Despite the Kobold groomers, Tasha still felt the need for a shower. Even alone, there were after-effects of the merger, where she felt like she had longer ears and Aaron was washing her back. Hopefully it was just her imagination though. The shower itself wasn't as long as she'd have liked, due to the pressure starting to drop - probably because everybody was taking a shower to try and wash off the weirdness. At least the windows of her room were nearly done self-repairing.
And so a still-drying Tasha steps out of her bathroom, wrapped in a towel, walking out to the balcony to put her arms on the ledge and take in everything. It's been an eventful several days, and she a large number of members will be different for it -- some more than others. Herself included. It all leaves her with a desire to move forward without an idea of what that looks like, save to pursue the goals before her and wait and see how the rest resolves on its own.
She can see the little park outside of the towers from her balcony, where Whisper and Pheeny are attempting to dance without any music, just some Kobolds banging sticks together. Behind her, she hears a soft chime coming from her datapad on the bed.
Tasha smiles at the sight of the two eternal children playing; she hadn't imagined she'd end up taking care of beings like they, but she certainly is glad she was able to help them. She thinks they brighten what would otherwise be a dour and professional affair, and that they lend a sense of community that had otherwise been lacking. She would have been content to think about them a while longer, but her datapad calls, and therefore, quite likely, duty.
Tasha pushes off and walks back to pick up her pad and answer.
She's greeted by a message that there is mail from Abbadon. With photos. She just has to open it.
Tasha takes in a deep breath, exhales audibly, and then walks over to sit herself down on her bed. She considers sitting over in the balcony, but she wants to focus for this. Wants it to be personal, separated, if just for the moment.
Then, she taps through and opens the message.
A photo comes up of Mariel, wearing a Knights Templar uniform (a bit like the one Hakeber had, indicating a Scholar track) holding up a certificate of achievement and smiling brightly.
Tasha smile is immediate, as is her relief. She wasn't sure what to expect, had always been dreading the, possibly baseless, sense that she had failed Mariel somehow, that she was too close, or too far, or not right, dangerous or distant or... or...
Forgotten.
Forgotten, she'd tried to tell herself, was better. She's an extremely dangerous person involved in equally dangerous work, with her immediate surroundings often falling to chaos. Mariel, she remembers, never wanted to go so far, she did her best, and she never felt like enough. Now, maybe, she feels like enough, and wasn't it the least she could do to keep her chaos away from that?
But no longer. Tasha can no longer pretend she's doing the right thing in staying away. Any further silence would come of as avoidance, and that can only hurt, she realizes. No more. Maybe it was Pheeny who helped her see it, a child and a life she could be proud of, another example she can save people as well as destroy them.
Tasha thinks she'll need to get a stand to hold the picture in, it's going on her desk. She swipes to the next image.
There's another photo as well. It's Fred standing next to one of the regeneration tanks. Inside is a baby Karnor, and while the patterns aren't exact the colors are definitely Nora's. She's got a lot of tubes and wires connected to her though.
One more transitioning, then, Tasha decides. The thought makes her both melancholy and hopeful for the future; one by one, she's becoming one of the senior members of their original group while her old seniors find a new path, and, new life. One by one, she keeps her promise, having paved the way for this future to arrive. Another example she can save people. Perhaps some day soon Nora will send her a picture of her own achievements.
Next image.
Speaking of seniors, Eli and Remiel are wearing flower-print swimming shorts and standing in water in what is clearly the Pit of Himar.. meaning the water must be safe. More surprising is the sight of Age and Treachery there with them. Neither is bothering with a bathing suit though.
Tasha grins at this. It seems to her connections remain -- and have grown. She had been worried the disparate member sof her first pack and their various allies might slowly scatter once she moved on, something that always worries her, especially with her habit of nearly moving on permanently. It's gratifying and reassuring for her to know their work and her work specifically has creates lasting ties.
Tasha wonders what it would be like to go back now, to a place that still feels like home. To another layer of her family, separate for now, but still family. Still a place that welcomes her, where she isn't a stranger.
Next image.
The Winged Citadel hangar, with Bellerophon dominating the background. In the foreground though is a modified Lawbringer, surrounded by Eeee and Silent Ones engineers, along with Fred in his remote armor. The Titan is floating in the air, with cables securing it in place.
"Progress, then." Tasha remembers the prototypes, and before that, the Balthasar. Difficult memories, but compared to what she's been through, all she's been through, oddly nostalgic, the lesser but relatively difficult challenges of a younger self, a person she mostly, but not entirely, remembers being. She's happy to see technology making progress, and Titans are her not-so-secret pleasure. If only she could claim the same advancement sin Titan work, her own presently lost to a place she cannot reach, fate unknown. It all makes her feel hopefuly, proud, fascinated, and a bit older than she'd like, but she supposes she had to grow up some time.
Tasha decides eh'll put this image in her own little section of the hangar, for when she has a chance to resume more technical interests. For now it can go on her wall with her Titan decorations.
Next image.
An overview of the Pit of Himar from high up on one of the walls, probably the Vasterlion blister. There's more green and the flood-plain is being converted to farmland from the looks of it.
More progress. Tasha tries to imagine the pit full of green, and then, the world beyond. Part of her is a little sad to see what had been familiar change, the red-rust danger of the world held a certain appeal, but not so much she's sorry to see it go, at least in the Pit itself. Deserts without an oasise is just beautiful deathtraps, and she's walked many a desert, and she finds the awe fades quickly. Abaddon has been dealing with that faded awe for five thousand years.
Next image.
A beauty shot of Bellerophon, out on the runway. The cowlings for the aerospike engines have been painted to match the rest of the ship, making it look brand new. Some of the vehicles have been lowered from the ventral bay and are being worked on.. although a zoom would reveal the mechanics all stripped to the waist and posing like models around one of them.
Tasha's definitely putting this one on a wall, maybe she'll blow it up and put it near her desk, or on the room of their apartment. She thinks Gabriel will appreciate seeing his old command in good shape, too. She wonders if he's seen these yet.
Next image.
The final image is of Fred, lounging against a doorframe in Bellerophon, apparently naked. He's got a small chalkboard that he's holding like a censor bar, and on it is scrawled: "Send Nudes!" And below is slightly smaller print: "No seriously, Dr. Caravelli wants all the specs on your new body. Also I want pics of your spaceships. Nudes optional for those."
Tasha accepts this mission with a laugh; she'll have to get dressed -- then undressed -- after she's done here, unless she's needed elsewhere for something more pressing -- dress status depending on the task.
Next image.
This one is of several broken pieces of technology, with interactive labels and details. A shopping list.
"Ahh broken stuff, my great hobby," Tasha remarks aloud. She's disappointed by the lack of nudes. The image gets sent off to their logistics department, such as it is, and labeled Abaddonian Repair and Equipment Request. She'll see it done, or someone else will.
Next image.
The images are done, but there is a written report that goes over some of the things in the images, as well as a note from Nora: By the time you get this I'll have a new body. A younger one than you! When I reach my peak hotness, you'll be an old maid. Don't do anything stupid because I want you to live long enough for me to embarrass you.
"Ouch," goes Tasha with mostly mock-emotional damage. Whatever form Nora takes, she can't help but thinking they'll be eternal rivals. How did she end up with a creator that is somehow more competent yet always in competition with her due to self-esteem issues? Tasha's never been an Alpha-wolf, though she wonders if that's changed lately with time, effort, authority, and that easing in to long experience, so perhaps when they meet again they can stand as equals rather than uneven messes that need each other as a measuring stick.
Of course that's /then/ and this is /now/, so Tasha writes, "/I read your message. First: good luck. Second: don't disappoint us both by coming out weird or mixed with some alien, that's my thing, don't steal it try to be original. Third: I CAN MANIPULATE THE FLAME OF LIFE ITSELF NOW I WILL BE YOUNG FOREVER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-- The 'hahas' go on for several lines.
PS, she adds: "I also ate the heart of a dragon after I beat it up. Beat that. Small dragons love me now. I'll send pictures. Byeeeeeeee."
Taking photos could take some time, given all the new, scaly faces. And probably a picture of Darksight too, if he's going to be piloting Tadpole to the Abbadon libration point where the hyperspace conduit leads.
"Better get to it, then." Tasha closes her datapad, then looks to her wardrobe. She'll need something easy to put on and take off. And for her ears to stop feeling too long, but she can't do much about that.
In the end she goes with a skirt, stripped leggins, booties, a tank top and a jacket, and some glasses she pushes up on her head. Then she heads out, heading to different places and people by order of proximity to where she is now.
Everyone is mostly of in their rooms, except for Gabriel and the recently returned Darksight, who are up in command center. The dragons are all outside by now, certainly, unless they're still hanging out in the kitchen. Kai and chibi-Tia could be anywhere.
Tasha feels like the dragons will find her, at least the small one will. The others are hard to miss, and Kai tends to come when talked about, so she'll just do that. She starts with her own tower, which also holds the rest of her; she starts knocking on doors. Actually knocking.
The first to answer is a freshly-washed Sharon, with nice smelling hair and a fuzzy bathrobe. "I'm too tired to ravish you," the girl says, blinking.
"Someone needs to work on their stamina," Tasha mock-chastises, then she pulls up her datapad and shows Sharron the message. "Did you get a copy of this? You need a copy of this. Abaddon got back to us and it's something you need to see. We all do. Also, they want pictures, so I thought of me first, because I'm the most interesting." She winks.
"You want me to take your picture then?" Sharon asks, and looks at Tasha. "Dressed like that? Where's your cool looking Dark Horse uniform?"
"What this isn't cool?" Tasha looks down at herself. "Gabriel loves my miniskirts, and lets face it, half the people in these images want me for a pinup or, you know, more. I blueballed half a mil base back on Abaddon." She taps her chin, then looks up. "Are you sur- wait why am I asking you? We have almost the same fashion sense. I'm going to ask Katie later."
"Well it's just that that outfit is.. active. Where would we take the picture?" Sharon asks. "Maybe with you being carried around by Kobolds?"
"I'm a dragon, Kobolds should be serving me or something. But no: I want a shot of just the four of us, all together, Vasha in the back, you and Sasha to the sides, and me in front. They've never seen nor met you back home, so it's time to be seen." Tasha then perks her ears. "Unless you're shamed to be associated with me..?" She pouts her lip.
"What should I wear?" Sharon asks, wide-eyed. "I don't have a lot of outfits. Unless I should wear the sorceress one, but that might be too.. revealing.. for everyone to see back on the Red Planet."
"Just wear your regular clothes, or whatever you think represents you the best. Easy." Tasha pats Sharron encouragingly. "I'm going to go have this same conversation two more times, then I'll be back and we can gather, uh, how about in the empty rec and work room in the tower? We never use that for anything."
