[PRP] the darkest country road [Alexis/Nasir]

[Daekie]

Alexis had half-known, maybe, what the meeting was about; they'd been vague on matters of magic and the court if asked, drifting so easily back into that half-dreamy state where they were endlessly pliable, quiet, delicate. So - they'd known, maybe; maybe had an inkling, an idea of the reason. Discussed, no. Nasir had gone, and Alexis wasn't blind; they knew they lived with a warg, but but but -

They'd had an idea, yes. But they hadn't known. But they wanted to know.

(It could have been theirs to know, too, if they'd kept their mouth shut.)

Nasir would come home to find Alexis nested in blankets, one leg splayed over the back of the couch, halfheartedly trying to read a book; their heart wasn't in it, even though the attempt was there.

azwredreams

nasir pls conference infodump

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir was on edge after the meeting, though not because it went poorly. If anything, he had learned a lot and a lot of it he may not have ever wanted to know. Yet the edginess was because of what the influx of emotions from others.

Still not properly processed, though the apathy he had gotten a rush of helped him some. When he got home he had gone to make some hot chocolate, warm and soothing, before he came into the living room to sit.

Which did mean he was setting his mug down, one there for Alexis too, before he nudged them a little to let him into the blanket nest.

Daekie

*whispers wil did not go, he not a full warg yet*

 

[Daekie]

Alexis sighed and rested their book on the back of the couch, tensing, pulling themself up to a proper sitting position and not...whatever their previous orientation on the couch had been. Half-lounging, maybe.

"How'd it go?" They looked tired, as was usual nowadays, and didn't handle the hot chocolate yet -- it'd burn their mouth. They could wait for food, if they could wait for anything. "Here. Y'can have this blanket. I'm sweating in here."

azuredreams

you saw nothing razz

 

[azuredreams]

There was a reason why Alexis's hot chocolate was not actually hot but instead that perfect warm that was just pleasant to have (mostly because Nasir had stirred in cold things to make it tastier).

"It was- It went." Nasir said quietly, taking the blanket and fidgeting with the edges. He still was trying to process the nervous energy. "Learned some more things but ... we're going to destroy the old Charter and make a new one. That's the main thing."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis took a slow sip of their hot chocolate, tentative, still frowning. "Any fights? Anyone there y'didn't expect to see?" They were trying to take it slow, to be reasonable, to make sure it all sounded okay and it didn't push.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No, no fights." Nasir replied. "Ah, Preacher was running around the entire time as a mink? I think she agitated Silk a lot." He was thinking about everything. "I saw Lara Lupin? She was a woman that last her familiar at Blackfriars in the old world but now her familiar and her are alright again ..."

He was fidgeting, more so than usual.

"They also talked about, um, a purge? That that is the reason why there were not many Nobles and little to no seers - er, that's what they called wargs - and moonwalkers."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis hmphed a little at Preacher's name, although there was no bite to it; they were just glad their friend was alive and well, for some questionable value of all three of those quantities. They'd never admit it, of course, but that was how it went. "Wasn't at Blackfriars, so I don't know a Lupin. A purge, huh?" That seemed to get them contemplative. "...was there any talk 'bout -- why? 'Cause I feel like the whole 'you got animal magic don't die' is supposed to have an instructional component or somethin'."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No, there wasn't." Nasir looked just as bothered by it but then it flickered away. Tucked back with all the other worries that he was overwhelmed with by the remaining bit of apathy he had plucked from Lily.

"It happened last cycle and put an end to almost every single Noble, except for the ones we saw at the ball last year, as well as all the wargs and the moonwalkers. Someone wanted them dead and it left us guideless."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

They frowned. "Wargs n' moonwalkers reset with the cycle, right? 's just Nobles who get to leave it -- so why would someone do it unless they were gettin' their kicks?" Alexis looked disgruntled, although maybe not angry. A little curious, a little intrigued. The nobles' deaths made sense, if it was looked at strategically: but killing all the others was just --

They couldn't say cruel, because who knows. In any situation they might have done the same, given a reason. But it was needless, certainly.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"They do but maybe- I don't know, they were killing anyone with magic to make a point?" Nasir was not as upset about that as he should have been. Killing people was bad, killing people bothered him, but right now it was simply talking.

"Either way, it left us with the Court we had at the ball." Only those Nobles until new ones joined their ranks. "Probably hard for us to figure out what was going on if ... that's all we had."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Their lips were thin, fingers pressed into the couch so strongly their knuckles were going white. "Then someone did it on purpose. Wasn't to make a point. There were --" Alexis sighed -- "only a few Nobles left, start of this cycle. One of them wants to keep the cycle goin', is what that sounds like to me." They huffed, shoulders stiff.

"Could be more than one. Murderin' a whole bunch of people sounds like a group effort."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir did not like the idea of murder, of someone killing so many just to keep things going. The odds were, if he was part of this, that he had been killed too. "Not just Nobles left, but the previous Principals and the Deer Triplets and-"

Something broke then in him, Nasir slumping and rubbing at his face. "It's horrible and messed up. Why would anyone want these cycles to keep going if all it ever is is death?"

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"People die anyways, Nasir." Alexis' voice was calm. Smooth sailing. They'd thought about this, before, reasoning it out. "Everyone dies when the cycle restarts, except the Nobles n' the triplets n' Principals, 'cause they're anchors." They leaned over to put a hand on his shoulder, a little awkward but trying anyways, trying to comfort. "All the purge means is that they died a little faster. Scale of the thing -- what's a few years? The only people who won't die at the end are gonna live millenniums."

They sighed. "'Sides. What if someone liked their magic the way it was? Didn't want it to change if the cage broke? If they were someone who wouldn't reset with the rest'v it, they could do whatever they wanted."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

It was not a comfort at all. Nasir was just slumped and sighed but he knew what they meant and what they were talking about. It wasn't quite the same thing he had meant but-

"If you don't reset with the rest of us you can do whatever you want, control it however you want, which is likely whomever is behind the purge." A breath escaped. "Other than always keeping your power, if you don't reset, I don't see why they'd want the cage besides having your own little kingdom." Nasir's chest was tight but he sighed and leaned towards Alexis a little.

It was a small, small comfort for him at the moment. Not because they couldn't help but because the thoughts were so overwhelmingly dark. "We also ... learned a thing about the Nobles," he said softly.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"I'd do it," Alexis said calmly, and sighed and put a hand in his hair. "If I was old enough, tired enough, never'd known anything but the cage -- why would I want to leave? Why'd I want to give it up? I'd do anything to keep it." They ran fingers through his hair, absentmindedly, contemplative. As they were now -- they could see it, maybe, if everyone who loved them had died. They'd have no counterbalance to tell them to give up the magic they'd bled for and lost so much for - it would be worth more than anything. Worth more than the world.

"...what about the Nobles?"

azuredreams