Kingdoms of Isolation

## Content Information

**Note:** This scene begins the three-scene sequence that continues with Sunday, Bloody Sunday and ends with Tornado Warning. They were split for length.

*...Remember that time we were just kickin'?
But nothing had changed, nothing was really different
Then love showed its teeth like it's something vicious
No, no, no, let me finish
For now…

...Freeze frame, pause, rewind, stop
And get back to the old familiar thoughts...*
They had finally left, first Linny, then Xander. It had taken far longer than she had expected, but in the end, they had walked away. Like she had asked them to. She didn’t deserve their friendship or affection. She belonged here, alone in this booth, connecting to people only through the radio, where she couldn’t disappoint everyone or let them down. Letting people get close was a mistake, a waste of time - she was never going to fit in anyways.

But even after Xander left, her phone kept rattling with the buzz of an incoming message. Like clockwork, every half hour - a languid heartbeat of reminders that he was there, waiting. Yet another person she had allowed to get close, another person she had never wanted to harm, another person she had let down. Because she was worthless - she could never be enough to keep them safe…

*...Je croyais que tu t'été tué et elle*

*Ne se souviendras pas de toi*
*D'ailleurs c'est pas la peine*
*De se briser comme ça*
*Tu vas encore lui faire peur*
*Oh tais-toi mon cœur, tais-toi mon cœur...*

The messages had finally stopped - the last one an admission that he was going to try to get some sleep. She knew there were other people in the building, but after a few had stopped by and been turned away, they had mostly left her to her own devices. At some point, she had roused herself from her chair, leaving the station running one of it’s stretches of uninterrupted music, and dragged herself into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror, once again barely recognizing the girl in the reflection, but *oh* what a change from the person she had seen on Monday!

She washed the dried blood from off her face, took down her hair and tried to finger comb it into some semblance of order before pulling it back into a single low ponytail. She was still wearing the swimsuit and coverup from… the night before? Before that?

Time seemed to have lost all meaning since she had found herself here after her failed attempt to chase the hunter via that strange otherworldly city. Yet another thing she had failed at - it was foolish of her to think that she’d ever be able to do anything useful with her connection to that strange place. She went to the record storage closet and found the small duffel bag of clothing she had left shoved into a corner last winter after her father had been injured and she couldn’t bear to be alone in the cottage while she waited to hear whether he’d be okay.

The clothes were musty, but clean. *Which,* she thought, sniffing the inside of her beach coverup, *is more than can be said for you right now…* hand soap and paper towels made for a crude, but effective toilet, and shortly thereafter she had changed into an oversized teal hoodie over yoga pants and returned to the booth.

*...Night falls, day breaks; time
Has a funny kind of violence and I’m
Tryna keep in mind
It can’t leave you the way it finds you...*
‘Good morning love, I miss you.  Hopefully I’ll see you tonight for date night, if not that’s ok.  Take as long as you need, I’ll be here when you decide to come out.’

She wasn’t sure why she was surprised to see the messages start back up again. Inside the studio, she had no sense of the time of day anymore - the numbers on the clock might as well have been random, for all the significance her mind assigned them.

She should respond to him.

He would understand. He would forgive her, hold her close and murmur words of comfort and reassurance. All she had to do was open the door. It would be *so* easy to do.

And that was the most terrible thing of all. She’d hurt him, let him down, shut him out, ignored his every attempt to reach out to her for days, even though she knew that he was still in shock from what happened in the woods. He deserved better than her, but all she had to do was take the first step… they’d go back to the way things had been. And she *still* couldn’t do it.

*Coward.*

*Worthless.*

*Fool.*

*...Cause I'm past the limits
The distance between us, it sharpens me like a knife
Past the limits
The distance between us, it sharpens me like a knife…*
\* \* \*

Selene was annoyed, really annoyed with Tamzen, Zenni, whatever. There were just so many layers, Xander was up like an abandoned puppy expecting this girl to show up for a date that she would not show up to, that was the worst layer for sure. Then there was the whole overworking herself thing, how is she supposed to get good radio if the DJ won’t stop playing sad songs and dies of sleep deprivation at the end of it all? Minor in the grand scheme of things but as the Elevator took her up to the 5th floor she had considered that too.

Selene was a shapeshifter, she was a pop star, she was a succubus, Tamzen didn’t stand a chance of staying alone even if she stayed in a lock room, a bit if lust aura pull or hell she could use her fame to trick security into opening the door for her. No matter what she intended on making sure she could scold this Radio Jockey.

Queen Selene walked out of the Elevator she moved towards the broadcasting room tugging at the door, oohh, yup it would open, as always the world bent to the will of the queen. Ooof the room was gross, how had this girl been functioning? She managed to wrap so many people around her little admitically very good at broadcasting fingers. Hell she as a defensive and fiery girlfriend had some low key anger for Didi who clearly was upset at how their friendship had fallen out.

Selene sat down and leaned in Zenni’s broadcasting chair, she summoned out her tail throwing trash into a bag she found laying around passively while she waited, not wanting to rest in this girl's squalor for too long.

From the small attached bathroom, Selene could hear the sound of water running briefly. A moment later, an exhausted and ragged-looking Tamzen emerged. She glanced past the succubus to the monitor display, then visibly jolted when she finally processed the fact that someone was in her chair.

“What-? How-” Tamzen stuttered, seemingly unable to form a coherent sentence. She blinked several times. No, she was still there.

Selene stood up and smirked at Tamzen “Oh no, your plans to stay all alone have failed, tragic.”

She shapeshifted into Tamzen but clean and in Selene’s outfit. Selene said “If you prefer to be here just with yourself, I can do this, but we need to talk Zenni sweetie, you’ve been very naughty staying locked up in here isn’t helping.”

*Note to self: pink is not a good color for you.* Somehow this was the *only* coherent thought that her mind managed to churn out, and Tamzen just stood there, mouth slightly agape for almost a minute before she *finally* managed to stutter out a question. “Wh-what do you want?”

Selene’s arms moved around Tamzen’s shoulders’ wrapping around her, moving in closely, picking at her mind for her desires, her voice enchanted with her lust powers, she was going to pull out all the stops on this mess. Selene’s form returned to normal, no longer mirroring the first as she attempted her seduction. Xander wouldn’t give up on Tamzen so it was pointless to do anything but push her towards taking responsibility for him. Selene pushed her against the wall and purred “What do I want sweetheart, this isn’t about me, if it was about me I’d be trying to Seleneseduce my favorite radio show host to go to sleep.”

Her fingers slid down Tamzen’s side and her eyes locked onto Tamzen’s, her other arm blocking away the closest escape to the door. Her voice keeping in it’s sirenish tone “No this is about your boyfriend, he came to my sorority yesterday night, I finally got him to sleep. He was so afraid and so sad and he blames himself for everything. He is probably on his way to what he thinks is date night with you right now if he isn’t already there.”

Tamzen’s eyes filled with pain, even as the rest of her senses thrilled under Selene’s powers. “I-” Oh gods...this was Selene, up close - *very* close - and her touch was...electric. Tamzen gulped and started again. “I can’t…”

Selene leaned in and closer, her lips just a few inches away “You want to be a good girl right Zenni? If you go to your date night, we can meet up back here or in your room and I can show you all sorts of fun, I am sure you’ve imagined it. You play my music all the time, what might it be like to be with a pop star? All I need for you is to face your issues head on Tamzen, he’s in pain, he’s alone and I am doing my best but he doesn’t really want me, he wants you. ”

Over on the table, the cell phone buzzed again, with another text message. Tamzen’s eyes were filled with longing, and just an edge of lust. Her lips parted slightly, and her breathing grew ragged. “I want…” she murmured, her lips starting to shape the word *‘you’* as her mind spun through a myriad of memories and images, fragmentary reminders of passion and physicality. And then… she saw it, saw the common thread, the person… the *man* who had caused so many of those memories. Her lips tightened into a thin line, and she shook her head. “I want *him*,” she said, firmly. “But… he deserves better than me. He-” The cell phone buzzed insistently, the repeated vibration of an incoming phone call. Tamzen ducked out from between Selene’s arms and hurried to grab it - checking her mic to make sure it was off, and kicking the station into another playlist to buy time.

“Hello? Speaking. Yes. Yes. What?!” she nearly dropped the phone, and scrambled to get it back into place by her ear. “When? Is he…? Yes, I’ll be right there. Thank you.” She turned back to Selene, as pale as if she had seen a ghost. “I… I have to go…” she said, her voice tinged with panic.

