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suvaris

Surprisingly, Balfour didn’t reprimand her for the overstep, but that didn’t mean she wanted to press her luck. So far, the cat seemed to not outright hate her, and whether that was actual fondness or simple civility didn’t matter; Azra was happy to remain on whatever good side he possessed.

Talk of using leylines to tap into her power caused a crease in her brow and her hands fidgeted in her lap as she tried to sort through the idea. How could she do something without knowing she did it? With the Chariot’s power at her fingertips, she idly curled the corner of a nearby area rug, her fingertips curling and uncurling in time with the movement of the carpet. Nothing about it felt like she was drawing from something; it was as natural as breathing.

“So… if we… if magic is just…” She fell silent again, unable to form the words to articulately ask the question. “Does Feiyan keep journals? Does she talk about leylines? If magic is.. a leyline… or… just… big…” She trailed off again and hummed, frustrated with herself. “Magic doesn’t know it’s me using it, right? That I’m… I mimic… how do I just mimic and not use everything? I mimicked, um, the thing in the garden, and I could do whatever I wanted, but… calling forth that magic didn’t feel different. I mean, it did, but…” Once more, the words died on her lips and she raked her fingers through her hair. “Nevermind,” she mumbled. Better to not waste his time with her ramblings, especially not when she clearly didn’t have anything intelligent to say.

He watched her idly expend magic and let his mind run away without him for a moment. She curled in on herself in the same moments she reached out to others for help. Desperate to ask the question on her tongue, but afraid of how it would land, even when it was harmless.

He stood, arching his back in a luxurious stretch, and then slowly stepped up over her legs to curl up in the center of her lap. He wouldn’t have considered it with any other Councilor. Clearly this one needed the reassurance if she was going to string a full sentence together though, and he was not adept at that with words. That was Fei’s domain, and she was not around to lend her warmth.

“I’ve no experience with using magic,” he began, “but I guess it’s like anything else you learned how to do young. When you hold a pencil to write a word, does the pencil have to know what word it is? Or will it just write whatever your brain asks?”

“Feiyan keeps journals, though she has so many and keeps them all hidden. I couldn’t tell you where most of them are.” His tail twitches to express his ire at not knowing where Fei’s things were - or where to find her to ask. “I think I recall something about the Ancients leaving you all with the skill you were best at. Keanu has his fire. Eve has the plants. You have some mimic muscle memory that lets you borrow their skill for a short while, I imagine.” He rubs his head against her shin as a thought comes to him. “Maybe it feels strange to think of using other magic besides what you’ve always had because that knowledge, how exactly you use it, has been obscured. I wonder if there was a time when you had to think about using any magic, even if you were really adept with it.”

#azra is special #maybe he'll even remember her name #the lovers #event .006

It almost felt like routine at this point, approaching Balfour with a series of questions and concerns. Daniel didn't waste a second, arriving straight to the matter at hand, inquiring, "― Leviath. Levi. Does that name ring a bell? He's an ancient, isn't he?"

“Right to the point, are we?” Balfour’s snide comment was at odds with how much he preferred that to the way the other Councilors meandered around their points. From his window ledge he tilted his head up at Daniel. What would I know of an Ancient when I can’t be bothered to remember your names? But he skipped the biting remark, because Daniel has his respect. “I don’t know much of The Ancients, but I do know Feiyan had her notes on them somewhere.”

#judgement #event .006

suvaris

She flinched at his tone and the agitated beat of his tail against her leg punctuated it, but she said nothing. Instead, she drew her lip between her lips and absently scratched behind his shoulders for a second before she realized what she was doing and withdrew her hands to her lap.

He had a point, though. Even after she abandoned the lair and the mantle she assumed for years, even addicted and almost dead and mired in a dangerous sort of self-loathing, Feiyan showed her nothing but patient kindness and helped her return. Their panic was perhaps to be expected–nothing like this had ever happened, at least to their knowledge. Azra frowned at the thought and rubbed her face with both hands. “No, she wouldn’t,” she admitted. “So it must have been like what I saw in the garden, then. Not me, not her. Something else that wants us to… do something. With the leylines, or… with magic that’s not ours. …Did any of the other councilors in our past encounter magic that wasn’t their own? Did they ever have to do things with the leylines?”

