Same as It Ever Was (Part 2)

A strange dream of a boy who is now a bird riding on Simony's shoulder sent everyone to the town of Alenwell in Rune, a place where Telamon's wife, Cor'lana Lupecyll-Atlon, grew up. Yet the house that was once her childhood home appears to be the site of an anomaly, where Cor'lana's mother, Nadina, has greeted the adventurers, and has introduced the group to her daughter:

Nala, who is almost like Cor'lana in every way, save that her violet eyes are a brilliant yellow-orange, and her hair is a pale snow-white.

"Zenny?" Her face lights up in sheer joy as she looks at Zenith. "It's you! You came back!"

The bird stares at Nala for a long moment, and then the tears leak from his eyes. "No," he says. "It can't be you."

He murmurs the words, but they are loud enough for everyone to hear, emotion pouring from him in a way that everyone has only seen before once: in the dream that brought them here to begin with.

"I killed you, and everyone else, when my mission was completed," Zenith says. "When I became an Observer."

Zeke looks between the raven and the girl who is not Cor'lana. Or... who does not look like Cor'lana. Sith-makar rely on more than mere sight to determine if a person is who they are, but even he is somewhat struck by the amazing change of hair and eye color which are hard to ignore. "Ssssa?" He is... greatly confused.

The Goblin's expression remains neutral as the girl greets Zenith, but her eyebrows shoot up at what the Raven has to say. She frowns, forgetting for the moment that the creature is one of her God's servants.

She squints at the bird. "You've got some explaining to do. Perhaps we will do so elsewhere. But this does not sound like conduct becoming of a Servant of Navos."

Well. This escalated quickly. Telamon can see his wife in the younger Nala, the promise of what's to come -- if she can endure. Which he's actually sure she can, despite her current despondent state. He offers Nala a charming smile, eyes twinkling. "A pleasure to meet you, Nala."

And then Zenith speaks, and Tel turns to look at the bird-servitor in puzzlement. But you don't survive being an adventurer without thinking fast and reacting, and even as his brows come together, he coughs. "I think... some explanations might be in order here, Zenith," he says sternly. "At first I only thought this was some hiccup of reality, that had placed Nadina here, but..." His eyes flick to Nala again, and he looks curious. "Was Zenith your familiar, Nala?"

GAME: Harkashan rolls Knowledge/The Planes: (8)+27: 35

Aryia looks from the door with the crying, to Nala, to Zenith. Leaning back to see Nadia. Back to Nala. A single exhale, and a pinched bridge of the brow later, Telamon mentions exactly what the mute was thinking.

If a big ass bird shows up to chase them, a certain Navos servitor was getting tossed.

Those subtle differences between the girl and the person that Rune calls a friend, is enough to have her hesitating ever so slightly, though she is quick to offer the young woman a soft smile. Rather than greeting in words, she simply inclines her head, her dyed hair moving across halfbreed ears.

It is a smile that falters the moment that Zenith makes their proclamation, drawing a furrowed-brow and questioning gaze. "I'm not sure I like where this story of yours is going." She states, shifting her weight and folding her arms judgmentally across her chest. The idea of harming a child, especially one that is so close an echo to her friend, seems to not sit well with the rogue.

"If she is a time-anomaly, then that sounds exactly like the conduct becoming of a Servant of Navos." Harkashan answers with a firmness to his tone. "Though I would expect it more from an Inevitable. The Wise Dragon is no longer a Deity of Light - Compassion has since lessened."

His arms cross slowly, and he looks towards Zenith, who clearly has a lot more emotion around this subject than might be expected from a being simply 'keeping time in order'. Head tilting down, with a furrowing of his brow. There is clearly a lot of history here. One that was shared.

Nala looks at Telamon with a small smile. She even has the exact same little smile that Cor'lana has--except Telamon and Aryia can recognize this version of the smile. It's a shy little thing, almost like Nala expects Telamon to drop his kindness just a moment later like a horrible mask to be cruel to her. "Zenny is Mom's familiar," she says. "Or... He was? But he disappeared a week ago. He's like my brother. I was raised with him."

