PLAYER EVENT ★ HELIOLOGY

[ricksybusiness]

INTRODUCTION. It's difficult to tell time without the presence of a sun or moon. There are no stars. The world is in constant blackness, the heavens barely visible from below and the only light artificial. It's been like this for months. Suddenly, those who expressed interest in observing the sun (or lack thereof) will all at once receive a text message on their ALASTAIR jewellery from 82736775: Get your shit and go look at the sky. Now's the time. If you need me, I'm around. It's time to get to work. OBSERVATION. Find the highest point you can and point the telescopes at the sky. Should be easy, right? Be mindful that there are still guards patrolling the city, looking for escaped prisoners, and some citizens would be very happy to tip them off to your presence. There are still animals in the forests to contend with, and there are still nosey citizens who may ask you too many questions. There are also your fellow ALASTAIR agents, who may not be very willing to share the spot they already staked out before you just showed up. People and animals aren't all you need to look out for, either. Seven hours after the observation starts, there is a lightning storm. It lasts for 30 minutes, bolts of electricity arcing across the sky. It might be a good idea to scurry down someplace lower when this happens -- you know what they say about lightning and height. 82736775 doesn't contact anyone after the initial text, so observers are free to give up whenever they decide they've been sitting out in the freezing dark for long enough. [ note: even if you didn't sign up, feel free to tag in! your character won't have a telescope but that doesn't mean they can't mingle. ]

[ previously: ic info | ooc info ]
[ direct questions here! ]

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[digophelia]

A house by yourself...?

[ She tried to find a place with Gintoki and get him indoors, out of worry that he may be suffering from the cold. It seems like such a bold thing to consider, but Alice wonders if he would take any pity on Gintoki and herself. She watches him, watching that thoughtful shift of thoughts overcome him. What he says next has Alice concerned for him. Alice reluctantly rises, her body even more exhausted than she thought possible. With the hallucinations tormenting her mind and Alice insistence on staying awake, she sways, just a little, bracing herself to stay on her feet so that she doesn't teeter over. ]

You're not by your lonesome, you know.

[ She gently chided him, willing herself with all of the strength she could muster to move forward. She can't really blaze past him as she did so many times, so she slowly walks, waiting for him. She thinks of his wound and the color of his blood. It was a brave thing to do, she thinks, he had to have been afraid of what she thought of him. Alice turns back to Sion- ]

Shall I tell you a secret since you showed yours?

[ It only seemed fair as she waited to catch for him to catch up with her, even if they hadn't good few feet. ]

I'm afraid to go sleep, I can't bare with the nightmares right now. I don't want to sleep. It wouldn't make a difference where I went, I don't want to sleep. The inn, I suppose, lest Mr. Gin looks for me and I am not there.

[sunderings]

[ He sees himself in her.

She's tired (he's always tired), precariously swaying though she keeps her step, chiding him (as he would tease her) with energy she's summoned forth through sheer will alone. And even though he'd the advantage of a lead, she's caught up with him quickly, and so happens to be brazen enough to walk forward still (it's impossible for you to stop moving, Sion, lest you break and shatter the whole of your country along with you). But she's not going to last. She'll not make it through the trek home, and so Sion will listen to her secret and become its keeper (as she already keeps one of his own), if only to allow her to think that he'd abandoned his previous notion of sweeping her up, off of her feet, and into the bassinet of his arms.

This, he accomplishes seamlessly—one step, then two, and in a precise economy of motion he's lifted her (and her blanket all!), her back supported by one arm, her legs neatly draped over the other as he carries her, making certain that she is secure, before beginning to walk—and should any protest arise, he will sooner silence it (and perhaps silence her) than relinquish his hold. ]

Will it not worsen them, the nightmares, if you do not take your rest? You are strong, but weariness will take its toll upon anyone, given chance. [ He understands. He understands more than he is willing to say, and that in itself feels akin to a small betrayal. How often has he stayed awake until the point of collapse, thoroughly unwilling to sleep despite the concerns voiced by his attendants? ] Though I might take the sound from any enclosure, I cannot take your nightmares; I cannot stay them.

But if you would allow such a thing, I will help you to weather them. If you should need for someone by your side as you sleep, I will gladly keep watch.

[ Because she's not on her lonesome, either. ]

And you should know, the practice of trading secrets is a rather sordid, dangerous affair. [ He peers down at her, his smile soft, but edged with a need to protect her. ] To think that it wasn't your stubbornness which placed you in my arms, but something else entirely is ...nothing short of a surprise.

[ Should he thank his lucky stars, which had been just visible over the course of the night? ]

I'll tell you of the house another time, for now... please be at ease. You are safe with me.

[digophelia]

[ Alice wasn't watching him as he swept in, rubbing the corner of one of her eyes as if it would rub the sleep from it. The movement still startles her, Alice letting out a small gasp as she's hoisted up with a small flail, accidentally pulling at whatever loose strands of hair that rested on his shoulder. Even at one point out of mild anxiety and bewilderment, she finds herself clinging to his shoulders and grasping at any of his clothing to stabilize herself. She was already feeling a little dizzy and his swift movement seems to have compounded that. There's been plenty times Alice has been hoisted up and carried, though, in less gentle ways by hospital staff.

Her past has traumatized her enough that touch startles her. Wide eyed, she looks up at him, pressing her lips into a small line. Drawing a breath, the rational part of Alice assures herself that he's not going to do anything to hurt her, but he's not free from anger protests. ]

What are you doing? This isn't necessary, I can fend for myself!

