Flashback Escape Artists

[Celeste Arumen]

Kit’s incredulity was to be expected, but her compassion was not. Celeste jumped slightly at the contact but relaxed soon after, smile bittersweet. It was nothing she could cry about; to know her parents would be to know what she’d lost, and that would never happen. There was nothing to remember, nothing to regret. But Kit, poor girl: to be unwanted? That wasn’t fair. Who wouldn’t want her? And then the poor girl pulled her eyelids closed, as if rejecting the sorrow, pushing it away.

They rounded the corner into an illusion, or what had to be one. The distant rumble of surf beckoned. Cobblestone began to fragment into sand and what was certainly an alley opened up into an oasis – a tight little circle of coconut and palm. The sand was white, pure and glistening in the afternoon sun while the cry of seagulls rippled over the smooth sussurus of the tide. ”Well,” she remarked, eyes bright. Yet another joy of living in Alvadas. Ionu was watching over them.

”And I’ll be yours,” Celeste replied with total sincerity. She paused to look up into the eyes of her new companion. It all seemed too good to be true. ”People like us…” She paused. ”Well, we have to stick together.” And as if the matter was settled, she took Kit by the hand, gently guiding her to a log conveniently stationed nearby.

”So…” She began, sinking on their newfound bench. ”I don’t even know where to begin. Should be trade secrets?” She gave her a penetrating look. ”I still don’t know you well enough, but you’re more likely an illusion than a Listener in disguise.” There was only one way to tell. ”Maybe we should trade. Show what we can do, what the other cannot, and exchange.” Her eyes shifted out toward the imaginary horizon. ”That way, we’re even and we don’t have to be afraid.”

If Kit were a Listener, she wouldn’t be interested in Celeste. Petty thieving would get her a visit from the Speakers, first. However, if Kit were from a gang, then it’d be best to use her to lure the girl into a false sense of security. If perhaps, the little girl could learn what she could do, then maybe she’d be ready in case…

In case of what?

Was it paranoia? Or a desire to know?

[Kit Rowan]

It has happening too fast, things fell apart, the center could not hold. The boundry between the sorceress and the girl was suddenly allowed to break down, no warning, no nothing. She had wanted to save a fellow Alvad from a con gone sour, but this? This? She wasn't prepared for this.

It was as if the city meant to put her at ease, the rest of the street shifting as the pair walked to a jungle proper. The smell of the sea was rich, and as Kit took a deep breath through her nose she felt herself calming. Kit held on to Celeste's hand, sat down, made circles with her foot in the sand beneath her feet. There were foreigners who asked her how she could ever love something that was not real, as though there was a difference between reality and an illusion that you could not penetrate.

Kit smiled at the world Ionu's art had crafted around the two girls, and was reminded again that there was no difference.

At the mention of a trade, a little callous part of her said she knows about the Reimancy for sure, but not the auristics; we can keep it safe. Kit bit her lip, brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Seems keen to me." Kit took another deep breath. "Keen."

"I'm a reimancer, I think you know." Kit said, she raised her free hand up, and with an effort of will a transparent, pulsing green ethereal gel pressed out of her hand, the pleasure of the casting a tickle on her spine; the res she excreted was so small it was barely anything at all. She twirled her fingers and the res thinned into a strand, spun upward in a spiral, all aesthetic, no practicality. "Papa could do air and fire, but I've only earned air." She clenched her hand into a fist, and the res transmuted, barely enough to register a change on their skin.

"And I'm an aurist. Just, not a very good one." she said. "I can read something's djed, understand it. I can taste something by looking at it, judge its texture, see through things, know the way people feel, long as they feel it strong enough." Well, she'd said it now. Kit relaxed, a little of the worry falling away from her shoulder as she gave Celeste a smile and squeezed her hand. "Maybe there's more I can do with it, but I'm not good enough to know yet, and Papa didn't have time to tell." Kit frowned, a thought only now occurring to her. "Do you know what djed is?"

[Celeste Arumen]

She looked off into the distance, vaguely aware of Kit’s circling foot. Keen, she’d said. Tension – this, Celeste understood. Her suspicion grew small beneath the light of the tropical sun, too lit to abide. Perhaps they really were just the same. The city spun little girls from illusion, with grasping fingers and magic tricks.

”Right,” she said, allowing a bit of Res to weep from her fingertips, too. The sense of her djed unspooling caused her to shiver and even yawn. ”Grams only taught me wind, so I know the feeling.” How similar could two people possibly be? The smoke-like substance, a complement of purple and cold, traveled toward the sky, curling in on itself before turning to a light breeze, rustling the fronds of a nearby palm.

