burnstrike | chasma pcs: alisaie

[She doesn't mean for it to happen. Alisaie's out in the marketplace, examining the statues the way she'd said she meant to in the meeting the night before, when she catches sight of a strange shard of glass next to her foot. Her initial thought is to dispose of it, but as soon as she picks it up...

Well. Hello, Tesleen.

Goodbye, Tesleen.]

[ Nanaly happens to be at the market at the same time, looking through the grocers' stalls for some ingredients that might still be good for cooking. When she sees Alisaie over by the statues, she heads over to say hello, but at that moment--

Oh.

She stands there for a moment in a state of shock, from all the raw emotion that had for that brief time been hers -- the fear, the deep affection for this girl she'd never even met, the pain of such a sudden and terribly cruel loss. ]

Ah...

[ She blinks, reorienting herself to the return to her own reality... and when she looks up and sees that angel statue behind Alisaie now, she winces. Those have been a reminder of that loss for her this whole time, haven't they? ]

...I'm sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to see that.

[It takes her a moment to turn around--the pain of losing Tesleen like that is still fresh. Alisaie gathers herself and takes a breath, and when she looks at Nanaly she's in control of herself. At least, as in control as could be hoped for after that.]

It's all right. It's not a memory I'd like to show to anyone, but if it was going to happen, you're one of the few I would trust with it.

I'm sorry, too. I ought to have looked around before I picked it up.

[ She shakes her head. ]

Can't blame you for that. You're not in the habit of checking to see if people are watching every little thing you do, right? That's for creeps and sneaks with something to hide.

[ And Alisaie's an honest person who speaks her mind, even if there are things she'd rather keep to herself.

There's a pause; maybe she shouldn't try to talk about any of that at all, but she's always believed that pain is easier to deal with when you can talk about it with someone. ]

...That wasn't something that could be reversed, was it?

[Her eyes drop to the ground--it's not that she minds being open with Nanaly, but it's still a difficult subject.]

No. Once the change is wrought, there is no going back. They are reduced to their basest instincts--to seek out the aether of other living beings to satisfy their hunger. They seek only to feed and multiply. [Except for [jet engine noise], but that's not pertinent to this conversation.]

The boy you saw, Halric... he had been touched by their corruption as well. Not like Tesleen, but a sin eater had planted a seed of light within him as a seed in soil. Those cases were just as difficult to bear witness to.

[ More than understandable, and she won't push it if Alisaie doesn't want her to. ]

I'm sorry. Seeing someone slipping away slowly hurts a lot, but losing someone so quickly and unexpectedly has to be just as hard.

[ Especially if they're still there but as something barely recognizable. ]

If there's anything unresolved between you, I guess you don't have any chance to work it out.

[That gets a humorless chuckle out of Alisaie.] It was worse than what you saw, actually. Shortly after, Alphinaud and I assisted a few others in the evacuation of a town under attack from the sin eaters.

[...]

Tesleen was one of them.

[So, uh. They worked that out, if you wanna phrase it that way...]

But I know she's at peace now.

[ Nanaly has figured out the connection between the glass shards and the memories by this point, and after accidentally seeing that memory of Alisaie's earlier, she's taking it upon herself to pick them up when she finds them to keep someone else from stumbling on one and unintentionally sharing something deeply personal. Her own memories aren't all that bad, she figures, so if someone else happens upon one of them during the process, it might be better than the alternative -- or, well, she won't have to feel guilty about it, at least.

Of course, as soon as she picks up the first shard in her cleanup effort, it sees fit to show one of the most painful memories she has.

She probably should have expected that. ]

[It's almost the reverse of what had happened earlier--this time, it's she who stops in her tracks as a suddenly painful memory washes over her, a memory of Nanaly and her brother and oh, gods, the pain in her heart is suddenly all too real, aching for her friend and what once happened to her.

And she's been here with Alphinaud the entire time.

Once she's certain her own emotions are under control, Alisaie's looking for Nanaly, turning the corner of the building to see her back.]

Nanaly...

[She's going to come up and put her hand on the other girl's shoulder if she can.]

I'm so sorry. This time I'm the one that saw something I ought not to have.

[ There's a blink; even if she'd been sort of prepared for the possibility of someone seeing that, she didn't realize anyone actually had.

It's okay, though. Honestly, the only reason she hadn't told Alisaie about Lou already was that she didn't want her to feel bad about being here with her brother. ]

A-ah...

[ The touch to her shoulder is met with a smile, which seems genuine enough, even if there's sadness behind it. She shakes her head. ]

Don't worry about it, I knew what I was getting myself into picking those things up. [ There's a small laugh. ] Hurt a little more than I expected, having all those old feelings dug back up, but it's okay.

Still, there's a difference between knowing and experiencing it.

You listened to me talk about Tesleen... do you want to tell me about your brother? It might help.

[ idfk what's going on but whenever and wherever Alisaie can be found after that trial Nanaly's eventually going to find her!!! ]

[It probably won't be too hard!! She won't be going too far, not after that, just trying to find some peace and quiet.

What Nanaly may notice, though, is that when Alisaie looks up at her, there's no recognition on her face, no greeting or smile.]

Yes?

[ Oof, that's kind of unsettling. ]

Hey, are you okay? What happened?

Nanaly. [There's the recognition, the relaxation. But Alisaie still isn't looking directly at her, either.] That's a... difficult question.

Apparently there's a wrong answer to our votes.

...Yeah, apparently.

[ ... ]

You didn't want to condemn someone without knowing they really were guilty, right?

No. I couldn't.

When Spike pulled his little display, I was so mad at him. I thought for certain he'd sealed his own fate. And I was frustrated that people might vote for him based on his own stupidity, when I was certain he wasn't responsible for any of this week's deaths.

It made me realize that I couldn't condemn anyone I wasn't certain of.

Yeah... I get that. I didn't really want to vote for Suigetsu when we'd just done that investigation together and everything. But I thought he was probably the most likely, going off what we had. And I thought that not voting for him would make it more likely that someone I was sure was innocent would end up taking the fall instead. So I held my nose and did it.

[ sigh... ]

It's a rotten choice to have to make no matter how you look at it.

It is. And with three deaths this week... [She sighs, too.] I don't know if those responsible volunteered for the task or if the Angel appeared to them as to Bertholt, but it seems as though this week were intentionally designed to make us desperate.

They seek to hurt us.

Mm... yeah, I was pretty sure of that after the execution last week. It seemed like they really went out of their way to make it painful for everyone.

Though with everything this week... you know it's not just our memories in those shards? There are ones with memories of this city too. So I'm not sure if that part was really designed for us if they just brought us to a place that already had that stuff.

There were? [That's news to her.] I didn't see any memories beyond those of myself and the others we already knew.

I don't know that the city itself was one of their machinations; it seems more a convenient place to use for their own arena. But forcing four people to continuously duel to the death...? Or dropping the others into the catacombs? It's intentionally cruel.

chasma pcs: alisaie

week 2

tuesday

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later tuesday

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saturday post trial

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