Siren Song

[Erynies Adrasteia]

After dragging the unconscious Leo half a mile to the nearest remnants of what might have once been a dirt road she heads back to retrieve what's left of the water she gathered and returns to the hearing post. Outside the sun is beginning to dip towards the horizon and she lets Katarina know to meet her by the fire when she's ready. Then she sits down outside, grabs the small and mostly dried peyote cactus and starts chewing, watching the night slowly chase the sun towards the horizon.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina came out, with Doug providing shade via makeshift umbrella.

"It would be pretty, other under circumstances," Katarina noted.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Still is." Ryn says, turning her closed eyes towards Katarina. "Send him away. It's time." she says, reaching into her pocket and withdrawing the small sphere faintly shimmering in the twilight. She's quiet for a moment, just holding the magical orb in her hands. "I... need you to tell me. To drive the Siren from you. It will hurt and I swore not to harm you. I need help breaking my word."

[Katarina Kane]

"I need him to watch out in case we're interrupted by snipers or Agents. While we're doing...whatever we're doing.

...How can I help you break your word?" Katarina said, skipping over the 'pain' part. "Is it as simple as asking?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Hrm." she grunts at 'Doug' but decides to ignore him if Katarina wants him standing watch.

"Your Voice. I'll let myself hear it's magic."

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina nodded, and took a deep breath.

"Break your vow. Drive the siren from my flesh."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Without so much as a word Ryn's wings unfold and she opens her eyes. As before the ice-cold surge of adrenaline is there but before she could even react the fibers of the deva's wings shoot forward and pierce through Katarina. Each one fine as a hair, it doesn't even hurt at first as they sink into all her major joints and from her throat down to her hips in clusters. Still holding the orb cupped in both hands Ryn lifts Katarina a good foot into the air and looks up at her. Tears are streaming down her face and throws back her head at the same time as the pain sets in.

Tiny fibers slide into and round nerves and thrum like guitar strings in a white hot explosion of agony. At the same time Ryn's body snaps taut, muscles and tendons straining against themselves and with a thunderous crack that's felt more than heard the last remnants of daylight are snuffed out. The tears running down Ryn's face blossom with the same cold flame that burns in her eyes, searing their path through her flesh like spidering cracks.

The shockwave exploding out from them stirs the sand for miles like a sudden gust of wind, but those in tune with the divine can feel the full extent of something enormous shattering.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina is not in tune with the divine. Katarina is in tune with her nerve endings, and being stabbed hundred of times does take it's toll. The siren let out a shriek, rapidly climbing the scale into the hypersonic; the sound waves rolling over the desert as her cry followed the initial shockwave.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

As the thousands of threads impaling Katarina and keeping her aloft push all the way through her they don't come away clean. Bit by bit they're pushing a translucent shape out Katarina's back that mirrors the siren's shape and every movement. And Ryn's heart sinks. No spirit is riding her flesh and she is tearing out the whole of Katarina's soul. She knew this might happen but it still makes her hesitate, fingers clutching the Wish Orb. She can still snuff out the more monstrous parts of her soul, but all she does is destroy. If she devours or cuts the wrong thing...

For the first time in her long, long life, Erynies Adrasteia is scared.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam, still carrying Will, is fighting against the winds and the waves of sound as she nears the site of Ryn's impromptu ritual.

"You were worried that I was going to kill the siren?" She shouts over the din to Leo.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Ryn! What the hell are you doing?!" Leo shouted, running to... he didn't know, but he had to do some--suddenly he knew exactly what she was trying to do.

"Stop! You can't just carve it out! Even if you could, she wouldn't be her anymore! She's not like me, she's only the one soul!"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn's head turns, twitching as it does. "Watch me." she says, her voice cracking and warbling. She lifts the orb with one hand and grips it tightly, knuckles white with effort. There's a high-pitched screeching of stressed materials and it feels like the sky above them is threatening to crack in turn. If Ryn notices she doesn't pay it any mind.

"I demand you grant me the power to cleanse this soul!" she shouts and in response the blue embers in her eyes flare to white-hot flames, widening the cracks the tears have carved. Ancient and powerful she may be, but she's being denied invoking a true power of the gods. Maybe she even could, but not after having shattered herself on a broken oath.

[Samantha McManus]

"You think you'll do it even if it breaks the world," Sam says, setting Will down. "Because that's what you're used to. The world breaking before you will."

"But she's of the world, Fury."

[Wyll Wyldclay]

Meanwhile, a door to what was surely some kind of supply closet inside the desert base opened up; the trio of path wanderers having taken the shortcut to the end.

The Wyldclay had already put their earplugs in. "Ah, capital! Quite the neat trick," they said, headed up the hallway towards the source of the waves of sound and wind, their hair whipping in the hot blast.

[Katarina Kane]

Meanwhile, both Katarina and the...the shape emerging from her writhed in pain, her very soul being ripped from her scaled flesh. She spat blood from her parched mouth, gasping for ragged breath between screams, as she tried desperately to focus on something, anything around her. Anything but the waves of pain coursing through every cell in her body.



