| melting already [ {full}

[learneditall]

Who: River Tam & Darc/Tifa/Terra
When: After Izaya's arrival post.
Where: Planet's Core.
What: Fighting, being rescued, spouting bits of ridiculous crypticness at people's faces in person... whatever's good.
Type: Log
Notes/Warnings: This will end in tears or violence. But no real warnings for now.

Comments

[heavenslament]

Terra had looked around for the exhausted-sounding, broken girl that she had spoken to over the communication crystal. Unfortunately, her timing was off. Having failed to find her in Order's Sanctuary, she checked the surrounding realms, avoiding mannequins when she could and fighting them when she couldn't. Fortunately, they were no threat.

The search doubled as a general scouting mission. Terra needed to know what had changed, what hadn't, and who else might have returned on Chaos' side. She met with little luck in the latter area, but knew better than to let her guard down.

By the time she had reached the Planet's Core, Terra wondered if she shouldn't turn around and head back. Perhaps the girl had done the same a long time ago. And had she even asked her name? Realizing that she hadn't, Terra felt foolish. She leaped from one small floating island to the next, attempting to reach the largest one and get a good view from there.

[learneditall]

The day has been too long. Unbearably long, if it even still is a day at all. Maybe it's been weeks since she left Kain at the Sanctuary. And maybe it's been minutes and when she breaks free of sleep she'll still be curled up in the chair she calls hers while Mal runs his fingers over the panel before him lovingly and doesn't mind that she sees. Whichever way she cuts it, she's tired and wants everything to stop

[heavenslament]

Finally, timing was in her favor. Terra caught sight of the young woman ahead, just in time to see her collapse. Ignoring the fact that she didn't know her, that she could very well be on the other side, Terra raced over with all due speed. She completed her jumps as though the laws of gravity had even less hold over her in this place than usual.

Upon touching down, Terra darted toward the girl and dropped down to her knees beside her prone form. Of course, she immediately looked her over for any wounds. Her gentle voice sunk in volume, though she hoped it was enough to rouse the girl. "Hey...can you hear me?"

[learneditall]

Wherever River's mind had briefly flickered off to, it came back with a rush like a gasp of air filling her lungs. The heavy thoughts scattered off in a thousand directions and her eyes snapped back into focus. Tension zapped through each of her limbs, fingers tightening as her body pulled itself into a hyper-stillness of coiled muscles. Adrenaline briefly flooded her system, a pounding in her chest as her body kicked into a split second of overdrive because someone was here, almost on top of her, too close, too

[heavenslament]

Not realizing how close she had been to getting sliced, Terra smiled a bit sheepishly at the observation. Her voice rises a bit, though it's still on the quiet side. "I didn't want to startle you. Do you hurt anywhere? Can you move?"

While Terra spoke, her mind raced to figure out what to do next. She didn't want to cause the girl further strain, though the idea of remaining in neutral territory for too long filled her with unease. Still, if there was no other choice then Terra would just have to manage and keep watch until the girl could move on her own again. Or perhaps there was another way; if there was a friend nearby, and they could be reached by crystal....

[learneditall]

Yes, this was decidedly the voice of the young woman who'd promised (threatened, reassured, committed) to find her not long ago over the crystals. It didn't particularly perturb her (if the Alliance was here and was hunting her, this apparent Companion was hardly going to be their first choice of assassin if they'd done any of their homework). What did bring a spark of annoyance into the girl's face was the overly concerned look she was being given. Perhaps before, when she had been physically ill, it might have been received with equanimity. Now, it was simply met with a soft snort.

"A supine position is not simply procedural. Humans have an organic predilection for resting with their ventral side exposed rather than their dorsal. It is often a purely recreational posture."

Besides, the ground was a good place to be for resting and looking at the sky. River didn't see what was so hard to understand about that.

[heavenslament]

Now that she had heard the girl's voice a little, Terra likewise recognized her from that earlier crystal conversation. Her random quest had borne some fruit, after all. If she took the annoyance personally, it didn't show on her face. Still, she moved a bit away to give the girl some room. There was a small nod at the verbose reply, though she was able to follow it for the most part.

"I see. I didn't mean to offend...and I know you didn't exactly ask for my help. Still, I just wanted to see if you were okay. You sounded ill, over the crystal."

There was a brief pause at that. "I'm Terra. What's your name?"

[learneditall]

Some part of River felt the impulse to snap, to insist that she threw up all the time back home and was a perfectly healthy response to the sort of stress her body was under in this strange violent place and really it was hardly a stranger's business if she couldn't stop passing emotions from amplifying until the jangling of her nerves expressed itself all over the floor. But the train of thought moved too quickly, instead simply throwing her into the beginning of a mood that started with a childish pout before the silence ended again and the other woman mentioned her name.

