There's only one person you should be talking to tonight - and if not now, you might never get the chance.
No wholesome beefcake just yet... Oh well, Takara's good too. Our foxy nbae needs some help.
The drunk actually mumbles "your lordship" as you pass - is he so bleary-eyed he thinks you're actually Ljósingar? You can't blame him really. You're no brother of theirs, but 'cousin' wouldn't be inaccurate.
I think it's more likely he just figures that offering at least
some form of honorific when a frikkin' dragon strides by is just good sense...
Takara's waiting for you at the far end. Standing right there at the bars, bold as brass. Hell they even look like they fluffed themself up in preparation.
I'll bet they did - they probably heard you pacing around and thought, oh boy oh boy, another chance to get myself killed!
"... you're saying you didn't hurt Makram."
Takara glances at you out of the corner of their eye. "Yeah. Xiomara did it, froze him over then hit him so hard he just kind of cracked open. He got distracted trying to get me to cough up the map - didn't realise she busted him up so bad he couldn't even tell you what happened 'til you showed up tonight. Think the map fell out of my pocket while we were leaping about in the bar, who knows where it's got to now."
You shake your head, finally unclasping your hands so you can bring one to your brow. Takara uses your brief silence to start pacing again. "Alright. Fine. Let's... entertain the notion for a moment that you're telling the truth about Xiomara being one of the beacons on the map, and you went to Stagroot to try and sway her like you did Petros.
Well, here's a good sign; Takara says they didn't hurt Makram, and that's the one thing here that Eldingar
isn't dubious of. They'll 'entertain the notion' that Xiomara was on the map and that Takara met them, but that Takara didn't hurt Makram, that just slips by. I'll take it.
The cell is a mess. It looks like it was used to cage a wild animal, an animal that scratched and clawed and threw itself against the walls in helpless fury at its capture. The bed frame, old and economical but still quite solid iron, has been kicked to pieces, the mattress and bedding shredded into so many rags and clumps of feathers to match. Even the toilet has a foot-sized chunk knocked out of the bowl. And amid it all lies Takara, curled up in a ball amid the remains of their bedding, lying on their side facing the far wall. Their hair is tangled and bedraggled, their robes ripped and dirtied just as they were after your fight. You don't spy a twitch out of their limp tail or their flattened ears.
The moment stretches on forever. You feel like you should say something, but what can you say? What could someone possibly say in a situation like this to... fix it? All of it? You could peel these bars apart and step into the cell with Takara if you so chose but you can't. All your strength and it fails you. You can't even move. All you can do is stare at their back and imagine the what-ifs, the could-haves and might-have-beens. All you had to do was go looking for the Söfnun beacon before that heist that started it all.
... oh. so, not the 'oh boy oh boy' then. Getting reeeeal shades of Loki circa Thor 2, here, and that's a bad place to be.
Sigh. It does make me wonder, though - what would it'd have been like, if we'd dropped in on Takara early? What would they have turned out like? What would it have done to the others? Were there other failure states lurking in the wings to make trouble for us like this, or was this a preventable tragedy in a meta sense, too?
"I think you needed me to be your 'bad guy'. The one who transgresses and finally provokes you enough to make you cut loose like a real dragon." A soft, dry-throated chuckle. "And you were a real dragon tonight, weren't you Eldingar? Every bit the unstoppable force of nature they say your kind are. 'til someone did stop you, I s'pose. But it sure wasn't me. Didn't matter what trick I threw at you, you just kept on coming. And you didn't even have to transform, heh."
And here we see the kitsune in its native habitat - reimagining everything that passed so that every awful thing that happened was inevitable, rather than preventable mistakes. This is gonna be a long relationship before you're stable, isn't it?
"And maybe that's why she was on your list too," Takara murmurs. "What greater challenge could a dragon ever want? Wouldn't that be one for the history books? You'd be the greatest dragon in the world. Get all the fear and respect and adoration you could ever want. Maybe she's the one you finally kill. Maybe that's the last thing you need to be happy."
ouch takara. somehow i suspect "maybe the last thing you need to be happy is
MURDER" isn't going to get out from under Eldy's scales for a while.
There's a knock at your door. You don't move. There's a second knock at your door. You still don't move.
"It's only me," comes Issachar's muffled voice through the door.
"It's unlocked," you reply.
The door swings open. He makes no effort to cross the threshold. You swivel one eye in his direction - he's in his human form still. He just looks at you in turn, one hand resting on the doorframe. What he sees must speak volumes.
