5710/Astral Flux: The Rabbit Hole

Astral Flux: The Rabbit Hole
Date of Scene:	04 November 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Emma seeks out the Shadow King.
Cast of Characters:	Shadow King, Emma Frost
Tinyplot:	Astral Flux

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Shadow King has posed:
The lingering connection to the mind of Kenneth Arnold was mostly destroyed for reasons unknown. Perhaps he was no longer connected as well as he was. It took some time to sort that back out, but he was not shielded against her, nor did he sever the connection fully on his end. Emma Frost can, indeed, contact him, though some proximity is useful. He is located in Mexico, though, but also has not hid that from her. Perhaps he wanted a visit, or perhaps it was to keep an eye on her, in return: connections do, of course, go both ways.

    When she reaches out, though, she will find an exhausted but not surprised answer from a mental presence that is not quite the one she may have expected. Instead, it is the man without the King, at least for now, that she finds.

Emma Frost has posed:
It was annoying that first she was unable to make a connection with her first avenue of approach. She should have expected interference, but she certainly hadn't expected a fortress, or that level of resistance. Then again, in his position would she have done differently? Likely not. She might not even have been so kind. He had conversed, after all. Emma would have struck first, and not apologized later. Unless she was feeling kind.

Still, it hadn't worked, and she'd had to go a secondary route. Annoying in that she could barely find the connection. Usually she held onto such things. Could pull a thread of another's mind she had touched back up from memory any time she wished. This was different, though. It felt deliberately broken. Though once she stopped trying to connect the mind and her King together, and sought only the bits that were Ken Arnold, things got easier.

Flights to Mexico, as it happened, were easy enough to obtain, and from there, pinning down a location became nothing more than a game of proximity. Much like a metal detector, Emma merely followed the lead of the pings she sent out where they got the strongest reception, until she finds Arnold's mind and his surprised response.

~Well, well, well. How interesting. I was wondering if you might care to enjoy a drink together on neutral but perhaps private grounds?~

She waits for an answer.

Shadow King has posed:
There is some time before he answers. The connection doesn't change, but if she suspects he was waiting to get some information from the King, that would be a pretty accurate guess. Finally, there is a reply. ~You may come. I will meet you, but I will need to stay in... private locations; others seek me out.~ Arnold's answer has a level of exhaustion to it, but certainly willing enough. He is not resistant to either her or what orders he may have been given. It is more that he has been through a lot, and his reserves are low.

He mentally provides an image of the location of meeting: it is not his personal air strip, where his jet is located, it is at one of the large airports. He will await her there, in the private area where the plane is located, but it is a reasonably neutral area otherwise.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma isn't susspecting a trap, but she'd learned from her last little foray that she'd let herself become careless. So it was that she made her way to the rendezvous point in disguise. Those around her saw an unassuming, mousy looking, rather non-descript woman with short brown hair, and a mostly no-nonsense business suit, and orthopedic looking flats heading down hallways and corridors with purpose. In fact, most of the people she encountered, unless they had the wherewithall to resist otherwise, probably didn't even register she was there, she was so utterly beneath notice in the guise she'd created; the 'you don't need to acknowledge me' vibe she gave off was strong enough that people moved out of her way without even noticing that they'd stepped around another human being. Some to the point they'd have sworn they'd not strayed their path at all.

Odds are Emma makes it to the meeting place without challenge, where she waits, if not patiently, at least calmly.

Shadow King has posed:
She does arrive first, but Emma won't wait too long. One of what must be one of the doctor's assistants does come to see if she needs anything, and doesn't question the validity of her being there. Not long after, Dr. Arnold himself arrives. He doesn't look healthy, and is smoking, despite the signs around them in the end of the long, deserted terminal area, suggesting that smoking is not allowed. He zeroes in on her, following their mental thread.

    "Good to see you made it safely. What can I do for you?" asks the doctor in a friendly manner, approaching, and giving a gentlemanly bow and smile. There's some sharpness and watchfulness, though. He isn't so tired as to not be paying full attention, and his own telepathic power is considerable.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma keeps up the fiction of her disguise for the moment. Dr. Arnold may or may not be fully aware of who she is, but that isn't the point. She lets him approach, her own guards up, and feelers checking the area for other presences.

