Number FIVE ☂ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
somebadnews) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2021-09-08 05:26 pm
somebadnews) wrote in westwhere2021-09-08 05:26 pm
time doesn't love you anymore
WHO: Five and OPEN (with one closed starter)
WHEN: Early-to-mid September
WHERE: All Around Taravast
WHAT: September Catch-All: Obsessions, Curses and Family Meetings
WARNINGS: Language and... whatever Five-related things come up
i. Southern (Artist ) Areas (open)
It's been a while since Five took a walk to get some fresh air. Tensions have been escalating again, and despite his best efforts to claim otherwise, his thoughts have been too erratic to feel like he has anything under control any more. It's an incredibly inconvenient time to be staving off the effects of a curse that he's stubbornly against prioritizing, and refuses to think about now. He's well accustomed to dealing with anguish; acknowledging it just makes it more insufferable and he has too many other things to worry about.
He needs a clear head if he's going to avoid another gaffe like they had at the masquerade. Hence the outing. He gives himself an errand or two — find a more secluded meeting location, procure more coffee — if only to get away from all of them before he snaps and murders someone else just because he's frustrated and running on fumes. As he makes his way through the streets, he thinks bitterly that his thirteen-year-old body could probably use the exercise.
When they first arrived in Taravast, he had been vaguely insulted by the identity he'd been assigned. That was before he'd learned it could be much worse. He's largely left alone, and when he's approached by anyone who seemed to have gotten his description from who-knows-where, he can make them disappear in relatively few words. Just drop a comment about their staggering irrelevance and they walk away shocked and offended. Temperamental artists are apparently common enough to play on assumptions. He barely cares.
All this time he hasn't actually bothered to look at any of the actual art in the city, because why would he? It's all useless decoration that doesn't serve any purpose, and mostly makes him think of the Academy and those terrible portraits his father had done of them as kids. That was his closest point of reference; nothing really survived in the apocalypse and he certainly didn't spend any time looking at it during his years at the Commission. — So it's strange that in the middle of his hike through the citadel, he finds himself facing an unfamiliar statue in the middle of an alcove. It's only half-finished, the form just starting to emerge from the stone, and he stares for full ten minutes before he realizes where he is. They have plenty of paintings on display and jewelry stands stretched along the alleyway, but not a single one of them sells coffee.
Fuck, he's tired. He nearly blinks away instead of walking back to where he made a wrong turn, but it's quiet here and all he really wanted was somewhere to think. So he wedges himself into the small space between the stone and the wall while he tries to do the math to get him to where he meant to go.
Moments later he's fast asleep where the statue's feet would be.
ii. Necromancer District (open)
Five went back to that same location where they'd picked up a cure for the poison a few days later. So far they hadn't heard any grief about what they did to obtain the blood; no one so much as questioned any recent murders, but he does think enough to stay away from certain incriminating areas to avoid the hassle. He wanted to see if he could find this particular house again by memory, and he feels some satisfaction that he manages to, even if it had been an entirely different time of day.
It seemed strange to him back then, and he said as much, that the necromancers had a cure for the poison almost before they asked. Not until later did he find out that Lady Vannozza has ties here. There's an almost too-obvious link between her and the attempt on their lives, and looking into it actually feels useful in a way he hasn't been lately. It's straightforward enough to investigate, and something productive he can share with his family later if he gets any leads.
A shorter route would have been to ask Allison to rumor Vannozza to tell them exactly what her involvement was, but he knows his sister will want more than his paranoia to go on. The other solution involves having them conjure the man responsible for delivering the poison, but Lan Wangji was acting strange about it after he was the one who suggested it. Five still doesn't understand his great moral objection, but he rarely does, and spends far too much time trying to. Several of the necromancers here could do it, if he really wants to pursue the idea.
That doesn't mean he won't also try and get more information about how the necromancers work while he's poking around. He pays careful attention whenever he spots their customers coming and going, and if his timing is good enough, he might teleport in to see what their healing rituals entail. For curiosity's sake.
Today it seems noticeably less crowded in the district, which is... not ideal and throws off his plan slightly. If he stands out too much they might start to recognize him as a kid who keeps hanging around here, and he'll have to put more effort into hiding in the shadows. It also might mean he's missing something again, which just makes him feel more out of sorts. He doesn't abandon the methods, but he keeps an extra eye out for anyone he recognizes that might fill him in.
iii. Academies (open)
Five comes around eventually. He really hadn't needed any magic curse to break his fragile grip on sanity. But when he keeps confusing the anguish he's stubbornly holding onto with memories of the apocalypse, he knows that pretty soon people will start noticing what's wrong with him. At some point he's going to need to make it stop. The unfortunate truth is that there's no way in hell he can trust that the easiest solutions available to get rid of it, and his other idea isn't any guarantee.
