The Ephemeral Chamber (Xiomara)
Date: 2025-06-24 20:23
(The Ephemeral Chamber (Xiomara):Xiomara)
[Tue Jun 24 2025]
89Within t53he Plaza 17of the Glass Choir
89A large, glistening mirror sitting in a gilded frame serves as a centerpiece for this plaza, secured at the middle of a marble fountain long since absent of water to fill it. Instead, mist flow53s from the bowl and creeps across the crystalline cobbles underfoot. On all sides, the Glass Plaza is bereft of the life found on the surface: its trees are formed of delicate glass shards, the 17manicured lawns are spectral and cold, and the flowers that grow rival gemstones with their faceted petals. The ephemeral silhouettes of buildings edge the plaza’s circular perimeter, but none seem solid enough to enter. Occasionally, humanoid shapes can be seen moving between them, lit up as if filled with star matter and gazing at you as if you are the anomaly in this strange place.
Trills of laughter and sobs of grief fill the air as if birdsong, backed by the soft ticking th17at emanates across the plaza from the mist-shrouded form of a massive, crystal clock tower, seen53 in the distance. Its ivory face is always visible, absent of numerals; instead, glyphs are arr89anged across it without a sense of organization, the two arms moving clockwise at a normal pace.
It is dusk/b>/span94F(34C) degrees, and there are clear skies. The mist is heaviest At High and Prospect/span
“Sick… spear?” Elliot wonders about Kai, peeking at them in dazed puzzlement. “Ah. Yes. Very good design. Need to carry it most places, just in case someone tries to attack me.” Stumbling forward, he grumbles, patting down his arm as he glances around. “Everything looks like a rainbow, damn it.”
Matthew looks to be just on the brink of proposal for Kai, already beginning the pitch, “If you make sure I–” he’s saying, only then bothering to look at his side only to find the would-be OTHER bachelor off and sidling right up on Elliot Matthew smirks and carries on, deciding next to fall into lock-step with his web-weaver cousin.
53And the group finally emerges through a second mirror, this one at the heart of the fountain at the center of a great glass plaza. Xiomara 53 steps from her place first, her heels clicking as she takes short steps down to the cobbles below to greet a strawberry blonde in a comfortable matching set, who greets her with, “There you are, Mara.”
Dovie/b>/span“…hm. Where is Arachne?” Xiomara wonders, taking another headcount.
Kai nods a few times to Elliot and glances to someone, Mab, Xiomara, Dovie and Matthew in turn, he hmms and wanders over to stand a bit behind Matthew, his hands still stuffed into his hoodie. The strawberry blonde is given a once over and pulls his hand from his pocket to give the woman a silent hello in the form of a half-moon wave, then he’s also looking around curiously.
Matthew seems to be wondering the very same question, looking around for his cousin.
Dovie looks alarmed at the question, but is relieved to see Arachne, finally.
Kai nods a few times to Elliot and glances to Mab, Xiomara, Dovie and Matthew in turn, he hmms and wanders over to stand a bit behind Matthew, his hands still stuffed into his hoodie. The strawberry blonde is given a once over and pulls his hand from his pocket to give the woman a silent hello in the form of a half-moon wave, then he’s also looking around curiously.
Mab’s question causes him to peer around until he spots Arachne, letting out a little relieved breath.
Plagued by steps too silent, it’s all too easy to miss Arachne when she’s unable to make vocalizations or a sound, no matter how hard she walks. Her lips curl just-so in reassurance to the frantic eyes searching for her, closing in the distance, gaze resting on her relatives first before shifting attention to Xiomara.
Matthew slinks back until again he is in lock step with Arachne, sharing her silence for now.
“It would be my absolute pleasure to offer you a personal tour,” Mab tells Dovie with an ingratiating smile and a soft flutter of her fake lashes, simply unable to help herself from doing the company pitch, even surrounded by such magical splendour. Her hands stay laced in front of her, before finally, she turns to admire the plaza beyond the second mirror. “Oh, isn’t it gorgeous!” she says, but her expression doesn’t match her words anymore. All of the shimmering glass, and plenty of reflective surfaces for the vampiress to catch a fragment of her own image, have her worrying at her painted lips.
Dovie nods to Mab with a grateful smile before she falls back as well to flank Arachne’s other side.
The strawberry blonde, Eloise, turns to regard the group with a dazzling smile full of teeth too perfect to be genetic. “Hello, everyone; I am Eloise DuBerry,” she introduces herself, “I’ve worked with Mara for decades. Welcome to Biringan–”
Her arm extends to gesture to the plaza as she gives more details: “Specifically, the plaza of the Glass Choir. My research tells me that on average, this is the closest point to the Whispering Vault.”
casts a look to Eloise, seeming content to allow her to deal in most of the details. She begins to stroll around the plaza, taking glances at the gemstone flowers and glass trees.
Matthew isn’t a vampire, those reflections don’t bother him and he really does think they’re pretty. “Oh wow, these are amazingly beautiful. I wonder if I can bring some back to the penthouse,” and he calls to Mab, “Don’t you think we should get a couple of these in there, diffuse the bad energy and all that.”
Arachne shifts a distracted glance between Dovie and Matthew when she finds herself suddenly flanked on either side, a silent exhale passing through softly parted lips in resignation of her chosen personal entourage. Her gaze skips ahead to Eloise, now, as she gives an introduction. Lips purse, features slipping into deep contemplation, absorbing her words with a singular dip of her head. Brows lift, a question burning in her eyes, that cannot be voiced, so she turns a hopeful glance to Mab, Elliot, and Kai to make the right questions.
Kai pads along with the group, though he’s quite intentionally saying behind Matthew. Like right behind him, his hazel eyed gaze wandering around as he becomes unusually quiet while he lets the senior members of the group talk. He tries to keep himself as unobtrusive as possible now.
Matthew forgot Kai even existed. When was the last time he looked for that guy, he’s too busy checking out pretty shiny things now.
“The first challenge is that … there is no visible exit to the plaza, except for the gate,” Eloise continues, leaning to look at Xiomara as the vampiress wanders off. “Which has no keyhole, so there apparently isn’t a key and none of my research has secured knowledge of how to unlock it…”
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss DuBerry” Elliot gruffly slurs, lifting a hand to steady himself on the wall. “Could you give us the low-down on Biringan, the Glass Choir, and the Whispering Vault?” It’s a simple question, from the man who looks drunk and dazed, but, one he emphasizes by repeating again, trying to clear his speech. “Do… uh. Pardon me. I’m a bit dizzy. And seeing rainbows. I got bit by a lot of snakes. And stabbed. I’m not having a good day.”
Dovie raises an eyebrow, that manicured arch growing ever higher as Elliot continues to list out his Terrible Tuesday misfortunes.
Eloise begins to flip through a folder in her hands when Elliot slurs out his questions: “There used to be a cathedral here… Somewhere,” she reveals, “Attached to the Plaza. Their choir was the Glass Choir, it was considered very beautiful, a great honor to be part of it, so on. Not relevant to the Whispering Vault, which is where the Ephemeral Chamber is located.”
“The Ephemeral Chamber, which holds a variety of artifacts and specifically the one that Trinity wants, changes place periodically. The entire Vault does, this is just the most common point to find it quickly…”
Kai starts to press his lips together and push them out like a guppy, then in they go. Some kind of weird tick he has perhaps, he’s otherwise being quiet still while he listens to the contact and the group speak, his attention more on the contact, Eloise, as she begins to describe the location, leaning just a bit to the side to look passed Matthew at her.
Perhaps surprising, considering her very obvious discomfort with all the reflective surfaces around her — but when Matthew suggests they should steal some of this precious glass city and bring it back to their pad, she’s able to overcome even her own self-interest in favour of a drive to colonise all the worlds, down to the very core of the City Between. “We should,” she purrs in agreement. Other than these few words spoken, however, she keeps the bulk of her focus upon Eloise, listening to her and the sounds all around.
“I hear music all around,” Mab murmurs, with a tilt of her head. “Are those birds singing? Oh, I wish I could sing with them. That isn’t dangerous to do, is it?”
The mention of the birds has Eloise glancing up. “…I wouldn’t,” she admits to Mab, “But if you want to, I certainly can’t stop it.”
