Xerean screams, punching the nearest tree with her bare hand. It shatters instantly, thrown to the World Border nearby and causing it to ripple intensely, but stay silent. No, borders don't always warble. Some do, but that's mostly just for dramatic effect. The real good ones are silent, because it says whoever made them chose quality over style. She looks at her hands, full of splinters she no longer feels, bloody and raw. Around her lies a mess of broken trees–some lay overturned, others with large lines in the ground as she'd dragged them to smash into more trees, others in piles of ash or dust. Scorch marks are everywhere too, among other things. She's been trying to release her anger on SOMETHING. Something hard and dense, but still moveable to some capacity. The monsters stay away from her now, either she's so close to her normal self they don't see her as an entity anymore, or they're smart and don't want to attack her for their own safety. She's disregarded going to see Grian, whom is undoubtedly recuperating from his own experience, which she doesn't want to hinder. Having your soul leave isn't a fun experience, she'd imagine. At least, she assumes that's what happened to him. Meanwhile, Scar seems to be almost flipping on and off like a switch. One moment she hopes maybe she can reach through to him, the next he's back to threatening to kill her. She suspects that's mostly due to the fact the man has not slept in two weeks. If it weren't for her Chaos magic or the semi-heightened threshold they all seem to have, he'd undoubtedly be dead.

Either way, as vehemently adamant as she is on helping him, she's beginning to think he might actually kill her, moreso than last time.

Oh, right, she's mad.

Not sad, as she'd originally thought. She's confused the two. Her sad is to tackle the problem(or run from it, but she can't run from it here, no matter what she does) and push away the feelings, getting rid of it before it can affect her, but so is her mad. She is under high stress in both cases, unidentifiable as to what specific issues she's grappling with, but still with a few pieces of the picture, enough to know what might've caused it. Right now, she's mad at whatever's happened to Scar. Not Scar himself, she doubts she'll ever be able to do that, but the influence of Chaos and whoever decided to take her and strip her of her abilities, make Scar suffer by gaining them, and essentially try to start war with her. She lifts a tree by raising her hand, then kicks it away, watching it crumble into little glass shards. That's a hazard, so she fixes it, making something random. The glass melts into a puddle, collects, then becomes a carving of some kind of...bear? It's bulky, built and shaped like one, but has thick quills on its back and backside of its front legs, an elongated snout, and air holes in its sides to breathe. Panting heavily, she looks at her hearts. She's taken 8 heart's damage, presently putting her at 14. She sighs and sits down, tucking her knees under her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs. The burn on her arm isn't entirely gone, it still throbs in the background. At least it's not following one of those cliché things where it only gets worse. She can minimize the damage, but unless she has Grian look at it, she doubts she alone will be able to get rid of it. Her body's reached a point where it refuses to let her cry, which does not bode well for the anger cooped up in her head. So she just sits there, trying to sort out her thoughts, and staring at Lizzie's house. Since she died, this has become the quietest part of the Overworld. She could have gone to the Nether, but she didn't think of that and now going to the Nether is a good idea. She stands up, shaking out her hands. She should probably remove the splinters, honestly, but that can happen later.

