarm?" it asks, just when the white-noise was helping Tasha get back to sleep.
"Wake me up if something really bad happens or my ship arrives," Tasha mubles, too half-wake to properly want to complain, be mad, or really think about what she's saying. Vaguely, she recalls something about putting a remote away, but she's mentally exhausted and all that seems to help that these days is sleep.
There's more soothing white noise, until that too fades from Tasha's awareness. She has a few dreams of battlefields (though she's never fought in any) but they are fairly vague, more like impressions, and sometimes rendered in watercolor. But she has a long period of deeper sleep at least, before the intercom starts making chattering noises again.
Tasha wasn't always such a heavy sleeper, that came after she went from having active duties as a member of something to becoming the leader of something, a position she isn't sure has been good for her or to which she is suited. Intense stress and life-shattering events have only contributed to the fact, and so now that things have calmed down some she is very slow to wake indeed.
"Mmh?" Tasha pushes her muzzle out from under her pillow and sniffs for activity.
It's more of the same. Half-heard, distorted voices one might expect from Abaddonian radio and a smattering long and short beeps and buzzes. The light below the grill even flickers sporadically.
Tasha decides she might as well remain awake, since she clearly isn't going to get any sleep with the ship malfunctioning. Part of her would like to pull the intercom off and see what's wrong with it, or disconnect it, but her life-long respect for ships and captains prevents the thought from being more than an impulse. With sleep aborted, she slowly remembers the remote and decides to see about making sure it's not getting damaged.
It's just standing there near the door. Watching Tasha, apparently. It breathes, at least, and blinks. Its hair could use washing, assuming it even is hair if the thing is as old as Kainudy suggested.
"Lets get you washed and dressed, then." It feels like being productive at least. One oddity of her new life is that simple, ordinary tasks have gained a measure of novelty and comfort, as if ordinary living and mundane, common tasks have themselves become a rarity for her, causing a kind of experience inversion. She takes comfort in this as she takes the remote's hand and searches for a shower and clothes.
The chamber has a lot of panels in the wall, so presumably one of them should include a closet and a shower.
Tasha begins opening things-- carefully, only so far -- one by one. "For a super-powerful pan-universal family a lot of their stuff is just a huge mess," she complains to either no one in particular or the remote. "Here I am, almost no one, fighting these vast things and Kainudy was always some kind of destruction god but hid in a ... " She opens another door. "Closet. Should I be annoyed? I'm a little annoyed. And then they kick me out! I know why, poor fragile mortal, blah blah blah. Patronized by my patrons. Yes I know why."
Tasha discovers clothes. Or what used to be clothes at some point, but disintegrate when she touches them. Some of the other cubbies have either more recent or at least sturdier materials. Galatea does not seem very fashion conscious.. after all besides the armor all Tasha has seen her wear is some sort of wrap-around garment that could have just been a big scarf of some sort.
If it comes down to it, Tasha will go with a big scarf if she can find it. She does suppose when you travel across universes it's hard to keep up with or maintain a fashion and, like with most immortals she's met, you probably end up sticking with a look after a while.
"I wonder how they're doing back there? Sam said Thotep was going to poke things, but it also sounded like a fight. Not that I wouldn't put a fight past him, he can crush universes, but I expected something more niggling." She switches topics suddenly, knowing no one's really listening anyway. "Do you think I should even go home? here I am, almost dead again, hole in my soul, missing my Titan, and you know I promised not to go run off and die again, but here I am. And where is everyone except the immortals? Not helping, that's where. not that I blame them. It was clearly a stupid and naive decision for me to bring them all along. Maybe they'll go back if I stay gone ... "
"Probably not," the intercom claims. It's sounding clearer at least. "There should be some basic humanoid dresses in the purple cabinet.
"Yeah, probably not. I wonder, would they keep fighting or keep looking for me? I'm not sure which is better; they really should be able to keep fighting without me, though. It's really obvious now having it all rely on me isn't a great idea." Tasha switches to the purple cabinet. "And I was supposed to be on vacation. What kind of vacation and educational curriculum is worse than going in to the void and fighting a terrifying demi-god, anyway?"
"I would not know, being just an intercom," the intercom replies. There are very simple pull over dresses in here. They are all backless but some have sleeves, and the all go at least to the knee, with varying necklines. All in primary colors as well.
Tasha compares a few dresses to the remote's skin and hair, basing her choice off of what Katie, Liza and Mr. Invention have taught her about various fashions and color matching. While no great shakes at it, she does go with a bright red dress, sleeveless, and to the knee. After sliding it on the remote she steps back and examines her handiwork. "W'll have to wash you back on the ship, but at least the dress isn't bad. It's kind of like having a big doll, really." Tasha never had more than rag dolls, but she did have a few. "I wonder if you were an actual person long ago, or if you were always like this? Well, who knows, at least you're not naked."
"Red is the color to wear when you want to make human friends," the intercom observes. "It is because of monkey butts."
"What did Galatea make this ship out of?" Tasha glares at the intercom, which is very talkative for a system that's supposed to convey communication, not make it. She returns to the remote and nudges her to the bed, getting her to sit down and placing there there. She nods. "Good enough. It's not like anyone gives me instructions; Mel came with instructions and that worked out very well."
"My owner always reads the manual," the intercom claims. "It does not always work out for her however."
"Too bad." Tasha sounds genuinely commiserative. With her task done she decides to head to the bridge, seeing as how she doesn't have much else to do and staring at the emptiness of space and the world of Ymir feels slightly more productive than going slowly insane listening to the intercom. She just finished being insane, after all, and that didn't go well at all.
Out in the corridor, facing the bridge, is Sam, listening to singing from further ahead. "Have you spoken to the intercom?" Sam asks Tasha without turning towards her.
"I think it's more accurate to say the intercom has spoken to me. At length," Tasha answers, walking up to Samael. "Why, is it a demon? Some kind of trapped spirit? The echoes of a lost world forever screaming its last moments in the loops and wires of a interpersonal communications device?" She could see it being any of those, really.
"It is telepathic," Sam notes. "All of the ship systems may be. Like I and Galatea are. At least, enough to speak in a language you understand. It doesn't always work with Galatea's singing though."
"Being telepathic sounds very handy when dealing with entities that attack the mind, at least on the punching things with your brain level, maybe not the 'open door to horrors' level." Tasha almost said 'horrors untold', but festering deep, deep down at the core of her, around a hole in her soul, is the reason why she can no longer think of them as 'untold'. She has been told. Loudly. "So why is the shipping trying to keep me from sleeping and offering me non-sequitur? Or am I doing that to myself through the ship?"
"It may be that it has not met any new people for a while," Sam suggests. "I can't read the captain's mood."
"It scanned my brain for a while, but then I was 'seeping darkness' and about to collapse, so I guess I'm not presenting a steady presence to interpret," Tasha reasons. She stands beside Samael and peers at the captain, frowning. "No? She's a little odd, isn't she? Kind of awkward, persistent but not really aware of it. Like a young woman, or obnoxious sister." Tasha is aware of the irony of talking about how others may be like a young woman. She feels old, she insists internally. "It's clear she experienced significant trauma through prior events, and also new ones. I feel like she's the result of a sentient system that experience events well outside its expectation, but of course reduced and further refined and changed by experience as a near-mortal being lost to the cosmos. I'm not sure why she sings."
Galatea is visible on the bridge. The pilot chair is gone, and she's sitting on the floor. She's naked, and it's clear she's altered her skin-tone and hair color to match those of the remote, probably to look like its daughter. She's doing something with her hands out of view, since her shoulders and muscles can be seen moving.
