historicals | pc catchall | turboheaven

[ noooo... he looks so touched, anyway, and shakes his head. ]

I feel as though this chill might never leave, so it would be most welcome. And made warmer still by the kindness of a dear friend. [ he reaches out, holding out his hands for it... blanket! ] Thank you, Miss Eupha.

[ she hands him the blanket and will help him wrap it around in case he needs a hand managing five blankets with his many injuries. and she'll set the water bottle down within reach. ]

Then, you do not mind if I stay for a bit?

I would like to hear of what you have seen... if it does not pain you too much to speak of it.

[ he probably does need a hand yes, and he looks very thankful for this as well. snuggled up and warm... he gently touches her arm when she draws back a little in thanks, and then nods. ]

I would love it if you stayed. [ genuinely. ] And...I can do my best, at the least, to tell the story as I can. [ even if it does pain him, he'll talk of it anyway - telling information is important to him, and not letting things fester is, too. so. ]

It was another trip through someone's memories - Mizu's, this time. It... we lived alternative lives, as before, but in this, we were mercenaries.

[ which. his thoughts curl up in a snarl of ink above his head at that, scribbly. ]

[ she'll pull up a chair right close to his bed. ]

It is a little difficult to picture you and Richie as mercenaries. [ a soft look, and a small smile. ]

What were you doing there?

...I was not very good at it.

[ there's a little huff - kind of a joke, in the way that he says it because. yeah. she's right, he was a garbage mercenary. looking down at his hands, his thoughtshare briefly reflects something red splattered all over them - he has to shake his head to clarify it, and takes a breath, eyes closed to find his calm. ]

... We'd a contract to capture a demon living in a fortress. Though there was a terrible monster, that was not the demon at all, but... rather, the 'demon' was a child, called so only by the prejudice of those around them.

We all refused, when we found out. [ his thoughts scribble again over his head. Did he live? We tried to... I must believe that he lived. ] But we did not learn until the very end.

[ she leans over and places a hand on the back of his shoulder. it's probably barely perceptible through the blankets, but it's there. ]

A child...?

[ a look of surprise, and a swirl of thoughts in her own head. grim familiarity. such a thing could just as easily happen in her own world. ]

What happened? To you, and the child?

[ his brows furrow, and taair's quiet for a moment as his thoughts ripple - a burning tower, and then he shakes it away. ]

...Let me start a bit earlier. [ since the baby was at the end, but also, the context was important, so. he speaks slowly, a little unsteady, breath a little wheezy here and there, but sticks to his guns. ]

We were... in order to get to the "demon", we hurried to the top floor of a fortress. Throughout, we faced many obstacles, but the largest was that the room where the child was resting was guarded by an actual beast, a monster with several heads, and we contended with it in a fight. In that fight, a blaze was set.

By the time we made it to the top floor where the child was, we had no way out but leaping down into the ocean below. And... we leapt.

[ ... ]

... He was with us, when we landed. And with us, as we tried to surface. But the last moment I remembered was that we could not pull ourselves to shore.

Then... you were stranded in the ocean?

[ as an islander, eupha knows the dangers of the sea all too well. from cautionary tales told to her as a child, from comforting those who lost loved ones at sea... and herself being one of those mourners.

the concern is plainly written on her face. ]

[ he reaches up, and after a moment, touches a hand to his throat. ]

... And then we ended up here.

[ so they were washed out, but the sensation of drowning - once, twice - has not quite left, either. ]

[ ...... oh.

she draws closer, sitting now on the edge of his bed, and wraps her arms around him in a hug. as she does, she leans to touch her head to his. ]

... I am sorry. It must have been a harrowing experience.

[ weh. he'd done much the same for eupha, so to feel the gentle return of the gesture warms his heart immediately - taair drops the hand away and gratefully allows it, leaning into the warmth of the kind gesture, gently coming up to rest a hand on her arm. ]

Mn. [ he's not gonna disagree because it was awful. ] Truthfully, knowing whose life it was based upon, I feel the worst for him.

But - a harrowing experience is a harrowing experience survived. I am still here. And for that, I am grateful.

pc catchall | turboheaven | eupha

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