”Auristics,” she said with a furrowed brow. ”That sounds neat. I’ve only ever heard of it, in books and the like. They say it helps with philtering.” The implication of talent was there. ”I know something too. Ever been hypnotized?” She smiled and it illuminated her eyes. ”Look at me.”

With a small measure of concentration, she focused on the sensation of Kit’s personal hemisphere. ”You’re beautiful,” she said, verbally transmitting the sensation of pride and admiration through her eyes. ”And you know it.” And then the child giggled and bit the joint of her furled knuckles.

”Would you like to learn? Maybe it’ll help you.” Something in Celeste so desperately wanted to help her, too. ”I’m not very good, but maybe we can practice together.”

[Kit Rowan]

It was a visual confirmation of what Kit already knew, a thin purple smoke that sang out to a little solitary part of her. You are not alone, it said. Kit was smiling wide as she was watching, and she could not say for certain how much was because of of the tickling pleasure of casting and how much was honest exhilaration. Truth of truths? Kit couldn't bring herself to care one way or the other.

Kit had not heard much of anything when it came to philtering, her face blank at its mention. In her imagination she saw . . . Flasks and bubbling things in the hands of healers. Were they magical too? Kit didn't know. "Hypnotism?" Kit hedged in her question, tilting her head just to the side, remembering old stories from her father's books about wizards bringing warring kings to kneel and make peace. "What's . . ." And then Celeste laid her influence over Kit.

She was looking into Celeste's eyes when she felt herself buoy upward. For that instant, when Kit was looking int Celeste's eyes, she felt beautiful, she felt amazing. Kit leaned back, blinked. " . . . Wow! That is so neat!" Kit clapped her hands together and laugh. "That must be so great when you're playing someone false!" It was hard to think ill of Celeste, then. How could she be sour at someone who played with her mind, when all they had done was make her feel lovely, liked? And . . . This girl was one of Ionu's chosen. How could she do wrong in befriending her?

"We definitely can," Kit imagined herself on a stage at the end of a flip, smiling posing just so, crooking her finger and making the audience's heart blossom with a thought. She put her hand on Celeste's shoulder and giving it an affectionate squeeze. "We can learn together, and I'll help in any way I can."

[Celeste Arumen]

Celeste flushed with pleasure at Kit’s reaction. It was also gratifying that she knew precisely how to use it. ”Exactly,” she said with a flourish. ”With a sharp disguise and a bit of skill, you can do just about anything.” But she frowned. ”But still, it didn’t go exactly as planned earlier. Maybe your talent is better in a way; being able to tell how people are feeling would be as good a skill as making them feel that way.” Perhaps they should work together, then? It was a thought, at least.

She smiled at the gesture from her new friend. ”We will, then. I can teach you how to change shape too, if you’d like. It’s different than making illusions. You can use both to a single end, which helps a lot when working on a mark.” With a grin, she stood and stretched in the sunlight, inhaling the rich scents of the tropical breeze. This was their secret place, their little getaway.

”This is such a nice place. It’s a shame it can’t last.”

Such was the city of Alvadas. Illusions were fleeting. It was likely that as soon as they’d leave, the image would disperse. Still, they had their memories and those were just as concrete as any transient oasis. ”I sometimes think Ionu is watching us. I mean, this is really his domain. Perhaps he gets bored up in there in the Ukalas, waiting for something to do. It’s likely more fun down here, anyway.”

She briefly remembered their meeting. At the time, he’d dressed himself as an old man, but it was just one of many faces. She’d thought of him as such for a long while, but as times passed, she got older and less naïve. For all Celeste knew, her companion was just Ionu in disguise.

”So what do you want to do now?” The young woman’s stomach grumbled irritably.

[Kit Rowan]

Kit hmmed, shrugged. "Maybe so. It's a bit awkward for me to use on people still. Takes a lot of time, and I don't always get a good read." She remembered what Celeste herself had come up as; a jumble of mixed colors and indecipherable sounds. If she wanted a clearer idea of her aura, then Kit would have needed more time. An absolutely awkward amount of time. "But maybe that gets better the more you practice . . . I'll teach you how, and we can both figure it out."

Shapechanging . . . Kit hmmed. "That talent reminds me of Ionu. Changing yourself on whimsy. Being whatever you want . . . It's a little like this place. Maybe it'll be gone, but it might become something better, and it will definitely be something new." Celeste had taken a boy's shape as well. How much of that had been morphing and how much illusionism? The voice? The body? Well . . . Kit bit on her lip and let her toes curl. She would find out soon enough, wouldn't she?

