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hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
The skyship from the Climb took the long way, and somehow Liam ended up disembarking in the Grounds, eager to find something - anything - that might help to clear his mind. Haggard and tormented, most folk seemed to give him a wide berth as he wandered the Inner Quarter, eventually finding a flight of old stone steps between two buildings that looked like it might lead somewhere... interesting. He descended quickly, hoping to find a bar or an underground fight club, anything to give him something to focus on that wasn't Wren's scared face.
The covered lane was exactly the kind of place he was looking for. He found and discarded a dozen gambling parlors and brothels - neither had ever been his escape of choice, even before he had Maea to honor - and passed by a variety of other bars and shops and dining rooms before settling on a remarkably seedy looking establishment that promised good liquor.
He made his way to the bar, scrubbing a hand through his hair, and ordered a shot of whiskey. When it arrived, it sat on the counter, staring at him as he stared at it, as though daring him to take it when he knew full well that it was a terrible idea.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-12-2026
The portal through the bonfire was much quicker than any skyship, and Thal was already a few drinks deep by the time the first skyship docked - not that she cared. After the high energy of the festival, she was reluctant to call it a night so soon. Her crew could handle being alone for a little while and she knew they were enjoying the time with the cat gone, probably playing something she'd scold them for later.
Thal, on the other hand, chose a mix of solitude and high energy, finding a quiet bar with tense energy rumbling beneath the surface. It was enough to spell calm indulgence with the possibility of chaos, but when she entered the bar, her bruises and reputation kept people at a distance, the tension shrinking towards the corner where a group grumbled over wages and cheating.
She sat at the bar, sipping on her third glass of bourbon when a familiar man sat a few seats down from her. He appeared too distracted to notice where he was or who he'd stumbled upon, obviously deep in thought. Thal might even argue that he looked haunted; a dazed, harrowed look in his eyes making her curious after having seen him so 'hopeful' and 'gracious' before. His gaze didn't give the smallest indication that he realized his drink had been served, staring blankly down at the bar. Pursing her lips, she debated involving herself in whatever trauma he was experiencing, wondering if she could keep enjoying her night with his brooding face in view.
Deciding that she'd rather not, Thal ran her middle finger along the lip of her glass and raised her pointer to his drink, tone bored as she said, [say]"I'll take that if you're not going to drink it. I'd hate for good whiskey to go to waste."[/say]
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
Just one drink, he told himself. But the logical part of his mind knew that one drink would become two, two drinks would become four, and then he'd be showing up to the Treehouse with a bottle in hand and a disappointed partner to explain himself to. And he had no explanation other than feeling like shit. Was that a good enough reason? It certainly should be, after his daughter had come back from the dead.
You don't know it was her. It was what he had told himself over and over on the flight from the Climb. But that was a lie. He knew it was her, as surely as he knew his own name. It was something he couldn't fully explain - indeed, he doubted that someone who had never been a parent would understand - but he knew it in a bone-deep way that wouldn't let him go.
Just when he'd almost decided to take the shot, a familiar voice cut through the din of the bar. Liam looked up to find Thalassa staring him down, pointing at his drink. He slid it towards her. [say]"Be my guest."[/say]
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-12-2026
Where she might have expected a recruiting of his seemingly resilient attitude, Thal only found despair and resignation, his hand pushing the untouched drink her direction without so much as a fight. If she hadn't watched the bartender pour it herself, she might have thought it poisoned or otherwise tampered with. And yet, the hopeless emptiness of his gaze suggested he didn't have the heart or mind to do anything more than breathe right now.
But Thal wouldn't turn down a free drink.
Reaching forward, she snagged the glass and tossed it back, leaving him no room to hesitate or regret the decision. Once the liquor had burned down her throat, she looked him over again, pointedly assessing without attempting to hide it. [say]"You look like shit."[/say] And considering she was the one with bandages wrapped up her arm and a colorful bruise healing on her cheek, she knew a little something about looking like shit.
It wasn't an invitation to talk about his feelings - gross - but a brutal observation built on fact, and if it happened to assuage some of her curiosity about what might have beaten this man down? Well, Thal wouldn't argue.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
Liam watched as Thal snagged the drink and downed it, sorely tempted to order another and join her. But he'd overcome the temptation only a moment before, and he wasn't about to give in now. Not when doing so would feel like spitting on his hard-won sobriety and everything he held dear.
Thalassa looked him over, openly appraising, but Liam couldn't find it in himself to so much as square his shoulders. Her assessment was blunt, and he sighed in the face of it, scrubbing a hand over his face as though that might wipe his misery away. Then he looked her over, too, finding her bandaged and bruised. [say]"So do you."[/say] He paused, rubbing the back of his neck. [say]"'Least your shit seems to be physical."[/say] His, on the other hand... He wasn't sure he wanted to get into the details, really. Not when he was still parsing through everything, himself.
