[ If Estinien had insisted on going she'd like to think that she wouldn't have bothered trying to dissuade him. They are comrades by way of being members of the Scions, but otherwise her grudge has burrowed itself a little deeper beneath her skin in the time since his arrival.
Thankfully it's a scenario that they don't have to experience. Though her eyes do drift to some of the vehicles that set out chancing their luck with the storm before settling back on Estinien. She's back to business as she goes to open the trunk of the van. ]
We have some supplies in the trunk that should suit for one night. I managed to get a procure some sleeping rolls for us at the thrift shop - though we're not likely to have a hot meal tonight.
[ He pulls a face as he says it. It certainly does the job but at a very steep cost (tastes bad).
He has his own roll so he doesn't have to wonder if she would lend one of those rolls to him for the night, and pulls it out of his bag along with his spare top. The temperature has dropped with the advent of the storm but not dangerously so, so he judges that he will be fine without needing to search for fuel and some way to light a fire in all this rain. Alisaie, he assumes, will bunk down in her van. ]
And water. [ He wrings out his hair as much as he can, and then goes to remove his equally wet top only to pause, a sudden vision of what would happen to him if continued on his current path. ] Don't turn around. I am changing my top.
[ The face that Alisaie pulls is a near mirror image to Estinien's. ]
Ugh. Not even scholars deep in their dissertations would chance hardtack and jerky.
[ In other words, they're going to have a gourmet feast tonight. What she wouldn't do for a bowl of hot noodles right now. That will sadly have to wait however until the storm passes and moping about it certainly won't help any. That being said, she is surprised that he seems to have a distaste for it as well.
Her surprise however is short-lived when Estinien makes perhaps a statement more ridiculous than if he had said that hardtack and jerky were his favourite things to eat. And naturally, when someone tells the other not to turn around, she does. Red shoots to the tips of her ears when she realizes what she's done before turning hastily back towards the trunk to shift around for her sleeping bags. ]
Why would I turn around?! What are you trying to imply!
[ Fortunately Estinien's face is covered and so he misses Alisaie's rather alarming blush. ]
Just a precaution. [ His voice is muffled by his top. ] I did not think you wished to see me topless, if even by accident.
[ He pulls it down, and then pulls the end of his ponytail out from beneath the collar. Lays out his sleeping bag, and then removes his armour so he can sit down on it. There's the sound of glass scraping against concrete and Estinien unearths the soul shard, almost forgotten in the excitement of the storm, and holds it in his hands. It certainly doesn't feel much like anything. But then again, Estinien can't precisely say that he's held a soul in his hands before. Perhaps nothing is what it's supposed to feel like. ]
You mentioned earlier that you were mapping diffusion zones. Have you noticed any patterns as of yet?
[ Thank the Gods. She would have never lived that one down. In fact, she might have chanced it with the storm and resolved never to cross paths with Estinien again no matter how large Alphinaud's puppy dog eyes would have grown in the hopes that his "two favourite people" share a meal with him. ]
You would be absolutely correct. There's nothing appealing about the thought at all.
[ And she means it if the amount of venom that she uses to emphasize it is any indication. Mercifully the sleeping bags are farther into the back than she anticipated giving her plenty of time to root around for them and try and blot the image of a half-naked Esitnien from her mind. By the time she does find it an begins to set up her little sleeping pad and sleeping bag for the night he is mercifully clothed. And thank Gods for the change in topic. ]
Frustratingly, no. They're random in terms of where they appear and what they appear as; as far as Stormchasers are concerned, there had been almost no zones that has appeared twice - though admittedly not every Stormchaser can be everywhere at once. Though they do seem to appear regularly at monthly to bi-monthly intervals.
[ And she will because someone has to balance out all of the compliments that her starry-eyed brother seems to throw the dragoon's way.
As she begins to fluff up the woefully thin pillow they had procured from the thrift shop she glances over, Estinien leads with something that she has a sneaking suspicion is related to him in some way. Mid-(aggressive) fluff she glances over. ]
Whisperings. A brief mentions here and there on the Forums.
[ There's another aggressive fluff of the pillow. ]
[ Said tail undulates against the ground beside him and Estinien lays a hand on it just in case and waits for it to still. ]
Aye. The change came upon me the moment I entered the zone. However I've experienced no other changes despite passing through numerous zones since then.
