[Aurola and Thai from @cyten0 and @lavender-tea-dragon]
(Ramos) [Alex] {Nihil} <Altiare> |Jasmine|
(You look down from Arks lookout point to La and Suzy. The former was shooting a distant sand dune with her red craft, as the later cheered and whooped. You let out a stress filled breath at seeing Suzy so vibrant. It was a light relief, though, since something else kept your lungs filled.)
“. . . Alright, I’ll trust your judgment.” (Ark sighs softly and resumes scanning the horizon with her telescope.) “Just. . . I need you to understand that if anything happens to these people. . .”
“. . .” (“I’d never be able to forgive myself”, yeah, you sigh.) “. . . I’ll keep an eye on them, okay? Besides, even though I’ve only known Suzy for a day, I doubt she’d let any kinda inner demons tell them what to do.”
“Heh, that’s true.” (She chuckles.) “Y’know? I think I knew someone like that back in the day.”
“Back in the day?” (You lean against the rampart and look up at her.) “Y’mean the military?
“Yep.” (Ark responds, not looking away from her scout work.) “Brash, loudmouth, got in trouble, was usually right.”
“Sounds like fun.” (Hang on.) “Do you and Aurola known each other?”
“No.” (She pauses, lowers the telescope, then continues.) “. . . Maybe? Probably.”
“I mean you talked to her like-” (What’s the word. . .) [Superior-] “Like you’re her superior officer.”
“I mean I am!” (Ark huffed.) “It’s Captain Ark, thank you. And last time I checked, a commissioned officer outranks a warrant officer.”
“Wh-” (Okay, one, you don’t know what half of that means. Two, what?!) “Last time I asked, you just shrugged and said ‘probably someone important’!”
“Did I?” (She turns to you, blinks, then shakes her head.) “Stars I dunno, Ramos?! I’m not exactly digging into my history.”
“You’re not?!” [You stand up straight.] “Ark, you say stars! You have memory problems and don’t know where you’re from! Aren’t you even a little bit curious?!?”
“No!” [She waves you away and turns back with a huff.] “I was a captain in the military and I was from a place I can’t remember anymore! Probably that island north of Vaugarde or something.”
“You are from the Island North of Vaugarde!”
“Cool.” [She rolls her eyes.] “Don’t care, didn’t ask.”
“You don’t care?!?” [Oooooh you’re trying not to yell.] “That’s your home!!”
“Was.” [She glares at you.] “It was my home.”
“. . . Right.” (You turn away.) “Sorry.”
“Appology accepted.” (And she’s back to scanning the horizon.) “. . . I just, don’t like to dwell on it, y’know. . ?”
“I guess. . .”
“I mean what’s the point of it?” (She sighs.) “Wolworth’s my home now, and whatever molded me before is in the past and there's nothing I can do about it.”
“You're really not worried about what you're missing?” (You wave your hands rapidly.) “I-I mean-! Like, wishes? Or the stars? Like, what if La’s doing her craft wrong?”
“If the stars gave me wings for a day, I wouldn't waste my life feeling bad that they're gone.” (She lowers the eyeglass). “Nor would I try flapping my arms hoping they'd grow back. I’d learn to make my own, and fly on metal wings.”
“. . .” (That's. . . You pause, and take the moment of silence to think. Make your own wings, huh? Own wishes, own ways forward. . . Could you make your own wishing ritual? What goes into one anyway? What did-) [You shake your head clear.] “. . . I think Mirabelle knows a crazy monarch who should’ve taken that to heart.”
“Really? Who?” (What the crab, Alex! There’s another silence as Ark looks at you, then realizes;) “The King was from the Island?!?”
“Oh, right, I guess that’s not common knowledge yet.” [You got sloppy with your thoughts. Again.] “Yeah, he was. Apparently, freezing the country was his version of making sure it wouldn't be forgotten.”
(Ark sighs, and shakes her head. Oh, uh, thanks Al.)
(There’s another crack from La’s craft as she destroys a second dune. Echoes of the strike leave ripples in the air that makes your stomach churn, and the taste of red sparks in the upturned sand make you tense up.)
“Theeeere you are.” (Ark leans forward, looking more intently in a direction.)
“Huh?” (You squint in the direction she’s looking.) “Looking for someone?”
“Yeah.” (She lowers the telescope, and hands it to you.) “Just, making sure they’re still around.”
(You raise the tool to your eye and let Ark guide your sight. You scan the distant black sands for whatever it was Ark had found, then pause. Far in the distance, you could see a large, snake-like sadness bounding through the dunes.)
“Oh.” (You lower the eyeglass and hand it back.) “Change. . .”
