eswareinmal | 1st Orb - 4th of Rebirth's Decline

Entry tags:

1st Orb - 4th of Rebirth's Decline

[A: Action – early to mid-afternoon around Schwanheim]

[Hiding in plain sight takes on a literal meaning when you’re a rogue. Ginia had read books seen movies, and played games with rogues and thieves in them. She knew the archetype and figured if this was a world of fantasy and fairy tales, it was worth a shot. It was also a good distraction for herself. After a night of dreams too dangerously real and tempting, Ginia needs something to focus all her attention on as a distraction. She spends all morning trying to pick up the finer points of stealthy arts and after a few hours, has managed a more sneaky and translucent state. She’s still tangible, still capable of making noise if she doesn’t watch where her feet step or if her clothes rustle too much, but translucent and almost invisible in the shadows. In the afternoon, she decides to test her newfound ability out against other people and heads into the village proper.

The test is easy enough; pick a target, tail them for as long as possible and as closely as possible, apologize or run when discovered. Restealth somewhere safe, find a new target, repeat until tired. Be a target, catch her as she’s following someone else, watch her as she’s watching other people, anything goes.]

[B: Orb – late afternoon]

[Later in the day, Ginia ventures forward with her first message on the orb. Unable to speak, and with the hunch most people wouldn’t know American Sign Language, Ginia improvises by writing out a message in her journal and slowly panning it over the words she's written.]

Can anyone tell me about the different areas in this region? I’m particularly interested in the thorns and the Two Faced Forest, but any information will be of great use. I want to explore some of the areas, but hardly want to go in unprepared.

Thank you in advance.

Please feel free to speak your response. I’m unable to talk so I have to write. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She sinks down to sit on the ground, her back resting against the smooth wood wall. Robin Hood, there's a possible career path for her.]

/And you and Helios a part of my Merry Men?/ [Ginia teases lightly, avoiding his eyes. Did she love him? Yes, of course she did, intensely and passionately so. But settling down with him, starting a family, being able to live and work in Helios' world?

The living and working in Helios' world had crossed her mind countless times, but settling down with Giles and raising a family? Once or twice, but always as some errant thought as she cuddled against him or lay next to him in bed. Idle thoughts and contemplation of a happier time.

A daughter. Tara. The idea hurts to think on and it shows on her face.]

If there are positions still available.

[He sits down beside her, shaking himself out of his own grim thoughts long enough to make sure that he's still pretending to lean against the wall properly.

It wasn't as though he hadn't imagined the possibility. Especially when Helios revealed to him how long it had really been, in Luceti. Gods only knew how long it had been know, if three and a half months had passed in an instant. He'd known Helios and Ginia were close, had known Helios had a soft spot for Alice especially...

...was his happy little dream of a family even more impossible than he'd thought? If they even found a way to bring him back to life...]

/Always. Without a doubt./

[His words finally make her look over at him, her lips drawing into a thin line. She knows that look and she wonders what's on his mind. Does he remember her dream just as she remembers Helios'? Alice's involvement in his own dream is unknown to her so she can only speculate on what she does know.]

/Is... did you dream last night?/

[Giles takes off his glasses to rub at his eyes. It's moments like this where he wishes that he could still sleep. There's no physical exhaustion, of course, but his mind feels like a leaden weight.]

I did.

[He remembers all the dreams. The horrible ones, the sweet ones, the strange and incomprehensible ones. Last night had been...busy, and busier for him than most, since he hadn't had a body to rest while he'd been away.

And, because this is a phenomena he's unfortunately had experience with in this past, the idea that they might have shared the dreamscape with one another isn't an alien idea, to him.]

Did you?

[Ginia nods and looks away. She can still remember how he felt in her dream, solid, sturdy, strong, the warmth of his skin with each kiss she gave him and how good it felt to hold him. But now he was here and she could barely touch him. Very lightly, if she was careful, but she wanted to throw her arms around him and hold him tight, gently comfort him as she took comfort from being in his arms too.

Right now she wanted a hug more than anything and even that was denied.]

/...Tara is a beautiful name. She... she had your eyes./

And she had your hair.

[A child. Giles has spent what feels like all his life, serving as a surrogate parent figure for lost children who try to take too much on themselves, who have no one else to tell them how the world is. If you'd asked him a year ago, if he'd wanted a child of his own, he'd have laughed and said that he wouldn't have had the time for them, what with everyone else clamoring for his attention in precisely the same way.

But...a child that was his. His and Ginia's alone. And now, in the waking world, she seemed as beautiful as an angel from a heaven he no longer believed in.]

