warforged | sometimes you can't make it

Entry tags:

sometimes you can't make it

Who: Alexstrasza, Krasus/Korialstrasz, and the Redsworn
What: Successful retreat into the Ruby Sanctum
Where: Ruby Sanctum
When: After a long, grueling battle near the borders of Suramar
Warnings: Please PM the mods if any warnings are needed

[The Ruby Sanctum is a flurry of activity. This becomes clear within two seconds of stepping through the portal. The wounded are guided over to a grassy clearing surrounded by saplings and adolescent trees, bade to lay down and receive healing from other dragonkin. Some of the trees are years old, while a few look to have shot up recently. If you watch, vines engulf one fallen warrior; the body sinks into the ground, and a tiny sapling appears in its place.

Despite the war going on outside, the sanctum is less of a cavern and more like a self-contained dimension. Ample sunlight drifts down through scarlet leaves, which are occasionally home to the crimson scales of a whelpling. There is life everywhere: insects on twigs, birds chirping overhead, flowers at your feet. Dragon eggs lay nestled in the nooks and crannies offered by the tranquil forest. There is a decently-sized spring filled with fresh, pure water, as well as some small rocky outcroppings to sleep in. It's warm and comfortable enough to rest out in the open, too.

The cloaked and ever-mysterious Krasus stands watching the dispersing redsworn, his back against the massive oak in the center of the sanctum.

Occasionally, one may glimpse a beautiful red-haired woman with copper skin winding through the copse.]

[ooc: Mingle log for redsworn!]

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Oh, she can move- that's better than she expected, especially with how she was just... lying there. After a battle like that? Anything could happen...

"Ah... that's a relief." As much as she's still confused about what entity Vas is exactly, she seems benevolent enough, and even if she wasn't as clear-cut in that aspect, it's hard not to feel concern. She does pick it up, and-

...Okay, as stupid as her sleeveropes Shomonkai uniform is, she still fights in it because it's pretty light. Sometimes, in a world where everyone is a glass cannon, there is no defense. Only offense. No matter what, if she gets her head lopped off, that's it- so she has to do the breaking first. The heaviness almost makes her drop it in surprise, actually.

"I can see why," Amane says, just a bit less stoically. "...Would you like a drink? I could get you one." Attempt to, anyway.

Vas reaches out to catch her pauldron before it falls to the ground, but fortunately Amane doesn't drop it. "Here, let's put that away for now." No sense risking damage to it over something so inconsequential.

She searches for something to hold a drink in, and digs a waterskin out from her pack. She sloshes it around - from the way the weight shifts around, she'd guess that it's about a quarter full. She supposes that she could drink whatever's left, but it might put the human at ease to do something for her. "Trade you this for the pauldron. The spring looks clean enough, so you can just fill it there."

True. She takes the waterskin- after a battle like that, if she had any authority, she's probably force everyone to drink water like demons guzzle wine. It is a quarter full, but she goes ahead and fills it with the spring water, which is indeed clean enough. A bit colder compared to their skins and hands, too.

"Here you go." That's better than lying on the floor, at least. Amane's still confused over... exactly what Vas is, but since she gave her the waterskin, their biology is probably fixed to drink water too.

"Most of this area is full of life... a welcome change. There should be whatever we need around here." Even for blue-skinned... alien things.

Vas takes a swig from the waterskin, then offers it back to Amane. She can't be the only one here who was exhausted by the battle and, besides, it's just polite.

"Mhm. You know, when my people first came to Azeroth, we were grateful that the local wildlife wasn't incompatible with our needs. I'm too young to have run into it myself, but apparently there were a few worlds my people touched on that weren't all that good." She looks down for a moment as a grasshopper lands on her knee, and she shoos it away. "It's not Draenor, but it's a good world."

Hey, come on, drink the rest! She's not that tired.

...Okay, who is she kidding. She's struggling to stay afoot and keep questioning, but the Lockdown has helped her train her endurance a fair bit. She'll just sleep for a bit longer than usual, then. "That must certainly be a predicament. I can't imagine what humans would do on a world with no way to sustain themselves."

