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

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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.

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...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./

[Tara...

Giles seems to steady, coming a bit more back into the world. He raises his trembling hands and presses them over his chest, over the sharp stab of pain that pierces his heart at the thought of the girl, their girl. Hadn't they just been talking about meeting her one day...?

Giles has gone to hell and back for his children, before. No reason he should stop now.

But, even so...]

I...I don't understand.

/We have to try. For our friends, for us, for our daughter, we have to try./

[Ginia's body shakes slightly as she begins to cry. Her hands cover her face to wipe her tears away and cover her raspy sobs.

The year in her world helped answer some questions and bring some closure, but more than ever she believes Luceti was her home. The people there were her family and friends and she will do anything to go back there. There is no sacrifice too great if it means going back to the village with wings, being surrounded by the people she loves.]

/I want to go back home, Rupert. I want to go back home with you./

[And Giles' heart absolutely breaks.

She's crying. Ginia is crying, because of him. That's what he didn't understand...how she could still love him, after being apart from him all this time, apart from everyone she'd come to love, alone all this time...]

Ginia...

[And then he blinks, and before Giles knows it, he's possessed her, moved into her body because sometimes the uncrossable distance between them just hurts too much to bear. He feels her tears as his own, her sobs in her chest, and this is the closest thing he can do to giving her a hug, a kiss, wiping the tears away. But, like this, he can communicate the memory of those things, and they'll be stronger, feel just a bit more real.]

So do I, Ginia. That's...all I've ever wanted.

We'll find a way. I promise. Just...don't. Please don't cry.

[It was true what everyone in Luceti said; you didn't remember things back home. The nine months in Luceti were nothing to her as she continued her life in her world, but the moment she left and crossed into this strange world, it was like some locked door had been open and everything she felt spilled back out. It only made her realize how lonely she'd been in her world, even with Hatter, even with Blanc.

And the thought they wouldn't be able to have that again hurts so much.

She stiffens slightly as she feels Giles possess her, then it's like floating. Aware, but not in control. Was this what it felt like for Alice. Her hand wipes at her eyes and she takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm down, bolstered by Giles'presence.]

Let me have one cry. It's been awhile.

...all right.

[There's clear reluctance in his voice, as he says it. There's also, because it's so very hard to hide anything like this, fear. He genuinely can't remember ever seeing Ginia like this. He'd chided her on her masks, yes, on her tendency to hide her pain and difficulties from people, but he'd also gotten used to those habits, and seeing her like this is just a bit frightening.

But it probably has been a while, if he knows Ginia. And crying really isn't anything to be ashamed of. Advice he can give, if not follow.]

Do...d-do you w-want me to stay?

[There was only one time, long ago when Ginia was half drowned in a bottle of whisky and shocked out of it in a cold shower, but that had been a bad day for her. It was a lingering soreness that had built on itself over the years and throwing Ginia into a numb state when the day rolled by.

This as raw, sudden grief and fear. The fear this was it, that they would never make it back to Luceti and at the end, they'd be throw back to wherever they'd come from. That their dreams of Tara were just that. And it hurts because even while she could hope and wish, she couldn't do it forever. There was a point where she had to let go, and letting go hurts just as much as holding on.

She dabs a bit more at her eyes and tries to calm herself down a little more.]

Please stay. It's... oddly comforting.

...if you want.

Give me a, a shove, though, if you change your m-mind.

[He'll stay. There's been months, apparently - a year - where he couldn't, where he couldn't be with her, drag her away from the bottle and shove her into the shower.

So Giles knows that he has to make up for lost time.

And so he will. Ginia will feel him, in the back of her mind, in her shadow, a quiet and familiar presence that's just content to wait and be present and send soothing thoughts when she feels as though she's ready to be done crying.

Only after that will he come out.]

[Ginia manages to smile and huff softly, touched by his love and his presence. Just as she can feel him, her feelings are also laid bare for him. Her sadness fading as she pulls herself together, the love she felt that barely wavered in his absence and only intensified with his presence, the calm she feels from his thoughts.

She rubs a little more at her face and absently runs her fingers through her hair, looking at him as he leaves her body and takes form in front of her.]

/Thank you. You are a wonderful boyfriend./

Y-Yes, um, well...

[Still a bit...more than a bit...overwhelmed, after everything he's seen, heard, felt, lost, Giles just stares down at his feet. But Ginia might just catch the shadow of a smile. Here is one compliment that he won't brush aside, for the simple fact that:]

I w-was, um, well taught.

...and I'm, I'm only as good as you deserve.

[Ginia waves a hand by his feet to get his attention. Teaching him to remember to look at her will have to be retaught to him, but they have time, and maybe her necklace will show up in one form or another. Or Helios will make a new one.]

/Better than I deserve, I think./

[Giles looks up at her with an apologetic smile, and a shake of his head once she's signed her reply. Better than he deserves, which...maybe all that means is that they're just perfect for one another.

A ghost can dream.]

I love you.

[Actions might speak louder than words - often did, for them - but while he's limited in his actions, in this state, Giles still has his words.]

/I love you too. Forever and always./

[Ginia pushes herself back to her feet and gently dusts herself off. She looks up at him and gently steps in to him. One hand comes to touch his cheek as lightly as she can, her smile warming for him.

Then leaning in, she brushes her lips against his as best as she can, ignoring the clamminess.

Forever and always.]

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1st Orb - 4th of Rebirth's Decline

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