“If you do that, I’m going to stand far away,” Elliot mutters, already preparing to step to the side. “I don’t feel like fighting bird demons right now. Don’t even think I’m in the state for much fighting regardless.” Turning his head, affixing his gaze upon Eloise, he asks further, “So. Vault switches product around constantly? Or does the product switch places within the vault?”
Kai glances around himself uneasily when he hears a snarl from around them, he glances to Elliot and nods a couple of times his way and glances from him to Eloise at the man’s question to he, his lips still going out. Back in, and out again.
The pages are flipped a few times. “Biringan isn’t anchored,” Eloise explains to Elliot, “Parts of it stop existing, and then reappear, but lead to new places, or just phase out of reality entirely…” She stops on a page, pulling it out to offer it to Elliot. “The Vault connects to different things. Usually something called the Singing Bridge.”
Matthew is a picture of polite attentiveness, chin lifted, eyes tracking the speaker, nodding at the right intervals. But the truth is written in teh subtle geam behind his eyes, wehre every crystal reflection bouncing through the space has him utterly captivated. Wheter it’s the fractured color spectrum painting him in color or just the angle that he catches his own reflection, it’s hard to say. One thing is clear, he’s already planning a personal colonization of the local’s aesthetic.
“No Key you say…” he repeats like an attentive student.
Xiomara tilts her head, moving closer to the group again. “What a bizarre sound,” she murmurs.
Dovie chimes in to ask Eloise. “What’s the Singing Bridge? Is it a place or a thing, or-?” she wonders, beginning to use the fidget spinner again.
“It’s a bridge,” Eloise answers Dovie matter-of-factly.
“Okay, glad we’re delving into some place that just decides it doesn’t like one room,” Elliot exhales, steadying himself with a hand against the wall. “So. Any tells for when bits and pieces of this place decides that it doesn’t want to exist for right now?”
Kai lets out a quiet little hmmm as he listens, he looks down between his feet for a moment, then off to the side again, though he keeps an ear out on Elliot and Dovie’s questions as well as the answers Eloise gives.
At least Mab takes Eloise and Elliot’s warnings to heart. “I won’t sing,” says the ex-chanteuse in her saccharine soprano, though it’s with a marked tone of sulk. She continues to listen to the singing birds, and even the distant snarls and whimpers, with a shifting cant of her head. Her arms and upper torso wind in sinuous motions, an upright little dance to the discordant melodies they hear as they walk.
Elliot’s question isn’t hers to answer, but still Mab supposes, “Maybe they’ll sing to us.”
Matthew gets lost in his own reflection, or maybe it’s all the colors – all of which he tears himself from with a brisk shake of the head. “Is anyone else hearing that crying,” he wonders of the group, cluing back into the here and now, “And what are we singing… I mean I don’t sing well, but I’ll do it.” The man shrugs, a showboat at heart.
“If anyone wants to take a look at the gate and see if they can get it open, we can leave the plaza before it decides it doesn’t want to exist,” Eloise suggests to Elliot, smiling her too-perfect smile at him again. “I couldn’t find any information on how it decides when something stops existing.”
Kai nods in agreement with Matthew, speaking up for the first time since the contact, well, made contact, “Sighs, crying, a snarl… lotta stuff,” he tells the taller, older man.
Dovie looks around, her ears twitching a little. “How… odd,” she murmurs, trying to locate the direction of whatever she hears.
Seemingly, Elliot doesn’t hear any of the noises, and, with a stumble and clumsy steps, he makes his way over towards the gate, examining it, though, of course he seems utterly stumped and gives a small shrug.
Arachne stands slightly apart from the others, shadowed in stillness, but her focus is razor-sharp. Eyes like mercury skim from Eloise’s hands to the page she offers, then linger on the reflective surfaces around them with open wariness. She slips a few steps forward, aiming to take a olok at the page passed around.
Matthew turns, finally taking note of Kai again, shooting the younger man a questioning look, why you right there?. It goes unspoken and in the next motion he’s looking sharply right. “Y’all here that? Sounds like laughter now,” he totally misses that there’s reading material, too busy distracted by pretty things.
“Why is it deciding not to exist again?” This he murmurs through a hushed whisper back to Kai.
Dovie wanders towards the gate, trying to speak to it. “Hello! Is someone there? Can you hear me?” she attempts.
Kai inhales and looks around, his eyes narrow and he then closes them entirely, his features pinched in focus.
Elliot says “I don’t hear anything. Most of my senses haven’t started kicking in, quite just yet.“
“Matty, Darling,” Mab abruptly declares in a bored, lethargic tone of voice, curling her nails to examine them with an arch of her platinum brows, “did you know that your father Gabriel once told me that you were the least favourite of all his happy little accidents? He was frankly surprised you ever activated. Is it any wonder that Malin so clearly could never love you any more than either of your parents did?”
47After Mab 47speaks, the sound of weeping can be heard on the air. This time, it is audible to even the untrained ears, and it is most certainly coming from the gate.
Kai opens his eyes after a moment and tells Matthew, “It’s… a mystery. The magic doesn’t explain why this place behaves as it does. It is ephemeral. An enigma. A mystery wrapped in darkness and surrounded by sighs, laughter and snarls…” he says nothing while trying to sound profound.
Dovie/b>/span“What a useless piece of paper,” Xiomara muses to Arachne, not seeming to see anything on it herself that might be of benefit. Meanwhile, Eloise has moved closer to Dovie to look at the gate as well. “Huh… When she said something mean, this stone lit up…”
Blearily, sluggishly blinking, Elliot lifts his cane and thwacks it against the gate before glancing over towards the rest of the group. “You know, we should probably proceed. Or think of something. At least before the room zaps away, because, I assure you, if we’re dead, no one’s going to give a shit who pops loved or not.”
55The gate holds under Elliot’s 55test of strength — but there is a soft creeking, and the sound of frustration from the lock itself. The grey stone illuminates a flickering 02orange55.
Elliot says “Orange. That doesn’t sound like a fun color./i/i>/spanDovie clears her throat and speaks to the gate, “Mother, Father, if you’re out there. I wish we could talk. I wish I could hear from you. Something, anything. A sign even that maybe you’re trying to reach out too in your own ways …”
“…it’s plausible,” Eloise confirms to Kai, studying the gate more closely, in the annoying way that excited scholars do periodically. Her fingers brush over the grey stone after it flickers, and it illuminates fully — it becomes a bright, flaming 02orange before flickering back to grey.
Matthew/i>/spanHey Matty‘ he pivots, head turning sharp with a smile that’s all ready and eager fondness, a performance, well-practiced cousin to cousin look of showmanship for the VP.
The illusion begins to crack as soon as his father’s name is brought up, something that has Matthew’s expression tugging towards a frown. But it’s when she mentions the employee’s name that the bottom falls out.
Matthew’s features drop. For a beat, he just stares at her, somewhere between did she just say that and no way I heard that right. He jaws the air a few times, like testing it for sound, then claps his hands together, once in a loud pop.
Whatever they’re there for, Matthew isn’t, he’s here to clap back at Mab. “Oh. Okay. so we doing this today,” he says, voice tinged with disbelief and mock delight. “Well, Mab, did you know I don’t actually think you’re a Montrose either? But hey, if the shoe fits, wear it.” He leans in, grin toothy and cold now. “You a phony, and I’ve known it from teh start. Real Montrses don’t need fleshforming to pass a damn DNA test.”
Eloise tries to push the button again just as Matthew is cutting into Mab. This time, the grey stone … remains orange! A hushed chorus of anger, of rage, enters even the least sensitive hearing, as if something trapped inside the gem is releasing emotions.
Dovie’s jaw drops as Matthew claps back to Mab.
“I was only being truthful,” Mab assures Xiomara with a smirk, when she’s called mean. But then Matthew’s clapping back at her, and she stares at him, stunned, evidently unprepared to have been taking it as well as she can dish it.
“Well …” she starts, shocked out of any barbs to fire back, before she snaps over Dovie’s way. “I think the gate responds to people feeling things! That’s why all the sounds are various emotions, like in Inside Out. But it’s an unfortunate thing that I can’t feel anything! So I had to make him feel something.” She’s lying, though, it’s so obvious. She glares at her cousin, and her icy eyes burn with more than just the rosy eyeshadow beneath her fake lashes.
“Why don’t two of you do something useful and make out or something!” Mab then haughtily demands, waving a manicured hand angrily at Kai, Dovie, Elliot and Arachne. She perhaps knows better than to include Xiomara in that request — the CHRO was, after all, hired for her role primarily because of her intimidating nature.
Kai looks over to Mab and Matthew, blinking owlishly at their spat, but he nods a couple of times to both, “Based,” he says, perhaps of both statements and he wanders over to the gate, starting to look around as well, he extends his fingers out to feel along the gate, hmming a bit. Up comes his hand and he grasps his left pinky in his twist and bends it backward until he dislocated it, letting out a howl at the POP it makes, almost hopping on one foot as he bends the finger back and forward, still damaged, but now in a position where it can heal correctly, “Fuck my cunt,” he curses under his breath from the pain.
Xiomara’s eyes flit between the Montroses as the clapbacks begin, a befuddled smile on her features. Her attention is drawn away when Kai curses, head turning as she looks to him. “…did you just injure yourself?” she demands of the young man, giving a sigh that is echoed with the white stone sighing in return.
55When the white stone sighs, Eloise presses it, and it remains illuminated. The soft rage is joined in choir with boredom, with ennui.
Despite the pain he’s in, Kai/i>/spanDespite the pain he’s in, Kai turns and walks over toward Dovie, he notices the vest she’s wearing, sighs, and tells Dovie, “Don’t… take this personally okay?” he asks and drops down to his hands and knees and drags himself forward and flips onto his back to look up her dress.
Kai sits up abruptly, pulling his gaze away from Dovie and hmms, he stands up and presses his lips together thoughtfully, “What do you call a cow with its legs cut off?” he asks Dovie, right after peering up her dress.
Dovie gives Kai a side eye while he gambits with his finger, and when he tells her not to take it personally, her head tilts, puzzled until she realizes what’s going on. “HEY!” she calls out loudly, stamping her champagne colored flat on the ground in a huff. “Kai Ashford, we are not in a whorehouse, sir!” she insists, angrily.
For a heartbeat – not that Mab can count them, she’s heartless – Matthew only holds her gaze, mirroring that icy stair back with his dusky one. There’s a tension there, a clash of cold fronts, until slowly, subtly, something softens.
The frost begins to melt from his features and what returns is that familiar, crooked Matty smile, fond despite of everything. Realizing they’ve drawn eyes he steps in closer, ton gentling as he leans in just slightly to Mab. “But y’know what they say,” he offers, half-apology tucked in the warmth of his voice, “a Montrose is a Montrose.”
“Uh?” Elliot asks and queries in utter puzzlement squinting. “Okay, so we have to do a bunch of stuff to satisfy the gate- Oh what the fuck?” That last bit, a cry of surprise as he watches Kai throw himself down to look up Dovie’s dress. “Jesus Christ,” he mutters in disbelief, rubbing his face. Those hands of his grip his cane and he slants his eyes down at the peeper.
Kai turns and points at Elliot, his pinky still a bit crooked on that hand, “Ground beef! What do you call a MASTURBATING cow?” he asks him instead, his brows lift up at the man in challenge.
Kai spins around to point at Arachne, “Beef strogannof!” he says before they can try to guess.
“…Kai, what are you doing,” Xiomara demands.
Arachne has been a silent observer to the slowly unfolding events, her brows arching high when Kai is suddenly naming food at her. Her head tilts to the side, mouth opening and closing, before she looks to Xiomara like she’d know.
Kai blows out a breath and turns toward Elliot, starting to stalk toward the man, “This is only going to be hard if you try to resist me, Elliot,” he tells the man, lifting his fingers in preparation, “Just stay still and help the cause.”
Eloise waves her hand a bit. “No, no, I think he’s on to something,” she offers from where she’s near the gate, “See? This one only stayed lit after being pressed when those two were cruel, and this one only stayed lit after being pressed when Mara was … well, Mara.”
“I think you should make out with him, Elliot,” Dovie offers to the Harrington. “Like really get into it. Wagging tongues and hugging and all? Maybe that will help.”
“Do not touch me,” Elliot warns Kai with a frown. “Because I will stab you. And then once I get better, I am going to hunt you down in a desperate attempt to remove either your lips or your tongue. Go flirt with someone else.”
Even though she started it, and was obviously trying to provoke something for the greater good, Mab absolutely does not accept Matthew’s attempts at reconciliation after. She totally fails to heed Kai’s advice to ‘not take it personally’. Instead, she holds her cousin’s gaze dead on and glares daggers into his own eyes. When he steps in to touch her, she steps closer as well, and whispers something to him.
… But then Kai makes his ‘beef stroganoff’ joke, and Mab can’t help but let her icy facade crack, turning to look at him and giggling girlishly.
The girlish giggle has the cerulean stone illuminating itself as well, and Eloise is quick to smack it. It remains on, adding joyous laughter to the chorus of rage and ennui.
Matthew/span murmurs something back to Mab and then he pulls back, a full smile that reaches into his eyes, a beam of love. Gross. That look is going right on over to Arachne next, checking in on her once more before looking to the group. “Why are we trying to make my crystals aroused?”
Kai stops once the stone illuminates after Mab’s giggle, causing a grin to split his face, “Nice… okay.. we need to scare and also to make someone cry, or at least sad,” he looks to Elliot, hmms and turns to Dovie instead, “Time to sacrifice the Orderite!” he says, out comes a throwing knife in one hand and he chucks it toward her, right toward her feet, “Don’t run!” he calls to her as he starts to jog her way, another knife tugged into his hand.
“Not aroused,” Eloise answers. She presses the lavender gem, which lets out a mourful sob, and then the mauve gem — a fearful whimper. Neither remain lit.
Dovie starts to fidget with her fidget spinner, the *whirr*-*whirr*-*whirr* getting progressively louder. When Elliot rejects Kai, the fidgeting gets more intense as she chews on her lip. “Are we… going to be stuck here forever?” Her eyes start to water and she sniffles at the thought, but when Kai chucks the knife towards her feet, the blade gets a little too close to her champagne flats, knicking part of the cloth.
And this? This is what sets off Dovie in earnest, a wail echoing out from Dovie’s mouth. “Those are VINTAGE!”
“Ha ha, your ugly shoes are ruined, now your outfit doesn’t match,” Kai sing songs as he strolls along toward Dovie, “You look poooor,” he tells her, tapping the flat of his knife against his thigh with a grin.
“I was trying to make Matthew cry, but he took it all personally,” Mab hypocritically states to Kai in an exasperated tone of voice and with a roll of her eyes, even though she’s very obviously still salty about it all. She turns her gaze over to Elliot, and then coldly suggests, “Kick his cane out from under him.”
40Wailing? Wailing? In the Plaza?
Dovie’s wail sends crystal birds scattering from glass trees, screaming in protest as they depart. And with the screech of birds that speak in suspiciously human voices comes an ominious *CLACK*.
“So we need to get someone to cry and someone to be in fear…” Elliot/i>/spanArachne palms softly at the side of her jawline, shifting a swaying step to bump a shoulder harmlessly into Xiomara. When Dovie begins to wail, she flinches, immediately snapping her head in the direction of her vassal and cousin, as she wails in, seemingly fear, as Elliot muses on it.
The cry dies in Dovie’s throat at those strange sounds, at that clack. She freezes, a tear rolling down her cheek in fear.
82It’s the tear that really seals it. Eloise pushes down the mauve button, which remains illuminated now that Dovie 82has been made soundly afraid. Poor Dovie.
Matthew/b>I would never.
Dovie gulps, wiping her face, trying to gaze at the stones to figure out which ones are lit and which ones are yet to be through watery eyes.
Staring at Kai, Elliot lifts his slurring voice confidently, puffing up his chest. “Kai,” he mutters, “You need to cry and sob. You need to do this for us. What happens if we die. You won’t see poor Sophie again. You won’t ever sleep with anyone or earn money, or see cool shit. Or even grow strong, and get what you want. Do this thing. Cry.”
“Did it work?” Kai asks, scratching at his damaged pinky, he bends down to retrieve his knife and tells Dovie, “Shoe. I’m still working on my aim,” he tells her and turns to the gate and turns back, “And about looking up your skirt. I didn’t really want to but it was fine.”