Zenith wilts a little on Simony's shoulder. "The mission... took precedent," he explains. "As the Deathsinger has noted, Compassion is no longer a priority for... Him." He uses a word that won't ring like an unkind jangle of keys against glass through everyone's heads again. "All that matters is the mission of keeping the timeline straight and not letting things 'bleed' from one another. No worse than they already have."

Nala frowns at the words that Zenith offered. "You must be really tired, Zenny," she says. "I know you'd never kill me." She looks at everyone in the group for a moment as Zenith _shudders_ with her words. "Do you know where he's been? That might explain why he's being so weird right now."

GAME: Harkashan rolls Sense Motive+2: (20)+28+2: 50

Understanding filters through Zeke then and he looks at Harkashan with surprise and then at Zenith. Even with this understanding he doesn't quite understand what it is that they are meant to *do* however. Are they meant to do as Zenith once did and kill again the world that Zenith once destroyed? Lana? Or... This girl who smells like Lana, who *IS* Lana, but also is not. "Thisss one will not allow harm to fall on innocentsss." He says sternly. Those green eyes on Zenith.

Simony turns to Harkashan. "He did it before becoming a servitor. People do not have a God's capacity to just shrug off compassion." She was clearly unhappy and stomps one of her little feet.

The Goblin eyes Zenith and nods slowly, frowning. "He does not, for the sake of knowledge and time. But we still remain compassionate." Her hands rub at her cheeks, which have become flushed a mottled red. "We should talk elsewhere."

She looks to Nala then. "He probably is very tired. And perhaps, so are you. You lay down and rest. We'll find out what happened to Zenny. If people have been bullying him, we'll give them a taste of their own medicine."

Telamon clearly looks like he has no idea where to start. Or for that matter, where it might go. "Maybe some introductions are in order," he says, attempting to move onto stable ground -- for the moment. "I am called Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon. This is Simony Smithsdottir, Harkashan, Leirune Theran, Zeke, and Aryia." He gestures to the others in turn with their names. "Zenith asked us to come here, to investigate what he calls an anomaly."

He takes a deep breath. "However, this strikes me as less of an anomaly, and more of a... crossing of paths. Connections can form in dreams, and our world has been having... perturbations of its ley lines. That might be the reason for this." His eyes glint merrily as he looks at Nala. "If it helps... in a few years, I believe you shall find a raven haired lad with stars in his eyes, and he will turn your world upside down in the best way possible."

"A week..." Harkashan remarks, then looks to Zenith, who remembers killing this woman, yet here she is. A Servitor who would have done something to become part of the Wise Dragon's coterie is concerning to him. It's clear that while the God indeed has lost its compassion, Zenith does not.

But then why this inconsistency?

His head tilts to the side. While others are considering the matter of an innocent being killed for the sake of timelines, and the echoes this beats in his heart, there is something far more concerning at the core of all of this to the Deathsinger.

And that's Zenith's memories not lining up.

It feels almost cruel, to speak of this to the small bird, that clearly believes it had not failed. Especially while others are speaking more hopefully about dreams. About a future.

"You killed Nala, but yet she is here. Were you fooled, or did time Splinter further - Zenith? What are we looking at here? After all, we are not in our Material Realm. We are on another Line."

GAME: Harkashan rolls Perception: (19)+30: 49
GAME: Rune rolls perception: (12)+36: 48
GAME: Zeke rolls Perception: (2)+9: 11
GAME: Simony rolls perception: (12)+24: 36
GAME: Aryia rolls perception: (2)+36: 38

Aryia's brows furrow a touch at recognizing that little unsure smile. There's a nod in confirmation at being introduced. She does, however, toss Telamon a 'I think this isn't a whole dream thing and is actually just the fuck up of a time bird', but she doesn't voice (hand?) that to sour the mood.

Which such look slides over to Harkashan. The Stare. "F-ck m-."

GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (2)+33: 35

It has never sat well that Zenith simply chose to consider individuals anomalies, or in the case of her own family 'erratic entities'. It's very well one of the reasons she is uncertain why the Observer would have invited her to explore this rift in reality. She doesn't need to state that she would bring no harm to this girl, it's obvious from her posture.

Instead, she simply inclines her head at Telamon's introduction, "I don't like where any of this is going." She seems to agree with Simony, "I don't know that this is a good thing to talk about here..." Even if Nala does not believe Zenith could hurt her, it's clear to Rune that in some reality, some version of events, he did. And that betrayal is not something anyone deserves.