Once Celested turned conversation to Ionu properly, Kit smiled. "Could you imagine the Trickster just lounging around in the Ukalas?" She rolled her eyes at the thought. "I can't imagine they would allow themselves to get bored, ever. They're probably in Mizahar right now, arranging something." She stood, spread her hands out wide and smiled at the thought of Ionu's good schemes. "Maybe they're in Alvadas right now!"

Kit looked down at Celeste a moment, frowned and tapped fingers over her hip in thought. Then her ears caught the sound of Celeste's disgruntled stomach, and her eyes twinkled to life. Kit gave Celeste a quick poke in the belly. "How about we find something to fill you up, hm?"

[Celeste Arumen]

Celeste considered it. Perhaps Kit just needed more practice. ”I can find some books for us to read that might help.” After all, the more you understood the discipline, the better you could become. Maybe there was a trick to it, like with morphing, where you had to perceive your djed in a certain way. Or maybe it went that way with other people. Her mind spun at the possibilities.

”Magic all requires theory, according to Grams.” She used one nail to worry at the skin of her cuticles. ”I’m sure you already know.” Once eager, it was hard to contain her sudden excitement. In fact, she was practically bobbing up and down. ”I find it hard to think the Trickster lounging anywhere, except maybe as a disguise.” He had been sitting when she met him - panhandling in fact - but it was all just a pose. That was the beauty of it. Even when doing nothing, he was still doing something.

At the poke, Celeste smiled and stood unflinchingly. She’d already begun to trust the girl. ”While we look for food, we can look for him – you never know, maybe Ionu really is among us. I caught him once,” she grinned, ”I could catch him again.” In reality, probably not. Still, it was fun to look and to dream.

”Now, whatcha think? The Bizarre doesn’t seem too sharp a notion, given we were just there and all. They’d wouldn’t recognize me, but they might be able to spot you.” She didn’t want to get her brand new friend in trouble. And she was loathe to leave this place with the white sand and turquoise ocean. But the best things in life never lingered; they flew away on velvety wings, caught by the breeze. Celeste knew that. She understood this place better than most.

”Whenever you’re ready, we can go.” She’d follow her. She was interested to see where they could go, together.

[Kit Rowan]

"That could help," Kit admitted, though she had done most of her learning by practice. The one book that she had to her name was her father's, and the Treval Codex was almost more of a storybook and philosphy text than anything actually useful. It wasn't a book of magic, it was a book about magic, and the difference was clear to Kit every time she tried to pick it up.

"Caught them?" Kit felt her lips turn up in a smile. "No, I mean . . . No!" She laughed, shook her head. "You cunning little . . ." Kit had heard stories of people trying to catch Ionu during the festival of illusion, but it was a feat that seemed unfathomable to her. "Maybe if they play fair, and leave room enough for us to be just clever enough." She looked at her friend, grabbed hold of her arm and raised an eyebrow. "You're not Ionu, are you?"

Food though . . . that was trouble. Kit tilted her head to the side and considered for a long moment. Celeste was right; the Bizarre was the wrong place to go. People needed time to forget her, though it would have been best if she could simply snag a little something off a fruit stand while Celeste distracted them, like back when Kit ran with her thieves. Kit itched at her eyebrow and shut her eyes. Where could they go now?

"You know," Kit said, looking over her shoulder and flashing a brilliant smile. "I've got just the thing . . ."

[Tapestry]

XP Award!

Celeste:

XP Award:

• +1 Morphing
• +2 Observation
• +1 Unarmed
• +1 Subterfuge
• +1 Storytelling
• +2 Negotiation
• +1 Hypnotism
• +1 Reimancy
• +3 Socialization

Lore:

• Kit: Reimancer and Aurist
• Morphing: Street urchin (male)
• Kit: Father dead and Mother gone
• Auristics: Theory

Kit Rowan:

XP Award:

• +1 Brawling
• +1 reimancy
• +1 Auristics
• +2 Observation
• +2 Storytelling
• +3 Socialization

Lore:

• Celeste: Illusionist
• Celeste: Orphan
• Celeste: Morpher, Hypnotist, and Reimancer
• Celeste: Philterer
• Morphing: Theory
• Hypnotism: What an Emotional Surge feels like

Comments :

Awwwwww. Ya'll are adorable. I rather liked the thread. If you feel I missed anything, let me know

TAPESTRY