Written Wonderland

Blake gave Mizu a respectful nod and started following the other captains out. She and Evan exchanged brief glares as she walked past him, but that wasn't anything particularly noteworthy, really. The two pretty much never seemed to not be under each other's skin.

Evan started filing out as well, but... hesitated. Whether on purpose or absent-mindedly, he let other captains pass him on the way until he would be the last one out, and stopped just short of catching the tent flap after the captain ahead of him exited. He swallowed uncomfortably, but... was pretty sure this was the right thing to do. Here was hoping Mizu would agree by the end of it, even if she'd probably be irritated as fuck at the start.

He turned around to face her, though didn't quite bring his gaze up to meet hers. His expression was still frustrated, but calmed down considerably, and now a bit flush with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry for my outburst." He muttered, his expression flinching slightly. He'd gotten much better at doing these sorts of things than he used to be, but he still absolutely fucking hated it.

Not just that but... was this really wise? What if she thought he was lying, or crazy?

Ugh, just to be safe... the captain swallowed uncomfortably again, and dropped down to one knee, hanging his head in a show of deference. Hopefully that'd at least guard against her thinking he was lying, as Evan really wasn't one to take this posture lightly. There wasn't really all that much he could do to guard against sounding crazy, though, so... here goes.

"Last night I exchanged words with whatever's possessing our men. I know it doesn't excuse my behavior--" he hated this he hated this he hated this "-- but please believe that something supernatural is involved. I know it is."

He silently appreciated that his messy black hair was just long enough to hide his eyes at this angle, giving him the freedom to nearly burn a hole in the floor with a glare while he tensely awaited Mizu's reply. He was still angry about the earlier exchange, but delivering this information to Mizu was more important than his pride, however much this absolutely fucking sucked.

((OOC: I SWEAR WE WANT TO INTERACT WITH XAVIER AGAIN SOON BUT EVAN WAS ADAMANT WE DO THIS FIRST CUZ AS MUCH AS HE SUPER FUCKING HATED THIS HE DID NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH HAVING STILL NOT TOLD HER LATER, APPARENTLY))

Mizu opened her mouth slightly in surprise without moving any other part of her face when Evan knelt before her. Given that she had just publically chastised him, it felt out of character, and she couldn't help think it was sarcastic, but what he said blew that thought immediately from her mind.

Mizu found it difficult to keep a certain smugness at Evan's kneeling from welling inside her, which was so unusual it nearly made Mizu dizzy. Steadying herself, she shook off the egotism and tried to process what Evan was saying, which sounded, somehow, even more insane than anything that had happened so far.

Putting the tips of the fingers on her right hand to her temple, she said, "Wait...Did you say you spoke to it?"

"Mm." Evan basically grunted in reply, but in a way that managed to be unambiguously affirmative. He let stand a small pause, he supposed just to feel out whether Mizu wanted him to elaborate or not. Or.. maybe just getting over his own nerves, really. His eyes still glared tensely at the floor, too afraid of what Mizu's expression might be to dare look at her yet. Best to just get the information out there, and deal with whatever her reaction was after.

"I went to the infirmary tent some time after you did; you were asleep when I got there. On a whim I left one of Xavier's charms with one of the men, and he-- something else spoke through him. His mouth moved, but it wasn't his voice, and his eyes were dark purple. I think it called the charm 'precious'. I told it we had a problem, and it, I dunno... said something snarky."

Evan paused there, briefly wondering whether Mizu needed to know about the bite-and-kiss. Surely not.

"The healer returned and the soldier was back to a mumbling sack. But I swear to you, I was fully awake, and my senses were sharp. I wasn't seeing or hearing unclearly."

Another pause, and an uncomfortable swallow. Although this still felt relevant, he was about to more or less confess that there were certain suspicions he was starting to harbor that went past simply 'something supernatural'.

"One more thing," he said, "Just before I entered the tent last night, one of the men uttered the name of the goddess the woman spoke of this morning."

There. He'd said his piece. He contemplated lifting his head to show Mizu the seriousness in his eyes, but he worried there would still be too much anger in them to do any good. So he kept his head down, his glare still burning at that spot on the floor while he anxiously awaited Mizu's reply.