Zenith's blue eyes fall on Zeke with the Sunguard's words. "I don't want to do it again," he says in a soft voice that makes him sound far more like the age of the young boy voice that he uses. It makes him sound identical to Pothy when the boy-bird is in his own emotional difficulties.

Nearly everyone in the room, except for Zeke, who regardless can smell the sorrow from Zenith, hears the little murmur that comes from Zenith. ("Please don't make me do it again. I'll do any other mission, but not this.")

Nala frowns as Simony tells her to go rest, and then when Telamon mentions the raven-haired lad, her eyes light up again. "You know him?" she asks. "I've been dreaming of him for a while. Actually... I've been dreaming of people who kind of look like all of you?"

She points to Harkashan. "You, but blue, and you're not very friendly, but you protect me when I'm dreaming."

Then to Rune. "You, but all of your blue is red. And you're always cutting golden threads and destroying everything."

Then to Aryia. "You, but with a whip and you're really loud. You're also not very nice." Nala shudders, before pointing to Zeke.

"And... You, but red, and..." Nala shudders much more violently. "You're not anything like him," she says, before pointing to Simony.

"Except for you. I just see... You? And a white raven. Sometimes."

The remarks from Nala seem to have sparked something in Zenith, who murmurs, "No... Maybe it's not an anomaly. Not in the usual way. Because I know all of those people, too. It's how I recognized all of you." And then his blue eyes shine as he looks around the group. "Maybe... Somehow, this is an opportunity. To fix what I did. To make the timeline I destroyed live again."

He looks at Nadina. "Isn't that right, _Nadina_?" Zenith seems to be accusing her of something, because there's suspicion, somehow, in his little bird body as well as his voice. "If this is the world right before I destroyed the timeline, you should be gone already." Although here, he eyes Nala nervously. "Please go to sleep, Nala."

It makes a grim kind of sense. Although Telamon genuinely hopes his counterpart is as personable as he is. Nala deserves that much. The idea of his companions being different -- on some intrinsic level -- is very weird. Well, except Simony. She's the same, thankfully.

"I think Zenith might have the right idea, Nala." He reaches out to take Nala's hand in his left, the curuchuil visible there. "You haven't been resting well, and you need to fix that. But..." He considers. "Dream of a fairy castle, like the ones in your books. Because I can promise it's there, just like that dark haired lad. And you'll find your way to it in time, just like he'll find you." He offers Nala a smile. "Have faith."

Zeke's tail thrashes behind him once. It makes sense after a fashion that he should exist here in this realm, but differently than himself, but he's not sure that he would want to meet this other version that makes Nala shudder so. He looks at Zenith and then nods. "Yessss. Thisss one thinksss it isss time for sssleeping. Time for talking. Time for explanationsss." He nods once.

The Goblin blinks at Nala, listening to her rattle off different coloured versions of her friends. Her eyes grow large as she mentions that Simony is herself in the girl's dreams. And clearly she is talking about Pothy.

"I... I have an understanding of why I appear as myself in your dreams, I think. And the white Raven you see is called Pothy. He is the little brother to the woman you could potentially become. He is a good sort. As is the future you." Simony gestures to the others. "These are all good people. Good versions of the ones in your dreams. And we wish for you to rest so that you might not have to hear some unpleasantness. Please, remain innocent. Rest now."

Truly, another timeline. Another people, yet paths always cross. Yet, only within the dreams so far, it almost seems. If Zenith had left this girl but a week ago - if she is still 'stuck here' - then she cannot have met that many people. So, indeed, as she speaks of them - it is just that.

People who protect when they dream.

His gaze is already slipping over towards Nadina. A part of his heart tells him to walk over there. To comfort Zenith. Hearing those pitiful sounds. But such a role will befall others for now. The speaker's piercing red eyes trying to find the center of all of this.

"I am all for not causing the innocent to perish, Zenith. And I too am curious what Nadina did to fool you. However, I am uncertain what that will do to the Balance of things. Surely, Navos sent for you to do this initially for a reason. It may be wise to tell us your side of things, before we listen to lady Nadina."

Aryia gives Zenith a side eye as they plead, giving a little shake of the head. To lose resolve with any problem solvers present. She gives the bird a poke, and then makes a motion that's best come across as, "Focus on the present."

