tushanshu_logs | [EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

[EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

Characters: ALL!
Date: December 8, 2015 (with some starters for the following weeks)
Location: Keeliai, the Midnight Hotel, others
Situation: The Foreigners have awakened.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

They've been in the Dreaming for so long that when they wake up their bodies feel more like automatons, alien and ill-fitting. They haven’t atrophied, thanks to Milyn, but they’re stiff and a little bedsore, and the solidity of the Life Plane is jarring. Here, the surroundings don’t move on a whim. Here the world is more stable, almost harsh and unyielding in spite of the homey surrounds.

It’s been a year, says the clock on the mantle and on the second floor. Says Milyn, too, when she’s able to stop hugging them long enough to speak.

Nothing much has changed in the Midnight Hotel. There are dishes out of place, objects belonging to either Milyn or Eva in evidence, the diorama exactly where it had been but now brightly-painted thanks to Milyn's boredom. Milyn and Eva took a room each, in the time the Foreigners were sleeping, though neither used them much.

Eva’s upstairs, Milyn will tell anyone who asks. In her room.

Eva hasn't left that room in three days. She hasn't spoken in three days, either, or walked, or moved, or breathed. Her effects are neatly arranged around her bed, and the sheet has been pulled up. There is heavy incense in the room and Milyn has managed to preserve the body enough to remove the risk of too much mess (and other things). In a way, that makes it worse: as though Eva is sleeping. It’s difficult to tell whether Milyn is in denial or whether spending three days with no one to talk to other than sleeping Foreigners and a corpse has had its influence.

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Was she? Part of Skulduggery was suddenly intensely curious about whether or not it was possible for timelines to shift even before they'd been dragged onto the turtle's back. The rest of him was a good bit more reasonable, and reminded him that goading China never remained funny for very long.

So, after a brief pause, he nodded. "The world is called Konryu - or perhaps the continent. I was never very clear on that. It's a world that straddles a Life Realm, Death Realm, and a Dreaming Realm all at once, which is probably why one of the groups on the mainland decided it would be fun to experiment with merging them. Malicant was the result. He was a powerful force of darkness bent on swallowing this world, and then using it as a stepping stone to swallow every other world as well. A few of the sorcerers here fought back by kidnapping us. There was a very dramatic final battle underneath the shell, during which practically everyone who was both native and useful was killed, and that left most of us stranded in the Dreaming Realm for a year. Now we're back, and new people like you are still arriving each week, and no one seems to know why. Speaking of that, do you have on a piece of jewelry you didn't have before?"

The jewelry China had categorized very soon after taking in the change of location. It was not the most impressive piece, true, but the simplicity of the teardrop pendant was elegant in its way. It was also completely inexplicable. Evidently Skulduggery knew something, however. "I do," she said, slanting her gaze back to him. "And as I doubt you've taken up an interest in the finger points of accessorizing, shall I assume it's something to do with how I was... summoned here in the first place?"

As for the rest of it-- obvious enough that Skulduggery was leaving out and skimming large chunks, but for now she didn't need the details. The bigger picture would do. "Somehow, I'm not surprised you wound up in the middle of this," she added, needling only gently. A dramatic final battle would suit him. "A force of darkness. Do you mean that entirely literally?"

She was not at all pleased, however, that no one seemed to know why she had been dragged here, and as much as the change in situation did suit her for the moment, China would have preferred to be in charge of that. She'd have to see about that.

Skulduggery nodded. "It's keeping you alive. A soul anchor, I believe, is the official term. Don't forget to keep it on you. It's easy to remember after the first one or two times you leave it behind, though, so I wouldn't worry too much about it."

That was about the last true knowledge-bomb Skulduggery had, so he didn't think he could be blamed for letting it sit for a moment. He couldn't remember the last time he knew so much more than Ireland's leading information broker; it was a moment to savour, even if he couldn't savour it for very long - practically or morally speaking.

So he nodded again, the rest of his skeletal frame eerily still on the fountain rim. "Just about. He drew his power from the Death Realm. He'd possessed Asti - the turtle we're standing on. Mevolent was one man; Malicant was everywhere."

