[The overwhelming fatigue slams him again, his mana gone. He drops into the mud and the cold, heaving, feeling the pain of his arm shooting up tonhis shoulder.
The lucidity afterward brings panic and bile up in him. This isn't any different than before, huh? With Sky. Playing with power he doesn't understand. Wiping someone out of existence with it.
He turns his head in the mud more than lifts it. What the FCK is in above him?]
when viktor looks at whatever is next to him, he finds - a torch. what is that doing here? a pause.
and then both of them are not in the woods. no, abruptly, you're in a temple. the air is hot and thick, like you've suddenly walked into the tropics, and the stone is cold and hurts when the two of you drop from midair and hit the ground.
the torch clatters and bonks off of lucien's horn. but it's there. and you're no longer in the darkness, and you think... did... did I really want to do any of that? it wasn't real, right?
[ well he's definitely alive, because he groans and curses loudly when he hits the fucking floor and then the torch bonks off his head. sitting up - pushing himself off the ground with one hand - at the sound of his name and looking over. he's still oozing from the side of his face with the eye and definitely looks pretty well flash-fried, but you know. alive. alive enough to glower at him.
his mind is clear though - weirdly so, considering. he'd forgotten what it was like to have so few voices in his thoughts that slipping back into that space had been too easy, too simple, and now that he's (mostly) alone again, the experience is unsettling in its clarity. ]
You didn't have to fry me that blood hard, you bastard.
[ well if he can bitch about it, he's probably okay. ]
[the torch glows brightly. like it wants you to pick it up.
the temple itself is very quiet. unlike the forest, though: in the very far distance, you can hear noises. rustling wind, softly chirping nightbirds, the ocean. you get the feeling that it is safe, here, but you aren't quite home.]
[It's both relieving and annoying. He lets out a lungful of air, not exactly a whole laugh, and then he drops limp where he is on the ground.
It's cool, nice. This place makes me think of the one where they started, humming with a tingling, strange holy energy. He isn't sure if he can get up even though he puts the good (minus the icicle hole) hand down.]
[ noticing my typo from three tags ago is like an neverending nightmare but its fine.
he looks over at the torch, but first he's going to just haul himself bodily along the ground to where viktor is going limp and also flops onto his back there, staring up at the ceiling (?) or whatever is above them. and then over towards viktor.
yeah sure absolutely everything hurts and it's terrible but it feels safe for the moment. he's not in a rush to return anywhere. ]
[us forcing flurry to thirdwheel her own cyoa thread]
Stop saying that after I did those thingd to you. You're so annoying.
[He does not feel great at all, but this makes him feel briefly better. He lies there for a long moment, and then he pushes his upper half up so he can prop himself against Lucien's side, bad arm tucked up against him. At least his weight is toothpicks.
He looks down over Lucien to--well, to make sure Lucien is alright, but they're both fucking a mess, so nevermind. He sighs.]
That place was trash. We've... got to find the others again.
Oh, I don't know. I don't think I'd have been able to respect you if you hadn't tried to actually kill me.
[ don't just say that. he does oof a little bit when viktor comes over because yeah he is a single popsicle stick but also, he is very full of holes. it's alright though, curling an arm around him as he does that, tucking him in to press his forehead against viktor's. ]
Guess so. Or could stay here and bleed out. Kind of peaceful?
[ he is ... joking ... after a minute he'll heave them both to sitting upright - reaching for the torch. ]
[ god i love these toxic yuris. lucien does this and smears a little of his own bloody lip print onto his own forehead so he's forced to take this home to the living for them all to see later. "what about his hair logic" let me have this
but they can start to reach for the torch! when lucien gets it in his hand, he feels... better. warmer, in a way maybe he's not been very often in his life.
you both hear a voice echo around the temple. male, mellifluous. (lucien, you might find it a little annoying, if unfortunately very supportive.) "Toto'haha, again..."
"Better get you some new clothes, Detective. You might make a passable Beastling." says a female voice, somber, familiar, amused, loved by you both.
when you pick up the torch, it's... a torch. well. one of you has some fire magic. "what about his sp" shh. do you want to light it or not? ]
He closes his eyes and sags on Lucien for what little bit of time he can. It's not the worst idea Lucien has ever had, he thinks.] We're not doing that here. [Bossy.