Liam lifted his chin towards her bandaged arm. [say]"What happened?"[/say] Maybe it would be a welcome distraction to hear about someone else's problems for a while.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-12-2026
Her head cocked to the side, dark horns parting her blonde hair as she raised an eyebrow. [say]"And yet I still look better than you."[/say] There was a hint of her playful mischief, the smallest musical lilt in her tone that wasn't all harmless teasing, the softest glow of danger flickering in the blue of her eyes.
Thal still hadn't decided if Liam was a friend or foe, their relationship too twisted and painted in purple for her to determine whether he was the kind of person she'd let get away with insults or prodding comments, or whether he was someone she'd joke with when she'd dragged him into the depths of hell with her. No matter how much he claimed to have absolved her of blame, she refused to let it all go.
His question was met with a shrug of her shoulders, her arm dangling the glass as she moved to take another sip of bourbon. [say]"Ursur."[/say] It wasn't a lie, although she failed to elaborate that the ursur was a man and the man was someone who'd hurt her while she was infected. That part of the truth didn't matter, not when her wounds were those of someone mauled by teeth and claws and Liam was someone she didn't feel inclined to explain herself to.
[say]"You?"[/say] She didn't look at him when she asked the question. Not at first. Her eyes lingered on her liquor, pausing to enjoy the flavor of it - and definitely not to give him privacy - before they drifted back to him, waiting.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
A faint hint of a smile appeared at Thalassa's prodding, unsure what to make of it but appreciating it all the same. They'd never quite settled whether they were friends or enemies or somewhere in between, and that made each interaction they had more confusing than the last. For Liam's part, he was willing to live and let live, but then there was Thal's history with Maea to consider. It was complicated, to say the least.
[say]"Ah,"[/say] he said. He'd fought an ursur recently, and had it not been for Deimos, he might not have escaped with his life. So he didn't really need more than a one-word answer to find some measure of understanding, and he didn't know Thalassa well enough to pick up on anything she might not be saying. Cocking his head, though, he regarded her with curiosity - perhaps the first real emotion he'd shown thus far this evening. [say]"Didn't think Ancients could go far enough into the tundra to run into an ursur."[/say] Whether she gave him any more to go off of or not was irrelevant. She could leave it as an observation or share more; it didn't matter to him.
As for his problems, there was a long pause where he tried to figure out the short version of his story - long enough that Thal would be excused for assuming he wasn't going to answer. When he did, his voice was quiet and pained, the ghosts of his past evident in his haunted gaze. [say]"I thought my daughter died years ago, but I think I just saw her in the Climb. Except I don't know for sure, because she didn't know me."[/say] That was, perhaps, what hurt the worst: that he'd known Wren on sight, but she had looked at him like a stranger.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-12-2026
At least the admission brought some sort of emotion to his face, the distance closing until he almost looked like he was living in the present again. She rewarded it with a bit more truth, a short, vague response. [say]"This one wasn't in the Tundra."[/say] Perhaps he'd take it to mean one had wandered off where it shouldn't have, or perhaps he'd read more into the words she wasn't saying, but she didn't give any indication she planned to say more.
Her gaze lingered on Liam, watching the light leak from his eyes, the memories wash over him in a way that almost had her feeling sorry for him. She waited, curious if he would talk and whether it would be to explain or tell her where to shove it, and yet he continued to sit, slowly sinking deeper into a darkness she couldn't see.
It was only when she began to lose hope - when she was taking a resigned sip of her alcohol - that he spoke, his confession causing her motions to slow. [say]"Damn. Surprised you didn't down that drink the moment it was in front of you."[/say] The words were a defense, a lightening of the mood with a rough acceptance of his struggles that she wouldn't comfort or soften.
Lowering her glass, Thal gave a dismissive shrug. [say]"Maybe it wasn't her."[/say] She said it without any gentleness or coddling. It wasn't like she knew or cared enough about whether this girl turned out to be his daughter, but it made her wonder what it must have been like for Athena to see her face, to see the blank anger where there might have once been love and joy. The image stuck with her, something akin to sympathy causing her flat tone to add, [say]"but there are plenty of reasons she might not have recognized you."[/say]
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
Not in the tundra. Interesting, but not interesting enough for Liam to latch onto and press for more information. Besides, as little as he knew about Thalassa, he figured that she would have shared more if she was inclined to. Maybe it had wandered outside of its normal range, or maybe it wasn't just an ursur. Either way, it wasn't any of his business, anyway.
He had his own shit to deal with, and he scrubbed his hand over his face after he finally spoke, as though the admission had cost him something dear. He barked a harsh laugh at her attempted humor. [say]"Recovering alcoholic,"[/say] he said by way of explanation. He didn't offer more than that, didn't attempt to describe how it felt like dishonoring everyone he loved to give in to the urge for a drink - no matter how badly he might wish for one, no matter how much Thal's slow enjoyment of her own liquor might feel like a taunt.
[say]"Maybe it wasn't,"[/say] he admitted. [say]"Maybe I'm just going crazy after all this time in the woods."[/say] But he was pretty sure Maea would have noticed a slow descent into madness, and he knew his daughter. Hadn't he pictured what she would look like at this age a thousand times over? And sure, maybe there were just as many reasons why Wren wouldn't have recognized him, but none of them made it hurt any less. [say]"Either way, I thought she was dead."[/say] So he'd given up on her, failed her so completely that he wasn't sure he'd ever recover. [say]"If she's not, that means I fucked up."[/say] Royally, to have missed her for so long.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-12-2026
She couldn't decide what was mor surprising: his laughter or admitting to being an alcoholic. On one hand, the laughter cut through the tension like a sledgehammer against a thick pane of ice, cutting fractures and vibrations through the dense wall. On the other hand, everyone in Caido drank, and although it was hard to find an empty bar on the entire continent, she'd rarely heard of people calling it an addiction. Even she could drink her weight in liquor and barely feel it, but that was just another Tuesday.
Blinking, she took in the information with muted interest, sharing her unfiltered opinion with a flick of her tail. [say]"That sucks."[/say] But it didn't stop her from taking another swig of her bourbon, figuring his problems didn't need to impact her pleasure.
Thal stayed silent through his little external thought process. It was hard to dispute what he said when she still didn't know or care enough. All she could definitively say was [say]"You're right."[/say] The words were flat, unwavering, and blunt. If it really was his daughter and he hadn't been there for her through whatever trauma had altered her memory, Thal would easily label him one of the worst fathers, failing in his duties in such spectacular fashion that he might deserve to suffer this way. And yet, the question still arose, the one that could possibly change everything: [say]"What are you going to do about it?"[/say] Would he wallow more in self-pity? Abandon her again? Or get his ass in gear and find a way to make up for lost time?
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-12-2026
And that was the crux of it all, wasn't it? What are you going to do about it? The thoughts rolled around and around in his mind, turning this way and that as though he could see a new path forward if he simply tried hard enough. All the way here, he'd considered options and talked himself out of every single one. He could track Wren down, but what would he do when he found her? He could try to send a message through Zavien, but there was no guarantee it would be conveyed correctly, however much he trusted the ex-Commander. Besides, this was a problem of his own making, and therefore one that he needed to fix.
[say]"I... have one idea,"[/say] he admitted slowly. [say]"Ask the gods if she is who I think she is. And then if she is, quest for something to help her recognize me."[/say] He cracked his knuckles, suddenly restless. [say]"But that requires her consent. I won't force her to remember me."[/say] Not when she might well be better off without him. Still, it was a better plan than he'd had when he'd entered the bar, and there was a spark of his old self back in his hazel eyes when his gaze met Thalassa's once more.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-13-2026
She didn't look at him anymore, finding the liquid in her glass more interesting as he laid out a plan. [say]"Sounds like you know exactly what you're going to do,"[/say] Thal said mildly, taking another slow sip and swishing it in her mouth before sucking it down with a tongue against her fangs.
Her hand flicked out, delicate fingers dismissive of his concerns. [say]"Send her whatever the item is and let her decide."[/say] The young woman could choose to use whatever the gods had made or throw it into the ocean, and he'd have to respect whatever decision she made. In Thal's case, she wasn't sure she would want to remember her old life anymore. She wasn't that person, and she didn't need to know more about whatever past she might have had when her future was all that mattered. But at least she'd have the option, and it might make someone more amicable to the person's case.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Liam - 02-13-2026
Maybe Liam did know what he was going to do, but that didn't make the prospect of doing it any less daunting. Saying it all now to Thalassa sounded simple enough, but the reality of it was that he could do everything in his power, and Wren could still choose not to give him a chance, whether she remembered him or not. The ex-soldier ran a hand through his hair, then dropped it to the bar. [say]"Yeah,"[/say] he said.
But they'd talked enough about him and his problems, and he flagged the bartender down for a glass of water. Once he had it, he took a sip. Not as good as liquor, but better for him in the long run, he supposed. [say]"What about you?"[/say] he asked. [say]"Got more ursur-hunting in your future?"[/say] If so, she might want to work on her battle strategy, but some things he knew better than to say aloud.
RE: hear what the silence screams - Thalassa - 02-14-2026
Liam looks more resolute than before, the empty air of lost uncertainty solidifying into fragile purpose. He grows before her eyes, rising to draw the bartender, and although she disapproves of his choice in beverage, Thal doesn't say a word. It's his choice if he wants to keep the pain sharp.
Her tail slows at his question, veiled disinterest making her expression blank. [say]"Maybe. We'll see."[/say] The ache of her split back is still fresh, the wound on her pride worse. There will be plenty of time to plot and prepare for vengeance - however that may look. She doesn't even know the man's name, let alone where to find him again.
Shrugging her shoulders, Thal adds, [say]"I have bigger things to focus on right now."[/say]