tushanshu | video;

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[ There is a blast of static before the video feed clicks on. The only elaborate thing he owned that stood out against all the drab issued-on-arrival furniture that dotted his bare as bones suite was a cherry wood desk. Laid out on its surface was a gutted and dissected glove that looks to be made of metal and snaking cords of copper. Even behind that white wood mask he looked displeased with whatever project lay the electric glove in pieces. ]

While experimenting with finding alternate power sources for these devices in the wake of yet another series of tragedies and misfortunes, I decided to turn my attention elsewhere. Not to arsenal but to my fellow foreigners.

The divide between those who possess preternatural and even god-like abilities and those who do not is wide, and I find this distressing. While we are all unequal in the eyes of the Emperor I believe she does wish us to be capable of standing on our own two feet whenever the next cataclysmic event occurs, or whenever the supposed apocalypse fires start.

Taking time away from my free clinic in the Earth sector I will start offering to teach those with little to no formal training in the basics of martial arts: specifically, chi-blocking and hand to hand, closed quarters combat. Without demonstration I can best describe chi-blocking to the uninformed as a school of martial arts that places emphasis on temporarily rendering muscle function useless and even dampening chi or energy based powers. If nothing else, those who feel defenceless can take some initiative.

Kyle Rayner has agreed to supply rooms at EA-3B for training a small number of students at a time so I won't be far from my clinic. In the meantime I hope to attract a small student body and cooperate with anyone here who has experience in close-quarters combat and/or martial arts. It would be best to introduce something so demanding and exact as chi-blocking slowly. A sort of teacher-student arrangement.

I will be taking names of interested foreigners and answering any questions through my personal console, or in person at my clinic.

Standard encryption: private to M. Pontmercy

It's entirely up to you, but I must insist you take up these lessons.

[ ooc information here ]

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[ Noatak had left the mask back at his suite; he trusted Sabriel enough through circumstance to trust with his face, and his name. Still he felt exposed without it- like a raw nerve waiting to be burned.

There hadn't been time between his hectic schedule and what had transpired between he and Tarrlok to discover for himself what had been happening with everyone's powers, but he wasn't blind to distress. He looked at Sabriel briefly before moving into the foyer with almost awkward hast. ]

I- I suppose I'll make the tea.

I spoke with Evandau at the most recent audience.

[Sabriel's voice is monotone, but her hands are beginning to tremble.]

Oh.

[ A flat, toneless 'oh' as his dark skin visibly blanched around his neck and cheeks. Memories of his own audience with the Emperor came back to in one unpleasant flood. Fearing the worst, that Sabriel had witnessed her own death, Noatak was awash with sympathy he previously thought he knew not the capacity for. Only he could not fathom why she chose to call on him of all people to seek solace in.

Though himself the guest, he urged Sabriel into the sitting room with a hand pressed against the small of her back. ]

I will see to the tea; you go and sit. This is not a conversation to have while on ones feet.

[Sabriel obeyed, keeping her eyes on the floor. She'd cried, earlier, but her father's words still rang in her ears. Everyone and every thing has a time to die.

Finally, she speaks up.]

He didn't let me see the library, but... [Sabriel's normal skintone is close to deathly white, so it's hard for her to get any paler, but somehow she's managing it.]

I learned things- about the Old Kingdom. And Father is-

He's dead, and I'm the Abhorsen now.

[ Noatak came to a screeching halt mid-stride with a tray that carried a pot of freshly steeped tea. In any other scenario this might have been a humorous sight.

The situation was so alien to him it left him dumb in the tongue and still. For a moment that verged on an eternity, he watched Sabriel as the colour leech from her pale as paper skin and her tears they fell from her dark eyes to the table in rivulets.

Finally he sat down next to her, the tray left on the far side of the table. He didn't know what to say; he never dealt with something such as this before. Which, at forty years closing in on forty one, was a more than a little pathetic. ]

I am- [ Without thought he found his hands gingerly ghost over her arms. It was as though he was attempting to initiate an embrace but wasn't sure where to go from there. ] -I am so sorry.

[ Part of him was, he realised, was relived the news was not of her own demise. ]

H-he-

[It felt like a dam bursting, as Sabriel began to talk about what happened in the reservoir, in fits and starts and disconnected pieces. She didn't bother explaining who Touchstone and Kerrigor and Mogget were- it was less an effort to explain things and more an attempt to try to make sense of things herself.

She didn't shove his hands away at least- she actually leaned forward a little bit.]

... So now we have to find Kerrigor's real body, or he'll just keep coming back.

[ Noatak wordlessly pulled her closer in slow, tentative movements until she was enveloped. Turned out this hugging business wasn't too complicated if you took your time. He reserved comment on the state of affairs in the Old Kingdom; he wasn't entirely sure she was making sense even to herself- everything was coming out in such disjointed, emotionally charged pieces to the point of gibberish.

As for her father he remained equally silent; he had no feelings either way for his fate and the word, father, certainly stirred no affection for his part. In spite of his indifference for her Kingdom and her father there was little denying he had come to, in his own way, identify with Sabriel where he felt inclined to sympathise. ]

...It will be alright.

[ Words appropriate for this were still hard come by, but that at least would suffice. At least he believed so.

Edited 2013-06-17 04:25 (UTC)

Yes. [Under normal circumstances, Sabriel would have felt that sniffling on Amon was completely undignified, but she didn't particularly care.]

