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))

Comments

[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?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She doesn't move. (It is almost as if she is consciously holding herself very still; the only sign she is not a statue is the slight tremor of her muscles).

"Because if things had gone even slightly worse earlier," she says after a moment, "you would have been seriously injured at best? Because I hurt you badly anyway? Because you are going to startle me again?

"Because if only one of us can get out of this alive, ultimately, I have backups?

"Because--" her voice catches. "Because maybe you've been playing a long game since we first started talking. And if that is the case, you currently have a perfect opportunity that I cannot do anything about."

She takes a breath. "Please make sure to destroy my brain so that whoever put us here cannot get any information off of it. And my stack, if it does not self-destruct and you do not take it with you."

[dotted_lines]

There is a brief flicker of fear on his face, quickly replaced again by confusion and dismay.

"But, but you're my friend and you didn't mean to and I'm going to try and not startle you again and, and I don't want to kill you I didn't want to kill you, you're my friend!

"I thought? Did you think I was lying the whole time?"

He curls up and hugs his knees again.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

He does not seem to be attacking her. She... is not sure what to do with that. (She wants to go give him a hug, but no no no bad idea).

"It is, is a thing I have been concerned about? I have mostly been trying not to be, because it was not relevant and not very likely, but it is relevant, now. --If it is true, you are a terrifyingly good actor." This last sounds almost like a compliment.

She considers the rest briefly, and then continues. "Assuming that is not the case for the moment; that you are my friend means you are less likely to get a dangerous reaction, but, especially when I am high alert like I am now, still does not sum out as you being very safe."

She is silent for a little longer, and then says:

"I die horribly all the time," she says gently. "You can make this death quick and clean, if you want." Pause. She shivers, slightly. "Or you can, not, though I do not get the impression you want to. If you do, though, you should probably restrain me first."

[dotted_lines]

He stares at her in confusion and horror for a few seconds.

"Why would I-- I don't want to-- I wouldn't, that is not a thing I want to do!"


"You don't have to, but do you want a hug?"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She considers him confusedly. "I do not understand you," she says, eventually. "That is normal, people are confusing, but it is important right now, and I do not understand why you care."

[dotted_lines]

He takes a moment to collect his words into a coherent sentence.

"I care because you're my friend and I like you and so I don't want to hurt you or kill you."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

That gets a more complicated facial expression. (She is starting to look a little more alive). "Mmm," she says, and closes her eyes.

She sits there for a little bit, with the expression of someone picking their way through a minefield.

"What would you do," she asks, finally, in a far-away voice "if I got infected with the exsurgent virus?"

[dotted_lines]

"Uh. If I could I'd try to get you un-infected. There's lots of magic and some of it can probably, but otherwise whatever's the fastest safest way to."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

She seems vaguely exhausted. "Please elaborate on 'fastest safest way'? -- And -- what would you do if it was too late for that, or there was not a safe way to?"

[dotted_lines]

"If I could I'd want to at least try a bloodstone circle for minor exorcisms for un-infection, but if I couldn't." He gives her an apologetic look, "Probably lethal or disabling measures, depending on what was at hand."

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Okay." Thorn takes a breath, and brushes a bit of loose hair out of her face. "Okay," she repeats, more clearly. "That is good." Pause. "If you think I might not be completely infected, and you can do so safely, the best thing you can probably do is use lethal measures and retrieve my stack as soon as possible. But do not put yourself at risk to do that; there is a very good chance that will be corrupted before you can do anything."

She breathes for a few moments, and then says quietly, "If that hug is still available, I would like it, please."

[dotted_lines]

"I'd like an explanation of how to do that later. But yeah, it is."

He slowly scoots back over to her and holds out his arms.

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn holds out her arms, too, but does not go so far as to initiate a hug.

(She does not seem bothered by him moving toward her, however, even in an abstracted way.)

[dotted_lines]

He pauses a moment to make sure she isn't upset about his approach, then scoots the rest of the way over and hugs her.