[audio] - backdated to the 6th, a few hours after Kloe's post

[angha_firebird]

[A frustrated, enraged scream is heard first--sounding mostly reptillian. Then deep, rasping breaths as Aara tries to calm down.]

This has to stop. These deaths... these attacks, they have to stop!

[A strangled whimper is drawn from Aara's throat.]

What good is this doing us? We could very well be all we have left.

[The blood. The countless,

Comments

[Text]

[sayhitobianca]

[Unfortunately, Birdie, most of them have little say about things like the headless bodies and the sickness.

But this'd catch his attention even if he hadn't been specifically named - he's been keeping an eye on her since she got nicknamed, and even more so since the thing with Kloe. He's on it almost immediately.]

You know I've always got time if you need it, Birdie.

Where to, assuming this is an in person kind of speaking?

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[A deep breath.]

I do need it.

[A pause.]

Please.

[Almost an afterthought.]

Yes, it is. The bower, if you think it's empty?

[Text]

[sayhitobianca]

[Normally he'd switch to audio here, seeing as she's one of the few he does that for on occasion, but there's not much point when they're just agreeing to meet elsewhere.]

Then you've got it.

I'll meet you at the bower.

[commentlog of lat proportions]

[angha_firebird]

[Aara arrived to the bower, looking skittish and upset and on edge. And needing of every kind of reassurance or touch of calm to her scattered thoughts and tumultuous emotions.]

Varric?

[Audio]

[stillseecracks]

[Aara screams, and Xanth thinks she's hurt. Then she talks, and he knows she is - but it's emotional, rather than physical.

Sometimes, that hurts worse.]

A--A-Aara? What's-- wh-what happened?

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[Ragged breathing can be heard, though Aara is forcefully trying to get that under control.]

I have to do something. I thought--here--I would finally get away from the death that constantly stayed a step ahead of me. I thought I could outrun it. But it's here, Xanth. There is pain and suffering and death even here.

[Silence falls--longer than perhaps anticipated.]

What am I to do? Sit and watch as those around me harm one another? As... more bodies fall, empty and cold and silent to the ground?

[She's shaking. She doesn't know what to do--if she can do anything. She knows so long as there is breath in her body, however, she will never allow another death to take place before her eyes if she can prevent it in any way.]

[Audio]

[stillseecracks]

[It wasn't her, then, it was someone else. Perhaps there had been a rampage by some guest or another; perhaps the pressure from the pumpkins and the ensuing chaos had just been too much.

Before he touches the page to reply, Xanth sighs. Aara is so naive.]

Y-You-- you just-- k-keep low. Keep-- keep yourself safe, h-help someone else if-- i-if you can.

People, they-- they're-- th-they do this. S-Sometimes they-- sometimes they can't help it, s-sometimes they can, but-- th-this is just-- what people do.

[There's a bitter edge to his tone, and though Aara can't see it, Xanth rolls his scarred shoulders.]

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[No. No, no, no. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. Anger and disbelief rise strongly from within. This? Coming from Xanth?]

Keep myself safe?

[It was likely her tone belied how little she thought of that.]

All my life I watched, helpless, as angha after angha died before my eyes. Mothers. Sister. Aunts. Best friends. The hardest was when they were younger than I. Yet I lived.

I did not live to lie low, and protect myself! I lived for a purpose! There must have been... purpose. A reason. Why I lived as a young girl. Why I survived the transformation. Why I--

[She chokes off--realizes she's crying and gasps lightly in shock. A soft sob escapes, and she realizes this is the first time she's angry with a friend. She tenses, waiting with horror and trepidation, wondering if his own anger would crop up in turn.]

[Audio]

[lightyourway]

Aara?

[For a moment, Kairi is so startled by the scream that she isn't even sure it's Aara.]

Are you okay?

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[A deep, calming breath as she tries to center herself.]

I am whole, and in one piece, if that is what you are asking.

[Aara winces. Her anger is making her sound harsh. She hesitates to a moment, awkwardly, wondering what she could say.]

How do the people of your world deal with death? Revenge? Is it not supposed to be hard for everyone?

[There is a hitch in her breath, a soft vulnerability in her tone.]

[Audio]

[lightyourway]

[It wasn't what she was asking, and for a moment Kairi frowns at the tone.]

Mm, it's hard. People change.

[They give in to anger and hate and resentment, bitterness and rivalry. And they risk everything that's important to them along the way. But she can't talk about that. She'll never talk about that.]

Sometimes there's nothing you can do. You just have to believe it'll get better and be there to help them find the way back.

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

Change for better or for worse, I wonder? Even so, how does one stay strong?

[Aara's tone was quiet as she pondered that aloud.]

The way back...

[Audio]

[bondedgryphon]

[Zhaneel shifts restlessly as she listens to Aara's post, wings fluttering along her back as she paces the wall walk. The gryphon's mind has been heavy for days, since Kloe's attack if not even before then. She knew Kloe had had several run ins with Anders and that then man considered her a threat even now that she'd been healed by the Keep doctor, Sycora

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[Aara's nostrils flare. She inhales slowly, tears springing to her eyes.]

Is it so bad to wish to protect people?

How...? I do not understand.

[A soft whimper.]

If we are all that is left, how will we create a world together? A home?

[For is that not what Aara always secretly and desperately yearned for? A place to call home?]

Many here would sooner kill each other, first...

[Audio]

[heavyweaponsbot]

Yeah... because shouting and demanding violence stops is always going to help things.

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

Then what will?

[Audio]

[heavyweaponsbot]

Nothing.

Humans are a violent race. You form more factions than we have Autobots in existence, for no reason than one group took another's special rock. You start wars and slaughter innocents for resources. Your young kill their own kind because they get cast out of smaller groups.

And now a bunch of humans are in close-quarters, with nothing better to do than wage war on each other.

What do you think is going to happen?

[Audio]

[angha_firebird]

[She doesn't like his answer. Expression crumpling, Aara attempts to simply breathe.]

There have to be some here who are not violent. Xanth. Asuka. Zhaneel.

[Her voice sounds raw and vulnerable. She has to believe, otherwise there will be nothing to hope for. If it was true--all humans were violent--maybe Aara would not wish to stay here after all.]

Where I am from, life is to be protected. We die from sickness often. There is no time to be violent.

[A pause.]

Or if there was violence, I had never seen it.

So we are supposed to wait? Watch? As one after another tries to destroy each other?