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[adelphoi]

Who: Alisaie Leveilleur (adelphoi) & you nerds
What: October general shenans
When: All month
Where: Everywhere potentially but probably just at her house mostly
Warning(s): Sick.. stuff?? idk probably nothing but will update if necessary.



PART 1;

a; aftermath

[ alisaie is not present in the marketplace when the attack occurs, but the resounding boom cannot be missed, even from her home flat. it's a hectic hour or so while she rushes to figure out what has happened, and when riza returns home sick she feels a heavy misgiving sink deep into her stomach. disease is not an enemy she can fight with her rapier, it's something insidious, something sneaky and unpredictable - gods help them find a remedy soon.

immediately, she's dashing right to work. with riza ill they'll need supplies - healthy foods, spare blankets, medicinal herbs, ice, a great deal of ice. once she's set with her list she's off to the institute and markets to gather what useful things she can, stuffing them into a canvas shoulder bag, but you can certainly bet that she'll stop to assist in any way she can, whether it's righting an overturned cart or leading those who were injured in the panic to the sanctuary.

of course, it's not long before she's feeling rather warm and dizzy herself and, of course, chalking it up to the rush and mayhem. maybe she'll just.. sit down a moment. ]

b; sickbed;

[ alisaie is an awful patient.

keeping her in bed is no easy task, and there's an itch under her skin that urges her to move, to work - there's so much she could be doing, ways she could be helping. this disease is a godsdamned prison.

she's responsible enough to at least not mingle with the public, lest she spread this horrible mystery illness further, but she cannot remain strictly indoors in bed for so long, not without losing her mind. so when she can, when the weather is tepid, alisaie sits on the second floor deck of her flat, wrapped up in a blanket, usually with a book (or stack of books), enjoying the fresh air on her too-hot face. ]

c; reaching out

[ what else can you do when you're more or less bedbound? catch up on the internet, of course. mostly, alisaie keeps an eye on the network for any updates, and takes the time to reach out to those she knows, to doublecheck that they're safe. if you've met her even once or twice, chances are she will toss a line out and test the waters. incoming message from RedMage: ]

This is Alisaie; how are you faring?

PART 2;

a; wandering

[ it's late evening the first time she sees him.

though first she hears him, the familiar voice of her grandfather calling her out of her dreams, warm and welcoming. she wakes in her bed, slick with fever sweat and surrounded by silence - mayhaps she had misheard it? it must have been a dream, her head is spinning. but then it comes again, distinct and clear; it has been years since she last heard his voice but it is not a sound that she would ever forget. ]

Grandfather..?

[ dizzy and disoriented, she climbs out of bed and stumbles toward the open window, squinting into the slanting light of sunset just in time to see the shape of him, louisoix leveilleur's all too familiar form disappearing around the corner. immediately her heart kicks up into her throat and alisaie gasps and turns, stumbling back through her bedroom and out of the house, down the stairs and onto the street barefoot, in her nightdress, to follow a ghost. ]

No, please wait.. don't leave me again..

[ how long she wanders in this delirium she cannot say, but her feet are sore and scratched and muddy, her hair down and wild from sleep and the tugging winds. she may run right into you, or trip over a flagstone, but short of forceful intervention nothing will keep her from her goal. ]

b; friendly fire

[ for those of you unlucky enough to visit her (or stop by her home for some other purpose) while the symptoms continue to worsen, you will find that her delirium has not abated. between bouts of lucidity and sleep she tries still to wander, to follow the voices and phantoms of her family and friends to whatever oblivion they might call her to, but it is not only friends she sees. sometimes it is enemies or horrible, twisted monsters. it's hardly a problem if she wanders outside, weaponless, but any creak of sound within her home would easily alert her.

blinking blearily, alisaie tumbles out of bed at the noise, her heart thudding and her mind cloudy, and she does not think twice before taking up her rapier and focus which lie across a chair in her room and stumbling into the dimly lit common area. her voice is rough from coughing. ]

Who.. who goes there?

[ catchall for october! alisaie will spent much of it being sick, apparently, so feel free to crash her place and visit.. make sure she stays in bed. get her texts or send her one, or meet up in the market!! if none of these prompts work for you i'm more than happy to work something out and write up a starter. ♥ plotting comment is here, or i can be reached on plurk for planning. i'm game! ]

Comments

[adelphoi]

[ prompto tucks closer, so near that she can feel the warm gusting of his breath, and there's nothing she wants more in this moment than to kiss him, to soothe him, but the lingering, relentless taste of blood in her mouth is reminder enough that she must not.

soon, she hopes..

instead of kisses, she winds her arms around his shoulders and bumps her nose affectionately to his, the fingers of one hand threading through his hair, scratching at his scalp how she knows he likes. softly: ]

I am very glad that you did.

