To See A Pure

To See A Pure
Date of Scene:	06 July 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Ariel requires a look at Samael in Unshift Space to gain a better understanding of how Pures are linked to Them.
Thanks to:	Abstractum and Samael!
Cast of Characters:	2, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 219, 231, 347, 455
Tinyplot:	When They Return

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Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
In another part of The Homeworld-- a side-room, or maybe just the White Wing, it is not very clear, Homura has invited Samael over for social! And, if she does not mind terribly much, a small trip to Unshift Space. No actual location or endgoal, just a trip to it and then back. No strings attached. No obligations to say for long. Please do not shoot me in the soul again though that was insanely unpleasant. Also this is Ariel's little project, not mine, so please do not shoot her either.

She has brought pizza.
It was probably Ariel's idea.

Of course the others here have also been invited, both as witnesses, security blankets for Ariel, and whatever they may be able to contribute.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Since it was Ariel's idea, Ariel is naturally right here! Nothing surprising about that, right? She's also a bit nervous, and she's dressed up for the occasion.

In a schoolgirl outfit. Like a magical girl and all.

"Nnn... I hope I know what I'm doing," she says, displaying her confidence for the others.

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
"It will be fine, Ariel," Ellestaria reassures. "I'll be monitoring everything for you as a backup. I'd suggest a Blue Chroma instead of Green, though." Especially if Vruasa is here. The Atlantean herself is resting casually with arms crossed, in her normal silks today. Which is awful for eating pizza, but somehow they always seem to be unstained.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
FIORA APPEARS!

She smiles, in the same outfit she was yesterday - hair done back in a heroic scrunchie, plain white t-shirt, black skirt, stripey sock leggings, normal grey shoes, freckled face, etc etc normal Fiora.

And as she appears, she looks around, snaps her fingers, and makes a soft tisking sound. "Sorry. Be right back."

In a few moments she returns, in the crook of one arm a bigass bag of RESTURANT STYLE SALSA CHIPS, and a big bowl of fresh salsa. In the other hand is a two litre of coke. Which is cold.

"I brought chips! Sorry, I saw the pizza, we we... not supposed to bring food?" She wonders, confusedly. "... Anyway, here's some stuff." She tosses on the table.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
There is an iteration of VRUASA TELASH milling around Fiora, but he's not the current iteration of Vruasa, and he must have arrived sometime between heartbeats because he definitely wasn't here for the last few minutes. Most people wouldn't be able to tell, but those who can would be able to detect that he's from a short distance into the future. This is hardly abnormal, and probably doesn't mean anything at all. He seems distracted by something or another, and mostly seems to be staring off into space. His cybernetic eye appears to be operating in some kind of autonomous mode.

It's recording the surroundings and focusing on whatever seems important at the moment. As for where the troll himself is looking, it seems to be approximately at Fiora. But he's very clearly not focused, so it's more likely that he's just staring off into space and Fiora happens to be in the way.

This is fitting, considering what she is the Goddess of.

Samael (455) has posed:
With a slight *pop* of spacetime momentarily warping itself, Samael appeared a few inches above the ground, landing with a flourish as she spread her hands out. A booted toe touched the ground lightly as she pirouetted for no particular reason, and she finally landed on both feet, tucking her hands behind her back as she looked at everyone.

"Wow, is this all for me? What's the occasion?" she asked, helping herself to one of Fiora's chips, opening it herself. "You never told me what it was...or is it a surprise?" she asked, eyes flicking towards Homura. "I love those sort of things! So!"

After downing more than a handful in a surprisingly dainty way, the girl clapped her hands together. "Is there something you wanted from me?"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"Yes. Well, I wrote it in the message, but I didn't expect you to read it all the way," Homura says, between bites of pizza. Obviously Samael can help herself to any of it she wants.

"I will let Ariel explain, this is actually her idea. Fiora, we'll need you to Unshift us when we're all ready. The protection might not be needed, since we want to look at things conceptually."

Idly, to Vruasa: "Are you okay? You seem distracted."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Oh, that's Ariel's cue! Ariel waves a hand in greeting, "Oh, hello again um... do you prefer Miss Samael or just Samael? You don't seem like a Miss to me. Or a Missus. I mean you seem more like me, kind of just enjoying life and not really... ah..."

Stop rambling, Ariel. "Right! We just wanted to take a look at something. Because I don't like hurting people and I think I'd prefer to not hurt my Pure at all. It's kind of complicated but can we take a look at you in Unshift space? That's all we need, really. That and to have pizza because it seems like every time I try to talk to you something awful happens."

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
"Hello," Ellestaria says to Samael. Just, you know, to say hello. She has a slice of pizza though, and is nibbling it lazily while everyone does their thing. "I'm just here to keep an eye on Ariel, don't mind me." She's not going to elaborate unless Samael requests it.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
"Yep. Ready whenever." Fiora offers, fingergunning Homura before having a slice of pizza and leaning on time-displaced Vruasa. "I'm actually just glad we're all hanging out talking instead of trying to kill each other. Anyone with these ideas is fantastic. So good job, Ariel!" She smiles, munching on pizza.

"It's like I do - a whole lot of fantastic nothing."

Samael (455) has posed:
"Haaah. I see. Though I don't know what that'll gain you..." said Samael, as her eyes thinned, but not without an accompanying catlike smile. She flittered over to Homura and Ariel after making a slice of pizza disappear. "But if you want to do that...well, I dunno. I want something else, first! Or you can promise me something. Either way..."

The girl walked close to Ariel, bending down slightly to make eye contact with that annoyingly chirpy smile on her face. "I can't do this kind of thing for free, you know! I have to have standards. Otherwise it wouldn't be fair, and as much as I love parties..."

She came less than an inch from Ariel, before simply walking away, streeeetching. "This isn't payment enough now, is it?"

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"I suppose it isn't," Homura says, looking away from Vruasa and Fiora for the moment-- though still curious about what seems to be distracting him. She glances towards Ariel, then Samael, pondering.

"Well, Ariel, it's your call how much this is worth."

Thankfully Samael hasn't been too unreasonable in the past. Information for information, fair trades. Hasn't asked anything unreasonable yet.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel scratches her head, "Well um... I'm not sure what I can offer you. I mean, I'm only two years old." She pauses. "W-well, two years old two days from now. I don't think Mom will give me that much of an advance on my allowance."

She looks over at Ellestaria, then brightens, "Hey! What if I invited you to my birthday party!"

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
Ellestaria reacts as any proper mother should. She begins choking on her pizza and coughing, reaching for something to drink. "Hrk! Ar... rk..." Cough choke. She doesn't look like she's in any danger, just really really uncomfortable right now.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
Mnemosyne is the one that gets the most stress out of Samael's proximity to Ariel, only an inch away; Ellestaria will be able to feel that cold glare and deep tension that runs through the entire tiara on her head.

Clairvoyant Rush says, "I... I think it'd be a good birthday party... And... F-fun..." It's trying to help convince, but Samael is scary and it's reluctant to talk much!

Hecate is as ready as ever! "You just let me know as soon as you want to Unshift. I can promise you won't much understand what you'll be about to see for a loooong time, but don't let it discourage you, it'll all make much more sense exactly when it needs to, a long time from now."

Harmonious Diea is probably much shorter, to fit the look of an accessory on the schoolgirl outfit. It seems pretty genuine when it says, "Well, I don't know how valuable that is to you, Miss Samael, but I can at least say it's pretty valuable to Ariel."

Whatever the hell Ulixes is doing, it's not speaking up or being visible here.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
In answer to Homura's inquiry, VRUASA TELASH merely smiles fangily at her. Seems like he's either disinclined to answer, or unable to do so. Considering the circumstances that is incredibly ominous in and of itself. The only thing that he reacts to on an immediate basis is Harmonious Diea, who gets a stern look out of him. He shakes his head and says, "You don't tell people things are worth a lot to you when you're in the process of haggling. You play it down so you have to pay less for more. Being honest doesn't always pay."

He leans back against Fiora now, returning to his ominous silence and brooding. What the hell is his problem today?

Samael (455) has posed:
"Oh? How wonderful!" Samael said, smiling. "In that case...I agree!" After making some more slices of pizza disappear in the space of thirty seconds, she pointed both of her fingers at Fiora.

"Bring us there, do the thing, o witchy witch!" she declared. She may or may not also be doing constantly until Fiora does, in fact, unshift all of them.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
Fiora smiles. "Wow, a second birthday. Big shakes!" Fiora laughs, before gripping her abstractum (WHICH IS NOW TOTES MCGROATS THERE) and raising her hand. "Well, without further ado... Here we go!" The Witch of Void offers, shunting a portion of her power into her broom as she spreads out an area of darkness and Nonexistance, 'prepping the field' so to speak.

