Apocalypse || Sen Riqeaux Castle

[eternitymods]

Who: The Heroes of Light
When: April 11th, 16:00
Where: Sen Riqeaux Castle
What: Bahamut's summoning has been determined to occur above the skies of Sen Riqeaux. An airship piloted by Biggs and Wedge will be picking up the Heroes of Light at the Curti Center before stopping by the major locations where other Heroes of Light are, finally taking them to Sen Riqeaux Castle. Multiple NPCs from the Curti Center are with the Heroes of Light for this expedition.
Warnings/Notes: The end of the world.

Comments

CW: graphic but brief descriptions of blood and body counts.

[littlemhigan]

Castor has kept to herself thus far, as she has done since arriving back in the Curti Centre. She sits, quiet and almost meditative, watching the angry sky. It's a far cry from her usual manic energy, but it fits the somber mood of the day.

Something heavy and unknowable sits deep in her chest, where it had sat since the day before as a man, bloody and dying pushed his daughter into her arms that the girl might escape the massacre in Nakagawa; where it had sat since the single airship made it to safety and Castor had counted devastatingly few survivors as they disembarked; where it had sat since this morning, when she left Seiya - brave, strong Seiya, his ivory plumage stained with blood - in the care of those selfsame refugees, her friends and neighbours, and walked away, shutting out his mournful warks.


'Hear, feel, think.' Hydalaens first words to her sit in the forefront of her mind, pushing at the edge of her senses in the way that The Echo often did, but all she could hear was the whirr of the airship engines and the distant echos of screaming and gunfire as imperial warmachines descended on the alliance army and militia alike. The Dreadwyrm's roar of rage and agony that shook the bones of the Star itself as Dalamud fell to peices. All there was to feel was the weight of what was about to happen and the terrifying unknown that lay beyond it and hot, slick blood on her hands, up her arms, threaded through her hair. Suffocatingly hot winds and the forms of her dearest companions, all pressed close as Aether roared and the earth itself rose up to protect them.

It's hard to think, in this cacophony of memory. She missees her friends. Her hands close around a small metal charm, the only personal effect she'd managed to take from her home, now in ash and ruin. She traces her fingers along it's edges - the equine face, and the long horn atop it's head. She rubs away a small scuff of ash and smiles at the little thing. For a quick moment, it becomes easier to hear, to feel.

Her attention turns back outside. She thinks.

Re: CW: graphic but brief descriptions of blood and body counts.

[plagueofshadows]

The gravitas in Castor's demeanor gives Plague Knight momentary pause, but you know what- he's offering them to everyone, and that just means she might need a boost more than the others.

The alchemist clears his throat with an, "Ahem." to announce his presence, and then holds up a potion vial, "Speed Drink to get you going? There's fresh bread and butter, and cookies, too. I brought enough to make sure everyone has a little breakfast. Coffee and tea if you don't want trust my items, hee!"

Re: CW: graphic but brief descriptions of blood and body counts.

[littlemhigan]

"Huh?!"

Castor seems surprised at the alchemist's appearance, and takes the offered vial hesitantly. She looks at it, then unstoppers the cork and gives it a sniff. "Not te sound ungrateful," she begins, with a voice husky from a long night of yelling, "but what's in this?"

[plagueofshadows]

"Heavily processed ochu sap, powdered silver, and more caffeine than you want to know." the alchemist says almost automatically, "This batch came out perfectly, it will definitely wake you up, hee hee!"

Plague Knight taps at the bird's head on his little staff with a thumb, "I just figured... Eh. With all the chaos, horrible things happening, and panic, people probably forgot to have breakfast, and probably didn't sleep well. I didn't sleep at all, ha ha! So. I prepared."

[littlemhigan]

She smiles a bit at the description, then re-corks the vial and stashes it away. "Might save that for when we're a mite closer, aye? 'Preciate the thought, though. All've it - food, coffee...I'd take some, but I don't think I'd keep much te myself, if ye catch my meanin'."

[mech_and_mutt]

"You alright?"

Castor usually had a bit more... vigor in her demeanor than this. And Of all the people in Vaikuntha, she wouldn't have struck him as the sort who'd suddenly get her nerves up before the big moment-- after all, she was the only one to have personally witnessed Bahamut's defeat.

...but there was a lot to take in leading up to it, nonetheless.

"Waitin' around's the worst part."

[littlemhigan]

"Huh?"

It was, perhaps, the most telling that it took a moment for her to respond in the first place, as though she hadn't noticed Red's approach at all - a far cry from her usual perceptive self.

"Oh...'M fine," she says, looking back away. Her hands clench on the little charm she's holding, so as to still any shaking. "Jes...thinkin'."

[mech_and_mutt]

"Bahamut? Hey, it's not like this is the first time either of us've stared down some kinda world-ender, right?"

Okay, maybe Red didn't tell his story there, but Castor knew her own well enough. But when he gave a glance down as her hands started to wring...

"Good luck charm?"

[littlemhigan]

There's a heartbeat of hesitation before she opens her hands to show Red the little charm - a slightly mishapen unicorn head made of some silvery metal or another.

"Nah, I was...I was jes' practicin' some detail work with this. 'S the house sigil've a dear friend've mine. S'all I got out've my house before..."

She closes her hands back up and looks back outside.

"Ye heard about Nakagawa, aye?"

[mech_and_mutt]

The look on Red's face at the word "Nakagawa" said it all. Those events were... hard to miss, grim as they were.

"...you were there for all that?"

[littlemhigan]

"I live there," she answeres quietly. "Lived. Its...it was bad. It was bad, an' I was next te useless. Shouldv'e seen it comin'."

Gods, but there was still blood caked in and around her fingernails.

[mech_and_mutt]

"...Oh."

What could someone even say to that? Red had seen cities destroyed- even ones back home, closer to his heart- but to be up close to the cultists, the riots, seeing it all, blood on your clothes--

...or her hands. Red actually seems a bit paler under the fur. Furballs, he wasn't good at this whole comforting thing, he knew that much already...

"...I'm sorry."

Okay. Good start.

[littlemhigan]

She hums her acknowledgement, and turns to look at Red.

"It...I don't like bein' helpless like that, when people're dyin' around me an' I can't help. I could coun the survivors with my fingers, there were so few.

"But what did you mean earlier? What calamity did you stare down an' see the other side of?"

[mech_and_mutt]

Now it was Red's turn for a long, weighty pause. It spared him having to fumble his attempts to comfort Castor, at least. Maybe it'd even help her feel a little better.

"...I don't talk about it much since so many people here are human, but the humans are all long gone where I came from. And the same thing that brought them to an end almost did the same to us."

And out of nowhere, he actually managed a laugh.

"Wouldja believe it was a big sphere in the sky, too?"