“I’m going to fire you if you don’t cry,” Mab helpfully adds, shooting Kai a stern look and sounding like she absolutely means it. Rolling her eyes, she then looks to Elliot. “Both of you, actually.”
“One of you cry, or you both get fired,” Mab decides, cutting her palms Kai and Elliot’s way through the air.
“Elliot for Christsake, just kiss Kai already! Or else we might die!” Dovie squeaks, her voice a loud whispered hiss. She wipes at her face. “I cried already! Eloise pushed a stone, there’s one more left. The lavendar one!”
Matthew motions towards Elliot and asks, “What does that one do for us, he’s crippled.” Like he hadn’t gone thorugh his own stint of being crippled.
“Lavender is sadness,” Xiomara comments absently, “The one Eloise pushed was fear.”
It starts as a little tremble at his chin, then a wiggle, then a wobble, and then his eyes fill with tears and his face grows red and he covers his hands with his face, weeping into his palms as his shoulders shack with sobs, Kai remains like that, weeping quietly, sniffling wetly as he tries to keep his expression hidden in his hands.
83Oddly enough, Kai’s 83weeping causes the final stone to light up. Eloise is quick to press it, adding grief to the chorus of ennui, rage, joy and fear.
Dovie/b>/span55With all five stones illuminated, a mechanism within the gate begins to grind together, and the cherubs are turned upside-down as the lock disengages. The gates swing inward…
Kai lets out a quiet little hiccup and turns his head to wipe his eyes off in the sleeve of his hoodie, snort-sniffling snot up as he tries to compose himself, shuddering as he trails after the group several steps in an effort to hide his embarrassment at this show of emotion.
“Eloise, what else do you know about this bridge, other than it being a Bridge?” Dovie/i>/span“That is what I do, Mister Montrose, instead of sulking around because pops doesn’t love me,” Elliot answers Matthew, ticking his way forward, a stumble and clumsiness still about him. “And, while I’m high off of all sorts of venom from… whatever those snakes have, I am no longer a cripple. I’m glad, however, that the cane deceives you so.” Mab is ignored and staring around, the towering man lets his dazed and fogged eyes flit this way and that, taking in his surroundings.
55Beyond the gate is an ephemeral mist, and Xiomara/i>55walks through it without fear of what it might be. Anyone who follows her is met with a refreshing coolness, one that ends when their feet step upon the metallic planks of a massive bridge. Each step brings a note, harmonic but loud enough to upset the birds. Luckily, they are already upset.
“This is the Singing Bridge. It serves as a main throughfare,” Eloise answers Dovie, “And it … well, it sings. There’s no information on what it leads to, it just … does lead to places. Usually not the place you’re looking for.”
Dovie/i>/spanKai looks to Dovie, his face still red, chin trembling, but he forces a little grin at her, “Sorry… I got a little overwhelmed, that was um… let’s not talk about it,” he murmurs to her quietly, deflated after his little breakdown.
Kai nods to Dovie solemnly after he whispers back to her, his little grin widening a bit.
“You have no need to apologize, Ashford, I psychically influenced you to cry,” Elliot bluntly tells Kai.
Out of seemingly nowhere, Dovie attempts to smack Kai on the side of his head.
Kai flinches even before Dovie’s smack lands and grimaces when it does, “Mm… ouch,” he looks to Elliot, “Yeah… yeah sure you did,” he nods to the man, shooting him a grateful little look.
Arachne widens her eyes at Dovie attempting to smack Kai in the head. “Violence isn’t necessary against our own people.”
“I’m growing tired of that clicking,” Xiomara admits, looking to the … sky? Is the sky above them all? The rain comes from beneath just as the vampire looks up. How strange.
Matthew’s features settle into an easy, passive smile, eyes on Elliot as the insult lands. For a beat, there’s a flicker, something sharp and reactive in his gaze like he might fire back, but he reins it in with practiced, Montrose ease. “Mab doesn’t know what she talkin’ about,” he says instaed, voice calm, his eyes lingering on Elliot just long enough to say you’re on that list too, even if it seems to start and end with Mab.
Matthew sits in the shadows of his tension for oen last breath, and then it’s all charm again. A loose laugh, a shake of his head and an apologietc, “My fault, bro. You right.”
“Don’t worry, he’ll live, and he was asking for it,” Dovie assures Arachne, glancing around at the strange surroundings.
The clicking does not stop. It simply grows louder, and soon the Singing Bridge is full of strange, crystalline … crabs? They climb from under the bridge, their giant claws clacking. Each is roughly the size of a golden retriever, and they do not look particularly friendly.
Despite having just ripped into her cousin in front of everyone, Mab flatly tells Elliot when he starts talking smack to Matthew, “Don’t talk to my cousin like that, Mr Harrington. He’s not yours to bully.” She directs her attention soon enough to the Singing Bridge, however, the melody upon it lighting up her frozen, bone-pale face. “It’s beautiful,” she croons, “but what does it say?” Soon enough, her icy stare pans towards the glyphs upon the clocktower, and she lifts up a long, taloned fingernail to point them out.
Kai inhales a wet sniff and nods at Dovie and Arachne, “True,” he says as he looks up and around as that clicking sound intensifies, he blinks a couple of times as he looks between them, starting to back away, his destination: behind Matthew, hazel-eyes scanning around himself, then above to check for any crawlies that could be overhead.
“I’m sure she doesn’t,” Elliot simply retorts, lifting his eyes upwards as he slowly drops to a knee. Out goes the revolver, the cane’s trigger is pressed and the spear is ready too. His gaze lowers, and he stares at the crabs that have appeared, eyes lowering towards the bridge to gauge how stable it is.
“If one bites me, Miss Montrose, I bite back. However, if it soothes your spirit, I can refrain from such,” he offers gracefully, though not daring to avert his gaze from the new enemies that have arrived. “Do forgive me for my trespasses, I’m not having a pleasing day. Or evening for that matter.”
Arachne continues her wide-eyed regard of Dovie, as though disbelieving she were capable of violence to begin with. That shock is short-lived, she draws in a breath, quietly turning her attention back to the Singing Bridge as they finally arrive upon it. Gray eyes drift, taking in the splendor of it all, as though she could commit every last detail to memory. She moves forward, never a pace away from the group, while Elliot, Matthew, and Mab continue their dialogue, mouth twitching just-so with a glance spared back at her family and subordinates.
Matthew is actually watching and paying attention to Kai for once, and maybe they may be locking onto the same idea. As the younger guy starts to duck behing the taller Montrose, he suddenly reaches out to hook his arm around the lad and sidle him over very close. “Hey man, we never finished talking,” he says, resting his other hand on Kai’s arm.
“Gah!” Kai yelps when Matthew suddenly grabs and manhandles him against his side, “What? Yeah, you’re right, but is now the time?!” he asks and then calls out, “Can any of you go real high pitched? Like -real- high pitched?” as he glances off toward one of the crystaline crabs.
40In the far distance, the clocktower ticks. It ticks at a regular pace.
“No one’s sure,” Eloise admits to Mab, before she is also eyeballing the crabs warily. One of them scuttles to the left. Then it scuttles to the right. And as it scuttles, the bridge seen through its shell seems to glitter.
Dovie/i>/spanArachne’s brows knit, hearing the altering of the ticks of the clocktower in the distance. Her head turns, swaying off a step to bump into Matthew, nearly stepping right into a craystalline crab scuttling underfoot. Her eyes widen, hands curving in a gesture between one of them, then pantomiming being a big knight, and hiding her face.
“Are you asking me to sing?” Mab asks Kai excitedly.
With Kai secured under Matthew’s arm, the pair are walking side by side nice and chummy like. Of course the Montrose seems to be steering and driving the course, looking like he may very well shove Kai at any time. Big crystaline crabs were not on this Montrose’s plans for the night. “I was going to say I need you to protect me tonight,” is what he shares, “So I’mma need you to stay right here, buddy.”
One of the crabs appears to phase through the bridge. It simply sinks out of existence as more rain comes. Another one scuttles onto the bridge anew. Or are they the same crab? It’s hard to tell. They are very crabby.
