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 Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:20 am
The walk from the sparring arena to the dorms was long and full of shame and regret. The make shift bandage was still darkening and staining from the wound earlier. She didn't really feel it, part of her had cut that out, ignoring the bit of FEAR that animated that chunk of body constantly chiming in about, Hey, you're bleeding down there. Hey, you got stabbed pretty bad. She ignored all of it marching down the path purple eyes flickering in the darkness.
She was upset, she was angry, she was frustrated. She would do so well only to fall so far. If she couldn't succeed here, how would she fare against hunters who would never let her walk away from the fight?
Even as she walked a lone hand reached down to test the wound feeling a fresh wetness as it continued to ooze. It seemed walking did nothing but open the wound again and again, climbing up the trees would surely make it worse but she had no other choice if she planned to make it to the dorms.
"I've failed once already tonight, I won't fail a pathetic task like walking home too. I'm not that weak. I'm better then that. I have to be better," she muttered softly to no one in particular.
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:28 am
Better than what?
Riley had only heard the tail end of Sammy's little tirade against herself, as she floated down off the canopy of the dorms. She was headed to explore, but the sight of Sammy leaking stopped her, and she dropped down to investigate that instead. When she landed, her eyes immediately fell to the gaping wound at her side, and her features crunched up. That looks terrible. Let me guess. Bad sparring session? A wound like that could only have come from a weapon, and there weren't many other ways to hurt oneself while on this Isle, anyway. Or, more correctly, that was simply the most common way to get hurt - Riley's leg sported a nice, tight bandage herself, from the arrow that had sunk into her thigh. Her guess was logical.
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:33 am
Sammy froze up for a moment eyes flickering up through the trees towards the slowly lowering figure before her. She took that moment to stand up a bit straighter and stop nursing the wound as much as she currently had been. "I... I don't know I'm not sure." She glanced away from Riley ignoring the wound entirely till she mentioned it. "A polearm... and then the broken half of it right after." She offered no other details of that moment. Of how she cracked and refused to yield when she had clearly been beaten. How the wound was mostly her own stupid fault for being so ignorant.
"Why... why are you down here, I thought most of us would have gone to bed by now."
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:53 pm
Sammy's question made Riley chuckle. Sleep? When we have so precious little time left here? No, I wasn't ready to waste my time on sleep. I was going to go exploring again, but I saw you and figured you could use a hand instead. She held out her hand as she said it, palm facing upwards. Going up?
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:42 pm
She offered a week shrug as she glanced at her side again, checking to see if it was oozing again. "Some need it more then others." She eyed the hand carefully before reaching out with her left one wrapping bone around flesh taking her offer. "Thanks..." She almost sounded disappointed with her thanks, and why wouldn't she? It was becoming a reoccurring theme Riley lifting her into the lofts lately. First because she froze on a ladder, now because she was an idiot who screwed up and couldn't even climb a ladder without risking half her insides spilling out.
"Would I sound crazy if I said I almost miss home right now."
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:51 pm
Riley took Sammy's hand, and pulled the ghoul gently into her arms, before her other arm slid behind her knees and hefted her up. Once she had a solid hold on Sammy, Riley's body began to lift into the air, standing straight as a board as she carried the ghoul up to the canopy.
It would sound perfectly sane. We are all tired, and we have worked very hard. There is nothing wrong with looking forward to the comfort of familiarity.
Riley's eyes had remained lifted up, staring at the canopy over their heads while she floated, but they dropped down to look at Sammy with a furrowed brow. Why are you so worried about that?
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:56 pm
It was strange being swept up like this. Normally it was Shehk or Siddie being carried, but never her yet here it was. She was the weak one being lifted up and carried home. Her one arm would lazily reach around Riley's back careful to avoid the wings as they floated upwards.
"But I'm not tired. I've worked hard. But the more I work... the more I feel like I'm working towards nothing. Look at me, I'm bleeding out my side like a moron, I doubt everything I do now."
She sighed purple eyes dimming and looking away from Riley, out towards the jungles around them. "I'm worried because I feel like I'm going to fail Riley. At everything."
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:32 pm
Riley could sense the awkwardness in Sammy taking the position of the weaker one, and when she lifted higher, reaching the balcony in mere seconds, she slowly tilted the ghoul's body to set her feet down, but her arms remained stationary, resting at Sammy's waist.
She looked down at the ghoul, her eyes thin, and penetrating. It would feel as though she was trying to see something in Sammy that one could not find at the surface. But after a moment, she pulled back as though she'd failed.
You needn't worry. If you doubt your every action, you have already failed. Riley's arms fell away, and she stood, tall and stoic, in front of her friend. To lose a battle, or retain an injury, is not to fail. The only way you can fail, is if you give up. And you sound like you have.
She sounded just a touch angry at the thought, but it melted away in place of something softer. Something almost desperate. She bent in and looked Sammy in the eye. Why do you always think in extremes? Why must it be win or lose, all or nothing? Why must you always be the one carrying others? There are times, Sammy, when those you love most will need you to let them carry you. Else you are selfish, and can never see that others need to be strong for you, too.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:45 pm
Sammy quickly looked away off the platform and out to the vast jungle again, avoiding the look in Riley's eyes, ignoring the hands on her waist. Usually something she would celebrate, but not like this. Where Riley never wanted to be seen at her worse, Sammy was no different.
"I don't know if I doubt them, or doubt that they amount to anything. I haven't given up, not yet, but it just feels like I'm going no where, or worse down a path that will just get me killed..." She didn't bother to point out the path would lead her right to where Riley was, if not worse. She had seen the nightmare of the death trial. She heard her own voices echoing faintly during Giftmas.
Not even Riley's anger shook her but it was the softness that caught her attention again causing dim purple eyes to flicker back towards her before lighting up somewhat as she listened. "I don't know. What else is there? Is there a middle ground? Red's gone, we know we can lose and what have we won, the right to play around with the horsemen while the hunters get ready to leap out the bushes and try to steal one of us away again?"
Her voice grew soft, "I can't watch them die again, I can't..."
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:51 pm
Of course there is a middle ground. Riley murmured, almost chuckling. You're standing on it. She led Sammy inside, leaving her once they reached Sammy's hammock. She sat down on her own hammock, and swung slightly, facing Sammy. Do you know how many times I have had to watch Malodore 'die'? This world, it feeds on watching us suffer. I never want to see it again. But that will not stop me from trying to fight that which comes for us. And yet.. well, sometimes, Sammy, it's important you let others fight for you, as well.
Riley swung herself onto her hammock, and laid down, her hands folded on top of her body.
You should bandage up that wound. You can't just let it bleed everywhere. It's unsanitary.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:18 pm
The mental chuckle caused her to pause tilting her head as they walked towards the hammock. Even as she sat across from Riley she rubbed her forehead trying to clear her mind a bit.
"Probably more times then I've seen Siddie die, but, the last time was different, it was worse. It might have been a trial of death, but the whole thing was just. Ever since I saw that hellish world I haven't been able to get it out of my mind."
Where Riley swung down into the hammock Sammy simply continued to sit there. "It's funny you mention Mal... he's usually the one who patches these kind of holes up." She glanced over at the other ghoul smiling weakly, "I think him and Shehk alone have ever seen me this bad."
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:43 pm
Riley turned her head slightly, watching Sammy with a gentle gaze. It took a lot of hard work to stop thinking about that place. I don't think I could have come here if those thoughts still plagued me. Her eyes blinked slowly, fighting to stay open. Mal won't always be there. Sometimes, we're going to get hurt, and we're going to have to fend for ourselves. She made a vibrating sound in Sammy's mind, which, unbenownst to the ghoul, was Riley's version of yawning. Then she shifted slightly in her hammock. Even me.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:21 am
"I can't stop thinking about it. It just... hurts too much." She glanced at her side again before looking around for something to work with, eventually she found a small bag with a few basic supplies for stitching ones self closed. Not the best, and it didn't come with a Plauge Doctor to play surgeon. She tilted her head at the strange sound before opening the kit to pull out string and needle and start the slow process of stitching herself closed.
"I guess so..." she mummbled to Riley's last remark. "Hey, before you go to sleep where are you going, for the next island that is."
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