Originally Posted by
grampagen
When the vision from Banespell's mind had parted, receding back into reality from the cruelties of the past was like moving into the dark from a burning light, and the images of those they'd thought to be heroes had been in their minds likewise mottled with a spread of dancing shadows, for the memory was still fresh and would not soon be forgotten.
"...that was Zxu'ro." Zaofan was reeling, obviously starstruck. "The real Zxu'ro! I mean, we've met young 'Ro, kind of, but wow! And did you see Vocado?!" He paused for a moment when he realized they'd probably met Kyuubi. "The Kitani Guardian! She looks exactly like her, no way that's a coincidence, either! I mean, they're shapeshifters, right? I've got half a mind to take the first Stargate back over there..."
And on he went, the chef picking through each and every little thing he saw, sifting through to find the missing ingredient.
"...the level of power being thrown around, that might never be enough, but that's not what it was about, I know that's for sure now! But the cost..."
Ochazuke, for his part, had long grown silent, and the moment the shared memory ended Banespell's fall to the withered Forger before him seemed far more apparent. The master craftsman would never hold or touch any aspect of his former craft ever again. He reached for his last masterwork, laid upon the table before him, and when he lift it, it seemed strangely light and hollow.
When Parsley asked if he could see the smoke, he nodded. "However...it may not be able to be removed by any direct means." As it was under the President, it shrouded and obscured something, and yet similarly to his companion, his curiosity had been stoked.
The event had occurred. That could not be hidden, but why would Alakazah let him remember this, but obscure the curse, unless he had something to hide?
Yet he had stood in front of the cursed smoke once himself. Sickly, intoxicating, it clung to everything like fine ash and opium tar, trying to part that veil would be a futile as it would be lethal. For a moment, Ochazuke turned Kyokushin Keihatsu upon the smith's tool he held in his hand; he'd seen a memory of Heka, felt the impression of what it should mean, and sought to see and understand what this strange essence was for himself.
That Man did not levy his curse based on nothing. The smoke is to diffuse his message, it must be contained and adhere to some desire.
To that end, to part the fog that remained in Caladash Banespell's mind, Ochazuke sought to appeal to something that might pull it out.
"Strangely, long before you made your move on those who would use the Dragonballs for good, you'd also caught the eye of one Majin Auroc. He'd heard of the Palatine, by name if not deeds, but was always at a distance," he started, "The First Race, the Kitani, The Oni, Saiyans, Humans, Darklings, in one way or another our group has met them and seen what they'd left behind...save one."
As he examined the hammer, perhaps in vain, for some small remnant of...something, he then spoke her name.
"Tell me about Cleos."