semi-open

[riastraid]

CHARACTERS: lancer, friends, and some open things
DATE: more or less current
WARNINGS: the usual kinda-zombie stuff! hanger, violence, possibly gore
SUMMARY: soulsucking vampirism and zombie appetites go together poorly, who knew

[ prompts to be added in comments, let me know if you want anything in particular! ]

Comments

[keeper]

[ (What the heck kind of tsun phrasing is that, all he has to say is I have good friends and I appreciate them so very deeply as they deserve...!!!!)

She returns his grip without comment, neither too loose nor locked, lowering their hands to rest on the ground like an old ship anchoring at sea. (He pauses, and she listens to the empty space between his words, and after.) ]

I don't blame you.

[ Having just searched through both their memories—how much or little she knows of his past life, of Fuyuki and his time with ALASTAIR...

...She's seen him at his worst, leaking demonic smoke through bared teeth. For all her idealism, her pride and belief in the strength of her bonds, she knows better than to lie to him—or herself—and say it can't or won't happen again. (After all it's happening right now, right in front of her; just more slowly this time.) ]

[riastraid]

[ He's not tsun, he's just Tough™, deal with it!!!

In a warrior clan like his, there was a certain amount of sentiment they were all allowed—brief grieving, love, arts and storytelling, helping hands and brotherhood. But to display weakness was never flattering, even amongst friends. It's unfortunate that Aqua is so often the one to see him in these states.

It might be that blow to his pride that makes them close, too. He lets things go quiet for a while, longer than he'd usually let silences stretch out, waiting for the oxytocin to work its slight magics. Eventually, dryly, ]

Don't tell me you came all this way out because you missed me.

[ Great as he is, it's a bit out of the way here, because that's how he intended it to be. ]

[keeper]

[ For her there's no shame to be found in vulnerability, no weakness in telling hard truths. ...But she understands, that to him it isn't so much the same, that despite his easy exterior his core is nothing so soft or pliable. She's careful her sympathy doesn't waver and slip into pity, out of her respect for him and because she'd never cry over her own misfortunes. (They share that much at least, dry eyes on the horizon and not behind them.)

She waits patiently for him to collect his thoughts, and the silence that stretches out is both the tightrope and the safety net.

He poses a question and she mulls over a response. (Yes, no, maybe...)

No shame in vulnerability, and her fingers curl around his firmly this time. ]

You're my family.

[ ...It's the only promise she can really give him anymore. ]

[riastraid]

[ It catches him off-guard, and ordinarily that'd be a quick, fluttery blink, maybe a coarse quip to cover up his surprise. But as casually as he holds his concentration, it's fragile—his grip turns bruising for a second, squeezing a hair too tight (in a thoughtless moment, he feels hunger where there should be a swell of pride, and he nearly hisses through his teeth at the wrongness of it) before he overcompensates, letting go abruptly.

But that doesn't mean the words failed to reach him. He collects himself, brows knit slightly, which only helps bring out the wonderful, hooded purple around his eyes. ]

Hey, don't kid. [ Of course she's not. ] Your family's waiting for you already.

[ He knows because he's seen them, glimpses in secondhand dreams, in her resolve to her home—to them. Not a guy due to go totally crazy in T minus one week and counting. Even he can't take that lightly. ]

[keeper]

[ Truth be told, even she doesn't know where Terra and Ventus are anymore. She's caught glimpses of the both of them here, briefly, too short to be sure whether it was just another memory masquerading as a dream. (Some part of her hopes they're elsewhere within ALASTAIR, just across another timeline. Still out of reach, but safe.) A voice relentlessly drifts to her mind, and perhaps it's one Lancer's heard, too.

I'm asking you, as a friend... Just...put an end to me. ]

...

[ They're important to her, yes, forever her guiding lights home. ...But home is yet far away, and she'll not be going back any time soon. Though she knows Lancer speaks out of a sense of concern, it's been months since he's seen her dreams. He hasn't seen her desperately search the ashen remains of Nalawi for him, the times she's been startled mid-mission on another planet thinking she'd seen his ghost, too.

She looks to him now, and her smile fades. ]

...That's not for you to decide.

[ Her tone is soft, and if he listens closely enough he might hear something else there. (She isn't here to argue with him.) She straightens herself, collecting her things, and turns to leave.

...She pauses for just a heartbeat, because it feels too much like walking away from Terra, from Ven. But in the end, she doesn't look back. ]

I'll see you again soon, Lancer.

[riastraid]

[ There's some things outside of his control. He could choose his friends, but not his loyalties, his fate—his family. Even having left and come together again, contract long severed, he's in no place to reject her. Not when she's like this, full of the same stubborn, strong-willed softness that he'd found bother irksome and admirable in a Master. It hasn't changed with a 'demotion' to friendship—or more than that, apparently. From two strangers fighting a crowd (not even fighting together—their methods had been too different then, and they're still so different now) to this, full seasons later. He hadn't expected to last this long—enough time that he might rebuild a new life, and find a new man to call his brother. He had his pack, his fellow warriors that barely stood beside him in war, same as Audentes in general, but far fewer that he'd call his own. Emer, Fergus, Ferdiad, Scathach. His king, a god, and a son he never knew. People he was obliged to love from the very start to the bitter end.

And wasn't that Aqua to a T? Though, in this case, 'brother' wasn't quite right.

He responds with a pensive look, the last tingling of oxytocin and sober thought keeping him grounded. His hand stays closed as it drops to his side, like it's still holding something. Finally, ]

See ya, sis.

[ He takes off too, words barely out before he disappears in a shifting cloud of magic, making himself gone as quick as he can. Even if he's not in a rush to say goodbye—better safe than sorry. ]