2013.09.26 - Timetych 2: So Much Purple Doom

LEGION ROLL CALL: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cos
GUEST STARRING: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
WHERE: Legion HQ, Residential
WHAT: Amy's brought in as a magical consultant on this time travel abduction garbage. Complications ensue!
As soon as was possible, Garth had made contact with the first available magic user to the Legion: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.
Leaving a message, Garth had summed up the situation thusly: "There's some magic time-crap that will take me forever to explain, so I'm just going to let Rokk do it if you can get over here. All I know for sure is that we need to mix some magic with science and combining maps to locate someone who may or may not be lost in time or dimension that is known to man, so... I'll just leave it to Rokk to explain everything in fuller detail. Would you mind stopping by the Legion Headquarters?"
And once Amethyst had arrived, zip, presto, off to where Rokk was waiting.
Since Amethyst is currently staying in the princess wing of Legion HQ, leaving her a message is very easy. It would otherwise be near impossible; the teen likes her privacy and often disappears for days. She recently came back with horrific bruises and lesions around her neck and answered all questions with "extra-dimensional incursion," or "I'm okay, alright?"
She has not been around asTmuch. She has been visiting her room, evidently, because Garth's summons have been answered in a timely manner. This time, her neck is not horribly scarred and in fact looks like a normal princess's neck. She even carries on a conversation this time.
Only the Legion would have a Princess Wing, too, really. When Garth drags Rokk up to the residential area, the man's looking kind of sleep-deprived. Must be his seventh cup of coffee today alone. Maybe he at least kipped a few hours somewhere along the way-- at any rate, he's somewhat rumpled and pale and carrying his coffee in both hands; it doesn't stop him from sketching a brief, possibly-ironic little bow. "Amy. Thanks. We've got a Glorith problem, probably, but I don't know if that name means anything to you."
The Braalian extends a hand, gesturing toward a stretch of hallway ahead of them. Right by Jazmin's door, actually. "Time traveller came and legged it with our Leader. We're trying to figure out where to start looking. If you can identify whether or not the time travel was magical, we can rule out a number of possible suspects; if you can describe the magic at all, if it's there, we might be able to narrow it down further. That something it's possible to do?"
"Glorith palled around with Mordru a lot," Garth expands, helping to flesh out things. "Imra should be along soon. Since this -girl- in a hockey jersey ran out with Jazmin, we've been trying to narrow down things. Since Jazmin could be any-when- in addition to anywhere, well..."
Calling up a screen with the clip of the little girl who abducted Jazmin, and overlaying it with Booster's clip of the timestream and the various paths he was seeing, Garth motions. "See, there's zillions of paths. Think you can magic up some sort of GPS?"
Amethyst crosses her arms, lowering her head as she listens to the problem. The ribbon running from her hand to her opposite shoulder lashes and dances through the air, caught in some invisible tempest. It's usually more serene.
"I could," she says, slowly, thoughtfully. "It definitely feels magicky around here."
The princess raises a hand to her lips, palm up, and exhales. A cloud of glitter drifts down the hallway, curling and twisting over itself, then blackening and turning to dust. Amethyst narrows her eyes. "Lame."
She stalks a few steps into the crime scene, carefully choosing where she treads. After a pause, she turns, touching a gemstone on her belt. It issues a flash of living purple light, almost a laser, which zips into her hand and becomes a flask of some bubbling, clear liquid.
Amethyst uncorks it. "You guys ready to see some craziness? Not gonna lie, it'll be intense. You guys have probably seen weirder stuff than me, though."
And here's where a certain someone finally arrives. Only well...
She comes in a little fast.
Heck. Before she even can be seen, her telepathic 'voice' can be heard by the trio at the 'scene of the crime'.
~ Not a good idea guys. And you know it Rokk! ~
Yes, that's right, Saturn Girl a.k.a. Imra Ardeen does show up. And like usual, 'Iron Butt' looks all business. heck, as she get close enough, she even glares at a certain other founder.
Rokk is, indeed, looking a little hesitant when it comes to that magic flask. He looks like he's trying to decide whether or not to take it, in fact. But when Imra's mental voice echoes through his brain like an angry mama bird, he abruptly lifts his hands and takes a step back. "Okay, okay! Grife! It should be fine for you guys, though-- it's just me-- and, and, besides." He crashes back against the wall, folding his arms and scowling a little. "If -you- take it, Imra, you can make sure we -all- see, and it won't-- do anything to me."
"It's not for drinking," Amethyst interjects. "Don't be so potion-normative."