Mizu had not laughed in a long time, at least since the rebellion began, but she felt something of that nature bubbling up from the center of her when Evan said, "precious." The whole thing, the whole day, had already been more absurd than any day had right to be. And now one of her knight captains was telling her he spoke to a goddess and that she made some snarky comment to him through the body of the insane soldier? Evan had joined the ranks of them, then. Just more coherent than the rest? Mizu shook her head and kept her right fingertips over her temple. She shook her head again. 

She honestly wanted to slap some sense into him, too, but didn't. 

There was nothing to say back to him, so she stayed silent, and when he did not get off the floor, she briefly contemplated about what she would need to do if he were sane. On the off chance that she's genuinely facing this threat now, what was the best strategy? The charms aren't going to work, Mizu thought immediately. In fact, they probably made it easier for that thing to come through, if anything. But this was all theoretical; surely Evan had lost his mind? But she was becoming less and less confident in that assumption with every passing second. The feeling in her stomach turned from its absurdist laughter to a hardened dread. If it was a goddess they were up against, there really was no such thing as having control over the situation, and that presumptuous crone was probably their best bet. Mizu hated that idea fiercely.   

Phantom had said the king was summoning demons. She trusted Phantom. And if there were demons in the castle, was it so difficult to believe there was some kind of malicious goddess here? Yes, yes, it was. To Mizu, they were so far removed in the hierarchy that it felt impossible. 

Finally, practically hearing Evan's heart beat out of his chest at his waiting, Mizu said, "I'll believe 'something supernatural' at this point." Mizu let that hang in the air a moment before saying, "That's all." 

Evan breathed an audible sigh of relief in spite of himself. At least this hadn't all been for nothing.

"Thank you, commander." He muttered out hastily, and pushed himself to his feet, doing his very darndest to get turned around and outside without letting Mizu get too much of a glimpse of his face. In spite of that, it wasn't hard to tell that his cheeks were just about as red as Mizu had ever seen them. The way he practically punched aside the tent flap on his way out certainly betrayed some lingering frustration as well, but Evan wasn't gonna beat himself up too hard over that, cuz fuuuuuuuuck that was hard. What he would beat himself up over was whether telling her had actually been such a good idea, as of course now that the thing was done, just about all he was left with was all the reasons why it might have actually been really fucking stupid to do.

It wouldn't do to just stand in front of Mizu's tent lost inside himself, though. A fairly large part of him just wanted to go hide in his own tent to wait out however long it took him to stop feeling mortified, but that wouldn't do either. He was a captain, and his men would need him sooner rather than later. With a huff, Evan took off into a gruff jog towards a place that'd be good to run for a bit, figuring that running off steam would have him back in a useful headspace sooner than anything else he could think of.

Xavier had taken the charm creation task to heart with gusto and very quickly realized that he was not going to be able to make more than 4,000 charms by himself, so he took charge of the small group of cadets under him and set each of them to the task. The hunting party came back with several deer they could skin for bone and meat, and they made short work of it, the army having hunted for the majority of its meat since the rebellion began. It felt good to be in charge of something all his own, Xavier decided, and believed fervently that his efforts with the charms would keep the men safe. 

After the supplies had been gathered or were at least on their way over to the area, Xavier took to teaching his cadets how to make the charms. He set out the materials and tied them together with the stitches his grandfather had taught him, telling the men also the sacred words his grandfather always offered to his objects before they officially operated as charms. Some part of him worried about so many people having access to one of his grandfather's secrets, but Xavier felt confident that it was worth keeping the men from losing their minds for the duration of the time they would be in this strange between place. 

Xavier himself tied hundreds upon hundreds of charms, enlisting 30 men to help. It was a large production, all things considered, given that Xavier largely put it together alone. He had a number of the younger boys running charms around to everyone who didn't have them yet, encouraging everyone to pass the word about where people who didn't have them yet could find them. There was a steady stream of people coming to collect them, but Xavier kept track of approximately how many he had given away. Even though he was counting, he wasn't going to force people to wear them. 

Despite the morose mood in the camp from the repeated attack, Xavier was chipper as ever, and his comrades were happy to have something to do with their hands. 

Evan ran for quite a while, lost rather deep inside himself for most of it. Folks who saw him knew plenty well enough to leave him the fuck alone, as this certainly wasn't the first time the captain had gone for an angry run to blow off steam. His facial expression certainly also gave a fairly obvious hint as to the sort of mood he was in.

But with each time his foot pushed off the ground, he managed to leave just a sliver of anger and frustration behind, and eventually, his expression had relaxed, and his mind was more on just the burn of his muscles and the wind in his face than anything else. He loved that feeling, right around when his body started really complaining and he could push it just a little bit further. He finally stopped for a breather, and basked for a moment in the way his sides hurt while his lungs worked to catch up. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, and feel his legs on the verge of turning to jelly. He supposed getting to this state let him feel pride in a way few other things did; he might be a hot mess in most areas of life, but he at least knew how to train his body pretty damn well.

While he caught his breath he grew a little more aware of his surroundings again, and noticed a couple of soldiers nearby talking over one of Xavier's charms. Evan felt like he recognized the particular expressions on their faces - these sort of awkward smirks, broadcasting that they felt sort of silly about the idea, but had accepted the charms nonetheless. That was still more or less how Evan felt about it, himself.

The captain rubbed at his hair for a moment, at first just in that absent-minded way that he frequently did, but then realizing that he had hairs stuck awkwardly to his ears and his forehead with sweat, so he also spared a gesture or two to wipe those back into something at least a tad less unruly-looking. He supposed he should go check in with Xavier, as he had told the lad he'd make sure he had what he needed today. And, he supposed, the good thing about clashing with Mizu and burning it off with a run was that the dream he'd had last night already seemed like an aeon ago. So, upshots.

Evan rolled his eyes at himself, and then started roaming in search of where Xavier had set operations up. It wasn't too difficult to find, and Evan let a proud smile cross his face as he took in just how much of an operation Xavier had pulled together.

"Spare another?" he asked as he sidled up next to Xavier, hand outstretched and a calm smile on his face. "I gave mine away last night."

Having seen Evan go out for a run, Xavier was pleasantly surprised that Evan's mood was light when he arrived. Though his smile had briefly fallen in a wary wait-and-see-what's-going-on-in-Evan's-brain kind of way, the corners of his mouth quickly picked up again when Evan stretched out his hand. 

Without missing a beat, Xavier said, "Of course, sir," with a half-serious, half-joking tone of respect for authority. He handed the charm he had just finished tying to Evan and promptly gathered the supplies he needed for the next one. At the pace they were all going, the charms would be finished in the mid-afternoon.

Xavier flashed a bright smile at Evan, clearly pleased with all his hard work and giddy with having something to do besides sit around. 

(OOC: thank yoooooooooou so much for the descriptions of that run. Mmmmmmmmmmm, delicious. Also, we can take as long as we would like in this scene, but I think we will need a timeskip afterward. I think I would like to write it because I think I'm going to write a scene with either Dehaljadrun or the crone doing something in preparation, so let me know when you want to move on. ) 

((OOC: You are quite welcome. I certainly enjoyed writing it as well And, hell, Evan enjoyed revelling in it too lol))

Evan focused rather intently on the charm as Xavier passed it to him, needing every ounce of that focus to not give the boy a particular sort of sidelong glance in response to his tone. Gods, there were so many ways he could respond that would be insanely fun, but, ah, none of them particularly appropriate.

The captain closed his hand around the charm once it was fully passed off, and moved to drop it lightly into his pocket before pulling his gaze back to Xavier. He managed to keep his smile just in that calm neutral territory, with some effort. At least, here was hoping that none of the thoughts of tumbling off of horseback actually played across his expression, anyway.

"You have everything you need?"

((OOC: I'd be cool if you want to go ahead and timeskip in response to this, or maybe have us do one more back and forth - or, I mean, more if it wants to happen, I just don't currently anticipate this scene calling for much. Evan's apparently pretty likely to uh, head back to his tent for a bit, if/when Xavier confirms he doesn't need more supplies or anything.))