But she whirls to Nala as they point out that they know different people- rather, different versions of themselves. "That's not right. No one outbitches me, not even myself," she complains, scowling.

She side eyes the others. Shrugging. "Guess we're going to have to knock some sense into other versions of us." She pauses. Smiles. That can't be good. "I agree. Sleep time."<Handspeech/Tongues>

The descriptions of alternate versions of each of those standing before her, has a curious expression showing on Rune's features. Her brows furrow and she draws a few strands of dyed hair back behind her ear. "If you ask most people, they'd say I'm still pretty destructive. Though usually only to those who deserve it. Those who threaten or hurt others."

Rune's fingers wrap around her necklace, the one that can turn into that magical pair of scissors, but she has only ever used that power once. It is not something she takes lightly. She looks to Aryia, truly hoping that the Mul isn't right. "When our paths diverge, what choices lead us to different ends..." She shakes her head, words soft.

With others turning their eyes to Nadina, she too examines the woman. The woman who's choices were the spark that created who Cor'lana became in their world.

Zenith gives a little shake of the wings when Aryia pokes him, and a little bird-glare that doesn't stay long. Thankfully, Nala smiles up at Telamon. "Okay," she says. "I'll try."

Then Nala says, "You better come cuddle with me when you're done, Zenny," she says. "I missed you too much." She closes the door, which leaves the group with Zenith and...

Nadina, who smiles winningly at the group. "I did say I would explain how I was here," she says, mirth dancing in her blue eyes. She leans against the doorframe of her bathroom, arms folded underneath her chest. "So, let me explain. I figured out pretty early on after 'inheriting' him from my father that Zenith was here on a mission, and he told me, one night in confidence, that the timeline that we were in was considered... an auxiliary timeline. Besides the timeline that you all are from, there are others in which events went very differently. These are mostly 'contained' timelines, isolated from the main timeline because their events were considered... Undesirable. Anomalous. At some point, after descending from Light to Twilight, the policies around auxiliary timelines changed. They were given to 'junior servitors' to train in. Once their training was done and they graduated to full-fledged servitors... The timelines would be wiped."

Zenith nods soberly. "I finished the primary goals of my mission, so it was my job to... wipe the timeline." He hunches, somehow, for a bird. "Which means... Everyone in it died. Or should have died."

A little chuckle leaves Nadina. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?" she says. "Because you told me the truth, Zenny... I struck a deal with Him while you were distracted. After you reset the timeline, He'd put everything back into place. I made a bet with him."

Her blue eyes sparkle with mirth. "I told him I'd give him something back that he’d forgotten. You lot are going to _teach_ the Raven how to get his Compassion back."

Zeke blinks slowly at Nadina. "Why ussss?" It's not that he minds the mission really, but... he hardly feels as though he is truly qualified for such mission as this. "If it isss your bet, are you not the one compelled to give back to him the thing he hasss lossst?" He tilts his head to the side in confusion.

Telamon watches Nala go back into her room, and listens for a moment to make sure there's no sobbing. He won't have that, no matter what's going on, regardless of timelines or gods.

Once he's sure, though, he turns to listen to Nadina and Zenith, his expression getting a trifle... anxious. When Nadina announces what the plan is, Telamon just stares, before reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose. He glances at Zeke, and hehs. "Who else is better qualified, Zeke? You and I, we have faced trials the likes of which many people only read about in books. As have the rest of us." He heaves a sigh. "Although I admit I'm going to need to think a little about where to -start-."

And there it is. This is why he did not find any sign of memory alteration upon Zenith. This is why things don't make sense. It's because the timeline had been 'recovered' afterwards. It makes sense that the Wise Dragon could perform such a feet. But why create such a risk to the 'Sacred' Timeline?

Compassion.

The very thing that he spoke of earlier, of the Wise Dragon having lost. Now, there is a chance to give it back. Certainly, this should be a good thing.

So why is he feeling so uncomfortable about this. He should be happy about this. A God being given back an aspect that made them so beloved. Something that would allow the Wise Dragon and the Platinum Dragons to once again rekindle what had been lost.

But what would happen if this occurred?

