(no subject)

[tsunergy]

Who: Mikleo + OTA
Broadcast: Voice
Action: Huntress + Iskaulit
When: Today


( a. huntress )

[This place sure is good at getting you complacent and then slamming the door in your face. Mikleo's having a perfectly normal day, playing post-battle catch-up in his room, when Sorey tracks him down to give him the bad news. After that the rest of the day is a write-off; he just can't find the energy to focus on anything but the gut-wrenching loss. Dezel's gone. More than gone home, but rather...

It's hard to think about it, but there's no avoiding the truth. It's something he's been dreading for a long time now- something that's come up in discussions about Zaveid and Eizen. In just a moment, without warning, it could all be over.

Speaking of Zaveid... when he can bring himself to leave Sorey's side, that's his next stop. It'd feel wrong to do this any way but in person.]


( b. voice )

I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news- we've had more than our share recently. For those who knew him, Dezel is no longer with us in the fleet.

...while I can't imagine he'd ask for it, if you're so inclined... offer up a prayer in his name. It's how our kind draws strength.


( c. iskaulit )

[Once the hardest parts are done, he starts doing the busy work, so no one else will have to. Step one is to gather up all the creatures Dezel's collected from various planets - the fish, slugs, and lizards - and carry them over to the Iskaulit. The fish go to his water tank, and for a while he watches them flutter about contentedly in their new home amidst the sea greens. After that, he ventures to Edna's mountain to see if they might find a home in all the nature there, though only with Edna's permission. Finally he spends a few hours in the interfaith center, curled up against the seraph altar, idly spinning about the pinwheel. During his whole Iskaulit visit, he's wearing a quasi-replica of Dezel's hat. It takes him a while to get himself home again.]


((resonance permissions))

Comments

[airily]

[ There’s something wrong. He can feel it when he wakes up, as if the entire atmosphere of the fleet is twisted and uncertain, as if there’s a dark cloud hanging over him. It makes him a little bit awkward, and he’s pushing himself up and to his feet before he can do anything else, his mind elsewhere. It’s not quite Malevolence, but there’s something amiss.

When he opens his door he’s surprised to see Milkleo heading down the hall, and he frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. The twisting anxiety keeps knotting his stomach, but he grins anyway, trying to play it cool. He hasn’t had a chance to glance at the network and see what’s up, so he’s hoping instead. He’s getting better at that. ]

Why so blue, Mikleo?

[ He’s funny. ]

[tsunergy]

[He can't even fake exasperation at that dumb, dumb joke. It's so quintessentially Zaveid at his best and brightest, carefree, genuine. Happy. He'd like nothing more than to huff and roll his eyes and let Zaveid drape on him as if all is well. He'd like for all to be well.

He can't, though. He can fake it, but not that neatly. And he thinks that Zaveid might already suspect something's up.]

...We need to talk.

[airily]

[ He’s instantly on edge. Mikleo might not always laugh with him but there’s always something - a frown or a smile, something of a reaction, more that this. The anxiety twists inside him again and he doesn’t quite know how to handle it; he’s been getting better at being honest, at being clear about his feelings and his emotions, but he doesn’t know how to react when he doesn’t know what’s happening.

He slips back inside his room, motioning for Mikleo to follow after him, and leaves it up to him to handle the door. He doesn’t bother going for his device or anything actually there for him to fidget with - he flops to the ground, turning back to look at Mikleo once he’s a little more comfortable. He’s on edge, but he’s trying to hide it. ]

What’s going on?

pre-post // action

[monolike]

[It's not like when Lailah was sent away.

Whenever the others were gone, disappeared home or yet to arrive, Sorey felt their departure as a far-removed thing. Their pact was still intact, their souls still connected tightly to his but distant, unreachable, remote. It was lonely but bearable. Sorey could still feel their power and their safety, still feel their lives woven through and dependent on his own, and he could comfort himself with that knowledge, that they're still with him, however far apart.

Dezel's wind is ripped from him when their pact snaps like a severed bow string pulled too taut. Sorey sits down hard on a crate, engineering tools clattering from his hands as his hands shake, as his lips tremble, pressed into a thin hard line. He's felt this too many times before; he felt it as he fell into darkness, dragging Mikleo down with him. He felt this right before Dezel's death back home.

In a moment he's on his feet, scrambling to Dezel's room to throw open the door and search for him. His pets, his plants, the little nature sounds box Sorey had gotten him so long ago is still there. Had Dezel broken the pact on purpose? Is something wrong? Sorey scrabbles for his comm in his pocket, scrolls through the crew list for the Huntress, searching desperately for a name.

