melodiesoflife | Event || Revelations

Entry tags:

Event || Revelations

Characters: All the Heroes of Light and their Moogles.
Where: Order's Sanctuary, The Interdimensional Rift and their Homeworlds.
When: August 03rd - August 30th

Summary: Following the battle against Palitutu, all the Heroes of Light were transported into the Interdimensional Rift. They were told by Palitutu they would have to find her to prove they can break the cycle-- But before they could reach their destination, a malevolent entity from the Rift stripped them from their immortality...

And now, they woke up in a decaying and dying world, most specifically in a place called Order's Sanctuary. From there they are ready to jump... Into their homeworlds! Feel free to use this post for the Mingle at Order's Sanctuary and should your homeworld be the stage for the Heroes of Lights' next adventures, feel free to make a thread for it and as many sub-thread as necessary! Please refer to the OOC Post for questions and plotting.

Warning: Whatever you come up with.

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The Doctor grins at Duster's proclamation that he won't abandon the people on Crystallis, itself. "Quite right, too! No sense in doing a job unless you're going to do it all the way. Save everyone, you said?" He shoots that grin at Sparks as well. "Now...Energy source..." those words start to strike an idea in the Doctor, and he looks thoughtful for a moment.

"The crystal is sort of the problem, but, well, Owen described it as almost an autoimmune response. We had an idea, though." In brief, Jack explains what Palitutu and Jade spoke of about the Soul Divider, what their plan has turned into, and the idea of funneling the broken part of Crystallis, through the Rift, through the Soul Divider, to attempt to make the planet whole again. Throughout it all, the Doctor's face remains contemplative, and only once Jack falls silent does he straighten up.

"There's a way I could help. It would be better if I were there-"

Jack shakes his head. "When we go back...I'm pretty sure this is a one-way trip, Doctor. And this world needs you."

The Doctor breathes out a sigh and ruffles his own already messy hair. His eyes scan over the faces of everyone with Jack. "Then I can offer a piece of Time Lord knowledge. If they were still around, they'd be veeeeery cross that I was even making this offer. But the Time Lords knew how to safely tap into a void, time travel was created by feeding off a gap in time and space. If you want to feed energy from one of those through something designed to clean and purify energy, then this might help."

The Doctor's face grows grave. "I can leave one of you with the knowledge, telepathically implant it. But I can't give it to Jack. He's too...." The Doctor pauses at the look on Jack's face, and he knows that he needs to choose his next word carefully or he's about to get punched. "...antithetical to what the Time Lords are. The knowledge wouldn't take."

"So it's got to be one of you. And I'm really sorry about that."

"I'll take it."

There's no hesitation whatsoever from Chiaki as she steps forward. The knowledge the Doctor is talking about sounds vast enough to be risky to absorb, and given Chiaki's origins as an AI, she feels like she can handle a sudden influx of information like that. Besides, she isn't going anywhere anytime soon - she's resolved to see this thing through to the end.

Mary watched the exchange, taking all of it in while considering the space around her. She watched Jack and the Doctor talk. She watched the others as they stepped in. When Chiaki volunteered herself she offered a nod of agreement. The girl was probably the best to take this information, considering the group they had with them.

She settled herself against one of the railings and waited. She had little to offer right now, but she wanted a word with the Doctor before they departed.

After a few moments, Sparks nodded with conviction to the decision he just made in his head.

"Reckon if it's gonna help, I'd take it too. I did mean it when I said save everyone."

The Doctor did say this was done telepathically, though. Sparks frowns a bit, then points to his own head.

"Ya better not, like, monkey around in there, though."

Edited 2016-09-01 00:11 (UTC)

K'pandolu cocked her head, watching the Doctor, clearly interested in the whole thing. "It would probably be a good idea to share it," she remarked- not because she thought anything would happen to Chiaki; she'd do her best to make sure of that if it came down to it- but she hoped more people knowing would help. "I'm willing to take it as well- I've a little experience with transference," she added, with a quirk of her lips, "I doubt it'd take much fiddling around beyond what's necessary to understand it."

She leaned back, lifting her chin. "Is… was this a common thing for your people?"

"I'm not a fighter...but I will do what I can. I'm more than willing to help share the burden too." Lydia chimed in, looking up at everyone (darn it, she was due a growth-spurt!) with conviction. Especially the Doctor; Jack believed this man could help, and it was clear how strong that belief was.

