They fall, but it's okay--Alisaie instinctively grabs for Taf, curling around him and protecting her head. Their landing is hard, but that's okay too; she's taken enough falls in her life to know how to get back up and keep going.
What isn't okay? Alphinaud's words. On the mountain she'd been suspicious in spite of them (something had happened to him in Krankaz to make him worry about her while he'd been gone; how could she be sure this wasn't a similar trap?) but when he mentions Esmerie, when he mentions being taken--]
Oh, gods--Alphinaud!
[Sorry, van Zieks, that's a distraction so unfortunately you're not getting thanked for helping her to her feet; instead she lunges forward to try and pull out of his grip before turning back toward him, pleading.]
You must hear them now, yes? We have to help them!
[ alphinaud's voice turns frightened, and desperate, as if hearing you call for him, alisaie. is it true? is it you? alisaie! please! please, they took her, i don't know where she is! it's so dark, i can't -
iris wails softly. she's lost, she doesn't know how she got here. she can't see, she can't, she can't find hurley, he's been gone for so long. please come back, hurley! please! i'm scared!
there's no way to return to the surface. there's nothing but darkness behind you, in this massive tunnel. the only way to go is forward, towards the light, or backwards, in to the dark.
you have to make a decision. it's hard to pinpoint which direction these cries for help are coming from. ]
That isn't- It has to be a trick, miss Leveilleur. That voice, it's-it can't be. Iris wasn't with us before. I'm certain.... [he isn't. But someone has to be, and he's the adult here. Adelheid, now a cat, meows loudly into the darkness.]
No--you don't understand! [She could scream, desperate--he needs to understand--]
They were brought here. The Angels took them; they brought them here because of us--
[She breaks off, looking away from van Zieks, as if maybe she can see something--anything--in the blackness of her vision. Taf, still in his black-footed cat form, is crying mournfully into the darkness around them, padding back and forth before racing back to her and leaping, latching onto her dress with his claws and climbing his way back up to his perch on her shoulder.]
[ silence, from alphinaud's voice, but not deathly so. it's the silence of someone trying to compose themselves, before - no. no, are you near light? alisaie, it's so dark here...
but at all of the voices, there's less silence. iris cries out, some fragment of hope in her voice - she is so small, but she tries to put her all into calling out, voice starting to go hoarse with how long she's been crying and pleading. please, please! i-is there someone? i don't know where i am!
the light is still ahead. the darkness is still behind.
[van Zieks' question will go unanswered for now, unfortunately. With a direction given, Alisaie's breaking into a run... that lasts only a few short paces before she realizes that running into the darkness might be a step too far even for her right now; she'd be liable to run right off the edge of something were she unlucky.
So instead she turns back to van Zieks, gesturing for him.]
I cannot do this alone; we must needs work together if we're to find them.
[ this is such a bad idea in most circumstances, but what's a little extra darkness when you're already blind?
they're still calling out. iris answers with an immediate y-yes! here, i'm here! to van zieks, with the dawning realization that someone has heard her, and it's someone that knows her.
[He's so conflicted. He knows this has to be a trick. But.]
We can't go too far. They'll have to try to come this way too. If we can't meet with them... [They will have to give up. He will follow after Alisaie, keeping a hand on her shoulder so he doesn't lose her. Adelheid is keeping up the rear, and in fact, once they hit a point where the light seems almost too far to see, she stops. Turns back into an eagle and digs her claws in. Van Zieks keeps going, as far as he can, and then pushes a little further. He can take a little pain.]
miss Iris! Please, come this way! Follow my voice! This is the way out!
[She doesn't respond. She can't--won't--give up; not like this. But she'll join him in shouting out to them, even as she keeps pressing forward, listening for the slightest shift in sound. Taf's vision is so much better than theirs; he can continue to guide them, right?]
[ the bond pulls. it pinches, at first, before it begins to burn at a point in van ziek's sternum. it's agony, isn't it? to be pulling yourself apart at the seams, to pull at your heart and ask it to be left behind. it's like grieving all over again for your brother, a sense of loss and betrayal sitting just at the tip of the tongue. adelheid is your heart, your soul, your entire self - why would you part from her? why would you put yourself through that suffering?
but it's iris. and she weeps, says i'll try! and that's all.
and your soul is your own, alisaie. taftosimi will lead you as best he can, and he has been with your your whole life - even if you've never met him, before now - but. but isn't alphinaud your true other half? don't you know your brother like you know your own mind? he sounds so tired. he sounds frightened. do you remember the last time he was so frightened? and if his own soul is missing, then what does that mean for him?
