Edo-Karn, Karn, and Ariel - Phoenix Wing Hotel
@Silver Fox@t2waveHaving returned to the guilds hotel for the night, Ariel went to bed pondering if she could help Karn. By then she had already changed to her Spirit magic and thus far had no luck. How the magic worked was a complete mystery to her. So far anything it did had been involuntary. And this would be no different because as Ariel slept her magic kicked in.
What could only be described as an out of body experience, Ariel's spirit rose from her body. Floating in the air she saw herself sleeping in bed. Quite confused for a moment she floated to the door and found that she passed right through objects. What was going on? Either this was her magic again or she was dreaming. Not restricted by walls she floated around to see that others were sleeping.
"Hello. Hello! Anyone!" Try as she might though no one seemed to hear or see her for that matter. This was definitely strange.
After a while she went back to her body but couldn't get back in it. What was the deal? Did she have to do something first? Half an hour passed before she really tried to relax and think. Once she cleared her mind Ariel felt drawn toward Karn's room. Following the feeling she could sense that there were two souls in Karn's body. One was extremely weak but they seemed to be trying to fill a void. Making a mistake Ariel moved closer and felt herself being pulled in with the other two souls. Unable to escape she was drawn in like Edo-Karn had been before her.
Edo-Karn had a long day, to say the least. It took her awhile to even fall asleep with the chattering noises within her mind, or the thousands of thoughts of the current problems and possible solutions that she was trying to sift through for the best possible outcome. Throughout the day, she promptly avoided talking to most of the Phoenix Wing members, other than a few who seemed to wish to speak with her. But after hanging around at the stadium and then returning to the hotel, taking a few hours to just lay there and having conversations with herself, sleep finally overtook her.
When Ariel's spirit entered the soul inhabited body, Karn's body mildly shifted but didn't stir. Within, it was a black realm. Some white tiny little orbs floating about like fireflies. A red line among the floor was carved into the black ground. Red chains edging around it and seeping to the right side of it, pulling and tugging at something in that direction, while the right side was a bit lighter and more white. Slowly revealing a forest.
Not too far in, a blue butterfly fluttered among the bushes before the green undergrowth rustled before a little creature pounced out to swat at the fluttering creature. It looked like Karn's Eastern Chimera form, but in cub form. The little cub had smaller black horns and tufts of mane were growing around the neck and on top of its head. Long tail flicking about in a wagging manner. Draconic scales along the shoulders and thighs that weren't as thick as its grown up version. Tiny sabertooth fangs sticking out from the upperlip and passing over the chin a little. Glowing green eyes, and the creature was about the size of a large cat.
"Hey. Come back!" The feline like creature chirped, Karn's voice ringing from it as he lept up at the butterfly, cubby paws swatting at the butterfly.
To say that Ariel was confused would be an understatement. This was like a whole different world, albeit a rather empty one. Easily distracted a moment she reached out to one of the floating orbs. Before touching it though she noticed the red line and began to follow it with her eyes. Was something on the other end? Focus not being this personalities strong suit she would have probably continued following the movement had she not heard Karn's voice.
Spinning around she took a moment to process what she was seeing. Karn did have transformation magic so it shouldn't be that surprising. "Karn!" Forgetting that it was probably weird for her to be where she was she ran over to Karn and put him in a hug. "You're alright. The other Karn made it sound like you weren't feeling well."
Letting out a little mewl of surprise as he was suddenly scooped up, the cub blinked and looked up at the person holding him, giving a friendly purr, raising a paw to slightly paw at Ariel's chin. "Copycat! Hiya! Whatcha doin here?" Karn chirped cheerfully, tilting his head as the girl mentioned another Karn and he thought for a moment and nodded.
"Oh, Eddy. Yeah. She's been pretty great. Don't see her much cause she keeps to her side. Says if she gets too close she'll suck me in or somethin. But, I get to play here all I want. Pretty fun." he mused before perking his ears with a happy cheerful smile.
Karn's mood wasn't what Ariel was expecting. Was this how someone "gives up?" For a moment the girl had a perplexed expression on her face before managing a smile. Karn was far too cute to ignore. "Yeah. She told me that too. Something like if she's stuck in here for too long then she'll disappear and live your life." Pondering it for a moment it clicked in her head. "She also said that you had given up. I don't quite understand because you don't look unhappy."
Taking a moment to admire the forest it slowly dawned on her what was going on. This was like some sort of dream. Not her dream, but Karn's. And perhaps the other side was Edo-Karn's. It would be nice if she understood how to properly use this magic. Involuntarily astral projecting herself could be dangerous. "I'm not completely sure how I got here. The Spirit magic confuses me most of the time. But I am pretty sure I'm here for you." Kneeling down she set Karn on the ground. "The others in the guild are worried about you. And if we don't do something soon then one of you may be gone forever."