Under normal circumstances, he would have learned enough about magic to handle his own problems, but there's just so many different types and languages that he doesn't know where to begin. The research he left to Fox came to a halt after the masquerade, because of course they try to murder the one person he had chosen to tell about his problem, which left him largely on his own. (While Fox presumably recovers. He's sure he would have heard from Mingyu otherwise.)
The academies are easy enough to break into for someone like him, but without a guide, he's less sure of which books to disappear with that might have something worthwhile in them. He ends up with one that looks questionably promising, and others he grabbed simply because they were near it on the shelf. While he's waiting for his personal translator, he flips through the pages and tries to make sense of them.
Almost immediately he starts to write notes in the margins, which quickly devolve into something more familiar to him. Soon he's sitting in the courtyard working the equations he hasn't touched in weeks, trying to work backward to the earliest he could alter the timeline without jeopardizing his family, what events he could change by eliminating various people, and ways to predict where and when they might find his remaining siblings. The mask they insist that he carry around is beside him and he seems intensely focused and oblivious to anyone who might have noticed that he isn't a student.
In hindsight, he should have brought a different notebook with him, but it helps him for a time to slip into the world of time travel and probability equations to remember that he's actually smart about some things. Eventually he'll return to the palace and try to track Fox down to explain what he was originally trying to do. When he does finally hand off these books to him, he's sure he might even have the math worked out and not need him any more.
iv. Undisclosed Location (closed to Hargreeves)
The meeting is, frankly, long overdue. Playing political games for the sake of the group at large has only left them out of touch and ill prepared. They weren't ready for the attempted murder at the masquerade, and he was blindsided by Allison's trip to see the necromancers, purely because he hadn't kept a close enough eye on his family. They need a better system.
Fortunately, securing a suitably discrete location wasn't all that difficult once he started looking, and his ability makes it easy to get around any onlookers who might catch on that he's in cahoots with his family. Before arriving, Five had made at least some effort to splash water on his face and put on a less rumpled set of clothes to disguise the exhaustion that makes him feel every bit of his actual age. He does a passable job. He won't admit that the nap he had earlier might have done some good.
They haven't been together in the same space since the masquerade, and he takes time to assess all of them as he paces around the room. The wolves are still hanging around, apparently. Five takes a moment to look at each one of them before narrowing his eyes at Diego. He's already made it clear what he thinks about his new coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean he won't bring it up again. The only one of them to stay out of trouble is Vanya, and thank god for that.
"Alright. To start with, great job all around at not getting stabbed or poisoned." Really, it's a low bar, but they've managed to cross it. As far as he knows, he's the only one who screwed up anything major, and he's fine with delaying that news until the end. "We don't have a lot of time, but I thought we should get on the same page."
v.
Wildcard for whatever else. Additional starters available on request.
Action spam or prose idc/will match format/I swear I will use less words one day (I will forget I said this).
WHEN: Early-to-mid September
WHERE: All Around Taravast
WHAT: September Catch-All: Obsessions, Curses and Family Meetings
WARNINGS: Language and... whatever Five-related things come up
i. Southern (Artist ) Areas (open)
It's been a while since Five took a walk to get some fresh air. Tensions have been escalating again, and despite his best efforts to claim otherwise, his thoughts have been too erratic to feel like he has anything under control any more. It's an incredibly inconvenient time to be staving off the effects of a curse that he's stubbornly against prioritizing, and refuses to think about now. He's well accustomed to dealing with anguish; acknowledging it just makes it more insufferable and he has too many other things to worry about.
He needs a clear head if he's going to avoid another gaffe like they had at the masquerade. Hence the outing. He gives himself an errand or two — find a more secluded meeting location, procure more coffee — if only to get away from all of them before he snaps and murders someone else just because he's frustrated and running on fumes. As he makes his way through the streets, he thinks bitterly that his thirteen-year-old body could probably use the exercise.
When they first arrived in Taravast, he had been vaguely insulted by the identity he'd been assigned. That was before he'd learned it could be much worse. He's largely left alone, and when he's approached by anyone who seemed to have gotten his description from who-knows-where, he can make them disappear in relatively few words. Just drop a comment about their staggering irrelevance and they walk away shocked and offended. Temperamental artists are apparently common enough to play on assumptions. He barely cares.
