Angelic Stage
The morning circumstances lead to a chain reaction of events spiraling out in result. There were suddenly a number of things to accomplish, and so much preparation required to achieve everything.
Vwyx’s training of that day completed, with Ayzherie having pitted Dhyinze against her in a mental contest while she was augmented, a scene that had almost shattered her aspect of emotionlessness in the process. This had encouraged a lot more training over the days that followed, in between other tasks. Sryine was challenged to never laugh while augmented, Riyxia had to put on a calm public speech for the hunters while herself augmented, with the expectation that she was professional the entire time, and she wouldn’t even know the topic of discussion until she began. Regular training was mixed in with all of this, sharpening the girl’s unaugmented ability as their past training had, though Riyxia noticed that Vwyx had started to spend a lot more time training with Dhyinze all of a sudden for some untold reason. Riyxia’s lessons had also changed in the process, leaving her isolated in a vast number of situations as she did weapon training with possessed weapons, straining how many weapons she could possess at once, eight still being her limit. However, through the inclusion of her own training, she had learned that this limit didn’t exist while augmented, she wasn’t even sure there was one, as she took ninety swords into the mountains while enraged in a dazzling display of a bladestorm. She also committed her own lessons with her augmented essence, with one encounter having encouraged her foes to flee as their resolve was taken from their essence. It was proof that she wasn’t just limited to destroying essences, though it still wasn’t yet all that different.
Sryine finished her book within the first day, which actually left her cross-checking other books in turn. When her birthday arrived, the others had worked together to provide her with the present of a few extra books, adding to her selection for her own enjoyment. The entire birthday scene didn’t get much attention, mostly at her own insistence, but she still wasn’t about to turn down a few good books. Riyxia was actually quite proud of the book she had found for Sryine’s birthday, a quite interesting book about the elements titled ‘elements of life’. It was an aptly fitting present to come from Riyxia, one which she had hoped would help Sryine discover new uses for her newer gift. Jwyexzn meanwhile had after that offered to take her to a downtown library, to obtain even more resources for research, leaving the two gone for a good portion of several different days. She was also frequently busy with her simulation project, having been inspired by Riyxia’s ability to possess objects and witness scenes from another perspective. She wasn’t the only one gone for long periods absorbed in favoured activities, Riyxia had in fact also taken the opportunity to learn to fly, using the windcraft that had been left in her care for added practice. Ayzherie had worked to pass on lessons in that area as well, even though Riyxia was picking everything up like a natural. Vwyx started to take upon herself the responsibility to make sure the windcraft was always in perfect repair, and even her own crafting ambitions started to spread to new projects, stuff designed for Riyxia to find use in possessing. A large number of such didn’t end up with any actual use, but it was a collection that could one day get used, and it was a fun context for Vwyx to build upon, a way for her to polish her own craft and adapt to Riyxia’s unique ability.
Riyxia devoted the remainder of her available time towards the project Jwyexzn had previously proposed, with the whole thing developing a growing fanbase. Hyusziq had quickly wanted in on such a monumental business venture, quickly becoming their test bed for promotional presentations. Sryine had even been devoting herself to ensuring that everything was fiscally sound, when she could find her own opportunities. Ayzherie had made it clear that they would have the support of the hunters in this if it was within her power to ensure, giving them a position of presence and recognition to start with as all the other hunters agreed. Vwyx even gathered Dhyinze and Nuiqhyx to help her with preparing some props and scenes, resources to improve the quality of the presentation. One of their greatest resources for such was the projector Vwyx and Sryine had originally come up with together, something the two had gone back to reinvestigate and expand upon for such purposes. Eqriuxzl had however been especially absent through much of this period, his academic needs seeming to have taken him away from them for a time. This proceeded for more than a whole lunar cycle, with a deadline quickly approaching. Jwyexzn had achieved exactly what he promised, ensuring that the right lines were teased out to the right people, building a considerable demand for some rather influential people in the city to get the opportunity to meet and discuss business with the party that was involved in no more than five days. The entire subject was even up on the news, the latest and greatest subject of discussion, for a woman, member of the hunters, had discovered an ability for manipulating multiple objects, even in her sleep.. in a way that did not rely on the gift at all.
“Okay, let’s try that once again, you still seem a little tense, and you’re only standing in front of a bunch of hunters.” “Well, I’m sorry, I’m not used to being the center of attention like this. This is really hard, I would have you know.” Jwyexzn had been working with Riyxia to help ensure she would be ready for such a business meeting. “Really, you don’t even react to my lessons this bad, to think you would have such a weakness. Maybe I should include public speaking lessons in your…” “These are public speaking lessons!!” Ayzherie had been watching Riyxia practice for a while now, and was finding this to be quite the interesting form of training, though she wasn’t alone in this. “Well well, this is an interesting scene to return to.. and I thought my class presentations were challenging. No, I might have experience with this myself, but I don’t know of anything that would ever make it any easier. I was always left wondering why it had to be me, why couldn’t someone else do it for me, but there never was anyone else who could present my own stuff, no one else knew my stuff better than myself. It wasn’t as if I could simply make a substitute to stand in and take all the attention.. away.. from… What?” Eqriuxzl slowed to a stop as very notably everyone in the room started staring right at him.
