11/05 — ΣHeartless Snaring Cathedral...?

[userunfriendly]

Who: █████ & visitors
What: scheming
Where: Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground (Hulle Granz Cathedral)
When: Sunday, 11/05
Warnings: to be added


[ Despite the ominous aura, the haunted tower has seen no shortage of visitors recently. But for those who gate in today the air itself is different. The skies are black, and the mist that had blanketed only the top of the tower now pours out across the plains, shrouding the ruined city from sight.

Anyone who goes looking for the master of the tower will find that the room he occupied before now holds only a single door, standing unsupported in the middle of the room. It beckons, tugging with a terrible compulsion — you know whatever sight awaits you is one you'll later wish you could forget, and yet... you look. But the door opens only onto the bridge leading to Hulle Granz Cathedral, where the first quiet strains of choral music through the open doors guides you on. ]

((Note: Characters are welcome to receive the location from any other player and gate directly to Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. Allowing those who found his tower inaccessible to come join, too, is cruelty.))

Comments

[tablescraps]

... Hani?

( This isn't something he's seen Hani like before, he thinks, and his brow furrows deep.

He drops to his knee before them - does touch work here? Does it not? )

Hani.

[tinged]

[ touch always works with them because the right words never seem to come quickly enough. it didn't come then. which only makes sense, doesn't it? how do you catch words in your grasping, grasping hands? you don't.

hani... they at least understand that word, that name. ]

... Is it Morgan? Or is it... Mithrun?

[tablescraps]

... Mithrun.

( He decides this briefly, and finds it right, and moves on.

...

The battle's still moving about them, and he keeps an eye on it in his periphery. )

You're here. You're in Hulle Granz Cathedral, in Fragment. You're fighting to get your friend back. Michel.

( Is friend the right word? It's a word, but Hani would have to be the one to chide him when he defines them wrongly, as they do. He doesn't mind. They both can be rather formless, but he thinks they find some style of shape, learning from each other.

He isn't so good at physical comfort, though, after all the things he'd been taught. He'd been shown it over and over during lecture, but, come the test - he's blank.

But at least he can find Hani's hand, and try to take it, and squeeze it as a point. You're not in whatever memory you've recalled; you're here, you're here. )

Can you feel me?

[tinged]

Michel is…

[ more than a friend. ever since that first investigation run, ever since the cathedral. that’s right, this is hulle granz cathedral - where it all started… for hani. where hani found them. ]

… family. Michel is family.

[ and - ]

And Mithrun is… [ also more than a friend. family seems… short of what they are. they search for the shape of him in them. it helps in this moment, the searching, the distraction. when he takes their hand, hani marvels at the contrast between them. ]

… What we had was fun, wasn’t it? And what we have now is… comfortable… You still… make me so happy.

[ … ]

Mithrun is… in my heart forever. That’s how it is… Does that make us family? It doesn’t feel enough… I can leave my family, but I can’t leave you.

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun is not emotionally delicate even on the best of days, and in his own reflection his attempts to do better are poor; muddled by his own self-interest, and his refusal to slow down. This puts him at a crossroads when - it comes to situations like these, where the person he's speaking to is tender, and they're a person he cares for.

But, he'll try. He's come to be willing, for these people who matter. )

... I don't know the word for it, either. ( He keeps steady their hand. That, at least, he's confident he can do. ) But... It feels right to have you here, than not.

( The last time they spoke about things, he was slanting into Macha - and before that, his past self, he thinks, had been twisting this knife into Hani, and before that...

... )

... I really like you. But... I think I haven't treated you well enough. I like you more than I've acted like, I think.

( It hadn't really been anything explosive, like it'd been with Sinclair. No one had come to scold him, the way Michel had. But - in the same way it felt right for Hani to be there, maybe he'd taken them for granted.

It isn't personal - is the problem. He really isn't ever thinking of anyone else at all. That's fine, ultimately, when he doesn't care for anybody, and whether he'll stride past them; but he does, now. He cares more than he'd like, more than he's wanted to admit. )

We can figure out if there's a word for this. But... I think it's fine if it doesn't have a word, or a name. It might be fine if it's a shared feeling that only the two of us know, like a secret.

( He doesn't know if this is what Hani needs to hear right now to feel better. But his answer is some attempt to be sincere, a point of clarity when reality's perception seems in flux. )