fortunefail | - 84 [Written / Action]

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- 84 [Written / Action]

[Martel]

We need to talk.

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[Action]

[This afternoon, Yuan can be spotted walking around the village perimeter. To the stores, then the library and finally he'll take a break near the fountain, watching people as they pass by. By then, he's gathered up a bag filled with assorted foods and a few books and he's flipping idly through his journal. It may seem like he doesn't have a particular reason for sitting out there, but that's exactly what he wants people to think.

Once he's sure nobody's around to see him, he'll slip into the tunnels. There's a certain someone down there he needs to check up on.]

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[ That sentence might as well have been the trigger to shoot her heart. She doesn't know how to make herself any clearer. Everything she was saying wasn't fitting his sense of logic. Her hands released their grip on the bars before limply hanging by her sides.

Nothing she was saying was working. The Mithos she knew before wasn't showing any signs of returning. There's no other methods left for her to do. She failed him. If guilt could kill, she would be dead by now. ]

I don't understand either, Mithos . . . I'm so sorry.

[ I'm sorry I failed you. ]

[Why is she apologizing? She's never done anything wrong; she can't do wrong. And what does she not understand? None of the pieces fit together. He's missing something important, the piece that will bring everything together...

Silence. Then everything clicks into place.]

Oh...I get it now. [an unhinged chuckle, quiet, but sent echoing throughout the cell and down the corridor] Of course, why didn't I see it before?

[ His cold disturbed laughter made her break out in a cold sweat. The deranged look that struck fear inside her, his mysterious words. It was all too familiar.

He was going mad again. ]

Mithos?

[ She was afraid of what he was going to do now. There was no telling what was going through his mind or what he was planning to do. ]

It's because I didn't kill them, right? That's why you're upset. [Of course...she's so kind, she wouldn't want to trouble him by expressing her disappointment. She was covering up her feelings like she had done so many times before... There is another bout of eerie laughter, growing louder this time.]

I'm sorry I disappointed you, Martel. I should have finished them when I had the chance. [He should have killed Sheena when she had fallen, to make sure she wouldn't harm his sister. That woman too...she had no right to force herself into his life. She isn't family; she's nothing. Killing her should have been easy, if he truly wanted to do what's best for Martel. So he had failed her...]

[His hand drops from the iron bar and clasps over the other one.] I won't let you down again - I promise.

[ Martel was horrified to hear his next words. He thinks she's upset because he didn't kill them? Who in the world was she looking at? She couldn't bare to look at him any longer. Her eyes silently closed as she turned her head away from him and stepped away from the cell. ]

I don't want you to kill anyone, Mithos.

[ Her voice was barely above a whisper. She didn't want to be here anymore. Not while her brother was behaving like this. Her voice steadily rose an octave. ]

Mithos! I'm begging you! Please stop hurting everyone! I never wanted anyone to get hurt so please stop this madness!

Don't worry, I understand. I know that you don't want to make me worry about you, but you don't need to hide it anymore. You don't need to pretend it's okay.

[Regardless of how distressed she sounds, her words won't reach him. It doesn't matter how abrasive they are to his own twisted notion of the truth. His mind is set, and he will keep smoothing her words over to make them fit. Just more bricks in the wall.]

[ Words failed to come out of her mouth this time. She was utterly at a loss as what to do. Her words wasn't reaching him at all. His mind has become so twisted that only a few words actually managed to reach him and even then they become altered to fit his state of sense. There didn't seem to be anything left for her to do.

She doesn't want to give up. Giving up would mean leaving Mithos, her only other family. But as of now any attempt to make him understand would only end up as a futile effort. ]

. . . I'm sorry, but I have to go now.

[Some small fragment of him - smothered beneath the ashes of who he used to be, crowded out by his hatred, anger, and distrust - can hear the difference between her words and his wants. It's so much easier to pretend to hear what he expects to hear, because if he acknowledges her true meaning...everything falls apart and he's left staring at a bottomless hole, wondering where to go.

