Lies Over the Ocean

[Zip]

46th Ymiden

Continued from here

Pepper’s misfortune, Fiona suddenly decided that two arms was better than one when choking the life out of her. The grip tightened twofold, and the little haze of blurred sensation that was what it could have been like to be choked to death flickered in her vision. To be sure, she didn’t know how it felt like to getting suffocated, of course, but this was a rather painfully convincing way to learn how.

Didn’t intend to find out beyond today if at all possible.

Well it’d teach her right if i fell over and disappeared mid way. Pepper didn’t know how her mind could still come up with dry observations while being choked. But disappearing wouldn’t help really. She wasn’t sure how much truth there was to it, but she had noticed she tended to dream of the same people in phases. Even if she disappeared, she’d likely end up in a similar situation within ten or twenty trials, perhaps even the next night itself.

With an even angrier, more vicious Fiona.

While Pepper’s mind was busy thinking, her body was fighting its own battle. The railing was digging cruelly into her back, and her feet were trying to find something to brace against, while her hands kept trying to push at Fiona’s arms.

Miret, give her a scare! But stay hidden! Miret returned outraged agreement and gave a loud screech from just behind Fiona. Fiona jumped and her head snapped over her shoulder and Pepper took the chance to try to pry her those wicked fingers off her delicate throat.

Well, she tried anyway.

“Haven’t answered the question.”

To be honest, Pepper was more worried staying alive, at least in the dream sense, but she didn't’t like being bullied. She had offered no violence to this Fiona, and had assured her she wouldn’t run away. Another few bits of being treated like a cross between a criminal and a toddler, and she’d take her chances being hunted in dreams. She made one more effort for form’s sake however, “Let me breathe, and we’ll talk. Let go.” A few more trills passed before she could gather enough breath for the next statement. “I said I wouldn’t run away.”

“And I said I would hunt you down like the spineless midget that you are if you did. I’m due to give Noah a little check anyway.” she said, but she did loosen the talons that were her grip anyway. Very, very slowly. She shoved off from Pepper, almost tipping her over and sending her careening into the depths. Fiona’s hands, itchy as hell, found the rail instead, closing around them in place of Pepper’s throat.

Her cold blue stare never left Pepper.

[Zip]

Pepper massaged her throat and moved convulsively to the centre of the boat. Now that she could think, she recalled all that Fiona had thrown at her. With a few trills of effort, she managed to dismiss the pain enough so it was no longer hampering her thought or emotions.

“If this is how you treat Noah, no wonder he doesn’t want to hear from you. I haven’t met him in waking yet, but I almost don’t want to pass on the message anyway. I will coz I’d hate to feel I’m as bad as you.”

She took another breath. “You’ll hunt me will you? For what? Being able to do something you couldn’t? What crime did I commit to be hunted by you for? And what amazing thing did you do that allows you to hunt people you know nothing about?”

Fiona nipped up a thumb. “Yes.” She folded her thumb and flipped up a forefinger, going through the rest of the list in quick succession: “Yes, you suck, dark sorcery.”

Glaring at Fiona, and ignoring whatever she said, Pepper made a single statement. “You are nothing but a bully Fiona, however you want to dress it up.”

And Fiona returned the glare right back - and it became obvious who had the greater experience in being what Pepper clearly considered a mean, bitter person. “Don’t,” Fiona said, a finger up in her face. “Ever call me a bully. I’ve so much worse than your personal childhood tormenter, Pep.”

“Well bully for your ambitions Fiona.” Pepper flicked a dismissive glance at her. “I suck, sure, everyone does. At something or the other. I hardly think so high of myself that i don’t know that” She sniffed. “You still don’t impress me. You may be stronger and meaner-”

“May be?” Fiona’s said incredulously. Her stare was chilly, but Pepper couldn’t help but get the sense she wanted to gawk.

Pepper checked her tirade. “Well.. Definitely stronger and meaner. And weirder. And crazier. And with a huger ego too. And a skewed world view.” She shrugged. “None of that is necessarily bad in my book honestly. And obviously my opinion hardly matters to you. But, “ she raised her hands.. “You still acted like a bully.”

“Absolutely. It’s a great way to get what you want.” Fiona said, robbing the intended condemnation from her words with a little dismissive flick of her hands. “So I repeat my threat again: I know where you live.” She sighed. “Get a simple message to Noah, tell him it's from from Fiona, and deliver word for fuckin’ word. Great? Great.”

