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Amethyst The young alchemist is in her shop, as she usually is. She's distracted, bored, making something she's made a hundred times over. Why is that this town needs so damn much maiden tea? She must be doing something right since it's selling really well. Maybe lacing it with various other drugs wasn't that bad of an idea.

In any event, she's revolving around her desk in the back of the store, making various alchemical things, ears drooped, and looking obviously bored.

Rishi The door jingles quietly as a visibly nervous young woman comes in. While she is still wearing her usual leather cloak she's also wearing a ...dress underneath it? And she has her hair pulled back up into a braid. Still, she does otherwise look like Rishi so, either another Lunar is trying to pull a prank or Rishi is doing something weird.
	 "Hi Ammy. I wished to apologize for the other day. I am most sorry for putting pressure upon you and... I will not be bringing up anything about that until you are asking me to do so. I am being in love with you and... Well, please know that, if you are ever interested, I will be, but I will never stop loving you, regardless of what we are doing or not doing together." She looks rather shamefaced about all this.
Amethyst Barely paying attention at first, Amethyst says, "Hi and welcome what can I-" And then she realizes it's Rishi, and she smiles softly and her ears rise. "-help you with." She just drops whatever reagent she was holding into the mixing pot and it starts bubbling quite a deal as she walks away. She goes over and gently plays with one of Rishi's braids. "It's alright dear, I just, I'm not ready for anything like that. Honestly, I don't know if I'd ever be ready for it. There's so much stuff going through my head these days. Life in the wyld was comparatively simple. Sure the local changed constantly but at least things didn't make so little sense like they do now."

Somewhere behind Ammie the bubbling pot is now running over and spilling onto the table.

Rishi $t Rishi's eyes brim with tears as she pulls Ammy into a big hug! "Oh thank goodness! I was worried you'd be mad! I'm glad to be knowing that we are still being good friends!"
	 After crying on Ammy's shoulder for a bit, Rishi's nose twitches. "Umm... Your pot, it is not supposed to be boiling over like that, is it?"
Amethyst Amethyst looks over and shrugs, "Experimental alchemy! I toss in a bunch of a fairly unreactive reagent and see-" Bloooooooosh. Whatever was in that pot is now not in the pot. A whole bunch sprays out and coats the ceiling with whatever was in it. "-what happens." She grins widely. And there's still noises happening in the pot. "And admittedly I am still a little bit upset that you asked me out of the blue in front of so many folks but eh, it's fine." She noseboops Rishi.

"You wanna head in the back and talk somewhere a little more discret?"

Rishi Rishi ducks. "I am sorry. I was carried away by the party. I *did* make sure to sober you up before I asked though. But, yes it is probably better to be discussing this in the back of the shop." Rishi moves to head back there, giving the pot a wide berth.
Amethyst Amethyst goes to the front, flipping the sign aand locking the door. Then she looks inside the pot, and continues to the back. It's surprising to see Amethyst's workshop so... not filled with alchemical things. Or more accurately to see so many of them put away and so many books open and spread across the table, along with all kinds of notes. Most of it is in high realm, and there's one particularly gaudy book on the table, on page a mighty black and dark blue dragon surrounded by waves with all sorts of high realm text on the opposite page. Someone's been busy doing research.

The young alchemist sits down and grabs a particular piece of paper, then looks up at Rishi, gauging her reaction to seeing all of the notes, ears middled out.

Rishi When she walks in Rishi blinks and pauses for a moment, before looking around, peering closely at the book on the table. Rishi, unfortunately, cannot read High Realm so she can't fully grasp what's going on here. "...You are doing research about the Water Dragon? The Danna'd, yes? It seems to be most important if you are being this focused upon it."
Amethyst "And on everything else I've forgotten about the realm in the years past. If I'm going to go meet my brother I want to /know/ the stuff that would be obvious to anyone living there. That also includes remembering what the 'orthadox' version of the immaculate philosophy is. A few of these talk about how things have been since the empress vanished too." Amethyst explains. "I still don't know how to process what I've learned, but doing this research at least helps me understand the world I never got to be a part of." It seems she never does anything half-way.
Rishi Rishi tilts her head to the side, her braid swishing for a moment. "....If you are going to the Realm.... would you be wanting ....company? If they are not liking you, then, having someone who can be helping you escape, this would be good, yes? Though you will be needing to be teaching me this language of the Realm first. And...I am still feeling much safer to be meeting the other half of your family." Rishi suddenly has a very feral grin. "The Fae, at least, I can be eating if they are causing trouble. Monks...are being much more problematic to be dealing with."
Amethyst "I doubt that I'll need help escaping because they don't want me. Actually, one of the worst scenarios is them trying to keep me from leaving for family reasons. I'd be happy to have you with me though, especially since Frosty's also going to be coming. We'll also have someone from the Realm with us. Her name is Black Pearl and she's how I learned I still had a brother. She's a child of Daana'd like myself. From House Cynis, so she shouldn't be too out of place in Peleps territory." Amethyst explains.

