escordvi | closed 🪶⚡ i'll be the light to lead you home

Should I try it one day? Leave something out at the Roost and see if you can't resist?

[She swats him.]

And then what do you plan to do with me after that!?

[A more wicked grin as he leans in closer.]

I wonder.

[Though she probably can get an idea.]

[He gets a nudge back with her shoulder when he leans in, her chin dipping away from him.]

At least now I know not to fall for any traps around the Roost, lest I be snared by a big, frightening bear.

[It's her turn to hop over a gap next, some coral steps reaching up to meet them on the other side, and just like he had done before, she lifts their hands and offers to catch him when he follows.

And she is far too caught up in taking in everything else that she does not sense that they are being followed...]

Now who said he would be frightening?

[He'll watch her leap ahead before he grins.]

Perhaps he just wants to—

[And jump!]

Cuddle!

[When he lands, his arms wrap around her for a "bear hug."]

[She sputters when he suddenly takes her into his arms, and those that are nearby turn to look at them. Not that she is paying them any attention, nor can she, with how she seems to fit so snugly into his arms. Her own go around him in response, all instinctive at this point, and she breathes out a laugh against his chest as she tries to regain her balance.]

You know you do not need to set a trap for that.

No, but I do enjoy keeping you on your toes.

[A low, rumbling laugh as he gazes down at her before stealing a quick kiss and then letting her go.]

[Ah, she silently mourns the loss of his arms around her... And she steps after him as she shakes her hair back into place.]

I'd argue that it is your greatest skill... You are aging me faster than I can keep up with.

[They arrive on another small ridge made up of one very large coral that overlooks the other direction from the city, and with a glance at him, she squeezes his hand and tugs him along, pausing at the edge of it to get a good look at where they are.]

And I'd argue I have a few other skills that you'd think are "greater."

[He couldn't help himself was he just smirks at her, a warm tingle of levin shooting up her palm before they're at the edge to look out. It really is quite beautiful, if also a bit eerie with how wide and empty it is. Actually, he thinks he might see some creatures that look like animals out there...

And he's so preoccupied with both Benedikta and the view he will not notice a shadow creeping closer to them from behind.]

I'd argue that this is not the time to bring them up lest we forget why we are here...

[She shoots him a knowing glance and a smirk to match, a shiver rippling up her spine at the shot of levin buzzing over her palm. Her shoulder bumps playfully against his, glad that the heaviness on her chest has lifted somewhat. Being here, looking out to the rest of the Farplane and what is classified as the "Uncharted" really does make one think deeper on their own lives, and she is no exception to that, but having him here truly does help to take some of that weight off.

But there is still one weight that needs lifting, and she points further down.]

That there is where we need to go, yes?

Aye, I think so. And sooner we find and deal with the problem, the better.

[He's actually lost track how much time they've spent so far. Has it been an hour yet? So he'll take the lead and start heading towards the path that would lead them further down...]

[Well, at least they have one advantage over many of the other people here in that they can last a little longer before feeling the effects. Whether that's a blessing or not...]

One crack and then we head back to rest. Before we start feeling those things that they warned us about.

[She is not keen on going down that road.

But she will follow after him, her hand slipping out of his for a moment so that she can ensure that everything is tucked away safely before they descend. Checking her sword and then the talisman before they make a jump down a fairly steep but shallow ridge.]

It looks like it will get steeper from here on out and—tsk—

[She feels something brush up against her arm, and she simply brushes her hand against it, thinking it the wind.]

Watch your step, Cidolfus.

[He's already jumping down another section of the path, the small bits of loose coral and rock clattering down as he turns to look back at her.]

Hah! I've traveled many a path like these, so this is nothing.

[She snorts at him when he glances back at her, her smile faltering when she feels something against her leg this time, less like a wind. She peeks over her shoulder, gives her ankle a shake, and goes to hop down over the gap. She makes it, landing behind him.]

It's a little windy here...

[She comments when something cool passes behind her again, and she thinks nothing of it—it's often that drafts can come up from gaps like that, however small.]

