thebastion | Day 115: despair

Entry tags:

Day 115: despair

Who: Ryu and Lady!Duke
Status: Closed
When: Day 115, in the 'morning'
Where: The Skyway
What: A new arrival shows up… in a very distressed state.

[Anger and blood and fear and sorrow had been what he'd fallen asleep to, and the memory of that as he wakes is enough to have Ryu sit up where he's been resting. He blinks, and looks around, eyes widening as he sees that he's sitting on a broken chunk of rock.]

[It's bare, mostly - except for the figures on the blankets near him. Ryu rushes over to touch Nina on the shoulder to wake her, to ask her what's going on - but as soon as he touches her, she crumbles to dust. He shouts, and reaches out to touch Cray's shoulder, but he's the same way.]

[… All of them are the same way. Ryu falls to his knees and lets out a loud sob, wrapping his arms around himself. He feels cold, and like his chest is empty. He can't sense Fou-Lu at all, either. Nothing makes sense. It's too painful painful.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The knight usually picked a direction and started wandering when it came to morning exploring. This day wasn't particularly any different - Duke headed out not long after the Bastion's cloud layer vanished, deciding that wood would be today's goal as well.

At least, until the odd cobbled together stones of the skyway turned into pale pink and worn flagstones. And that sure is a person.

And piles of dusk on blankets. ]

Hey, kid?

[He looks up, unsure of who's calling. Is it another Imperial soldier? He hopes not. He doesn't want to deal with this anymore.]

[But no, when he actually looks, the person approaching him doesn't have the right kind of armor on at all. He's still exhausted though, mentally and physically, and so the most he can really respond with is a soft questioning noise.]

[ Duke grimaces, setting down the bundle and crouching near the boy. ]

Hey. You feeling okay enough to talk?

[ Okay is probably not even close, given the crumbled statues and the curled way he's sitting. There's probably no one in the Bastion that is 'okay', but talking is a good first step. ]

[He looks around, at the burn marks near the edges of the rock and at the ashy remains of his friends, and he tenses. No. He's not okay. This is never going to be okay. He's utterly lost and alone - well. This person is offering to help, but he doesn't even know their intentions.]

[He doesn't know a lot of things.]

[He opens his mouth, and all that he can muster is a confused whimper. He lowers his hands to grasp the blanket he was sleeping on, just to have something to hold.]

[He tries again.]

I... I don't know...

I get that.

[ The knight has a tiny bit of a grimace at the thought. Worlds, gone? Yeah, it sucks. True, Duke hadn't found statues, which seems to be what this kid had found. ]

And I'm not sure I can say it will get terribly better.

[ Because this isn't particularly good but the full details aren't better. Unless someone feels better about knowing they weren't singled out. ]

.... Would you like to go somewhere else? There's a bit of a haven, not far from here. Still floating in the air, but...

[A haven... it's hard to imagine anywhere being safe, if his friends can be turned into... this. But it's... something, at least. He nods, and carefully folds up the blanket he was sleeping on, putting it into a nearby pack. At least that seems to have made it through. He turns and looks at the blanket that holds what used to be Nina, and picks it up, holding as much of her remains in it as he can.]

[It's only fitting that the princess of Wyndia's remains go to the wind, right? And so he walks over near the edge of the rock and flicks the ash out into the empty space, letting whatever wind or gravity there is take her. He heads back and brushes the others off of their small blankets, and puts all the blankets in the bag.]

[He pulls his sword off the side of the bag, and fixes it to his belt, before shouldering the bag and nodding.]

... Okay.

[ A bit of both, probably. Duke just watches, quiet and letting him do his thing until he moves where his sword is. Then the knight stands, gathering up the collection of wood and the sword that got set down earlier. ]

There's... a dozen, dozen and a half of us?

[ The knight is pretty sure this isn't going to help terribly much, but it could give a basic idea and.. fill some silence as they start walking. Duke isn't terribly concerned by the whole walkway forming a couple yards ahead thing. Well, still going slow for the kid. ]

There's a farm now, and it doesn't need terribly much tending, which is good because I don't think most of us have any idea what to do with it.

[ There's a light ahead, but its still pretty far away. That's where the knight is headed, through. ]

... Right, I'm Duke.

[The walkway forming in front of him is kind of startling, but right now he's a bit too numb to deal with it.]

... I'm Ryu. I... farms. I don't really know anything about farms.

I... don't know a lot about most things.

That's fine. I don't know terribly much other than how to fight and how to deal with paperwork. And while its kinda nice out now, there's creatures out here from time to time that are rather rude.

[ It helps that peckers - the brightly colored birds - seem to notice the knight and fly in the other direction. ]

Anyway, up that light is the Bastion.

... I can fight.

[It's one of the few things he does know how to do.]

What's there?

Not unless you want to.

[ The knight doesn't want him to feel like he absolutely has to do something. ]

... A place without hostile creatures, with some pretty good food, beds, hot baths. Other people.

[ Duke grimaces. ]

People who woke up more or less the way you did, even.

With everything... broken?

[Well, that begs the question.]

Why?

.... Something called 'The Calamity'.

[ Duke scratches at the back of a shoulder. ]

... Would you mind if we continued this in the Bastion? You had it a little worse than I did, waking up here, but sitting on grass is definitely more comfortable than... this stuff.

[ That's a booted heel clicked to the ground. ]

... Okay.

[He doesn't like this area anyway. It reminds him of... well. Of what just happened.]

Its a little disorienting, but...

.. the light is.

[ Actually, everything about this is. Duke will give Ryu questioning look - does he want to go first, with the knight, or after the knight? Either way is fine with Duke. ]

Edited 2013-10-07 02:45 (UTC)

[He looks at it uneasily, but then steps into the light -]

[- welp. That's one way to remind him of the Wind Dragon.]

[ So odd teleporting things are something vaguely familiar? good, good.

Duke had no idea what the thing was the first time the knight used it.

The place they land is indeed green and fairly sunny. There's a bit of variety in buildings, although most are single story, with one that steams off in one direction, and a three story one near a river in a different one. ]

Want to pick a spot to sit?

[Ryu nods, and eyes the river a little bit. ... He turns away from it, finding a sunny patch of grass to sit on. The heat feels good to him, and comforting.]

Edited 2013-10-07 03:46 (UTC)

[ Duke settles a little more slowly, and a bit uneasily. ]

As you've noticed... the Calamity didn't do much good.

[ The knight isn't terribly sure how to go into this. ]

What I understand is... everything is gone. You... probably realized some of the extent of that. Your world, my world, the worlds of the rest of the people here.

That's... not possible, though.

[He shakes his head slowly, disbelieving.]

Even if the world itself were gone, surely the other Endless would -

[But he can't sense them. He can't sense any other Endless, and he especially can't sense Fou-Lu.]

But I'm supposed to - we're supposed to...

[The truth hits him like a lead weight, staggering and making him sway a bit.]

Th... they... I'm... but the... the future... and all of the people...

... Yeah.

[ The knight can't really say anything about all that. ]

You've... seen what happens to some of the people. Others are just..... nowhere, that we know of. And the rest?

[ Duke shrugs, a slightly wry smile on that pale face. ]

We're. uh... 'lucky'.

How... how could anyone allow this?

[There has to be some way to fix it. Something, somewhere, somehow.]

I... how d... we... we need to fix it. I need to fix it. I'm... I'm supposed to fix things...

Calm down and take some deep breaths first.

[ There is a tiny bit of a commanding tone there - Duke is wearing a nice uniform for a reason, even if the knight's voice hasn't shown that yet. ]

Whether that's what you're supposed to do or not, isn't it smarter to figure everything out before you start charging off.

There are some people here who are from this world - the one that had Bastion in it before all the things went... up. I don't know if they have any ideas as to a how, but you can ask. But if you're thinking of powers - magic, anything like that - those don't work terribly well here. You get three of them a day - now helpfully marked out to us by a cloud layer at 'night'.

[No, no it's not. You're talking to a protagonist here.]

I... ah... mm. Maybe I can still transform...

[He doesn't feel safe doing that yet. Not with... that... still fresh in his mind.]

[ Damn all the protagonists. This is what the knight gets for being an AU of an endboss- ]

Maybe. But I'm pretty sure that doing anything after getting a big shock like... like waking up here isn't the best idea.

... At the very least, go get something to eat. There's some pretty good cooks here.

[You have successfully distracted the dragon.]

... Oh?

[ Good! Teenage boys still get distracted by food. ]

There's Rin, who has dark hair and a tail, and Trisana, who has red hair all done up in braids. Both of them cook well.

... What kind of food is around here?

[Not that it really matters because it's food, but.]

Simple good stuff.

[ Because that is clearly the best description ever. ]

There isn't a great amount of meats, because no one really wants to go pecker hunting, but I know Tris makes some nice bread.

[... Ew.]

I can help with hunting.

Settle first, please. At the very least, get someone to go with you. There are the peckers - birds - but there are also some nasty things that spit acid.

... I can fight well, though.

[He should rest, but... he feels the need to do something.]

... Acid. And they're about the size of a large shed.

[ Duke isn't going to mention they have a slight problem with people vanishing off the walkway. That worry will stay put. ]

After I figure out things.

[He feels wrong about the idea of not giving back if he's going to be staying here.]

Figuring out things is a good step.

[ Duke just wants him to get over a bit of the shock - because getting over all of the shock would be too much to ask of any of them - before he goes out and does anything. They sort of will expect him to give back.... ]

[Yeah, right now he's still having trouble dealing with it. He's starting to come out of it a bit, though.]

So... how do I start?

You can try to find Nathaniel - he is one of the people who are from this world, and he knows how the Bastion works. Rin and Bon - the girl with the dark hair, and a boy... [ The knight remembers that the odd hair coloring hadn't been around for a while. Oops- ]

Bon has short cut dark hair, but doesn't have vines on his arms. But those too have been here longer than I have.

Okay. I'll... try to find them. Thanks.

[This is all still a lot to take in.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 115: despair

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject