cryovision | Pavo Heart Game: Wednesday Session

Pavo Heart Game: Wednesday Session

When you enter the light, you find yourself hovering weightless in a void, as if caught in a moment of falling inertia. In the distance, you hear a voice that seems to shift and twist, familiar and yet unfamiliar.

"You shouldn't be here. But since you already are, let's make a wager. If you can uncover the truth, you'll find me. If you can't, you may be hopelessly lost... What a shame that would be."

You begin falling, and your vision blacks out--

[OOC NOTE: your goals are "reveal the truth" to "find the true heart". All images in toplevels are for general inspo, please make sure you read the flavourtext cause things are not exactly as they are in the images.]

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[Okay. Okay.]

We're going to try and get away from the monsters. We might be able to burrow for a bit, but when we get out to the air, we'll have to be ready to run, okay?

But--

[Tiny Pavo looks up at you with wide eyes -- the right eye is not covered by an eyepatch. Instead, the eye itself is an empty void.]

I'm not supposed to leave here.

[Well, that's not worrying at all.]

They put a child in a pillar of ice. You can't belong here.

"They" who? This is just where I belong!

[Being frozen isn't fun, and he's shivering, but he also seems to really believe this is how it Should Be.]

[She will keep him close and tieflings run hot, at least.]

You're freezing and alone, that isn't where anyone belongs!

But...

[he doesn't know how to argue thaaat]

It is, if it's me.

No, its not!

[makes a quiet noise...]

That's... just how things function. I'm not even real.

Of course you're real. You exist, made up of what makes up everything in this world.

When I summon animals, those are real beings, they're just like the other animals they look like. They're made of spirits and energy that hasn't yet chosen a means of being alive, so they try it out with my magic. But they are still real because they exist. Because they're part of this world, and can react and influence it.

People who say an existing being isn't real is just afraid to accept the world is bigger then they can ever know.

...But I don't exist? I'm just a fragment of "my" heart.

Pavo is real, and you're apart of him. Being a fragment of something doesn't make you any less real or valuable.

All of nature is about small parts working together. Its like the elements. They might exist on their own, but that's all they do, exist. Water is just water, stone is just stone, never changing.

Its when you have stone and water together that it creates dirt, it becomes mud and clay, it becomes a different stone. Fire turns water into air, and lack of heat turns water into ice, and ice can preserve things that would rot, to preserve history, or even give time to heal later.

A vision alone is seen as a great gift, isn't it? How are you any different then that?

It's just... Where I am effects how "I" feel. So if you make me leave, you'll change "me" on the outside.

[That gives her pause.]

[But not for the reasons one might think.

...if I had a way to stop being afraid of being rejected all the time that didn't involve losing all my memories, I'd take it myself, honestly.

You would? I don't know if "I" would. Because... Things are the way they are. You can try to hide from it, but it won't go away.

No, it won't, but that sort of fear has a way of paralyzing you. Keep you from...maybe accepting things are there.

That's the problem when it comes to other people. If you hold them at arm's length, how are they ever gonna get closer? How are you ever going to find someone who makes you feel you belong?

Its like being afraid of fire. If you approach foolishly, its going to hurt you. But if you never let it near you, you won't get warm, won't be able to cook, just be lost in the dark...

It's not... Mm.

[Things are too close to approaching the real meaning of things and Pavo really dislikes that sort of thing, so this tiny version of him is just going quiet.]

If you don't run soon, they'll kill you.

They can certainly try. My job back home is to make sure my pack is taken care of. Healing, fighting, sneaking, scare a dragon into submission.

And you're hurting. As long as you need help, nothing is going to scare me off.

[He doesn't look like he trusts this idea. For various reasons, it's not wise, but... He doesn't have it in him to keep arguing it when he can hear the chaos outside the bubble.]

...Okay.

[Listen, sometimes you develop coping mechanisms that aren't wise because you're a fucked up cookie, but they work so far.]

[So far.]

You'd like to be warmer, don't you?

[...he hesitantly nods]

[She smiles and pats his head.]

Then I'll help.

And...you don't have to wear a mask with me. You're my pack.

And you saved me. There's not a lot I'd reject after that.

So whatever you're really like, we can be weird things together.

[She puts her other hand on the ground. Can she feel any earth farther down under the ice?]

[....does earth have a claim on magma....]

Edited 2021-05-21 03:29 (UTC)

[She can feel nothing but ice. Endless forever ice!

Tiny Pavo seems mildly reassured, but still quite uncomfortable.]

[She is doing her best. Mildly reassured is winning as far as she's concerned.]

[Okay, endless ice. First idea it is. She released a bunch of dirt, that's gonna make some kind of path in the maze.]

[So time to shift to her hands and knees, an arm still around tiny Pavo, and is going to crawl with Quite A Lot Of Practice, opening up a path through the dirt to move through.]

[You take the baby and crawl! Everything outside is clamoring to destroy you and reclaim that child, but you can get back safely if you keep it up. You'll just be quite tired afterwards.]

[I can short rest after, it's fine! This is just how adventuring works, you push and push and then you recover after you're away from the monsters.]

[And this keeps the child safe.]

Re: ICE MAZE

cryovision - 2021-05-22 04:13 (UTC) - Expand

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