Duster lifted a fist and held it at chest level, staring at the floor. He had to help with anything he could offer, but knowledge to use advanced technology that could save them all? Duster understood fighting and music, but he didn't have much experience when it came to learning. He knew, his friends reminded him that he was better than he thought he was, but the hesitation remained.

"...I don't know if I'll understand, but I want to help. In case anything happens...I should be there."

He could hold some of the lifesaving wisdom. Even as a container, he can use it.

The Doctor was ready to apologize to Chiaki, when Sparks speaks up, and then K'pandolu, and Lydia, and Duster. Jack smiles in that way as if he already knew what was going to happen. The Doctor's gaze sweeps over all of them, proud, impressed with what he's seeing. He breathes out. "Blimey. Awfully good team you've got yourself here, Jack."

The lights in the console room dim, as if the TARDIS herself is trying to help. "All of you, join hands," the Doctor indicates they should form a circle around him. "Breathe deep and relax. If you have any sort of psychic training or shielding please do what you can to open your mind. And close your eyes."

Instead of taking the hands of the two people on the ends, the Doctor lightly touches each person on the temple (Chiaki and Duster, by chance.) Strung across so many minds, the process is not painful at all, the burden is not so heavy. A slight rhythm passes through each of them, tap-tap, tap-tap, charging each of them to the others presence, tuning them all in the mentally to the same wavelength.

'Omega.'

The word- no, the name hums along that frequency, resonating within each of them, as a trigger to unlock the knowledge that the Doctor seeks. For suddenly, they all know that this is the name of the Time Lord who was able to unlock the secrets of the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of time and space that lay next to the planet Gallifrey.

The knowledge they receive gets framed by everyone's individual perspectives. Was it the greatest scientific acheivement of all time? Was it a trick of magic? Was Omega truly a God like the stories say? But they each learn how it was done, harnessing an energy that is too big and vast for anyone to even contemplate, taming it and granting the people of Gallifrey mastery of time: truly letting them become Time Lords. But it was achieved by taking that energy and funneling it through something native to the planet. Without that- thing from Gallifrey (an accompanying word does not translate, but everyone receives a very odd image of growing coral), this knowledge can't be used to achieve time travel. Not on Crystallis. But the principle might just work for the Soul Divider.

Alongside all of this knowledge comes memories, feelings, and a warning. For Omega, himself, after he had granted such an incredible gift to his people, sought an even higher power. His greed and his ambition eventually destroyed him. And all throughout, all of this knowledge comes with a feeling of the deepest loneliness. It is never said in words, but they can all feel the truth that the Doctor is the last man who would be able to pass this knowledge on: it is the final gift of a lost civilization.

And now they are the last who would be able to take this knowledge to Crystallis.

Lydia's brain had wrapped around some interesting concepts--but this.... She was so grateful she wasn't doing it alone, although she would've if she'd had to. Jack hadn't talked with her often of the Doctor, but she'd known enough.

She could see why Jack admired him so... While the information was safely contained in a part of her mind, shared among them all--that loneliness struck a chord. A chord that had been pinged far too recently, even if she didn't have this man's reasons for it.

Once she was sure it was over, Lydia didn't quite think. She just did--moving from the group and latching around the Doctor's waist in a hug. Trying to convey that she understood. They couldn't take away the loneliness--nothing could, but they could help balm against it. She wasn't sure if it was so tight for herself (given her recent issues Crystallis had provoked) or for him, but she's not letting go easily.

Luckily for Lydia, this Doctor is one of the regenerations more okay with physical contact, so he returns the hug, make sure he isn't the first one to break it. For his part, he is keeping a straight face, although each of them now knows what kind of a facade it is that the Doctor keeps up all the time.

Jack's expression is similarly hard to read. Adoration? Gratitude? With a touch of sorrow in there. "Thank you. That might've made the difference in saving this world or not." Jack huffs an unhappy laugh. "I really wish I could hang the consequences. Take you with me for once." The Doctor shares Jack's not quite amused smile. A wonderful wish with his heart in the right place that they both know could never come true. That's not how whatever this thing between them is works.

"I just wish you could see it. Magic is real. Creatures are all so fantastic. These birds! They get around by riding on these fluffy running birds!" Jack's entire face is lighting up and his hands gesture as he tries to barely scratch the surface of describing Crystallis to the Doctor. "There's a massive forest that's made entirely out of Crystal. It's not petrified that way or anything, it grows that way, it's alive!" The Doctor looks suitably impressed, he loves hearing about wonderful and fantastic things even more than Jack does.

"And-" Jack briefly loses steam. "And we could use you there. I've been trying to do things as close to your way as I can. Sometimes it works great. Walking up to the front gates of the capital city of a nation that we were supposedly at war with, all we had was a bunch of bags of Christmas toys! And it saved so many lives. But it's not the same as having you there. It doesn't always work out for me the same way it does for you."

The Doctor breathes out a very long and heavy sigh. He shoves his hands deep in his pockets again. "Trying to be me... I don't know if I'd wish that on my worst enemy."

Jack's face gets such a look of absolute pure confusion it's as if the Doctor started speaking another language in there.

"Jack, if I'm not there then I'm not there. If you're trying to find a peaceful way to resolve things, then you're doing it because you know it's the right thing to do, not just because I would do it."

"Because even I have my limits." The Doctor gives Jack an almost chiding look, and Jack frowns. Because he knows it. There's something unspoken between these two, an affirmation that doesn't need to be said out loud.

"But!" And then the Doctor's tone and expression turns on a dime to the high energy bunch of smiles it was. "Jack Harkness saving the world, I can't think of anything more brilliant and I do wish that I could see that! But I'll stay. If it helps you out to know that I'm here with my finger on the button, a back up plan to save this world, then I'm not going to be needed!"

He briefly grows serious again. "Play it your way. Second guessing yourself when you need to act might put more lives at risk, Captain."

There's that look on Jack's face again. By the stars, how he loves this man. But he swallows it down and instead stands up very straight and nods sharply. "Yes, sir."

Jack heads for the door of the TARDIS. The portal to take them home has opened up outside. But he stops at the door, spins and shoots that over large grin back at the Doctor. "By the way. Merry Christmas, Doc."

"Is it? Blimey, Merry Christmas to you too, Jack. I might just stick around for a little bit then."

With a patented floof of his coat, Jack walks out of the TARDIS, far more ready now for what is awaiting him back on Crystallis.

Edited (.) 2016-09-04 20:32 (UTC)

Mary frowned as she observed the group receiving their boon from the Doctor. She hadn't meant her staying at the sides to keep her out of doing something to help with the efforts on Crystallis. In fact she expected the Doctor to give them something physical, not what he was instead doing with everyone else.

But she watched over them as the knowledge was passed, trusting in the Doctor but ready to act in case things went pear shaped. It wouldn't have been the first time that something hoped to be a positive would turn poorly for them. More critically she watched Jack after it was over; the smile on his face and the hope in his voice was clear as he spoke of Crystallis. The things he wanted to be the truth even in the face of things as they stood. Mary only know what stories he told her, but the connection between them was more than clear.

Her eyes followed Jack as he walked out of the TARDIS, but she remained where she was. She shot the others a nod, assuring them she'd be along shortly. If they stayed or not was up to them but she had something to do.

"Doctor...if I might have a word?"

A flood of unknowns cascaded into his mind, a familiar sensation. Months ago, Duster had his lost memories returned to him in mere seconds; flashes of 23 years of his life dumped all at one. Space. Time. Machines. Nature. Truth. If he were the only recipient, he could have collapses from the information overload, but as it was, he relaxed and let everything in.

So focused on his inner thoughts, he didn't hear or notice the other Heroes begin to leave until his hand was no longer being held. Duster opened his eyes and let them adjust to the light once more. Jack had left, but the Doctor was still here.

He remained where he stood, watching Mary and the Doctor and hoping for a spot where he could jump in with his own questions.

As soon as he's seen Jack out the door, the Doctor is back to being all smiles again. He interpreted Mary's reluctance as the understandable concern about letting someone into their mind with telepathy. It's not exactly an easy thing he was offering, and something the other Time Lords would have frowned upon.

But this one of Jack's compatriots approaches now. "Yes! Of course! I..." he falters, "don't believe I got your name?"

He is, of course, keeping an eye on Duster, but this regeneration is so full of energy, shyness is one trait that has trouble around him.