"Okay! I'll wear my modern outfit, at least according to the teenagers on Caltrop," Sharon says. "Are you going to have Katie pose us? Who's going to take the picture?"
"We have technology, we don't need anyone to take the picture!" Tasha throws her hands up; it's so much more galling when she's dumb to herself. She can't even be mad at anyone without feeling worse. "If not we can have Sasha grab a drone or, well, technology. At us."
"Well, we could just ask for a group photo without actually taking it for real too," Sharon points out. "But a photographer is more fun! How often do we pose for pictures? Never!" She then makes shooing motions so she can close the door. "Go get the others!"
"Why are you ordering me around?! Is this because you dicked when I was a rabbit?" The door gets closed in her face, and she shakes her head. Between herself and Nora, the greater pantheon of Tasha is a difficult and sometimes obnoxious collection. Herself included. She walks on, intent on grabbing the other two.
The door opens behind Tasha's back, and Sharon claims, "Best dicking of your life!" before closing it again.
"It was just pretty good," Tasha calls back through the door. Then she realizes she's having a mild lovers quarrel with herself, and for a moment her whole existence feels like it's tilting sideways and everything is complete madness, and then she's in control again, walking down the corridor, hands thrown in the air like 'whatever'!
Vasha is a bit more presentable, even if her feathers look a but floofed out from the dryer. "Oh hai, you look snazzy," the bird says upon opening the door. She's wrapped up in colorful scarves and white shorts. "What's up? Invasion? Lunch?"
"See? Snazzy," Tasha agrees, nodding. Vasha can be the most reasonable part of herself, sometimes. "We're taking pictures of us. I'm going around taking a picture of basically everything to send back to Abaddon. We got a message back and they want pictures. I'm going to forward the message to all of you so you can write back too if you want."
"Hah, Nora will be soooo jealous of me," Vasha claims. "And Sarge!"
"Hahaha, you know it. I'm four times the woman she is now, and if you add in the rest, I'm like four times plus some sort of square-dragon-super-powers-root. Times fire!" Tasha pats Vasha's arm, she gets it, and then she adds, "Wear what you want, we're getting together in a bit. Need to grab Sasha."
"Three times," Vasha corrects. "Unless we put Sasha in a dress. Oooooo.... Sasha could seduce her! Over the mail. He has a motorcycle!"
"I don't know he can bit a bit girly some times, then again Sharon had a dick like, yesterday, so maybe we'll just consider him honorary with the assumption it'll happen eventually. You know how our life is. I had Sasha's dick before he did." Tasha shurgs with her hands. "Anyway meet up in the rec room. Toodles~"
Sasha is actually leaving his room when Tasha catches up to him. He's dressed in his unwashed mechanic's overalls. "Oh, hey Tash," he greets. "Still feeling weird at all? I've been thinking about Liza.."
"I've been thinking about Liza's thinking," is Tasha reply. "But hey, we're getting together for pictures. The folks on Abaddon wrote us, Mariel included, and I decided to start with the four of us. Oh and don't mention Liza too much to Sharon." Tasha mouths 'it will go to her head' as she points to her own head.
"Liza nearly wrecked my body," Sasha complains, but smiles at the mention of Mariel. "Is she still a cutey-patootie? I'll have to check. Should I change into something else, or are we going for clothes that most express ourselves?"
"That," she points at Sasha in 'clothes that most represent ourselves'. "So for Sharon that'll be fretting for like, an hour. And she wreaked mine -- well, Liza's -- too, so at least there's, uh, parity. A circle. Of... Something."
Sasha snerks, then laughs. "Sorry," he says, wiping an eye. "I really wanted to say 'A circle of jerks' to that, but it would be a bit crude. Then again, given what actually happened.. we're not writing home about that are we?"
"Leeets save that one for a drunken party later, when we're all together," Tasha insists, grinning. "And hey, Circle of Jerks could be the name of our poker night, maybe our band? Anyway think on that and your outfit. Meet us in the rec room in this tower in uhh... Twenty minutes."
"I'll head their now, and not think about bunnies. Or Vasha," Sasha says. "Or lunch. Waffles and bacon don't really make up for all those calories burned."
"You'll be free to eat after, I'm going to be walking around taking pictures of everything -- oh, and get the bikes, ships, what-evers ready, too! They want to see them. Feel free to like, pose on them." Tasha winks. "They have no idea what's coming in this next package. No idea."
Heading outside, Tasha has to pass the dancing girls. Now a trio, as Rock is between them, 'dancing' about on his five legs. Galatea's as yet unnamed mini-dragon remote is sitting on top of him, and Whisper and Pheeny are also twirling about and occasionally flailing a limb in imitation.
Tasha senses opportunity, so she sneaks in a few shots she'll send off later. What could be better than whatever she's looking at? Kids playing, and not just any kids: Two immortals, including the Phoenix, a scandalously sentient free Galactic, a tiny dragon people and an even tinier quasi-dragon.
A Kobold comes over to Tasha and just looks up at her. "What happened to your aura?" it asks.
Tasha had half-expected this; that the second she stopped emitting 'dragon waves' the Kobolds might forget about her, or, as another idea she had, be very disappinted they can't bask in it. Perhaps it's like a drug to them, she considers. "I'm a very secretive dragon. I can show it or not. Do you miss it?"
The Kobold thinks. "It's because you're wearing clothes that are blocking it, isn't it?" it guesses.
"Nooooo, I can just do it. Like so." Tasha's aura erupts again once she lets it roll out. It's becoming easier, and she wonders if she'll reach a point where she doesn't need to express it, but needs to work to hide it. "See?"
The little reptilian's pupils go very wide and it hugs onto one of Tasha's legs. "What do you want me to do for you?" it pleads. And the little white dragon flaps over and lands on Tasha's head as well.
"Want to help me take pictures?" Tasha looks up at her head, but as she's not getting clawed and a small dragon makes everything better in general, she neither comments on it nor tries to dislodge the baby dragon. "We use technology items to capture painting-like images of people and send them using... " Tasha has no idea how to explain her univere's electromagnetic spectrum communication to a small dragon humanoid from a world of magic. "It doesn't matter how. We just send them."
"I will carry them for you!" the Kobold promises, standing straight.
"Right, so, ... " Tasha looks around, then spots the command tower. "This way, lets get some up in the tower." And then she confidently marches that way, knowing the Kobold will follow. The dragon, on the other hand, will do whatever it wants.
For now, the dragon is happy to cling to Tasha's head like a fancy hat. Gabriel and Darksight are still there, looking at complicated holographic.. map? It looks weird, like a loose tangle of yarn that changes depending on the angle you look at it. "You smell good," Gabriel greets, giving Tasha's hangers on a brief glance.
"Had a shower, emitting dragon-waves," Tasha responds in what may well be a non sequitur for Gabriel. "Looking at gravimetric maps to determine the location of Ogdru'hem? The Maelstrom?" She peers at the map, and tries not to nod. As for the hanger she points to them each in turn and repeats, "Dragon waves."
"It's the hyperspace route to the Primus system," Gabriel says. "We can't look at it as is because it's in a higher dimension so we have to look at slices of it." Darksight nods, and says, "Visualizing hyperspace conduits is rare skill. Eeee are better at it, possibly due to our use of sonar as well as sight."
"I do have some experience visualizing strange spaces and wielding abilities from other places and realities, but alas this isn't one of them." Tasha then hands her tablet to the Kobold after a brief and very simplified explanation of how to take pictures. "There. As for what I'm doing, I'm here to take pictures! Of both of you. For Abaddon!" She says the last like it's some war cry or national salute.
"Oh, well, come get in the picture then if you aren't taking it," Gabriel says, holding out an arm.
"On my way!" Tasha flounces over to Gabriel and tucks in to his arm. "Try and look dark and mysterious, Darksight. Really a cypher. I know it's hard, but all the Eeee back home will love it."
It's probably hard to look dark and mysterious when the woman next to you had a tiny dragon on her head, but he does manage to look... haunted. The Kobold holds up the tablet, and the built-in AI handles framing and taking the picture when everyone's face is looking forward. "It got you!" the Kobold announces, and turns the tablet to show everyone the photo.
"Excellent job, uhhh... " Tasha squints at the Kobold, trying again not to tilt her head to look down Kobolds are short, even compared to her. "Do you have a name?"
"Bitsy," the Kobold says. "Babbling Bitsy. I'm Torbek's sister." Whoever Torbek is..
"Hi, Bitsy." Tasha had no idea Kobolds had sister. She learns something every day. "Well Bitsy, we have more photos to take, so off we go again. Anyone object?" Tasha looks up to Gabriel. "Want to talk later?"
"Be a shutterbug, this will take a while to sort out," Gabriel says, gesturing to the hologram.
"Have fun with your higher dimensions! I'm just glad it's not me dealing with it this time. Have you ever tried to fight an Angel? It's awful." Tasha waves the Kobold towards the door, leans up and gives Gabriel a kiss, then leans over and tries to give Darkshine a kiss on the side of his muzzle.
The Eeee blinks, especially when the little dragon kisses him too.
Then Tasha heads towards the exit, grinning. Darksight's had a hard time, the least she can do is brighten his day a little. She hopes Gabriel doesn't take it the wrong way as they head out of Command.
Once outside, Tasha runs into Katie, Vasha, Sasha and Sharon. She can also spot the Phins hovering near the dropship. "So, taking pictures?" Katie asks. "Are we making a calendar?"
"We're sending them back to Abaddon! Mariel, Fred, Eli and Zerachiel all want something, and so do many others. So I'm doing just that: grabbing images and what-not." Tasha gestures to her 'exciting' outfit. "Have to show them I've moved up in the world. They also want the ships, medical measurements, and so on."
"Should probably get the ships then before calling in the dragons," Katie suggests. She's got her overalls on, complete with grease stains. Sharon has her Sorceress costume on, Vasha her armor, and Sasha is wearing.. swimming trunks.
"Remiel will want all of our health data, then," Sharon notes.
Tasha isn't going to argue with any of this; after all, she asked people to come as they feel best represents themselves, and that's for them to decide, she decides. "Yes, Remy wants all our health data. You may also be excited to know they've been continuing their tests in to topogoric, and they seem to have borne tasty flying shiny crystal fruit."
"As in.. space ships?" Katie asks, eyes glittering. "I thought we were supposed to dress up like Fred would want," Sasha says.
"I got picture!" Bitsy announces. Apparently she took a picture of all them just standing there together.
"Mechs," Tasha corrects, grinning. "They had a Titan floating right in the images. "And dress however you like! This is about you representing yourself back to Abaddon, to our friends and family, to our allies. We have nothing to be ashamed of and everything that's interesting." Tasha spreads her arms. "Just look around!" The closest arm drops and Tasha pats the Kobold. "Dragons, baby dragons, small dragon-assistant dragons!"
