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Amethyst	To say that Amethyst has been troubled the last few days would be an understatement. But now she's finally sorted out her brain and emotions and setup a meeting with Pearls. She arrived early, already in her fishfolk shape and pacing in the private area of the Cheteau. She also has a stack of various papers loosely bound together just flopped onto the table.
Black Pearl	One of the not so nice things about living where you work is that you aren't away from it. And so as there are needs of business she can't set aside, it's about ten minutes before she can get to Amethyst, and when she does, her face freezes a second, before she has the door locked. "It's been too long, and you look like you haven't had a good night's rest in a week! Come...sit. Rest. Tell me everything."
Amethyst	Amethyst takes a deep breath, placing her hand over the black jade ring now held to her arm by her silver bangle. And she sits. "I'm worried." Amethyst says simply, "I'm worried about my friends, about the world, and myself. In planning for a potential wyld hunt, I realized I really don't want to kill any of my own kind, nevermind that I'd be ostrisized even moreso if I'm caught actively defending Lunars and Solars." She explains. "I feel like my heart's gonna burst." "It's one thing to hunt down fae and demons and ghosts, actual enenmies of Creation. It'd also be something if the Lunars wouldn't just look at me like I'm some weird hanger on to their group. And I know I wouldn't have a chance at being a Dynast, not really, it'd be too difficult to manage, especially /right now/." She sighs. "But that doesn't mean I don't long to be something other than the outcaste I was born."
Black Pearl	Pearl looks at her hearthsister, before sobering, and going over to sit next to her. "Killing is a serious thing. Even, perhaps especially for me. It is a /good/ thing that it is hard for you to kill. Especially those you consider close to you. Killing changes a person, unless the person is a natural killer to begin with. And if that is not you...I wouldn't want you to change. I don't think Rishi does, either."
Amethyst	Amethyst leans against her hearthmate, her eyes tearing up just a little, "I don't think I can hunt the Hunt. I can stall them, delay them, but I don't think I can bring myself to cross blades with them. Not knowing what I know. Not being who I be. Maybe it would be alright if no one knew my involvement, but I'm no cold-hearted assassin either, er, no offense." "I can't imagine how these... friends of mine are going to take this realization. Thus I've just been making myself scarce."
Black Pearl	"Anyone who understands killing understands it isn't for everyone. I took to it well enough, but...I don't want to see you change the way you would." Pearl hugs close. "Don't worry. I won't love you less, you know that, right? And Rishi? I may be more a killer than she is, for all she is fierce." There's a bit of a smile, "If they need to be...taken care of. I can take care of it. I've always known that no matter what, I would have to take them on, eventually. If all had gone well. The...situation I'm in just means that's coming sooner than it might otherwise have done."
Amethyst	Amethyst snuggles, "Thanks Pearls, it means a lot to me. I'm sure Rishi will love us both no matter what. I think she loves us too much sometimes." Then Amethyst pauses, and grins. "And, I may have found a place that would accept someone like me. A Dragon-Blooded group who cares more about who you are and what you do then where and how you were born." Then she looks a little nervous and cheeky, "Do ou know whom I speak?"
Black Pearl	Pearl smiles slightly, then frowns in thought. "Let me remember..." A firm nod. "Paragon. But...are you /sure/ you'd want to go there? I've heard a lot of other things about it as well..."
Amethyst	"Lookshy." Amethyst says with a touch of bewilderment. "You... should study up on the neighbors around Great Forks." She chuckles and sighs. "Lookshy, the Seventh Legion, the one last visage of the old Shogunate that the Scarlet Empress couldn't bring to heel. And their understanding of the Immaculate Philosophy is distinct enough that I think so long as they know I am not Anathema, that I can use my gifts without getting killed for having them. Tho I best keep my shapeshifting and mutations down load regardless." "I met a young man the other day from Lookshy, he gave me the jade ring that helps even out my essence fever. And if anyone would have me, it would be them."
Black Pearl	At the mention of Lookshy, Salara stills a moment. "Rishi couldn't go among them," she says. "Not without disguising who and what she is all the time. Could she do that? Would she?" Her breath catches slightly. "And if she's not there...I couldn't stay there myself. Come to visit, certainly, but I could not have a home there..." For a moment, her face looks bleak, but she then smiles. "I know what it's like to crave belonging. Friendship. Family. And I cannot, will not, deny you your chance of happiness, though."