K'pandolu takes a step back to absorb everything she's taken in- her previous visions means she has experience, yes, but it's been some time since experiencing one, and that was intense. She can't help a smile listening to Jack and the Doctor talking- they're obviously good companions, and that enthusiasm is catching.

She shifts a little closer to the others, wanting to share space and linger, to maybe learn a little more.

Another moment of hesitation for the pirate. How to put this? Here she was in a relative future, possibly her world but likely not. Crystallis had long made her alias unnecessary, though it still had its uses for a cover. But it wasn't needed now. And she was curious to see if her name and a few others had made the impact on history they all had hoped when they formed that misbegotten Republic.

"James Kidd was the name Captain Harkness first met me by. The same name I'd give you if I met you on your own. But Jack is a friend and I'll offer you the same courtesy I offer all my friends." She offered her hand to the Doctor, "Mary Read."

The Doctor's head tilts at the first name, but when Mary gives her other name, the Doctor's entire face lights up. "Oh! You're-" He waves his hand. "Mary Read! Oh! Oh, you're brilliant! I am so pleased to meet you! Never happy where you were, took to the seas, despite everything. Following a whole new Captain Jack around." That slight paternal tone like this explains everything. He takes Mary's hand and shakes it energetically.

Pause, and the Doctor's face briefly falls like he's thought of something. "Jack...is a new Captain Jack, isn't he? Please tell me that Calico Jack wasn't Jack Harkness this entire time..." Son, I am disappoint.

"Not that there's anything wrong with you being here! It's brilliant!" Hunh, either that, or this might explain some of the mysterious circumstances around Mary Read's death in prison. Was Jack involved in a time travel jailbreak? Wouldn't put it past the man.

"So- how, you and Jack? How'd you get to Cardiff, of all places?"

A sour smirk crossed Mary's face at the suggestion the Doctor made. "If Captain Harkness was Calico Jack then I doubt I would have been hauled before a court in Jamaica. For one the man seems to be able to hold his liquor." Nor would she have to shoot at some of her own fellow crew for being too drunk and cowardly to fight.

She paced a few steps, considering where they were and what was on her mind. She felt something welling up within her, but she wanted to give the Doctor a chance before she did anything drastic.

"I'm like him. Drawn to the world of Crystallis. I suspect I may not exactly be the Mary Read you know. I don't suppose you know anything of the Assassin Brotherhood?" As ever, her instinct railed against her naming herself so openly, but somehow she doubted this man was Templar. Precursor perhaps. But not an enemy. Or if he was then that guilt would weigh on Jack's shoulders. "We're chasing a foe who sees fit to tear time and space apart, all for the sake of changing her challenge to us. All the while insisting we're too weak to save that world when she could be working with us."

Her steps brought her around to the TARDIS console. She drew her fingertips along it, recoiling from a brief shock of static as she did. A minor thing to her, but perhaps a sign of timelines touching in ways they shouldn't or weren't expected to do so.

"And what of you? You said this...ship of yours through time and space from what Captain Harkness has told me? What is it you're after? And how long since the good captain has crewed with you?"

"Assassin Brotherhood," the Doctor's whole face scrunches up as if he's smelled something off. "Maybe not that name, but I run into the sort that fancy themselves organized killers from time to time. Those are days that never end well for anyone." And now the Doctor is acting more cautious towards Miss Read.

The Assassin part is new, but chasing a foe that is attacking time and space sounds like Jack. "The world you have to save, bleeding energy off this one. If you and Jack can stop her without my help, then brilliant."

This woman, this pirate, is an anomaly, all right. Maybe another one who is, to Time's sense, wrong, like Jack. Another sign that maybe she was snatched from certain death.

"Oh, blimey," the Doctor breathes out a very long breath and dusts a hand through his hair in thought. "It's got to be about- a year since I've last seen him? Last Christmas?" And that was a dodge, because Jack hasn't been crew in far, far longer. "Time flies, literally."

"I'm not after a thing in regards to him. Check up on him every once in a while, see what trouble he's getting into. Like I do everyone who's traveled with me." LIES. "But it's a big universe out there, always another thing to see and to do."

Another dodge. Because he won't dare admit, even to someone he doesn't know, that he's running from his own death.

"I won't deny the blood on my hands, or anyone else's, but we're a bit more than simply killers. There is a purpose and a reason for what we do, as are there consequences if we don't." But she let it lie there. She didn't get the impression she was going to win him over and there was no need for her to try. She simply told him the truth up front out of respect to Jack.

