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Today's Topics:

1. [Secrets] Dream a little dream of me: Seth & Shirow (wraith808)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:12:08 -0400
From: "wraith808" <wraith808@...>
Subject: [Enclaves] [Secrets] Dream a little dream of me: Seth &
Shirow


OOC: This occurs just after Clarisse almost guts Seth and Marcus kills
Mandor. No major revelations here...

Marcus looked startled by Shirow's words. "Um... she'd probably either be
in the hall or in the hanger. The hall's a big long room with no windows,
lot's of columns, and a big thrown at the end up a couple o' steps. They
said it was the Warlord's. The Hangar... that's where we put the ship. I
think that's where the the men were prepin'. The ship's still there.
Mostly." Marcus shrugged.

"That's very little," Shirow said. "But thank you for that."

He turned and went to Amba. Knowing that perversely, she was the person he
could trust most, he said to her in a low voice, "Guard me, and Dot if
necessary. I have to do something, and I will be out of sorts for a
critical time."

With that, he found a spot by the wall, and sat down in a lotus position.
"I will attempt to get Dierdre here," he said, looking to Kaizan. "I'm not
sure how successful I shall be considering my sparse information about her,
but if this is successful, it will be more than worth it." With that, he
positioned his right hand in front of him, chest high, palm up, and his
right on top of that, in a strange configuration. His dark eyes closed, as
his body relaxed and his breathing slowed...

He found himself standing in a darkened street, in a darkened city. Ahead
of him was a building - illuminated. There was a sign - the name he could
not make out clearly - but the two words below, flickering with a uncertain
bulb, he could see clearly.

"Regional Hospital."

At the same side he felt a tug - a consciousness that if he wanted to find
Deirdre, he needed to walk the other way down the street.

Following the tug, Shirow opened himself further, and walked the other way
down the street. The terrain looked... Familiar... So he tried to
acclimatize himself to it, and orient himself.

He could see the road seemed to stretch out before him - out of the town,
and leading to the giant hangar that Marcus had described ... An army was
gathered there - and a single, dark haired women, dressed in battle
fatigues.

Seeing his objective, Shirow moved towards the woman, and interposed himself
over her. Attempting to synch himself with her, he closed his eyes and
reached out to her. ~Dierdre. Seth needs you. Just you. No army. You
need to hurry.~ In addition to the words he projected the emotions,
attempting his best to reach her... To convince her. ~Dierdre. Seth has
Merlin and Clarisse. But he needs you now. Hurry!~

And as he called out mentally ... he heard another voice, coming from behind
him.

"Shirow!"

It sounded like Seth.

Before him, Deirdre lifting her head, her expression arrexted, as though she
heard him.

And the voice called behind him ...

He was perfectly balanced between the two.

But he knew that he could not respond to both.

Shirow stopped for a moment conflicted. But only for a moment. As always,
Shirow's credo consisted of quick action, which in turn led to comparing his
choices against his goal. Redemption.

With that in mind, there was only one choice.

Leaving Dierdre behind, he raced to the other voice, attempting to contact
the one person who held the key to stopping this madness...

Shirow made his way to Seth, and as best he could in this form, bowed.
"Seth," he said, then paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "What
are you doing? Here, that is?"

"I should ask you the same question," Seth said. He turned and indicated the
town behind him. "You're in my mind, after all."

Shirow looked at him askance.

"Are you sure of this?" He paused for a moment, giving Seth a chance to
take in Shirow's form. In this reality, clothing mattered only as a matter
of residual self-image... Your form was determined by your image of
yourself, as was what you wore. If that was the case, then truly, Shirow
did not have a good image of himself. For once nothing covered his visage,
and he was truly not scarred, not hideous- in fact, his face was very near
perfect. If one saw him, one would not forget it, for he had been given a
truly beautiful face, such that a man could be called beautiful. But
something was not quite right... There was a sinister cast to the beauty,
and at times, his face would almost dematerialize as a ghost of another's
image flitted across it, seemingly screaming in silent agony. And his
hands... They were covered in blood, though not his own. And the blood
never ran, it only dripped slowly into the ether, to disappear.

"Are you sure you are within your own body still? I travelled the
dreamscape- that area that we move to when we are asleep. I was yet there,
attempting to communicate with Dierdre... To tell her of what transpired,
when I heard you call to me."

He paused again.

"Are you sure that your tenuous hold on life is not fading, unknowingly?"

"Sure?" Seth looked around behind him, then back at Shirow. He himself
looked as he always did; a young man with blonde hair and deeply tanned skin
and violet eyes. But something in those eyes seemed old, very old. "No, not
-sure-. This is the first time I've ever had to do this. My best trick,
really... but this valley represents the organization of my mind and my chi.
The town holds all my interests, the surrounding wilderness the knowledge of
land-law. Before, to leave my mind, I had to go over the mountains." He
waved his hand to indicate the horizon.

"I'm not dead... I'm in catalepsis. There's some serious damge to my body.
There's still part of a talon lodged in my heart. I can fix it all, but it's
going to take a few days. I figured someone would help out from the
outside."

He smiled, just a little. "It takes just about all my energy to repair my
body, with the exception of this little jaunt.
But maybe I can help you out." He seemed ready to say something else,
looking hard at Shirow's appearance, but he held back for the moment.

