voice

[monolike]

Who: Sorey et al
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Iskaulit
When: Shortly after drifting (late September)


.voice.

Hi everybody. My name's Sorey; I'm First Mate on the Huntress, but uh...

[He pauses. Sighs and starts over.]

A lot of people are missing. People we love. People who we don't know if they'll be back; there's a chance, definitely, a good chance, but that doesn't mean the pain and fear and the grief will go away. Sometimes, it even gets worse. The uncertainty is almost as terrible as the loss itself.

I'll be conducting memorial services in the Interfaith Center for the next week, every day at noon. Anybody is welcome to attend. It won't be anything fancy; lighting candles and burning incense, tea, reading some things from texts I've picked up along the way. If you don't want to come but you'd like me to say something for you during the service, feel free to leave it here. I'll add it to everything.


Also, if you'd like to come by just to have some quiet, or for a listening ear, I'll be here most times. There's an area where you can pray or set up altars or anything that you'd find more comfortable; we just ask that you cover up any symbols you make when you finish. If you need any help building anything, please let me know, I've got a shop area back on my ship.


Religious ties aren't necessary, either, and there's a meditation room next door if you just need some space to think. Please come by if you need anything.


.action. - Iskaulit

[Sorey can be found puttering about the Interfaith Center on most days during the current drift. He's usually in the kitchen, sometimes with Mikleo, as well as praying at the small elemental altar in a corner of the prayer chamber, separated from the lounge area by a curtain.

Sometimes he's curled up on one of the couches in the lounge with a book or a set of hand-drawn maps, frowning as he scribbles notes and erases lines.]

Comments

[willynilly]

[She nods at first, her lip trembling, then ducks her head and shakes it instead, eyes clenching tightly. Don't cry again, don't cry. Enough.]

He didn't... we left him... we should've never left him...!

[monolike]

[Sorey automatically reaches to rest a hand on her back, rubbing up and down as he leans closer.] Uraraka...won't you tell me what happened? I'll just listen, I promise.

[willynilly]

[She shakes her head again, unwilling for a long moment, but all of a sudden the words just spill out, like she didn't have a choice in the matter. She has to say something, do anything. There's never been a hole in her heart like this before.]

W-we were helping people evacuate... we were running out of time, but there were still so many. Sensei told me to get on a shuttle, but- there wasn't enough room for all of us. He said he'd get the next one.

[She can recall it with aching clarity- the firm resolve in his voice, the touch of his hand on her head. The way he and Jaden had-]

I wouldn't go... I-I wouldn't go, so he promised... I made him promise because I was being stupid about it, and we left him there, and he-he didn't...!

[She presses both hands against her face, her voice strangled with a sob.]

[monolike]

[Sorey can hear the echo of Gramps' voice in his head, I'm so proud of you two as they killed him, and he can't just sit here with his hand on her back like she's not in a pain even worse than the despair she'd felt all those months ago, crying quietly in a kitchen, alone.

Sorey turns and hugs her again, the fierce grip of someone who understands, her hands over her mouth trapped against his chest as he holds her. Not like a religious figure conducting services, not as a friend but as a boy who's also lost his guardian, who still blames himself for it when he can't help himself.

There isn't even anything to say. There's nothing he can say that will make her feel better.]

[willynilly]

[Hugs aren't enough to heal these wounds, much as either of them might wish it, but they're both aware of that, and Ochako clings to him anyway, still resistance of the tears at first - because, god, god she's cried herself red so many times this week already - before she can't keep it in any longer. One thing she's learned since the meteor fell is that there are always, always more tears to be shed.

Sorey understands, she thinks, by the way he's holding her. He gets it. She wishes that weren't so, but the truth is there's no helping death. Even heroes fall. He died saving people- saving those left behind, anyone he could, saving her.

She's not a hero yet, so she couldn't save him. He'd probably say something succinct and biting, something to snap her out of it- to acknowledge her weakness, use it to build upon her strengths. What did you learn from this, Uraraka?

Nothing. Nothing, yet. She's not ready for this lesson.]

[monolike]

[It takes a lot of time; Uraraka clearly is tired of crying, but it doesn’t mean she’s done, and that’s another thing Sorey can understand. Sometimes there’s nothing that helps and all you can do is just try to hold yourself together through it all.

Sorey holds her until he can feel her push away a little and then he draws back. He stands, a hand lingering on her shoulder before he heads over to the cabinet and fetches some tissues, bringing the box over to her (and taking one for himself really quick).] Take all the time you need, [he says quietly, because grief doesn’t want someone always hovering at your side, waiting to hold you together. Grief is guilt and wounded pride and bleeding, blistering heartache, and just as much as someone grieving needs care and attention, they also need to be left alone.

So he leaves her alone with her teacher, with the scraps of his life she’d brought to honor him, and the scraps of her own his departure left behind.]