"Whisper will probably come with the dragons," Sharon says, and looks around. "So ships.. do we pose next to them?"
"I pose next to gun turrets!" Vasha declares.
"Probably the base in general too," Sasha suggests.
"Dark Horse with and without her disguise," Katie adds.
"Might as well. Vasha has gun turrets, Sasha has the dropship, Katie want to get your motorcycle? I'm... " Tasha pauses. "I guess I'll stand where Melchior would have stood. It's not right to exclude him because he's... Busy." Tasha then nods to Katherine. "Of course, good idea. Maybe Whisper in front of her castle? Maybe some action shots, I think Remy wants to see what I can do, anyway, even if I'm partly offline for the time being. I'm going to bring out a holoprojector so I can have a shot of Galatea beside her own ship, too, with the small dragon in my hands, and Pheeny too."
"You'll need to handle the wide shots and aerial ones," Katie says. She grins at the mention of her motorcycle. "I'll be right back!" Then she's jogging back into the base.
"This will be a lot, but some of it can be sent on a data chip with the other stuff," Sasha says. "So video tours of the Dark Horse and base should be possible."
Tasha watches Katherine go for a rather obvious amount of time. When she sees people looking back at her, she stands straighter and grins. "Well, lets get everyone in front of their chosen mechanism, get those done, then we'll move to the ships that are on the tarmac, the base, then the walkthroughs; the castle, dragons, and Whisper; then finally I'll get the Astraea properly with Pheeny. That will take most of the day, so med checks in the evening after eating, and whatever pops up after sundown."
Once Katie returns she's eager to offer advice on how to pose with machinery, something she's done often enough. She really tries to direct Tasha and Sharon the most though, with poses that are definitely going to have to be private. It wouldn't do for the Knights Templar at the Winged Citadel to see them. Although you can't get too risque with a miniature dragon always on shoulders and heads. Tasha does need to take over photographer duty to handle the wider shots needed to get the actual spaceships though.
Once in the air photography is easy enough, although Tasha has to rely on autocorrect and stabilizers to ensure a static, non-blurry shot, what with her ansible-related abilities presently offline. She also enlisted Vasha to fly around and see if any particular aerial locations provide for interesting pictures while she went about the actual photography.
The two land about an hour later, having covered the base, the ships, and the people from the air. There's a few airborne shots out across the valley as well, beautiful expansive landscapes with every major structure, the ships, and even people down below, out across the lake, past the Dark Horse, and to the distant mountains.
The flying around does get the attention of the dragons, but they don't fly up to investigate just yet. They'll be there for the castle close-ups though. Kaa and Moka also try to pose, once they've shepherded the Jotoki into position to be photographed as well, on the pier where Dark Horse is moored. The ship will probably need to be brought up into the air to get a full, proper shot of it.
Half way done, it's tour time. Tasha waits on the dock for everyone who wants to be part of the tour, sending out messages to meet should people be interested, Gabriel in particular. "So, how's life in Jotoki Town? Phinberg doing okay?"
"They've been making things out of wood," Moka says. "I don't know what they're supposed to be, but they are finely carved. Nibbled, actually. They might be tools."
"I see they've gotten in to the high value cultural artifact trade. Wood's a pricey item," Tasha remarks, nodding. "Maybe we should pick a area to have a museum or something? Inert artifacts, artwork, sculptures."
"Why just inert?" Kaa asks, poking Tasha from behind with his beak. "You want me to fly the ship around?"
"Can't have the kids walking in and getting teleported to the bad cooking dimension or something," Tasha explains. "We can put the active ones in the exciting gallery upstairs. Then there can be the VIP gallery, and the super-extra-secret scary gallery." Tasha rubs where she's poked. "And sure, while we're waiting for people to show up for the tour."
"I'll go get her warmed up, until they g-g-get here," Kaa says, and 'swims' through the airlock. A humming sound announces the arrival of Gabriel and Vasha in one of the utility carts. Gabriel is wearing his captain's uniform. Vasha has left her armor and sword behind for this, and is.. naked.
"I see you're both in your official uniforms," Tasha remarks, nodding in approval. She doesn't bat an eyelash at Vasha's choice, instead grinning at Gabriel. "I can change in to my uniform, too, for the Bridge shots."
"It should be in your room," Gabriel says, getting out of the cart. Vasha hops out as well, declaring, "With no Melchior, we just gots the Grunt suit." She points her thumb at the center of her chest, saying, "And that my mech. May not move much yet, but I can wear it!"
"Yah yah you big mech driver," Tasha tells Vasha in her best impression of Vasha's own voice, which is technically her voice, so she's essentially parroting herself, except it's her other self. "Alright everyone in, we can get in before Kaa takes off and then I'll pop out for aerials."
The extremely skeleton crew gets aboard, with Gabriel heading towards the bridge. Bitsy sticks to Tasha. "Ooooo," the Kobold goes at just about everything. "Fancy airship!"
"So fancy," Tasha agrees with her (?) new Kobold follower. "Made by some of the smartest giant space hunters the galaxy's ever seen." She walks and the Kobold followers her to the Owner's Deck, then across the living space, in to her quarters. "Hold these." She hands over her equipment, then starts undressing, so she can change in to her uniform. It's been quite a while since she wore it, making the outfit feel almost nostalgic.
"You gotta nice butt, even if your tail is a bit skinny," Bitsy notes. "Not sure what kinda dragon you are."
"Thanks." Tasha didn't know Kobolds checked out their dragons; does this happen to Gwyndrael, too? "I'm a Tasha-dragon. I'm also a dragon-slayer, so I eat other dragons, sometimes." She slips in to her uniform, checks herself in the mirror, does her hair, and nods. "My tail may be skinny but it does stuff, like this:" And so she hands her brush to her tail, which holds it dutifully.
"Ah, so skinny tails are for grabbing, not balance," Bitsy claims, nodding her horned head.
The uniform does make Tasha look a bit smarter. Even though it had to be tailored a bit after her rebirth.
Tasha decides that is close enough, pats the Kobold, and then heads on out. In short order she's on the Bridge, looking to see if anyone's gotten there first. "This ship can not only fly in the sky, but through space and some other dimensions." She checks herself out in a monitor reflection as well, grinning. She may look smarter, and may actually be smarter, but she still thinks it's funny. Whatever she wears, she's still herself, even if sometimes she's several other people and their fashion choices.
Gabriel is sitting at his station, even though Kaa will do the flying. "Don't get used to being followed around by paparazzi," the big wolf says. "It'll give you a big head."
"I ate a dragon's heart, it's already too late." Tasha pats her new Kobold... assistant? Follower? "Kobolds come with being a dragon." She walks over and drops in to her own chair, leaning back, hands behind her head. "And it makes up for my skinny tail."
"You could get a prosthetic tail to wear over it if you have dragon-tail envy," Gabriel jokes. "Alright Mr. Kaa, bring us to station keeping above the lake."
"I'll just eat a dragon with a bigger tail than mine. There's nothing eating can't solve." Tasha stays where she's at, after all they hardly need navigation to got 'slightly up'. She does pat her seat though, so the Kobold can sit down next to her. "Did you see Mariel? She's come a long way."
"It's odd seeing her so young," Gabriel says. "She was already the youngest member of the crew. But she's still got her smarts, according that Achievement Award in Mathematics."
Once Bitsy is seated, the ship lifts up, the view showing water dripping down and the pier and lake below. Then Kaa takes them out towards the center of the lake as Dark Horse gains altitude. They stop at about a hundred meters above the water.
"And how. I don't want to even talk about my own scores in mathmatics. I'm glad she's found something that motivates her, and a place to be. It seems like setting up with the Knights and making connections there was the right choice long-term." She then moves her chair, lifting and turning it so Gabriel's behind her, where she takes several selfies showing the bridge, Gabriel and his uniform, and Bitsy.
Kaa makes noises from his pilot tank. He probably wants to be in a picture too.
"Oh sorry Kaa, sometimes I forget you're down there in the drink." Tasha hops off her chair and walks over, puts her back to the rail, then leans backward to get another selfie straight down to Kaa. She rolls over and gets a few more shots as well, just in case he's about to ask for solos.
The Phin mugs for the camera. But then, all Phin faces look like that.
Gabriel stands up, and asks, "We doing the full tour, or just what's safe to show?"
Tasha labels one 'weird fish I dunno' and then heads to Gabriel. "Full tour, can't make them feel like we're skimping out. Come on, Bitsy, it's tour time."
First stop is the tactical station behind the bridge, which is still showing a star chart that Tia was looking into.
"I hope Galatea will be able to get back to this, soon. I know she's eccentric, and can be difficult to work with for a variety of reasons, but I find I miss her when she's not here. Like something's missing. It's sad to see her work left undone," Tasha comments on the starchart as she takes pictures.
"What was she working on?" Gabriel asks. "I never had much interaction with her. She seems sad when she's around me."
"I'm not sure why she would be, maybe you remind her of someone?" Tasha scratches her chin, hand on hip, device at her side. "She was working on a map of some sort, I think it was the connection between real space and Sinai-space. It felt like her own interest and hobby, so I stayed out of it. We work together a lot as it is, so I figured it would be better if she had things the can do without me being around and in her head."
"She's odd," is all Gabriel says on the matter. "On to the wardroom.. which I don't think we've ever used?"
"Maybe we should just convert it, it'd be more work space for you. We can convert your room to guest or secret-secret communications bay." Tasha peeks inside; it is as clean as she remembers, when she remembers it exists at all. "I suppose I could take it, too. Modify the upper decks for a more functional and less recreational use." She grabs a few shots, caption: "We never use this."
There's the barracks, which haven't been used since the expedition to the Galactic halo. Personal quarters for Katie, Hakeber and Yue, the Galley and the med-bay: the one place on the ship that's set up with modern Galactic technology.
"I all suited up!" Vasha declares over the intercom.
"We better head to the hangar or Vasha's going to be like, "hey why you take so long come get my big shot I bored squawk squawk squawk squawk,"" Tasha tells Gabriel, 'accidentally' leaving the voice channel open, then making a 'shh' finger over muzzle as she waits for the fireworks.
Of course, as they make their way through the connecting corridor, "Squawk squawk squawk" plays over the intercom the whole time. The hangar looks a bit empty without the Vartan shuttle, which Shojo and Lacci have back on Caltrop (as it turns out Lacci knows how to fly them). The 'vintage' Terran shuttle sits to one side, and the Grunt suit is in the machine bay, surrounded by tools and with a Vartan head poking out of it. The arms go into a flexing position, and Vasha says, "I want Mom to see this!"
