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[Kratos spends at least ten minutes (okay, maybe it's only two, but does he know how to keep track of time anymore? no) staring at the rock wondering how the hell it got here. They're in space. How can anything new show up on this comet. Then again... well, there's plenty of pure mana deposits stored up here, maybe it's just one of those that got dropped.

The mana about it tastes... wrong, somehow. But it calls to him.

He picks it up.]

[mythra, rattling her titties against the bars of her minecraft cage for those ten minutes: let me out!! let me out

A whole bunch of things happen at once.

The most immediately noticeable is the bright green light that washes out from the crystal as Kratos comes into contact with it, bright enough to blind. A sword appears in his hand, white and gold with accents of the same green. For just a second it feels like someone's in his head, rifling through his memories.

And then a girl appears in front of him, as the green light dies down. There's a lot of ether coming off of her.]

... Rex?

[wait, no, that's not right. What the fuck. She shouldn't even be alive right now, let alone - well, alone.]

What the hell?

Edited 2018-12-18 06:00 (UTC)

"Uh."

[It doesn't even sound like a fucking sound. When was the last time he used his voice? He can't remember. When was it he lost contact with-- no, no, don't think about it, don't think about it.]

"What."

[He tries again. It sounds a little bit more like noise. What is going on in his head, though? There's an Awareness, he has of the girl, something sharp in the back of his mind he doesn't understand and isn't sure he likes. And the sword, in his hand-- it's heavy. Not the actual blade but whatever power it houses, something so deep and so vast it reminds him of standing near Origin.

He isn't sure he likes that, either.]

[Okay, Mythra, don't freak out. Surely there's an explanation for any of this. She shifts her weight from one foot to the other, tears her eyes from her new Driver (her what) to look around.

From one space facility manned by a lonely asshole to another. Great.]

Uh, I asked first?

[... sorry about your cool free new teenager. She looks back to him, squints a little uncertainly.]

Alright, so I hope you have more of an idea what's going on than I do.

[Who even is this joker, anyway. She reaches for their tentative new connection, curious.

Unfortunately for Mythra, this is a terrible idea and she is about to regret it horribly.]

[It's not the worst pain Kratos has ever felt in his life.

He's had spells backfire on him before, he's been hit with some frankly terrifying spells by-- don't think about him don't think about how far he fell. Anyway.

It's not the worst, but it still fucking hurts. Pain explodes behind his eyes and something that isn't mana but he's not sure what else to call it snaps through his body like a wire being cut and the force of it all throws him back into the nearby wall. He doesn't even register the physical pain, compared to the cacophony going off in his mind.

He wonders, distantly, if the girl is alright. What did she do? But he can't think around the pain and can't get his voice to work either so congrats! Local asshole remains silent and filled with regret.]

[Fuck magic.

That's the main thing in Soma's mind as he cautiously walks through the hallways of-- of-- of wherever the fuck this is, honestly. What the hell even happened, anyway? One moment he was back home and then the next--bam. He's transported to yet another fucking weird... something. That's what bothers him the worst, actually, because this place sure as hell isn't a castle--

Soma stops abruptly, all the air in his lungs getting knocked out by the new, foreign-yet-familiar sensation that punches him right in the chest.]

"Uh. What... the fuck?"

[He can feel it. The light. Strong, painful, holy. Alluring.

And then it explodes.

Soma quickly turns to the source of the holy-aligned light, breathless. He really shouldn't. He really, really shouldn't, but--

It's simple curiosity, the one thing that grabs him by the heart and pulls him along.

He breaks into a sprint.]

[Fuck.

That's about all there is to say about it, really.

By the time it's over, by the time their mutual panic has snapped the fragile ether/mana link that existed between them, she's crouched on the floor a few paces back, head in her hands. A rough sob forces its way out of her, and she digs her fingers into the fabric of her leggings roughly, seeking some kind of purchase. Her own baggage is enough that she tries not to confront it head-on - colliding face-first with four thousand years worth hadn't been something she was ready for at all.

There's footsteps, someone approaching, but she barely registers it, too busy trying to remember how to breathe.]

Edited 2018-12-18 06:47 (UTC)

[Whatever it was that Soma was expecting to find when he rushed heedlessly into the general direction of holy light in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, it sure as hell wasn't any of this.

He stops, gasps. The girl he registers first. She's curled into herself, definitely crying, practically glowing with all the damn light that emanates from her. The darkness in Soma's veins recoils immediately. That's bad. This is bad. What the hell happened?

Then he turns his attention to the one other person in here, and he's drowsed with cold anxiety.]

"Oh, fuck!"

[Soma rushes to the man, fucked up as he is against the wall, and kneels. Oh, god, he better not be dead. He reaches a hand out, yet doesn't dare touch him.]

