Sadie Kane (houseoflife) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2014-08-13 21:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, dr. stephen strange (animated), illyana rasputina / magik, sadie kane |
Who: Sadie Kane, Illyana Rasputina, and Stephen Strange
When:Backdated to early afternoon August 6th
Where: House of Life
What: The Sorceror Supremes have Strange's a mess to clean up. Or, y'know, destroy the world trying. (In case anyone was wondering how the whole necronomicon thing was fixed? Mostly bickering)
That soulsword stung, perhaps his ego as much as anything else since it didn't technically rend flesh. Stephen Strange ignored the seared wounds as he ignored the toaster back in his lap attempting to lay bread on the open pages of the Book of the Vishanti spread out upon pillows and awash in the bright light of the Eye of Agamotto. Dr. Strange was Sorcerer Supreme, and that still meant something, but he was not Sorcerer Supreme of this Earth.
He had come across the Necronomicon by chance at a garage sale. It was odd someone would be selling their book of ultimate and indestructible evil bound with flesh flayed from still living humans and inked in their ichor. But he had acquired it for 25 dollars. And he was glad at that. Because the book corrupted--even the pure. He taken it to sequester away at first, but found himself drawn to its study. Its translation, and its mystery. First in comparison to his Book of the Vishanti then to exclusion. Strange was intoxicated by the book as its celebrants were by its artefacts.
He knew he could not destroy it, even were it in his power, it was not in his will. But as much as he said he could contain it, perhaps that drive was likewise depleting. After all, his two apprentices had breached its defenses. So they would approach it as a group now. And probably destroy the world in the process.
"I had thought of banishing it all to another realm. But this dimension's barriers are so solid." He spoke absently and to no one in particular.
Illyana had "holstered" the Soulsword for the time being in its extra-dimensional holding place, but she kept eyeing Strange like she'd totally strike him with it again if he looked like his mind was going woo-woo again. It's not that she thought she'd do any better with it alone than he had-- after all, just looking at its worlds and being exposed to that icky dimension had started calling out her own demonic side. But she thought that unlike him, she recognized that danger and wasn't going to underestimate its influence.
There was way more bad stuff that could come of it than just some cephalopod obsession, after all. People finally seemed to be taking that more seriously now that things were worsening. But the source of it needed dealing with or those things wouldn't stop.
"You didn't think to ask us what we could do to help, huh?" she asked. Cue more glaring. Sure, he hadn't actually been talking to her, but she wasn't going to let him forget that Sadie and Illyana were there now and they weren't letting this go. Her almost-destroying-the-world days were behind her, right?
“And we’re not just going to give it to some other realm to deal with.” Sadie added pointedly. The book Strange had found absolutely reeked of chaos magic. She half expected Apophis to rise up out of it and start his whole world destroying mojo all over this world. But Apophis wasn’t the only creator of chaos, and whatever funny named thing it was that this book could bring forth she was not about to let it fall into the hands of someone who might hurt other people.
Illyana definitely had a point that Strange should have brought them in sooner. Why was he even teaching them if he wasn’t going to actually rely on them when he needed to? Granted Strange might see some potential in them but he seemed to be just as blind as any other adult when it came to them. Sadie and Illyana weren’t just kids and for some stupid reason Sadie had thought Strange had known that. While the other adults in her life seemed to think that Sadie was just someone to look after Strange actually had been letting her do things, letting her magic grow in a place without a Duat. But of course that was all proven to be a lie because he couldn’t bother to include them when it would have actually helped.
“Look, we’ve got all three of us now. That’s way more power than just one of us would have. I mean, could we destroy it?” Sadie wasn’t even sure if destroying it would be a good idea. The stuff bound to this book, if it wasn’t there could it just get out?
Strange rested a finger against his lips in a pensive gesture, ignoring any conversations about what should or ought or needed to be done, because while there may have been two more powerful mages investigating the Tome, they still knew nothing more than they had the day before. The Necronomicon, in its brief stay on Earth 19999.5 had seduced mages just as strong as any of them, or been below notice--perhaps out of fear.
But destruction was no option. Strange had combed his repertoire of spells for just such an occasion, trying everything short of releasing the demon contained within his Eye, but he would rather battle the aspect of Nyarlathotep again than Dormammu, so the option was tabled. "There remain some items of power infinitely tied to their creation. We could no more destroy the Darkhold or the Book of the Vishanti if we had a legion of mages."
"Okay, maybe we can't destroy it," Illyana said, "but we could at least weaken and contain it instead of just poking it for awhile. And I've obviously been using it quite a bit lately-- but my Soulsword. It's definitely powerful. So what's your idea, Strange?" Normally she'd address him to his face as Dr. Strange but… well, feeling a bit petty after how he'd shut them out.
Okay so they couldn’t just kill it with fire. That would have been way too easy, clearly. And if there was anything Sadie had learned it was that grown ups always made their problems way too complicated. Still destroying something wasn’t the only way to stop evil. “So if we can’t destroy it, we could bind it maybe? It has something bound to it, I guess narcolept would kinda count as a soul? Would something like this have a shadow?”
"Nyarlathotep" Strange managed to not even sigh as he answered. "is an avatar of one of the Old Ones."
"Old Ones, Elder Gods, Ancient Evil Tentacled Things..." Illyana was getting pretty damn impatient, really. "Which one is it this time?"
"Nyarlathotep."
“Well duh he’s old. He was like a million year old mummy. So that isn’t helpful information.” Sadie rolled her eyes. Sure it was probably more than that but demons were demons and gods were gods and they were all pretty annoying.
"The Old Ones." There was the sigh that had been held in all this time. "--are a race of some say gods, some say demons, some even say extraterrestrials, the accounts differ. And well, truth be told, most historians on the subject go mad and kill themselves before they get too far into the topic. But they pre-exist the universe as we know it, and are representative as more the destructive aspect of the Universe."
"Sounds like Apophis." The deity reclining in a sunbeam by the window didn't look up from her catnip mouse.
“It really kinda does. And I totally kicked his butt with the whole shadow thing. So that could totally work, right?” It was something and it was better than just dumping it on another dimension. “If we could bind its shadow, then lock away the book and the two were kept apart from each other then no one can use them.”
"I wonder what we could separate from it..." Illyana got muse-y on that. "I mean, I don't know about getting a shadow from a book-- if your magic can do that, great-- but maybe I could tear off some essence of its magic with the Soulsword and you could bind that." She was totally thinking in terms of herself and Sadie, not Strange, since he hadn't done such a great job so far.
"I had been aiming for containment myself, but you can see how strong the Book's will upon this world is. Still. It might be possible to sever that, as you did with Apophis." In an atypical moment, Strange removed his right glove. The scarred flesh of his hand made them seem more monstrous and clawed than mortal. There was a tremor and a force to them as he ran his fingers almost affectionately up the spine of the book open before him. He moved his left hand in a gesture, that scattered pages to the one he wished. Rituals of Binding.
"What would you need to attempt it?" The toaster next to him snatched the glove.
“I’d need an idol. A doll or statue to bind the shadow to.” It had been a while since she had attempted it but she did have wax in her bag. Still that was too breakable, they would want something more permanent. If a wax shabti was destroyed it was no big deal but binding an evil shadow was a bit different. Especially since this couldn’t be destroyed, not even fake destroyed like Apophis was. “I have the incantation memorized.”
Strange nodded, an absent gesture and reached down to take his glove back from the toaster which vacated his lap to visit its creator, denying him his gauntlet. Strange's mustache twitched in vexation. "Kyttora." he demanded of the Shabti which seemed surprised by the old name. He held out his mangled hand.
"Fetch the idol from the ossuary." The toaster pranced, glove and all, over to the portal adjoining the House of Life and the Sanctum. It tried at the severed door several times to no avail and then vanished.
“Of course you have idols just hanging out.” Sadie sighed but at least it solves one problem. “Okay, now where are we going to put the shadow and where are we going to put the book?”
"Definitely not right back where they were," Illyana said. She was surprised that Strange had showed his hand (so literally), but not bothered by the appearance of it. She'd seen plenty worse. "And definitely not at the book's full strength, so… is it better to keep that shadow intact as one? Is it possible to divide up the book in some way? I mean, I know it's a stupid cliche, 'oh we'll scatter the pieces and that'll never turn into a problem again', but we don't have our usual means here sooo… Not like we could drag it off somewhere we know is safe. We're totally stuck here."
"I would suggest the bottom of the ocean, but in this case…." The exposed hand rested atop the Book of the Vishanti. "A pocket dimension is the best bet. We could move it to the portcullis tied to the Pinkberry." Strange still hadn't quite gotten over his feud with the smoothie shop that had stolen his address up until December of last year. "But that is what the Sanctum exists as, need I remind."
"Yeah, and you kept that thing here and look what it did. So any pocket dimensions are going to be of Sadie's making. Because. Or I'm going to teleport it somewhere." So much distrust right now, really. Illyana wasn't being very mature about it but… reasons. "What exactly is this idol Toasty's bringing?"
"By the rolling hills of the lavender plains, that would be a great idea." Strange had no time for a teenage tantrum while dealing with a dread book. "Then anyone could stumble across it. Perhaps we could cut out the middle man and mail it to a psychiatric ward?"
"It should be more stable separated in essence. Though it is not defenseless. Attacking it is how Nyarlathotep's aspect manifested. We can expect something similar when we try."
“You’re not helping, Strange!” Sadie shouted, glaring at him. They didn’t have all that much time before whatever the people that were infected had pretty terrible things happen to them. Chaos spread and infected everything around it and this world was being thrown entirely out of balance. “You put it in a pocket dimension and it still leaked here. So don’t act like your idea was all that hot. If its shadow is separated then it will be weaker. So we just need to figure out two places to hide each of these things. Because clearly none of us would be good guardians if it made you go all crazy.”
"What I had in mind--" Illyana had to resist glaring at Strange as much as she had been when they first confronted him. "-- Wasn't on Earth. I'm talking buried under Antarctica with a pocket around it. The core of Jupiter. Something extreme like that. Not teleporting it to some random populated spot! And yeah, I'm not saying I should be the guardian, no way. But we can deal with this. Stop fighting us on it and let us do it."
Strange's left hand curled on top of his right. And he rose his chin. The Eye of Agamotto turned to glare at the Lord of Limbo. "I'm not. I think Sadie's idea has merit, but I don't think there's a safe hiding place on this plane. Creatures can survive the antarctic or in space. We have them in Potts Tower and they exist as natives. This book calls to them as it does to us." Strange said.
"I think a pocket dimension is the only way to store it, and if it leaked through, it also contained an aspect of an Elder God. So I may have a better idea for binding." He lifted his hand from the book, and as if the universe possessed a dramatic timing, the toaster shabti popped back into the room carrying Strange's glove, and inside it a bone figure.
"Ostrichary!" The toaster exclaimed.
Illyana had been about to clarify that she didn't mean physically located in Jupiter, rather locating the pocket dimension out of that instead of the Pinkberry, but Toasty definitely changed the focus. She looked at the bone figure. She looked at Strange. She looked back at the bone figure. "Gee. That doesn't look at all like the obvious container for a thing like this… I mean, sorry, good work, Toasty!"
Strange shrugged like Kanye West but a Kanye West who gave even fewer fucks than the actual Kanye West. 'It is an idol that calls to the book. It will work as a lure."
Sadie didn’t exactly like the look of the figure Toasty had brought but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Especially when it came to weird, creepy old man gods. “Thank you, Toasty.” Sadie patted the toaster gently before taking the figure. “You’re always so helpful.”
Looking it over, she frowned as the words to the binding spell ran through her head. It had worked on Apophis, it could work on whatever this was. But it only solved about half of their problem. “What’s your idea then, Strange? Because we don’t exactly have a lot of time if the crazy octopus people are anything to go by.”
"Yeah, if ours are soooo bad, what's yours?" Illyana really hadn't shed what that dimension had done to her yet; she wasn't dropping that aggression towards him. All the more reason to move fast to deal with it. "Sadie, does your binding take that shadow out or does that gotta be done before you can bind it?"
Strange ignored Illyana. Whether or not she had reasons to be upset, letting it surface now was nothing but counter-productive to high level magical work which required emotional control. He instead took his glove back from the toaster shabti and covering his hand once more. It felt better that way. With his raiment in one piece and his flawed hands covered once more, he closed his eyes, falling silent as his hands moved with more force of mind than muscle. Four crimson bands materialized ensnaring the book.
His breath hitched and he thought to leave his body as the book's will struggled against his own and there was some bristling from the goddess in the corner of the room. But he would hold this, intoxicating as it was, as he had held Dormammu every day since that day. The Sorcerer Supreme spent a lot of time gazing into the Abyss. It was bound to gaze back.
Strange opened his eyes in a half-lidded and power-rapt gaze. "I can't say whether the book or the idol will exert the brunt of the Necronomicon's will. But we bind both. Separately and with a multi-signature seal. Temporarily until we understand the dynamic."
"In that time, we should find a mage who might not be taken back by the Tesseract to take one of the pieces. In case our protections are tied to our continued presence here."
While Strange worked his magic, Illyana worked on some slow breathing to get calmed down a little. Back off a bit. She knew where that could lead.
"I have allies in Alfheim and Nidavallir. Especially Alfheim. That could get it out of the Earthly plane and give it guardians who aren't going anywhere." Strange had been in Alfheim with her, sort of. Being Strange, he wasn't quite as involved. Not exactly building relationships, that one.
“Shadows can be hidden.” Sadie said quietly as she began to concentrate. But summoning a shadow actually wasn’t that hard. The book wasn’t Egyptian. It was old, certainly, but old didn’t mean that it guarded its secrets as well as it should from every possible influence. Holding the idol in both hands Sadie concentrated, casting the summoning spell.
