rashness | Tanagura IC Inbox

[She sniffles again, not responding this time, but instead just holding onto Rin. Feeling his chest move as he breaths, listening to his heart beating in his chest, knowing he's alive. He may be trying his best to find words to comfort her, but just being beside her, holding her in this way and reminding her she isn't alone... that was really all he needed to do.]

[When she shivers again, this time Liger moves towards them, turning and curling a few of his tails around them, shielding them somewhat from a cold wind that was moving in. The sun would be setting soon. They should probably go back, but--]

Can we... [Her voice is a little calmer -- though only marginally so.] Can we go to Tamida? And the temple there? I-I know we're not all from the same place, but... I want to pray for them.

[Despite growing up in a Cathedral, Arietta was never very religious. The only prayers and hymns she knows, she knows because of Ion. But if there was anything she could do for them, no matter how small the gesture, she still wanted to try.]

[Ion... would have liked that, she thinks.]

[ Rin's father had raised him in a religion, though he didn't practice it very well. Shima was also at least peripherally religious. He didn't know about anyone else. But Rin recalls his prayers for Tinder and everyone that died during the war with the Black Market, and his prayers for Flint and ... well, Ash's arm, at least in this same wasteland.

If he can pray for them, then - ]

Of course we can. That's a good idea anyway.

[ Plus it would be less cold than here. ]

[Liger seems to find this plan to be great as well, once more lowering himself down for them to climb on. Of course, they'll have to be careful the closer they get to Tamida's house of prayer, since it was kind of difficult for two people to ride on Liger's back without touching each other.]

[Though Arietta will be hesitant to stay too far from Rin, maybe even looking a little antsy. She can't even hold his hand...]

[And yet in the back of her mind, she can't help but think it a little odd that there was no such taboo in death. The bodies of mongrels and elites alike were stacked up in that truck, no distinction made between one or the other. It only made the whole divide seem even more meaningless than it already was.]

[She'll stay quiet most of the way, until they get to Tamida proper. At which point they can probably walk instead of ride on Liger (even if he is totally warm and cozy to ride on with all that fur).]

...I forgot how long it's been since I came here. Not since... [The black market.] Since I became your pet, I think.

'Ve been down here a few more times. Vastania has me meet her here. Or well, at least a few times.

[ Rin keeps close to her on Liger, but he does want to shift back to get away from her as they get closer to civilization. He's simply not sure how he'll remain on Liger still while he moves back. Err.

Still, it's sort of awkward all things considered! And... and yeah, it's a problem of sorts. But while he does squirm, he doesn't have any real way to correct for it.

Why is he focusing on stuff like that while he got on there with Liger to go with Arietta in the first place, though? Mm. The fact of the matter is that he was as comforted by their proximity as she was. And he really shouldn't be, for both of their sakes. ]

Edited 2016-01-08 04:57 (UTC)

Really? So this is where you meet her... [Which she's probably heard a little about, but. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks, all things considered.]

[She can feel Rin is still close, even if they're not touching now that they've started getting closer to where people are. She wished she could lean back against him, but... well, the last thing she wants is either of them to get arrested. Especially now that her distrust of the government was more or less at its highest.]

[But at the get closer to the temple itself, she does climb down off of Liger -- though Rin is free to keep riding.]

...it's so different here from everywhere else on Amoi. If I don't look too hard, sometimes... it really does look like Daath.

[After the day she's had, there was something strangely comforting about it. It didn't remind her at all of Tanagura, or even the other more popular parts of Midas. If it were just more green, it would almost be uncanny...]

Yeah, she's all ... holy and stuff.

[ And a giant blue goat. Still! Once they get there- If she's going to walk, then he'll walk too. After all, Liger's more her brother than his friend. ... Shut up that totally makes sense. Still, once they're there, it's on foot from here with a pat on Liger's head to show that he's thankful. ]

Were's Daath again?