Pepper put her hands at her waist and practically yelled back “I already said I will, you crazy woman! I even made notes yesterday!” An exasperated huff. “Do you need things to be life and death before you’ll listen?” Calming herself down, she gazed speculatively at Fiona.. “Who’s Finn though?”

“Local Ne’hearian deity.” Fiona said. “Saint of Children, Sloth, and Trouble. Ask Noah about her.”

[Zip]

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Fine. Stay mysterious. Anyway, I hope you consider us properly introduced now? Don’t kill me next time. I like talking without that particular spice in my life just fine. Wanna meet my fairy?”

“No.” came the blunt and immediate response.

“All right.” Pepper shrugged. “I doubt she wants to meet you particularly either.”

“She one of Jesine’s stooges? Or did you pick her up nice and proper without signing your soul away?”

“She’s Jesine’s stooge, same as me.” Pepper’s lips quirked at describing their relationship to the immortal in this manner. “But I hope she’s mine as well by now.. At least a little bit..” Pepper glanced appreciatively at where Miret was hovering, a little to Fiona’s side.

Fiona stared at the spot Pepper was looking at, very clearly considered swatting at it, right before she snapped her head back to Pepper. Whatever agitation had roused the sea didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon - if anything, it was slowly intensifying, building up like some kind of slow-turning underwater storm.

“You are going to die,” Fiona said.

Before Pepper responded, Fiona waved it off. “It is not a threat; it is a warning. You pledged fealty to a unknowable creature from the depths of emea who is engaged in a war against her Opposite, who’s responsible for forging the things that fuckos latching onto to the dreamscape to eat away at your mind.” The hands came off the rail and Fiona took a step forward. A step too close into Pepper’s personal space. Pepper stood her ground. Fiona clapped her hands in her face in emphasis of her next point. “You are a child soldier. Your dreamscape is a splinter cell. Your fairy is your handler.”

Pepper slowly shook her head. “If not for Jesine, I might already have died. Or have a mind too broken and scared to be worth much.” She looked past Fiona, and turned a few degrees, gazing into the distance, remembering. “I don’t know about soldiering. Or opposites. Or wars.” She looked down at her hands which had clasped each other without conscious volition. “I only know that I was a child, and she protected me. She’s asked me only that I help her do the same. Protect others like me. As much as I can.” She smiled a bit as she glanced at Miret, “She’s given me a friend like no other, and I’ll try my best to learn and do all that, till I can’t.” She looked back at Fiona, “As for death,” she grimaced, “I don’t particularly want to die, but I’m more scared thinking about watching people I like die.”

“Well, now you’ll get a chance to do both for your shiny deity.” Fiona said scathingly. “Your death is your death. I respect the brainwashing done to you. But Noah’s been through a loss recently. Your age. Your height. Your gender and all that entails.” She patted Pepper sharply on her developing chest and turned sharply, those wicked hands back on the rails, her sight fixated on the ever-blackening sky. “If you’re committed to dying for a conflict you know nothing about, you shouldn’t be his friend. Save him the trouble of overreacting over another one.”

Ow. That hurt. Pepper snatched her hands back and deliberately held the railings as well. “Are you going to scare off anyone he talks to?” She shook her hand. “I’m glad for the warning. I’ll tread lightly. Not ask about his past. I’ll listen if he does talk about it. But people die even when not in a war. He’s more about seeking mischief and pursuing trouble. Seems to me he’s rushing towards hurt all fine on his own.” Belatedly she put a few pieces together. “Oh, you think I’m angling to be the girlfriend?”

“No, I think you’re the rebound.” Fiona said, ever blunt. “You don’t understand what’s out there, do you?”

[Pepper]

46 of Ymiden,
Emea

Pepper shook her head. “I don’t. Most likely. Haven’t been anywhere dangerous, had a nice stable, extended childhood.” she shrugged, “Lots of folks don’t understand though. I take it things are very bad, pretty dangerous? And Noah was in the thick of things?”

“You keep making it about him when your situation is a hundred times worse.” Fiona looked at her, and it was hard for Pepper to fathom how such lovely eyes could be so cold, so haughty, so devoid of anything. “Have you encountered a Nightmare before?”