Karn purred as he was held before being set down. Ears flicking at her words and whiskers twitching. For a brief moment his emerald gaze flickered sadly but soon brightened again as he gave a yawn and stretched out. Rolling onto his back and rolling about in the cool grass. "Well I'm not. This place is great! And I can stay in here and do whatever I want. Be with whoever. It's nice. Eddy can control my body. She's a fast learner. Can make tough decisions but still be nice. Even if she's a bit hard to get along with at first. The others will do alright, and if we merge, then they won't realize I'm gone. So... Maybe disappearing isn't so bad. Maybe it'll be like a eternal dream that I won't wake up from." Karn said in such a chirpy manner, despite the fact he just said he wouldn't mind disappearing and just living... A dream. It sounded nice. Living a dream was way easier then living reality. So if his other self wanted to live that way, he wouldn't stop her.
Somewhat hard to argue with a dream world. If it can be any way you want then the only catch is it isn't real. "Eddy made it sound like she would be the one going away. That's not really fair to her considering she is the one keeping you alive. What if the roles were switched and you wanted to live?" That sounded more judgmental than she had planned on it. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply..." Deciding to drop the thought she tried to think of reasons to stay around.
Karn did say he could do and see what and whoever he wanted. Maybe there was part of this that she didn't fully grasp. "I don't understand what's wrong with the real world. All your friends are there and are real. Sure it isn't perfect, but that's what makes the good times good."
Karn's ears twitched a little before lowering a little at his counterpart's price in this. She was suffering now because of this situation. The magic forcing itself to delve side effects within her mind... To help make her give up. Surrender. He was promptly turning a blind eye to it. He didn't know why she just didn't end it by ending him yet. "Yeah. She's facing side effects. And even though if my soul is destroyed, memories of Eddy is erased either way. Even if she got back, her friends wouldn't remember her. She still keeps trying though. Someone like that is better off out there. While I can stay here..." Karn answered, rolling on to his paws and crouching. Wiggling his haunches befor pouncing on a rock. He knew he was being selfish. He was tired of it all though.
As Ariel questioned further and pointed out his friends from the real world, his whiskers twitched again. "But not ALL of them are there in reality. Ru.... Rian... Mother.... Hemlock... They are not there. And all that happens when I'm out there... Is that everyone dies. Mother died. Father and brother loathe me. Ru.... Died and was skinned. Rian... She's surely dead. Hemlock.... I couldn't save him, I couldn't save anyone. He died and ZZ lost his only family. Lost his precious father because of me. Those people Damian killed. I couldn't save them either. I couldn't save any of them. No one. It's my fault. So I'm tired of it. I don't want reality anymore. Everyone is better off without me." he said softly, leaping off the rock and turning away from his guest.
"So just leave me alone, and let me disappear." he finished in a softer somber tone, his back to his Guildmate.
Ariel sat quietly and listened. There was apparently a lot she didn't know about. At lot of it Karn blamed himself for. She of course couldn't entirely tell if it was his fault or not. She had no idea what had transpired which all the events he talked about. Right now she wished she could read minds so she could get a better picture of what happened. "I see. Just because you weren't able to prevent something doesn't make it your fault Karn." Standing up she looked around. Maybe Eddy could give her some insight to what Karn was talking about. Or maybe one of those people he was talking about were around.
"I'll be back. Actually, I don't really know if I can actually leave. I got pulled in here too." Figuring Karn needed some time to think she turned and headed toward where she saw the red. Hopefully whatever could happen to Karn wouldn't happen with her too. Then again she didn't have any plans of dying.
Karn's ears flicked as Ariel spoke but didn't respond until he watched her go. "Take care." the feline said before turning and bouncing along the forest. Trying to enjoy himself again in his dreamlike world.
Further along the red chains, whispers could be heard. It started out small, but it became louder and more numerous from all around. Too many chattering to really understand it all. It was like being at a night club, constant noise in the darkness. Eventually the chains ended with Edo-Karn. She had a bit longer blonde hair, ratty and unkempt, looked a bit like a mane. She didn't have a shirt on, but her entire chest was replaced with complete metal instead of flesh. A red circular light on the left side of her chest where her heart should be. Metallic wiring along her arms and wrists and over her spine. Looking like a metallic skeleton over the skin. Wearing raggy brown cargo pants. The red chains cuffs firmly around her throat, Wrists and ankles while red chains were draped over her body. It seemed to be trying to pull her in the direction of Karn, but she remained sitting there and ignoring it.
She was sitting on the floor, several figures all around her chattering up a storm, but seemed to be playing some sort of card game with a tall red haired woman.
