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all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
Ronin flies and he flies hard, wings spreading from his shoulders and catching the nearest updraft before he even realises which ocean the houseboat is bobbing around in. With Flora clutched to his chest like something infinitely sacred and precious, it's with only a small and guilty glance back towards where he knows his husband is still fighting it out that he sets his eyes on the horizon and - blessedly - Torchline sparkling in the distance.
Having travelled much farther over the past couple of weeks alone, the flight back to familiar shores is a relatively smooth one, even if stars are shining brightly overhead by the time he lands at the Northaven, the islands relatively sleepy even if they are never particularly quiet. It's as much the middle of the night as it gets for the region, which is why Ronin wastes little time in ducking through the front door to carry Flora to the bed she'd woken up in not long ago after what had happened in the Greatwood.
The only difference this time, of course, is that she's merely sleeping. And he doesn't dare wake her, not until she's good and ready, the Knight spending his time making something strong and caffeinated since he plans to stay awake until daybreak.
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
Hotaru had been wrong.
Flora's sleep wasn't dreamless.
The teeth and tentacles and scales that she'd seen moments before her mother's voice had sent her back to sleep now invaded her dreams, populating her nightmare with monsters that wore the patient and loving faces of her mother and father. The way Remi had lunged over the bed to grapple the Valkyrie became a prolonged earthquake that shook the foundations of her dream before her mother's screams pierced through churning black clouds in violent streaks of lightning. The smell of electricity made her want to gag as Flora staggered through a broken landscape that churned and heaved beneath her feet.
SLEEEEEEP! Hotaru had commanded, and so Flora had and was still as Ronin laid her down into his bed, her body motionless save for the way the content of her dreams writ themselves across her face in the twitching of her eyes and the way her lips occasionally parted in shallow and silence screams.
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
Ronin notices the tell-tale twitches of a nightmare after he turns back from the counter with his spiked coffee in hand, the Knight's brow immediately furrowing with worry. Approaching the bed and setting his mug down, he perches on the edge of it to take one of Flora's hands gently between both of his own, wishing he still had his own dream magic to guide people out of such situations.
Hissing a curse under his breath, his only recourse is a good old fashioned wake up, which he knows is guaranteed to be unpleasant.
Nevertheless, it might be better than what Flora is currently seeing. [say]"Hey,"[/say] he says softly, trying to interrupt the flow of her nightmare with his voice. [say]"Flora, it's Ronin. You're safe in the Northaven, you're having a bad dream. Everything is alright."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
Ronin's voice sweeps around her like a warm wind; present, but paltry and formless compared to the lightning that snarls in the clouds above or the way the ground beneath her continues to roll and ripple as the earth is cleaved aside by great violet claws. Sweat breaks out across her brow as she struggles and fights; her mother had sent her to sleep, and after the ordeal in the Greatwood, the command was a welcome one even if her subconscious knew that something was very wrong.
Twisting toward the sound of Ronin's voice, Flora's fingers clutch at the furs beneath her, the sensation of which has long grasses rising up around her, softly swaying and whispering everything is alright.
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
[say]"Flora..."[/say] His frown deepening, Ronin grabs for a cloth in one of the bedside drawers and reaches out to gently swipe the sweat from her brow. He knows nothing of Hotaru's magic being the cause of the slumber, having arrived after the command was given, else he might not have persisted, leaving things to run their course with little interference other than soothing words. Alas, this is not the situation they find themselves in.
[say]"Flora, you're safe. Wake up,"[/say] he urges, giving her hand a gentle squeeze between his own and reaching out to give her good shoulder the smallest of shakes. This is the latest in a line of very, very long evenings, and it only looks as if it will be getting longer yet, so the sooner he can free her from the clutches of her subconscious, the better.
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
Cool rain suddenly pours from the clouds, bringing with it the scent of petrichor as lightning continues to crackle above. This time as the ground heaves beneath her Flora finds herself falling to her knees, though rather than soft grasses she feels something warmer. Something that softly pulses. Something trying to draw her down. No, not down.
Out.
With a broken gasp, Flora's eyelashes flutter open revealing pupils that have grown far too wide in an effort to see in the hellish landscape she'd just found herself in. Blinking, she shifts away from Ronin, clearly still half-locked away in the world her mother had banished her to. [say]"What?"[/say] Glancing around sharply, the houseboat a familiar place but only because of how recently she'd been here, as the waking world forces away the last fingers of her dream, the Doubletake chokes on the words fighting to arrange themselves on her tongue.
[say]"Did...did I..?"[/say] Had she died? Again? Predictably on the heels of that thought, Flora's eyes grow wide as she turns properly to Ronin. [say]"Where's Jack?"[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
Letting Flora slip out of his grip without a fight, Ronin sits quietly to let her get her bearings, the Knight reaching across for a very quick sip of his coffee (though it's the whiskey in it more than anything that he wants) before giving his attention back to the Doubletake. [say]"Nothing like that,"[/say] he says, voice low and soft, the Knight resisting the urge to follow suit and glance around the houseboat. [say]"I don't know where he is - I imagine on The Ark?"[/say] he hazards.
[say]"Your mother took you - she's unwell, Flora. She thought she was trying to keep you safe. She sent a letter to Remi and he went to get you."[/say] And there's an entire forest of other information that branches off that summary, but Ronin tries to keep it to the bare bones for right now. [say]"Remi is with Hotaru. He's going to help get her better."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
It's all...wrong.
Ronin didn't look the way he had when last she'd woken up in an almost identical situation; he wasn't pale, wasn't desperate for the sound of her voice, he wasn't—did he just take a drink of coffee?—panicked. [say]"Wh—"[/say] If Jack was fine, but she wasn't fine—or was she?—then why was she here?
What Ronin says next has the bed seemingly shifting beneath the Doubletake as if she was still dreaming, and had she been a little more with it, she might have pinched herself just to make sure that she really had left her nightmare behind. [say]"What?"[/say] The word leaves her lips on a laugh that's as hollow as her gaze suddenly is as she pushes her elbows beneath herself to sit up. [say]"What do you mean she took me?"[/say] Confusion has her smile beginning to fall; shaking her head in intentional disbelief, the look Flora gives Ronin is vaguely accusatory. [say]"We were...on the shoreline. She said she wanted to keep me safe, and then.."[/say] Blinking, Flora trails off. Stiffening against the logic that has pins and needles prickling at the bottom of her feet, the queen shakes her head again.
[say]"No, I just...I..fell asleep, and...and..."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
With only rudimentary knowledge about what Hotaru can do - and that's entirely on Ronin, given that he's done his best not to think about the Valkyrie at all until very recently - the Knight is at something of a loss, shifting on the bed to glance around before spying the letter she'd sent to Remi. [say]"It's what she said,"[/say] he explains rising to his feet to fetch the parchment before returning, passing it to Flora so she can look for herself.
[say]"Remi found you sleeping in some houseboat out in the ocean. Hotaru was there as well. I don't know what happened between them, only that he called me with his magic and told me to get you out of there. I don't know where they are now, but I can only hope they are on their way to Halo."[/say] Wincing and already knowing that requires further explanation, he rakes a hand back through his dark hair. [say]"Hotaru has been infected by the void. The healing springs in Halo will cure her."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
With a mixture of disbelief and apprehension twisting her lips into a grimace, Flora reaches for the parchment. It takes her a moment to be able to read the words as they swim over the page, and several more before she can piece them together with what she remembers her mother saying.
[say]"No,"[/say] shaking her head, the queen thrusts the note back to Ronin. [say]"You..you're misunderstanding."[/say] She begins, before flinching as if she'd been slapped as he says the word infected. Feeling a wave of cold slosh through her belly even as heat roared across her cheeks, Flora begins to shake her head again. [say]"No, she can't be. You're...you're just saying that because you hate her. You've always hated her. She was just worried about me."[/say] Her tone shifts from accusatory to pleading, as she draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around her shins.
[say]"How could you even know? No one knows when someone is infected."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
Holding up his hands placatingly, Ronin takes the parchment back and sets it on the bedside table with his now forgotten coffee. [say]"Sunjata told us,"[/say] he says gently. [say]"After we healed him. Because he was infected too."[/say] He wishes there was an easier way of explaining the situation without having to stitch in the other (necessary but heavy) information, the Knight wincing a fraction at the reminder that, yes, he has hated Hotaru for a long time.