“No.” she cocked her head at Fiona. “I get it that you have heaps more experience. I get you are worried about me associating with Noah. What do you want me to say? I doubt you are particularly worried about me, so no point talking to you about my worries.” A pause “Would you teach me dreamwalking stuff? Occasionally? If I ask nicely maybe?” Pepper gave the tiniest smile, not really expecting a favourable reply to that.

She wasn’t expecting a reply at all. A glimpse of the worst thing that could happen flashed: Fiona laughing and laughing and laughing, flipping her twin birds with both her hands, and just ignoring her until she sheepishly exited the dreamscape on her own.

Instead, Fiona just stared at her, uncharacteristically silent, an indecipherable look on her face.

Pepper was expecting something snappy and maybe even vicious, and certainly insulting in reply. When Fiona didn’t say anything at all, Pepper was nonplussed. What? She hastily reviewed whatever she’d said. Nothing strange there. “Are you okay?” she asked, knowing that it’d get her head snapped for sure, but that would mean Fiona was being Fiona again.

“Just doing some calculus on my track record guiding little children through the jaws of death,” Fiona said. “It’s bleak. It’s a very bleak score.”

[Pepper]

46 of Ymiden,
Emea

Huh, was Fiona actually entertaining the idea? Pepper was startled too, but quickly thought about what if that was actually possible. Arlo and Vega had made it seem dreamwalking was an entirely solitary endeavour, you learning and dealing with things on your own, with just your trusty fairy by your side. But perhaps it need not be?

“Is that a higher score than what I’d have on my own?” Pepper asked the question slowly and seriously. “I’m in the playpen version for now I know. But I’ll be able to unlock this playpen soon enough I think. Anything that improves my chances of survival past that..”

And just like that, the dark-eaten sea seemed a little less dark all of the sudden. Whatever storm was building beneath the waves seemed to decide that it didn’t need to break at this very moment.

“I need something in return.” Fiona finally said.

That was more like it. “Of course you would. What?” Pepper had subconsciously noticed the calming seas, but her conscious mind was focused entirely on Fiona. She wasn’t someone it was safe to ignore, and she’d not be lulled into making that mistake again.

“You spy on Noah for me.” She lifted up her hand with three raised fingers. “He does something stupid? You tell me.” One finger down. “He involves himself in something bigger than him? You tell me.” Two fingers down. “Weird shit happens around him.” Last finger came down. “You can’t cross the veil-” She gestured at… well, she clearly wanted to gesture at something. “-well, you’ll get there, but I have a rough gauge of the position of your dreamscape. It’s not perfect, but I can get it. We’ll have weekly talks about his activities.”

Huh. Pepper wasn’t especially surprised that the price had something to do with Noah. She even sympathised with Fiona’s desire to keep him from harm. She however didn’t like what spying implied. Tapping her foot, she thought about refusing, but she’d not get any sort of teacher in that case. But she wasn’t expecting to get one anyway, so would it be a loss? She decided to ask some more questions first.

“So I remain his friend? I still wouldn’t know all that he’s been up to.”

“Make it your business.” Fiona simply said. “You’re a dreamwalker. There’s a realm of untapped information to seek out beneath the comforts of your own sleeping mind. If you can’t even stalk an idiot in a stable, what hope is there for you?”

Oh. This was more information about what dreamwalkers were capable of that she’d even imagined, and all for the price of allowing Fiona to choke her. No question she’d be a fount of information, even if she only deigned to help Pepper very occasionally. But what she was asking.. It still smelled of badness, perhaps like what stalking smelled of. And what she was asking was worse. Stalkers targeted strangers, she’d be stalking a friend, and not just physically, she’d have to stalk his dreams too, what else was there to do.

[Pepper]

46 of Ymiden,
Emea

Pepper shook her head, coming to a decision. “I do not mind keeping an eye out for any danger, or its possibility of it. I don’t mind giving you a heads up either-”

“Phrase is however you want, Pep. Just do it.”

“-But I won’t do it behind his back. I’d hate for someone I call a friend to do that to me.” She took a breath. “I’ll tell him about meeting you, and that I will tell you, if he’s in danger. That’s all I can do.”

Fiona gave her a look that told her she just said every single wrong thing under the unseen sun.

“Do you know what spying means, Pepper? It’s an ugly word, you think. I can see it in your eyes. It’s an unfair stigma for a necessary profession.” The hands came off the rail again, and Fiona leaned in close, bending down for them to come nose-to-nose, closer than she had ever been.

