[Tryse... Remains standing. Actually, no, first she's going to pace a bit. And sigh. And just.
It was a lot easier when she could just drop some poetry, but now's the time for clear language.]
I'm sorry, I'm not sure where to begin. It's just...
You're not Arthur. And I'm not Tendo Maya.
[Whoever that was. She knows her only as a Taboo and a name that Claudine mentioned as being unequalled in her affection.]
But even if we're not exactly the first in each other's hearts, we are there. Right?
[Not that she needs the confirmation. Not after the ball. Unless Claudine's like Randy and Crow and some of the others she's seen who are free with their affections but shy away from anything serious.]
[That's not a complaint. In some ways, it might be the highest form of compliment.]
There's that... kindness. Feeling that, and the clarity of your emotions, I think, during that 'game'. That's when I fell in love.
I'm probably making things overcomplicated, sorry. I'm just... Inexperienced.
[Most of Tryse's ideas about romance and how relationships work come from plays and poetry. It sort of leaves one unprepared for trying to navigate a real one.]
If we were in my sphere, this wouldn't amount to anything. I'd love you all the same, but I wouldn't, couldn't, betray Arthur by reaching out.
[But Qhyone's not going to let them go, Tryse thinks. Qhyone's going to keep them. Forever. And use them up. It wouldn't surprise her if he made them ageless, just to prolong things.
She raises Claudine's hands and presses her lips to the girl's knuckles.]
Are we to be lovers, then, knowing that each of us has someone else who remains free from our host's clutches? Or simply friends who care too much?
[Tryse would probably use 'girlfriends' rather than 'lovers' if she knew the word.]
Tryse answers in kind, slipping her hands out of Claudine's grasp and sliding them down around her waist, pulling her closer. It was an answer she wanted. It's one very hard to misread.
And it is, at least, Claudine's name that Tryse murmurs whenever the kiss breaks.]
[No, she's thrilled. She just. Doesn't want to ruin the moment. Especially not after being complimented on her 'steadiness.']
The funny thing is, someone extended an offer for a no-emotions-attached bit of physical relations a few days ago. I told him that I'd have to figure a few things out.
Guess I'm going to have to let him down gently now.
[And thankfully, before she can embarrass herself, Claudine's kissing her. Tryse closes her eyes and meets her, letting the blonde set the pace. Truth be told, she's a little scared of taking things too far. Claudine is... Classy. Elegant. Soft. The witch suspects she's nobility, honestly. And Tryse is well aware that she can get carried away.
Unbidden, her arms tighten around the singer, unwilling to let go at this little scrap of happiness that's somehow fallen into her grasp.]
[Because Tryse can't walk to her door (and privately cringes at the idea of Claudine seeing her drag herself along the ground) and calling for her seems uncouth-]
Tryse: Forgive me for not saying this in person. Tryse: I wanted you to have plenty of time to consider this, but Tryse: On Mouse, there is a man named Paracelsus von Hohenheim. Tryse: He is a healer of surpassing power and skill. I cannot match him. Tryse: He says that he is willing to try to erase the evidence of what was done to you. Tryse: He will not charge you.
[If only because Tryse has begged him to give whatever fee he desires to her instead.]
Tryse: I've crawled up to my room for some privacy. Tryse: I'm thinking of calling a meeting of Robin's Egg within the next few days. Tryse: There's been a lot of communication issues and it's become clear that the things we don't know about one another as a team can be an issue. Tryse: I'm going to try to push for a totally open revelation about a lot of details that may be important later. Tryse: I don't really want to, but we can't have a repeat of Crow's secret-holding in a crisis situation. Tryse: There's things about me that will come out. Tryse: You deserve to hear them first. Tryse: I'm afraid to look at you when you hear about these things. Tryse: But I'll leave it up to you to decide whether to hear them in person or over text.
["Know that I'll always love you" feels... manipulative. She almost adds it to the end anyway. Eventually she just deletes it.
Let Claudine decide whether she's worthy of saying that when she finds everything out.]
stardivine 🌟: I'm not going to judge, regardless. I'm annoyed as hell that Crow didn't actually tell any of us about that whole deal, though.
And I'm sure whatever it is, I'm not going to - not going to care isn't the right phrasing. But I do know that we all have our idiosyncrasies and the things we do and don't talk about. As long as it's not a matter of life and death, you know?