Xavier watched the captain deposit the charm in his pocket and immediately warned, “Don’t forget that it needs to be against skin to work.” Xavier’s light tone dropped enough that it was clear he was serious, for once, and that he had repeated that statement at least a hundred times today. One of the cadets helping called to Xavier, and Xavier gave a quick nod and said, “yeah, I think I’ve got it all,” over his shoulder to Evan before going over to answer the cadet’s question.

Before long, all the men (and women who were worried even though the dream state did not seem to affect them, at least, not yet) who wanted a charm had one in hand, and Xavier rested his tired hands, content and proud, but exhausted. He had forgotten how much projects like these took it out of him, even if it was important work.

--

From the edge of the forest, less than a mile away from her cabin, the crone watched the charm-making with interest. She also watched the ferocity with which the captain who had questioned her had ran after the meeting in the tent. Though he was far from her vantage point, it was not difficult to see the tension dripping off and into the air as it mingled with his sweat. If it became necessary, the crone knew Evan would be her best chance at convincing Oomizuao of her plan. He was certainly the most ready to entertain her ideas, even if he was suspicious, and all things considered, rightfully so. This was no small fire they were playing with.

“Your revenge will happen yet, my goddess,” the crone said, seemingly to no one. “I will make certain of it.” The crone looked up above where she was standing and saw a lone spider spinning a web several feet above her. The old woman nodded as though she understood what this meant, if it meant anything at all, and turned around, headed back to her cabin.
 
--
 
Mizu spent the rest of the day preparing for the trip to see the Shel’ti both physically and mentally. She laid out and polished her formal black armor, long since stripped of the king’s sigil, both because Phantom had reminded her of the Shel’ti customs around hierarchy and because she wanted every ounce of legitimacy she could get. The last thing she wanted the Shel’ti to think was that her army would attack them, which is precisely why she had sent runners to the Shel’ti to announce their presence and purpose several days before the army arrived here. They were expecting this entourage she reminded herself anytime the twinge of her anxiety began in her stomach.

Even more than the anxiety of the negotiation, however, was her fear that another dream attack would happen in her absence. Though she was leaving Elaine in charge, she didn’t trust that Evan wouldn’t do something rash given how shaken up he was about it already. Mizu still wasn’t completely convinced he wasn’t delusional, but she had always known Evan as stronger than that, even cocky in the face of danger. But, if she were being honest with herself, the supernatural appearances of the events were shaking her, too, and she could not help feeling frustrated that there was nothing to do beyond make those folky charms, and she found herself hoping desperately that they would work.

Mizu suddenly shuddered as she remembered the crone speaking her full name. It had been buried so deeply in her mind that she had nearly forgotten it, and its resurgence deeply unsettled her. Mizu knew she was not native to Asphodel, but beyond that knew very little of her past. Which meant, either the crone really was some kind of mind reader (highly unlikely), or she knew something about Mizu’s past, likely more than Mizu could even remember. It made Mizu even more distrustful of the old woman.
Elaine came into the strategy tent, and Mizu focused her mind at the matter closer to hand once more. The two of them discussed preparations, and when there was an awkward moment of silence, Elaine asked, “What do you want me to do if another man…”

“I want you to be the first person there. I want you to search him and find his charm, if he has one, and I want you to take it off and get rid of it before anyone sees. If these things don’t work, I want to keep up the illusion that they do for as long as possible. Then take him to the infirmary tent with the others. I’m sure the Shel’ti will know more about what we’re up against, and I’ll deal with the aftermath once we get back. The attacks haven’t been happening every night, though, so I’m hoping we will get a pass tonight.” Elaine nodded soberly, taking the information in. 

“I’ll make an effort to play up the importance of the charms where I can,” Elaine said finally. Mizu bowed slightly in gratitude, signaling Elaine to leave, and the captain did so with grace.
 
((OOC: I wanted the timeskip to go until Mizu and her entourage leave for the Shel’ti in the very early morning but want to give Evan some time to do whatever he needs to before then. If you don’t feel like he would have much to do/say until then, then I can post the next part of the scene as well.))