Missed Connections
06.6.920
Endergaln
[Flashback]
Ashen in a dark abandoned town in the Southern hemisphere, searching for something in the company of a band of scared men. The undead swarm.
[Present]
Xander is missing his index finger, fortunately on his non-dominant hand. Sav and Peach bring up the possibility of a mechanical replacement. Ethan takes him back to the Cog & Sprocket and prepares him against future panic attacks.
Peach shows the others the painting of Miranda and Kaylie that Salinger found ages ago, of Miranda standing behind Kaylie with her hand on Kaylie’s shoulder, pointing out who she thought was who; however, on Kaylie’s hip is the silver rapier that Peach had known as Miranda’s.
They largely agree not to bring in the other group on the new Shard heist; Sav has reservations about Camille and Valve. Perhaps joining up against the angels would be good, though.
Having seen the success of Locate Object, Sav wants to replicate it with the shard as the focus. The spellcasters go back to the lab to get Gwin’s help (since Sal has popped out of existence, and they need at least 4 others to get it to last 8 hours) and inform her and Yev of what happened. Sav warns her ahead of time of the shared memories happening.
It does indeed happen.
- Gwin: seeing rows and rows of large murky glass jars on shelves, with something terrible inside, strands of white hair occasionally visible, and feeling grief and shame
- Sav: hearing Athelia confront Vanja about her betrayal of them to the Swans, and feeling the rage and killing desire explode inside her
- Ashen: Over a rocky beach, a woman calls out a name—“Reyvan!”—and a boy running up to the woman and smiling at her, but she literally has no face
- Bax: One of the demon girls waking up, looking up at him, smiling and saying “Bath!” and Bax’s face flushing and heart beginning to race
- Peach: remembering her mother, and hearing Esmund telling that Miranda was literally dusted, and he’s so sorry
Nevertheless, the spell does work, except Sav discovers that a) it can only focus on one object at a time, whatever is the closest example like the Shard, and b) it reads the other Star-touched as being like the Shard, so the original idea of Peach and Bax going with Sav to wander the upper districts wouldn’t work.
Ethan arrives then and is filled in, and volunteers to accompany Sav instead, as, predictably, he doesn’t trigger the locating spell in the same way. Ashen, through some hands-on cutting, also demonstrates that blood of the Star-Touched doesn’t trigger it either.
Sav, Peach and Bax first go to acquire nicer clothing that wouldn’t stand out in the upper quarters, and Sav to do some basic disguising so her description wouldn’t match at a glance (darkening hair to brown, making both eyes gray). Sav tests out her more upper-class accent on them, and they’re weirded out. On the way, they hear a crier shouting about 3 dead from spontaneous combustion, smelters’ union strikers clashing with House Granite, and Ashers in the West, Concordian Alliance disputing Temperhall Bridge. Bax gets a broadsheet for Sav to peruse later.
Disguised Sav on the train, not looking at Ethan.Peach starts to bring up Ethan while they’re shopping, and Sav desperately tries to deflect by bringing up their suspicions that maybe the human woman calling herself Miranda here might be Peach’s biological mother? Peach ignores this deflection, and Sav runs into a shop instead. Peach relentlessly corners Sav in the shop about the way they look at Ethan, and says they should say something, as Ethan is basically a widower and all alone here - after all, Peach told Sal how she felt the day they left Shepherd’s End, in case they all died the next day. Sav stoutly recuses the idea that Danica’s dead, given the connection they all have, but Peach brushes this aside and says she’s not here, anyway. Sav just says that it doesn’t matter and it’s not important, then tries to turn it back around on Peach to ask why she hasn’t made a move on Bax. Peach says she’s told him to his face he’s hot, a lot, and he hasn’t responded at all; Sav just thinks he doesn’t know how to take a compliment. Peach waxes rhapsodic about how he clearly knows how to focus on the moment and find happiness where it’s important; Sav thinks Peach and Bax similar in this regard, finding happiness in the moment, but that they’ve both been through a lot of shit and maybe haven’t grappled with it. Peach recommends green, as it would go well with Ethan, and after some hesitation Sav picks out the green wool coat and the various other elements of a disguise kit.
From the lab, Ethan goes to tell Jackie that Xander was rescued and is staying at the Cog and Sprocket, and might could use a friendly face to check up on him. At the warehouse Jackie’s working at, he notices a symbol for a dead drop used by the Copper Blind; inside, he finds a satchel with 75gp and a note that just has a date, about three weeks in the future. He replaces it, leaving no sign of disturbance, then goes to meet the others at the elevator to the upper districts.
Ashen, having reluctantly taken Samakhael the clockwork raven as his buddy, goes back to his room at the Cog and Sprocket and pulls out an intricate map of the Southern hemisphere, with towns that have long since been abandoned marked with red Xes. There is one town with some symbols and a star.
Bax casts Aid on all four of them, then they split in twos; Peach and Bax head in the opposite direction while Sav and Ethan get on the tram that loops through the districts.
Peach and Bax find a middle-class tavern to hear and see who’s wandering through; Bax grows increasingly angry and spits out that all the elites here deserve to burn, and brushes aside the presence of kids and innocents when Peach brings that up, that it’s the fault of the heads and the decision-makers and those who choose to maintain the status quo.
Bax also brings up that she needs to stop second-guessing Ethan for not having magic, as he’s well capable as—perhaps more so than—those of them with magic. Peach explains that she’s grown up with magic everywhere and used in all things; seeing someone without any is like seeing someone without a limb. Peach brings up that Sav seems to think Bax has a dark past, but she thinks Bax is just who he is on the surface, but if there is anything he wants to talk about it, she can be that ear. He says he’s not quite ready, and certainly not here, but maybe another time.
Sav and Ethan find a mostly-empty car after boarding the train, and pass the time mostly in silence while Sav cycles between looking outside, looking at the district map/train route she’s sketching and looking at Ethan. They maunder briefly about how the ease of life here has made them go a bit soft and unprepared, the cleanliness of the district here and why isn’t it like that everywhere in the city and the political schisms here.
Suddenly, the spell pulls at Sav as they pass the gates of House Diamante—not pointing at the house, but up into the sky, where the giant warship hovers. Then, abruptly, it snaps down as they pass a train going the opposite direction, as Sav meets the gaze of a woman sitting at the window in the car there—tan skin, taller than most women, with short curly dark hair and cool dark green eyes, long pointed ears, and the sense of recognition of the Star-Touched. Her expression doesn’t alter, though the recognition is obvious.
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