I suppose it's a given, all things consider—

[There's a sharp crack, and something cold wrapping around her ankle. She feels as though she is falling through the corals, like the ground is giving out beneath her. Her stomach drops and she shrieks, the sound echoing loud and clear. It would be a surprise if it did not carry all the way through the whole Uncharted.]

Cidolfus—!?

[But when Cid turns around, he will find her gone from his sight, her screams coming from somewhere below, broken only by the sound of corals being shattered and pulled apart, her nails scraping along them as she is dragged further by a soul that she cannot see.]

Get the fuck off me!

[She throws a kick back, but it's no use. The cold hand simply grabs her other ankle, locking them both in place as it pulls her down, down, down the corals towards the ground with little regard for where she lands.]

Edited 2024-11-26 05:21 (UTC)

[After smiling at her landing after him, he had turned to chart out their path down. It looked like they would need to do a few more jumps—!?

At her scream he spins around and runs back shouting.]

Benedikta!

[But she's already gone before he could even see what happened, his heart already plummeting as he grabs onto the coral before he tumbles over the edge. From there he can see her being dragged down, the sight of a ghostly figure pulling her enough to tell him what's going on.]

Fuck, like hell you will—!

[His aether and levin gathering at his feet, he immediately jumps down, landing roughly on a jutting coral ledge, but the force of his weight breaks it so that he ends up fall and skidding against the side. He manages to right himself before he jumps again, lightning trailing behind him as he tries to close the gap.]

[She can't even see him coming, and she can barely hear him over the commotion. A voice echoes from behind her, those fingers digging into her ankles, leaving divots that would turn red with blood if this were any other place. "Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! You belong here!" It's a woman's voice, the shrieks as desperate as Benedikta's sound to get away. She attempts a burst of wind, but it falls short, the soul completely undisturbed by her magic.]

Fuck—!

[Her hand fumbles around her coat for the talisman, but just as her fingers manage to find it, she's dropped another several feet, coughing when her lungs meet another surface. The talisman falls out of her reach, making her curse out loud.

"Wrong, wrong!!! It's all wrong!"

By the time she manages to open her eyes, her vision blurred, she can at least make out that everything around her has slowly started to gray and blacken, all manner of colour drained out of the rocky landscape as she's pulled deeper. And seeing Cid coming after them, the soul drags her beneath an overhang, sharp rocks jutting out in all directions as Benedikta continues to scream his name.

But she cannot let the soul see that tears have started to erupt in her eyes, fear gripping her in ways that she cannot even process right now while she kicks and screams and tries to claw her way back.]

[He shouts her name again as he uses his levin to cross a large gap, but that ghost is practically flying as it continues to drag her down. If they were in their living bodies, there would have been a real fear of the injuries she would be sustaining, but even now he still panics, knowing that she must be terrified.

With another swear he gathers more of his aether, dread sinking in deep as they go further and further into what seems like a more desolate area of the Uncharted, one that they could not see from where they were. To think they were so close...

So fast Cid continues to run and dart through with his lightning that he does not realize he's passed over several black pools. No, even if he did notice he wouldn't have cared, ignoring the substance that clings to him as he passes over them.

Only one thought rang through his mind as he tried to keep sight of Benedikta: he could not lose her, he refused to lose her to a place like this.]

[She can feel her voice shattering, her throat growing sore from all of the screaming. Surely it would be wiser not to make so much noise and stir the other souls that dwell down here, but she cannot think straight—the only thing that she can think about is getting the hell out of these clutches before it drags her too far down to be found.

Through the caves they go, Benedikta still fighting. She swears that she feels another set of hands on her legs, but she refuses to look as she sends her magic flying out in all directions in a panic, the wind whipping about. But down here, it feels as though it's being snuffed out, drained or suffocated before it ever has a chance to do anything.

She is flipped onto her back at some point—how, she does not know—and from here, she can see the faces of the souls that are trapping her. There are three of them now, all women, all of them fighting her as well as one another to take her captive. A glance around is not enough to tell her where she is, only that they have reached the bottom rungs of Cassiopea, where the ground is black, the sky is an otherworldly red like blood, the dead trees reaching up to a sun that will not find their branches, and she can hear the screams of other souls around her...]

