#interaction: moriddyn

[sunncutter]

[ HOUSE TOUR + FIREWORKS ]

Bad enough that the building was unfamiliar, but the crowds of people still around, many as similarly lost as him, make it nearly impossible to navigate- especially as the night continues to darken. Seeking out secluded locations only worked so long as he did not need to navigate between them, Elffin finds, and as he tries to move out of a room, newly occupied, does a loud sound break through even the chatter of the guests.

Accompanied by gasps and sounds of awe, Elffin can only assume it is something beautiful to behold, but alas, he cannot even guess at what it is. And more urgently, he'd rather find somewhere to sit-

“Ah-!” A collision with someone- (Who? He hopes it isn't someone he knows...)- and he stumbles backward. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention…”

He was, but there was little he could do with the noise the Viscount was making. 

“Um… here.” A charm is held out, in what he hopes is the correct direction. “As an apology.”

This house was huge. She should probably have taken the offer from a while back from one of the stewards, to point out the features of the home as though it were something special, which at first Lyn had scoffed at - she was perfectly fine to navigate on her own, thank you - but now that she had gotten turned around in a separate wing of the manor, the darkness falling and each new pop and crackle of fireworks out the window had made everything turn around in her mind.

Palm to head, scritching absently, she turned, hoping to make her way back at least to the ballroom before she found herself hopelessly lost.

oof - !

It seemed she was not the only one, and she caught her breath but not her footing, and the collision of that other poor soul sent her stumbling to one knee while he remained standing perfectly unruffled. A gentle cough, and she took both the hand and the charm, steadying herself upright.

"It's no problem, you can have my charm, and my forgiveness besides. This is quite the large house, isn't it? This of all things, I thought I might be used to - my own castle at...where I'm from, and the monastery, these I've gotten used to without issue, but this is another beast entirely."

She offered a smile, and her eyes creased softly at the young man. "Would you like to find our way back together? Or perhaps we can find whatever it was that interested you so much. My name is Lyn, by the way. For the moment, I'm with the Golden Deer."

[blaiddllodi]

[ FASHION POLICE ]

“Your Highness, there you are!” It’s difficult enough to navigate the venue with the crowds at the entrance, many searching for partners or friends amongst the crowd. Made worse by the noise, the constant bustling, and the fact that this time, Elffin had even less familiarity with the location than before. “Have you had any trouble with what I picked out?”

It may sound fussy to another, but it was genuine concern that he had brought. He knows how appearance, despite what others may say, could make or break an impression- and for royalty, that could fall from a faux paus to genuinely dangerous. 

Then, once he calms himself a little more, “Ah, and here. I believe the purpose is to trade these charms with others…”

“Are you familiar with any of the dances of Fodlan? I may ask you to teach me one later, if you have time…”

It took him a while to force his steps into the light, into the crowd of waiting peers and knights and professors, those of standing and those without, and although it was only a handful of eyes that turned to see him do so, Dimitri felt every one of them, feather by feather of weight added to his shoulders.

It was enough putting it off - he needed to make himself known, and he could only be thankful that the first to approach was Elffin.

His smile cracked the facade of seriousness gently, pressing a palm to his friend's shoulder - to ground him, and himself, tethering one another in the churn and tide of the crowd. "Here I am," he confirmed.

The flow of his garb had...bothered him, a touch, at first, feeling at once too light and too oppressive, but he had said he trusted his friend upon acquisition, and he intended to mean it. He spread his arms wide for Elffin to get a look of his handiwork, the seashell charm at his wrist tinking.

"I believe it is appropriate for the setting. You've done me well, I could not have expected better, and I have to thank you for it. Without you I may have appeared in something unsuited."

Gently, he unclipped a seashell form his wrist, and attached it to Elffin's, taking one for himself in turn. "Ah, there. It cannot convey my thanks entirely, but perhaps if it's a dance you're looking for, you can seek me out. I...do know the steps to a few of them, having been taught as a child. Perhaps I can teach you one, in turn."

[blaiddllodi]

“Your Highness?” (Familiar footfalls, ones he had never heard in the bunker despite his searching.) “Prince Dimitri?”

He cannot stop his voice from cracking, in the knowledge that he was alive- fully alive, not in that strange faith that he must be, but a truth in his very presence that stood before him. A step forward, cautious, as he stood, blinking away disbelief. “Your Highness- you… you’re alive-”

Hands over his mouth, in surprise and to choke back tears. A flood of relief, of patience repaid. Apologizing, without even knowing why, “I’m sorry, I…”

The sound of so many footfalls brought tension prickling to his ears, like a sharp static that would not break no matter how many times he ran his hands over them.

