Session 54.1 - Mask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies

Starfall is making an overnight trip between Platzhalter and Jozech, where there is definitely a fully-formed plan to accomplish the mission at hand. Because everything has been discussed and planned out and committed to, Isa is lounging in her cabin with a stack of Cardian newspapers she collected during their time in the village.
Yves, who does not have a death wish, knocks politely at the door. He has his satchel with him, and a hopeful-anxious expression that should probably make anyone around here who knows him a little worried to see.
Isa unhurriedly folds her paper, crosses the room, and unlocks the door. Opening it, her head tilts. "Yves?"
"Hey, Isa," Yves says, in a very casual tone that fools no one present, "I was wondering if I could borrow that dragon mask."
"The mask we took from the dragon that tried to kill Perilune, us, and half of the town," Isa deadpans.
Yves brightens at this clarity in the conversation already. "Yes, exactly. I felt bad about how that went down, and I wanted to talk to it about the situation. See if maybe there's some way to come to a more, uh, ethical sort of agreement for shared goals when moving forward, like we did with, uh, you know. Diabolos."
Isa blinks, slowly. "You want to sit down and have a chat. With a dragon."
"Oh! No, no. That didn't work well at all. Emotions were running high, Perilune may have been murdering its children, or maybe our ancestors did? Or both?" Yves shakes his head rapidly enough to make his piercings chime as his ears snap about. "That was not the time and place for that conversation. I just want to try chatting with the dragon's mask. See if we can all be a bit more calm now, if maybe any other mask has some input, or could vouch for us so far."
"Uh-huh." She still seems unconvinced. "What's the worst that could happen?" she asks, not rhetorically.
Yves pauses to give this some serious thought. "...probably not anything that couldn't happen /without/ me talking to the mask, or masks," he says, at last. "Whatever powers they might have or lack while in this mask form, I can't see a conversation with them--or at them, not a lot of return conversation so far--changing that significantly. And we know from having seen the ones in those cases before that putting several in close proximity doesn't seem to raise the threat, or their power, or... anything, that I can tell. Unless. Uh. I mean. I don't THINK it's like I could say anything that would make them... somehow more threatening. Not that I would say. Not compared to how angry the dragon was already." He clears his throat. "...do you?"
Isa's expression says that she made it about halfway through the clauses washing over her before giving up. "Do I what?"
"You don't think that I would be likely to say something so upsetting, compared to how upset the dragon ALREADY is, that just talking to it would create a dangerous circumstance beyond any present already? Do you?" Yves clarifies.
Isa steps back from the door, opening it fully. "Honestly, I don't know." She turns away from Yves and heads over to one of the storage lockers built into the cabin walls. "I've never been clear on exactly what sets them off; it seems to be just existing in general. And I've been holding onto this one because we also don't seem to have a lot of consensus about what to do with them."
Yves follows Isa inside, pushing the door closed behind him with a foot. He has both his hands on the top and strap of his satchel, respectively. "When we were--when I--you know, when those trees that weren't trees gave me a mask, it was... I still don't know exactly how that's different. Compared to when we get masks from fighting things that seem to be trying to eat Perilune, not that I am entirely judging them for that, but please don't tell Linnet that. But. It still seems like it matters, there? That they gave me that one. That they could choose. That there's... some sort of choice being made, whether to be hostile or try to ask for help. Especially given how choice worked and didn't work with the Crystal, back when, and how it was, uh, powered, and..." He trails off. "I don't know how to quite say any of this, because I don't know it myself yet, but some of these things feel like they fit together."
"You're going to have to forgive me, Yves," Isa says. "but I wasn't there for the trees. I was busy getting screamed at by a living storm that swore it wouldn't be caged again. Ah, here we are," she says, pulling a locked strongbox out of the locker.
"Oh, right!" Yves says. "With our ride leaving and then the new ship and the very angry storm and everything, I might not have gone into a lot of detail about that." He visibly attempts to come up with a summary version. "...I walked into a forest of weirdly warm tree roots and vines, which wrote out words by rearranging themselves as best they could, and then they gave me a mask. I have notes. I'll make copies if you'd like to look over that."
"I won't understand them," Isa says bluntly. "So here's the deal. No, I'm not going to let you borrow the mask. But if you want to try to make contact with it, let's go. Somewhere not my room. Or around other people. And when I say back in the box, it goes back in the box."
"That seems fair," Yves says. "My room, or somewhere else on the ship?"
"One of the aft holds should be empty, unless the actors have started expanding again."
"Not into ALL of them. Yet. I think." Yves spins around to lead the way before Isa changes her mind, or a musical number gets involved.