One of the, um, the very first things I learned, in Luceti, was that a friend of mine was going to die. And...and I wasn't going to be there, to help, to...to stop things getting as bad as they did. I, um...I, I swore to myself that, um, that I'd remember, when I went back. That I'd be there, this time.

...I wasn't.

[His eyes sting, and Giles looks away just long enough that he can blink them clear again. But he can't hide the tremor in his voice.]

...her name was Tara.

[He's never told that story to anyone, before.]

[Her smile, their combined intelligence, a mix of their personalities, though she was forever a daddy's girl. They could spend all day looking at what they contributed to such a beautiful, blessed girl. Their girl, their child.

Would they ever get to see her in reality, or was it just a glimpse into a future that couldn't be theirs?

Tara. Ginia listens to his story, wishing more than ever she could hold him. The best she can do is a very light rest of her hand against his shoulder.

Tara Amelia Giles. A beautiful, happy child named after the dead.]

Edited 2012-06-06 17:16 (UTC)

[He notices her hand, resting on him as lightly as it takes for them to keep the fact of his ghostly state far away and out of mind. He even feels it, in the strange way that he feels things when the atoms that make him up are disrupted by something other than air.

And he smiles at her, grateful for the attempt.]

...perhaps, um...perhaps we'll meet her. One day.

[They've been optimistic for his sake thus far, Helios and Ginia, and it's the only thing that's stopped him turning into a poltergeist and tearing houses down out of helpless anger, stopped him signing himself over to Benu in reality as well as in dreams.

The least he can do is try and offer the same.]

[Attempts are the least they can do sometimes. For his sake, she tries her best to give him a gentle smile. They've gotten this far. Maybe they can keep on going. Who knows, maybe it'll be a trip back to Helios' world instead of their own respective worlds or Luceti.

Tara Amelia Giles. Ginia doubts her ability as a mother and isn't sure she deserves to hold such a dear innocent child with her hands so stained with blood, but she would try her best to raise her and care for her if that day ever came.]

/I would like to meet her too. I'd... like that a lot./

[Her smile grows more loving. So maybe it's too early to think about wedding bells and ceremonies, but down the road, if things continued nicely? She can't imagine saying no to him.]

[It's too early to think about although, really, Giles has the type of tenuous living arrangement with the universe that means that he really should seize the moment. Even when he was in Luceti, that could have ended at any moment.

It could have, and it did.

But he's an old man, when all is said and done. he's spent most of his life waiting, delaying, considering, being patient. It shouldn't bother him so much to wait a while longer. Let them attend to the problems of the thorns, now.]

...Luceti, Ginia. Um...after, um, after I left.

...what happened?

[He can't doubt her, in the light of that smile. But he still knows that there's time he's lost, time that Helios never explained because Giles could never bring up the courage to ask. But he's asking, now. He knows it's been a long time for him, even if he doesn't know how long.]

[Ginia gives him a curious glance, trying to look at the words unspoken, but not finding anything. Maybe he just wanted to know what happened in the world.]

/In Luceti? Well... people were very upset after you left. I... delivered all your letters for you. I did my best to take care of Helios. I got him a pet dragon to cheer him up./

A pet dragon? [Needless to say, Giles looks a bit surprised.] I, I dread to ask what you must have had to do f-for the Malnosso in order for them to, um, to pass along something like that.

...poor man. He, he must miss it terribly.

[Giles misses Edna rather terribly himself, and can only hope that his cat had found her way back to her mother all right. He hoped Foot hadn't held it against him.]

[She gives a soft sigh. Too much. Worth it, yes, to see Helios smile, but too much in the end. And now poor Luminair wasn't even at their side.

/Missions. Lots of missions, but I didn't just get a dragon for him. I... Put an applied shift on your boat. An auto-repair shift. No matter what happens, it'll be repaired in 24 hours./

[The one thing that would outlast them all.]

You...

[The boat. His boat. The boat that came to represent so much, promises fulfilled and promises broken, dreams of so many people. Their boat, that will now be safe.]

...you, y-you didn't...you didn't have to do that.

[She knows she didn't, or Giles hopes she does, and so he adds, in barely a whisper:] Th-Thank you.

[No, she didn't have to. There were a great many things she didn't have to do, but she did them anyway because she wanted to. It was Giles' boat, something he built. Maybe keeping it safe would bring him back somehow. A selfish thought. The boat, the dragon for Helios, maybe it was her way of leaving some kind of mark. A memorable presence if she ever left.]

/You're welcome. I just couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to it after all the work you and Helios and everyone put into it./

[She thinks on what else is important to tell him.]

/What... what do you know about Grune?/

...Grune?

[Now, Giles is worried. What the hell happened to Grune without him there to keep an eye on her? Grell is gone, thank god, but she still had an unfortunate tendency to meet the most unfortunate people...]

