[open post: thursday's eve]

[forgethertoo]

When the predetermined day and time for the night hunt comes around, Aornis kits herself out quite reasonably, though she secretly loathes every second of it. Sensible, dark clothes and sensible black shoes with no heels. Flashlight. Notebook and pen. A few other useful and routine tools -- and an odd contraption that she's holding in her hands. The outside of it is a glass bottle that once held a beverage of some sort, washed and cleaned thoroughly. Since she didn't want to appear to be the sort to waste food, she's filled it with different colored plastic beads that she discovered in one of the lounges. The bottle is sealed, with the cap on, as she waits for Claudius and Lan Wangji.

Alternatively, if anyone would like to speak with her while she waits for them, they are also more than welcome to -- though we can't particularly guarantee a scintillating conversation, as she's still masquerading as Thursday Next.

Comments

[forgethertoo]

"It's just..." She examines her nails with an exaggerated pause, "you're so boring now."

[protagonisthalo]

"Let's make things interesting then. Come find me in the waking world and see what happens. Unless you plan to take this memory from me as well—coward that you are." In the background he is constructing internal wards, barriers made of whatever metaphysical material he governs in this realm, to keep her out. In case that doesn't work, he takes his memories of her and all he knows about her and shoves them as deep into his mind as possible, where even the finest dream cultivator could not access them.

[forgethertoo]

Aornis scoffs, though she feels uncertain for a moment. Luo Binghe seems so different from the mourning, lost individual she thought she would find. He seems confident and determined. Calm.

"I'm around," she tells him scornfully. "It's hardly a fair fight, physically. I got lucky with Shen Yuan." As a test, she attempts to to wipe the scene in a dreamscape away.

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe allows her, wanting to see what she'll do. Any piece of information he can gather about her is useful, especially if she thinks she can wipe his mind after this.

"Are you often lucky?" He knows about her powers, but he wants her to elaborate without telling her that he knows.

[forgethertoo]

Aornis doesn't answer his question directly. She brings up an image of people in a park, seated at a picnic. They are gathering their items and folding their blanket, chatting casually as they stand up and step away slightly. A second later, there are some screams and shouts as a car comes flying through the air and lands with a CRASH exactly where the people had been seated.

"Whoops," Aornis says, dryly. "What a coincidence."

[protagonisthalo]

"Am I meant to be impressed? I'm not—but I'll tell you what is lucky for you." He shifts the scene to the Huan Hua Water Prison: dark, spare cell of a dungeon, closed in on all sides by crashing waterfalls. "Shen Yuan's spirit asked me to kill you. For him, I will. If it were up to me, the fate I'd inflict would be far worse and far slower than death."

[forgethertoo]

"Please," Aornis tells him, expression hardening. "The SpecOps could come up with a better punishment than that. Would you prefer that I show you this?"

She waves away the image of the water prison and brings back the room that Shen Yuan died in, platters of food cooling on the tables. It's only three seconds of action; the chandelier falling from the ceiling and shards of glass flying, Shen Yuan reaching out a hand in an attempt to halt it, and it freezes on him and the expression on his face -- cheek cut by a shard of glass and bleeding -- when he realizes that he can't.

"Whoops," she tells Luo Binghe again, eyes narrowed. "Looks like your boyfriend forgot how to cultivate. Such a shame."

[protagonisthalo]

Luo Binghe burns with rage. He knows she is taunting him, but it is impossible not to be furious at the sight of his beloved at the point of death, fear on his face. She could be inventing this to hurt him, it could be a false image—but he doesn't think it is. He grits his teeth.

The scene changes to a pitch-black dungeon with stone walls, the smell of damp and decay in the air. As Aornis' eyes adjust to the light, she will see a ring hanging from the ceiling, a figure suspended from it by the waist. This is where Luo Binghe left the real Shen Qingqiu: limbs torn off one by one, tongue cut out once Luo Binghe gave up on getting the acknowledgement he wanted. He still can't say why he has not let the man die, except that his hatred and anger towards him are still too much to bear without a target. "I admit—my punishments are often uncreative."

[forgethertoo]

Aornis raises an eyebrow. "Oh look, someone's actually somewhat interesting now. What did he do?"

[protagonisthalo]

"He tormented me for many years. I'm only returning the favor. You'll find I'm scrupulous about repaying debts."

[forgethertoo]

"I'm sure," Aornis says, unimpressed. It doesn't matter; she'll erase this encounter from his memory when she wakes up. "Well, this was a wonderful chat, but I'm afraid I have to go now."

[protagonisthalo]

"I wouldn't sleep too deeply if I were you. You know that I am looking for you, and I will find you."

[forgethertoo]

Aornis looks at Luo Binghe for a long moment. She could tease and torment him more, but there's something about his certainty that's a bit unnerving this time around. His words are very similar to those he's said countless times over countless nights -- but something is different. She frowns. Without the final word this time, she disappears from his dream.

When she wakes, she wipes his memory of the conversation as usual, though a fragment of that dread still remains.

[protagonisthalo]

When Luo Binghe wakes, he immediately reaches for the memory. He reinforced it as much as possible in sleep, strengthening it against erasure, and now he goes over the details gingerly, as though testing whether an injured limb can hold weight.

He cannot be entirely sure. Aornis can alter memory. She could have given him a false memory of a small victory, to lure him into an unearned sense of security; the entire dream could be fabricated. He holds to one small piece of evidence: he still remembers the flash of Shen Yuan's face before death, dawning realization quickly transmuting to horror.

Though she used it fleetingly to taunt him, Aornis would not want him to keep that memory. She struck it from his mind for a reason, and it is infinitely clear to him why. As he holds the image in his mind, every bit of rage he's felt for the past several months rises up at once, a burning, choking feeling in his throat. His hands shake with the urge to put them round Aornis' neck.

His memory of her features is crystal clear. His mind's defenses are built solidly around her shape. She's admitted she is no match for him physically, and now he is able to neutralize at least one of her formidable powers. Nothing can stop him now from taking the life Aornis forfeited when she dared touch Shen Yuan.