Amethyst	"I don't know what Rishi would do." Amethyst admits, "I wouldn't want to deny her um, the whole bit about being true to herself. And she'd need to learn how to /not/ act like a Lunar pretending to be an Exigent." She leans back a little. "It wouldn't be too much work for me to move my base of operation to Lookshy either, tho the wyld portal would its own challenge. But, having one of our circle in the midst like this, it wouldn't be any worse than Makara pretending to be a water dragon. Except I actually /am/ a water dragon." "And the last thing is uh, well." She sighs, "I don't think I want this weird life I have right now. Being stuck in Great Forks with no real direction outside a Lookshyian Dragon, yourself, and a Lunar who probably wishes that he'd not need to give me advice. I'd have an entire community. Even as an Iselsi, you must know that connection that we have to our own kin." Then she glances away and sighs. "I'm a capable, prodigal dragon. Imagine what actually being taught and trained by those with way more experience than me could do. Imagine me working as a Sorcerer-Engineer repairing and maintaining First Age technologies! Or imagine me wielding one of the legendary immaculate martial arts. Or maybe I'll just end up in some boring spot in their hierarchy. But at least it's /a/ future." Then she rolls her eyes and looks to the ceiling, "Or they can find out I sympathize with various Anathema and end up getting my life squeezed out of me as they try to get information about our circle." "I'm doing that thing where I get super excited about doing something stupid again aren't I?"
Black Pearl	"I don't know that it's stupid. It is a future, and if it is one you would be content in, you should take it!" Salara says. "But I don't know that I could take service against the Realm." She hskaes her head. "Maybe I'm being stupid now--I'd be more than happy to break it apart for Vendetta after all! But then..." She shakes her head, "Home isn't a place, it's people. And right now, you and Rishi are my home above all else. Perhaps it's selfish of /me/, but I think you giving allegiance to Lookshy would make that your home, and cause a separation between you and her. And then I am pulled between you, which I do not relish." She shakes her head, "Not to mention...wouldn't they put people to investigate you and your past to understand you? I'm sure they have basic counterintelligence units."
Amethyst	"My home isn't here." Amethyst says sadly. "I wanted it to be with the Lunars, but they wouldn't have me. They have their own vendetta. And I do care about you and Rishi and all the others, all of them were family for me when I had none. A lot of them even helped save Elderloch. My home isn't there, either, with the weight of what happened." "Maybe my home could be along Bright's side, or one of the other Solars. I've not gotten to know them nearly as well as I have the others. But I /know/ that Lookshy could be my home." "...If I can somehow pass their background check. The fact that I can transform and summon objects from nowhere is gonna be a fun thing to deal with, as is my relationship with, say, a member of House Cynis who has one of the Realm's only presences in all of the Scavenger Lands. I'm sure they have the Chateau looked after. Or at least, I would if I was part of their counter intel." "Then there's Rishi and Raullaur and maybe Fudou to a lesser extent. None of them are exactly subtle. Convincing them that Rishi really is /just an Exigent/ might be a fun task..." "But the reward if I can manage it? Well, aside from finding my own home, it'd benefit basically everyone if I had Lookshy backing me and my efforts to some degree or another. They have books and libraries containing knowledge lost to most of the rest of Creation, to say nothing of their First Age armaments, their /working/ first age armaments. Or imagine what information I could provide to you." She grins just a little. "...actually spying for you would almost certainly get me killed sooner or later tho. But I could at least possibly poke and see which Anathema they're considering targetting."
Black Pearl	"Your life is precious, so I wouldn't want you to spy for me. At least beyond what friends or lovers might put in letters, which can be very good for background information. So if it would put you in danger...I wouldn't want it. Unless you thought it worth the risk to send," Salara says. "It is lovely to see you with hope, with confidence, and I would love to see you thrive and bloom, however that is. And if I can help...tell me how."
Amethyst	"Yeah..." Amethyst says. "You understand now why I've felt so conflicted the past week. I have a chance to find a home for myself, it'll only cost me probably most of my current friends at best, and my life at worst. Imagine how Fudou'll feel hearing that I want to be part of lookshy of all things. It'd be like a big middle finger to a lot of my friends...." "Fuck I might just end up dead if I try to tell them and explain why. And I know you're worried too." She clings to Salara, nuzzling her. "And he truth is that I'm terrified myself too."
