Derivative of the Lost

[Vereshin]

Where the Carcass Lies - Flowers for Bodysnatchers​

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A layer of mist hovered around Vereshin's feet, the condensation chilling the bench where he sat. On his lap, his notebook lay splayed open, the pages lined with the equations he continued in pursuit of correcting the way he proceeded through time. Muttering aloud to himself, he mused on the function of the point in time where his past inevitably met with the present, which he was struggling to derive. The air was cold and Vereshin huddled beneath his coat, warming himself with a drag on his cigarette. He crossed his legs over and extended the function, to include the reference frame through which he was currently passing.

Looking up every so often, he caught violent flashes out the ajar slits of his eyes, which turned out to be a young women, hard at work practicing her combat forms. The park was large and apart from Vi himself, there was nobody around, giving her all the room she needed to train. With a bemused groan, Vereshin looked back down and assigned a value to the point in time where he had traveled to the past, which he multiplied in the hopes of finding the point he needed to travel to, so he could rectify it. Scratching his head with his pen, he shifted on the bench and exchanged a glance with the woman on the grass.

"Why don't you like my function, damnit?!" Vereshin hissed beneath his breath, tapping his pen against the misbehaving derivative.

He must have spoken a little too loudly, because the woman with the axe looked up and saw him with his pen hanging in the air. Vereshin sat still for a moment with his mouth agape, then parted his lips into a sweet smile and chuckled. She started to walk over to him and Vereshin paid her no heed, he looked down and returned to his equation, his attention directed to the page. A shadow bore over him and he realized that the woman was standing right above him. She grabbed her coat and took a gulp of water, then sat down beside Vereshin, who could not help but look away from his notebook and smile.

"My apologies, I was talking to my derivative." Vereshin said matter-of-factly, then laughed when he realized how strange that sounded. Baring a mouth full of pitch black teeth, he raised his cigarette to his lips and inhaled, then blew smoke into the air.

"Do you fight for the confederacy?" He asked, feeling obligated to be interested in what the woman was doing. His question was genuine, even if he disliked combat himself. Closing his notebook, he clicked his pen and slid it into his black overcoat, then rested his foot on his thigh. "I only just moved here a few days ago, it's been quite the change from the Sith." Vereshin said calmly, staring out into the mist. He recalled how well the Empire had been doing years from now, before he traveled back in time and wondered if the events of the past had occurred differently now that he was experiencing them again.

"What's your name?" Vereshin asked. "I'm Vereshin, but I go by "Vi" if you like." He offered her his nickname and smiled, then turned around.

In the distance, where the grass met the trees, a figure approached from the road leading to the park. Narrowing his eyes, Vereshin took a moment to look up and saw that the sun had moved backwards slightly, when he lowered his head with regret. As the figure approached, Vereshin could tell that they were female and when they came into view, he saw that they looked exactly like the woman on the bench. She began to unpack her weapons and adjust the hilt of her axe, just as she had most likely done an hour ago.

Vereshin withdrew a breath, then looked at the woman, her present self with a look of dismay. He immediately slid his notebook into his overcoat and stood, only to see another figure approaching from the side. This one was male and clad in a black coat and trousers. It was him in the past, reoccurring as the effective present, as a result of Vereshin travelling backwards in time. He had inserted himself into his memories, only they were real and ensnared anybody who happened to be there at the time. Vereshin's past self walked forward and began to light a cigarette, when Vereshin, in his present form stood and grabbed the woman's hand.

"They must not see us." Vereshin said, keeping his voice low. With the woman's wrist in his hand, he gestured towards the trees on the opposite side of the park to where he past self was training, then gave her wrist a yank to get her to follow him.

[member="Alvida Osulf"]

 

[Alvida Osulf]

[member=Vereshin]​

​

When history repeats itself, little wolves would do best to listen and learn.​

Alvida had never been to a park before. When she had first arrived she asked Asher to describe one too her. He told her it was like a carefully pruned wood, one that was surrounded by a fence to stop it from growing as it pleased. The young wolf hadn't liked the sound of it much at all. Never the less, there was little to choose from on this planet. If she wanted to feel nature the park was her only choice. With Blod and Bein strapped firmly to her side, Alvida wondered through the miniature woods to find somewhere to practice. Asher had mentioned that most people came to parks to relax or enjoy themselves, which is why Alvida had blocked the masterfully carved crevices in her axes with some loose cloth. The screaming sound they made as the wind whistled through them would likely disturb more than amuse and amaze, as it did in most situations.

A thick layer of fog had been slowly gathering around edges of the thick furs she used as a coat. Despite the fact that she knew no harm would come to her in the middle of such a serene place, it did give it a rather eerie feel. Half way down the stone path that led to the heart of the park she found herself beside a bench, which she used as a place to put her thick furs and leather water pouch while she worked. From there she spied a suitable place to practice and set herself off across the lush green grass, who's vibrant colour had been dimmed by the heavy fog. Her feet came to a halt in the centre of a clearing wide enough for her to truly challenge her aim. At the end of the clearing was a tree, a perfect target. She could only hope nobody would be foolish enough to walk across the space between. With that thought in mind she lifted Bein up with the mind to pull the fabric from the hollow wood, but decided against it at the last moment and simply lost herself in the practice.

An hour later, Alvida set her legs in a determined fashion and let one of the deadly axes fly from her hand. The finely crafted wood cut through the air at break neck speed, but as it approached the tree the young wolf grumbled under her breath. The axe embedded itself into the wood, or rather skimmed past the side of the bark and spiralled wildly out of control, as it had been doing each time she had tried. Without another word she lifted a hand and called on the powers that ran wild through her blood. The weapon twitched, the grass underneath crunching as the weight of it lifted and it retraced it's steps through the air to reach her lazily outstretched arm. When it finally nestled into her palm she mused about how the cloth seemed to have changed the weight of it. It didn't make sense to practice if the weight of the weapon was off, but she was already here. Alvida was just about to take up her stance to try once again when the hiss of a baritone voice caught her attention.

The young wolf snapped her head to the shadow, cast in the haze of the fog. Keen bright eyes narrowed to make out the frame of a skinny, pale faced man with an expression of annoyance touching his hollowed features. Alvida glanced at the axes in her hand, then back to the man who sat perched on the bench beside her belongings. In perfect time the voices confirmed the thoughts that had barley crossed her mind. Practising was a useless waste of time, why not go and investigate the soul who was brave enough to sit in a park on a day like today? Nodding to herself as she lowered her hand and dug her heel into the soft undergrowth, Alvida set her feet on the path toward the stranger. Her feet carried her lightly, silently, swiftly over the dew covered grass toward his hunched frame.

When she approached the bench she could think of nothing better to do than place the heavy furs of brown and white round her slim shoulders. The cork on her water pouch made a satisfying pop as it freed the liquid inside. She took a sip, grateful for the cool feeling in her throat that the water left in its wake. Alvida was also grateful for the time it provided her to look the stranger over. His eyes drew her attention the most. So bright and vibrant in their colour Alvida pondered the possibility that they were simply clear, and reflecting the vibrancy of the grass around them. But that made no sense. The voices agreed, and teased her for the ridiculous thought. Just as she had finished her long, drawn out gulp Alvida parted her lips with the mind to say something, but the stranger beat her too it.

Her face crinkled at the word "derivative". Before she could get a word out a cloud of smoke enveloped her head, a smoke that burned her throat as she inhaled and overtook the area she sat in. She wafted a milk-white hand to clear the air as he asked his next question. 'I suppose you could say this. In a way.' Her sweet tone came with a questioning lilt. Once again her nose twitched, causing lines to form in the bridge. 'I know of this word. Sith. There are Sith in the Confederacy, are these not the same Sith that you speak of?' The way she spoke the word seemed to tell a thousand tales of her foreign heritage. Her tongue tripped on the letters, making it sound like she had only heard it a handful of times. 'My name is Alvida.' Her lips parted, ready to make a request to know where he hailed from, when the shadow of a person began to appear in the heart of the fog. Golden brows furrowed gently as she focused in on the apparition. But the closer it came the more apparent it was nothing of the sort.

Sea-foam eyes seemed to widened, followed by a rapid shake of her wild corn-silk curls, almost as if she were trying to clear the vision from her eyes. Was that what this was? A vision from the Gods? Alvida had only seen into the past once, and why on earth would they need to show her what she had done only an hour ago? Alvida was too busy to notice the man turning to look at her, too busy to see the panic on his face that mirrored hers. 'Wha-...' Spindly fingers grasped the alabaster flesh she had nestled in her lap. A soft grunt left her lips as she was hoisted from the wooden bench. There was nothing she could do but obey, and hope that she could hold her silence till the hallow faced man said it was safe to speak.

 

[Vereshin]

When Vereshin saw the woman walking over to him, he quickly gave up on his function and close his notebook, then slid it into the black, leather satchel which sat beside him. Reclining on the bench, he stretched the cramps out of his wrist and rested on foot on his knee, passing a wry smile in the direction of the woman, who drank from a water pouch she had left beside the bench. As she left her axes by her furs, Vereshin noticed that she consistently looked him in the eye, as though she was fascinated by the brilliant, lime colour of his irises, which he took as a compliment. Smiling, he turned around and looked at the sky, the odd cry of a seagull splitting the wind. The woman screwed up her face when he mentioned that he had been talking to his derivative, to which he only chuckled.

"Ah, I'm sure the Confederacy are lucky to have such a skilled combatant as yourself defending their worlds." Vereshin said lightly, his voice soft and welcoming, still baring the feint traces of the accent which he used to have. Having recalled the young woman's form from when she had been practicing, he did not doubt that she could defeat him with very little effort if it came down to melee prowess. "I'm not much of a fighter myself, my skill lies in the arcane." He chuckled, dismissing his lack of skill in combat with a shrug. He still could not use a weapon and had no intention of learning, as he assumed that he simply would not have the strength needed to land a blow. The woman's nose twitched at his mention of being a former Sith and he smiled, baring a mouth full of pitch black teeth.

"No, I was not a Sith in the Confederacy, but in the Empire." Vereshin shook his head. The woman spoke with a sweet voice, in broken basic, which he found very charming as he recalled how he used to speak with a thick accent upon leaving Ziost for the first time. "Indeed, I am a long way from home." He nodded, his hands folded on his lap. When the woman introduced herself as Alvida, Vereshin gave her his usual sweet smile and extended a hand for her to shake if she wished, he did not imagine that she would like it if he kissed the top of her hand.

"Alvida, a very nice name." Vereshin said and shook Alvida's hand lightly.

Just as opened his mouth to speak again, a figure emerged from the trees across the park. When he turned around, he could see that they looked exactly like Alvida, coming to practice her combat forms, just as she had done an hour ago. He swallowed bile laced with dread when he realized that the area had been warped as a result of him travelling backwards in time, causing prior events to reoccur. With Alvida's hand still gripped in his own, he turned to face her, only to see her mouth agape and her eyes wide, her entire body frozen in disbelief. Withdrawing a sigh, Vereshin could not help but feel slightly responsible for her being warped in time, as it was his act of travelling to the past which was the cause. He released Alvida's hand and rose to his feet, only to see the past version of himself walking down the path, towards the bench.

