godsfire

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

It is dark.

((Warning: Contains traumatized characters and other content that should be warned for. We will attempt to start keeping up-to-date specific warning list soon))

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[dotted_lines]

It is dark.

Maybe that portal was naturally occurring, and he's just in someone's house. Maybe not.

Steve moves as quietly as he can, just in case, as he reaches out to find a wall.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She does not know where she is or how she got there.

There are one and a half other people in the room, according to Thorn's infrared. She doesn't have IDs on either.

The whole one is moving in her direction.

She backs up until she hits wall, and presses against it, shaking, but it is still moving toward her.

For a moment, as it seems to ignore her, she isn't sure if it can see her, and then it touches her shoulder.

She knocks that away sharply with a blow and a shock from her eelware, and follows up by leveraging her body weight to knock her attacker over and onto the floor.

[dotted_lines]

He finds something, and barely has time to register that it is not a wall before he feels something hit his wrist, then he's being pushed to the ground.
What?


       Cooperate dammit Carlsberg, stop making everything so difficult


He doesn't fight back as he is pinned to the floor.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Well, that seems to be dealt with, if with surprising ease. Next priority: Where the hell is she?

Gravity is less than a fifth of a gee. The room is bare, with some indentations and raised areas on the walls, and something on part of the floor. The only other thing in the room is part of a cooling body.

There is too much shielding in the walls to let her see farther.

She looks back at her surprisingly cooperative captive, and squeaks. Is that -- yes, it definitely is.

Well -- he can just be let go, then. (Oh, she's shaking again. How useful). "Are you okay?" she murmurs from beside him when she has accomplished this.

[dotted_lines]

He knows that one. He doesn't try to escape. He holds as still as he can.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Dotted Lines," she manages, her panic creeping into her voice. "I d-don't--" her voice cracks, and she has to breathe deeply for a few moments. "Please be -- please be okay. At least a little," she whispers.

[dotted_lines]

He doesn't know this one, it's dark but there isn't contact, but there's noise and a location to track not unknown and hidden in darkness, and they are on the floor near him, talking and upset but not angry, calling him by the connections between people. What?

He swallows a few times to get his voice working -- his throat and face muscles shivering more than he'd expect -- then whispers "what?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Well, he can hear her, that's good (that is good, right?)

"I, I 'm sorry," she says. "I thought you were, were an exsurgent."

[dotted_lines]

What.

He slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position (why are his arms shaking so much?), ready to stop if he isn't actually allowed to do that.

That voice, he knows that voice, who is -- oh.

"Thorn?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn briefly debates helping him up, but concludes touching him is likely to startle him further (especially if he cannot see), so she simply makes sure he has enough room.

"Yes," she answers, when he speaks. Her voice is still shaking, but there's some relief in it now, too.

[dotted_lines]

He sits up the rest of the way, then wraps his arms around his knees and tries to make his hands hold still.

"Thorn, what's going on?" he asks, voice small.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"I don't know," Thorn admits, a bit of her earlier terror creeping into her voice. "We were in one of the most secure places in the solar system, and now we are... not there." Her voice skips at the end. She breathes deeply, trying to collect herself, and looks at Dotted Lines. After a moment, she asks quietly, "Do you want a hug?"

[dotted_lines]

He nods, then realizes that she couldn't have seen that. "Yes please."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

But when she scoots over and cautiously hugs him, it seems to be in response to the nod. (Based on her lack of fumbling around in the dark, she also seems to know exactly where he is.)

[dotted_lines]

... She can see in the dark, can't she. Or navigate by smell or sound or emotional aura. She is not doing anything unexpected or hostile with this ability, she is his friend. He tenses a little, then consciously relaxes and hugs back.

"Do portals ever happen naturally, here?" he asks Thorn's shoulder.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She goes absolutely still when he tenses, but relaxes when he hugs back, and clings a little.

"Not that I know of. --Well, the Pandora Gates, possibly, but we are fairly certain those are artificial, and there was, there was not one there."

[dotted_lines]

"So we were probably brought here then. On purpose. Do you have any idea who? Or what they want?" He hugs her a little tighter.

"If they planned to drop us in the dark, why are we together and not alone? Or-" He freezes, then whispers "Thorn, can you tell, is anyone else in the room with us?

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn is still shaking. The hugs are appreciated.

"We w-were separated a little. Same room might have been simpler. Nothing but us has moved since we got here; only other heat source is the partial body."

[dotted_lines]

He continues to hug her. His arms are starting to mysteriously shake less.

"Good. This is strange, though, we should be either alone in the dark or in the dark with whoever it is here too or both. But we're not. And that's good. Uh, partial body?"

If she's admitting to having seen things by heat, then it must not be a secret. "Can you see any way in here to get the light on?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

That is good. Long term side effects from shocks are rare, but he doesn't even have basic biomods, so...

Thorn nods. (He can probably feel this, even if he can't see it). "I should probably not think right now about what Eventide does that that is a pattern." Tighter hug. "The body -- the brain is not intact, or I would have wanted to try medical care. I would need light to tell more.

Speaking of which... "No obvious way to do that. I could try the local mesh, but," she shivers. "seems unwise. --oh, but I can--"

She partly detangles herself to do something to the floor.

"May the sun, with its brightness," she murmurs after a bit, "bring us out of the night that covers us."

A circle and two runes on the patch of floor she was working on start to glow, and then a sourceless luminescence spreads out for a half-meter around it, also illuminating the rest of the room.

After a moment where it does not proceed to explode or otherwise do anything else, the additional tension that had built while she was working fades.

[dotted_lines]

When Steve realizes that she is starting another ritual, he carefully lets her unhug and doesn't interrupt. He blinks in the sudden light and waits for his eyes to adjust.

He reaches to rub his wrist, and notices a lighter spot on his skin, near, but not part of the bruises that are starting to form. "This wasn't there before, could it've been part of how they brought us in? Do you have one?"

He catches sight of the half of the body, and is hit by recognition. "That's the guy! The one who wasn't at the party but was getting warded and going back to Nexus."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn looks at it and, winces, seeming to shrink in on herself some. "N-no," she says. "That, that is my fault, from the shock."

She is a little, but not very, distracted by the statement that had followed that, and turns her head slightly to see from where she is still half-curled up against him. "No stack then, probably," she mumbles unhappily.

[dotted_lines]

Oh. oh. That is probably why his muscles are acting like that, then.

"Okay, that is one mystery solved." He pokes at it a bit with the fingers of the same hand. "It looks like it'll probably be okay, as long as whatever you used wasn't poisoned or cursed or anything?"

He hugs her a little more with the arm that has not unhugged. "Probably not. And probably didn't leave a ghost either."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn shivers. "N-no. Have some poison, but not right at hand, and had no reason to use."

She stills completely when his arm tightens around her, and twists to get a better look at him. After a moment, she looks away, leaving her neck exposed. "Look," she says roughly, "I -- if you are planning to kill me, can we please just get it over with already?"

[dotted_lines]

what.

He twists away and scoots back. "What? No! you are my friend why would I?"