She decides to walk, instead going over to Joel's tower and climbing the ladder, mostly because she likes heights. It's part of why she likes flying so much, seeing so much below her, but the sky being endless and inviting around her, it's great. It's up here that she starts taking the splinters out of her hands, wincing and taking a few more hearts of damage in the process. After, she moves to sit with her legs dangling over the side of the platform. In the distance, she can see Grian flying, probably stretching his wings, having not used them in several weeks. "Thought I'd find you up here." She sighs, then motions for him to come sit beside her. Martyn doesn't sit at the edge, but he gets close. "What do you want? Answers?" She asks, letting her weight rest into her palms as she leans back a little bit. "Preferably. I feel like there's this big secret everyone else's in on." She looks sideways at him. "It's called 'Secret Life', isn't it?" She points out, getting a half eye roll. "I do guess you should know at least a little bit. I kinda owe it to you." She inhales, then swerves her body to face him. "I'm not...actually a person, let's start with that. That's pretty simple, right? But I'm not like a Hybrid, either." Martyn nods, so far this is going well. "Okay? Okay. So, growing on that, remember when I said I can warp reality? That was a very broad description of what I can do. I'm able to make and do whatever I want. Like, here." She takes a strand of grass that was on her clothes, shows it to him, then covers it in her hands, before opening it to reveal a little willow tree, fireflies lighting it up like tiny flecks of light. He watches it with interest, reaching out and lightly tapping it. "My race, people, or I suppose even species, we're known as Chaos Witches. We're beings of Chaos, but here's where it gets kinda hard to follow: we exist as creatures beyond reality. We travel worlds, we can do whatever we want, and cause chaos, as the name implies. And no, there's no Chaos Wizards, several people have already asked me so far. You still following?" Martyn actually laughs at the wizard comment. "Good to know, I absolutely would have asked that, too. I think I'm following so far. You're just...really powerful beings?" She makes a face. "I guess that does sum it up pretty well. We aren't alone, either, there's other beings out there that aren't of the same kind, but same likeness as us. There's some entities beyond the world you and I are existing in now, some who Watch, some who Listen, and I can't think of any way to make what we do sound cool and go well with that, so I'll say that we're those who cause Chaos." She says. "Are there a lot of you? How long do you live for?" She sets the little tree down. "There's...definitely a lot of us. We're a race, after all. Uh...we kinda live forever? There's some rules to that, we're not ALL-POWERFUL, though we like to claim otherwise, but if any of those requirements aren't met, we can exist infinitely." Martyn exhales heavily, eyebrows raised, which then draw down and close as he gets a new question. He's taking this pretty well. It took a while for some Hermits to get the concepts she had to give them, but he's keeping up surprisingly well. "So, what are some of these requirements?" He asks. "We exist with a certain level of power from the moment we come into being, and in order to actually die, that power must be removed, which would cause us to become mortal, and therefore fallible. It's honestly just the power of Chaos keeping us alive for so long, but we don't worry too much about that since not many being are strong enough to take that power from us. Again, there are some other entities or peoples with that ability, but we have a sort of truce where we realize we are equally capable of killing the other, and simply leave one another be." Martyn nods, not in the slightest seeming confused. "So I assume that I can't kill you and end you on Red, then? But then, how'd you die with me in the Void?" He asks. "Well. Uh. Funny thing, someone essentially trapped me here, and took some of my power. I'm getting it back, but I'm still weak enough to count as mortal." The man frowns a little. "Oh. That's...that's not good." He states, but she shrugs. "People have been trying to kill me for hundreds and thousands of years. I haven't died yet, I won't die here." She declares, much more confident than she feels. "Oh, right-how old are you, exactly?" She waves her hand. "I haven't kept track, but I think somewhere in the 16,000's range. I just say I'm 16, though, so it doesn't make me seem so weird. I'm already plenty weird enough." Martyn nods, pensive and attentive.

"You're taking this...surprisingly well. Even Grian had to take some time to understand me." Grian, being a Watcher, was made aware of her kind's existence, but not taught much in detail about them. It still took him a few days to process some things, such as the time issues her travels caused, hence her confusion about her age. "I've seen some strange things, too. Don't get me wrong, this is still pretty wild, but...it's not TOO weird." He explains. "Really?" She asks, impressed. "Yeah. You talked about 'those who Watch and those who Listen', and I've spoken to someone who said something similar. I'm not the expert on them or anything, but I have spoken to a few, I believe, on rare occasion. Not like we are, now, though. Usually just voices in my head." Xerean tilts her head. "Interesting." She says, flexing her hands. "Oh...what'd you do–sorry to take away from all that, but..." Martyn indicates to her knuckles, and she lifts them up again. "I punched some trees. I'm still bound to the laws of the Server, in the Code, so I have to abide by them...mostly. I still take damage, and it stays, which in turn affects my hearts." She answers. The worst of the damage was the brute force blows, so she has several spots either cut or rubbed raw as a result. "What was that for?" She glances down to Scar's base. Martyn makes a small 'ah.' sound. She shakes her head, hunching her shoulders with a sigh. "I don't know what's going on with him, and when I try to help, he just pushes me away." She tells him, hoping she doesn't sound sad or pathetic. She is sad, the anger's worn off, after talking to Martyn and having some time up here, but she doesn't want to be pitied, it makes her feel weird. "I do have to agree. I've been in these Series with Scar since they first started...sure, he can get a bit arson-y, even a bit violent and unhinged, but not...like this. He seems darker, angrier, and more hostile every passing Session." He agrees. "I want to say–I don't know exactly how this all works, but as we all start to lose lives, get closer to the end, I worry about him. He's...something's going on with him, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Be careful, okay?" Martyn nods, the points a finger at her. "I wanted to ask about that, too, actually. I saw Scar with that Lightsaber. From what I've just gathered, that seems more like one of your sorts of abilities. Scar had a magic thing going on in Last Life, but he couldn't summon weapons like that." She looks at him. "Honestly, I'm surprised nobody else questioned that." She admits, then her gaze hardens. "I'm telling you more than I'd like here, nobody else but Grian knows about this, so you have to stay quiet about it, okay?" She warns him. He nods. "Scar's getting my powers, too." Martyn immediately goes from curious to shocked. "When I got sent here, my powers were taken from me by something I haven't yet found. We only found out recently that it's tied to the Secret Keeper. Every time someone hits the Fail or Succeed, some of it returns to me. It's...also been shoved into Scar." Martyn seems to make a connection, a light dawning in his eyes. "That explains the headaches." He says. "Yeah. They progressively get worse as the Sessions have continued, and the more headaches we get, the more power Scar and I receive. Normal people aren't meant to have these sorts of abilities. We're dangerous, and for good reason. As beings of Chaos, we all have what could be likened to an instinctive drive, a need to cause chaos anywhere and everywhere. This usually occurs by ruining other people's lives, or events like the Wither-Warden fight." She indicates to the craters below. "It empowers us, and that means we don't do well in calm environments. The longer Scar goes without doing something crazy or unhinged, the harder it'll be to ignore." Martyn looks down at Scar's base. "That doesn't bode well for us, then?" She shakes her head. "Not a lot of people know us, but those who do label us world-destroyers." Martyn tilts his head, then points at her. "Okay, so why aren't you doing something unhinged, too, then?" She shrugs. "I'm a bit of a special case, as ridiculous and 'right out of a storybook' that may sound. I don't LIKE the notion of hurting people and causing that sort of chaos. I managed to find a middle ground with the Hermits. They're peaceful people, but get up to all sorts of fun antics and adventures. Tango made an entire playable game, Doc always has some crazy redstoning thing in the works, and Ren had a king arc for a while, which led to a rebellion. And, of course, there's Grian. He's plenty chaotic on his own." Martyn snickers. "That makes sense." He admits.

"So...just to recap, you're some sort of creature from beyond reality, who's been trapped here, by something you don't know, and now your best friend has your powers too, and soon he's going to go insane?" She nods. "You're very perceptive. And calm. You were so confused earlier." She comments. "I feel a little better, now that I know what's going on. Is there any way I could help?" She considers. "I don't know? Optimal outcome is I find a way to get my power out of him, and that fixes him, but if I can't get close to him, that'll be hard. Oh–you can help by sort of observing him. Don't make it suspicious or anything, but if he's in the area, just see what he's doing and tell Grian or I if it looks dangerous or un-Scar." She suggests. "I can do that." He confirms. "Cool. Alright. I have to talk to Grian, and for the second time, I feel a bit better, so thanks for helping." He nods. "See you around." She stands, and leans back off the edge of the platform, before spreading her wings and banking over to Grian. If he'd been flying around, maybe he's rested enough from the Session. She finds him laying ontop of the bed shrine he'd updated for Etho. He's watching the stars pass. "So. Uh. I just told Martyn what's going on and what I am." Grian doesn't sit up, but rolls his head to look at her. "You what?" He asks. He isn't mad, only taken by surprise. She lands, carefully avoiding his wings, which he'd moved anyway. "Martyn came and found me, and I felt that I owed him some answers. He'd seen the legs I used when I tried to save him, he saw me teleport, fight the Warden, and when Lizzie died, he DEFINITELY saw me try and cope with the overload." Grian grunts, returning his gaze to the stars. "I suppose it doesn't hurt anything. Exactly WHAT did you two talk about?" She explains what she was doing before the conversation, her explaining herself to him, her worries for Scar, and Martyn's offer to help. "That might be useful. And definitely, as much as it feels weird to say, avoid Scar, at least for now." She nods silently. "I'll keep trying to get you out of the Code. If I can get rid of your needing hearts, that should be the best thing I can do for you right now." He adds, and she nudges him in reply to the jab. "I'll still act like a normal player, for the most part. If I'm here, I'll take the opportunity to experience it normally." She decides, and finally lays down to watch the stars with him.

