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4 solas

The concept of interdimensional travel and teleportation wasn't at all a new one to Szel. Why would it be, after everything that had already happened, after all? It may as well have been just another Saturday at Velvet Lust at this point, right? Ho hum, just another instance of dimensional displacement, same as it ever was every other week, la dee da.

Except no, it wasn't, and no, he isn't going to act like he isn't interested. At least, not when no one was around to call him out on that. The second he was sure he didn't have an audience, he was invested in this situation, slipping away into more empty areas of the club for a little investigating. It was a task easier said than done; Velvet Lust attracted more than just Azrael's and Camael's attention, the place was almost immediately swarming with curious fae and even the odd intelligent undead and ghost. It almost acted like a magnet for them, something he honestly shouldn't have been all that surprised about but he was going to be cranky in regards to it anyway.

In any case, here he was, hunting for anything even remotely different about the club after it's unexpected jaunt. Midge's eyes darted over every single feature as the two of them moved through the empty hall, the sound of one hell of a party thumping loudly in the rooms adjacent to them. At least everyone else would be preoccupied, he'd just have to tolerate all the goddamn noise.

The demon paused suddenly as a difference in the hall caught his attention like a blazing, bright red beacon; a loosened brick. … Alright, not exactly what he was looking for, actually, and his disappointment was practically palpable as Midge glared at the thing, almost accusing. How dare this shitty little brick get his hopes up for something interesting? Fuck this brick in particular, honestly.

… Not hard enough to do anything destructive about it, but fuck this brick, fuck it right back into the wall where it came from actually. He lifted his cane and pressed it down upon the corner of the loosened brick, carefully nudging it back into place. It was still Tannusen's place here, after all, displaced or not. Szel wasn't in any hurry to break Tannusen's things, not anymore anyway, and he may as well do the absolute bare minimum by making sure it all stayed unbroken. With a disappointed huff, he turned his back on the wall, and was immediately greeted by a door on what he damn well knew had been a blank wall just moments prior. He didn't see the door appear, but then again, wasn't that just how Tannusen's magic worked anyway?

Made as much sense as anything else, and Midge only took the briefest moment to look around before Szel reached out and grabbed the door knob, sticking his head through first before slipping in the rest of the way. Dark in here, where's the light swi-

Where's the door. No, actually no where's the door? He let go of the handle for just a second to fumble for a lightswitch before Midge's eyes adjusted, but in an instant no light was necessary, and no door knob was available. Here he stood on a singular floating slab of earth, surrounded on all sides by the discombobulated rubble of a building? Maybe? Or maybe just a previously very well articulated mountainside, those definitely looked like they might have been stairs once. Maybe.

Well. Shit.

He would never ever, not in a million years, not even before the heat death of the universe, say he was scared. Not under pain of torture nor fear of death would he ever say that awful shit out loud, he'd scarcely even allow himself to admit that. He's not scared, he's perturbed. He is inconvenienced. He is really starting to perhaps maybe get somewhat concerned at the growing noises and increasing feelings of not being entirely alone here maybe he should consider drawing a weapon. Or doing the rough approximation of that.

The awful, wretched shrieks and screams of the less pleasant denizens of this weird liminal world would be ringing out soon enough, any demons lured in by the promise of a fat and delicious meal finding the tables ironically turned the instant they came upon the mutilated monster making his stand right here in the Fade. Tattered and broken wings spread wide, just like his eternally torn and bleeding mouth lined with needle-like teeth, the spider-demon sat now within a whipping frenzy of rusty and blood slicked living steel cables. What better way to soothe rage and fear than with a bit of a binge, after all? Sure nothing here tasted good, but he couldn't think of a more permanent solution to his current problem.

Down the fucking hatch, he'd address everything else once he'd earned a little peace and quiet.

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A bit of stair rubble had been whipped loose in the chaos. It drifted a dozen feet off the side of the main island, slowly spinning in place... until Solas' arrival stabilized it. There he stood upon the step, hands tucked behind himself, simply watching. Curious, but also plenty cautious enough to hang back from the scene. This was the Fade, after all.