All this time he hasn't actually bothered to look at any of the actual art in the city, because why would he? It's all useless decoration that doesn't serve any purpose, and mostly makes him think of the Academy and those terrible portraits his father had done of them as kids. That was his closest point of reference; nothing really survived in the apocalypse and he certainly didn't spend any time looking at it during his years at the Commission. — So it's strange that in the middle of his hike through the citadel, he finds himself facing an unfamiliar statue in the middle of an alcove. It's only half-finished, the form just starting to emerge from the stone, and he stares for full ten minutes before he realizes where he is. They have plenty of paintings on display and jewelry stands stretched along the alleyway, but not a single one of them sells coffee.
Fuck, he's tired. He nearly blinks away instead of walking back to where he made a wrong turn, but it's quiet here and all he really wanted was somewhere to think. So he wedges himself into the small space between the stone and the wall while he tries to do the math to get him to where he meant to go.
Moments later he's fast asleep where the statue's feet would be.
ii. Necromancer District (open)
Five went back to that same location where they'd picked up a cure for the poison a few days later. So far they hadn't heard any grief about what they did to obtain the blood; no one so much as questioned any recent murders, but he does think enough to stay away from certain incriminating areas to avoid the hassle. He wanted to see if he could find this particular house again by memory, and he feels some satisfaction that he manages to, even if it had been an entirely different time of day.
It seemed strange to him back then, and he said as much, that the necromancers had a cure for the poison almost before they asked. Not until later did he find out that Lady Vannozza has ties here. There's an almost too-obvious link between her and the attempt on their lives, and looking into it actually feels useful in a way he hasn't been lately. It's straightforward enough to investigate, and something productive he can share with his family later if he gets any leads.
A shorter route would have been to ask Allison to rumor Vannozza to tell them exactly what her involvement was, but he knows his sister will want more than his paranoia to go on. The other solution involves having them conjure the man responsible for delivering the poison, but Lan Wangji was acting strange about it after he was the one who suggested it. Five still doesn't understand his great moral objection, but he rarely does, and spends far too much time trying to. Several of the necromancers here could do it, if he really wants to pursue the idea.
That doesn't mean he won't also try and get more information about how the necromancers work while he's poking around. He pays careful attention whenever he spots their customers coming and going, and if his timing is good enough, he might teleport in to see what their healing rituals entail. For curiosity's sake.
Today it seems noticeably less crowded in the district, which is... not ideal and throws off his plan slightly. If he stands out too much they might start to recognize him as a kid who keeps hanging around here, and he'll have to put more effort into hiding in the shadows. It also might mean he's missing something again, which just makes him feel more out of sorts. He doesn't abandon the methods, but he keeps an extra eye out for anyone he recognizes that might fill him in.
iii. Academies (open)
Five comes around eventually. He really hadn't needed any magic curse to break his fragile grip on sanity. But when he keeps confusing the anguish he's stubbornly holding onto with memories of the apocalypse, he knows that pretty soon people will start noticing what's wrong with him. At some point he's going to need to make it stop. The unfortunate truth is that there's no way in hell he can trust that the easiest solutions available to get rid of it, and his other idea isn't any guarantee.
Under normal circumstances, he would have learned enough about magic to handle his own problems, but there's just so many different types and languages that he doesn't know where to begin. The research he left to Fox came to a halt after the masquerade, because of course they try to murder the one person he had chosen to tell about his problem, which left him largely on his own. (While Fox presumably recovers. He's sure he would have heard from Mingyu otherwise.)
The academies are easy enough to break into for someone like him, but without a guide, he's less sure of which books to disappear with that might have something worthwhile in them. He ends up with one that looks questionably promising, and others he grabbed simply because they were near it on the shelf. While he's waiting for his personal translator, he flips through the pages and tries to make sense of them.
Almost immediately he starts to write notes in the margins, which quickly devolve into something more familiar to him. Soon he's sitting in the courtyard working the equations he hasn't touched in weeks, trying to work backward to the earliest he could alter the timeline without jeopardizing his family, what events he could change by eliminating various people, and ways to predict where and when they might find his remaining siblings. The mask they insist that he carry around is beside him and he seems intensely focused and oblivious to anyone who might have noticed that he isn't a student.
