towerofanimus | ❝trying to talk my way out of this❞

Entry tags:

❝trying to talk my way out of this❞

Characters: Willow and whoever. OPEN.
Setting: Sixth floor (the forest).
Format: I slightly prefer action over prose, but I'll match whatever you want to do!
Summary: Willow's been doing a lot of magic lately, and tries to meditate to help manage it. Unfortunately she picks the worst place possible. Run into her in A or B, just let me know which one in the subject!
Warnings: Grief. Addiction recovery.

A.

[Since she got here, she's been doing magic almost nonstop. Well, not really, but it feels that way. Casual, advanced, ritual and on the fly-- she's even been teaching it, a little. Willow desperately needs to meditate and feel the Earth beneath her before it catches up with her. She can feel the temptation, feel how easy it is, to just solve everything with a burst of power and a hand gesture, maybe a well-placed word...

But it doesn't solve everything, and it won't bring Tara back. Tara, who had just wanted the best for her; who had wanted her to use magic for good things, as an expression of compassion toward the world. Not for selfish reasons. Willow feels intensely ashamed that she still struggles with this, but that doesn't mean she doesn't. She needs the grass under her hands and trees above her head to recenter herself. To find peace.

She shakes out a circle of ash about five feet in diameter, within sight of the stairs. It's a magical perimeter, intended to stop anything with malicious intent from crossing in and harming her. She hasn't had to use one in years, but Eridan had warned her about the monsters lurking in the woods. Willow uses one now, and settles herself cross-legged in the middle.]

B.

[Some time later, just as she'd really been settling into her inner space, the part of herself that stays calm and undisturbed no matter how much black magic roils through her... she hears a voice, and her breath catches. She could've sworn her heart stopped.]

Tara? [she whispers, and a moment later, she hears another trace of it echoing again.

No. She's dead. Willow lurches to her feet, leaving the small bowl of ash behind, forgotten, and rushes over to the stairs. She's breathing fast, almost hyperventilating, as she races down them.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hope you meant to collide with a man on your way down the stairs. That's totally what just happened.]

OOF--well you're in a hurry.

[He wonders if something was chasing her?]

Sorry-- I'm sorry. [Willow has to make herself stop apologizing. This isn't Tara, she's not here; this is just some poor guy she ran into.

She unsteadily backs up a couple steps higher to give him his personal space back, and takes an audibly shaky breath.] Do you... do you know anything about the sixth floor? The forest level.

[In her urgency she doesn't care how abrupt this is.]

[He doesn't mind sharing his personal space with women in need... but now's not the time for that. The very mention of the forest level makes him frown, and it makes sense now. That's where she was running from, duh.]

That's a stupid excuse for a forest. It makes you think the people you care about are calling for you, then lures you in to... [He trails off in a predictably ominous way.] Did you hear something?

... Yes. [It was a trick, Willow. You'd suspected that, you just hadn't really accepted it, because what if it wasn't? What if you could get her back, what if she'd been here all along, what if--

She forces her thoughts to stop, like a train halting mid-track, and breathes again. Regularly, monitored: in and out. It's a learned technique.] They lure you in to die. Don't they.

[She's encountered things like this before. Softly, still hesitant,] You're sure they're not really in there?

Yeah, no one in those woods but the freaky monster animals. I can tell you first hand.

[Being mauled by a mutated wolf wasn't the best way to spend his picnic, he'll tell you that.]

Oh. [The wind seems to go out of her, and she sags against the stairwell wall, helpless and almost dazed. Even hearing a whisper of Tara's voice again had brought all of those feelings to the surface. She tries to put herself back together, not wanting to make a fool of herself to someone she just met.]

Good thing I didn't go further in, instead of... [She trails off, then meets his eyes, throat tight.] Thank you. I'm glad you caught me.

[Aradia catches a glimpse of red hair as she heads down the stairway, having intended to explore some of the forest herself. But that looked a lot like her room mate and since Willow had been so nice to her when she'd arrived, Aradia felt it would be wrong to just ignore her now.

And so she follows, allowing her wings to carry her faster than her legs would]

Willow?

[Willow comes to an abrupt halt on the fourth floor landing, ironically where they'd met. Her breathing is still rapid and uneven, her eyes wide, distress painted across her features.

But she's obviously trying to get herself under control, too.] Aradia. I... can you do me a favor? [Her overwhelming memories about Tara are starting to ebb a bit now, and Willow can think more coherently. Ordinarily she wouldn't be this short with words, this terse. But it's all she can manage.]

Can you stop me from going back up to the forest?