"Mom's never going to let you go if she knows there's a Vartan version of us hanging around!" Tasha, of course, snaps a large number of pictures anyway. "Anything else you want Red Bird?"
"Hehehe.." Vasha goes, with a wicked glint in her eye, then shakes her head. "Nope! No lewd photos for a certain Sergeant. But.. would be funny to pose naked with Kai, yeah? Y'know, to send to Age and Treachery?"
"Young Age and Ancient Treachery?" Tasha rubs her chin, then starts nodding slowly. "It could work... Get Kai and I'll arrange it later. All done up there? Want anything else?"
"We should get the shuttle," Gabriel says. "It's small enough that you could lie on top of it saucily."
Bitsy gets handed the camera unit. "Mission accepted. Vasha, want to come by saucy with me?" She hands Gabriel her jacket, then starts on over, waiting by the machine to see if Vasha will come down -- and she fully expects she will.
It takes a moment for the Vartan to get out of the Grunt suit, then she hop-walks over and leans against the side of the craft, curling one wing over herself. She'll let Tasha lie on top of it.
"I wonder if Fred is into Vartans?" Vasha asks, worried she'll be left out of his fantasies.
"Don't worry, I feel like Fred's in to a lot of things." Tasha hops on the shuttle, lays flat, legs folded over her butt, tail up and slinky, head interwoven fingers, elbows on the front, smiling suggestively. The angle shows off her breasts, though they're not as big as they sued to be. "Annnd go."
Gabriel takes the pictures this time. Vasha suggests, "I know, I get Aaron and we recreate that painting! Give it to Eyeshine. Make his eye pop out!"
"Then he'll just be Captain Noeyes, which is even worse than Captain Eyeshine," Tasha says with a laugh. She pushes off and slides off the shuttle, landing and flapping her wings to shake off any dust. "And I think we can do even better now."
"What, all four of us, and no bunnies?" Vasha asks, and stretches.
"You could do a spread with all of the women," Gabriel suggests.
"Including the dragons and all the female Kobolds?" Tasha looks to Bitsy, then plants a elbow on her head, head on that hand, considering. "It could work. I feel like we should charge, it could pay all our operating costs."
"We have operating costs?" Vasha asks. "Who would we sell it to though?"
"There are always operating costs," Gabriel claims. "Even if the biggest one is named Kai."
"Men and some women and probably a lot of others throughout the universe," Tasha says, spreading her arms wide. Then her arms drop and she cocks her head to the side. "Still having moral and operation uncertainties about Kai? Well, certainties? I know she's not exactly had her moral fiber, but she's still useful. Like Samael, she's good at specific things and bad for others. Like all of us, really."
"Samael is at least.. just himself," Gabriel says, one hand going unconsciously to his stomach. "For the most part. I was created by Humans, and Kai is a godlike Human. It disturbs me, moreso than Galatea, who is at least alien and therefore comfortably unknowable."
"She make me too," Vasha says. "Out of nothing and Tasha's.. what?"
"Kai's not really Human. That's just a mask she wears, something she projects. Her actual physical form is more... severe. Unsettling, a bit like a gremlin, or maybe a artistic interpretation of what demons are like. She's not Human at all, she's a homonculus created from a fragment of Kainudy's own existence. So, maybe that helps? Much like Samael, she's part of something greater and only seems like what she appears to be." And so Tasha shrugs in that unknowing way. "Galatea's a lot more like me than she appears. Originally, a door greeter. Then her world went to shit, and she was all that remained. Ended up a life boat full of power, a lone wanderer in an infinite multiverse."
"You were never a greeter," Gabriel says. "And I've only ever seen Kai in Human form, so it still effects me. Maybe it's just her.. smugness? Always looking like she's amused by everything around her. Tia at least is shy and awkward."
"I was a drover and a barmaid, so not far off. And I was a herald a bit after that; she was the door greeter to a temple of actual gods." Tasha tilts her head at the review of Kai, nodding, but hesitantly. "I believe she is amused. Everything's amusing for her, unless it's boring. I've been around morality enough to realize something, that when you don't have a cause and maybe don't believe in much, amusement's often what you have. Adventure. Excitement. Kai's just filling her personal emptiness in Her own way. Even a soulless immortal has things to drive her, things she fears. Her own way forward. Galatea's the same way, but her motivators are different and much, much more complicated."
"When we start hanging out with complicated people, anyway?" Vasha wonders. "Was it Calligenia that did it?"
"I find Amazonians very uncomplicated," Gabriel says. He pats Bitsy on the head too, adding, "And Kobolds."
"One time my brother Torbek ate a bag of scorpions because he though it was full of candy," Bitsy claims.
Tasha tries very hard to maintain a straight face at Bitsy's dire travails. "A-hem, well, comes with the territory I guess, when you reach for higher, things often seem to get complicated. But, not always. Power and reach and influence aren't always one-one with complication." Tasha also pats Bitsy's head. "Calligenia... There's a name from the past. I wonder how she's doing?"
"According to Aaron, she's pregnant and in a group marriage with Layth and Aisha," Gabriel says.
"Good for them," Tasha says, nodding again. She fishes out a cigarette, pauses, remembers she's on a ship, and then puts it away again. "It's nice to see old worries resolve themselves in to something better. Calligenai and Layth. Mariel, Fred, Remy and Eli. And here, too."
"The baby is supposedly Fallen Star, not sure how that works though," Gabriel says. "And Fred is the last of us still to transition over to flesh and blood again."
"Interesting name, sounds like one with a history. A complicated history." Tasha taps her nose; she can smell it. "Fred always was the type to put others before himself, and he doesn't like things undone. Besides, he needs to train the newcomers in how to use the tech, or they'll break everything and I'll have to come in and kick people around." Tasha's lopsided grin suggests she's not totally serious.
"I don't know if any of the Templars have been trained on the operation of Bellerophon," Gabriel admits. "I assume so though."
"I know some of our people are, and have to be," Tasha mentions. She walks around in a slow circle, taking everything in. "Ahh, not too much longer until we head out again."
"Gonna take pictures up there?" Bitsy asks, pointing to the upper level windows that look out into the hangar. She has not idea what anyone is talking about, after all.
"Oh we were just there, Bitsy, I'm not sure anyone wants to see the conference room and our personal quarters. Think they would?" Tasha turns to Gabriel for confirmation.
"They're fancier than what's on Belle, and there are the Niss up there too," Gabriel says.
"Ahh, our favorite spherical civilization." Tasha cocks her head that way. "I'll just be a moment, then." And so she heads for the aft elevator.
Bitsy waits with the others so Tasha can head up by herself.
It's a short ride, but Tasha stops mid way. She walks out on to the core catwalk, looking out at the crystal that contains the entity that powers the ship. She wonders, for a moment, if she should take a picture of it. Maybe it will be important to someone, and Fred would complain if he missed something this exotic. But it's dangerous, it's tainted, it's more than a shiny crystal container. There are things written between its lines, dark and terrible things.
She eyes it for a long moment.
Inside is the dragonfly shape of Tatha-hem. Which may not even show up in a photograph.
Tasha doesn't stop by often. She feels she ought to say hello, Galatea and Kai did go through the effort of getting her a way in. And so, Tasha steps forward, places her hand on the artifact, and aligns herself for entry.
The blue marker appears in Tasha's hand, and then she's in the arched 'gazebo' where Tatha-hem floats above, and the archways show blurry multicolored haze.
"Hi, Tatha-hem," Tasha greets the vaguely humanoid being in seeming hyperposition. Her voice is a little tired, like she just came home from work. Talking about Galatea makes her a bit tired, and Tatha-hem is another entity who has shared her road, perhaps to be ended by it -- her choice this time.
It's difficult to tell if the Ogdru-hem is reacting to her presence or not. It always seems to have hazy afterimages extending away from it.
Tasha's only spoken to Tatha-hem a few times, and the conversations were brief, but memorable. Just enough to suggest a truth, just enough to get a little closer. Yet, like Tatha-hem herself, the questions always seemed to stretch on in to infinity. "How's eternity?"
There's a response, of sorts. Tasha gets an impression of the color blue. At least it isn't fish tacos.
Tasha wonders at that. Why are all of Tatha-hem's answers so personal? She likes fish tacos; Tatha-hem likes fish tacos. The color blue is what she thinks of when she thinks of eternity, though that's true of Persephone, and perhaps many others, too. The color of eternity. "Do you like when I visit? In person, I mean. Right here, within the Bridle."
This time it's something like a snippet of music, but very dense music.
Tasha tries hard to unpack the music. A piece of time; musics pieces are sounds arranged to some artistic and auditory aesthetic, a form of art, beautiful, terrible, and many other things besides; the condensed nature may be something like a short span of her vast, omnitemporal existence. Yet music is subjective as well as objective, so she isn't sure what Tatha-hem thinks of this musical moment.
After considering this all, Tasha tries a new way to communicate. She thinks at Tatha-hem, trying to match her form of communication.
Sunset, leaning on a rail, looking down upon a city. A smile.
The reply this time is.. dizziness? Tasha's eyes feel like they're trying to turn inside out, which is worse.
Tasha bites her lip and pushes through. This hasn't happened before, which means that maybe it's working. She's tried other attempts and there's been little. Maybe Tatha-hem is trying to see what she sees, if not exactly visually.
And so she tries: A mirror, her own reflection.
This produces.. a reflection of Tasha in one of the arches.
Tasha turns and looks at her own reflection, brows raising -- that's never happened before. She envisions greeting herself: hello to the mirror.
The reflection glows blue, then glows black, but doesn't move.
Tasha considers this, then replies, this time emitting her own common colors: Red, her most common, but the other as Kai showed her, and a rainbow of them, showing she's all the colors, she just leans towards some more than others.
Tasha isn't sure what to make of the black, though, or perhaps it's Black. The spore, perhaps? An immortal entity. Kai never showed her Black, however.
The reflection glows purple, which isn't one of the base flame colors Tasha is aware of. But it cycles between purple, black and yellow - another unknown color. It must be a complimentary color to one of the 'natural' ones though.. maybe.
Tasha wonders if she's looking at the colors of entities beyond, of a form of existence unconnected to her own, even the ones she's expanded in to. Comparing Colors to colors is dangerous, however, as while there may be conceptual connections species and entities can vary widely in how they see the colors. She considers for a long moment. She'll have to experiment, having no foundation in the Colors she's been shown, save perhaps Yellow.
If Yellow is Revelation, that brutal, defense-destroying awareness of greater reality, destroyer of minds, then what would Purple be? Red is Life, Blue is Eternity. Mortal and immortal, growth and stasis, finite and infinite.
What is Purple, then?
