simulsimul | another thing; w/ fafnirs and skeletonenigma; cw for suicide talk

[Skulduggery's tone may not have said much, but the fact that he had to watch after the angel for that long is amusing in itself, and has its own weight. Kratos chuckles softly at it, tucking the book into his belt.]

Earth, yes.

[He beckons Skulduggery follow, leading him through warp after descending warp until they arrive on a platform only a short walk over a bridge to the warp connected to the moon. It's marked differently than the rest -- each of the warps are marked, in fact, with their height and location on the axis compared to the city's centre.

[When they arrive at the warp, a couple of engineers are counting the parts needed for the warp Kratos intends to take to Earth. One stands to bow, while the other begins putting the pieces into a wingpack for ease of carry.]

Lord Kratos. We're just about prepared. Is there anything you need before you depart?

[Kratos shakes his head.]

No, this is everything. Maintain orbit. And have someone scan the solar system for aionis.

[Skulduggery has a good visual memory. He did even when he was alive, but removing the physical limitations of a brain goes a long way towards granting perfect visual memory, capable of memorising entire maps at a glance. Skulduggery would have said it was perfect, in fact, except that Derris-Kharlan -- Welgaia -- is confounding. The route they're taking through the teleportation pads is straightforward enough, but Skulduggery isn't confident he could find his way back if he got lost. That's a new feeling.

Fletcher Renn wouldn't be happy about the teleportation pads. Being the last natural-born Teleporter in the world is pretty much the only thing the lad has going for him.

One of the things Skulduggery isn't is an engineer, so initially he's paying more attention to the language being spoken than whatever the engineering project is. That changes when the angel starts putting fairly large bits and pieces into something smaller than the palm of his hand, rather like Mary Poppins if Mary Poppins had feathered wings. Skulduggery stares for a moment, head tilted to the side, then murmurs:] That's convenient.

[Would it work on living things? It might have been nice to have somewhere to store the Remnant who possessed Kenspeckle which wasn't an extremely breakable crystal ball.]

Are we taking that with us?

[To be fair, most cities on Earth also don't allow for travel on a three-dimensional axis. An observant skeleton might notice, however, that the layout is something akin to the pattern of petals on a flower -- or a crystal.

[Kratos turns toward Skulduggery, head-tipped in a similar manner, and follows Skulduggery's gesture toward the rapidly vanishing parts of the warp-pad.]

To Earth? Yes. That.

[He points to the warp-pad leading to the moon.]

So we can leave, after -- to Derris-Kharlan. And leave Derris-Kharlan to Earth.

[For ease of transport. It's going to get very old, very fast, having to navigate the debris-field in orbit, otherwise. The other engineer rises and salutes Kratos, and Kratos accepts the wing-pack, attaching it to his belt beside the one which carries his sword and shield. Then he extends his arm toward the warp, turned toward Skulduggery, in an 'after you' motion.]

[A teleportation pad, specifically to put together on Earth -- probably in Skulduggery's back yard. Interesting. It would let him take Valkyrie, Tanith, or Ghastly into Derris-Kharlan so they can see it for themselves, which means he has no real reason to object to the plan. But something strikes him as dangerous, having a direct connection to the asteroid so readily available. Kratos still hasn't seen how selfish, greedy, power-hungry, and downright stupid some sorcerers can be.

For now, though, they're going back the way they came. Skulduggery can't tell if he's looking forward to it or not. The sight of the planet from space had been breathtaking, but also paralysing, and probably very bad for whatever magic's keeping his consciousness glued to his bones. Maybe he can keep his metaphorical eyes shut for the journey back.

First it's back through the teleportation pad to the moon, where there's localised gravity but no atmosphere. Then it's back into the sky -- into space -- and the closer they get to Earth, the easier it gets to tell that the small island west of the slightly bigger island is definitely experiencing morning. It's bathed in the light of the sun.

Metaphorical eyes shut. Where did Skulduggery leave the charger for his phone? He can't remember. Must still be in the house somewhere.]

[They paused on the moon just long enough for Kratos to give some orders regarding the search for aionis -- and, belatedly, materials which might burn hot enough to melt it. There is no reason to believe another Eternal Ring needs to be forged, but Kratos prefers to be thorough.

