Silva

King of all sentient fluffballs, that is.

His will wasn't strong enough, fortunately.

"You know why I stayed here with Mart, Tars?" she said softly. His name felt strange in her mouth. "Because I didn't want him to be alone. We may not have ever been alone the same way as you have, but we have been alone. It doesn't take hundreds of years to get a taste of how it feels." She let go of Mart, he seemed okay to be by himself for the moment, and moved next to the Haunt. "But that doesn't mean it always stays that way. Look at yourself now. At this moment you are not alone. You are not being ignored. You are being seen." Eve paused, trying to formulate the right words. "Life isn't static unless you make it. Things change. "I've hated the world. Wondered why it seemed rigged against me. And, sure, I've got a prejudice or two. But sometimes what I thought was opening my eyes was actually shutting them. No one likes change and you're probably going to be hesitant to believe this--not everyone is cruel. "Remember when we met in that PlasmaCore building? It's gone now, burnt down to the ground," she pointed to the flaming point on the horizon outside of the window. "You told me you were forced to watch. I told you it was better to watch than to be dead and not able to watch. You didn't understand what I meant the first time I said it. Maybe that's because I didn't quite understand what it really meant then either. "To be alive doesn't require a physical body. It doesn't require being seen. It means to be sentient. And so long as you are sentient and able to watch, you are alive and able to change. Haunt, you've been alone for longer than Mart or I can possibly imagine, but you don't need to stay that way. "Don't you understand?" Any hostility was gone from her eyes. Despite her hatred of Investiture, the Haunt, or Tars Landen as he said his name was, had slowly wormed his way into her ever since their first meeting. She might disagree with much of what he did, but it didn't mean she didn't believe she understood him to an extent.

The Alleystorm affected Eiran in a different way than most. He felt the boost in his ability, but fought it back. During his first Alleystorm he'd tapped into it. He'd seen not just the bad possibilities, as well also the good. He'd been able to go far, farther than he'd ever gone before. But he knew he shouldn't. One person didn't have the right to know everything that would happen. One person shouldn't have that power. This time, more than ever before, he felt something big. He wasn't sure what, only that it was unexpected. Eiran still restrained himself from looking and investigating deeper. He didn't want to know of an unstoppable evil coming their way. One thing slipped through his mental barrier though. He could only prevent his controlled visions, not the uncontrollable ones. An image of him, back in Newcago, checking something frantically. Instinctively he searched for a calendar, but found none. Whatever this future was, he wasn't going to know it until it happened. It worried him though for some reason. Even though there were nearer more dangerous threats, seeing himself rattled unnerved him. He'd have to look into it more later. For now, he watched the Ghostbloods on the roof with him. He looked into just the poor futures. The ones he'd have been able to see even without the storm. Things had changed. The Phoenix weren't headed to Ajax. Instead it was to go to outside of the city. It was too bad. That would have solved some problems later on. Eiran wouldn't do anything though. He had no right. The man was already doing all he could and even that made him uneasy, despite not being the sole cause of it. He grimaced, trying not to fall into the waves of possibilities. Distraction. That's what he needed. "How do you think this is going to end?" he asked Tels. Eiran kept his voice soft so as to not disturb the others. @Truthless of Shinovar

The Haunt's story was different than she'd thought it would be. Eve had assumed things that were false. He'd lost people as well, ice to her fire, but from there most similarities faded. Except for trying to help others not suffer the same fate. That was identical. Eve kept her arms around Mart. "He can't say if he likes it or not because that story isn't over," she told the Haunt. "It doesn't end there." Her gaze was as cold as his to Mart. If there were one thing that could be considered her special ability beyond horrid luck, it would have been looks. "Because then that man learnt to communicate once more. Except he didn't know what to do with himself. Too much time had passed and he lost sight of the person he'd once been. Desperate, he would do whatever he could to get attention. To be seen. "But what he didn't realize was that that wasn't the way to go about things. That suffocating numerous people in a cloud of fog he used to grow large and apparent was wrong. That scarring a mother in front of her child so she'd remember him was cruel. That showing up to a teenage girl and the child while chaos reigned in the city in order to try and intimidate them wasn't right either." Eve paused and looked to Mart. "And that brings us up to the present. Right at a climax of the story."

After exiting the PlasmaCore building, Freedom had snuck off away from Wes, Mike, and Seom. There was no reason for her to stay with them and she knew Pry would be frantic. She slipped down the nearest tunnel entrance she knew of--having a former TUBAist related to you had its perks--and tried to find her way back to her sister. The tunnels were vast though and Freedom determined it better to just stay still for a bit. Then the Alleystorm hit. Below ground, the physical effects were less prominent, but the Investiture...Lusk hadn't been exaggerating. It was overwhelming to the point she stopped storing to try and decrease the feeling. Not that that did much. So instead, she stayed seated on the ground, waiting it out. People walked passed her, probably assuming she was just another terrified citizen worrying about afterwards. She was worried, just not for the reasons they might have assumed. Freedom just hoped that her previous luck wouldn't carry and that the tunnels wouldn't end up in flames too.

Eve bit her lip, but didn't say anything. Instead, she looked up at the Haunt. People looming over her was nothing new, but the floating was. Add in the distance of sitting on the floor and the Haunt felt far away. It was curious though--he could have been anywhere in the city. Yet he'd come to them. Two people when there surely were larger groups. Maybe he did want something closer to what Mart suggested. Earlier she'd dismissed it as childish wishing, except now she wasn't sure. She watched his composure, waiting for his response to Mart. His name for her was right. Eve was a watcher. It was what she knew how to do. Even if the past few days had made her question some beliefs, it's what she did. Just watched. And waited. And hoped.

Eiran nodded. He hadn't spoken after addressing her the first time--better to let the inter-guild politics be. And he wasn't quite sure how to explain that he hadn't actually done any of the abducting and that he and Tels had literally met for the first time moments before she'd shown up. He'd just known it was going to happen and built off of that. He pulled out a map and pointed. "Ajax is there." A part of him rebelled at telling them that. They'd go. And if they were hurt or killed, he'd be to blame. Eiran, he told himself. you did the math. But he only saw the bad. Maybe there were more positive outcomes from the same things that caused the worse ones. Maybe he was totally wrong. He didn't want to be responsible for someone's fate. Except there wasn't an alternative. Eiran had made a choice when he'd climbed to the top of the building. No. He'd made the choice when he'd joined TUBA. Sure, it hadn't come to play until now, but that was when he'd decided. He had his ability for a reason and it wasn't just to save him from making calculation errors. @Sorana @I think I am here. @Truthless of Shinovar

He hadn't expected the woman to show up--that was a surprise, but now that she was here, a new branch of possibilities had opened up. "There are two Phoenix in the city, and we have the one thing they'll want after that building burns down," Eiran gestured to PlasmaCore in the distance. "We also have an enemy army nearby about to attack. Ajax and his creatures. All this works perfectly for him. Phoenix leave us weakened and give him the perfect opportunity to invade. There is no plausible way for us to survive that as well without massive amounts of casualties. Unless, that is, we have one take out the other. "Sending anyone into danger is not something any TUBAist suggests lightly, but I've seen what happens when we don't and it's much worse. Go ahead, go to safety, just understand how many lives may be lost because of that choice." That was all that was keeping him from turning in on himself--the fact the alternative was worse. @Sorana --- Freedom followed the others out. It made sense that there was a way through the barrier. She noted where they'd exited.

"But is it really a good thing to be remembered by something bad, Haunt?" she asked. "The Nightwatcher at least balances that reputation with a Boon." Eve didn't move, even though, if she was right, mentioning the Nightwatcher might strike a nerve. If he wanted to harm her, there wouldn't be anything she could do. Moving out of fear would only give him what he wanted, a memory he believed might last longer.

The man stopped there. Eiran breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't die from flames consuming the building with him on it just yet. That was a nice comfort. But now he had to figure out what he was going to say. The hard part. Through process of elimination, he ruled out different phraseologies based on the amounts of death they caused leaving him with only one of the options he'd come up with. "Eiran Sullivan. TUBA's actuary of sorts. It's my job to predict things. And try to solve problems," he said. It was as close as he dared reveal to a stranger he only knew from a few minutes of visions. "You have a means with you to control the Phoenix, yes?"

Eve tensed up. She remembered how Mart had gotten earlier when they'd talked about the Haunt. "It's going to be fine," she whispered into his ear, keeping her arms around him as though that would somehow keep him safe from someone not tangible. She looked at the air directly in front of her. Last time the Haunt had said it didn't matter where she looked. This time didn't seem to be any different. "I did know about that," she said, a little harsher than she intended. "I sewed up the wound myself. Interesting how things come together, isn't it, Haunt? Did you grow bored of killing unknown innocents and decide that inflicting injury better suited your needs?" It was stupid to speak that way and not to cower back in fear. But she wasn't afraid, even though she ought to have been.

The Vortex was gone. At least, the danger of it was, and Eiran considered the two interchangeable. He sent Deteca a quick text to tell her that it seemed to no longer be a threat. Then he turned back to the future. Now the Phoenix covered most pathways. He still didn't know why it hadn't appeared before, but was content to blame it on the Vortex for the moment. He saw futures where the city burned down around him. Futures where Ajax attacked when they were weak from fighting two Phoenix? And a future of him falling off of a rooftop with a man flying through the air supported by sand carrying another man nearby. Eiran frowned. That was peculiar. He normally didn't go towards the possibilities that involved his death, but out of all he'd seen so far of things going wrong, this seemed the most preventable. The building he recognized. It was near him. I appear to be experiencing what it means to do something you know is a bad idea. It should be fine in the end, though. Might even solve a problem or two. he sent to Deteca, now wishing he'd delayed sending the first. Two messages in close proximity was somewhat unprofessional. @AonEne Unfortunately, he'd been focused on seeing large mishaps, not little ones like this. He hurried to that building he'd seen. It was abandoned--anyone in their right mind would avoid entering something that could easily collapse. Eiran scaled the stairs as quickly as possible while still taking care not to trip. Even when doing something rash, he still was a stickler for protocol. Once on the roof, he stayed far from the edge. He reviewed a couple different dangerous futures that would come from him being there. What he learnt was quite interesting and made him a little surprised. The people approaching...the things they were connected to... Either way, he'd made his decision and there was no backing out now without feeling foolish. Eiran turned in the direction they'd come from and began jumping up and down and waving. He'd be noticed. Probably. @Truthless of Shinovar

She looked out the window and pointed in turn to the worst off areas she could spot from their angle on the floor. "There. There. There. And there. Wherever people are in need. Wherever I can help and not hurt...that's my home." Legally she lived with her cousins' cousins, but she did her best not to spend much time there. Why should she enjoy that sort of lifestyle just because she'd been born to a family with connections? It wasn't right. The longer she spent out and about, the more she understood how much needed to be done. And the Phoenix, well, it was possible it might relapse some of the progress. At least it would stop some bad before it spread, even if it caused damage on the way. "I've figured, as I've got nothing holding me down to one spot, that's a sign that I was meant to move around," she said. "Maybe that'll change though..." Eve hugged him back.