It was something to focus on. Her lips moved silently for a second, instinctively repeating a soundless thought as it flickered through her mind. Terra. From the Latin. Land, country, soil. Earth, she decided with a flick of a glance at the unusual green hair framing Terra's face. Much better than the Bible names from before.

Her attention settled again on the other's face, lips finally pulling into accord with her voice box. "My brother calls me River."

[heavenslament]

"River...." Terra said it aloud experimentally, then smiled a little. "That's a pretty name. It's nice to meet you at last." And she meant that, despite the circumstances and what preceded it. Timing hadn't worked in their favor before, but at least it was now, and to Terra's relief, she was unharmed. There was still something about the girl that provoked her sympathy, but she wasn't going to press the matter. What she remembered of her own past was not pleasant and she understood the need to have secrets.

She peered upward for a moment, watching the tendrils of energy swirling upward. "I always liked this area. Not as much as the Lunar Subterrane, but it's nicer than some...."

[learneditall]

Much as her mind was overwhelmed by the constant influx of knowledge, the Tam girl did manage to pick apart something in Terra's face. It was more than the fact that the green-haired woman was someone who had been here before, who knew all the rules to the game they were playing. There was some sort of latent understanding, something she'd be able to tap into if only she could get the words out right.

"The sky is talking," River insisted quietly, eyes flicking back up to the energy as well. "It's worried. It knows what's going to happen here."

[heavenslament]

Terra watched the energy's flow, absorbing that with a slow nod. "...war. It makes me a little sad, to think that this place and all the others are pieces of worlds. They were all part of something else...and now they have to be our battlegrounds."

She sighs softly. "I wonder if this fighting will ever end...." Spoken with the weary tone of someone who had done so for so long that she couldn't remember when she hadn't been fighting. Even the hazy memories she had of another life included violence.

[learneditall]

It was like the sad version of the conversation she'd just had with Darc. The fracturing of lives, of bodies and worlds, against the wheel of time, the wheel of war, the shifting angry gears that metaphorically ran the universe. Another person might have opened up to sympathy, expressed quiet hope that the end would come soon, that the final battle was on the cusp of being fought and the lion was only roaring its last frustration before settling down with the lamb by its side

[heavenslament]

While Terra had learned to hope, at the same time she wasn't one for rose-colored lenses. Her hope was the kind that wanted the truth, whatever it was, and kept going because of -or despite- it. Blind optimism was not her style, nor would she cling to it now.

"No, we can't. I know hatred and war can't be stopped, not entirely, but...that doesn't stop me from wanting to do my part to make the world a place that isn't so ravaged by it. I can't not try."

She's silent for a moment, tugging at the end of her ponytail. "I was here before. It wasn't easy, but last time we did succeed. We stopped Chaos...and now we're here again. The cycle should have ended, and it didn't. I don't know why. I still hope to find a way to stop this, to return home...but it is harder, now."

[learneditall]

"Maybe you're on the wrong side."

It was a simple scientific statement. If (war ends when the good victor over its cycle) And (war has been one previously by Cosmos) But (Cosmos' winning simply restarted the cycle) Then (it is worthwhile to test the hypothesis that the side which wins the war and ends the cycle is Chaos). Simon would have tsked the lack of a formal logical argument, but she was too tired to draw symbols in her brain.

River spoke with such a simplicity that the words didn't seem harsh. There was no judgment of Terra or her part in the war or the side both women had been assigned to. It was almost the smart child's explanation to a parent that Santa Claus could not, according to the laws of physics, make it all across the Universe in a single night and that they sincerely hoped their caretakers--not this mythical figure--knew that they wanted a puppy for the holiday.

[heavenslament]

Terra flinched at that. She didn't take the comment personally, but it had reminded her of Kefka's taunting, about how serving Chaos suited her better. Of course she didn't believe him, knowing that he just wanted her to suit his purposes as 'destruction incarnate' but even thinking about that brought back bad memories, of learning that in being controlled into joining Chaos' side, she had attacked one of her closest friends....

She shook her head, snapping out of that haze. "I won't abandon Cosmos. Even if she loses, even if Chaos wins...at least I'll have tried to prevent it. He nearly did win, last time. And if he had, he would have destroyed himself and everything else, taking us all down with him. There's no real victory in that."

[learneditall]

Information was practically oozing out of Terra as she flinched and became lost in her own thoughts. The Tam girl barely had to concentrate to pick up the flutter of emotions, the flickers and signs, the strange molten way a person's story could define them completely. An anamnesis of the mind like the records Simon kept of his patients' bodies.

"...why?"