He winces as Lucien sits them up, gritting his teeth until the pain dulls. He lies curled half in Lucien's lap, facing him, and he glances at the torch between them until the voices speak. He looks at Lucien again, the uncertainty not in what they have to do, but what will come when it happens.
Reaching up slowly, he curls his hand over Lucien's on the torch. Somewhere in him, it feels like his soul hums, the barest of vibrations. IMAGINE WE BOTH SAID NO. But no, all it takes is a bit of flicker. The tiniest of flame licks alive on the torch before the rest catches.]
there's a bit of relief in the torch, but yeah, echoing the whole trepidation with what comes next. Sure, it'll end, but you know. everyone will go back to where they came from. all this blood and for what? he stays still with the hand curled over his for a long moment, selfishly.
but they have to leave eventually. nothing stays still forever. he'll try and clamber to his feet then, helping viktor as best as he can - it's probably pretty painful but the faster he's up the less drawn out the pain is. ]
careful, careful. you take the torch, together, and you walk. you walk, until you find stairs. at the top is an octagonal dais, and nestled in that is a large metal torch structure. it's not so tall that you couldn't see over the top of it, but it is big, and you get the sense that it's important.
it feels like there should be more fanfare - but there's not, not really. the fire of the torch, the same that lit the lantern that you kept alive all this time, touches the kindling, and something sparks. it takes a few tries. once. twice, three times.
but on the third, the flame catches, and it begins to light - blazing a pure, bright blue and beautiful. viktor, for a moment your form flickers like it too, in lucien's eyes, but you don't really notice it; instead, the flame takes your attention entirely.
this, you realize with a start, is the sacred flame. it's one of four parts of it, sent off to the different corners of the continents to protect the people who live in solistia. it's the basis of the faith of the clerical robes that you carry, but it is the protection of the entire continent. it is its hearth, its home. it is the dawn.
("And the people of Solistia may live in its light, warmth, and protection, evermore." says the male voice.)
the sacred flame relights. and with it, the two of you are swept up in its warmth, protected like being lifted on the wings of an angel. you close your eyes into the blue, blue moment, and you let the sacred flame guide you...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
you've got those few seconds, viktor, as lucien writhes.
there's a clatter of something near your head. will you look?]
no subject
The lucidity afterward brings panic and bile up in him. This isn't any different than before, huh? With Sky. Playing with power he doesn't understand. Wiping someone out of existence with it.
He turns his head in the mud more than lifts it. What the FCK is in above him?]
no subject
eventually he can breathe again, and just curls up in a ball on the ground in the mud and trying to figure out if he's alive or dead for the moment. ]
no subject
when viktor looks at whatever is next to him, he finds - a torch. what is that doing here? a pause.
and then both of them are not in the woods. no, abruptly, you're in a temple. the air is hot and thick, like you've suddenly walked into the tropics, and the stone is cold and hurts when the two of you drop from midair and hit the ground.
the torch clatters and bonks off of lucien's horn. but it's there. and you're no longer in the darkness, and you think... did... did I really want to do any of that? it wasn't real, right?
except you're still injured, so.]
no subject
The torch is strange. It ignites some kind of bizarre hope in him even though he doesn't know why, or what it is for at all. He reaches for it,
and then they are dropping toward stone. His arm crunches, and he sees stars. He lets out a high, wounded yelp of pain.
But he's coherent, aside from the dizziness, and he remembers who he is and what he did. He croaks,] Lucien! [desperately into the echo of the temple.
Frantically, he looks around, and then starts one-armed crawling his way across the floor toward Lucien.]
No, no, no, no... Answer me!
no subject
his mind is clear though - weirdly so, considering. he'd forgotten what it was like to have so few voices in his thoughts that slipping back into that space had been too easy, too simple, and now that he's (mostly) alone again, the experience is unsettling in its clarity. ]
You didn't have to fry me that blood hard, you bastard.
[ well if he can bitch about it, he's probably okay. ]
no subject
the temple itself is very quiet. unlike the forest, though: in the very far distance, you can hear noises. rustling wind, softly chirping nightbirds, the ocean. you get the feeling that it is safe, here, but you aren't quite home.]
no subject
[It's both relieving and annoying. He lets out a lungful of air, not exactly a whole laugh, and then he drops limp where he is on the ground.
It's cool, nice. This place makes me think of the one where they started, humming with a tingling, strange holy energy. He isn't sure if he can get up even though he puts the good (minus the icicle hole) hand down.]