[ it would have been so easy for him to give up, she knows. facing who you are, and the demons of your past - gods, it's difficult, painful, can feel impossible. stronger men and women than she have buckled before the truths of their own hearts, and prompto could have just as easily done the same. for all she stresses that how he was born does not matter (and it doesn't) that does not negate the fact that it was truly horrific. she has seen the results of research like this before, known men too obsessed with what could be done that they could not bother to wonder if they should.

still, it brought prompto into the world, and for that at least she is grateful. ]

[punshots]

[ Her arms find their way around his shoulders and her touch soothes, relaxes. His eyes shut a moment just to savor the feeling of her fingers in his hair, but a second later, he starts speaking again. ]

That makes two of us.

[ No, he still hasn't convinced himself of everything he decided to be, of everything his friends thought him to be, of everything she sees in him. But he's working on it, everyday, and...

He'll get there. Someday. ]

After that, I met up with Aranea again. We trounced some monsters and put a stop to the last experiments of my old man's. And after that...I was off to join back up with my friends.

[ He wishes that could be the end, because it's a much happier, if open-ended tale, but it's not...quite. ]

...Ardyn caught me again on my way back. Except this time, he...used me as bait to lure Noct and the others to Gralea. [ Insult to injury, to say the least. Those days he'd waited for them were some of the longest of his life, and he doesn't dare to spend much time lingering on them. ] And...it worked. They did, but...

[ His eyes flicker open again at last. ]

That's when Noct disappeared into the Crystal, where Ardyn trapped him. And that's...the last thing I remember from home. Gladio told me a bit about what happened after, about...the daemons that ran wild over Eos without a single second of sunshine to break things up. We all kept fighting, even without Noct around, but that's all I really know.

[ So that, by necessity, is the end of the story. ]

[adelphoi]

[ his story closes up, and it's not a neat and tidy ending, but then true stories rarely are. the storm had come along and interrupted all of their lives, it hadn't asked permission, hadn't waited for them to tie up loose ends before sweeping away everything they knew and loved.

alisaie lets the silence hold them for awhile before she inhales deeply, exhales in a thoughtful hum. it's still such a strange curiosity, the similarities between their worlds, how everything he says somehow sounds familiar in a roundabout way.

and ardyn. she should.. tell him, the longer she waits the more awkward it will be to explain. so it's best to rip the bandage off, she supposes. ]

He was.. here. Ardyn.

[ she says at last, after a moment's consideration. ]

Well, not here. In Olympia. He brought me soup.

[ and tried to pawn a watermelon off on her once but that's another tale. ]

[punshots]

[ He can't help it. Any consolation he'd been feeling at having shared this story with her, any peace or comfort, are swiftly forced from him the moment she tells him. He sucks in a shuddering, visceral gasp, skin turning ice cold even beneath her warm embrace, and his hands tighten just so slightly on her. Gods. He'd been here? Ardyn, the man responsible for just about everything terrible in Prompto's life - in a way, for his very existence - who even now, in this distant world, seemed to haunt the shadows of his life, a constant reminder of how very much he's lost. Could still lose.

It's like a nightmare he hadn't even dared to give thought to yet. One that mocks him for being naive, that threatens the only source of stability he has right now.

But for as much as fear pours into him, pools through his very blood and bones, in that moment, he's able to hold on to one thing: that she's still here, in his arms, apparently no worse off for having encountered him.

But is that only because Ardyn didn't know?

It makes you no harder to break than before. ]

...H-he did, did he. F-figures. [ A mirthless laugh ghosts shakily out of him. ] And after he gave me a hard time for bringing people soup.

[ Oh, this is bad. This is so very, very bad. ]

[adelphoi]

[ prompto's reaction is sudden and raw, and it leaves her speechless for a moment. he hadn't shouted or flinched or railed, but his fear is so clear on his face, in the way his grasp tightens and his breath stutters. maybe she should not have told him, should have waited for another time, a better time..

.. though there may be no better time, if she is honest with herself. no, hiding things like this does more harm than good; alisaie hates to hurt him, to ever worry him, but it is better that he knows. a flash of sympathy creases her features, and alisaie looses a hand to glide it over his jaw in an attempt to keep him grounded here, with her. a hundred different responses cross her mind that she discards one after the other after the other, unwilling to offer him empty comfort. ardyn had not threatened her in any way, she certainly doesn't feel as if she's in any danger, but prompto has plenty of reason to fear this man, and from the sound of it none of it is unfounded. so telling him that it's all right cannot help, would ring hollow in both of their ears. ]

I'm here.

[ she says at last, her thumb gliding over the crest of his cheek, soft and slow. ]

He gave me no reason to suspect he would mean me any harm. Try not to dwell on it, love.

[punshots]

[ Her touch keeps him grounded, but a breath still shakes out of him and he presses one of his hands, cold and clammy, over hers as she strokes her thumb across his cheek. She's here. She's here. He clings to that simple fact, because he needs it so badly right now. Ardyn had been with her, but she's still here.

His head tips into her touch, lips moving against her wrist as he finally finds his voice again. ]

I...I'll try not to.

[ "Try" being the key word here. But it's so much much at once, his weary mind can't fully comprehend it. ]

But if he tries to...even look at you the wrong way, please. Call me. We thought he was someone he wasn't for a long time. He plays these...mind games. It's - just...

[ Better to be avoided altogether. ]

[adelphoi]

[ she can understand it. the fear, the worry that someone close to you is in danger. she'd felt it when her grandfather left, when bahamut ha descended upon the realm. she'd felt it when the castrum was attacked, bombarded while her brother was still inside, and she had been so very sure that she was about to lose him too.

so that worry in prompto's voice, in his eyes - she recognizes it readily, and will not dismiss it. even if she tried to she wouldn't be successful, there can be no soothing that uncertainty away. so instead she simply holds him, and smiles when his kisses move against her wrist. ]

Of course.

[ eyes closed, she nuzzles her nose against his, slow and soft. ]

I will be careful.

[punshots]

[ He knows she means that, so he doesn't belabor the point. Alisaie will be careful, and he'll be...more cautious around Ardyn. He'd lost his temper with him not so long ago - a rare occurrence for Prompto indeed - and Ardyn's threat against him weighs more heavily on him than ever. ]

...Thank you.

[ It's really all he can ask for. But for now...there's so much more to worry about. ]

You should get some rest.

[adelphoi]

[ she had intended for this to be a nice night, to share with one another to better help her solidify her memories, but now she's only feeling.. tired, and anxious for him. but honestly, any time she cannot put a smile on his face feels like a personal failure. ]

You should, too.

[ tightening her hold around his shoulders, she tugs him in closer, as close as she can, to convince him to stay. ]

You're exhausted.

[punshots]

[ She pulls him close, reinforcing her words, and he mumbles a groan into her shoulder. Gods, she's so right. He's exhausted from their journey, from the things he's shared with her, from the things she shared with him. He wants nothing more than to melt into a dreamless sleep right here with her, but sleep would come with a price, too.

Every moment he shuts his eyes is a moment he's not taking care of her. Already there are streaks of red on her face, on the towel covering her pillow. Could he really let himself rest when this is the state of her now?

But it's so warm here, so much comfort and solace in her embrace even when it's weak. He burrows close, arms winding up her back, fingers catching loosely in her hair. The gentle scent of it reaches him, and recalls to him how she'd washed his hair for him, how her fingers had worked through it despite the pain she was in, as she kissed the tears from his cheeks.

No, he isn't going anywhere. He looses a sigh against her neck. ]

Am not...

[adelphoi]

[ she's not so sick that it's escaped her notice how little sleep he is getting. she'd have to be blind not to see the dark circles under is eyes, to catch him yawning throughout the day. he's worried, and she.. she understands that, she's certainly lost sleep over the health and safety of loved ones before, but that does not mean she has to enjoy watching him overwork himself. short of a frying pan to the head she cannot make him rest, but if she can convince him to with her warmth and kisses, she'll certainly try.

and honestly, after a day like this there's nothing she wants more than to curl up close to him and sleep listening to the sound of his heart beating and his steady breathing. ]

Of course not.

[ she says through a smile, nuzzling into his hair. truth be told she couldn't keep him here anyway, weak and exhausted as she is, she's already feeling the fatigue creep in around the edges of her consciousness and she's only just closed her eyes. ]

Then just stay with me.

[ he won't deny her that, and she's relatively sure that he'll fall asleep as well. ]

[punshots]

[ She's absolutely right - he won't deny her that, her touch and her breath in his hair irresistible, and some rational part of his brain reminds him that if he wants to be able to take care of her, he has to sleep at some point. She seems to be doing alright, relatively speaking, so it'd probably be okay if he...rests awhile, right?

It sounds so, so good right now, so after deliberating with himself a few moments longer, he shuts his weary eyes, his head settling on the pillow against the crook of her neck, arm winding around her middle. It'll be okay. It'll be okay... ]

I can do that.

[ He feels powerless to do so much else, but that...that he can do. ]

[adelphoi]

[ despite what he says, she's got the sneaking suspicion that he's going to sleep anyway. alisaie can feel the tension draining out of him, and hear how soft his voice has become; he's trying so hard to be strong for her, but what she truly wants for him is to rest, to keep himself healthy and.. as happy as he can manage, given the circumstances.

so her only reply is a soft hum of assent as she presses a kiss to the crown of his head. alisaie is a good sleeper even when healthy, but considering how exhausted she is it's hardly long before she's drifting off, her fingers in his hair stilling, her breath evening out. ]