Shirow thought for a moment. "Things are moving fast. Too fast. I'm not
sure what you instructions you left with Dierdre, but Mandor is ... gone.
As good as dead, as things are now. Suhuy and Dot are using the blood that
you shed, along with Mandor's to water the plants. I'm not sure... I don't
feel good about this at all." He shook his head. "Kaizan is... I don't
know if he's blind or has something to prove or both, but he's talking about
going after the Serpent's other eye." He paused again, then began speaking
slowly. "But if Chaos is indeed in need of being created, then why would
the serpent still be alive? Isn't the Serpent Chaos? And Chaos, the
Serpent?"

"I've thought... Since Cyberia, that Suhuy was the one playing... That
Mandor was indeed the foil. Something he said, and something he did. Now I
wonder if I wasn't right..."

"I don't know," Seth said. "I don't know how this will go. I have been
concentrating on the other end of things, getting rid of the plantaxy." He
hesitates. "If Deirdre doesn't hear from me, she's going to come after me.
You need to find her. I can show you where she is."

Shirow nodded. "That would probably be prudent. It would be bad if she
went off half-cocked right now. Very bad."

A small, fair-haired girl had run after Seth to join them, and now, with no
signs of breathlessness, was standing beside Seth. She seemed no older than
twelve, but when she spoke, it was with the assurance of an adult.

"You'll have to take care of that," she said to Shirow. "You were on the
right road. Seth has to choose the road less taken. It will be up to you
to make sure he can find his way back."

Shirow nodded, unsure of who the girl was, but agreeing with the obvious
truth of what she said.

"Shirow, Aisling. Aisling, Shirow," Seth said with a smile.

"It would be bad to try a songline from here, even if it would work," Seth
said. "But I can show you about where she's at. Give you a good idea where
to project. After that, it's up to you not to have her react and take your
head off... but..." He reached into his jacket, held out a silver rose.
"This might do the trick."

Shirow took the rose, bowing to Seth. "Can you even give me her songline
here? Just in case I cannot reach her from here," he said. "If not, then I
will have to do without."

"I promised her that I would never do that," Seth said. "She may give it to
you when you find her, if she so chooses. But I'm confident you'll get to
her. Deirdre is no stranger to this kind of thing, you know."

Shirow nodded, accepting the statement without argument. "Very well. Time
is short, so I should begin this before something irrevocable happens," he
said, bowing. "If you would show me were I could find Dierdre, I will do
the rest."

Seth nodded, and then held his hands out and concentrated; a swirling mist
began to form in front of them, coalesced into an image of Nexus. Over the
next minute or two, he guided them both over a path to a particular part of
the Warlord's hangar.

"Probably here," he said, "or here."

The army was still gathered there - and to one side, talking with a group of
men around a table spread with maps, was a single, dark haired women,
dressed in battle fatigues.

Shirow had seen her like this before, in his earlier vision - and Seth, of
course, knew her well.

Suddenly, seemingly for no reason, he lifted her head and stared hard at
them both.

To look at them would imply awareness...

Shirow closed his eyes and concentrated, forming the same message he had
before, to see if he could form a link from here.

~Dierdre. Seth needs you. Just you. No army. You need to hurry.~ In
addition to the words he projected the emotions, attempting his best to
reach her... To convince her. ~Dierdre. Seth has Merlin and Clarisse. But
he needs you now. Hurry!~

Seth, somehow aware of the projection and its message, merely nodded in
agreement.

~Get in. Get out. Things are changed. I will see you when I can.~

There was a strange shimmer in the air - and suddenly Shirow found himself
standing in the hangar, Deirdre in front on him. She reached out a hand
towards him, and then stopped abruptly.

"Where's Seth?" she demanded. "What have you done to him?"

~I have done nothing to him,~ Shirow replied, his thoughts calm- at odds
with his macabre appearance. He stood erect, his arms crossed, as he looked
at Dierdre directly in her eyes. ~I am trying to help him, and I'm sure you
wish to also. Mandor is no longer an issue. There are other issues,
however, that make it imperative that you seek us out. We have both Merlin
and Clarisse... An army would be pointless now. Seth is ... About other
business. But I do fear that we will need you before all of this is done.~

He paused, thinking. ~If you are willing, I will call you to us after I
return to my body... If you will give me your songline.~

She stared at him for a second and then whistled a long liquid trill of a
sound - the sound of clear cold water as it runs between rocks, high in the
mountains, fierce and wild and string. Deirdre's songline.

"Now ... bring them to me," she said. "But ... where is Seth?"

She looked at him intently.

"What is Seth?"

~Physically,~ Shirow responded, his thoughts still smooth and serene, ~Seth
is still with us. He is unconscious, his body badly hurt. Mandor had
forced Clarisse to take the form of a raptor, and sent her to kill Seth.
Though she was too weak to resist Mandor's powers, Seth could not bring
himself to kill her, so was gravely wounded subduing her.~

~Mentally... That's a different story. I have seen him here... He assures
me that he can repair his body, but that he has something to do here- in the
dreamtime- before he can return to his body.~

~We shall be there shortly- and will be bringing them with us. If you have
any skill at healing, perhaps we can help him heal his body... But there
are other pressing things also.~

He bowed. ~Is there anything else you need- I need to get back, to tell
them what was said.~

"Go," said Deirdre, and her voice was harsh. "Bring him to me ... bring
them all to me ... now."

She began to fade ...


_____

wraith808 (wraith808@...)
Xfire:wraith808|AIM:darkaberrant|ICQ:1328185|yahoo:wraith808|msn:wraith808@h
otmail.com
Moderator for ANoA:Cyberia (cyberia.gamera.cc) and DarkAberrant
(darkaberrant.gamera.cc)


"There are only 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand
binary, and those who don't."


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