(Untitled)

[lucetimods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The event has started!
When: From the beginning of the event until the end.
Where: EVERYWHERE
Summary: You're feeling a bit different today.
Rating: All over the place, yo.

Go to town, kiddies!

Comments

16th (hey that's today...)

[imatreenow]

[In the days immediately following the draft, Mithos had spent most of his time drifting in and out of sleep. Despite a mind clouded with grogginess, he had quickly realized where he was upon waking for the first time in the cell. There wasn't enough energy for much of anything aside from a warped sense of hatred, made distant and hazy by exhaustion. Like it wasn't quite real. At some point (any sense of time was lost entirely), he had drifted back into consciousness to see that one of his captors had supplied more food as well as clean clothes.

He has recovered fully, and in a more conscious state even discovered that wounds sustained during battle have been cleanly bandaged. Larger concerns still preoccupy him, mired in uncertainty. He still hasn't seen Martel, and not knowing how she's faring gnaws at him constantly. There's Kaori too...she had fallen ill in the final day of the fighting, and was already badly injured besides. They had been separated in the confusion of returning from the battlefield, and he has no idea of her current status either. All of it makes him unbearably restless.

When Raine treks down to the tunnels to check up on Mithos, he'll be lying in the cot, boring holes into the ceiling with a cold stare. He sits up at the sound of approaching footsteps.]

16th (we're in the PRESENT?)

[wise_maiden]

[This isn't the first time Raine has been down here since being informed by Yuan of the situation. Today though, even though it's something she needs to do, she finds herself feeling even more concerned about it. What if Mithos was actually awake this time? Their last encounter had been messy, and it hovers there at the front of her mind despite her best efforts.

After avoiding the traps set down this particular hall, she sets down the food and books that she had been carrying with her inside the cell, taking note of Mithos being awake this time.]

(successfully escaped time warp death-trap!)

[imatreenow]

[He makes no further acknowledgment of her presence as she sets the supplies down, choosing to pointedly focus his gaze in another direction. "Messy" hardly begins to describe the last time he had seen her, during the draft. Being locked up in a cell provides ample time to think, but that is one subject he has fiercely tried to avoid. Thinking about it validates its existence, and it's best to pretend nothing happened at all.

Instead, at least in the past few days, Mithos has found himself actually contemplating Raine's words from weeks earlier. To think about the reasons behind him being here. Strange, how that thought had suddenly popped open after he had so violently disregarded it when first brought up. It won't leave him now.]

[wise_maiden]

[Dropping the items off and leaving almost feels like the right thing to do here. It's something that she wants to do, in light of everything that had happened recently.

But not yet. After all, it was hardly likely that anyone had spoken to him since he was last brought here, and if there was any hope to her endeavors... there might have been a glimmer of it, during that mess.

It's not the only reason.]

... I need to check on your wounds today.

[imatreenow]

[He gives her a sideways glance, eyes narrowing for a moment, before scoffing bitterly. What about his wounded pride?]

...Fine.

[wise_maiden]

[Fine? That was all? She had been expecting more resistance.

... So that was a good sign. Raine lets herself inside all the way, quickly closing the door all the way behind her.]

Good. It won't be long.

[imatreenow]

[As she approaches, he removes his shirt to allow access to his injuries. There's nothing too serious - a long but shallow cut on his back below one wing and deeper wounds on his side and shoulder, but no vitals were in jeopardy. Some older scars had re-opened in the course of the never-ending battle. The incisions spanning the length and breadth of his torso, left behind by the Malnosso during his involuntary stay with them, had split apart in places and invited infection thanks to the decidedly non-sterile environment of the jungle.

Those scars still unsettle him. Just another reminder of the lack of control he has over his own fate here.]

[wise_maiden]

[Those wounds still look almost as bad as they had that first night she came to clean them. It couldn't be helped, with no magic in the tunnels. He was in no danger of dying from those injuries, but it would be a while before a real recovery. The least she could do was deal with the infection to some extent, having left him a medicine that could be consumed along with some of the food.

She's quiet at first as she works, taking off the old bandages and gently cleaning the wounds.]

... This may sting.

[imatreenow]

[He still avoids looking anywhere near her, deciding instead that the barren wall on the opposite side of the cell is very interesting. But he doesn't put up a fight as she tends to his wounds - no sharp words, no insistance that he doesn't need her help, no demands to leave him alone. Just the tensing of his body, or the occassional wince and sharp intake of air when Raine encounters a particularly sore spot.

To take his mind off of everything - the stinging, her presence, and the train of thought that inevitably follows - he shifts his focus to the hair framing his face and wonders how long it's been since he last washed it. During the alotted preparation time for the battle, but he has no idea how much time has passed since then. Quite a bit, judging by what he sees. It's not particularly important, but the not particularly important things are often easier to think about.]

[wise_maiden]

[For now she keeps working quietly to clean all the wounds, before beginning the process of carefully covering them back up with fresh bandages.]

[imatreenow]

[We waits as she finishes, still gazing elsewhere. The ideal is a cold indifference, but too much of his irate restlessness peeks through.]

...Why are you doing this? [Breaching the line between enemy and...not an enemy. It only makes it more difficult to shove away what happened last time.]

[wise_maiden]

[A few answers come to mind, all of them quick and cryptic, and would only serve to do her the favor of buying time before the real answer. Sometimes, frustratingly, there was no real answer.

But she says nothing of these fleeting, puzzling thoughts. Because right now, she just wants to be honest with him, level. Simple.]

I wanted to help you.

[imatreenow]

[That isn't a good enough answer; it doesn't make any sense. The line is still blurry, when it should be perfectly clear and discrete.]

But why? You're an enemy.

[wise_maiden]

[She looks away a little, stepping away once the bandaging is done.]

... We don't have to be enemies here.

[imatreenow]

[He finally looks at her, quickly letting the remains of his weak facade of collected nonchalance crumble entirely. His aggravation is self-perpetuating, culminating in greater and greater discomfort with the whole situation.]

Are you stupid? All you are to me, and all you'll ever be, is an enemy. Why would anything change? [...He forgot "all you have ever been", but adding it now will only draw attention to its omission. He snatches up his shirt. Carefully, so as not to disturb his healing wounds, and with the dual purpose of distracting himself, he puts it back on.

Then the thought strikes him: why does that have to be how it is? The purpose of fighting them here, where his goals will always be far beyond his reach...what is it?]

[wise_maiden]

... it was still something I chose to do.

[She starts picking up some of the old bandages and garbage left behind.] Perhaps... that's something else you could think about. Change, and what it means.