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voidtreckerexpress2020-04-05 04:49 pm
myblueskies) wrote in voidtreckerexpress2020-04-05 04:49 pm
Waking from a nightmare...
Who: Romeo and Open
Where: Luggage carriage and then dining room
When: Evening of day 18, month of Egret
What: Romeo returns from hiatus, believing his best friend dead. (Note: Both parts are open, but I ask that we allow Joss the "honour" of the reveal.)
Warnings: Very sad, grieving small child. Mentions of death.
Waking- luggage carriage
When Romeo opened his eyes the rage he had felt was all gone. For a moment it was just like any other morning and he sat up, still in his flight suit, pushing upwards when he realised there was a roof to his bed. Not a bed. A suitcase.
He sat up, bleerily eyed and looked around. He was back on the train, in the luggage carriage.
Joss was dead.
The fact hit him hard. Joss was dead. And he was back on the train. He looked at his hands and noticed the blight spotting his skin. He was blighted? Yes. Because he had been bad. Joss had died because he wasn't quick enough or strong enough and then he had gotten really angry and wanted to kill the bad enemy.
Had he hurt Elfnein?
Bad shinki hurt their gods and the idea that he might have hurt her was terrible. But not as terrible as the fact that Joss was dead.
He sat there for a very long time, numb, staring at nothing. Joss... His best friend. It couldn't be true but it had been. It hadn't been a dream. This isn't his bed.
Slowly he clambered out of the suitcase on shaking legs, he held on to the trunks and suitcases. His heart hurt too much for him to be able to walk confidently. But also his body hurt as well, blight and bruises mottled his skin.
One step, then another. He needed to find Elfnein. But he just wanted to curl up and cry forever and ever and ever.
Romeo stumbles into the dressing carriage, pale and bruised. Exhausted and dazed. For those that know him there is none of the perpetually enthusiastic, hopeful child they know. Instead he shuffles his feet, looking lost as he makes his way into the light.
Later: In the dining room
Romeo is sat on one of the benches, he looks exhausted and shell shocked. But a lot less sad. He's confused but can only be grateful that Joss was not dead after all. His best friend was not gone forever.
He had still been bad and he had a lot of big things to think about but he was very tired and very very hungry so he was sat with a plate of food, picking at it. Despite his hunger he seemed to lack his normal appetite.
Maybe it was because he was too exhausted, everything still hurt but it was fine. Because Joss wasn't dead. That was the biggest thing, a thing that made hope in his heart.
Where: Luggage carriage and then dining room
When: Evening of day 18, month of Egret
What: Romeo returns from hiatus, believing his best friend dead. (Note: Both parts are open, but I ask that we allow Joss the "honour" of the reveal.)
Warnings: Very sad, grieving small child. Mentions of death.
Waking- luggage carriage
When Romeo opened his eyes the rage he had felt was all gone. For a moment it was just like any other morning and he sat up, still in his flight suit, pushing upwards when he realised there was a roof to his bed. Not a bed. A suitcase.
He sat up, bleerily eyed and looked around. He was back on the train, in the luggage carriage.
Joss was dead.
The fact hit him hard. Joss was dead. And he was back on the train. He looked at his hands and noticed the blight spotting his skin. He was blighted? Yes. Because he had been bad. Joss had died because he wasn't quick enough or strong enough and then he had gotten really angry and wanted to kill the bad enemy.
Had he hurt Elfnein?
Bad shinki hurt their gods and the idea that he might have hurt her was terrible. But not as terrible as the fact that Joss was dead.
He sat there for a very long time, numb, staring at nothing. Joss... His best friend. It couldn't be true but it had been. It hadn't been a dream. This isn't his bed.
Slowly he clambered out of the suitcase on shaking legs, he held on to the trunks and suitcases. His heart hurt too much for him to be able to walk confidently. But also his body hurt as well, blight and bruises mottled his skin.
One step, then another. He needed to find Elfnein. But he just wanted to curl up and cry forever and ever and ever.
Romeo stumbles into the dressing carriage, pale and bruised. Exhausted and dazed. For those that know him there is none of the perpetually enthusiastic, hopeful child they know. Instead he shuffles his feet, looking lost as he makes his way into the light.
Later: In the dining room
Romeo is sat on one of the benches, he looks exhausted and shell shocked. But a lot less sad. He's confused but can only be grateful that Joss was not dead after all. His best friend was not gone forever.
He had still been bad and he had a lot of big things to think about but he was very tired and very very hungry so he was sat with a plate of food, picking at it. Despite his hunger he seemed to lack his normal appetite.
Maybe it was because he was too exhausted, everything still hurt but it was fine. Because Joss wasn't dead. That was the biggest thing, a thing that made hope in his heart.
no subject
"You can if you want miss, though I already know why I got it."
no subject
"Well, why? Let me know, and we'll see if that's what this stuff on your skin says."
It wouldn't be the first time there was a discrepancy between what was wrong and how someone understood it. Which wouldn't mean Romeo was wrong about it either! Just that the issue was multi-faceted.
no subject
He's not actually been blighted like this before, only ever getting blight from ayakashi or the time he had stood on a blight trap in the bad cultist house.
"Um... So you know I'm a shinki. Me and Elfnein both come from different worlds but the world that the heavens is in needed more gods because some gods went missing so they brought people from other worlds and some dead people came too and became shinki. But the old gods, not the ones who were people from other worlds but the ones who were always in the heavens they were born of human wishes and prayers, people prayed and gods were made but they weren't ever human so they sometimes don't know what people are like."
He took a deep breath, he learned all this in the heavens but it's tricky to explain. "So shinki were humans who died and now are weapons. And one of our lots of jobs is to... be good and show our gods about humans. So if we do a bad thing and we feel bad about it we get blight and our god gets blight too... And that's what this is."
