come_sailaway | Lights Go Out and I Can’t Be Saved

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Lights Go Out and I Can’t Be Saved

Who: Valdis and Open with Some Closed
What: Valdis does stuff around the Serena Eterna, feel free to join her
When: September
Where: All over
Warnings: In each starter

Confusion never stops | Crichton | CW: None

Valdis hasn’t seen much of Crichton since she tried to remove Harvey last, but with her and Cassandra’s suspicions, she knows she needs to talk to him. He appears to be in his room on this particular evening, so she gently knocks on his door.

“Crichton?” She calls softly, trying to find the balance between worry and rage.

It’s not his fault that Harvey took over and started targeting people, but if he’s losing time again, she felt that he should have told her. Or at least somebody.

“Are you there?”

Closing walls and ticking clocks | Siffleur | CW: none

The one person she’s been avoiding is also the one person who she needs to see and it was only a matter of time before the two predators ended up in the same room by accident or on purpose. There’s a tightness in her chest when she sees Siffleur at one of the tables in Sand Dollar, anxiety perhaps. She’s been refusing soul energy again for fear of killing someone. She’d managed for awhile last time, but she knows she’s weakening herself by not having any backup.

But she still tries to ignore him, making some coffee and heading to a table with lots of room for escape should it be necessary.

Gonna come back and take you home | Open | CW: none

Valdis is struggling, but trying to keep her schedule as normal as possible. Meditation in the morning sunlight, sword practice in the afternoons. Reading a book from Cassandra in the spare quiet moments. Sometimes she practices what she’s reading, but mostly it seems frustrating for her and she’ll shut the book firmly before grabbing something else.

She’s doing her best to not withdraw from her friends, but she is less outgoing than people are used to, spending hours in the library or drawing people she knows on the ship.

Event Starters | Open | CW: The flowers are dangerous

Red Rose:
A rose by any other name is still as sweet and the red roses growing on vines in the library smell sweet. So sweet that anyone who smells them falls in love with the next person they lay eyes on. Valdis is wearing a makeshift mask and trying very hard to avoid getting too close to the flowers as she searches the shelves for a specific book.

Angels Trumpets:
Valdis sits in Sand Dollar reading, and another of her sits across the table, the one clearly trying to ignore the bookless one as she smirks and says in hushed tones:

“It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t gotten so weak. Trust is so human.”

Purple Hyacinth:
If her past self following her around hadn’t been bad enough, the purple hyacinths growing outside her door decided to make her day even worse. Faces of the people she’s killed, the ones in the village, keep coming to mind. People she knew. People who didn’t deserve it. People who had once been friends.

She’s back at the bar and drinking as much as she possibly can, making sure it’s not the non-alcoholic stuff. She needs the real stuff and anyone who sees her can clearly see that she has probably had too much, even if they know it doesn’t affect her.

I could not stop that you now know | Wildcard | CW: As Necessary

PM to discuss or just go for it!

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[Valdis tips her head, suddenly concerned.]

To my knowledge, no one else on this ship can do what I do. Bash and Palamedes are both gone and they are the only two I can think of who might be able to do something similar.

[She hasn't been taking anything from Ari since their original contract ended, and she hasn't felt anything moving around the ship with energy similar to hers.]

Is everything alright?

[She looks almost disappointed. If it had been a person, Ari could have told them to cut it out, as forcefully as she needed to.

In the interest of considering all eventualities, the thought had occurred to her that it might be Valdis herself - but she'd dismissed it very quickly. They had their differences, but Valdis wasn't like that. If she needed it, she'd ask, Ari was certain of it.]

I think... I think I might be very ill. [It's said quietly, because genetically-enhanced Arilanna Tayrey should not get ill.]

[Valdis arches a brow, evaluating more closely.]

You don't smell ill.

[Valdis reaches out, but hesitates, pulling her hand back]

May I check your energy levels?

[She recalls that Ari doesn't believe in souls and prefers to think of herself like a battery. It's not wrong, but it's not entirely correct either. Nonetheless, she needs to ask permission first.]

[She feels ill, thinks Ari, although she hasn't much basis for comparison. There was that shipside fever, but that had hit hard and been over quickly. This is something else.]

Sure. I don't mind that.

[Ari does appreciate being asked for permission! Slowly, she holds out her hand. There are no drugs in her system at this particular moment. If trauma and damage are apparent in a soul - well, they're there in abundance, but there's no physical illness, and nobody has been siphoning off her soul energy.]

[Valdis takes her hand and focuses, sending her own soul through their connection to examine Ari's. It feels strong, like it always did, though a little battered by whatever she is going through emotionally. She can almost feel what Ari does, but she can't quite tell. Still, the soul isn't tainted or poisoned and the 'battery' feels full.

