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Lore:Ripples: Difference between revisions
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(Fully transcribed, word to word, from this weeks lorebook.) Tag: Mobile edit |
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Caiatl turns to a bridge crew Legionary as the Tomb Carrier rapidly expands in the viewport behind her. "Fetch my shield." | Caiatl turns to a bridge crew Legionary as the Tomb Carrier rapidly expands in the viewport behind her. "Fetch my shield." | ||
*** | <nowiki>***</nowiki> | ||
On the other side of the Reef, Queen [[Mara Sov]] watches through a [[Dreaming City]] aperture as the battle unfolds on her borders. The inscrutable expression on her face twists with each distant explosion. [[Petra Venj|Petra]] wishes the small tensing motions would give some indication of what her queen is thinking. Instead, she sees only the cold stare of one predator assessing the size and strength of another. | On the other side of the Reef, Queen [[Mara Sov]] watches through a [[Dreaming City]] aperture as the battle unfolds on her borders. The inscrutable expression on her face twists with each distant explosion. [[Petra Venj|Petra]] wishes the small tensing motions would give some indication of what her queen is thinking. Instead, she sees only the cold stare of one predator assessing the size and strength of another. | ||
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"You sound like a Warlock, so I trust you. Show me how we do this." | "You sound like a Warlock, so I trust you. Show me how we do this." | ||
*** | <nowiki>***</nowiki> | ||
"Europa," Saint mutters. "Could we not have gone somewhere warmer?" he asks, dismounting his Ram Sparrow on a cliff overlooking the [[Asterion Abyss]]. "I am used to the simulated sun of Mercury." | "Europa," Saint mutters. "Could we not have gone somewhere warmer?" he asks, dismounting his Ram Sparrow on a cliff overlooking the [[Asterion Abyss]]. "I am used to the simulated sun of Mercury." | ||
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"Never, my queen. But I do worry that he is vulnerable to Savathûn's influence," Petra offers. "She clearly has taken an interest in him for some time now. And he clearly reciprocates that interest." | "Never, my queen. But I do worry that he is vulnerable to Savathûn's influence," Petra offers. "She clearly has taken an interest in him for some time now. And he clearly reciprocates that interest." | ||
"Your words hold no falsehood. You and I will mitigate this danger. If Crow and Uldren are to meet, it must be a subtle progression." Mara Sov leans over the terrace railing. "I believe my brother's recovery is possible, Petra. Will you help me?" | "Your words hold no falsehood. You and I will mitigate this danger. If [[Uldren Sov|Crow]] and Uldren are to meet, it must be a subtle progression." Mara Sov leans over the terrace railing. "I believe my brother's recovery is possible, Petra. Will you help me?" | ||
Without a moment of hesitation, Petra responds, "I will do anything you ask, my queen." But doubts sprout in her mind. "If he does become… problematic…" Petra trails off, searching for the right words. | Without a moment of hesitation, Petra responds, "I will do anything you ask, my queen." But doubts sprout in her mind. "If he does become… problematic…" Petra trails off, searching for the right words. | ||
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==V - Wick Burnt Black== | ==V - Wick Burnt Black== | ||
"Saint's recent reports were… unfocused," [[Zavala]] says with a sigh. | |||
[[Ikora Rey|Ikora]] nods from across the office. She stands with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "He suffered through an eternity of battle to keep us safe. Then he comes to the Tower and lets his guard down—lets himself care for someone—and that's when he gets hurt." | |||
She grimaces. "Badly." | |||
Zavala shifts in his chair and runs his large hands over his desk. His palms have memorized its every bump, every groove. "I'm giving him space, but I don't know what else I can do. I'm not sure if he even believes the real Osiris is hidden away somewhere, but he's out there all the same. He just has to do something." | |||
"I can understand that feeling," Ikora says quietly. "That's what I should have been doing. Seeing things [[The Hidden|my Hidden]] missed. Out in the field, putting the pieces together." | |||
Her lip curls in disgust. "Not wasting time in the Tower, waiting for an attack." | |||
Zavala looks up at her and frowns. "It's not like you to second-guess yourself." | |||
