ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: Early/Mid November
Location: Under the shell
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Foreigners had begun their counterattack by trying to possess the Great Turtle whom Malicant had taken, and although the movement had failed, some vital information had been uncovered. Under the shell lay Malicant's weakness, and inside the Dreaming was where he could be fought.

Any help from the kedan is uncommon. They're wary, watching, as a group beginning to lose sight of the community. Their family groups are more tightly-knit than ever, and any approach from the Foreigners is answered by suspicion at best and violence at worst. That makes daily life difficult, when the majority of the city refuses to have much to do with them. Why aren't you doing anything? they seem to say. What good are any of you? All you've done is make things worse. We'd be better if you'd never come.

The Foreigners are unwelcome in Keeliai. The cultists are becoming a majority. Now is the time.

There aren't many left of the Foreigners left, but inside the Dreaming the limitations of the waking world no longer exist. For every Foreigner and their worlds, their loved ones, this is the chance to make themselves safe for good. And all of them will be needed.

---

LINKS
Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC Plot Post

OOC
There are two main headers, one for preparation at the Hotel where Milyn and Eva will be available to speak with The second section where they will be able to search the caves beneath the Shell inside the Dreaming to find the Vilii Stone, and where the boon'd characters will be affected. If you are threading something that doesn't fit one of those categories, just add it to the bottom of the post. Questions go to the plotting post, please! Once the Stone has been acquired the second half of the plot will go live in the logs comm.

Comments

[peacefullywreathed]

The moment Kane broke away the sensation cut off, like a climax abruptly throttled. It let Solomon gasping and disoriented, and he stumbled, one hand out expecting a shadow to be there and catch him and forgetting that there would be none. His heel caught a stone and he fell hard on his back, and it was the winding blow more than anything else that cut through the dull buzz.

Solomon groaned and forced himself to roll over, his head swimming and skin still tingling, his chest still tight with the cold of his magic inside him, unable to get out and wanting to because of Malicant's boon.

"Don't touch me," he said, a touch weakly, and then put his forehead down on his arm so he could take a few deep breaths, and see about breaking the control Malicant had on him--if he even could, when he'd cut himself off from control of his magic himself.

[insertdadjoke]

Well, that was a bit of a dramatic reaction but Cain wasn't going to point that out right now. He instead crouched down beside the fallen necromancer and looked him over with a critical eye. If Cain couldn't make physical contact without sending Solomon into some kind of magical overdrive, then his options had just been cut down severely and there was no room for mere restraint if Solomon's mind ended up broken rather than winning the fight.

"No touching," he agreed. "Think we should step back into the Hotel for a minute? Let you catch your breath?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"No," said Solomon. "There's no point." He pushed himself upright with his eyes closed, and it felt as though he was trapped in a coffin, not quite able to see around him but quite able to see inside of him. He could feel--see--his heart beating and the movement of blood in his veins, and the faint glow of his soul's bindings.

Not a good idea, to pursue that. Solomon opened his eyes and though it felt as though his breath was short his body with the coldness in his chest, he also knew it wasn't physical. At least, not completely physical. He hoped. With his luck he'd wind up damaging his body trying to keep Malicant's influence inside.

"Just don't touch me," Solomon said again as he got to his feet, "and don't let anyone else touch me, either. I couldn't take your soul--" I wonder if I'd been able to figure out how to loosen those moorings, if I'd tried. "--but I could take anyone else's."

[insertdadjoke]

Cain watched the struggle, made no motion to help the man before him. It was more than easy to step back and let the virtual stranger deal with his own problems with only Cain there to hold him back should something happen again. Not that he was disassociated from Solomon or that they had formed some sort of bond in their mutual fascination with death, but that didn't hold much sway to a survivalist like Cain when other things were at risk. He wasn't all that sentimental when everything was said and done.

"No touching from anyone," Cain allowed. His hand went to his pocket first where the switchblade sat innocently, waiting. "We can do that. Think you can get through the fight if we avoid contact? You slipping?"

[peacefullywreathed]

"I'm not slipping," said Solomon. He hadn't expected Kane to help him up; while they didn't know each other well as yet, the man was practical and Solomon appreciated that more than most other traits--even when practicality was arrayed against him. At least he could be sure the decision had been come by logically, rather than as a result of whim or emotion.

It will make it harder to take him--

He rubbed his chest absently, as though that would warm his insides. "I cut off control of my magic. I don't have the control to contest his, anymore, but at least he can't take it past the bounds of my skin."

Just kill him slowly in the meantime, in which case, they ought to hurry; so Solomon took a slightly unsteady but determined step. "Let's go."

[insertdadjoke]

"What does that mean?" It wasn't an accusation or anything of the sort, but a genuine question as Cain was dealing with a type of supernatural outside the bounds of his experience. No matter how well he adjusted to new things presented to him, there was no precedence to understanding these new things all around him out of nowhere. "Can't make it past the bounds of your skin? He can still do things with physical contact?"

Cain tilted his head, watching Solomon. If the guy wanted to keep going, he wasn't going to complain or comment. "Yeah. One foot in front of the other and all that."