the draw

REXANNA

the penumbra

The Penumbra has been healing well since her incident with a blighted pumpkin, and she no longer walks with a slight limp — her nanites or whatever it was Wessex had called them, working overtime. And aside from that, she has been spending a majority of her time with her new vision of family — of old friends and new, of trials and frustrations, of trying to keep the peace. And, of course, figuring out a wedding.

She is surprised when there’s a knock on her door just before the sun fully sets, surprised even more by the suave man that stands on the other side, telling her that Phoebe needed her. For a moment she feels a pang of sadness that she hadn’t sought the midwife out after her Ascension, but perhaps now would be a good start to it — repair, adjust, remain friends. And so she grabs her parasol, a gift from Arduinna, and follows the man out the door toward the College.

She leaves Sunjata at the door as she makes her way to the destroyed room, tucking the parasol beneath her arm while she does. Dressed in black, dark colors, her hair is shorter now than it was before, and she focuses her sapphire gaze on Phoebe as she pushes by the door. “He’s a handsome charmer!” She chimes in greeting with a small smile and chuckle before she sees the destruction and grows concerned.

“Phoebe? What is going on?” She asks, knowing Sunjata has prefaced it with testing the blight, but gods… what was it doing?

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

Phoebe

Phoebe’s nose wrinkled at being told to eat. She wasn’t hungry. If anything she felt a little nauseous. So she pulled an age old trick – once Sunjata left, she fed the snack to Pim. Most of it anyways. She took a bite to say she ate it. While she waited for Rexanna she tried to clean, but didn’t get far. She was tired and moving slowly, mind weighed down with what ifs from her experiments.

She glanced over when Rexanna finally arrived, blinking a bit in surprise. ”You cut your hair!” she said. But she lacked the ethereal beauty bestowed upon her by Frey, a gift no doubt taken away after her ascension. But she mentioned Sunjata and Phoebe blushed a bit. ”Ah, yes, Jata is, isn’t he?” she said, but she lacked her usual vibrancy. She was muted, quiet, lacking sunshine in her eyes and voice.

The midwife glanced around the room and sighed, before looking back at Rexannna sadly. ”This is from my research of the blight. It’s getting worse it…Ronin has it…I have it now too…and according to Safrin we’ve only about a season at best.” she said quietly, brows furrowing together. ”And…right now everything seems to be pointing to the Voice spreading this via the Ascended…Sam specifically but…” she sighed and shook her head. ”Remi told me you had ascended and…I need a sample to see if anything even like the blight is in an Ascended. Would you help me please? I…I’m not trying to blame the Ascended or start a fight, I am just trying to keep more people and plants and animals from dying.” she said, almost begging.

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

REXANNA

the penumbra

She gives the midwife a wider smile and a nod as she notices her hair. “I did! It was getting too long.” She replies easily, giving a gentle smile. But she chuckles lightly at the mention of the man, giving her a small raised brow but saying nothing. She wouldn’t judge, she instead steps in further, talking a seat by her friend as she watches her with concern. Ah, the blight. She had heard it was spreading, had heard the anxiety with the Ascended and she wanted to do whatever she could to alleviate the issues.

And if it was her new goddess, at least they knew and it wasn’t speculation any longer.

“Sam told me.” She says gently, reaching up to touch Phoebe’s arm with her hand — momentarily forgetting about the golden ring with ruby stones that sat atop it. “I want to help. I’m sorry I didn’t come see you sooner. Not long after, I was squished by a giant blighted pumpkin.” She says softly, giving a small fanged smile to her friend. “I have been healing since, but the blight had gotten everywhere on me. I’m curious to see as well.” She gives a slight tilt to her head, but she knows she’s likely okay. She feels better than fine most says, at least in comparison to her friend.

“So let’s do this, shall we? I don’t know if it will be different from Sam’s. I became a hybrid of sorts when I Ascended as I learned from Remi, so I still have my magic.” She says, lifting her arm and pushing the sleeve back and offering it to Phoebe to take a sample.

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

Phoebe

”It looks nice! I’ve never cut my hair that short.” she said, tilting her head a bit. She wondered if Jata would like her hair that short, or if he preferred her fairytale princess length hair.

