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awar[As in previous uses, the emergency channel cuts into all communication. It hijacks local relays, fills broadcast displays. Even those emerging from the depths below the mediation center will receive the call: crackling with static, but still clear enough to see. Unlike the last time, there is no floating robot. No admonishment. Only a woman, gold light leaking from her eyes.
And the silver light of the Ingress, flickering through a window just behind her.]
It's been so long.
[Her voice is somber. Her register slips, tone echoing and layering, as if too many voices were there to speak the words. The Ingress backlights her shape with an unsteady, too-bright glow, but the room she stands in is all dark. Where are the lights?
Where are the others who went with her?]
Wearing your skins. Speaking your lies. Wallowing through your f̵̢̢͢i̷͢l̸҉̷͡t̢̡̨͞h҉̶̴͝ for every grueling step.
[Lips curve wide as she turns to the screen, teeth bared in a mirthless, savage grin. Then all those features melt away. What's left is a smaller face—a smaller body. A girl who skulked in the sewers, pleading and warning until the Savrii took her away.]
How many monsters did you name me as? How many stories? Did you use them to scare your chil͏d͡r̸̛e͏̧̛ń̷? I hope they were scared. I hope you are.
[Again, the features melt and resettle. Another woman, ageless and inhuman, who once reached out to Thisavrou requesting peace. Offering a gift to those who wanted: the chance to change their bodies in any way they chose. The Greeter of Asteroid 276.]
"Centuries of isolation. Millennia of fear. You offered us a chance to move things forward..."
[The smile drops. The quoting, placid tone bleeds free, and the hiss that speaks up from all sides is sharp as daggers.]
All I had to do was play your game.
[Once more, the woman's features change. From child to stranger back to the face her allies in this place know best. The Mother. Gold light returns in a brilliant rush, like a held breath released. But it's not the only light that's changing. The uneven flickering of the Ingress picks up, power snapping out and pulling in. Unstable.]
I died and killed a hundred thousand times to get here. I whittled through your flesh and forms to earn revenge. And by the time I make it? You've nearly called the storms yourselves.
[One laugh piles on the next, and not a single one from this body. Sharp and hysterical, bitter and enraged. It's fitting. It's unacceptable. She will see everything they've made crumble to dust.]
You could have ruined your worlds from your own folly. You would have, in just a little more time. But now...
[A viscous fluid falls from the ceiling beyond, out past the window. It forms a column, then a single shape, and for a moment, two of Mother's bodies stand in view. Then the closer one melts out to nothing, leaving one silhouette on the edge of the Ingress platform.
The voices, however, are still clear. Still close.]
You took apart what I created. Now I return that g͢i̢̧f̛t́ in kind.
"Allies?" [It's a single voice, off to the side. Sweet and mocking. Childish.] Crawl into what holes you want.
The rest of this will burn.
[The light of the portal spikes and crashes, shuddering jaggedly against a shadow pressing up behind. Only to still as Mother reaches out. For a moment, everything is calm.
Then the Ingress shatters, and the feed goes dark.]
[[ooc: Please look to this ooc post for what follows! TAB communications will remain functional for a brief time, and characters are welcome to respond—to each other as well as her. However, neither Mother nor most of the away team will reply.]]
And the silver light of the Ingress, flickering through a window just behind her.]
It's been so long.
[Her voice is somber. Her register slips, tone echoing and layering, as if too many voices were there to speak the words. The Ingress backlights her shape with an unsteady, too-bright glow, but the room she stands in is all dark. Where are the lights?
Where are the others who went with her?]
Wearing your skins. Speaking your lies. Wallowing through your f̵̢̢͢i̷͢l̸҉̷͡t̢̡̨͞h҉̶̴͝ for every grueling step.
[Lips curve wide as she turns to the screen, teeth bared in a mirthless, savage grin. Then all those features melt away. What's left is a smaller face—a smaller body. A girl who skulked in the sewers, pleading and warning until the Savrii took her away.]
How many monsters did you name me as? How many stories? Did you use them to scare your chil͏d͡r̸̛e͏̧̛ń̷? I hope they were scared. I hope you are.
[Again, the features melt and resettle. Another woman, ageless and inhuman, who once reached out to Thisavrou requesting peace. Offering a gift to those who wanted: the chance to change their bodies in any way they chose. The Greeter of Asteroid 276.]
"Centuries of isolation. Millennia of fear. You offered us a chance to move things forward..."
[The smile drops. The quoting, placid tone bleeds free, and the hiss that speaks up from all sides is sharp as daggers.]
All I had to do was play your game.
[Once more, the woman's features change. From child to stranger back to the face her allies in this place know best. The Mother. Gold light returns in a brilliant rush, like a held breath released. But it's not the only light that's changing. The uneven flickering of the Ingress picks up, power snapping out and pulling in. Unstable.]
I died and killed a hundred thousand times to get here. I whittled through your flesh and forms to earn revenge. And by the time I make it? You've nearly called the storms yourselves.
[One laugh piles on the next, and not a single one from this body. Sharp and hysterical, bitter and enraged. It's fitting. It's unacceptable. She will see everything they've made crumble to dust.]
You could have ruined your worlds from your own folly. You would have, in just a little more time. But now...
[A viscous fluid falls from the ceiling beyond, out past the window. It forms a column, then a single shape, and for a moment, two of Mother's bodies stand in view. Then the closer one melts out to nothing, leaving one silhouette on the edge of the Ingress platform.
The voices, however, are still clear. Still close.]
You took apart what I created. Now I return that g͢i̢̧f̛t́ in kind.
"Allies?" [It's a single voice, off to the side. Sweet and mocking. Childish.] Crawl into what holes you want.
The rest of this will burn.
[The light of the portal spikes and crashes, shuddering jaggedly against a shadow pressing up behind. Only to still as Mother reaches out. For a moment, everything is calm.
Then the Ingress shatters, and the feed goes dark.]
[[ooc: Please look to this ooc post for what follows! TAB communications will remain functional for a brief time, and characters are welcome to respond—to each other as well as her. However, neither Mother nor most of the away team will reply.]]
