Young star burn bright

——— ⟡ @ttauriwanderer - plotted starter (kinohtala)

A lot had happened since he'd been gone. Apparently, along with the illusions that had trapped the echoes in their false lives, another far broader illusion had also shattered.

The people of this world now knew that others lay beyond it-- others which might just be reachable.

Now, this was enough to pique his curiosity. This was not the first time he'd known of those who tried to breach the sky and find what lay beyond. And so, though he didn't participate himself, he spent a good many hours hovering near the landing, watching the construction of the new airships.

When the announcement went out seeking people to join the first expedition, it was a given that Harukaze would go along with it. How could he resist seeking out what lay beyond this world's boundaries, amid the distant, intertwining aether?

Then, he had another thought, and took out his phone, snapping a picture of the announcement.

[TXT to: Captain Sunshine] [attachment: image.png] [TXT to: Captain Sunshine] This seems like something you would be interested in. [TXT to: Captain Sunshine] Want to join me?

...

Steven was achingly glad that his friend had returned in one piece again, even though he was distinctly angry with himself for not having helped more. He'd just have to make up for it somehow, now that he was back with them.

The Captain knew of the airships being assembled to breach the boundary of the Isle, had gone and admired them many time when he had moments to spare but hadn't thought more about them. He hadn't been expecting the notice that civilians, in particular the adventurer's guild, were invited to join the expedition.

He also wasn't expecting the text with an offer from Harukaze. Indeed, before a minute had passed, he'd already replied with a picture of himself holding a sign-up sheet in the guild, grinning brightly.

On the day of the launch, he's predictably bouncing on his toes as they climb aboard, grin and eyes bright, a simple bag slung over his shoulder more for show than function.

Of course he knew that already. Whether strength, wisdom, or renown, there was no true limit. If he surpassed the gods that walked the earth, there were those in the heavens, if he even conquered the Heavenly Principles, there was... whatever lay beyond the false sky. This world, too, had powers more vast than he knew, and still too many secrets...

Even in Teyvat, to become Shouki no Kami was a near impossible feat.

His hands curled into fists.

"So what?" he asked. "What happens if I come up against something stronger? I'll be unmade? Heh... good. So far, nothing has managed it."

He narrowed his eyes at Steven's little "gotcha" moment, then shook his head. "It's not like that's the name I want. It's just... let's say, good enough for now, considering the circumstances. Eventually, only my divine name will need to be known. Not whole?" His lips twisted into a mirthless grin, head tilting to the side. "Well, so what? I've never been whole to begin with, anyway. What's a few more missing pieces?"

Steven took a step forward, and Scaramouche held his ground, though a part of him wished to retreat. This was... just a waste of time, after all. He'd be better off finding out another way to go about this, since wiping out his other segments didn't seem so simple as just destroying them.

Right?

"Learning from your mistakes doesn't mean cutting out the pieces of yourself you don't like. You'll lose too much if you do that." He hesitates before stepping within arms reach, expression worried and aching. A hand reaches carefully, the tips of his fingers curling over the other's shoulder.

        —  𝐀  𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏  𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍  .  𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃  ,  rand  lifted  his  gaze  from  the  task  at  hand  and  offered  steven  his  attention  .  a  ship  captain  ,  but  .  .  .  from  the  sounds  of  it  ,  there  was  evidently  a  gap  in  between  what  rand  knew  and  what  steven  did  .  then  again  .  rand  was  not  a  ship's  captain  ,  nor  did  he  ever  intend  to  be  .  before  rand  could  ask  him  about  it  ,  the  conversation  shifted  once  again  to  whatever  had  first  held  steven's  attention  .  a  shrill  noise  had  almost  seemed  to  have  answered  ,  but  the  Light  help  him  ,  rand  could  not  make  sense  of  any  of  it  .  there  was  most  certainly  nothing  there  save  the  furnishings  when  he  looked  .

          rand  watched  him  carefully  ,  trying  hard  to  veil  his  cringe  .  it  would  be  just  his  luck  to  be  settled  with  a  madman  for  a  house  -  mate  .  that  creature  at  the  tower  must  have  thought  it  some  sort  of  ill  -  mannered  joke  ,  no  doubt  .  the  wheel  spins  slower  ,  it  said  !  that  didn't  stop  it  from  sticking  him  with  a  man  that  quite  possibly  talked  to  lounge  chairs  ,  like  a  taunt  .  i'm  NOT  mad  yet  .  even  if  he  may  well  be  .             how  rand  did  hope  he  was  wrong  .