A small slip of black began to dart around the floor, erupting from the book and trying to scurry away. But it wasn’t fast enough. Sadie immediately began the binding ritual, the hieroglyphs lighting up the air in bright gold as she made her way through the incantation. The shadow shivered before being sucked towards the idol as it scrambled to try and get away from the force of the spell. It was terrifying sometimes how easy it was to bind one of these, this was a backup of the soul after all. Not even Gods could stop it.
As the spell finished Sadie could feel the dark Chaos seeping through, radiating off the idol. She drew on what power she could, the empty hole that had once been Isis and for a moment it felt like her goddess was almost there, Sadie’s eyes flashing for just a moment to speckled opals before going back. “A protector from this world would be reasonable. But no one related to the tower is a mage or even has potential.” Sadie’s teeth grit, a strong aversion to this idol washing over her. While others were attracted something deep in Sadie’s bones wanted to banish it away as far as possible. “I can attempt to seal it with Ma’at as well, it would hold for some time.”
Strange absently nodded, "Or Asgard seems to guard many relics."
The essence of the book was not depleted simply by taking its shadow. Strange could feel its rage boiling underneath the crimson bands of Cyttorak, but its pull was reduced. He allowed his will to increase, manifesting more bands, almost like sheets wrapping around the tome and further binding it.
Something about those crimson Cyttorak bands was nagging something in the back of Illyana's head, but that was so not the priority right now. She could wonder why that reminded her of Piotr later. Strange having to use more of those bands really didn't look like a good sign. "Asgard I'm not so sure I'd put trust in since they were having those problems but… Okay, that is one pissed off book. I'm not the only one feeling it, right?"
She manifested her Soulsword on instinct, holding its hilt as she regarded the tome and the bands around it. "Have those worked on it before?"
"Well." Any explanation that began with well probably did not end in yes, sorcerous or no. "Not for terribly long, but the bands of Cyttorak in this case are largely preliminary." He kept at work wrapping the book without slowing. It would be appropriate to seal this sort of magic with blood, but the Book would probably like that.
Illyana stood closer to Strange's shoulder, and held her sword at the ready-- not in front of Strange's face or anything, but ready. "What is that it's saying?" It was talking, right? At least, she thought it was talking, not in English but in a demonic tongue that reminded her of Limbo's in its harshness. "Can you do that binding faster? Because it really feels like something's about to happen. I don't think it liked losing its shadow."
“It didn’t.” Sadie added before she went back to carefully laying down words of power, words of binding, containment, any that she could think of and a few that simply seemed to appear off the tip of her tongue. Each glowed in the air before wrapping itself around the idol as small beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. “If not Asgard, and not Earth, then where? They need a guardian.”
"Alfheim has mages, they have the skills, and they definitely owe me," Illyana said. "That's my vote, at least."
"For the idol or the book?" Strange looked away from the Necronomicon though he didn't dare let down his guard, as he turned through the pages of the Book of the Vishanti. "It would be so much easier if we could store this book in parts."
"The book, I meant… or at least, part of it, like I said. If we can't store it in parts, why can't we? Would dividing it explode the world or something?"
“The Idol will have less of a risk.” Sadie broke away from her spells for a moment. “After all it’s not like they can read it or anything, and I don’t think they’ll know any ancient egyptian.” But that still left the book, or possible parts of the book. “We need someone who isn’t corruptible. I can build shabti’s to guard, that’d help, but shabti’s can only do so much.”
"Incorruptible people don't exist." Maaaaybe Illyana was a bit cynical on that point.
Sadie gave Illyana a little bit of a glare, her eyes flickering for a moment from blue to opal and back from the strain of the spells. “Yeah I know that. But some are less corruptible than others. And with its energy split.” This was one of the many times she wished she wasn’t the only remnant of the House of Life in this world. There were places to hide things, places she knew of, people she could trust. Here it was anyone’s guess.
"Oh, well less corruptible, sure. And yeah, the more we can reduce what it's giving off..."
Strange answered the question that had been posed a minute prior, seemingly oblivious to the conversation about corruptibility. It didn't matter where the book went. The parts would call to one another, and they would call to those who sought them. Across time, across space, across sanity. From what Strange could tell, typically the best response to a Necronomicon like this was to give it to some other earth to deal with like an esoteric game of Hot Potato.
"We could divide it. If the avengers on the terrace are ready for a fight."
"I wonder how much of it's held together with actual book binding and how much is magical..." Illyana was eyeing up the book more now. "I'm sure I can break the magical bindings. Wouldn't be a bad thing to physically split it down the middle-- not along the spine, but really break it so nobody could have a partially intact section."
Since the Soulsword normally didn't have any physical impact, she started concentrating on willing it to have physical presence.