Phoebe didn’t notice the ring on her friend’s finger, instead watching her face for signs of emotion. But…”A…giant blight pumpkin??” she said in shock. ”Well…I am glad you’re okay.” she said, still a bit in shock trying to imagine such a thing. ”I did wonder why you didn’t come to tell me but…That’s a pretty good reason not to.” she said with a small smile. It was certainly an excuse that was too wild to not believe frankly. Who could make up something like that?

And her willingness to help made her smile a bit. ”Thank you Rex.” she said quietly, before grabbing a new needle and syringe. She extracted a small vial’s worth of the fluid, looking at it curiously. How strange! She put a drop on a new plate under her microlens, frowning at it. ”Well…it clearly isn’t an organic substance. It just…looks like a clear fluid. I can’t see any specific cells at all.” she said, writing things down as she went. Then she put in a drop of the medicine, which simply disappeared into the fluid. It was similar to the way the blight had eaten away at the natural substances, but clearly less violent. She did the same test with a drop of Sunjata’s blood, then her own blighted one, watching in awe as the ascended fluid simply destroyed the substances, without even a flinch.

As nice as it was to not have it explode everywhere, Phoebe frowned at the results.

”In some ways it did act a bit like ascended fluid.” she said quietly, trying to think it through. ”But it didn’t explode…” Suddenly she felt like she was back at square one. No hunches. No leads. No nothing. ”I…I don’t think I am smart enough to figure this out.” she said quietly.

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

REXANNA

the penumbra

She gives her friend a bright smile in response with a quiet huff of laughter. “Remi and Melita were there. Sam was too, but he was under it with me. Melita and Remi dug us out.” She tells her friend, figuring that if the story seemed too far outlandish, at least there were witnesses to the giant vampire gourd. But that was neither here nor there, and she looks back at her friend as she begins to take the sample. Phoebe is gentle, Rexanna can tell that much, but she doesn’t feel pain any longer and hums lightly while she does it.

She begins to pay more attention when Phoebe sticks it under the micro lens, a brow lifting in silent question as to what she’s seeing. There’s a part of her that nearly holds a non needed breath as the revelations come clear. She listens diligently as Phoebe explains that it’s similar, but it isn’t the same, and if Rexanna had needed to breathe, she likely would have exhaled in a small amount of relief. But if it still wasn’t them what could it have been?

She gnaws on her lip slightly in thought until she hears Phoebe’s revelation as to what they’ve been doing. Her gaze flits toward her friends with a soft sad smile. “We can explode… in the sunlight, from what I’ve learned.” She helps, “we are flammable until we build up an immunity of sorts, but it’s still not the same.” She references Wessex when she thinks about it, giving the blond a small thoughtful look.

“If it came from the Spire is it possible that it’s a corrupted version of us? Our blood is clear whereas the blight is dark and inky.” She recalls, reaching over to pat Phoebe on the shoulder. “You’re plenty smart enough, Phoebe. You just found out that we aren’t made of blight, so I appreciate that at least!” She tries to lift her spirits some.

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

Phoebe

Phoebe sighed, resting her chin on her hands on the desk, staring at the ascended fluid Rexanna had given as a sample. She listened to her friend explain things, brown eyes focused on the vial. The corners of her lips curved down as she mulled over her friend's words. An theory was formulating in her mind, one she didn't think she wanted to voice but... Rex could tell her if she sounded insane. "Don't appreciate me yet...I'm...I don't think that just because Ascended aren't blight themselves that the two aren't connected." she said, glancing over at her. "Just hear me out. If it sounds insane or outlandish, tell me."

She paused, collecting her thoughts. "We know the Voice warred against the Old Gods and that is why they trapped her in here. And if anyone is alive to remember it, it's probably the Fae - and clearly they do remember it. They are a threat to her, and the Ascended by proxy, because they hate her so much. So...it would make sense for her to go after the Greatwood, their home, right?" There was a clear motive. She wasn't conjecturing out of hate, just logic. "And we know she specifically sent Sam into the Greatwood to explore...and Sam isn't really the kind of person to ask questions of authority, you know? He is kinda...wishy washy." He was the perfect person to manipulate. He wouldn't ask why she wanted him to do this. "And reasonably, since she makes the Ascended, she could have had put some way for Sam or even someone else to deposit this blight throughout the wood." That was the how. It was less clear, but reasonable she thought.

Phoebe looked back at the vial of Ascended fluid. "The Ascended fluid could be the base of it. It is flammable and explosive. It dissolves or absorbs natural products without it altering its own state - and clearly isn't natural because I can't see it under the microlens. There are no cells. But...I've never actually seen just the blight under the microlens either. I've seen it inside plant cells. I've seen it inside blood cells...it might only seem natural because it is using the cells as a disguise. It's really just a varient of this fluid." she said, tapping the bottle of ascended fluid. "And that's why Frey can't tell what it is because it isn't a thing of nature. It doesn't come from Vi or Rae or even Mort. It's like...a weaponized version of this fluid created to attack natural things."

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

REXANNA

the penumbra

Her brows furrow somewhat as Phoebe mentions not to thank her yet. But Phoebe tells her to let her know if she’s sounding insane, and she nods with a small bob of her head in agreement before crossing a leg over the other and waiting, watching as she collects her thoughts and then unleashes them. Throughout it, Rexanna nods at certain parts, watching and curious of it all. She understands where Phoebe is coming from, understands what it looks like. But if Rexanna can help figure out the truth of it all (to rule themselves out or play damage control) she’s willing to do it. It’s why she’s here, after all.

There was only one part of the logic that made Rexanna’s brow raise slightly. “I understand that the Voice and the Old Gods don’t get along, but after speaking with her it just… doesn’t seem like she’d purposefully go out of her way to destroy the only other place we can go?” She ponders, eyes landing on Phoebe as she looks back to the Ascended fluid she had given her. “I think it’s a bit more coincidence than caustation?” She admits with a small smile.

But she has more to say as Phoebe mentions there’s no cells in her fluid, and she nods her head slightly as she looks to the micro lens. “I get that theory. But I’m also wondering if it’s not something that the Spire had corrupted. The Voice had spent a long time trying to perfect us, to make us this way. The Spire was more so her prison, so I think it’s possible that it could be the Spire itself that had corrupted it and spread it?” It’s a similar theory she had told Jigano what seemed like forever ago. She splays her hand slightly. “The Spire affected the Ascended too, when it was breached. If that helps any? It… Well, when Lucas and that whole thing happened, he seemed different – mottled sort of?” She tilts her head as she recalls what he looked like before she blacked out.

“Do you have any samples from the Spire to try and look at?” She gives Phoebe a gentle encouraging smile. Rule out everything.

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

Phoebe

Phoebe leaned back in her chair with a groan, pressing the heel of her hands to her eyes. What Rexanna said made as much sense to her as her own case. It could just as easily have something to do with the Spire itself, given that Safrin contracted the disease after dive-bombing it. Nothing could be straightforward and simple. ”You have a point, though it doesn’t explain how it managed to get all the way to the Mathair without affecting any other part of the forest first.” Phoebe said with a sigh.

She let her hands fall to the side, dangling over the sides of the chair as she stared at the ceiling. ”The Ascended were the ones who breached the Spire though. So even though it was the Voice’s prison, it must’ve been her base of operations at one point.” she pointed out, letting her head fall to the side to look at her friend. ”So any way it is put, it is a product of the Voice. Somehow. It acts too similarly to her other creations to not be, and clearly with the Spire involved, who else?”

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

REXANNA

the penumbra

She listens while Phoebe brings up the Mathair, and she nods with a small frown. “That’s true.” She pauses, head tilting as she ponders the options. She doesn’t know what options there are, she was hardly involved with the Spire falling, aside from meeting Lucas out front of the gates. As Phoebe lets her hands dangle, Rexanna sits forward a bit in her seat as she mulls the questions she has dancing in her head.

“I had heard that the Spire Demon was… A different, wrong version of us.” She pauses somewhat thoughtfully with a slight frown. But she reaches over to grasp Phoebe’s shoulder and give a small squeeze of encouragement. “Is there a way you could maybe extract the blight from the blood cells?” She asks with a small tilt of her head. “Then you could maybe inspect it on its own…” She ponders with a light roll of her own shoulders. She feels like she's grasping at straws, but she's trying to be helpful as much as she can.

