[SE] Love from the other side

Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone

Pouring more of the water on the planted rose and rinsing dark soil from her hands, Maea didn't answer right away. It was difficult to put words to her misgivings without explaining everything about her history with the gods, and the few kernels of information she had learned about Dygra. It was next to nothing, really, precious scarce tidbits; very precarious to build a new life around.

"I have yet to meet Dygra, so I don't know," she admitted eventually "though I was told that she is the opposite to Caido. The 'blood and bones', chaos and darkness, and... Doesn't a race of predators sort of imply a lack of care for the living? Would it not tear you apart over time, to befriend people and care for them while instincts tell you that they are prey?" Was she the only one who felt that? Or were these others just better at ignoring the bloodlust? Picking at the seam to her boots, Maea's shoulders crept up toward her ears, fed by worries she couldn't put words to.

"It just feels like I shouldn't be bothered by certain things. But I am." In comparison, Danta's carefree attitude had seemed very refreshing. Appealing indeed, for someone like her who lived so much in her oen head.

Looking up, Maea fixed her near colorless eyes on Tal, curious about his remark about the Maverick. "Do you know Danta? Is he... not a good person?" Her experience with the Ancient had only been good, and it made her wonder if something had happened that she didn't know about. At least she had a face to the name in his case; she didn't know the others mentioned, though Edmund's name was naggingly familiar.

Base by Odd

An Ancient who hadn't met her own goddess yet? ...huh. "Guess I figured it was like becomin' Attuned," he mused, a little baffled. "That y'had t'choose it an' pray for it an'... stuff." But he didn't really know much about Dygra so maybe things were different with her? But as Maea asked questions that were probably rhetorical, Tal's confused frown dipped perilously close to a scowl again as he snorted, waving off her worries like they were pesky modilu flies.

"Sure, an' Mort's t'opposite o' Vi. Doesn't make 'im evil or anythin'. Just part o' a different balance." Tal pushed himself up, dusting his knees off as he did. "'Sides, s'not like humans aren't predators, too. Everythin' that's not a plant's gotta kill somethin' else t'live, doesn't it? I know Ancients get a little extra hangry or somethin', but y'can still choose t'eat a pig over a person, right?" He wrinkled his nose and brought his hand to his mouth, brushing the ring he wore lightly against his lips. Immediately the scratches on his arms seemed to melt away, fading beneath the gentle warmth of the Healing that coursed through him. "I figure that already makes y'better than th'Whitebrim cannibals, yeah?"

Wait, was it cannibalism if the Ancients were technically a different race? What if they'd been human to start with? It was questions like these that made Tal's head hurt and he shook it as if to chase away the incipient headache. "An' Danta? I dunno about 'good' or 'bad.' He's just a lot, y'know?" Tal snorted, thinking back to his handful of run-ins with the latest leader of the Hollowed Grounds. "Sometimes a little too much! Little weird. Little creepy. But I haven't heard about him hurtin' anyone before."

Not that Tal necessarily would have heard, not being local to the Grounds.

Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone

Maea shrugged helplessly. "Perhaps it is. I... don't remember much of that time, to be honest. Just impressions, and very jumbled ones at that." If she'd ever made a choice, it had been between changing or fading into oblivion, and she hardly saw that as a choice at all. Though she wished it had remained more vivid in her memory. "I remember fear, and running blindly for a place that wasn't burning or crumbling. Then a dreadful hunger with a streak of madness... and then my limbs were turning to stone, until everything went dark. Next thing I know, I'm lying in a burned out pyre in the woods, and years have passed and the world is nothing like I remember it."

No impressions or strange recollections lingered of Dygra. It was certainly not enough to count as a proper encounter, nor enough to describe the goddess. For all Maea knew she could have promised her soul and more just to stay alive - and maybe that was what happened. Since she didn't recall, it really didn't matter at the moment.
Of far more weight was what she did with this second chance she had been granted, and so she listened with rapt attention as Tal offered his own view of the new goddess, and her children. There would always be a part of her that wished to argue with people when they told her something wasn't as bad as she thought - old habits died hard - but she had to admit that it was soothing to have it reaffirmed that there was no enmity against the Ancient. 'Extra hangry' and 'oddly bloodthirsty' made the itch under her skin seem like personality traits rather than monstrous inclinations. Like a tendency to brawl when drinking beer, or an unfortunate preference for the color red.

Above all, he pointed out that she had a choice. Simple as that; yet the pale faced woman found her eyes stinging as her chest cramped with relief. She could choose - of course she could! Why, why why did she not realize that before, why was it always through the words of others that she found permission to do things? It had been the same thing with her magic - so wound up, so tightly restrained, until Sunjata had pointed out that it was her gift, to do with as she pleased.

Emotion paraded across her face as she processed this, overwhelmed enough that she almost didn't catch the shift in topic. She actually laughed at the way Danta was described. A huffed chuckle of pure amusement followed by a grin that was a little sharp and a lot lopsided, but genuine enough.
"Weird and creepy, huh. If that's the worst of it, I think it'll be alright. He was the one who pulled me from the stone... It's good to know I'm not indebted to a raving lunatic."

Rising when Tal did, Maea offered him what water remained in the skin. "Thank you, for listening to all that. I didn't really mean to heap my troubles on you." It was becoming a bad habit, honestly.

Base by Odd

Tal didn't really know what to say to her experiences, so for once he wisely didn't say anything at all, just giving a cautious nod here and there. He knew that some Ascended had wandered around for a while after the War ended, godless and adrift, but he hadn't heard of any left at this point. They'd all become Ancients in the end, if Caido's nastier fauna hadn't gotten them first after their upgrades stopped upgrading.

But he didn't really know what happened when an Ascended became an Ancient. Edmund had prayed for it, but Edmund had been as human as Tal was before he changed, so the courier just shrugged and told Maea what he thought of her race, colored by the conversations he'd had with Fox and Edmund, mostly.

He hadn't expected her to get all weirdly emotional about it, though. Boreal pressed against her hip with a reassuring croon, but the courier cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away, rubbing a dirty hand against the back of his neck as he fought to remember something else she'd mentioned that he could use to change the subject.

"Raving? Nah. The lunatic part, though... might be," he admitted with a snort, remembering the Maverick's little casual strip show when they'd gathered under the red moon and shit had gotten weird. Danta hadn't been the only one acting strangely that night... but then, Tal hadn't been able to tell if he was just acting normal. Normal for Danta, at least. Which was a completely different definition than everyone else used!

He stretched out his hands automatically to let Maea pour water over them so he could rinse the dirt off at last. At her gratitude he just gave an uncomfortable shrug, looking down at his hands as he cleared his throat, his voice gruff. "Yeah, well... whatever. Helped t'pass th'time while we planted th'rose, didn't it? Fair trade for your help with it." He finally glanced up when his hands were clean, shaking them off before wiping them dry on his shirt.

"So, uh. Where are y'goin' from here?"

Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone

With weirdness cementing as a common trait of the Ancients, Maea regained some composure. Smiling with greater ease than before she just laughed at Danta being lunatic; she would have to pay attention next time she met him and see if he did anything strange.

When the last drops of water squeezed from the skin and soaked into the parched soil, Maea returned the stopper and put the whole thing back in her bag. "Well, I'm grateful all the same. If you come by the Grounds at some point, come find me, yeah? I'll treat you to a meal or a drink - whichever you prefer." Though perhaps that was just an excuse to get a chance to meet the Messenger again. Emotional upheaval notwithstanding, it had been a pleasant encounter. She appreciated Tal's blunt honesty, and found his practical approach a good foil for her own tendency to overthink.

"Well," she replied, when the subject turned out to travel plans, "I'm on my way home. So I think... the Boondocks. I hear there's a new market place there. Should be able to find a boat to the Grounds from there." If not, she'd have to backtrack to King's End and find a skyship headed for Jack Tar Landing, which would set her back a week or more. "Unless you know a faster route? Where are you going next?" Interested in the navigational skills a courier surely would have, she shrugged her pack more comfortably in place, a touch reluctant to part ways so soon.

Base by Odd

Tal perked up at the mention of food and drink, his scowl fading to something almost amiable at the offer. "Sure! I'm there pretty often on delivery runs." It wasn't quite as busy as the rounds between Stormbreak, Torchline, and Halo, but it had more business for him than the Greatwood and King's End these days.

With his current delivery made and his hands cleaned and dried, the courier stretched his arms and cracked his back, looking back towards the meadows and the refuge. His new home lay back there, half-built and waiting for the next round of improvements...

Boreal ambled back to his side and he glanced back to Maea, wondering what her plans were from the quiet backwater of King's End. He nodded slowly as she mentioned the Boondocks, brows beetling together in thought. "Yeah, th'Castaway Exchange is your best bet," he said slowly. "Th'sea ships are slower, but since King's End doesn't have a skyport yet, it's tough findin' a boat small enough t'land here that's big enough t'take passengers." The wrinkle in his forehead deepened as he jammed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, thinking hard.

"I was headed home for tonight, but I'll be startin' a new long-haul delivery run tomorrow. I'll be headin' for th'Greatwood first, an' th'Grounds after. Won't be th'most direct trip, an' th'Peregrine's short on space an' amenities, but we'll get y'there faster'n if y'go by sea." He shrugged and kicked the ground with his foot. "Three or so days, instead o' weeks. What've y'got t'trade?" Because while he might not be as tough as he tried to look, he was still a merchant's son, and the Peregrine's second bunk didn't come free to just anyone.

Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone

The offer to catch a ride with Tal caught her off guard. While she might have declined initially, the abrupt shortening of her travel from weeks to mere days was too good to pass up on and Maea quite happily threw her plans to the wind. "That's more than tempting," she replied, not even trying to hide her rising enthusiasm.

Rummaging through her pockets, she considered the contents of her pack, the recent hunt that left her with more meat than she was going to eat on such a shortened trip, and felt her fingers snag on the smoothness of the black compass in a pocket. The chakram was out of the question, of course; it was the only weapon she had.

"I can trade... nearly two week's rations in dried meat," she offered, "and this." Withdrawing the compass, she held it out for Tal to inspect. "It always points to the Hollowed Grounds. Never got any use out of it, but for a Messenger... It might come in handy." While she had carried it for a long time, Maea felt no real attachment to the item and would happily part with it.

Base by Odd

Tal looked smug at Maea's excitement over riding on the Peregrine, even if it was just because it was a faster trip. Still, he winced a little at her rummaging and was about to open his mouth to offer deferring payment until they got to the Grounds, since she seemed to have more ties there she might be able to call on--

Boreal perked up, rumbling immediate draconic agreement to the mention of 'dried meat' and Tal had to drop a hand to her horns, tugging on one in fond exasperation to distract her so she would leave the bargaining to him, thanks. Though the food was a good trade, and he pursed his lips thoughtfully at it.

Though when Maea mentioned the compass his pale eyes gleamed with immediate avarice and she had his undivided attention. "A compass like that'll get y'lifetime passage on th'Peregrine anytime we're headed th'same way," he admitted, too bluntly honest to sell her short on such an amazing item. "Maea Valair, y'have a deal!"

~Fin~