[One of the scientists shoves some equipment into his hands to test the soil around Skulduggery's island, with the reasoning that the mana-dense areas of the planet are more likely to yield results. It's logical enough, but Kratos hands these off to Skulduggery so he can carry Skulduggery during the flight.

[Then it's up through the moon's dust-cloud and toward the debris field as a flash of light. The planet's rotation has progressed enough that Kratos has to come at it from a long arc, matching the speed and trajectory of the majority of the debris; even still, Guardian flares a few times before they're low enough in orbit to be clear of the field. By that point they're on the cusp of sunlight and the star blooms bright around the planet's curve; Kratos shuts off his eyesight and navigates his way down using his sense of light and the planet's electric field.

[Soon enough air-mana rises up around them as they descend into the atmosphere, and gravity's pull is directed more into the planet's ground than around its orbit. The morning is still early, but it's late enough that with the atmosphere the sun's glare is dulled, turning the sky brilliant blue. Sight goes on again, and Kratos coasts lower, shaking off his higher wings for the more subtle blue shards, searching the unfamiliar terrain for the landmarks he'd noted in the dark. Which all look very different, now.

[... Possibly he should ask. He sends Skulduggery a gentle prodding query for direction.]

[When Skulduggery can feel the air pressing in around him again, malleable and familiar, he opens the eyes he doesn't have and takes no extra time to adjust to the sharp light of morning. There are times he prefers being dead, and this is one of them.

The center of Dublin is visible off to their left, pinpricks of tall buildings among leafy green foliage. Skulduggery doesn't usually fly this high on his own, and he avoids airplanes as a general rule, so it takes him a moment or two of further descent before he answers the unspoken question in his head.]

Right.

[He gestures in that direction, as much as what he's carrying will let him.]

Did the thesaurus happen to have compass directions in it? North, south, east west? [A pause.] Would you to be able to tell which way's which, even if it did?

[Kratos sends over a mental affirmative. There's air to speak, now, but they're still moving fast enough that bothering to breathe to speak aloud would be impractical, especially when he doesn't know how sharp Skulduggery's hearing is.

[The book does have a page like that -- and Kratos can tell directions using a planet's electrical field. But while the page had indicated that 'north' was 'up', rather emphatically, knowing that is useless to him without knowing which direction the people from Earth consider 'upwards'.

[This is sent as a follow up, a vague sense of dissatisfaction at not knowing which of the cardinal points is most valuable to them. On Aselia, the leading cardinal point is east -- due to the rising of the sun and the magnetic pole created by the Tree on the Holy Ground.

[Earth's magnetism should, at least, be easy to figure out. Kratos's next unspoken query is which direction the sun rises here on Earth. From there, he should be able to figure out the rest; there is a definite magnetic pole at cross angles to the rising sun.]

[It's a strange sensation, listening for answers that don't come verbally or visually. They come instead as ideas. And Skulduggery's used to ignoring ideas that aren't immediately relevant to the situation at hand, which makes pinpointing the foreign ideas even more of an interesting task.

A 'yes', he gathers, followed by vague irritation which isn't quite irritation, centred around -- ah. The thesaurus wasn't specific enough. Skulduggery can't help laughing. Kratos didn't know a single word of English a few hours ago, and now he's irritated because the childrens' thesaurus doesn't have enough detail in it.]

East. It rises in the east, and sets in the west. My house is west of Dublin. [Another gesture.] That way.

[Ah; that makes things clearer. Kratos sends over acknowledgement and tips his wings just enough to orient them properly, and they continue their descent. Unspoken, Kratos broadcasts his present sense of the planet; of the bloom of light-mana to the east, and the low electrical hum of the magnetic pole directed into the earth to the north.

[His next mental communication has an actual word on it, the first so far. Earth.

[The present-sense broadcast fades, to be replaced by one of a memory: that of the sun-bloom again to the east, but overlaid on a magnetic pole in a combination which feels like a fountain sending lightning and light washing across the whole of the horizon. Aselia.]

[Communication is so much more effective when you don't have to try to put feelings into words, especially since the feelings Kratos is trying to describe use senses Skulduggery doesn't have. Apart from his wings, Kratos looks completely human. Getting a firsthand glimpse into his mind is the first real indication Skulduggery has that he's dealing with someone utterly alien.

You know, just in case the brief foray into space wasn't enough to convince him.