Leave me alone!

[And above it all, she hears the booms of thunder, sees the flashes of lightning through the corners of her eyes before she looks around to find him before her vision starts to grow black at its edges...]

[Seeing that he couldn't keep up with them as he is, he grits his teeth, and with each step more of his aether flows through him before there's a yell as loud as thunder as he semi-primes in mid-dash. He has no idea how this works with him just basically being his pure soul—would the curse affect him? Does he have greater access to his aether? The question of whether he's still connected to his Eikon has at least been answered.

With the additional power surging through him, he shoots forward once—twice—and on the third bound there's a loud shout of anger as he appears right above the ghosts and he slams his fist directly into the face of the first one that had grabbed her, lightning exploding from his fist to spread strike the others. With a shriek their grips loosen, some already fading, and those that remain will be speared by another barrage of lightning as Cid spares nothing with his assault. Whether it not they are destroyed he has no idea—as long as they are driven away that's enough.

As the souls disappear with the embers of his bolts, Cid de-primes as he rushes over to Benedikta, dropping to his knees with a brief cough before reaching out to her.]

Benedikta—Benna I'm right here—!

[Fear already has a firm grip on him as he quickly pulls her to him, all those memories of when he had to find her in this condition hitting him hard. Her death in Valisthea, lifeless in those flowers, Ultima trapping her in her mind... Now here in the realm of the dead. How many more times was he going to be cursed to see her like this?]

[He's like a storm come to carry her away. In the corners of her darkening vision, she can see the flashes of lightning, and in her head, can hear the echoes of the thunder booming around her. The shrieks of the ghosts ring out before they disappear one by one, along with their grip. She watches it all, wishing that she could do more, but all she can do is lie on the ground, wheezing and coughing and trying to breathe air back into her lungs after she screamed it all out. He drives them away quickly, so quick that she barely has time to register that he had semi-primed at all before he rushes at her.

Her vision is darkening, and she isn't sure whether it was the trip down, the speckles of black ooze that stick to her clothes, or the effects of the Farplane or even this place further down kicking in sooner than she hoped, but her consciousness is fading, and she is fighting to keep it.

She fights long enough, at least, to feel his arms take her and pull her to him, and enough that she can find the place on his chest where she can bury her face, her breaths coming uneven, panicked and stuttered through sobs, while she holds onto him like he is the only thing keeping her from being pulled further in.]

[He falls back sitting on the ground when he feels her move, some relief washing through him from it.]

It's all right... You're all right...

[His voice is quiet yet still taut and strained as he hugs her to him, again cursing that she had to go through something like that. Especially when he did manage to hear those words they were wailing at her, knowing what they were implying.]

[Her breathing is broken with another half-cough, half-sob as she buries her face further into his chest.]

...They were going to take me...

[Oh how his heart breaks at hearing her, and he just hugs her tighter to him, as if ensuring that nothing would seperate the again.]

They never will, understand? I won't let it happen.

[He lost her once, almost lost her again, he would tear this entire place apart if there was another time.]

[She clings to him tighter, her fingers curling into a white-knuckle grip around his jacket. Any more and she'd risk tearing right through the leather, she thinks, but that doesn't stop her.

Her voice is hoarse, her back aching from the aether that she'd tried to use up, and her eyes are burning from tears that she fights to hold back, even as she lifts her face from his chest long enough to look at him. To make sure that he is really there and real and not just some figment of her imagination, an image conjured up by the Farplane or wherever they are in the darkest pits of it. A trembling hand moves up to his face, and as soon as she touches it, soul or not, she breathes out a small sigh of relief.]

What they said was true...

[It's not that she didn't believe them, but seeing it for herself... feeling it for herself is more terrifying than simply hearing rumours.]

[His expression falters and cracks for a moment before it hardens again.]

Not here.

[His own hand moves to cup her cheek, holding her gaze.]

We may be dead in our world, but not in this one. It may be unfair for them, but that's just how it is.

Our time will come again, but not now. Not for a long time.

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