Giant monstrosities were, perhaps, less novel than they ought to have been by this point. This one looked like some advanced form of fear demon, almost like a smaller form of Nightmare, but something was... off about it.

It was attracting demons and spirits to it as though it came from the waking world.

It was no demon, or spirit. Solas watched the way the Fade responded to the newcomer, noting the absence of some things just as much as the presence of others. A magnet for fear, spite, and indignity in roughly that order, and also unable to shape the environment the way that Solas himself could even now.

So, not even a former spirit.

Something very strange, indeed.

"I cannot imagine that tastes particularly good," Solas finally spoke up, once the initial battle had waned and the newcomer was doing... that. "Nor that it is particularly good for you."

There was eating your feelings, and then there was eating your feelings.

Edited 2024-11-10 20:45 (UTC)

He hadn't expected to hear any actual fully cognizant voices in here. Strange and oddly cutting commentary in regards to emotions not voiced nor fully realized, sure! Wholly understandable words outside the context of his internal dialog, not so much. Had Solas spoken during the surprise feeding frenzy he'd not have gotten much of a response, but the man chose his moment well enough. Slick with blood and stinking of chemicals, smoke drifting off his charred wings and overheated chitin, he finally sat alone there on his little island of earth. Neither sated nor content, but at the very least no longer caught up with defending himself, he was allowed to focus entirely on Solas, something he did with a sudden and vicious jerk of his head as if ready for another round before actual sense began to trickle back into his brain. It was of course, Midge who really looked. While Szel's head was only somewhat turned in Solas's general direction, it was the saucer eyed bug perched on the demon's head that actually looked at the other man, squinting with no small amount of suspicion at him.

No, not that one. That one could form a full sentence not based around the whirlwind of emotion spinning around in his skull. Gosh, look at him, he even had a normal face and a normal body and a normal voice, it was like stumbling through a demon filled haunted house and finding a singular untouched beige office room.

He'd take it. Beige was preferable right now, including the beige commentary about his subpar meal. Praise god for this beige anchor.

"It isn't, but it's probably better to know when I'm eating shit. I don't need to develop a taste for nail clippings and pond scum." It took care of the problem, the problem is gone, see? He didn't shift back, not yet. After all it is rather suspicious to stumble across the beige office room in the endless demon house. Until he was sure the interloper wasn't anyone to be concerned about, he wouldn't be putting any of his toys away.

Solas considered both creatures quietly for a moment, before tipping his head a little to one side. A decision made, apparently.

"You do not appear to be from here. Either of you."

Were they here by accident, and just defending themselves from the natural ebb and flow of the Fade, or had they come here on purpose? And either way, where had they come from? All questions he asked without asking, watching the pair with absolute calm.

Solas was perhaps the only calm thing here. The ground under Szel rumbled ominously, and a terrified howling began in the distance from something too large to be so upset. But that little piece of staircase remained stable beneath Solas' boots, the elven god atop it unflinching.

The rumbling would have been obvious to anyone, but even more so to a creature who typically navigated the world based around mere vibrations. All eight legs splayed themselves out, at once both ready to fight and intent on not falling face first onto the ground. The latter even more important than the former right now, he had an audience after all. Midge shifted with the motion of the floating platform, copying Szel's posture almost exactly.

It hadn't escaped him how the earth beneath Solas's feet failed to move even an inch, nor did the sound of that gut wrenching howling in the distance and boy, would he love for whatever was making that sound to not be his problem. Shredding apart what seemed to be minor demons was child's play, and he wasn't in any kind of mood for any Real Shit tonight. Or ever anymore, actually. The spider turned more towards Solas, Midge openly eyeing the distance between this ledge and the one the elf stood perched upon. Was there enough room for two? ... Did he care? Both of these questions were being weighed equally at the moment.

"And you look like you might know what you're doing." Look, he's not going to ask for help, that's going to hurt his feelings and he cares an awful lot about those. That's as close to 'please help' as he's willing to get at the moment, and while Szel's expression was no different than it was before, a painfully stretched and ghoulish 'smile', Midge's eyes continued to flick nervously from Solas to the general source of the noise, and then back once more.