A substitute, one who commanded considerable attention as if by design, Eqriuxzl was the only one present in the room who had no idea what such a thing could be. Vwyx rushed off and quickly returned with the prototype doll she had crafted before, the same one Riyxia had been making use of every night, the same one that commanded a giant reputation through all of the hunters by this point as their midnight angel. However, even all this time later, Vwyx had still found no way that her creation could speak without the gift, a problem which instantly became obvious. Without the ability for speech, just how would… wait, was the circumstances really the same in this situation? Riyxia wouldn’t be asleep in this case, she could fill in beyond that. Actually, Vwyx could do even better, she could simply set the doll up with its own voice, and have Riyxia supply the gift and will for the words, herself controlling the words of the doll. Everything was interrupted as Vwyx rushed to set things up, Sryine being pulled away to help in such schemes. But even as the end results were finished and presented, the genius of the room came up with another random idea.
“Your project seems neat, but a bit restrictive and situational. If Riyxia can manipulate the structure, you should let her essence guide the flow of the voice from the gift that is supplemented. Wasn’t your presentation all about Riyxia not needing to use the gift herself to make things work? In fact, communication is two-way, as soon as you leave her essence to shape her words, it doesn’t even need to be her that offers the gift that allows someone to hear her, anyone around her could pitch in to provide a way to hear her, to provide their own gift. Isn’t that kinda how our trains work too?” “Eqriuxzl, you student genius, why couldn’t you have been around to make things easier far sooner?” Eqriuxzl paused as he found the actual Riyxia giving him a hug along with the doll version. Riyxia left the doll again so that Vwyx could make a couple more adjustments, following the new idea that had just been presented. Vwyx actually set up the doll’s vocals to be capable of taking in any stray gift it was exposed to, and convert it to sound based upon the movement of its vocal system. This did immediately present a new challenge, Riyxia would have to learn how to manipulate these synthetic vocals, so everyone was dismissed to give her a bit more time to prepare. Sadly, there wasn’t much time remaining before their big presentation, she would have to learn how to make this new feature work quickly, or otherwise she would be forced to handle the speech directly.
With nothing more than haphazard squeaks initially, it was quickly starting to feel harder than the first moment of her awakening when she had tried to speak her first words. It actually took her another three concentrated days of effort in order to pull things off, with Sryine and Vwyx taking turns staying up part of the night each to allow her to practice overnight as well, Riyxia fitting her own personal turn into their rotation. However, in much the same way as she had quickly learned to speak initially, she was quick enough to adapt to these new vocal circumstances. Within the first day, she had gained control over tone, within the second day she had something that sounded moderately like speech, and by the morning after the third day she was capable of fully formed dialog. However, her voice had resolved much the same feeling as her figure, with a voice that sounded like it could be a world-renowned singing voice, a pitch and flow filled with a sense of beauty. She practiced her speech again for the fourth day while Sryine and Vwyx caught up on missing sleep, holding yet another mock presentation for the hunters, one that captivated and entranced everyone present, almost even Riyxia herself. Being one of the numbers left to stare at herself, it made her presentation much easier to deliver, her shyness having been forgotten in the flawless delivery. Everything was finally ready, with the presentation due the day after, though Riyxia still devoted her essence overnight to a silent performance, practicing her movements and motions so that she knew she would be adjusted to her doll form for the day after.
To mark the start of the fateful day, all three girls got into their regular colored uniform, while Riyxia’s doll was present getting into a fresh version of its own attire at the same time. Standing with the others, the doll was clearly the star of the show, an idol of the modern world, a princess in her own fashion. The fact that the doll was simply nothing more than a doll, not even a living being, nothing more than Riyxia’s puppet in her performance, that concept only made it even more impressive. Sure, it could be seen that Riyxia herself wasn’t much more than a doll herself, but no one doubted that she was still at least a living being with her own sentience. Riyxia was no one’s puppet, she was far more the puppeteer of her own circumstances, more in control than any actual human or elf among all of the hunters, possibly beyond. The three girls folded in behind the doll that led their path, letting the doll take the front stage in their approach for the day, giving Riyxia authority over their circumstances. Most of the hunters were expected to stay behind, another breach not being tolerated, but Ayzherie would be bringing a small collection of representative hunters to the presentation with them, including both Dhyinze and Nuiqhyx. Hyusziq and Eqriuxzl would be both going along with the others, of course, and Jwyexzn had actually prepared some private transportation for their approach, this time a large bus. Taking public transit, especially the train, might have been a bit faster, but their large collection would have been much more disruptive in their approach, and even more so in their departure. It was for this reason that they had arrived at the downtown atrium and had completed their setup only in time for lunch, but that was still all according to plan.