"Fuck it! Fuck you! You bloody cheated you bitch!" the red head shouted loudly and angrily from her cross legged sitting position as she glared between the cards on the ground and at her opponent across from her. Her massive heavy armor clinking as she slammed powerful angry fists against the floor. The cards shaking from the impact.
"No. You're just a dumb oaf. Maybe you shouldn't be a sore loser. Idiot." she said in a blunt bored tone.
"Fuck you!"
"Flattered. Really. But no thanks."
"Agh your such a annoying piece of shit!"
"And you're a dumbass. Next statement."
"At least I'm not some high and mighty whore! Ash you agree right?!" the red head shouted before snapping her blue gaze to look at a taller but lanky boyish dirty blonde girl who was eating a lollipop but froze in place.
The tall dirty blonde glanced between the two uncomfortably as she continued sucking on the piece of candy.
"Don't bring her in on your stupidity."
"Shut up! I'm not stupid, your stupid!"
"Says the one who lost to a basic trap."
"Shut up! I was going easy! Again! Let's play again!"
"Can we not? Listening to you two argue is giving me a migraine." Pen said with annoyance as he sat in a chair boredly. The red haired man giving a annoyed with.
"How immature." Maddox spoke with a gruff grunt as he sat across from Pen, leaning back with his feet on the table.
"Bet you Karn wins for the tenth time." Mayat spoke boredly as she lied down on a bench, Trinity sitting on the ground in front of it. Skimpy clothes with highlights in her hair.
"Never know! Maybe Alex sweetie will win one this time." Trinity chirped cheerfully.
"Doubtful." Damian spoke as he seemed to be cleaning his blade.
"Kids sure are energetic." a huge tanned and battle scarred man bellowed with long mane like brown hair and wearing armor.
"They are all idiots." a smaller black haired woman, wearing what looked like a steampunky engineer outfit as she fiddled with some equipment beside the man at a table.
"Least she's alive. I'm over here kinda dead. No biggee or anything." James spoke up, armor stained in blood and the front of him looking quite gauged out. Face bloody and looking a bit crush and hallow.
"Oh shut up no one cares at this point James." Maddox spoke.
"Hey! You shut up before I kill you again!" Damian growled.
"Would you all shut the fuck up?! I'm trying to think here!" Alex snapped loudly.
"Oh thinking. You? That's new." Edo-Karn said sarcastically with a smartass smirk as she watched the red head time angrily before looking toward Ariel. Emerald gaze narrowing in examination. "Hey there Mermaid. First time I see you here. Odd." she mused as she shuffled the deck of cards.
It was odd seeing somewhat familiar faces with unfamiliar characteristics. This must have been the equivalent to what Karn was talking about. Or perhaps the opposite since they didn't seem to get along all that great. After some squabbling Edo-Karn acknowledged Ariel's presence. Although it seemed she thought it was another imaginary person. Hello again. It's actually me by the way. Remember the Spirit magic I mentioned before? Apparently it allowed me to come here. Well, actually I got too close and I got pulled in but you get the idea."
She made her way passed the others and looked closer at the chains. Well that definitely counted as being trapped here. On impulse she gave it a tug to see how strong it was. It was pretty clear that no amout of pulling was going to break it. "Hmh. Do you know anything about the people Karn blames himself for killing? It would be helpful if I knew more about what happened to them."
Edo-Karn gave the girl the same calm unreadable expression the blonde usually carried before returning her emerald gaze to the cards as she continued to shuffle them. Ignoring most of the chatter ringing in the area by the other figures. "It's a bit more difficult to tell what is real and not real from inside here. But sure, magic, why the hell not? Not too much I won't accept at this point. Ya know, with the whole soul snatching to another world thing. So yeah, I'll just go ahead and accept what your saying is real. At least you're not telling me to kill someone, so that's a start." she answered before placing down starting to flick cards at the tall red haired woman and herself. Glancing her emerald eyes toward Ariel at the question, the blonde hummed for a moment as she tried to think of a answer.
"His memories come in bits of pieces to me, but some of his painful ones do stand out a bit. When he was a kid he wanted to go fishing with his mother, they went and a sudden storm hit. His mother drowned and he survived. The counterpart of her I suppose." Edo-Karn said, tilting her head towards a unhealthy skinny woman in a chair. Mumbling and rambling, occasionally cackling. Blonde hair ragged and unkempt and wearing a simply white dress.
Picking up another card, the Edolian continued. "The rest of his family attempted to kill him. Then a giant dragon cat thing named Ru and a woman named Rian came along and basically adopted him. They got separated, and a couple of months ago on a job, your Karn discovered Ru's skinned pelt. He went berserk and basically ripped the people who had it apart and almost murdered his blood father and brother because it was their pelt. Not too long before on a job with some Dragon boy... Zero? Zeno? Something like that with Trigger happy over there." she explained, nodding to what looked like Damian while examining her cards.