"Quickly now, we can't let them see us, or they'll erase us in time!" Vereshin cried, trying to keep his voice low. Looking around from one side of the park to the next, he saw a clearing through the trees behind them, which was safely out of sight of the past versions of both Alvida and himself. He grabbed Alvida's wrist and turned to run, leading her across the park and away from the ghosts of the past.

Vereshin ran through the trees with his hand around Alvida's wrist. The dirt beneath their feet turned to sand as they approached the beach, the atmosphere on Scarif still caught in a storm. Lightning split the clouds and illuminated the grey horizon, threatening the onset of a downpour. Brushing past branches, the time traveling sorcerer avoided their reach, his face scratched occasionally by a stray twig. The trees cleared and they arrived on the beach of Scarif, where Vereshin had been rescued only days before. Stopping in front of the trees, he let Alvida's wrist go and beheld the beach, the waves rolling in as the tide began to rise. In the place of the sun, was a perfect black sphere, which he could only assume was the mass he had pulled out of the black hole, it's gravitational pull distorting the atmosphere of the planet.

"This is where I came out of a black hole." Vereshin said plainly, as though there was nothing extraordinary about the sentence. "While I was inside, my frame of reference was slowed to such a rate that it was dragged backwards, taking me into the past." He explained quickly, knowing that Alvida would have liked some kind of an answer. Darting forward, he slid down the sand and walked towards the water, which was growing ever more violent with the onset of the storm. A short distance away was a light house, which he thought would be a good place to cast his first mark in the hopes of correcting the timeframe of the area. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Alvida following him and nodded, ushering her over to the lighthouse along with him.

"Over here, this will be a good place to cast my first mark." Vereshin said as she ran to catch up with him. Avoiding the waves, he ran across the sand and arrived at the lighthouse. Upon looking around, he could see that nobody was working there, which made him think that it had been abandoned long ago. He shook the door handles, only to find that it was locked fast, which was not an issue for a sorcerer who broke the laws of physics on a regular basis. He placed a hand against the wall and looked up, then walked to the door and waited for Alvida to catch up. Once she had arrived at the lighthouse, he reached out and offered her his hand.

"Take my hand." He said and placed his palm firmly against the door.

[member="Alvida Osulf"]

 

[Alvida Osulf]

[member=Vereshin]​

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The end has finally come, and you are nowhere near your home.​

As he spoke honeyed words, Alvida decided he was perhaps hiding something. Something that wasn't necessarily a secret, but something that he wasn't going to share in a hurry. The voices laughed at his words. Laughed at the idea that she could even be considered a skilled combatant. But Alvida had decided it was a nice thing for him to have said, so she thanked him regardless. 'I have yet to fight for the Confederacy in any battle, but thank you for your kind compliments.' He spoke on, the entrancing lime green eyes keeping her attention from waning any further than the tip of his nose. 'You are skilled in magic?' Her tone perked up, almost as energetic as the yap of an excitable puppy. 'Magic is within my blood as well, but not many of my people know how to use it properly. Over the years we have forgotten what our ancestors taught us.' She spoke with a sadness, a sadness that always seemed to come with the revelation that you lost something precious.

'Ah. So these are two different alliances? The Empire and the Confederacy.' She was still learning about the nuances of different factions, and the wars that were carried out in secret and in plain sight between them. As she travelled she picked up pieces of information, each one slotting into a bigger picture that mapped out the Galaxy. Vereshin commented on home, and Alvida found herself feeling a little less alone. She was so accustomed to being the only one who felt different, who felt like they hadn't really belonged. It was nice that for a chance, she wasn't the only one a little new to this planet. The more they spoke the more she longed to know more about the man with the glowing green eyes, but all that was soon tossed to the wind as her eyes focused on the shadows shifting behind the sheet of mist and fog. Alvida hardly had time to think about anything else as she was swept from the bench and dragged into the depths of the park.

If it weren't for Verashin's arm tugging her along the way, Alvida would have stopped dead. Perhaps she had heard him wrong? Perhaps he was making a mistake. Time wasn't something you could erase or create, time was linear. The Gods paved you a path and you walked it, sometimes it split off and allowed you to make a choice, but either way the outcome was already written for you. Neither the past or your future could be changed, could they? The voices in Alvida's head were a cacophony of screeches, both for and against the entire theory of time being pliable. One of the only things that kept her from pulling away from the deranged, pale-faced man was the feeling of running through the trees. The wolf inside her could not, and would not, give up the feeling of the breeze rushing through her golden hair. It would not allow her to break away from the snap of twigs and the crunch of leaves underfoot. All of a sudden, the ground changed. From solid earth to a soft, sinking sand.

The more the ran the angrier the weather seemed to get. Bright cracks of lightning burst from the depths of a storm grey background. Alvida could feel the pressure changing around them as the storm grew closer. Was this all a result of whatever magic this man had been dabbling in? When he finally released her wrist she could do nothing but stand there dumbly. It was only a particularly loud crash of thunder, followed by the blinding flash of lightning, that forced her head to turn and face the skies. Her jaw dropped. Where the sun would have been, and where the moon should have been now, was... nothing. Just an empty shell, a hollowed out crater hanging lifelessly against the pitch black sky. 'Wha-... Wh-...' The wild golden curls cut through the air sharply as she turned to face Vereshin. 'You did this?' The hand he had once held flapped manically toward the circle of black where the sun should have been.