[ One would think that, after undergoing one traumatic change, he'd stay well away from diffusion zones until the phenomenon had been well understood, but truly the thought had never even occurred to him. ]
Nidhogg aside, I do not believe myself so unique that no others have experienced such changes. And yet so little is known. [ His tail calm again, Estinien runs a careful hand over it, encouraging the sharp spines to lay flat. ] You would do me a great favour if you were to keep an ear out for information.
[ The sway of a tail is not an unusual sigh in and of itself. She does, after all, live with G'raha and has spent a lifetime (her lifetime) seeing Au'ra with their spindly, tails. What is strange is seeing it attached to Estinien. She sees it almost akin to an extra appendage of his and wonders of it has a mind of its own. Estiein doesn't seem the sort to wag his tail joyfully. At least not consciously.
That is a thought she keeps to herself as she stares at the soothed tail. ]
Curious. Were G'raha, Y'shtola or Urianger here I dare say that they would probably have several theories for you already. All I can offer is that I will pass any information that I have along.
[ And it seems she does mean that even if she gives her pillow one final aggressive fluff. In that final fluff however it occurs to her that she has neglected to ask something else she would have asked anyone else she didn't regard with mild annoyance. ]
[ Estinien's lips thin, mouth pressed tightly together. He does not wish to answer the question. Largely because he has yet to arrive at an answer. His body is as much a weapon as his lance is and this tail—long, heavy, cumbersome—has thrown everything off. It is as though he is a boy again, picking up a weapon for the first time.
No.
It is as though his body is not his own. As though it is not wholly under his control, and that is a feeling he'd rather not revisit.
Having said all that, he is Ishgardian. Dragons are an inextricable part of his heritage, of his blood. It wouldn't have taken much to kickstart the transformation that dwelled within him like a ticking bomb. An inevitability, really. One he probably... would not have minded all that much. But this is not that. And with his history he would be a fool to take this lightly. ]
I am... handling it. 'Tis a lot to come to terms with but it is what it is, and all I can do is move forward.
[ His tail rattles restlessly as he speaks however, giving away his unease. Estinien frowns down at it. ]
Anyway, my thanks for the offer of information. I can pass along the details of the zones I visit if that would be of use to your research.
[ It occurs to her as she watches him that Estinien likely doesn't care much for trying to disguise how he feels which would explain why his tail feels like an extension of that. His lips thin and seems to really think about the answer to her question which signals to her that he might not have thought about it at length yet.
Though she has grown up around scholars all her life, they were also cut from similar cloths to knights. They were singular and focused in their passions or duty and thought of little else. Feelings and long term ramifications of events they may experience were processed, if they had their way, never. Her head tilts a moment as she regards him. ]
[ And though it's said with a healthy amount of skepticism she is no fool to the things he has gone through that might make him reticent to a transformation like this. ]
Hopefully it will be the last of the transformation. Or we can perhaps find a way to reverse it.
[ She's about to suggest that they try and make the best of their food situation when she does a double take. ]
[ He's about to ask her how else he's supposed to describe it if 'handling it' does not suit when— ]
Glowing?
[ His first thought is of Nidhogg, and he finds himself steeled against whatever changes might find him next, against an attempted takeover, against an unwinnable fight.
He should have been paying more attention to the bottle in his lap, for whatever it is that was inside it... is no longer inside it. The bottle rattles, and then the air between them wavers suddenly, shimmers as though a haze of heat has settled between them. Between one heartbeat and the next something appears between them, the form not unlike a voidsent but something stops him from reaching for his lance.
Maybe it's the fact that it does naught but hang there. Maybe it's the scars it bears, in a pattern that feels familiar. Or maybe it's the fact that it stares at him with a face missing both its eyes.
[ Whatever snippy little insult had been on the tip of her tongue comes and goes as the bottle begins to rattle and shake and the glow grows brighter until a mote of light undulates and morphs between them.
Alisaie stands not because she plans on attacking but because she isn't certain how else to react to any of it. Especially when it the features on its face seem to meld and become something so heart achingly familiar. In reality, it shouldn't. The people it reminds her of were vastly different people - not to mention they had lived on vastly different stars.