"H-Hey! Are you okay!"

[He should probably be more worried about the fact that this man is reeking with holy light, too, buuuuuuut...]

Edited 2018-12-18 06:57 (UTC)

[Kratos registers the voice, distantly, as well as the presence. He's distantly touched but mostly still just confused and trying to think straight again.]

"I... fine. I'm fine."

[He tries to say. Does he succeed? Sounds like it, or something close to it. There's a dull pain in the back of his head from where it collided with the wall but he's casting First Aid before he thinks about it. His ears still ring.

The rest of this catches up to him. The boy in front of him is not an angel. That girl isn't, either. And yet, here they are.]

"How..."

Edited 2018-12-18 07:05 (UTC)

[Mythra drags a hand down her face, leaves it there for a moment before she makes her way to her feet unsteadily. Okay. This is okay. She can do this. For a moment it felt like her identity was being washed away under the weight of all that guilt and regret. Is this what Malos felt like all the time? Fuck.

Her sword's still on the floor where Kratos had dropped it. She flexes her fingers, and it vanishes in a wink of green light.]

Who,

[she starts, looking at Soma, and then stops herself. She'd noticed right away that something was different about the ether here - thinner, sharper, harder to keep hold of - but the flow of it around her hardly feels like ether at all, now that she's paying attention, trying to ground herself with it. This guy's no blade, and he's clearly not a driver, with the way he freaked out at a simple resonance, but he just healed himself.]

Seriously, what the hell is going on?

[At least when Kratos actually speaks Soma knows he's not dead, so he feels a brief wave of relief wash all over him, sighing when he sees him cast magic. He'll live, probably. Holy magic users are harder to kill than this.

It is short-lived, though, before the sheer amount of light in the area chokes him and leaves him stumbling backwards where he kneels beside Kratos, suddenly anxious. The anxiety is only amplified when the girl from before gets up and demands answers.]

"Uh." [He blinks at Mythra. At the back of his mind Soma laments the lack of anything to defend himself with, though he dismisses it quickly.] "I-I think I should be asking you both that. What did you do?"

Edited 2018-12-18 14:54 (UTC)

"That is... a good question..."

[His voice has definitely seen better days, but at least he can use it. And he can just choose to not feel how much the effort makes his throat hurt, so that's a plus.]

"I did nothing more than pick up a rock."

[A rock which he sees, now, sits in the girl's chest, about where one would put a Cruxis Crystal. Kratos doesn't understand the specifics of what's going on, but he supposes if a Cruxis Crystal can store a consciousness after the body has been killed, then a rock storing both the consciousness and physical form of a girl isn't too far of a stretch.

Though that still doesn't explain how the hell either of them got here or what they're doing here. Kratos gets to his feet, eyes narrowing.]

"Would either of you care to explain how you got here?"

Hey, don't look at me! That wasn't supposed to-

[no, alright, that's not fair. She shifts, crosses her arms over her chest.]

We resonated, got stuck in a feedback loop, and it-- broke. [She gestures helpfully to get the point across.] A little surprised it didn't kill you, actually.

[She pauses to think about Kratos's question - is there anything she can remember? But no, there's nothing but waiting for the Beanstalk to blow up, and a half-remembered conversation with Malos. Maybe the explosion just blew her all the way here. She hopes it didn't send Pyra even further.]

Honestly? No idea. Like you said, I was a rock. I can tell you this isn't the universe I came from, though. Ether feels all wrong.

[She turns to Soma, takes him in for a second. What the fuck, actually.]

Guessing it's not the one you're from either, right?

[Oh, well, anxious as he is, Soma definitely starts when Mythra suddenly starts addressing him instead.]

"Ah, no. I. I literally just got here."

[He rises to stand as well, taking a step back and away from Kratos. Seriously, what the hell is with all this light? He's usually fine with it, sure, but there's so much here that Soma feels like he's going to be sick.

But, first things first--]

"You know what? Let me cut right to the chase--are we in an eclipse?"

[Soma Cruz Wants Answers.]

[The word "resonate" means nothing to Kratos, but he knows what it's like to have someone else channel their power through you, so maybe it's something like that. He's a little disconcerted at the notion that should have killed him, apparently, but the memory of the weight of her power rings strongly enough in him. Perhaps if he wasn't an angel...

It's unfortunate that neither of them know how they got here, either. Kratos sighs, a few ideas of how to look into it presenting themselves to him, but can't say he's exactly thrilled by any of them. Also... eclipse? What?]

"Uh... no."

[He sighs again. Apparently it's his time to explain.]

"We're on a comet hurtling through space, with the closest known civilization being three years away."

[Regret! Regret!]

"Which is why I'm surprised to see either of you two here."

A comet?

[Huh. At least it's not some weird alternate-universe Beanstalk ~~yet~~.]