Doug was doing quite well, thank you.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"It will... consume her... And then I will have to end her." Ryn says as she sags and fall to one knee, one hand braced against the ground while still holding the orb aloft with the other. "I promised."

They are right. She can't do it. She broke herself, tried to break the rules with a wish, but it is not within her nature to save a soul. All her strength tied up in what she is. Unyielding. Unchanging.

"Save her!" she screams at the Morrigan. Then, quieter. "Help me..."

[Toshiro Narumi]

Inside the desert base, Tosh looked around at the equipment recently used to spy on the United States. "What kind of Cold War nonsense am I looking at?"

He shook his head. "Not important. Someone was here recently. Them, I assume. But where are they now?"

[Samantha McManus]

Sam pushes her way into the tempest surrounding the Fury and the Siren, the unseen flock fighting against winds that were more than just physical.

This isn't the first storm like this she's been in, and she knows as things get worse she'll begin to see the lights again.

She's counting on it.

[Narrator]

Inside the desert base, Tosh looked around at the equipment recently used to spy on the United States. "What kind of Cold War nonsense am I looking at?"

He shook his head. "Not important. Someone was here recently. Them, I assume. But where are they now?"

Presumably, it had something to do with the waves of wind and sound that were shaking the building from the outside; the ones sending shockwaves down the corridor ramping up towards the exit. Without the Wyldclay's earplugs, the sound alone might be physically painful.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam is helpfully passing what she picks up from her two companions minds along to the other to let them know what the others are saying despite the earplugs.

"Bloody hell, it's like putting my head in a blender out there." she winces at trying to cast her mind towards Sam's presence.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh could barely hear himself think anymore, even with the earplugs. "I don't trust this place not to cave in! Better blended than buried alive!"

He hesitated briefly before heading up the stairs that led out.

[Narrator]

Sam doesn't even have to try very hard. As she steps closer ethereal details are swimming in and out of her vision, overlayed and intermingled. What would normally be a little light in the dark is shining bright around Katarina as the tendrils of darkness emanating from Ryn pry open her mortal shell and clutch at Katarina's soul. Impressions, feelings, memories, sensations that are hard to place but perhaps as astral visions dance at the periphery. Scenes of crashing waves, deep blue depths, alluring sounds and blood-drenched fangs, the flick of a fluke in the water, salty winds beneath feathery wings and ever more abstract things that make a Siren. All facets of varying influence that feel like a nudge would send ripples through the kaleidoscope of it all.

Without Ryn tearing at the seams of what holds her soul in place it wouldn't be visible, much less manifest in an almost tangible way to Sam.

And Ryn herself is similarly wreathed, though hers are more like bloody stories carved in stone. Stone that is cracking as it tries to move and change, straining against thorny vines with bright-blue flowers that have been driven through the rock to keep it in it's place.

[Samantha McManus]

"But is this a story that still needs told?" She murmurs through the flock to the tale trying to begin again in the young pop star.

"They've mapped the seas, above and below. They've scratched out Sargasso and the dragons at the edges of the map. They've lighthouses and buoys and sonar. Do they need sirens to steer them into the rocks? Of all the stories this soul could tell, why would you force her into telling one whose time is done?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

There's a ripple of something. Acknowledgement? Not quite for that implies a sentience that simply isn't there. But Sam's words carry meaning that resonates. It struggles against the weight of ages, of stories and ideas told over and over but then Ryn screams and pushes herself forward half a step and lends Sam's words an edge to cut their way into the tangle of drowning sailors and wreckage. Where Sam guides and attends, Ryn erases, but between them the meanings and notions blooming around Katarina yield and begin to change.

"Katarina!" she shouts and tries to ease up on the pain that's forcing out her soul. "Wish for what you want a Siren to be!" she goes on and throws her the Orb.

[Katarina Kane]

ALL stories must be told, lest they wither and die. The bards are the ones that share the True things; the things that people will remember in their souls. And the people must come, and the people must listen. And they shall all dance to our tune.

[Katarina Kane]

There's a ripple of something. Acknowledgement? Not quite for that implies a sentience that simply isn't there. But Sam's words carry meaning that resonates. It struggles against the weight of ages, of stories and ideas told over and over but then Ryn screams and pushes herself forward half a step and lends Sam's words an edge to cut their way into the tangle of drowning sailors and wreckage. Where Sam guides and attends, Ryn erases, but between them the meanings and notions blooming around Katarina yield and begin to change.

"Katarina!" she shouts and tries to ease up on the pain that's forcing out her soul. "Wish for what you want a Siren to be!" she goes on and throws her the Orb.

Katarina barely gripped the Orb in one hand, gasping for air between the waves of pain shuddering through her body.