Ah, the familiar weight of pride, pinning him down while fear hounds at his metaphorical heels. Did the former wisdom spirit -- pride demon -- feel the pull of that? Here, physically in the Fade as they were?

There was no doubt about that.

Solas regarded him with that same calm, cool, collected way he might examine a chess board. Then he nodded, and unclasped his hands from behind his back.

"I do. And we should move."

Move where? Well, that was answered even as he made his statement, the god reaching one hand off toward some distant land mass and seemingly grasping the air in its direction. He pulled, and suddenly their two little islands were joined by a third, floating within jumping range.

His other hand pulled at another, and he did this repeatedly until there was a rough chain of islands that would get them back to a far larger land mass.

Then he jumped to the third island himself, starting to make his way over there.

See? Safe enough.

Why, he's even turned his back on you, Szel.

"If you can, try to control your emotions," Solas advised, even as he had to jump... grab onto the edge of another island, and then haul himself up onto it with a grunt of effort. Below them may as well have been the void itself, just sheer emptiness swallowed by a thick, greenish fog. "You are inadvertently calling to the spirits and demons of this place."

Regardless of the shape he took, one thing would forever remain static: those wings weren't going to work. Shattered and forever smoldering, they would serve no use here getting from island to island. However, with as close as Solas brought those floating platforms (and how he managed that was beyond Szel presently but it was a question that bubbled to the surface despite the current circumstances), he wouldn't even have to think about them. Hell, Solas could have only haphazardly constructed this bridge of floating stone and Szel wouldn't have had to work too hard to cross them.

The writhing and twisting mass of living cables shifted, having been given a new order now, slithering towards the chain of islands as the demon turned towards them. Without hesitation, he moved forward, and the cables would move with him, working much as a spider's silk would and closing up the gaps between each chunk of rock and earth. He wasn't going to jump, he was better than that and also he looked terribly ungainly while doing so. Again, an audience to perform for here, he wasn't about to make himself look awkward or stupid if he could help it.

Solas asked him to control his emotions, and of course the immediate response was a surge of indignance and frustration. Oh, it was almost like he'd been asked to do this before, to similar outcomes each time. He's not good at that!

"I have room for seconds." It was easier than trying to improve himself and it sounded very confident and much cooler than 'I'll try'. He was going to refrain from being too flippant at least, because the questions still burned in his head and he really wanted some answers. All of the answers, actually, and he didn't need to sit here and wonder if being a jackass to a helpful stranger would impede him from getting those.

"Fascinating an experiment as that may be, I would prefer you not keep ingesting the locals," Solas said, jumping to another island that was thankfully level with the one he'd just left.

Yes, he could have just hung back and walked across those cables too, but his pride (ironically) wasn't hurt by having to scramble over rocks the old fashioned way. It was more important, he felt, to keep showing that the way was perfectly safe for his obviously quite fearful... guests.

Thankfully, getting to the larger landform didn't take them very long. Solas kept going once they were on land, however, heading toward a large statue of a reclining wolf some distance inland. Once there, he gestured at the figure with one hand, and the eyes lit up with green flames.

Only then, did he seem to relax. The distant howling hadn't really stopped during their journey, but it faded away now.

"That will buy us some time."

Edited 2024-11-10 22:20 (UTC)

Any vertical movement was handled in much the way one would expect a spider might; he simply went up, handily clambering up rock faces as good as if they were flat land. Jumping, no, climbing, yes. He modeled himself off of a brown recluse after all not a stupid jumping spider, he had dignity. He'd surely be cranky if he were called out for his obvious trepidation at his current predicament, but at least for now he had other things to focus on. Fear was in some part quashed by the ever growing curiosity in regards to everything around him, after all. It was something to fixate on, as close as he could get to controlling his emotions, and in spite of his somewhat careless answer he was regardless trying to do as he was asked. Midge kept those golden eyes locked on Solas, barely even bothering to blink as if for fear that a second's lapse in vision would cause his guide to vanish.

Let it never be said that he hadn't improved at least somewhat after spending so much time around Tannusen and Cassian, for as staggering an admissal as that would have been to the pooka he was sure. Which was why Tannusen would never hear it, of course.