The voices were inconsolable. Coupled with the deafening strikes of thunder and lightning, Alvida could feel the start of a very uncomfortable headache. Not only that, but the dread and horror of the things the voices were saying. The Gods had decided it was the end of the world, this man had come to take her to the pits of Eldland, he worked with the God of Death. Alvida shook her head wildly, trying to clear away the clouds that cluttered her mind. 'What do you mean, black hole? What is a frame of reference? How was I back there, but I am here? What have you done?' The stream of questions did nothing to slow the raven haired man. As she watched him slide down the sand toward the waters edge, Alvida considered turning and running back to her ship. Perhaps she could make it out of the atmosphere in time to escape whatever madness he had brought her into? But something told her not too. A rock in the middle of the storm raging in her mind spoke out, cutting through the fog and deluge as clear as day.

Alvida cursed heavily, but it was lost in a gust of wind that swept up the sand around her in swirling patterns. Her wilful feet forced her to follow, they forced her to slide down the sand and follow after the dark magician that made his way toward the lighthouse. The young wolf did not mind the splash of ice cold water that lapped at the edges of her dress. The waves felt like sharp knives spreading a chill through her body that made her certain none of this was a nightmare. Vereshin said something, but all she caught was something about casting a first mark. An uneventful training session had, thus far, turned into a rather taxing lesson in all things confusing. What was even worse was he seemed to be too energetic to slow down and answer her questions, which was ironic considering she was much the same when it came to things that excited her. The spindly man finally drew to a stop at the thick wooden door to a building Alvida had no name for.

Take my hand.​

She winced, unsure of whether or not the voices in her head were saying yes or no. With her face still crumpled up into an unsure expression, Alvida slipped her alabaster hand into his. Whatever he was going to do, she wasn't ready. She doubted she ever would be. So far this man had produced more confusing and awe inspiring magic than she had ever seen, even from the magicians on her own home. There was no use in going back to the ship now, if she wanted to survive whatever in the Gods name was going on, he was her best bet. The man with the mad eyes. She hoped her trust was not misplaced, and instead tried to think on the brighter side. If she made it out alive the tale would likely be one that she didn't forget in a hurry and one that would be regaled by the fireside for many years to come, by both herself and others. Alvida had learned by now, questions were of no use. Instead she simply nodded her head toward Vereshin and braced herself for the eccentric sorcerer to do his work.

 

[Vereshin]

With his pen still in his hand, Vereshin leaned on the side of the bench and watched the woman keenly, her features stoic as she revealed that she had never fought in any of the Confederacy's battles. She accepted his compliment with her grace, her voice clearly baring traces of an accent which she had not yet lost. Along with her stiff basic and hardened expression, Vereshin found charm in her modesty, which was only complimented by her obedience. His opinion of the woman was heightened all the more when she asked about his magic, which was enough to make Vereshin kind to anybody. Clicking his pen, he slid it into his satchel, along with his notebook and slung it over his shoulder, his eyes growing wide with joy as Alvida began to talk about her own skills with the arcane.

"I'm pretty good at it." Vereshin said, in a tone that was almost sarcastic to emphasize the understatement of his words. He nodded, his mouth stretched out into a wide grin which revealed his pitch black teeth. A raise of one of his severe eyebrows accompanied the smile when Alvida mentioned her ancestors, to which Vereshin smirked. "Alvida, one does not make progress based on the teachings of the past." Was all he said, waving a finger in the air as he shook away the fondness she held for her ancestors. While he had no doubt that they had been skilled, they were primitive in comparison to the modern fields of esoteric science, which he encouraged the young woman to focus on if she wished to further he skills in magic.

"You would do better to focus on the teachings of now, rather than those which have long passed relevance." Vereshin said with a smile. He did not know whether or not Alvida truly desired to expand her knowledge, or if she simply wanted to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors, but he left the offer open just in case. When she asked if the Sith Empire was a different alliance to the Confederacy, he simply nodded, wondering if any of the Sith he had known remembered him before his disappearance, or if his past self was still pottering about in their ranks, completely unaware that he would one day be pushed into a black hole by a little girl. "The Sith Empire is a different alliance, yes, they are very far away." He said, staring up at the sky as he remembered his home.

"I suppose the Confederacy will expect me to join their ranks if I am to find any work here." Vereshin said with a sigh. Alvida had yet to fight for the Confederacy in any battle, so that made two of them, along with Vereshin, who had also yet to prove himself as a member of the Knights Obsidian. "I need the money to fund my research." He mused aloud. As he spoke, he looked down, feeling somewhat forlorn about his place in the galaxy, or lack thereof.

Before Vereshin could speak again, his eyes were pulled towards the figure emerging from the trees. She looked exactly like Alvida, an exact copy of her in time, having come to practice her combat forms as she had done only an hour ago. When he grabbed Alvida's hand, he watched her wince from the effect of the warp in time, as though it was twisting her to a different level than what he could see. As they ran, he looked over his shoulder and saw his past self walking up the road in the opposite direction, thankfully in time for them to make their way through the trees and onto the sand. Thunder rolled through the clouds above and the leaves around them surged with the wind, throwing the hems of Vereshin's long, black coat into a frenzy. With Alvida's hand in his own, he lead her onto the beach where Madalena had rescued him only days ago.

When he looked up, he saw not the sun, but a perfect black sphere in it's place. Alvida's mouth hung open in disbelief at the sight and she turned around to face him, seemingly confused and angry about the situation. With a sigh, Vereshin released his grip on her hand and nodded.

"Yes, I did this." He said forwardly, his tone dropping. Beside him, Alvida shook her hands frantically as she tried to form some semblance of understanding about the situation, which must have been especially unnerving to somebody who did not know what was going on. Turning to face her, Vereshin lightly wrapped his hand around her own to stop it from shaking."I was sucked into a black hole and when I came out, I ended up in the past." He said, releasing his grip on Alvida's hand. He looked at her sternly, his green eyes glowing and the wind blowing around the hems of his coat as he thought about the best way to explain what was happening. "That's why you saw another you and another me, because we are in the past." He gave Alvida a succinct explanation, before looking to the light house.