This was...an unusual situation for her. To be asked what to do next. All her life, Katarina had been dragged from one situation to another, outside of her control. You sing well, so now you're in this junior pageant, now you're in the state competition, now you're representing your country on the European stage. Now you're drafted in the army, now you're being trained because of the skills we've identified in you. And now you're being sent to the states, and now you're working for us, and now your agent tells you where to go, who to schmooze, what to record, what record execs to meet in private, how to smile, how to do your hair, how to do your makeup, how to sound foreign but not too foreign. And now the Agency has her -- where to go, where NOT to go, can't be left on her own, can't be sent out on her own, a danger to herself and others.

She must be watched, lest she hurt someone.
She must be watched, less her sales and her Q-score tank.
She must be watched, lest she slip out and become part of the West.

She must be...she must be...

"I wish...I wish..."

She must be...she must be...

"A siren...is watched. Because they are in control of their own story. They are in control of everything. I wish for...control."

[Katarina Kane]

"...I don't care if it hurts.
I want to have control...
I want a perfect body...
I want a perfect soul...
I want them to notice, when I'm not around...
I wish I was special; I'm nobody special..."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn fully falls to her knees and, as gently as she can, sets Katarina back down, trying to ease her soul back inside as the threads withdraw from her body.

"Did it... work?" she asks weakly, eyes still slowly weeping blue flames through the cracks and furrows running down her cheeks but not seeming to gouge any deeper anymore.

[Samantha McManus]

"I wouldn't call that monkey's paw a miracle cure just yet," she mutters, giving Katarina a hard look.

[Katarina Kane]

"I wouldn't call that monkey's paw a miracle cure just yet," she mutters, giving Katarina a hard look.

Katarina gasped once more, as the...the shape of whatever it was Ryn was trying to cut out of her flowed back into her, once again connected too deeply to her soul to simply be ripped out.

The wings on Katarina's back seemed to shrivel, folding in on themselves as they were drawn back towards her scapulae. They didn't fully vanish, mind you; they just seemed to be...more hidden. Or at least discreet.

Her scales, too, began to recede. Slightly. From the mass of blue, her face reappeared, as did her neck and upper shoulders. But the rest of the scales, they seemed to reform and reshape, patterning themselves into something resembling formfitting clothing -- not a maxidress mind you, because walking was still a requirement, but certainly reminiscent of something elegant and seductive. She clenched the orb tightly in one hand, as she coughed, still parched from the desert heat.

Despite her still somewhat bedraggled look, it was hard to take your eye off of her. It wasn't a command, per se; people could look away if'n they so wanted. But it seemed somehow right to be looking at Katarina; like she was and should be the natural center of attention. She drew the eye, as it were.

"Water," she managed to croak out. And, after a brief moment of pause, the sky itself opened up, and a light drizzle began to fall in the desert.

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"No. No no no no no," the Wyldclay frowned, striding forward. From their suit jacket, they pulled out a long, nasty-looking dagger, and strode towards the siren, purposefully. The look on their face was perhaps an unusual one for a Will -- but not entirely unprecedented to some of the crowd.

[Katarina Kane]

In days past, Ryn might have lept to Katarina's defense. Or perhaps one of the other people, enthralled by her presence, might try to at least slow down the fae. But, it turns out, that was hardly necessary.

"Stop."

Wyll froze in their tracks, dagger still gripped tightly in their hands. Even through the earplugs, the command resonated through their skull.

"Drop."

Wyll hesitated only a moment before their hands opened, sending the dagger clattering to the rocky sand below.

"Kneel."

Wyll fell down to their knees, catching themselves with their hands before they fully faceplanted on the ground.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

The beast within Leo bucked and snarled, chafing at being controlled. But it was no use; the human it had joined with was enthralled, and it lacked the strength to counter the orb-enhanced siren and break the chains that bound them. Not without damaging the human's psyche. So it waited for Katarina to falter and provide it the opportunity to do something.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn looks at Katarina and when the rain begins to fall in the desert she laughs. It's a quiet, almost hoarse kind of sound from a throat not accustomed to it, but laugh she does as she tilts her head back and lets the raindrops fall onto her face where they sizzle against the blue flames running through the cracks in her skin from her eyes.

[Samantha McManus]

"It was working, we were making progress, and then you had to bring that back into it..."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"And make a decision for her? Never. Katarina, you can give them the icha mandalam back now."

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina looked down at the orb in her hands, glowing and pulsating slightly.

"No," she said, pulling it tighter to her chest and sitting up.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Surely someone so amazing doesn't need a magic orb to continue to be amazing," Tosh found himself saying. He wasn't even trying to outsmart the magic; in his enthralled state, he meant it.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina regarded Tosh. Her eyes were a little glazed over, as if she was looking at him from a distance.

"No. I will not be...pushed around anymore. I am writing my own story from here on out."

She looked back at Tosh. "Smile more; it makes you prettier," she said -- perhaps an odd command in a vacuum, but she was clearly working through some Issues with some of the sorts of things she had been told to do over the years.

[Miriam Bell]

"Oh good, the mind controlling enchantress with the reality-altering orb has PTSD." Miriam notes as she surveils the scene. Or mostly Katarina, on account of girl hot. And also the magic. But liking or adoring something has never stopped her before from sarcastic criticism.