[Oh no, this isn't good. Aradia nods, more than willing to help where she can]

Wh-sure, if you want me to. Why, is there something bad up there?

[Like she's not going to explore for herself later anyway, but something's obviously freaked Willow out]

[Eiji pauses on his way up the stairs as he notices the hurried woman. And having been in this place for so long, he's come to realize that asking if everything is okay has become a foolish inquiry - better to just cut to the chase.]

What's the matter, miss?

[Because it seems like there's always something the matter in this place.]

What are you doing.

[Erik leans on the edge of the stair case, watching the red head spreading out ash about herself. It's an interesting ritual, one that he doesn't know the purpose of.

Except to make a mess, but considering she is in the forest well, it doesn't matter much, does it?/

This floor is one he avoids, due to the lack of things within it to protect himself.]

I don't know. I-- I heard something... someone. Someone that's dead.

[She exhales slowly, reasserting her sense of logic.] So it couldn't have really been her. And I know there's monsters in the woods, so I shouldn't-- check.

[She stops at his question, closing her eyes for a moment, collecting herself.

Okay. Logical inquiries now. She can do this.] Have you... have you been to the forest level? [Willow asks, tentative and unsure. Her eyes are open again but she's jittery, her thoughts swimming.]

[She glances up and gives him a friendly smile, not recognizing him as they'd only spoken via text, before.]

Meditating. --Oh, you mean the circle. It's a magic perimeter; it'll stop anything that wants to harm me from crossing over it. You never know in a place like this.

[The man shakes his head, but he looks a bit uneasy at the mention of it.] I haven't. I've heard some bad things about it, so I've avoided it.

[That, oddly, draws a small smile from Aradia]

I used to be able to do that. Hear the voices of the dead, I mean. They seem to have quietened down since I got here though...anyway, if you want I could go and check for you?

[Which...probably bends the heroic clause of God Tier but if it would make Willow feel better]

[Ordinarily Willow would be doing her level past to remain cool, calm and witty in a crisis, which she tends to be good at.

But this is about Tara. There's nothing calm left.] N-No, no, you can't! It can't really be her, and what if you got hurt looking for her? It'd be my fault, and-- [and she can't take any more guilt--] and if it is her, then I... I left her here all this time. Or there was something I missed, and I could've been talking to her.

I'm sorry, I... I can't-- [She's just distressing herself more, talking like this. She'll end up crying if she keeps going, and she wants to be done with crying, especially in front of someone she hardly knows. Willow tries to pack those thoughts away, offer something that makes sense.] Eridan called her my matesprit. I watched her die.

It can't be her.

What... um, can you tell me what you've heard? It's important.

[She does look incredibly earnest, maybe a bit vulnerable, as she asks that.]

Heard about people hearing voices in there, and that there's monsters running about. Things that sounds absurd, but compared to some of the things I've seen here, I'd rather err on the side of caution.

[Well that makes sense. If she was flushed for this human, that made all of this a little easier for Aradia to navigate.

If Willow will allow it, she moves to gently lead her further into the room so they can sit down. This doesn't seem like a conversation to have on the stairway]

Or she only just got here, just like we did. There's still a lot we don't know about how this place works. And I'm not afraid of a few monsters. Besides, death doesn't have to be permanent.

[At least, it isn't always in her world]

[Cue one very surprised Naoto who is now following her down the stairs in concern.]

Willow?

[Willow follows as directed, still distraught enough to be grateful for the direction.]

I know death doesn't have to be permanent-- I've resurrected someone. But she... she couldn't come back. I tried and it didn't work.

[A bit desperately,] It has to be a trick, right? [Guilt is flooding her at the idea that she could've done something, that there was something she'd missed that would've brought Tara back. Even if she deserves her peace in Heaven, and Willow knows that now from her experience resurrecting Buffy, she's selfish enough that she would only hesitate a little if she knew of a way to make her alive again.]

That's not really absurd for me. That's more like... Tuesday.

[Okay, calm enough to make jokes about Sunnydale means calm enough not to cry all over this total stranger. Good. Progress.] Did you hear any details about-- hearing voices? Because I thought I... [She trails off, completely unable to put into words the magnitude for her of hearing Tara.]

[She stops in place, turning around and glancing up. Uncertainty and vulnerability are written obvious across her face.]

N-Naoto?

[She catches up to her, brow furrowed]

Are you alright? Did something happen?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 10

❝trying to talk my way out of this❞

[B.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[B]

[B]

[B]

B

[A]

no subject

no subject

[A]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

B!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject