fell from the pedestal right down the rabbit hole

[dohaeris]

Who: sansa, various
What: catchall for march business
When: march.....
Where: around....

Content Warnings: in the comment headers, character warnings in app.

[starters in the comments! hit me up on plurk at bitterends if you want one!!]

Comments

visions tdm prompt | broadly sanctuary people

[dohaeris]

i. some kind of haunted

[sansa wakes to a mournful howl and nothing else––no raven chatter or batcat chirps. she ties a robe on over her shift with an air of trepidation and makes her way past vi's empty room and downstairs. all the leaves have fallen off the weirwood tree and the door to the courtyard is open; lady's howl seems to be coming from that direction.

sansa finds lady standing over the corpses of the hounds, visenya, and s'mores. dead ravens litter the courtyard, and even the mushrooms seem to be rotting. lady turns mournfully to sansa, and tears prick sansa's eyes. she feels as if the wind's been knocked out of her. she stretches a hand out to lady.]

Oh, Lady. I'm sorry.

[she looks up and around, and there are no signs or sounds of life. the sky is just beginning to lighten, but there's no moon in it. there's no scent of blood in the air, either. it smells like ash, like the air is thick with it.

there doesn't seem to be anything to do but get up and get dressed––numbly, as she had after she learned about her mother and robb. she can be brave like him, still.

once her boots are on and everything pinned into place, she heads into the kitchen to make tea. but the stove won't turn on, and neither will the tap. the muffins she finds seem stale and tasteless, and do little to satisfy her hunger. so she and lady step out, in search of breakfast and perhaps answers.

there are more dead ravens on the street, empty of life and fancy little imps. cellar door lies silent and barren. sansa walks forward aimlessly, until she realizes she's headed in the direction of crenshaw.]

ii. just what we wanted

[of course sansa offered to look for the children. she sat down on the ground and closed her eyes, casting her mind out for a bird to scout with.

but there aren't any. there isn't anything. nothing in the city, nothing in the forest. sansa can't even sense the brick-wall chakra of other people anywhere but in their small group. she stops and glances up at koz and her companions.]

I'm sorry. There's nothing. Perhaps if you had some of their things, I could track them down with Lady.

[but koz shrieks and blames them and runs off. lady whines and comes to lie with her head in sansa's lap. there's a sinking feeling in the pit of sansa's stomach alongside the hunger that gnaws there. she surveys the city around them, its desolation.]

He's right. There's no blood pollution or corruption. It is what we wanted.

[it may be that everything they wanted to do with the sanctuary, everything they wanted to do for trench, brought about this empty, hollow fate. but there's something nagging at her, because this is the moss king's month, and he plays tricks. he reminds her of littlefinger, with games within games. only a pthumerian could manage to fool her dream senses, if this is a dream, or make a little bubble world, like the other catacombs which were a jungle, which she knows the moss king is capable of. and he's said to rule prophecies, anyway.

and then––the zealots were sleepers like them, once. she knows they believe blood pollution is necessary to trench. the tower made it sound as if it was the blood pollution they worshipped, and not him.

and this would be enough to convince anyone that blood pollution was necessary to trench. but blood pollution isn't the only thing that's missing. she glances up at the moonless sky. she knows the moon presence makes the plants grow here, and all the machines use her power. she knows the moss king leaves plants in his wake, too. she was told mariana causes the people here to be reborn into new people. she knows the tower makes all the net works.

sansa knows madame generosity wouldn't want this. she doesn't think the other patrons would, either. and she was told the reckoning had set out to end all corruption, leaving the doorway to wait for her. she pets lady's head, and frowns.]

ii

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Of course Ezra searches for the children with her. He's been putting in time at Orphanage like clockwork, when he's physically able, for nearly a year now.

He casts his senses far and wide for other life. But there's nothing.]

This world is...too unbalanced for life. Our sort of life, at least.

[dohaeris]

[there's something more to what he's saying––the animals do seem to be rotting, but there aren't any maggots (and despite her best efforts to secure schooling for herself, nobody has taught sansa about microbiology just yet). she leans forward and scoops up a handful of dirt and grass out of a nearby planter. it's all pale and dry and withered, with a few dead bugs mixed in.]

Even the soil is dead.

[she pauses, frowning, letting the soil drop from her fingers.]

I have thought that perhaps the Dream damaged this world so badly that the Patrons and the Moon Presence had to make it up with magic. I don't know if the plants here can grow just from the sun of this world anymore. But it does feel as if it's more than that, as if life itself is gone––I imagine it's what my world would be like without the Old Gods. I've always felt them in the trees.

[lady whines and sansa pets her with her clean hand.]

There's no reason to suppose it's the same as the blood pollution, but it would be very easy for some people to come to believe it is.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Old Gods? [He feels like he should ask, although with the next breath he adds-] I think my teachers would call it an absence of the Living Force.

And they always taught me to cautious in interpreting visions. I know I've had ones sent to be before, meant to mislead. And made he mistake of guessing context, cause and effect, and been wrong.

[dohaeris]

[it is perhaps not the best time for comparative religion. still, it looks like they're going to have wait to see what the moss king throws at them next, so sansa makes an attempt.]

My father always said the Old Gods were the forest. I suppose they're its soul. They're said to look out of the faces of the heart trees, like I have in my home. It feels almost like a giant chakra stone. There's no chakra here––that's what Sasuke and Sakura call it, but other people call it qi. Living force is a very good way to put it. Perhaps a master might sense something, but I can't.

[she sighs and looks up at ezra. she may as well say what's bothering her, although it feels like drawing conclusions from very little evidence.]

Do you think perhaps the Zealots might have seen something like this? The Tower made it sound as if it were the blood they worshipped, and not him. He wasn't well, but he wanted to be certain I thought of them as Blood-Crazed Zealots.

[she can imagine some of the zealots seeing this vision and turning on their fellow sleepers, stringing up whoever disagreed with them. it's a horrible thought.]

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Yes, there seem to be many words, across worlds, for similar ideas and experiences. He tucks the ones from her world away, to focus on her speculation.]

So, maybe, they spill blood to spread corruption because they believe the alternative is worse?

It makes a horrible sort of sense.

[dohaeris]

[sansa sighs and scratches between lady's ears. lady whines gently.]

They'l tell you themselves they believe Trench needs the blood pollution; I just wonder if this might be why.

[she frowns gently at the moonless sky.]

If it is, they might be wrong. There's always a trick, with the Moss King.