Scene #5674: You're Not Here

Owner	Pose
Kushiko	This was different from before. As much as she had felt, had been stalked and hunted, it was scarcely ever to this point, in her mind's eye as it were. The only time she felt anything even remotely close to this was when, in assisting Priscilla in Lordran, that she had been stabbed by those... /things/. It elicited a frown of consternation. Shaking her head slightly, she eased back a little--she, not the Warframe, which had walked into the deepest chamber of her Orbiter; akin to a temple, the Somatic Link which allowed her to control the Warframes. A strange misty light swirled and whorled itself behind the chair she was seated in. The chamber itself was shaped in a slightly stretched circle, though a good third of it was part of a spherical recess behind her. Numerous, brilliant white plant roots descended from a mount just above and behind where she herself was, before splitting off to a number of nodes, symmetrically behind her. Were they not looking like plants, they'd easily be seen for what they were in truth: networking and power. The chair itself, the Somatic Link was covered, but it split open as her Warframe--Valkyr--came to a stop and knelt down, and she released the control on it for the time being. With the hazy, otherworldly hellscape and mist behind her, she pinched the bridge of her nose. Scarred face looking worse for wear thanks to this... thing. The stresses she's felt in the last few weeks has been taking a number on her as she stares ahead. Her eyes glimmer faintly with the essence of the Void, a faint orchid tinge as she stood up, to stretch a little, regarding the Warframe that know knelt nearby. A distant 'woof' could be heard; seems her pet sensed she--not the Warframe, was moving instead of spending so much time within the Transference system.
Ice King	Such a great big space. Dark and light all at once. An apt metaphor for her current situation. Just as something is stalking her, something else is keeping an eye on her and her safety. Warding off the lurking danger. Something... Like a very pale girl, very pure white hair, and a ragged gown, sitting with her legs dangling off the edge of the platform nearby. Her face is obscured by the gigantic mass of hair, so long that it trails out along the ground behind her, curling this way and that, before it eventually dangles over the edge too. She has no presence. There is no indication she is there. Even when looking right at her, it's hard to put two and two together and go, 'There is someone here.' Hard to notice, hard to pay attention. Once one actually focuses on her, of course, she is noticeable. But she has all the presence of a rock or a wall or the floor she sits upon, kicking her legs back and forth. And how she got in and has not alerted anything by doing so is another mystery entirely. She does not react to Kushiko's movements initially, content to sit where she is, for now.
Kushiko	There's a great irony to be had here--these two girls, as it were. One who, even unknowingly existed between two borders (the Tenno) and this... girl. This Moonlight. She knew -- but only knew in that she espoused at least the same feeling of safety, though truthfully speaking she did not like the fact she could not properly /feel/ her there, like a normal, tangible person might be felt. "... Ordis, please turn off your sensors where I'm at until I ask you to. Monitor me if you wish, but no more. And yes, we know what you're going to say. Please do it." Even as she said this, the glitchy Cephalon had started to protest this highly unusual thing, but finally acquiesced. "As you wish, Operator." His voice made a faint blip as she herself turned and moved over, carefully. The scarring left over by a rapier-like stab to her heart some time prior presented itself on her outfit, a faintly glowing sigil of some kind as she approached. "... it's you, isn't it?" she wonders aloud, stepping around--and given the /weird/ lack of presence, she carefully steps around to sit on the edge next to her, one leg dangling, one leg bent and her arm settled on the knee.
Ice King	She turns to face Kushiko when the latter sits beside her, but her eyes are still hidden behind her hair. "No," she answers, her delicate lips remaining fixed, unmoving, when she speaks. "Your protector is connected to me. But I am not her." She then looks out over what to her is an alien environment. Or perhaps not so alien. Who knows what the Underworld Moon is like? "I am Maretta of the Hollow Children. An aspect of her. I can not tell you everything. My lips are sealed." She pauses, and despite it seeming as though she has more to say, she lets the silence linger without end, unless Kushiko speaks again.
Kushiko	Given how unnerving she herself could potentially be, it would be pretty bad form to make the same observation about Maretta here. She blinks a little, and stares at Maretta a bit more; not seeing her eyes kind of bothers her a tiny bit, her own pulsating and glimmering--the light filling her pupils but not seeming to actually hinder sight, at least. "... okay then." she starts, thinking a little to herself at first. "If you can't tell me everything, at least tell me what you can then." The mention of Hollow Children is something to ask about, certainly, but not immediately: "What exactly is hunting me?" she wonders. "I don't... we don't think anyone else really saw it, did they? Not what I saw." She looks to the tumultuousness of the light behind the throne-like chair. It's a comfort to her--it being the Void itself, a fragment, a piece of it amidst the glowing white roots that pulsed into darker and brighter states. "I've not felt like this... not in any way I can remember." She can scarcely remember the true horror of the Void itself when she was plunged into its abyss. Maybe that's why this troubles her so.
Ice King	Maretta takes some time to answer, as though trying to figure out how much she can say about the one hunting Kushiko. Eventually she turns fully to face Kushiko, resting on her palms. Her lower body does not turn with her, like her torso is on a swivel or something. She leans in as close as she can without Kushiko pulling away, and then whispers that tiger's name. "The Bogeyman." Then she just sits there like that, saying nothing else. Apparently, that is supposed to be sufficient. The incarnation of fear. The one who snatches away children. The thing that has haunted many cultures throughout human civilization. And he has targeted Kushiko specifically. Perhaps that is enough indeed. If she does not know who that is... It should not be hard to find out.
Kushiko	... okay, that's a little bit on the really weird side. Her eyes widen and she actually stiffens a little as she pulls away juuust a bit, mostly because of that whole /lower body not moving/. The scarred Tenno makes a slight noise as she rolls that scrap of information over in her head. For what it's worth, be it because of centuries of cryogenic sleep screwing with her memories, or not even being told what she was, only that she needed to /wake up/... no, there's probably nothing like it at all in her memory, or nothing beyond the teeming hellscape that is the Void itself. "... I've never heard of it. But it's... not something that should be." she murmurs softly after a seemingly long moment of contemplation. "What exactly is it? What can I do about it? Is there even anything I can do about it?"
Ice King	Maretta leans back slowly after delivering her answer, and turns again, in that swivel-body manner, to look out at this place that Kushiko calls home. She again has to think about what she can say. What she knows enough to say. "He sits the throne in the Crimson Palace. Fear is his play thing. Nightmares too." Then she thinks on what can be done about him. What Kushiko can do to protect herself. She does not have to think quite as long about this one. "Get him, before he gets you."
Kushiko	The purple-haired girl blinks a few times. Blinks several times. Well, that was obvious, at least to some degree. But the question was, /how/, at least? It did not concern her to sacrifice herself. This was something that was indoctrinated into her, into her fellow Tenno. Yet here in this place, there was a sense, a will to resist throwing herself away recklessly. She stared into the roiling smoke and mist, the shimmering cascade of unknowable ... /things/. She looked to her hand for a moment. Energy coalesced around her fingertips, coursing up and down her hand, then her forearm and into her chest. "... me, not my Warframe, right?" she asks, looking over to where it was. "... why did she protect me?" Interestingly, the question is twofold: once upon a time, she was close to death here. Valkyr, bereft of her guiding influence, had somehow managed to stop her assailant, which was thought to be impossible for it--for her, to act. However, the question was more about this... Mother Moon, whatever, whomever it was.
Ice King	The no-presence girl does not answer the question about who should do the fighting. She just lowers her head to look down. The question of 'why' likewise gets no verbal response. She just shakes her head. But after some time, she does say, "There is another." Then she turns her head again to look at the girl beside her. "Meet me on the Moon. I can tell you everything there." A message once said to Priscilla and Finna. Now repeated for one who was not there to see Luna Terra, the temple city where the followers of Luna once dwelled, now plated over in black steel, filth, and fire. She starts to get up, her joints creaking in a very artificial-sounding way. Not like bones. Prosthetics, maybe? Or is this body she has been coming to see people with, perhaps not too dissimilar from the war frame that Kushiko herself uses? Even if... Far more ghostly.
Kushiko	To the Moon. A familiar sentiment, though this one came loaded not with double, but even triple meaning. Her Moon, known as Lua. The Moon described in a certain play. And of course, the Moon in the reality of Lumiere itself. She stayed still, watching at first before moving to stand as well. "... fine," she acquiesces. She wants to know, needs to know more. A particular instinct demands it, in some small way, she herself keeping an eye on the presenceless girl for a few moments. But something also felt... weirdly right, as it should be. "If it'll get more... are you the only one of these, 'Hollow Children'?" she wonders, before she moves towards her seat.
Ice King	She does not have to hestiate this time as she spins on her heel, gown swishing with her movements. "The Hollow Children are my creations. My family. And they are many." She then bows her head. "Please be careful. The Bogeyman is not like other foes. There is nowhere safe from him. Especially not in dreams." Then she is gone. No fanfare, no visual effects. It may even take a moment to realize the space where she stood is empty. There was no change in presence after all. The meeting was short. But Kushiko now has information she can start looking into. And she knows her stalker's name.
Kushiko	That... is problematic information to get, actually. It's a troubling parallel to be drawn, and she's silent for several moments, much as she can nod in acknowledgement to that bow. And once she has left, she speaks. To herself. To her Warframe. "We have dreamed too long ourselves, to ever consider that place solace anymore," she murmurs to herself. Her eyes close, and Valkyr rises, stepping over to where she is, looking at her, looking through herself. She reaches, drawing her fingers over the faint, glimmering sigil, marking her encounter with a stalker of a different flavor. "I know." she softly murmurs. "But fear cannot be allowed to rule us." She sighs quietly. "Ordis, restore sensor systems. We're going." On that, Valkyr stalks her way out, the enclosure around her shifting back into place, sealing and locking her in place. To the Moon. One more time...