THE LOUD NOISE PRODUCED FROM HER KICK, and the echoing of their enclosure isn’t something she’d thought about, and it hurts her ears, completely negating whatever calm she’d been trying to achieve from the act in the first place.
The Snezhnayan sighs, and runs her hand through her hair, palm pausing against her forehead as she takes a new, slower breath. It’s more than just Nikita’s apparent lack of backbone that’s got her so worked up; sure, she’d still be annoyed, but when isn’t she? No, it’s the fatui affiliation that’s got her on edge, though she’s shocked that someone like this is part of them at all.
Tem blinks when he speaks, and drops her hand. “ It was nothing. ” Well, it’s annoying when machines like that drift out of reach of her sword, but she’d be worthless if she let that outdo her.
The cavern they enter is, quite honestly, gorgeous. Tem’s expression finally softens, dark eyes bouncing over the different structures, more stalagmites and stalactites than icicles. Nikita’s cry and the sound of a rock dislodging itself has her whipping her head around, and she’d be hard-pressed to admit that she’s relieved to see that he’s still on level with her, and not tumbling down alongside that rock below.
Even so, another annoyed huff escapes her, after which, Tem only stares at him for a moment. She’s not trying to be cold, but her expression likely implies otherwise. Turning her head away from him, she glances down below and then back up, genuinely thinking on the best course of action.
“ You probably can’t climb very well, huh? ” She finally asks, and she’s stopped moving for now. “ I mean, we can down down, or we can go up. Both have their own hazards, but… ” Her eyes lower again, and she stares there vacantly for a moment as she tries to get a reading one way or the other. Energy of more living creatures probably indicates a way for them to get in and out, right…?
Nikita doesn’t fight her on it after that, and they take the time to descend. The puzzle they come across, she thinks, is an indication of choosing the correct path; if any exits haven’t been caved in, that is. However, that may not matter, because even after a good bit of time of her trying to figure out the mechanism, she somehow feels no closer to solving it. She’s not stupid, by any means, but this is way more complex than the things she’d run into on the surface of the mountain, and quite honestly, she’d really like to just smash through it.
✧ ✦ ✧ Nikita knows when to stay out of someone’s way.
He does it frequently- particularly whenever he happens to be in the vicinity of a certain few Harbingers on a bad day.
As level-headed as Tem seems- her ramping frustration makes it clear soon enough as she starts stomping around the various activation switches positioned nearly on the floor. At one point, Nikita thinks she might whip out her claymore and take a real crack at the puzzle with how she starts huffing and puffing.
“U-Um...” He tries meekly, but it goes unheard.
The Fatui soldier yelps when Tem yells in frustration and it echoes off of the cavern walls. His anxiety has him looking up at the various stalactite-like icicles looming above them, and he almost breathes a sigh of relief seeing that they have yet to be disturbed.
“M-Maybe- um... I-I th-think I have the s-solution...” Honestly, he’s worried that Tem will take her claymore to his head next with how long it’s taken for him to speak up. Meekly, he shuffles over to the activation switches, tapping on the surface of the blocks until different runes appear. “T-There were, um, runes- o-on s-some of the doors... a-and on the m-machine you... uh... d-defeated.” He explains lamely.
“I’m an intelligence o-officer... so... this is kind of w-what I do on a d-day-to-day basis...” He’s really not trying to show off- not that there’s much to show off in the first place. Tem’s expression is unreadable to him- then again, it probably wouldn’t have mattered what face she made, Nikita would still be anxious. Their little alliance is only a temporary, tenuous bond. Who knows what that’ll be like on the other side of all this. Once he seems to finish adjusting the runes, there’s a whole new set projected onto the walls. With a slow grinding of rock and gears, a door opens; its long hall is darkened, giving no clarity of what might lurk on the other side.
“...Let’s hope I did something right for once...” He mumbles to himself. ✦ ✧ ✦