"Come on, let's hide in this lighthouse, I'll explain more once we're inside." Vereshin said, slightly forlornly. He knew she must have been confused and regretted that he could not make her understand in one go, but they needed to make sure they were both safe first, before he got into the details of what was happening. Tugging Alvida's arm, he motioned over to the lighthouse and ran across the beach towards the door.

The door was locked, which was no problem for Vereshin, who took Alvida's hand and pressed his palm against the door. The mass dissipated beneath his touch and he phased straight through, pulling Alvida along with him. Inside, he was met with the smell of rust and the salt from the sea, making him think that the lighthouse had not been used in years. He released Alvida's hand and brushed his own hands together with a sigh, letting his shoulders slump as he relaxed his focus for the moment. Walking ahead, he arrived at the foot of the stairs and turned around to face Alvida, giving her a slight nod and gesturing for her to follow him. He walked up the stairs, which round around the lighthouse and lead to the lookout at the very top, where Vereshin pushed open a rusty door.

"I am sorry to sweep you up in all this, truly I did not mean for it to affect anybody." Vereshin said with a sigh. He turned around and looked at Alvida as she stood in the doorway, his brow creased with regret. A pause followed and he looked around for a place to sit down, then settled on the floor. Flipping his coat out from beneath him, he sat on the floor and rested his hand on his knee, then took off his satchel and placed it aside. Looking up at Alvida, he recalled her question about reference frames and opted to answer. "A frame of reference is a set of coordinates which pinpoints an event in time, so my frame of reference was moved backwards, taking me to the past." He explained, squaring off his hands involuntarily to convey a slide being shifted backwards in time.

[member="Alvida Osulf"]

 

[Alvida Osulf]

[member=Vereshin]​

​

This man is blessed with magic you will never understand.​

Despite the fact that his hand on hers was meant to be a comforting gesture, Alvida couldn't seem to find the willpower to stop the trembling that made a home in her muscles. His lime green eyes were, thus far, the only thing that remained a constant, even as he spoke about the whole reason why he was here. Alvida assumed that his tone was meant to be comforting, but she found nothing of the sort in it. Instead she could only think of how he had managed to anger the Gods so. Anger them so much that they turned the sun and the moon pitch black? Nothing she could think of was worthy of such a punishment, but maybe he deserved it? Something he said caught her attention and held it for longer than she would have assumed possible. 'How can we be in the past?!' It seemed her voice was lost to the wind as Vereshin dived down the sandy hill. There was little chance to argue, so Alvida simply followed.

Arriving at the lighthouse door had taken longer than the young wolf expected. The sand under her feet was soft and squishy, she found no purchase as she tried to shift her weight through it. She was more than grateful for the crumbling stone steps that lead up to the lighthouse door. For a brief moment, as her companion tested out the locked door, Alvida thought that they would have to break it down with something. Perhaps one of her axes? He was already making his own places before she could even reach out to offer him the silver blade. It happened in the blink of a eye. One moment they were standing outside in the torrent of wind and rain that whipped her clothing across her skin, the next minute she was standing in the centre of a circular room. The young wolf looked befuddled and confused, and said nothing of the fact that the door behind them remained in tact, nor about the fact that they had somehow managed to travel through the wood itself. Many strange and curious things were happening today, if she started to question all of them now they would never escape.

After a moment or two to collect herself, and to make sure that no vital organs had been left behind in the door, Alvida cast her sights on the interior of the lighthouse. The circular room was crafted from thick concrete walls that were already falling apart with age. Each passing second, and with every thunderous rumble of the storm overhead, a torrent of dust and debris from the cracks in the crumbling walls was thrown violently into the air. The smell of damp and salt wafted through the open floor boards coupled with a taste of rusted metal in the air, almost as if the ocean was steadily working on claiming back its territory. A mottled, rotting wooden floor was the only thing preventing them from tumbling down into the cellars below. All in all it wasn't the safest place to be in the middle of a storm. Alvida could have sworn she saw the towering building swaying with each aggressive gust of wind. The ancient building, coupled with how they had managed to get into it, left the young wolf lost for words. So lost that she hardly noticed her companion standing at the foot of the stairs. Only when his pale hand cut through the palpable atmosphere did Alvida come round from her confused daze.

Alvida couldn't tell if she was angry at him, or angry at the slowly dawning realisation that they might not make it out alive. 'You are sorry?! It is a bit too late for sorry now.' Her voice perhaps came out a little louder than she had expected it too, but fear can often present itself as anger in tense situations. At least he had the decency to look ashamed for what he had done. The storms and the thing that he kept referring to as a black hole were likely punishments from the Gods for messing with something only they had the right to control. With that thought Alvida decided to soften her expression. If the Gods really were punishing this man then that would be enough, she had no right to further his pain. At the end of his sentence Alvida shut her eyes tight, shaking the wild golden curls that lay atop her head. She didn't understand. The language barrier was a little to great for words like coordinates and black holes and references. The young wolf only had enough knowledge of the complicated language to see her through a basic conversation. 'I do not understand these words.' She paused to speak a rapid sentence in a beautifully formed foreign language.

'How do you say...' Her hand flapped in the air for a few moments, motioning with a gesture that didn't seem to make any sense. After a few moments of acting out her meaning wildly, a look of pure delight crossed her face. There was nothing more satisfying than remembering a word you were sure you had forgotten. '....draw! Can you draw it? I will understand better.' The young wolf watched as her companion flopped down onto the floor, followed by a cloud of ancient dust that turned the air sour and bleak. Alvida, still remaining at the top of the stairs, was cautious about joining him. So far this man had sent her into the past, dragged her body through a door, and now confused her with words that she was sure she'd never grasp. Everything in her body was screaming to turn and run back downstairs, through the locked door and out into the stormy night, but her sensible side said differently. Even the voices were inclined to agree with it for the meanwhile, something that rarely ever happened. So it was that the little wolf made her way slowly across the creaking wood to join him on the floor.

 

[Vereshin]

Vereshin hung his head at Alvida's question, regretting that he could not explain things fully to her until they found some place to hide from their past selves. They would be here soon and Vereshin quickly looked at his watch, which told him the amount of time that had been lost in the warp. With a reassuring smile, he gave Alvida's arm a tug and ushered her over the sand. When they arrived at the lighthouse, he grabbed her wrist and effortlessly phased through the door, only to stop and exchange a glance with the young woman, who stared at him in disbelief. Stifling a small chuckle, Vereshin waved a hand over to the staircase and urged her to follow him, the smile on his face ever reassuring her that he had every thing under control, at least, to a certain extent.

While the lighthouse was not entirely a safe place for taking cover from a storm, it would provide an adequate obstacle in the passage of time of both Alvida and Vereshin's past selves, who would spend the next hour in the park, just as they had done before. Locking the door would be of no use, as Vereshin knew that his past self would simply phase through the door as he had done, so he would just have to cast his first mark and leave before they even noticed. Maintaining his balance as he walked up the old stairs, he looked over his shoulder to see if Alvida was following him and lead her into the circular room at the top of the lighthouse, where he stretched out his arms and sighed, then slumped his satchel down on the wooden floor. When he apologized for sweeping Alvida up in his relativistic mess, she refused it sternly, her eyes wide with concern.

Vereshin stared Alvida back, his eyes narrowing. Straightening his posture, he stood above her and glared, having discarded the soft, reassuring expression he had worn before. In truth, he had only told her that he was sorry to be polite, but really did not care about what happened to her, only that rectifying his own passage of time meant doing the same for her as well, as they had both been dragged backwards in the same reference frame.

"Well I'm not sorry, you just happened to get in my way when I was trying to correct my passage of time, so now I have to do the same for both of us." The time travelling sorcerer said coldly, his hands in his pockets.

There was a pause, before Vereshin tried to explain to Alvida what a reference frame was. By the sounds of it, that was only frustrating her even more, Vereshin's description having fallen on deaf ears. As she stuttered, struggling to piece together the terms, Vereshin quickly realized that basic was not her first language and she most likely had only just started to learn it, which caused his features to soften. A paused followed, filled by Vereshin's breath as he sighed and thought about a way he could explain the situation more clearly to Alvida. When she asked him to draw something for her, his eyes lit up and he raised a finger in the air with the arrival of an idea, before darting over to the wall and diving into his satchel.

"Ah!" Vereshin gasped, shuffling around in his satchel for his notebook and pen. There was very little in the satchel, mostly pens, cigarettes, a light, a few pendulums and his pocket watch, but he found a pen which worked in no space of time and sat down in the middle of the room, then reached out and invited Alvida to do the same.

Opening his notebook on his lap, Vereshin muttered equations beneath his breath as he turned to the last page of formula he had been working on. He scrolled down the page with the pen and looked for one which could accurately explain what was happening to Alvida, then stopped on the function which he had been struggling to derive. Tapping his pen against the page, he waved a hand and ushered her over to sit down in front of him, the splayed the notebook on the ground between them, the equation having been drawn out function from function. He tapped his pen against the constant representing his position in the past, which could not be changed, as well as value he had obtained as a result of his position changing across the course of time, which was the input of his first function. Turning the notebook around, he gave Alvida a moment to look for herself.

"Alright, see this letter here is my position in the past, you can think of that as the other me you saw just now." Vereshin said, pointing to the constant with his pen. "Where I was in the past will always remain the same, so it's value doesn't change." He said, then waved the pen over the related function, which he had enclosed in brackets beside the constant, it's input value being the change in his position in time since travelling to the past. "Now this is where I traveled back in time, not the past me, but the real me, the one you're speaking to right now, this little sum here describes my change in position as I was moved backwards in time." Vereshin spoke slowly, giving Alvida a change to absorb what he was saying. The change in value represented the coordinates of his reference frame being slowed down, which he showed Alvida with the input of his function.

Running his pen across the page, Vereshin traced the input, from which he had obtained the point at which his self in the present had met with his self in the past. From there, he was struggling to derive the coordinates for his current position, relative to his past self. He had traveled to the past, but his prior self already occupied that reference frame, meaning that his own coordinates had been lost. Groaning slightly, he tapped his pen against the output, which tormented him with it's ambiguity.

"This is the point in time at which I came into contact with my past self, but I'm struggling to differentiate it." Vereshin said, leaning back on the floor. He reached around and scratched his head with the end of his pen, arching over uncomfortably as he looked at the pesky function from all different angles. "Since my past self already occupies a frame of reference, there's no way of telling what my current coordinates are, so that would be my derivative." He said, pointing to the output value of the function, which was currently without a known derivative. By differentiating the point in time where his present self bypassed his self in the past, he could determine his current spacial coordinates, which would be the first step towards rectifying it with a spell.

"Pesky things, derivatives, I have a love/hate relationship with them myself." The Force physicist said, reclining on the floor. He stretched out one leg and leaned on he floor with his elbow, fiddling with the end of the pen. "Fascinating to study, but a pain in the arse when you're trying to find one for yourself." Vereshin chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact that he had most likely lost Alvida the moment he had shown her the mathematics. When he looked up, he could see that was strained, as though she was battling against some kind of internal pain which he could not see from the outside. Creasing his brow, Vereshin tilted his head and eyed her from an angle.

