Video

[weirdnecro]

Name: Sokie Undertown
Date: Septeril 1st
Format: Video


[The video starts off with a woman sitting on the couch-or rather sprawled over it, holding up the Watch to her face level. Her expression, while it's usually amused and laid back, is a little grim. It seems she's seen the message that the Coven leaders have posted, and she's following through with her own response as to not clog up the feed.]

My name is Sokie, and I happen to be one of the new witches around here. And while I could go on and on, I'm just going to get into the heart of the matter. It's about the diplomatic and not so diplomatic mission.

Some of us should stay behind.

[Briefly, she holds up a hand.]

Hear me out. This isn't because of anything lacking, it's not to make it easier on the Dorries. It's more...we're going to be on their territory, far away from our own base. Whatever way we go in, they're going to have the advantage of the place, even with the resistance in their midst.

It may be possible that we'll somehow have our Watches not work in the city, for some, utterly mysterious reason.

[Her eyes widen, exaggerated, about the "mysterious" thing. Mystery her eye.]

It may not be a terrible idea for those of us to bond, and have one half stay behind. I know this is a crappy choice, and I know that it's terrible to be the one to be left behind. I'm planning on going myself, mostly to play the voice of compromise.

But if we're captured, if we're cut off from all communication, those remaining in the city need to know. We need each other, and I for one want to make sure that if they plan to screw us over, we can screw them right back.

[She brings up a hand in a salute]

Anyway. Sokie, out.

Comments

[mirshikar]

Sokie Undertown, stepping out of the shadows to lead. [ My, my—now that would be a sight to see, and Asura himself would demand front-row seats. He wonders, then, if she could truly be capable of putting her mage's interests second to the needs of the collective many; if the video she'd set to broadcast hadn't been a facet of that particular desire to begin with. But to lead is to be chained (and this fact, Asura knows better than any), and Sokie... Sokie's spent her definitely-over-nine-thousand years running, and a habit like that won't be kicked to the curb so easily.

Flirtatiously skeptical, he cants his head to the side, lined eyes narrowing: ] Sounds like it could be the premise of some goddamn superhero redemption anthology.

[ He's not entirely a jock, okay, he likes to read certain things!! American comic books being chief among them. ]

Focus on you, first. Make your bonds, test Nessie's spell, hone your magic. [ To prepare for every possible outcome; to counteract the unknown nature of the welcoming party awaiting the dignitaries at Dorchacht which no one among the Mirrorbound or Aefenglom's Coven could predict. ] I'll be doing the same.

[ Here, he gives pause, extending an arm (out, away from Sokie's person), the twist and twine of an unspoken spell keenly felt in the instant before Asura's fingers, hand, and wrist light with the fire of evocation; his skin remaining unburnt despite the intensity of the flames. By reading the books which Sokie had recommended, is it possible.... that he learned something?! ]

Then we'll talk about getting you elected as a representative for the Mirrorbound, yeah?

[weirdnecro]

You're full of mockery today.

[She tugged on his hair a little harder then she meant to but-well-she was allowed to be annoyed, wasn't she? He was really teasing her hard-as if he knew that she might bark but not bite.

She would bite if he poked too hard though. He wasn't immune to her lashing out at him-even if she had more patience then one would expect, and a sharper temper then most realized.]

Also, this place doesn't have spandex, so it's difficult to be the traditional super hero. But I was planning to do all the above, and move forward hard and fierce.

...is that your way of showing you'll bend and try, or your declaration of eliminating my possible political rivals?

[mirshikar]

I'm not bending. [ —he huffs, remaining thoroughly unmoved when she cares to reward his chaffing with a particularly f i e r c e tug of hair. Where it might have been easier, to bow his head and ride the drag out, he obstinately refuses, in part because...

It feels nice, doesn't it? Not quite like taking a solid blow to the face during a fight, but still pleasing enough. ]

I've simply chosen to pursue reclaiming what is mine through alternative methods. [ Those alternative methods being the production of fire through the expenditure of potential energy (magic), as opposed to churning out the flames from his furnace of a chest as a natural by-product of his, well, being. Gone from him is that latter ability, but he'll be damned if he doesn't recover what's so intrinsic to him in one way or another, especially if it enables him to be a vandal vigilante proponent for change in Dorchacht. ] But... you should know by now, that your enemies are my own.