"So long as you and Frosty don't do anything too out of the ordinary you'll probably just be viewed as exotic foreigners. As for myself, again, I think the worst they could do to me is try to force me to stay and send me the Cloister of Wisdom to be taught the 'proper ways of the dragons', and even then, unless they don't believe I'm Ametis, I'll be fairly free again within a few years. I guess being formally rejected by my family would be pretty hard on me too, but that's the risk I gotta take if I want to see them."

"As far as teaching you high realm, you already know old realm, yeah? It's not too terribly different, but it's also completely different. So it shouldn't be that hard. I should teach both you and Frosty."

Rishi "Yes, but pretending to be looking human for months will be most unpleasent for me, so...Oh! Yes, I had the Inspiration earlier. Maybe it will be being useful here." She grins again. "I am going to be looking for a ...less powerful shrine here, one that is devoted to one of the One's Many Faces. Then I am going to talk to them and see if they will be formally recognizing me as one of the ...lesser chosen, those empowered by the smaller gods. In exchange, I will be putting my power at their disposal, offering them healing and transformation to be given to those among their flock. This will, I believe, be increasing their stature and, with a temple backing me, I should be allowed to walk around as I please." She looks ...smug now, actually.
Amethyst "Daana'd is sometimes conflated with Luna." Amethyst says cheekily. "Posing as an exigent isn't the worst of ideas. The official doctrine about them is that they too were tainted by "wickness", but some forsaked it when the "righteous" dragons rose to topple the tyrantical chosen. I should see if I can find forgotten lore about the first age to see just how tyranical the old solars and lunars really were. Anyway, uh, Exigents are cool so long as they align with the DBs. And they're anathema when they don't. I swear I wonder sometimes why the Immaculate Order just don't declare everything they don't like anathema." Amethyst shakes her head.

"Could also say you're a wyld mutant or a fae-blooded. I mean, go figure that the fae-dragon made friends with other wyld-touched folks. Again, exotic foreigner that won't be terribly liked but at least you won't get hunted down for being anathema."

Rishi "I think that I should be keeping my story simple. I am still not being ...good at the telling of the untruths. If I can say that I am Chosen of but one of The One's Faces that should be truthful enough for all to accept, for it is not really a lie. Just...not the whole truth."
	 "Have you been considering traveling to see your fae family first? I am being quite confident I can be protecting people from the Wyld's twisting now."
Amethyst "That's another skill I wanna learn before we set off." Amethyst considers, "How to actually lie rather than simply refusing to answer. And how to figure out when to and when not to trust someone. There are many tricky folks in both cases. As far as my fae family goes, hmm." She considers, "I have actual things I could get done by visiting my dragon family. I have no idea how the Dreaming Court's going to feel when I show up in full tattoos, given that it's their mark of being a member of their court. Having just the arm tattoos is a mark of being only adjacent to them. And then there's how I still don't know what my mother was trying to protect me from."

"And maybe don't underestimate the fae? They aren't as tough as a wyld hunt but to assume that the noble raskha couldn't hurt us would be pretty foolish. And the wyld can't touch me anymore, my essence has been solidified through my tattoos. Theoretically I might even be able to shape the wyld now, but I'd have to actually go there to find out. And it would still be good to secure a workshop, so there are things to be done in the wyld as well." The young alchemist clearly has a thousand thoughts going through her head and she's just grabbing at the nearest one every time she opens her mouth.

Rishi "I do not underestimate them, but ...The Fae are knowing to be wary of the power of those Chosen by the One who is Many. And I can be eating them if they are getting unruly." She headtilts. "Also, I can be summoning Sondok before we leave so we shall be having someone to "kick the ass" for us. But...yes, perhaps I should be practicing more of the combat as well. And learning to create a few more poisons, should they be needed. I am being sure that there is *something* that the Fae would not be liking to be injected into them." She considers, then nods. "Yes, I shall be practicing this, I am thinking. Along with a few other things, though they might be giving away my nature."
	 Rishi headtilts again. "If we are rejoining you to your Fae family, could we not be building a portal through the Wyld back here to your workshop? It is not like distance is mattering in the Wyld, yes?"
Amethyst "I had a door built in this workshop explicitly to act as a portal. But that will take another working beyond my own capabilities." Amethyst explains, "Also I'll need to be careful, for time in the wyld can be unpredictable. A minute can be a day, a year could be a second."

