Rest in Pax? - Zac Leila and Pax

[cibarium]

Leila's eyes widened at the sight.

It took her a moment to parse her ideas of what exactly was happening here. It... didn't seem bad. But that was the new Sonny, and there was a whole lot of blood. Was it theirs? Did they need help? How much help could Leila or Zac possibly give, though?

< I think I made a bad suggestion, > Leila beamed over, as to be as quiet as possible. < Maybe we should leave? >

endejester

shibrogane

 

[endejester]

Yes, he absolutely tried to reply to her in kind, which didn’t really work other than when he turned and
a) Gave her a startled look - and
b) Shook his head.
Wordless communication would just have to do.

Bloodied earth, unknown young men in the roots of the tree, blood… god so much blood.

“Sonny.” He said very softly, almost mechanically in his tone. “Are you two…alright? What happened?”

He took a breath, the sight making an electric prickle in his limbs.
“Can I help? Is there, is there anything I can do?” He glanced at Leila, and hoped he wasn’t over stepping. “That we can do?”


They were soaked in blood; absently he was plucking at his own coat, trying to free it from his shoulders so he could drape it over theirs, over someone’s, it was probably cold with all that mud, right? It probably couldn’t stay hot in all that dark earth, right?”

shibrogane

cibarium

 

[shibrogane]

"He's dying," said Sonny tersely. "I'm trying to buy more time for America and Officer Kuroda to fix it but he was supposed to be saved weeks ago and I'm afraid I'm only going to hurt him more if I keep pushing but I can't stop because he'll die otherwise."

cibarium

endejester

 

[cibarium]

Leila's expression tightened up with concern as she gave Sonny an understanding nod. No more Heliodora, no more undeath bond. Or whatever kind of bond it was.

"I know both of them well enough," she said. "It's not much, but I can pester them to hurry up."

endejester

shibrogane

 

[endejester]

Zac swallowed hard. Yes historically he just messed things up but, maybe he could buy America …and yes, Detective Kuroda, more time.

“Can I help buy them more time too? Or would I just do more harm?”
He had to offer.

cibarium

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny scowled. "I don't know. I don't have any idea what I'm doing right now just I need a conductor and I need the principals to not know what I'm doing so they can't tell me no and that <******** b***h would I know it--"

They broke off, coughing.

endejester

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Once the coughing started, Leila darted forward without hesitation to squat a few feet away from Sonny's left shoulder. "s**t," she hissed at the ground under her breath. Blood-soaked earth she'd seen before, no big deal, but now she was parsing that it was probably Sonny's blood. "Looks like you might need some help, too. Is this putting you in danger?"

Silently, she asked her trusty friend Friend to tell her what he could figure about the situation, if anything.

endejester

shibrogane

 

[endejester]

He was probably going to regret offering, said the small logical part of his brain.

But there were more important things here than his potential regret, weren’t there?

“What, would qualify as a conductor, could I help? I… I even have this stone in my hand, It might just be normal but, I mean it did sort of melt into my hand so maybe it would be… helpful?”

cibarium

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Friend crept out to leap across the space between humans and land on Sonny's shoulder. It investigated, apparently unperturbed by the wracking coughs. Princess very tired struggle with food-spine-bone-- the mental image of a tree --and hole-make-close-- a key save the Handmaiden. Pax, as a deer.

It said, Queen knows.

"Blood is the conductor," said Sonny, "But I don't know that anyone else can contribute because they might have different intentions than I do, if they overextend it could break us all up. Can you just--I need to stop the magic from getting to him so he can heal and wake up."

cibarium

endejester

 

[cibarium]

< Struggle? > Leila repeated. < Are Tree and Key making this more difficult for Princess? >

She'd wondered who that baby she'd carried over on the Multitude's request was. Odd to know that it was Sunny this whole time. Or Sonny, whom Leila looked up at again. "I'm talking with one of my familiars to get a sense of what's happening," she said. "It's obvious I need to be honest here. That said, if my intent is to help you and trust in what you're doing, is that enough? It's the least I can do for making you talk at the same time you're doing this."

enejester

shibogane

 

[endejester]

"Can we... can we help channel the magic away? I'm sorry I keep asking questions, but with three of us, wouldn't that make it easier even if, well, even if we're probably way less capable than you."

Shibrogane

cibarium

 

[shibrogane]

Friend's head-bits dipped back towards Sonny. Princess need say-okay from tree (though Friend used the human word, there was the mental undercurrent of food-spine-bone, like it was carefully speaking a second language) and key. Big eater inside Handmaiden. This accompanied an image of Biscuit and her beak, and a swell of disapproval.

Sonny's head drooped. "Does either of you know how to stop a flow of magic? I'm not channeling the magic, I'm being a breakwater. And more cooks in the kitchen might just spoil the soup. In this case, more cooks in the kitchen might accidentally overload the breakwater and destroy it."

cibarium

endejester

 

[cibarium]

So Sonny needed permission from the Principals to do magic... that was news to Leila. The Sunny she'd known could, seemingly, do anything she wanted. She curtly shook her head 'no' when asked about magic, but didn't say much -- her attention was occupied by the information Friend had given her. She signaled this by sort of tapping the side of her head while looking to Zac, implying that he should keep talking if he wanted.

< What kind of danger is Handmaiden in? > The Multitude wove between metaphor and literal so easily it was still hard for her to keep track. < Does your colony know how to stop a flow of magic? We should help if we can. >

endejester

shibrogane

 

[endejester]

"I think I can. I think we both could but, if you mean that too many of us doing that would make for a bad break water..." He looked anxious.
"I'm worried that you'll fall too, I know you're incredibly powerful but I'm worried. We've lost so many already. I don't want to loose pax, and I don't want to loose YOU."

shibrogane

cibarium

 

[shibrogane]

Dead corpse feed food. Friend puzzled over this. Ask Lady Red-rock-cold-deadflesh-monster-queen. The image it pushed along to Leila was something like... the Queen of the Multitude, if the Queen were made of a red stone that shone with a strange bloody light. She knows.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Sonny, smiling at Zac. "This looks like a lot of blood but it's not, really. And I got a hand from someone earlier that's made this a lot easier. I just don't want to risk messing it up, you know?"

cibarium

endejester