[ Those words? Yeah, they're imbued with the same intensity and conviction which they'd held in their shared dream of the Black City, this time reinforced by Asura's application of magic. If he's going to fight beside the Eldest Witch, he better damn well make sure that he can fling spells toe-to-toe with her first. ]

Political opponents or otherwise, they'll meet with my talons and teeth if they give you any trouble.

After all, I'm the only one allowed to give you a hard time. [ And escape with hair-pulling as punishment. ] If you work up a little more ire, I might even be able to show you what I can do with the wrath I siphon from others.

[ He'd figured that one out on his third day in Aefenglom, using the wrath he'd harvested from a brawling match gone sour. ]

It adds more fuel to the fire, so to speak.

[weirdnecro]

[Yeah, he's enjoying himself all right. Idly, she wonders what he'd do if she slammed him into the wall but...then again he might set the house on fire with his display. Which he's actually taking pains not to do. Which she's thankful for.

Still...while she does believe him when he says he'll have her back, it's difficult to believe. Just because...how many times had she given others the chance? How many died on her, or walked away, or simply couldn't do it?

Mind, none of them had been the Summer King, so they didn't have the same amount of weight with it, even if he wasn't the same as he had been.

For a few moments, she feels tired. Tired, and old, before she sets her shoulders back and takes in a deep breath.]

You know I can and will fight my own battles as need be Asura. I'm a Witch, not a princess.

[She rewards him with another pull on his hair, even as her hand drops.]

I thought you might be eating my irritation since we've moved in together but- are you saying you can use your wrath eating as magic fuel?

[Yup. She's distracted from heartfelt declarations with her nerdiness. Someone send help, she could bug him for hours over this.]

[mirshikar]

[ Fuuuuck, that glint to Sokie's eye is one Asura's intimately acquainted with: it's the look she wears when she wants to dissect something (or an unwitting someone) to satisfy her nerdiness insatiable need to define the parameters of the world around her (and all those who inhabited it). If there were one damn mage which Asura would consider escorting to Arcadia (regardless of the risk posed to both their persons), it would be her, if only because everything in the realm is a paradox and nothing makes a lick of sense. There is no rhyme or reason, the realm just is, and Sokie would either be immersed in its reality-shredding power or...

...simply tire of it.

In any case, Asura snuffs out the flames lighting his hand in an instant. ]

Something like that. [ He's vague, but not deliberately so—it's a weird-ass thing to describe, how the energy he gleans from raw emotion can be redirected into the magic which flows through him now that he's a not-Witch. ] It boosts the output of the spells which I cast. It's less of a battery-pack and more of an incendiary.

[ Whiiiiich is kind of dangerous to be playing around with in the house, but Asura leaves it at that. ]

I'm going to stock up on more wrath, too, before our trip. Because no one can fight this battle on their own, not even you, Sokie.

[ He hadn't missed it, of course, her silence and the weightiness to her gaze when he'd reinforced his vow, well aware that she'd have difficulty trusting in it. ]

You wouldn't be making bonds, otherwise. [ A beat. ] You and me, what we've got - it's something different, but I can put my faith in it.

[ Because she hadn't left him in that alleyway. She'd saved the Harpy (and him). ]

[weirdnecro]

[At least Sokie is mostly harmless when it comes to him, and he won't find himself waking up and strapped down to the bed...though after living together for nearly a month, he knows how persistent she can be when she wants to know something. Her going to Arcadia might go really well with her having a Great Time, or really...badly. Who knew.]

An incendiary...that does make sense. Wrath couldn't be considered as anything other then explosive, mm? Maybe if you ate a different emotion-but that's just silly theorical talk. I might have to ask Nessie about the possible storing of emotional energies to use for various spells or tech.

[The poor woman. Poor everyone. Maybe it's good she hasn't met Entrapta; together they'd be a menace and a disaster. But...back on topic, she sighs, but she doesn't disagree.]

I wouldn't be no. I need to be as stable as possible, as strong as I can possibly be if we're going to fight together side by side. Because it's not about just letting myself down.

It's about not letting you down either.

[She's serious and she's trying not to squirm. Ugh. Emotional declarations. UGH.]