iStones, August 18th

[hellawrath]

[Here's another announcement by your favorite elf! Only this time, Lup hardly sounds like herself. She sounds, just, so tired. Like having fought and lost an impossible battle, tired. There's no fire or hope in her monotone voice. But whoever's still around to hear this, needs to hear this? She's got to say it anyway.]

If you haven't been here long... The dead come back in the temple. Should only be like, a few days, I-I hope.

We'll be waiting there, for them. You're welcome to join us.

Comments

[salschef]

Oh, that's-

Great.

[ He'd never interacted with her, immediately caught up in trying to wrangle three sick paladins, but Hunk sounds- tired. Drained, in a way that all the survivors probably sound.

This wasn't a good way to die. ]

[vagabone]

[He sounds about the same himself. The flowers sucked him dry and on top of that...

Well.]

They really do come back?

[forwearemany]

(They should be surprised, but are not.)

Acknowledged.

[hellawrath]

[An unfamiliar voice, probably pretty new then. Would've probably been nice, to talk to him under better circumstances.]

We're only going up from here, buddy. [It doesn't sound like a comfort when she says it.]

[hellawrath]

Yeah, they-- usually. [Newt hadn't come back, after the week of darkness. But she'd never found out if he'd died or just fucked off back into the ether.]

Sometimes they're not, uhm. There's some, like, side effects? So it's good, if someone's there to check on them.

[hellawrath]

You're uh, welcome? [She guesses? Her usual curiosity and chattiness are kind of out of commission, for a while here, so she hasn't got much else to say to this robot friend.]

[forwearemany]

...Thank you.

(Honestly they don't know what to do or say here either.)

We will relocate to the temple.

[wisdomspring]

[ ... What? How can this be possible? ]

The dead can return to life? [ There's a tiny, awed breath: she doesn't dare to believe it fully. ] Who has such power...?

[vagabone]

['Usually'. He could swear he felt his heart sink.]

Do I want to know what kind of side effects?

[hellawrath]

It varies a lot, I think? They might be mute or, or forget things, they... miss pieces of themselves. We-- [She sighs, her throat still raw, finally, finally admitting defeat to herself.] This isn't the first time we lost so many people. They should be okay after a couple days, maybe a week? If-- if it's anything like last time, anyway. [And she'd spent all that time glued to her twin's side, so she doesn't actually know what everyone else got stuck with, really.

Spent all that time swearing it wasn't going to happen again.]

[hellawrath]

[Yeah, it's all kind of a bummer.]

Good. See you there.

[hellawrath]

[Ho boy. Lup doesn't really have the energy to play 'Death Is Fake And Kind Of Played Out Honestly' 101 here, but she sounds so young...]

The Storyteller, sweetheart. [It's said in the same neutral monotone as everything else, whether due to exhaustion or something else, who knows.] They don't want us kicking it here, in the wrong plane, where it's not the-- the right ending to our stories, I guess. So they-- they tear out the last page, rewrite the whole thing. [She'd seen it herself, their tome of stories, touched the serrated edges of way, way too many deaths.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet's reply is audible to all, as much an announcement as it is a response to Lup in particular:]

If anyone should wish to keep vigil for those lost until they're returned, I will be waiting in the temple with plenty of food and drink for all of us. If you'd care for company, you're all welcome to join me.

[vagabone]

[Not surprising they've lost so many before, from what he's heard. He said it himself--how the heck is anyone still alive?

They don't stay dead, that's how.]

Hey, at least they're not gone. I'll be there soon as I can.

[This he says softly, dropping his usual silly persona. Look on the bright side, or something. There isn't much of a 'bright side'. That's all he's got.]

[wisdomspring]

The Storyteller can do that? [ But only here, in this realm. Her spirits fall a little thinking of what such an ability could mean in, say, the fight against the Calamity. Maybe I could even see Mother again. But, as usual, her hopes sink as they're faced with the truth. ] ... I see. Thank you for explaining it to me.

[ It's still an incredible feat, even contained as it is to this one world. ]

[proficienciesouttheass]

[ Everything is shitty. Everything fucking sucks right now. But at least there's some sort of hope.]

Hey.

[ About as monotone as his friend.]

Anything I should bring up up there? Food, or...something.

[hellawrath]

[Lup's silent for so long it almost seems like she's disconnected, lost in her thoughts. That was more words than she's said in the last two days combined, probably, maybe she's just run out. But she catches herself eventually.]

Yeah, you're-- you're right. They're not gone. [That's the main thing, isn't it.]

[hellawrath]

You sound disappointed. [Not to judge or anything, it's just a bit weird with everything else that's happened.]