“He’s gonna be fine.” (She huffed and took the telescope.) “I just, I know it. I know it, ‘cuz you guys are gonna fix all this, and until you do, I’m gonna make sure everyone here stays safe.”
(You smile, awkwardly.) “Even uh, them?”
“There’s no picking favorites in times of crisis.” (Ark’s tone is stern and serious.) “Speaking of, they still giving you trouble?”
“Yes and no.” (You turn around and lean your back against the wall.) “I think B- Suzy scared most of them off, but now what I getting is. . .”
[Moments ran through your head. You were handed something to eat, but you don't know by whom. Times where words nearly spilled from your mouth uninvited. Stars, one time Jasmine ran to you in a hurry, saying something about a brain-doppelganger.]
(Ark waits a moment for you to finish your thought before deciding to reply.) “The top brass?”
“Huh?”
“Cream of the crop, brightest star in the sky.”
“Oh, yeah pretty much..” (You stare at the ground and sigh.) “I know I'm good at this, I know it! It's just. . .”
“. . . Take your time.”
“Thanks, it's just. . . It was already a losing gamble going head to head in the head with Percival. And then with Gornemant I. . . U-uh. . . Stars half that fight’s still a blur!” (You shake and rub your head vigorously.) “N-nevermind! The point is I’m- I’m just outmatched!!”
“Hey! Don’t sell yourself short, sport!” (Ark turned fully to face you.) “You’ve kept up so far!”
“Because I’ve been lucky!” (You tug on your hair.) “The Knights are being patient, and I’ve only seen C-grade mamas boys from the students!! Change! Apparently Galahad was better than Perci when it came to mind craft! How am I supposed to fight that?!?”
“Bullshit.” (Arks voice snapped you up.) “So you’re just gonna let them walk over you? Gonna throw in the towel before the first round?!?”
“W-what?!?” (You fully turn to her.) “I- No!!”
“Then why’re you letting ‘em live rent free in your head!!!” (Ark hooks an arm around you and starts to noogie you!!) “Stop winning their battle FOR them!!! Dumbass!!!!!”
“A-!!” (You struggle for a bit until she lets you go, cackling.) “H-HEY!!!”
“Hay’s for horses, idiot.” (She sticks her tongue out.) “Feel better?”
“Heh, yeah! Yeah. . !” (You were smiling, but it faded after a moment. You lean over the ramparts down at Aurola and Suzilla, still messing around with wish craft. Suzy had her hand in the same position La did. . .) “. . . Hey, Ark?”
“Something on your mind, still?” (She leans on the ramparts next to you.) “What’s up?”
“. . . When. . . When we fought the Crimson Knight.” (You lower your voice.) “When Nille beat it. There’s. . . Something, happened, which I haven’t told the others yet.”
“You can tell me.” (Ark shuffled closer, voice also quieter.) “I’ll keep it secret.”
“Thanks. . .” (You take a deep breath in, and out.) “. . . . Something I’ve learned is that everyone, has, a noise that comes from their head.”
“Oh really?”
“Y-yeah well- I say noise, it’s more. . . Feelings, thoughts, pictures. Just, just stuff. Even if someone has mental walls, be it Aurola, Bonnie, or any of the other mind readers around here, there’s still a noise. Even crabbing sadness has that kinda noise!”
“Alright, following so far.”
“Well, the same happened with the Crimson Knight; it made a noise” (You lower your head.) “But when Petronillé beat it and, and Bonnie reappeared. . .”
(The only response Ark had was that of the wind around you; silence and patience.)
(You take one last breath.) “. . . I, couldn't hear anything.”
“. . . You. . ?” (There was a chill in her voice.) “Nothing?”
“Yeah, for a. . . For about, thirty seconds I think.” (You take another breath, this one shaking with emotion.) “One second, silence. The next? I could hear them again, same as always.”
“What the fuck. . .” (Ark had her hands on her forehead.) “How did. . I mean, what, what caused them to, to. . .”
“If you kill a bonded sadness, whoever's tied to it dies too.” (You pinch the sides of your head.) “B- but Refoulement died when we were fighting Crimson and- and that didn't happen to Mirabelle! S-so. . !”
“Starblind Stormfronts. . .”
(You failed in trying to form a response, and any you could make was cut off from another cracking sound from. . . Suzy. Looking over once again, the little rascal had sparkling-red outstretched fingers and a victorious smile.)
(You wait one more moment, before turning and walking to the ladder down.) “I should get going.”
“Good luck out there, kid.” (Ark gives you a scissors-sign wave, then turns back to her post. A moment later, you were sliding down the ladder.)
(As you hit the ground, you wonder; what is the shade of Ark’s craft called?)
