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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/EighthMovement|Eighth Movement]]
| + | #REDIRECT ADanceOfAngels |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
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| − | == Dark Surprises ==
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Amber Post, the chamber which has over the past several days become known as the Angels' Room.
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| − | It took some serious work from Vorpal, but she has finally managed to make both the room and its neighboring corridor empty of eavesdroppers, all too nonchalant lingerers and darkly observing spies. It's amazing how a single bonk to the head can stir the imagination of the crowds... let alone their curiosity.
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| − | ''Perhaps whacking her in front of the hundreds and hundreds of spectators was not the wisest of things to do'', Vorpal muses as she crosses the room with a bowl of chilled water in her hands. A clean rag - half of it submerged in the bowl - has been thrown over her wrist. It is a ridiculous sight against the background of a battle-worm gauntlet she wears, but fortunately, no-one is looking. ''But then again, what choise did I have? ''
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| − | Placing the bowl onto a dressing table, she looks down at the Dark Angel's unconscious form in the bed. She is a beautiful sight, half-buried amidst the feathers of her wings, her legs slightly drawn up so that the curve of her hip is prominent through the leotard's black fabric.
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| − | ''She looks innocent like that. ''
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| − | Vorpal pulls out a chair for herself and sits down with a sigh.
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| − | ''She will have a headache. ''
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' And she did have a headache. A fairly nasty one, especially since she is not used to be whacked on the back of the head often. It stirs her from half-remembered dreams, nightmares, visions. An anchor that sinks her to the bottom of reality, out of the airy clouds of dreams.
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| − | Her eyes do not flutter open, they open wide in one moment, and stay that way for a bit before blinking. Without even looking at Vorpal, without moving a muscle to get up, she asks. "So the tourny is postponed."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "For the time being."
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| − | Vorpal reaches for the rag. After squeezing the excess water away she bundles it up and passes it over to Selina. "Here."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "I lost control of reason." She says dispassionately, taking the rag and holding it to the back of her head after moving much of her hair's bulk to one side. Not looking at Vorpal. "I could have waited till after to kill him. Well. We all make mistakes."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Folding her arms over her chest and throwing one leg over the knee of the other, Vorpal leans back. Interestingly enough, if she is passing a judgement about Selina's behaviour the way she usually does, she does not say it aloud. Not yet, at least.
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| − | "It was that soundless thunder, wasn't it?" she asks after a while. "I do not think anyone else but us heard it. I had the advantage that I was in the middle of a battle. It allowed me to channel it away."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Yes, yes it was." Selina replies with a shake of her head. "Whatever it was."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Silence hangs in the room like an Iranorian winter blanket.
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| − | "Scared?"
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Scared of what?" She asks, finally looking to her counterpart now. The look is somewhat incredulous. "Why would I be scared? Disturbed is more like it. It did disturb me..."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "Hmm-hm." Vorpal smiles a little. Something about it hints that she is not certain whether to believe Selina or not. "It ''disturbed'' me as well. It makes you want to know what exactly was it, no?" Her red eyes narrow, slightly.
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' Selina looks at her for a long moment, almost suspicious of something. What it is, even she doesn't really know. "Maybe it does. But he said he doesn't know what it is, so we would have to piece that together ourselves."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "True", Vorpal nods thoughtfully. "You can never get a straight answer out of anything these days. However, it makes me wonder --" And now the General in her is speaking, the cold and ruthless part of her that has been trained since childhood to recognize a valuable resource on sight and exploit it to her best advantage. Already her mind is spinning out the possibilities and alternative ways how to test them. "-- if beings such as ''us'' find it ''disturbing'', how do you think the Bishop's minions would react to it?"
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' Selina sits up, propping herself with one elbow while the other arm
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| − | holds the wettened rag to her head. "Oh, they'll probably say he's a blasphemy and swarm him. Like, you know, they do to us. He'll last all of twenty seconds when that happens."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' The Ghost-blooded lets out a sour snort at that. "I thought about that, too. He is powerful for an unExalted, but not that powerful. I need to think about it", she finishes with an irritated wave of hand.
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| − | "So." Vorpal leans forward as she speaks. "Are you feeling better already?"
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Kind of. Why do you ask?" Selina replies, looking at her strangely again. "I imagine that felt good for you to do." Her expression is that of slight irritation.
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Vorpal's mouth breaks into a white-toothed grin at that. Somewhere from the depths of her throat a chuckle emerges, rolling out like a small landslide, at least if land would slide upwards and bubble as it comes. She reaches out and ruffles Selina's dark wing. "You can't even imagine. I really should do it more often."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Glad you're entertained." Selina says with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. The next bit is only faintly accusatory. "At least Moon doesn't find it fun to hit me. But, different people different joys, eh?"
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| − | She falls silent, wondering how she's going to get Vorpal back for that one.
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| − | ''So many ways. ''
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| − | ''So many ways that may not work. ''
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "It is not so much joy, but it certainly worked better than the usual preaching", Vorpal says. She leans back, regarding her dark counterpart with narrow and glimmering eyes. "My armor, by the way, protects me in every direction. That includes the back of my head."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "I know it does." Replies Selina with some dark humor of her own. "But, I am better than you in a grapple, if I remember correctly, and all I need are some jade chains for a compromising position you can't get out of." She finishes triumphantly.