Once upon more substantial land, the anxiety began to shed. Not entirely, anxiety never truly left Szel, but its hold loosened and as if in response to this, so too did the shape of the spider begin to slip away. By the time Solas had relaxed, Szel seemed to have copied him, the hideous spider having been replaced now by the demon's far more standard and far less nauseating human shape. The wings were still there, but at least now they looked whole again, the illusion firmly back in place.

"From....?" Give him a second, he needs to test the waters here a little bit. Should Solas offer up that information easily, well that would make the incoming influx of questions a lot easier to spout off. He wasn't in the mood to pull teeth at present.

"Spirits and demons I would rather you not ingest," Solas replied without skipping a beat, taking up a spot near the large wolf statue. Once again, he clasped his hands behind his back, turning to regard Szel and Midge just as before.

They'd changed shapes. Interesting. The elf's only visible reaction was a brief raising of his eyebrows, there and gone again in a blink.

"And the much larger demon who has caught your scent, now."

Edited 2024-11-10 22:45 (UTC)

He made a face. "I wouldn't be eating them if they didn't come for me first." He wasn't out hunting them! He wasn't trying to cause problems! This time! Not that he cared if he did ~~baka~~. "As you deduced, they don't even taste good, they'd be doing us all a favor if they found someone else to bother." Bother, as if that was all they intended to do to him had they even a ghost of a chance of besting the fallen seraph. He might refer to it as bother, he had that authority.

Not so much over the big demon though, and the brief look of petulance smoothed over in an instant. "Yes, that one, that was what I was asking about." The godawful howling from something that sounded like it might have been the size of a planet. Never mind the swell of gnawing dread that began to crawl through him like a budding wildfire.

"I'd apologize for that if I knew what was going on or how I did that, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that this is unintentional on my part as well." And with that declaration of complete and total self assured confidence out of the way: "What kind of demon? I consider myself something of an expert on demonology, I'm... Kind of working on figuring out where I am, maybe that might answer a few questions."

Look at him admitting he doesn't know something, isn't he such a good boy?

Solas just sort of breezed past the petulance without paying it any attention. What was important was what it had told him.

If he didn't want the demons coming after him, then he probably hadn't meant to show up here to begin with. This wasn't some kind of weird snack run for the strange stranger.

Good. He'd been worried about that for a moment there; things didn't generally eat spirits. Drain them of their energy until they faded away? Sure. But nothing he'd seen before had actually physically eaten them. With a mouth and everything, gross.

"So, coming to the Fade was not an intentional choice, I presume."

He could work with that. An expert on demonology, though; had he been sucked into this place by an experiment gone awry?

Was that why he could shift into such a form as before, from tinkering with demonic forces? His shape looked human enough now, going by his ears and height. It wouldn't be the first time a human had fumbled like this, even if the results were... unique.

And having just answered where Szel was, Solas added, "I am fairly certain we are being pursued by a demon of fear. Or more specifically, dread."

Look, he even used 'we'.

They were on the same team now, right? So answering Solas' questions in turn was only fair. Were you going to be fair, stranger?

Or were you going to be a problem?

"Who are you, and do you know how you came to be here?"

"I'm a bit of a homebody." He wouldn't just have not traveled to here, the Fade apparently, he'd just as soon have preferred not to travel anywhere at all ever. He really was doing his best to keep everything as close to his chest as he could, as much as he'd been told in the past that he was an open book it wasn't going to keep him from trying. No clue, none, about how much he'd just revealed with those flippant comments before, and therefore unaware of the entire library of information Solas was about to become witness to very soon.

"I wouldn't go anywhere I'd never heard of either." Just for a little added data on top of the previous, though at least it might prove mutually beneficial in this case. He wasn't looking to cause any issues, and similarly he really needed someone to give him some directions back. Being a mostly non-threat could only be of service to him now. The 'we' part wasn't missed, though it was turned over a few times in his head. Was it just the stranger beforehand that was being pursued? Or was it his fault this thing had shown up now?

Mmm, didn't like that, he only just got here and he's fucking everything up.