"You're alone? I would say hate to have this conversation cut short because of unwanted guests."

His smoking does draw a small smile to her lips. "I wonder what the fine is for lighting up so near the aeroplanes. I find myself out. Might you have one to spare?"

Of course she's not out. She has her own cigarettes, but asking him for one puts her at an advantage, and has him already doing her bidding in this oh, so small thing that he has no real reason to deny her in. From there, incrementally larger things always become easier.

Shadow King has posed:
    There are two other minds roughly nearby. One is by the jet, another is back where Dr. Arnold entered the area. He gestures vaguely, "I have two puppets here. Under my control. Take a look," he offers. She can investigate them: they are, as he said, entirely subject to Dr. Arnold's whim. They don't bear traces of the Shadow King, just of being Arnold's personal pawns.

    When asked, he immediately shares the cigarettes with her, his expression turned darkened and amused by it. "Of course, I have more than enough to share. And drinks," he says, with a beckon of fingers, to join him at a group of chairs. He then relaxes, and suggests mentally: ~We can communicate this way if you like. It is the same to me.~ Even a quick look or feel of his presence is steeped in the corruption of the King: he is very close to that particular glowing firefly.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma once smoked with the joyful abandon and rebellion of youth. Now she smoked with the full knowledge that it created a specific reaction in others. It became as much of the pleasure as the nicotine rush itself. She wasn't particularly worried about the addiction. It hadn't occurred to her that she might want to give them up again at some point. It hadn't occurred to her that she'd only started smoking again after brushing up against the Shadow King's mind and works.

Oh, certainly she can vaguely remember the neurosis and agitation after stumbling upon that blighted being in the Astral, but it seemed so very far away now, as thought it were someone else that had all happened to. And besides, hadn't she helped that poor creature? Hadn't she... The details were a fuzz and a fog to Emma, but there was a distinct clarity to the feelings of pleasure she got remembering. Especially the fireflies, and the points of light. The fears she'd given to the poor thing. Her King's pleasure in her palpable.

It gave her a sudden thrill to realize how close she was to touching that mind again, and to feeling that approval.

"This way," she murmurs, ~or this. It matters not.~ "We share a mutual friend. I seem to have lost his number. I desire to contact him again."

The sense being of the Shadow King, with the implication, unstated, that she wasn't able to reach him by more direct and conventional ways.

Shadow King has posed:
Dr. Arnold nods his head once, as if he were fully aware of how she felt. ~Of course. He has expected you, I think,~ answers the doctor mentally. He settles in his chair. There is no direct discussion to her about what he is doing, but the information is there anyway: he is dropping any mental shields and offering his body to use to the King, by reaching back through into his own mental connection.

There is a time of waiting, and then the change comes through like a thick dark wind. It is not true possession: there is something else happening. It is masterful: a distant puppeting, powerfully done, even though the consciousness has not moved into Dr. Arnold's body itself, the Shadow King still does have control. It is more as if he is casting a constant flow of suggestions of what Arnold should say or do, and the man instantly does exactly those orders. It is a beautiful imitation of possession. As soon as it fully completes, it looks exactly like possession.

    Arnold smiles at her a little bit, but the smile is the one directed by the King. "It is my pleasure to meet your desires, Emma," says the King, through his puppet, smoothly.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma's guise is dropped - as though to appear before her King as other would be not only crass, but somehow insulting. Not that it would be, but her need to please him outweighs the prudence of any other actions. In truth, she'd be revolted to see her own actions in another, but she can't seem to help herself. The powerful presence of that *mind* make her insides quiver with the need to have him look upon her with any sort of approval, even as a very small and dry portion of her brain observes that he likely looks upon her fawning as laughable, and certainly not with the regard she wishes to engender.

"They took my link," Emma says with quiet disdain, even if 'they' was really in fact but one person - Betsy. Though it would have been a they had it come down to a fight. Had Betsy not gotten the jump on Emma, things might have gone so much terriblly worse. As it was, Emma was able to feign her relief at being freed of the Shadow King's thrall even while plotting how to get back to him.

"I miss you," she says, the words inadequate. "My mind feels so much smaller. So much.. less.. without you." And that was nothing more than the truth. It was, in fact, her passion for the Shadow King - not for the being he was, but for how that mind affected her. How its vastness made her aware of so much power and possibility that she couldn't help but feel swallowed up by it. The limitless possibility coupled with the ability to join with that power and lend even a small fraction to it?