"You went to see them, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
What else is there to say? Plenty you suppose, but nothing that can be said in the ambiguously short time between now and when a god is planning to call on you, so the matter slowly falls out of view like a gently-wafting feather. Instead Issachar's expression only grows softer, and he lets his hand fall from the doorframe to his side.
"I only wanted to say that... I'm with you, Eldingar," he says at last. "Whatever deal Ljósingar offers you about last night, whatever you decide, I want to help you however I can."
"... 'anks," you croak at last. Your voice sounds like it belongs to a stranger. Issachar smiles kindly and shuts the door again. Somehow you just feel worse.
Thank you, Issachar. Very politely handled.
"Business, then." Ljósingar descends at a slow, loping gait, hands folded behind their back, curling their great blade-feathered wings around their body like an excessively lethal cloak. "You may be pleased to learn that I have decided to let the bull go. He cooperated readily enough when interrogated that I had him moved to a proper room during the night, as his only crimes are naivete, ignorance, and the company he keeps - although I have instructed the guards not to let him leave until we are done deliberating his fate. The fox, however, is another story."
Petros' Wholesomest Beefcake In The Land-ness comes through for him again. Just let them meet already :<
You know, once again I'm wondering what our plan was in the event where Eldingar actually got what he planned for kinda. Nothing went wrong what do we do now?
Panic, I guess?
Hmm, votes, votes, votes...
[ ] Wash your hands of the whole thing. Let Ljósingar keep Takara imprisoned and leave with Issachar and Petros. From the sounds of it Takara has done a lot more harm than just stealing from you - and besides, they can probably break out before anything drastic like an execution happens. This is just a final farewell, an assurance that Takara will never bother you again.
Ha, not a chance. I haven't carried the torch for Takara all this way just to drop it
here.
[ ] Suggest that Takara be released into Issachar's custody. He has his ranch, nice and isolated with plenty of time to keep an eye on them, and since Ljósingar already knows he's some sort of angel they might be inclined to trust in his abilities. And Issachar did say he'd help however he could. Maybe he can direct some of his 'being good to people' energies into Takara? You'll likely have to sweeten the pot a little somehow.
It might be a little forward to saddle Issachar with this, but they
did offer and it's the kind of thing they'd be pretty good at. Plus I gotta echo Omegahugger here, the prospect of the two of them crammed in tight together is just kind of inherently amusing. Tenfold makes a pretty good articulation of why Issachar is a good fit for this, but to be honest I kind of get the sense that it's also something they
want. They seem like they rushed over terribly worried and now they're a bit desperate to... well,
help, in a material way.
[ ] Suggest that Takara be released into your custody. You have the spire, and a lot of lovers living there who'd be perfectly capable of keeping an eye on them, as well as your own personal draconic might and authority. Mostly just a sideways move compared to being jailed here. You'll likely have to sweeten the pot a little somehow.
Riskier. Guessmyname is right, Takara is good at playing games with people and pushing their buttons, giving them this many people to interact with could go badly. On the other hand, it gives a lot more perspectives on keeping an eye on them... It
could go very well, it
could go very badly.
[ ] Tell them to just let Takara go. You don't care any more, or don't
want to care, or something along those lines but the point is you want Takara out of your life. If Ljósingar lets them go they'll have to disappear, go into hiding and wait until whatever fuss got kicked up in the god community dies down. And, most likely, they'll never bother you again. You'll
definitely have to bribe Ljósingar somehow to get them to agree to pardon.
Mmm. It'd throw Takara for a loop and might earn us some gratitude there, but the cost would be significant and, honestly, I'm not sure it'd do any
good. Takara is pretty clearly locked into their self-destructive spiral, I think this only really turns out as a "giving them another rope to hang themselves" kind of deal.
Can I just say how much I love this temple design? It makes complete sense, feels unique (to me at least) and isn't just a case of 'slap down a church bam done'.
Agreed. I like how it sort of vaguely suggests a lightning storm, too - many bolts landing all over the place and all. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.
[X] Suggest that Takara be released into Issachar's custody. He has his ranch, nice and isolated with plenty of time to keep an eye on them, and since Ljósingar already knows he's some sort of angel they might be inclined to trust in his abilities. And Issachar did say he'd help however he could. Maybe he can direct some of his 'being good to people' energies into Takara? You'll likely have to sweeten the pot a little somehow.