"Are you alright, my dear?" He asked, pausing with the pen between his fingers. At least, neither of them were presently alright, as the past was threatening to override them, but it appeared to be affecting Alvida on a deeper level than himself.

[member="Alvida Osulf"]

 

[Alvida Osulf]

[member=Vereshin]​

​

How will you ever say goodbye to those you love?​

'Well, you should be sorry! You are the one who has gotten in my way. All I wanted to do was practice throwing my axes! Who in their right mind messes with time?!' The young wolf stomped her foot into the rotting wood floor boards, causing a cascade of dust and debris to flit through the air as it caught the wind. 'You have angered the gods and dragged me into it at the same time! Who in Fadirin's name just... travels through the past and the future like that? It is not ours to play with, the paths we walk are already set. Nobody should ever mess with what we do not fully understand.' Before the stranger could comment on how well he did understand the situation, her pale arms gestured about wildly to the situation they were in. 'Turning the sun black and making two of us is not understanding the forces you mess with.' A shade of pink had spread over her pale face at the cheek of the man before her.

A steadying breath left her lungs as he fumbled in his pockets. There was no point in getting mad now. For once, even the voices concurred. Despite their desire to see her harm no matter where they went, this time they agreed. Nothing she could do would rescue them from the impending doom of a black sun or the wrath of the gods for a man who had wronged them, nothing save for the man himself. She was stuck with him whether she liked it or not, might as well make the time fly by somewhat peacefully. At his gesture to sit she did just that, flopping down heavily onto the dust covered floor. Her hand wafted away the cloud of dirt that puffed up with her heavy movements. Heavy green eyes watched with intrigue as he began to take out things from his satchel, one after the other. Without even meaning too her curious hands reached out for one of the pens he had placed on the floor.

She twisted it slowly between her fingers, eyes unsure of exactly what she was seeing. A lot of simple things that most people took for granted, Alvida had never even had the pleasure of seeing. She was a child of the forest and a daughter of nature, technology in even the most simplest of forms passed her by most often than not. Her eyes remained fixed on the strange twig that he held dear enough to carry around with him until he began to talk. The moment the gravely words left his lips Alvida put the pen down and lent forward to glance at what he was doing. It was a lot easier to understand where he was coming from using a visual representation, but the maths was still lost on her. The visual was enough to at least give her an inkling of the situation. And now she had some idea of what was going on, she didn't really need to know the nuances of it.

As he ran the strange technology across the page, Alvida's brow lofted slowly. Some part of her wanted to trust that he knew what he was doing, but the voices and the rest of her were already arguing that he really didn't. He seemed as confused as her by the complexities of it, like he had done something he wasn't really sure would work in the first place. 'So, how do you work these de-re-vi-tives out?' The word tripped her up, so much so that she had to sound it out from memory. Over the course of the evening she had learned many new words, many that would probably never have a definition placed to them. At least not while they were together. 'Is that what will fix the problem we are having?' Alvida knew it wouldn't be as simple as finding their position on a map. He didn't need physical coordinates, he needed something way beyond her know how.

Thin alabaster fingers worked their way through corn silk tangles. It seemed even stranger that he was so relaxed about it all. 'How can you sit like this when we are in so much trouble?' The young wolf questioned, coupling it with a confused expression on her face. Nothing about the situation was funny, nothing about it made her want to laugh or smile the way he was smiling. Perhaps he had been in this situation before and she was massively over estimating the seriousness of it, but in the moment all she could do was think about what she would lose if it was. Her home, her world, her lover, her family... everything gone in the blink of an eye. Nobody would know where she was or what had happened to her, or how to find her body so that she might return to the place the Gods feast. The thoughts were so depressing she could feel the spike of tears forming in her sea-foam eyes.

'Alright?' The young wolf scoffed loudly at the question, but there was a hidden fear behind her words. Even through the brave face she wore, her sorrow was pitifully obvious in her broken words and in her teary eyes. Perhaps he was meant to calm her nerves with it, or perhaps he was genuinely curious, but the question was laughable. How could she be alright when the world was falling apart around them? How could she be okay knowing that the goodbye she had shared with her family before leaving would be the last one she ever got to say? How could she be okay when she knew she would never get to see Asher's face again? In one swift motion the golden haired woman tucked her legs up close to her chest and formed a sorrowful look on her face. It was a movement filled with defensiveness, filled with something akin to sorrow, but most of all it was filled with fear. 'I do not know if I am alright.' Her arms came to cross over her chest, tight enough to make her feel like something was picking up the slack of her mind and holding her together. 'Will we make it out alive? Or will our past selves rub out our real selves? What will change if it does?'

 

[Vereshin]

The expression on Vereshin's face gradually hardened as Alvida cursed him out. He stared her down, his eyes narrowing at the warrior who had been unwillingly swept up in his nonsense. As she shouted, he nonchalantly slung off his satchel and threw it aside, then lit another cigarette, inhaling casually in front of Alvida, who scolded him for his crimes against space and time. He leaned against the wall, rolling his eyes at the tirade of accusations she was throwing at him, all of which he had heard before. "Don't get into time manipulation, Vereshin, it's dangerous!" He recalled his Sith Master saying to him all those years ago, a warning which he had never heeded. When Alvida asked him who in their right mind messed with time, Vereshin cocked his head to the side and simply chuckled, the cigarette poised rakishly between his fingers.

"Nobody, but I'm not in my right mind." He said, stifling a bout of laughter. With a wink, he smiled at Alvida, the ends of his thin mouth kinking upward as he blew smoke into the air.

