CONTACT | Call me, maybe

[intercalaryninja]

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[intercalaryninja]

I'll be right over. Prepare an explanation.

[It takes a bit of time to put the kids to bed and have everyone settled, but soon Tsukikage is making his way to the farm. His arachne speed really is a blessing at times and he's grateful he has the agility to jump over the fence and be knocking on the door in record time.]

Ms. Lup? It is Tsukikage. Are you there?

[restinglichface]

[She's there to throw the door open in an instant, the rest of the house quiet, the front room dim and lonely. Lup looks disheveled, long hair pulled into twin messy braids, her reptilian eyes bright with tears. But her posture is strong, shoulders pulled back, and she shifts aside to let the arachnid in.]

Right here, my guy. Come on in.

[intercalaryninja]

[The arachne's not unfamilar with quiet but there's something inherently wrong with the mood of the place. Lup's dishevelled appearance doesn't help and he frowns as he sees the woman. He accepts the invitation and skitters in, looking around.]

Is your husband or brother home? [He asks gently and cautiously. For all he knows, it could be both.]

[restinglichface]

[Aren't they quite the pair, skittering and slithering all over the place?

While he lets himself in, Lup's already making a beeline for the couch, so she can drape herself over it completely, long looping coils settling into her favorite resting position. The couch is pretty much hers now, unless she's sharing it with her brother.]

Mhm. [With her tail settled, Lup flops her upper half over onto the couch cushions.] Dead asleep.

[intercalaryninja]

[Okay. No one is gone. No one is permanently dead. That was a good start.

Tsukikage closes the door behind him and follows. He remains standing, since chairs are more or less useless with his arachne thorax and sitting would just sink him really low. At least like this he's not looking straight up at her.]

... I am afraid I am a little lost. I couldn't decipher your message. You mentioned something about... saving us?

[restinglichface]

[It's a good place to start, even if it's there's just no happy ending here in Lup's mind.]

It's complicated. [what isnt with her] We couldn't find what we were lookin' for. Which means this world is doomed.

[intercalaryninja]

This world is doomed? [That gets Tsukikage's attention. The man frowns and straightens up, in his trained mission mode.] What were you searching for? Are you sure it can't be found?

[restinglichface]

[At least he believes her, there's some weird comfort in that. Lup's had too many folks just brush off her concern completely. Bless him for listening.]

It was, uh, this big ball of light. We called it the Light of Creation. It's really hard t' miss. Bar an' I looked fucking everywhere for it.

[intercalaryninja]

[Dimensions were different, Ryslig was a mess of magic and Tsukikage was apparently caring for a master who was a vessel empty enough to host a dragon-pseudo-god in his world. People generally knew what they were talking about and if they were concerned, it was Tsukikage's job to listen and assist them.]

The Light of Creation... and what does it do? Stop the world from ending? Where is it usually hidden? How do you know of this thing?

[restinglichface]

It's a long story. Might wanna sit back an' get comfortable.

[Like, real comfortable.]

Wanna drink?

[intercalaryninja]

... A drink would be really nice at the moment. And then you can say whatever you want.

[He's comfortable now. Start when you're ready. Tsukikage's a patient man]

[restinglichface]

Can do, buckaroo.

[She's all too eager to slip away into the kitchen, to spend her time rummaging through the cupboards for the perfect drink to share, searching for clean glasses to use. In the end, she settles on a nice red wine. He likes wine, right?

When she slithers back in, Lup pushes the glass into his hand and flops into a pile next to the couch, all looping coils and bright, vivid scales. She reaches up to push the bangs out of her hair before taking a too generous drink from her glass.]

If you want snacks, help yourself. 'Ko keeps the cupboards all stocked.

[intercalaryninja]

[Wine is fine. Tsukikage takes the glass when she returns and sips his glass, delicately and somehow neither moving his mask off his face or spilling it onto the blue cloth. He nods but since he knows about his eating habits, he leaves it for now.]

Tell me then what's going on. And everything you feel like you can.

[He's buckled down for the long ride]

[restinglichface]

[Well. That's about as long as she can stretch out the inevitable, right? Not that Lup wants to keep it a secret, but facing the truth is so much harder than she's ready for.]

The gist of it is my family an' I've been runnin' from the apocalypse for the last hundred years, jumpin' from planet to planet, trying to outrun it. But I bet you can guess what happens to each world we step on.

[intercalaryninja]

... Ah.

[That makes sense in a weird sense. Tsukikage sips his drink thoughtfully, trying to process the strange information.] How do you jump from planet to planet? Are these planets in the same dimension? [He asks, trying to get a better grip on the situation]

[restinglichface]

We have a ship. One that runs on the Light that we were tryin' to find. It's this whole thing, where the Light landed on our world and with it, we built the ship. We meant to go out and just explore some neighboring planets, but when our world got destroyed, we just kinda got stuck in this cycle of planet hopping.

They're all part of the same planar-universe, but lotsa different realities and such. Not really defined by time. The ship takes us wherever it wants to go.

[intercalaryninja]

I see...

Your ship didn't take you here though. Wouldn't that mean, by that logic, the apocalypse you are describing will not follow in the same manner? Especially if this is most likely not on the same plane.

[restinglichface]

[Well.

Hm.]

That's...

[Her expression twists, a mix of sorrow and confusion pinching between her brows, ears dipped down low. She gets it, has had these exact same thoughts, but time and time again, her and Barry always arrive right back to this same answer.]

To be fair, we flew around between a hundred different planes, but - but I get it. Shit's different on this one. Didn't follow the usual structure. But we're sure... How else would we get here. Doesn't make sense otherwise.

[intercalaryninja]

You could have been brought here like the rest of us. Away from our realities with magic. The sad thing is that Ryslig doesn't make sense and it doesn't have to be. It scares me sometimes that we can predict nothing... no rhyme or reason or sense... because that is the nature of this place.

[It's the outliers of all outliers, at least in his experience. In his heart, maybe he does wish that Lup was right and there was an impending apocalypse to happen soon because that would be predictable. It'd be something logical and progressive, follow some plan, no matter how fucked up it was.]

[restinglichface]

[No. It can't be like that. The answer feels so obvious to anyone else, but Lup knows better. It just can't be like that. They aren't stuck here like the rest of them.]

I get this place drew you all in too but - it just isn't like that for us. I know how this shit works an' it matches up perfectly. Fuck, I wish it wasn't like this. Last thing I want is for this place to disappear too. You all deserve better than that.

[intercalaryninja]

It doesn't sound like it matches perfectly to me... but you know better than I do, so who can say.

[Tsukikage admittedly wouldn't mind this place disappearing. Maybe some good would come out of it, instead of the murderous stagnation people slip into.]

How do you usually get off planet before the apocalypse? Do you even have the chance to do the same this time? Because truly it doesn't seem like you do.

[Tsukikage wants to comfort her but he also wants to work through this properly. It would be best for her, after all]

[restinglichface]

[It's fine. Lup doesn't mind the questions and isn't the type of woman to want to be coddled either way. His questions are sound and his reasoning is reasonable. If it was any other day, any other person, he'd likely make it through to them. But Lup's tipsy and sad and stubborn, so she's a bit harder to convince.]

No. Guess you got me there. We leave in our ship, but like - as long as one of us makes it out with the ship, we're all saved, right? Bar an' I think maybe the others are somewhere else on this planet, whatever's beyond the sea, I guess? As long as they make it out, we'll be fine. S'just... s'just weird we haven't seen the ship all cycle.

Really weird.