“Maybe!” Kai nods to Mab, he looks to the crabs, “Maybe not yet, I don’t… I just assumed they were going to swarm us,” he admits with a sheepish grin as he walks alongside Matthew, glancing up at the fellow, “Uhh yeah… sure…” he nods to the man uncertainly.
Glancing over, Elliot nods towards Mab, with a rolling shrug, lifting his hand to prepare his hand for something. And then he stops and tilts his head downwards. Gingerly, he touches the air, as if to pluck something from it, curiosity tinging his features. “Rain. Storms. Hmm.”
Well, Mab doesn’t need to be told twice, even if she was never exactly told once; it was only implied. Stepping forth in her stilettos, and never neglecting showmanship, she unfurls her bone-pale arms, clad in her opera gloves, and then turns towards the crystalline crabs, trilling out a single note in her saccharine soprano.
“Good,” Matthew enthuses of Kai, seeming to relax a little now that he’s got this protection from crystal crabs in place. He stalls them back a step when Mab steps forward, finger to mouth in a universal call for silence so that her voice may ring out.
Kai widens his eyes a bit at Matthew’s whisper and nods in understanding to the fellow.
95The rain begins to come down harder. Or come up harder? The rain continues to fall, but it continues to fall in a full storm from beneath the troupe upon the bridge. As the rain pelts them from below, Mab 95takes the stage. For a time, the crabs seem fascinated by the drama of the Vice President — until one of them begins to seem out of sorts. Many of them also seem out of sorts.
40Ultimately, the first one begins to crack, its crystalline shell spidering out. The rest scatter as this occurs, before they, too, can shatter. It seems Mab 40may have saved the group conflict with the Biringan crabs, though the remains of the crab that shattered are fairly small.
Still, beneath the crab’s shattered shell, the bridge glitters with a different image.
Xiomara/i/span/b is the first to begin applauding for Mab when the crabs begin to scatter. “Oh, brava. Talent. Exceptional.”
Dovie claps, her eyes wide as those crab shells shatter.
Matthew reaches down, attracted to shiny, and freeing Kai from the prison that was his arm; he reaches down and takes some of the crystal spider fragments, the first thing to be pillaged by the Montrose.
Nodding faintly, Elliot smiles a little as the rain falls harder, his eyes drifting towards the scattering crabs. “A beautiful performance, Vice President Montrose,” he comments, though his eyes shift towards the image upon the bridge.
Kai takes a cue from Matthew and bends down, searching for a likely bit of crystal to nick as a souvenir, even if it isn’t worth a damn thing.
Dovie sees Matthew and Kai trying to grab crab shell fragments, and decides to do the same. When in Rome…
Matthew is awful and shoots Kai a look -colonizer that he is- that says go find your own spot for crystals. Dovie is no exception.
“Thank you so much, darling,” Mab says to both Xiomara and Elliot, beaming their way as she crosses her hands over her heart. Still in the throes of her performance, she does not deign to stoop and collect any crab fragments, or really pay much attention to anything other than the glow of how much she obviously loves to perform.
“No need for thanks,” Elliot informs Mab, throwing her a smile. “I’m simply enthralled to witness your performance.” With a faint, slight warning, he tacks on, “Also, do watch out. Absolutely no clue if the storm in this weird place will start throwing lightning around yet or not. Made it grow, but, we’ll see how useful it is, if useful at all.”
someone little grab-goblin that he is, Matthew is scooping crystal shards with all the self-restraint of the birthday boy after the pinata’s popped – none, absolutely none. His hands are already too full when he fumbles, a few fragments slipping from his glass and hitting the ground.
Greedy little grab-goblin that he is, Matthew is scooping crystal shards with all the self-restraint of the birthday boy after the pinata’s popped – none, absolutely none. His hands are already too full when he fumbles, a few fragments slipping from his glass and hitting the ground.
Matthew stoops fast, muttering something under his breath, probably ‘mine’, but as he lifts one piece, his expression changes. Eyes narrow. He squints. Tilts it. And then suddenly he’s dumping teh whole glittering hoard on the floor.
Matthew says “Okay, Look, is anyone else seeing this, what are those markings through the crystals on the bridge?” “
Eloise comes forward to claim a piece of crystal herself once Matthew has dumped them back onto the bridge. “What do you mean?” she wonders, lifting the piece of crystal to her eye.
Kai did, despite Matthew’s look, nab that single bit of crystal to keep, he wanders off from the man and sticks near Dovie, though Matthew’s comment draws him away from whatever he was going to say to her to look around, searching for the markings as he moseys away from Dovie to peer down, “Hmm…”
Dovie isn’t able to grab any shells, alas. But she smirks when Matthew drops his, looking smug. “There an issue with them?”
Kai draws the crystal out of his hoodie pocket and holds it up to one eye, he closes his other and looks down at the bridge through the bit of crystal, to see if that changes his perception a bit.
“There was an image here of gold, and a script, but it disappeared once the crab shells were picked up,” Elliot answers after checking the ground for a second time. “Didn’t really see much of it, but, I would suggest not picking up random bits and baubles just yet, especially if we’re after a different artifact.”
“Use them like a little monocle, there’s secret shit,” Kai informs the group and leans down, turning his head as he tries to read what he can, “Which place were we looking for again?” he asks the group, an excited grin on his face. His pinky pops back into place on its own accord and he lets out a ragged little moan-cry of pain and relief, though it’s still red and swollen at the joint.
Only once the compliments for her singing die down does Mab start paying attention to her actual surroundings again. “Oh, I didn’t notice anything,” she unsurprisingly reveals, looking around in search of whatever golden script the others are referring to. “Do you mean the funny letters on the clock? I thought those were odd.” She lifts her gaze pointedly that way once again.
Only after others equipped to do the very necessary task of navigating this group out of here – cus Matthew certainly isn’t, he’s here for the promise of shinies- the Montrose goes ahead and scoops up more of those crystals, filling his pockets.
“The Whispering Vault,” Eloise answers, a soft exhalation escaping her as she studies the world through the crystal. “…it’s a map,” she murmurs, “Like the subway lines in Boston, but on the Bridge. No wonder no one ever knew which direction to go in…”
Dovie stoops to pick up a crab shell shard, peering through it to look around. “Fascinating…”
Arachne brushes a hand lightly to Dovie’s shoulder, gaze falling upon Kai as he makes use of the crystalline monocle to scout out signs of the vault. Her lips purse, scanning the horizon, before rocking back on her low-heeled boots.
“Mister and Misses..es Executives, I think I found it,” Kai says and starts to walk along the bridge, looking up now and then to try to /not/ walk off the bridge into endless falling or end up crushed many feet below the bridge, his walk takes him in a westerly direction, “Pretty far,” he admits, even as he puts one foot in front of the other.
Dovie smiles at Arachne as she looks through the shell. “This is amazing!” she delights again. “Let’s get started then, before something moves?”
“Oh good,” Mab cheerfully snaps to it, when Kai announces he’s found something. What exactly he’s found she seems a little short on awareness for, but she seems to trust the Assistant Shadow enough to to strut on after him in the direction of the Whispering Vault, doing her best to look important while doing very little of value at present.
Xiomara blinks slowly in her feline manner, watching as Eloise falls behind Kai, also looking through the crystal she holds. The Vasquez seems to deem it an acceptable path, shrugging to Mab as she joins the two on their westerly trek. “Perhaps we’ll get home in time for lunch,” she muses, flashing a fanged smile.
Arachne turns her head when Kai sounds off having discovered the vault, tapping Dovie’s shoulder and urging her along with a hint of elation. The sovereign continues forward, relegated to role of mute companion, gaze on the swivel.
Kai lifts his gaze now and then, but he’s mostly focused on finding the path, he glances over his shoulder to make sure he hasn’t just walked ahead like an idiot while the rest stayed behind. Once he’s confident he’s not on his own, though, he turns back to the task, moving at a brisk pace, though not quite a jog.
“Well no time like the present,” Matthew supposes, completely fine with following Kai’s lead as he settles in to walk lock and step with Mab. His hands settle loose and clasped behind his back.
Dovie walks along with the group, keeping at Arachne’s side, just in case.