If she weren't so wrapped up in matters, if she hadn't encountered it as she had, Emma might recognize the similarities to cult brainwashing, only sans the techniques used to employ said brainwashing. It was a known fact that the smarter you were, the easier brainwashing occurred - quite the opposite of what one might expect.

Shadow King has posed:
"Come back into the Astral, and relax into my mind," suggests the Shadow King, not unkindly, really. It is a coax, or perhaps more, a gracious invitation to allow her to use the Astral plane as she wishes, from here forward. "I continue to become one with the plane. I will grant you freedom there, should you build great things within the plane with your ... power and creativity," says the King, with a flutter of hand near her, a light breath of telekinetic power as he directs Arnold's telekinesis into a finessed caress of her hand.

    "Build what you /feel/, and I will guide you to even greater palaces of the mind," he offers generously. "Or perhaps power in other ways that are a bit more entertaining." A sleek little smirk follows, a pressure behind Arnold's eyes as the power of the creature using the puppet cannot quite stay contained in the human shell. It is no wonder Arnold is exhausted: the power being wielded is too high.

Emma Frost has posed:
There's the smallest of frowns from Emma. "They're watching, you know. People coming and going there. The linked minds. I'm afraid if I try, they'll know what I've done and this will all be for naught."

The draw of the suggestion, though, nags at her. It's a thing she wants. The mere thought of adding to the masterpiece he is building there? To be part of that? It plays to her ego and becomes a thing she wants more than life or breath.

"How, how shall I do this? Where can I go to be safe?" And suddenly, she wants to be Arnold. Can see another way. To offer to be the conduit in place of this exhausted man. "Let me be your vessel?"

Shadow King has posed:
"I have other plans for you, other than vessel," says the King, with a dismissive motion of hand, as if it were not of interest to him to go that route at all. He did consider it, clearly. "As for who watches? They see what I /allow/, you know," he continues, without any concern. "They watch, they suspect a lot. They are very afraid, you know. Because there is almost nothing they can do. I am far above what they can affect."

    A slide of eyes brings his attention onto and over her once more. "Fear not the Astral. Trust in ME," he says, his smile somehow covered in fangs, although he has none through that body. "If they follow you again, they will pay, and it will be on them, I think, mmmm?" he suggests, with a hint of deep amusement and sadism.

Emma Frost has posed:
It's really all the permission and invitation Emma needs. Certainly were she not so enthralled with the mind behind the man(?) she would find this all laughable, and certainly beneath her. But that's how it is sometimes, you find yourself suddenly stumbling over a thing you hadn't thought you'd find attractive, and your heart skips a beat, or your mind forgets logic, and suddenly you're doing things you'd be embarrassed for another were you to see them doing them.

"I come, then."

And because she is who she is, and not just another telepath, she doesn't need Cerebro to reach the Astral plane. it's really one of those things someone like Jean or Charles should have tracked better, especially after Jean stumbled upon her there the first time.

Shadow King has posed:
It is particularly easy with the Shadow King deliberately holding her hand right there. He is a master of the realm, and with a very specific relic behind his power, can just about lay out the red carpet for her, and shield her while she's in it.

    ~I will also keep your physical body safe,~ he assures her smoothly. ~Some rest at one of my resorts, perhaps? Some pampering?~ It is a tease, but it is also quite serious. And a clear vision of his power: to send those who are in the astral's bodies to do whatever he chooses. Creepy? Maybe. Powerful? Absolutely.

    ~Come, relax within my mind,~ invites the Shadow King to the White Queen, in his distorted realm of the Astral.

The rabbit hole only goes deeper.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma gives over. It's a seduction that goes beyond the physical, and reaches her where she is most vulnerable: her mind. The one treasure she's kept inviolate from anything and everyone else. And with His seductive words ringing in her ears, her body held safe, and the lull of power reaching out to her, Emma is lost.

She craves what he offers, and there is but one way to achieve that.

Her mind becomes part of his; her substance, what makes Emma, Emma, slowly being absorbed into the Shadow King's mind, and with it, all that she knows, and has experienced, good or bad.