Valdis withdraws first her soul and then her hand.]

You feel strong and determined like usual.

What symptoms are you experiencing and when did they start?

[Ari looks uncertain. Valdis can't detect any illness, or any draining of her energy, so what must that mean? That it's all in her head? What can she even say, that she's exhausted and falling asleep during the day? Valdis will just tell her to sleep more at night.]

It's alright. I'm probably overreacting. You know how this place is. [She's aiming for quiet reassurance.] But thank you, for taking a look. It's good to be able to rule possibilities out.

[Then she leans forward a little.] Did you find anything? On the other side of the portal? [Not the smoothest attempt to change the subject, but she hopes it'll work.]

[She does know how this place is, but if Ari believes she is simply overreacting, then Valdis won't pry. Her next question, however, give Valdis some pause.]

I'm sorry, Ari...I got distracted and I didn't look.

[Another pause.]

Sorry. I mean General.

[She doesn't make mistakes like that, she'll have to work harder to not let things get to her.]

[She didn't look? Ari gazes at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to reveal that this is some very ill-timed joke.

It isn't.

Well. Valdis didn't have any obligation to look; Ari had thought that she wanted to. Now she knows where things stand. Valdis doesn't really care about escaping, because how could anyone just forget something that critically important? And then to top it off, calling her Ari like she-

Curb your anger, Tayrey.

She stays neutral. Calm.]

It's fine. You weren't obligated to look.

Look, General's fine. Or Lieutenant. Or just plain Tayrey. I don't mean to demand titles. But don't call me Ari. Only people from Cardalek call me Ari. [Her father. Kaizen. Saratha. People who had been close from the beginning.] I let Klaus and it felt so wrong I had to ask him to stop. [Absent that deep, contract-clad closeness, first names are for small children or very low-level employees - and they aren't very polite to use for the latter.]

[She can tell without empathy that Ari is upset and disappointed.]

I wanted to look, General, but I unwilling found myself in the melee and ended up dying. I was a little distracted after that.

[You know, because someone on the ship had betrayed her and she doesn't know who.]

I will look on the next one.

[Ari actually doesn't seem upset about it. She's feeling anger and frustration, but keeping that tightly under control. Calm and neutral. If anything she seemed more outwardly upset about the name slip-up than the other matter - but now her voice softens.]

I'm sorry that you went through that. It must have been so frightening.

[She's assuming that Valdis found herself physically in the middle of the fighting somehow. An unintentional casualty, or a victim of some particularly bloodthirsty prisoner.]

Who did it? Who murdered you?

I don't know who wrote my name down, but someone on this ship clearly wanted me to die, or they wanted me to kill.

[Either option is painful to think about.]

Ylva helped me by taking me out of the fight, I might have lost it otherwise. I still need to thank her.

Hold there. You're saying that you didn't just end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, someone else put your name down and you - what, got teleported into the middle of the fight?

[She frowns, because this has all sorts of unpleasant implications.]

Have you made any enemies here? [She'd always assumed that Valdis was well-liked. More than Tayrey herself, anyway.]

I was compelled, similar to that gameshow thing, if you recall. Some people just...couldn't help but go up there, even if they didn't want to.

[She was also under the impression that no one hated her at least. But.]

One. Harvey. But I struggle to imagine him playing this sort of hand when he knows I'll just come after him.

[She doesn't exactly scare easily.]

Then it wasn't your fault. Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault.

[That seems the important reassurance to give. Before the labyrinth, she would likely have turned this, made it all about herself and how awful it'd be if the same thing happened to her.

Now that hardly seems to matter, because Tayrey knows what she'd do. Same as always. So far as she could, refuse to co-operate. Stand there and die, and let the guilt be on her killer's head, and her captor's, and on the one who forced her into the situation.]

It could have been Harvey, although I thought Crichton had much better control of him since he stopped drinking. I haven't seen Harvey in a while. [Little does she know...]

I plan to talk to Crichton. I don't want to assume.

[her fault or not, she wants to ensure it doesn't happen again.]

But I will be fine, won't fall for the same trick twice.

[Tayrey nods.] That's sensible, although I'm not sure that Crichton will know all the detail, if it was Harvey. What will you do differently, if he tries it again next time?

I'll be checking that list for my name for starters. And I'm going to work on figuring out how to separate him from Crichton.

I wonder if it'd be possible to erase a name on one of those lists. It's logical, but it seems almost too simple a solution.

[After a moment's thought-] Separating the two of them is way outside my field, but if it ever turns out there's something I can do to help, tell me?

I didn't know that others could put names not belonging to them on the list, so it seems there is much we don't know.

[Valdis knows that Ari is relying on Crichton to help her get home and she doesn't want to interfere with that, but...]

I will let you know.

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Lights Go Out and I Can’t Be Saved

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