Fingernails scraped delightfully on his spine, a sensation so surprising he didn’t know whether to arch into it or away, and so instead sat perfectly still throughout. The girl seemed to realize that was crossing a line, though, it hadn’t been too terrible... Not that she could know. Or that it mattered, under the circumstances.

Talking of past Councilors made Balfour wish he could grind his teeth - he had seen humans do it, the gesture a perfect encapsulation of how he felt most of the time. Especially about them. They who always disappointed Feiyan, who never lived up to her hopes and inevitably left her alone. He almost enjoyed that this time her disappearance did much the same for them, except they had no memory of their past failures, and Feiyan would never, and this group... wasn’t half bad. Not that they could know. Ever.

“Occasionally the lines will be disrupted by anything from natural disasters to unknowing humans interfering in the landscape.” His tail swished against her leg, slower this time, lingering near her warmth before sweeping out and back again. “Sometimes they would deal with that. That’s the only instance I can think of where other magic could have leeched into the world around them. And the lines are your magic, they carry it and you all tap into it to use your powers, so it isn’t the same... I have no idea what’s lurking around all of you.” Of us, but he didn’t say it.

“I don’t know how useful my knowledge is here,” he added, looking up at Azra. “I only know what came after I was made. Just before Feiyan began her search. Maybe older accounts have more to look to.”

#i did a reply even if it was...... for the talking cat #enjoy some weird balfour feels #the lovers #event .004

suvaris

Though it felt nice to have someone aside from Eve or Daniel take her seriously for once, thinking too hard about the monster in the garden and Feiyan’s unsettling, brief visit left her too shaken to close her eyes for more than five minutes at a time. This meant, obviously, it was time to walk around the house a little more, this time with a blanket over her arm and a glass of water in her hand. She happened upon Balfour not long after she left her room, and after hesitating for a moment, she sat on the floor next to him and crushed the urge to scratch behind his ears. Everyone kind of hated him, but Azra couldn’t help but be a little smitten. “What did you mean by it’s not her?” she asked as she placed the glass of water on the floor at her hip and folded her hands in her lap. “Was she a projection like… like Daniel when he’s in the astral plane? Or it’s not her like… like the thing in the garden wasn’t me?”

“I meant it was not her.” If a cat could Bark, Balfour just did. His tail thumped erratically against her leg. Ever since he’d seen that wraith dressed up to look like Feiyan, it hadn’t stopped sweeping back and forth. The fur on his spine was still itchy, the way it got when it was supposed to be standing straight up, protecting against a threat. It was one of the stupider things about being a cat, in his opinion.

Azra had asked him genuine questions, though. He could at least try to be helpful instead of a rude puffball. “I don’t know what that was. It looked like a projection. That’s a reasonable conclusion.” The compliment, paltry as it was, struggled off his barbed tongue. “But it had a smell. It smelled like her. Projections don’t do that.” Which didn’t help his argument in the slightest, but he just knew.

He looked to Azra, his pupils narrowed to slits. “Do you think Feiyan would ever tell any of you that you were failing? Even if you were. Even if you were fucking up worse than any of your past selves ever had. Would she say that?”

#the lovers #event .004 #;)#submission

@mitch-nom (continued from here)

he hummed, then stretched out on the floor, closing his eyes to bask in the light. “that’s precisely why there is so much spare time, especially when you don’t join in with the infighting and decision making.”

he curled in on his side and tried to fit as much of himself within the sunshine as he could. “prowling. sounds fun. what about naps? cats sleep alot, right? i could fall asleep right now, actually. “

Now Balfour looked at him, his face as bored as a cat’s face could possibly be. If this was another attempt to pet him, it was doomed before he’d ever laid down. “I’d argue with you over your actions if I thought it’d make a difference.”

His tail swept back and forth, but this time it thumped into Mitch where he curled on the floor, marking him far too close. “I have more important things to do.” But did he really? The sunbeam looked so enticing... Mitch certainly seemed to agree. How much would it hurt to roll over and doze off?

No. Not with Mitch there, certainly. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care,” he said, jaws opening in a yawn halfway through. “It’s none of my business how you waste your day.”