Xerean gets up when sunrise appears to go get somewhere to go see her Task, and walks over to the edge of the cliff near Grian's place where there's water at the bottom. After the sun no longer affects the color of the clouds, the whispers appear, and the scroll pops in front of her. Her Task today is to pretend that she's best friends with a sheep. Xerean snorts, putting the paper away. She's had far stranger pets before. Scanning around, she begins her hunt for a sheep. There's one over by the river, so she goes over and pulls wheat out of her inventory to entice it, and simply starts hanging out with it. They go on little tours around the sever, though she pauses when Scott suddenly dies to Martyn. Nothing seems to come of it, though, so she carries on. Scar's also running around again, she watches him randomly set fire to Gem's stairs, shoot and try to burn Impulse and Tango, then get into an actual fight with Impulse. All in one day. Surprisingly, she doesn't run into as many people as she'd expected, and day two is quiet. At least, for a while. Then, Bdubs is killed again by a zombie, as he had been last time he died. She then settles for watching Grian struggle with a magma cube he's named "Etho's Dishwasher" and being unable to do much while it chases him. Finally, he manages to put it in a cage, setting something on fire for it. Scar sets fire to some of the trees, and Tango appears, claiming to be the genie for this Session. Grian wishes for help with Etho's Dishwasher, so Tango makes a vivarium for it.

She leaves after that, still with her sheep, which nobody's questioned yet. Not too long after, she gets the notification announcing that Bdubs has just killed Impulse. That was fast, Bdubs has only been red for a handful of hours. She avoids Scar, visits Scott, and names the sheep 'Terabeth'. She stays with Scott for a while, actually, long enough for Pearl to die as well, Grian to go to the End, and Scar to try and light the Heart Foundation's heart on fire. It's caught early and thus prevented, but still, seems off. She's beginning to get curious. Gem is running around, speaking to Impulse, Pearl, and Bdubs, and they keep moving in a (mostly) coordinated group...sort of like a pack. They went after Scar multiple times, the man fending them off, with some help from Martyn. "Scott, what's goin' on with Gem?" He comes over. "I don't know, honestly. I want to say she and Bdubs were planning on killing someone, but now they've killed both Pearl and Impulse, and seem to be after Scar. I'm beginning to worry that it's a process of elimination–oh, there goes Tango." She checks her communicator. Tango has just died to a wolf. She bounds over to the view of Love Island from Scott's tower, followed by Terabeth, who's begun to simply just follow her around, without needing any sort of goading or pressure. "OH!" She gasps, as Scott climbs up too. "Scar set fire to the heart earlier, but I thought Skizz managed to put it out?" She says, Scott and her watching flames consume the floating heart. Tango's looking up at it, and while she can't see the smaller details, the flames of his tail and the ones that occasionally light in his hair are blazing, signs that he's angry. From afar, he gives off a flickering impression, like a torch. "I'm gonna go ask Tango what happened." She announces, hopping down and running off. She can hear Scott calling goodbye in the background.

