voidtreckernet | Llama 11, Evening, Video

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Llama 11, Evening, Video

[It's been a few hours since everyone has returned from the mission. Ryo looks tired - but gods, who isn't by this point? - but he's still here.]

I'm in the dining car. I have coffee and tea and hot chocolate - the good kind. I also have something that'll knock you out until tomorrow, if you want that. If anyone wants anything, you're welcome to come pick it up.

You don't have to stay and talk, but...if you want to, I'm here. I can also help you if you're hurt or still coughing from the smog on the mission.

Just...don't feel like you have to handle this alone. Even if it's not me, there's always someone willing to help. You just need to ask.

[[OOC: I'm good with action tags, handwaving, multiple people in a thread, w/e - go for it!]]

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[Ryo is still up, though likely not for much longer. It's been a few hours, and it seems like most everyone who wanted to take him up on his offer has done so. He's starting to clean up - there are so many mugs to return to the kitchen, though he's not going to wash them until tomorrow, when he hopefully has more energy - but he still has the water on and the ingredients out when Persephone pokes her head in.]

[He looks up and greets her with a tired smile.]

How are you feeling?

Less covered in an awful layer of smoke and grease and things. That helps. [Persephone steps in, hands clasped behind her back] Um--how are you? I--I didn't even ask when we were out there. I assume bad.

You do look better. [It's meant to be complimentary - she's cleaned up and comfortable and those are both very good things to be.]

[The smile, tired as it is, slips when she continues on. No point in pretending when he knows everyone can see just how exhausted he is.]

Yeah, I'm...it's- it's bad.

[He sighs.]

But...so is everyone. Everyone's hurt, or tired, or both, and I'd rather do what I can to help than just...stew in it.

[He shakes his head a bit.]

...there's still hot chocolate if you'd like some.

[Persephone winces a little, hands curled tighter behind her back. She is stewing in it still, not touching the harder parts, already feeling pretty desperate to return to her room]

Um--I guess? No, I don't know that I'd really enjoy it. I'm not even hungry yet.

[Her head tilts to the side]But-- I'm sorry you had to deal with that...Talk me down and all. I thought I'd dealt with a lot of those feelings but you didn't deserve to get them thrown at you or argued with or any of that. [There's some lies but it's mostly lying to herself]

At least try to eat something, alright? If not this, then a peach from the greenhouse or something.

[Nothing makes things feel worse quite like going to bed hungry.]

[She continues, and he gives her a sad smile.]

I completely fell apart on you two platforms ago, remember? You helped me through that, and I don't mind doing the same for you - it's what friends do.

[He pauses, choosing his words. He hasn't had much time to mull over everything he'd seen in the illusions, but this had stuck out to him.]

Back there, you said your mother covered it up. Did you...did you ever get to talk to anyone about it, or was it just- out of sight, out of mind?

[She doesn't really agree, soldiering on past his insistence. He's a healer, what they do, fuss at you probably. Most likely. Not that she had reason for many healers in her time]

It's a little different, wiping blood off my face and having to argue about my--my self worth in the middle of a murder scene. [She waves her hand, trying to brush it all away] And a few people know. Um, Nita knew. Colden got stuck with part of my memories on Jema but he's gone too...And Zetta. He was more worried about the way I was approaching hiding my temper, since it affect my powers. I mean, the nymphs at home had to have known but we never really talked about it.

[Pause] I never told you why that happened, did I?

[He opens his mouth to argue - the only difference is the blood, she's still his friend and he's still going to support her - and closes it again as she continues on. Nobody here knows except for Zetta, and...well, he's Zetta. He doesn't necessarily have the most nuanced approach to things, from what Ryo knows.]

You haven't. It's up to you whether you want to.

[He's here to listen, but he's not about to dig - today has been hard enough on her as it is.]

No. I mean--it feels weird that you know about the whole...thing without the rest of it. And maybe if I tell enough people someone will stick around to know.

[She takes a seat on the edge of the table, tapping her fingers on the edge and then curling them beneath] Um, so flower nymphs are created by and tied to certain bushes, ones that create the right flowers. And my mom made a whole garden to help bring more to life. I helped, I made my first friends there. Literally, I guess. [She lifts a hand to her mouth, biting at her thumb nail]

Well we had a treaty with the mortals. They promised to leave it be. Well they didn't. And--it went downhill from there.

[He turns his full attention on Persephone and waits, and it doesn't take long to get the story. He's not sure what a nymph is, but he can ask later; he's picked up the important parts, at least.]

[He'd been right, back when she'd first told him about this. She hadn't killed them out of hand; there'd been a reason.]

They hurt your friends, and you lost your temper.

They killed them. Most nymphs are tied to big things. Mountains, oceans, rivers... Even trees are difficult to kill entirely. It's so easy to rip up bushes, dig them up and toss them aside.

[She looks down at the floor] They fell to ash and wilted petals in front of me. And I wasn't--I wasn't angry at first. I was too upset to be angry, too confused. I thought it had to be a mistake. But no--they knew, and it just... They...[Her throat closes on the selfish part. They pushed her to the ground, acted like they didn't have to listen to her because she was small and nothing and not worthy of holding them to their pact. She only got angry, got so desperate and furious that it took her over, when they treated her like nothing. B-grade goddess. Stupid village girl.] T-Then, y'know. [Gestures] What you saw.

They knew, and they thought they were better than a treaty with the gods, and they murdered your friends.

[There's something hard in his tone, an undercurrent of steel buried in his usual gentleness. How many stories were there in his world about this exact thing? How many stories about Spirits exacting retribution on humans who'd wronged nature, and been warned, and kept doing it anyway? How arrogant - or how stupid - do you have to be to disregard a treaty with the gods?]

I can't say I blame you. I mean, I know revenge isn't generally helpful, but...I think if anyone took my friends the way they took yours, I'd tear them to pieces myself.

[It's a terrible thing to say, and as a healer he should be above it, but as an abused child with far too few people who genuinely care about him, he damn well means it.]

It wasn't right of me to do it. But it still happened. I sort of...blacked out a little. Not entirely, but it happened without me really thinking about it. And then some more stuff--my powers went out of control and I ended up sort of ruining their village and accidentally killing people with a giant tree. The roots tore up the ground and they were too terrified of me to let me help.

[Persephone at least doesn't put so much of that blame on herself. Her powers did things because she was scared of herself, of what she'd done, it was something she couldn't control and couldn't stop. Like a natural disaster. She bites her thumb nail, staring at the floor] I wish I could have done more. They didn't do anything, the people in the village. And I can't blame them for being scared. I was thirty feet tall and had just killed three men, of course they called me what they did.

[So it hadn't just been vengeance for a wrong committed; it had been a loss of control, a domino effect, and things had just gotten worse. How much had been revenge, and how much of it had been an accident that she couldn't fix?]

[He remembers the illusion today, the wings growing out of her back and her utter terror at being unable to control them. This had all spiraled out of control, hadn't it. She had lost her temper, lost control, people had died, and...she'd been carrying it alone. Whatever people had called her had probably stuck to her like tar, living in her memories and her nightmares.]

[Gods.]

[He reaches out and gently takes one of her hands in his. The edge in his voice is gone when he speaks.]

I'm sorry.

[He's not going to ask her what they called her; he doesn't have advice; he doesn't know what to say; but he's not going to leave her alone with this. He can be here for her, at least.]

[She doesn't cry, perhaps because she's run out of tears, or has gone slightly numb. If she's honest, it's a bit of both. He holds her hand so gently and she shakes her head]

It's--well it's not alright. I might have been justified in the eyes of the kings with killing three humans. I--not to offend you, but three isn't much in the grand scheme of things. Far more fall in wars, in everyday life. It would have been a stupid lapse in judgement, maybe my mother would have taken the fall for it for me. But I hurt plenty in my panic. [She breathes out in a heavy sigh] I'll be in a lot of trouble if they find out. So I have to control myself. Which is hard. Harder when the whole void seems determined to stretch me to a breaking point.

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Llama 11, Evening, Video

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