The train was just pulling up as you arrived.
You were fast to place the pack atop the carriage roof, before vaulting down, taking a moment to set about straightening your attire before you turned your attention back towards the roof rack, before you plucked the pack from atop it. You braced the weight of the pack over one shoulder as the men sent to escort you climbed down from the front of the carriage, moving towards the doors as they went to open them for Anne and Joy. You could hear Anne muttering under her breath, expressing clear displeasure at the journey as she hurried over to stand by your side, while the sound of Joy dismounting without a word followed.
You knew that if Joy was any quiter, that you would barely be aware of her presence any longer with how little she spoke. It was hardly a suprise though, given that the guardians only spoke in a handful of situations, and she was just the same as they were.
It was hard to think of her like one of the guardians though, hard to think of this woman as being something like that. Maybe it was the fact that the form they bore was one of the most definative things about their nature, the thing that had you look at them and think of them as a guardian and not a person. Maybe it wasn't. As Joy took her place at your side, you glanced back again, noticing the bursar moving up to join you now. He was almost as quiet as Joy, though you knew that he was at least human beneath the surface, that he still thought and behaved like a regular person did. The fact that he was planning to write off the expenses from this entire trip as being operational expenses instead of being little more than a holiday said that much.
You glanced around as you drank the details of the station in, taking note of how the train had disappeared behind the main building as it pulled to a halt out of view. The main building was large, with what you knew without setting foot inside, was a domed area inside, an area with platforms lined with shops. The station was a brickwork building, clearly one that was newer than some of the surrounding buildings, though it had the telltale signs of age showing. It had been cleaned recently, yet you could see telltale signs of grime that no effort to clean it would shift, along with some minor damage to the brickwork.
Your attention started drifting upward as you looked at the gaudy advertisments adorning the sides of the building, only for Anne to nudge you with her elbow, bringing your attention first towards her, then towards the men tasked with bringing you here. They were holding out the tickets for the four of you to take, tickets that you could see entitled you to a room on one of the carriages as you took one of them.
"We should hurry," Anne muttered, nudging you again with her elbow as she did so, prompting you to nod, striding through the main entrance into the railway building as you did so. The place was crowded, though the crowds didn't hinder you too greatly as you made your way past the ticket office and through the turnstiles, the scents of food, of people, of the trains themselves filling your nose.
You wished briefly that you had been just a little earlier, that you had a little time to stand around on the platforms, to buy a few newspapers to occupy yourself with on the journey. The bursar quickly excused himself as he made his way towards the head of the train, towards the driver who was stood beside the train, no doubt waiting to be informed of your arrival. You paid little further thought to this as the three of you climbed up onto one of the carriages and made your way through each of them in turn until you found one with several small rooms set into it.
The three of you settled down inside the one set aside for you as you found it, with Anne settling down opposite you and Joy beside you, with your backpack stuffed into an overhead compartment. Not before you removed the small diary from it, however.
As the bursar joined you, settling down beside Anne, who smiled in a manner that made him visibly uncomfortable, you flicked the diary open, pressing a pencil to it as you started to write. As the train started up, slowly pulling out of the station you started to write, writing about your recent experiences. You wrote about how you had come from the prison to this point, the people you had met, your experience meeting with the queen, finding that she was an old friend.
You wrote, while Anne watched on confused.
"Is that... Greek?" she asked, gesturing to your handwriting as she reached across the table, attempting to snatch the diary from you. You slapped her fingers with the pencil in hand, prompting her to pull her hand back with a huff, her expression betraying how she was hurt that you had done so.
"You can read Greek?" you responded as you finished writing up the last things you felt you needed to get down immediately.
"No, but-"
"Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"This is private, if you could read Greek I would-"
"Are you Greek?" she asked, tilting her head slightly as she did so. "It would explain why you have such an unusual name."
"Eurochkoles isn't a Greek name, and no, I'm not Greek."
"It'd have explained a lot about you, you know, with how you seem to-"
"Not another word," you narrowed your eyes, prompting Anne to huff as she gave you an indignant look, while the bursar glanced between the two of you and shook his head. "If I had started writing in hieroglyphics, would you have asked if I was Egyptian?" you asked, tilting your head as you watched Anne shake hers.
"I guess not. You're too pale to be Egyptian. Too pale to be Greek for that matter. Why are you so pale, for that matter?"