I'm sorry...
no subject
[ noticing my typo from three tags ago is like an neverending nightmare but its fine.
he looks over at the torch, but first he's going to just haul himself bodily along the ground to where viktor is going limp and also flops onto his back there, staring up at the ceiling (?) or whatever is above them. and then over towards viktor.
yeah sure absolutely everything hurts and it's terrible but it feels safe for the moment. he's not in a rush to return anywhere. ]
Don't need to apologize.
no subject
no subject
Stop saying that after I did those thingd to you. You're so annoying.
[He does not feel great at all, but this makes him feel briefly better. He lies there for a long moment, and then he pushes his upper half up so he can prop himself against Lucien's side, bad arm tucked up against him. At least his weight is toothpicks.
He looks down over Lucien to--well, to make sure Lucien is alright, but they're both fucking a mess, so nevermind. He sighs.]
That place was trash. We've... got to find the others again.
no subject
[ don't just say that. he does oof a little bit when viktor comes over because yeah he is a single popsicle stick but also, he is very full of holes. it's alright though, curling an arm around him as he does that, tucking him in to press his forehead against viktor's. ]
Guess so. Or could stay here and bleed out. Kind of peaceful?
[ he is ... joking ... after a minute he'll heave them both to sitting upright - reaching for the torch. ]
no subject
but they can start to reach for the torch! when lucien gets it in his hand, he feels... better. warmer, in a way maybe he's not been very often in his life.
you both hear a voice echo around the temple. male, mellifluous. (lucien, you might find it a little annoying, if unfortunately very supportive.) "Toto'haha, again..."
"Better get you some new clothes, Detective. You might make a passable Beastling." says a female voice, somber, familiar, amused, loved by you both.
when you pick up the torch, it's... a torch. well. one of you has some fire magic. "what about his sp" shh. do you want to light it or not? ]
no subject
[IDIOD!!!!
He closes his eyes and sags on Lucien for what little bit of time he can. It's not the worst idea Lucien has ever had, he thinks.] We're not doing that here. [Bossy.
He winces as Lucien sits them up, gritting his teeth until the pain dulls. He lies curled half in Lucien's lap, facing him, and he glances at the torch between them until the voices speak. He looks at Lucien again, the uncertainty not in what they have to do, but what will come when it happens.
Reaching up slowly, he curls his hand over Lucien's on the torch. Somewhere in him, it feels like his soul hums, the barest of vibrations. IMAGINE WE BOTH SAID NO. But no, all it takes is a bit of flicker. The tiniest of flame licks alive on the torch before the rest catches.]
no subject
[ bossy!!
there's a bit of relief in the torch, but yeah, echoing the whole trepidation with what comes next. Sure, it'll end, but you know. everyone will go back to where they came from. all this blood and for what? he stays still with the hand curled over his for a long moment, selfishly.
but they have to leave eventually. nothing stays still forever. he'll try and clamber to his feet then, helping viktor as best as he can - it's probably pretty painful but the faster he's up the less drawn out the pain is. ]
no subject
careful, careful. you take the torch, together, and you walk. you walk, until you find stairs. at the top is an octagonal dais, and nestled in that is a large metal torch structure. it's not so tall that you couldn't see over the top of it, but it is big, and you get the sense that it's important.
it feels like there should be more fanfare - but there's not, not really. the fire of the torch, the same that lit the lantern that you kept alive all this time, touches the kindling, and something sparks. it takes a few tries. once. twice, three times.
but on the third, the flame catches, and it begins to light - blazing a pure, bright blue and beautiful. viktor, for a moment your form flickers like it too, in lucien's eyes, but you don't really notice it; instead, the flame takes your attention entirely.
this, you realize with a start, is the sacred flame. it's one of four parts of it, sent off to the different corners of the continents to protect the people who live in solistia. it's the basis of the faith of the clerical robes that you carry, but it is the protection of the entire continent. it is its hearth, its home. it is the dawn.
("And the people of Solistia may live in its light, warmth, and protection, evermore." says the male voice.)
the sacred flame relights. and with it, the two of you are swept up in its warmth, protected like being lifted on the wings of an angel. you close your eyes into the blue, blue moment, and you let the sacred flame guide you...
... back to the cavern of the sun and moon. ]