cinaed

Session 184: Day 6 of Veliadan (5/1)

The shadow Audacity looks towards Audacity and then disappears and reappears directly in front of him. The shadow Audacity strikes out with his fists, missing once but the second attack hits Audacity directly in the chest.

He can feel the blow. It’s similar to the way he would fight, but one without mercy. He was raised and taught to fight in a way that is effective and to the point but without causing additional pain.

Audacity looks a little wide eyed even as the shadow Audacity’s elbow slams directly into his throat.

Hava, watching this, draws on her Channel Divinity and casts Twilight Sanctuary around them all. Then she casts Healing Word on Yolov and moves sideways, trying to keep as far away from shadow Audacity as possible.

Az surveys the shadow Audacity, who no longer has the armor but looks to be Audacity’s actual age, though it’s hard to tell anything else from the dark silhouette. Remembering how badly he injured Yolov and the others, Az throws all of his Eldritch Blasts at the shadow figure.

Two of them hit the shadow and knock it twenty feet back. The shadow Audacity lands on its feet and then turns its eyes upon Az, who hides his anxiety behind a smirk.

The six-year-old Mikos covers their ears and starts screaming in this high, hysterical voice, wailing that they didn’t want to over and begging them all to stop. Everyone takes damage from the screams, Diana taking the worst of it.

Shadow Audacity lashes out Az with a fiery rebuke.

Diana rushes forward and tries to attack the shadow Audacity but it flickers in and out, avoiding her attacks.

Galowen casts Moonbeam on shadow Audacity, engulfing it in a beam of light. The light illuminates part of the shadow, revealing before it recoils away what looks like an Audacity that is older than the real one standing beside Galowen. This Audacity looks haggard and changed, no longer wearing monastic colors but deep ichorous blacks and purples. Then the shadow overtakes it again and conceals his features from view.

Audacity has been punched in the gut and his throat by a shadow version of himself who has been haunting the monastery. Coughing a little and testing out his throat, he looks at the child screaming next to him. He angles himself sideways and pinches young Mikos’ nose shut, trying to pause their screaming.

He asks how they can help. Mikos says that they didn’t want to make this. Audacity says he knows. Can they help them stop it?

Mikos takes a shaky breath and says they don’t know. They don’t know how to make it stop. They can’t stop thinking about it or what might happen. They didn’t want to make this. They didn’t want to do it.

At this point Audacity turns away from the shadow Audacity and bends down to Mikos. He says that they always told him that he can’t handle everything. Mikos says they can. Audacity says they can’t. Mikos says but it was them. When Audacity tries to clarify, Mikos hiccups and says that they’re the one who picked Audacity.

Audacity says that sounds like a conversation they should have sometime.

Mikos asks what if Audacity grows up like them.

Audacity looks bewildered. He says the grown up version of Mikos that he knows, other than a few recent choices regarding him, gives guidance and a home to dozens of people who wouldn’t have one otherwise. That’s not an objectionable thing to grow up into.

Mikos says they just wanted him to be safe. Audacity says he appreciates that. Mikos says they wanted him to grow up safe and happy. They start pushing at Audacity’s hands and says it wasn’t fair, they wanted it to stay the way it was. He shouldn’t have had to.

Audacity says that it sucked but it wasn’t theirs to control.

Growing more upset, Mikos says it wasn’t fair. When they push Audacity away with an unnatural strength, the ground itself begins to buckle and crack apart around the Hooligans. There are sudden huge crevasses within the mental landscape as Mikos’ concentration begins to slip.

Yolov looks at the upset Mikos and realizes that if Audacity can’t calm them down, he certainly can’t. He casts Psychic Lance on the shadow Audacity, which makes it recoil and Mikos scream.

Shadow Audacity attacks Diana, hammering her with blows as Hava tries to figure out how to get close enough to her to heal her. She casts Healing Word on Diana and then attacks shadow Audacity with Eldritch Blast.

Az follows up with additional Eldritch Blasts of his own. Two of them strike Shadow Audacity and knock him back another twenty feet.

