Unnatural selection [Closed]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi assumed that he'd see a few acquaintances while he and Ildraniath set off on their investigation into the City. Maybe even a few people who'd been mentally displaced, like he had, and were now trying to negotiate having two minds currently crammed into a body used to taking orders from only one.

What he was not expecting was to run into Alendian on the way there. He wasn't sure she monitored the comm channels... but perhaps her unique senses would tell her something was a little off today, anyway. He almost called out to say hello, but restrained himself. It was Ildraniath's body, after all, and not his own.

...what was Alendian doing here, anyway? He thought she'd be training in the Sensoriums.

Comments

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

For the first time since their meeting, Alendian had finally managed to irritate Zouichi in earnest. He was more or less ambivalent about the superiority complex, her ordering him about, and being called a mon-keigh, but the thought of someone forcing Ildraniath to do something that might be described as unsavory, least of all himself --

"I would never."

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

Almost simultaneously, Ildraniath makes a dismissive little gesture with her hand. Funnily enough, she'd been about to say something, although she's not all that insulted by it, as Zouichi seems to be. Although the idea that he would deliberately do anything to harm or cause her discomfort is alien to her at this point and that actually elicits a small notion of surprise as she comes to that realization.

"Of course not, Alendian. Zouichi has my interests in mind."

After a moment of letting that sink in, she continued, "Have either of you any idea about the possible cause?"

[quick_strike]

Fine, she could live with that. Alendian supposed Zouichi was okay already but it still needed to be questioned. One could never be too safe.

"I have no idea. Earlier, this one....Erhart, insisted that it was your fault. Of course, that is ridiculous so you can tell him that now."

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"If it is not you, then it is some other external form of sorcery." Alendian's face twists into a mask of contempt as Erhart takes over.

"Though it pains me to say this, I may need you to find the source of it so that we may purge it and be returned to our own forms."

For penance, of course. But with Sanguinala coming up anyway that just means more self-mortification.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

It was simply not in Zouichi's nature to injure without cause... though his own regard for Ildraniath no doubt factored into his reaction.

He still thought it highly likely the statue and snow reported before the incident was simply too convenient to be mere coincidence, but he was quiet, choosing to listen to what the others had to say.

[futureisclear.livejournal.com]

"Of course it isn't my fault," Ildraniath sighed, sounding rather irritated, "It wouldn't be totally beyond my abilities, but it isn't something I wake up one morning and simply decide to do, let along to half the ship."

She folded her hands in front of her with a severe looking frown, "In any event, we do need to find a way to reverse it. This could severely hamper our fighting ability when it comes to the Ohm."

[quick_strike]

"True. If we were to fight, this one's psyche would be crushed by the Warp." Sorry Erhart, but people go insane when they see the true faces of the creatures that linger there and that's how Alendian travels.

"...any ideas, human?"

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"You underestimate the strength of will inherent in an Astartes, Eldar. My armor is contempt."

He pauses in his diatribe, though, and says, "If doing this is not beyond your abilities, perhaps ascertaining the culprit and the mechanism that caused this is also not beyond them as well. If you can find a way to unravel the skein, we can set things right."

And then spend a year in penance for this heresy.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

All right, so the plan was the same. Find this statue, figure out what was going on with the snow and flowers, and fix the situation somehow before he wore out his welcome.