[say]"She told me to take you away, when I arrived where she was."[/say] Why, he doesn't know - he hadn't put two and two together yet to come up with the Valkyrie assuming Remi was out to kill her. [say]"Deimos got hold of a ring that can identify infected,"[/say] he supplies. [say]"But I'm pretty sure than Sunjata told people."[/say] He doesn't know, he wasn't there for that either, and the apology is writ plain on his face at the hearsay he knows he's giving her.
[say]"She was worried about you, Flora. I have no doubt. I just don't know what that infection was going to make her do with that worry."[/say] Would she have infected Flora too? Or just kept her hostage out in the middle of nowhere?
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
Huffing out a disbelieving laugh, the shake of Flora's head becomes so rapid she has to stop herself in order to keep the room from spinning. Sunjata? But she'd just seen him. Had helped prepare the Tavern for her mother's surprise engagement with him in attendance. [say]"When?"[/say] Thinking that of course this must have been a recent development, it wasn't as though her parents could have been infected for months and months, Flora looks to Ronin, unable to separate hearsay from bullshit, but finding herself inclined to believe that it was all the latter.
[say]"She wouldn't have hurt me."[/say] Flora says with a confidence that the tremble in her limbs belies. It wouldn't take long for the Doubletake to begin doubting that herself, not when she started to piece together what she knew of her mother's magic, the things Hotaru had said, where she'd briefly woken up. It explained why Remi had lunged for her, why the Valkyrie had been screaming. It explained why Ronin was the one here instead of Jack, but...
[say]"...no."[/say] Finally finding the energy to cry, large tears form in Flora's eyes as she pulls harder on her shins, drawing herself into an even smaller ball. [say]"You're wrong. She isn't infected, she's just..."[/say] Swallowing against the hysteria that begins clawing up the back of her throat, settling itself in the violet furrows left behind by large claws in her mind, Flora sips in a breath. [say]"..you've got it wrong."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Ronin - 12-22-2024
[say]"I don't know yet,"[/say] Ronin says with an honest shrug. [say]"Until she's cured she won't speak to anyone about what happened. With Sunjata it was all the way back from when he invited Dahlia to meet him at the Refuge."[/say] To see whether the sanctuary would block her abilities the same way it blocked everyone else's. How long ago had that been - two seasons? More?
And surprisingly, despite Flora's shakiness, the Knight is inclined to agree with his daughter about Hotaru. [say]"I don't think she would either. But she might have taken you to The Family because she thought it would keep you safe."[/say] Given that her supposed meddling had been the cause of her murder by those same individuals and all that, but even as he says it, Ronin's gaze is darkening a fraction with his temper. [say]"Flora..."[/say]
Shifting to get himself properly on the bed, though he hesitates to reach for the Doubletake lest she flinch away, he does raise an arm in an offer for her to sit with him. [say]"If I've got it wrong then she'll be fine when she goes to those hotsprings,"[/say] he says gently. [say]"And you'll have to wait for an explanation for her directly. Because she did take you, Flora. It's why you're here right now."[/say]
RE: all by my lonely - Flora - 12-22-2024
[say]"WHAT."[/say] Flora's tone is infused with all the theatrical outrage of youth, which might have been funny had the colour not disappeared entirely from her face. [say]"Did...did Sunjata infect her?"[/say] Because if he had...if he'd do that to her, then maybe Ronin was right, and her mother might have tried to do the same thing.
[say]"Where...where is he now? If you healed him...why..why wouldn't he take her to be healed himself?"[/say] Why would he let her come after me? Feeling herself beginning to tremble, the queen snatches for one of the furs next to her, drawing it up over her knees as if the shake in her limbs was simply because she was cold and not because her entire world had been turned upside down and dumped out like an old handbag.
Eyeing Ronin, torn between wanting to feel some semblance of stability while also feeling as though this was somehow worse than having been murdered (that, at least, she'd understood), the queen allows her shoulders to slouch away from her ears. [say]"So I'm just...supposed to wait here until they come back?"[/say]