eswareinmal | Always feel like she's runnin on a hamster wheel

Characters: Ginia Solana, Rupert Giles, and Helios Sprensonne
Open? No
Where: Schwanheim to the Two Faced Forest
When: Morning of RD 19
What: It's time to put a stop to Ginia's stealing spree and Helios and Giles know just how to do it.
Warnings: Violence and language

There was always a fall. A dark, crashing, downward spiral after the high, after the moment, after that fleeting feeling of success. Ginia knew there would be a fall and now that she was falling it was all she could do to slow her descent.

She barely slept after the heist, laying awake under a dark bridge, making sure no guards were coming after her, too jittery to sleep. Some of the books were safely with Liara, the other half left in the house - she couldn't call it a home, not anymore - as a sort of offering to Giles and Helios. They would know what to do with them, with the information hidden inside. Because even if she wasn't entirely herself anymore, the parts that hung on loosely still remembered her dearest friend and lover.

The morning came too quickly. She stole some pastries from the bakery, sating her hunger and her need to steal, but it wasn't enough. Nothing was anymore.

So when she sees a ring left carelessly on the ground, sun hitting the gold surface just right, Ginia pounces on it and hides it in a pocket, quickly seeing another shiny thing several yards away. That too, she went after. Once she was a thief, meticulous and almost masterful, now she was desperate and predictable.

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Helios stills as Giles does, the food on his plate going untouched as he stares at it. There's an expression of deep pain over his features, before he looks back at Giles.

"Sh-she's dangerous." His voice is wavering, scared, something in his eyes looks almost hesitant to continue.

"I. I ran into her a day or two a-ago." He flexes his right hand unconsciously against his pant leg. He sighs and looks down at the floor again.

"She did something t-to me. I...I don't know what but. A-Apep. He, um, it...r-reacted to her and it, it hurt. It hurt so much." He sounds terrified as he takes a calming deep breath.

"What is she...?" What could possibly elicit such a reaction to make Apep, even the small portion within him, hurt that way? It was disconcerting, it was very disconcerting and Helios doesn't know if she'll try to show up to him again. What is he supposed to do if he does? What if no one helps him next time?

"...not human."

Loki had said that much. But when Giles tries to recall more...he can't think, a fog settles over his mind, and whatever he'd been grasping for slips away. And it only makes him more concerned, more afraid, for Helios and himself.

Giles reaches out and rests a hand lightly on Helios' chest, trying to avoid any contact that might upset him, in this state.

"Has, um...has Apep continued to be more active, since then?"

It's an eventuality he's dreaded for a long time. And Giles isn't any more prepared to deal with it now than he was when he first learned it could happen.

Helios flinches ever so slightly at the unexpected contact. There is a minor jolt of pain from his arm, which compounds itself on the dull ache he continuously has due to Apep. But all the same he appreciates the contact but its...calming and soothing in some ways. Because it was Giles, someone he's grown to depend on in more than one way.

"S-Sometimes? I-I don't...I don't think it'll be a problem." Though he wouldn't have made mention of it if it were. He knows it's not the best weight to leave on Giles' shoulders, especially with everything leading up to now. The poor man didn't need anymore stress than he already had and a pang of guilt washes over him as he looks away to the window.

"I'm not sure how well it'll g-go next time." When or if they meet again. He shivers slightly at the thought. If Kori hadn't come in to save him...who knows what would have happened.

Probably not well. If...when...Benu decides to show up again, and if Helios is alone when it happens...things will probably go very badly.

But Giles can't bring himself to say as much out loud. Because, if Apep does awaken, Giles knows that he doesn't have a chance, and he can only guess how painful the thought of that would be to Helios.

Instead:

"...can you still manage that barrier you put around the old house?"

It kept out Grell and Angelus. Maybe it would work to keep out Benu.

Not just pain but pure fear. Because Helios saw what Apep want to do to both Giles and Ginia. The things I would love to do to those two as you watch. He's only scratched the surface of it once. The mask showed him it, it tapped into the unbridled anger and rage that was connected in some ways to Apep. Destruction and chaos and death were all that he wanted to cause to everyone and everything in the enclosure. The mask made those thoughts taste like a sweet, succulent, nectar at the time. And for once he had lost himself to it, completely and utterly, blind sided by it. But he never talked about it, never said much of anything about how it touched that part of him. The things he had wanted to do to them...

Helios' unfocused gaze snaps back at the question and he looks back at Giles.

"Of c-course." He doesn't know if it'll help keep an entity like Benu out, but well, Helios is willing to try anything at this point. "I. I can probably make it even stronger here with-without the power cap in place."

"Then we'll start there."

It's something, and it might give Helios some peace of mind. Maybe let him feel like he's not completely powerless against Benu, or Apep.

Giles knows that he should probably mention his own anxieties about Benu at one point. The fact that she'd been able to temporarily give him back his body at the ball has taken on an entirely new sinister light. Maybe someone else would be able to put the pieces together, where he can't...

But, he doesn't. Helios is scared and tired enough as it is.

"...I won't ever let him overcome you, Helios. Whatever I can do to stop it...I will."

An empty promise, perhaps, but one he'll nevertheless try to fulfill with all his might, should the day ever come.

Helios just...hunches even more on his himself at those words. Because whatever might done might mean killing him, or worse. He couldn't ever ask that of Giles even if the other truly never would let it happen. It's too dark and too deep for him to think about right now.

"Hopefully you-you'll never have to." If only there was a way to get rid of Apep entirely.

"...hopefully I'll never have to."

Hope is what's keeping them going through one trying time right now, right now. Surely, they can rely on it to get them through this one.

After all...maybe, just maybe, it won't come to that.

So Giles tries for a smile. "Um, y-you should eat," he says, indicating the food. "After that, um...well, we could probably both use some sleep. Th-Things will be better, after a rest. They, um, they generally are."

Helios barely manages a small stiff smile at those words. Reassurances are good for this sort of thing, right? And, well, Helios along with Giles could use them right about now.

"Oh. Y-Yes of course. I entirely forgot that was there..." he goes to steadily munch on some of the fruit then, his hunger finally hitting him like a freight train. After a few pieces of cheese and bread, Helios will swallow it down with some water.

"Sleep sounds lovely at the moment." He's not sure how much of it he'll get. But he's tired enough to pass out right about now, so yes, sleep first. "Things will be better." It's said in a more affirmative tone of voice.

"They always, generally, do."

Food helps. Sleep helps. Talking helps. It's advice Giles isn't always able to live by, but it's advice that he's always stood by.

Even now, things look...well, just a bit more hopeful.

"They always do." Without tea, he can't really offer a toast. But Giles murmurs "Cheers" all the same, as he goes about finishing his food. When he's done, well...despite his worry, he won't be much longer in following Helios to sleep.

Always feel like she's runnin on a hamster wheel

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