"Don't care, let's do it," Garth chimes in. "What's the worst that can happen?"
"Knowing Rokk, do you really want to know Garth?" is said before Imra shakes her head. "So we end up needing geritol. Big deal."
Rokk lifts a hand again. "I practically have a 'space for rent' sign on the back of my head. Do you really want me possessed by the time stream or something? I really shouldn't touch it. They'd be watching for it," he says a little sullenly. "Go ahead. I need to keep my hands off, Imra's right. Just do it."
Amethyst glances briefly at the new arrival, but she's used to having people she doesn't know barge in. She lets the arguing go down, continuing afterward as if nothing happened.
"This is water from the well of vision," the princess says. She raises the flask above her head and waves it through the air. Bubbles rise from its mouth, though they're not really bubbles but spheres of water, loosely suspended. "It's pretty magical own it's own, but I know a few tricks."
She re-seals the flask and taps it against her belt. It disappears in another flash of light while the princess gives Rokk a meaningful look. "Well, back up then, dude. First row's a splash zone."
Amethyst turns her attention to the 'bubbles,' tracing complex sigils in the air with curled fingers. Her hands glow with fairy fire and soon the floating spheres are illuminated with their own light. "Okay. Get over here, umm. What's your name?" She smiles apologetically at Imra. "I'm Amethyst. Amy, if you want."
"Saturn Girl. Or Imra." the Telepath from Titan supplies in reply to the other woman's offered name, even as her feet finally touch the ground as she moves on, closer to what ever is going on.
"And I'm sorry about that." A quick glance is fired at /both/ Garth and Rokk.
"But considering how certain people act in regards to time travel, I think we need to keep playing it safe."
Rokk just... slides down the hallway some, scowl having already melted away to leave sheepishness in place; he's now leaning against the wall in the fourth row, or something. Another step: fifth row. "Sprock's sake, Imra," he says, rolling his eyes. "I'm away, already. And I wasn't gonna do it anyway." He was thinking about it. "Go on, I can go get a plastic bag like at a Gallagher show or something if this isn't good enough. But hurry up, who knows WHAT Jaz is having to deal with out there."
"It's cool," Amethyst replies. "Time stuff can be ridic. That's not what I'm doing here, though. Probably."
The bubbles have begun to congeal and finish a moment after this. It wobbles ominously.
The princess thrusts a hand forward, her index and pinkie fingers forming ram horns that pierce the edge of the magical well-water. There is a sharp sound like stone striking stone and then the world gets really bizarre.
Saturn Girl and Amethyst stand on a long, twisting road hovering in a chaotic void. Though the road appears to be made of stone and the bottom is covered in stalactites, it is patterned like reptile skin. It is impossible to see too far into the distance thanks to the omnipresent and almost living clouds of mist. They vary in color, but are predominantly pale greens, purples, and blues.
When they do part enough to see further, they reveal dark, enormous shapes. Floating gems larger than Legion HQ, crumbling towers and castles, worlds with their continents on fire, and most alarmingly, giant living shapes gliding soundlessly. If Imra reaches out telepathically, it is near overwhelming. There are thoughts to be read, but too many and too fast and too meaningless to make sense of.
It is like dreaming. The feeling of one's actions being not their choice is difficult to shake. Amethyst looks different; she is sharper, for lack of a better word, more clearly defined. She smiles.
"Crazytown, right? Grab onto my shoulder if you feel sick. This place doesn't like me very much."
Indeed, the mist seems to avoid her. Whenever the looming shapes pass, they alter their course to veer away. The princess walks to the edge of the road, reaching out into the void. A diamond the size and shape of a full length mirror floats toward her her reaching hand. "Stay close. It'll be easier to see."
Back in Legion HQ, Amethyst and Imra are just standing there. Amethyst's eyes are closed and she seems peaceful. Imra may not be, but she's also out for the moment.
And as the world goes all wibbly wobbly, but not exactly timey wimey for Imra, she does grab Amy's shoulder. At least until she steadies herself. But she /also/ tries to telepathically send /everything/ she can see back to the others. The road in the void. The odd colors. The giant dark shapes. The crumbling towers. She basically tries to send every sight, sound, and odd feeling she can to Rokk, Garth, and anyone else who might join them. All without sending it too far and possibly freaking people who don't know what's going on, out.
That is if this even works. After all, Magic and telepathy aren't known to mix well all the time.
"I've actually seen stranger..." Imra admits. And it might even be the truth considering her experiences in the other galaxy. "But please, lead the way..."