[Text it is. In one message, so she can't cringe away at the last minute when her courage fails.]
Tryse: I'm furious about that. So much could have gone wrong. But we'll cover that when we have our meeting and my head's cooler.
But with the revelation that this place can regress us in age and memory, as Randy has been, I feel like explaining pasts may become critically important as well. Otherwise, I'd wholly agree with the mostly hands off approach we've had to each other's privacies so far, with the exception of life or death details. But there are some of us who are just dramatically different at different points in our lives, and we need to be prepared for that.
Case in point. I'm an adventurer. I think I've mentioned it. You may recall the Heart Forge where it came up.
[How could Claudine not? It's where Tryse fell for her.]
I am not a hero. I've saved people, stopped villains, and slain monsters, but there have been points where I've been little more than a hired blade. I'm no assassin, I've never killed anyone who wasn't, or wouldn't have been, prepared to do the same. But my hands aren't clean.
I brew potions, back home. These include poisons. I don't ask questions when I sell those.
I love Arthur. I think Arthur loves me. But when we first met, I whored myself out because of the knowledge, and protection, that I was offered. I traded myself not out of love, but for what I could gain. Our relationship came later.
In the Heart Forge, I gave you my despair. The day my mistress died, two years ago. She was the closest thing I had to a mother, and taught me most of what I know now. She bought me a few years earlier for a stack of platinum coins and a bangle.
I've had three owners. My earliest memories are as a thrall to the Northmen. I never had a real name from them. I think that I might have been seven or eight when they sold me to a merchant from the south, who taught me to sing and dance so that I might be sold to a rich man some day. He called me Jamasht, Amethyst, for my eyes. Leandra didn't like it and named me after the boat we sailed home on, the Tristan.
She was murdered five years later. She never actually freed me. I was still trying to avenge her when I was taken here.
I'm sorry. I should have told you before you agreed to be with me, so you'd have known we were further apart than you'd thought. I was being dishonest, greedy.
[and this is going to be the most gentle, yet reassuring hug possible.]
Thank you for telling me. I...I think I would have broken under all of that. You didn't, and that makes you so amazing. I love you. I love you so much.
[The hug Claudine gets in return is tight, desperate. Tryse doesn't start crying, but she does bury her face in the blonde's shoulder, and she's still trembling. She'd honestly been afraid that-
Claudine was too good for her. Really, she was.]
You're so kind, Claudine. How do you manage to be so strong that you can be so kind?
I wasn't, not always. I need to talk more about the underground theatre, taboo be damned.
[deep breath, and -]
I mentioned in the heart forge that we time looped. I wish I knew how many times. I don't, and the only person that knows for sure isn't here, nor do I want Nana to be here. Because for all that she put us through, I can't hate her.
But during all that, during every single time we fought each other with our passion for life on the line - sword against sword, arrows from all directions, maces and battle axes, every single strike close enough to our hearts that we could have killed each other if we so much as missed - I couldn't call myself kind. I could have, would have, burned those other girls' fires out.
It's only now that all of that is over that I could see just how cruel I was. I'm not a princess, never have been, but I was imperious as hell despite that.
It’s not something I’m proud of, or something I’m happy to have been. We were never meant to actually hurt each other in a fight - more like a duel. We wore capes over our outfits and the first one to cut the strings holding them on would win. It just happened that those strings were located right above our hearts. It didn’t mean there weren’t close calls at times, but we were lucky.
I promise, that’s the last skeleton I had in my closet. Everything else is out there in the open, to the very best of my knowledge.
[she goes quiet for a moment.]
I can’t promise I wouldn’t put all that sword practice into use if I ever see one of the people that hurt you, though. I can forgive a lot, but one thing I refuse to is seeing someone be so cruel to someone I love. As it stands, I just wish I could make it so that none of it ever happened. I’d do it in a heartbeat. Less than one, even.
[The concept sounds... Almost cute. The close calls... Less so. Her hands slip from Claudine's cheeks to her shoulders and she leans in, giving her a light kiss on the lips before pulling back.]
We are the sum of our experiences. I've suffered. But if I didn't, I might not be the woman you love. You might not be the one I long for. All we can do is try to protect each other from now on and shape each other's futures into one that rises together.
[And if Claudine's accepted this much about her, then Tryse has nothing else to fear. Save, perhaps, the arrival of King Arthur. Or Tendo Maya.