The trip is a long one. Seconds turn into minutes, turn into tens of minutes, into a half-hour, but eventually the formless mist around the Singing Bridge eases up as Kai’s foot steps onto cobbles at what appears to be an end to the bridge.
Following along with the rest of the group, Elliot keeps his revolver and spear drawn and at the ready, revolver out forth, aimed in front of him, spear held aloft and forward too, holding it reverse style, in his hands.
Kai pauses and waits for the group, easing himself back a bit to be more the center, if not the back, once his little stint as scout comes to an end. He kisses the side of the crystal with a grin and tucks it into his hoodie for safe keeping.
55A great archway leads into the Vault, made of the same spectral stone present in the walls. The Singing Bridge leads right to this archway, allowing the group to step off of the harmonic, humming planks and onto the cobbles of the threshold. Eloise seems surprised by this, but then delighted, and hurries inside.
@me rolls her eyes as she watches.
Arachne knits her brows when Eloise rushes ahead of the group, but she makes no move to stop the woman. Instead, she transitions from the harmonizing planks to solid cobblestone ground, drifting along.
Warily, Elliot/i>/spanDovie follows Arachne onto the cobblestone, advising towards Elliot. “Electrolytes. Later, after all this,” she advises before looking around, her eyes wide.
Matthew watches on with mild interest and certainly no concern for Eloise, he instead stoops low and begins to study the surface underfoot itself.
Kai comments out of the corner of his mouth to Elliot, “Snake venom’s a helluva drug,” and waggles his brows, he turns his gaze forward however, watching to see if vipers or darts or some shit fly out to kill Eloise when she runs into the vault, staying back near the entrance for now, though he does peer around, and after a moment, he pulls his crystal out to peer through it as well, just in case.
Having been drifting after Eloise, Arachne turns her head to glance back at Elliot, then Matthew, as both men take a knee to study the ground. She glances back it, skimming over it briefly, before continuing on.
Mab’s been eyeing Arachne for a while, but only now as they enter the vault does she find a moment to try and catch up with her. “Cat got your tongue?” she asks, “you haven’t said a word since we got here. Or even before, to be frank.”
Soon enough, however, Mab’s focus turns towards the glass statue, and her lips fall agape to admire its image. “Who is that?” she inquires of Eloise, and then looks to Xiomara as well. “Who are any of these, in fact?”
kai The only thing special in this that can be seen through the crystal crab is the statue. Where a heart would be in a living person, the statue’s star matter pulses in rhythm.
“Are you going to force me to-” Elliot begins, trying to purr out his voice in a husky fashion, though, instead, it comes out a bit slurred. And it stops, as soon as the man hears his own voice. Turning his gaze he huffs out at Kai, “Wasn’t my damn choice. I was trying to do something else to assist the Hand… and then go back to Harrington Manor.”
Xiomara gives Mab a befuddled shrug, her focus on the portraits upon the walls. Eloise has more details: “The portraits are probably of the men who owned the Vault when Biringan was still lived in,” she explains, taking a closer look at the statue.
Matthew runs his hand along the surface, it’s glittery and he clearly appreciates that, but alas whatever he sought is abandoned with a small pat-pat to the surface. In the next moment he’s standing and looking about, back at Eloise.
Kai lifts the hand not holding the crystal to point at the glass statue, “There’s some kind of… thingy in its chest,” he declares, “Like… the stars in it are alive. Beating like a heart,” he advises the group, he remains back where he is though, his back a bit straight, hairs on the back of his neck prickling just a bit as he looks around.
Something in the air shifts.
One moment, the Vault is inhabited by the movement of only the Delvers, and the next comes with the statue shifting its large arm. It leans forward, towering at seven feet, to gaze at Mab. Or is it gazing? It has no face, only galaxies beneath is crystal skin.
From within the mind, everyone remembers that something was said: 18I cannot be bartered for, Liege. But who said it? When was it said? The memory is just … there.
Dovie’s/i>/spanArachne cuts her eyes toward Mab, skimming over the woman’s features before plush lips move to form words that her vocal chords supply no sound for. “If I could talk, I would, and it would be to tell you off. But alas, it’ll just wait another day.”
Whatever she’s saying, it’s all forgotten as the atmosphere within the vault shifts and one of the statues bends down to Mab’s level directly.
Her head tilts, features arranging themselves into frustration for her lack of voice, and inability to communicate.
Tilting his head, Elliot stares at the statue, and then at Mab with utter confusion. That gaze of his trickles back and forth and back again, eyebrows knitting together. And then concern wracks his face as Arachne tries to speak.
“What were we here for again? …” Mab distractedly asks, although her eyes are fixated solely on the androgynous statue and its cosmic interior, which she admires with a glittering gaze. After all, what are the Montroses but star-chasers? “Some kind of … potion, wasn’t it? It had a fancy name. Alembic? I think that means potion … Is this the alembic here in her chest?” (Forgive Mab — she is very, very old, and whilst ‘they’ would be more appropriate for the androgynous figure, she assumes it to be a ‘she’ compared to the more obviously male portraits.)
Mab steps towards that cosmic figure, lifting her hand towards their own as they bend their towering form towards her. “You are far too beautiful to be hidden away,” she tells them, “come away with me, where you might be rightly admired.”
Kai moves a half step back as that voice enters his mind, he blinks a few times, a flutter of his lashes as he takes in what just occurred and glances from the statue to Mab and then to Xiomara, then off to Arachne, seeing if they have any ideas.
Matthew greets the cosmic figures with a smile and upward facing smile.
18I am That Which Remains. Again, the voice is not heard. The memory of the words being said simply are present in the minds of those around the statue. It straightens again. 18I guard what was left behind. You seek an alembic. Of this, I have some.
It steps to the side, blocking the stairwell entirely. 18Only the worthy may see what was left behind.
“How do we prove we are worthy?” is asked to the air by Elliot/i/i>/span18It is not moral trivialities that indicate worth. It is Knowledge.
Arachne purses her lips faintly while she listens to voice that echoes from, seemingly, nowhere. An arm bends, gently nudging at Elliot in the ribs.
A starlit hand lifts, splaying three fingers. And then, a riddle is pressed into the memories of those present:
will follow you always,
Yet you will never see me first.
I grow with your silence,
And die when you’re heard.
What am I?
Matthew/i>/spanArachne immediately widens her eyes, gently shaking Elliot’s arm, before taking him by the hand and drawing the letters E C H O on his palm, then points toward the stalit hand, and its three fingerse splayed.
Turning his gaze over, Elliot blinks at Arachne, tilting his head as he stares at her questioningly, dipping his chin. He grunts a little and coughs from the nudge to his ribs, taking a moment to spit more out, until he notes the woman’s fingers drawing. “Echo?” he asks in puzzlement.
18Incorrect.
Mab’s/i>/spanDovie adds another guess, “Your thoughts?”
Mab turns to look at Kai expectantly, like it’s his job to solve riddles here.
Arachne knits her brows when her, then Mab’s guesses, are wrong. Her head tilts, hearing Dovie, before bobbing her head a few times in quiet consideration.
18Incorrect. Weight hangs in the air as Dovie’s guess is also deemed inaccurate.
Kai glances to Dovie and then to the statue to see if there’s any indication she’s right, he glances to Mab and he presses his lips together, his eyes close as he thinks.
Dovie/i>/span“Breath?” Kai asks after a moment.
Eloise seems to be thinking as well, her brow furrowed. “…how many of these do we have to answer?” she wonders, which is met with the memory of 18Three.
18Incorrect.
Kai grimaces and presses his hands in front of himself as if praying.
Dovie/i/i>/spanArachne takes Elliot’s hand, spelling out F E A R on his palm with the tip of her finger.
18Incorrect.
“Past trauma,” Mab/i>/span“Pulse? Heartbeat pulse?” Kai asks.
…for a time, there is silence. Then: 18Traumatic experiences can cause this answer as those who crave contact are left adrift.
“I don’t think fear dies when you’re heard,” Elliot/i>/span“Ahhh, trauma…” Dovie murmurs.
“Oh!” Mab perks up, “grief.”
“Loneliness,” calls out Eloise, only after the clue has been given.
Arachne quietly spells out S I L E N C E on Elliot’s palm.
Whether it is Loneliness or Grief is anyone’s guess. As both voices speak their suggestions, a memory emerges: 18Correct.
