008 broken whisper

[fallen_cetra]

[The sphere flicks on as it breaks through the water, and Aerith pushes to the surface, her fingers webbed and her gills flaring as she tries to gasp for air above the water instead of under it, before dropping back down with a loud splash.]

I don't want it anymore! Why is it so cold? Air makes me choke, I hate it, I hate it I hate it!Doctor

Comments

[not_that_lockon]

[Lyle, meanwhile, is somewhere in the shallows close to the surface himself, although he's not quite sure he trusts himself to breathe the air yet. Or their new commander, for that matter. This is far too much like the Crucible for comfort...]

Hey, are you alright?[... Hey, wait a minute, he recognises her!] ... hang on. Aerith, is that you?

[fallen_cetra]

Voice....voice...I know that voice....

[A very tentative, very small reply, like she's trying desperately to cling to some vague memory that's quickly slipping through her fingers.]

Lyle?

[not_that_lockon]

Yeah, that's right. I'm Lyle. We were both on the Crucible, remember?

[... but he was sure that she'd been saner the last time he'd seen her, right? What happened?]

[fallen_cetra]

Remember. Was less broken then. At the end...

[Going home happened, enough prodding will get her to explain.]

[oliverplus]

[Oliver is still under the water, but he looks pale and a bit breathless himself] Aerith! Aerith, are you okay?

[fallen_cetra]

No. [She sounds dejected.]

Broken. Tampered with. [She stares at her hands and the webbing between her fingers, her gills flaring as she breathes.]

[oliverplus]

[somberly] I...I know. It's happened to all of us.

Can you breathe?

[fallen_cetra]

In the water. Hurts otherwise.

[bit_impossible]

Aerith, hang on, I'm coming! [he actually made it to the surface not too long before then--he was beginning to dislike the feel of being a merman any longer--and shouldn't take too long to get to her]

[fallen_cetra]

I don't like being tampered with anymore! [It's almost a sob, but it's hard to tell when she keeps dipping beneath the surface.]

I hate it!

[bit_impossible]

I know, I know you don't. I'm--[he pauses briefly in his run and grabs something, then continues]--growing tired of it myself.

[fallen_cetra]

'm tired, Doctor. It's cold and it feels wrong.

Everything feels wrong. Something's coming, isn't it?