it's a war in there [March OTA, including memshare]

[not_the_last]

Who: Cassandra de Rolo & those visiting her memories / OTA
When: March
Where: Around the Serena Eterna; also Whitestone, at various points in the past
What: Things are beginning to crack
Warnings: Game-typical angst; in memshares, murder, torture, vampirism, mindfuckery both magical and mundane, and potentially noncon/dubcon; other warnings to be added in reply headers as needed

A. you're just like them, you're unprepared

Cassandra's noticed the cracks, of course. Before she brushes against one, they seem alarming and inexplicable; are they a trick, a trap, a sign that this whole little artificial plane is starting to come apart?

(The thought she barely lets herself contemplate: a way out?)

After her first few encounters with them, the nature of them seems more apparent -- although there's no guarantee they aren't also any of her previous thoughts. The first time her own memories double on her, with faces she knows from here appearing in them, she locks herself in her cabin's bathroom and curls up on the floor of the shower, arms wrapped around her knees, struggling not to begin screaming for fear that she might never stop.

[This prompt is for interacting with Cassandra in the present setting! Feel free to run into her anywhere on board, either before or after memshares begin, or PM/ping me on discord to discuss a more specific prompt.]

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B. cause you don't know the terrain

Several cracks about the ship, as it turns out, lead to a world called Exandria and a little city-state called Whitestone. Those who tumble into them will encounter a younger Cassandra at some point in her past.

[Specific pre-discussed prompts are below! If you would like a different one, see the plotting post here or PM/ping me to discuss.]

Comments

[not_the_last]

She shuts her eyes hard for a moment, trying to focus. "Issylra. I think. It must be Issylra, approaching Vasselheim. He -- I don't know when he's coming, sh-she said we had a little time -- what are you doing?"

That last in sudden alarm, as the rope registers.

[crushed_pearls]

"Peace, love, peace -" fuck she said that out loud MOVE ON QUICK, "- I'm ensuring that they can't follow an order to hurt someone else. Others might be harder but we need them walking to get them to treatment. I'm not fucking with these circlets until I know they won't explode."

[not_the_last]

If love registers at all, it's as a casual endearment; one that she's too occupied to decide whether she likes or not.

"If you hurt them," she says, low and harsh, and doesn't finish the sentence.

[crushed_pearls]

The look Cass gets is deeply wounded. Erin ties the restraints together with a third rope to make a lead, which she hands to Cass.

"I'm the heavy," Erin murmurs softly. "I hurt who you tell me to. Now excuse me a moment, I need to pray."

Erin pads off to a corner. What follows is, for everything else it might be, genuine; there's a spark there, a yearning for faith that has gone unfulfilled.

Erin thinks it's silent. Unfortunately for her she's speaking aloud without noticing again.

"Hey, Pelor. I know I'm not one of yours and I'm visiting from out of town but if you check my credentials you might notice Spring is my friend and she hasn't been able to be much help lately. I'm gonna have to ask you for a solid here out of this situation. Cass told me that the gods of this world help people and like, she's not the most pious girl but she's doing her best to help your sacred city. Please don't be the asshole who lets this happen twice, especially with a nascent god on the board. Thank you for your time."

[not_the_last]

I hurt who you tell me to. Cassandra stands frozen at that, unthinkingly taking the rope she's handed, feeling as though she's been handed something much greater.

That feeling doesn't diminish as she watches the winged woman murmuring to herself. Murmuring to the Dawnfather, casually, as one might talk to a friend or a shopkeeper. Asking for help. Asking for help for her.

And nothing happens.

Of course nothing happens. She closes her mouth and her hands, willing back the foolish, childish disappointment, blinking back the blur in her eyes, the wetness catching the dim light and making it sparkle and dance.

She rubs one eye, and the light is still dancing. Glimmering in and out like a guttering candle, like a star, like a firefly.

Like a sunburst, reflecting from the edge of the circlet around Gilmore's head.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin turns after a long moment, heaving in a sigh -

- and she freezes.

"...Ms. de Rolo," Erin says slowly. "This might be a good time to mention that I've got no eyes and I'm also prone to hallucinations. Can you see that light too? In. Like. The shape of Pelor's personal crest?"

Behold, a miracle.

[not_the_last]

"Yes," she whispers. "On one of the circlets, it's ... twinkling?"

Like a --

"Like a signal."

[crushed_pearls]

Slowly, very slowly, Erin walks over and delicately lifts the shining circlet.

Holding her breath the entire time.

[not_the_last]

Nothing explodes.

The man's eyes flicker, blink, dart back and forth for a moment. He draws in a hitching breath. "What happened? Where am I?"

"Master Gilmore --" Cassandra steps up, reaching a hand out to him. "Are you all right?"

"I --" He rubs a hand across his forehead, pushing back long dark hair. "I was in my workshop, how did I ... how did you come here, Lady Cassandra? This isn't Whitestone, is it?"

[crushed_pearls]

Erin would blink here, IF SHE HAD -

"You get the ropes," she suggests to Cassandra. "I'll get the other one." She approaches the other hypnotized person to lift the circlet there as well.