He looks down at his hands again, embarrassed.
no subject
"So... you don't have this because you did something bad, but because you felt guilty about it?"
Nita sounded genuinely disturbed - not by Romeo's guilt but by the fact that the blight came as consequence. In the back of her mind, the peridexis gently reminded her: /We have an ethical code to follow too, as well as consequences for the wizards who violate it, whether they feel guilt afterwards or not./
She shook her head quickly, and jumped to the next-biggest issue to her: "So, what counts as holy? Does it have to be in relation to a particular god, or Power? Or just count as divine?"
Maybe she could do something, at least against the blight; Romeo's emotional state would take a different kind of help.
no subject
"Um... It's got to be from a shrine from a god. So yes it's got to be in relation to a god."
no subject
Because there was definitely a difference.
Nita made a humming sound. "Hnn, I don't think we have a shrine on the train... unless ordering from the shop counts?"
Though Nita didn't much believe those rumors about the train.
"Wizardry isn't so much from a place as it is a Powers-given thing, so more like 'the universe'? But inasmuch as the Powers are thought of as gods, there's that in common."
no subject
What question was he answering. All of them. He didn't know if he had done something bad, he thought he had disappeared before he had. He doesn't know if you could order a shrine, it was definitely too big to fit in a bag and he has no idea if wizadry will work.
"Your from another universe miss, so it might not work... But it might."
no subject
"Right. Let's see what we're dealing with, then."
Switching over to the Speech, and not quite touching the blighted skin she could see in case it actually did bother Romeo, she said, directly at it, /I am under authority of the Powers Who made the worlds. What brings you here, and what do you seek?/
She wasn't expecting a reply in the Speech itself; a general indicatory ambiance would likely be answer enough. This was, after all, only skin, which was a collection of cells arranged in tissues, muscles, and nerves. The bone beneath was, hopefully, untouched.
no subject
Nita would get the most strange sense when she attempted to speak to the skin. Because it wasn't skin, really. There's not much physical about Romeo at all. No heartbeat, the body wasn't really physical in the way of a human body at all. A soul harnessed in the shape of a child. The skin was physical but only as a manifestation of energy to look, feel and work that way.
And the blight, the blight she was talking to was full of despair and hopelessness. Opposite of all that made life worth living. Full of shame and guilt. There was no answer, just a wordless scream of despair, and a draw. A calling. She should just give up. There was no point. In anything.
no subject
She could feel it tugging at her own will; that nonexistence, the unconquerable void. It was not an answer, not a being, but a state of being-
/Nita!/
Nita blinked, feeling the peridexis resettle itself; breathing deeply, she pulled her hand back none too hastily.
"It... doesn't seem to be something I can talk with. I can try countering it," she offered, "with sheer force of energy and life, but I can't say I've done something like this on my own before."
There had been that dream, with the dralites and the void-holes of people, but then Inigo had been there, so it wasn't quite the same.
no subject
"You don't got to do that miss. You don't got to fight it with your life!" That sounded very bad. "We can find holy water from somewhere, I'm sure of it so you don't got to worry.!"
no subject
Which, ironically, made it something they had in common...
"But, if there's anything I can help with in the meantime - does it hurt, like a rash?"
Trying to sequester that despair from the rest of him, perhaps she could try that - though the peridexis felt ambivalent about that.
no subject
He shook his head. "It doesn't hurt, miss." It's a lie. It does hurt, like an itchy burning under his skin. But if he says that she will want to help. Because she's a good person.
Lying is bad though, he knows it and he can feel it, the blight spreading on his back. He sighed and punched the air, to keep his spirits up.
"Thank you though, miss Nita! It was nice of you to try and help."
no subject
Nita just gave Romeo a Look. Carrying a burden without telling anyone else about it wouldn't be out of character for most people on this train, Nita imagined.
"It won't take that long, I swear. Or nearly as much energy."
Which was what Romeo was worried about on her behalf, right?
no subject
He knows she just wants to help him, because she's a really nice person and a kind adult. But he doesn't want her to use energy and life to help him, when it's not that big of a problem!
no subject
But people do, all the time, and this was her own thoughts speaking.
Though without it being so obvious.
no subject
This was his fault and no one else should have to be hurt to fix it. It was bad enough that it hurt Elfnein and that Joss had died.
/quietly breaks own heart
"Some burdens, though, sharing them can lessen the pain, not just spread it around."
no subject
He looked at his hand. "If you really want to help you can." He didn't really want her to, because he was worried. But he also didn't want to fight with a grown up. Especially one who was trying to be nice to him.
no subject
Nita had no enthusiasm for these internal debates, but Romeo did not deserve to suffer like this; of that, she was certain.
Still holding his hand, Nita spoke the words for a simple energy-transfer spell; strengthening and refortification were among its purposes.
"Can you feel that, Romeo? Is it helping?"
This wasn't anything like the 'years off her life' cost for certain spells she'd done in the past - she'd certainly be more tired after this, but she'd recover.
And, ideally, Romeo would too.
no subject
"Thank you miss." It was very nice of her to help him like this, especially if it cost her energy. "It is helping a lot!"
Thread wrap time?
"Good to hear," she said.
"If it helped settle your stomach any, make sure to eat, okay? It's a real pain when appetite gets chased away when you need food the most."
yup!
He knew he needed to, and he was hungry. He looked back to his food and picked up his fork with determination.
He would make sure to thank Nita properly soon.
[And sure enough in the next day or so there will be a bag of sweets outside her room with a hand drawn thank you card.]
:D /reaction tag
Romeo gets a hug next time she sees him, too.]