Pepper leaned back. Even moved back a few steps, but remained quiet.

Fiona smiled at that. Her smile was worse than her scowl in how clearly she didn’t know how to use it.

“Lying, for a lack of a better word, is good, Pep, because the truth is a limited, sacred commodity only a few can be trusted to keep. If you tell Noah that you are spying -sorry, looking out- for him, he’ll spend the rest of your days together looking at you the way a mouse looks at a cat. ‘What can’t I show her?’ ‘What will she tell Fiona?’ ‘How much should I trust her?’ You think it’s a small thing but it will change what you have right now.”

Pepper stared transfixed at that frozen smile.

Fiona was right. Pepper had not thought of the ramifications at all. What did Noah know about her intentions. He might very well disappear, Fiona might think he’d still stay around, but there was no reason for him to. He was very clearly used to managing on his own.

“That’s true. That won’t work.” She admitted out loud. “Knowing you, he might suspect that’s what you asked as soon as I tell him I’ve a message from you. You did ask me to mother him for nels the first time we met. You didn’t even know if I was a walker then.”

Fiona nodded.

However Pepper could be stubborn about the most idiotic things. Noah would anyway suspect her, there were clear benefits to leaving him in the dark, and reporting on his activities to Fiona. And Fiona probably had no interest in him beyond that he stayed safe, and perhaps ate well. A quick smirk at that thought emerged. She’d get some much needed mentoring out of this, and that would certainly be appreciated. But this was something she wouldn’t do. Perhaps it was because she had never been in the role of a parent. A parent would perhaps do all that Fiona asked her to, and more. Pepper might theoretically understand the urge, but she couldn’t reconcile herself to noting every interaction with Noah with a view to evaluating it for hidden meanings, sieving through his dreams at night, and continuing to pretend nothing happened the next day.

“I’m sorry. Everything you say makes sense. But I can’t do it.” She braced herself for the flood of contempt sure to come her way now. “Sure I’m naive, and perhaps the danger does justify such measures.. But if you are truly that worried, perhaps you better come to Rharne yourself. I won’t spy for you.”

The sea turned pitch-black. The waves froze, the boat trapped in a now-unmoving rising current. The sky above bled something dark and sticky that poured into the void that was the ocean.

“Pepper,” Fiona said in a voice so sweet it couldn’t be anything but the purest venom. “It’s been a good talk. Don’t let the door crunch you on the way out, love.”

Pepper wasn’t offended at all. “Fiona. Stay well.”

“My offer remains open should you find yourself a bit wiser. I pray-” The word clearly grated at Fiona. “-you live long enough to consider it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Pepper didn’t dare a smile, but she bowed her head, almost formally. “I will figure out a way to reach past the veil soon. Whatever that is. And I will pass on any messages you need passed.”

With another nod, she closed her eyes, preparing to wake herself up.

[Doran Cooney]

Fiona Zippomaria O'Connor

Knowledges
Deception: Making up a fake Immortal
Deception: Casually throwing out a fake gender to muddy the facts
Negotiation: Reframing the facts
Negotiation: Hard bargaining
Negotiation: The blunt no
Negotiation: Throwing out a take-it-or-leave-it offer
Negotiation: Throwing out hard facts to pressure the other party

Jesine: Her flock are gifted with fairies to steer her war
Jesine: Willing to mark children

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

Pepper Farrow

Knowledges
Tactics : Attempting to distract an opponent
Psychology : Confronting bullying
Negotiation : Listening to an offer
Negotiation : Making a counter offer
Dreamwalking : It is possible to spy on people from emea
Dreamwalking : The Veil
Dreamwalking : Nightmares
Discipline : Staying firm in the face of temptation

Jesine is at war with her ‘opposite’

Loot: I've submitted a PSF to advance to the next ability for your dreamwalking mark!
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

---

"Wanna see my fairy?" "No."

Ded. Very neat back and forth between these two. Zipper going from aggressive to pre-final-boss-conversion-smile-talk was well placed, and Pepper... PEPPER! It was such a good deal! Haha, but good job staying true to your PC and saying no. I'm really looking forward to seeing what else these two get up to!

Please edit your grade request, thank you!

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[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=7932[/img]Doran Cooney[/center]