She can't rule out Vas having close-to-human biology, yet- her remark was applicable to all entities, even demons. If they ever go to a world without neurotransmitters to snack on...

"Draenor... I assume that is your home world?" Well, this place now is certainly... good. "Have you ever heard of Earth?"

"Yes, I heard one of the other dragonsworn mention that place. She was in the Green Flight, I think," Vas answers. "She said there were humans there too, but I am not sure how there could be. They- er... your kind, they have only ever been found on Azeroth."

Seeing that Amane refused the drink, Vas takes another swig, then pours some of the water over her head. It's cold against her skin, cold enough to make her head ache, but it's strangely refreshing too. It soaks her head, and she slicks back the stray hairs that keep falling in her face.

"Draenor, though... yes, I suppose you could call it my home world. My people came to Azeroth... three years ago? Maybe five? I am not sure."

"Perhaps some of us were brought to Azeroth in ages past..." Hm. "Or, if humans natively exist in multiple worlds, then those of any other species might to."

Entities of sentient mind are confusing. "Three to five years... that is quite recent." And with Azeroth's state of affairs? Both unpleasantly unlucky, and slightly suspicious. She's obviously not voicing that concern, but...

"Strange, though. That the name 'human' sticks, despite being in vastly different places... by the way, what is your species called?"

"We call ourselves Draenei," Vas says as she puts the cap back on her waterskin. "We have traveled this universe for many thousands of years now, but Azeroth is the only planet we've come across that had humans. Never visited an Earth, though. Or if we did, I wasn't born yet."

She says it casually, as if traveling between worlds is a walk to the corner store and back.

Draenei...

Amane doesn't think too much about it, since she's talked to entities that have lived for millenniums traversing the multiverse. Those who have are wise enough to know not to tell the complete truth, though... so she has never gotten a full recount. "Thousands of years... that's quite a long time in human definition. If you don't mind, I'm slightly curious. How old are you?"

"Ehh..." she stalls, making a face. About how many summers passed on Draenor, anyhow? And then the conversion to Azerothean time...

She counts up her figures on her fingers, still scowling. "I think- I am two hundred years? Maybe more." She looks back up at Amane, relaxing her brow. "I am sorry, I am not very good at keeping track of time."

When you're that old, Amane can't really blame you.

"You must have seen much more than I ever have, then... human lifespans are nowhere near that long." Especially since they naturally barely live past forty, with those dying from old age only possible with new world luxuries. In this world... food seemed abundant, and perhaps ailments cured by magic. But the war?

It will claim many. "Where were you before the... battle, then?"

She honestly isn't sure what to say to Amane regarding her life. An Exile's life. A life spent knowing that the Legion only had to find them to destroy them. A life that saw what happened when the Legion intended to destroy a world.

At least her question saves her the awkwardness of coming up with some kind of half-truth, half-platitude.

"I was on the Exodar following my return from my deployment in Orgrimmar. Er- ah." That likely means nothing to Amane, does it? "They are places that will exist on this world many thousands of years from now. Unlike you, I came here from Azeroth, just... not from this time."

Amane misses Vastania's uncomfortableness completely.

"Not from this time... then, my suspicions may be correct." Either there's some time shenanigans going on... or parallel universes. It could really be either- but with the issues of their powers? The terms she brought up definitely don't mean anything to Amane, but it does prove that Maridian is probably from another Azeroth, too.

"Have you noticed any differences in your powers?"

"Powers..." she mutters. Whatever Amane means by her "suspicions", she has no idea. But it's a bit late to ask, and she knows more about her own situation than whatever the human is talking to herself about.

"The Light is still strong within me," she says, touching a finger to her forehead. She closes her eyes, reaching out and teasing a bit of the Holy Light away. She illuminates the Mark of A'dal placed upon her, perhaps a bit less brighter than she is used to. "You see? It is as it was."

Ah. Then perhaps, her assumptions about power is subject to change.

"The Light?" It's somewhat of an inquiry. "So, your powers still remain the same..."

Perhaps it was because she was from Azeroth before, too. Somewhat, anyway.

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sometimes you can't make it

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