HOPEFULLY THEY ALL GET PUSHED INTO THE UNSHIFT WITHOUT ISSUE.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel blinks, then smiles in relief. "Oh, thank you! And now I can talk to you and introduce you to my friends." She isn't as naive as she pretends, but that is sincere enough.

Then she's probably unshift, this is mainly a filler pose.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"Aaaand heeere we... Go." Hecate says, smugly.

Unshift Space is as it was before; purely conceptual. There is no "dark void" because there is light, either. Directions no longer have any meanings, besides going "towards" or "away" from a concept. People stop having any actual body, but their concepts contain everything they could do, so they can do it anyway.

Their Abstractum anchor them as they're separated. And now, they get a full view of Samael.

Where the other Pures are - at least according to Dr. Burden and the Operators - just limbs extended down into the plane of this Multiverse... Samael's concept looks, to the outside, like something rather different. Something strange and odd. A "limb", a "tendril" of sorts extends away from "Them", the massive screaming concept in the far, far distance.

However, there is something clearly artificial at the end. The concept is nearly impossible to identify, convoluted in so many different elements of purpose and construction. However, if you had to come up with something to compare it to... One would most aptly compare it to some kind of bear trap. Some awful artificial jaw shut and locked closed around the limb of Them. It's not an Abstractum, that's for sure. But it sure does look very different from how the Pures were described. Either it was a lie, or Samael's even more of a strange example of a Pure User.

Tied to this awful mechanism, one can see the concept of the girl herself, rather than the Pure; it at the very least strongly resembles just a normal concept of a human being!

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel hasn't really tried to ever do anything here before, so she's uncertain of what to do. "Diea, I hope that Blue Chroma is enough to help me with... whatever I'm doing here." She isn't entirely sure what it is, but since she's operating on concepts, she figures she can give it a try.

She promised to just take a look, so that's what she's doing. That trap is something she REALLY doesn't want to poke at, so instead shefocuses her Sorcery and reaches out, just trying to get a 'feel' for the line. Right here and now, that'd be all she would risk. Trying to interact with it could be dangerous.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Homura is replaced by the concept of Homura. It is hard to describe, and probably resembles a horrible mishmash of 'lich' 'magical girl' 'gunner' 'human' 'timeloops' and a few other badly battered and bruised things in there, completely crushed under that last one. Oddly enough she probably has a visual shape, something purple-y and diamond-shaped, like her transformed Soul Gem.

She doesn't really say anything.
Or maybe she transmits the concept of silence.
This place is awful for being clear.

What is even up with Samael's connection to Them anyway?

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
Ellestaria's concept is something that screams 'guilt' and 'alone' with 'pride,' all wrapped up in some kind of chains. Lots and lots of chains, which somehow don't seem to restrict her. She doesn't 'say' anything, but she too reaches out with her senses, just hovering about each item. She doesn't show the caution Ariel does though, and actually tries to get a better look at the trap, too.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
The line is still pure Them, which means it's always trying to draw things in and always extremely hostile. Here, though, it seems... Injured, strained to its limit and stuck.

It's not a threat to Them as a whole, of course, but They'd have to make a massive, concentrated effort to extricate it. In spite of its situation, the limb naturally strains and tenses at Ariel and Ellestaria in a hostile way as she examines it magically, activated by any exterior influence at all.

It can't extricate itself from this weird artificial construct around Samael, though, so it's harmless. Meanwhile, Lest's investigations into the "trap" itself show that it appears to be saturated in age; it has literally lasted the lifetime of several universes, surviving through multiple cycles somehow. However, there is, notably, something odd. Someone or something etched something into the surface of it, or at least, performed the concept of etching into the concept of its surface. The symbol remains something that fits into everyday reality's paradigm of perception.

A star, with the bottom concave element hollowed out of it. Above, text reads "ROUSSEAN FEDERATION MINISTRY OF RESEARCH". Below, "SCIENTIA POTENTIA EST".

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
The Concept of Fiora is fairly simple. It's just the concept of Totally Normal Human Girl. Which circumscribes, simply, the concept of nothing. There! Was that hard? Fiora is very simple. Then again, her Totally Normal Human Girl is practically studded with tons of other dumb concepts, but, the core is just Nothing. A whole Lot of It.

And right now she is the CONCEPT OF CONFUSED.