She leans in again, trying to banish the thoughts by capturing Claudine's lips once more.]
[A little pouch, with flowers embroidered into it, hanging off of Claudine's doorknob this morning! With a note strung to it.]
It turns out that Power is afraid of the dark.
In this bag are four stones. I've enchanted each. Each one will throw out a sphere, thirty feet in radius, of blackest night. No vision can penetrate its darkness, it will swallow all light save the permanent light spells that I've placed on our team daggers, Aloy's shard, placed in the pond, and the bag I've enchanted for Airi. That spell and this spell will negate one another.
Between this and your bracelet, I shouldn't expect you to have trouble avoiding the devil in the future. Be warned, though, there are those with shadow magics here, and I do not know how they might interact if exposed to this. But unless you open this pouch around them, that shouldn't be an issue.
[Just a day of items left for Claudine, it seems: Aloy has defeated the puzzle of how to hook Claudine up with the romance movie from the angel dating sim, without having to figure out file conversion and connecting it to some kind of projector.
She’s setting a geode at her door, which can project the movie for her. Aloy does not leave a note, but considering a request to share it had been made, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out.]
Tryse: By the way, one of the plants I have growing out back Tryse: I don't know if you know it, betony? Purple flowers. I made a trade to Cricket for it. Tryse: If you place some under your pillow, or your bed, it will ward off nightmares. Sprinkling the seeds over your pillow will also work. Tryse: There's other medicinal uses, but, if I'm honest Tryse: I got it for you.
[She's not entirely certain if Power still plagues Claudine's dreams (Actually she should probably know, it's her player who isn't) but this should ward that off.]
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DAY 77
No sense in waiting to text, after all.]
Re: DAY 77
[Claudine's currently on the floor doing some stretches.]
Re: DAY 77
Re: DAY 77
Re: DAY 77
[She laughs a little, then sighs and folds her arms over her chest.]
So. I hate to get right down to business, but. I guess by now we have something to talk about, don't we?
Re: DAY 77
You're right, we do.
Re: DAY 77
It was a lot easier when she could just drop some poetry, but now's the time for clear language.]
I'm sorry, I'm not sure where to begin. It's just...
You're not Arthur. And I'm not Tendo Maya.
[Whoever that was. She knows her only as a Taboo and a name that Claudine mentioned as being unequalled in her affection.]
But even if we're not exactly the first in each other's hearts, we are there. Right?
[Not that she needs the confirmation. Not after the ball. Unless Claudine's like Randy and Crow and some of the others she's seen who are free with their affections but shy away from anything serious.]
Re: DAY 77
[She’ll stand, catching both of Tryse’s hands in hers.]
I don’t want you to be Maya. I want you to be your wonderful self.
Re: DAY 77
[That's not a complaint. In some ways, it might be the highest form of compliment.]
There's that... kindness. Feeling that, and the clarity of your emotions, I think, during that 'game'. That's when I fell in love.
I'm probably making things overcomplicated, sorry. I'm just... Inexperienced.
[Most of Tryse's ideas about romance and how relationships work come from plays and poetry. It sort of leaves one unprepared for trying to navigate a real one.]
Re: DAY 77
[Claudine's smile softens - of course she picks up the meaning between the lines.]
I love all of that, and I fell hard. You aren't making things overcomplicated.
Re: DAY 77
[But Qhyone's not going to let them go, Tryse thinks. Qhyone's going to keep them. Forever. And use them up. It wouldn't surprise her if he made them ageless, just to prolong things.
She raises Claudine's hands and presses her lips to the girl's knuckles.]
Are we to be lovers, then, knowing that each of us has someone else who remains free from our host's clutches? Or simply friends who care too much?
[Tryse would probably use 'girlfriends' rather than 'lovers' if she knew the word.]
Re: DAY 77
[Claudine has honestly thought the same. If Qhyone brought them there, then there's no sense in him letting them go.
Her response isn't in words. It can't be.
She's the one who leans in and initiates a kiss, one more heated than the one before the dance.]
Re: DAY 77
Tryse answers in kind, slipping her hands out of Claudine's grasp and sliding them down around her waist, pulling her closer. It was an answer she wanted. It's one very hard to misread.
And it is, at least, Claudine's name that Tryse murmurs whenever the kiss breaks.]
Re: DAY 77
Eventually, she pulls back, her face flushed and a smile on her lips.]
