[Arc] Respite

Blitz listened quietly as Leo explained the situation with his magic in regards to himself, and surprisingly, so did Thrash. "I figured your magic and longevity were somehow linked, but from the way you're describing it, you weren't human at one point, but became human later? Or at least had a less-human appearance and made the change-over further down the line?" Blitz asked. Blitz tended to give people the benefit of the doubt when they were sharing information, and while he still believed that Leo was being open about his situation for once, this was the first thing that Blitz felt he had the least evidence to back up. He'd seen Leo when he was in the depths of his magic-fueled violent tendencies, but he'd seen plenty of mages who were blood-mad despite being 100% human. But then again, that wasn't exclusive to humans, either, Blitz supposed.

Thrash, however, let out a brief laugh. "Oh, I can imagine what Blitz would be like without his magic quite easily, given our bloodied history. Really takes you back, doesn't it?" he said with a slightly menacing grin and a glance at Blitz, who scowled.

"If memory serves, that's where you lost bad enough that you finally got sealed in your current quarters," Blitz quipped with a glare.

"True enough, but I fondly remember being able to scatter your magic for a bit." Thrash chuckled. "Good times."

Leo, however, seemed to find the idea of mortality rather daunting - I might have been a bit too close to the mark, there, Blitz thought. "Fair enough, and yes, I suppose it's the norm." Blitz said as Thrash returned to his own space.

Leo seemed somewhat vexed that Thrash hadn't had more concrete advice for him before turning to brew up coffee - probably the strongest drink immediately available with the single bottle of alcohol already chugged earlier. Blitz sat in a nearby chair with a sigh, tipping his hat over his eyes as he decided to follow Eris' lead and take the chance to catch a few z's - things had been rather non-stop since their escape on the previous planet.

Leo didn't exactly understand where the metal mage's confusion came from, but he was somewhat relieved; the particular era of his past Blitz was inadvertently asking about wasn't as painful to talk about as others that had come up in the very same discussion. "Mmm, second one's more correct, for both of us. We've always been half human, my mother and her father respectively, it just used to be... a bit more obvious, I suppose. Someone tried to 'cure' us and got pretty damn close, but hey, I don't look fourteen anymore because of it." He grinned slightly, for a few fleeting seconds. It was gone soon after.

Their conversation halted as he left the room, Blitz apparently following Eris's example. Leo couldn't sleep, though, he even tried closing his eyes for a brief moment while he was propped up against the counter, coffee pot still in hand, but it was to no avail. Logically, he needed to rest, his muscles and injuries were aching enough to tell him that, but his mind screamed to the contrary. Instead, Leo settled on staring at the window overlooking Maescia's sink, the only scenery a forest of darkness, leaves rustling in the wind as the grasp of autumn had taken them ahold. The changing of seasons, yes, he rarely paid attention to them nowadays, it was just another constant like the rise and fall of the sun. Yet in a period of turmoil the assurance of time was all he could cling to, the one thing that had a steadfast rhythm no matter how warped his perception of it was.

He must have zoned out, because the next thing he remembered was Maescia opening the door of her study slowly, glancing around the room before eventually setting a heavy stack of books and supplies down on the table. Leo offered a wave, picking himself up from the counter and leaving the kitchen. "Looks like you were having fun," Maescia remarked, before her voice lowered, glancing over at Eris. "Maybe if she's asleep she'll stop killing my plants."

"Nope, I'm up. Sorry," she replied groggily, sitting up before gesturing in the general direction of Maescia's partially withered flowers. They seemed to spring back to life to a degree, although to a far lesser extent than what he was used to witnessing.

"Coffee?" Leo offered, raising the pot in her general direction. Eris promptly rolled her eyes, and it was at that point he realized there was barely any of the substance left. "Oh, well, I can make another."

Maescia cleared her throat. "Before you do that, I'm going to need your necklace back for a moment." He raised his eyebrows but said nothing, handing the pendant back to her.