[Van Zieks grimaces, a pained noise escaping him despite himself, hand clutching at his chest. Adelheid lets out a sharp bird cry, but she's staying put, because she's as determined and diligent as van Zieks. She's staying here so they don't lose sight of the light.
He's trying to go further, but it's impossible, he's sure if he takes another step, he won't be able to bear it.]
m-miss Leveilleur, I cannot... We cannot go any further in. [His grip on her shoulder tightens as he weathers the pain of separation.]
[ adelheid waits. adelheid can still see the light. they aren't so far now that they can't turn back, can't still see a destination somewhere beyond this place.
taf can make out a few shapes ahead. stone, and more stone, the wall, an unending and winding path. there is no movement there. nothing but darkness.
van zieks' bond strains, like a thread drawn so thin that it may snap. alisaie's heart must remain as strong as she has ever been brave.
n-no, alisaie, she's... and he trails off, voice shaking on it. iris hiccups, but it's hard to say if she's coming. ]
[Iris.... He wants to go further. Sholmes has told him not to feel guilty. It's not his fault. But even so, he wasn't there for her, has done nothing to help care for her, his own kin. And here is a chance to help, and he can do nothing?
But he can't go any further from Adelheid. His knees feel weak. He wants to run back to her as much as he wants to run further in towards Iris. Adelheid cries again, and it's like a knife in his chest. Calling for him, mournfully.]
Please... [He doesn't even know what he's asking for. He just wants the situation to change from what it is right now.]
[It's not him. It's not him. It's not him it's not him it's not him it's not him it's--
She staggers back with the weight of the realization, Taf letting out a sudden strangled meow as he turns and races back toward them. She pushes her arm to the side--the wall, a rock, something she can use to balance--and in spite of her inability to see her entire world is dizzying, sudden vertigo, her thoughts fragmented and colliding.
They all know that killing one's daemon kills the soul now; it's what happened to Revali, was it not? And certainly, maybe the Angels can sever that tether, can kill a daemon without killing the person.... But Alisaie has had too many encounters with those who wear a man's body, living or dead. She's seen the empty crypt of one such body.]
He's gone.
[Alphinaud has always been the true other half of her soul, even before Taftosimi and Esmerie. In spite of their arguments and how much they strove to be their own individuals--how she left on her own for months without him and ventured on her own--she doesn't know what it's like to not have that connection to her twin. Who is she without him backing her up?
It's several long seconds before her mind and her heart both finally settle, and Alisaie kneels to scoop Taf up into her arms, as though it might comfort them both. When she finally speaks, turning back toward van Zieks, he might recognize the steeliness of her tone from another time.]
You are correct, van Zieks. Even if the Angels did bring them down here, that voice is no longer my brother--if it ever were.
[This is going to destroy her. But she's going to turn, reaching out for van Zieks with one hand... and she's going to walk away.]
his voice calls out, as you abandon your brother to the dark. alphinaud is miserable, and frightened, and knows not what to do. how can he reach you? where have you gone?
why are you leaving? alisaie, alisaie, sister, why why why why ẅ̴͎́h̵͍͑ẏ̸̪ ̶͎̋w̴̡̛h̶̝͐y̶̟̅ ̷̛̞ẅ̴̦ḧ̵̯́y̷̟͒ ̶̹̽ẅ̶̟́h̵̗͐y̴͈̍ ̷̥̎w̵̹͝h̶̳͗y̵̜͌w̴̦̓h̵͚͐y̶̝̏w̴̨̍h̸̊͜ẏ̴̳w̵̻̃h̴̹̽y̶͇̒w̵̬͊h̸̳̾y̸̛͔
van zieks, can you abandon her again? after all, where have you been? who are you to call this child you kin? even as your brother's blood, does it matter? you are nothing but a stranger to this little girl, a genius in her own right, the detective's keeper.
but she is still a little girl. she is still klint's little girl, the last vestige of the man you knew, before the truth came out.
[Some part of him is relieved, really. But also... how cruel. You can handle it, of course. But to torment Alisaie in this way?
