???
2 Zorromes, 334
Slavina
A tear. A twist. A drop.
A god comes.
Not any god. A powerful one. A god who wants them. Fear and shock and memory ripple through Slavina's narrow frame—she knows what it is to bear the weight of a god. She (spirit so recently unfurled, so loosely folded within herself) instinctively draws closer. Begins to curl in, to protect herself. But—
What about Nora? What about Kelly? Slavina has born this before. Has a chance. But they...
"You cannot escape the will of a god." Gudelj's words ring in her mind, in her throat.
No. That is what makes a god a god, isn't it? A god's will is given. He will have them. Have whoever he wants. Do whatever he wants. So little time: he is peeling back their veil even now.
"A wayfinder's job isn't to stop a god from doing what it wants." Momochka's words ring in her mind, in her heart. "Her job is to make the god want something different."
Ah—an answer. Where she had drawn close, she flings wide. Where she curled in, she flares open, spinning out like the hem of a dancer's coat. Slavina covers Nora, covers Kelly, with the fabric of herself—interposed between them and the god. Beautiful. Dazzling. Glittering in the light of the god's desires. (Warm. Thick. Sheilding her family from the hailstorm of his gaze.)
She is cut of fine cloth, Slavina is. Rich. Supple. Moldable. (She has, after all, remolded herself time and again—that is the nature of being Liudzi). Not just the cloth, but the cut: beautifully shaped, carefully tailored and embroidered and embellished (by her mother, her cousins, uncles, grandfathers. By her friends. By the gods. Perhaps, even, by herself?) Beautiful painstaking seams, every stitch an hour of sweat or tears or work. Every thread a bond of love. Every jewel a different dream.
Her lining against Nora, against Kelly, is soft. Gentle. No less fine, but cut for comfort, not to dazzle.
She swirls beneath his gaze. Glorious, but imperfect. (could she be perfection if she were perfect? No, never, that would leave nothing to improve.)
They are nestled beneath her. Hidden like a child behind a mother's skirt. Like bony ribs beneath a velvet bodice.
Unfinished. Torn in places. Imperfect, but with so much potential. A beautiful starting place...
I'd like to make a charisma+wayfinding roll to insulate the group (but particularly Nora and Kelly) from the negative effects of raw god-exposure by drawing all his attention/curiosity to Slavina. I'd like to channel Loyalty too if that's alright.
Fate
Okay! That's totally fine. But that'll be an opposed roll.
Slavina
well shitcakes.
Aaren
It comes as fast as the storm front—faster. One moment the song of Gudelj is fading, the world is easing back into the songs of summer and the chirping of birds and the humming of trees. The next:
The world is naught—there is only SONG.
Now the tears that come are not tears of greif—they are just water and salt, squeezed out of her body by the pressure of a song that subsumes all others, changes all others, twists all others—
And then Slavina rises, cloak swirling, as if to catch it up and bundle it away. As if a song could be contained. Aaren can hardly hear her, a stray, soft melody in the cacophany of this sudden new symphony. But she lifts her voices to match her, to build her, to give her streangth and sheilding in the deadly task she has seized.
Singing singing to buff Slavina
Fate
Go for it!
And you get to use your handy new Knack!
Aaren
11 for Aaren
Fate
So that's 3 bonus dice for Slavina!
Slavina
29
Fate
Alrighty! Now for the opposed roll...
Slavina
Btw Slavina does not loyalty extremity.
Fate
Thanks for the heads-up.
38 on the opposed roll, by the way
Slavina
That's a lot closer than I was expecting!
Fate
Daina, did you want to act?
Daina
]yes pls]
Fate
Kelly is still, paralyzed, his eyes wide and unseeing, his limbs fled of their strength.
(Has he fallen to his knees? He might have. There is only a vague shadow of an impression of him, in the midst of the overwhelming thereness of the god before? above? around? them.)
Nora, on the other hand, calls out into the vastness, as if trying to speak over a cacophony, 'WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?'
(Her voice is small, too small, almost inaudible. One gets the sense that it's audible at all only because of magnanimity. Or disinterest.)
Daina
Daina stiffens slightly as her pack is ... viewed ... subsumed consumed. She lifts her head and closes her eyes her senses other than sight reaching out and trying to ... understand something of the being that is now all there is to be sensed outside of her mostly familiar family. Her jaw clenches and her ears twitch, her nose cleared in a huff and then a deep breath taken, taking in all she can of the being. "Do I know you?" she thinks... no asks aloud... she seeks something familiar in the presence ... some sense of it's nature of it's intent towards herself and those she runs with. perc+ something ? asked for stunt in ooc and got two oks if that's ok
Fate
You can try Per or Wits + Knowledge: Backstory, if you're trying to specifically use your memories to figure out who this is.
Daina
it's sort of like... who what is this, side not do I know them, is the intent
Fate
Let's try Per + Search, then. Diff 15.
Daina
oh buddy ok
Aaren
Can I buff Daina if I take a -2 for splitting my action?
Fate
No, because you would have to have taken a -2 to the previous action.
Aaren
Okay thanks.
Daina
9, respectable but nope
Fate
Yeah. I'll do my best not to throw too many gods at y'all in the future.
Aaren
(( XD I mean, one right afte rthe other, amIright??)
Daina
]I like meeting gods though!]
Aaren
Just not when I have to oppose roll the heck out of them.
Fate
Whatever actions taken, whatever words spoken, nothing seems to have changed. It is like a lone ant chittering amidst a thundering gale—lost before it even finds its purchase.
YOU WILL COME WITH ME.
(The voice is patient. It is calm. It is speaking to something far smaller than it, something which could not conceive of the full measure of its intention.)
And then, suddenly, a howl goes up.
It is everywhere, all at once, the loud, ever-present breath of a blizzard from the endless bellows lungs of the heavens stretching over the world itself. It blasts away the noise in its singular breath, until the world is nothing but a single note.
(Somehow, it is reminiscent of a strange, haunting chorus of a thousand, a hundred-thousand wordless voices which could fill a forest with their hunting cry. But that would certainly be no surprise to those who can hear the songs of the world, for this is part of the overwhelming symphony which is big enough to wrestle with the first symphony.)
White obscures all, a single uniform white which should be moving, for how else could it howl? But it is completely still, calm, a nothing upon which one can set their feet, a nothing through which one could take an endless journey, the lone dark speck on an unbroken plain growing smaller and smaller until it finally disappears.
A frigid sound, a frigid sight, a frigid smell...
And yet
And yet
A feeling like a heavy, body-warmed coat wraps around the group. It muffles everything, puts it all in a distant world outside this one, which is close and warm and soothing, which is embedded deep with the scents of sweet-smoke and fur and hearthfire and fresh-cut flowers. It makes the open, flat white into the closed darkness of midnight beneath a blanket, the edges of slumber beginning to ease in.
(Once, long ago, the words of a callow youth went: "You told me I remind you of a god. How could it not be an honor, for the child of gods to say a thing like this?" And now... and now... for an instant, the mirror is reflected back at itself by the cosmos itself.)
WHAT WAS IT YOU SAW? I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING. ARE YOU SURE YOU IN FACT SAW SOMETHING? AH, BUT OF COURSE YOU'RE SURE. HOW WRONG CAN EIGHTEEN EYES BE? ONE OR TWO, CERTAINLY, BUT ALL EIGHTEEN? THAT WOULD JUST BE ABSURD. MAYBE YOU SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO ME, PERHAPS I CAN HELP YOU FIND IT. IS IT BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX?
The voice is muffled too, the impact of the words less overwhelming, less all-important. It's a new one; it's a familiar one which carries the heartache of a loss; it's a familiar one which carries with it the threat of obliteration (as all gods' voices do).
It draws the heavy, impossible, cosmic weight of a gaze away.
AH... LOOK AT YOU. I SEE THE MAKER'S MARK UPON YOU. SO DIFFERENT THAN MINE, YET SO MUCH THE SAME. BEAUTIFUL.
(This, from the first voice, the impact now the same as the second.)
AH! YOU FLATTER ME! BUT ALAS, I AM HAPPILY, EXCLUSIVELY MARRIED. HOWEVER, MY MOTHER IS AN EXCELLENT MATCHMAKER—I'M SURE SHE'D BE ABLE TO FIND YOU AN IDEAL BACHELOR OR BACHELORETTE OR OTHERWISE ELIGIBLE PERSON...
(The second voice chatters, the tone deft and lightfooted, skipping cheerfully down inscrutable paths.)
SPECTACULAR.
(The first voice moves not a hair.)
EHHHH, WHAT ARE YOU... !
