What a loaded question. Is anyone ever alright, she almost quipped back, but jayden cross had always been a literal man. He might take her comment too seriously, and in doing so, stumble on some truths she'd rather not say aloud.[break][break]

"I am well enough," she conceded instead, rising up to meet him. "The recent battles have been taxing on us all. I'm certain you are no exception."[break][break]

Even as she said those words, though, she doubted them. She couldn't place what this aura emanating from him was -- Was it confidence? A righteousness? Or palpable rage, perhaps? -- but whatever it was, it left her wary.[break][break]

She understood the monster that Wo-chien was, but Chien-Pao was still a stranger to her.[break][break]

"I'm told you're taking to your Avatarship well?"[break][break]

More accurately, she supposed, would be this statement: Rocket is pleased with your bloodlust.

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

A familiar pinprick of fear, born of survival instinct, struck her like a bolt of lightning as his expression changed. She'd been too acquainted with dangerous, unpredictable men not to sense that shift in tension and energy.[break][break]

"I understand," she said quietly, placatingly, as she averted his violet eyes. "I failed to kill his brother, too. But we continue onwards, and I can assure you, the chance to enact vengeance will be yours again."[break][break]

By her own hand, no less. She debated on whether she should bring up that information now or later, until he decided for her, prodding her on the nature of their meeting.[break][break]

What a fraud she was, taking on the role of mentor while her own patron was banished behind a wall of pink mist and a frightened voice in her own mind begging it to leave her alone.[break][break]

"I'm curious how far your powers have progressed," she said instead, meeting his gaze. The steeliness of a command entered her tone as she gestured to their empty surroundings. "Show me."

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

It wasn't the display of Jayden's power that unmoored her, exactly.[break][break]

When she considered the dread that welled up inside of her, it wasn't the sharp, glistening blade of ice that instilled such trepidation, but the cold, piercing glare of his eyes as they met her own. How calculating that cool gaze was, and how precise was the violence he manifested at her command.[break][break]

"You seem at ease with it," she commented, thinking of how her own powers had such a different cadence -- unruly, twisting vines that broke through the earth with barely-restrained fury. "Is that difficult for you, maintaining your composure?"[break][break]

Did he fight a war in his own mind, when he summoned such power? Or was it a numbness of feeling, instead?

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Ah. This she understood.[break][break]

She'd felt that she had no choice that day, either. The emotions of her Ruinous patron had been overpowering and all-encompassing.[break][break]

It left no room for anything else to feel.[break][break]

As jayden cross sheathed his frost-wrought rapier, Elisabeth found herself stepping closer to him to listen. His mask hid his inner torment better, perhaps, but it was a mask all the same.[break][break]

An impulsive desire to comfort him seized her, one she fought off immediately as she glanced away from him, refusing to meet his stare.[break][break]

"A release implies an existing supply of something awaiting use. I am similar, with Wo-chien."[break][break]

Even saying the deity's name felt like invoking some terrible, creeping dread.[break][break]

"Emotions drive my power, much like fuel drives a machine. It requires me to center myself on a thought, a feeling, or a memory long enough for it to catch fire in me. And I channel that fury into action."

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"No," she said quietly, her arms wrapping around herself. "That part is easy, actually. The feeling."[break][break]

Hadn't she always felt too deeply? She loved too deeply; she lost too deeply; she grieved too deeply. She envied those who existed as seemingly emotionless husks devoid of guilt, remorse, or wanting.[break][break]

It was perhaps what drew her to people like BARNABY FINCH, who seemed above such fragile mortal weakness. They walked with a confidence she'd never felt in herself, and an indifference to the petty concerns of others.[break][break]

"What's difficult is the containing and controlling of it, so it doesn't become all-consuming."[break][break]

The words slipped out thoughtlessly, but when she glanced up at jayden cross, she suspected he didn't see it for the confession that it was.[break][break]

"I struggle with moderation. So I admire your restraint, Admin Cross."

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Pain is always easier," she agreed with him, though silently some part of her added, "Until it isn't."[break][break]

How similar were they, she wondered? She recalled how PENELOPE LIVY's face had twisted with envious rage, spitting out threats far too personal to be a councilman's obligation to the League, or an investigator's desire to uncover the truth.[break][break]

Chi-yu had left its mark on Penelope, too, and transformed Elisabeth into something so vile for the councilwoman, reason alone couldn't explain it.[break][break]

Hadn't Wo-chien done the same for her, with FERNANDO SILPH?[break][break]

"What is it you feel, when you summon your blade?" she asked, gesturing to the absence of starlit ice in his hand. "Does it pain you?"[break][break]

Do you suffer, too?

[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]