[ Apparently, he's not great with details ]

[Liger rolls his head up against Rin's hand, murring softly. But for her part, Arietta keeps her gaze locked forward. She can't exactly fault him for not knowing -- it's not like she talks about Auldrant very often. She can really only recall mentioning it once or twice in any great detail.]

That's... the name of the country I'm from. It's run by the Order of Lorelei, so everything there surrounds the Order and... the Score.

[...]

I... don't think I ever mentioned it, but. Ion is someone really important back home! He's the leader of the Order, and he did a lot of really great things for the world. Even though he's... [Deep breath.] He was younger than me.

[Another deep breath, this one a bit shaky. It might sound a little unlike her, trying so hard to keep herself from sounding as sad as she is.] The last time I came here, was... after he disappeared. I wanted to leave something for him here in case I... I-I disappeared too.

[ Rin is dimly aware of the fact that he's never really heard about any of these things. The Order was that military she was a part of, right? Or something like that. He doesn't know what the Score is, but from context, it sounds like it might be a religion, but she's not happy with said religion. But if Ion was the leader of the military?

... He ... ]

Y'know, I think I met that Ion guy once, kinda briefly.

[ He seems to only be remembering it now. But it comes to him as he watches her, not sure how he should handle this moment other than to walk beside her and brush at Liger a little ]

You did? [She turns to him, surprised at first... but then her expression turns almost wistful, once more turning to stare at the ground as she walks.]

...actually, you... you didn't. The Ion who was here on Amoi wasn't the same Ion I knew back home.

[The Ion who called her his pet, who named her and taught her to speak and act like a human being...]

That was... his replica.

[ Replica... ]

Replicas are like AIs, right? Like... fake people?

[ He's pretty sure they had a discussion about that before. But wow, that guy wasn't a real person? He seemed so lively, even if they only really met that one time. But they did explore a temple together, or at least started off on doing it! ]

[Fake people. Something about the way he says that makes her sad -- is that how people saw him? The sweet boy she barely knew who shared the face of her Ion?]

...n-no. They're not... fake people. Or like the AIs here. They're normal people, just... made differently. And they look just like their originals.

[Rin has no way of knowing just how much she struggled with this when Ion was still here, trying so hard to separate him in her mind from the original. She's really come a long way.]

But they... they only look like them. They don't have any memories of their original. The Ion here was nice to me, but... he didn't know me at all. And he really... wasn't like the Ion I knew either.

[ So they aren't fake people, they just... ate made differently? Did they have childhoods like that, or did he--? Still, yeah, that young Elite he met did seem pretty nice. Rin only knew him briefly and only on a surface level... He hums. Rin takes a half step closer to her and makes to lead them properly into Tamida. ... Huh.

Only look like them. But then - ]

Kinda confusing if they're both named Ion.

[She just nods, eyes still locked on the ground. It occurs to her now just how little she's really told Rin about herself. About her world. About the experiences she's lived, and the pain she's gone through. About everything that happened to her, in the final years of her short life.]

[About just how much Ion meant to her.]

Ion... the Ion I knew, he-- his body was really weak. He got sick all the time, so... I-I wanted to become someone strong. So I could protect him forever. I was always by his side...

[The ghost of a smile appears on her face, briefly recalling those happier times. The juxtaposition of a smile with eyes that look near tears is probably a bit strange.]

But then-- maybe two years before I came here... he got really sick. I wasn't even allowed see him for over a week... and then I wasn't allowed to see him at all.

[Her hands tighten into fists at her side, and she moves to cross them over her chest. Her next words are spoken slowly, carefully.]

Because... because he wasn't just sick. And the Ion who I saw after that, who wouldn't even look me in the eye... that was the replica they made to take his place. So no one would know he was... gone. [...] Not even me.

[ Rin listens to her, frowning the whole time as he tries to decide how he should even respond to her. The fact of the matter is that he is now in the middle of her spilling her guts to him and he's not sure he can--

Well, all he can do is listen, right? He puts his hands in his pockets mostly so that he won't be tempted to touch her, and he hears her out. He might glance at Liger, but. ]

So he was that important of a guy, huh? [ ... ] That's kind've amazing.

He was. Probably one of the most important people in the world.

[...]

But not just... to the world. H-He was important to me. He was... he was my world.

[But now he was gone. And his replica, who she thought she had at least had a second chance with, was probably dead in this world too.]

[She's thought about it a lot. About what she would have done if they had told her that Ion was dead and replaced with a replica. Would she have been able to accept it? Would she have served the replica in her Ion's place, projecting all her devotion onto him instead?]

[Or would she have simply followed him into death?]

[ . . . What do you even say to that. He doesn't know, he's not good at any of this. He can only be sentimental. As such, Rin exhales and he leans over towards Arietta to risk nudging her shoulder. No one notices immediately, but they still might in the end. Right now, though, it just seemed right, if a little risky. ]

'M sorry, then. That's like... it's hard. [ He thinks about when his father - his real father - was killed. ]

[They were lucky. It was cold in Tamida, and already kind of late. Most of the people left wandering around now were mongrels, and likely too intimidated by the elite and his giant cat monster to even give them a second glance.]

[But even so, when she feels his shoulder nudge against her own, she has to hold her own hand in place to stave off the temptation to reach out and grab a hold his.]

[Aside from a nod and soft murmur of agreement, she'll stay quiet as they walk the rest of the way, leading him to the temple proper and then down a certain hallway. The walls are decorated with various little altars, shrines, and religious idols, but there's one in particular she's leading him to. It'll probably take a little while, but eventually they reach a small corner where a single necklace in the shape of a golden tuning fork sits on a small pedestal. It's all covered in a fine layer of dust -- even the small envelope sitting in front of it, with a name scrawled out in language Rin wouldn't recognize.]

[The significance will no doubt be lost on Rin. But for her part, Arietta kneels down and starts to brush off the dust -- sniffling a bit as she does so.]

[It's only once she finishes, leaning the envelope back into place, that she scoots back on her knees and glances up at Rin.]

...how do you pray for people where you're from? So we... can do it right. For Renzo.

[ How do they do it... where he's from? That's such a strange question, and it's something Rin actually briefly looks at her uncomprehending about what she would mean. Vaguely, he gestures around him, to the area of Tamida itself. There's a lot of faiths here, what did she even mean?

But he doesn't push that issue, instead deciding that what Renzo - Shima? - Renzo would most appreciate would probably be the sort of faith that he was trained in by his father. Rin nods, and not sure if they should go somewhere else or not, he just kneels down next to Arietta.

He didn't know what that letter was, but he did watch that with reverence, whatever it was. And so he puts his hands together and - ]

It's like this - y'clap twice, and then you hold them together to pray for 'em.

[She misses the meaning behind gesturing, mistaking it for Rin perhaps collecting his thoughts. But when he explains, she nods, and then turns to face the small pedestal again. She holds her hands together and claps twice, the sound echoing far throughout the corridor.]

[And then she bows her head, silently, to pray.]

[But after a good few minutes of maintaining that silence, the mood is ruined by a loud, low huff from Liger behind them -- who then sticks his big fluffy head between them, making little grumbly noises as he rubs against them both.]

[Ligers get sad too, okay.]

[ So Shima...

Shima might well be dead, and there's nothing that he could do about it. He just popped up out of life. Rin's eyes sort of cast down, and when his eyes close he tries to get a picture of the other boy's smiling face. He doesn't know what he should say, or pray about. But he ...

Hah. ]

Yeah...

[ And then Liger steps in, and he opens one eye to look at the cat thing. What...? Either way, he leans in to the guy. ]

Edited 2016-01-21 20:48 (UTC)

[Liger will happily accept leanings, maybe even doing the same in turn as he settles down... but he forgets how heavy he is, so uh, probably best he leans more on Rin than Arietta.]

[But she reaches over and pats him on the head, scratching behind his ear.]

...around when that big snow storm hit Midas, I asked Renzo if he wanted to keep my friend for a few days. Since I know a lot of the apartments down there are already really cold at night...

[There's a pained, sad smile on her face.] But he said... he'd rather I come down there and warm him up myself instead. But I think he was just afraid of my friend.

[Or he was trying to get into her pants, but hey, that's Shima for you.]

[But what if she could have been there? And done something to prevent whatever happened to him from happening? Sure, that was all well before Rin's birthday party, where Shima was still alive and well, but still...]

He was probably flirtin' with you. He's just that kinda guy, you know. ... Was.

[ Was. That leaves an incredibly sour taste in this mouth to say, to admit. He doesn't get the greater implications of what Arietta's saying here, the idea that she could have stopped it. Even if she did say that, or he understood it...

Well, he's not sure how he would react. Also wow, Liger, please ]

[Was. Arietta visibly winces at the word, feeling the beginning of tears forming in her eyes again. Really, she wasn't all that close to Renzo. And she had no idea how close he and Rin were, neither here nor back home. But to have someone she knew die, someone who always treated her so nicely and smiled at her no matter what was going on--]

[It hurt. But what hurt even more was knowing how powerless she was to do anything about it.]

[She takes an unsteady breath before looking up, blinking back tears. And then, abruptly, she stands, holding her hands folded in front of her.]

Back home, when someone died... sometimes we'd hold a memorial in the cathedral. And we'd sing hymns in their memory. It's... been a while. But I think I can remember the words Ion taught me...

[It's quiet in the temple. Most of the people left this late were in the main corridor, but this area was definitely secluded. Just their voices now seem to echo endlessly. But even so, this was important. This was all she could do for them, in lieu of a burial or memorial. For Zuko, Renzo... Ion. And for everyone else who "disappeared" from this world.]

[And so, she sings.]

[The words won't be intelligible to Rin, given they're in ancient Ispanian and Arietta is probably pronouncing them wrong. But the melody carries through, her voice hitting every note with a gracefulness he might not expect from her -- he would have never heard her sing before, after all.]

[By the time she hits that last note, it sounds as though it's meant to continue. But she'll be crying too much by then to get the words out.]

[ Honestly, Rin's not really sure if it's the fact that he voice broke or the fact that it just hits him all at once, but he now realizes... He won't see Shima again. He won't see the guy, hang out with him, battle spiders. He hasn't seen his brother in over a year, and he hasn't seen Shiemi in nearly as long. There's a good chance that he might never see them because they're dead. He swallows hard, and Rin leans away from Liger as he feels the emotions well up inside of him.

... Man.

When someone died they're hold a memorial. They'd sing a hymn? He starts to say that he can't possibly sing, but she's going to do it, so - he just listens, feeling the tears coming down before he ends up sobbing, curling down upon himself as he leans forward. And the end result is no matter how cool that singing voice was that they are crying hard next to each other ]

[She can hear Rin crying over the sound of her own sobs, and she goes back to crouching down on the ground. Hearing him only makes her cry all the more, feeling his pain just as strongly as her own. She wishes she could lean over and wrap her arms around him, cling to him, be there for him where he can be there for her... but she can't. Because this world was set on taking everything from them, even this moment, still all too aware of the caste divide keeping them apart.]

[But with Liger sitting between them like this, his massive tails doing well to blow most of the view... well, she can do one thing. She reaches out to him and rests a hand over his, gripping it tightly in case he even dares to pull it away. She wants to do so much more for him, but she can't. This is all she can do right now.]

[She doesn't know how long they end up staying there, crying their eyes out. But if one of them doesn't move to stand and leave as they run out of tears to shed, Liger himself may end up being the one to usher them out. It would be getting much colder in Diedo soon, and it'll be a chilly ride back to Tanagura. As much as they may not want to, they need to move on.]

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