Tasha choses a guess and tries this: One eye is Yellow, open, and one eye is Purple, closed, and her rainbow aura collapses its colors in to one, together, between the two, her fur is black, and in her hands there is nothing, and she tries to manifest Nothing as a Color despite never having experienced it, yet perhaps knowing its opposite, just as she knows Yellow and so can guess as Purple. Revelation, Obfuscation. All and Nothing.
The response is slower this time, but the reflection moves. It starts eating a taco while maintaining eye contact, but its eyes are green now instead of golden-brown. It eats slowly.
Green. Tasha reflects: Has she seen green before? Green is the opposite of... Was she wrong? Red isn't the opposite of Blue, it's the opposite of Green. Orange is the opposite of Blue. Orange is the color of the flame-like existence of the Vril-ya, and of Vril itself. Incompatible with most life. They Are what they Know. The power of the Cosmos. The Cosmos is All; Life is One, she reasons.
The Green, the opposite of Life, is it... Death? Stagnation?
Tasha envisions her eyes are Red, and in her hand is a taco, but she doesn't eat it, and it is decayed, inedible, crumbling. She meets her opposite's gaze.
The reflection changes to Galatea. "Green is pleasure," the image explains. "Because eating tacos is pleasurable, as Tatha-hem understands it. The tacos are a metaphor, though. Everything is a metaphor to Tatha-hem."
Tasha wonders for a moment if she's hallucinating; is Tatha-hem talking to her, or Galatea? Does that mean Galatea is aware, now? Is this just more symbolism? Yet if it is, it's awfully wordy. If Galatea's taking the time to talk to her, or even if she isn't then maybe it's important and she should focus on that.
And so Tasha does exactly that. Blue and Black, then.
Tasha envisions a black marble floating in an infinite sea, where all the sea reflects in the polished surface of the marble, and the marble is helf aloft by the sea. The sky, Blue, likewise reflects in its surface, with the marble between both worlds.
"Yes," the figure replies.
"I understand," Tasha replies, and now she's looking at the marble and the sea and the sky, floating above and between it all, reflecting only a little bit. The scene changes to the marble, in a box, on a cushion, reflecting all as it always has, and Tasha leaning in to give it a little polish, a little care. To turn it just a bit, seeing herself in its surface.
The reflection changes to a black ball, reflecting Tasha.
And so Tasha smiles in her reflection, breaking apart in to fire the lights with Red and Green -- and she tries to glow with Black, to show her understanding.
Black is the color of death. The reflection vanishes altogether.
Tasha blinks. Did she just make a terrible mistake? She was so close. But if the marble is Death, then is Tatha-hem a death that reflects the universe?
An uncomfortable realization begins to sink in to Tasha, as to the nature of the Ogdru-hem. Perhaps Death is the closest nature of the Ogdoad in this world, why universes consumed by them vanish entirely. A force of finality, itself without life nor death, but merely existence.
Tasha presses onward. She shows is again at the marble in the box, but there's a smudge in the shape of her finger, which she polishes off. She sees her reflection in the marble. She tries again, her aura collapsing in to Red and Green, and then just Red, which pushes away the aura of Black, replacing it with Green, and Yellow -- for what is this understanding if not difficult to endure? Yet, she continues onward, aware of it -- and Purple gives way to the new colors she'd been exposed to, and then she's a of every Color she knows now, including the new ones, but mostly Red, and then to Orange, and then to Green. She polishes the marble, eyes Green, reflecting the black orb.
Something actually manifests in front of Tasha. It's a floating taco, but glowing. It isn't clear what's filling it as a result.
What else can you do with a taco, Tasha decides, but eat it? She's come this far, and she's not one to back down from things. But there's something more than bravado, an earnest desire to know and connect. She's been offered a taco -- a symbolic taco -- the devouring of which is pleasure, she surmises. What measure she doens't know -- but she's about to find out.
And so Tasha reaches out and envisions herself eating the strange, glowing taco.
There's a brief moment of understanding the Maelstrom.. but then Tasha gets literally knocked onto her butt as she experiences sensory overload.
There's not much Tasha can do but endure the overload; she eat the symbolic taco, and now she's got heartburn -- or brainburn as comes to her between the storm of sensations.
The taco has vanished, along with any other image.
Tasha blinks, then rubs her eyes, pulling herself unsteadily to her feet. She takes a moment to check herself -- always important when she absorbs some supernatural entity, memory, object, idea, color-based-universal-concept, and so on. She reflects on what she just learned, trying to make sense of the fragments that linger, knowing the whole is beyond her as she is.
Tatha-hem's 'body' hovers overhead, and the view of the Maelstrom through the arches is relatively calm, in a frothy sort of way. There aren't any monsters out there that Tasha can see.
Tasha shakes her head out, really shakes herself out, then smooths herself down and rubs her head. Then she looks, really looks, around. Nothing, or at least nothing out of the ordinary -- if this place could ever be considered ordinary. That leaves her to consider the arch where she'd see herself, and then Galatea.
But Tasha has done this for a while, now, and she knows she wasn't likely speaking to herself, nor to Galatea, who remains in recovery, prognosis unknown. And Tatha-hem had never spoken from an arch before.
Tasha peers out in to the frothy mist that is the Maelstrom, and she remembers things. Things like Galatea having spoken to the Maelstrom; that Tatha-hem also speaks to it. And that taco ... That taco was filled with all the understanding of the Maelstrom, she was just too small to contain it. Memories linger, and she knows more now.
So, that's what it was, she decides. Tatha-hem, then Galatea, now her, speaking the the faces she knows. Perhaps in the way of beings she knows. Sharing a part of itself because she chose to share her appreciation for it.
The red woman considers that for a while.
Something lands on Tasha's head while she ponders. It's got little claws, and a tail.. so is likely a small dragon.
Yes, it must be a small dragon. She goes with it; it is a fact of her life small dragons are drawn to her head, and her heart is drawn to them in turn. She looks up, wondering if it's the same small dragon or some other. Perhaps it, too, will have a conversation about the nature of the ineffable with her.
Yes, it is the new 'remote' for Galatea that Kai made. And just as small dragons are attracted to Tasha, they are also attracted to her underwear drawer, as something from it is somehow tangled up around this ones head.
Tasha stares at this. Could it be some metaphor? Some cosmic message? After all, she can interbreed with anything, perhaps even the cosmic, and her connection to dragons is now a certainty. She shifts her weight to one leg, arms folded, one up, head tilted, finger tapping the side of her head in thought. Yes, in this intersection atop the frothing underbelly of reality, beside a being who reflects all there is in its atemporal gloss, she must then be the living temporal, reflecting that which lives, and could live. The dragon points out a perfect dichotomy between Tatha-hem, like opposites, shadows of each other in so many ways.
"Ta!" the dragonet says.. or burps. "Ta Ta Ta!"
Tasha reaches up and tries to reach the dragon's head. "Tasha, that's right." She doesn't ask how the dragon got in here; it is, after all, a dragon created by Kai and The Phoenix, made for Galatea. She'd say it might as well be magic, but it's already magic, so she'd have to come up with something it might as well be beyond that and that's a philosophical existential question she's not ready to handle right now. "Come on then, give me that back ... And lets get out of here."
It seems easy to untangle the undergarments, at least for Tasha and not for little dragon paws. This results in chirps and chirrs from the dragon.
Tasha considers that indication of a job well done. She then turns to Tatha-hem and rather than speak, thinks: A light note, a green dragon in the forest, a leaf passes by concealing all, and a return to silence, the dragon gone.
As for the Maelstrom: A marble of blood red swirled in all the colors she's learned, reflects the larger black sphere, and it's sky, and it's infinite ocean, and it shines with a green light.
What Tasha gets in reply is an image of a forest. All of the trees are ivory-white, and their leaves are gold. The move and whisper without any wind, and there is no underbrush. Shadows move deeper inside.. but this gets cut off when the dragon bites Tasha's ear.
"Ow," goes Tasha out loud, and loudly out, rubbing her ear. "I was trying to understand metaphorical communication from a transcendant being, you know. Fine, fine, lets get you out of here." The red marble reflects the forest, and is rolled away by a dragon's snout, out of view. Tasha exits.
"No forest!" the mini dragon complains on the way out.
Well this is new. "Why no forest?" Tasha isn't sure what to expect as she walks off the gantry in the elevator, a short walk indeed. She has to stop inside to remember what she was doing before she came here. Pictures? Pictures.
The dragon seems to go into a panic, running and climbing all over Tasha. "Forest, Forest... Forest!" it cries.
"Very descriptive," Tasha the living race track remarks as the elevator rises. Well, she wasn't expecting much, but maybe the dragon sees something dangerous in that pale forest and its golden trees and shadows; and it looked so inviting, too.
The elevator arrives and she hops quickly in to the aft rooms to get shots. The conference room is labeled as 'The Conference Room of Mystery'. Her office is also labeled, "Yes I Have An Office I Even Do Work In It".
The dragon stops running around, but still cries. With tears and everything!
"It's okaaay, it's oookaaay," Tasha tells the dragon, nit exactly sure what it is and why it's okay, but everyone likes hearing empty platitudes about things being fine, right? She knows she does. "The forest can't get you here... I don't think. We're in the ship. We're taking pictures. We're going to see the others soon."
Tasha does become a little worried, however; how bad was that forest, and what did it mean? The white and gold made her think of Galatea and Kainudy's creator, they also made her think of knowledge for some reason. She wonders if it might be some ghost of a recovering Galatea's memories, or some threat she isn't yet capable of understanding.
The dragon sniffles, and calms down eventually, even if there are occasional twitches. The door to Tasha's room is open a bit, naturally, since the dragon must of gotten in and out.
Tasha relocates the dragon to her arms, where she can hug on to it and provide physical comfort where verbal comfort and true understanding might fail her. She can, at least, be warm and close. It's then onward to her room, and it feels like a while since he's been here,e even if it hasn't been that long. She steps inside and prepares herself for a mess -- one she'll deal with later.
In a bit of deja vu, all of the contents of Tasha's drawers are strewn across the bed and floor.
Tasha has a brief moment of panic where she worries she's traveled through time. This, for most any other mortal, would be complete nonsensical paranoia, but not for Tasha, and she realizes that a second after she feels it. Just to be sure, though, she checks the time and date on the ship clock before taking a picture and adding, "A dragon did it" and then awkward super close up of the little dragon's face, which is a little blurry, that says, "This dragon" with a big cartoony pointing finger icon aimed at it added in post.
The dragon tries to lick the tablet after Tasha takes the picture. At least nothing looks chewed on.
Tasha also takes a picture of the tablet as it's licked, so now there's one more of a very out of focus dragon tongue and a hyper deformed-by-lens proximity dragon head. She then also takes a picture of herself shrugging with a dragon in her hands titled "Dragon Mom".