Still. She's resolved, so he won't pity her. Rather, instead, he hastens their pace, back towards Adelheid, where she is crying for him, shrinking to a cat to make more plaintive noises, and then, as he's almost broken into a run, the return to where she was waiting, and she leaps into his grasp, and he's clutching her to his chest, breathing heavily, a half choked back sob escaping between shuddered breaths as he murmurs, urgently;]
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... [To Adelheid, to the memory of Klint the separation evoked, and the specter of Iris he has to leave behind. He cannot go blindly into the dark. He just can't. That darkness swallowed Klint, consumed him, when he was meant to be the light that struck it out. The arrangements for Iris had been made to protect her from that same darkness, and yet now here she is, drowning in it, alone. The people he couldn't save, couldn't protect, couldn't help, and his own heart he can only seem to hurt, mewing pitifully against his chest.
Anyway love how Alisaie probably has no idea any of this daemon separation even happened.]
[Yeah she's got no clue but she can hear the emotion in his voice, the cries of Adelheid, and she knows she's not the only one suffering from this.
This place is cruel. And her brother's cries are still in her ears as she walks; for the first time she regrets the exchange she made to regain the full range of her sensitive hearing. Because this is hell.]
Be quiet, Alphinaud! It's not you!
[Her voice breaks, but she presses on, gritting her teeth. It isn't her brother that awaits them back there--Ascian or Angel, Alphinaud will never let her hear the end of it if she falls into their trap.
Even if never letting her hear the end of it is a lifetime away.
van Zieks and Adelheid seem to be doing little better, but she pauses beside him to try and gather her wits.]
Let us quit this place. We've heard more than enough.
[ their voices are all the more wracked for the abandonment, tortured and miserable and frightened.
but, they are only voices that you will have to live with. such wretched things, and that is all.
(the fear of the unknown will break your hearts in twain. is blood truly so thick? is there any weight in what you've done?)
(maybe you won't have to live with it.)
the light beckons.
when you step into it, there's barren waste, here, with bleached trees like bones everywhere. any other semblance of life is dry and dead. no grass grows green, the river is dry...
even a familiar tree, massive, petrified and reaching like praying hands towards the heavens above. ]
[Adelheid is still clutched to his chest. She may never leave, for fear of being separated again. At least they are out in the light now. Away from those voices.]
We need to.... we must find out way back to the others. [A little hoarsely, looking tiredly around at the Bone Trees. The Mourning Wood, if you will.]
[It's hard to focus, a part of her crying out that they need to go back even as she's certain they can't, they won't. Alisaie squeezes her eyes shut and scowls, forcing it down--there will be time for grief later. Right now, they have other things to focus on.
(But not more important; never more important.)
Taf gives a little growl from her arms. It's time to put it behind them and move forward. For those they can still yet save.]
Yet while we're here, we must also needs look for aught that we can bring back with us. There is a reason we're being shown these things, if we can but put the pieces together...
[At least, that's the fucking hope. Because if not, then what is this all for? The entertainment of the Angels?
No. She's placing her trust in Alphinaud for now. So with Taf guiding her from her arms, Alisaie steps further into the light.
...]
Have you the camera you gave me last week? It may serve us well to capture these images.
[clearly they've got all the time in the world here; the rowdy boys will be fi--smash cut to the rowdy boys being very Not Fine]
[ ali̧saie͟... ́a͡l̛isa͝i҉e,̀ ąl͠isa͡įe n̷o͟!̀ ́s͡íster̶, plea͠se̢, i ̴c̴an't ͝be ̀alone!҉ ͟wh̶y ͏a̛re you ͟l̴eaving̴ -
alphinaud's voice echoes at your backs. iris screams for help, heaves and sobs and surely must shake with it. pl͡eas̢e..̧! ple̵a͘se͢,̀ i'̨m sca̵re̕d..!͝ ̧h͏ur̸ļe͘y!̷ ͞anyo̵ne͡!̀
and then, that's all there is. it's silent, in this desolate garden.
your daemons are with you, at the very least, and you are together for now. best to take stock of your surroundings. whatever this place was, once, it must have been glorious. great columns and broken walls of stone cradle the place, a paradise no longer protected. surely there must have been a forest, for all the trees that once stood here, not even including the one left standing against time. the riverbed is empty of water and life alike, filled with stone and bone alike, as if it washed away what poor creatures called this place home, a long time ago, before becoming their grave.
the night sky is awash with stars, moonlight so bright and clouds so thin that there's no way you aren't able to make out every detail. perhaps a photo would take?