Tango's rifling through one of his chests, undoubtedly for a bucket to fill with water. "Here–" She lifts her hand, and summons the water around them into a wave, and uses it to drench the heart, quenching the flames instantly. "Hey!" Skizz calls, poking his head out of the structure. He's positively sopping wet, and Tango wasn't left dry, either. He isn't as wet, but it was enough that it took away the flames in his hair. "Thanks..." He says, and Skizz hops down, wiping his face clear of the water. "Who even burned it? I saw Scar try, but he's been being chased by Gem, Impulse, Pearl, and Bdubs as far as I can tell." Xerean wonders. "No, it was Scar." Skizz answers. "Really? I'd say that's out of character for him, but now I'm not so sure. Either way, I'm sorry, you two. Is there anything more I can do to help? With hopefully less annoying side effects?" Tango shakes his head. "I believe we're good. Thanks again." He replies, and Xerean frowns. "I thought you two were on good terms, though? I can't see why he'd burn your place without a reason." She observes, and Skizz shrugs. "I dunno. We worked really hard on it, too." He agrees mournfully. Terabeth bleats, filling the silence that follows. "I think I'll be on my way, now–he just died!" She exclaims suddenly, as his name pops up. She was reading something in chat, and now Scar's been shot by Pearl. "Serves him right for trying to burn our base. You'd better stay away from him. There's something weird going on. Whoever's following Gem, they're going around trying to kill people." Skizz warns. "And they keep growing in numbers with whoever they manage to bring down. Scar's with them now." Tango adds. "Oh, no." She says, reaching over to pet Terabeth. "You gonna stop him?" Tango guesses. Which arguably isn't a hard connection to make; she does stupid, reckless things all the time. "No." She decides. "That just means I'll have him to myself. Sure, Scar's been a bit off, he said something about Chaos Scars and wanting to get unhinged, but this is a line, and I'm not letting him cross it without consequences." Skizz declares, and she sighs. "Be careful." Tango flicks his tail. "It's Scar that should be careful. He's been putting a target on his back for most of, if not the entire Season, and sooner or later, someone's gonna shoot." He points out. "I know." She replies quietly. She feels guilty, responsible for Scar's actions. She is, after all. He's clearly giving into those impulsive, destructive tendencies and desires she mentioned to Martyn. And she isn't there to help him sort them out. "Think we should fall back to the Roomies' base. They're still standing, it'd probably be a good idea to team up."

