rashness | Tanagura IC Inbox

[ . . . 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.]

Tanagura IC Inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject