[PRP] Getting a little cagey [Liam/Shun]

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun wasn't really looking forward to this, as he wasn't certain how Liam might react, exactly. The man he was about to speak to wasn't exactly the one he was marginally more familiar with, from what he had gathered. Still, it was a chance to get a little extra insight. Maybe.

He went over to the man's office during his open hours, then lightly knocked upon the door.

silverah

 

[Silverah]

The door swung open. "Come in, Detective Kuroda," called Liam Noor, with a beckoning hand wave. "I can't imagine what this might be about, but I'll try to be of help."

As Shun stepped into the room, he was met by Liam's cool, green gaze, which swept over him like a high-tech security scanner. He was dressed for summer, despite the formal setting, in a light-colored button up and stylish linen pants, and seated at his desk with his laptop in front of him.

"My daughter hasn't caused any trouble, has she?"

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun stepped in at the beckoning, then placed his hands onto the back of the seat in front of Liam's desk.

"Not exactly, though this may still be somewhat of a sensitive subject," he replied, "But perhaps your insight will be able to help not only them but everyone else as well."

After a pause, he elaborated.

"They mentioned they were created partially with the purpose to prevent our cage from.. coming here. What do you know of this?"

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

Liam's eyebrows crept up his forehead. "Please. Sit," he said, gesturing to the chair. "You're making me nervous looming over me."

He leaned forward and nudged the laptop lid shut - you have my undivided attention.

"I know all about it, of course. I crafted the magic that created Ascencion. Wove it together from six different disciplines and four distinct traditions, spent fifteen years of my life - and of my husband's life - perfecting the spell."

"Of course we wanted to stop your world from colliding with ours. Your world was a ******** disaster. I mean, not that we knew the specifics."

blade kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun nodded and sat down into the chair when prompted. He furrowed his brow as Liam explained a little further on how Ascension came to be. That was... impressive, actually.

"How did you know that was going to happen? And what was it about Ascension that would try to prevent it?"

Sonny had mentioned that they may have ended up being a sort of beacon for them all instead. He wasn't sure how tightly bound the cage was, but if there was something specific that it latched onto rather than just Ascension as a whole, then maybe they could work with that. Some of the others had figured out what things they needed to be able to deconstruct the cage, but they didn't really know the means of how to actually go about it yet.

silverah

 

[Silverah]

Liam nodded approvingly as Shun sat, clearly more at ease with this new dynamic. He folded his hands on the desk before him. "We knew there were other worlds besides our own," he explained. "Other versions of you and me. Places where magic worked differently. Places where things had gone wrong, where time was twisted back on itself, stagnating with no hope of reprieve. We knew about them the way an astronomer knows about a planet orbiting a distant star - that it is there, that we can see the effects of its mass and its gravity, but that we are unsure of anything else about it."

He paused, and then raised his hands, fanning his fingers out demonstratively. "We carved enchantments. Wards. Things meant to protect our world from the disasters of others. And Ascencion... Ascencion is the keystone in our work. Hers is the magic that holds it all together. A child of our blood and our bodies and our souls with the combined magical potential of all her lost sisters."

He quieted for a moment, hands lowering.

"That last part was unintentional. If it would have worked the first time, of course we would have preferred that."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Had the other Renard and Liam known similar things, he wondered? It also had him wondering just how many other versions of the world there was out there. The cycles were one thing, but this was something else.

Shun's brow furrowed a bit at the mention of the previous attempts. He supposed that made sense. Purposefully creating someone like Ascension had to be difficult.

"But instead of warding... it may have ended up drawing us in instead," he murmured, "In our world, our version of Ascension had... she was out of control. The world was about to crumble with our cage having been destabilized. We were trying to contain her power to stabilize and fix things, but the outcome was something quite different as you know."

He rubbed his head in thought.

"If Ascension's magic is locked up as it is now... does this also mean that this world is at greater risk of having others collide into it in a similar fashion?"

silverah

 

[Silverah]

"Well," said Liam, and paused lips pursed. "You see."

He pressed an index finger to the top of his closed laptop. "There was never meant to be multiple versions of Ascencion. Your version, so to speak, should never have existed. Our goal was to create a singular entity. A child who would be unique to our universe. And instead, we created a ripple. Our Ascencion was born in September of 1902, under the light of the blue moon - and yours came about as an aftershock. No one made any effort to create her and, in my understanding, she became somewhat feral as a result."

He sighed. "Still, the two were likely linked on the quantum level - likely how our universes were able to collide. I can't say if the same thing is likely to happen again or not. Your universe was the unstable one, and now it has infected ours."

"If I were you," said Liam, "I would focus my energy on breaking the last vestiges of the cage that poisoned your universe, or else the results will be disastrous."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"Feral is... one way of putting it," he murmured, recalling the way Ascension had been at the end. Not to mention hearing some of Jeremiah's experiences with Sunny. But if this were the case, then she didn't quite come about as the result of the cage, as they originally thought.

If the Liam of this world was involved with Sunny's death at all, this also did give a motive.

"Yes. We are running low on time as far as that goes. I do not think any of us want to still be caught in a cycle, or have something worse happen. We know what they are, it is a matter of finding them and dealing with them."

The grimoire, the ring, the bird fed dirt and blood, crossroads dirt, and Sunny.

silverah

 

[Silverah]

"Mmm-hmm," said Liam, nodding slowly. "I could make a few educated guesses as to what worse might be, but there's no profit to be made in catastrophizing. Or, well, there is some - but not at this juncture."

He frowned. "What do you mean by them?" he asked. "You will not hurt my daughter. Not again."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun shook his head, "I was referencing the five things that are tied to the cage. Your daughter is not one of them."

Sunny was, though. She was already dead, but he wasn't sure if they needed to do anything else with her body.

"Ideally, no one will get hurt in the process, anyway."

He wasn't expecting it to go down that way, though.

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

Some of the tension seemed to ease out of Liam's shoulders. He settled back into his chair. "Ah," he said. "Very well then."

He frowned.

"This is the part where I admit that I don't know what the five things are, much as I'd like to see all this cage nonsense dealt with a-s-a-p."

blade kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun slowly nodded, hesitating for the moment.

"I can tell you some of them. Unfortunately trust isn't too easy to come by after what the Burning Man had tried to pull. I hope you can understand," he stated with a subtle frown. He just didn't really have a way of knowing if Liam (and Renard) would end up using the information to only benefit them in the end like the Burning Man had, "Renard's grimoire, the garnet ring the other Liam had given to Vivien, and dirt from the crossroads are three of the components."

After he mentioned the crossroads, he paused once more.

"By the way... how is it that this world already had an Other Ashdown? For us, it was not created until after the cage and cycles had begun."

silverah

 

[Silverah]

A wistful look came over Liam. "It was born when Ascencion is," he said softly. "It wrapped itself around our world like a receiving blanket and suddenly it was larger. Stranger. Full of arcane secrets. So we gave her to your world, so we took from yours."

He frowned.

"Unfortunately I'm not in a position to give you any of those things," he confessed. "But if I may be of any other help please let me know."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"I see... It is a bit difficult to wrap my head around, since our Ascension was considerably older than Sonny," Shun murmured. The whole multiverse thing was weird to consider.

"That is understandable. I am not really certain if you would be able to help with acquiring any of them, but if I can think of something, I will bring it up," he stated. He then paused, "Do you know if the components would simply need to be destroyed or would we need to go with a large ritual about it?"

Silverah