abraxaslogs | EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

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EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

Event #7 - The Sight

go to the OOC event info and plotting post

The night before APRIL 18, your dreams are disrupted by a vivid image of the same eclipse that occurred last month. The black sun seems to be an endless void in the sky, growing ever darker - until it suddenly opens into an eye that stares straight at you.

When you wake up, much of your night seems a blur except for the vivid dream of that eye. Whether you find it unsettling or try to ignore it, the image is something you cannot get out of your mind. If you ask, you will discover that none of the locals of your faction saw another eclipse. Speak with your fellow Summoned, however, and you may learn that while there was no eclipse that formed over the world, you were not the only one who had this dream.

Of course, dreams don't need to mean anything. You can't feel or see any immediate effects, and nearly everyone around you is going about their day as usual. Maybe you should do the same.

The Awakening

It might happen that very morning or a day or two later. You could be discussing the dream with a fellow Summoned or perhaps you simply brush shoulders with them as you walk by. Whatever it is, as soon as you make brief physical contact, one of you is struck with a sharp pain in your temple that grows into a terrible headache. It's disorienting and painful as the world around you shifts to someplace you may or may not recognize. Like an old film reel, you watch the events of the past play out before you: the past of the other Summmoned. It might be something they would rather hide, a moment of failure or despair, or something they are immensely proud of and brings them great joy - or even a jumble of several images over the course of a person's life. But you see it as if it were real and right in front of you all the same. When you come to, you'll likely find yourself on the ground or bent over, possibly with one or more people around you to see if you're okay. It'll take you a bit to gather your bearings, and the subsequent pounding in your head could last from minutes to hours.

Or, maybe you aren't the one who receives the vision. Instead, as you watch, another Summoned might grasp their head and crumble in front of you. They may go silent or groan in pain. They'll be impossible to shake out of their stupor until it's over. If you ask what happened, they may be inclined to tell you the truth - that you, you were what happened to them.

Or, if your Arcana signs happen to line up in a specific way, you'll see each other in the shared memory itself. You may also find that for certain Summoned, you can help soothe the effects, calm their emotions, or help draw them out of the memory before it consumes them for too long. It's not entirely clear what determines which effect, but one thing is for certain - within each memory, every Summoned as they appear in the past seems to wear the mark of their Arcana somewhere on their person.

For some, they might experience this only once. For others, they might experience it multiple times: with the same person, with several other Summoned, or with a different memory each time. Over the next 7 days, you'll find the Summoned around you are all receiving a glimpse into each other's past, as if the Singularity has awoken an eye within each of you.

Flee for the safety of the Horizon if you want, but you'll find that in there, it's much the same. In fact, inside the Horizon, the other Summoned don't even need to be anywhere near you - just existing in the Horizon space itself together will be enough to possibly set off a headache-inducing vision.

The Factions

What has occurred between the Summoned will not go unnoticed within the factions. While it's difficult to say how faction officials have picked up what's happening, it'll be obvious they do know.

In THORNE, characters will be asked to remain in the castle walls until further notice. Characters will not be allowed to leave the castle grounds, not even to go into the surrounding city, and anyone who is already outside will be requested to not leave again as soon as they return. If asked, they will be told it's for their own safety, given the Singularity is behaving unpredictably and the Summoned have a unique connection to it. Soothing potions and healers are on hand to offer assistance, if anyone is particularly suffering from ill effects.

In the FREE CITIES, characters will find the army by the outposts show more activity than usual. A higher number of guards will patrol the streets throughout the event, particularly in areas frequented by the Summoned. Anyone who publicly and visibly experiences the effects of the memory share (pain, doubling over, etc.) will be offered assistance by the guards. They are generally there to help, but they are also there to maintain order and ensure anyone behaving erratically due to this incident is properly contained. This might include confinement for a day or two if anyone is especially posing a risk, but no one will be punished except in the most extreme cases, as the locals are aware this is not within the control of the Summoned.

In SOLVUNN, the locals will be watching what's happening with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. Host families and neighbors will be on hand to help with charms meant to offer protection, as well as general care and assistance (soup, blankets, and so on) if your character seems to be especially under the weather or afflicted by the event. Towards the end of the event, more elders and mages will be out and about to check up on the Summoned to make sure they're doing okay. If asked, the mages will say they aren't sure what's going on, but that they are currently divining with the gods and hope to have a definitive answer soon in the upcoming days.

None of the factions appear to be doing much more than keep a watchful eye on the situation - but as the week comes to a close, officials will start making a decision as to what they want to do and how to handle the Summoned who have demonstrated this unforeseen connection to the Singularity.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ronan doesn't intend to ask Kylo anything. To have concealed something like this for so long feels tantamount to a lie, and Ronan doesn't make it his business to drag the truth out of people. The truth is a gift given to the worthy, which tells Ronan where he currently stands as far as Kylo's concerned.

