abraxaslogs

Entry tags:

002

WHO: Alina + closed starters (Kirigan, Ciri, Kylo, Geralt)
WHAT: Alina haunts some friends new and old
WHERE: Free Cities, the Horizon
WHEN: Throughout October
NOTES: No warnings currently. This will be a catch-all for October threads. If you'd like a custom starter, dm me and we'll figure something out!

Threaded | Flat

One day in the Horizon, Kylo will find a small gift in his domain.

Two twin snakes, poised in battle against each other and crafted in crystal. Miniatures of the snakes that sit in her domain, although she hasn't mimicked the deep obsidian of his contribution. Her control is better, finer. She almost doesn't want to give it up, although she supposes she can come visit it.

With the gift is a note. It had taken her some time to steel the nerve for the ask, but while he had pointed out the risk of her request, he had not denied her. She does not think he would agree out of any sense of obligation.

I think I need your help.

Edited 2021-10-01 02:44 (UTC)

[ Alina taps the charcoal idly at the edge of the parchment, the light filtering in through the high window of their small apartment in Cadens quickly fading. She presses her hand through the orange beam fingers mirroring how she would summon the light if she had to.

Mal isn't back from his day's work. A little late, but not so much that she worries. He takes the extra work when he can, and she uses the privacy to practice bits of summoning. She hasn't puzzled out how he feels about it yet. Antlers around her neck, her light burning his meadow in the Horizon, she can't help but think the reminders of her power are not exactly comforting.

Stretching on the bed, she toys with the light in earnest now, twirling it around her fingers like fidgeting with the charcoal. Little tricks... how is she supposed to push herself to something more.

Closing her eyes, she focuses herself, breathing deeply. She thinks of the antlers around her neck, a power knocking at the base of her skull, dulled tones of what it felt like when she touched Kirigan's skin. She screws her eyes more tightly closed, if only she could unlock it.

There is a shift in... something, like the air moves around her. She sucks in a breath, eyes opening to a blurred room and a figure coming into focus.

He's polishing his shoes.

She's not sure why it amuses her so much, to see him doing something so painfully normal, the combination of confusion and amusement dousing out the immediate fury she might have felt. Is this even real? ]

I would have thought you'd find someone to do that for you.

Edited 2021-10-01 02:33 (UTC)

[ Alina wakes up alone.

She had stayed up late into the night, the city eerily quiet, fighting against the slow blink of her heavy lids. Stubbornly, she tries to hold onto consciousness. She should have started looking for him hours ago.

Which is ridiculous. Mal is brave and Mal is a talented tracker and Mal has always found his way back to her and tomorrow he will return wearing a large grin from ear to ear and a bounty of furred nocturnal animals to make into a luxurious coat or blanket to keep her warm at night.

But that doesn't happen, and a void seems to sit in her stomach. ]

Sam— [ Her voice is soft, hesitant, rough on the edges with sleep as she comes out to the common area of the apartment they share, threadbare blanket drawn around her shoulders.

She tends to keep to herself, letting Mal lead with him, the same as anyone they both now for the most part. Mal was the charming and easy-going half; she was more like a feral cat. ]

Did Mal come home last night?

Edited 2021-10-01 03:07 (UTC)

[ Sam doesn't come to him for much. Neither does Geralt in return. So when the man shows up without warning in the middle of the night, he already knows it's nothing good. His search yields little. Mal's vanished without a trace. Here, and then gone. Not a portal. At least, not that he can tell. It's something else, something he can't yet understand.

When Sam tells him Mal's Horizon domain is gone, too—it'd be easy to leave it at that. What else could it mean?

For Geralt, that's not good enough. That he's no longer trying to find someone he thinks might still be alive and well isn't the point. He can still try to find out what the fuck happened. No body, no blood, not even a trace of anything. The whole incident leaves him uneasy. If one of them can simply disappear, then what about everyone else? He's been digging around for the past couple days. Putting off, a little, going to Alina for more information. He doesn't know either of them well—Mal or Alina—but he is aware they're close. From the same world. He probably isn't the person she wants to speak to about this right now, if she even wants to talk to anyone in the first place. All he has are dead ends and not a damn clue where else he should pick up the trail.

He knocks on the door, anyhow. She knows Mal best. And if he gets shut out, then he gets shut out. Wouldn't be the first time. He's come by the house before, here and there, but usually he's looking for Sam. He waits patiently off to the side, listening for the footsteps and heartbeat alike that'll tell him someone's home—shuffling through the information he's got, what he's missing. ]

[ Sam has assured her that she can (and should, as he's not taking no for an answer) spend the night. Geralt is with Jaskier and Sam. Jaskier is... on be mend, perhaps. Hopefully.

Ciri still feels a little sick.

She timidly raps her knuckles against Alina's bedroom door, waiting a beat to hear some sort of assent from inside before pushing it open and peeking in with an uncharacteristic uncertainty about her, the set of her shoulders tense and guarded. She's still unwashed, smeared with sweat and blood and wearing an ill-fitting men's tunic she bought for cheap yesterday after she ruined her shirt bandaging up Jaskier's wound. She's been riding hard for two days now, sleeping and eating poorly, and it shows.

By now, Alina probably knows what's going on and why ~~the whole damn Witcher cast~~ Ciri and Geralt are staying over, and that only makes Ciri more uncomfortable and embarrassed. But Sam has suggested she might be able to stay in Alina's room, use their bath and get some rest, and Ciri is... trying. It's too bad they won't simply let her run off into the night. ]

Alina? It's Ciri. Can I come in?

Threaded | Flat

kylo (horizon)

kirigan (tether)

sam (cadens)

shortly after mal's disappearance (cadens)

after jaskier gets injured (cadens)