Selene had almost started to laugh at the girl before the freak out happened, getting all romantic and monogamous about her boy, it was so weird to her, they seemed to be opposite people in a lot of ways but they had barely spoken really. The pop star could feel it in Tamzen’s desires too, so much desire for Xander, it was almost annoying given how she was treating him.

Selene didn’t need to be told what happened to know most of what happened, the panic was a clear sign that it was someone who mattered, the timing, Xander refused the escorts from Hellfire, he was probably alone for a while, was he under attack, did he get away, was he hurt, that was the next question. Selene asked “What happened?”

“There was a car accident…” Tamzen murmured, clearly in shock, staring at the wall over Selene’s shoulder. For a moment, her eyes seemed to darken, hinted at slick black volcanic glass, then they softened back to their normal mossy green. “Xander’s in the hospital - he listed me as his emergency contact. I need to get up there…” She started to head for the door, then stopped, and turned back at Selene. “Can you handle the broadcast - if I show you what to do?”

Selene clenched her fist holding back her rage, it was clearly a cult attack, there was no other way to explain it, a car accident, that was a likely story, it just didn’t line up with the timeline she built in her head. Beyond that Selene was a little paranoid and decided anything bad must be the cults fault somehow, There was some increased anger at Tamzen, if she was there he would have had someone there to help protect him but that was a useless thought, there was no changing reality, Xander was hurt, that’s it, end of story. Tamzen had to fix things now.

Selene sat in Tamzen’s chair and said “I don’t intend to live here like you, I rather not rest in filth but I can take this station over for a couple of hours. Show me what I need to do then pay me back for helping you by taking care of my number one fan.

Tamzen quickly showed her the important controls - how to pull and play a song from the database, how to switch to a set playlist, how to switch to live voice if she wanted to speak. With that, and a hurried promise to “text you when I know what’s going on…” Tamzen was gone.

Selene took a deep breath, she was so mad, so afraid for everyone, so full of, everything it was way too much and her mind was racing. Still she was an entertainer and it was time for a show. The pop star went on live voice and suddenly the entertainer in her was out “Hey there sefs, guess what, special guest taking over for Zenni here, get ready for Queen Selene and her personal favorite hits. Make sure to get on twitly if you enjoy this, let everyone know you love for The Queen.”

Once her music started playing she started texting everyone, first Iva she was closest to Xander that she knew letting her know, then Burgundy and the Inner Circle in a group text, figuring Lezly and Pyrrha were hanging out at the time with them, then Didi, then Arsling, they all needed to be ready, be safe, there were real hideous beasts out there, the hunters, and she wasn’t going to let more people get hurt, she would save as many people as possible.

\* \* \*

Tamzen ran. Half-blind from panic and exhausted from three straight days without sleep, she would have been easy prey for any number of things that stalked the town at night. Running out into the late afternoon sunlight, her biggest concern was running into something or someone while her eyes were still readjusting to the light.

Her ankle twisted underneath her, and she let out a yelp of pain as she pitched forward and tumbled to the ground, only barely catching herself with her hands. She eased herself into a sitting position, and winced as she tried to straighten out her foot. She gritted her teeth and deliberately pushed her ankle through its whole range of motion until the initial pain had ceased and she was convinced she’d be able to walk on it.

Rising carefully back up to her feet, Tamzen finally looked around, trying to determine where she was. Gravel crunched underneath her feet, and her eyes widened in shock. In her fuzzy minded state, she had run without thinking - not back to her room at Carter Hall, nor to the cottage where she still parked her truck, but further into town. But she hadn’t even run towards the trolley line, which could take her up to the hospital - on some level, she had apparently decided to attempt to run directly *towards* the hospital, at least until she had crossed through Eidolon Park and slipped as pavement changed to gravel paths.

*Stop reacting, Tamzen and think!* she scolded herself, leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree for support. She should turn and walk back into town and catch the trolley up to the hospital, but…

She thought about the City - the way that she had stepped into it when trying to follow the second hunter on Thursday evening, how distances seemed to warp and shrink, how a false step had led her not back into the woods in front of the hunter, but to the recording booth at the station. And she remembered that moment of despair, when she had tried to reenter the City, only to find herself blocked by a sensation of an impenetrable glass wall.

It had made her feel hopeless, useless.

She wasn’t going to be that way again. She would bend it to her will - and find Xander at the other end.

Because she refused to fail him *again*.

She was exhausted, and her hand shook as she reached out, trying to summon up the vaguely meditative state that made accessing the Archive seem to be just an obvious extension of her other senses. She stood there for a moment, eyes closed and hand outstretched for several moments; just when she was about to give up, she felt the sensation of volcanic glass under her fingertips. She pressed harder, willing the wall to open an entrance - it resisted. She continued pushing, desperately pounding her will against the barrier…

The wall shattered, and she stumbled blindly forward. When she finally opened her eyes, she was once again in the City of aching, alien beauty. Sharp wings fluttered around her, brushing against skin - a flock of butterflies, with obsidian wings. She watched them in awe as they spiraled up and away from her, taking to the skies. They were strange to her - she had not encountered them in her previous visits to this place. Entranced, she barely noticed the pain on her hands and arms, places where razor thin wings had sliced through skin, leaving blood trickling down her arm, a few drops slipping from her fingertips and landed on lifeless ground.

She heard a crackling, followed by a faint slithering sound. Her head snapped around, trying to locate the source, and she gasped as she saw black vine-like tendrils sprouting from the places where her blood had fallen, twisting about, grasping for a surface to grow against as they climbed towards a sky lit by no sun. They grew quickly, covering nearby walls in a network of vines, leaves like black velvet unfurling, flower buds forming and blooming trumpet-like in a mysterious color unlike any seen on Earth.

After a moment, the accelerated growth ceased, as if the plants had taken all they could from the fallen blood. Tamzen stepped forward, entranced by the strange beauty of the plants, only to scramble backwards in surprise as one of the vine tendrils reached out towards one of the still seeping cuts on her hand.

“It’s changing, you know,” a discordant voice commented from somewhere behind her. Tamzen spun around to face the owner of that voice, only to discover that vision alone was insufficient to take in the shifting, impossible physicality of the being in front of her. Everytime she thought she had grasped its appearance, it shifted through some unseen dimension.

“Wh-what are you?” Tamzen managed to stammer out, taking a step backwards until the tenuous brush of a vine reminded her that there were other dangers than the potential one in front of her.

“Child…” the voice, though not loud, seemed to resonate from every surface, until it seemed to surround her. “Mortals are not meant to walk this city. You not only walk here, but your blood has fed ground that has been devoid of life since time immemorial. Your very presence changes things - to say nothing of your actions.”

“I-”

“It cannot be countenanced. It will *not* be permitted.”

Tamzen narrowed her eyes. “You. You barred my way - kept me from returning the other day.”

The presence inclined its ‘head’ but said nothing.

“He was hurt, because I couldn’t return that night. He may be dying as we speak - I need to get to him!”

“Had you contented yourself to only accessing the Archive, you would have been tolerated - but you seek *more*. You walk the City as if you would own it, and the City changes around you. That cannot be allowed to happen.”

“Damn you - let me pass!” She wrenched herself out of her frozen panic and threw herself forward through the presence, only to pass through it as if it had been a mere trick of the light and sprawl on the regolith of the city. Vines sprang up again as blood made contact with the ground, only to wither away as a dagger embedded itself in the ground.

“There is power here, Child. More than just memory, more still than just a way to bring distant places close. You are reckless, heedless of the danger that you face here should you remain as you are. You are running out of time - soon you will need to decide.”

“Decide what?” Tamzen asked, propping herself up and staring down at the dagger, it’s blade a rainbow of color trapped in glass.

“Commit yourself to the Archive, or find the paths here forever closed to you.”

“I-” she shook her head. “How long do I have?” She reached towards the dagger, only to have it disappear under her touch.

The presence chuckled, a sibilant, sepulchral sound. “When you encounter that blade again, you will know. Your blood on the blade will mark your pledge to the Archive, and the streets of the city will open to you.” It appeared again in front of her, bending down to touch her forehead. “In the meantime… a taste of the true power of this place. So that you are not ignorant of the possibilities.”

Tamzen gasped in surprise as she seemed to rise off the ground and settle back on her feet. For a moment she saw a thread of power, connecting her and something else, humming with potential. *Xander,* she thought in awe. *This is my connection to Xander…*

She turned to look at the presence, only to find that it had dissolved into a cloud of butterflies and flown off. Returning her concentration to that thread of power, she turned back and started to follow it towards its end point...