I think you know my answer now.
Re: DAY 77
You know. Being the forgetful type.
[No, she's thrilled. She just. Doesn't want to ruin the moment. Especially not after being complimented on her 'steadiness.']
The funny thing is, someone extended an offer for a no-emotions-attached bit of physical relations a few days ago. I told him that I'd have to figure a few things out.
Guess I'm going to have to let him down gently now.
Re: DAY 77
[she'll just giggle at that, but not unkindly.]
I guess so. I...think I also need to make a run to that one ruin. You know?
Re: DAY 77
That.
Okay.
[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]
Re: DAY 77
Y-yeah.
[but in the meantime, kissing is always good. Claudine's just going to initiate again.]
Re: DAY 77
[And thankfully, before she can embarrass herself, Claudine's kissing her. Tryse closes her eyes and meets her, letting the blonde set the pace. Truth be told, she's a little scared of taking things too far. Claudine is... Classy. Elegant. Soft. The witch suspects she's nobility, honestly. And Tryse is well aware that she can get carried away.
Unbidden, her arms tighten around the singer, unwilling to let go at this little scrap of happiness that's somehow fallen into her grasp.]
DAY 85 TEXT
Tryse: Forgive me for not saying this in person.
Tryse: I wanted you to have plenty of time to consider this, but
Tryse: On Mouse, there is a man named Paracelsus von Hohenheim.
Tryse: He is a healer of surpassing power and skill. I cannot match him.
Tryse: He says that he is willing to try to erase the evidence of what was done to you.
Tryse: He will not charge you.
[If only because Tryse has begged him to give whatever fee he desires to her instead.]
Re: DAY 85 TEXT
Re: DAY 85 TEXT
Tryse: Of course.
Tryse: I love you.
Re: DAY 85 TEXT
Tryse: I've crawled up to my room for some privacy.
Tryse: I'm thinking of calling a meeting of Robin's Egg within the next few days.
Tryse: There's been a lot of communication issues and it's become clear that the things we don't know about one another as a team can be an issue.
Tryse: I'm going to try to push for a totally open revelation about a lot of details that may be important later.
Tryse: I don't really want to, but we can't have a repeat of Crow's secret-holding in a crisis situation.
Tryse: There's things about me that will come out.
Tryse: You deserve to hear them first.
Tryse: I'm afraid to look at you when you hear about these things.
Tryse: But I'll leave it up to you to decide whether to hear them in person or over text.
["Know that I'll always love you" feels... manipulative. She almost adds it to the end anyway. Eventually she just deletes it.
Let Claudine decide whether she's worthy of saying that when she finds everything out.]
Re: DAY 85 TEXT
And I'm sure whatever it is, I'm not going to - not going to care isn't the right phrasing. But I do know that we all have our idiosyncrasies and the things we do and don't talk about. As long as it's not a matter of life and death, you know?
Re: DAY 85 TEXT
Tryse: I'm furious about that. So much could have gone wrong. But we'll cover that when we have our meeting and my head's cooler.
But with the revelation that this place can regress us in age and memory, as Randy has been, I feel like explaining pasts may become critically important as well. Otherwise, I'd wholly agree with the mostly hands off approach we've had to each other's privacies so far, with the exception of life or death details. But there are some of us who are just dramatically different at different points in our lives, and we need to be prepared for that.
Case in point. I'm an adventurer. I think I've mentioned it. You may recall the Heart Forge where it came up.
[How could Claudine not? It's where Tryse fell for her.]
I am not a hero. I've saved people, stopped villains, and slain monsters, but there have been points where I've been little more than a hired blade. I'm no assassin, I've never killed anyone who wasn't, or wouldn't have been, prepared to do the same. But my hands aren't clean.
I brew potions, back home. These include poisons. I don't ask questions when I sell those.
I love Arthur. I think Arthur loves me. But when we first met, I whored myself out because of the knowledge, and protection, that I was offered. I traded myself not out of love, but for what I could gain. Our relationship came later.
In the Heart Forge, I gave you my despair. The day my mistress died, two years ago. She was the closest thing I had to a mother, and taught me most of what I know now. She bought me a few years earlier for a stack of platinum coins and a bangle.