Tasha will definitely deal with all of this later. She knows if she does it now it will be immediately undone along the way, and heads for the Artifact Bay and the Niss instead. The Niss can sort and fold themselves.
The Niss and the ancient Library unit are still in the Artifact Bay. It's not clear if the Niss could move, but they do essentially control Dark Horse so could move that.
Tasha is pretty sure the Niss can float -- or even just will themselves elsewhere in a singularity collapse of utter focus. The Library, on the other hand, gives her the creeps. They still need to deal with it, but it feels like a, appropriately enough, a forest with brambles. "Hi Niss," goes Tasha, "I'm taking pictures for back home. Do you want me to avoid taking a picture of you? Sorry if the dragon tries to chew on your civilization."
"We will not be harmed by a photograph," the Niss reply through the intercom.
Tasha wonders if they'll be harmed by tiny dragon teeth and moderately gooey dragon slobber, but she assumes the Niss are far more ready for things than she is. It is, she has learned, highly arrogant to presume she knows better than the Niss for most things. Though, not all, which surprises her every time she realizes it again. "Well then."
Click. The Niss. Caption, "I bet you didn't think I could capture an entire ancient civilization in one picture, did you? Beat that. NORA"
Click. The Library unit. "It's just a previous Galactic civilization Library unit filled with universal insights in to everything from engineering to the supernatural, product of five galaxies of sentient knowledge; creepy, isn;t it? YES IT IS WOOD"
Tasha's 'danger' box of random goodies is next, which is a two foot by two foot black box with a coded, hermetic seal, with both its readout and a sticker saying, "DANGER". She notes, "I keep dangerous finds in here, things I can't leave lying around. It has a pair of glasses with the reflection of a real angel in them! They'll burn out your eyes and drive you mad. NEAT"
And then she's done. Many of the artifacts they have are with them, after all, or for Tasha in her.
The dragon is well behaved during this, but the Niss ask, "Why was it crying?"
Tasha, who had been editing images, looks up, then turns to the Niss. "Something about for-errr... " Not wanting to upset the little dragon again, Tasha walks over and rests her hand on the Niss, to communicate directly. "/Something about forests. I was within Bridge and managed to communicate with both Tatha-hem and, I believe, the Maelstrom itself." Tasha shares her symbolic experience, the back and forth and understanding of Colors the Niss may be unable to comprehend otherwise. "/This last one, here, the forest of pale trees. The little dragon bit me at this point, here, and then started wailing about 'forests'./"
"It is connected to Galatea," the Niss note. "We have seen it in her memories, associated with loss and trauma."
"I think I remember a world made of trees... Or one that had trees. White trees. The world she came from. Does that match with what you've seen?" This worries Tasha; if Tatha-hem showed her that place, then it's unlikely they did so without reason. A helpful hint, at best, a warning at worst -- and having Kainudy's literal demons come to them would be bad indeed.
"It seems likely," the Niss replies. "Tatha-hem is inscrutable. Has Galatea recovered from the explosion?"
"We're not sure, but she appears to be regenerating. This little dragon was created to facilitate her recovery by providing a familiar body to control." A pause, then, "It concerns me Tatha-hem would chose to share that memory in particular. She communicates symbolically, so the image is unlikely to be literal, rather, symbolic of some familiar old danger returning from the shadows, possibly the same danger, or something else. Or, it is Galatea's pain that she's hinting at, maybe a block in her recovery, her near-demise would be traumatic, as it was unexpected and brutal -- it must be shocking for an entity so otherwise resilient to be destroyed so brutally and suddenly despite their best effort. Overwhelming force overwhelming an already overwhelming being. It must seem entirely too familiar."
"Perhaps it is similar to how her progenitor died," the Niss suggest. "We are not qualified to psychoanalyze Galatea."
"I don't know who is, unfortunately. One of us may have to do it, though, if this is a problem. I'll contact Kai, see what she thinks. If it comes to it, I'll head inside there myself and see what I can do. Not being qualified to do all the things I've accomplished is my job description." Tasha sucks in a deep breath, She'll probably need the dragon, and she already has the equipment needed to communicate with Galatea, she'd just need the means to reverse things and connect her mind to the system, entering it directly, rather than the other way around. "Can you help facilitate the reverse connection? I'll need some protection from just being deleted by the system, she has a lot of control over me."
"We are not compatible with the ansible system," the Niss reply, somewhat apologetically. "We would suggest Kai, as she is more likely to be able to act as a buffer."
"Thanks for considering it, at least. I know it would be dangerous to you, too. Galatea is one of the most potent beings here, and few understand her construction -- and even those that do only know it so well. I guess I'm about to become more 'in' than 'out' for that group." Another pause, then, "I should get to it then. Back to work."
After releasing her hand, Tasha touches the intercom, connecting to Gabriel. "Changes of plans, quick summary: I spoke to Tatha-hem and the Maelstrom and I might have just been handed a symbolic warning as to a problem with Galatea's recovery. I'm going to meet with Kai and handle that, now. Picture Duty Command is yours./" And then Gabriel receives a picture of Tasha looking gravely serious, which he's seen many times before, but never in picture form. She labels it, "Problem; Time To Go To Work".
"Nudes on Katie's motorcycle it is," Gabriel replies. "Do you have a safety net before trying to get into that mess?"
"I have Kai, which you are frowning at right now, I can see it in my mind. If you know of an expert in Galatean biomagicotechnology that I don't, please suggest them; I tried the Niss already. The only other one I know is presently a rampaging super dragon, and reaching the Waymakers can be tricky -- especially with my communications offline," Tasha replies.
"Kai's imperative is to keep you alive, but I wouldn't put it past her to really test the limits of that," Gabriel cautions. "I trust her just a little bit more than Samael."
"She is, unfortunately, all we have right now. I could try and reach out to the Waymakers... If I knew how without the ansible communication. Opening the Way was a lot of work and we may not have time for it, unless I try something really desperate like navigating the Maelstrom to find a way in. I think maybe Kai can reach them, so we'll see." Tasha inclines her head to the Niss, respectful without pause, and then heads for the aft elevator, switching to her tablet to speak through. "I do have the little dragon, too. Maybe it, too, can join me 'inside'."
The dragon is chewing on Tasha's hair at the moment.
Tasha does not stop this; sometimes she chew on her hair, too. It does not, however, inspire her as to the dragon's ultimate usefulness in comprehending the greater mysteries of Galatea. "I'm going to head to the Astraea, Kai will join me."
Not much later, Kai does indeed meet Tasha and the dragonet at the boarding ramp for Astraea. "How come you didn't take my picture?" she asks. "Are going to take one of Samael?"
"Emergency, you're on the list though. Here." Tasha lifts her tablet and tries to get a picture of Kai. It's labeled, "This is Kai, she's what happens when your inner demons get put outside," then she lower the device and replies, "Eventually. I was working my way from the base outward, and your location could be anywhere, so I figured you'd show up when you wanted a picture taken. Sam's the same way."
"I'll want a better picture later," Kai demands. "You want to talk to Galatea."
"Yes," Tasha says, though it's not entirely clear if she means yes to both or just the last one. "Tatha-hem or the Maelstrom may have just provided a concern as to her recovery -- or a warning. Something about... " Tasha reaches down and overs the little dragon's ears with a hand, " ... white trees with gold leaves and shadows crawling in between them, when I psycosymbolically projected the equivalent of 'good bye and thanks for the insight taco'."
"Ah, a taco vision," Kai says, nodding. "Lothlorien."
"Well the taco just filled my mind with the raw understanding of what the Maelstrom is, needless to say it all then feel out again because I am a coffee cup and that is a sea worth of information. I'm still working out what's left, but it's interesting. Like, check this out." Tasha's erupts in to her aura, yet unlike Kai's own, which is like her old aura but more cultivated and stronger by magnitudes, Tasha's has... other colors now. Purple. Black. Green. Yellow. "I know what they are now. And yes, Lothlorien. The Niss thinks maybe her progenitor went out the same way Galatea almost did, and even if thy didn't, for someone as strong as Galatea near-instant self destruction must be incredibly disturbing."
"I think anyone would find that disturbing," Kai notes, and looks up the ramp. "Are you sure you want to do this, Tasha?" she then asks, with a bit of concern.
"I found it moderately upsetting," Tasha notes as she walks on to the ship, looking around to see if anything changed. "No, but I'm going to do it anyway, because she risked herself for me, and because it's the right thing to do."The red woman turns around and spreads her hands. "What kind of hypocrite would I be to have given her this great speech about sacrifice and meaning and things worth dying for, then abandon her when she needs me? Because it's difficult? Dangerous? I know I'm not like I was, but I still believe in some things, and you can still count on me."
And so Tasha finds herself in a forest of ivory-white trees with golden leaves. She's on a path, and there's a shadow covering the forest around her. "Don't leave the path," the dragon says.
Tasha is momentarily taken aback by the sudden shift in things; at least her pan-universal, sometimes psycho-invasion adventures are becoming more streamlined. A part of her wonders if that's professionalism. "You got it," Tasha replies to the voice, looking around for its source. "This is really pretty, you know?"
"You don't want to look too closely at anything here, or ever leave the path no matter what you see between the trees," the dragonet voice says. "Also, step a bit to your left so you don't get run over by the spider."
"Yeeep," Tasha says, hopping to her left. Spider traffic wans't something she expect to see on Lothlorien, yet the place always had a mythical quality to it for Tasha, a place-of-yore, where gods and dragons walked, a place anything could happen and often dead. So, spiders aren't beyond reason, or at least her reasoning. "So, don't look at anything too carefully, don't leave the path, don't get run over by spiders."
A giant hairy spider scuttles past, pulling a gypsy-looking wagon driven by a raccoon. Several more follow.
"Nostalgic, yet alien," Tasha remarks in observance of these passing conveyances, as if she were at an art gallery. A moment later, then, "Where to? Follow the spiders, or back the other way?"
"Follow them, they are evacuating," the voice instructs. "There isn't much time left."
"Understood." Tasha picks up the pace and starts jogging after the coach, careful to watch behind her so she doesn't get run over in her rush. "So, this is the end, then. I thought it seemed rather... Dark."
"The Ogdru-hem is above us, trying to break through the wards," Tasha is informed. "The world beyond this forest is in flames."
"I hadn't realized the Ogdru-hem came here. I was told the demons that attacked were of a different sort -- related, but similar." Tasha worries at this revelation; had they been trying to avoid telling her something, is there some mnystery they'd been keeping back? The idea makes her skin crawl and hackles rise. This place is a memory, even if a dangerous one, but what could be is real. Or, so she'd have once told herself, but even time isn't linear, what was can be again, and can likewise never have been. It is all a tangled skein, and with knowledge and power, threads that appeared certain can break -- or be rewoven. For good or ill.