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Vorpal's smile does to falter.
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| − | "You are welcome to try", she says, graciously. "But we should return to the arena soon. I don't want to spend all week trying not to bash them too hard."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Perhaps we should, yes. But maybe I should show you something first." Selina replies with a nod, finally taking the rag off of her head. She gets up to a real sitting position on the bed, feet on the floor, steadying herself.
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' Vorpal says nothing. The smile melting from her face, she takes the rag from the Dark Angel and places it back into the bowl.
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' Selina gets to her feat, grumbling under her breath at the dull pain at the back of her head still, and undoes her weapon belt. The sheathed Dreamshard and affixed Angeldust get tossed onto the bed with the rest of her belt. Her knives follow, then the gloves. She spares a look for Vorpal. "No, I'm not doing this for some sort of show. Just...my clothes really should not be on when I demonstrate."
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| − | She touches a finger to the soulsteel and starmetal collar of her leotard, and it snaps open at the back, enabling her to take the garment off. Last to come off are her boots.
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| − | And then, Vorpal sees, it becomes blatantly obvious that Selina has a new artifact around her neck. Normally she is decked out with enough of them that this slight, moonsilver chain with a locket of its own would go unnoticed, but not now. Shadows cluster from the corners of the room, migrating onto her naked body, making her look like a silohette when viewed from any angle, though she retains three dimensional fullness. The only color on her now are her turquoise eyes.
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| − | Then it happens. Even from within the shroud of darkness she has gathered about herself, a little glimmer of silver light can be seen, and her form ''changes''. From female to male. The end result is not quite so massive as her mate, but neither is it a rail thin specimen of a man. And even from the shadowed outline she now presents, it is evident that her famous beauty is perfectly intact, only in line with the change of sex.
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| − | "A nice little trinket one of our friends made for me." Selina's voice is deeper now, though not too deep, not to the level the Dragon takes it. "Instead of another implement of destruction, I figured some of us might be amused by this ability. But...I brought nothing in the way of man's clothes, so perhaps dropping the shadows right now is ill-advised."
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' A lot of thoughts whirl through Vorpal's head as Selina changes. Most of them are too small to be really even called thoughts, more like bits, fragments and half-formed images as her senses do their very best to overload her brain. They rush through their mind and chase each other with a whooshing sound, so quickly that grabbing a single specific one of them would be next to impossible. The general mood in them, however, could be summarized fairly well as thus:
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| − | ''Whooo-ee. ''
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| − | The Pale Angel coughs and covers one half of her face with a hand. "Maybe it's not yet another implement of destruction", she admits. There is a very weird echo in her voice, as if she had just discovered a very slimy and disgusting frog from between her bedsheets, yet is too fascinated to turn away. "But it's definitely an implement of your style."
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| − | ''Thank the Heavens she did not use it while she was still wearing that leotard. ''
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| − | "That's... that's not just an illusion, is it?"
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| − | '''Chibi Selina (Hyrokkin): ''' (hey, I'm not stupid y'know. no one wants to see a man in a leotard)<br>
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| − | '''Chibi-Vorpy: ''' ((Knowing you, I dunno. =_=))
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "No, no it is not." Selina replies with a shake of her (his now?) head. The wings don't seem to have really changed much -- but Windian wings are uniformly powerful to carry them aloft regardless. The long shadowy hair waves a bit from one side to another behind her as she shakes her head. "I specifically asked that it truly change one's sex. And of course, it works the other way around as well, for men."
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| − | Then the turquoise eyes, which seem more brilliant from the lack of color and light around them, narrow a bit. "You like this version of me better. Oh well, some of us like one sex better than the other, right?"
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' A very small, very evil part of Vorpal's mind raises its head then.
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| − | ''I ought to remember that the next time I talk with Alex about him wearing a maid's dress. ''
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| − | "I never said that!" she snaps, waving her hands angrily. That rare blush is beginning to make its way on her cheeks again. "Oh, for the sake of -- change back already, will you?"
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "As you wish, mistress." Selina says with no amusement evident in her male-tone (though it's in her head), and the little glimmer peaks through the shadows again, and her form changes back to the more familiar female one again.
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| − | Still shadowed, she begins to put her clothing back on, the darkness retreating only after the leotard hugs her form once more. "I figured you'd find it interesting -- or a reason to hit me again." She demures, fitting her belt back on.
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "Fine, fine, we're even now", Vorpal snaps and pushes herself to her feet as well. "We're leaving! Time to return to the arena."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Yes, I think there's a fight or two left for you before I go back." Selina agrees, glad to be back in her native form. "And this time, hopefully we won't get any disturbing challengers."
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| − | She does, however, get the bucket of water with the rag. Her head could use a bit more of that while she watches.
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| − | '''Vorpal: ''' "Judging by what we have gotten so far", Vorpal responds sourly as she makes her way to the door, "I wouldn't be so certain."
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| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Oh, we'll see..." She replies primly, walking after her with the bucket and sighing.
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| − | It is going to be a long rest-of-the-day.
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| − | ----
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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/EighthMovement|Eighth Movement]]
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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
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