[Adelheid is Right and Correct. But poor Ziekers is really with the wrong person if he wants to retreat. Alisaie shakes her head, setting off toward the massive tree.]
We can't yet. Alphinaud-- [She stops, takes a breath. She can't hear his voice any more but the idea that he's gonegonegonegone still makes her feel like her heart is going to split in two--] --Alphinaud had a theory about these places. About what we're meant to find.
I can't leave him behind and not follow up on his ideas.
[Please don't make her.]
If... if you're injured, pray rest a moment. [She turns back toward him, but isn't looking up at him. Now that they're out of the cavern, away from the voices, what she heard is filtering through even if she doesn't know what it meant.]
I heard your pain. I can investigate while you recover, if you wish.
[But she's investigating, one way or another. Even if it means sending van Zieks on his own to regroup with the others.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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They fall, but it's okay--Alisaie instinctively grabs for Taf, curling around him and protecting her head. Their landing is hard, but that's okay too; she's taken enough falls in her life to know how to get back up and keep going.
What isn't okay? Alphinaud's words. On the mountain she'd been suspicious in spite of them (something had happened to him in Krankaz to make him worry about her while he'd been gone; how could she be sure this wasn't a similar trap?) but when he mentions Esmerie, when he mentions being taken--]
Oh, gods--Alphinaud!
[Sorry, van Zieks, that's a distraction so unfortunately you're not getting thanked for helping her to her feet; instead she lunges forward to try and pull out of his grip before turning back toward him, pleading.]
You must hear them now, yes? We have to help them!
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iris wails softly. she's lost, she doesn't know how she got here. she can't see, she can't, she can't find hurley, he's been gone for so long. please come back, hurley! please! i'm scared!
there's no way to return to the surface. there's nothing but darkness behind you, in this massive tunnel. the only way to go is forward, towards the light, or backwards, in to the dark.
you have to make a decision. it's hard to pinpoint which direction these cries for help are coming from. ]
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[he isn't. But someone has to be, and he's the adult here. Adelheid, now a cat, meows loudly into the darkness.]
We have to keep going. Towards the light.
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They were brought here. The Angels took them; they brought them here because of us--
[She breaks off, looking away from van Zieks, as if maybe she can see something--anything--in the blackness of her vision. Taf, still in his black-footed cat form, is crying mournfully into the darkness around them, padding back and forth before racing back to her and leaping, latching onto her dress with his claws and climbing his way back up to his perch on her shoulder.]
Alphinaud? Do you see light?!
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but at all of the voices, there's less silence. iris cries out, some fragment of hope in her voice - she is so small, but she tries to put her all into calling out, voice starting to go hoarse with how long she's been crying and pleading. please, please! i-is there someone? i don't know where i am!
the light is still ahead. the darkness is still behind.
what do you do? ]
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... Where did you come up with that idea?
[He's hesitating. He knows he shouldn't engage with this. But.]
miss Iris! Can you hear me?
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[van Zieks' question will go unanswered for now, unfortunately. With a direction given, Alisaie's breaking into a run... that lasts only a few short paces before she realizes that running into the darkness might be a step too far even for her right now; she'd be liable to run right off the edge of something were she unlucky.
So instead she turns back to van Zieks, gesturing for him.]
I cannot do this alone; we must needs work together if we're to find them.
[So come on, let's go, they're wasting time!!]
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they're still calling out. iris answers with an immediate y-yes! here, i'm here! to van zieks, with the dawning realization that someone has heard her, and it's someone that knows her.
but you've picked the darkness. proceed? ]
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We can't go too far. They'll have to try to come this way too. If we can't meet with them...
[They will have to give up. He will follow after Alisaie, keeping a hand on her shoulder so he doesn't lose her. Adelheid is keeping up the rear, and in fact, once they hit a point where the light seems almost too far to see, she stops. Turns back into an eagle and digs her claws in. Van Zieks keeps going, as far as he can, and then pushes a little further. He can take a little pain.]
miss Iris! Please, come this way! Follow my voice! This is the way out!
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Alphinaud, can you come toward us?