"It is an appropriate term," the voice notes. "They are also called the Black Servitors, the Tormented, and other things." Tasha can see the trees clearing ahead, and a lot of people and wagons. Behind them is an ivory tower that looks like several giant tree trunks entwined together with a bulb at the top, about twenty meters high. The sky above it is on fire.
Tasha frowns at the scene; she knows she can't do anything, but that doesn't make her heart ache any less. She could do little for the slaves on the moon, either, but it still hurts. With time she's learned her limitations, even as she surpasses them, but being reminded of what has to put aside so she can do what she came to do is always hard. Few talk about all the people a hero couldn't save, in the stories. "So... That's it, then. I only saw it from inside, during a battle that was probably half hallucination. Inside, then?" She's still making her way up, not as fast as a drawn carriage, at least not on land.
"The gate will open soon!" a voice calls out of the din of the crowd. There are a lot of winged cat people, along with the wagon people and a mix of others. "The others aren't here yet!" one woman cries out. "I'm.. I'm sorry," Galatea's voice replies. "We can't open the gate and maintain the outer shield."
Tasha arrives at the rear of the crowd, then starts to try and make her way through it, to the front, aware that desperate people can be dangerous. For now she just listens, not wanting to break the flow of things until she understands the situation well enough -- or as well as she can risk without endangering the situation further by waiting.
Mostly people she passes are.. crying, weeping and mourning. Through the flame above she just make out the shape of something like Katha-hem, but it's out beyond the atmosphere, it's arms reaching out as if to embrace the planet. "We are dropping the shield now. Anyone who didn't make it may have been evacuated through the Vague by the wyverns or others." After Galatea makes the statement, the forest outside this little grotto bursts into flames. The trees scream as they burn. But a portal begins to open near the tower, and the people push to get through it.
Tasha pushes to get through, but only so far as Galatea. Seeing the woman doesn't recognize her, she instead tries to lay a hand on her shoulder. "You're doing what you can. Saving some people is better than saving no one, and resenting and regretting things won't change the situation. What is gone is gone, the rest is just staring at an empty painting. You should get going, too, or that will be one less life saved. Come on. Come on."
"Mother's wards will hold," Galatea says, almost like a mantra as the people flow past. The portal keeps changing, as if jumping from destination to destination. "The gate will hold," she says, then turns and walks back towards the tower.
"It will be how it will be," Tasha tells Galatea as she walks with her, and reaches to take her hand. "You, you did what you could, and that's remarkable. Don't ignore the pain, don't put aside your mourning, but don't blame yourself, either. I know, if you could have done it all, you'd have saved everybody. Even now. Even now." And she follows Galatea inside.
The entry is.. well, it looks like a vagina. There's a spiraling ramp inside, but Galatea stops. The ramp goes down into the ground as well. From this dark opening, a glow builds. The timestone floats up, and then into Galataea as if she were made of clay. "Mother has forsaken me," she says. "Nobody is coming to save me."
"That's just guilt talking," Tasha reassures, but she's struck by a realization. What if this had been her? She now has enough to be devastated by its loss, what if she had been here, watching all she knew and loved fall away? Abandoned by Nora, Persephone, Desdi. What if her organization had been out there? Pheeny and Whisper. The dragons. Hakeber? Katie? Gabriel? Her breath catches in her chest and she needs a moment to struggle with it, pulling herself back together and sitting nearby, still holding Galatea's hand.
Tasha changes her platitudes and reassurances -- she tries to find a way it would have kept her together. Because, she admits to herself, she's not sure she could have stayed together. In the face of impossible loss, Tasha has seen herself fall apart. Kainudy's demons. The thing she can never remember, but always remember why. That is broke her. What can she say to someone dealing with this, when she couldn't handle that? Yet she reminds herself these are different things, seeing how you... How you...
She can't remember. Well.
Well.
For Galatea, then.
"Kai, retrieve my Marker, please."
The black marker appears in Tasha's hand. It didn't come out of Galatea, because in this place it hadn't been created yet. Galatea turns and walks back out. The portal has collapsed with the transfer of the power source, and the people left are panicking. Galatea walks past them, and a small portal opens before her. She steps through into another reality, and Tasha goes with her since this world only exists from Galatea's point of view.
Tasha follows with her Marker in hand, waiting for things to stabilize, taking one last look at things left behind and left without salvation.
And then she heads through the gate.
As the portal closes, the wards erected by Kainudy break, and fire rains down. People scream for only a second before they are incinerated. The tower that is Lothrhyn survives just a moment longer. Then the portal closes fully, and Galatea falls to her knees and wails out in anguish using all four voices, and it fractures the ground around her.
Tasha doesn't intervene, nor interfere. What could she do in a moment of so much grief? If Galatea wants to let it out, who is she to stop her? Nor, she thinks, should she. While she doens't think Galatea is like her and might lash out, she doesn't need to worry about that to think she's not up to the task of managing so much grief. She hasn't been quite the ray of heroic joy and inspiration for a while.
So instead Tasha circles around in front of Galatea, sitting crosslegged, expression concerned but otherwise neutral, not judging, not mocking, just there, Marker in hand. And as she waits she understands she might as well face her own misery, the closest thing she has to losing everything. It's time to remember why.
And she crushes the Marker in her hand, absorbing it once more.
Oh.
The memories of the marker are only a fraction of what Tasha originally experienced, the incomplete part that Kainudy removed before Null excised the rest. But it is, quite literally soul crushing. The feeling of eternal pain, on the very edge of complete ego destruction. Hell, in fewer words.
Tasha sucks in a deep, deep breath, back arching, and nearly locking, breathe becoming too short, leaving her on the edge of blackout. To focus she drives her own nails in to her legs, rocking back and forth. Back and forth.
Galatea's wailing may as well be an accompanying score to the misery of the universe, from tragedy to an appropriate answer to all there is, was, and will be.
Will be...
Will be.
Tasha remembers in a flash it wasn't the end, and therein her escape from hell itself. It ended. And ended again. Her ray of hope is clouded, then, by the storm that rolls past, but the thorns and, most of all, by herself. There was something else.
The hell was one part.
As above, so below; as without, so within.
Tasha remembers what really broke her. The knowledge she would have done anything-
--ANYTHING--
to escape that hell.
To escape that hell.
She escaped that hell.
And now it's back, again.
A voice breaks through, but not exactly a ray of light. "You weren't supposed to do that," Kai chides. "You can't take it away from Galatea like this. Now I have to take it back again." At least there's something in the black heat, something like a hand reaching for Tasha.
But Tasha reaches out to grab the hand, stopping it, digging in to it.
"NO."
And Kai can feel Tasha reject her, pushing her away. "No, no, NO! It's mine -- MINE!" And with a tremendous shudder, claws digging in the air around her, teeth gritted, Tasha lets her draconic aura loose, all her aura loose, exploding in a kaleidescope of color, manifesting her Yellow swords, which spin around her without target, until they...
Turn inward.
Tasha is more than these memories, and she is more than that day and that pain. Hell came to an end, and returned again. She has fought everything, won and lost. She has been everywhere and nowhere. Dead and alive. Dead and alive. Hero.
And demon.
Savior.
Destroyer.
She'd have saved Lothlorian.
She'd have burned it to cinders, herself.
Everything matters and,
... nothing does.
Nora tried so hard; she died mad in her suit, alone.
And will alive again.
Mariel died in dreaming misery.
And will alive again.
And she died, trying to be a hero.
Trying to die.
And in death, being a hero again.
And on and on and on and ON ND ON AND ON AND ON AND--
...
She's seen this, somewhere.
As Tasha's mind turns to a red haze of was and no mores and hate and love and hell and heavens and the part that's still together fights the part that's crumbling apart--
Tasha remembers... She rememebrs a black sphere, reflecting the sky and the sea.
"Yes," she told herself.
"Yes," she tells herself, once again.
Everything changes.
What's gone may yet come again, and what is may fade away. Today's hero may be tomorrow's villain, and to everything a day. Or not. Or never was. Or always was.
That, too, all comes together.
And for a moment she can just see it all. She can see it all.
"Your body can't take the stress for much longer," she hears Kai say from beyond the edge of Tasha's universe. Outside of the event horizon.
Tasha thinks she nodded, then. It all felt like so much echo of herself. Echo upon echo, like mirrors reflecting each other, falling in to infinite, in to that black infinity.
The colors fade, one by one, returning to her. Returning with a message she sent them out to find; when they were separate, she could see their colors, a prism of all she is and knew, showing her all spectrum of her life, separate from the haze and the blood and the others. Opinions, facts, in all the shades of mortality and beyond.
The swords, fall inward, but she understands something, in that moment. That they could never touch her. That's why she has them; why hastur chose her -- because the madness of living death, of knowing, of Knowing, has been apart of her. Seeker and adventurer, gazer in to the abyss.
And you know what they say about the abyss.
The truth is, as Tasha realizes in this timeless moment, is that it has always every been ourselves, for there is nothing in that empty darkness but that which we bring with us, and so much would would rather not see. But there's no avoiding it, now. The swords will never touch her, because she is them.
And she always has been.
The swords and the colors all fall inward, and her hell too, all coming in -- coming back home, to the fire, where she's been waiting for them for what feels like forever now.
Welcome home.
It all is as it is. Even if it isn't.
Hell is part of her now, the knowledge of mortal weakness, its fragility.
Would Nora have done anything to escape her own hell?
Tasha doesn't know. Maybe. Maybe not. But then, maybe that's why she has her swords, and why Hastur chose her. Why demons chose her, and angels are silent. But the gods listened. And the broken listened. And... and...
Is someone listening, now..?
Right there, beside her.
It's not okay.
It's not okay.
It's not fine.
You did what you did.
But don't accept the lies.
And even hell ends.
But most of all:
You were never alone.
With all her experience, all the power that is her's and her's alone, Tasha consumes hr own hell in to herself, overcoming it without driving it away, for whatever price that comes with it, and all the knowledge it brings, she chokes it down, down, down...
Down by the fire.
Welcome home.
Welcome home, Galatea.
Where you belong.
Galatea's voice seems to reach her, saying, "You can't unmake pain, and sometimes you can't live with it. So you die, and try again, hoping you'll find a life that can. I gave up on that cycle though. I gave up on a lot of things."
"But the pain.. it's proof of life," she notes. "It drives me to live. Because if I don't then what was the point of all that sacrifice?"
"Yes. If that is your answer: yes." Tasha's eyes are very different now, there in this dark places, with all her hell inside her.
