lifeaftr | The Void is Calling [OPEN]

Who: Castor and YOU! Maybe.
What: Castor's been missing a few days. Turns out, Canonbumps are a hell of a thing.
When: End of September
Where: Enso and also maybe on the network a bit?
Warnings: None yet. I'll update this if that changes.

[1]

The beach smells wrong.

For a long minute, it's the only thought she can hold onto as she drifts in the twilight between sleep and waking. Her hands gently flex at the ground, and her face twitches into a frown at how soft the sand is to fingers that were expecting a coarse beach littered with seashells and refuse.

And the sky… her eyes crack open, blinking against the endless blue above them. Blue. Blessed, wonderful blue. She cranes her head back, expecting to see the white cliffs of Kholusia and stares dumbly for a few seconds when only the sight of a green jungle meets her.

Oh. Oh!

Castor comes the rest of the way awake all at once, scrambling to her knees in a flurry of damp sand and seaweed, looking about wildly - if she'd come here then maybe…No. No, she’d stepped through the Exarch’s portal alone, hadn’t she?

She sighs heavily to try and quiet the rapid beat of her heart, and begins to take stock of herself, examining her hands and arms, feeling about her face and neck and checking her clothing - so very different from the last time she lay upon this beach - for tears or other damage. Certainly, she feels fine save for a bone-deep fatigue and the general aches and pains of long days, but Gods, she’d come so close to…well, no use dwelling on it. She’s here for now, and if they’d been right, the danger is long passed.

She’s a mess, sat out on the beach like this, with her hair long and dishevelled and sand and seaweed caked and strewn all over her but the relief on her face is as bright as the sun above her.

[2]

It’s long past sundown when a text comes across the stones

Does ane one here keep the date?????

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Beau's a nosy motherfucker, and that means she keeps tabs on everything she can. While it's not reasonable to stalk everyone she knows, there are a certain amount of tabs being kept on who's here and who isn't, especially in the wake of Yasha's disappearance last month. All of that is to say that Beau knows Castor is gone, and has known for a day or two, but has no way of knowing if she'll be back or how long she'll be gone. So it's pure coincidence that she happens to be near that beach, hear the commotion, and poke her head around the trees.

Once she sees who it is, though, she'll swing around and cross her arms to lean against one. Y'know. all cool-like. How ya do.

"Hey. Take a good beach nap? Don't tell me you literally ended up on shore like a hunk of driftwood."

Castor laughs a little as she maneuvers herself around to follow the new voice, her smile growing somewhat when she actually spots Beau.

"I could do without the smell all over my clothes, but ain't a bad place to nap, really. I'd be lyin' if I said this was the beach I was expectin' te wash up on though. Were ye waitin' for me or sommat?"

Edited (formatting is hard) 2019-10-15 02:20 (UTC)

"Kinda feel like that'd be creepy." She says, as if somehow, standing with her arms crossed over someone lying in the sand who was a little unconscious was not already the creepy thing here. But she still extends her hand to help Castor up, if she'd like to take it. "But nah, I was just around. Got lucky. Or unlucky, if I didn't wanna find you. But it was nice, so, it wasn't that."

Great. Smooth. Very smooth.

Castor takes the hand and hauls herself to her feet, not letting go until she's well and steady, and laughs a little at Beau's quips.

"Mayhaps I'm the unlucky one, bein' found in this state," she says, pulling a piece of seaweed out of her hair as if to illustrate her point. "A comely lass well on 'er way te becomin' a sea hag, I am."

"Oh yeah, because you need to look all put together for me." Beau's grin is evident, just a little cheeky, but doesn't carry on with it in the interest of figuring out more details.

"So. Guessing you went home for a bit. You good?" She knows the last time she was tossed off this plane, it was pretty disorienting to get back. "Didn't die or anything, right?"

"Well, mayhaps a friend's worth puttin' yerself together for. Besides, how else'm I te win at wrestlin' with ye?"

She winks a bit, as she does her best to make herself at least a little more presentable. "Aye. About a moon by my reckoning, but since you're not panicing at seein' me, I'm guessin' I wasn't gone so long. I...no, I didn't die." Her smile falters a bit as she continues, "Came closer to it than I'd have liked, but I'm hale and well. Just...very tired."

"I mean, few days as far as I've noticed. But I didn't see you leave, so." Beau can only guess if it was before it was happening or not, but it seems like a safe bet to say it was around that time. But the grin drooping is noticed, and Beau squints just slightly as it's observed.

"Kinda like that though. Get your shit kicked in here, get it kicked in anywhere else. What else is new, right?"

Castor shrugs and musters back a smile, though her gaze flits out to the ocean quickly before coming back to Beau. "Aye, aye. Can't say it was anythin' more pedestrian back home, either. Ye got untold horrors lurkin' round the water and the other islands here, and untold horrors made've over-aspected aether back home. Mostly the same shite, really."

It's not the whole truth; it's probably not anywhere close to the whole of it, really, but she moves on quickly. "Anythin' else amiss here? Any more dragons or water gods or deathtrap mazes?"

Beau kind of figures the story of whatever she went home for is long and messy, and as much as she's a gossip for that kind of info, she knows Castor will tell her herself if she just sticks around. Forcing it out of her isn't important, and this isn't a bridge she wants to burn. So Beau lets it smooth over, switches tracks back to the topic it was changed to, and lets it go.

"Uhhhh, yeah, same shit is about right. What's the last thing you remember from around here? I feel like I just saw you a couple of days ago at the Denny, so maybe it's only been a week."

Castor pauses to think; her sense of time is still a little askew from the days and days and days of constant light and general time-fuckery that comes with dimension-hopping. She ends up counting back on her fingers for a moment before finally answering "Mayhaps a week after we put down that Dragon from Nastrandir? Can't have been any longer than that, at any rate. It's the last thing of any real import I remember, aside from pickin' back up after it."

Edited (how is spell) 2019-11-28 05:03 (UTC)

"Okay, yeah, not that long then. Couple days. We're still looting that thing for the most part." At least the things that are still loot-able, that is. The meat is past what anything can be done with, but the treasure doesn't disintegrate like natural matter, so there's more than enough time to have all the gold they want. Beau stretches her arms above her head, absentmindedly rolling a shoulder as they talk. "You need help getting back to your place? All your shit should still be there, at least."

"Good," Castor says quietly. "Might have te make a trip over myself - scale an' bone might make themselves useful 'fore long."

There's a noticeable beat before she answers Beau's question however. She doesn't need help - she's as hale and well as she could hope to be right now, and it's never very far to a Mana Pool...

...but it's nice to have a friend nearby, too.

"I'd not object to a little company if there's nothin' else demandin' your time."

Her shoulders shake just a bit, and she reaches out to give a friendly sort of punch to her shoulder. It's not a real punch, but damn if Beau's knuckles aren't practiced to hit the squishy spots.

"Nah, not really. C'mon, let's get your waterlogged ass to a house so I don't have to drag you." This is about as much warmth as Beau is capable of on the day-to-day, so really, Castor is getting the good stuff here. "I don't wanna carry your sick bod in a few days anyway."

Castor meets the friendly bop with a smothered wince and returns it by shouldering into Beau just as lightly - She recognises the blunt affection for what it is. "If it helps any, this is the driest and healiest I've felt in days."

It's not even a lie.

"Wow. That's fucked." Beau tilts her head and starts making her way up the beach, knowing Castor is right behind.

"There's a joke here about me drying you up or something but I can't even think of it now. Let's go before someone swings in with some dumb puns."

And they'll head towards the nearest mana pool, making sure Castor isn't left alone in the sands.

The Void is Calling [OPEN]

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