He checks again.

Again.

Scours the crew lists for the other ships. Again.

As his fingertips grow numb Sorey presses his back against the wall, slides down to sit. He drags in a shuddering breath, checking again and again, convinced he must have just missed the name or just- maybe he just forgot to check one of the ships, but-

It can't be. He can't have gone.

Sorey promised him-!

-

Eventually he picks himself up. With leaden feet Sorey follows the wavering string connecting him to Mikleo, hand on the doorjamb, picking up his head to stare into his eyes. He can see the dread there, can see the worry and fear because Mikleo must have felt it too in some way, the sudden imbalance in their family, elements struggling to find a new equilibrium with the sudden absence of one of their own.]

...Dezel, [Sorey murmurs, nose burning, vision blurring.

There is nothing else to say.]

[tsunergy]

[There'd been a ripple earlier, a sudden stirring to knock him out of the paperwork that had claimed most of his attention today; it was similar to the sensation of Sorey climbing out of bed without him, a gentle pressure of something there and then not. Familiar, but not familiar enough for him to place it.

He can feel the distress as well- lurching at first and then quiet, subtle, unsure. He leans back in his chair and feels it out, but is met with a quiet sense of not yet, not yet. it isn't real yet. It's enough to keep him there but on edge, worried and too distracted to do much else. It's only when he gets a sense of Sorey pulling towards him that he turns and stands up, and he's already on his feet and ready to leave the room when the door opens and Sorey finds him.

Dezel, is all he says, and it's all he needs to say. The name and Sorey's expression piece together and meet in the middle that lurch he'd felt earlier, the unease that's followed him since. He knows what it means for them, for the ship, for Dezel himself.

Gone. Dead. They've lost him. Again, they've lost him, and again, they're powerless to get him back.

With a shaky exhale he strides forward, gathering Sorey up in his arms and holding him close.]

[monolike]

[Mikleo opens up to him and Sorey falls, as a tree at the violent end of its life. He'd thought he had felt it before, that quick snap of the pact breaking, but in truth he's never felt anything like this. The other times, Dezel had severed the pact of his own accord; a withdrawal from Sorey's soul, to be sure, but of his own choice.

Dezel was ripped from him, and now he's nowhere.

Sorey clings to Mikleo's arms as his breaths trip in his chest, as he tries to keep himself from collapsing down into that dark hole of what ifs but he can't help but wonder it; Rose had seen him at the end, had passed along his message, but where had he gone, is he alone, is he in pain, does he even still exist? He must, he must, because Sorey swore to him he would bring him home alive to Rose.

But all the hope and determination in the world can't fill the raw, ragged wound in his heart, its shadowed maw so similar to the ache of longing he'd felt as a hellion that Sorey recoils from it, clings to Mikleo, offers his prayers to the wind on the rasp of his own gasps as he hopes, hopes that Dezel still believes in him, still trusts him, will wait for Sorey to find him and bring him back to his family.]

text;

[dreamvour]

I'll pray for him.

What are "your kind", if I may ask?

text;

[tsunergy]

Thank you.

We're called seraphim by the humans of our world. Elemental spirits, more or less.

text;

[dreamvour]

I see. I've never seen seraphim used to describe anything other than an angel.

voice!

[humene]

I see. I'm sorry to hear that. I'll keep him in my thoughts.

[Eleanor hadn't been close with Dezel, but she had met him. It was always sad to see somebody go home, and she could tell it was already beginning to effect Mikleo.]

[tsunergy]

...Thank you. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

[or, well, probably not. it's Dezel, after all- he's more like to just huff and brush it off like it's unnecessary, keeping whatever true thoughts he might have to himself. that's more his style.]

action - Huntress

[tempredmental]

For Mikleo

[Keith was getting familiar with these sorts of things now... people disappearing like that. It was rough, to say the least. When he saw Mikleo's face, it said a lot. He caught up to him, placing a hand on the seraph's shoulder.]

Hey. Who was it this time?

[Their crew was getting small, but this looked personal for Mikleo.]

=====

And since we can sort of mingle... Open to Huntress crew

[Keith wasn't great at comforting people, but if any of the other seraphim wanted someone to listen while they vented, he could at least do that. He'd be around in various areas of the ship, checking things to make sure they were recovering the battle okay.]

