Scene #9697: Shadow Puppetry

Owner	Pose
Tamiel Luxis	In downtime, she had to leave the Suitcase open for people to come in and out of, to take part in the rebellion. That's why it was so important. But that didn't stop Tamiel from worrying about it...The Foundation knew it too, and they'd be hunting for a chance to take their biggest advantage, she was sure. Tamiel spent too long hunting for the perfect place. The room she picked had a window, overlooked by a black shape on the roof above, with a storage room to retreat into. She put another shadow on duty watching the door out. Down the hall. She picked a place to let the suitcase rest out of sight of the window, and she strained her wings, listening for unfamiliar magic as best she could, ready to jump and hide the suitcase again. And then she was done. And all there was to do was wait, and pace, and wait. Tamiel's mother had once told her that war was mostly marches, and long, achingly dull days. The angel wondered, if it might have felt a little bit like this. Eventually, hunger outwore worry, and Tamiel plucked a bit of granola out of her bag, chewing at it bit by little bit. At some point, she'd stolen a chair to sit on--not a guard that Sotheby had turned into one, Tammy hoped--and sat in it sideways, to give her wings a little room to breathe. Absently, she fiddled with a keychain latched to her belt, a little rainbow wing, willing time to pass more quickly.
Regulus	Regulus is honestly feeling a lot better now that the rebellion has started. Like a coil that has been wound down to the tightest point, the fact that she finally gets to rebel against the Foundation overtly rather than covertly is like this wonderful release. In her mind, this isn't just about her though. It's about Vertin, it's about Schneider, and it's about every arcanist that seeks shelter in the future. Some people will just never really trust the Foundation. They need a place besides the Manus to go to and, well, right now? It's not like the Foundation is really acting in a way that's luring in Regulus's trust. Now that they've pushed the Foundation out of the building they're in, she isn't too worried. The Foundation wasn't exactly knowledgeable about how to access the Warpgate inside the Suitcase and if the Foundation is able to push past all the rebels and reach the Suitcase, well, they'd be screwed anyway. No use worrying about it. "Yo, Tamtam!" Regulus is pretty scruffed up from running around the building all day as she's discovered a newfound love for obstacle courses after all, she's been running and jumping like crazy to make use of all that excess energy. "Cute keychain, do you got a second? I wanted to check with you about that pact arcanum you were talking about."
Tamiel Luxis	"Yo, Tamtam!" Tamiel raises her hand in a wave, and nervous flick of a smile. She was jealous, a little bit, of how easy dealing with this had come to Regulus. A fish to water, she thrived here, in this moment of opposition. "Hi, Regulus." She was grateful to have something, ANYTHING else to focus on, right now. When she brings up her keychain, her grin gets a little more earnest, and her eyes slip briefly down. "Thanks, it's my favorite." "Pact..." There's a brief pause, while she rolls things over in her head. "...Yeah. Did I not explain it clearly enough?" Immediately, she assumed there was some kind of mistake with the way that she'd described it. "I could talk it over more, if you'd like..."
Regulus	Regulus believes she has to lift up her people's spirits as a general rule and that goes double for people who are actually in the Watch as opposed to being part of the rebellion purely because the Foundation really needed one. "I heard the rainbow was adopted by, uh..." She trails off, realizing she was about to ask something private. "Well, I dig it obviously. Love colors and there's a real groovy gradiant here." She pauses and adds, "Uh," She rubs at her neck. "Not really. I think I got it. I make a promise with you and then you can help me with some arcane tricks?" She hesitates. "I mean, if you want. I figured it might come in handy and I don't know what the Foundation'll do in response, but I know I've been really grumpy lately so no worries if you don't wanna give it a go."
Tamiel Luxis	"Not really. I think I got it..." "Oh? Oh!" Tamiel blinks, rapidly, as she realizes exactly what Regulus means. "Yeah, that's how it goes. We'd just need something to promise..." She thinks it over, for a moment. She gestures for Regulus to sit down, next to her. "I don't really think you've been that grumpy, Regulus." She mused aloud. "I wasn't thinking so much. I just...Wanted to feel like there was something I could do better. Something I could change. I...Never want something like that to happen again." Schneider hadn't been lost to the Storm, as it happened, but to Tammy, not being able to keep Druvis from penning the three in and not being able to keep Schneider safe in the storm, had all retroactively blended into the same failure. "I think you're all so cool, you know?" She reached into her shadow, pinched, molded it, like clay in her hands. "You're just living your life, doing your best. Fighting for your world." She shaped it into a lump. "I feel like I'm just...Along for the ride. If there are people I could learn better from, I thought it'd be people like you." "...Anyway. Of course I'd do it." She brushes the hair out from in front of her face, "...About the promise, though. There's this trick, I've been kind of scared to try. You know those critters I can make." "Want one?"