"You don't think she's ... lost it, do you?" Tasha tilts her head in a way best described as somewhere between considering and perplexed, perhaps the gesture may have come with a "huh" if she hadn't had other things to day. "She looks like the remote, now. her mother slash creator turned out to be alive, full of some kind of doomsome fire, and might be gone again. I know I used to get really weird around my creator; I'm actually kind of glad Persephone seems to have forgotten I exist, now that I think about that."
"I don't know any of them well enough to have an opinion," Sam says. "I really want to eat her though."
Tasha gives Samael a sidelong look. "Why, because Thotep wants to upset her mother and chaos chaos, or some other reason? Innocence? Experience?" She glances at the statute-like woman again, left ear twitching. "I hope she's not masturbating, because I really don't know how to deal with that level of crazy right now."
"Energy, maybe," Samael suggests. "Or something else. It is an odd sensation. Why not just go up and find out what she's doing?"
"Weird," Tasha says of the eating. She's never sure when or if Samael's going to lose -- or worse, willfully chose to abandon -- control, but she supposes the danger is part of his charm. That she puts up with him after her experience instead of just stabbing him in the back speaks of her fondness for him and deep concern over his master, who is decidedly out of her league. And rather than dwell on that fact more, she walks over to Galatea.
"Sooo, wha'cha up to? I see you have a new look. if you want to match better, I'd suggest a red dress," the equally red woman offers, sitting down beside Galatea.
"Hmm?" Galatea stops singing to look at Tasha. She still has the little gem in her forehead, but looks human otherwise. Enough to make Tasha remember her own short time as one herself. She's sitting cross-legged, and is manipulating something in her lap. It's either a piece of abstract art or technology, and as Galatea turns it it keeps changing, as if it has far more sides than it appears. "I'm inspecting the dimensional shunt core. And.. realizing I'm a terrible person."
"As someone who probably just killed a hundred to a thousand elves I'd never met before, stabbed my teacher, left my family worrying, I can sympathize." Tasha bumps in to Galatea as she leans over, trying to make it a friendly gesture, and peers at the shape she doesn't actually have a geometric name for. "So is this a new reason you're terrible, an old one, both, or self hatred? Because I can help with all of those."
"I'm a hypocrite," Galatea claims. "I yelled at her for lying to me. But.. I never told my own children who I really was. I know that she let all those terrible things happen because if she used her power, there'd be no going back. It couldn't be controlled. I think she let it out before and it broke her. All my memories are of her being broken. So.. I'm terrible."
Tasha slings an arm around Galatea and, with a free hand, gestures out in to the universe. "If I've learned anything, it's that the universe is full of this sort of thing. Everywhere you go, from gods to mortals, there's this kind of thing. I mean, sure, some gods actively try to make this sort of thing happen, but a lot of it is just us. Even if Thotep vanished, I'm sure we'd replace him just fine." The gesturing hand pauses, uncertain, then falls and Tasha slumps a little. "Okay, that wasn't as uplifting as I thought it would be. Let me try again. The thing with lies, is that they're lies. No wait, that one won't work. One more time." She inhales, exhales, and starts over. Again.
"It's about the lack of perfect options and perfect foreknowledge. Kainudy doesn't know everything, as indicated by the idea that eating my soul would somehow work really well. Her power clearly isn't infinite knowledge of cause and effect, so in that sense she's fallible. Take Nora and I. Nora was a Karnor woman who died and kept on as a kind of ghost, wishing for a result at almost any cost. She made countless Tashas, until I succeeded. She meant well and cared about her family, and ended up tormenting who knows how many 'mes' to do it. She also has a lot of personal problems, and is an alpha-type with self-esteem issues. She doesn't have ultimate power, but you can see a correlation. Kainudy doesn't seem to know what to do with herself or anyone around her, which is more like me. I lie to my family because I am afraid of getting them hurt; I'd rather hurt myself than hurt them. So there's the thing: You can be selfless and want the best and still hurt people terribly, and there's no way to know how things will turn out. Except in one instance, you lie to people, and in the other, you don't."