"Wow, this sucks." She intimates her disagreement with abstractly, observing Samael and simply being confused.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
Homura, once the facts are shared and revealed, is less confused and more... well, there is the concept of 'being pissed off at Burden' floating there. Just kind of menacingly growling. It oscillates between that and just being disappointed in him.

She communicates something along the lines of "So how do you find this place anyway?" to Samael, in a way to provoke idle chatter from her.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Damaged. Something here is... hmm. Ariel stares at what she 'feels' for a long moment, then she too gets a sudden surge of indignation. Probably for reasons different from Homura, and hers is quickly tempered by reason. "I don't like this. It hints at a lot of things."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
The concept of the Time God begins to flicker between its various potential states of existence, as many of them had done when they arrived here. The initial stammer that rises from its direction is easily recognizable as laughter. There are many different things that VRUASA TELASH could have been, and each of them now flickers by. The tall, tall figure of a fully grown noble blooded Troll looms overhead briefly, his Captain's coat billowing dramatically in his wake. His laugh is long and triumphant.

The doomed soul, incarnate countless times over in beta timelines, looks on and cackles with mad glee, a smaller figure clad in the tatters of his terrible fate. Then there are the lesser iterations of the knight, who came to less dramatic ends. Some of them are very wicked, and others seem merely sad. Each fate that fell away so that the current iteration of the Knight of Time could exist bleeds away from him, as if shadows cast here in unshift space.

VRUASA TELASH grins like the devil himself, draping an essentially metaphorical arm around Fiora. Another concept overlaps him as he withdraws it from his inventory. Some kind of extrasensory perception device.

Samael (455) has posed:
A voice echoes. Unlike everyone else's odd concept-speaking though, it seems that Samael has enough control to simply speak normally. Maybe she could even change her appearence, if she wanted. In fact, that's exactly what she did, assuming her usual humanoid form. Walking on thin air towards everyone odd concept-forms, she did another twirl, grinning.

"What do you mean, find? It's a place, just like any else."

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
Getting that information alone makes Ellestaria's eyes narrow. "I think we'd best not get too involved here. Are you ready?" She's not wanting to hang around here and press their luck, especially if it causes Ariel distress... and she'll want to talk things over anyway.

"Mnemosyne..." she starts, then she looks at Samael and considers. "This may take some time."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
"You don't find this odd at all?" Homura asks, in conceptual speech. It's probably obvious to Samael this place is just weird to deal with for them-- well, some of them, Vruasa is looking pretty swell over there right now--, admittedly.

"Then again, you may just be used to it by now. How are you doing that, anyway? Imposing your form over your concept like that." Might just be a benefit from being a Pure, really. Or Samael has tricks she hasn't revealed that let her impose her own reality on things. Oh that would be an awful surprise.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
"Hell yeah I find this odd. This place gives me the CONCEPT of a headache." Fiora complains, seeming to settle into her own role. She's not as Flashy as Vruasa in all this, and she doesn't give unreality the birds and simply take the form she is accustomed to. In fact, the Concept of Fiora, The Girl, seems to just hang there. It is obviously conceptual. Her conceptual fingers rub conceptual temples, and she just kind of heaves a big conceptual sigh.

Behind her looms the Larger Concept, once circumscribed by her, now sort of just spreading out around her. She leans into the Time God, and just frowns.

"Yeah, please, tell us. I want to stop the Concept of a Headache from The Concept of Pissing Me Off." Fiora THE CONCEPT OF groans.

The Unshift is the worse, why couldn't we just be in nonelucid space? That's much better. She doesn't see the real points of interest here, but she's just a helper. So, mostly, she just hopes Ariel gets something good out of this!

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
"It's best we go." Mnemosyne "says" coldly in conceptual communication. "It's no good to stay long in Unshift anyway."

"We're all anchored back to reality, so we can bring you back in!" Harmonious Diea says. "It... It might be good to do that now, yeah." Unless there's objections, the Abstractum are probably gonna start bringing their Users back to their starting point for tonight.

Samael (455) has posed:
Samael nodded, grinning in response to Homura. "I just do it, that's all. This place is familiar to me. I've known about it for aaages." she said, coming up right near to the mass of...stuff that was Concept-Homura.

"Anyway, that's that. I hope you got something out of it~!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel, a little shaken now, turns and chirps to Samael, "Ah, I think so. Thank you very much! I hope you'll have fun... maybe we can help you sometime!"