ic The Battle Roil: Scion vs. Scion(IC)

[Ari]

GM

 

March 15th, 2018, 2.37AM

The Battle Roil, the Red Waste, the Well of Rage

 

 

Moira was very rudely yanked from a dream as she was flung through space. 

 

A strange, powerful hand had her by the wrist and Moira could feel something large, metallic and bulky behind her. The air whistled around her ears and a great black sky stretched from horizon to horizon, broken up by the distant silhouettes of towering spires of red rock. Vast mesas and dark canyons broke up the dreary expanses of red tableland that otherwise ran as far as her eyes could see.

 

With a jolt the hand securing her whipped out savagely, sending Moira hurtling towards one of the mesas, the pillar of rock rushing to meet her!

 

Moira for just a moment looked into eyes just like hers, in a face just like hers. As she sped towards the ground she saw that this doppelganger was wearing an ornate suit of brassy armor covered with decorative figure inlays featuring scenes of love and war. She heard her own voice shouting down after her.

 

"Let's do this, you sloppy piece of copyright infringement! Let's see how comic-book Scion deals with the real thing!"

 

From her back swung golden wings, and with a roar the other Moira came racing for her twin!

[Moira Morley]

The 14th was her birthday. So she bashed it out in style. Though despite her legendary carousing, she was getting weary and probably plopped out somewhere. The last thing she remembered was a dream where she and Apollo were swimming and necking. In the sun. And now? This place. She was being attack by herself.

 

"Damn I look good, but do I really sound that stupid," she grinned. Running forward to meet herself, she blinked on her costume. Red, to match the arena, she guessed. "Speaking of comic books, you have to tell me your tailor after I beat you down." She swung hard with a discus punch, meant to bring the doppelganger to the ground. It connected, but she struggled to bring the armored version of herself down.

[Ari]

GM

 

Scion's fist *whanged* off of the breastplate, drawing a derisive snort from her doppelganger. This close, and with less to distract, it was odd how her suit seemed to mirror not a real Greek hoplite but the aesthetically-ancient Greek but structurally and mechanically modern suits worn by the armored genius Daedalus. There was even a very stretchable and breathable undersuit visible around the joints and joins of the metal contraption. As well, the graphic carvings had anything but a hand-made look, with the sleek and precise inscriptions giving more an impression of something machine-etched into the armor.

 

"Suit's courtesy of Gordon Unlimited, but they don't have the U where you live, do they? Otherwise, how could you walk out the door in that?"

 

Her off-hand suddenly lashed out, a corona of unfamiliar wine-white light coating it, A second later the all-too familiar sensation of whirling, unfolding and gut-wrenching collapse began to tear through Scion's mind, the struggle to hold onto sanity growing more desperate as Dionysus's power flooded her soul! 

[Moira Morley]

Prime!Scion balked. Did this cheap knock off just use textspeak? How did she even do that? Kids these days. Maybe it was just the wine of Olympus setting in. A lot of weird things happened when Dionysus passed around the drinks. She felt a little light headed at first, but she powered through it.

 

"Whew, thanks for that. Haven't had it in a while," she laughed, "but seriously. Is it because you're weak that you don't have it good as I do?" She passed her hands over the armor inspecting it closer. Facsimile. Hmph. There's a strap. And another. She looked into the other her's eyes. "You know this would look better," she tried to snap a few of the straps with force, "off of you."

[Ari]

GM

 

Other-Scion's eyes widened in surprise "Hey, wha-! Get off!" but words alone wouldn't stop muscles driven by otherworldly might, claws like steel and tendons like adamant. The armor rent and crumpled under Moira's hands, the roaring lions and snarling tigers decorating it watching as if open-mouthed as the harness buckled and was at last torn asunder! The vulture's wings that had propelled the armor's owner flapped once to stir the dust, then were still.

 

Stumbling backwards, the other-Scion glanced in horror at the blue-green jumpsuit she'd been wearing under the harness. It looked tough, but nowhere near as strong as the suit she'd just lost.

 

Apparently the other-Scion came to the same conclusion, as she began backing away from her doppelganger, speaking quickly. "Alright, I'm sorry, you're a lot stronger than I expected, but this doesn't have to be violent, we can be anything, maybe even friends!" As she spoke, a familiar haze slipped from one of her hands and flew into Moira's eyes. Suddenly, fighting began to sound like an awful way to treat this strange duplicate. Maybe they could work something out...

 

Without taking her eyes off of Moira, the other-Scion hurled herself backwards, landing lightly on another floating rock tumbling through empty air.

[Moira Morley]

The Scion from the Prime world winced as she accidentally went in too hard on the armor. To be fair, it was bad armor, but beautiful. She could have better crafts deities make it. Live and learn, she thought with a sigh.

 

But hey, at least she was willing to talk it over. Wait. Was that her - their? - mother's mannerisms she felt in the back of her mind? Sweet Aphrodite that was good stuff. And then she took off! "Hey," she shouted up to her, "you don't play hard to get!" Jumping after her self, she landed on the same rock. "Now where were," she said sauntering slowly, "ah yes. Self love. See, angry me, I already love myself. You included." She leaned forward getting close. Stopping for a moment to throw herself off. And then lunged. Connecting with herself and trying to take herself to the floating ground.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Moira Morley

[Ari]

GM

 

In the angry red void of raw stone and howling emptiness, the two quasi-goddesses wrestled furiously. Despite lacking the steely hide of her duplicate, the armored Scion twisted and kicked savagely to grab a moment's respite in Moira's unyielding grip. With a blow that jarred them both to the bone, the other-Scion tore herself out of her twin's arms. She flung herself to the edge, panting and glaring, trembling as her nerves flooded her with adrenaline.

 

Gulping down what was theoretically air, she whispered, in a voice that cut across the wailing winds "Please. I need to live."

 

Other-Scion stared into Moira's eyes. Her blood-red hair was coming undone from the tight, businesslike bun at the back of her head, there was a widening cut on her lip and her left foot was favored gingerly.

 

"You're just a dream, right? That's why you're so tough? I'm fighting my...my thanatos, my wish for self-destruction." She slipped her good foot out and against the edge of the falling asteroid. Her eyes never left Moira's "You know I won't last outside the Pantheon for a week, right? You know what's after me? I need this, I need this far more than you."

 

With a sudden rush she kicked off and hurtled onto the highest of the rocks screaming towards the distant red spires, landing in an awkward roll. 

Edited July 27, 2018 by Ari

[Moira Morley]

Moira enjoyed the colossal tussle. Not the part where she failed to take her other self down, but the struggle, the combat of it all. Though the words are what stopped her. Not the most opportune time to stop but she wasn't about to kill her other self.

 

As she listened to her other self talk about needing to win and dreaming of her own demise, it sunk in. She definitely wasn't a dream. And this representation of herself had enough information to not be a throwaway of a night.

 

She watched her other self jump away. Again. Grunting angrily, she kept following, "listen. If I were a dream wouldn't I know everything about you? Wouldn't we have the same lives? Right now, stories aren't matching up!" Raising her hands out in a peaceful gesture, she invited her otherself for a hug. "Tell me more about this Pantheon. What is your Olympus like? Are you still in your goddess phase, before it, after it?"

[Ari]

GM

 

Other-Scion kept her distance, eyeing her counterpart warily. "Well," she began in a more guarded voice, "I guess you can't be me if you don't know the answer to that."

 

She began circling slowly towards the same side of the falling chunk of debris as Moira was on. As she carefully approached, she kept talking, eyes never wavering from her mirror image.

 

"Pantheon's a bunch of freaks, idiots and monsters all gathered together so we can look down on anyone else. Especially the poor saps who come to us for help. I thought I was different, because I'd do longer-term fulfillment of wishes instead of just snapping my fingers and giving them something my sponsors picked out, but it was all crap." Other-Scion shrugged irritably "Only realized this week I was picking prayers based on if I'd get to fight something."

 

"And...Olympus?" She  frowned deeply "That's just one of the culture echos in the Imageria. The gods aren't real, we made them up. Like I did for me."

 

She ran a hand through her hair, looking suddenly thoughtful.

 

 

"Hey...what would...if your powers srarted to go, how would you get them back?"

[Moira Morley]

Moira pondered what her other self was saying. She knew Olympus to be real. She talked to Aphrodite daily. Before she was here she was in Apollo's arms. It wasn't an idea she sincerely, but them being all fake? Her being just a dream? If not or even so, she wanted to live to the fullest until she winked out of existence.

 

Her otherself was intense. She certainly was sure about herself. Sounded like the Pantheon was her Olympus. Wait, she did mention beating other versions of herself. Another earth? What about all those other hers?

 

"I really don't think that would happen," she said reaching out to touch her otherself's shoulder, both trying to comfort and assure her. "Part of them is me just existing. Like what if you lost your skin or the ability to breathe? Hm?" She invited her otherself closer, to hold her, "But yes, I have been depowered. I was born to Aphrodite and Ares. My birthname is Edone. I was to be the goddess of hedonistic pursuits. Then, Hephaestus, once again slighted by his wife, conspired with Eris to take my spark of divinity in the womb. He succeeded, and I was sent to Earth to live 'normally'. An Olympian among mortals. A couple of decades passed and I regained the strength and power to rejoin the gods. I selfishly jumped at it. And for a long time I was happy. Made friends in Dionysus. Found love in Apollo. But I left that all because I wanted to help people. I returned to Earth to be a protector. A hero." There was a pause. "To answer your question, if I wanted godhood back, I'd earn it. As for your predicament," she glowed yellow for a moment, opening a picturesque portal to Olympus, "I'd like to help you."

[Ari]

GM

 

Other-Scion, understandably, if not correctly, cautious, continued to keep her distance, listening to the other woman's spiel with a deepening frown.

 

"That...doesn't make any sense." She rubbed one hand over her face, grimacing as she visibly tried to sort out what she'd just heard. "I know all that about you being Edone, that stuff with Apollo, it's in the Young Gods: Love & War limited series Castle put out a few years ago. And I know the Imageria can make stuff like that real, if you believe in it, but...comic books are big, but that big? Enough to shape the collective unconscious?"

 

She scraped her nails through her hair, dislodging even more of it from the tight bun as she stared down into the red wastes stretching out far below the two gods. "But...if you were that Moira...you'd be and do what I expect or want. You're too curious to be just a, a construct, but nothing else works."

 

She pointed at Prime-Scion "Also, for the record? I absolutely earned being a god. My powers might just be low-level psionics, but I've made something of myself with them. There's literal millions of people sending me prayers back home in the real world. But you've got my attention, what's the plan, O spirit guide?"

[Moira Morley]

Scion quirked an eyebrow about her life being a comic book. How much of it though? Like, was she a main character? How was she received by the public? How much of her life intersected with this other woman's, other than having the same body and similar powers? "You know," Scion looked at her otherself with a smirk, "I'd like to sit down and have a talk with you about everything. But not now, maybe after this is over."

 

"So your powers are psionic in nature," she quirked an eyebrow, "and belief based? I mean, I guess it makes sense. The collective mind controlling who gets what. But that's not the point." She gestured a hand towards the portal to Olympus, keeping eye contact, "I want to help you. This Pantheon deal sounds barnacles. So, you come with me. We let you soak up some of my birthright. You go back to The Pantheon and show them what true gods look like." She shrugged, "if that doesn't work you get ambrosia'd up and become immortal." She grinned, "sound like a plan?"

[Ari]

GM

 

Other-Scion blew a long breath, looking back down at the distant red waste slowly coming closer. "It does sound good. At least it's a better plan than I had. Which wasn't a plan at all, admittedly."

 

"But, how are we going to get out of here?" 

 

Taking a step from the edge, she cast about for some answer in the black sky and red rock, tentatively approaching Prime's Moira. She'd relaxed a little from the non-threatening attitude of her counterpart, but she still looked stiff and on-edge as she stood face to face with Edone. "I could use a little of that immortality, too. Even if your Olympus isn't any more real than mine."

 

"And if we can get my powers back...well, I'm putting my life on the line already as it is."

 

The face the Other-Scion was notably more lined than Prime's. There were a few hairs starting to grey at the fringes, and there were scars on her neck that didn't looke like anything mortal had made them.

 

She offered her own hand awkwardly, forcing a smile. "Let's go meet some gods, me."

[Moira Morley]

"I knew you'd come around to my way of thinking," Scion happily said to her otherself, pulling in for a hug. This would be tatamount to a loss on her side, but neither of them had to fall. "Aphrodite, Ares," she offered up words to her parents, "prepare a place for me. I'm bringing some company."

 

"Dear, we've seen what has transpired," Aphrodite spoke back to her, "Ares is not pleased with the outcome. But me? Well, I'll see what I can get."

 

Picking her otherself up and carrying her in her arms, she walked towards the portal. "Well, dream or not, here we go." And they crossed the threshhold.