"If the Wise Dragon lost their Compassion, in a bid to Balance the world once more - I am concerned what such a bet will mean for us on the long run." He warns the others. "For to give a Deity back a Fragment of what they once lost, is bound to have a lot more meaning and impact than even making the Joyless one, Joyful once more."

The Goblin offers Nala a smile and a wave. "Rest well. We'll send him in later." She listens as Nadina recounts her understanding of the timeline, and she frowns deeply at Zenith. "How in good conscience can that be done?! Forget compassion... there is untold amounts of information just... gone, like it never existed." Her hands ball into fists, knuckles cracking loudly. "Books that could have been, poems unwritten, recorded history reduced to dust."

Then Nadina says a combination of words Simony never expected to here in her lifetime... or in the afterlife. "What? No, seriously, pardon me? There's only one way Navos gets his compassion back... the return of Animus." Her voice trails off and she simply glares at Nadina.

Not that long ago, Rune may have taken the idea of realities similar and vastly different from their own as little more than a storyteller's tale. The sort of thing that makes for amusing fiction around a campfire with whispers of doppelgangers and the choices not made. Now, she is all to connected to the reality of things just like this.

"Zenith once told me that many of us are considered 'erratic entities'. Because through our abilities, we have an undue influence on the flow of time. That we're allowed so much leniency through our own agency to influence the path we walk, but that beings like him... identify when someone has passed some... invisible threshold of influence, that it is when beings like him step in to correct the problem." And by 'correct', it's obvious that Rune means 'eliminate'.

Uncertainty lingers in her posture and expression, "I'm all for teaching compassion, because from what I've seen... it may not be long before we need it, if someone decides /we're/ a problem." She eyes Zenith.

Aryia is listening. Honest. She closes her eyes to parse every word carefully. Compassion? That was something Aryia didn't have very much of. But what she had, she gave out very carefully. Speaking of the Joyless one, she pulls out a small stone figure in the shape of a bird, running her fingers over it in thought.

Perhaps it's something that can be done. But should it? Simony voices the major worry of it. "And if Animus to return, everything would be just as fucked as it was when he died." She put a hand on her hip, releasing the bird as it animates on its own, fluttering up to rest on her shoulder. "And yet... how many Shards have been gathered in one place?" A nod towards Rune. "And it's not out of the realm of possibility that due to our erraticness. As fucking wild as it sounds. The balance would be maintained, but at what cost?" <Handspeech/Tongues>

Nadina grins at Zeke. "Well, that's the thing. When Zenny let the bird out of the cage, so to speak, I began to do my own research before I had Nala. I told Him that he could take my magic away from me forever. He could wipe me from every timeline forever if he so pleased. But if I succeeded at _reminding_ Him... Then what will we gain? For me, it's a god who will listen to my daughter's prayers when she cries in every timeline that there was for love. For me, it's a god who won't be unkind and force Zenny and Pothy into things neither of them ever wanted."

She points at Rune. "After all, the cute stabby one's right," Nadina says with a grin. "You're all 'erratic' in some way, shape, or form. You have a great and important weight in your abilities. I, too, am an 'erratic' one. That's why I bet my magic and even my existence. That's also why, sadly, I have nothing to offer you right now beyond my knowledge."

The blue-eyed woman is still smiling, but she's deadly serious. "I'm not suggesting we revive Animus or that this effort will, alone, make the Raven ascend to the Light. I want Him merely to have it as evidence: that things can be better. That He can do better. That it need not fall only to those who follow the Raven's teachings to show the compassion that so many need. That it need not be entirely on the shoulders of every Temperance to be kind when their deity cannot. And if it does upset the Balance... Maybe it _should_."

Nadina looks at the door of her daughter's room. "She prays every night to Navos. She asks him to make the village people kind. He's never answered. It's the hardest thing in the world for a mother to endure, when a child asks why Navos wants her to know what it's like to suffer." Her words are tight around the edges now, her own sorrow in her eyes and voice.

GAME: Telamon rolls knowledge/religion: (5)+13: 18

Zeke takes a deep breath in and then nods slowly. "It would not be the firsssst time." He nods again. "Thissss one hassss taught the ssspiritssss to love." He curls his tail around his body and looks at the others. "It issss not an easssy path, but it isss a posssible path."

He has done it once with Cuemoni, and he believes that if he can do it with spirits that it can be done with a god. Perhaps in a different way, perhaps in a similar way. "The quessstion issss the how." His tail flickers then and he looks at Telamon, smiling in the sith-makar fashion. "Perhapssss... in a dream."

"Things have already changed, Nadina," Telamon states with a firm tone. "I suspect the entire concept of the Balance is in flux, and has been for some time. Ever since..." He pauses, then continues, "Caracoroth. The Nightmare changed his very nature, and became unbound. If -he- can change, why can't Navos?"

His eyes move to the door as well. "Sometimes we learn compassion through suffering. I don't like it either, though. I didn't need those lessons to learn how to be kind." He exhales. "Love isn't the same as compassion, Zeke. Still... the Dreamtime might hold some insights on this. Even the Historian's compassion might lay beneath those waves."

Harkashan has not uncrossed his arms since a good while ago now. That furrow of his brow still has not left. They are mortals meddling in the affairs of the Gods, and believing they know better than them. And while there's certainly a certain amount of 'disconnect' some Gods have from mortal life, there is always a wariness Harkashan has around such topics.

There is talk of reviving Animus. About re-introducing a certain amount of chaos and mess that once existed in the world.

He isn't offering up any further complaints or warnings however. It seems that the cards are as out in the open as they are going to get. But he wonders if this is Right. Whether Compassion will not Break The Wise Dragon in the Role it has taken up.

Still, it's Rune's words that remind him that there is a part of this that would possibly be to his own benefit. And Harkashan is not beyond being a little selfish sometimes. Yet he can't get rid of this nagging feeling, and keeps looking at Nadina.

Are a young woman's tears enough reason to undermine and utterly manipulate the very Essence of a Deity?

GAME: Harkashan rolls Sense Motive: (11)+28: 39

Being described as the 'stabby' one gets a quirk of the lips in return as Rune inclines her head in the direction of this phantom of Cor'lana's mother. However, that expression shifts more somber as Telamon reminds her of that first shift of power, of balance, "I agree. If the Nightmare can change, then certainly it isn't beyond the power of the other gods to do so, as well."

However, she is no expert on the gods, that has always been more in the realm of her companion, so her blue eyes look to Harkashan. With the Makari being the stoic silent type at the moment, however, she just sighs to herself. "So, I know relatively jack about the gods and what influences them or not. So... any of you who have a god in your back pocket got any ideas?" She's probably talking about the clerics in the party.

Aryia glances to Nala's room as Nadina mentions the girl praying to Navos every night. Reminding the mute of Cor'lana and how she shifted to a different devotion later on in life. "I care not for a reward," she gestures slowly in regards to Nadina's offering of anything.

Though, Telamon provides a pertinent observation. "Suffering is how I learned compassion," she confirms, letting out a slow breath. There's a glance to Rune, then towards Harkashan as they're glowering at something or another - she doesn't know the makari very well - ,and looks back to Rune. There's a shrug. "I don't have any favor of the gods." Pause. "I think." <Handspeech/Tongues>

Simony is quiet as Nadina explains. Her God lacks compassion, but she does not. There are tears once more when Nadina speaks of Nala praying to Navos. "I will do this.", she says, "It will have consequences. But I will help."

"Love and Compassion are related, however," Nadina says with a smile. "They often inform one another."

She steps forward, urging the group to come follow her into the kitchen. She produces a teapot and starts about the process of making a little hearth-fire the old-fashioned way. After all, Nadina doesn't have her magic. "You don't have to take my idea if you don't want to," she says, "but I find the fact that my baby's been dreaming about people who look like all of you to be... significant. She's been having dreams for a while."

"They started two weeks before... the reset," Zenith murmurs from his post on Simony's shoulder. "Nala actually asked me if the raven-haired boy was real. And... He is. But..."

He eyes Telamon. "He is... Not _quite_ like you."

"Nonetheless, that boy is all she'll ever talk about," Nadina says with a little laugh as she successfully gets a fire going. "I'm also aware that Nala is... very different from the woman that all of you know from your timeline. I think, if we were somehow to unite all of the erratics from this timeline together... Maybe my baby girl meeting those people she's been dreaming of might help teach the lesson of Compassion."

