destinystrings | Masquerade [Open to all]

Masquerade [Open to all]

Who: Everyone
Where: Near Scorpio's Central Art District
Summary: You all did good. Halloween is being celebrated in style.
Warnings: Nothing for the moment. Costumes?
Congratulations!

You've proven your worth to the city of Hinoto-Ri and this year the Masquerade is dedicated to you. You deserve the party, considering you saved the city from the Zodiac Monster! Besides, on the most powerful spiritual days, even the demons take a day off and enjoy a time of frightful good times with the humanoids.

The lights are all colored blue and purple, and the streets are filled with partygoers of all ages, in both fantastic and some-not-that-fantastic costumes. Pumpkins appear to be floating in the air, but once you come closer, you realize they are Pyro Jacks attending around. This is THEIR favorite holiday and they wouldn't have let it gone to waste!

Originally the Masquerade was to be celebrated around Scorpio's art center, but with the rebuilding still in process, it was moved close by, with the office of wands preparing all the charms needed. The streets need to be protected, considering the Full Moon was just a few days ago.

If you find yourself without any money, no worries! The Government has given you a bonus paycheck for your hard work last week. Costume shopping should be no problem, and the are still stores nearby selling their wears for last minute shopping!

With a small secure sector, it's sure to be an extra fantastic celebration of dancing, music and just watching both humans and demons going at it without much care. Candy is floating around thanks to the Pyro Jacks, grab something and try not to ruin your teeth. Hey, who IS that guy just passed by? Hard to tell.

After all, with these combination of Halloween costumes and a more high class masquerade ballgowns and masks, who knows is really human and who isn't?

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"That sounds remarkably complex, and rather interesting. So the Vanguard functions almost like a ground state for the psyker, then?"

The eyes peering back from the holes are stormcloud gray, and for the moment suggesting a degree of curiousity and gentleness, empathizing with her posthuman nature and apparently admiring her stern demeanor.

"Of a sort." Cloche frowns a little, as she tries to find the best way to explain it. "It's not absolutely necessary for a Vanguard to be present for Song Magic to be successful... but it certainly makes it much, much easier. I have learned to endure while I sing, regardless of what is happening around me."

When Cloche spoke first spoke with Garviel over the COMP Network his stern demeanor reminded her of the resolute Captain Leglius, her loyal (but always distant) guardian. Talking with him in person only strengthens that impression.

Leglius and he in many ways are cast from a similar mould. Stern, stoic warriors.

"You... do not have a vanguard here, do you?"

He sounds almost worried.

Edited 2012-11-09 02:58 (UTC)

"... I do not." Cloche folds her arms, looking a little uncomfortable. "I haven't yet needed one, but. Being without has limited what I can do."

"It might behoove you to find one, and soon. I can smell a war coming upon this place, especially after our recent battle with the... beast."

His eyes show something almost like pain for a moment. Being made to feel fear AND having his senses scrambled was shameful to him.

"I'm well aware of that," Cloche replies, her voice and expression sharp. "This City is far more dangerous than it presents itself. Aside from temporary partnerships formed in the heat of the moment, it's not a bond that can be easily forged."

She knows, all too well, how dangerous it is for a Reyvateil to be in unknown territory without a reliable protector. Being without one makes her feel--uncertain. Anxious.

"I understand. I too am lost without my bond with my battle-brothers." Except on Istvaan, he was never this alone. And even there, he had his memories of Torgaddon, and eventually... the other Knights-Errant in the flesh.

He doesn't seem to take her sharpness amiss. As for himself, he's adjusting to it... anxious isn't something Astartes do, too much like fear. But Uncertainty? Yes, that has weighed heavily upon him of late.

"If it is not prying... what sort of bond do you share with them?" Cloche doesn't want to admit it, but "lost" is exactly how she feels. On Metafalss, even with so many of her loved ones gone across the skies to the other Towers, she had been surrounded by those who would gladly fight with her.

Anger is an easier emotion than fear. Cloche would much rather be annoyed or angry than uncertain or afraid.

"Bonds of genetic heritage, loyalty, blood shed with one another in battle, bonds of duty, and I suppose bonds of love." His eyes go very distant for a moment, as he remembers the Mournival, and his closest brothers in honor. Torgaddon, Vipus, and later friendship with Saul Tarvitz.

Anger is all the Astartes has. Wrath, not fear. For he must know no fear.

"Those are powerful bonds." Out of respect for the soldier, she will not question him further about them. There are some cards that are easier kept close to the heart.

Garviel nods assent within his incredible hat, and then asks, "So, what do you think of this strange festival?"

Truly, a greater hat has never been--and never shall be--created.

"Truth be told, I'm not sure what to make of it," Cloche admits, gaze wandering to the amazing costumes of the crowd. "I am in attendance purely by chance."

"I simply wished to wear a giant hat. I saw one once during the celebration of a world we had brought to compliance."

He peers at her, thoughtful.

"How did you manage a costume if you are attending purely by chance? This is not your normal attire, if I am not mistaken."

"Well, you have certainly accomplished your goal." Is it even possible for hats to be made any bigger than that...? Cloche has a hard time imagining it.

"Oh, this?" Cloche lifts one of her arms, causing the large sleeve of her costume to dangle. "It's something that I crafted within my Cosmosphere. I normally only wear it in battle. Given the circumstances, however, it seemed appropriate."