By the completion of lunch, the atrium had quickly started to fill with unfamiliar faces, numbering well over thousands. Jwyexzn reported that their reception actually included a large number of visitors to the city, places from far and wide beyond. The girls hadn’t even been aware that the main doors had a massive line that they had surpassed by getting access to the back entry. This news left Riyxia with more than a few butterflies in her stomach.. thousands? Was the entire world listening to her? She was very thankful that she had a substitute standing in for her, she would have probably froze if things had gone otherwise. The scheduled moment was at hand, so she took to the stage, first as the doll and then as herself in the back, standing with Vwyx and Sryine. Patches of the hunters flanked the stage, clearly acting as supporting cast, with the rest of their crew working behind the scenes, including their non-hunter members. This however had the effect that the only faces she could actually name that had taken to the stage were of their small group of three, even Ayzherie was nowhere to be seen. Thousands of unknowns and only three certainties, but she would have to make the most of it. Her dream was to reach for the multitude of stars, the endless expanse of worlds beyond, countless more unknowns than even this, she would have to begin somewhere.
“Good afternoon, thank you all for taking the opportunity to bear witness to the dawn of a new era. We’ve made leaps and bounds over the last two hundred years or so, the instrumentation era having brought us countless utility and comfort, even despite its flaws. This far in the era, it has become clear that such limitations would deny us much more progress, were we to just feel satisfied within the constraints of the shell that impeded us. The gift has been just that, a gift given to us, to bring us forward, but it is also a gift that denies us our own will. Until we are capable of doing more than depend on the gift our world has given to us, we would never grow beyond the care of the world that has eternally sheltered us. That is certainly the way of things, something I’m sure you are all aware of. But if not for Celese, what would be left to us? Celese isn’t everything, as long as we’re open to the idea of breaking free from the cage that binds us.” Riyxia’s doll paused as a projection came up behind her. The artwork of Sryine’s illusions yielding quite a strong argument itself as the stage seemed to come alive with the ambience of the presentation, dramatising depictions of Riyxia’s own ability as a show of her own growth away from the accepted norm, from the production of cloth as she had done before, to the restructuring of a cluttered room. While the presentation went on course, Riyxia took a moment to go over her next lines in her mind, to ensure she would be ready, while one of the atrium staff discreetly walked up to her from the cover of the back stage.
“Interesting performance, I would have to admit, but I’m still a bit disappointed. I’m sure Khyzae would have expected better than this from the one who inherited her dreams.” The staff had a familiar voice, but was gone but a moment later. Instead, there was a small note in her hands, with the seal of a crescent moon. She quietly opened it, seeing a very simple message: ‘If you plan to follow such dreams, successor, expect those who came before you.’ Those who came before? She put the note away as the projection completed and her doll returned to the stage, preparing her next line. Before she could resume, a shout came from the crowd. “Words and dramatics, this proves nothing. Actually do something interesting, don’t waste our time.” “Yeah! We came here thinking you had something that could reshape the world, but all we got is some pretty illusions. Everything here is just the normal gift, stuff you claimed we should move away from, but you yourself seem restricted to. Just a bunch of lies.” Two different voices shouted out from different areas in the crowd, breaking the silence.. both seeming somehow familiar. A murmur broke from the crowd at this sudden conjecture, unrest growing in the crowd. This wasn’t good, things were suddenly going very wrong. She tried to speak over the murmurs, but they grew louder and louder, one broadcasted voice wasn’t enough. Riyxia’s own self took to the stage, lending her own voice into the broadcast, simultaneously speaking in two voices.
“Relax, the gift has been where all things begun, but such familiarity does not limit where we can take our future.” Riyxia’s sudden shift breaking script with an irritated tone left her friends starting to worry too, things were getting carried away and out of control. Riyxia spared a smile behind her, one for each of her friends, as she left a link to the doll and spectrally approached her two closest friends, a hand held towards each to invite them forward. Of course, even in the richest chaos, Riyxia was still in control. The two took Riyxia’s side as she stepped away from the broadcast, free to whisper instructions to both of her friends. Vwyx stared at her blankly as Sryine giggled softly, it was actually as if the chaos was empowering her. If the audience wanted something impressive, they had best prepare for something mind-blowing. Sryine was finding it especially hilarious, scoffing dramatics and illusions, but didn’t actually laugh, the scene had no place for misplaced laughter. Countless lights shifted into the air, a ribbon of flame pulsed through the air, itself no illusion, as the fully enclosed atrium came alit with an intensity that rivaled the purest sunlight. A whirl of wind started to circulate around the atrium, building a further sense of dramatics as its intensity increased, Sryine nodding to Vwyx as if a signal. Vwyx sighed, knowing things had gone absolutely insane, Sryine most of all. Sryine was very obviously augmented.. and yet remained rather composed. Sryine was actually trying very hard to keep her composure, staying quiet as to not allow herself to sink further into mania.