Skulduggery doesn't answer, focusing instead on the scenery passing below them. Kratos is keeping away from the populated areas, he's happy to see. Something might still be picking them up, radar or even a Sensitive, but if anyone is capable of understanding what they've seen, Skulduggery can cross that bridge when it tries to kill him.

They reach his house without any encountering any murderous bridges, and the moment they've touched down Skulduggery goes inside to charge his mobile and find out what time it is. Not bad; they've been in space an hour or two longer than he thought, but it is still morning, and hopefully no one's panicking too badly about Skulduggery's unplanned disappearance.]

[When they landed in the backyard Kratos took the utensils from Skulduggery and took a few samples of the soil right there. He didn't follow Skulduggery in right away, but had a look at the ground, and then surveyed the meadows leading out behind the house, judging visibility.

[Hm. No. Inside would be best; surely Skulduggery, being a skeleton, didn't use all the rooms in his house. Kratos went inside, walking through the rooms to find one that was empty, and big enough to take a warp-pad.

[Yes; this empty bedroom would do. The window faced the meadows, and with the curtains pulled it should suffice. Kratos put down the utensils on the bureau outside and reached for the wingpack to bring out the parts of the warp, putting it together with a casual ease of familiarity. The final piece was crystal -- not an exsphere; just a regulator -- which he slotted into one of the seams. The warp-pad lit up with a glow; Kratos stepped through it back to Derris-Kharlan to hand off the utensils.

[Then Kratos returned to Skulduggery's house and left the room to find the skeleton to ask whether he minded having a couple of angelic guards in the house.]

Skulduggery.

[Valkyrie, predictably, is offended. From the way she reacts when he calls, Skulduggery suspects she was in trouble. More trouble than she meant to be in, from the sounds of it. She's alive, and she has enough energy to be offended, so chances are everything went well, but Skulduggery offers to go pick her up anyway. It's high time she told him what she's hiding.

He sends Ghastly a message that they'll meet him at his shop, and he's thumbing through a few other missed calls when Kratos comes looking for him.]

Kratos, good timing. I need to go talk to my student, and then reassure Ghastly I'm not dead. [Pause.] Deader. Do you want to come with me, or stay here?

[It takes a moment to sort through Skulduggery's words to what's actually important and comprehensible, but then Kratos nods.]

I'll come. Skulduggery. Angels come here to --

[He pauses, searching for the right words, and then beckons Skulduggery to follow. He takes him to the room where he's set up the warp.]

Angels to see the warp --

[It's in angelic, the 'warp'. He isn't sure 'see' is the correct word either, but it's the nearest he knows.]

When I -- we -- are not here. Please?

[It is a request for permission, as much to keep them on the same page; 'please' is the only word he knows for this sort of request.]

[Skulduggery's predisposed to trouble. 'Angels come here to --' has him mentally tensing, ready to hear bad news -- enemy angels invading, or some of the angels who are still developing morals deciding to go rogue and kidnap a few people. It would be on par with the sort of luck he's had lately.

But no. Kratos leads him to a teleportation pad that somehow in the last few minutes got set up in one of Skulduggery's bedrooms, and he's not bringing bad news. He's asking permission.

Someone asking Skulduggery permission to invade his house. He can't decide if that's funny or sad.]

They don't leave the house, not for anything. The last thing I need is two curious angels wandering around at Christmas.

Not leave the house, no.

[Definitely a headache they don't need; Kratos has already determined to choose a pair who are still fairly lifeless, both so there's no risk of curiosity getting the best of them and in the hope that the experience may trigger some degree of lifefulness once they return to Derris-Kharlan.

[With permission had, Kratos steps into the warp and vanishes. A few minutes later, he returns with a pair of blank-faced guards, still speaking to them in liquid angelic as he gives them their orders. One in the room, one outside in the hall; avoid windows, avoid being seen. Prevent entrance, but try not to kill.]

Yes, Lord Kratos.

[Kratos watches them for a moment as they situate themselves, wings drawn in and hands on swords. His face shows nothing of the weary regret that they respond so literally, so emotionlessly. Then he turns to Skulduggery.]

I am with you now, yes? Where are we going?

Good. Glad we're agreed on that.