I've had three owners. My earliest memories are as a thrall to the Northmen. I never had a real name from them. I think that I might have been seven or eight when they sold me to a merchant from the south, who taught me to sing and dance so that I might be sold to a rich man some day. He called me Jamasht, Amethyst, for my eyes. Leandra didn't like it and named me after the boat we sailed home on, the Tristan.
She was murdered five years later. She never actually freed me. I was still trying to avenge her when I was taken here.
I'm sorry. I should have told you before you agreed to be with me, so you'd have known we were further apart than you'd thought. I was being dishonest, greedy.
That's everything.
text -> action;
I need to give you a hug, and I need to give it to you right now.
Re: text -> action;
[Her voice is more than a little choked. Tryse herself is... Just kind of huddled up on the pile of sheets and pillows she calls a bed.
A small part of her notes that this is a good reaction, but she's still feeling a little too emotionally raw to immediately celebrate.]
no subject
Thank you for telling me. I...I think I would have broken under all of that. You didn't, and that makes you so amazing. I love you. I love you so much.
no subject
Claudine was too good for her. Really, she was.]
You're so kind, Claudine. How do you manage to be so strong that you can be so kind?
no subject
[deep breath, and -]
I mentioned in the heart forge that we time looped. I wish I knew how many times. I don't, and the only person that knows for sure isn't here, nor do I want Nana to be here. Because for all that she put us through, I can't hate her.
But during all that, during every single time we fought each other with our passion for life on the line - sword against sword, arrows from all directions, maces and battle axes, every single strike close enough to our hearts that we could have killed each other if we so much as missed - I couldn't call myself kind. I could have, would have, burned those other girls' fires out.
It's only now that all of that is over that I could see just how cruel I was. I'm not a princess, never have been, but I was imperious as hell despite that.
no subject
[And then, she listens. Biased as she is, she still can't see Claudine as the villain in this. Combat- that happens.
She hadn't realized it happened to Claudine, though, and it makes her heart clench in fresh fear.]
I didn't know. I thought you were just... a singer. A dancer.
[She pulls back a little, slipping her arms out and her hands up to cup Claudine's cheeks.]
But I look at you now, and I don't see a trace of cruelty. No unkindness. No cruelty. No ruthlessness.
I see my Claudine, my sun, who I love more than anyone else. Who I'd choose over anyone else.
Perhaps you could, and would, have extinguished them then. I don't think the woman in front of me would.
no subject
I promise, that’s the last skeleton I had in my closet. Everything else is out there in the open, to the very best of my knowledge.
[she goes quiet for a moment.]
I can’t promise I wouldn’t put all that sword practice into use if I ever see one of the people that hurt you, though. I can forgive a lot, but one thing I refuse to is seeing someone be so cruel to someone I love. As it stands, I just wish I could make it so that none of it ever happened. I’d do it in a heartbeat. Less than one, even.
no subject
We are the sum of our experiences. I've suffered. But if I didn't, I might not be the woman you love. You might not be the one I long for. All we can do is try to protect each other from now on and shape each other's futures into one that rises together.
[And if Claudine's accepted this much about her, then Tryse has nothing else to fear. Save, perhaps, the arrival of King Arthur. Or Tendo Maya.
She leans in again, trying to banish the thoughts by capturing Claudine's lips once more.]
DAY 96
It turns out that Power is afraid of the dark.
In this bag are four stones. I've enchanted each. Each one will throw out a sphere, thirty feet in radius, of blackest night. No vision can penetrate its darkness, it will swallow all light save the permanent light spells that I've placed on our team daggers, Aloy's shard, placed in the pond, and the bag I've enchanted for Airi. That spell and this spell will negate one another.
Between this and your bracelet, I shouldn't expect you to have trouble avoiding the devil in the future. Be warned, though, there are those with shadow magics here, and I do not know how they might interact if exposed to this. But unless you open this pouch around them, that shouldn't be an issue.
Day 96
She’s setting a geode at her door, which can project the movie for her. Aloy does not leave a note, but considering a request to share it had been made, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out.]
DAY 120
Tryse: I don't know if you know it, betony? Purple flowers. I made a trade to Cricket for it.
Tryse: If you place some under your pillow, or your bed, it will ward off nightmares. Sprinkling the seeds over your pillow will also work.
Tryse: There's other medicinal uses, but, if I'm honest
Tryse: I got it for you.
[She's not entirely certain if Power still plagues Claudine's dreams (Actually she should probably know, it's her player who isn't) but this should ward that off.]