A look of disappointment flashes across his face when she expresses her need to leave. Already? She had only just arrived, and they barely had a chance to talk... But...] ...Right, it's safer for you to be at the house. [There's no telling when one of his captors may show up. She would be alone there, and that thought rips him apart, but she would at least be out of danger. As much as possible, anyway. A pause.]

I miss you, Martel... [He's already spent to much of his life apart from her. In this world, he thought that they could finally have the time together that they deserve.]

[ She misses him too. More than he'll ever realize. She dearly missed that young idealistic boy. Sadly, there was no telling when that boy will come back. All that she had left in that boy's place were broken mirror pieces poorly put together. Martel knew that speaking wasn't going to help because speaking to a broken mirror doesn't fix it. The only option left was to tear it down and put the pieces back in its rightful place. Hopefully, she'll be able to find some of the missing pieces along the way. ]

I miss you too, Mithos . . .

[ Without another word, she left the cell with nothing being accomplished other than finally realizing that her methods weren't working. ]

[He watches for the brief snapshot of time in which she's still framed by the partition of bars, and then she's gone. Frustration comes to fill in the empty pockets her absence leaves inside him. He can do nothing to protect her and make her happy when he's locked up like this, and she can do nothing to free him.

There's a small happiness in knowing that, surely, she will visit him more, even if only briefly. But this happiness is as confined as he is. There remains the level of danger to be considered, the troubling uncertainty of how Martel knew where to find him, and the question of how long it would be before he could manage to escape.

But Martel believes in him, and he can't fail her...]

[ Certain that she was out of Mithos' earshot and eyeview, she walks to Yuan with downcast eyes and quietly spoke to him. ]

Can you take me back home?

[ Her voice was small and fragile. Her shoulders sagged from its sockets and her mouth was tugged down to a frown. Worse of all the usual sparkle in her eyes has completely vanished and in its place was a dark dimness. ]

[Yuan nodded firmly. He didn't speak; Mithos would be eavesdropping for certain now, no doubt hoping to overhear who led Martel to him.

It pained him to see Martel like this. Part of him wondered if he shouldn't have told her about Mithos, but it was the right thing to do. After a moment, he raised a hand to place it on her shoulder, hoping it might comfort her a bit.]

[ The hand on her shoulder gave her little comfort. If Yuan had done that on an earlier date, she would have been overjoyed. But as of now, nothing could possibly pull her out of her melancholy.

The walk back out was done in complete silence. After what happened, Martel was in no mood for conversation. ]

[Yuan can't blame her for refusing to speak to him after what he's done. And what would there be to say, even if she did want to talk? Once they leave the tunnels to step back into the light of the sun, Yuan clears his throat awkwardly.]

I'll... let you know if there's any change. [Not that he's expecting this to happen soon. He just needed something to break the silence before he leaves her to her own devices.]

[ She brought out a sad smile of gratitude before pulling him into another hug. It might be because she needed more than just a hand on her shoulder or it could be the reason that he was finally acknowledging her, but either way she did it. As she let go of the presumably surprised half elf, she whispered in his ear. ]

Thank you.

[Yuan was definitely surprised. Being touched without warning is one thing, being hugged without warning is worse. Back when he was still young, he would've given anything to be held by Martel, but after many years of loneliness and losing her quite a few times, it makes him feel uncomfortable. He wishes things could go back to the way they were, but it's impossible to forget all those hardships.]

... You're welcome.

[ Noticing she was making him uncomfortable, she gave him a reassuring smile before heading on her way back home. More guilt burdened her as she realized that she had left Yuan and Kratos to handle Mithos in that state for the past four thousand years. Hopefully, Kratos will forgive her as Yuan had seem to have done. ]

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- 84 [Written / Action]

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[Action] You're one crazy child.

[Action] so terrible....sobs

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