"Never heard of her, I don't think we have the concept of fear demons on our registry. The act of being a demon is pretty terrifying enough for most people without needing one specialized in it." And with that said, he continued with zero clarification.

"Szelhamos, and if I were to make a bet on it, I'd tell you I got here by fixing some asshole's wall for him, and his nightclub took that personally."

"Well, you ate a number of fear demons back there on that rock," Solas couldn't help but remark, "so... your demonic expertise grows by the moment. You even know what fear demons taste like, now."

Why anyone would want to know that...? Well. That's nothing Solas had ever wondered about, and he honestly wouldn't start now.

"My name is Solas. I am uncertain how a wall could have sent you here, but perhaps the veil was simply that unstable where you were."

That was his best guess with present information, anyway.

He glanced up at the wolf statue, noting that the veilfire had already begun to lose some of its strength.

"We will have to move, soon, the ward is losing power and it will need time to reset. I know of another nearby."

Szel responded without missing a beat: "Texture like a cherry cordial, if the chocolate was frozen piss and the cherry was a three day old eyeball." And then, after a second: "Notes of gasoline." Let it never be said he doesn't have a sense of humor, it's there and it's a little healthier than it used to be thanks to certain Fucking Fairies.

And speaking of Fucking Fairies: "If it changes anything, the wall belongs to a fairy. That's on me, I keep forgetting to factor that part in, it's a major character flaw of his." He loves Tannusen really.

All attention moves to the wolf statue, Szel studying it for a moment.

"I'll save my questions for you for later then. As much as I just love the magic of learning, I think I can do without a practical lesson in Dread Demons.

... I don't have to keep crawling up rocks to get there, do I?"

That got an amused snort. And then, "I am pleased to say I only know what a few of those taste like."

It wasn't like Solas had never put something nasty in his mouth, just usually in his other form if he could help it. Things like biting the throat out of a blight-infected archdemon was more than enough for him.

Thankfully, that form had less taste buds. Small favors. It didn't sound like Szelhamos' other form had that benefit.

(And speaking of things he didn't know, what was a fairy? Just filing that away for later.)

As for crawling up rocks, Solas started off away from the statue as the flames sputtered out. "That depends entirely on whether the terrain has changed since I last came this way."

So, flip a coin.

"Look, I have enough questions for you as it is, the demon eating thing is going to end up overwriting at least three of them now. Please save any other revelatory quips and statements until after we've found a place to talk again." He's not going to be able to save all his questions until the next damn checkpoint now, he's gonna make himself a liar here.

Solas would be treated to the sound of an almost adolescent sounding groan, before the demon followed after him, the sound of glass feathers gently rattling behind him as they fluffed and shifted.

"Can't you just... tell them to go back? As you did back there?" No he doesn't know how it works, he's banking on being told that in a second anyway.

"I cannot help that it made an impression," Solas... did not, in fact, save his quips for later. This shit was funny, if also really gross.

Very much one of those 'funny, but only if it never happens again', things.

As for moving the land around, Solas shook his head, climbing up another semi-ruined stone staircase. "Not without drawing more attention, no. If Dread does not know exactly where we are, I prefer to keep it that way."

At the top of the stairs, a shattered doorway stood between two stained glass windows taller than elf and demon combined. The pattern of one was still intact, and was a landscape.

Solas paused up there, but not to look at the window. Instead, he was looking at the way a large swath of the landmass had indeed decided to leave while he was away. Here was a platform, with a wheel atop a sturdy pole, rope strung on the wheel spanning over the gap left by the disappeared land...

And a handle over the rope. A zip-line. Fascinating, he didn't normally see this sort of thing in the Fade.

"Well if we're both very lucky, it'll be the last time you'll have to see it." Yeah that was super gross, he never ever wants to eat another Fade demon ever again, zero out of ten experience here.

He felt as if he should have expected that answer, Midge casting a long look back at where they'd come from as he searched the landscape for any hint of this supposed Dread Demon. Was that helping with the dread? No, absolutely not, but he's not exactly a champion of keeping his shit together so maybe that's just par for the coarse.