"Is that his choice?" Ronan asks. "The whole not on speaking terms thing."

She presses her lips together, picking at the skin around her nails with her opposite hand as she looks away.

"You saw what happened. After that he put a bounty on my head. If we talk, we fight. It's better this way."

"That doesn't answer my question."

But it's very interesting that she's evading it. The bad kind of interesting. The kind that makes Ronan's heart sink into his stomach.

"No. It's my choice." She looks back at Ronan, frustration more at herself than anyone else brewing under the surface. But Kylo never had anything to say that she wanted to hear anyway.

"Why does it matter?"

Ronan considers her for another moment, his fingers drumming on his knees. The world has stopped spinning by now, so he decides finally to climb to his feet, where he at least has the advantage of height.

He could say nothing and walk away. There's no real benefit to giving her any insight into what's going on between him and Kylo, while there are countless reasons not to.

And yet...

"Kylo is mine," Ronan says with an aloof nonchalance, smoothing out the rumpled sleeves of his exquisitely embroidered robe. He dresses like a king these days, and now he's talking like one, too. "Everything about him matters to me."

Edited 2022-05-17 20:34 (UTC)

Rey follows suit in standing, brushing off her leggings as she does. It's a good distraction to mask the ugly surge of jealousy that crashes over her as he declares Kylo his. She has no reason for it, she rejected him. It stood to reason that he'd find someone else, someone who wouldn't reject him for the things he wasn't able to let go of.

When she looks back at Ronan there is a tightness to her jaw and she's blinking just a little too rapidly for it to be casual.

"Maybe you should be talking to him instead of me, then."

Ronan's mouth twitches into a triumphant curve, his icy blue eyes flashing with something like pleasure. He doesn't mean to look cruel, but the cut of his features casts every expression in a more sinister light and this one is no different.

"Is this how you handle everything?" he asks. "Keeping your mouth shut? You didn't seem so meek in that throne room."

In contrast, Rey's expression gives up on her desperate attempt at neutrality, settling into a scowl.

"What do you expect? Do you want me to fight you for his honor?" she lets out a derisive snort, stepping backwards as she does. "Or do you want me to tell you the things he won't?"

"Oh, it's way too late to fight me for him," Ronan drawls, though he sounds like he enjoys the idea of it. There's nothing he likes better than a fight, but there's also nothing she could possibly do to release Kylo from his obligation, so they'd really only be fighting for the hell of it.

Which... would still be very fun.

"No, I meant what I said. I'm interested in him. And you. And whatever this situation is. Do you want his side to be the only one I hear?"

Her outright scowl softens a little when she realizes he doesn't want to fight, though she isn't enthusiastic about going over her history with Kylo, either.

"I don't really care what you think of me," she says like a lying liar who lies. She thinks about leaving it there, almost walking away. But for some reason she just can't. "We're connected. I can sense him easier than I can anyone else, the Force allows us to communicate with one-another across distances, unless one of us is actively trying to block the other out." Which she currently is doing.

Ronan acknowledges that disclosure with a vaguely thoughtful hum. That puts rather a lot of previous conversations into context and he doesn't like it, even if it's not much of a surprise.

"So you've blocked his number," Ronan says. It's not hard to guess, when she's the one giving Kylo the silent treatment. This probably also means she really has no idea what's going on between him and Kylo.

He looks away, squinting at the air like he's reading something written there. Slowly, he muses, "The destiny he doesn't want. The other half he didn't choose. It's so easy to give up something that's not around."

His eyes slide back to her as he asks, "Do you still wish you could change him?"

Edited 2022-05-18 00:19 (UTC)

So Kylo had told him about her. She's only a little surprised by that, if only because she might not have brought him up if she had been the only one here instead.

"I don't want to change him," she replies earnestly, furrowing her brow. They were always misunderstanding one another.

"He fights the light inside him; you must have seen it, too." As Ronan had observed, they're similar people. "I want him to see he isn't the monster he thinks he is."

Ronan folds his arms, scrutinizing her. One hand drifts absently to his throat as he considers her words, his fingers tracing the memory of an invisible grip that had once wrung his neck with a fury not seen before or since.

"Isn't he?" Ronan wonders. After all, he's well-acquainted with the monster in Kylo. Cherishes it. Nurtures it like he's nurtured so many other monsters. "Maybe both things can be true."

This is a concept Rey struggles with. Maybe it's because she grew up in such poor conditions, she clings hard to fairytales and happily-ever-afters. She believes in the best of Ben Solo. But Kylo Ren had done terrible things.