Another deep breath, exhale. "Does that make sense?"
"I'm pretty sure I lied out of selfishness, not lack of foreknowledge," Galatea says. "I had my children because I'd lost everyone and wanted a family. But it got harder over time. I had to appear to age, and watch them grow up.. and grow old. I pretended to die and left so I wouldn't have to see it happen to them. And I never tried again. Sam wants to eat me. I can tell."
"Well he is a demon, they do hunger now and then. I don't think he will try, though. That wouldn't end well for any of us." Tasha says this in a conversational tone, reflecting both her recent blitzkrieg familiarity with violence and a condensed experience in suffering. It's just something that is, like weather. "And what you did was selfish. Maybe cruel. But understandable. If it helps any, just now I thought about never returning to my ship, never going home, all so they'd think I died -- and it'd hurt them terribly, I know -- so they'd go back home and live relatively normal, safe lives far away from all of this. I'm not sure they would, though. Go home, that is. But you know, I don't know. Is running away really worse than watching them die? People talk like it is, but I don't know. I guess it comes down to resiliency, mortal resiliency. But you're not mortal, so maybe it is what you say it is."
"I let him carry the ansible down, but he came back, that's why he wants to eat me," Galatea explains. "He'll want to eat you too once you learn how to use it properly. Your friends have already launched their shuttle." She then points off to left and up a bit. "They're that way, heading towards the orbital station. Well, towards one of them. Then they will rendezvous with us on the way back down."
"Well, if you want to learn how to handle family, just watch how I handle this. I assure you, whatever happens, it'll be awkward and embarrassing, or depressing, or there'll be lots of hugging and guilt. Or all of those." Tasha scratches the back of her head; it does seem to go that way with her, doesn't it? She changes the subject. "So I'm going to learn how this ansible works? What happened to the one I broke, anyway? It kind of, uh, melted in to my hand. Is there a dead universe in my hand now?"
"As if counting the sorrows that have melted all away," Galatea suddenly sings, "The golden apples fall, Falling one at a time." Then she says normally, "It's still there, for now. You can't actually use it like that though, I'll have to reform it into something you can."
Tasha frowns at her hand. "I think I remember some Terra story about apples, gardens, and other things. There was a snake, I think it was a metaphor or allegory for Ahriman." And so she shrugs; who knows. "You really think Kainudy's going to teach me still? I mean, I expect she will, but I still feel like asking the question in a uncertain, why-would-you sort of way. Also, what does it mean that she's Grandma Destruction? I spend a lot of time around things-of-destruction, so I may not grasp the significance very well."
"I will teach you how to use it," Galatea says. "It's not just destruction, but creation. At least it probably was originally, before she ate those monsters. It probably tipped things more towards destruction. I don't know if she can tip the balance back, but Persephone made it so that she has to, I think. I don't know for sure." She then holds up the dimensional shunt, and frowns at it. She rotates it to the left, making it seem to rotate to the right. "Mmmm."
"Thank the universe for Persephone," Tasha chimes in, ears flicking. "Saving all of us when we inevitably break down doing something stupid and well-meaning." Tasha leans in again and reaches out to try and touch the core. "So, think they're okay back there? That was a whole pile of things I need to resolve, and while it'd be very convenient if it all went away, it'd also be very sad."
The shunt feels.. like a marker. Some sort of exotic matter that is hard to feel. Galatea frowns. "I think they will be alright," she says. "Maybe. I do not know this Crawling Chaos god. I assume he will try to make mother lose control and unleash.. chaos. Is that the sort of thing he would want?"
"It's basically his whole thing. He's the manifestation of a certain kind of universal madness. He also really likes a goat theme, but apparently he has thousands of forms and some of them are a lot worse than a giant goat man with a beard. Sam can probably tell you more about Thotep, but it's the kind of knowledge that's, um, not good for you. Forbidden, and dangerous. He gave me my ship, and Samael," Tasha explains.
