Pleroma | Memory/Voice

[coupris]

[A few days after he returns to Godsblood, and things have started to settle down, Kim has started to experiment with his new ability that surfaced during the rescue of the new arrivals. For those with their minds open to shard communion, a brief memory will cross their minds.

Kim, standing on a relatively more remote dock in the shipyards, is talking to someone that others might recognize as one of the Greentruth rebels. He hands them a sturdy piece of wood, about the length of a baseball bat, and nods his approval. The rebel, looking a bit uncertain, squeezes their eyes shut before swinging the plank as hard as they can, directly at Kim's head. It seems to make contact, but Kim doesn't so much as flinch as the wood splinters in half. Not a hair on him is out of place.

He then reaches forward, also as tentative as his partner in this bizarre experiment, and flicks his finger against their chest. A ripple of energy seems to diffuse from him, and the rebel flies back as if Kim had punched them with full force, and falls off the dock, into the water.

Once the image fades, Kim's voice takes its place.]

I realize that magic is a bit more mundane for some of our number than others. However, no one else has shown signs of this ability since they arrived here, no?

[Something ripples through the shard that gives the impression of a sigh.]

Unfortunately, this is all rather new for me. Discovering I could manifest my own fire instead of wasting matches was tricky enough. If anyone has any information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[A pause, and then a pale, gloomy bloom of blue before he speaks again.]

And I hope everyone is doing well. [Doing well considering, is the implication.]

Comments

[deushexmachina]

Originally yes, people could only be born with the ability to wield magic, [the briefest of dramatic pauses, his latent skill for the dramatics now amply used,] before Hextech. Magic is more precisely utilized where I'm from — and when I'm from.

So I sympathize with your plight. This is strange for me, too.

[coupris]

So this place seems a bit... out of time for you, as well.

[Forget magic, he'd just love a coffeemaker.]

[deushexmachina]

You're correct. I'm from an era—a placement?—that's more technologically advanced. [Nothing quite as cool as those coffeemakers, arguably.] So this has been an adjustment.

And, [a scratch of hesitation, the following words come strained,] have you noticed how sometimes people vanish from here as easily as we've come? I haven't figured out why, or how.

[coupris]

[Now that catches Kim's attention. A strain of alarm rattles through his thoughts before he finds the words--]

Vanished? [The Pleroma were relatively scattered, so he hadn't thought much of not seeing some of his fellow Aions as he blends into Godsblood.]

How many? For how long?

[deushexmachina]

My partner, [he sucks in a breath,] Viktor. He had arrived with me at the onset — we made plans to make our way to Godsblood. Concrete plans. And then one night he vanished. No evidence of how.

[Urgently, with a strained throat:] He wouldn't just leave me. Something happened.

[coupris]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[Perfunctory as it sounds, he means it, even if he has to doubt any claim of no evidence on principle.]

Has it only been him?

[deushexmachina]

Yes. [A tight, abrupt inhale and:] I know the data set is small. Anecdotal, even. But if vanishment is possible, perhaps we ought to investigate the implications.

[coupris]

What do you think those are?

[Kim makes sure his voice doesn't sound like he's just humoring him, though as Jayce says, one disappearance doesn't really constitute a pattern.]

You're sure he didn't make any sort of enemies in town?

[deushexmachina]

No—oh no, not Viktor. For all his brine, he knows how to play the diplomat. I'm more likely to attract ire.