[tsunergy]

[What an awful reality they've found themselves in, when what happened has become who instead. As if losing people is just their new norm.

Lords, but he hopes this feeling goes away soon.]

...Dezel. You know, with the...

[he gestures vaguely to his head, indicating the hat Dezel always wore; he has no idea how well Keith knows Dezel, but he had to have seen him around this ship.]

B, voice

[flightpath]

[This is the first time anyone has been reported gone and that along with the "our kind" pings his interest.]

You make it sound like he's died.

[tsunergy]

...I suppose I did. My apologies.

[he doesn't know how else to phrase it, not with Dezel, but he's not about to blather on about it with a stranger.]

c.

[rockily]

[ He'll find at least one of the Earth seraphs upon the mountain, cross-legged upon a mound of earth. Before him sits a couple of rocks and a bottle of rum to his left, his communicate resting upon his right knee open to the post Mikleo made. Eizen is waiting, it seems, for something to happen or someone to appear or maybe for enough time to pass before he goes and finds Zaveid himself.

Mikleo's approaches causes his attention to snap up from the rocks before him, blue eye wide before softening. He didn't think he would leave Sorey's side for a while, not after such a crippling blow, and yet here he is arms full of small creatures he can only assume once belonged to Dezel. ]

Mikleo.

[tsunergy]

[Eizen isn't the one he'd expected to find here, but a familiar face is at least a welcome one, so Mikleo offers up a slight nod in greeting, venturing closer.]

I take it you heard?

voice

[searingedgelord]

[Velvet hadn't known Dezel that well, though he'd been helpful with offering suggestions on how to care for the lizards and slugs on the Red Fish. She's sorry to hear he's gone. She didn't know much of his story, but she can tell Mikleo is sad.]

Hey. You okay?

[tsunergy]

As much as I can be.

[Not really, in other words, but like hell he's going to admit it. Not when the other half of his ship is a wreck because of this.]

voice

[wolfehawke]

[Oh... that's. Oh.

Adalwolfe was quite fond of Dezel when they worked together at Malum, especially since Dezel was one of Drools' favorite people.]

Is there any special way to do that for you guys, or...?

[He's not much for religion, but this isn't the Chantry or the Maker with his back turned to the world. This is more like a well wish for a friend cast out into the universe in the hope that he'll hear.]

[tsunergy]

Formality was never his style, so just do whatever you know. I'd like to send him off properly, in the open air, but... that doesn't work in space.

[he can't even do origami the way Lailah could... dammit.]

C, of course

[brothersboots]

[Edna is, of course, at her mountain. But she's not at the top as others might imagine. No, the tiny Earth Seraph is sitting the copse of trees, letting the wind ruffle her hair and skirt as she sits there silently.

Eizen might be mopping with alcohol on the mountainside, but Edna is soaking up the little traces left of the dumb Wind Seraph that helped her with her project.

She doesn't budge when Mikleo shows up, but she feels him. She knows he's there. Just like if he looks over, he'll see her too.

It's not like she's hiding.]

[tsunergy]

[well, she's the one he came here to see, so it doesn't take him long to wander over to the trees himself. He stands there in the middle of them for a long moment, turning in a slow circle, observing their growth, the way the area feels, the scent of freshness in the air. Finally he sets his box down in the middle, letting the creatures within fend for themselves for the moment.

He steps back over to Edna and quietly sits down behind her, leaning until his back is against hers.]

I was thinking about yelling at him for a while. I wanted to do it after Pendrago, but I never got around to it.

b;

[aspearing]

[ Alisha doesn't answer to that message right away. The way that Mikleo says that he's gone sounds like there's more to it than it is. Still, she doesn't question it right away - not when it sounds like Mikleo's already distraught enough as it is. It doesn't need to be said out loud that Dezel was important to those of them from home.

She... regrets not having more chances to get to know him, That was perhaps a fault of her own. ]

... I'm sorry for your loss - for everyone's loss. I'll offer what prayers that I can.

[tsunergy]

[poor Alisha- she'd been completely bypassed by Dezel back home, a side effect of bad timing and Dezel's unfortunate end. Pretty much the main reason they'd all managed to bond with him was through their travels together- he'd had basically no choice but to endure their presence one way or another. He can only imagine what Alisha must have thought of him.]

Thank you, Alisha. It's appreciated.

[...Actually-]

If you have some spare time... can you maybe check on Sorey? I don't like that he's on his own right now. I'd stay myself, but...

[Sorey asked him to do this, so he can't really use that excuse.]