"It's what Snoke made him into. It's not who he is."

Ronan answers dully, "You don't know who he is."

It's likely neither of them do. He's certainly learning a lot of things Kylo has kept hidden from him. Why should this girl know more? Has she spent every day by Kylo's side for the better part of a year? Put her life in his hands every night? Ronan doubts it.

"And you've closed yourself off from ever learning. He tried to share himself with you and you turned him away. You have an idea of him. A wish. And you're running from him now that you've realized you can't make it come true."

"No," she replies, though there is truth in what Ronan says. Her jaw tightens around another response, that she's afraid of what she might have become if she'd taken his hand. Her choice was made the second she picked up Luke's lightsaber.

"I saw the part of him that he closes off from himself. He refused my help. I closed myself off from him because I'm not throwing myself against a durasteel wall expecting it to bend." It's easier to be angry at him. Anger makes it seem like it hurts less.

"Lucky for me."

Looking at her now, it's easy to see all the pieces of Rey that Kylo was able to find in Ronan. That righteous anger, so much easier to feel than the agony of loss and regret. Crucially, however, Kylo has never been the target of Ronan's rage. Their desires have never been out of alignment. They have wanted for each other and never in spite of. And that's already easing some of the pressure in Ronan's chest.

"Now he has the life he wants for himself. It's nice to know you won't be interfering with it."

She doesn't know quite how to respond to that. She knows that it isn't so simple that she and Kylo will stay out of one-another's way, that he'll live whatever life he's carved out for himself here without interfering with hers. She's lived a year trying to block him out, she can keep doing it. But it isn't easy. He lives in her mind, even if he's not actively there.

She also doesn't like that Ronan seems content with letting Kylo warp himself further, sink into the darkness. But she'd abandoned him to that fate herself, hadn't she?

"You never had to worry about that. I'm done trying to save people who don't want to be saved."

Ronan scoffs, "He doesn't need saving."

Maybe he once did, sure. Whatever creepy fuckery was going on between Kylo and Snoke was clearly a situation Kylo needed to get out of, and maybe he couldn't have done it without Rey. Ronan is grateful to her for that much.

But the danger is long gone.

"He has everything he couldn't get where he came from: Respect. Acceptance. Belonging. Love. He never has to wonder whether anyone will stand by his side, whether anyone will defend him. I will always be there, protecting the best and the worst of him. Everything he is, is mine."

Rey bristles, feeling like she's being accused of falling short of meeting some invisible line. She wants to say she would have given him all of those things, but it sticks in her chest as she clenches her teeth together. Maybe things could have been different, but she hadn't been able to let go. He hadn't, either.

But if she can't give him what he needs, part of her is relieved someone is. The part of her that knows she let him down, that let herself down. The part of her that she covers like the scar on her arm. She sets her shoulders, lifting her chin as she regards Ronan.

"I'm glad he has you." It comes off more sarcastic than she means for it to be, but it's the best she can manage. "Take care of him."

For some reason, Ronan had thought this would be harder, that she would fight for her so-called "Ben" this time around. How stupid of him.

Where he'd expected to feel relief, anger flares up instead. Ronan is honored and grateful and lucky to have Kylo, and somehow he appears to be the only one, which is both ridiculous and offensive. How dare they all be so quick to turn their backs on him?

"He should have you, too," Ronan says, and it is an accusation. Hadn't she seen the look in Kylo's eyes when he begged her to stay? How could she leave him there? "He deserves better."

That takes Rey aback, she'd expected Ronan to take the win and that would be the end of it. But of course, she wouldn't have taken it either. Shifting uneasily Rey considers brushing him off, rebuking his statement. He might call her out on that too, though.

"I know." She avoids his gaze, her chin dipping as she looks at the wall. "But we just keep hurting each other."

"Then stop hurting him."

For fuck's sake. It's not complicated. If Ronan could forgive Hennessy for killing him, surely Rey can forgive Kylo for freeing her. None of this is in Ronan's best interest, but he's not sure he can bear Rey and Kylo dancing around each other for the next however-long, lying to themselves.

"He's not the person you wanted him to be. He never will be. Let him show you who he really is and learn to live with it. That's all he fucking wants."

Of course it sounds maddeningly simple to do things that way, but Rey knows that reality is much murkier than that. She had been willing to put aside the things that Kylo had done before the Supremacy, but she had thought they were aligned much more than they ended up being.

"I want to. But do you think it's that easy?"

"Does it have to be easy?"

Maybe it does. Maybe she's like everyone else, only willing to love as long as it's convenient for them. Ronan knows exactly what it's like to be too difficult for people. Maybe everyone has judged Kylo the same.

"Don't you think he's worth trying for?"

EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

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