She chuckles. "Or maybe they'll just hit it off and I'll get a grandbaby when Nala is a bit older." Is she looking at Telamon as she says this? Yes, yes she is.

Zeke watches the tea with some interest. "You want for ussss to find... our-ssselvessss?" He doesn't seem much fond of this idea. "Thissss one doesss not like the way that your daughter reacted to the verssion of thissss one from thissss time." He shakes his head. Who knows how much different from himself this red-scaled version of himself this other might be?

Telamon looks a little wary. "The... 'erratics' of this timeline strike me as somewhat... different in many ways. I hope we can convince them of this errand." He scratches his chin, thinking. "Obviously, the first step is finding them. We could consult with the gods -- or perhaps the Dreamtime might offer clues." He taps his fingers. "Still..."

He looks at Nadina. "She's really not that much different from how Cor'lana was -- hurting and lonely. Lana may have had Pothy but at the time, he couldn't tell her much." A pause. "Maybe... Nadina, what year is it here?"

Aryia idly follows Nadina to the kitchen, listening to her explain as she ends up sitting herself on a spare countertop. A brow quirks about hearing of Tel's counterpart, a tinge of worry crossing her face at the thought of someone as powerful as him without compassion. Wait, what if he actually knew how to hit with a stick. Would she beat up not Tel?

Focus. She shakes her head. "Some alter versions of ourselves may be incapable of compassion. If I had a whip-" she /actually/ shudders at that, her normally stoic visage paling slightly, "-then my other self is doing some sure as shit stuff I'd just straight up kill them over." <Handspeech/Tongues>

"The other us may be different, but they still Protect her." Harkashan brings up, as he moves with the others, who are drawn by the alure of tea. Glancing over to Aryia for a moment, then away again. He can tell that people are looking at him. It isn't like he's exactly telling them all that is on his mind at this moment. The concerns he has.

And that's largely because those here with him, are the Giants whose shoulders he stands upon. Friends who have more experience than himself.

"It sounds like she is a Dreamer." Harkashan remarks to Nadina, as he leans his shoulder to the wall and listens to what else is being said. "And that, as a loving mother, you would do anything to ensure her dreams come true." He rumbles. "But let's not add the risk of what happens when two people from two different timelines have children."

"Seems like some of the versions your daughter dreamt about may be a fair bit different from us." Rune's thumb runs along the edge of her necklace, as if thinking about the descriptor that was offered of this other version of herself. "By the sound of it, these were darker versions of us, though maybe that's just the tone of Nala's dreams."

Rune leans against the wall of the kitchen, fidgeting with the necklace chain, "I'm willing to give it a shot, but it seems that if we're supposed to find them, it might help to know what else is different in this world from ours. That might give us some guidance on where to start looking."

"Why am I not changed, though? In her dreams.", Simony wonders. "Is it because I am a Temperance? That's my suspicion, though I cannot fathom why this would be a part of her dreams."

Her grin is sudden and broad at the mention of a grandbaby. She eyes Telamon briefly, covering a giggle with her hand. The Goblin then snorts at Aryia. "So you'd kick your own behind again?" Her eyes widen. "Should we really meet ourselves? The consequences of that are... potentially deadly..."

Nadina blinks at Harkashan. "What... No, goodness no, I meant the raven-haired boy and Nala. Not this man who is _married_. Also he's too old. He's an adult. This boy is about the same age as Nala is, according to her--a year older."

She looks contemplative. "As for how... You all have multiple opportunities. Dreaming could be one way. Divination another. Or you could leave and just ask around? I don't know what all the residents of Alenwell might know."

Zenith regards Rune for a moment. "Most things are the same. There's the city of Alexandria in the region of Alexandros. The history of the world's progressed more or less the same. There's differences in how individual people decided on some things, which is why your 'other selves' are different... And yet some people, like Nadina, are relatively the same. The primary oddity is..."

Nadina coughs. "You don't have to air my dirty laundry, Zenny," she says, before she looks at the group. "I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. You see, I'm in hiding. From--"

Before she can finish her sentence, there's a flock of birds flying around the house, visible through the windows, shrieking and crying with croaks and howls.

"Na! La! Na! La!"

Unlike an event that some have seen before... The birds are white-feathered, and there's strange golden eyes that burn from their gazes.

-TBC