It was not his first experience with dire combat, of the kind of survival that no classroom nor training exercise could prepare one for, and Dimitri knew that it was not destined to be his last. He suspected, too, that just like before, there had been a piece of him carved off, shorn form his soul like marble, that brought the man he was meant to be ever closer to the surface.

The shuffling gait of uncertainty brought him up tense, and Dimitri stiffened before reminding himself that it was safe here, there were no longer any threats, it would be natural for him to be approached as a comfort, and he turned, stricken by the sight of misty eyes, at once focused and unfocused.

"Elffin..." The hand reached out, stopping just short of his friend's shoulder, hesitant for a moment before he pressed his palm warmly against his friend's flesh.

"My friend what need have you to apologize to me? I am here, and I am well. And so are you."

[peerlessscowl]

It’s a coincidence, it really is. Elffin doesn’t know whether to explain himself or to give up on that endeavor, again finding himself facing the man who had seen him at his worst. He smiles, a reflection of a greeting that has since lost its meaning. Pretending to be calm when he has already shown how easily he can crack under pressure.

“It’ll all come to a head soon, won’t it?” It isn’t a question. “Thank you for all your help these past few weeks.”

“If I ever can, in the future, I’d like to return the favor.”

The presence at his side almost felt natural, not through any intimate familiarity but from the repetition, the constant in the everchanging tide of these last few weeks being, at some point during their brief convalescence in the bunker, that he would find soft and quiet desperation at his side.

Raven glanced down, silent for a moment as he took Elffin in. He was calmer, at least, but his edges were still lined in a hazy depression, as though things hadn't quite set in yet.

"Are you well? Do you need to sit? Come on." Without waiting for an answer, Raven pressed a hand to the other's shoulder and ushered him to a cot.

Coming to a kneel before him, Raven's head tipped forward with a sigh. "We still haven't seen anyone that we know," it was said bluntly, not circling the situation or the circumstance; "But..."

A pause, and his brow furrowed. Well, wouldn't hurt, in this situation.

"But I like to think it's not all hopeless. These books," a gesture, "you know about them? We've been...making our way through them, and...perhaps there's hope. While I was in mine, there was...a cat. And his name was...Dimitri..."

Lying was never his best suit on a good day, and the words were a struggle, even as his mind raced to find a way to put them together in a way that didn't seem ridiculous.

"In any case. I don't know if you're looking for a sign that things will be all right but."

He didn't finish, and instead pushed a waterskin into Elffin's hands.

[peerlessscowl]

The bunker was well-hidden- that was the point of it, that their attackers would not find it and those inside could be safe. Elffin must long accept that fact, and with it being well-hidden, it was possible (it was inevitable) that there would be survivors who would be unable to make their way back.

So when he returns again, beaten and bruised with smiles fleeting and fragile and all too easy for others to see behind, he stops looking. Instead he sits, eyes so blurred they might as well be closed, knees tucked to his chest.

…He recognizes those footsteps now. Without turning, because it made little difference, “He’s still not here, is he.”

They had been here too long. There were faces that were becoming familiar, though the expressions that hardened and creased them grew more dire, more frantic, more solemn by the day.

This was a face that was ingraining itself into his mind's eye, even when he wasn't looking for it.

He saw the young man's return, saw the telltale scan of the bunker, the twitch of his expression falling, and saw how he had begun to curl into himself, and it tugged at a memory long forgotten, where rusty, tearlogged eyes had followed the same course in a grander, but no less bleak locale, and a little boy had found himself curled in the corner and sobbed for his sister.

Raven made no effort to hide his presence, necessarily, but kept his footfalls soft all the same, the way he had recalled slippered feet approaching, foreign at the time but would quickly grow fond and familiar.

He didn't say anything, but it seemed he didn't need to, for Elffin was the one who broke the silence. With a gentle sigh, Raven seated himself quietly beside the young man, tipped his back against the wall.

"No. He isn't." Which was not to say that he never would be, or maybe that was the case, and the Lion Prince was better off for it. Or maybe not, but he couldn't find the words to break it so gently, not in the way that Lucius might.

The only thing he could think to say in that moment, knowing it would do no good to the ache and tug in the other man's heart was, "I'm sorry."

[peerlessscowl]

“Oh, it’s… I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.” Didn’t ask it, as well, but Elffin assigns neither blame nor guilt for a small misstep such as this. His condition much better, that delirious search having resolved for a smaller hope that he had merely missed the other prince. “I apologize for troubling you that time. And thank you for helping me.”

