Fourth Mission [Open Commentlog]

[bellator_lucis]

[The first thing that the Warrior had done upon being reanimated was fall on all fours and throw up. He had been horrified before - he had seen things that chilled him to the bone - but nothing - nothing - like this. And to be immobilized, unable to move, speak, even to breatheHe managed to get back to his pod and change into clean clothes, but he

Comments

[mezzaline]

[Mezzaline may not be human, but to see parts of people strewn across the grounds is unsettling. She could trick herself, pretend that it's all animal meat, and to some extent that works. This isn't like seeing pieces of her own people. With the difference in species comes a disconnect.

But still, it disturbs her.

The next thing that disturbs her is seeing Sir Warrior looking so... out of sorts. It's not right to see him just sitting there. He's not even wearing his armor.

That's not right.

Quietly, she walks up to The Warrior, and then she leans down to get to his level.]

Sir Warrior?

[bellator_lucis]

[The Warrior starts violently upon hearing Mezzaline's voice. He'd been so wrapped up in his mental battle that he had entirely failed to hear her approach, which nearly undoes what little progress he's made in trying to bring himself out of this dark spiral.

His shoulders hunch, and he turns his head away from Mezzaline.]

Do not call me sir.

[He doesn't feel that he deserves that respect.]

[mezzaline]

[Mezzaline settles next to him, barely taking her eyes off him for even a moment.

She delicately sets a hand on his shoulder.]

Were you wounded in the attack...?

[bellator_lucis]

[He flinches under her touch but doesn't pull away.]

I was immobilized by...that creature.

[He has to force the words out.]

I couldn't move, or speak... I couldn't even breathe. And yet I was alive, aware, while innocents died.

[missmimmi]

[Mimmi wants to bother him!

Well, not exactly. She was just taking the liberty to explore a little bit more now that the danger is passed. Walking around is all she really has to do.

She's surprised to see the waterfall for the first time; she's also surprised to see the Warrior guy there. And he doesn't look so good.

Hallo? Herr Warrior.

[bellator_lucis]

[He'll start when she greets him, and look at her. He looks...blank. Numb with horror. And very, very tired.]

...Mimmi.

[missmimmi]

[Oh. Oh dear. That look.

She knows that look.

It's very unpleasant.

Mimmi hesitantly steps forward and squats down]

What is wrong? What happened?

[bellator_lucis]

I was...immobilized by that creature. I have just been freed.

[He flinches involuntarily at the memory.]

[bondedgryphon]

[Zhaneel was perfectly aware of what had happened to her and the memories surrounding her stone entrapment would long return when she closed her eyes. The cockatrice was unlike anything she had encountered in the past and like nothing she was aware of in the realm of Valdemar. Who would have thought that such a seemingly non-lethal creature could inflict the amount of damage it had

[bellator_lucis]

[The Warrior was so lost in his own horror that he didn't hear Zhaneel's approach, and he will flinch when she leans against him. But in his own state of numb horror, the presence of another being - moreover one as warm and soft as Zhaneel - and one that he trusts completely is nothing but welcome, and he begins to run one hand through the feathers on her neck.]

Were you...also...?

[His voice is rusty.]

[bondedgryphon]

[The gryphon feels Warrior flinch away from the initial contact, but she makes no motion to move away from him. She is too desperate to prove that she is once again breathing and moving to move away. Personal space is not something she is going to grant much of just at the given moment.

She can't seem to still the trembling that shivers through her entire body, a chill unlike any she has ever felt seeming to settle into the hollow of her bones. She swallows convulsively, inner lids flicking across her eyes, pupils pinned to the smallest of points within a circle of gold.

His hand burying into the feathers of her neck, though, that helps. That contact and realness is something she can latch onto just now, and so she will. His question is voiced gruffly, but like someone that is unaccustomed to speech. The questions' meaning sinks in a moment later, the two pieces of information mentally clicking together still another beat later

[bellator_lucis]

[His heart contracts within him. Oh, Cosmos, Zhaneel as well... Tears prick at his eyes - for his friend, for those who are dead...for himself.

As Zhaneel curls around him, he lets go of the crystal and it dissolves into motes of light above him. The Warrior keeps stroking Zhaneel, hoping that the contact will help her as much as it helps him.]

I would have done anything to spare you that, my friend.

[He means it, too. What they have endured - he wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy. Not even Chaos deserved that kind of experience.]