Clothes Make the Man

[Luther]

28th - Cylus - 719

Luther sat in front of the display which held up his longcoat on display. And it was his longcoat, no matter what the clothier who owned the shop said to inquiring customers. He had worn that fine apparel throughout all of his life, and before him his grandfather had worn it as a remnant of his military career. He could still remember being a youth and seeing his grandfather wear it for the first time; it seemed to wind the clock on his elder's life back arcs. The old man's back straightened, his stride lengthened, and a fire lit in his eyes that he had never seen before in any of his family. With that longcoat on, adorned with rank and symbol of the Eternal Empire, Luther swore his grandfather could have stared down a legion of Yari mercenaries without flinching. The trial Luther inherited that storied piece of clothing from his family's elder was one of the dearest memories the man had in his life.

Now, through some manner of circumstance that remained a mystery to Luther, it lay on the shoulders of some mannequin instead of his. That, he had decided, would not stand.

Smoke trailed after Luther as he rose from the floor of the secondhand shop, the thick black air a constant companion of his in both the Beneath and the living world. Slowly, cautiously, he placed a single hand on the shoulder of the coat, and was almost brought to his knees for the effort. Memories of life flooded his mind, bittersweet and intoxicating, and Luther was almost lost in its mournful embrace. He could feel the shadows of his family through the longcoat, smell the earth of their faraway farm and hear the cries of his brothers as they called to him. He wanted to go to them so bad, and he wanted to stay within the shifting sense-impressions of his memories.

Yet he knew he was only grasping at phantasms, and, despite how much he yearned for the opposite to prove true, he knew his family to be dead. They were taken from him by both mortal and Immortal hands.

Tears began to sting the edges of his eyes, but Luther forced his mind to remain on task. If he could shove back the aching memories of his family, he would never be able to carry their legacy on his shoulders as his grandfather once did. Attempting to grip the longcoat in order to remove it from the mannequin, Luther found his hands unable to make purchase on the apparel. He could feel the texture of the leather of the wool, but he couldn't seem to force his hands to solidly handle the object. Biting his lip, the Echo attempted to put his mind towards solving this puzzle.

Ghosts like him were creatures of the Beneath, and while they could interact with the living world they would never truly be part of it. The longcoat was a creation of the living world, not of the Beneath, so Luther doubted he could normally interact with it. However, the apparel was the only anchor Luther had to the world of the living, and simply being around it was enough to make him feel a semblance of life again. So, perhaps because of his attachment to it, he might be able to will the longcoat to interact with him by remembering what it was like to wear it while living?

Staring hard at the coat, Luther tried to remember the feeling of it on his shoulders. He summoned to his mind the secure warmth that it filled him with as he walked, how the fabric seemed to move with him and not because of him. How, whenever he wore it, it felt as if he was carrying with him the legacy of a hundred battles and a hundred victories. If he put his mind to it, Luther could almost feel the pride that filled his being the trial he inherited it from his grandfather.

The longcoat unwrapped itself from the mannequin and began to hover over towards Luther. Like a long lost friend, the coat approached him with an almost confused stride. Then, with what appeared to be confidence to the Echo, it rushed over to meet Luther's will. Floating idly before him, making the longcoat move felt like the first real victory Luther had while in the land of the living.

Now all he had to do was figure out how to get the damned thing on.

[Luther]

A rare smile curled across Luther's face as he made the longcoat dance before him. The golden trim of the military apparel cut a distinct figure as flitted about the secondhand shop, stopping only to pick up an abandoned and moth-eaten dress which lay in a bin. Supporting the dress with the length of its arm, the longcoat dipped and twirled the cloth as if it were a lord and its partner were some lady; the dusty and dingy atmosphere of the shop becoming their grand ballroom. Dropping its partner back off to the bin, the longcoat dropped low into an elegant bow in order to properly thank the dress for the dance.

A raspy laugh, dry and dark as coal, rumbled out of Luther's chest as he ordered the longcoat to once again remain still. It was a silly exercise in movement, but it helped further define the edges of his ability to manipulate his Anchor. He could make the object dance, roll, jump, fight, and seemingly perform any activity that Luther had been able to do in the apparel in life. He could not, however, push past that firm boundary of lived experience. While the coat floated idly before him, he could not make his Anchor fly about the room. He could only make the longcoat perform an action he could have in life, nothing more and nothing less.He had also noticed that the longer he maintained this connection of manipulation, the greater the strain holding that connection caused. Luther suspected that he might be able to order the coat to move for a few breaks at a time, but any amount of time longer than that would be pushing the strength of his spirit.

Still, despite all his efforts to understand the breadth of his ability to interact with his Anchor, Luther could not find a way to make the longcoat remain on him. Any time the Echo would attempt to don the article of clothing, it somehow managed to find a way slip off his shoulders and crumple onto the ground.Even now, reaching out to grasp his heritage, the damned coat would find a way to slip out of his grasp and Luther was instead met with another melancholic impression of living emotion. The form of his spirit refused to grasp onto the fabric, and no matter what angle of approach he attempted, that simple rule refused to be broken.

But Luther wondered if it couldn't be bent instead?

He focused on his fingers at first, remembering the strength they once had in them. He pictured the calluses and the scars that had accumulated on them from years of hard field work, feeling the roughness of their ridges will themselves into reality. The smoke which followed his every movement began to stiffen and slow, pooling around his fingertips before it sank down and stained his hands like charcoal. He reached out to grab the floating longcoat, and finally, he felt his fingers grip the fine fabric.

With a near-reverence, Luther wrapped the coat around his shoulders, shifting focus from only solidifying his hands to include his back. Working quickly secure the military apparel by clasping it’s buttons around his thin frame, Luther could feel relief wash over him as he finally had the longcoat secured around his phantom form. It had taken far too much effort to be considered reasonable, but he found undeath was rarely rational. Anchor firmly in his possession, the Echo could once again feel the familiar, bittersweet ache of emotion buzz the back of his brain.

This time, he didn’t fight the memories off. Instead, he sat in silence of the secondhand shop while it’s owner slept the night of the trial away. Luther remained there awhile, quiet tears occasionally slipping down his face as chased after the traces of his family found in the threads of a longcoat.

[Arlo Creede]

Luther

Knowledge:
Materialization- Solidfying requires focus
Materialization- Solidfying the fingers
Materialization- Solidifying the back
Materialization- Solidfying is replicating the memory of physical form
Materialization- Can only feel, not grab, when not solid
Discipline- Pushing past emotional pain

Non-Skill Knowledge:
Anchors- Source of emotional ectoplasm
Anchors- Can be moved like they were in life
Anchors- Maintaining movement drains ectoplasm

Points: 10 (these points may not be used for magic)

Comments: Very enjoyable read. The sense of melancholy and sentimentality attached to the coat, in contrast to Luther's determination was touching and believable. Well done.


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