[ She is light, a little too light, even for her height. It's hard for her not to squirm and so she does, pushing against his chest, but even that's too close for comfort. Rationalizing her fears and nightmares is one way to take the wind out of her sails, preventing her from out right pulling his hair and yelling at him for picking her up. Avoiding sleep never worked to fend off her nightmares, it only offered a temporary solution and usually resulted in a very exhausted Alice. It even made her hallucinations worse, something that was actually the main source of Alice's exhaustion now, not so much her nightmares.

She takes a breath to calm herself and to settle her nerves with her hands still pressed against him. No, she would still squirm, though thankfully, not violently, though the possibility was still there. She would scoff at his suggestion to be by her side as she slept. Such a thing was very immodest. ]

I don't need anyone beside me to sleep, I'm not afraid of anyone. On the contrary -- you should be more concerned for another who would dare to be brazen enough to bother me.

[ Seriously, she's little and she may be tired, but angering her is the last thing anyone should do. He's insistent, isn't he? Alice isn't sure what to think of it. When he glances down to look at her, Alice promptly turns her head away from him. ]

I only shared my secret because there was never a need for you to hurt yourself.

[ She squirmed again, drawing more of an exasperated breath as he declared he would be safe with him. ]

[sunderings]

You mean to say I should be concerned for myself?

[ Hmph, what a thought. Sion, the Hero King, may or may not be sulking—he is brazen and he is bothersome, but surely Alice would never turn the brunt of her ire upon him. But then again, even if she were to do such a thing in the present, he doubts her attempts to assail him could amount to more than her squirming. And squirm she does, pressing herself to his chest, then upon being struck by their close proximity, drawing back as though she'd been scalded. Sion, of course, had accounted for such an attempt, had been prepared to endure, and so he does, walking on. Though his build is lithe, he possesses the Hero's strength, and once upon a time, he'd hoisted a traitorous nobleman three times his own size into the air with but one arm alone...!

But that is a story best told another time, for he must mind his present captive if he's to keep her safe within his arms (even if that means he should subject himself to further pulls and tugs upon his hair!). ]

I did not make the offer of keeping watch over your rest on account of any such fear, Lady Alice, but because I know it's a rather troublesome thing to wake from dreams. It helps if there is a familiar presence near. [ So often did he, himself, dream of other realities and other lives that his connection to the world around blurred, went thin. Each and every time he wakes, he sorts it out himself: his location, his purpose, who and what he is. ] When I was a boy, I often kept watch over my mother's fitful periods of sleep, and it eased her.

[ But not enough, in the end, for he couldn't keep her with him.

(And then, then the darkest part of him would say that when his mother took her own life, it had been because of him. So he would not be chained to her bedside.) ]

What I do now is not because you are in need of a rescuer, a knight, but because it is something which I wish to do for you. [ And he'll echo her own words back: ] You're not by your lonesome, you know.

[digophelia]

[ After a few moments, Alice isn't squirming, awkwardly resting her hands over her chest, if only because what he says puts her in a silence. So insistent Sion is, she's not sure what to make of it. He keeps calling her stubborn, but her stubbornness is matched. A knight, he says! Briefly she is reminded of the White knight rescuing her from the Red Knight, who escorted her over to the next square safely back in the looking glass. Struck with the memory of the White Knight, Alice takes a hand to her face, groaning at him. Of all the things to think of at that moment, she had to think of that poor, pitiful man. Truthfully, in that moment, with her hallucinations becoming progressively worse with her fatigue, she couldn't really look at him without his face being distorted. ]

Oh, please, I don't need a knight for any of that. Then you can stay, if only for a small while.

[ Frankly, she's too tired to argue and believes that she'll be fine and keep him company for a while, contrary to what he's offering. ]

But don't be silly, I can weather out the rest of the night and read to you. So there won't be a need for any of that, I can manage, I have plenty of tea to keep me going. Then you can continue on your merry way. It will be fine.

[ Alice's hand was still resting atop her face as he carries her so that she couldn't look at him. But being bundled up, not sitting upright, and being exhausted mentally and physically was starting to mount on her; the threat of falling asleep was becoming real. She kept her mouth firmly shut, knowing that she was capable of rambling on in her state. Thankfully, she was just tired, and not truly psychotic. ]

[sunderings]

[ It'd be a marvelous contest, he thinks, if he and Alice were to battle with sheer obstinacy alone—where Alice is willful, single-minded in her belief that her troubles should be hers alone, Sion is a King, one a little too addled with the concept of kindness and good, and made tenacious because of it. If Alice is in need of assistance, he will provide it, regardless of her approval. Much like the bumbling, sleepy-headed man and the fathomless, dumpling-minded beauty he'd left behind in his castle, Alice requires only a helping hand—someone to stay her, when she should be so stubborn that she believes herself to be beyond the limitations of her body, and someone to pull her up; to walk on where she cannot.

Sion says nothing, of course, when she goes on about him being silly, how she believes tea might be able to sustain her through the night. And what's this, she thinks she might be able to read to him, in her present state...? ]

I do not think my way would be merry, if there were no slip of a girl to lead the way, granting me the leisure and freedom to tarry on behind.

[ But then she's gone quiet, at long last. And while Sion is certain that if Alice were not so very tired, this battle would have been a loss, his victory is made no less sweet for it. There's no more squirming, only his even, measured step, and even if her rest should be fitful, it will still be rest. Alice, after all, is human—she needs her sleep, where he does not. He has hours, yet, perhaps another full day before he will allow for sleep to take him. ]

Forgive me, but... [ His voice is soft, so much so that the words following might be lost to Alice's ears: ] ...I'll not leave you, Alice.

[ He won't. ]