If none of us know how this happened, then... getting back's probably gonna be tough.

[She finally figures out what to live for and gets dumped on a rock in some other universe entirely. Figures.]

[Oh.

Okay.

Hm.

Alright.

So,

ah.]

"We're... We're in... in a... a what???"

[Oh, oh boy. Soma can already feel his heart stopping and kickstarting itself back up, pumping cold anxiety through his darkness filled veins. Oh, lord. Well, this isn't--it isn't the weirdest thing he's experienced, but-- but--

There's something bubbling, at the back of his head. Soma grits his teeth and takes another step back. Inhale, exhale. Shit, shit.

Don't let him out.]

[Kratos opens his mouth to agree with Mythra--he knows better than anyone that any easy route back home has been long burned--(regret! regret!)--but doesn't get the chance to say anything before Soma starts panicking.

The sudden... boiling in Soma's veins takes Kratos sharply by surprise. His hand moves automatically to his hip, though he's not currently wearing a sword. Mentally he scolds himself. Darkness-aligned magic users are not uncommon, and a sudden flare of magic along with a strong emotion is certainly expected.

But that boiling... it doesn't stop.

And that darkness... it's really deep.

He wonders if he should say something, but it's not like he knows Soma very well, doesn't know how to calm the boy's fears. He can promise he will look for a solution, but he certainly can't promise the boy a safe ride home, and anything less than that might just make matters worse, so inevitably he keeps his mouth shut.

Kratos. You are so bad at this.]

[Ooh, that's not good. The kid already felt off, but she'd figured that was mostly just a consequence of his being from some other weird world. The second consciousness starting to unfurl in the back of his mind, though... She doesn't summon her sword just yet, but she tries to catch Kratos's eye with a silent question before turning her attention back to Soma.]

Hey, uh... Everything okay?

[The really short answer is: absolutely not.

Soma takes a deep breath, exhaling shakily to try and calm himself the fuck down before he either causes a scene or that little incessant thumping at the back of his head grows into an actual conscious that should not be here.]

"Aha, ahaha," [everything is fucked!] "well. I mean, ah, we--a comet?!" [Finally, he regards his companions with wide eyes, panicking properly, darkness boiling, hands in his hair.] "How the fuck did I end up in a comet!!"

[Just focus on the comet thing, Soma. Yeah. Absolutely do not think about the way the darkness and light in the air have started to uncomfortably reject each other, or that--that whisper--]

[Kratos takes a deep breath. This is not what he wanted to be doing with his day.

But he cannot blame the boy.]

"I do not know. But I suppose we can check the database. The computers are still running, perhaps one of them picked something up."

[One of them was set to monitor for spatial anomalies, to make sure Derris-Kharlan's percarious position between dimensions didn't waver. Kratos wishes he was still in contact with Origin, though. The computers were never as good at tracking those things as he or Mithos was.

He almost stops there, but he's learned his lesson about promises given through ommission, so he adds:]

"Not that I can promise it will find a way to send you home. It would just be a place to start."

[hoo boy. She hesitates while Kratos is talking, running through her options in her head - shit, it's not like Addam had been able to rein in her power when it had come to it, but she kind of wishes she had his advice right now anyway - but tentatively takes a step closer, stretches out a hand to him. Something physical might help, right?]

C'mon, kid, breathe. Whatever's going on in there isn't going to help anything. We're stuck here for now, but it's not the end of the world.

And if it's computers... I might be able to lend a hand with that, actually. Or at least some extra power.

[Put me in, coach.]

[Despite everything, Mythra actually trying to reach out to Soma actually kind of helps ground him. He almost, almost reaches a hand back, but stops halfway. He takes a deep breath. Okay, you big idiot child, try to calm the hell down.

Kratos said something about a database. Mythra can work computers. These people sound like they know what they're doing. And, most importantly, they're not freaking the fuck out. What, are they NASA, or some shit?

Whatever. Alright, cool. Okay. Sure. This might work out.]

"Haa, okay, okay. Cool. Yeah, sure, computers. Let's just. Yeah."

[Eloquent, are we?

Soma nods dumbly. He feels tingly all over. That whisper is making it hard to hear, but Soma focuses on Mythra for now, tries to keep his head out of the rising sea of darkness in his soul. It's fine, it's fine. It'll be fine.

Hopefully.]

[Kratos stands there for a moment before he realizes he's the only one who knows where they're going. Oh, god, he's awful at leading. Who let him do this.]

"Um. Right. This way."

[oh, thank fuck. She lets her hand drop once it's apparent Soma's not about to close the distance or explode into a plume of darkness, but she'll stay more or less in step with him as Kratos leads them.

After a moment of what's probably a very awkward silence:]

So, uh. I'm Mythra. You two have names?