[By all rights, Skulduggery should be taking Kratos to the Sanctuary, and warning the Elders of his existence. But there are no Elders -- just one very reluctant Grand Mage, whose hands are very full recreating the Sanctuary almost from scratch. The last thing Corrival's going to want to hear about is that an asteroid full of psychopathic angels is hovering just on the other side of the moon.

It's much easier for Skulduggery to justify before he sees two of the feathered angels in his own house.]

Haggard. It's where my student, Valkyrie, lives. [Skulduggery leads the way back out to the Bentley, with a mobile that's only marginally charged and one last glance back at the angels.] After that, Ghastly's shop. I know I've made you think I have nothing but free time, but the truth is you've come down in the middle of quite a bit of chaos. If my luck holds out, that chaos won't turn into apocalyptic destruction.

[But he's not keeping his fingers crossed, given the world's been in danger of ending three separate times in the last four years.]

[The name Ghastly, Kratos knows. 'Valkyrie' is unfamiliar, but student he recognises well enough, after their conversation about Mithos. The rest of Skulduggery stream of words, he doesn't understand at all, except for 'time'; but it does serve to remind him to pick up the dictionary as they exist the house.]

You have no time?

[It's a legitimate, if slightly amused, query. He's assuming that's the gist of it; the words had the unthinking intonation of a complaint.]

What you do -- No. What do you do with your time?

[That is: what's his job, his purpose?]

That's a simplistic way of putting it, but -- yes. No time.

[With anyone else, Skulduggery would assume the next question was a deliberate attempt to tease him. In Kratos's case, that could still be true, but if he's asking a genuine question using only the vocabulary he knows...]

I'm a detective. [With a beep, the Bentley's doors unlock.] I solve mysteries. Hm... people come to me for help, when they have a problem or when something bad happens. Sometimes, I manage to help them.

[Simplistic seems to be the order of the day.

The drive to Haggard isn't a long one, and Skulduggery could have made it in his sleep -- if he needed to sleep, which he doesn't. When they reach Haggard's small pier, Valkyrie's waiting for them on the edge of the beach. She's in one piece, doesn't look too badly injured. Only when Skulduggery confirms that for himself does some hidden part of him finally unwind with relief.]

There she is. Would you mind staying here? I need to ask her something, and she'll be more likely to answer without strangers around.

[Not that Skulduggery can blame her, if something really is going on with Caelan. Kratos might be able to understand the words by now, but just in case he can't, Skulduggery points to him, then down at the floor of the car, then at himself, then at Valkyrie. Quite like how he told Kratos to stay in the bookstore, far back at the beginning of the night.]

[A 'detective'. That's the first thing Kratos looks up in the dictionary once they're in the car. It's an interesting concept; Aselia has concepts of law enforcement, of course, but the burden of evidence is somewhat alien.

[The drive is nevertheless long enough for Kratos to leaf through much of the dictionary, looking up words he's noted and then looking up words heard on the radio, or simply looking through it. 'Chaos', 'apocalypse' and 'destruction' are among them. The front has some grammatical explanations; the back has some international comparisons. The latter are interesting, but not useful right now. The former is more so.

[It's a nearly silent drive, and yet between dictionary and radio Kratos has a considerably enlarged vocabulary by the end of it, enough to understand nearly every word Skulduggery says. He doesn't answer at first, because he's examining the girl on the pier with a frown. Her mana is -- alarmingly large. Large like ...

[Like Mithos's had been large, after Origin and the cruxis crystal.

[Skulduggery's question draws his attention back. Kratos nods and speaks, a bit slow to get the shape of the words, but clear; and still with the Irish accent.]

Would you like me to ensure nothing comes near? I'll need to get out of the car, but I can wait on the other side of it.

[And dim his hearing, for privacy; his mana-sense should suffice as a warning system.]

Edited (add a thot) 2017-02-11 04:04 (UTC)

[It's not often Skulduggery gets struck speechless. Kratos is managing it an alarming amount.]

It's been twelve hours.

[There's no real point to saying it out loud, other than to give himself some sort of solid outlet for the surprise. Twelve hours. Kratos mastered a language in twelve hours. Even with magic presumably speeding the learning process up, Skulduggery wouldn't have believed this was possible, and he's suddenly very much looking forward to telling Ghastly that the man he wanted a translation artefact for has learned to speak English in one night.