Vwyx started by reshaping the stage, building a rise that the four of them stood upon, then extended herself to reshape the atrium as a whole, leaving the ground shuddering as everything began to move. So as to avoid any outside collisions, Vwyx started initially with bringing the entire atrium up into the air, high above even the towering skyscrapers scattering downtown, rebuilding the design of the building and its halls in the process. Then, she unfolded the atrium itself, expanding out the seats and extending the horizontal area to cover over ten times the distance. The walls and ceiling faded away in the process, exposing just how high up everything had gotten. Sryine then bolstered the projective ability of the projections they had currently present, creating massive screens that projected over the city itself, large enough so that even those not present would be capable of bearing witness to the magnified view of what was occurring within the atrium at that very moment. Vwyx took this opportunity to produce a massive tower of individual star-shaped plates between the four of them, a tower that seemed to almost itself reach for the very stars itself. Riyxia’s doll then approached the massive tower and touched one of the pieces, her essence linking the entire collection, all while her physical self took to the center of the stage.
“At present, the stars may seem so far away, but I assure you that this will not remain true for much longer. Even now, the very world moves and reshapes itself in preparation of our ascendance to the stars, awaiting those willing to reach out and take a star of their own.” As Riyxia pointed to the tower of stars, the whole pile began to shift and fall apart, spiralling downwards in an almost fearsome flurry. Every single star however slowed down as it reached towards the crowd of spectators, fluttering individually before every single member of the audience, waiting for the individual to reach out for it, young or old. As the individual would make an even apparent effort, the star would then flutter into their outreached hand, settling into their care. Thousands and thousands of spectators, thousands and thousands of stars, all individually linked and controlled by Riyxia’s augmented essence. In the moment of that connection, she reached out to the essence that held her star form, instilling it with a sense of comfort and resolve, eliminating their fears. In only three cases did she find this to cause a negative reaction in an individual, causing the star to be dropped before it could achieve that form of influence.
“My my, you’re treading into my own specialty now it appears, my dear. I do suspect you can still hear me in there, even with this crowd about. If you plan to be her successor, you better do everything you can to not let her down. Keep reaching for those stars of yours, just be sure not to get in my way in the process. Most of all, don’t let her death be in vain, successor. Ieqyisa, we’re leaving, give us an exit. Fhyernx, try to setup a distraction that blends in with this display, probably something really simple.” Liyuzhe’s voice went quiet as she discarded the staff hat she had acquired, slipping to the back of the crowd as a brilliant light flashed across the entire atrium. Once the light faded, Riyxia discovered that she couldn’t locate the three individuals who had discarded their star. The resound of applause made that goal even more challenging, as the entire audience let out an unrelenting cheer. Realizing the terms of circumstances she had otherwise been left with, Riyxia turned in a circle of amazement to look at the support she gained with her own eyes. She returned all portions of her essence to her and dropped her augmentation, returning her admonishment to her crowd with a formal bow of her own. The doll however, no longer carrying an essence of its own, fell abruptly to the floor and started to crash down the almost endless stairwell of inclines towards the height she was placed at, causing a fearful gasp from the audience.
“Oh, I’m sorry about the confusion, the doll was just a prop after all, not even an actual person. The whole presentation was focused upon manipulating objects by will alone, it was only fitting to then have an object handle the core of such a presentation in that case. In that regard, please remain safely seated as we return the atrium to its regular form.” Riyxia passed a signal back to her two companions as she sent her spectre to recover the fallen doll, itself still managing to remain undamaged despite the sudden fall. Vwyx had really made the thing from some pretty good materials, it really was a work of art. Sryine started up the same cyclone of wind, as almost a sense of warning that the whole structure would be moving once again, followed then by Vwyx shifting the building back to its original form, the only oddity being the multitude of thin stars remaining in the care of each member of the audience, the three extras having however faded back into the existing structure. Once everything was back to normal, both girls cut with the dramatic display and let their augmentation end. The crowd was still cheering as all three girls, plus the doll, left the stage.
Safely backstage, all three girls collapsed in the first chairs they found and lost consciousness, Riyxia’s doll left to silently contemplate the outcome of their presentation. It was clear they even had Liyuzhe’s attention at this point, just as it was that Liyuzhe had most likely made some discoveries of her own in the meanwhile.
Luminaeris 