[Chatper 1.05a] Truths of the Heart

[Crash]

Character Name: Ginger Eloise Fizz
Date | Time: 12.23 | Afternoon
Location: The UnderHaymurk
Wearing: This
Tagging | Mentioning: Gravity
"I'm. No. Quitter." Ellie snapped off each word like a rabid wolf snapped a bone. Duty to her team and duty to her sister tore ragged holes in her psyche, and anger flowed into them like lava. 

One step and then another. 

"Don't walk away from me!" Ellie yelled after her sister, her budding rage stained with shrill shades of hysteria and panic. "You need me!"

Another step…and another…

She doesn't.

"Ellie." 

Her name barely registered through the rush of blood in her ears, or maybe it was the buzzing of a thousand unintelligible voices. It hardly mattered now. The effect was the same.  The sounds of the others were faint compared to the voices of Orym, Dawn, and Cherry. They rang clear as a bell in her ears.

"I don't.  I want you with me, Ginny. But I don't need you. Not anymore."

Her sister's words were a slap in the face, she gaped in sputtering pain.

"We can end the pain, together."

She had hurt for so long…would an end to this thing end her pain, too…was it possible? 

"I don't want anything to happen to your niece, she sounds nice. We really could use your help."

"Bug…"

Another step…another step.

Ellie felt the tug on her arm, holding her back.  She tried to pull her arm away, but the grip didn't let go.  Ellie pulled harder, putting her weight into it, but the hand that held her arm didn't budge. Ellie spun rage, and pain cast a sheen over her honey-brown eyes. They were bloodshot and tunneled.  In the sudden burst of emotion, she could recognize the face she saw.  She couldn't piece the features into form.  Ellie hissed like a wounded animal.

"Ellie," the vague figure said with concern. It was the emotion, more than anything, that wormed its way through the fog of anguish, clearing her mind enough to fit the puzzle together.  Star.

"Star…We have to go help them.  Please." Ellie tugged her arm, not realizing how close she was to the tunnel now and not caring.  There was no let go in Stella's grip.  "That's my sister, Star.  She needs me, I know she does. Come with me. Please.  They can't do it alone.  She's gonna die.  I can't let her die, Star! I can't!" Ellie was in a panic, pulling and tugging against Stella. "I can't let this thing get Candy!  I won't!"  The sudden change in Ellie was frightening in its rapidity. She shouted her last words and yanked her arm back from Stella with some force.

We have to go!  Please." Ellie never pleaded with anyone before, but she did now.  Flipping between fear and anger from sentence to sentence, first cajoling and then lashing out in heated words,  "They are right.  Thessa.  It's Orym.  I don't know how, but it's him.  He needs us, too. I know you won't leave him.  We can't leave them!"

Ellie looked toward the others. "Don't listen to him, Thessa," she urged. "He just wants to run away.  I can't do that.  I can't leave Cherry." Ellie was desperate.  She felt like everything was turning against her.  "Then just leave me. Go get help. I'll stay. Help the others. I can do it," she looked at Stella again, a flutter of worry breaking through the monsoon of emotion pouring from her.

"I can do it."

[FyreFoxx]

Character Name: Lyreilynn "Lyra" Xyrven Myalis
Date | Time: December 23rd | Afternoon
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Haymurk -> Underground
Wearing: teal Arcanite pendant, light blue top over a white inner blouse, matching light blue skirt, with a white sash belt, simple grey boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Gravity | Orym, Cherry, Dawn

Lyra glanced between the trio behind the group and back towards those most affected. Estelle was panicking, trying to place herself between the groups, but Lyra wasn’t much further away. The male elf seemed to be focused on Thessa and she broke down her gruff barrier at the sight of him. It still made her curious to who he was to her, but right now, there were more pressing matters to deal with. Something else was going on that Gravity was not aware of, but that this new little group was privy to. Something, or someone, that needed help. Help that they could provide, it seems.
 
Chee and Eloise were hit hard by seeing these people, and the dainty elf dropped her gaze momentarily. Were these people somehow related to those most affected by whatever the Hollow was doing? But then where did the male elf come from? As far as she could tell, Thessa still had her right senses, if not a bit prickly. But wasn’t she always a bit prickly? Powder blue eyes drifted towards her team and she frowned, before letting her gaze travel back towards the trio, right as the carbon copy of Eloise spoke up, naming each of them. Orym. Dawn. Cherry.
 