She takes a deep breath and sighs, "Truth be told Rishi, I learned something so incredible about myself and my family that I still don't know how to put it to words or really understand it. Something that's had me sit here and do all the research I can on the realm. The sad thing is there is just not enough time, to both make preparations and to learn all of the skills we'll need to have, among them tastes of common poisons. I need to learn all that I should've learned had I been schooled on the Isle."

"I was not born into a household like my cousins, born far away while my father was doing only dragons know what. All this time I thought our family was struck from the ledgers, that we were cast out. But instead it was the lies of a Face-Stealer, a lunar who murdered my entire household save myself, my father, and my brother."

"All this time I lived to regret that my birth was the reason that my father was exiled, all this time I worked so hard to make up for it, to be more than what I could have been. And all this time my name has actually been Peleps Yim Ametis, and they've just been waiting for me and my father to show ourselves back on the Isle. And I just don't know how I feel about that."

Rishi Rishi starts to say something, but instead closes her mouth and simply hugs Ammy. "Anything you need, I am here."
Amethyst Amethyst hugs, and a good bit of time passes before Ammy finally asks a really simple, yet impossible question, "What should I do? Should I just forsake my father's side of the family and pretend that I'm not wanted? Should I embrace the wyld that courses through my soul? Should I do something else, just stay here and embrace what I have here and try to keep my head down as things slowly fall apart? Or should I try to make a name for myself on my own?" She feels so small, the mighty storm that usually crashes through her is but a calm ocean. One might wonder if this revealation was finally enough to break the little dragon.
Rishi Rishi headtilts, considering for a long moment. "I...am, perhaps, not being the right person to be answering this question. When faced with such an issue, my answer was always "Be who you are, for living any other life is misery." Such an answer is, I think, why I was Chosen. But, it is not being easy to be giving up everything, simply so you can be yourself. Even I have had to compromise on this, lest I be murdered. And...sometimes it can be difficult to know who you really are. Are you being Peleps Yim Ametis, scion of the Realm, future Leader of your House? Are you being Amethyst of the Dreaming Court, eventual Dragon Queen of the Wyld? Or are you being Ammy, the Silver Dragon, beloved of two Lunars? Or are you being all of them?"
	 Rishi pulls Ammy in for another hug. "I am not knowing which life is being your best one, but I am thinking you cannot be having them all, if only because the Realm is wishing to be killing me and Frosty. Just... know that I will be supporting you in whichever life you are choosing." 

	 She headtilts again "Though, if you are attending school in the Realm, I am not staying. But you must be keeping the uniform your school is wearing, for I will wish to be seeing you in it later." She gives Ammy a hopeful grin.
Amethyst "It might not be impossible to be all three." Amethyst considers, "If I can make portals between each place. Imagine a portal from the Isle to the Wyld, and then from the Wyld to my workshop. I know I can make a single portal, why not make several? I'll just need to convince someone that this is a good idea and not a terrible one. And that way even if I do need to stay in the realm to attend some school, I'll still be able to come back and attend to things over here. And once the fighting starts in the Realm, I wonder which House will first employee Anathema to help take down their rivals, as I am sure that they will be the deciding factor in any war the realm wages against itself. I might be able to keep up with you guys but I'm the exception."

"A Dragon-Blooded Sorceress-Alchemist. I may never be well liked in either of the Realm or the Dreaming Court for what I am. The Dragon-Blooded are perhaps the most of creation of all of the exalted, and my wyld-blood and sorcery and the conditions of my birth will isolate me in my house. The only place I'll ever belong is among my friends. And maybe that's ok. But I /refuse/ to let that be the only place that I can live."

Rishi Rishi headtilts. "I am thinking that, once the Realm is finding out that you are consorting with the Wyld and the Anathema, you may be having to leave quickly, as I once did with my own nation." She sighs. "But... you are right that, when things are being most desperate, people are turning to solutions that would be once unthinkable. I am being certain my Sorcery would be ...most useful in a war."
	 She frowns. "However, most Lunars would rather the Realm be burning to the ground, so asking for their help would not be... most wise. I am caring for you and I am not liking to see people being hurt. The ...workers in the Realm, they are not deserving of having their homes destroyed, so that some far away throne may have one bottom in it instead of another, so...if you ask me to help in this war, I will be doing it. For you and for them." 

	 "But I would be most wary of any other Chosen who said the same. Except Frosty."
Amethyst "Whether or not they'll be working with the houses is debatable but I'm sure they'll be critical in the outcome of the civil war. Maybe in a hundred years we'll get to live to see an empire rise where we won't need to hide away. Or maybe we'll witness the Fae invade Creation again and succeed in devouring it this time."