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but it's iris. and she weeps, says i'll try! and that's all.
and your soul is your own, alisaie. taftosimi will lead you as best he can, and he has been with your your whole life - even if you've never met him, before now - but. but isn't alphinaud your true other half? don't you know your brother like you know your own mind? he sounds so tired. he sounds frightened. do you remember the last time he was so frightened? and if his own soul is missing, then what does that mean for him?
i - i fear i can't, sister - ]
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He's trying to go further, but it's impossible, he's sure if he takes another step, he won't be able to bear it.]
m-miss Leveilleur, I cannot... We cannot go any further in.
[His grip on her shoulder tightens as he weathers the pain of separation.]
This way!
[Calling out to Iris. Please.]
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Alphinaud... can you--
[Oh, gods, what will she do if he says no?]
--Can you feel her still? Can you feel Esmerie's link?
[Please let him say yes. He has to say yes.]
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taf can make out a few shapes ahead. stone, and more stone, the wall, an unending and winding path. there is no movement there. nothing but darkness.
van zieks' bond strains, like a thread drawn so thin that it may snap. alisaie's heart must remain as strong as she has ever been brave.
n-no, alisaie, she's... and he trails off, voice shaking on it. iris hiccups, but it's hard to say if she's coming. ]
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But he can't go any further from Adelheid. His knees feel weak. He wants to run back to her as much as he wants to run further in towards Iris. Adelheid cries again, and it's like a knife in his chest. Calling for him, mournfully.]
Please...
[He doesn't even know what he's asking for. He just wants the situation to change from what it is right now.]
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She staggers back with the weight of the realization, Taf letting out a sudden strangled meow as he turns and races back toward them. She pushes her arm to the side--the wall, a rock, something she can use to balance--and in spite of her inability to see her entire world is dizzying, sudden vertigo, her thoughts fragmented and colliding.
They all know that killing one's daemon kills the soul now; it's what happened to Revali, was it not? And certainly, maybe the Angels can sever that tether, can kill a daemon without killing the person.... But Alisaie has had too many encounters with those who wear a man's body, living or dead. She's seen the empty crypt of one such body.]
He's gone.
[Alphinaud has always been the true other half of her soul, even before Taftosimi and Esmerie. In spite of their arguments and how much they strove to be their own individuals--how she left on her own for months without him and ventured on her own--she doesn't know what it's like to not have that connection to her twin. Who is she without him backing her up?
It's several long seconds before her mind and her heart both finally settle, and Alisaie kneels to scoop Taf up into her arms, as though it might comfort them both. When she finally speaks, turning back toward van Zieks, he might recognize the steeliness of her tone from another time.]
You are correct, van Zieks. Even if the Angels did bring them down here, that voice is no longer my brother--if it ever were.
[This is going to destroy her. But she's going to turn, reaching out for van Zieks with one hand... and she's going to walk away.]
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his voice calls out, as you abandon your brother to the dark. alphinaud is miserable, and frightened, and knows not what to do. how can he reach you? where have you gone?
why are you leaving? alisaie, alisaie, sister, why why why why ẅ̴͎́h̵͍͑ẏ̸̪ ̶͎̋w̴̡̛h̶̝͐y̶̟̅ ̷̛̞ẅ̴̦ḧ̵̯́y̷̟͒ ̶̹̽ẅ̶̟́h̵̗͐y̴͈̍ ̷̥̎w̵̹͝h̶̳͗y̵̜͌w̴̦̓h̵͚͐y̶̝̏w̴̨̍h̸̊͜ẏ̴̳w̵̻̃h̴̹̽y̶͇̒w̵̬͊h̸̳̾y̸̛͔
van zieks, can you abandon her again? after all, where have you been? who are you to call this child you kin? even as your brother's blood, does it matter? you are nothing but a stranger to this little girl, a genius in her own right, the detective's keeper.
but she is still a little girl. she is still klint's little girl, the last vestige of the man you knew, before the truth came out.
she sobs, in her little voice, and asks
please don't go... i'm scared... ]
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Still. She's resolved, so he won't pity her. Rather, instead, he hastens their pace, back towards Adelheid, where she is crying for him, shrinking to a cat to make more plaintive noises, and then, as he's almost broken into a run, the return to where she was waiting, and she leaps into his grasp, and he's clutching her to his chest, breathing heavily, a half choked back sob escaping between shuddered breaths as he murmurs, urgently;]
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...
