[Backdated: Before Explosion & then after]

[terminatefate]

Sarah had always liked Dia de Los Muertos. It was a reminder of life's fragility while simultaneously honoring the dead. She had too many dead to remember, though she had the list rolling on loop at any give moment. Walking through the garishly decorated stalls of the open air marketplace, she let the easy hum of normality breeze around her with

Comments

audio

[darknessb4me]

[Cursing, fumbling with the comm, then -]

What the hell was that?

[Pause. oh. knife. Right, that would be bad.]

Don't pull it out.

[Someone's gotta be Captain Obvious here.]

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

"It's not that bad, is it?"

He looked more concerned than his words sounded. The horror of undeath for him hadn't been the physical changes. He hardly thought about those any more.

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

Her brow crinkled slightly as she reached up to touch his jaw, then his cheek. Her expression was mostly curious as she gave the matter some thought.

"No," she said softly. "It's just." Sarah searched for words helplessly. "Different."

She was silent for a beat or two.

"I thought you'd be colder," Sarah murmured almost absently, letting her fingertips slide away. The chill was setting in, though, and she was strangely fine with it as it tinted her lips blue.

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

He visibly tensed at the touch - speaking of not noticing physical side-effects, it was times like this when the mental ones became evident. The immediate reflex towards being reached for was to swat the hand away; there were no exceptions worked into the set of instincts for non-hostile contact.

"Makes two of us."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

She'd tried to be slow and careful. Very careful, and very brief. Just enough to know.

Sarah looked at her hands and watched them change, what little pink there was giving way to waxy-white and cool blues. It made her tremble a little and then stiffen slightly in a stern knock it off gesture.

"Good to know," she said, offering him a slightly wry ghost of a smile.

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

"I'm affected by the port, too. It happens sometimes. Like I said, though - if you've kept your mind, it's still a good day. You get standards like that on the Barge."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

"Mm." For some reason, she'd never considered he'd be affected by anything, like he was too Arthas to conform. Her lips curved slightly, then.

"Gonna be a good day more often than not," Sarah said. "It takes more than this bullshit to really break me." She might take a few steps back and flip out just a little, but then she'd always come back for seconds. "Some aren't as resilient."

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

"It's... a little more complicated than that. Floods happen that make you ... do things."

His lips curled back in a snarl.

"And you can't tell you're not yourself until it's over."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

"My first flood," Sarah said thoughtfully, "I was a pirate. No clue about anything else. Thankfully it wasn't all unpleasant, but, it wasn't anything I could control." She found herself shivering slightly and triex to relax into it.

"Floods are kinda fucked up." Especially when you fell overboard. "I can't appreciate something that just...flips a switch on your life without warning."

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

"And what if one day the flood simply doesn't end? Where will we be then?"

He shook his head.

"Never mind. I'm going to go get lost."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

"If a flood never ends, that just makes us obliviously not ourselves," she said quietly, tilting her chin slightly to look up at him. "But, so far, they do end."

Her lips twitched slightly and she gestured.

"Stay?" Sarah said, though it came out as a question. "Fuck knows I could use the damned company, and I've got these dumbass monster eyes to get. That's gonna mean some serious fighting." Her voice lowered slightly. "Might be more entertaining than getting lost."

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

"Monster eyes." Arthas sounded dubious.

"If the floods don't end, it's a step further than dying. It's like having never existed, not even in our own minds. And even when they do, that's your fate for as long as it lasts."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

"There's probably somewhere terrible people don't go with lots of shit to kill. Better tan doing nothing." Because thinking about it was shit. Sarah carefully rubbed at her eyes as if that would help her focus. It didn't.

"Arthas," she said softly, "can you control whether or not you are affected by a flood? Probably not. Can you control when it ends? Probably not. All you can do is deal with the fallout, if and when it comes. So, standing there bitching about it does nothing. It's fucked up, but it's also not under anyone's control except the Admiral. And most of the time that bastard doesn't listen. So. we gotta find a fucking way to deal. At the moment? Monster eyes."

She paused for emphasis.

"Stop panty twisting and come kill shit with me."

[Spam]

[darknessb4me]

Arthas' expression went bitter and angry.

"I'll complain all I want. I won't accept losing myself."

Re: [Spam]

[terminatefate]

"So don't fucking accept it. If monster eyes gets us the fuck back, then help me finish this shit." Sarah glowered at him. "At this point, bitching does jackall. There's just shit out there you can't control no matter how the hell you spin it. You wanna get pissy, fine, but direct that junk somewhere useful."

She stabbed a finger at him.

"The faster we fuck up...fucking monsters...the faster we get back to the Barge. Going back there is preferable to being here."