#this is...... bonding?#or something?#the fool #event .004

"I'm bored." He states, plopping down next to the cat. He's useful, yes, but there are long stretches where no-one needs him and he knows he will only get underfoot. "What do you do in your spare time?" Surely the cat has to do something other than brood and plan evil plans, and it must be lonely without his creator here as well. "Or do you need me to entertain you?!"

Sitting in a shaft of sunlight that came in through the foyer window, Balfour had been resisting the temptation to simply lie down and bask for an hour or so. The light was warm… And the wood floor enticingly cool… And if he was lucky, no one would bother him-

But why would he ever think that a possibility in this house overrun by nosy nuisances?

At first he paid little attention to Mitch taking up the space beside him, his irritation marked by the twitch in his tail. The kid was hard to ignore when he wanted to be, though. “Please do not entertain me. I don’t care for what humans seem to think I’ll enjoy.”

“My spare time consists of prowling, mostly.” It wasn’t what he had been made for, though he’d gotten good at it in the years he had been gone. His true purpose was companionship for the one person who never got on his nerves. Perhaps if he had come back sooner, he’d still be fulfilling it now. “There is no spare time here, with all of you blinded by infighting and incapable of making decisions.”

#the fool #event .004

of-judgement

“He looked exactly like him, like I had an identical twin. A crazier, more erratic twin,” Daniel explained, still feeling the eeriness of that encounter stick to his skin. It was hard to ignore all the caution he felt, his questions only growing now that his own reflection claimed to have the solution to all their problems.

“He said he tried everything he could but the logic and math kept pointing towards something. Something he wouldn’t tell me, something he wants to show me. He kept mentioning how certain members were capable of crossing the line — that there’s only so much he could have done in order to protect people. I think he hurt the previous council, he — judgement — did something. I’m not sure, but I’m not telling the others about this until I learn more. There’s too much at stake.” too many unknowns.

Past, present, future; all of it seemed to catch up to Daniel. Could he trust his own reflection? His own reincarnation that claimed to know things beyond him, beyond anything the data scientist could reason or discover.

“He seemed real … almost too real. He came out of nowhere, began talking to me, and then disappeared completely. He had papers too.”

Daniel couldn’t help but look at the cat, his expression resembling one of worry and fatigue. While the others were off fixing the leylines, he wasn’t expecting a visit from another form of judgement; one that caused his thoughts to spiral. He felt tired yet compelled to continue their research ( especially after this recent revelation ).

“Whatever it is, the coincidence is too hard to ignore. Maybe she did have notes somewhere, maybe she had suspicions. If the past selves of the council haven’t truly died … that’s not good news for anyone.”

Tail now sweeping back and forth across the floor, Balfour’s pupils narrowed to slits. “None of your past incarnations looked like you,” he stated flatly. “Not enough to be instantly recognizable, anyway. Imagine Martha up at Capitol Hill explaining why she looks exactly like some old photo from the 20s. Would’ve made it a lot easier for Feiyan to find you each time around, though.”

He said erratic, explained the obsession with fatalistic logic, and Balfour could only notice how exhausted this Judgement already looked. Magic could make people see things, real or otherwise, but fatigue would drive them to act without reason. Even those motivated by nothing but. Then, though, how could he tell Daniel not to continue looking into this? “You need someone to keep an eye on you,” he said carefully. “Look at yourself. You already look like a man who’s spent too long over his desk.” Is that what this apparition wanted?

“Keeping this from them may prevent panic. It may also disarm them against a nearby threat. I can’t make the decision for you.” Standing and shaking his fur loose, Balfour jumped up onto the nearest table. It didn’t put him quite at eye level with Daniel, but it was better than craning his head up. It did nothing to help the shadows that pooled under the Councilor’s eyes, though. “I suggest informing at least hose whose advice may be useful. Although...”

He tilted his head, ears twitching, checking for suspicious creaking around them. “Do you know if you are the only one to witness this sort of thing?”