And, more importantly, it's the warmest out of all of her costumes. ... with the exception of Pipenna. Cloche has no plans tow ear Pipenna in front of anyone, ever.

"What is a Cosmosphere?" He looks in more detail over her costume, thoughtful.

"It is my mind," Cloche replies, her tone serious. "With the aid of a human Diver, I craft Song Magic within it."

Although Cloche claims that the costume is magical in origin, there is nothing to the naked eye that would indicate that it is anything less than real. The level of detail and craftsmanship in it is nothing less than superb. There's not a single fold or drape out of order.

"I see... that is... interesting."

And confusing, at least to him. He is not a mechanicus adept.

"So this is a psychic construction, then?" The hat folds as though he's trying to gesture with an arm within it.

"It is very complex. How do you hold such a complex thought-form?"

"Yes, that's correct." Cloche shifts and plants one of her hands on her hip. "Actually, it's relatively simple. Clothes are inanimate objects that don't affect the world around them. They won't last forever, but it's no burden to hold them in the forefront my mind for as long as I'd like to wear them."

"I know little of such things as this. Our legions gave up our psykers after the Council of Nikaea, so I'm only familiar with astropaths, navigators, and other sanctioned psykers."

He asks a question, after a moment's more thought. "Does that mean your clothing would dissipate if you were distracted?"

"No." Cloche's reply is quite firm on that subject. "Unless I am unconscious, they will stay right where they are. And, even if the magic did dissipate, my normal attire would replace it immediately."

That term, again. Cloche finds the implication that there are certain supernatural abilities that are "unsanctioned."

"You've mentioned psykers before. What are they, exactly? What is it that they do?"

"I see." Not quite as inconvenient as he thought, then.

"Psykers are humans, mutated in a way to have a connection to the Empyrean. They have psychic abilities allowing them to manifest various abilities, from telekinesis, to pyrokinesis, to other kinds of things. Once, they were abroad amongst the Astartes Legions, like myself only able to blast lightning from their fingers, predict future probabilities, and other such things. Until the council of Nikaea, when all such sorcery was forbidden to us by the Emperor's decree, and our Librarians were returned to the ranks as line soldiers, with the edict enforced by our Chaplains. Exceptions were made for sanctioned psykers who directly serve the High Lords of Terra, Astropaths, who communicate through the void between the stars, and Navigators, who guide our great ships through the warp, so that travel between distant stars is possible at all."

He pauses, thoughtful for a moment, "The Emperor himself is our mightiest psyker, and seeing him in person is.... amazing. He is followed by a halo of glorious golden light, and smashes foes as much with his mind as with his significant physical might."

He looks out over the other costumed revellers, and continues his tale. "Eventually, when treachery overtook the Legions, the edict of Nikaea was broken, first by those following Horus the arch-traitor, and then by those loyal to the Throne of Terra. Codicier Rubeo, to whom I partially owe my life, along with 2 other battle-brothers, is again an active Librarian, bending his talents to the service of the Emperor and his people."

Cloche listens intently to Gavriel's explanation, fascinated by the implication of his words. Moving objects with the power of the mind, controlling fire, summoning lightning... on the surface, it's similar to Song Magic. But--predicting the future? Communication, not across cities, but across the stars? The potential is staggering.

"It appears that psykers have a long history within your Empire." Although he didn't outright say he was a citizen of one, Emperors normally lead Empires. "If I may... why were the abilities of unsanctioned Psykers forbidden?"

"From what I understand psyker mutations have been occurred in humanity ever since the Navigators first manifested their abilities That was long ago, before the Dark Age of technology." He nods, confirming her statement about the history, then considers the question. "Because they dance too close to forbidden knowledge and corrupting undercurrents in the warp. A man corrupted by that which lies outside of comprehensible reality is very dangerous indeed. It happened to... a subordinate of mine once. He took a lot to stop him. He killed his entire squad, then most of another squad, and in the end it was down to me to stop Jubal. I did so, and we had thought it done.... but his body changed, and he became what I now know to be a Daemon. The first of many I was to fight."

Loken sighs for a moment, and then continues, "Unsanctioned psykers, those without control, are beacons for the corrupting things that lie within the warp. Jubal wasn't even a psyker, he just had a weakness of will, he was jealous of my promotion of one of his companions to a position as my second, and that was enough of a chink in the armor of his will to make him succumb. If an unsanctioned psyker, or witch-mind uses their abilities, they endanger everyone nearby, sometimes even the entire planet they are on."

"A single person that has the potential to endanger an entire planet..." Cloche's brow furrows. "Those are grim circumstances indeed."

To be honest, the thought of a paranormal gift that corrupted on such a scale is--out of her realm of experience. Song Magic, although it took many different forms, was something that was largely understood within Metafalss. It's certainly an ability that can be misused, but there's nothing inherently negative about it.

"How does your Emperor withstand the toxic side effects of his abilities? From the way you described him, he seems to be the exact opposite of an 'ordinary' psyker."

"Because he is 30,000 years old, if not far older. He has seen everything of human history, or near enough that it matters little. Long ago he learned to ward and protect himself from the corrupting influence of the Warp." He is quiet for a moment, then says, "I think it is his experience and will that holds danger at bay. He's had more time to study than anyone else now living, and as such... he knows exactly where the lines are. The ones that cannot be crossed."

The ones crossed by his own father, and so many of his brothers. Loken's eyes look very sad behind the huge hat for a moment.

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Masquerade [Open to all]

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