driftfleet | (no subject)

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.]

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[She can find him in the kitchen over on the Huntress. There's no tea waiting, since she'd made it sound like she wanted something to do, so instead there's only a set of teacups on the table and a slowly boiling kettle. Mikleo himself is wrist-deep in a bowl of dough, gently kneading with a set of butter knives. His hair is done up in a thick, winding braid to keep it out of the flour.

He looks focused, glancing up only when she hits his peripheral, and it's easy to tell that the distraction is a welcome thing. There's a definite sadness in his gaze.]

Hey- welcome aboard. It's been a while, hasn't it?

[ Alisha offers a small smile in greeting, nodding her head in agreement. ] It has. Thank you for having me. [ Honestly, she would like to visit more often - if the other seraphim wouldn't mind, that is.

She looks to the cups on the table - and the tea being prepared. At the least, she can help serve it... ] How are you doing? [ And what was he making? That was a question that could wait, but it's something else she wonders if she could assist with. Not that she has very much experience in the kitchn. ]

[Oof. Still the most frequent question, and still one he has no idea how to answer. He gestures over to the kettle with a dough-crusted hand- it's not yet made, just boiling. He's leaving that to her.]

I'm... I'm doing okay. I won't say it's easy, as the lie would be too transparent. But I'd rather focus on everyone else than wallow in misery about it.

[it's just an unhappy matter of losing Dezel... again.]

[ She pauses, heart sinking a little. ] I see. While I can understand feeling that way... if I can simply be someone who can listen--

[ She'd like to do something... If she can. ]

[Mikleo doesn't respond right away this time. He's been struggling to be strong for the others - Sorey, Edna, Zaveid, they all loved Dezel in their own ways and mourn his loss - but Alisha doesn't have that, which means that excuse for burying his own grief is suddenly gone.

...Damn.

Slowly he draws his hands back from the dough, bracing them against the bowl, his lips tightly pursed.]

Growing up with only Sorey and the other seraphim, I... was never familiar with death. But since that day...

[He trails off, not sure how to phrase this without making it sound like it was her fault. It isn't- it never was. Their leaving Elysia was an inevitability that she triggered but did not cause. With a quiet sigh, he tries again.]

Have you ever lost someone... and felt conflicted about that loss? Like- it's more complicated than simply missing them?

[ She sympathises with him - yet she knows she can't relate with him completely. Not when she's been surrounded by people all of her life. She can't imagine how lonely and heart breaking that this must feel for Mikleo and the others... ]

It's... unfortunate to say, but I've been witness to numerous amounts of death. [ On the battlefield and by other means. Losing someone is always difficult and conflicting, but at the least - she was always given the chance to give her condolences and honor their deaths in some way or another.

Though, she's never quite realize the life span that seraphim have... She still doesn't know a great deal about seraphim, as much as she'd like to know more. ]

... And, I have felt that, as well. Though, I feel as though what I've gone through and the circumstances here is vastly different. [ EVen without knowing all the details. ]

[She has... of course she has. Alisha's a knight and a princess, and whatever value that her country's leaders may place on either of those titles, she still fulfilled her duty. And with the countries so sporadically at war, she's surely seen plenty of people die.

It's surreal- she calls him "lord" and practically deifies him alongside the rest of the seraphim, but she's seen so much more of the living world than he has.]

Perhaps they are different, but even so, you can probably understand. And since you're not exactly an uninvolved party, I can at least explain the basics, if you want.

[she may not have known Dezel, but she's still a Squire- not just Sorey's, but Rose's as well.]

[ While she appreciates the notion - she's not entirely sure that now is the best time for discussing something like that. ]

... I truly appreciate it, but if you don't want to at the moment, we can postpone that conversation. [ She wants to learn as much about seraphim as she can, but... it's something that can wait. ]

I'm not sure there'll ever be a good time for this sort of thing.

[He shrugs his shoulders, returning to the dough and folding over a batch of little squares onto a tray. He'll leave the decision up to her- he's not going to pressure her to hear it, since it's not exactly world-changing information. He just didn't like the idea of leaving her in the dark about it. They'd done that with Rose, and it had been a terrible choice in the end; same for not telling Alisha about Maltran. It's a lesson they should have learned the first time.]