"I guess the only way we're going to deal with it is by running?" No holy nukes to drop anywhere? No wards or spells or a bigger and more hungry demon perhaps? No? Oh speaking of no,

"No." Didn't even have to be asked, and that sour look is back on his face again the very instant Midge laid eyes on the zipline.

"I'll pass on that, thanks. I'll follow you, don't even worry about it."

"You'll... follow me?" Solas couldn't help but ask, despite the trouble they were in and the need to keep moving.

"I could fight Dread, but I prefer not to." In part because yes, if he has to use his other shape, that would mean biting it. "And I intend to lure it further away first, if it comes to that."

"Like I said, don't worry about it." He wasn't lying anyway, he knew Solas saw the condition of those wings prior to the illusion settling over them again. There was no point in lying that they worked. Midge lifted himself off of Szel's head, buzzing over to the handle of the zipline and settling upon the very top of it. Content to ride overhead rather than fly alongside, but then again the portly looking insect didn't seem like he was built for speed.

As for Szel, his form was starting to haze and drift away in swirling, smokey eddies, the smell of sweet, drug laden smoke wafting about him.

"I don't think I have to ask if you're scared of spiders." It was all the heads up Solas would get as the rest of the demon disintegrated away into smoke, swirling and slithering around in the air before coalescing again upon the other man's shoulder.

A spider, no larger than a quarter from body to the tip of each leg, dull brown and drab in appearance with only a fiddle shaped pattern upon it's carapace to identify it. Above, Midge rattled his wing guards as if in confirmation. All set to go, don't even worry about it.

Interesting.

Solas took half a second to process that, then shrugged his free shoulder. "...Alright then, do hold on."

And with that, he kicked the mechanism at the bottom of the pole, and then jumped for the handle even as the wheel started spinning and it started moving. And away they went!

It didn't show, but come on, even he could have some fun with this sort of thing.

Upon landing on the other side of the chasm, he just kept moving on foot, looking for the next of his warding statues. Szelhamos was perfectly capable of doing his smoke trick to climb off if he wanted, but the dread wolf didn't bother to brush him off in the meanwhile.

"Here," Solas pushed open a heavy door into a crumbling courtyard, and another of his statues. Another gesture from him set the eyes aflame in green, just like the last one. "More time bought."

Maybe it would have been super fun, sure. But he's not about to risk making himself look like a stupid boob in front of a stranger all for the sake of a ride on the zipline. It's been eons since he could last fly, he's not entirely sure he'd be able to make the whole trip in a dignified manner.

Solas wouldn't have to carry the spider far; the moment his feet touched down, the arachnid would simply disappear in a brief and tiny puff of smoke, re-materializing a few feet away and straightening his tie. Midge simply returned to his perch atop the fallen seraph's head, Szel pointedly not budging from his spot until the bug reclaimed his seat.

"Great, now I can get into my questions." There was one that, during the trip over, had suddenly shot right into the forefront of his mind, having been buried beneath the dim muck of fear before, "Can you repeat the name of this place for me again? The Fade, you said? Just for clarification.

I think I know where I am now." In a general sense, anyway, and further more: "It's going to impact the rest of the questions."

"Yes, we are in the Fade," Solas confirmed, a little distracted as he made a few other gestures at the statue, his hands and forearms glowing faintly green. Just shoring up the wards, here, even if he couldn't make them last long in this area.

"Did you figure out how you crossed the veil, then?" he asked once he was done, clasping his hands behind his back like usual and giving Szel his full attention once more. "That would be quite useful, in order to get you back across it again."

"Oh I know how, I just don't think that information's going to be very helpful. Like I said, I was inside the home of a fairy, and the metaphysical properties of that place are... Variable. We'd be better off just calling it a thin spot, by surprise." That was about as simplistic as he could think to make it in the moment, little knowing Solas wouldn't know the first thing about a fairy to begin with.

"But fantastic, now that we've gotten that cleared up; If I said the name 'Alley', would this ring any bells?"

Solas' already habitually-stiff posture stiffened more in surprise.

"The Inquisitor," he confirmed, his turn to be visibly uncertain now.

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4 solas

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