knightsoflegend | CHAPTER FOUR ♔ does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love

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CHAPTER FOUR ♔ does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love

WHO || Failboat, Rafael, Isabella, Nadia [Closed]
WHAT || After an exciting Grammy night, the Knights meet up with Nadia to hear what she has to say
WHERE || Staples Center, LA --> Warehouse
WHEN || Feb 8th, 2015 [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The Knights' mission to stop the signal and prevent Draken's cult from spreading whatever subliminal message was lurking beneath Keijen Blade's performance was a success. It didn't come without its bumps in the road, however: Alexander Anderson showed up, and the Knights ran afoul of the Mind Master. Buffy nearly died fighting Anderson, but in the end, he was defeated, beheaded, and hopefully put to death forever. Finnick, though, found himself thrust into a mental illusion that convinced him he might still be in the Hunger Games, and left him uncertain about whether any of his life here was real.

Another surprise came in the form of an announcement by Nadia Reichenov, an artist working with Crombe and company, that she was changing her band name and taking things in a 'new direction'. This direction was perhaps revealed when after her performance, she approached the Knights in Rafael's dressing room - and handed them the necklace that connects her to the Nightmare God Malaak'a, saying she was willing to tell them everything. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Anything you can do to spread the music I release, for one. But beyond that, your best bet is on making certain that the Nightmare Lord is never released in the first place. Stopping Keijen alone wouldn't do it, even if facing him weren't practically a suicide mission. Crombe and his followers won't believe the truth about the Talisman - trying to convince them it's anything but what they think it is will look exactly like a ploy to get them not to take its 'power' for themselves.

But it can't be unlocked without certain elements. The blood of Lazarus for one. [ she shoots buffy a look ] If you truly know where he is, you'd best do everything you can to wipe the knowledge from your mind. NOVA has its share of telepaths, and finding Lazarus is at the top of Blade's to do list. [ her eyes skate unwittingly again towards rafael ] He's convinced the lot of you already know how to find him. [ she looks away again, back at the knights ] He also needs an artifact of Sehanine's.

What artifact? [Myri says, wondering if this is another wild goose chase like the talisman was.] We've never heard of an artifact we would need for any of this.

[She glances around the room for confirmation that she isn't missing something.]

Any artifact. It's why Blade was interested in Jade's necklace in the first place.

[Well that makes a little more sense as to why they dug up that grave at least.]

Can you help us remove the knowledge of Lazarus? Or do you know what we need to do so?

[Myri's starting to think that none of them should know. Any of it. It made their mission clearer, yes, but at what cost?]

I could ... try. But psychic surgery is dangerous, as you might imagine. There are risks.

[Rose doesn't even try to hide the fact that she's unsettled by the idea of somebody poking around in her head. #issues.]

What kind of risks are we talking here? It might not work or it might completely wipe our memories?

It might wipe some of the wrong ones. The mind is a web, and things are interconnected. It's impossible to predict what would happen if it went awry.

[Watch Myri crit fail her self preservation check...]

Try with me.

What? No. We're not bloody mind wiping everyone who knows about Lazarus. [He turns towards Myri and frowns at her.] Especially not you. You can't... you've got a child on the way. [And he's tactful enough not to say that one of the parents already has a broken brain but it's worth thinking of.]

[With the lowest Will Save Rose can possibly get without Crit Failing (12), all the color drains from her face as she considers the possibilities, what could be lost if something were to go wrong. Her memories are all that help her to separate who she is from Lissa’s near constant stream of thoughts in her head. Every piece of herself that she loses is one step closer to losing any sense of identity that she has.

And then there’s Dean. Everything they had been through in the last six months, everything that had changed for them. It wasn’t just herself that she was scared of losing, it was him too and Sam’s words to her echo in her head, making her chest tighten; Dean can't lose any more people Rose.

And yet when Myri speaks up, Rose finds herself stepping closer, ready to put herself between Myri and Nadia if need be, not about to let her do this, be the guinea pig.]

And Finnick… [Voice surprisingly gentle.] He needs you.

[She looks at Spike and Rose in turn, emotion twisted all over her expression.]

Finnick doesn't think I exist. [Saying it out loud hurts but it needs to be said.]

And it's not about him. It's about doing what we must to stop this madness. What good am I to anyone- Finnick or you or Wynn- if they pluck the knowledge we are meant to protect from my mind?

If she can do this, it will need to be done on all of us. Or as many as will volunteer.

Edited 2015-04-09 18:55 (UTC)

I'm not letting you do this to yourself. [ A hand settles on Myri's shoulder. ] If and when we know it's safe, then we'll talk about whether it needs to happen to you.

[ Buffy steps forward, resolve steely.

It seems obvious to her. Myri has a family to consider—Finnick and her child. They can't risk shattering her mind when she's already been through so much. Rose and Spike and Gar ... They all have people. Buffy turns to look at Isabella and Rafael, a watery and pained look crossing her vision.

If she forgets something beyond what they mean to happen or if her mind is fractured, they're likely to lose the least. In fact, it may well make things easier for everyone. Pulling her lips between her teeth, she settles on it and looks to Nadia. ]

It's me. If we're testing this on anyone, it's going to be me. That's final. [ Turning fully to Myri, she explains softly, ] Jack sent me in here to protect you. That's exactly what I'm going to do.

[ rafael looks over at her sharply, but nadia is just looking between them all as if spike had just jumped to grabbing her by the shoulders again like how did we get here why are people bodily thrusting themselves between me and myri as if i'm about to surprise ~~buttsex~~ amnesia her. ] -- It's not something I can do quickly. It would take some time. And before we do anything of the kind, I've more to tell you.