Chee moved closer to her, another abandoning his positioning, as he explained what he knew of the strangers. Cherry was obviously Eloise’s twin sister; they were nearly identical! Dawn was a new name to her. But the last one, Orym, struck a chord. She recalled how Thessa had grieved following the prison outbreak, and when she revealed her lie about her name - that she wasn’t Farrah, but Thessa. Lyra stared at Chee in disbelief as he curled in one himself. “Are you alright, Chee?” There was concern on her face, and she reached out towards him, but before she could touch the Silenus, her fingers curled in on themselves, like she was afraid that touching him would set him off.
 
Instead, she refocused on the group. At least one of those shouldn’t be here. Couldn’t be here. And that fact put Lyra on edge. However, one thing was clear. Whoever, whatever, these people were, they needed their help. “Who needs help?” Lyra was cautious, but that willingness to help was ever-present. They were meant to be Champions one day. And Champions weren’t supposed to run away from these things. “How can we help? Where are they?”
 
The shouting drew her attention as Eloise stepped past the group, going from the front-now-back line, past Thessa and Marlowe, past Lyra, even past Estelle, just to get right into her sister’s face. “Eloise?” The heck was going on with her now? Pursing her lips together, Lyra took a few steps forward, but paused, looking over her shoulder. Her entire team was starting to fall apart. Chee was closing in on himself at the sight of Dawn. Thessa was crumbling at the sight of Orym. Eloise was on edge because of Cherry. And Estelle was panicking over the whole situation. Marlowe hadn’t been herself since even before coming down the well. Was Lyra the only sane person left?
 
This was giving her a headache. She reached up, rubbing her fingers against her temples, listening to the bickering and the accusations flying around. That incessant noise was buzzing at the back of her mind, like a scratching sound that was growing louder every passing minute. This fighting had to stop. Every time, they fought. Namid, Haimehen, Mila, Meena. People had come and gone and it just kept fracturing Gravity more and more. After the incident with Dazzle & Dust. After the trial out in the Wilds. After the campfire and the Alpha Hollow during the Rishi Valley mission. After the prison break. Would they even be able to come out of this one unscathed? She glanced at her teammates and frowned. How much more pain would they have to suffer?
 
Shaking her head, Lyra took a few more steps forward, placing a hand on Estelle’s shoulder. “I do not think they have anything to do with the Hollow. They want us to follow them.” Cherry had been the first to say it, then Dawn, and finally Orym. Each one mentioned putting an end to the problem. And Lyra agreed with them. That had been her goal since the very beginning! “Hollow would not invite us to deal with the problem.” Or would it? Was it just trying to entice its prey deeper? She glanced over her shoulder towards their captain, nodding her head towards the tunnel that she had once started down before the others had followed her down the well. The very one the trio had disappeared down. “There is something down there. Something we need to take care of. Whether or not what they said is true, what we do know is that is most likely where the Hollow is.”
 
Eloise was shouting about her sister, trying to drag Estelle with her as she attempted to yank herself free from the other girl to follow her sister. Even if she wasn’t in her right mind, she had the right idea. “Nothing is going to happen to your sister, Eloise. Or to your niece. We will make sure of it.” Even though it wasn’t a promise Lyra wasn’t sure she could keep, the attempt was made. At the very least, Candy should be safe. But Cherry? Was she even really here? Orym, an elf that should have died - did die - was down there, so what did that mean for the other two? “But you are right.”
 
Lyra turned to fully face Thessa, face the rest of her team. She couldn’t hide the slight smile that had twitched the corners of her lips up. “We should follow them. We already know what happened to the town is a problem. We do not even know if leaving will solve anything, or just make things worse, but getting rid of the source could solve everything. We cannot let anyone else suffer like the town has suffered.” Lyra glanced at Marlowe again, then to Chee, and finally Eloise. “Like our team is suffering,” she added quietly.
 
Her gaze travelled to the tunnel where the trio had disappeared, where those strange root-like tendrils were concentrated along the ceiling, almost like they were showing them the way. “Even if it is a trap, I still believe that is the path we should take. Why else would they show up and ask us for help? Who, or what, is calling us and why?” Lyra wanted to find out, if only for her own curiosity, but also just wanting to be of help to others, to feel useful. “Eloise should not do this on her own. No one should be left alone.” There was a quick glance at Marlowe as the guilt gripped her stomach at those very words, knowing she had left her partner alone, if only briefly.
 
Those blue eyes sought out golden ones. “I think… I think we should stay.” Even knowing she had just said earlier they shouldn’t be there; she didn’t mean to leave entirely. She didn’t want to be there, in that cavern, near the strange water. She wanted out, to find that Hollow and deal with it. Despite her earlier words of abiding by Thessa’s decision, something told her she needed to fight against it. Maybe that trio had given her the courage to speak up. “We should see this through to the end. Is that not what a Champion does?” Thessa might think Champions were meant to protect each other, but most Champions worked alone. There weren’t others to protect them. And Champions were the only ones capable of dealing with Hollows. That’s what they had all been taught. Thessa had originally chosen to leave, but something wanted them to stay.