(The light foot, caught suddenly in a snare.)
THE LORD CREATOR HAS SENT YOU TO ME, SO THAT I MIGHT STUDY HIS WORK.
(Still unmoving, speaking large, speaking wide.)
AH, BUT IF YOU LET ME GO, YOU CAN SEE ME IN ACTION, EH?
(Desperation, a light thrash, testing the strength of the iron jaws.)
ANOTHER TIME. FOR NOW I WILL KEEP YOU. AND THAT WAY YOU WON'T CAUSE ANY MORE TROUBLE, YES?
(Placid, calm, a steady, measured, precise, even-handed cadence. There is something of inevitability about it.)
And then a harsh, panicked breath brushes through the darkness, feeling more real, more present than anything prior to this point. Carried along it is a feeling like a prayer for safety, for deliverance of those who are hidden within a dream.
(Somehow, it is reminiscent of a lone voice that calls into the empty night, an unwavering howl which is answered only by its own fading echoes.)
And then
wakefulness slams suddenly.
Around, there's a grove. It's quiet. Restful. Surrounded by a thick, milky mist.
Below, there's a bed. It's comfortable. Warm. Strangely elevated off the ground.
On either side, an end table. At the foot, a stool.
(There's a strangeness to it, like it was something out of a dream, or a memory which has faded a little with time.)
And a dark, finely-made, normal-sized coat is stretched over everyone almost like a blanket.
Fate
(To Aaren) The song of this place echoes as if in some kind vast, empty chamber. And its measures get their cues from everyone gathered, not quite matching their songs but drawing from them. Presently, it's drawing strongest from Daina.
(To Slavina) This place is... Between. There's no mistaking it, though you and the others are physically present. Still, it's... strange. Not unnatural, just... this has never happened to you before.
(To Daina) This is your childhood room, or at least it somewhat resembles your childhood room.
Aaren
Aaren sits up. She closes her eyes. She swings her legs off the bed (they touch the leafy undergrowth), and then she sighs.
"This," She sings, her voices subdued, "Has been the most insane day."
"Slavina," she adds, "Is this a safe place?" It felt safe.
Daina
(To Fate) Do I know this coat... perhaps have a piece torn from it ?
Fate
(To Daina) Indeed indeed. It's a simple matter to look at the inside... and to find some stray, snipped threads where a nametag should be.
Slavina
Slavina wriggles out from under the coat and catches herself just in time to not fall off the edge of the bed—beds are tall, this is defintiely a bed and not a sleeping mat. She glides off the edge and prowls the space in a circle, tracing the greenery with her fingers.
"It's been all over the place hasn't it?" She says.
Can I roll mystery+wayfinding to determine if it's safe?
Fate
Yes!
You may also take an average, if you like.
Slavina
I'll do that
Fate
(To Slavina) It is absolutely safe. Closed, like a room. But with several doorways out.
Daina
Daina sits up and her hand covers her lips as tears well in her eyes and fall in hot streaks down her cheeks. "Oh Gods... " Her fingers dig into the coat on the bed and she picks it up, shifting it in her hands turning it and searching for a place... a slight loosening of thread that shows where a tag was ripped.
Her hands shake as she finds such a place, and reaches into her bag. She takes out the small bit of fabric, ensuring that her thumb hides the name. A gasping hiccup of a laugh as she leaps to her feet and stand on the bed. Tears still falling as she bounds off and leaps onto the grassy floor. "Bogulya?!" She calls out clutching the cloth and tucking it back in her bag as she keeps a hand dug into the fabric of the coat. "Momma?" She senses it's only a dream that this is her old room but Gods maybe?! "Gangrene, M'antín?!" She calls searching for a door.
Slavina
"Oh, but yes, yes, it's quite safe. Nothing coming in or out right now. Not that it can't!" She halts in her tracks and spins to face Aaren, one hand raised in an ah-hah! gesture of a speaker at a union-hall. "When we open the door, who knows. Doors, that is. There are many."
Aaren
Aaren watches her sister as the tears start to streak down her face.
She can't hear any gods, although the coat still echos of one.
She purses her lips, and waits. "Thank you, Slavina." She sings.
Daina
Meg, how much is this like her room? how much of it is... known to us like just right around her bed or the full room? can I do anything to sharpen our vision of it, Diana would be so stoked to share something of it with them
Fate
Not the full room. Just the bed and immediate surroundings.