Ikora's jaw tightens. Bitter fire flickers in her eyes. "Maybe I should." Her voice is brittle. "I brought Osiris—Savathûn—inside our walls." | |||
"Yes, as you did with Mithrax and the House of Light," Zavala counters evenly. | |||
But Ikora lowers her eyes. "People died for that too." | |||
As Zavala rises from his seat, she turns away; the last thing she wants is to be comforted. She hears him lean against his desk, and a patient silence fills the room. | |||
Finally, Ikora lets her arms fall to her sides. When she looks at Zavala, his expression is one of confusion rather than concern. | |||
"It's been years since I've heard you talk like this," he says. | |||
Frustration rises in her. "I looked in his eyes and didn't see it." | |||
"Neither did I. None of us did." | |||
Zavala's face looks almost serene, which makes Ikora want to hurl a Nova Bomb into it. | |||
"Listen," he says. "We have conquered the Cabal in their arenas. We have chased the Hive into their Ascendant Planes; the Vex deep into their network. We have been tricked by the god of trickery, and we have fought the god of war on the battlefield." | |||
Zavala's mouth tightens into a grim line. "When we go up against gods, we fight them on their terms. That usually means we take the first hit. We can't choose when that happens, but we can make damn sure we're the ones left standing." | |||
He sits back down at his desk and racks a sheaf of papers, as if putting a period on his sentence. Ikora clasps her hands behind her back, then takes a long breath. | |||
"I'll support him as best I can," she says. "Share all my intel on Osiris—anything we learned while my Hidden were shadowing Crow after he first rose. If Savathûn left a trail, I'll find it." | |||
"I know you will," Zavala says. | |||
Ikora allows his words to reach her. "I wish there was a way to get him back," she says quietly. | |||
"Saint or Osiris?" Zavala asks, looking up. | |||
The hem of Ikora's robe whispers softly across the floor as she leaves the office. | |||
==VI - Isolation== | ==VI - Isolation== | ||
Space is loneliness. Far removed from any of the system's planets, it is at once suffocatingly dark and blindingly bright depending on which way you turn. A jumpship sits in a fixed position in the black, engines off, oriented so its underbelly faces the glare of the distant sun. | |||
There is no true cockpit inside the [[Radiant Accipiter]]; the ship's canopy projects an image to the pilot. No frame, no obstructions, just the infinite gulf. Crow stares up at the blackness between a cluster of stars he can't identify; he wishes he were there. Where nothing is known, where everything can be new again. | |||
[[Glint]] rests in his Guardian's lap. He's accustomed to Crow's hands cradling him as though he were a small cat—but in this moment, Crow's head is instead in his hands, fingers tangled in his hair. | |||
Glint is silent, patient. He knows he has to be. | |||
Crow makes a small sound in the back of his throat and the Ghost stirs. When this is followed by an unsteady hitch in his breathing, Glint floats up, presses himself to Crow's chest, and begins to hum. | |||
Crow's hands close around him, clutching him against his heart. | |||
And that's how Glint knows: Crow is still the same inside. | |||
<nowiki>***</nowiki> | |||
Sulfurous plumes rise from fissures in the [[Venus|Venusian]] soil. Crow marches across the planet's surface, his boots crushing thin sheets of calcium that skim across shallow, iridescent pools of water. His jumpship is perched atop a rise nearby, clear of the unstable field he now traverses. | |||
"Crow, please," Glint pleads over his Guardian's shoulder. "Can you tell me why we're here?" | |||
Ahead, clouds of light and geometric shapes bloom into being. Glint lets out a sharp gasp and transmats away as Crow reaches for the hand cannon at his side. By the time the first Vex Goblin manifests, Crow has already trained his sights on it. | |||
A single pull of the trigger takes the machine's head off and sends it staggering across the field, firing blindly. Two more Goblins appear nearby and Crow blasts away their limbs like a child separating a fly from its wings. He ends them with the last bullets in the cylinder. | |||
A shimmer of violet light within the temporal storm heralds the arrival of a Vex Minotaur. It bellows a roar across the Venusian flats and fires a volley of energized plasma through the air. Crow weaves between them, tumbles forward through the shallow pools, and rises to his feet to shake out his hand cannon's cylinder, sending brass shell casings raining to the ground. | |||