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

Phoebe

She considered Rexanna’s point for a moment, wondering if perhaps the Spire Demon had some sort of connection to it. ”I can ask Roana about the demon. She fought it twice and it did bite her.” she said as she thought it through. If the demon had been a wrong version of the Ascended, then perhaps it had a similar, wrong fluid that linked to the blight? But she wasn’t sure really.

With a sigh she closed her eyes, feeling tiredness begin to overwhelm her. ”No, I can’t. I don’t have tools small enough, and I am not sure I could even use something that small.” she said with a frown as she lightly shook her head. ”And if it was what we think, some sort of weird version of Ascended fluid, I won’t be able to see it under the microlens anyways.”

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

REXANNA

the penumbra

As Phoebe brings up Roana, Rexanna nods with a light smile – remembering the woman she had originally planned to seek out, but her plans hadn’t quite gone accordingly. And she gives her friend a gentle smile in response to it. “It’s a start, at least.” She suggests with a light sigh, despite the uselessness of breathing. Her head tilts as her questions land and Phoebe begins to respond to them.

It makes sense, the blight being so small and infectious that it likely would be hard to do. And she frowns with it slightly but nods as well. “Well, Phoebe, I think that you’re smart enough to figure it out.” She consoles with another encouraging smile. “Maybe some rest and a clear head to start again might help? Never know when inspiration will strike.” She replies easily, recalling the nights Bastien would stay up and scribble notes about new ideas for painting that he couldn’t rest until he made sure they were written down.

because you, like rome

were built on ashes

and you, like a phoenix, know how to

rise and resurrect

SUNJATA

your voice is the loudest shout at the head of the line

your voice is all war

He had mostly been waiting outside, but as the night grew darker outside he headed back into the College, treading up the stairs. He wasn’t sure how the new experiment would work, but he hadn’t heard any loud sounds just yet, and it seemed the two women were simply chatting of all things. That was a good sign, right?

As he reaches the threshold of the door, he hears the last bit that Rexanna has to add, and he leans against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, steel gaze shifting from Ascended woman to Phoebe. “She’s right, you’ve been working hard all day.” He rumbles to the two of them as his eyes linger on Phoebe with a softness to them. He’s tired too, and he’s hardly done anything today. He can’t imagine how Phoebe must be feeling – infected and exhausted, working hard all day.

He’d really much rather be home and snuggled up in bed.

and and they love you for it

your voice is breaking but it is holy

boy born for revolution

all you have to do is burn

Phoebe

”Thanks, Rex.” she said quietly, glad that her friend at least had some confidence in her. But suddenly Jata’s voice was added to the room, and she opened her eyes to look over at him, leaning in the doorway. ”But I haven’t really figured anything out yet.” she said with an irritated huff, glaring back at the vials and plates and specimens. Phoebe pulled herself up and carefully locked the ascended fluid away in a cabinet to keep light from corrupting it.

”Plus going home to sleep means I have to get up. Right here is fine.” she grumbled, letting her forehead rest against the hard wood desk. ”Then I can just start right back up again. It’s the most efficient thing really.” she said with a yawn, hands trembling on her lap.

In These Past Few Days When I See Myself
I Seem Like Someone Else

Coding base by Sky/Odd!

SUNJATA

your voice is the loudest shout at the head of the line

your voice is all war

His gaze flickers over her before drifting to Rexanna briefly while Phoebe mentions she hasn’t quite figured anything out, and he huffs a small sigh as his girl glares at the vials. But at her next set of words, he shakes his head and dips into the room, stepping over the piles of glass they had swept up, before moving over to her. “Ah, no.” He rumbles with a light chuckle, watching while she yawns and nods his head as if to emphasize the point.

He reaches down for her to pick her up and cradle her against his chest. “It’s bed time.” He says to her, tucking her in close and gently brushing his cheek against her own as if to try and make her see that she would be far more comfortable sleeping in a bed than on a desk and chair. His steel gaze looks back over to Rexanna with a light apologetic smile. “It was nice to meet you, thanks for helping.” He offers easily before he turns with Phoebe to head out the door, pausing in case she had anything to say to her friend.

and and they love you for it

your voice is breaking but it is holy

boy born for revolution

all you have to do is burn