Skulduggery huffs with open amusement and shakes his head.] You'll have to explain to me how you did that. Not now, but soon. Alright, you can get out of the car. I'll just have to hope Valkyrie doesn't get distracted by someone she doesn't know stealing her seat from her.

[Kratos tips his head in the way he has which seems somewhere between an 'isn't it obvious?' and an 'I told you so', and could be amused. Or not.]

Yes, it has, according to my understanding of your time.

[The dictionary had proven very useful, after the beginning the thesaurus had left. It contained sentences the other two books hadn't, so he could put some patterns together with the verbal ones he'd been noting during conversations. The cruxis crystal encoded quickly.

[His mouth quirked.]

Then you'd better move quickly to distract her.

[So saying, he moved to step out of the car, remaining on the far side from the ocean and keeping an eye out for mana or headlights from other vehicles. His hearing, he turned down, so he could hear their voices but not the words. Just in case.]

[Kratos is going to become very infuriating, very quickly.

When Skulduggery gets out of the car, Valkyrie's already staring at them. At Kratos, specifically. Skulduggery prepares himself for an earful -- or an ear-hole-ful, technically -- and walks over to meet her.

She's demanding, at first. There are some pointed gestures back at the car and she speaks in an irritated tone of voice. Skulduggery, partly by necessity and partly by character, doesn't seem affected. He stands there with his hands in his pockets, his scarf pulled up over his face and his hat pulled low, and doesn't move. Valkyrie deflates. After that, she's nervous, pacing up and down a few times before she turns and says something that carries the weight of a confession.

A short silence follows.

Skulduggery speaks first, his voice as level as before, questioning. Valkyrie answers. The back and forth grows slightly more heated, then cuts off again. After that, when Skulduggery speaks, his tone is angry. Not quite chastising, not quite directed, but definitely angry. It's not long before he checks himself and turns slightly away, head bowed, leaving Valkyrie to give him an uncertain look.

They talk for another minute, this time in more conversational tones. The uncertain look on Valkyrie's face morphs into puzzlement, then cautious hope. She's about to say something else when Skulduggery hugs her without warning. Whatever he says next makes her laugh, and she hits him on the arm.

When they walk back to the car together, she's smiling in relief.]

Okay, but I'm sitting in the front. Because it's my spot. [She looks Kratos up and down, like she's challenging him to have a problem with it.] So who're you?

[It sounds like quite the conversation, just going by tone and body language. Kratos keeps an eye out, but they remain undisturbed. The only time he looks directly toward the pair behind him is when Skulduggery's mana shifts, the balance tilting for only a split-second toward darkness.

[The unravelling he'd felt in orbit was different -- yet there's something about both instance which is alike, after a fashion. The first had been an unravelling; this, coiling tighter. Given the emotions clear in the conversation -- hm. He may need to keep an eye on this skeleton.

[Whatever the conversation is about, clearly it ends well. Kratos turns to face them as they approach, amused by the girl's aggression; so this is the skeleton's student. A student with great mana, like Mithos. He has some suspicions about what that conversation is about; but for the moment, he only bows toward her.]

My name is Kratos Aurion. Skulduggery has been showing me Dublin.

[He straightens up, and -- mostly to Skulduggery, but without excluding Valkyrie -- tells him:]

I made sure I wouldn't hear the words of your conversation.

[That, Valkyrie decides, is definitely a sorcerer's name. Not that she's very surprised. Skulduggery doesn't drive just anyone around without his full disguise on.] Nice to meet you. I'm Valkyrie Cain. Where are you from?

[Skulduggery, meanwhile, is looking at Kratos with his skull tilted in surprise, for the umpteenth time in so many hours.]

You can do that?

[Valkyrie looks between them, puzzled.] Do what? Be polite? That's pretty standard.

Aselia.

[Kratos isn't sure yet how much the girl knows; and there's no point in explaining too much without knowing that. The answer will bring more questions, but with Skulduggery on hand, Kratos will at least have some guidance as to how much he should say.

[He does tip his head at Skulduggery.]

Well, yes.

[Skulduggery has been fairly observant so far. After being in space, surely it was obvious that angels had to be able to regulate all their physical functions?]

How much should I be saying in front of Valkyrie?

another thing; w/ fafnirs and skeletonenigma; cw for suicide talk

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