The Minotaur revises its place in history, appearing to teleport forward as it shifts to a more advantageous future. It closes in on Crow before he can finish reloading and grabs him by the head, hefting him off his feet. The Minotaur raises its plasma cannon to Crow's chest and— | |||
<nowiki>***</nowiki> | |||
Crow sucks in a sharp breath and his eyes open to winged serpents circling in the cloudy Venusian sky. He coughs violently, rolling onto his side. The Vex are gone. | |||
"That was stupid," Glint chastises suddenly, and Crow remembers where—and when—he is. "Why didn't you use your Light?" | |||
"I wanted to test something," Crow says on sharp exhale. He pushes himself to his feet, only to find Glint an inch in front of his nose. | |||
"What could you possibly be testing all the way out here?" the little Ghost asks, looking around the desolate landscape. Then, the question Glint doesn't want to ask: "Were you trying to hurt yourself?" | |||
"No," Crow seethes. He nudges Glint to the side and starts to head back for the jumpship, but Glint persists. | |||
"Then why?" he demands, blocking Crow's path. | |||
"Because I wanted to know I was still me!" Crow snarls, his teeth bared in a display of fury. "Uldren Sov could defeat a Minotaur without the Light." His hackles lower. "I needed—I need to be sure that I'm not him. That you could still bring me back. That I was still—worthy of this !" | |||
Glint's monocular eye bobs down to look at the ground. He is silent. | |||
This time, Crow doesn't try to push past him. He stands still, listening to the blast of distant geysers, to the call of serpents in the sky. | |||
"I'm sorry," Glint whispers. | |||
==VII - Interpolation== | ==VII - Interpolation== | ||
"I hate you." | |||
It's the first thing Mara says on reaching Savathûn's crystalline prison. Her words lack heat but echo through the cavernous chamber nonetheless. "I just want to be absolutely clear on this: I hate you, and I wish nothing but pain and suffering for the rest of your miserable existence." | |||
The crystal shimmers, and Savathûn's gentle laughter ripples through Mara's mind. "I know," the Witch Queen murmurs. | |||
"I could have you jettisoned into the sun," Mara says coolly, "but unlike some creatures, I uphold my word when I give it." | |||
"But we're the same creature, are we not?" Savathûn wonders. Although Mara can't see her smile, she has no difficulty imagining what it looks like. | |||
"I am nothing like you." | |||
"No, of course not." Savathûn's voice is easy and languid. Some might mistake her for being sincere; Mara has taken the same tone too many times in her own life not to recognize it for what it is. | |||
"I thought you were a powerful, competent woman plagued by a difficult relationship with her family," Savathûn says. "Someone who weaves complicated, long-spun schemes across the arc of time's bow. My mistake." | |||
Mara stares at the crystal, clenches her jaw, and turns her back to leave. But before she can take even one step toward the door, she feels Savathûn's consciousness brush like silk against hers. | |||
"I thought you were someone who believes herself to be so smart," Savathûn purrs, "that she is easily blinded by her own ambitions and self-appointed genius. Someone who is so certain of her solutions that she fails to see the inherent peril in her plans, and yet too embarrassed to ever admit she may have gone astray." | |||
Tension knots the muscles in Mara's shoulders and back. Over the years, she has trained her face to remain a mask, but she is not always as skilled when it comes to the rest of her body. | |||
Savathûn continues. "I thought you were someone so afraid of being vulnerable, that you'd rather fail than—" | |||
"Enough." Mara rounds on Savathûn's prison with the precision of an angry viper. She does not raise her voice; instead, she lowers it. "That might work on him," she says, the last word like fire on her lips because it still pains her to refer to Crow by any name, "but you'll find my armor has fewer gaps." | |||
Power surges around her hands as she slams them against the crystalline surface. A lattice of radiant energy winds itself around Savathûn's prison, and Mara hopes that the furious drumming of her heart and intermittent flare of her nostrils will be mistaken for exertion—not a different kind of weakness. | |||
When the spell is complete, Mara steps back. Her glowing eyes dim. She wavers with fatigue, listening for the psychic echo of Savathûn's voice inside her skull. | |||
There is only silence. | |||
"Shut up," Mara breathes—a strange marriage of relief and loathing. | |||
"Shut up." | |||
==VIII - Correspondence== | ==VIII - Correspondence== | ||
[[Category:Lore]] | [[Category:Lore]] | ||