Vereshin had been relatively calm about her outburst, until she accused him of angering her gods, to which the smile on his face dropped into a disapproving glare. He could handle being called an affront to nature and a lunatic, but when she brought her so-called deities into the matter, that's when he got mad. Swiping the cigarette from his mouth, he took a step forward and stormed up to her, smoke escaping from between his lips as he clenched his teeth. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him, his glowing, green eyes looking deeply into her own as he repressed the urge to strike her for saying such foolish things. With the cigarette between his fingers, he contained himself and let her go, then allowed for a moment of pause between them as he stared her down.

"Alright, listen girl, I may have broken the laws of physics as we understand them and outright disrupted the continuity of reality, of that I am guilty." Vereshin said, his voice stern and forward. The only thing he had upset was nature itself, not some living entity this woman claimed to believe in and if he was going to get them both out of this, he could not tolerate her primitive standpoint. "But I have not angered any gods you speak of, because there are none." The Force physicist said coldly. The dust on the floor settled as Alvida ceased stomping her feet, her resolute having calmed as Vereshin lashed back with a retort of his own. "There is no such thing as the gods." With that, Vereshin pointed towards the floor to hammer in his point, allowing for a moment of pause as Alvida listened to what he was saying.

Alvida was right about one thing, that neither Vereshin or herself understood the forces they were dealing with. While Vereshin had succeeded in travelling through time, he had not been prepared for the consequences of such a feat and was still figuring out a way to rectify the damage he had caused to his own position in time. To that, he hung his head and sighed, knowing full well that it did not matter if Alvida believed it was the anger of the Gods or not, it was the past threatening to override them and they would pay for it with their lives if it was not circumvented. A pause followed and Vereshin let his shoulders relax, regretting that he would have to get along with this girl if they were going to get out of this mess.

"You're right about that, I did manage to travel through time, but it was an accident, a little girl steered my ship into a black hole." Vereshin said and turned around to face his satchel, which he delved into for his notebook and pen. Once he found them, he walked to the center of the room and sat down, then opened the notebook between Alvida and himself. He noticed how curiously she was looking at the pen, as though she had never seen one before, to which he simply chuckled and beckoned her over with a nod of his head. "Nothing could have prepared me for what would happen once I got out, and I'm still working on a way to fix it." He said and opened the notebook to the last equation he had been working on.

"Come here, I'll show you." Vereshin said, running his pen across the page as he looked for a good place to start explaining the problem. When Alvida walked over, he shifted on the floor and crossed his legs, pulling the hems of his coat out from underneath him.

As Vereshin went through the equation he was trying to solve, he watched Alvida's brow furrow as she tried to understand what he was talking about. She was doing better than he had expected and did not seem overly frustrated with the intricate details he was expressing. When he came to the function he was struggling to derive, she asked him how he was going to do so, drawing out the word "derivative" as she struggled to pronounce it, to which Vereshin smiled. Reclining on the floor, he stretched out a leg and leaned on his side, tapping his pen against the misbehaving function as he did so, his brain wracked for the answer.

"In order to find the derivative, I need to realign my past self with the concurrent rate at which I proceed through time." Vereshin said matter-of-factly, pointing to the function of his past as it reoccurred. By realigning it with his present, he could differentiate the two and establish a set of coordinates for his true self, which would ultimately be the derivative. Alvida asked if that would solve the problem and Vereshin nodded, clicking his pen as he thought. "Yes, that will differentiate our past from our present and move our past selves back to where they should be." He said with a further nod. With a click, he put the lid on his pen and slid it back into his coat, then closed his notebook and shoved it back into his satchel.

As he stood, Alvida lamented about how they were just sitting around and not doing anything to solve the problem, when their past selves would be arriving soon. She was right to be concerned, but she had asked Vereshin to draw the problem for her so she could understand it, which he had done and now they were ready to cast their first mark to trap the past. Brushing the dust off the back of his coat and trousers, he reached into the satchel and grabbed two items which he carried with him at all times, his pendulum and his pocket watch. He unraveled the string and let the metal bob lope from side to side, all the while glancing up at Alvida with a raised eyebrow.

"You wanted me to draw you a picture, so I did." Tilting his head to the side, Vereshin held a finger against the string of the pendulum to increase it's speed, trying to find a good angle on which to cast his spell. "Don't fret, I'll cast a mark here, it'll trap the past versions of ourselves and allow us to realign them from a safe distance." With a smile, he spoke reassuringly and walked to the center of the room, the pendulum loping between his fingers.

Before Vereshin prepared to cast his spell, he noticed Alvida becoming more and more distressed by the seconds and asked her if she was alright, to which she scoffed. She was trying to be brave about the whole situation, but beneath her glassy eyes, he could tell that it was all becoming too confronting for her and he walked forward and wrapped his hand around her own. Withdrawing a sigh, the time travelling sorcerer looked up and smiled, baring his unnerving black teeth in the process. Alvida was right to be upset, but to Vereshin, it was just a nuisance he deal with every day as a result of travelling to the past. Holding her hand, he looked at the floor and smiled, all the while listening for any sound of footsteps.

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Vereshin said, his tone genuine. A pause followed as he considered her next question, which he truly did not have a direct answer for, but allowing his past to override his present in order to find out what happened was not something he intended to do. He may have been mad, but he still valued his life and would protect it if it was within his capability. "Then our past will proceed as the effective present." He said, only assuming what would happen. He released Alvida's hand, then backed away into the center of the room and let the pendulum swing.

"Say Alvida, do you know any Force powers?" He asked, wondering if she might be able to assist. He reached into his pocket with his other hand and found his watch, clicked the stopper and let it keep the current time while he angled the pendulum correctly.

[member="Alvida Osulf"]