18I am felt but not held,
I vanish when named,
Yet I shape every choice,
And bury the brave.
What am I?
You don’t get to where Mab/i/i>/spanNothing is said before 18Correct. impresses it into the mind.
18Fear. The silent one was prepared.
Xiomara/i/i>/spanKai nods to Arachne in approval, a little grin on his face.
Mab then turns to grin at Arachne, clearly just as happy with any other Montrose’s successes.
Silence is left to blossom for a time, the statue having put down two of its fingers. A single one remains.
18I weigh nothing,
Yet drag you beneath.
I bloom in regret,
And suffocate peace.
What am I?
18Correct.
Kai gives a little pump of his fist into the ear and grins all the wider.
Arachne returns Xiomara’s fanged smile with a tired one of her own, the sovereign lifting her gaze expectantly toward the statue as the final riddle is given. She barely has a chance to process it, before it’s already answered, mouthing one lone word.
Kai probably punched the air, not himself in the ear.
Dovie/i/i>/spanThe final finger is put down, and the statue moves back to the side to reaveal the stairs that lead into the mist below. Once more, the crystalline figure becomes inert, stars flickering into life and dying moments later within its strange, glass body.
“Wow,” Elliot mutters, giving a look across the group, “Answering this before I can even mull over it.” Eyes trail in concern towards Arachne, and his voice quietly rings out, “Did someone mute you? Do you want me to hit them?”
Arachne allows a heavy sigh to pass softly parted lips when Elliot questions her lack of speech, leveling him with an ice-eyed stare, before pointedly returning her attention to the looming statue in front of them. Her lashes dip the slightest, eyes darkening with an unreadable emotion for the briefest moment before her chin tilts up, making a light gesture with her hand.
Matthew finally unwinds from his crystal shiny revelry, turning to the group acting like he’s been helping out with these riddles rather than getting lost in shines.
This time, Eloise seems less willing to just willy-nilly strut down the freshly accessible staircase. She looks at it warily, then aside at Xiomara. Luckily, the Vasquez seems to have no fear. She makes her way down the stairs, pausing after a few steps to look back. “Are we going, darlings?”
Kai after a few seconds turn into about a minute of self-reflection, he takes his crystal out once more and lifts it up to his eye to look at the statue again to see if anything’s changed since the riddle was answered.
Dovie nods, waiting for Arachne before setting down the stairs. “Yes, let’s. Let’s get what we came here for, we can unpack the rest after.”
“Let’s,” Mab concurs, but she tries to hold Arachne and Matthew back so that everyone else can step down first, clocking Eloise’s uncertainty.
“Hmm…” Kai looks to Eloise and nods slowly, he steps forward, glancing at the others in the group and glances up to the statue, murmuring to it, “Those were fun. Your heart’s pretty cool looking too,” with a little grin up at it, his hazel eyes bright as he takes to the stairs, deciding to go ahead of the Vice President, the Court… leader, and Matthew when Mab holds them back. As he descends, he holds up the crystal and walks a bit slower to look at things through the ‘lens’ as well as his normal vision.
Matthew has been walking in step with his cousins all night. Be it Mab or Arachne, it’s never hard to keep him back. The tallest and oldest looking Montrose settles with crossed arms.
Letting his lips squirm, Elliot nods and shrugs off the look given to him, eyes shifting towards the statue. Stepping forward, he makes his way down, ticking and tacking his spear cane in front of him, warily, but still does he move and wobble his way forth.
Arachne is the Sovereign of the Illusium Court, the Head of Whispering Hand, and tiredly touching her hand to Mab’s protective arm buffering her from continuing. She shakes her head once, continuing, but certainly not leading the charge.
It is Xiomara who leads the charge. Probably good, since the Argentine has done very little else on this trip aside from look around and make periodic comments. As the group descend the stairs, the mist begins to fade. Or it begins to become walls? It’s hard to tell, as the chamber they find themselves in lacks surfaces for walls.
Dovie’s eyes are wide as she looks around, admiring the grand chandelier. “Beautiful…” she murmurs, looking around, trying to absorb the strange place. “Is the… is the thing here?”
82Shelves, tables, buffets; across the chamber, surfaces hold glittering coins, gleaming crystals, and strange artifacts. Despite what was said by the echo above, only one appears to be an alembic: made of crystal and brass, of clockwork and glass, it sits near the center of the chamber, with a residue of reagents about it and books with recipes.
Kai is all grins and wide eyes as he descendes the stairs, his gaze drawn eventually to the chandelier and he hangs back a few steps up for what could be called the floor of this place. Upon seeing all the other stuff in the room, he takes a couple more steps foward andwets his lips.
Mab/b>/span40It would be hard to tell if someone were screaming in pain. Footsteps fail to echo as the group comes to the base of the stairs. Only their voices can be heard, but they do not carry; they die as quickly as the words are formed, leaving nothing behind that the words were spoken except memories.
Holding back, Elliot/i>/spanMatthew comes down last of all with is most gentlemanly, lady’s first charm.
Arachne relishes the silence that greets them as the group descends down into the chamber, gray eyes trailing over crystal cobbles, then up toward mists encircling the perimeter of the chamber. She wanders only but a few steps away, taking in the various effects laid across the tables, but touches nothing.
“Alembic,” Dovie repeats, and spotting a clockwork thing-a-ma-do-hickey, her instinct is to, against potential caution or self preservation, step towards it. She points, taking steps closer and closer to the center of the chamber. “This?”
How bizarre. As the group is looking over the various items, some fish swim through one wall. They move through the air, and out another wall.
Kai rolls the bit of crystal around in his hand and takes a couple half steps toward some of the books before he stops, visibly trying to prevent himself from moving forward and eventually stuffs his hands into his hoodie pocket to resist temptation allt he more.
Kai pulls a hand out of his pocket, and in his hand is his phone, he tries to take a picture of the fish as it passes.
Where has Xiomara gone? Eloise remains, but the Vasquez has disappeared somewhere further in the vault. Miss DuBerry approaches the alembic and begins to lift the pieces of it from the table it sits on, breathing out very carefully. “Beautiful,” she murmurs, “This is it.”
“I think that’s it,” Mab concurs to Dovie, and glances back at Xiomara and Eloise to check, before looking back at the room. “Well, nothing more for it. I suppose we grab that and make it back to the Mirrorgate?” But the way she’s gazing about the room, she’s visibly considering alternatives right now, like a thief casing a vault.
The alembic is tucked gingerly into Eloise’s bag. This gives people chances to take some things, since they aren’t leaving immediately.
Kai tucks his phone into his pocket and looks at the other items in the room, the ghostly and/or weird fish linger in his mind though and he takes a few steps back, starting to ascend the stairs once more.
Dovie finds herself drawn to gleaming crystals. She spends a few moments, deciding on which one she likes the best before taking it and- well, tucking it away in her bag…
40If an item is taken, please remember that Biringan is a weird crystal city. Most things are probably crystalline, if not directly currency of some sort. Be creative; claim a souvenir!
Wariness lines Elliot’s/i>/spanMatthew is a step behind Dovie and when he sees her snatching up one of the crystals it sees him moving in to sidle up next to her. “Hey,” he murmurs quietly, “I heard you’re gonna be on the Bachelor…”
Dovie grabs a crystalline hand mirror as well. She stuffs it away and turns quickly to Matthew. “Hmmm? Oh yes, I am! I’m quite excited, you?”
Turning to Matthew, Mab sweetly asks him, “Matty, dear, could we collect the statue upstairs and put it in our living room?”
Kai looks warily between Elliot and Dovie, when they don’t seem to burst into flame or become riddled with arrows, he jogs down to one of the books he was eyeballing earlier and snatches it up, then retreats to the stairs.
Matthew nods, offering up a wide grin, “I’ll be there for sure.” Content with the exchange he breaks away just in time for Mab to make her request. “Sure,” he is more than happy to try.
Matthew doesn’t believe Mab is stronger than him.
This is going to end in definite disaster for Mab and Matthew.
There is a beautiful, stunning, gorgeous fox nestled amongst other crystals. It glistens with the whole spectrum of light.