In hindsight, he should have brought a different notebook with him, but it helps him for a time to slip into the world of time travel and probability equations to remember that he's actually smart about some things. Eventually he'll return to the palace and try to track Fox down to explain what he was originally trying to do. When he does finally hand off these books to him, he's sure he might even have the math worked out and not need him any more.
iv. Undisclosed Location (closed to Hargreeves)
The meeting is, frankly, long overdue. Playing political games for the sake of the group at large has only left them out of touch and ill prepared. They weren't ready for the attempted murder at the masquerade, and he was blindsided by Allison's trip to see the necromancers, purely because he hadn't kept a close enough eye on his family. They need a better system.
Fortunately, securing a suitably discrete location wasn't all that difficult once he started looking, and his ability makes it easy to get around any onlookers who might catch on that he's in cahoots with his family. Before arriving, Five had made at least some effort to splash water on his face and put on a less rumpled set of clothes to disguise the exhaustion that makes him feel every bit of his actual age. He does a passable job. He won't admit that the nap he had earlier might have done some good.
They haven't been together in the same space since the masquerade, and he takes time to assess all of them as he paces around the room. The wolves are still hanging around, apparently. Five takes a moment to look at each one of them before narrowing his eyes at Diego. He's already made it clear what he thinks about his new coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean he won't bring it up again. The only one of them to stay out of trouble is Vanya, and thank god for that.
"Alright. To start with, great job all around at not getting stabbed or poisoned." Really, it's a low bar, but they've managed to cross it. As far as he knows, he's the only one who screwed up anything major, and he's fine with delaying that news until the end. "We don't have a lot of time, but I thought we should get on the same page."
v.
Wildcard for whatever else. Additional starters available on request.
Action spam or prose idc/will match format/
no subject
She taps at his nose playfully and then looks away, considering. "There's a window and it shouldn't be hard to get into. I'll open the window when it's safe, alright?"
Even if she thinks it's all a bit silly, she'll suck it up and do this. It's not like it's taking much out of her to do. "Give me about...20 minutes?" She flashes him a quick smile before turning and walking away.
In 20 minutes, she'll have her windows opened as promised and whistle a happy little random tune. That's a signal enough right??
no subject
After she goes, he starts to gather up the books that he barely read and convinces himself that he isn't being too desperate in looking for another way out of a curse. This is a fine idea. If it does something terrible to him, he's already got most of the math worked out for going back in time to stop him from getting the curse in the first place. That would be the nuclear option, but he's not without a backup.
Or it could just... do exactly what he's hoping and he could put an end to his torture. Just ignore the fact that he could have tried this months ago.
When he's back near the palace, he walks along the edge of the building along Vannozza's side, looking up at the windows. The sound of whistling catches his attention and he listens for a while longer to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from.
A moment later, he teleports inside the room. He takes a quick glance around before setting the books down on the nearest table and turning to Winnie. He adjusts his tunic and huffs a sigh.
"Right then. Where is it?"
no subject
"You surprised me! A little warning would have been nice, I thought you were just going to climb in like some dashing rogue from one of those trashy novels." She laughs and wanders about the room, fussing here and there even though everything looks perfectly in place.
At her vanity she pulls pen a drawer, then presses on the false bottom to pull the carefully wrapped mirror out of it. At first Winnie doesn't bring it over or do much, just gazing quietly at it before she looks at Five seriously.
"...Be careful. Please." She holds it out, but won't relinquish her grip on it until he agrees. "Promise?"
no subject
The anguish he's so eager to be rid of surfaces the more attention he pays to it, and it's an effort not to seem too on edge as he watches her retrieve the mirror from its hiding place. He notes the way it's covered and again tries to think back when he'd first given it to her. He hasn't forgotten that she'd insisted that it was the only thing she wanted as payment, and he probably has her to thank for not selling it for what little he thought it was worth.
The hesitation she shows nearly makes him lose his composure, but once she holds it out, he calmly steps forward and reaches for it. At her question, he smiles up at her again, in a perfect mockery of schoolboy charm.
"I'll be careful."
no subject
She takes a few steps back to give him some space though, hands folded in front of her as she stands and watches him curiously.
no subject
Even if it works like the other mirror and pulls out whatever he absorbed, it'll most likely be painful. He braces himself as he slowly unwraps the mirror, and soon he's staring back at his own young reflection.
Nothing happens. He waits. A minute passes, and he doesn't feel any agony leave his body, no whispers, and he doesn't see anything but his increasingly frustrated expression. Finally he looks back at Winnie, sounding almost accusatory when he speaks.