         ❝    .  .  .  have  .  .  .  you  misplaced  some  sort  of  a  pet  ?   ❞  rand  asked  ,  prompting  gently  .  benefit  of  the  doubt  first  .   ❝    between  the  two  of  us  ,  we  could  lift  the  couch  .  if  it  scrambled  under  there  .   ❞

"Bip is my friend, not my pet. He's a robot that developed intelligence on his own and I may have accidentally given him a soul. He's just as alive as we are." He hums, standing and crossing his arms as he weighs his options with the couch and thus, the stubborn robot inside.

"If I lift it up, he should be inside. If he won't come out, I'll just stick my arm in there and grab him. I just don't want to do more damage to the couch then I know he's already done." A series of indignant little beeps sound from the couch but the young man only rolls his eyes.

With a crook of his fingers, unnecessary but others tended to be calmer when they saw that he was the one causing things to happen and Rand was eyeing him like he might bolt at any moment, the couch rose smoothly into the air. Only high enough for Steven to drop to his knees and scoot under to peer at the hole in the fabric underside.

"Bip," he orders firmly. Reluctantly, the robot slinks out of the hole and drops to the floor with a clatter. Steven picks him up and moves, then the couch settles gently where it was.

"Say hello and then go clean up wherever you hid the other pieces." The robot makes a morose whistle and waves one leg at Rand before he's set down and scuttles off. Steven sighs.

Pillars of the Eagle Nebula in Infrared

When you awaken, you feel rekindled. As though some small piece of you has assembled itself back together….

You have regained your ability to ASTRAL SKIP and REGENERATE.

ABILITY UNLOCK 500 Emblems ALL Abilities and Items listed on a Muse’s application can be bought back at any time. Application unlocks are limited to two (2) abilities/items per Activity Check without exception.

ORIGINAL EMBLEM BALANCE: 2,100 TRANSACTION: 1,000 Emblems CURRENT EMBLEM BALANCE: 1,100

         —  𝐀  𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃  ?  𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃  𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐋𝐘  did  not  see  any  person  around  that  would  be  the  probable  cause  of  —  well  .  all  of  this  .  he  eyed  the  mess  warily  ,  although  he  did  his  best  to  keep  his  mouth  shut  on  the  matter  .  i  just  hope  he  isn't  mad  ,  rand  thought  .  i've  had  more  than  enough  strokes  of  madness  to  last  my  whole  lifetime  . 

        it  wouldn't  do  to  be  impolite  to  someone  he  was  evidently  meant  to  share  a  house  with  ,  though  ,  so  rand  simply  nodded   ,  and  knelt  to  pick  up  the  bits  and  bobbles  around  the  floor  .  he  recognized  only  some  of  whatever  it  was  strewn  about  the  place  .  metal  fastenings  of  a  fashion  .  probably  perrin  would  know  better  than  he  of  whatever  they'd  be  used  for  .  he  was  a  sheepherder  ,  not  a  blacksmith  .

          anyways  ,  he  hoped  this  steven  fellow  wasn't  mad  . 

         ❝   rand   al'thor   ,   ❞  he  offered  ,  along  with  a  slight  nod  ,  and  an  even  slighter  smile  .  no  ,  it  wouldn't  do  to  be  impolite  .  and  even  if  this  was  a  very  strange  and  altogether  wild  dream  ,  IT  WAS  NICE  to  be  only  rand  again  .  not  a  man  who  could  Channel  .  not  a  lord  ,  either  .  steven  would  know  him  as  just  rand  .          ❝ and  i  may  just  take  you  up  on  that  offer  ,  if  you  truly  don't  mind  my  asking  now  and  again  .   ❞  for  one  thing  ,  he'd  just  have  to  ask  him  about  the  rhymes  and  reasons  of  this  place  .  the  way  he  spoke  —  did  that  creature  appear  and  did  that  garden  have  visitors  often  ?  rand  didn't  much  like  the  thought  .  if  it  was  a  dream  ,  he'd  wake  up  eventually  .  but  he  usually  knew  when  it  was  a  dream  of  his  .  .  .  and  this  was  nothing  like  that  .  rand  pivoted  his  attention  to  another  thought  .         ❝   you  said  you  are  a  captain  ?  ❞  he  asked  instead  .  ❝   of  a  ship  ?  or  of  an  army  ?   ❞  he  didn't  exactly  seem  the  second  type  ,  if  the  men  of  fal  dara  were  any  basis  ,  but  anybody  could  be  anything  without  you  ever  knowing  it  ,  if  that  is  what  they  wanted  .