The bow of Arachne’s mouth curves into something just sigh of sweet when Elliot’s thoughts are shaped by polls, rather than greed, a hand lifting to tuck a loose curl behind an ear while Mab and Matthew browse for something themselves.
Luckily! Mab espies something else out the corner of her eye that catches her attention. And after letting out a little gasp, she forgets they’re supposed to be stealing a seven foot statue, and teeters over that way to cradle it fondly in her manicured hands. It seems her distaste for dogs does not extend to crystal foxes.
40As people find little souvenirs for themselves, something strange begins to happen. The ‘walls’ begin to lose form. The mist begins to sink, to flow. And then the chandelier comes crashing down at the center of the room with a loud shatter.
“Oh my fuck!” Kai/i>/spanDovie gasps as the chandelier crashes down, her hands instinctively covering her face to at least protect the most sacred of all parts…
Matthew is mesmerized by that fox, but he settles for snatching something – anything he can grab – once the mist starts flowing and Arachne turns to flee, he looks for Mab, “Mab, let’s go, now!”
From deeper in the chamber comes Xiomara, her heels removed as she sprints across the glass cobbles. She’s stuffing something into her bag, seeming irritated as she swears in Spanish. She joins Arachne and Mab in escaping the destabilizing chamber. “Adelante!” she demands of everyone.
Yanking his strange instrument into his hand, via the hooked cane, Elliot shoves it into his backpack before dashing forward into a sprint.
There is no use in attempting to try and warn the group when Arachne’s unable to produce sound, so she instead turns and visually signals it’s time to go. She’s the first up the stairs, gone in a streak of caramel blonde and black leather, only glancing back to ensure her family, at the very least, is able to get out.
When Mab sees that Xiomara has removed her stilettos, her heavily made-up face is stricken with shock; she seems to realise that this can only mean that things have gotten really serious.
However, Mab still refuses to remove her own. In point of fact, she was told explicitly by Xiomara that she would not have to.
Or else Mab wouldn’t have come!
It is true! Mab was told she does not have to remove her heels, and so Xiomara says nothing as she dashes up the stairs herself. It seems it’s very easy to get up the stairs; it was avoiding the broken chandelier that really was the hardest part. And motivating Mab.
40At the base of the stairs is Eloise’s bag. Eloise, however, is not there. It seems she did not succeed in escaping the crashing chandelier, as evidenced by the blood that begins to pool from the crystalline edges. Still, someone should likely grab the bag; it has the artifact.
Kai jogs up the stairs, he hesitates to make sure Mab and Arachne come along. Afterall, if he escapes and the execs from the Hand don’t, there will be questions. While looking back, he spots the bag and almost points to the Montroses to get it, decides better of it and descends to scoop it up, waiting for the three to join him before running.
“Mab Move!” Matthew/i>/spanDovie turns a head over her shoulder, her face scratched minorly by the crystals. She gasps to see the pool of blood. “Eloise!!” But it seems self-preservation is the name of the game and she does not backtrack, only moving forward with the pack.
“Mab Move!” Matthew barks at Mab but of course she isn’t listening to a word he says. Once more he’s a gentleman like ladie’s first. The last one out and prefectly fine skipping past Eloise, but not without sniping up that bag with the goods.
Mab’s still staring at Xiomara’s feet as they run, gloom descending upon her features. She looks a lot more upset that the CHRO has removed her heels than she does that someone died back there.
The stairs begin to disintegrate as Matthew leaves them, truly the most gentlemanly in last place. Curiously, the statue is no longer present in the Whispering Vault. Portraits have begun to crash down, as stones from the ceiling impact the cobble floor.
Arachne was the first to emerge, present and accounted for, as Kai starts counting heads. She, herself, looks back, realizing Mab is the last to be accounted for with Xiomara dragging her along. When Eloise is not present, she inhales a slow breath, then turns, running her fingers through her hair.
“We have to get out of here!” Dovie insists to the group. There’s no time for regrets now. “Go, go, go!” she exhorts the group.
Kai glances at Elliot, “You able to run cause we gotta get the fuck out of here before we cease to exist,” he tells the man, picking up speed to sprint, rather than jog, now that they’re out. While he asked Elliot, he doesn’t seem keen on sticking around to help the tall man.
Matthew scrambles up to the top of the stairs without much grace, but he’s got the bag, the goods, and that’s what counts.
Xiomara barely misses a falling stone, giving a hiss in its direction as it shatters upon the floor. It takes little effort for Dovie to encourage her to dash from the Vault. It seems she is not one to wait for her companions.
Following behind, Elliot continues to dart forward, in a desperate attempt to shrug off any falling debris that lands on him. “Yeah, keep moving forward, don’t worry about me.”
Kai eventually some semblance of guilt or loyalty or ambition causes him to slow down and he mutters under his breath as he tries to thicken the air around the group to give a little extra protection to everyone.
Even around the bridge, Biringan seems to be melting. As the group escapes onto the Singing Bridge, there is an awful screeching sound … the sound of bridge infrastructure starting to collapse.
Kai slowing down puts him perilously close to the end of the bridge as it begins collapsing.
Mab’s love for her family is revealed when she exclaims in alarm to Matthew, “Matty, your watch!” She still doesn’t seem to have even noticed Eloise is gone.
“Ooooh fuck,” Kai shouts as he tries to pick up his pace again. He looks over his shoulder, sees what’s behind (or not) and starts to all out sprint, giving up on his more active defenses (the thickening of air and his force shield).
55Running on the Singing Bridge is quite easy. It’s basically a long, long stretch of … well, nothing.
The crack of a stone against Matthew’s/i>/spanFor once in her life, Dovie has found her inner runner. Or maybe it’s the thought of ending up like Eloise that makes her continue. Unused to being athletic, she slows down into a walk, but the bridge seems… okay so far. “We can do it!” she calls out to her companions.
It is actually Dovie who finds the open gate first, and so Dovie is the first one able to enter the plaza of the Glass Choir.
“It’s fine Mab, I wore my peasant clothes today!” Matthew claims, like he wasn’t trying to protect his things.
Dovie gets to the open gate, but she waits for Arachne first, just in case.
Arachne is right with the group, just barely, zipping through.
Proceeding forward, Elliot growls as he darts, across the bridge, “For the love of all that’s holy, Ashford, don’t make me hypnotize you to run faster.”
Kai glances at Elliot and grins sheepishly as he continues to jog, panting heavily and sweating freely now.
As the world around them continues to become incorporeal, 48liminal, 46spectral, 44ruinous, the group finds themselves back in the plaza they arrived in. There is no further concern from Xiomara/i/i>/spanMatthew assumes he does when he holds up the bag that he swiped from poor Eloise. “Yeah, that girl was too slow so I took it,” he callously informs, holding the goods up to be claimed. “Assuming this is it?”
A silver lining! Xiomara whirls around to look at the bag. “Oh, Matthew. I could kiss you,” she states, before initiating the mirror.
40OOC: Please give the StoryRunner a moment to figure out how to mirrorgate back to the Hand Base.
Kai pants softly and looks to Xiomara, though he glances Mab and Arachne’s way as well, “Did I uh… do okay?” he asks and wipes some sweat from his brow before tucking his hands into his pocket of his hoodie.
Matthew/i>/span“You did great,” Mab gushes, for both Kai and Matthew’s benefit. But she seems a little more curious about side-eyeing Matthew and Xiomara’s exchange right now, and soon gets back to that.
Dovie turns towards Arachne. “Are you alright? Hurt at all?”
Matthew then presntes his cheek, fully expecting a kiss.
Arachne is stooped over, hands braced against the tops of her knees as she struggles to catch her breath. A glance is cast over toward Kai, tipping her chin once before she straightens up, wiping her hand against her forehead. At Dovie’s concern, she shakes her head, mouth curving in quiet reassurance.
After having arrived, Elliot nods over towards Matthew before lowering himself to spit again, coughing a little. An inhale and exhale later, and he’s rising, wobbling all the while, on to his cane, having only managed to scramble his way around like some sort of frightened prey animal. “Never… again,” he mutters nigh on incoherently. “Need to figure out where my bedroom is. And not die in the mists.”
“Hand, don’t forget to make your contributions to our vault after,” Mab says, but gives Dovie a narrow-eyed look when she says it. After all, she isn’t Coretech … yet?