[hellawrath]

[Why does anyone still look to her for plans of action, for answers? She sighs.]

Not really hungry right now, Mags. But if you think it'll help, sure.

[wisdomspring]

I - My apologies. I was only thinking... well, hoping... that it could be used in worlds beyond this one.

[ She won't burden Lup with that, though. The other woman seems to have more than enough else to think about. ]

[salschef]

Yeah.

Mean's they'll be here to yell at, soon.

[ He sounds almost like he's trying to convince himself. ]

[proficienciesouttheass]

[ Because she's a leader. She's smart, she's powerful, she...she's the best of them.]

Yeah. Okay.

[ He pauses for a moment, but never gets off the line. There's some shuffling sounds as he moves through the jungle...]

Any signs of them yet?

[hellawrath]

[That gets something almost like a snort out of her, though it really sounds way more like a sigh.]

Your friends that impossible to keep alive, too?

[hellawrath]

There's nothing wrong with hoping. [Though the lack of conviction in those words makes it seem an empty reassurance. Sorry about that.]

The Storyteller hasn't got that kinda power, in other planes. They barely have power around here, after their thousand year nap. [And if they did, can you imagine getting them to resurrect people in other worlds? Haha, Kravitz would have a fucking conniption.

Maybe there was gonna be more to that explanation, but Lup just trails off, too tired to continue.]

[hellawrath]

[Well that didn't fucking cut it this time, did it?]

Nothing. It's... it's quiet. [Quiet like the grave. She hates it, desperately. It's stifling, it's wrong, and her voice is so small in the silence. If she had any choice, she wouldn't be here at all.]

Just fucking-- [The grinding of her teeth is audible.] Fucking flowers everywhere.

[wisdomspring]

Thousand year nap? [ She'll have more in common with the Storyteller later, when she spends a century holding back an evil beast, but Zelda hasn't experienced that yet. As such, she looks surprised, but only for a moment. The Storyteller is a god, after all, and it shouldn't be so strange that they have lived for so long. ]

... Thank you for your explanations. I should leave you to your thoughts.

[salschef]

I guess.

Just got here, two of the three go and die on me.

[proficienciesouttheass]

Ugh. [ You know, he didn't think there'd be a time where he would be made uncomfortable by flowers. Fucking flowers. He thinks about the times Ren made them flower crowns and put flowers in his beard and sideburns and--

Ugh.]

You know, after this is all done- [ The waiting, because he knows they're going to come back. They have to.] lets just burn them all. Deal?

[hellawrath]

[Yikes, that's rough buddy, all those flippantly sympathetic quips she's got at her disposal? None of that is gonna cut it, here.]

Shit. [Barely more than a whisper, that's all she's got on behalf of this poor newbie's terrible timing.] For what it's worth? It's not-- it's not usually like this, here. I mean... usually there's something to fight, anyway. [Not that the week of darkness and Ai'tuoh and fucking Bliss hadn't been rough as hell, but... this was different.]

[hellawrath]

[Her thoughts are kind of the last thing she wants to be alone with right now? Nice try though, kiddo, and Lup almost chuckles bitterly, barely more than a huff of air rasping through her abused lungs.]

Sure. But hey, don't-- don't be alone, okay? Just... Come to the temple, if you've got nowhere else to go.

[hellawrath]

[She knows what he's trying to do and she's trying to appreciate it, really, but--]

Kinda... Think I'm kinda flamed out for a bit, Magnus. [Fire didn't save them, the past two weeks. All fire was good for in the end was setting six blooming bodies ablaze, as if that could erase what had been done to them all.]

They'd-- [A sigh.] They'd probably just grow back anyway.

[proficienciesouttheass]

Well-- Yeah, but... Might feel good. [ And Merle isn't here to gripe about the death of flowers or some shit.

Man, how would he have even felt about this whole thing?

A few more steps, a conversation line left open while he tries to think of something else to say. He's not the smart words guy, that's Barry. Sometimes Taako. But he's not...
No, Magnus is the occasional epic speech guy. The Says-a-lot-of-stupid-shit-all-the-time-but-sometimes-says-something-really-smart-and-cool guy. He's been surrounded by death and nothing before, more than once, in memories he's still working on placing in his own timeline of memories even now, but this is...it's not the numbers, you know?]

We should have a party when they get back. [ The first thing that pops into his head that he's almost sure she can't fight against. Probably.] Maybe get the snake guys to help, they know how to throw a baller gig.

[wisdomspring]

I will. [ She thinks to say the same thing back to this woman, but doesn't want to make assumptions. As such, the princess instead inclines her head a bit before leaving the conversation to consider what Lup has told her is, and is not, possible... ]