Seventeenth Blight - text

[bryces_pup]

Who: Riona and you
Broadcast: Yes
Action: On the Blue Fish, if wanted
When: Backdated to last night, the 14th

[Riona disappears suddenly on Saturday. Anyone who was trying to contact her will get no response. And for most of Saturday and into Sunday, she's nowhere to be found on the ship.

Sadly, her disappearance isn't for a good reason. Not even remotely.

When she woke up on Saturday, she found her husband gone. And when she opened her communicator to message him, her worst fear came to pass: he was gone. Atroma snatched him away and she was left alone. Again. And she doesn't have the comfort of knowing that she'll see him when she returns home. When they fell asleep together the night before, tangled up and content as always, that may have been the very last time she'd ever see him. She left so much unsaid and now she'll never get to say it, and her heart shatters. Honestly, she doesn't remember much of yesterday after that initial moment. She screamed at some point, and somehow she got her hands on some alcohol. That's about all she recalls. Somewhere between the night before and this morning, she made it back to the ship. She holed up in their - her room, and hasn't come out much since.

Today wasn't much better, but somewhere in her overly drunk, numbed out mind, she realizes people are going to start wondering where she got to. They need to know. And poor Kiter is looking miserable. He's been at her side since she came back to the ship. Someone needs to take care of him. Riona knows she should, but Maker she can't. She just can't. She's not even sure she can stand. It takes a considerable amount of effort just to take out her phone and type out a few words.]

Alistair Theirin is left from the fleet.

[That's all she has in her. The messages will start coming, but she's not even sure she wants to respond. She just wants to stay in her miserable pile of blankets and empty booze bottles and never come out.]

Comments

[bryces_pup]

You can't - you've got, there's so much...

[Coherent thought is not her friend today. Despite wanting no one seeing this, she also can't help but lean into Leilani's touch.]

And we're not from - our worlds are different.

[veilstrike]

I can catch my ex-lover and find a cure for the Calling. How hard can it be?

[ Leilani smiles, leaning closer. It's easier to make light of it, and she tilts her head, kissing Riona's forehead. ]

If I can find an answer here then you can take it home with you. I'd put money on your Inquisitor being as determined as me either way.

[bryces_pup]

Hard. There's so little.

[Leads, information... hope.]

Not her future, not her fight. She has enough. You do too. And... it might be too late anyway. The Calling's an axe that hovers over my head, one that can swing down without warning.

[veilstrike]

I stopped an immortal Magister from destroying the world and becoming a God. How hard can the Calling be?

[ Leilani shakes her head, holding onto Riona. ]

Believe in me. Please. Just for a while. Let me be your hope.

[bryces_pup]

[Hard. No one's found anything in over a thousand years. What hope do they have?

But Riona's words die in her throat as Leilani beseeches her to hold out hope. To believe in her. Riona's out of hope for herself, but does she have enough left for another? She doesn't know. It's so hard to think right now.

She presses herself against Leilani, fingers digging in as tears leak out. There's another onslaught coming and Riona knows all too well that there's no stopping it. She buries her face against Leilani's shoulder and lets out one long, pained scream before she cries again, shoulders shaking as she holds on for dear life.]

[veilstrike]

[ No one had heard of Fen'Harel existing for thousands of years, but...

Wrapping her arms around Riona is easy, her fingers brushing down and along the other woman's back. Let her cry, Leilani thinks, let her scream and sob it out - she understands. She knows how it feels to lose the person you love. At least Alistair didn't have a choice to leave; he would never choose to part from Riona unless the two of them agree to it. Solas had abandoned her, and that had been devastating.

She understands. She knows, deeply and intimately. ]

I've got you. I'm here.

[bryces_pup]

[If her friends weren't in the fleet, she's not sure what she'd have done. Likely just drink until her liver finally gave out and Atroma was forced to revive her. With them, at least, she has a chance of pulling through this. Not unscathed, and not as happy, but at least to some state of functioning.

Time stops working normally, or so it seems. How many minutes pass, curled up against the elf and crying her little heart out, Riona hardly knows. She wishes it would drain all the pain out of her, but she knows it'll still be there, sharp and unrelenting. But she cries anyway, unable to stop for some time.

Finally, when the jag does let up, she sniffles and pulls back a bit, wiping at her eyes and nose.]

I'm such a wreck. I hate this.

[veilstrike]

[ Her hand moves and strokes along Riona's hair, letting her mourn, letting her cry. She's not going to let her friend drown herself in her sorrow, not when she's here to hold her up, to take the pain and let it wash away. She'd cried on Riona enough that she thinks it's fair for her to be there for her friend now.

Shaking her head, she snuggles closer to her, still holding her gently. It's intimate and soft, but there's no pause. ]

You should have seen me after Solas. This is nothing.

[bryces_pup]

[Riona hiccups softly, still pretty drunk and now with a growing headache. Screaming and crying will do that to a person.]

You poor thing. I doubt you were able to go on a two day drinking binge. Which, could you pass me that wine? 'm not done.

[veilstrike]

Absolutely not.

[ Leilani laughs softly, shaking her head. ]

I didn't leave my room for three days. Dorian was bereft. I think I broke two windows.

[bryces_pup]

Oh come on, I need some way of coping besides crying everywhere.

[She whines, and begins to seriously consider again if she can wriggle out long enough to grab a bottle.]

...I wouldn't mind breaking some windows.

[veilstrike]

If you broke the windows, Riona, I think we'd die.

[ Snuggling time, sorry sis. ]

[bryces_pup]

[Riona sighs, leaning in exhaustion against the mattress. She'll have to find some windows to break elsewhere, not on a ship.

For awhile, she just stares at the far wall, not really saying anything. A part of her is still debating making a lunge for the wine, but another part of her is just... dwelling on everything. A few tears leak out, which she stubbornly wipes away.]

I'm... tired, Leilani. I'm so tired. [Exhausted, more like.] I feel like all the fight's just been sucked out of me. They just keep kicking me, over and over, trying to see how much I can take. And I think I've hit my limit. I don't know if I can keep doing this. [Her voice cracks on the last word.]

[veilstrike]

I know.

[ Leilani lifts her hand, stroking it through Riona's hair gently, soft and tender. ]

I understand, lethallan. I know how you feel. I get it. [ Her life might not have been as intense as Riona's, but... ] But you are strong. You are strong enough to overcome anything.

[bryces_pup]

I don't know that I am. [Riona shakes her head.] I'm one person. I only have so... so much, you know, in me. And I'm at my limit. I'm really just - I'm defeated.

[veilstrike]

Then let this be one battle you do not have to win. No one says that there is no chance to rebuild after a loss.

[bryces_pup]

Rebuild... I've had to do that so many times here. I'm so tired of it. I'm so tired of picking myself up each time and pushing on. I'm just, I can't do it anymore.