But all the same it strikes her through her heart like an arrow and she finds herself stunned. ]
Yes. [ His voice is hushed, eyes watching the apparition as one might something venomous. The apparition stares sightlessly back at him. ] Though it is more spectre than soul shard, I think.
[ He wonders if he ought to do something. Say something. A familiar stranger here to cast judgement on him. He wonders if perhaps rather than it being a missing piece coming home to roost it is instead searching for one of its own. Estinien opens his mouth—
—and it vanishes, as though it was never there at all. The empty bottle that's left behind feels cold to the touch.
[ Her response is faint, as if it's an afterthought. Alisaie's eyes are blown wide as the features of the spectre flicker like static between what she can recognize as her grandfather, Tessleen, and then something else in between.
Whether this is meant to be intentional or not, grief pricks at her heart.
Had it stayed any longer she might have felt more than just shock. But a moment it's there and the next it's gone and it leaves her feeling...unsteady. Vulnerable. Estinien's voice draws her attention back to the present and she stares at him a moment unable to compose herself in time. But eventually she does and she turns her face away. ]
Fine. Just startled, that's all. And you – you're well?
[ If that's what she had seen them who had he seen? ]
[ Of course, his traitorous tail makes a liar of him immediately, shifting agitatedly against the ground. Estinien, thinking he'd finally found some measure of understanding in his time travelling to all four corners of the world, wonders if maybe this is his true reckoning. The trial he must undergo.
There is a pregnant pause, broken only by the sheets of rain coming down between them. Then: ]
'Twas Nidhogg, though I cannot be sure, really. Perhaps it really is all connected.
No matter. [ This is added in a way that very firmly puts an end to any further discussion. ] If you are hungry, feel free to help yourself to the food in my bag. Otherwise I think I will turn in for the night. Sleep well, Alisaie.
[ Alisaie may not own a tail herself but she knows agitation when she sees it. Mercifully she doesn't say anything to the effect considering they're both more than well aware of its actions. Which is why she doesn't expect him to reveal anything of what he'd seen, as haunted as he'd looked. But then he does.
Inadvertently she looks up unable to hide the shock on her face. As quickly as he admits it however, he's quick to shut it down again.
Unfortunately she thinks she understands why. They do not know each other well enough to have a heart-to-heart, let alone that has undoubtedly left a mark on him in more ways than one. As tempted as she is to ask more, she shuts her mouth left with the feeling of uncertainty and discomfort.
There's a rustling of her own as she begins to wrestle with the wrapping of her ration in an effort to fill the awkwardness that suddenly fills the air. ]
Right of course. Sleep well.
[ And though she eventually does drift off to sleep, it isn't an easy one. Not with the remnants of the ghosts that haunt the pair of them long after their specters have gone. ]
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no subject
Thankfully it's a scenario that they don't have to experience. Though her eyes do drift to some of the vehicles that set out chancing their luck with the storm before settling back on Estinien. She's back to business as she goes to open the trunk of the van. ]
We have some supplies in the trunk that should suit for one night. I managed to get a procure some sleeping rolls for us at the thrift shop - though we're not likely to have a hot meal tonight.
no subject
[ He pulls a face as he says it. It certainly does the job but at a very steep cost (tastes bad).
He has his own roll so he doesn't have to wonder if she would lend one of those rolls to him for the night, and pulls it out of his bag along with his spare top. The temperature has dropped with the advent of the storm but not dangerously so, so he judges that he will be fine without needing to search for fuel and some way to light a fire in all this rain. Alisaie, he assumes, will bunk down in her van. ]
And water. [ He wrings out his hair as much as he can, and then goes to remove his equally wet top only to pause, a sudden vision of what would happen to him if continued on his current path. ] Don't turn around. I am changing my top.
no subject
Ugh. Not even scholars deep in their dissertations would chance hardtack and jerky.
[ In other words, they're going to have a gourmet feast tonight. What she wouldn't do for a bowl of hot noodles right now. That will sadly have to wait however until the storm passes and moping about it certainly won't help any. That being said, she is surprised that he seems to have a distaste for it as well.