#help is on the way daniel it just takes him a while he's pretty short #one step for you is a thousand steps for me - balfour #judgement #event .003

of-judgement

Whatever Balfour was saying, about their souls, made perfect sense. It shouldn’t be possible for two identical entities of the same reincarnation cycle to exist during the same time — so why? How was it possible to stumble into his own reflection? Into a piece of his own soul; one that seemed so eerily similar yet unhinged. None of it was making sense, the encounter only causing him to worry.

His gaze focused on the cat, listening intently on the role of judgement within the council. It wasn’t anything new, nothing the books or journals hadn’t confirmed. Judgement was supposed to decide fate, whether it be in the court or not. However, matters of death and punishment … it wasn’t easy to receive such harsh penalties. It shouldn’t be, not unless you’ve caused great harm to others or society at large. So what had his own reflection done?

“Some of your past versions have forgotten their empathy from time to time.”

His fingers clenched, his jaw stiffening. He always liked Feiyan, always thought she had the best in mind for the council; but what if she only treated him in such a kind manner because the past versions of judgement were a lost cause? What if it was her way of not repeating previous mistakes? He couldn’t even blame her, not when he saw the signs of erratic madness spilling from his reflection.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me,” Daniel replied, shaking his head. “But I did see a ghost, I saw myself. A version of myself. A past reincarnation of judgement. I was in the library and he was there, he knew everything. He claimed that he had attempted all possible solutions, all logical calculations but there’s only way one to go about fixing things. He wants to show me … but whatever he said suggested that he might’ve hurt the previous council.”

He started pacing again, the physical repetitive movement helping him sort out his thoughts. “If he exists … if he’s real … it could explain why the ley lines were calling for help. What if the past council didn’t really disappear? What if, what if it all ties together? Feiyan knew them, she knew what they were capable of.”

And now Daniel had gotten a glimpse too, his own reflection hinting towards something dark. Something sinister.

If it was possible to wipe a smug look off a cat’s face, Daniel had just done it expertly. It shouldn’t have been possible, what he said - incarnations sprang up only after their past selves had died. That was always how it worked. Balfour had seen many of these deaths firsthand, was living proof that they had certainly been final and unchangeable.

A detail lingered in the air, making his ears twitch. “How did you know it was yourself?” he asked, genuine urgency coloring his voice. “Did he tell you he was, or is, Judgement?” He scoured his brain for the line of past versions of Judgement, picking out which ones this could have been, even if their reappearance seemed impossible. For all his apathetic airs when it came to the Councilors, he never forgot their faces. “What did he look like?”

Daniel’s increasingly frantic energy was infectious, but Balfour remained as still as he could, his eyes tracking the man. “I’ve been to far too many cremations and burials of you lot to consider the possibility that you haven’t all truly died and been reborn.” There were always other explanations for such appearances when magic was involved, though. “Was he corporeal? Could you touch him? Are you absolutely certain he was real, and not an illusion or projection?”

It could explain why the ley lines were calling for help. Balfour’s silence on that subject was his agreement. The two events were too close to be even the most massive of coincidences. “Feiyan did have her own unanswered questions,” he mused, more to himself than Daniel, “though I don’t recall anything about past incarnations appearing in the present. She may have notes somewhere that I haven’t found yet.”

#don't @ me i just needed a break from human rights abuses okaY #writing balfour counts as admin work #anyway enjoy some speculation kids #judgement #event .003

Does the council members seem to follow patterns throughout each reincarnation? The emperor and the empress bonding, the Ambitious Three becoming a force for chaos or destruction, that sort of thing.

“There are some patterns which surface from time to time, but they’re usually isolated to individuals. Strength is often a daredevil of some kind. The Wheel of Fortune is a little slippery more often than not. None of these are perfect constants, but by virtue of being the same soul reborn again and again, you do tend toward predictable traits. Or, occasionally you shock us by being completely unexpected. The same person could grow up to be someone entirely different if you tweak their circumstances just a bit.

“Your relationships are a separate issue entirely. There have been Councils where the Emperor and Empress couldn’t stand each other, and The Ambitious Three never got close at all - but who’s to say this wasn’t caused by knowing your past? I’m not the authority on this, as I never really cared whether or not you liked each other unless it made Feiyan happy.”