The young dragon shrugs, "Either way, I'm glad to have you and Frosty. And it will be important to keep quite some things hidden, like my tattoos, just as an example. I actually has a consideration of possibly having them altered to have bits of immaculate text on them rather than being what they are now, showing my strange if considerable dedication to Daana'd. And I'm sure Daana'd would have bent and flowed through whatever challenges came her way, shifting and changing to overcome any obsticle and making use of whatever advantages she could, 'moral' or not. Either way the fact that I'm wyld-touched is going to be evident from the moment I show myself if they don't already know it."

Rishi "I am thinking they are already being involved. Knowing the things I can do, and... I do not let it control me, but I am feeling much anger buried in my exaltation. If the other Chosen are being like me at all..." She shakes her head. "When the animals are hunting, the ones they are focusing on are the sick. The deer with the broken leg, they are putting it out of its misery."
	 "When your Realm breaks itself, the Chosen will descend and they will feast." 

	 "I am not knowing what will happen after, for, if your people are being full of discord, it is as happy fun times, compared to what Frosty has told me of the Chosen." She smirks. "When the Many in One chooses those who are self-reliant and full of freedom, it is not surprising that we should have trouble with the "working together." 

	 She puts her hand on Ammy's shoulder. "Whatever you are needing from me, you have only to ask. I am sure I can be helping with your tattooing. And, if I cannot be changing myself along with you, then I am not being deserving of my Exaltation. Whatever is happening, we are facing it together."
Amethyst "For us Dragons, our exaltation takes our emotions and makes all of them incredibly intense. Like, feeling sad, or betrayed, or conflicted, or happy. In time and with mastery of ourselves we can retake control, but all of us are emotional. Ugh, I think I've done remarkably well for not having anyone to teach me how to control my essence fever."

"Then again, I had training specifically to help me stop such incredible emotions from having much effect so I could brave the wyld and come back unshaken. That's what you saw uh, when you asked me to have sex with you. I was completely overwhelmed and it's like it I hit an off switch and remembered my teachings of the dragons, and how to calm and control myself. And to maintain control I just kinda... left." She rubs her head.

And she explains the principle: "If it speaks, hear not its words. If it bites, walk away from it. If it charges, then rebuke its demands. If it flies, then hide in its shadow. And only if you must, fight it. Allow yourself to flow through these principles, and you will be as untouchable as the heavens."

Rishi Rishi nods. "For us.... I know not all of the details, but our long ago loss has left anger in its wake. I have managed to rise above this river of anger. I do not need it. I do not feel it. When I had nothing to care about, it was easy to be free, to fly away from any problem facing me and thus there was no need of anger."
	 "Now that I am having you and Frosty and everyone else... Well, if something were to be happening to you, it would be best to be evacuating the city." Rishi is smiling. Or, well, her face is doing something that looks sort of like a smile, maybe? 

	 "Perhaps you should be teaching me these techniques as well?"
Amethyst "Maybe I should teach both you and Frosty." Ammy nods and gives Rishi a little hug. "I will say that it'd be sort of strange to teach it without also teaching you about the Immaculate Philosphy in general, or, at least the bits that aren't about how Dragons are better than everyone." She shakes her head, "And this." Amethyst gestures at the golden-shelled book, "Is my father's old book. The same infuriating book that's answer to most of the weirdness of the world is to call a monk. But it has a lot of useful general purprose information in it too. What I'd give for a version of this that has the other half of the knowledge, the stuff taught to the monks."

"Either way, I'm sure I can figure something out to teach you and Frosty what I used to fend off the twisting power of the wyld."

Rishi Rishi hugs her back. "The Wyld does not worry us. I have shaped my power to protect others from it, because I failed to protect you that one time. I have learned to remove mutations, as well as grant them. I think Frosty has tapped into old pacts that make her and her party involate from the Fae. Knowing techniques to help deal with our emotions is most useful though."
	 "We could go back to that temple and steal some more texts." Rishi is smirking now. "It should not be too difficult for me to simply sneak in and grab a bunch of books then sneak out."
Amethyst "I dunno about sneaking in again." Amethyst starts, "I mean, if I am accepted as a Scion of House Peleps, do you think the Immaculate Order would have too many problems with me just going and studying those documents? I mean, it's for the Dragon-Blooded monks and I don't think I'd be too far removed from that."

"And being able to resist the fae and the wyld through mundane means not enhanced by the powers of the chosen is something considerable, as it means you will be able to resist things like intense emotions and people trying to break your resolve much easier."

Rishi Rishi inclines her head. "This is true." before leaning over this book. "So, what does this say? Can you be teaching me these techniques along with this script and the writing? If you are wishing, once we are being finished, I could be examining your tattoos and giving you suggestions on how to be adding to them?"
Amethyst "It'll take time, but I'm sure that I can teach you. This here speaks of Daana'd and her legends. Uh, maybe we shouldn't start with this section." Amethyst suggests, flipping through to some other pages and beginning her explanations.