We Are Our Avatars X (Closed, Ended)

[Silence]

Village - Day 14 - 01:08

Anik rubbed her head against Timeas when she was nuzzling her neck, enjoying this, even though her mind did not get off her thoughts.

She tried to think if she wanted to say something else, but did not really manage to get a clear thought. So finally she said: "i don't know either. I ... can't think. I feel trapped in my own mind. Where ... what are we going to do, now?"

 

[Chungus]

Village - Day 14 - 01:09​

"Well then, we can stop, here. Until you feel better."

Timea pulled away her head from Anik's neck, but kept her hand on Anik's. "As for what to do, now: We'll be heading to Vala, regardless - because it's the closest town between here and Palladein - so there is no need to ask people if the others have passed through here. We'll leave, heading south. On the way, I'll look for something for me to eat. If I catch anything, we'll stop for a bit. Once we've reached Vala, we'll ask for the others, but otherwise, stop for the day.

From there, what we'll do depends if the others are there or not, I suppose. I think it's been a few days since we've left Femesh Daer, however, so I do doubt they would be."

 

[Silence]

Village - Day 14 - 01:09

"Alright. Yeah, the others are probably long gone. To their own worlds or something." Anik said slowly, still sounding depressed and not up for much talk.

After some time in silence she added: "Should we try to talk with the military about the sun coming back?"

 

[Chungus]

Village - Day 14 - 01:10​

"No, they'll notice it, when it rises", Timea answered. Placing her free hand on her knee, Timea pushed herself up, still holding on to Anik's hand. "Let's go", she said, lightly pulling on the arm.

 

[Silence]

Village - Day 14 - 01:10

Anik let herself be pulled up after picking up her own things half-heartedly, not showing much of her own initiative.

As they started walking, she also neither clicked nor used her cane, instead shuffling along with her head down, occasionally hitting a rock or the side of the road, correcting her course slightly when she did so. She also had not even put her blindfold back on.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

Lestha - Day 11 - 20:35

Quan Chi would find a mercenary ship, though he might not be able to identify it as such immediately.

[hr]

Vala

The guards looked at each other and laughed, before one said, "If you could fo that, then you'd deserve to go free."

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:25​

After leaving the village, Timea let go of Anik's hand, and took the lead, walking southwards. On the way, Timea noted how passively Anik moved forward, and thought to try and cheer her up more. "Hmm. I'm going to need to look for something to eat, but when I come back, would you like to ride on my shoulders again, Anik?" she asked, trying not to sound too glumly.

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:25

Anik was quiet for some time, almost as long that Timea would think she would not answer, but finally she said: "... yes."

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:55​

As Anik didn't answer, Timea stopped, and turned to face her, about to ask for confirmation. When Anik did answer, Timea, blew a mute sigh, and said, "Okay. I'll try to be back, soon." With this said, Timea gave brief instructions to Hillary on where to go, then moved away, growing a pair of wings. After a running start, she took flight, and turned into her bird form when airborne.

Searching the area, Timea found a lone horse, walking with a limp. Catching this without much trouble, she flew back, sapping the horse of energy as she went.

Returning after another twelve minutes, Timea slowed down, and dropped the horse to the side of the road, turning back to her default form with wings, having these sink back into her body once she landed. "I'm back", she announced without much fanfare.

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:55

Anik was just walking the road the same way behind Hillary, not paying attention to anything that was happening around her. She therefore only stopped abruptly when she heard Timea. She shuddered shortly, but then turned to Timea, a sad smile on her face: "Welcome back. Did you find something nice?"

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:55​

"I did; a horse. Decently sized, too", Timea responded, turning around, and stepping over to the body. "Would you like to feel it?"

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:55

"No, it's alright. I know what horses are." Anik said without much verve. "Just ... eat it or something."

Suddenly, she stepped closer to Timea, and Timea would see that she was again near crying. "What's happening to me, Timea? I'm afraid of you. I don't want to be afraid of you. Your words ... why am I so affected by them? They are only words, but they just keep on repeating in my head, over and over again. I want it to stop. I want to be near you, but I want to be away from you so that you can't hurt me with words again. I ... why is this happening? "Do you want to play messiah?" "You've ended with a dead man and having someone thrown into a cell" "Have you simply never been listening?" ... get them out of my head!"
She broke off, calming herself with the breathing exercise. She then added: "My mind just won't return to the good things."