You glanced towards the window, watching the scenery go by, for a moment losing yourself, immersing yourself in the sounds that the train made. You could hear the sound of the steam engine, the sound of the wheels as they went over the track. You could picture the entire thing in motion, slowly reverse engineer it in your mind, work out how the various components of the train worked in conjunction with each other.
"Not going to answer me?" Anne asked, huffing as she brought your attention back towards her.
"No. I believe I will try and sleep until we reach our destination," you responded, turning towards Joy as you did so. You had better things to do with your time than put up with Anne entertaining herself at your expense.
"Joy, get some sleep. If there's any trouble for us to deal with once we arrive, we'll need you ready to deal with it," you stated, though this wasn't the true reason that you wanted her to do such a thing. You wanted the part of her that referred to itself by its designation of Three-Seventy to go dormant, you wanted her asleep so you could attempt to communicate with the woman that was still trapped within.
"Understood," came Joy's response, her eyes closing as she complied with your order, while you followed suit. You could hear Anne sigh as your eyes closed, as you did your best to relax as you drifted off to sleep.
Even as you drifted off, you focused on attempting to find your way into that dream world that you had experienced many times before, seeking out Joy, figuring that you would better be able to assist her from within the realm that defined her than by dealing with the guardian personality.
You could feel that familiar sense of disconnection from your physical self.
You could feel yourself falling, tumbling into the inky void.
Falling...
Until your eyes opened once more.
Your eyes opened to the dome that depicted the parts of Joy's mind, to the three parts of what defined her, the three things that composed her nature. You wondered absently if Anne's mind would be composed of two or more parts, if all of the Enlightened were composed of multiple aspects like this. It made sense to think this, to consider that the human part of their personality co-existed with the tainted nature that they had embraced.
"
I didn't expect to see you back so soon," came a familiar female voice from behind you, though you didn't immediately turn that way, instead opting to take a long moment to observe the figure of the guardian stood motionless in its own domain. It was clearly in a state of inactivity, likely imitating the behaviour that it would exibit when being maintained even here, even now. "
So, to what do I owe this... Pleasure?" came the voice once more as you turned to face her.
"I wish I could figure a way to get that part of you to sleep, without your entire body following suit," you muttered to yourself as you looked over the woman, over the figure you knew was once Joy. She looked different, a well tailored dress adorning her form, flowers in her hair. You wondered briefly if this was representative of a better state of mental health, if this part of her was happier, held hope and its physical form reflected it. "I came to spend time with you, to help you grow in strength, in awareness."
"
Is that so?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she did so. "
Pray, tell, what makes you believe that this will help me in the slightest in my predicament?"
"To put this simply, your original nature has been supressed by what was done to you, with a dominant personality put in its place. If I can help you to become stronger, to assume the role of the dominant personality, then maybe, just maybe-" you paused, glancing towards the other domain as you did so, the overgrown one that the behemoth you had seen prior lurked in. "Where is that thing?"
"
She's sleeping," Joy stated as she shrugged her shoulders slightly. "
She does so most of the time, it's part of her nature," she continued, prompting you to nod slightly.
"As I was saying, I believe that-"
"That's your problem, you believe too much," came a voice from behind you, prompting you to turn, finding yourself face to face with an armoured figure, a figure who's features were indistinguishable from your own. The figure merely grinned as you stepped back in shock, as you took note of a tiny puncture wound in the side of his neck, dried blood over his neck and armour. "Believe, believe. Change all you want, you'll never change your fate."
"
Believe what?" came Joy's voice from behind you, prompting you to turn towards her. "
You just cut off mid-" she paused half way through a word, while you glanced back for a brief moment to see that the figure was gone, then back towards her again. "
You're even paler than normal, you look like you've just seen a ghost."
You took a deep breath as you attempted to collect yourself, as you asked yourself if you wanted to continue to talk with Joy and assist her, or if you had a change of plans?Earth: 6 - (Resiliance)
Fire: 5 - (Marksman)
Air: 7 - (Tactics)
Water: 7 - (Reading People)
Powers:
0 - Ageless.
You have all of eternity to complete your tasks, forever in your prime.
1 (f) - Quickened Healing.
Seven fold is your natural recovery rate increased.
2 (fm) - Unkillable.
Death cannot claim you. Injury, poison, disease and the like still have their effects however, along with their associated downtime.
2 (fv) - Presence of the Immortal.
The presence of eternity can be an awe inspiring thing, yet you are able to inspire more than simple awe.
Points Pool: 0
Author
Topic: They told me I could be anything... (Read 78959 times)