Mikos covers their ears and begins to stomp their feet, widening the cracks. On the last time they stomp, the cracks spiderweb out and at once the ground shatters and gives way underneath them all.

It’s equal parts jarring and uncomfortable as they all begin to plummet through seemingly nothing. They all see in flashes whipping past them moments of Mikos’ life, Mikos and their older brother getting into a vicious, angry argument and Iosh shoving them into a wall adorned with some paintings and decorative shelves, things falling and shattering, and Mikos looking furious and angry, seventeen years old as they throw themself at their brother. They see Mikos covered in their own blood as Iosh has the advantage in the fight and splits their lip and bloodies their nose. Mikos rolls away from the fight with a knife in their shoulder before the siblings fling themselves at each other. Then the scene shatters again. Mikos is dragging themselves over sand, then in some alley dark with their wounds beginning to fester. There is a flash of red and gold.

These memories fall around them before Audacity sees something that looks gut-wrenchingly familiar. The moment he locks eyes on it, he feels himself jolt to a stop.

They all land back in the monastery courtyard. Now however it’s an unseasonably warm winter day as they all see the shadow Audacity stand in the same spot where Audacity once stood.

They all see the shadow version standing over a bound and kneeling blue dragonborn.

Az groans a little in realization.

Audacity’s shadow version wields the executioner’s blade that he once wielded, a familiar blade they all recognize as Audacity has kept it. From beside him, the six-year-old Mikos breaks forth into a run and begins to shove at the shadow version as though to get him away from Traula.

The shadow version of Audacity, however, executes Traula in the same method Audacity did all those months ago. Then the shadow Audacity extends a hand down as Mikos wails and wrenches at him to drag him away, the shadowy hand clenching as the dragonborn’s headless body begins to twitch and move.

There is a rage in both Traula and shadow Audacity.

Diana, getting her bearings, attacks shadow Audacity first and then Traula. Shadow Audacity and Traula both dodge the attacks, Diana disoriented from the pain and also what she just witnessed. She darts away using Zephyr Strike.

Galowen moves his Moonbeam to engulf both shadow Audacity and Traula and then moves towards them.

Everyone sees Audacity’s face sag a little as he realizes where and when they are. Then he strides forward to attack Traula and make sure he stays dead a second time. He looks at Mikos and says that they didn’t pick him, he drew the lot.

Once he says that, he attacks Traula even as Mikos looks at him with big, wet eyes and says that they could have done something. He was too little for this to happen. Audacity says if he could have killed Traula with a spitball, he would have. Unfortunately that doesn’t work on dragonborn.

He hits Traula twice, drawing on the power within his magical quarterstaff as well as his connection to Arayla. There is a radiant light that flares from his staff and sears away flesh to expose bone. If Traula still had a head it would be yowling. He stuns Traula, and then hits him two more times for good measure.

When he strikes Traula in the chest, the body collapses onto the ground with a shudder. It doesn’t seem to be getting up and moving up any time soon.

Yolov looks at Mikos, remembering how they screamed when shadow Audacity was hurt by his Psychic Lance. He doesn’t want to hurt them, so instead he sends Es forward to Audacity’s shoulder and tells Mikos that they are all here because Mikos needs to speak about these emotions and experiences. Audacity told him before that everyone needs to speak with someone, but perhaps it’s best not to do so here. Then he casts Enhance Ability on Audacity, giving him more charisma.

Shadow Audacity attacks Audacity, pummeling him with blows as Hava moves forward and casts Mass Healing Word on the entire group. Then she attacks Shadow Audacity with another round of Eldritch Blasts, though all three miss.

Az sends some Eldritch Blasts of his own. One hits, sending Shadow Audacity flying ten feet back. He moves sideways, getting closer to Audacity while keeping a healthy distance from shadow Audacity.

Mikos takes a shaky breath, but seems to be listening to the group for the moment.

Diana moves forward to attack Shadow Audacity once more. She manages to hit it once, but misses on the other attack, complaining to Audacity that his shadow is too hard to hit. Then she moves back, trying to keep out of Shadow Audacity’s reach.