Honestly, I, um, I think I knew as much as, a-as she remembered about herself to tell me. Possibly a bit more.

...did, um, did s-something happen?

[Please tell him nothing happened.]

/No, nothing happened to her. She's fine, I swear./[Though even that in itself isn't entirely true. It's true in the sense Grune is unharmed and no harm has come to her, but also false because the Grune he knows and is most familiar with is only one side of her and not even the truest side.]

/Do you remember Luceti Land? The Hall of Personas? The different sides we all saw? And we saw Grune fighting off something and we helped her by believing in her? That's who Grune really is. The Malnosso unblocked her memories. She's very different when she has her memories back, very serious. She was determined to find a way out./

[She laughs softly, remembering the trek out toward the barrier, the fast pace Grune set.]

/But she was still Grune. Loving, motherly. She left you a letter. She wrote it before she lost get memories again. I was holding it for you./

Edited 2012-06-08 21:32 (UTC)

...don't suppose you remember what it said?

[Of all his friends, Giles never expected a letter from Grune. He'd never thought she could maintain her focus for that long and, besides, the idea of going home and leaving her friends would have been repugnant to her.

So he's morbidly curious, despite himself, to say the very least.]

I really do have the strangest luck with goddesses...

[No, he never knew for sure, but seeing Grune, standing tall and confident and determined, seeing her in the mirror battling against that woman in black...Giles would be stunned to know that he was wrong.]

[She shakes her head.] /It was a letter addressed to you. It wouldn't have been right reading it./ [Sorely tempted, yes, but she respected privacy and whatever words passed between Grune to Giles would be between them only. She wonders where the letter is now? Safely tucked away with all her other letters she hopes, maybe even in Helios' care.]

/I do wish you could have met her./ [There are a great many things she wishes he could have been around for. Her smile grows a little optimistic.] /Maybe you can one day. Oh... what else.../ [Her fingers drum together as she thinks. Druscilla? No, that's not a matter that needs to be addressed. Perhaps if her leg were still in a battered state, but as it isn't, so it can go unnoted.]

/I was able to visit Helios' world? But I wish it could have been you./ [She feels guilty even admitting she'd been able to see a world Giles wasn't able to see. There had been hope in that visit, the hope and potential promise those without a world could be attached to another.]

Being, essentially, one of my next of kin, I think you would have been forgiven.

[But, no, that's not fair. She respected his privacy out of the hopes of his return, and he'll never know what that letter read. Giles wishes he could have met her, as well, could have met the woman for more than a few seconds that had nevertheless changed everything for him...but he lets the matter drop.]

...that much I did know. Helios, um, mentioned it. Very excited by it. [Giles had had a near mental breakdown at the realization that they'd succeeded where he'd always wished to, but the pain of that has dulled, by now.]

[Their success was only due to the Malnosso and what it really meant they might never know. But one day they would find their way back to Luceti, and from there, Helios' world. One way or another.]

/That's really all then. Things were as they always were./ ["But you weren't there." Her expression remains steady a she turns to face him a little more.]

/We'll go back there, Luceti. All three of us. We have to./

Edited 2012-06-09 14:18 (UTC)

...we'll find a way.

[Giles would sell his soul all over again, forego any chance he's made for himself at heaven, just for the chance to give a proper farewell to the people he'd left behind there.]

They, um, they took us all from there. If they don't have a way to send us back...well, um, we'll make them find one.

[Whatever it takes.]

/...That's not entirely true./

[Ginia heaves a long sigh as she looks back ahead of her. It would be easy enough pretending she had been in Luceti all this time, that if they were to all leave, they could go back together, but she's had it with lies. Her hands wring together as she tries to figure out what to say. She's gone this far and there's no turning back now, but what should she say? The bare minimum? Details? It's another crossroad, another set of decisions.]

/I didn't come here from Luceti. I went home first. It's been a year in my world./

[Giles doesn't need to breathe, like this. Normally he does, just because the act isn't entirely forgotten to him yet. But sometimes, when he forgets himself, he doesn't.

But, at those words, his breath catches as though he's just been stabbed. He flickers, briefly, between states, trying to fade out of sight almost as a defense mechanism against how utterly painful those words are to him. With an effort, he resists, and remains with her.]

...oh.

S-So...so that's it, then.

[So that's it.

Ginia draws her knees up to her chest and hugs them tightly, staring off ahead of her. So that's it.

No. It can't be. She stubbornly shakes her head, blinking in surprise as tears fill her eyes.]

/People leave and come back all the time. You've done it before. This isn't it. We'll make it back./

1st Orb - 4th of Rebirth's Decline

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Re: Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~

Re: Action~

Action~