 

[Drakmorg]

Vala - Day 11 - 13:15

Cybil had found something to eat somewhere. It's impossible to know what and from where, due to lack of information. Either way, she ate it and probably wasn't completely disgusted or completely satisfied.

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:57​

Reaching the body, Timea bended through her knees, about to pick it up, when Anik spoke again. Raising to her full height, she turned around, and listened to what Anik had to say.

Once Anik finished, Timea was quiet for over a minute, feeling like Anik's words were pushing down her throat, and making her suffocate on them. When she did answer, Timea spoke meekly, and softly. "... Maybe you should be away from me. At least for a while, so you can have some space, and time to think.

Go on with Hillary, I'll manage on my own."

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:57

"But ... I just were away from you. And this is what I thought about. I ... no, I get more paranoid if I am away from you. I don't think this is right." Anik said, then sniffed. "I was hoping you could make this better. Make this go away somehow. If I'm with you, you can put other words in my head. If I walk, I just remember these, over and over. And I fear how our next meeting might go.

Please, no. I ... I was looking forward to riding your shoulders."

She took another deep breath, then said, more firmly: "No. We should be close."

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:57​

"Maybe... . If you think this is for the best", Timea answered, uncertainly. Not knowing what else to say, she picked up the body of the horse, and began moving away, softly calling out, "... let's head away from the road."

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:57

"Alright." Anik said, and now began using her cane, even though she used it slightly feeble. She followed Timea, sniffing a few times while walking, and creating some water to sprinkle it around her eyes, if there were some small tears.

While walking, she asked meekly: "Could you tell me a story? To get my mind off things?"

 

[Chungus]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:59​

"Hmm. I can tell you one, yes", Timea answered. "Just a moment."

Stopping after a while of walking, Timea stopped, setting down the body, uncovering the fire blanket. Undoing the knot, she laid the blanket out nearby, then sat down. "Okay. I'll tell you about a "neighbour"; A bird, whose territory bordered my own.

This was no bird like any you might know, he was one of monumental size, a lot bigger then even myself, in my true form. He was so large, in fact, that if he flew overheard, he would, for a moment, block out the sun, and the beatings of his wings caused mild storms." While starting to tell the story, Timea grew a talon from her hand, and began preparing the meat.

"The type of prey he ate were large themselves; large-bodied four legged creatures, maybe nearly thrice as tall as you are, and probably weighing six times as much as a cow. The bird, by people of the time called--" saying the creature's name, Timea spoke in Farsi, a word that would translate to "Roc". "--would fly in, easily breaking through the trees his prey might be around, and effortlessly sweep them up, and carrying them off.

"Both being big eaters, and our territories being close, there were confrontations between myself and the , from time to time. I wasn't really eager to start a fight with something so big and strong. And I think the feeling was mutual. So, in many cases, any confrontations would just come down to us shouting at each other. When food began to run short, however, we did fight once. In the fight, one of his feathers came loose, and fell down, into the river. This feather was used as a boat for a time, until it degraded too much to stay afloat.

"Food scarcity didn't improve, however, and in the end, the must have considered trying to take my territory too much trouble. As instead of trying, it flew east. And I never saw him since."

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Lestha, day 11, 20:35
Quan Chi could sense the combat experience of those aboard the mercenary ship, looking for someone in charge of it. "Excuse me. I have a job I need men for."

 

[Silence]

North Valan Road - Day 14 - 01:59

Anik listened to the story intently. At first her mind slipped off a few times, but at the end, her mind was occupied by the story and her imagination of the (made out of sounds, the wind it would create and even the change in temperature when the bird would block out the sun).

She was quiet for a time after Timea had told the story, but even though her face still showed some sadness, Timea would notice that it also was full of wonder about the time Timea had lived in.

Finally, she asked: "So ... one feather was big enough for humans to use as a boat? And humans did live at the time? Naming the bird?
And there were even creatures three times as heavy as a cow? Which this bird could just sweep up? I ... I can hardly imagine. Did the bird hunt too much of them? Or did the humans ... hunt them down?"