Following along as Imra traces everything back and translates it the best she can, Garth glances towards Rokk, shrugging. "Just how much -do- you know about these places, anyway?" Garth asks, his voice steady, betraying none of the nervousness that's coiling around his mind.
Since Imra is actually standing right there, the telepathy thing isn't difficult, as long as she can get around the weird mental contortion of being in another place without actually being there. For someone of Imra's talent, probably not a big deal.
"Luckily, we don't have to go anywhere. It's just easier to snipe at magic from the chaos dimensions. Most people don't expect it. I mean, I'm pretty good at this magic stuff for someone who's been at it for almost a year, but not just anyone can do the whole pierce the veil thing."
Amethyst stops at that, getting a far away look in her eyes and frowning. The diamond bobs in front of her. "Anyway."
The princess waves a hand over her crystal not-ball. The interior of the diamond swirls with motes of light, which swarm to the surface closest to the pair. It then becomes a mirror, though it does not show Amethyst and Saturn Girl.
Instead, it shows blood. It shows dark shadows, the shapes of men, rising from an ocean of blood to stare at each other. They rise in pairs and sink in pairs. Some move, in opposite directions of each other. Occasionally, two will meet and sink back under the sanguine waves locked in embrace or struggle.
"Ritual magic," Amethyst counsels. "Sympathetic rituals. It's kind of--well, equal and opposite reaction type stuff, but you get things to happen by controlling one end of a thing."
At least Garth's and Rokk's minds are familiar like-- if not gloves, at least trusted carabiners to the rock climbing equipment of Imra's telepathy. Or something. Not hard to latch on to. Rokk's presence is a light and steady thing, if carefully held apart and disengaged. He's sorting what he's seeing with what his mind's eye's receiving from Imra, and not letting any of his own fears into the mix. "Which places? Places like this? On my own, not a lot. It reminds me of one of the ends of the world, though," he tells Garth out loud. And then he grimaces. He echoes a question back to Imra: ~Can it be used with two different timeline-versions of one person? Like, take one, control the other?~
Garth, on the other hand, is all over the place, all sorts of crackling energy randomly shooting in thoughts here, barely channeled into a path that is, at the moment, considering the area that Imra and Amethyst are exploring.
"... So this is what they mean when they talk about 'bloody hell', is it?"
Back towards Rokk, there's a slight telepathic ~ I don't know. I hope not. Hell, I don't even want to think about that. ~
And while it might not appear to be a massive big deal, it does take some mental work to get this to work for Imra, even as she stares at the floating diamond ball that Amethyst is looking at.
Heck, at what is revealed, she just tries not to speak. it's almost like she's afraid of what might come out, or like she's just not sure how to even react to what she's being shown.
"There's more."
Amethyst waves a hand over the diamond and the ghastly scene is blurred away. She weaves more gestures together, patient despite the growing closeness of the air in this strange place.
The diamond shows a storm, but the clouds are difficult to look at. They are not made of anything remotely similar to what a cloud should be, but it would be hard to say what they are made out of. Focusing too hard makes one's thoughts loop back around to the initial decision to focus, circular and sudden. Lightning dances at the edges of the vision.
The princess shuts her eyes. "Um. This isn't really a method, it's more of a style. I'm going to guess this is an entirely different person. It's learned magic. I mean, the other magic was probably learned too, but this is kind of... sciencey? Whoever did it is probably using magic as a tool and not as a tradition. Then there's the lightning. Not sure what's up with that. Maybe the idea of lightning is a focus?"
Imra just relays Amethysts observations and opinions to the others. But to be honest, she can't say much, do much, or even add much to all of this. Magic isn't her thing after all.
"I see..."
Neither was magic Garth's.
Lightning, on the other hand...
"Lightning works like this... high potential between two regions of space, and a high-resistance medium has to obstruct the equalization of opposing charges. If you've got two separate regions of space, and there's a lot of resistance, lightning's created, and you can carry energy along it. Why not magic?" Garth muses.
"Or maybe it's not-- real lightning," says Cos with a grimace, reaching up to rub at his eyes. "Or maybe that aspect of it is what makes it /look/ like lightning. I swear..." Little hiss of an exhalation, and the Braalian crosses his arms. "Guys-- I-- don't know if experimentation is something you wanna try right now, but maybe once you're safe out of there, Amy can take a look at something I know of that could be related. Or try it in there since it's not physical, but-- first, is there anything else? Interrupty tests do not a full report make."
The princess glances over her shoulder, concerned. She doesn't comment, however, and returns to the diamond. Once again, the scene blurs away.