"Ended up having to kill a dragon, that I guess was number Zero's daddy, and Trigger Happy killed a bunch of people causing it so I guess he feels responsible for not being able to save any of them and basically thinks he practically murdered them all himself because he should of been good enough to save each life... or something." Edo-Karn finished.
"That is a lot of shit. What a big baby." Pen said boredly.
Well that certainly cleared some things up for Ariel. It wasn't everything but enough information to make a decent assumption. But right now probably wasn't a good idea to talk with Karn again. "Thank you for the information. Hopefully I can help Karn with it and get you out of here" Thinking for a moment she posed a question "Come to think of it, what happens to you if you Karn recovers? Is there anywhere for you to go?"
Edo-Karn took another glance at the wizard at the words, giving a slight nod in response to the gratitude. Ariel really did seem to be trying her best in what she could with this complicated situation. Though the blonde couldn't quite understand why she seemed to want to help her specifically. In this situation, the Edolian was more a parasite trying to take over. A unhappy one, but one that would happen eventually if not dismissed. Perhaps it was the minor kinship from sharing the blood of Edolas, or maybe just out of kindness. Either way, Karn was thankful for the attempt, even if her calm face hardly showed it.
"If he's strong enough to stand on his own, then his soul will automatically start fighting, we will most likely clash as he has little focus and control. Battle it out until someone's determination to live gives out. Could last a lot longer as it would be on equaler footing, or be a short end. My original body was sort of turned to ash and is back home... And home is far away so technically no. There is no place for me. I'm the unwilling invader." she responded.
"Going slowly insane." Maddox pointed out.
"Nah, she's already there." Pen replied nonchalantly.
Tapping her chin a bit Ariel tried to come up with a solution. This sounded very similar to Annslise. She wouldn't give up either and they managed to put her soul into an object before Fleo set her free into the world again. "Actually, I think I have a solution. I was on a job several months ago that fits this situation very closely. A woman was dying but her magic and will to live created a manifestation. At one point we had to put her in an object temporarily so she wouldn't die but we did manage to get her free again the the real world."
This could work. Although Edo-Karn knew nothing of magic so she probably couldn't survive on her own. "You probably can't do it on your own. But maybe with my magic we can make something work. First I have to get Karn to change his mind though. I doubt it will work with the chains holding you here.
Edo-Karn raised a eyebrow, along with the other figures in the area, the blonde seeming interested in this notion. "I was thinking of having to construct my own body. I made several prototypes back home but they didn't have the quite.... The exact me. Just a A.I. Actual soul transfers aren't usually a thing. As my friends back home have probably already discovered by now." she mused at the memory. Another fail safe idea if she should ever perish. Although determined not to die, didn't mean she would go unprepared for the possible situation. It would be just a sort of look a like, with metal instead of actual flesh, but it least would have programmed memories and calculations in order to keep home base able and safe. None of her friends were exactly tech savvy.
"I don't really mind having to transfer different forms if it's neccessary, but by end game when I get home, whichever form I have can't rely on magic. Edolas, although is slowly getting magic, probably got a bucket full thanks to recent breaches, is still not magic based. Magic is still cut off as your wizard friends proved when they visited. As much as I would like to test out the amount of magic currently residing in Edolas, it is preferable if my life isn't cut out in a immobile like corpse body when I drop back home in possibly the middle of nowhere." the blonde said before glancing at the chains, mildly tugging them as the jingled and snapped, trying to pull her but with little success. But still kept her from moving very far.
"Yeah, these are a little uncomfortable. And it be nice to be rid of all these voices that are trying to coax me into either giving up or randomly killing people." she said almost tiredly.
It seemed like a direction to go. Ariel didn't really know what Edo-Karn was talking about. Constructs were not entirely unheard of but they generally were animated by magic. Somehow she doubted that the technology that was being talked about here was fully develped. "I don't know how much time we have to make the body you're talking about. We may need to put you in something else in the meantime so you can instruct me on what to do. But I think it's possible to do what you're saying."
For a moment everything seemed to shake and Ariel could feel herself being cut off from the outside. The night was ending and Edo-Karn was waking up. "Wh-what's going on?" The dream world began to fade away and the opportunity for Ariel to get out closed.
For the moment Ariel was relegated to another voice in Edo-Karn's head. It did afford her the same access as the other voices though. Meaning she could see and hear the same things as Edo-Karn. "Whoa! What the heck! I can't move. Wait this isn't my... Who is this? Karn! Oh god she must have woken up. Can anyone hear me?"