Nora sits there, stunned, staring, for a long while. Kelly, on the other hand, remains unmoving, tears still streaming from his eyes, unhindered. His heart pounds, his chest heaves.
Slavina
May I have an empathy ping on both of them?
Slavina sways a little—not like someone about to collapse, more like a dancer swaying to music. She presses her hands to her mouth at the sight of her friends in such distress. Slavina takes a few steps towards them, realizes there's nothing she can really do, and stops.
She turns abruptly and finds a smooth, bare patch of ground on which to pile some tinder. "I'm making tea!" She announces.
Fate
(To Slavina) They're both overwhelmed and having trouble processing everything.
Slavina
(To Fate)
For kelly in particular, is there anything Slavina could do to help him process?
Say, talk him through it, or hold him or something?
Fate
(To Slavina) No. He's currently working over a sensory overload. Probably singing his learning song would help.
Slavina
(To Fate) Mkay.
Daina
Daina smiles faintly as she puts her face in the coat and takes a deep breath. Her shoulders shaking a moment as she spins. "It's not whole but oh this slice... this taste is glorious" she murmurs as she runs her hand over the warm smooth wood. "it's my room... part of my room." she corrects as she tries to quell the tears that come from a dream half realized. A wish partially fulfilled in a way that only can make one ache for the whole. A joy that bounds up into the heart and then recedes with the fuller knowing and the poignant lack of completion. "I think... it is a pocket for us to... be safe for a time." she murmurs. "Bogulya saved us... " she whispers... from who..... what... " she gasps yet again, air drawn in over warm lips and yet the fear inside cools everything as her face loses the happy flush of a moment ago. "Oh Gods... it... it said it was keeping him..." She looks to the others with a desperation perhaps never witnessed on her features. "Something has Bogulya!" Her fingers digging deep into the coat, a lesser fabric might even give way to the small claws forming on her fingers.
She is still... so very still as she manages to only gasp in tiny stuttering breaths for a moment her gaze distant before her eyes close tight. She pushes her face into the coat and wills herself to the owner "Please..." though in truth she isn't even certain what she's pleading for as her heart clenches and holds in a hard lump inside her for endless moments.
Aaren
Aaren scoots over to her brother and offers him a hug.
"Thank you, Slavina." She sings. It's not quite a sigh. "When you have the water on, could you see if the cart is close? We need to eat."
"Daina..." Aaren trails off. She sings the young woman a hug.
Daina
can I roll like... magic+charisma + expression to try and 'touch' Bogulya from here. Not to affect him but to acknowledge and thank? might not do anything mechanically but it feels right?
Fate
No. You can, however, roll Magic + [Ability] and channel Expression.
Daina
oh derp me XD
Slavina
"Oh!" Slavina hops up so she has better access to her pockets. She pulls out a few random-flavored, slightly smooshed fruits from Daina's food tree. "Here!" She tosses them to Aaren.
Fate
'What even the fuck was that!?' Nora manages to say, after working her jaw some. It doesn't seem like she's asking anyone in particular—or perhaps she's directing the question to the vicinity.
Kelly, meanwhile, is still unresponsive. It's almost like he doesn't know he can move.
Daina
Daina takes a deep breath and sings a song, nothing of Aaren's skill but a song of mirth and warmth and love... it sounds like laughter of a sort and she reaches out with her whole heart, still clutching the coat. "My thanks to you my cherished one, for everything that you have done. I know the risk and price you paid, I will free you even with the world remade." she ends the poor excuse for a song and centers herself. Moving to circle the edge of the 'room' to feel it's limits if she can. rolling Singing, magic, expression
Aaren
Aaren catches the food. "Thank you, but please finish putting the tea on first. And sit while you do so. You need to calm down as soon as possible." She takes a bite, putting one next to Kelly and handing one to Nora.
"I don't know." She answers Nora. "Other than that it was a god. Two gods. Please eat this, I think it is tea flavored. You are hungry."
Then Aaren turns her attention to Kelly.
Can I take an average to know what's going on and how to help him?
Fate
(To Aaren) Sensory overload. It will pass... but much more quickly if Aaren sings his learning song.
Slavina
"That was being swallowed by a god, and then another god, and then dropped here." Slavina rattles off promptly. "Swallowed isn't quite right, but I think that's the best for now... we certainly weren't possessed, thanks to our protector." She makes one hand into a wheel and the other splayed like an aspen, the (kind of sticky) sign of respect to the gods of Domochlovek.
Aaren
Aaren begins singing Kelly's Learning Song, quietly, so that it does not mess with the song that Daina is singing to The Guest. She will offer him thanks, too. But later, when they've rested.
Daina
5 on the thank ye song]
Daina slips the coat on and absently starts to back up Aaren's singing with a humming sound. Her shoes toed off as she feels the softest grass ever under her toes and once more salty tears track down her cheeks, though less the torrent and pain of before.
Aaren
Aaren lets go of her brother, her song growing as Daina finishes, and walks over to Daina, "Would you like a hug?" She asks, softly.
Fate
Nora finally focuses on Aaren, then Slavina. Her manner closes off, right away, and she falls utterly silent. At that, she takes up the proffered fruit and eats it quietly.
Kelly blinks, then wipes his face with a trembling hand, pulling it away to examine it almost as if seeing it for the first time in years. Then he pushes shakily up to sitting and looks around.
The mist curls back as if in response to Daina's song, to her unspoken plea, revealing a passageway, which grows darker the farther it goes.
Fate
(To Slavina) This place is... somewhat malleable. With enough applied will, it can be... shaped. To a point. Despite the infinite potential, it's a rather finite realm.
Daina
Daina smiles to Aaren and nods "yeah... and then a big stick to go beat on a God with" she responds with a faint note of jest and a small taste of intent.
Slavina
Once the little cookfire she's working on is stable enough to leave for a second, Slavina hurries off to find the cart for Aaren. It's conveniently right behind a nearby bush. Her voice carries back to the 'bedroom' easily: "Oh, hello Seedless! Renochka, I found the cart!"
Aaren
Aaren smiles, a real smile, if small, encouraged by Daina's smile. She gives her little sister a hug. "Well," she sings (still to Kelly's Learning song), "I'll work on it."
"Thank you very much, Slavina." Aaren finishes her hug and turns back to the hyper woman. "I would like you to sit down now and practice breathing. You are very excited."
Slavina
"Oh. Okay."
Slavina plops to the ground in a cloud of skirts. She closes her eyes and starts the breathing practice routine she's done almost every day since she was old enough to copy the adults in the family.
Daina
Daina peers down the passageway... and retreats for the moment. They need to ... recover... regroup... reimagine their path perhaps. For certain though they do not need to rush to return to the Earth just yet. She smiles a little and then grins cheekily as she walks the perimeter of the 'room' she'd quietly exclaim that this is where she made a plant for the birds to nest in and this was where her book case was with the nest on it where the eggs hatched etc. She'd had warrens for bunnies as well as she thinks a hive for the bees. trying to recall it all with this fresh infusion of stimulates. All said loud enough to be heard but also not demanding their attention either.
Fate
After a moment, Kelly looks over to Nora (the only other person on the bed). 'You...' His voice catches on dryness and leftover awe, and he swallows. 'You alright?'
'Fine,' she says around her mouthful, her voice flat. She doesn't look at him.
He eyes her a bit longer, then slips off the bed to go join Aaren.
Aaren
Aaren takes a deep breath. Nora is eating. Daina isn't doing anything likely to explode. Slavina is temporarily contained. Kelly's awake. Sweet. Good start.
She smiles at Kelly as he approches, putting a welcoming trill on her song, opening the cart to check inside for all their things, and the Day-Fruit Tree. The next thing to do was to heal Nora, but they were going to need more bedding.
And water.
Ping on Nora?
Fate
(To Aaren) All her feelings are shut off with such thoroughness and ease she's got to have had a lot of practice.
Aaren
(To Fate) Horraaaaay! Okay, thanks.
Daina
Daina pauses a moment in her remembrances and slowly walks to Nora. "hey... it's ok for now... you can relax a bit... this place... my... ... um ... my papa made it to save us... I don't know if it will last long but ... while it does I think we are safe." she tries to be reassuring and also makes a funny sort of lip smacking tongue roll after the word papa. felt real weird but good...
Slavina
Breath. Breath. Breath. The routine is as familiar as her own bones. As familiar as her own mother.
Her mother.
Slavina snaps taught as a wire, leaps to her feet with a desperate cry of anguish and alarm.
Aaren
Aaren turns around immidently. "Slavina," she sings, her voices strong and calm and sure, "You're slipping between, like you did when we were at Bakersfield. You need to calm down. Will you let me calm you down?"
Fate
Nora just keeps eating, offering little but a nod of acknowledgement Daina's way. Her knees draw up, though, almost of their own accord.
Daina
Daina stiffens and is alert as she turns her head towards Slavina and questions. "What... what is it?" Daina pauses a moment and hops up on to her bed that likely isn't her bed really? She holds out a hand and offers "come touch the wood,... it's grounded in this place... let it be an anchor?"
Slavina
"I can't be slipping between, we're already between." Slavina grabs Aaren by the sleeves and shakes her head, eyes squeezed tight to keep herself from crying. "But my family! He has my family!"
Aaren
Aaren sits down, bringing Slavina down with her as a by product. "Yes. He does. Will you let me calm you down so you can think about it, please?"
Slavina
"Okay. Okay." Her grip is tight, shaking.
Daina
Daina's jaw tightens a little and her brow furrows as worry and pain are her response to Slavina's distress. "we will get them back Slavina... we will... " She says with the certainty of youth that has been tested and yet not broken or bent so far as to doubt ... not yet.
Fate
Nora slips off the bed and heads somewhere into the mist.
Daina
Daina merps "oi! we dunno what's out there!"
Aaren
Aaren begins Slavina's calm song. Returning them to where they were right before the last crazy thing happened. In a few moments the song is in full swing.
"Okay." Aaren sings. "Now eat something, please." She moves over to the kettle to prepare the tea. She looks to her brother, he hasn't said anything yet.
Fate
If Nora heard Daina, she gives no indication. The mist soon swallows her.
Kelly rises to standing, ready to go after Nora, but hesitates, glancing to Aaren, Daina, and Slavina.
Aaren
"I think it will be fine." Aaren sings. "This place, it's like it sings along with us, but has no voice of its own. She's smart, she knows it might be dangerous, and she probably needs some time to herself." But her tone makes it clear she's leaving that call up to all the people who will be deciding to stay—she's not exactly got a bead on Nora's needs and communication style.
Daina
Diana sighs a little and nods "she probably knows more about the nature of this place than I do..." she murmurs as she shrugs. "She's not impractical enough to just ... risk her life... I think..." at least that's the feeling Daina gets from her... very ... pragmatic.
Fate
At that, Kelly eases, still watching the spot through which Nora disappeared. Then he grabs something to eat.
Daina
Daina pauses a moment and looks at the coat and then attempts to put the tag bag where it came from. God things can only be unmade by gods she imagines but perhaps it would like to be whole again.
Fate
How is she going about this? Just trying to will it to go back together or is she gonna try and sew it back on?
Daina
firstly she's going to try and will it back together, like her thought is that the spirit... the essence of the coat would wish to be whole again?
Fate
Okay. Just, like, willing it? Not invoking any magical powers or anything?
Slavina
Slavina's grip loosens to the beat of the song, the guitar-string tension drains out of her. She takes the fruit Aaren gives her and eats it with efficient, mechanical bites.
Aaren
Aaren takes a moment to eat more of her own fruit (a juicy cooked rabbit flavor) and make everyone some tea.
Then she sings, "Alright, do you want to talk about your family now?"
Daina
not at the moment though maybe giving it a nudge with magic and dex or magic and wits if it doesn't work?
Fate
Nothing out of the ordinary happens.
You can do Magic + [Ability] or Dex or Wits + [Ability], but not Magic + Dex or Wits
Slavina
Slavina shrugs.
Aaren
Aaren keeps singing. She eats a little more, and listens, and looks at Kelly.
"How are you doing?" She asks Kelly.
Daina
sorry I keep derpin' on that gah
Fate
No worries!
Daina
1 succs :p
but i mean magic and textiles like ... it's a thing she knows at least XD
Fate
Thread weaves and reconnects, securing the tag in place.
Daina
Daina smiles and runs her fingers over the repair. Shrugging the coat back onto her smaller frame and giving not a fig that it dwarfs her a few times over. Sitting on her bed... wearing a coat that smells like home. She cannot be fully content to be sure. Yet ... this is a balm, a reprieve and rescue granted with the love of one she holds dear.
She is afraid and worried and angry... all of these. At the center of her though... that is a glowing warm blossom of flame. With the tooth and claw of action and intent helping to fuel it there is hope... and purpose and of course love.
Fate
Kelly speaks around his mouthful, "I don't know." He swallows and his gaze drops. The weight of all the things settles over him, his shoulders, his eyes, everything. It puts a cast over him that seems to add twenty years. There's a slight worry crease between his brows, the same shape as Mom's, as Nonno's. "I'm tired," he says, finally. That one phrase carries with it the past 36-plus hours, the danger after danger after danger, the revelation after revelation, all too big, all too vast, all connected somehow, all solved faster than anyone could possibly hope to track.
Aaren
Aaren weaves agreement into her songs, the harmony of Learning and Calm. "I feel that." She almost sighs.
Daina
Daina smiles some and pats the bed. "It's made after the Swan Maidens home, you'll search far and wide for more comfort"
Slavina
After finishing her fruit, Slavina reaches for another. She takes a bite. Swallows. "Should I?" She asks. "Want to talk about them?"
Aaren
(To Fate) Can Aaren still hear Nora?
Fate
(To Aaren) Yes, sort of. Part of this place, some distance away, has taken up Nora's song.
Aaren
(To Fate) Kay. Cool.
Fate
Kelly eyes Daina. "But... home. The Tsarbog. Whoever the fuck this Tsar Afon is. Gods." There's a tightness to his throat, an edge to his voice. He rubs a hand over his face. "There's so much."
Daina
After the invitation is given Daina pauses "Frankie?" she questions if he's here. If so she questions. "Do you have the kindling I want to do some fire sitting without putting it out with m'butt" smirking faintly and reaching out to 'pet' him which is like running her hand over his head... with the feelings of love and gratitude put out there as hard as she can. Hearing Kelly she looks down a moment and nods her head. "there is... so much... but we are strong and our purpose is true and just. We can handle this... we are so very much... all of us together..." she offers a small smile but in her gaze is a certainty of her words and a true wish to give comfort.
Aaren
Aaren agrees with her brother, letting one song slip free to sing a peice of her overwhelmed-ness in response to him.
To Slavina, she sings, "Well, no. I'm a bit surpised, but it's not bad. Do you want anything right now?"
Fate
Kelly goes from eyeing to full-on staring. Then he looks at Aaren, his expression practically shouting, 'Did something go seriously wrong with Daina?'
No. Frankie doesn't slip out from under the bed. I cannot find the pack. His voice sounds... desolate? Stunned?
No. It can only be imagination lending any sort of inflection to his words. Right?
Slavina
Slavina thinks about the question as she chews. Her face is blank except for a tint of confusion and effort. "I don't know. I don't think so? I think I should."
Aaren
Aaren looks at Kelly, and the eyes Daina. Then she closes her eyes.
"Yes, probably. This means that everything you've been feeling and wanting up to this point is your excitement talking."
Then she takes in all of them. "I think the best thing to do right now is sleep, alright?"
Slavina
Slavina nods.
Daina
Daina frowns softly "Oh ... oh buddy it's ok... I'm your pack too aren't I?" she totally believes Frankie has feelings and has for ever. Despite all evidence to the contrary. She hangs down off the edge of the bed. "I'm here for you Frankie." she offers her hand into the darkness under the bed. She'd try to get him to come be with her instead of hiding before she'd retire for the 'night maybe?'. One hand hanging off the edge of the bed should he chose to not come right away. An open invitation to her one constant companion and friend.
Fate
I... I do not understand what you want, Frankie says, after a moment.
Daina
She smiles some "I want to make sure you know you're my friend and my pack and I love ya." she pauses "you can stay hiding if you wanna but just ... like if you wanna come hide with me you're always welcome ok?" she smiles gently and sets her hand lightly on the floor to keep from doing a header off the bed.
Aaren
Aaren fixes Slavina some medicine that will help her to sleep, making enough for anyone else who wants it.
She makes sure to offer some to Daina. Pointedly.
Then she makes sure, with her song, that Slavina is going to stay under.
Then she waits for Daina to settle in.
Then (finally) she curls up next to Kelly by the fire and sings herself to sleep.
Daina
Daina snorts softly at the very intense offering and refuses though she does spark up a doobie and smoke that thing right up. She'll be out in no time. Honest Sister Mum. Taking a seat in the flames and leaving one hand outstretched towards the bed. Always an open door.