Leaving them to go join Cleo, Etho, and Grian, she still manages to avoid the horde for a few more days, in which time Scar kills Etho, Joel attacks and unleashes a massive horde of zombies, Joel gets killed by Gem, Gem is shot by Scar, and Joel kills Skizz. She's getting concerned now, staying hidden in her bunker, which Scar for some reason never comes over to. She even manages to sneak Terabeth in there, hiding in a lower level to avoid being overheard. "I haven't been here as much as I thought I would be." She admits to the sheep, who flicks his ears, unbothered by the commotion happening above them. "It's a bit dusty. I should fix that." She mutters, standing up. And that's what she does, she starts tidying up a few things, someone's raided the base since she'd last been here. "Oh, they took my pickaxe!" She says, a little miffed. "Oh, that's too bad." She turns, sword drawn, and finds Scar watching her. "You bring your friends?" She asks. "No. They're off looking for Cleo. I came on my own." She lowers her blade, cautious but willing(hoping) to talk. "Why're you here? What happened to 'stay away from me'?" She asks. "We're supposed to kill people, infect them to join our cause." He explains. "Right." She shifts, renewing the grip on her sword. "And so...you're here to kill me? Why not stick with the others? Or bring them? And how'd you even find me here?" Scar shrugs. "You're not too hard to miss, always at the center of the chaos. I think I've seen you once this week." He points out. "Worried for me?" She tries, but he shakes his head. "I could care less what you do. I'm here to do my job." A sort of anger's radiating from him. It isn't his own, there's something that doesn't match about it. He isn't mad about something she recalls having done to him, but he's full of loathing that she did something nonetheless. It feels older, legitimately ancient. On the plus side, she also notes he looks slightly less sleep-deprived. "Skizz said you tried to burn his heart?" She asks. If she can stall the fight, or entirely avoid it, that'd be great. "I did. I saw you saved it?" She nods. "Should have let it burn." He sighs. "Why?" She challenges, still holding her sword. "Why not? It's fun. I've been sitting like a bird in a cage, waiting to be free, and now I am. I have you to thank for that, it's been easier now that I can do more." Scar says, stepping forward. He looks up at his right-hand corner vision as he speaks, as though looking at someone. "Do you see someone?" She asks, cautiously seeking another presence. All she can sense is Scar, the Chaos inside of him, the Secret Keeper, Grian, and herself. "I see you." He answers, taking another step forward. "Scar, I don't want to fight you. I know you don't feel like being around me, but I'm the only person who knows at least a little bit of what you're going through. Let me help you. Please." Scar stops, his expression going to some form of confusion, but almost like he's offended in some way as he takes a half-step back. "Why do you keep trying?? I've threatened to kill you twice, and yet still, you persist." He inquires. Xerean snorts, a bit of her confidence popping up. When death isn't a common thing in your life, you don't really think to bring it into account when making decisions. "I'm one of the stubbornest people you know. Do you think I'd actually give up? You definitely scared me, but I care about you too much to just let go." She extends a hand. "I will always keep trying." She promises. Slowly, he puts his in hers, and she smiles. She's doing it. "I promise that you'll be okay." She tells him, and lets the grip of her sword relax as they both tighten the grip. There's a slight wobble, then he pulls her forward, and a sudden fire bursts through her chest. She doesn't even scream, just stares up at him. He watches her, gaze colder than the precious stones they're the color of. "Then you will always keep dying. I warned you, didn't I? This was your own fault. You should never have trusted me." Scar informs her, holding her up so she doesn't collapse yet. "And don't think that I won't do this the next time, too. Because I will. This is a game of life and death, Xerean, and your compassion is your weakness." He tells her, then steps back and lets her fall to the ground. From somewhere far away, but somehow so close she can practically hear it shout in her ear, she realizes Scar used the Lightsaber on her. It's no longer green, either, now it's yellow. Maybe because he's on his yellow life? She gasps faintly, mind both dimming and firing rapidly at the same time. Whispers are taking over her, none clear enough to form words, but as she loses consciousness, they grow louder.

Xerean was slain by GoodTimeWithScar using [Error]

She wakes back up, finally able to yell her heart out. This one was less traumatic as an experience of death itself, but she was hurt more by the betrayal. She looks around. She'd set her spawn up by the shrine, so there's nobody around. Xerean just sits there for a minute, trying to mentally pin herself down. A part of her is shrieking, howling in rage at Scar for daring to kill her, the angry part she always ignores, another part coiled around itself like a ball of sadness and hurt, another has an emotion that's deep and powerful, but refuses to be named, empty and silent at the same time. Loss? She's lost Scar, that's for certain. That's probably it. Scar isn't dead, but she's realizing that she's not getting him back, either. It's twisted him. She promised not to give up on him, but she finds she may not have a choice. It's not something she likes. Her whole point is that nothing is impossible, because she can make it happen. She gets a couple messages, telling her that because Scar killed her, she has to join Gem's army, but she isn't ready to move yet. Nobody comes looking for her, anyway. Grian must have made it up to his tower, although in the process he lost BigB and Tango. Cleo drowned at some point, and appears to have gone missing. It's about two or three hours before sunrise, so if she waits it out, she can probably just do nothing. That would be optimal. She then gets the notification that Terabeth has died, so she's failed her Task on top of dying herself. Leaning forward, she lets herself roll off the shrine's roof and swings herself onto the beds, choosing to lay there instead. She's not going to go see the man who just killed her. That's not a smart thing to do.

She decides to just keep laying there, she'll make herself get up when the Session ends. 

A/N

sorry I know this one was boring and super long(a few hundred words over 5,000💀) 

This was a really long session and a lot happened so it got a bit dry when I couldn't think of anything to put as filler material 😅