The diamond shows another place, but only a glimpse. It is a half-filtered view, gazing at something through a tea towel. Amethyst leans in, tracing the very surface of the diamond itself. A shape swims up beneath her fingers, the shadow of a gate, and then another.
"The Dreaming. It's the place where people go, well, when you dream. Most people, I think. It's not someone from the Dreaming, or someone using the Dreaming. Probably an item that has a connection to it, some inanimate object."
The air is almost suffocating. The mists draw closer. From the chaos of thoughts, abrupt purity:
Ahhh-muh-thyyyyyysst.
The princess does not react, still trying to coax something from the diamond. It is thought, after all, and not voice. "I think that's it."
The color of the tea towel changes; the tea towel itself starts to age. It's a deep, dusty purple, once rich and bright, but now tattering. Through the holes, the gate to the Dreaming starts to look-- the other side of the gate, that is, through that eerie disintegrating cloth-- starts to look somewhat... crowded. Figures step up, one by one-- fantastic shapes, some of them. All female, some of them monstrous, some inhumanly slender, some winged, some half-animal, some in robes, some in tight-fitting clothes and carrying intimidating weapons.
Then the purple cloth shifts again, as if beginning to be pulled away from the other side; one of the figures steps closer. The robedone. It's indistinct; the face is invisible under the hood, and the hands are bandaged in ratty, ancient grey linen, like a mummy. A lock of platinum blond curls strays from under the hood, and the figure holds out a golden dial.
Ahhh-muh-thyyyyysst. Ahhh-muh-THYST. AMETHYST. HAVE YOU COME TO DISPLACE ME, GIRL CHILD? DO YOU SEEK THE KNOWLEDGE STOLEN BY THE LIGHTNING?
An impossibly long-fingered hand starts to reach through that tattered curtain, and the view of the Dreaming is swallowed in the blackness of the hood as the figure continues to approach. The gold dial vanishes with everything else, and one impossibly-long-fingered mummy hand reaches out from the surface of the diamond, going for Amy's neck.
"Sprocking GRIFE!" yells Rokk, out in the hall. "Imra! IMRA! Don't let it touch her!!" But it's slow, it's physical, it's out loud. The warning might not come in time, even if Rokk's former calm has a sudden tornado whipping through as soon as that hand starts reaching.
Amethyst's expression turns as dark as the mirror. She freezes, eyes wide, repulsed by what she sees but unable to move away. The diamond shows her things and Imra likely catches a glimpse.
"No," she says. That is all she has time to say.
A princess, a true princess of Gemworld, knows when to travel the path of heart and when to travel the path of blood. The two often intermingle, but that is an illusion. They are always separate, in the end.
Amethyst is quick. Her fingers spread and she can feel the magic between in the space between them. There is potential there, potential to kill and potential to cure. The key is knowing which potential to set aside.
As the hand reaches out for her, the princess turns her back to it. She reaches out with a glowing hand, grasping Saturn Girl's own. "You're not here anymore."
And then she isn't. When she comes to, back in Legion HQ, Amethyst is not in the hallway. There was no flash of light or fading from view. It was like she had never stood there at all.
Picking up voices is what a telepath does. Or at least one of them. Thus as that version of her guides name is chanted through the chaos, Imra starts to react.
But by the time she does, it's too late.
Instead as she tries to 'move' she's suddenly back in the Legion HQ...
And Amythst appears to be /gone/.
~ NO! ~
"Imra!"
At the Titanian's side almost at once, Garth helps Imra up. "What the hell, Rokk! That was the Time Trapper, wasn't it? It's got Amethyst now?"
A quick check of Imra, and then Garth looks towards Rokk for answers. "Can you get a trace on her? Anything...?"
"--" Rokk's not wasting words; his own movements are too slow, as well-- not to mention he wasn't even /there/. Just here. But he /tries/-- despite the potential danger, he's reaching out to grab at Amy and Imra's physical bodies with his magnetism. Trying to hold Amy, though, it's like trying to hold weightless water in shaking hands. It's a sensation he's felt before. Trying to hold Imra-- well, it's a good thing Garth caught her, because all of a sudden, the Braalian's powers just...
...aren't there. He looks older: fifties, maybe. His eyes have as many worry creases as laugh lines, and he's unshaven, scarred. His hands just open, then fall to his sides. "No," he says shortly. "We need Booster."
Throughout the hall, there's the echo of a laugh. It's awfully familiar to Garth and Imra and Rokk.
Mordru.
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