Blitz listened as Leo explained about his appearance, or former appearance, as it were. "Well, perhaps not for both of us, then." Blitz said. "If anything, I discovered quite a number of years ago that my own magic was having a very opposite effect on me - my body still functions and resembles that of a human, but the more I transform, the closer to a machine my body becomes. I suppose I should be concerned, but part of it I didn't exactly get a say in," he added with a slight chuckle, gesturing with his mechanical arm. "But on a more serious note - someone tried to 'cure' you? Is that 'cure' as in free you from the constraints and negative aspects of your 'new' magic, or was that attempt closer to what the fellows in the forest earlier might have called 'cure'?" Blitz asked.

Afterward, Blitz napped, much as Eris had chosen to do earlier. When he awoke, the old elf was walking back in, making a comment about Eris killing her plants, which didn't seem like her. Then again, she didn't use much magic compared to normal mages, Blitz thought. In her own way, maybe she's keeping it on a short leash, too. Surprisingly, the old elf asked for the pendant once again, which to Blitz, said one of two things - either she wanted a second look at the mess she was tasked with trying to untangle, or she had an idea for helping his situation somewhat. Possibly both, but Leo would no doubt call that overly-optimistic. "So, any progress on unraveling the reason why Leo decided to blow his top when it wasn't in-season?" Blitz asked, standing up and tucking his hands into his pockets. "Because being able to predict - or at least reasonably guess - when Leo might flip that switch sounds like a good way for those in the immediate vicinity to remain healthy."

Blitz paused, glancing up at Shoop. "Really? Nothing to add to that?" Blitz asked.

"Not when you're right." Shoop said.

He gestured toward Eris for a moment, before shrugging. "Closer to the fellows in the forest, but a different group. They're all dead now." Of course, that was the logical conclusion, considering that series of events had played out about a thousand years before their current conversation, but Leo had felt the need to add it, for emphasis if nothing else. That was a lie, he knew some part of himself still took satisfaction in the thought of vengeance carried out, despite how hollow it been at the time. Knowing the end result had helped in that department, after all, he was no longer desperate to find any solution, a search that had included signing himself up for a war, to undo what had been done.

As Blitz addressed Maescia there was a mild discomfort that rose within Leo, like eavesdropping on a conversation when the topic was oneself. It quickly amounted to something more than mild, however, as the metal mage continued. Yet again he failed to comprehend a crucial aspect of his situation, one which Leo, well, he thought he had reiterated it enough times already. "You do realize I could tell you myself, right?"

"Are you going to, though?"

Leo winced, knowing the truth behind her statement. "I can try. At the same time, I think it's a bit obvious...." he trailed off.

Maescia shook her head, dismissing the topic. "As entertaining as an alarm system would be, that's over complicated and should be unnecessary," she said, gaze falling to Leo. "Tell me about your childhood."

His eyes widened, blinking a few times. "I beg your pardon?"

"The seal will work better the more specified to one area it is, to one era, for that matter. Unfortunately I can't create a direct link to your birth place since we're not there, but I can try to replicate one based on your own recollection. The Glacial Flats, was it?"

He sighed. "Yeah, that."

There were certain things he didn't like discussing. Hell, they had already covered a plenitude of topics on that list of his that evening. But what Maescia asked was personal, deeply so. It was not something he could recount matter-of-factly, if anything he recalled the sentiments better than any concrete image, other than one. That was only one branch his reluctance stemmed from, however, the other regarded who exactly was in the room at the moment. Then, again, another aching question pressed his mind. What was he doing, following her instruction? He wanted to be whole, complete. "I mean, it basically looked like Trillium?" Leo replied, very clearly half-assed. Maescia merely shook her head in disappointment.

"Try again. And don't you dare tell me you forgot."

"I haven't," he answered, gaze falling to the floor. "Blitz, do you mind, ah, not listening for a second?"

Blitz made a 'pfft' noise with a mild smirk - if not for the subject matter, it likely would have been a full-on chuckle. "Leo, both of us were born over a thousand years ago. Marking everyone who's not still around as something we can't talk about strikes a LOT of subjects off the conversation list." he pointed out. "Though I do get if it's something you'd rather not talk about. Lord knows I had my life endangered a time or two, but while I'm glad to have survived, there are a few of said occasions I'm not keen on getting chatty about."