[To Adelheid, to the memory of Klint the separation evoked, and the specter of Iris he has to leave behind. He cannot go blindly into the dark. He just can't. That darkness swallowed Klint, consumed him, when he was meant to be the light that struck it out. The arrangements for Iris had been made to protect her from that same darkness, and yet now here she is, drowning in it, alone. The people he couldn't save, couldn't protect, couldn't help, and his own heart he can only seem to hurt, mewing pitifully against his chest.
Anyway love how Alisaie probably has no idea any of this daemon separation even happened.]
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This place is cruel. And her brother's cries are still in her ears as she walks; for the first time she regrets the exchange she made to regain the full range of her sensitive hearing. Because this is hell.]
Be quiet, Alphinaud! It's not you!
[Her voice breaks, but she presses on, gritting her teeth. It isn't her brother that awaits them back there--Ascian or Angel, Alphinaud will never let her hear the end of it if she falls into their trap.
Even if never letting her hear the end of it is a lifetime away.
van Zieks and Adelheid seem to be doing little better, but she pauses beside him to try and gather her wits.]
Let us quit this place. We've heard more than enough.
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but, they are only voices that you will have to live with. such wretched things, and that is all.
(the fear of the unknown will break your hearts in twain. is blood truly so thick? is there any weight in what you've done?)
(maybe you won't have to live with it.)
the light beckons.
when you step into it, there's barren waste, here, with bleached trees like bones everywhere. any other semblance of life is dry and dead. no grass grows green, the river is dry...
even a familiar tree, massive, petrified and reaching like praying hands towards the heavens above. ]
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We need to.... we must find out way back to the others.
[A little hoarsely, looking tiredly around at the Bone Trees. The Mourning Wood, if you will.]
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[It's hard to focus, a part of her crying out that they need to go back even as she's certain they can't, they won't. Alisaie squeezes her eyes shut and scowls, forcing it down--there will be time for grief later. Right now, they have other things to focus on.
(But not more important; never more important.)
Taf gives a little growl from her arms. It's time to put it behind them and move forward. For those they can still yet save.]
Yet while we're here, we must also needs look for aught that we can bring back with us. There is a reason we're being shown these things, if we can but put the pieces together...
[At least, that's the fucking hope. Because if not, then what is this all for? The entertainment of the Angels?
No. She's placing her trust in Alphinaud for now. So with Taf guiding her from her arms, Alisaie steps further into the light.
...]
Have you the camera you gave me last week? It may serve us well to capture these images.
[clearly they've got all the time in the world here; the rowdy boys will be fi--smash cut to the rowdy boys being very Not Fine]
no subject
alphinaud's voice echoes at your backs. iris screams for help, heaves and sobs and surely must shake with it. pl͡eas̢e..̧! ple̵a͘se͢,̀ i'̨m sca̵re̕d..!͝ ̧h͏ur̸ļe͘y!̷ ͞anyo̵ne͡!̀
and then, that's all there is. it's silent, in this desolate garden.
your daemons are with you, at the very least, and you are together for now. best to take stock of your surroundings. whatever this place was, once, it must have been glorious. great columns and broken walls of stone cradle the place, a paradise no longer protected. surely there must have been a forest, for all the trees that once stood here, not even including the one left standing against time. the riverbed is empty of water and life alike, filled with stone and bone alike, as if it washed away what poor creatures called this place home, a long time ago, before becoming their grave.
the night sky is awash with stars, moonlight so bright and clouds so thin that there's no way you aren't able to make out every detail. perhaps a photo would take?
where do you go? ]
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I do. I captured some images of the mural we saw in town, as well.
[He slides another film cartridge in and takes a picture of the vista.]
We should follow the riverbed, I think. Back up to the source. That might lead us up and out of this place so we can find Mr Okumura and Mr Kijima.
[Adelheid is tucking into his shirt collar as a harvestman, still unwilling to be physically separate from van Zieks.]
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We can't yet. Alphinaud-- [She stops, takes a breath. She can't hear his voice any more but the idea that he's gonegonegonegone still makes her feel like her heart is going to split in two--] --Alphinaud had a theory about these places. About what we're meant to find.
I can't leave him behind and not follow up on his ideas.
[Please don't make her.]
If... if you're injured, pray rest a moment. [She turns back toward him, but isn't looking up at him. Now that they're out of the cavern, away from the voices, what she heard is filtering through even if she doesn't know what it meant.]
I heard your pain. I can investigate while you recover, if you wish.
[But she's investigating, one way or another. Even if it means sending van Zieks on his own to regroup with the others.]
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