week 1; thursday ( stephanie )

[axilium]

[why is everyone like this.

anyway, steph is definitely near the top of the list of people belph's worried about, but he doesn't want to seem too desperate to see her—they aren't supposed to be anything more than acquaintances. casual friends at best, really. at the very least, she shouldn't take priority over his own partner.

and thus he waits. but now, he thinks he's waited long enough, so.]

I cannot believe this...

[ :/ ]

Comments

[vigilantics]

[ at the very least, her injuries aren't too grievous? it's still hard to do things like walking or moving her hands without being in pain because what is having proper first aid equipment, but at least she passed out last night more from exhaustion of overextending herstwhile injured than the injury itself.

so, she's probably sitting down wherever they are. let's say her room. she's chilling. ]

Hey honey. Missed me?

[ pls she can feel the lecture incoming, don't @ her ]

[axilium]

Of course, darling. I'm so glad you came back safely from the war.

[this would be a really awkward time for hikage to walk in.

in any case, after the quip, his expression takes on a more serious look.]

... Which is to say—you can no longer judge me for getting stabbed in the heart.

[vigilantics]

I had to protect... the... lantern?

[ she actually sounds confused while saying it. on her wacky adventure with fane, they both felt an overwhelming urge to get that lantern somewhere to safety even though neither had any idea of what they were actually doing until they reached the end. if the temperature didn't obviously warm up then stephanie would still be going ???? over it. ]

[axilium]

Yeah, I got the memo from my partner. Something about inexplicable urges?

[vigilantics]

Mmhm. We had to fight this ice-rabbit-child-monster. Fane was getting his hand chewed off so I kind of had to tackle the thing and--

[ tada ]

[axilium]

... This just gets weirder and weirder. All that just to relight the hearths? What a rip-off.

[vigilantics]

If anything, we definitely proved that there's a lot of secret passages here.

[ she assumed there were, but an assumption isn't the same as confirmation. ]

Oh! We also found a mirror but I'm pretty sure we might have broke it? It had writing on the back... "You who've had a change of heart-- / Forego your task and I shall depart, / But leave you with a newfound mission, / To better suit your new position."

[axilium]

Seven years of bad luck for you!

[but. hmm.]

... Huh. Kind of goes in line with what Dragon said to me last week—about choosing what role you want to be, whether you were assigned the hero or the villain at the start.

[vigilantics]

Fane's the one who has it so I'll have to go see him to check it out. But, you know, definitely crushed the thing.

[ they were the absolute worst pair to find the thing that was highly breakable. ]

It sounds like it might give you a new role. Which is... something! I thought she was talking in the annoying metaphorical sense and not literally.

[axilium]

Good job, you two.

[smh]

What about the whole "I shall depart" thing, though?

[vigilantics]

I'm guessing the "I" is the mirror itself. So, maybe it just has one use?

[ or no uses. because it's fuckin dead. ]

[axilium]

Buuuut you broke it.

[vigilantics]

...

It was an unavoidable outcome in a fight for our lives.

[axilium]

That's like being a pirate and then losing all the treasure on the way out.

[vigilantics]

[ steph grabs a pillow and throws it at his face.

it. probably wouldn't hurt. her wrist has holes, she's not going to throw it that hard. ]

[axilium]

[he catches it, grinning.]

Aren't you a resting patient right now?

[vigilantics]

Um, I am resting? I used a pillow I wasn't using.

[ that's not resting. ]

[axilium]

That's not resting.

[vigilantics]

It's cool. I'm fine.

[ she's dying, she's terrible at staying still for long. ]

[axilium]

[he rolls his eyes.]

Anyway, I know what Shirasu and Natsuo found. Don't spread the word, though—technically, Shirasu doesn't want me telling anyone.

[vigilantics]

I'm great at secrets.

[ ... ]

But also I wouldn't even know how to explain how I got the information.

[ the only other source would be natsuo and that would be if he chooses to tell her. it's not like people know she and belph are talking this much. ]

[axilium]

True. Plus, unless Shirasu tells him, Natsuo might not even know what their item does. See, the thing is that Natsuo has the object; Shirasu has the note that explains what it's probably for.

[and then natsuo was sort of out of commission??]

So...

[vigilantics]

Oh. Well, I hope they work that out!

[ it seems kind of useless otherwise! ]

What is it?

[axilium]

Shirasu's going to try and get it from him. We'll see how that works out.

[...]

The explanation was the same poetic cra—I mean, it was similar to the mirror writing. In this case, from what it sounds like, it saves someone whose partner has been killed.

[vigilantics]

Oh, that's useful. Although that probably has one use too, right?

[ hm. she's still not entirely sure what is it that saved the partners last trial, whether it was a role or them solving the trial correctly. ]

Veronica and Varian should have found something then.