Most people seem to come from worlds with less technology, so Steven wouldn't be surprised if Rand had quite a few questions indeed. Unless he was one of the few who came from somewhere similar...

"Oh, I'm a ship captain," he grins a little, leaving Bip be for the moment in favor of also bending to pick up the bits and pieces of microwave his robot had strewn everywhere. Unless Bip decided to put the thing back together, it was a complete wash, he'd have to buy a new one. He was many things, but a cook was not one of them.

"I have a ship that travels through space and my crew and I visit distant places and help people and study the flora and fauna and environments we find there. I'd be a terrible army captain, I don't have the focus for it, and I don't kill anything, ever."

He sighs at the mess, piling bits and pieces in his shirt to hold them all for the moment.

As the Aether Stirs . . . Adventure Approaches.

A new dawn rises beyond the horizon, but even as the morning stillness waxes and wanes, the aether stirs evermore. Crowds gather around the loading docks of Moonlight Landing. Some with packs and suitcases, others bidding their loved ones safe travels. The Aetheric Class airships wait in their docks, proud and tall, glistening bronze and emeralite glass.

Second Star to the Right.

News of the Aetheric Class airships has made the rounds from the shores of the Lunar Coast to Fanlea's valleys. They are the E.T.C.'s first wave of travel-class airships, meant to travel long distances across the Lunar Seas. Such a feat has not been accomplished in a long time.

Their destination? The coordinates of The Summula's star point — a new Isle — successfully determined by the coordinated efforts of the Archives, the Observatory, and the E.T.C.'s own research teams.

Now, scientists, archivists, and members of the Adventurer's Guild alike flock to the ships, hoping to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors.

Will you join them?

In a world full of conflict, 'friends' were little more than a liability. A risk of betrayal. Anyone would stab you in the back if they had the right motivation, even the one who called you his most trusted companion. People used one another, turned on one another... it was just human nature.

"Friends and allies are for weaklings, and fools who put their trust in the integrity of others," Scaramouche shrugged his shoulders, raising a hand and flexing jointed fingers. "The only way to ensure your position is to become powerful enough that none can stand against you-- only when the worms that once crossed you are crawling at your feet, and their cries for mercy reach your divine ears as you hold their lives in your hands... only then, when they truly fear you, can you be certain they won't betray you."

This argument would go nowhere, though-- that much, he already knew. This person was too stuck in his foolish ways... and Scaramouche didn't care to be a mentor. But he was still too prodding, not leaving well enough alone... and he might not be someone that could just be killed and done with.

A sigh escaped him, and he tilted his hat lower over his eyes. In truth, he didn't really know what he needed to do. It was just a hypothesis... but Steven didn't need to know that. "The ebb and flow of this world's powers caused my consciousness to fracture, creating segments from various points in my life. I merely wish to eradicate all weakness from myself, to avoid some... mistakes."

His lip curled. There was something about the whole ordeal that left a sour taste in his mouth. Too much like the farce that doctor played with... like this world was mocking him.

"And once you've got them being worms at your feet, you'll find all the other birds that were too big for you to notice before. You'll never be the biggest and strongest thing in existence, there is always, always something bigger. The more powerful you get, the more attention you'll draw from things that can and will unmake you with a thought. It doesn't end." Regardless of his position on having friends and allies, this was a universal truth of the universe. There was always a bigger fish, always a stronger entity, always something with a larger mouth to eat you up. And the bigger you are, the more likely you are to be a target. Sharks don't go after minnows, after all.

... Okay, most sharks don't. It's a metaphor after all.

"You may not have said I could give you a name, but it got you to give me the one you want." He grins a little before it curves into a frown again and he rubs his forehead with a sigh.

"Eradicate all weakness? You can't. Not like, you're not allowed, you physically can't. Weakness is inherent to existence. And besides that, you're not whole. Breaking off pieces of yourself will only make you completely imbalanced, you can see that, can't you?" Or maybe he couldn't. Balladeer is clearly running on a different kind of logic that ignores inconvenient universal truths. And like, common sense.

But that one can be forgiven, since he's a divinely powered puppet and doesn't always get the common sense stuff when he's in one piece either.

Cautiously, Steven takes a couple of steps toward him.