"But aye, it's us and a fair few allies besides. We still need to work out the how, but we fully intend to save that world and however many others we can." She frowned as she listened to the Doctor ramble on. Whether or not he intended to lie she knew that the year he stated did not match up to reality. That wasn't the pain of memory she saw in Jack, and thanks to Crystallis it had been just a bit longer for him than that besides.

But there are key words that she catches in his energetic rambling, "seen", "check up", "everyone" "always another thing". She didn't doubt Jack's words that this man was good at what he did, but it was clear to her he was a scoundrel and a scalawag. And a judgmental one besides it seemed. One so used to carrying weight on his shoulders that he felt justified in judging how others would do the same.

"I see...and what you were saying before, it was our arrival here that drew you out. Not a Christmas visit to the Captain and his own?" She didn't know much about the Jack that should be also existing in this world or the people he kept company with, but she expected that they weren't that far off from each other. She came around the railing slow and easy, her tone coming off a bit amused but dripping with growing warning like a cat that's been prodded a bit too much. The smile she wore was a well practiced trap waiting to be sprung.

And then as she finally drew close enough her body uncoiled into action, the widening of her eyes the only clue as her fist came around in a cross punch to the Doctor's jaw. Her breath hadn't even hitched in the second before her strike.

Edited 2016-10-31 22:42 (UTC)

Duster felt the tension grow between Mary and the Doctor as their conversation continued, and he had backed further away from the two, towards the portal. He wasn't the sort of person to handle heated debates, which he feared this would turn into.

The Doctor was an important figure in Jack's world. Someone busy. He surely wouldn't have the time to work on everything. But at the same time, there was a feeling that he didn't much like Mary's work. Both were right. Duster wouldn't be able to pick a side if it came down to him.

He turned away just as Mary threw her fist. The swift action caught his attention, and Duster rushed to the scene, stopping several feet away in case he needed to interfere in a fight.

"Wellll..." in that drawn-out tone that the Doctor gets. "Not exactly, no. Christmas is a chaotic time for here, either it passes by as just a whisper, or the whole sky's going to fall on everyone's heads, and that's when they need me. But I thought Jack could handle Cardiff on his own," with a tone that is completely missing what Mary is hinting at. Why would he come for Christmas, unless there was trouble? There appeared to be trouble, so here he is...

Somehow, the Doctor knows what is coming in the instant before it happens, but doesn't even raise a hand to stop it. POW! He has been slapped by people's mothers, boyfriends, commanding officers. He puts a hand to his jaw and reels back, and the first sound that comes out of him is laughter.

"I just got punched by Mary Read." Disbelief and amusement. His hand is still holding his face as he stands up. "I have never been hit by a pirate before. And on behalf of Jack Harkness, too. Ohhh." There's a wide grin on his face, even if it's lopsided. "He must be on the right track, if he's gotten this much loyalty out of you." He looks between Mary and Duster, shoots him another grin as if to tell Duster that it's all okay.

"I've always tried to do right by him. It's complicated. And it's better for us both if I stay away." More serious, and his hand drops from his face. "I told him to do things his way, didn't I? He needs to figure that out. Stop waiting on a fairy tale."

Mary bared her teeth at the Doctor as he began to laugh. He may be delighting in what just happened but she's done worse to men for similar to what she feels he's done to Jack. Not all the men who died when Calico Jack's crew was arrested were slain by the British. A few of the shots fired into the hold came from her own gun for them being too drunk to help.

"You speak of loyalty but it seems I have more for him than you do. I'm sure what you do is important, I believe the tales he's told us about you. But it's the way that he tells them that is telling. He's still waiting for you to come back, to take him along with you on your next journey. You don't help people by keeping away from them, and certainly not when you can't be bothered to speak to let them know you care."

She sighed and walked away from him, not leaving but pacing, "You said there were others who traveled with you. Jack said much the same. You do this to them too don't you? Travel with them and then leave them behind? You said before that the hardest thing for you to do is to walk away, but it seems you're a fair hand at running."

She turned towards him once more, glaring into his eyes, "You're not a fairy tail. You're real. And if you inspire someone as much as you have him you have no right to reprimand him for following the path you set. You're the sort who thinks you always know the right way, the only way to do something, aren't you? Who do you think you are?"

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Event || Revelations

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