Galowen eyes shadow Audacity, who is looking worse for the wear. He can’t reach him, so moves forward and sends his Moonbeam over to engulf Shadow Audacity again. Then he slaps Audacity’s ass and gives him Bardic Inspiration.

Audacity deliberately jostles into Galowen as he moves over to Mikos. He crouches down and asks if there are any other lies that they’ve been listening to that they need to hash out. When Mikos shakes their head, Audacity asks if they’re sure. They nod their little head. Audacity says okay, he’s going to go beat up the mean version of him now.

It’s strange to attack himself, but he does, calling once more on his divine connection to Arayla as he lands both attacks. Stunning the shadow Audacity, he attacks twice more, the second blow landing with a bone-shattering intensity even as his focus is on Mikos. Between hitting the shadow figure, he reminds Mikos that they taught him that he can only control what he can control, and that’s himself. He can’t control Mikos or his friends or their enemies. He can only live the life he’s living and try to make things better. Mikos has done that for so many people. They’re not perfect, no one is, but this isn’t yours to carry.

He grabs Shadow Audacity’s horn and slams his head down into Audacity’s knee.

Shadow Audacity doesn’t crumple or die like a normal monster. Instead he shatters like a vase, shadow pieces breaking away as the dream scape shatters as well and they all feel themselves tugged back out of the bag.

Everyone except for Audacity instantly lands outside. Audacity finds himself on sands on a cool desert night. He finds himself outside the monastery gates. The garden is in bloom and heavy with vegetables ready to be harvested the next day.

He can’t make out what they’re saying, but in the distance two figures are talking at the entrance at the gate. A young tiefling woman looks terrified and haggard, carrying two little bundles, and standing with her is Mikos as they must have looked twenty-three years ago. They whisper to each other.

Present day Mikos watches the scene alongside Audacity. They straighten a little. They say that those two were very small when their mother brought them here. It’s difficult to imagine that something that could fit in the crook of their arm is now almost as tall as them. Almost.

Audacity tells them that they’ve gotten shorter over the years. Mikos says dryly that they hear that happens when they age. Audacity says they seemed as big as Sakan back in the day, when he was little.

Mikos says that Audacity’s mother made them promise that they wouldn’t tell him or Ambition where they came from. Audacity makes an enlightening noise. Mikos says they wanted to. Audacity asks if she said why. Mikos says she feared their knowledge would be used against them later. They don’t know if that was true, but they know there are times in their lives when they make decisions that they don’t understand the ramifications of. They promised their mother they would never tell the twins. They wished they hadn’t. They wished they’d sat them both down when they were old enough to understand. They wished the first time Audacity expressed anger or sadness that they could explain the circumstances of their life. They were so focused on the promise that they lost sight of their greater responsibilities.

Audacity says he gets that. He understands that for him. But he wasn’t leaving with them. What were the chances he would run into his past in the entire world? But Mastery came here, and they knew where Ambition was going.

Mikos says they did.

Audacity says they wanted to cut her tail off. His voice breaks a little as he says when they were fighting Endurance, he had Ambition and Mastery and three idiots in these bubble things and he kept stealing life from them at random to heal himself or shield himself. And he kept telling Audacity to pick who he would do it to, and Audacity kept mouthing off. Eventually Endurance told him to choose or he’d do it to his sister. He chose so quickly. He still doesn’t know what to think of that. He doesn’t know if it makes all the sense in the world or if it’s the most shameful thing he’s ever done, or possibly both.

The point of all of this is that he understands making horrible decisions and regretting it. He gets that. He’s really fucking pissed at Mikos about this one.

Mikos says they understand.

Audacity says it’s also not really his grudge either. Mikos should talk to Ambition.

Mikos echoes the name and then says they never wanted either of them to leave in a way that was selfish and foolish of Mikos. They had thought that maybe if they never told either of them then they could keep the twins safe at the monastery forever. But they also knew it would never do to make this place their prison more than their home. There are points in both Audacity and Ambition’s lives that they have failed as their guardian and let them both down. They will speak to Ambition when they are free from this, if she will speak to them.

Mikos tells him that he has grown into a formidable young man, more so than they ever considered. They always feared when the twins were younger than Audacity would take too much of their anger. They know Teoshi tries to instill a calm demeanor but when Audacity’s name was drawn to execute Traula, Mikos was terrified. They were so afraid that they would lose him.

They fear now that the fear of losing the twins has been their justification to put them both in further harm’s way.

Audacity says, speaking for himself, that they didn’t manage to arrange things so that weird folks would come into the bar where he was busking and have a seat. They were such a weird group and immediately got him into a fight, but he doesn’t think Mikos managed to arrange all that.

Mikos says they might have, and then tells him that he was always meant for great things. They think that is what scared them about the type of person they fear that they might have led Audacity into becoming. If they’d pushed him away. They shrug a little and look around.

Audacity asks them if they know that he didn’t leave because they pushed him away.

Mikos says they know, logically. But there’s always a struggle between logic and deeper emotions. As the prior they are supposed to be unbiased in most of the things they do, but one great failure on their behalf is that they consider Ambition and Audacity some of the greatest things in their lives.

Audacity begins to tell him about his friends, including his relationship with Galowen, which makes Mikos jokingly decide they dislike the whole concept of his friends. Then they tell Audacity that they will explain to the congregation that this all happened because they were at fault for not properly meditating on things that were weighing on them.

When Audacity asks if they’ll let the congregation help them, Mikos sighs and says that they will let Teoshi. Audacity says that Teoshi will yell but she gives the best hugs. Mikos agrees and repeats that he and Ambition were the greatest things to them.

Audacity says they had a pretty good family.

Mikos gives him a charm that they explain was given to them by their mentor when they first joined the monastery. When they try to hold Audacity to secrecy, Audacity asks why and they explain that they don’t want to seem sentimental.

Audacity teases them at that, telling them they can’t claim not to be sentimental when they’ve adopted how many children at this point. He presses on if they’ve adopted more children by now and Mikos avoids his eyes, which is answer enough.

They emerge from the bag a few seconds later than everyone else, just long enough for the group to worry.

Mikos hands Audacity a handkerchief for his tear-stained face and then explains that there are dormitories where they can sleep. They thank them and say that they were all very helpful.

Then Mikos points at K and says that the monastery will officially open again tonight and then they can properly process her then. She says excellent, and when Audacity says there’s usually not many ghosts.

K takes Yolov aside and tells him that she was a handmaiden to a visiting royal dignitary to Avisrune. Yolov asks if this was the princess, and K confirms this. She says that the princess has returned to Previdian and taken her people and some artifacts as well. The queen doesn’t seem concerned, but K worked for the princess. She doesn’t fear her, but what concerns her is that Kalia has gone back to train beside the advisor to the Previdian king.

Yolov asks if she’s training under Lord Halcyon.

K acknowledges this and says she’s done things for the princess and kept secrets for the princess that should have earned her death long ago and she’s trying to avoid that. She says if he finds himself in Previdian or Avisrune in the near future, she implores him to stop her from getting any closer to him. He’s a dangerous man and she’s an impressionable young girl.

Yolov gives an understanding nod and says that they’ve learned a little about Lord Halcyon to make her concerns understandable. They know the princess and while he is not the most persuasive, his friends are, and he’s certain they can speak to her.

K says of course he isn’t, he’s an academic from the Colma.

Missing the insult entirely, he nods in agreement, then frowns a little when she goes on to explain that she knows from his dull colored robes. She leaves him to ponder the situation with Kalia and his fashion choices.

The Hooligans all have a chance to rest and recover.

Mikos and Teoshi have a private conversation that quickly devolves into shouting and a physical sparring match.

Then the Hooligans meet and discuss if they should go to Avisrune or Previdian to follow K’s lead. They ultimately decide to head to Previdian and seek out a way to speak with Kalia, as well as learn more about Lord Halcyon.