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Who: Estelle Bright & whoever else wants to bother her!
Where: The town, the lakeside.
When: Open prompts on the 18th, private prompt with Joshua on the night of the 15th.
What: Estelle's finally located some fishing poles. She's ready to see what she can fish up, but unfortunately, the lake has some rather interesting fish... Also, collecting firewood.
Warnings: creepy mutant fish with too many heads and teeth, ahoy.

Locked to Joshua - night of the 15th
[Estelle was tired, dirty and hungry, but mostly tired. Their investigations today provided more questions than answers, and with dark falling soon, she knew they'd get little else done today. Stumbling around in the dark wasn't going to get them anywhere safely or sanely.

Better to rest up, see what tomorrow brought-- not that she had to like it, of course.]

Aaaaah... what I wouldn't give for a proper bed. How about you, Joshua?

Fishing at the Lakeside - 18th
[It had taken some hunting, but eventually Estelle had managed to find a few fishing poles in an empty boathouse. Some fishing enthusiast had left them behind, no doubt, and Estelle hopes wherever the previous owner was, they weren't missing them too much. She manages to collect some bits of foodstuff from the store as well as some bugs before heading out to the lakeside, settling in and casting her line. She's still not sure about testing out this water herself, but if there were any fish, she'd find them.

Now to wait. All she needed was a touch....

While she does though, maybe someone might join her? There's a few spare poles set off to the side, after all.]

Baby it's gonna get cold outside - 18th
[While cuddling up with Joshua at night was nice and certainly warm, Estelle knew that ready to use firewood was probably going to be necessary at some point for people here. She didn't have an axe to cut at trees, but there was plenty of broken and useless furniture laying around, ready to be broken apart. So Estelle selects a few especially unrepairable looking pieces, broken frames and rotten through chairs, and gets to work on them, using a rock to knock pieces loose when her hands won't do.

Slowly but surely, a sizable pile will form. An even bigger one might form with a little help! Or maybe someone needs some firewood to keep warm at night? She'll be leaving the pile out near the store for everyone once she's done.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What?

[ It's an entirely different kind of blank look he gives her this time, one that makes it fairly clear that he's not joking. He has no idea what she's talking about.

And his own heart skips a beat at those words - you were free. you broke it. - but the idea's barely had time to enter his head before he's already trying to forget he heard it. That can't be right, can it? It's too much to hope for.

Hope isn't for people like him. ]

When...did that happen?

While we were in the core of the Aureole. When he tried to make you--

['Kill me', she's about to say, but she's pretty sure Joshua wouldn't react well to that if he'd somehow forgotten.]

You really don't remember? You said Kevin planted some sort of wedge... something about guessing what Weissmann would try to make you do helped you break it.

[Honestly, Estelle had been too relieved to think too deeply about what had been done, just grateful, endlessly grateful that it had happened. Joshua had won back his freedom by his own hand. She grips his arm a little more snugly, staring up at him with a worried look. What was happening?]

[ More things that don't compute. More things he can't remember doing. ]

The last thing I remember is after we got off the Glorious. The beach. You called Josette a greasy tomboy.

[ Sure, mention that and not the fact that he'd done ten years worth of crying or the part where they almost kissed. But there are a lot of feelings attached to - all the rest of what happened on the beach, and when emotion starts to run high, Joshua starts to run away. It's a coping mechanism that's far too entrenched to let go of that easily.

If it were only that, though - if the entire dilemma were just that Estelle remembers things he doesn't - that would...not be good, certainly, but he'd have a harder time feeling much alarm about it. Not after Weissmann took his mind apart, put it back together, blocked parts on a whim. It's hard to get worked up over one more crack in a mind that's completely riddled with them.

He's a mess. What else is new.

But the fact that she says (and he's inclined to believe her over himself, considering the aforementioned) that the stigma should be gone, and yet it's still there.

That, more than any discrepancy in his own memories, is what convinces him that something is definitely wrong. ]

[Estelle's confusion grows, and it's plainly reflected on her face, wearing her heart on her sleeve as always. Of course she remembered the beach, remembered Joshua's tears as she held him tightly. She also remembered the uh... interruption by certainly nosy girls who couldn't mind their own business.

But...]

Joshua... that was weeks ago. You really don't remember the Towers? The Aureole?

[She can see gears moving in his head and acting on impulse, she reaches up, pressing a hand to his cheek and looking up into his eyes.]

Think for a second, Joshua. It's got to be this place.

[She knew Weissmann couldn't put the tattoo back, because she really couldn't believe anyone could survive that fall without help. And she knew it would be the last thing Joshua wanted, too. So that only left--]

Weeks?

[ Even knowing that he'd lost some pieces before, that it could easily happen again, he hadn't been expecting it to be that great a length of time. ]

I think there's an easier explanation for most of it than that. [ Namely: that he's a disaster zone and taking a chunk of time out for shits and giggles is not at all out of character for Weissmann. ] But...not for the tattoo.

[ So he can see where she'd draw that conclusion, sure. It makes about as much sense as anything does here, although so far, that admittedly hasn't been much. ]

To what end, though?

[ Things happen for a reason, even when that reason is something as simple as "someone wanted it and the Aureole went 'sure.'" It's difficult to picture a scenario where this relapse would benefit anyone other than Ouroboros, but the sheer number and variety of people who've wound up here along with them are proof enough, he thinks, that Ouroboros has nothing to do with it.

So why? ]

I don't know. This place is so bizarre.... it could be anything. but I know what isn't behind it, though.

[She tugs Joshua to sit next to her, because this is probably a conversation he needs to be sitting for.]

The Aureole is gone. It broke apart midair..... Weissmann was up there too, when it did. I don't think he escaped.

[Estelle wasn't someone to wish death on anyone, not even Weissmann... though he'd certainly deserved an a major beatdown. But she understood what it meant, in the long run. They'd barely made it out alive. Weissmann was injured and had had even less time than they did, even with his weird teleportation.]

[ He sits down, a bit heavily, and listens.

Weeks of time he's missing, in which the Aureole was destroyed, Weissmann (maybe) dead...

He takes a deep breath. ]

I hope you're right.

[ Joshua can't find it in him to be quite so forgiving. He regrets a lot of things, killing so many people...but even if he's finished with that life, he'd still kill Weissmann without thinking twice, even if he's cynical about exactly what it would take. He hadn't been sure that even crashing the Glorious would do the job.

Mostly, it's just a matter of...seeing it. Without a body, there's always going to be some part of him that isn't convinced. ]

[He didn't sound convinced.... and Estelle isn't going to insist he believe her. She knows that it's so much more complicated for Joshua, who had so many reasons to fear Weissmann's manipulation. He probably needed that sense of certainty, and without it....

Well, she'd just have to do her best to help him. She sits close to him, reaching down with both hands to grasp one of his.]

We'll figure it out, ok? This isn't Zemuria, isn't even our world-- but we'll figure it out. Maybe it's hard to believe right now, but I promise that what I said is true.

Edited 2018-03-20 01:28 (UTC)

[ At least some things don't change, no matter what bizarre circumstances they've found themselves in.

Things like Estelle's determined optimism. Things like the effect she has on him, because despite his very reasonable doubts, it still helps just to hear her say it. ]

Thank you, Estelle.

[Estelle smiles, squeezing Joshua's hands gently with hers.

Yeah, the situation they were in was crazy and bizarre, and yeah, there were a lot of unanswered questions. But they'd manage to figure things out together.]

As long as we're together, I know we'll figure everything out.

If you...

[ If you weren't here, I don't know what I'd do is on the tip of his tongue, but he stops himself.

He doesn't know, but he has a few ideas, and honestly, they probably don't bear thinking about. She's here, and she's not going anywhere, and he knows that if he tries to go anywhere again she'll just keep chasing him down.

And that's enough.

So instead of finishing that sentence, he just sighs softly and leans against her. ]

[Darn right, buster. Estelle takes his weight against her, releasing his hands only to wrap her arms around him, holding him close. They were both exhausted from the day, and this on top of everything else....

They needed to rest.]

I'm really glad you're here with me, Joshua.

I'm not going anywhere this time. I promise.

[ And not only because he knows she'll kick his ass if he disappears again. ]

I know you won't.

[He'd promised, after all.]