come_sailaway | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, she did not miss the snark from the teens, but Valdis simply swirls her drink around the glass and takes another sip instead of replying right away. She's not even sure where to start and it's not like Darcy would even care if she apologized. But it's not like being trapped in that memory was her fault. The stupid rifts caught anyone that passed. really, she has no regrets except for losing that dagger.

"Suit yourself," she replies with a sigh. "I'll let you know if I see Friday. Maybe you'll be faster than her this time."

"Okay, first of all, I can legally buy alcohol back home, it's not my fault the Captain is an Ameriboo," which is the only natural explanation for a majority of things aboard the ship and in the excursions.

"Second, why, are you going to pick another fight with a faceless woman?"

Valdis sets her drink down and it sloshes a little as she tries very hard to not break it against the counter.

"I don't think anything would have changed that woman's mind, so I don't know why you blame me for the twisted politics of your own world."

Clearly she's not against picking a fight with an emo teenager either.

"We literally have writings from my Krewe going back past the 1600s, and there has never been a single instance of her killing anyone, because nobody has ever in the entire recorded history of ghost hunting in Lyon been dumb enough to pick a fight with one of the fucking Kerberoi."

So yeah Darcy's gonna keep blaming Valdis. Also they're goth not emo there's a difference.

"She doesn't have to like us, she just has to work with us, and we just have to not try and fuck with one of the guardians of death itself? So? Anyway, thanks for that, I really wanted another death to add to my collection."

"Oh, and you think I did?"

It takes quite a bit of self control to not shatter the glass in her hand so she releases it and withdraws her hand.

"You have no idea how I feel about it and you don't even care, it's all about you, isn't it?"

"You... followed me into a sacred space, desecrated it, and picked a fight with the guardian of it? Am I meant to be comforting you about that?"

Even with Darcy's underdeveloped social skills, they know that's Gotta not be it.

"I mean, you did also get someone important to me killed, so by that measure, no, it's not all about me, actually."

"Couple things: A. I didn't know it was sacred. B. I didn't pick the fight. And C. My very existence is an abomination against my own world, so I don't really care if my presence was unwelcome in your memory. I'm used to it and have been for a few thousand years."

But, there is something to be said about the other part.

"But I am sorry that my ignorance got your friend killed."

Because even if it hadn't actually happened, the emotions are still real.

"Thank you, honestly, for caring more about getting someone else killed in my memory than about killing me."

Darcy leans their head back against the wall behind the bar to roll their eyes with appropriate gusto.

"It's the underworld. Of course it's fucking sacred. It's the most sacred place there is. I had to fast for three days just to be allowed down there. And fucking, news flash, I'm also an abomination to nature, I just know how to fucking act."

"You know how to act?"

This kid is impossible and she almost has no words.

"I'm so sorry, Darcy, for not knowing the customs of a world I've never been to."

She's not sure why she's losing her temper. It's not actually something she does...at all. Ever. Or at least not in her memory. You can't be upset at inferior creatures for being stupid, they don't know better. There's absolutely no reason to be upset over the rudeness of a teenaged ghost.

"I'm sorry my lack of knowledge got you killed, and I'm sorry that my dying in your memory didn't mean anything to anyone else."

Because...she hadn't told anyone. At all. And no one had even noticed.

Whatever volatility in Darcy's emotions started this, Darcy feels almost... bored, now. Yell at a teenager long enough and it stops being threatening.

"Nobody gave a shit that I died either. So."

What do you want them to do about it.

"Are you done?"

"I did." She says quietly. "I was just too ashamed to talk to you about it."

But yeah, she's done and she downs her drink in preparation to leave.

Darcy makes no attempt to stop her leaving. They have no use for pity.

After she leaves, a few moments go by silently.

Then there's a loud "GAH- I WASN'T EVEN DOING ANYTHING-" when Friday inevitably shows up.

Lights Go Out and I Can’t Be Saved

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