Quiet, as he looks about once more, fruitlessly. “Have you seen a student with short blond hair, blue eyes? He would have a blue sash over his shoulder if he were in uniform…”

With the resolve of someone who could not afford to fall fully into grief, he shakes his head, “I still haven’t found him.”

"Watch it." The tone wasn't accusatory, was gentler, said with a palm on the young man's shoulder and a careful glance into his face. He didn't look scuffed or battered, as they all had when arriving, but in truth he didn't look any the better for it.

Unrested, sallow-skinned and sunken-eyed, and the moment he opened his mouth Raven heard the tremulous undercurrent of desperation.

It wasn't unexpected in a place or time like this, but the longer he went on, the more Raven understood. He sighed softly through his nose, pausing a moment.

"It...could be that this friend of yours hasn't arrive here yet, but it's...important to remember that we don't know where everyone else is. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are in danger - sometimes, out of sight..."

Here he paused, throat becoming tight as he recalled all of those who had remained out of his sight, all of those whose faces he had not seen in so long that he could not be sure that his memory recalled exactly the way they were meant to look, whether or not that was a good thing...

"Sometimes out of sight doesn't need to mean out of mind. Your friend...he's the Lions leader, isn't he? Strong boy. I've seen him fight. I think if anyone is out there still, it would be him."

It wasn't much reassurance - they were all warriors in one way or another - but it was the best he could give at the moment.

"Come on, you need to sit. I'll...I'll sit with you."

[peerlessscowl]

Eventually, Elffin begins counting his steps. Each one feels heavier than the last, and he knows that he needs to rest. Glazed eyes stop searching for a familiar face and instead for blond hair, for a blue sash of a uniform, for the voice of a friend. He knows his limits, knows that he is reaching them, that he should stop and rest, but he convinces himself to take one step more. Two. Three. Four.

He stops. There is another set of feet before him, looks up, barely makes out an unfamiliar head of red hair. “...Sorry, am I in your way?”

“Have you seen… I mean, do you need bandages?” He corrects himself, a tired offer of the roll, almost spent. “I can’t help you use them right now… I… need to find a friend.”

The problem with so many strong personalities, so many burgeoning leaders of men expectant of so much responsibility, in one room, shouldering the burden of one tragedy all together, was not necessarily conflict as one might have expected.

It was that many of them did not know when to stop.

"Careful." It wasn't barbed, not said unkindly, a hand coming up to brace against the young man's shoulder before he very suddenly collided with someone rather larger than he and took a tumble he presumably could not afford.

Though he listened to the words tumbling out of the young man's mouth - Elibean accent, distinct, high Etruria - Raven's attention was focused more on the man himself. He had all the fairness about him that punctuated his accent, and Raven's eyes narrowed as he took in the fine features and, eventually, the gentle filminess of the eyes, unfocused and moving about less than they ought.

"All right," and when he said this it was gentler, pressing his hand against the bandages that the young man offered him, not to take them for himself, but to relieve the burden of offering from the other. Carefully, he ushered the young man away, out of the crowd, raking an assessing gaze over him for injuries new and old, before frowning.

"You need a minute." It wasn't a question. "If you'll allow me, I'll help you find your friend, but...you can't overextend yourself. We can't afford it right now. Take a rest, I'll watch over you."

[blaiddllodi]

"Did you enjoy yourself, in the end?" The siren drifts over back to the side of the knight. Most of his costume would have to be carefully removed, and so it remained mostly on, one last remnant of the night of sweet deception. “I apologize for depriving you of some of your well-earned sweets.”

A smile, and a hand held out, a few of the candies that were so fought over offered. Now no longer representative of trust, merely another food for the two of them to share. “Your honesty was well-appreciated, Your Highness. It deserves a reward after everything, don’t you think?”

When Elffin approached again, the smile that graced Dimitri's lips was, for it seemed the first time that event, sincere. It could not have been described as happy, but...

"It was an experience worth having," he said diplomatically, once more sidestepping the truth before, with a small chuckle, his head dipped. "I would not say that enjoyment is the emotion that I got out of it."

The offering of candy surprised him - more, he supposed, than it should have.

"I...wanted to apologize. I am glad, in the end, that my spoils were distributed to all in attendance, but..." He couldn't admit to being frustrated that he was not granted leave to distribute it all himself, so he merely, after a paused, accepted the offering.

What was a piece of candy between friends?