[Envious]

Character Name: Thessa
Date | Time: December 23rd | Afternoon
Location: Under Haymurk
Wearing: Uniform, shield, ring
Tagging | Mentioning: Gravity
Note:
Thessa’s awareness of her Soul was slowly transforming into something new. She felt a faint ripple. It was a curious experience - she couldn’t say where that feeling was located along her body, but she was cognizant that something was happening because she had felt it before in the Wilds with Estelle. It was a lifeline she tried to follow out of the confusion of the moment, but it wasn’t tangible enough to grab on to. She felt the pull of her Soul towards Estelle, as if her body were desperately trying to pull back every resource available for survival. She turned to the android and in a moment, a rush of sensation both fled and arrived.

Her heart beat once and she felt that throb go down the line. With it went her turmoil. Orym was dead. She knew this to be an undeniable truth and that what she saw now had to be false. An abomination. But the engagement ring on her finger was heavy with the weight of a promise unfulfilled. There was guilt there, complex and crushing that seemed to overshadow the grief and sadness. His blood had been warm against her skin as it pooled around her and the crushing pain in her chest had sat with her every night since then.

But she had been wrong about what she assumed was an abomination before. The Brothers had granted her the gift of participation in the miracle of life. She had witnessed the impossible - she had seen the birth of a new hope! She knew that his revival was a possibility! Yet… She could feel Estelle’s worry starting to cover her like a blanket, dampening that hope with the sureness that this must be a trick. The wrongness of the situation was too much to ignore. How could these most cherished individuals be in this graveyard?

The repeated calling of her name made her blink back into existence, but she only had eyes for Orym. She was uncharacteristically silent as the conversation spun around her. Hollow did not plan. They were not creatures of cunning or thought. This couldn’t be a Hollow. But Mila’s infection was proof that Hollow, through their own malignant existence or through intervention, were evolving. The urge to follow Orym was strong. It was an opportunity to right wrongs. It was a second chance.

And then Orym turned away from her.

Her hesitation had been justifiable - she had held him as he died! But for him to see her and not embrace her? To turn away for business? That wrongness that had radiated down the emotional Soul link between Estelle started to supercede her own hope. That was far more unbelievable than anything else she had witnessed. This wasn’t a miracle. This was a punishment. She looked at Lyra as the elf spoke and narrowed her eyes.

”Stop testin’ mine patience, woman, ‘n make ta leave as told!” she growled. ”We ain’t here ta slay Hollow. We here ta get Art ‘n he dead. Durin’ that time, ya failed ta help Marlowe ‘n then abandoned her. Mine partner havin’ a breakdown right in front of ya, bein’ ornery and off ‘n you ain’t seein’ it. Chee done run away from us once already ‘n think braggin’ make ‘im trustworthy. Marlowe gone idle. ‘n you keep pushin’ ’what Champions meant ta do’ as if I ain’t rescue the three of yer sorry selves from a cave just the other day! Stop takin’ yer shot for redemption at the risk of others ‘n act like ya got some sense.” Something twisted in her stomach at the action of abandoning Orym. He was right there and she was letting him walk away. But her team was also here and they mattered more. The guilt sat heavy in her as she made impossibly difficult decisions, but she couldn’t let harm come to her team because of some misguided sense of playing hero.

She couldn't look at Orym. She didn't even acknowledge the existence of the two others. "Eloise! Me need ya." It was a dangerous position to come inbetween family like this, but Thessa thought Estelle was right. This had to be some trick. "What make ya think Cherry gunna come here ta help a bunch of strangers when she couldn't even be bothered ta be present fer YOU in Onyx?" It was a nasty thing to say, but a filter wouldn't help right now and saying it seemed to open up her senses beyond the guilt she felt. She needed to reach her partner. "Yer duty to yer family and whatever that is ain't family! In their absence, yer duty is to yer team 'n we need ya now! Square up, woman!" As if following her own advice, Thessa straightened with a new alertness. She pulled her shield in front of her, balling her fist in preparation.

”All y’all need ta be on yer toes.” There was a sudden feeling in her bones that running wasn’t a choice and that Lyra had received her wish to prove their worth as Champions. Nothing in this awful village made sense and while a small part of her did want to take care of whatever the source of this problem was, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. A new hardness entered her voice. ”This can’t be real,” she said, validating Estelle’s earlier statement with a repetition. ”Which mean we already in it.” She gave a look to the pulsating walls beside her and the feeling as if they were already within the belly of the beast made her queasy. She telepathically tugged at Marlowe again to get her walking. ”We need ta go.”