Her surprise however is short-lived when Estinien makes perhaps a statement more ridiculous than if he had said that hardtack and jerky were his favourite things to eat. And naturally, when someone tells the other not to turn around, she does. Red shoots to the tips of her ears when she realizes what she's done before turning hastily back towards the trunk to shift around for her sleeping bags. ]
Why would I turn around?! What are you trying to imply!
no subject
Just a precaution. [ His voice is muffled by his top. ] I did not think you wished to see me topless, if even by accident.
[ He pulls it down, and then pulls the end of his ponytail out from beneath the collar. Lays out his sleeping bag, and then removes his armour so he can sit down on it. There's the sound of glass scraping against concrete and Estinien unearths the soul shard, almost forgotten in the excitement of the storm, and holds it in his hands. It certainly doesn't feel much like anything. But then again, Estinien can't precisely say that he's held a soul in his hands before. Perhaps nothing is what it's supposed to feel like. ]
You mentioned earlier that you were mapping diffusion zones. Have you noticed any patterns as of yet?
no subject
You would be absolutely correct. There's nothing appealing about the thought at all.
[ And she means it if the amount of venom that she uses to emphasize it is any indication. Mercifully the sleeping bags are farther into the back than she anticipated giving her plenty of time to root around for them and try and blot the image of a half-naked Esitnien from her mind. By the time she does find it an begins to set up her little sleeping pad and sleeping bag for the night he is mercifully clothed. And thank Gods for the change in topic. ]
Frustratingly, no. They're random in terms of where they appear and what they appear as; as far as Stormchasers are concerned, there had been almost no zones that has appeared twice - though admittedly not every Stormchaser can be everywhere at once. Though they do seem to appear regularly at monthly to bi-monthly intervals.
no subject
Estinien hums in answer to her response, comparing her observations with his own. ]
Certainly I've never managed to run into the same zone twice, though I wouldn't claim to have visited every instance of one.
[ He pauses for a second, debating whether or not he wishes to raise this topic or not, but more information is always better than less. ]
Have you heard aught of people experiencing changes after passing through a diffusion zone?
no subject
As she begins to fluff up the woefully thin pillow they had procured from the thrift shop she glances over, Estinien leads with something that she has a sneaking suspicion is related to him in some way. Mid-(aggressive) fluff she glances over. ]
Whisperings. A brief mentions here and there on the Forums.
[ There's another aggressive fluff of the pillow. ]
Is that where you obtained your tail?
no subject
Aye. The change came upon me the moment I entered the zone. However I've experienced no other changes despite passing through numerous zones since then.
[ One would think that, after undergoing one traumatic change, he'd stay well away from diffusion zones until the phenomenon had been well understood, but truly the thought had never even occurred to him. ]
Nidhogg aside, I do not believe myself so unique that no others have experienced such changes. And yet so little is known. [ His tail calm again, Estinien runs a careful hand over it, encouraging the sharp spines to lay flat. ] You would do me a great favour if you were to keep an ear out for information.
no subject
That is a thought she keeps to herself as she stares at the soothed tail. ]
Curious. Were G'raha, Y'shtola or Urianger here I dare say that they would probably have several theories for you already. All I can offer is that I will pass any information that I have along.
[ And it seems she does mean that even if she gives her pillow one final aggressive fluff. In that final fluff however it occurs to her that she has neglected to ask something else she would have asked anyone else she didn't regard with mild annoyance. ]
Are you...how are you feeling about the tail?
no subject
No.
It is as though his body is not his own. As though it is not wholly under his control, and that is a feeling he'd rather not revisit.
Having said all that, he is Ishgardian. Dragons are an inextricable part of his heritage, of his blood. It wouldn't have taken much to kickstart the transformation that dwelled within him like a ticking bomb. An inevitability, really. One he probably... would not have minded all that much. But this is not that. And with his history he would be a fool to take this lightly. ]
I am... handling it. 'Tis a lot to come to terms with but it is what it is, and all I can do is move forward.
[ His tail rattles restlessly as he speaks however, giving away his unease. Estinien frowns down at it. ]
Anyway, my thanks for the offer of information. I can pass along the details of the zones I visit if that would be of use to your research.
no subject
Though she has grown up around scholars all her life, they were also cut from similar cloths to knights. They were singular and focused in their passions or duty and thought of little else. Feelings and long term ramifications of events they may experience were processed, if they had their way, never. Her head tilts a moment as she regards him. ]
"Handling it" doesn't sound particularly convincing.
[ And though it's said with a healthy amount of skepticism she is no fool to the things he has gone through that might make him reticent to a transformation like this. ]
Hopefully it will be the last of the transformation. Or we can perhaps find a way to reverse it.
[ She's about to suggest that they try and make the best of their food situation when she does a double take. ]
Was glowing part of the transformation?
no subject
Glowing?
[ His first thought is of Nidhogg, and he finds himself steeled against whatever changes might find him next, against an attempted takeover, against an unwinnable fight.
He should have been paying more attention to the bottle in his lap, for whatever it is that was inside it... is no longer inside it. The bottle rattles, and then the air between them wavers suddenly, shimmers as though a haze of heat has settled between them. Between one heartbeat and the next something appears between them, the form not unlike a voidsent but something stops him from reaching for his lance.
Maybe it's the fact that it does naught but hang there. Maybe it's the scars it bears, in a pattern that feels familiar. Or maybe it's the fact that it stares at him with a face missing both its eyes.
Estinien's heart thuds in his chest. ]
no subject
[ Whatever snippy little insult had been on the tip of her tongue comes and goes as the bottle begins to rattle and shake and the glow grows brighter until a mote of light undulates and morphs between them.
Alisaie stands not because she plans on attacking but because she isn't certain how else to react to any of it. Especially when it the features on its face seem to meld and become something so heart achingly familiar. In reality, it shouldn't. The people it reminds her of were vastly different people - not to mention they had lived on vastly different stars.
But all the same it strikes her through her heart like an arrow and she finds herself stunned. ]
Estinien - are you seeing what I am?
no subject
[ He wonders if he ought to do something. Say something. A familiar stranger here to cast judgement on him. He wonders if perhaps rather than it being a missing piece coming home to roost it is instead searching for one of its own. Estinien opens his mouth—
—and it vanishes, as though it was never there at all. The empty bottle that's left behind feels cold to the touch.
Then he finally notices Alisaie. ]
Alisaie, are you alright?
[ What about that could have stunned her so? ]
no subject
[ Her response is faint, as if it's an afterthought. Alisaie's eyes are blown wide as the features of the spectre flicker like static between what she can recognize as her grandfather, Tessleen, and then something else in between.
Whether this is meant to be intentional or not, grief pricks at her heart.
Had it stayed any longer she might have felt more than just shock. But a moment it's there and the next it's gone and it leaves her feeling...unsteady. Vulnerable. Estinien's voice draws her attention back to the present and she stares at him a moment unable to compose herself in time. But eventually she does and she turns her face away. ]
Fine. Just startled, that's all. And you – you're well?
[ If that's what she had seen them who had he seen? ]
no subject
[ Of course, his traitorous tail makes a liar of him immediately, shifting agitatedly against the ground. Estinien, thinking he'd finally found some measure of understanding in his time travelling to all four corners of the world, wonders if maybe this is his true reckoning. The trial he must undergo.
There is a pregnant pause, broken only by the sheets of rain coming down between them. Then: ]
'Twas Nidhogg, though I cannot be sure, really. Perhaps it really is all connected.
No matter. [ This is added in a way that very firmly puts an end to any further discussion. ] If you are hungry, feel free to help yourself to the food in my bag. Otherwise I think I will turn in for the night. Sleep well, Alisaie.
🎀 wrap
Inadvertently she looks up unable to hide the shock on her face. As quickly as he admits it however, he's quick to shut it down again.
Unfortunately she thinks she understands why. They do not know each other well enough to have a heart-to-heart, let alone that has undoubtedly left a mark on him in more ways than one. As tempted as she is to ask more, she shuts her mouth left with the feeling of uncertainty and discomfort.
There's a rustling of her own as she begins to wrestle with the wrapping of her ration in an effort to fill the awkwardness that suddenly fills the air. ]
Right of course. Sleep well.
[ And though she eventually does drift off to sleep, it isn't an easy one. Not with the remnants of the ghosts that haunt the pair of them long after their specters have gone. ]