         —  𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃  .  .  .  𝐌𝐀𝐘  𝐎𝐑  𝐌𝐀𝐘  𝐍𝐎𝐓  have  let  his  mouth  drop  agape  ,  from  the  moment  he'd  seen  the  building  .  and  then  again  when  the  key  he'd  been  given  fit  into  the  door  .  rand  could  say  he  was  traveled  now  .  he  had  been  to  caemlyn  ,  and  had  seen  with  his  own  two  eyes  a  city  that  had  sprawled  along  ,  larger  and  grander  than  anything  he  could  have  ever  imagined  in  two  rivers  — and those fancies felt lifetimes ago .

         even  still  ,  this  one  house  was  as  big  as  the  wine  spring  inn  alone  !  the  whole  block  had  houses  as  big  ,  and  it  wasn't  a  city  like  caemlyn  ,  so  far  as  he  could  tell  .  light  ,  it  was  near  as  big  as  any  inn  !  rand  closed  his  mouth  ,  thinking  again  about  how  that  -  creature  -  wanted  him  to  actually  stay  here  ,  and  eventually  his  eyes  landed  on  the  man  in  the  room  with  him  .  rand  stiffened  ,  instinctively  reaching  for  the  void  —  but  it  was  gone  again  before  he  could  grasp  it  .

         .  .  .  and  rand  immediately  felt  foolish  for  it  anyways  .  the  man  was  about  his  own  age  by  the  looks  of  him  ,  with  pale  hair  and  brown  eyes  .  slight  ,  too  .  a  bad  wind  could  knock  him  over  .  and  it  was  just  as  well  that  he  hadn't  noticed  him  right  away  .  rand  was  taller  than  most  men  twice  his  age  in  two  rivers  .  it  wasn't  that  which  was  so  surprising  ,  but  even  if  rand  was  considered  TALL  ,  he'd  wager  this  man  hardly  broke  even  of  average  height  .  he  had  to  drop  his  own  gaze  LOW  to  meet  his  .

          ❝   ah  .  ❞  he  breathed  .  ❝   sorry  .  i  didn't  mean  to  intrude  .  ❞  he  gestured  to  the  door  he  had  closed  behind  him  .  ❝   i'm  afraid  this  whole  place  has  me  turned  around  .  but  this  is  the  place  on  the  key  ,  i  think  .  ❞  or  it  was  according  to  the  man  he'd  asked  ,  at  least  .  he  looked  at  the  key  to  double  check  .  105  .  definitely  the  place  .

@ttauriwanderer / roommates !

So... he was going to go out and greet people, if there were any. He was. But unfortunately, his menace of a robot had other ideas.

Apparently, Bip was convinced Steven hadn't been paying enough attention to him. Which is how he'd just spent the last two hours chasing the thing around after he'd cheerfully disassembled the microwave and scattered parts all over the house.

The Captain stood in the front room scowling, fists on his hips, waiting for Bip to come out from under the couch to make a break for it. He'd somehow managed to get up inside it, and Steven didn't particularly care to break the thing to get his wayward robot out.

So really, he wasn't in the mood for random giants to come poking into his house, and the fact that the door was locked and now isn't doesn't register immediately. He turns his scowl on the intruder, not threatened, only annoyed, but the look of dumbfounded shock on the man's face tugs the annoyance free a bit.

Ah, a newbie. Which would mean he had a new roommate again.

"If this house is the one on your key, then it's where you're supposed to be," he says, sighing a little and shaking out his hands so they're not so clenched. "You must be new here today. Sorry for the mess, my friend got bored and decided it would be fun to make me chase him around everywhere after he broke stuff for attention." He eyes the couch one more time, but Bip is silent and still up inside of it still, so he circles around to give the newcomer a (only slightly strained) smile and offer his hand.

٠ ࣪⭑ Cucumber looked down at the card in his hand. The lamination was just gorgeous; it really enhanced the wonderfully detailed artwork of all the possible fish to spy. He'd done this last year, but maybe this year he'd be able to find just a few more!

Then again, it would be better to do this with someone else. He quickly glanced around the pier, looking for anyone else who might be participating in the occasion. Or at the very least, might be able to get him out into the reef.

He wandered around, eyes shifting this way and that, looking for anyone who could help. Trouble was, every time he saw someone, he felt himself getting shy and looking away before hurrying on to the next area.

His fish card was twirled through the other hand, idly spinning through his fingers as he meandered down the wooden walkway, waving occasionally to various aercons he knew or even vaguely recognized.

It was nice to be known, even if it was safer to be a nobody, a shadow. Being known left a strange feeling on his skin, but warmed him up inside, like tea on a cold day, so really it was worth it. He was just sitting down on the edge of the pier to put on his fins when he saw someone else looking around, apparently shy. Steven, naturally, waved the moment the kid looked his way.

dialogue prompts from private rites: a novel by julia armfield.

people love a ritual when things get hairy.

i don't believe in the devil. but i feel him, anyway.

what's the point in dwelling? once you start, you'll never get to the end of it.

phones are how people reach you. nothing very good can come of that.

you're dissociating. don't do that. don't panic.

you're spiky. you've always been spiky.

you're not always very nice, but i don't think you do it on purpose.

you've always made me want to be better.

i'm not a sleeper.

you never think anybody likes you.

oh, is somebody sulking?

you learn to deal with it. sure, it's shitty, but you learn.

how busy can you really be?

people can turn any old shit into an omen.

all i really want to do is sit in a room with someone and let the world end.

can't you think of something nice to say?

the world has a way of erasing its own history.

i find you very hot, and i'd happily take you for breakfast.

you're different to how you used to be.

am i supposed to call you 'doctor'?

i don't think i'm as hopeful as you.

it's only weird if it feels weird to you.

your one job as a parent is to give your kid a childhood they won't have to recover from.

you'd be astonished how quickly you forget how to talk to people.

you're always hearing me talk and then slinging your own translation over the top.

i don't know you. you're just some person in my house.

i don't like or dislike anyone.

you're not very nice, are you?

courage? i don't have any of that.

you do not, by any chance, happen to smoke, do you?

i don't think it's possible to hate someone that you don't, fundamentally, love.

each time, you happen to me all over again.

i feel like i've known you for years.

i hate being touched when i'm not expecting it.

i can feel my heart in my knees.

i could be good with just this. i could be happy here.

sometimes i think hope is a far less satisfying feeling than despair.

you have no idea how hard i tried.

there's no way i can go, and i still have to.

progress can be painful, but the pain is our responsibility.

we love people before we notice we love them.

i think that i've probably been unfair to you.

loving someone is easier in theory.

i assume this is what people mean when they talk about dating someone.

is this a 'move'?

i'm giving you a date. i'm giving you the moves i'd pull on a date.

no one cares about what makes you guilty.

i don't want to be responsible for any of this.

i think this is my fault. i think i was meant to sort this out.

Scaramouche would rather not think about the fracturing, how it had occured-- the weakness that led to it-- but if nothing else, it made things clearer. No more confusion, no more conflict-- at least, internally. And he had no interest in talking it over.

"You're a fool, you know," he muttered, shaking his head with an expression of mock sympathy on his face. "We don't have any need for friends. Whether that was before, or now-- just give up, won't you? It'll be easier for both of us that way."

Behind him, Kunikuzushi managed to slip free from his bindings, quickly scrambling to his feet and bolting off into the dark alleyways.

That's fine. Let him run... Scaramouche would be able to find him again when he needed him. By far the smartest of the fragments, he had already figured out how this 'linked consciousness' thing worked. It wasn't all that dissimilar from that Doctor's method of creating segments. Damn him.

"Even gods need friends and allies. Thinking that you can make it alone in a world full of conflict, that's the foolish thing. There will always be people willing and eager to help and support you, and not taking advantage of that is the height of foolishness."

At least the other one runs for now. It frees Steven up to focus his full attention on this one.

"Well, that depends. You'd have to tell me what happened, where Maof is and why you're fractured into pieces. And what exactly your plan is now, considering you're already trying to kill at least one part of yourself." Last one standing wins the body? But why? It doesn't make any sense to Steven, but then he's never been broken up into diseperate pieces. Clearly, there's some logic there to this one's mind.

He cocks his head and his grin turns just a teeny bit sly.

"Of course it just had to be you, didn't it?" he rolled his eyes upon seeing that familiar face. Why had he even bothered giving this puny thing a second glance? The creature was a mockery of divinity, stubbornly clinging to pathetic ideals rather than embracing his destiny...

Truly, out of all of the "friends" that his future self had made in this place, this one was the one he disliked most.

Still, he knew very well that in his current state he wouldn't be able to stand up to Steven if it came to a fight, so he simply cast the bound Kunikuzushi aside into a corner of the alleyway. It wasn't as though he wouldn't be able to find the copies again later, after all.