"It's not doing anything."
no subject
"Well, what were you doing it would do?"
no subject
"It's supposed to do something," he says absently. He touches the glass, which doesn't trigger any magic and makes him feel like an idiot for thinking it would, and a few steadying breaths aren't enough to keep his temper from flaring. Of all the things he was expecting the mirror to do, 'nothing' wasn't one of the options.
"Why isn't it?" What did she do to it? "It can't just be a mirror. How does it work?"
no subject
Here, let me see it. I don't know magic, I'm afraid, but I'll do some of my own research and see what I can do."
There was a moment of silence again. "You won't tell me what's truly troubling you, will you." It's said with a sort of...disappointed resignation. It's not a question, and she looks at him a bit sadly. "You won't tell anyone or let anyone lend a hand."
no subject
Once his hands are free, he jams them in his pockets and looks everywhere but at her. He hates putting himself in this position. If they knew he was in constant agony, it'd be too easy to take advantage, and he might be so desperate that he'll believe anyone who says they can help. The difference in this case is that using the second mirror was his idea.
"...I have a piece of the other mirror." That much he's barely willing to give away, for as good as it's done so far. "I want to see if it can take out what it absorbed."
no subject
"...Can I try something? I think I know something that may help you. I don't think it'd be a long term fix, but it might help a little at least. May I?"
She looked to him earnestly, like she truly did want to help.
no subject
That should be enough of a warning sign to put more distance between them, but he still asks.
"What is it?"
no subject
"Shh. Don't worry about it!" She reaches out to press her finger to his mouth as if she's shushing him-- only when she pulls her hand away, his soul comes with it. She reaches out and catches the small body before it can fall. Soul in one hand, body in the other, she makes an annoyed noise before she swallows his soul into her body.
Hands free, she moves the body to a couch and presses a hand to her stomach. "Five? Are you doing alright? It's a bit disorienting, isn't it?" However, for him it should feel a bit like falling into an isolation chamber or something. It's calm and soothing, if not a bit like floating in a void.
no subject
And for the first time in months, he can't feel anguish swirling deep inside him. It's just calm and quiet. Winnie's voice seems distant, and he doesn't know if he's alive or dead, but he should feel more strongly about that either way. In a moment he might. He's not done yet.
"What did you do?" He asks without a real voice, knowing the answer just as well as he understands the mistake he made. She'd called it helping. "Why?"
no subject
She sighs and moves to her vanity, carefully re-wrapping the mirror. "I will look more into the mirror, but I think you need a rest right now. I can't keep you like this for long, but I figured you deserved a break and a chance to think clearly for a while. Is it working?"
no subject
"A break." A break involving his soul leaving his body. A body that was in agony, and that's clearer now that he's not in it. Is he a ghost? Can he figure out how to project his consciousness from here? -- If he's not dead, he's more vulnerable than he's ever been. He has no reason to be calm.
"How long?"
no subject
"Hmm... About a day or so. I can't keep you that long before I'll start to get sick myself." And he'll start going insane, withering away in agony inside of her. But she won't tell him that part--no reason to needlessly worry him. "But it's calm and quiet, isn't it? That's what I've been told. That's how it feels for me all the time, so I can't imagine it any other way."
no subject
"What you've been told by who?" At least she can hear him and is willing to respond. He should be furious and screaming obscenities at her, and he is angry, but he's also uncertain. He'd say that he would take being alive and in pain any day over a relaxing death, but it's true that he's been too tired to think straight. That's how he wound up in this situation; Winnie saw an opening and took advantage.
"My family." He still tries to set the terms she never asked for, and some illusion of control over something he can't do anything about. There's only one thing he can think of to sway her. "If anything happens, I need to get back to them."
no subject
"I've done this plenty of times. Usually I'm trying to lead souls back to their bodies, however. I haven't done it like this before."
Still, she's soulless, not heartless, even if there's hardly a difference. "I'll keep an eye and an ear out. If there's any trouble, I'll pop you back into your body earlier. But the entire world isn't going to fall down just because you take a break for a bit."
no subject
He's quiet for a long time before he speaks up again, like he's afraid of what might happen if he stops talking or drifts off.
"It might." That one concession she gives doesn't make any of this better. If he were in his body, he'd probably be having a panic attack by now. Here he's just screaming into a void. "You think it'll be like getting up from a fresh coma, and I'll be ready for a brand new day? The problem is still going to be there."