A few minutes later, in the aft hold... This particular space has not yet been taken over by actors, though there are some suspicious bolts of cloth in a corner that could mark an incipient invasion. Perhaps the costumers are trying to stake a claim before anyone turns it into another rehearsal zone. Yves walks into the center of the hold, and does a quick 360 turn to check for napping musicians or the like. "Ready when you are."
Isa nods, and sets the strongbox down in the exact center of the hold. She fiddles with the lock for a moment and after the latch pops open, takes a good half-dozen paces back before giving Yves the "go ahead" wave.
Yves tucks his hands behind his back, and stares down into the box. "Hello," he says, cautiously. "I thought I should introduce myself, since you might be with us for a while, depending on how everything goes. I'm Yves Mrjwin, and I shot a lot of lightning at you during that last fight. We didn't know very much then about what Perilune was doing--you know, the one you attacked--but I've been getting more information on that."
He then pauses in case there's going to be some sort of response.
the starscourge lies to protect her own The words scribble themselves in the air, and then are gone.
"Oh!" Yves brightens. "See, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I mean. Maybe not that exact information, but I thought... if we can talk about our actual goals, maybe we can find a better way to work together without anyone getting..........." He casts a sidelong look at Isa, and concludes, "more dead than necessary."
"Well that's encouraging," Isa lies.
"Do you want me to introduce you to?" Yves whispers to Isa.
Isa shakes her head. "I don't think we have much to say to each other right now."
Yves clears his throat, and continues accordingly. "You see, you're not the only... person of your type... that we've met. But we didn't set out to hurt anyone. We thought maybe people like you were attacking for no reason, or no reason we could understand. And maybe even if we understand why you're so angry, we still can't fix those reasons, because we can't change the past. But I hoped we could find a way forward that would be good for you, and your people, without being.... like... the part where you tried to kill us all."
Yves makes sure to pause periodically, in case there's more input from the dragon.
destroy the starscourge
destroy those who would return us to bondage
destroy those who would enslave us again "Um, okay, so," Yves says. "I'm not committing to any destroying right off, because I'm trying to be an ethical person, and it turns out it's easy but bad to just destroy things at the drop of a firing pin. But! I will definitely take these desires of yours into account, and I would like to try to keep you from being enslaved." He hesitates a moment, with another quick glance at Isa, then asks, "If I take out another mask, can you talk to any of the others? ...are you lonely?"
There is no answer to that, but the air crackles with repressed eagerness.
"Maybe the one you say volunteered," Isa recommends.
Yves nods, and draws a wooden mask out of his satchel. "I met these trees in a place with a very angry storm," he says, "but the trees, or whatever seemed to be trees, were willing to talk. And they gave me this." He holds up the mask where the dragon's mask could see it, if it were a face with eyes in about the place one would expect, and vice versa. "This is a dragon we met recently," he explains to the wooden mask, in turn. "That encounter was very upsetting on all sides, but I'm hoping we can do better going forward."
The letters write themselves slowly, almost mournfully.
golem "Is that its name?" Yves asks anxiously. "Do you know it personally? Can... can you tell if it's okay? Or if it could become more okay, if we did something right?" He whispers to the wooden mask, "I hope you're okay with this too. Haven't gotten a lot of feedback on your point of view on this since way back when, so wiggle or speak or something if you want to go back away."
golem waits
as do we all
until we can free again
beneath the light of the stars
free from the tyranny of the moon
"...would this freedom take you all away from where we are?" Yves asks. "I'd like to support freedom and a lack of tyranny, but I should be honest, here, I'm going to have some questions if your idea of freedom is like it was when we first met. Free to be yourself, great, I'd like to find a way. Free to kill me and my friends, not so much."
The mask has no reply.
"Definitely sounds a little one-sided for building a rapport," Isa points out.
Yves sighs. "You're not wrong. I don't have a lot to offer, and sort of vague goals, compared to the dragon. Do you think Golem would be happier being in a box, or should I keep it with me for now, with Cinnabar's mask? I don't know if proximity matters to them in this form, but..." He shrugs woefully.
the sun
show golem the sun "Oh!" Yves says. "Sure, I can do that. Just as soon as we handle this next thing coming up that's a bit time sensitive, I can take Golem outside for some good sunlight. Really, I should've thought of that myself, because of the tree connection."
"I think we're probably good for tonight, Yves. Long day tomorrow," Isa says.
Yves nods, and tucks the wooden mask back in his bag. "Let me know if there's anything other than destroying that I can do for you to make you more comfortable for now," he tells the dragon mask, "and I'll look into it."