Voices from Heaven (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thespaceopera) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2019-01-20 07:25 pm
thespaceopera) wrote in driftfleet2019-01-20 07:25 pm
Entry tags:
- !event,
- !mingle,
- adrian "alucard" tepes,
- baku,
- bentley "ben" douglass,
- ciel phantomhive,
- connor,
- felix gaeta,
- glenn rhee,
- grievous,
- haggar,
- james tiberius kirk (au),
- kaname buccaneer,
- katherine "kitty" pryde,
- keith,
- krolia,
- lance,
- libra,
- loki,
- lorden gesh,
- lup,
- magnus burnsides,
- manji,
- messer ihlefeld,
- mikleo,
- nico di angelo,
- pavel chekov,
- prompto argentum,
- remy lebeau,
- sorey,
- taako,
- the vision,
- thor odinson,
- tyrion lannister,
- vash the stampede,
- veronica,
- victor frankenstein,
- wanda maximoff
dreams in digital
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(last updated: 1/21/19)
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Lup quirks a brow, but refrains from commenting. The rest is a bit more significant.]
I thought you were plenty nice. What's wrong with sheepifying people, though? It's good for a laugh.
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N-nooo, you're way nicer...
Um, sheeping is really overdone! If you want to prove you're a mage with any creativity, you have to put a spin on it. Like making them into a turtle, or a tiny giraffe, or a big black cat.
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Or a dragon, right?
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[Like her, when she was like 10.]
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I can set things on fire!
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[She reaches out, giving his book a little tap with one finger.]
Can you show me?
cw: genocide (vague/implied)
A small window sits open to some courtyard where more people like Belthazar walk and talk and go about their day framed by golden leaves and arches. But inside is more important. Belth sits at a table, looking the same age as he was before, with the same book splayed open. There is a girl hovering nearby who looks barely above the age of eighteen. Her eyes are a beautiful glowing bright blue standing out against dark curly hair the same color as Belthazar's. She wears a white robe that has some kind of religious form to it.
The girl sets some food on the table within Belth's reach. Her voice is soft and pleasant.]
Your studies are important but you should always make sure to eat, little one.
[Belth quits the passage he's reading and makes a pouty face. Ah, yes, that's familiar. He puffs out his cheeks.] I'm not little!
[That inspires a warm laugh. The girl leans in and ruffles his hair.] While that may be true, you will always be my little brother. Even if you grow like the reeds.
Even if I'm taller than you?
Even if you were taller than all the trees in Quel'thalas. [Belth leans his head back and whines. The girl takes the chance to close his book and set it aside, then pushes the food toward him. Though Lup can't interact with any of this, the memory is crystal clear, enough that she can smell the butter in the biscuits with perfect accuracy.] You can't grow if you skip meals, Belthazar.
But Caspa, I'm really close to learning how to—
[The child falls silent as someone knocks loudly on the door. There are similar knocks down the way, and the people walking by have turned to running. A voice shouts beyond the door:]
Quel'thalas is under attack! Everyone who is able to fight, report to the gates! Together we will repel the invaders!
[Belthazar looks at Caspa with surprise and terror, and she shares the same look.]
T-the boats are too far, sister! We'll never make it...
[Caspa's panic gives way to determination, firm and gentle and unyielding. She places a blanket around her little brother and gently leads him away from the table. Caspa continues guiding him toward the back of the room, where the entrance to the cellar sits. She opens the two small wooden doors and then crouches before her brother.]
Bel, I want you to promise me something.
A-anything, Caspa... but...
Promise me you won't come out until it's safe.
I promise. Aren't you going to come with me? It's dark and scary down there. It's where all of Father's old stuff is and it's dusty.
They need people to heal the fighters, don't they? Yes, they do. Trust the Farstriders. They've kept us safe before. Remember when the forests almost burned? We were safe, weren't we?
Yes... [Belth's ears flatten and he bows his head. Tears make their way down his cheeks. Caspa kisses him on the forehead.]
Everything will be fine. Be very quiet, like we are playing hide and seek.
[She gives him a little push and locks the cellar door, then moves furniture in front of it. With no one else to be brave in front of, Caspa finally lets herself cry as she realizes what she is about to do.
The memory fades to white, and white, and white...
Belth closes the book with shaking hands and sets it on the other side of the desk. He's a little older now, maybe twelve, but he's grown all in the legs and nothing else. He's frightfully skinny beneath the blue-violet robes that hang off him, and his eyes are a sickening, glowing green the same as one of the crystals on the hutch a few feet away.]
... Sorry, what were we talking about?
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...so he had a sister. And from the look of him, things didn't go great after that. She hums thoughtfully at his question, crossing her arms over her chest to avoid touching anything else.]
Magic, I think. [A beat, and then-] Who was attacking?
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The undead. The Lich King's armies, they... they tore through my city and killed almost all of us, or worse. Not that you can tell with all the gilded grandeur about, but there is a Dead Scar that tears through the middle of the continent and the city all the way past the coast.
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[No wonder he looks so rough all of a sudden. A few noteworthy things stick out, though-]
"Lich King"?
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[He sighs.]
The Lich King is said to be some fearsome spirit who was cursed to rule over the undead. He possessed the human prince Arthas, our land's neighbor, so of course we were on the menu. No one came to help us.
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[Lup snorts faintly; there's far too many worlds in the universe - multiverse, whatever - that love to fight all the time. War for land, for people, for resources, and of course for relics... and then regular folks just trying to live their lives get caught in the crossfire. It sucks.
At least his lich sounds a bit different from her particular flavour, but even so, she'll just make a mental note not to bring that up around him.]
I'm sorry... you didn't deserve that.
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[He rolls his shoulders in a shrug. His posture is poor, constantly hunched over to appear smaller. He doesn't realize he's doing it.]
All I can do is move forward. Crying about it doesn't put food on the table. So I... don't talk about her much. Maybe she's looking for me, but I...
I don't want to hear the answer if it's not the one I want.
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[Wait, what?]
What do you mean, looking for you? She might be alive?
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She never got a burial. I've gone through so many scenarios in my head. Was she resurrected in the Lich King's service? Was she made into something worse? Is she living under a new name, having forgotten everything that made her my sister?
There's no definitive answer. I asked and I asked for years, but no one ever saw someone fitting her description. Still, I... I have to hope that one day, perhaps-- if I grow strong enough in my magic, I can find her.
[He bites his bottom lip and closes his eyes.]
I don't want to think about her not being alive. Every single major decision I've made was to chase her memory. If she isn't there-- if she's not...
I'll fall apart.
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Ah.
Lup leans back at that, her smile entirely faded, something flat and dark and indecipherable crossing her expression. That's familiar. Far, far too familiar.]
So which is it, then? Are you looking for her or not? Because you're not gonna get a guarantee on the answer. That's not how it works, and if you wait for it then you'll never find her.
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... a void where a big sister should be.]
I'm still looking. But what if I don't like the answer? If she isn't coming back, then I'll be alone again.
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You're alone now, aren't you?
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She raised me.
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[The idea of someone being lost, of those who miss them showing even an ounce of hesitation in finding them out of fear- it's awful. It's beyond awful. It's imagining Barry or Lucretia giving up on her because it had been so long, or because there was too much else to be done, or they'd given up hope- it's imagining if Taako hadn't noticed her, or lost interest in the staff, or left her behind to continue rotting in that awful, dark, empty place for years, for centuries-
Her fists clench at her sides, tight and tremulous.]
What if she's trapped somewhere? What if she's waiting for you?
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And really, he's like a twelve year old kid right now with some knowledge of his own future, so it's not like it has to make sense.]
She's not dead! [And there it is, the vehement denial he's clung to all this time.] If I haven't found her, it just means that I haven't looked hard enough!
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It's... okay to believe in that. I'm sure she'd want you to keep searching for her. But she wouldn't want you to just give up on everything if she's gone, either.
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I... [One can almost see the gears turning in his head as he tries to process this. Caspa certainly wouldn't want him to give up.] I know, but...
I don't think I'm strong enough. I don't-- I don't know how to move on. There's just an emptiness. How am I supposed to pretend it's not there?
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[Lup turns away, casting her gaze around the room and taking a few circling steps, though she's very careful not to touch anything else.]
If you're not strong, then get stronger. If you don't know how to get stronger, figure out how. If you can't figure out how, find someone who'll teach you. There's always a path forward, no matter what's in your way. And if you feel empty?
[She turns back towards him, thumping her chest with a grin.]
Fill that shit right back up with whatever you can get your hands on. You're a smart kid, figure it out.
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