When Blitz turned to ask the older elf about the seal, Leo pointed out that he could, in fact, just let him know, though the old elf replied with the response on Blitz's mind before the metal mage himself could. "She's got a point, you know," Blitz added. "You tend to play things rather close to the vest. What little I do know about you has been stuff I either managed to piece together from hints or happened to be around for when it was something that no one else was supposed to be a witness for."

Surprisingly, the old elf asked a rather direct question - for a breakdown of Leo's childhood, which was about a direct question regarding the past as one could get. But after Leo's initial confusion, she did explain. "Makes a degree of sense," Blitz said with a slight nod of approval. "If this 'seal' has to be anchored to someplace that you give a damn about, knowing where you grew up - or at least the characteristics of it - could help in forming some new links in the protective chain of its magic."

Leo, however, seemed about as eager to talk about it as he would have if Blitz had asked - only in this case, Leo was trying to accommodate the request and struggling to do so honestly. His first answer clearly didn't fly with the old elf, as she demanded the truth. "I've seen the Glacial Flats before, Leo, and I'm fairly certain it was quite different from Trillium. Just because you lived in both doesn't make them balanced on the scale, at least as far as this magic is concerned."

Leo seemed to relent to the question, but with a stipulation - Blitz couldn't listen in. "Honestly, I'm just surprised it took this long to resort to this in order to keep secrets here." Blitz said with a slight shrug and a smile as he turned around and covered his ears with both hands.

He hadn't actually needed Maescia's rationale, soon after Leo recognized why the elf had asked such out of the blue. It was more so sheer astonishment that had conveyed his first reaction, and reluctance the second. "Well, they both have a fuck-ton of snow," Leo answered Blitz with a defeated shrug. Of course they were nothing alike, while one was home to riches unfathomable by most, the other was a barren wasteland, undoubtedly its brilliance now tainted by that which infected all of Earthland. Really, their initial similarity had been the deciding factor in Leo's decision on settling down in Trillium - Eris had possessed little opinion in the matter - but in the end it was nothing more than a superficial connection, a remedy that could only ablate the occasional longing, never truly settling it.

At least Blitz accepted his desire for privacy at last, didn't protest in a battle Leo doubted he had the will to win. "I owed you an explanation for my reprehensible actions," he replied. "But thank you for understanding." His tone was soft-spoken, some sort of deep solitude catching the end of it. Even if the man did end up listening along, all that truly mattered was that Leo didn't want to discuss it, didn't want to hear sympathy or worse, the notion that he what he had done was wrong. He had accepted the choices he had made a long time ago, no longer questioned a moral cause or how else it could have played out. His past simply was, in that respect, regret had only ever led to anguish, the yawning of an abyss not even he could see through.

Leo waited as Maescia revealed the enchantment of the pendant once more, the pain no longer striking immediately yet pounding a note of discord from deep within. Her hand was twisted in a silver string, which produced script in the air as he began. "My earliest memory is of a sunset," he began, frowning a little as he grasped at the details, wisps of what once was in his mind. "I... I think it was. My mother loved them, she would always tell stories of Sol and her chariot, being chased by wolves until the fateful day when she would slow, and the beasts would pounce. Alastair was there too, he was laughing at her, poking at the fire as he described the glimmer of sunlight that would befall his own world only on the rare occasion, smiling at the thought of being able to see it every day. It truly was beautiful, that ledge where we would often sit, even in the bitter cold my mother always insisted. It was where they were buried." The wistfulness was present in his tone, grasping for it, a reminiscence that swept up his entire being, until it was abruptly crushed by his recollection of the truth.

He shook his head. "They were wonderful parents, even though I...." Leo trailed off, wincing at the duality of the two thoughts that rose in his mind. "My father and I, we had to watch her grow old, even as we did not. I had accepted it long ago, he had taught me to. He only thought he would have had a few more years with her, but my mother got caught in a snowstorm when she had journeyed out alone. As awe inspiring as the Glacial Flats could be, they were also deadly. I was the one who found her, had to break the news to him. I... I thought Alastair would be able to handle it, but he couldn't."

His voice faltered, registering Eris grasp his hand as he relinquished his balance, leaning into her. A tight smile flickered across his lips, an attempt to block the melancholy that inevitably followed. Yes, it no longer haunted his nightmares, but there was still a profuse... he wasn't sure what the emotion was, but it was present all the same. "My father reverted back to who he had once been, and so I fulfilled my promise to him. After that, I only ever returned to visit their graves."

Blitz kept his back turned to Leo as he began to explain his childhood to the elf. While he did cover his ears, his curiosity got the better of him, and he opened up just a bit of space between his fingers to listen in - and it quickly became apparent why he wasn't keen on discussing his lineage much. I figured time heals all wounds, but I guess it makes sense that those wounds wouldn't exactly heal up all the way, Blitz thought quietly. My own moment of that was detached from time and space, centuries after the event itself actually happened, and even I felt it quite a bit.

Blitz didn't turn to look, but he did hear the sound of Eris getting up and moving over to Leo's side - from the way he spoke, it was entirely possible that this was the one part of Leo's life that Eris wasn't around for yet. Now that I think about it, I know that Eris doesn't age, much as Leo doesn't, but I remember Leo once said that their longevity was from their bloodlines, and Leo's was from his father's side, while Eris' was from her mother's side, Blitz pondered to himself. I finally managed to find out how old Leo is, but it occurs to me that I still haven't the foggiest clue how old Eris is. I assume around the same age as Leo, but given their appearances, she could be hundreds of years younger. Or older. When you're over 1400 years old, being years younger or older likely doesn't make a difference anymore.

Blitz set that thought aside for later as he focused once more as Leo continued his tale:

As the final word escaped his breath, something locked up inside him, gaze having reset to a dusted gold as his eyes fell upon Maescia's work. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, finishing a final inscription as it blackened in turn, before the visual vanished from sight and his necklace was dangled between her fingers. There was a long silence on her end, as if she was now only processing his words from an emotional perspective. Maescia opened her mouth to speak, in which he shook his head. "Don't." All Leo wanted was for it to fade away in silence, the only fitting conclusion to such a recollected tale. A part of him couldn't help but laugh at the thought of consolation, then again to be humored by such a subject in itself was a sign of madness, perhaps. It couldn't be helped, however, time had formed some blackened disconnect, maybe it was his dysfunctional moral compass trying to scream out for justice, no, that was the irrational answer, a transparent lie. For once, he was capable of comprehending the truth.

A slow nod, and Maescia disregarded his instruction, although in reality such could not be further from the case. "I hope that helped," the elf began, to nonverbal agreement on his end. "Still, it won't last forever, and as you can probably tell it's only limiting your abilities, not blocking them entirely. You're going to have to learn how to control your magic yourself, not rely on this." She threw the pendant in his general direction, not exactly accurately although Leo snatched it from the air with great speed all the same, reflexes taking over. "Roll up your sleeves, please."

He did so without question, Eris letting go of his hand. "Blitz, you can listen now," Leo stated, his voice almost raised although it was a feeble attempt. Had he truly followed his word, the metal mage likely wouldn't have even been able to hear such, but the thought passed over his own head at that very moment, logic distorted by far too many factors. Leo watched with a nearly blank expression as Maescia unraveled a spool of bright white fabric, inscribed with minute lettering that was impossible to decipher with the naked eye. He was vaguely familiar as to what such a material likely did, though, even before Maescia elucidated. That fact became even more evident as she wrapped the gauze around his forearms, a flicker of gray soaked up by it.

"This should stop any unintended magic from bleeding out into the world, so you don't keep on cracking all of the glass in my house. Granted, the moment you do anything intentional it'll be torn apart, but luckily the gauze isn't too expensive," she said, barely managing a wink. Both Leo and Eris cracked a smile in response, although it soon faded from his visage and she shook her head.

"I'm sure you probably want us to get out of your hair right about now," Eris stated.

The elf shrugged. "Well, this wasn't exactly an expected visit, but hey, I get to charge extra because of it," she answered humorously, or at least attempted it. "You can stay as long as you'd like, honestly, although your friend might be looking to get home...."

 Eris winced, although it took her words for Leo to realize why. "Could we, ah, siphon some fuel from you? The hunters may or may not have done a number on Blackjack...." she trailed off, and while he knew what Maescia's ordinary reaction would have been, the somber nod that followed was far from it.

"I only hope they won't be waiting for you at your home."

"Me too," Leo muttered, although a part of him protested even the short affirmation.