[not_the_last]

With another moment to think, Cassandra might suggest reversing that -- but right now she's a little overwhelmed and inclined to follow her rescuer's lead. So she's untying Gilmore, beginning a quick apology and explanation, when Kaylie regains awareness with her own hands still tied.

And immediately puts her head down to ram it into the stomach of the first person she sees, which in the event is Erin.

[crushed_pearls]

It's an immense effort of will, but Erin just rolls with the hit instead of fighting back, allowing herself to be knocked to the floor. Her Aura sparks protectively.

"Cass," Erin says slowly. "Your friend gets that one free but if she hits me again I'm gonna break my foot off in her ass."

(Progress!)

Hush you.

[not_the_last]

The gnome girl gives her a snarling grin, wrenching at the bonds on her wrists. "Like to see y' try it, y' overgrown feather-duster --"

"Kaylie," as Cassandra steps between them, "she's not an enemy, she's here to rescue us. Let me get those off of you, please?"

A pause, a glower, and Kaylie subsides. "Right then." Frowning down at her wrists, as Cassandra starts picking apart the knots. "Thanks and all, then. How'd we get here?"

"Oh," says Gilmore, who's now gazing at Delilah's dismembered body, "I'm beginning to have a dreadful suspicion about that. I'm terribly sorry, my dear lady --" this directly to Erin -- "I don't think we've been introduced?"

[crushed_pearls]

There is the slow sitting up of the Erin. She tips Gilmore a half-hearted wave. "Erin Peters, witch and swordswoman, at your service. I got lucky, took Delilah out when she wasn't paying attention. Won't get lucky twice."

She picks herself up and dusts herself off. Her attention goes to Cass. "Am I wrong in guessing your brother is headed to Whitestone and not here? This seems like a place to not be."

[not_the_last]

Cassandra blinks at her. "What? No, he'll be headed here, with his friends. Or -- or wherever the Whispered One is, if we're somewhere else. They're coming to stop him."

"Ah, fuckin hell," mutters Kaylie. "And these assholes snatched us as hostages, or something like?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Worse. You don't really want to know." Erin sighs. "No fucking standards. All my life, surrounded by villains with no standards...anyway, here still seems like a bad place to be."

She gives Gilmore her attention. "I don't suppose you can get Cass to be not here? I'm not keen on tangling with more wizards today or ideally ever, and if we're not present, we can't be hostages."

[not_the_last]

"Certainly," he says -- and despite the tension in him, his eyes twinkle when he smiles. "It would be a poor day if I couldn't manage a teleportation ... Would Whitestone suit us all?"

"Fine with me," says Kaylie with a shrug, "if you can get me back to Ank'Harel sometime soon. Got some irons in the fire there, can't be gone too long."

"Yes," Cassandra agrees, and swallows. "Please. And -- Erin? Do you come with us, or is your work here not done?"

(She doesn't quite believe, even now, that she could be anyone's highest priority.)

[crushed_pearls]

"I stick with you," Erin says without hesitation. A beat. "...Though uh, if no one's wrecking the joint I might ask for an escort to the temple of Pelor. I think I owe the old boy a goat or something."

(WHAT DO YOU GIVE A GOD?)

I DON'T KNOW

[not_the_last]

That gets a snort from Kaylie, a bemused not-sure-that-was-a-joke chuckle from Gilmore, and a look of poorly concealed disquiet from Cassandra.

"I can show you to the shrine once we're certain it's safe, yes," she agrees. "You may want to talk to Keeper Yennen ... Master Gilmore, can you carry all four of us?"

"With the greatest of ease, dear lady," he smiles. "Provided we're all willing to be very friendly for just a moment. If you'll all tuck in close, please?"

[crushed_pearls]

Erin huddles in.

Without thinking, she offers a hand to Cass.

[not_the_last]

And without thinking much at all, she takes it.

"I don't know who sent you," she says, very low, "but -- wait," that's louder, suddenly, as she pulls back from Gilmore. "Sorry, I'm sorry, just -- one moment --"

And she runs for the heap of discarded leather armor in the corner, drops beside it and starts piling pieces haphazardly into her arms.

[crushed_pearls]

"Her mother's armor," Erin mutters without realizing, before racing over to assist. Carrying armor, even leather, is always awkward.

[not_the_last]

Yes, she could use the assistance; when Erin reaches over, she's trying to balance two bracers and a pauldron without dropping any of them. Her breath hitches as she realizes she's being offered help, and her whispered "Thank you" comes near catching in her throat.

Between the two of them, they can carry it all.

[crushed_pearls]

"Think nothing of it," Erin murmurs back, before rejoining the circle herself.

It's time. She's gonna be there in Whitestone.

She should put on eyes when she gets there.

[not_the_last]

Gilmore reaches out an encircling arm to Cassandra as she rejoins them. "Hold tight," he says, "and we're off --"

A swift mutter of something else, and a flash of white light envelops everything.

And what takes its place is a vaulted hall of pale stone with a night sky showing through tall windows, brightly lit with candles and lamps, and a good half-dozen uniformed guards starting back in alarm and reaching for weapons.

"Stand down," calls out Cassandra, "it's me. I need one of you to go up to my rooms and find Bell, see if they're safe, and another to wake up the Realmseer. I need to send some messages to my brother immediately."