How fortunate that she liked the color, if that was the case. And that she could match or contrast the deep blue-violet to any number of her favorites. "Even you?" she asked aloud, not quite idle curiosity. How unusual, to find situations in which the dead man could die.

And her timing in arriving here was near perfect as well, apparently, if she'd just missed a threat that was genuinely worse than Mevolent. China glanced down at the ground beneath their feet, reminded again of the sheer scale of the beast, then back to Skulduggery. "I begin to have some kind of perspective," she said. "How do you have a properly dramatic final battle with something quite so expansive?" Not that she doubted Skulduggery had managed it somehow, if only by annoying it until it took direct notice, but she really would love to know exactly how they'd pulled that off.

"I haven't tested it," Skulduggery answered, amused. "But I have the same withdrawal symptoms as everyone else does, so I imagine that it's very much keeping me alive."

His reflexive suspicion about China's motives was both illogical and entirely unfounded. After only a moment's hesitation, the skeleton shook his head. "You don't. We slipped into the Dreaming Realm using an object left behind by Malicant's creators, and whittled him down little by little. He's gone now. We don't know if the turtle is alive or dead or somewhere in between, but at least we know he isn't evil."

Assuming Malicant was really gone, of course. That was a suspicion Skulduggery wouldn't share with China, if only because her fresh arrival to Keeliai deserved to make her feel at least somewhat safe in her new surroundings.

"Speaking of the soul anchors," Skulduggery added, "the disguise sigils you drew for me were ruined when I was pulled here. I don't suppose you could recreate them?"

Better not to test it, then. China resigned herself to the necklace. Considered, briefly, the possibility of those anchors being used against people if stolen, and resolved to be cautious with it.

"How hard is it to tell if an island-sized turtle is alive?" China asked aloud, not wholly impressed. The inhabitants of the city must have at least tried to check, if they had any sense among them, and it was the sort of answer that seemed important to have.

His question at least provided an answer for the one she'd had earlier. "Of course," she said, only mildly offended that he'd needed to ask if she could. Would was a different question-- but, even so, the answer would have been the same. "If you provide me tools. Ruined how, exactly?"

The question of Asti's potential death was one Skulduggery had only had a few days to consider, but it didn't take him nearly that long to realise the investigation would take months. "Ireland-sized," he said, "might be a little more accurate than island-sized. From what I can tell, the only reason anyone thinks he might still be alive is that they can't imagine him being dead. We're drifting through the life-current, not swimming."

It was only a matter of time before they would hit an underwater reef, or the jagged edge of a landmass.

China's answer was exactly what Skulduggery expected, and it still surprised him enough to sit forward. "I'm not sure. What tools do you need, apart from a scalpel?"

"Hm," China said, and nothing more, turning over the idea thoughtfully. Size did present an issue, but whether the turtle lived or not was something that merited ascertaining. Preferably before it hit something.

In a moment she raised her eyebrows at him, skeptical, and if his surprise bemused her a little, she had enough of her equilibrium back not to show it. "A scalpel," she repeated. "A small, precise blade, sharp enough to cut into bone with little to no resistance. As it is, I'll have to alter whatever you find; I doubt anything here will have the quality I want. In addition, a good lens, and I would prefer to have ink as well, but can ultimately do without." It was Skulduggery, after all.

Skulduggery laughed. "If there's one thing they have in quantity here," he said, "it's ink. You've seen all of the paper lanterns. I'll assume black or white, unless you've decided to experiment with colour in the past few minutes."

The scalpel would be easy enough to find, especially if China could refine it further, and the Metalworkers would probably be able to sell Skulduggery a small, quality lens. He did so love when plans formed themselves, however simple and ultimately unhelpful those plans turned out to be.

"Colour has a time and a place." And as far as China was concerned, that place was not in her tattoos; it was a variable that did not need to be toyed with. "Very well, acquire those for me and I shall fix whatever you've done to your facade." It was not even a question that somehow the problem was Skulduggery's fault.

It would be nice to know exactly what the problem was, but getting a closer look at it would wait till she had that lens, since there was little point in examining it if she might not be able to discern the detail unaided. And her own tattoos were still curiously quiescent.

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[EVENT] A NEW WORLD ORDER

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