"Oh, and he's one of the Pillars of the Universe. I was told if he were destroyed the multiverse would probably collapse, or something," the red woman adds, shrugging palms-up with her hands.
"I hope my mother knows that last part then," Galatea says, then looks right into Tasha's eyes. "You work for him? Is that why you stabbed her?"
Tasha actually laughs, and wishes she hadn't because it's really not the sort of thing you laugh to. She holds up her hands, palms up; I surrender. "First! I don't work for him, it's more that he ... patronizes me. I think it amuses him to kill things by empowering me, because one thing he really loves to do is destroy powerful, mighty beings with the least effort, probably because it's embarrassing. You know, deity of madness. Death of a thousand cuts. He has the power to do it himself, but he prefers to do it in the way that stings the most. Most beings of his type feed on psionic essence, and I think pain, suffering, embarrassment, and of course madness are his diet."
Tasha then wiggles her upheld hands fingers. "As it happens, it's really hard for a tiny mortal to fight panuniversal immortal beings, so I must use the tools available to me, and Thotep offered some tools. It's not safe and it's very dangerous, but there wasn't much else to work with and he was there, and I was a lot more naive." She shrugs with those hands. "Same story with Hastur, except I'm most closely bound to him and I do have to do what he wants now and then. I owe him and, well, they don't let debts go very easily."
"And, second, I stabbed her because she ate my soul and that apparently drove me very, very mad, and almost destroyed me several times over. So, I stabbed her because she stabbed me first. I really don't know what she was thinking, she told me she couldn't handle it. I think she was going to fix it somehow but there's a reason I have won out against gods, because I am a little nasty bee," and so tasha pokes Galatea's shoulder with a finger. "And it all went down hill after that."
"So what will you do for me then?" Galatea asks, still staring. "Your debt to me may not be large. I have no way of measuring."
"I did fight a war to protect your mother, and I did let you drag me back inside even though that was the last place I wanted to be," Tasha notes, brows up, head tilted. "I do appreciate what you did, I really do, but it's not like I was sitting around all this time. I did everything I could to protect you and your mother, within my limits, which were very limited for a while there. Still ... " Tasha cocks her head the other way. "What do you want? If you start popping up and asking about Signs, I already have that kind of boss."
"I don't know yet," Galatea says. "I've been alone for a while and I'm not sure how to be social again yet. I need a project, and since I am to be in this reality for some time, you will be that project."
"I'm the hobby of many powerful beings, you can do much worse than me. I'm sure they'll all provide you with excellent review." Tasha lays a hand over her heart and bows. "And since you need somewhere to be and a place to learn, and since I can't run away because it's too late, you're welcome on my ship. We have a lot of interesting people; Samael's just one example. You met Mel, uh, in the flesh, which is new, and Thoth. And Horus, briefly. Can't imagine how that's going. But there are many others."
"They probably think I kidnapped you because I took your Titan," Galatea says. "And I'm using the ansible to learn you. I want to know why Persephone remade you the way she did. And why my mother was associating with you. Thotep is probably cross with me for not letting you go mad."
After a pause, she lowers the shunt and asks, "The humans I saw on the world below wore clothing. Is that usually the case?"
"I don't know, I'm not very effective if I go mad an die, but maybe he got bored with me ever since Persephone remade me and I seemed 'together.'" Tasha holds her hands up and waggles them at 'together'. "As for what they'll think, I'm not sure. I do have a habit of disappearing off to do very dangerous things and coming back in a bad way, so that's not new for them. Sometimes, aliens do bring me back. Last time Persephone did it. That was only a few months ago for me, but its been hundreds of years for her. And I'd like to know why she made me this way, too." And then the young woman nods. "They wear clothes. In fact, the entire Galactic society does for the most part."
"I should probably put some on then before your companions arrive," Galatea notes. "Sometimes my skin is sensitive after I change it, and I was busy with the shunt as well. They probably think humans look strange."
"They? My friends? Oh no, most of them are or are made of Humans. Several species of their species were made by Humans. Humans are the core of Terragens society," Tasha explains, then she gestures ta herself. "I mean, I'm some part Human, and I was fully Human for a little while after I died. They have no problems with Humans."
"Oh, then I should be alright," Galatea says. "I can change later if I need to. This is mainly so the remote and I would not seem out of place together. I've just been mostly human for a long time. I used to have a tail though."
"Not having a tail is very upsetting," Tasha agrees, reaching over to pat her own, which reaches back to pat her hand. "This isn't my original, but it's nice, it can grab things. It's kind of an upgrade. So, wait, you're using the the anisble to learn me?" She squints.
"Yes," Galatea says. "It's more efficient than other methods, and will save time later if you have to be rebuilt again."
Tasha's ears flick. "You can rebuild me again? I thought only Persephone could do that?"
"Well, not rebuild you, but rebuild you," Galatea says. "So that I can convincingly become you. If needed. Should something happen to the original."
Tasha's eyes widen and she shakes her head. "Nooo no, no replacing me. I have a lot of people who care about me and they definitely won't appreciate you doing that. Besides, no one will believe it."
"Why wouldn't they?" Galatea asks. "You seem to change often from the sound of it."
"I'm very distinctive. I also have a tendency to stab things, and you can't fight well at all. Also, I want to believe I'm not that easily replaced, otherwise that would be extremely sad for me, and now I'm feeling my will to live fade away again." And because of that Tasha reaches over and gives Galatea a very strong push on the arm. "Don't make me try to kill you, too."
"You already tried to kill me," Galatea points out. "In the forest."
"I was having a bad day and wasn't really that in to it," Tasha insists, folding her arms. "But fine. Go ahead. Replace me. I guess if I don't matter, then I never really mattered, if just anyone can replace me."
"I don't plan on replacing you," Galatea claims. "I just want to be prepared in case I need to. I promise I won't turn your body in a puppet. I'm not like Charon, when he went through that whole phase."
"But really I want to know what is up with the blue and yellow stuff," she adds.
Tasha blinks at that. "I refuse to think badly of Charon, so I won't." She blinks again. "Well, fine. It's not like I can change how I look whenever I want anyway, so I'd just be here, another me, silently or openly judging your performance instead of, I don't know, becoming a Phin or something."
"Oh, did you want to be changed?" Galatea asks, raising her eyebrows to show interest.
More blinking. "The soul magic? That's what someone called it, soul magic. I don't know if you should use it, it's me manifesting powers attached to me soul. I think I somehow draw on, or possess, or have connections with those energies, and I can manifest them as ... well, one thing really." The red woman leans back at the question. "What? I, I mean, IO always wanted to try being a Phin but I was making a point ... "
"I will try to find out what this 'soul magic' is then," Galatea says. "It would take a long time to change you into a dolphin."
"Oh, well isn;t that always the way of things?" Tasha shrugs with her hands again. "Maybe some day, I guess? Like, for retirement."
"Or if I die again," Tasha adds, forcing a smile. "Something to look forward to."
"It would be easier to just have you ride a dolphin's body," Galatea says, and sets the ever-shifting shunt aside. "What should I wear? Is my wrap sufficient?"
"Ride a what now? I tried riding a dolphin once and he kept squirming to make me squirm." Tasha does look over and examine the outfit, however, leaning in. "The wrap is fine. You kind of look like a statue come to life, which isn't the weirdest look on the ship by a long shot. We have people who can pick out clothes for you, too."
"But I'm fleshy pink now," Galatea claims, and checks her skin. "I mean something different by ride than riding on something. I mean riding in something. It isn't difficult, I'll teach you how later."
"Okay, that sounds like fun. And I meant your other form. This form is obviously a copy of the Human remote, which is just fine. I was trying to warn you against the statue look." Tasha leans back and stretches, looking up, then doing a double take. "Hey, I think I see them?"