Regulus	Regulus has been thinking about what kind of promise she'd make. Naturally, she's not someone who feels too keen on binding herself to rules, but there are things she does believe in and is happy to devote herself to. Maybe she does have a little bit of something in common with Sonetto. "Most people who seem so cool to you are kind of performing being cool, you know that right?" Regulus tells Tamiel. "I mean, you can be 'cool' for real too, but it's really a wing it until it's real state of being." She sheepishly looks away. She'd never been in the position of being 'looked up to' before by people who weren't substantially younger than her or at least more seriously in the music business. "But it was pretty brave joining a 'rebellion' that I'm in charge of keeping together. I'm experienced in protest, sure, but it's not like I've any experience in winning them so much as surviving them." She hesitates and admits, "I'm more of a survivor than a victor I guess." ''You know those critters I cna make. Want one?'' "Oh! I didn't know it was also like pet adoption! You know, I bet APPLe would be thrilled, he's saying I could learn some practice being 'responsible'. What do I gotta do?"
Tamiel Luxis	"Most people who seem so cool to you are kind of performing being cool, you know that right?" "But you did." She reiterated, emphatically. "I looked your time up. The way they treated people. All the things they called 'indecent.' The things you risked, to give people a taste of something they'd never have a chance to know..." "People calling the things you did frivolous, or silly, or or ridiculous...Wasn't a lot of that people in charge, trying to make people like you seem small? Like it didn't matter?" She realizes, belatedly, how intense she'd gotten, and pulls away, wincing. "...Sorry." "But it was pretty brave joining a 'rebellion' that I'm in charge of keeping together." "I guess...But, everyone else always has such a bigger stake than me..." Her voice was dubious. "...I'm not really saying that for sympathy. If the Psychoportal thing had gone really badly, eventually the storm would have stopped, someone would have dug me up, and I'd have gotten better." "How is something brave, when everyone else has put so much more on the line than you? Isn't that unfair? Isn't that nasty...?" She doesn't look at Regulus. "It's something different, you know it is. I think it was more brave trusting me with the suitcase. I know I can be..." She trails off, continuing to coax the shadow between her hands. "Anyway." "So, my main arcanum is actually animating shadows, not controlling them. I keep them connected to me, so I feel what they can, and they stay extensions of me...Because..." She scratches behind her head. "Well...Isn't it a little evil, to bring something to life, just to be...FOR something?" "But, if they can have a life of their own, if they're treated like more than that, maybe it would be okay." She bites her lip. "...And, next time, maybe I could use their help." "Anyway." The angel cleared her throat, "So...This would be my first critter that's really its own...being." "What do I gotta do?" "Keep it fed with light," Tamiel said, matter-of-fact. "Pay attention to it. Tell me if anything goes wrong. Play with it, maybe... Basically...Promise you'll look after it." "...What kind of animal would you like it to be?"
Regulus	Regulus stalls for a moment, because she's someone who doesn't usually like to talk about her past and here her past is being brought up. But it isn't just that. Her past is being brought up but the only reason it is her past--and not her present--is because of Vertin and the Storm. Is this a 'past' she's willing to talk about or does she stick to her values and say none of that matters anymore? "I mean, even if you're 'innocent', it's pretty easy to end up in a cell." She mumbles. "H-hey don't apologize. You apologize too much, you know that? You should save apologies for when you--well, you shouldn't instinctively apologize, I mean--if you do that, how do I know if the apology is real or just ... you doing instinct?" She paces around a bit, vaguely frustrated. "...But yeah, sure, I mean--sometimes I am a little silly or ridiculous though, that's part of the fun of life. And I guess I was feeling small and like what everything I did didn't matter and that's why I got upset, but it's right. I mean. An hour of life is worth fighting for." But she's kind of dancing around the point, isn't she? She looks to Tamiel, "Do you think there isn't any risk for you in all this? I mean, I'll take as much of the hit I can to shield all of you, but ..." She exhales. "I'm sure there's stuff back home you have to fight for too. This isn't a fight of one era, it's a fight that's almost always going on. If it's not about what we can wear, it's about who we can love. And if it's not about who we can love, it's about who we can be." "And uh. Does your 'stake' matter? I mean, isn't it cooler if you're helping out just because it's the right thing to do? And I wanted to show I trusted you and -- you did it, right? You kept it safe. You did your job." And you didn't almost clamp it shut, dooming the entire rebellion! ''Isn't it a little evil, to bring something to life, just to be...FOR something?'' Regulus blinks. "Huh? I don't know..." Regulus thinks this over. "Isn't it better being alive than not being alive? But I mean, I'm not going to be mean to an animal. I'll do my best to look after it--" She trails off. "Is that, uh, the capital P Promise? Can I make it two Promises actually? Because there's a capital P Promise I really want to make, but I'm willing to make it two." What kind of animal? "Oh can it be a totally sick lion?" She brightens.
Tamiel Luxis	"...if you do that, how do I know if the apology is real or just ... you doing instinct?" "I'm--" A pained expression comes across Tammy's face, as she forces herself to redirect course. "--Going to try to keep that in mind." She says, lamely. "I mean. An hour of life is worth fighting for." "...It is." How many people did Tammy fail to save, when she stopped trying to help them? Was that the Storm, or--? "Yeah. A short life doesn't make it worth less. Not...Really." "If it's not about what we can wear, it's about who we can love. And if it's not about who we can love, it's about who we can be." "Yeah." She murmured. "...You have something you stand for. You put your foot down, and say, 'no more.' Something you've made up your mind to fight for." "I mean, isn't it cooler if you're helping out just because it's the right thing to do?" "It's--" Tamiel grimaced. She couldn't agree that the stakes didn't matter, that what people had to lose hadn't been involved. But, in the face of Regulus' speech, she was forced to admit, it was "--Something." "A lion works great." She nods, briskly, already urging the dark into a feline shape. "And, yeah, two promises is doable."
Regulus	"Hey, hey, I'm not trying to get your goat here, it's just ... I don't know. You always seem sad and nervous but you're actually really helping Vertin and me out, I'd feel bad if you don't have some pride in that, you know? Maybe it doesn't feel real yet because we haven't succeeded yet? But no matter what they say, every little bit helps, and--you're the one who is letting a target be painted on your chest. So it's real and meaningful to me. I know there's battles in the past you couldn't make, but you shouldn't let that dictate your future, love." She remembers to lower her shades long enough to wink at Tamiel. "Time's gotta move forward. That's what we're fighting for. And you'll have your own stories to impress people with before long." She slides her shades back up. "Alright! It's gotta be lion, cause I'm Regulus after all! So let's see... I Promise to take good care of this critter..." And then she thinks of her second capital P Promise. "And I Promise to look after the needs of every citizen of the Suitcase." She punches her fist into her palm. "How's that, love?"
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel's brows knitted together, and and her wings briefly shone, many colors, as she met Regulus' eyes. "The Oath is made." She intones, her voice full of a resonance otherwise lacking from her voice, the girl coming as close as she had ever been to seeming divine. "To safeguard this little Lion, and all the inhabitants of the Suitcase, now and after. Let this power be ease your mission." Something invisible passes through and into Regulus, settling in her bones, a something that feels the same way looking at the gleam of the sun off new-fallen snow collecting in the same place her heart would be--before the feeling fades, not gone, but fading rapidly into the background of sensation, like the thrum of a heartbeat. "That was great." Tamiel's wings droop, her anxious smile crawling back over her face. "Now, let's make you a lion..."
Regulus	''To safeguard this little Lion.'' "Huh?" Regulus blinks. She didn't add the qualifer little there! She didn't know there was a size limit! But Tamiel using her ability to say this out loud, resonant, and without any elipses gets Regulus to clam up outside of that. It's surprising what a little bit of capital P Presence can do. Lots of capital letters today. She feels a little strange, at first, but the worry fades quickly as the feeling subsides. These are easy promises to keep. Well, one is easy to keep, the other is a 'well let's see' level of difficulty. "Uh, wow, fab--you were totally in the zone for a second there, Tamiel!" In honor of Tamiel being in the zone, she gets the full Tamiel naming experience! "Is there anything else I gotta do?"
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel released the shadow, and backed up. She abandoned manual manipulation of the shadows, instead spurring it onward. Two large ears fluffed at the back of its head, and a tail curled out, tuft at the end, on a body sleek and black. It grow longer and longer, until it settled, incredibly large for a housecat and absolutely tiny for a lion. "Is there anything else I gotta do?" At first, Tamiel shows no sign of having even heard Regulus, before, with a sharp gesture, cutting the shadow between her and the lion apart. It immediately looks around, startled, big eyes focused on Tamiel first, then regulus. "Let it stay in your shadow for a bit," Tamiel says, tired. "Imprint on you." She cracks her knuckles. "That's it!" "...And, good luck."
Regulus	Regulus says, "Oh! What a precious!" Tamiel can just make shadowrable entities just like that?! "Oh--oh, it looked scared there okay, oh i didn't know they'd be scared..." She approaches the lion and gestures to the shadow. "Hang in there, cutey, um, just ... paw if you want to be let out?" ''...And, good luck.'' As the little lion enters her shadow, Regulus looks startled at Tamiel. "Good luck? ... Ah, I mean, I'll do my best, Tam. Thanks for giving me a shot and trusting me. I'll make sure they've got a good home." Now she feels a little awkward about actually using this critter to help with her goals of protecting the suitcase and getting the word out to the Foundation about the purpose of the rebellion but um .... look, it sounds pretty easy to feed, right?