"As for the others: some will hate you, because you lived. Others will envy. Children will die without ever knowing. Perhaps you could have done more; you could have also done less. You can unmake pain and forget. You can accept. You can be one with it, as I am." The figure moves forward; there's nothing gentle in how she looks, the peace in her essence is the calm roiling of flame, like the sky, full of malice, beautiful in its color, its brightness, and how it rolls like waves in an sea. "To my eyes the point was you. They chose to save you. For whatever that's worth to you. Curse them or love them, they chose to save you. And so do I."
"I saved myself," Galatea says. "I couldn't save everyone, so I saved myself. But also I died with them. I took away the power," she admits. "If I had Kraken, I could have defended the planet. But mother took her. It was more important that she save my other mother. Did she even love me? Either of them? I loved them. I loved my friends. I loved my world. I wanted to become a world. All gone."
"You will have to ask them yourself; you may have to demand the answer, and if they won't answer, you might force it from them. Drive your will deep enough, crushing them beneath your heel, and make them answer." Tasha's words are said in a neutral, authoritative tone, devoid of judgment: an offer of options, stated like a order. She continues. "Or let it go. Or move on. Or wallow in cowardice. Or forget."
Tasha's eyes are like fire, too. The fire she is, and that hellfire. Her gaze is unshakable, unavoidable. She leans in. "You chose yourself; you have worth to yourself. More than they were worth to you. Kainudy chose. I would chose Gabriel over a world. I would chose myself over Gabriel. But not always. There are limits." She reaches out to try and take Galatea's hands; her own are burning, a fire that is more than surface heat, warming the soul, burning the soul. "You can love and value another less than a third; you can love and value yourself more than anyone. You loved them; perhaps they did not love you as much. Clearly, you don't know. Knowing, not knowing, there are hells in both, walled in our fear and insecurity. In our unwillingness to believe we are as vile as we we think we are. And we are all vile."
Tasha tries to pat Galatea's hand. "All of us. Kainudy and Kraken and your friends and your enemies and the demon in the sky.: Another pat. "And our lies. It isn't all gone. Kainudy remains; so does Kraken, I believe. The tree had seeds. You can still become a world. Or, do you prefer the hell you have created for yourself?"
"It's what I deserve for my selfishness," Galatea claims. "It's why I can't be loved, because I don't deserve it. I should have saved them. I should have fought for my life after that. Fought with what I had. But I was scared. Scared of dying there all alone. So now I live forever all alone instead."
"I hate lies and liars. I hate having to lie." Tasha's patting hand slides up Galatea's body to her throat. "You whiny godling shit, I risked everything I have to come and find you, so I wouldn't be a hypocrit, and because I miss you." Her hands are scalding, up close Galatea can see she's made of colors Kai doesn't have, strange foreign colors, colors that weren't there last time she saw all the colors Tasha's soul. "What will it take to get through to you?" The red woman's voice is an inferno, rapidly devolving from feminine to more draconic snarl, to the impression of her voice booming from her mind. "Even if you could be loved you still wouldn't deserve it, because you would abandon them! What you can't face is your own monstrosity, you can't live up to your high ideals because they are beyond your reach. And because they are so high all you do, and all you have, is as dust around you. You make a mockery of all who love you, for all you love is an ideal you could never achieve, as demonstrated to you by gods and great beings who likewise could no achieve them. You have such great opinion of yourself! How could anyone's love ever compare to Galatea's infinite love of her own impossible ideals. Flawless, she is! Capable of such perfect decency, capable of saint-like grace and compassion! If. Only. She. Tried. A little. Harder."
"I am and always have been flawed," Galatea claims, nonplussed by the burning hand at her throat. "Do you understand? I'm a child, and I need a parent to teach me how to handle what I have. Should such a being weild the sort of power I have available to me? I've seen what happens when it takes over. Kai can't teach me. The Phoenix never learned to use her power, so she can't teach me. Whisper is a shadow of a ghost of a Sidhe, and also still learning. Can the dragons teach me, when they're afraid of me? Everyone is afraid of me, including myself. Why do you care if I recover? Because of the abilities I can give you? Am I worth anything beyond my power, Tasha?"
"What answer would satisfy you? Do I seem like a being who loves people only for THE POWER THEY BRING ME?" This enrages Tasha, she grabs Galatea by the neck, slides forward, and tries to slam her in to the ground. "DO YOU THINK I NEED YOU? YOUR POWERS?! I AM AWASH IN A SEA OF POWER. THERE. IS. ALWAYS. MORE." And she tries to slam Galatea in to the ground again. "TEACH YOURSELF. MAKE. MISTAKES. ASK FOR HELP LEARN HOW I DID!" And again. "YOUR PARENT IS FOOL!" The ground cracks. "THE WAYMAKERS ARE FLAWED!" Deeper. "THEY TURN. TO. ME!!!" One last slam and Tasha pushes off, stepping away and pacing like a beast, burning, as dragon as what she had been, long, curved horns, exude her flame like a mantle. "SAAAAVE US TASHA!! SAVE US FROM THE HELL WE MADE OURSELVES, BECOME THE HELL WE NEEEEEED YOU'RE ALL SO PATHETIC!"
Tasha's roar shakes the landscape, her own cry of pain, frustration, and... victory. A dragon's cry of prominence, on the edge of collapse.
"Don't let the power control you," Galatea says from her small crater. "It will burn your soul, and hurt everyone around you if it can. Do you love me?"
"No. IT. WON'T! I AM NOT KAINUDY!" Tasha roars her defiance to the empty, black sky, reaching up with a taloned hand striking herself across her scaled muzzled, somewhere between demon, dragon, a dog. "I REFUSE!" Again, throwing blood across the landscape the sizzles in to the ground. "I REFUSE!!" One more, and then she screams her rage in to the sky, across the landscape, and in to the earth, shaking the world...
And then her hands drops, and with them, the rest of her to her knees, panting. She looks much the same, but the fire is quieter now, slow and steady ripples; the ground beneath her burns, but only a little.
"You know, Galatea, sometimes I hate everything? And everyone. I like killing people, sometimes. The way they splatter, the way elves scream like little girls. Crushing them out of my way. Paving my way with their bones. Making my world safer... Crushing what stands before me... The thrill... The thrill of achievements. To overcome." And so the thing Tasha is convulses. "You annoyed the shit out of me when I first met you. You're right, I enjoyed hurting you. With the dagger and other ways, because you're so whiny. And whiny, squealing things make me want to hit them. But. I. Am. More... " Deep, deep breath. "More than that. I am that. But more. Also." She turns; her face is still as it was, and it's not pretty, nor comforting. It is, at least, calmer now. "I must if I came this far and ate that damn crystal. But you need to grow up. And in growing up, you can become your own guide. Take a piece of my fire, and see it for yourself. It's my gift to you."
What she says next doesn't fit her face, her fire, her voice, nor her tone, it sounds like a threat by its very conveyance, but Tasha says, "Sorry."
"I've already had your pain, what will your fire do to me?" Galatea asks. "Please do not give me any of the things you mentioned. I do not want to become your Kai."
Tasha snorts; it causes hellfire to curl out of her muzzle in slowly spinning wafts. "I don't need a KAI. I, unlike Kainudy, am fully capable of murder and destroying, myself." And so Tasha sits up, gesturing at herself, a rather potent argument to her claim. "You have two flames. Two. You are limited because you were created limited. Kai has no soul. You have a... " The demon-thing's head cocks, a very Tasha gesture, and familiar. "An incomplete one. You live in the echo of what was. There wasn't time to cause you to grow beyond. Take my a piece of my flame and grow beyond your limits. Not for me, or for Kai. Not for Kainudy. Not for all the dead. For you. Understand for yourself what Kainudy is. Meet her as an equal -- and surpass her."
"A fearsome offer," Galatea admits. "To me, she was always someone fragile, as if she'd burst into shards at any moment. Never as a powerful being. Her power was only in her creations. I still don't know what you're offering though."
"Neither do I, save the potential to grow. If I can change and adapt, so, then, should you be able to do so as well." Tasha shudders again, slowly lowering herself to her knees, then to the ground, resting there like a dragon would, and not like a bipedal winged canid. Even her form is subtly shifting to accommodate the changes even as her exhaustion becomes more evident. "It is a compact with me, but more so, with yourself. The will to chose a new destiny, whatever that means. The desire to grow beyond what you are. To find your own way. To be able to adapt and learn, and if you can find no teacher, to become one yourself. Kainudy is fragile. So are you. So am I. It is the nature of things. Accept it and become more. If you hesitate... " another deep breath; Tasha's head lowers, exhaling as she lays it on the ground, " ... Pheeny. The Phoenix is safe... because... of... you. As are... We all. Hero."
"I have many lives still to atone for," Galatea claims. "Innocent ones. The guilty I... don't know how to feel about. It wasn't me that chose to kill them. A new destiny. Hmmm. I wasn't sure what my current one was, you know."
"You never know... Until it happens." Tasha pushes a claw to the ground, tries to get up, but can't. She slumps down to the ground again, heaving, even as she changes. "Make a difference. You knew their dying was... Was... Was bad, so, stop it. Where you can. Save the worlds... that need you. Be Kraken. Save them if you can. When you can. And you.. will... never... regret it. As I... Never have." Tasha's next deep breath is ragged, spasmodic. "The truth... reaaaaally hurts... I think I feel better..? Chose, before time choses for you. But come back to us... I... miss... you... partner... Ugh..."
"Your body is dying, Tasha," Galatea notes. "It isn't built for this. Kai can probably teach you more control though. It's time to wake up."
"Maybe I'll become... a god." Tasha snorts a laugh as she collapses to the ground. Nora would have found that joke hilarious, she sure. It is time to wake up.
Once more.
She sees the top ceiling of the corridor, just past the landing ramp. Kai is crouched down with a hand on Tasha's chest. "Can you breathe on your own?" the woman asks.
Tasha's eyes flutter open as her body convulses. A moment later she reaches to try and grab Kai but she has neitehr control nor strength, and falls wide, to lay wheer it falls. "Y-youuuuuu su-" her voice is all rasps, spittle, and coughs, "-su-su-su-ck."
"Kind words for your life support system," Kai replies, removing her hand. "Did you have your conversation?"
Tasha manages to smile. It's bloody, her teeth are odd, and she can't keep her eyes focused on Kai's face. Her aura is a mess. "Good... i-intentions."
"Are you paving a road to Hell then?" Kai asks with her usual smug smirk. "You are a mess. Your nervous system has been seriously overloaded, and you are in for a hangover of monstrous proportions. You need rest."
"F-forward... and... Back," is Tasha answer to Kai's question, whatever it means. Then her head hits the deck and that seems to be it for her energy to talk, the rest directed towards her labored breathing, reoccurred spams, and worse. But, she does keep smiling that awful, bloody smile.
It pairs very well with Kai's trademark smirk.
Tasha grabs sandwich and a hug. <3 (OOC)