[There's an argument dancing on the tip of Rose's tongue, that Finnick needs Myri to remember for both of them until he can completely come back to her but Buffy steps in and she feels herself flooded with pure, selfish relief. Rose would normally be the one to dig in her heels and play the part of stubborn ass but despite the guilt that twists in her stomach for doing so, she still remains silent until Nadia speaks.]

More? [A huff of laughter spilling over even if it holds no amusement.] Guess it's too much to hope you're going to follow that up with some good news?

[ gar is glancing worriedly between myri and buffy like uhhhhhh but she tries to pull it together, as a question troubles her. ] But I thought-- I thought the necklaces were gifts from the Nightmare god, what tied you to him. Jade's was different?

[ ♬ song of imaginary beings - iamx ]

The pendants are from him. The necklace that her pendant was set into eventually was a gift, from her mother.

Blade went looking for Jade years ago, found her while she was living in Italy with him. [ she nods towards rafael without actually looking at him. rafael looks like he's gonna be sick again, clearly unprepared to hear about keijen and jade having an incest affair behind his back. weird. ] Her mother had kept her in the dark about her birth, and about who her father was. Blade knew that, and knew that she harbored resentment about it.

His approach to Jade was completely different than with... the rest of us. [ she can't stop herself from sounding just a little bitter ] Maybe because he knew that she was already madly in love with someone that she wouldn't willingly betray. Whatever the reason, he approached her and told her the truth - that he was her father, and that her mother had conspired to deny him access to her for her entire life.

If she was so angry with her mother for it- why use the necklace her mother gave her?

Wait.

Are you saying she was with him willingly after that? [ This might be even worse. ] It wasn't mind control?

[ Because her initial assumption in Venice was willing. But then incest. And now ? ?? Werwatey ?? ]

[ ♬ gods and monsters - lana del rey

she looks at buffy with a raised eyebrow, realizing what she's asking ] Not like that, no. She was never with him in... that way.

[ her eyes skate across the rest of them ] When Blade found her and told her the truth, he also gave her the offer he gave the rest of us. A pendant, in exchange for making her wildest dreams come true, the adoration she deserved, and the power to do whatever she wanted. It was a tempting offer, and she agreed to take the pendant, but she didn't use it - then.

It wasn't long after that, however, that she was put in a position where remaining in Italy was dangerous for her. [ rafael looks down at the floor, and isabella turns to watch his expression ] Apparently, Sehanine came to her in a dream, had learned that her father was looking for her, tried to tell her that he was dangerous without explaining why. She didn't know who to believe, since for all she knew, her mother had all but abandoned her as a child as well. Sehanine asked her to come stay on her plane, likely to keep Blade from reaching her, unaware that he already had.

Forced to choose between staying with Rafael and trusting her father, and retreating to safety with her mother, she decided to see what Rafael would say. If he asked her to remain, she would, according to what she told Blade. He took the opportunity to warn her that Rafael had never really loved her, and when he told her to go, it seemed to prove precisely that.

She went to live with her mother, but she kept the pendant hidden on her person. Apparently, she wasn't happy there though. She convinced her mother to return her to Earth where she wouldn't have to be alone. Her mother was worried that she would go looking for Rafael, and in the process, be found by Blade, so she gave her the necklace as a condition for her return. If she left the club, the magic of the necklace would drain her life slowly, encourage her to go back. Her other precaution was to wipe Jade's memories, to prevent her from even wanting to find Rafael. That backfired, however. Jade felt like something was missing, felt so incomplete that she turned to the pendant she still possessed, agreed to fully accept the deal. She set the pendant into the necklace, and the Nightmare Lord was able to corrupt the magic of the club, turning it into a decadent prison for her, one that would hopefully lead her to crave more of the power and adulation she received there.

They were hoping to lure her out to join them, find a way to break the connection between her and the club, and if not, use her for the cause until she burned out, and then use the necklace itself as the artifact for the ritual.

Can't say either of them is winning parent of the year, here. [A necklace that drains life is a terrible present for your child. And even if Jade was spared incest rape... well, a whole lot of other people weren't.]

No, but I think it's quite clear which one of them is entirely evil through all this. [ she looks uncertainly at nadia ] You really don't believe that any of the others would turn against him? Could be... could be helped?

I know what you are probably thinking. After we knew who he was to us, why would we stay when he ... did such things to us.

He is always quick to point out that our blood is the blood of the divine, and that the taboos that apply to mortals do not exist among our kind. Stories of gods are littered with examples - it is not as if he need look far to find them. For some, that was enough, because they wish to believe him. They crave all the power he has promised, and would do anything to achieve it.

I was... less convinced, but he has a way of turning the blame around on us, of pointing out that we desired him so much before we learned the truth, and making it sound like a shameful weakness of our character.

It took me a long time to see past that.

[ rafael looks down darkly again, conflicted ] It seems there is no end to how he will twist the truth as a weapon.

Do you... do you know what the others wished for, that the Nightmare Lord granted to them?

That I do not know. It's between each of us and the god himself.

And the Mind Master?

[ Not to derail all this Jade angst, but Buffy's still pretty concerned about the fact that (as someone presumably told her at some point) she just incapacitated Finnick, not to mention every other fucked up thing she's done. ]

Faking Draken and Dimitris out, I'm guessing. But then why pull Sarandis out of Andres? And where did she take him?

[ Because some people still have a bone to pick with that dickless wonder. ]

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