Black Pearl	"I'm not happy because I might lose you. Lose your presence. Company. Friendship and love." Salara wraps her arms around the smaller dragon and holds close. "I don't think it could ever be home for me. I appear to be worthless. And if they discover my skills..." She shakes her head and kisses the top of Ametis's head, and strokes it a moment. "I want you to listen carefully....clear all the thought from your mind. I'm tell you to do something, and I want you to answer the first thing that pops into your head, ok?" She waits for a bit, holding gently. "Tell me about your perfect day."
Amethyst	"I'll just make two of me." Amethyst says with the utmost certainty. "I figured out a working, I think, that would let me make a perfect duplicate of myself. I'd take a Mirrorkin, and bind them to my will in a way that lets me extend my consciousness through them. They'd look identical, and let me keep tabs here or in Lookshy, or anywhere. They couldn't defend themselves like I could, but killing them wouldn't hurt me other than maybe shocking me and forcing me to make another." Then she calms herself of the crazy idea she just suggested, and relaxes. She looks distant, and then she speaks, "I'd wake up in whichever form I felt most comfortable with at the time, inevitably human or fae-like, I don't really want to be an animal. I'd get my morning reports on how my various ventures are going, and just let the things I'll need to deal with today simmer in my mind as I share breakfast with you and Rishi and whichever other Dragon-Blooded end up in our hearth. Then I'd go and think, contemplating which tasks I'll prioritize, which I'll divert to my subordinates, and which aren't really problems at all. All while looking out the window of a manse, and below?" "Below a harmony of dragons, solars, and lunars, working together to prepare for something terrible. A threat so large that we all have no choice but to work with one another. And to me this great nation isn't mine, but one shared by all of us. Preferably I'd be looking out at Lookshy, knowing the marvels we'd have in reserve being both rebuilt and built anew by savants that haven't had the chance in over a millenia to truly show the world the pinnacle of Exalted technology." "And then I'd be off, to go and do whatever needs done to keep the river flowing as it were. That's my perfect day."
Black Pearl	"I see," Pearl says and smiles wistfully. "That is a lovely morning. Full of purpose and unity. Probably more likely than if I were crowned the Silver Empress," she says. "Now...what feature is the most important? The hearthmates? The tasks to be prioritized? The looming threat? The working together of Celestials and Terrestrials? Being able to take any form you like?" A pause, "If you had to choose the most important bit of the dream, what is it?"
Amethyst	"Unity." Amethyst says with almost no hesitation, "With my hearthmates being a close second. We /need/ to unify before whatever happened to Thorns tries to happen elsewhere. Before the next great catastrophe afflicts this world and causes Creation to shrink ever smaller." "And then there's my hearthmates, some of which I haven't even met yet, and won't unless I join up with Lookshy or manage to somehow luck into more like I did with you. You and Rishi are important, but you two are not the only ones I need." "The third most is having a prominent place in society, having things /to/ manage, and a venerable army of elementals working along side me to bring the prosperity I imagine. That part will be the simplest to make happen, so that's where I'm starting." "Oh, and I think having someone who's been near anathema be in the works of Lookshy, someone who knows the truth about Solars and Lunars and is working on finding the ever illusive chosen of Fate, will be a good person to have in the works over in Lookshy."
Black Pearl	"Then that is the goal," Salara says. "I had to take courses with the accountants and bureaucrats, and one thing I learned was...ask yourself questions to find out what's monst important." She smiles, "So make Unity your goal, and look for it everywhere, and anywhere! Lookshy, here, Elderloch, the Blessed Isle...and work towards it. The more you do, the happier you will be in the long run."
Amethyst	"I think I now know why I'm building power, collecting resources, learning entirely too much about elementals and their strange attitudes." Amethyst says. "I will bring Unity however I can. And I'll start where I am now." Amethyst gets up and shifts back into her human-like shape. "This has been very enlightening my hearthsister. And I think I have work to do." She offers her hand to help Pearls up, gives her a hug, "Just, a thought. Can you help me plan out my business to help entrench it across the scavenger lands?"
Black Pearl	"Yes, that I can do. Give me a few days to get information together--logistics, supplies, and demands...yes, this is very doable," Pearl says, and gets up, looking, and feeling far more relieved than before.