#anonymous

of-judgement

Daniel couldn’t stop pacing, thinking about his encounter with the stranger who appeared and spoke almost identically to him. The eccentric stranger that knew everything, all the logic and possibilities leading to one alleged solution… no matter how grave. The data scientist went to find Balfour instead, the lair suddenly feeling eerily empty. He eventually stumbled upon the cat, wondering, “ … sorry to bother you, but is it possible for past reincarnations of the council to still be alive? Did I, judgement, ever harm or kill anyone on the previous councils?"

With much of the Council sent away to handle their business, Balfour took to stalking the halls of The Lair, his ears sharp and alert. Every so often he got the sense that someone was nearby, but doing his rounds found nothing out of the ordinary. The hair on his spine still rose with suspicion. Something was there, or different, or even wrong, but what? Without Feiyan around, he had no one to confide this to-

“Sorry to bother you.”

Balfour sighed deeply, coming to a half and sitting with his back to Daniel. His tail twitched at the tip. He was ready to respond with his usual attitude, but Daniel - as was typical for Judgement, and why Balfour sometimes found himself, unfortunately, respecting the Councilor - got right to his point.

And what an interesting point it was. Balfour twisted to look up at him. Curiosity and cats and all that. “That shouldn’t be possible, as it is your...” He tilted his head. “Soul, or whatever you prefer to call it, that reincarnates. Your body will always be different, but the core of who you are and what your magic is tied to is the same, and there is only one of it. Two of you existing at once would mean two of the same soul, which shouldn’t be possible.”

He eyed the man up and down, his curiosity only growing at Daniel’s apparent agitation. “Judgement is a difficult position,” he said slowly, watching his reactions. “Sometimes deciding others’ fate was the original version’s job. They took it too far when The Ambitious Three got to them. You can’t be surprised that some death was involved in that.” His tail swishes once, twice. “Technically speaking, that is still the job description, which is why Feiyan has worked so hard to ensure you feel like part of the family, as it were. Some of your past versions have forgotten their empathy from time to time. Logic isn’t just numbers, you know.”

“But, why do you ask, and look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

#judgement #event .003 #submission

Why do you despise the council members so much? Fei doesn't seem to hate them, so what's the source?

“Despite every moment in her life where she has had the opportunity to start, Feiyan has never once disliked any of you. She knows how much potential each of you has, and she fully believes you can all reach it. Every last one of you. I, on the other hand, have only ever seen you fail to meet her expectations, or start a new cycle before you can. She created me. Forgive me if I value her lasting happiness above your temporary feelings.”

#anonymous #he has a debilitating condition it's called CARING TOO MUCH #just kidding he doesn't care he's a cat

emilelawrence

Emmy kept his distance from Balfour — nothing personal against this particular cat, just a cat thing in general for him — as he squinted at him, thinking of how to word the questions he wanted to ask. He started suddenly, without a bid for attention to the other — he’d repeat himself if he needed to, “Are y'more disappointed in this council’s set than others, or is it just a consistent disappointment on your end?“ A laugh. “Is there something you hope for from each set? Like… I’m sure I could guess, but it’s better t’get informed opinions, y’know?”

Balfour had all but ignored the other presence in the room until he spoke up, and then the only sign of interest in the question was one ear turning toward him. “I should think I can be disappointed that no other Council has ever lost Feiyan,” he sneered. “But, even I must admit that there is no proof, yet, that it was your fault. I would say the disappointment is consistent.” And consistently lessening the longer a Council worked with Feiyan, the more they believed in her lessons, the more they did their best to live up to what she saw in them. Not that he needed to give that up just yet.

“Pay attention. Learn. Don’t let petty squabbles and stupid mistakes get between you, especially when it things are getting serious.” He began licking his paw, his pupils narrowing. “All of you have the potential to be with Feiyan is. The problem, consistently, is that none of you notice this, or care, or you get distracted by utter irrelevancies. Does that answer your question, oh curious one?”

#the hanged man #submission #this got vague but like #i Think it makes some sense #oh well jkhg enjoy him being rude anyway

Balfour, what was the most difficult iteration of the council for Fei to handle?