"You don't have any idea what's going on here, but you're still showing up to play hero, aren't you?" he scoffed. "Ridiculous. Oh-- and don't call me by that pathetic nickname of yours. I've always hated it, you know? As for what I'm doing... ha. Why should I tell you? I have no interest in fraternizing with a worthless god who doesn't value his divinity."

He intertwined his fingers together behind his back, leaving the discarded puppet to struggle against his bindings in the background as he approached Steven, nonchalantly, head tilted, gaze filled with disdain.

"Poking my nose into situations and playing hero, that's exactly what I do back home. So thinking that I won't come to try to help you is ridiculous; you're part of my friend after all. I can sense that, even if it wasn't obvious from looking at you." Steven keeps his stance relaxed, nonthreatening, but on his toes and ready to move the moment this piece of Maof made a threatening move.

His friend was in there, at least partly, but that didn't make this part less hostile right now.

"Come on now, you don't like the language of dragons? One of my crew taught me how to speak it. Maybe I could have come up with something a little more noble, but I still think it suits you. Besides, you haven't ever given me another name to use." Disdain is met with a bright, teasing grin, very little of his wariness reflected in his expression.

Eradication of those other segments had seemed like it would be a simple task, at first. After all, were they not shadows of his younger, weaker self? The naive child, the aimlessly destructive vagrant... it should have been the easiest thing in the world for Scaramouche to dispatch them.

And yet... and yet...

Finding them wasn't the issue. With just a bit of focus and meditation, he was able to pinpoint their locations. The youngest was out among the crowds, so that wouldn't do, but the other one was slinking through the shadows of Rosewood, stirring up trouble...

Kunikuzushi was the most chaotic of them all, but also predictable in his unpredictability.

Of course, he hadn't shied away from a fight with the superior version of himself, and of course, even though their physical strength was limited by the simple wooden forms they found themselves in, Scaramouche had gained the upper hand. From there, it should have been rather simple to dispatch this "flaw" of his, but not once, not twice, but three times already Scaramouche had attempted to destroy Kunikuzushi, only for the broken pieces to form back together almost immediately.

"Aren't you tired of this yet?" his own voice mocked him from Kunikuzushi's lips. "This is boring... there are so many better things we could be doing, you know?"

"Shut up!" Scaramouche hissed, twisting Kunikuzushi's arm around until he heard a sharp snap!

It only drew out another bitter laugh. After all, they couldn't truly feel pain-- so really, Kunikuzushi was right. Boredom was the only consequence.

Though, even if what was broken could be mended, could the same be said for that which was completely destroyed? It was their second encounter now-- this time, Scaramouche had prepared a more thorough method. At the back of the alley, an oil drum burned with a hot flame, casting red and gold light across the narrow space. It wasn't elegant, but it would be enough for an experiment. He'd restrained his copy tightly, bound up in wire ropes that Scaramouche couldn't snap with his own strength, and gagged his mouth to quiet his mocking tongue.

There was only one true "body," after all. If any one of them would claim it, it would be him-- perhaps in the end, this was the 'refining' that he needed.

Indeed, even the brazen Kunikuzushi seemed a bit frightened as Scaramouche dragged him toward the makeshift furnace. His fear was palpable, radiating across the tenuous connection between them.

That, too, was something that must be purged.

He'd caught up with some, but others...

Maof had all but vanished.

Steven would have assumed he'd simply disappeared like others did, except he was still registering in Steven's contacts. Greyed out, but not vanished. There was still a thread of his presence here, somewhere, but Steven couldn't reach him. Not still blocked as he was.

Manual searching was much more of a pain and far less efficient, but at least he had access to other forms to do it with now. Birds were overlooked and much better for scanning quickly and quietly. Also good for picking up rumors and hearsay.

Great for flying over alleys in search of the pale reflections of his friend's energy.

The scene he finds isn't particularly encouraging. But frankly, he's worked with and won with worse.

An owl swoops down soundlessly, and with a flicker of thought and the snap of displaced air, is replaced by the young Captain mid fall. He lands and rolls, popping up between the two and the fire.

"Hey, Maof. I'd say it's a nice night for a barbecue, but I don't think that's a great idea, really." He smiles, reaching out and focusing on the heat and light energy of the fire. Pointedly, he closes his fist at the same time he steals the energy and deprives the fire of heat, snuffing it.