And I- I have a duty now- here, and in the Old Kingdom. [Sabriel's normally paper-white face had gone red and blotchy, and she slumped a little, even as she squeezed back.]

To the dead? [ He asked with his basic knowledge of her duties as the Abhorsen, even if that made them technical adversaries. His own condition as deceased in his own world was still largely a secret, and one he did not wish to share with her now. ]

Please do not fret over the dead- for they can wait, and you would be surprised for how long. [ He pulled her closer, thought of himself and his brother, and held her tighter not just for her comfort. ]

No. [It was soothing, to be held again, even though the memory of her last embrace with her father- and her last conversation with him, and Sabriel choked back another sob.]

To the living. [Sabriel thought of Touchstone, and how it had felt to kiss him, and the taste of blood on her lip as she'd done so. She thought of the villages of Nestowe, and the soldiers at the perimeter, and the children being used as living bait by the scavengers of Belisaere.] How long can they wait?

If the Emperor can believed? [ Which he doubted yet wanted to believe just that one lie. If not for his sake for he was already gone in the eyes of his world; his spirits had already forsaken him for dead, but he did not want to believe that was a fate shared amongst all foreigners. Especially Sabriel, he found himself thinking, for she was full of life for one so tied to the deceased. ] Than for eternity for long as we're here.

Time isn't of the essence here [ He wasn't entirely sure of whom his words were supposed to comfort now as he stroked sable hair as he pulled he close. ] Ssh....sssh if you can trust me for nothing else- than just believe me in this.

Edited 2013-06-17 13:34 (UTC)

I don't want to wait that long! [Sabriel hiccuped as the flow of tears began to ebb, and she realized that she was being held tightly by someone twice her age, and Sabriel sighed.]

I'm the Abhorsen now- I have a duty to protect everyone here. Not just the Old Kingdom but the people here too. [Sabriel began to extricate herself from his embrace, and wiped her face with her sleeve.] I think I'm needed here- if not now, then soon.

[ Noatak let her slip out of his arms without making mention of his tear stained sleeve as not to embarrass her. For his part he stifled any show of loss of composure over the closeness they just shared; he still wasn't entirely sure what to make of what just transpired between them.

A voice in the back of mind repeated her eighteen years over and over as he again noticed that even tear-streaked and red in the face she was not terribly pretty but undeniably striking. ]

Sabriel [ Once collected of himself again and when he locked eyes with her it was all seriousness again. ] Listen to me.

[ Noatak reached for her wrist and guided her hand to his forehead where to rested her slender white fingers to his nut-brown forehead where his charter mark glowed dimly at the touch. ]

Look at this: This is your responsibility now, and it isn't a question of when because you opened that door and you are needed here now. Your duty is to those you marked now for whatever they do will fall back on you. If you want to protect others than first you'll have to finish what you started here.

[Sabriel could feel the power in the mark, although it did not feel as strong as before, and strangely distant.]

I don't intend to abandon my students, no matter what happens. All of them deserve better than that.

[Sabriel withdrew her hand.]

I intend to teach them everything they'll need to know about Charter Magic to protect themselves and others, but- my magic has weakened, over the past few days, and it seems to be getting worse.

[ For whatever reason, although he suspected it was a combination of his status as a bender and being leashed, the baptism had rejected him. The Charter was there was was its mark but there was not power behind it. A cold fire or a light with nobody home- it was empty although it glowed and reacted to its ilk as it was supposed. ]

That was meant more to be taken as consolatory than as condemnation. Although I could see where I could used the practice.

[ Remember that, Sabriel. It was the closest Amon would ever get to self-depreciation. ]

Yes, I've heard...discontent among the others that their powers are flickering or have noticeably begun to fade. [ His brows knitted together and he frowned. ] For both our sakes lets hope it is indiscriminate and I no one goes slipping their leash.

[For an instant, Sabriel's mouth twitched into a ghost of a smile.]

Well, I'm sure you'll improve.

[Her gaze fell to the binding. It was still intact, but how much longer before the spells become nothing more than scratches on leather, and the bell little more than a decoration.]

Hopefully not- have you been affected? [Sabriel didn't know what she wanted the answer to be- the thought of Amon regaining his bloodbending wasn't appealing, but she had no desire to see him completely stripped of his powers.]

Hmf. I suppose I will. [ Being in danger of indulging a smile was mutual. ]

No, I- [ He thumbed the supple, dark blue leather that leashed him by the wrist. ] I don't know. Unlike most I've chosen to live without relying on my abilities or even using them much at all. Though I can spot a pattern and would imagine they've waned.

Just as everyone else.

Edited 2013-06-22 06:34 (UTC)

You don't- not even to heal? [To Sabriel, magic wasn't simply a tool- it came almost as naturally as breathing, and tied her to her (now deceased father). And if what she had learned was true, it was inside of her blood as well.]

I can't imagine living like that- having a skill and never using it.

Healing isn't a fix-all in medicine, and I find myself having to explain that far too often.

[ Though he found Sabriel to have more gumption than others her age he found her predictably dense when it came to arguing that one, could in fact, live without powers. It was intolerably comparable to how benders treated losing their abilities as a fate worse than death. ]

You know in my world I always found such comments to be a slap in the face to non-benders.

That isn't what I meant! I could understand- moving to a place where magic doesn't work, like Ancelsierre- I was thinking about going to University there, though that- isn't exactly an option anymore. But not using it when you could... That's what I don't understand.

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