“It’s important for you to know that regardless of my distaste for each and every one of you, Feiyan held true to the belief that it was fundamentally impossible for any of you to reincarnate into someone who is a truly, bone-deep, irredeemably bad person. No war criminals, no genocidal maniacs, nothing like that. However, in the 1880s she managed to track down the whole Council and to her dismay discovered that, by some fluke, every last one of you was a cisgender white man. Every. Last. One. Actually, my suspicions are that Justice might have been Irish and hiding it, but you know. Semantics. They all loved getting bossed around by a Chinese woman infinitely smarter and more interesting than they were, let me tell you. So, if you were worried, you can only ever rank second worst.”

#anonymous

novamortem

[ –too much catnip– ]

[unamused cat noises]

#kjhgj my face hurts from laughing idk #death #submission

suvaris

Azra, slightly doe-eyed, comes across Balfour sometime nearing 3am and stops in her tracks, a mixture of exhaustion, surprise, and barely-concealed delight lighting her face. She’s excited but trying to be respectful, especially given her card’s tumultuous history. Given the hour, her insomnia, and the fact that she can currently eat between dusk and dawn, it’s no surprise that she has a torn piece of a loaf of bread in her hands. For a moment she stands still, then crouches and the words pour out, and she seems powerless to stop herself.

“Um… are… do… you want some bread? I made it, it’s not bad. Do you like bread? Do cats like bread? Can you talk to other cats, or just people? …Can I pet you? Please? It’s okay if you say no… I’m not sure if Billy actually likes me and I was always too afraid to ask Fei if I could have a cat.”

When they meet, Balfour is sitting at the top of the staircase and watching the front door, unblinking. He itches to track down prey - it’s just the right hour of the night for that - but hope that the door might open at any minute and allow in a familiar face wins out.

Someone steps across the landing behind him and he ignores her until she makes herself impossible to ignore. His only recognition of her approach is an irritable twitch of his tail. Her words, however, do the trick to attract his focus. If it is possible for a cat to raise its eyebrows, he’s done it.

At first he doesn’t answer, his eyes flicking between her and her bread. Cats do in fact eat bread, and have no qualms stealing it out of naive young women’s hands, though he doesn’t bring that up. Instead he sniffs and says, “I am capable of communicating with regular cats, if I must.”

He’s about to tell her he will not deign to be petted when Billy’s name hits his ear. He scowls, as much as a cat can, and then looks back to the door and resumes his regal sit. “You may pet me once, not including ear or chin scratches, you will not touch my tail no matter how fluffy it looks, and you will tell no one about this encounter.” He’s quiet for a moment before adding: “She would have let you.”

#the lovers #i didn't expect this to make me SAD?#submission

"Is there a BalFIVE? A BalTHREE? Can you communicate with Billy? Tell him I think he's the better cat. Was Feiyan trying to create something useless and mean when she made you or is that part a coincidence? How do you feel about laser pointers? How old are you? Are you going to eat Jonah's fish?"

“I can communicate with Billy about as well as you could with a platypus which, given your miraculous ability to count to five, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had tried. I suggest you reconsider any doubts you have about Feiyan’s ability to create, because among other things, there is ample proof that she has never done or made anything useless in her life. I prefer not to think about laser pointers if I can help it. I am about three hundred and twenty-eight years old. I decline to comment on the nature of my relationship with Johnson’s fish, as I am still deciding on it myself…”

#GOD #the hierophant

Mitch had gone to a pet store as soon as the news got announced. All he knew about cats was about the ones in the jungle and about Tom and Jerry, so they liked two things : fish and rats. The rat was the easier option, he knew that some places sold them, so he bought one and approached after everyone else had moved on from grilling the creature. It was all a mass hallucination, definitely, but that didn't mean he couldn't have fun. "If I give you this," he offered, "can I pet you?"

Balfour had perched himself on a half-empty bookshelf, pawing through the pages of one of Feiyan’s books, when The Fool (what was this one’s name, Michel? Michigan?) approached with a cardboard box full of holes. His ears perked up at the faint scratching and squeaking coming from the box.

The boy voiced his request and Balfour sat still, only his tail sweeping back and forth with distaste. His pupils narrowed to slits while he fixed his unsettling turquoise gaze on the object of his suspicion.

“In exchange for the offering,” he drawled, “you may pet me once.”

#the fool

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