eachdraidh | video | morning after the audience | unseelie & open non-locket comms

[ It's safe to say that Ariadne has never been this upset about anything in her entire life. She tends to smile, with large, gentle eyes. She does not tend to look murderous.

She does today.

Her trust has been broken, betrayed. Her people have been caught in the storm that Reynard started. Her mind has been violated, her companion dead.

When she speaks, her voice starts out calm. Cold. ]

So. When were we all going to start sharing what we know about the Cult of the Fox?

[ A breath and then she snarls. ]

Because it turns out they're wearing shard masks that let them look like anyone and they can get into your memories and mind control you to the point that you'll hang yourself.

[ It takes a tremendous amount of effort not to throw something. ]

That lying little fuck and those like him know how to use shards even when they're masks. If we don't stop sitting on our information then they're going to tear us apart from the inside. Do not trust anyone without- somehow verifying it's them, though I don't know how when they can do that much.

If you're staying at Diasbaile -- get to work or get out. I don't know how many people might still be under his spell but he's destroyed wards and rooms on the top two floors, read what was in my office if he didn't just steal it.

Everyone- be on your guard. And share your information, because otherwise we're all fighting this blind and then everyone is dead.

[ locked to steve rogers & sam wilson; ]
You need to get out of the Station. Just in case. Bucky's with me, he- we're not okay, he was with me when it happened, neither of us remember anything after a point. But we'll look after each other; he at least knows I'm me.

[ locked to grell, jason todd, loki, & waver velvet; ]
Gaff died in the Battle of Falling Fire. It was a cultist all along. Grell, can you watch Diasbaile? I can only assume that he'll know what I would do, but he didn't get in your head.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ She doesn't have any answers. She doesn't have anything, she doesn't even have Brennan's fur to dig her fingers into the way she has for the past year and a half. ]

We thought he was another Unseelie. He wasn't. He stole my face, he got in my head, he made us tie our own nooses and- and I don't know what else, he killed Brennan-

[ Katsa holds her breath, frozen, for a good long minute or so. She curls her fingernails more tightly against her palm, focuses on the sharpness. ]

I lost Liam, too. Not to something like that, but—how did you get out of it? Return to yourself?

I don't know. Suddenly we were just- standing there.

He made us make our own fox masks.

I have faced that sort of power before. [ She shudders. ] And I've not the strength to fight it, either. All I know is that—if I meet them I'll kill them. I'll rip out their tongues before they have a chance to speak and to confuse me.

[ Or, at least, she hopes she will. ]

Where are they now? What's happened to them?

The mask. The mask is what's important. At least, I think -- it's made of shard, so...

[ She shudders. ]

I don't know. We can't remember anything.

Their faces, then. I'll rip those instead. Do you know what it looks like, or how to detect it? [ She looks just as shaken as Ariadne does, even though she wasn't there; instead Katsa is reliving her own memories. ] Surely its power cannot be so unbreakable.

[ Even Leck's had had its weaknesses. Katsa wishes now, more than she ever has even since his disappearance more than a year ago, that Po was here with his own Grace to sort out the truth from the lies. ]

No. If it's off- if it's off, you'll know. You'll be able to feel it.

[ She rubs at her chest, at the spot where her shard is. ]

But if they can get inside your head... convince you things are real or unreal... will you feel it?

I think- he didn't do that until I tried to use my shard.

Are you sure? [ She doesn't mean to press like this if Ariadne is upset, but she doesn't know how much to ask, either. ] Why were you using your shard?

I'm sure. And we were wrestling around on the ground and he was wearing my face and about to pin me with magic; I used it to try and rip the mask off.

I didn't realize...

[ She doesn't like this. Oh. Katsa's face is drawn and her jaw clenched so hard it twitches. ]

That he uses what we've been trained to think of as a source of strength as a weakness?

Exactly.

[ She sighs. ]

Unless making it stronger would help, but- there will always be someone better. Still. It's an option.

Edited (thx enter button) 2015-05-13 03:58 (UTC)

It just means everyone has to rely on their own strengths at their most basic after all.

[ She rubs her face and digs the heels of her hands into her eyes, then breathes out one loud and angry groan. ]

Ariadne. Is there anything I can do? Follow any sort of trail or—or lay a trap, or... whatever else might be useful.

I don't know if there's a trail, but I won't say no to more help around here. Resetting defenses, that sort of thing.

[ She swallows. ]

And I- have to say goodbye to Brennan.

I should be back in Dorchadas in a few days and I would—[ she fights back her own swell of emotion. ]—like to say goodbye to him, too, in whatever way you send your dead.

I'll send him the way it's done here. But- we'll wait for you.

video | morning after the audience | unseelie & open non-locket comms

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