001

[solmate]

WHO: Alina Starkov + OPEN
WHAT: July catch all, including backdated dungeon visits
WHERE: Dungeons, Horizon
WHEN: post-Frostwurm event through July event
NOTES: Starters in top levels, feel free to pm me or send me a private plurk (hellbender) if you want a custom start. I'll also take wildcards!

Comments

a visit from a special friend (closed to kirigan)

[solmate]

[ He must be alive, she decides. Otherwise they wouldn't have let her out of the solitary cell so quickly.

Not that her stint in there wasn't horrible, passage of time a meaningless thing stretching out to feel like something endless. She thought of Mal, of course, a guilt eating at her gut about drafting him to a fight that isn't his own. She has no choice — the kindest thing she can do for Mal is let him still have that choice. Let him be free.

At some point with her face pressed up against the stone floor, listening to a distant drip of water, she wonders what the passage of time must feel like for Kirigan.

It's no wonder he's gone a bit mad.

Weak, for more reasons just than a day or so of even worse food in solitary, Alina has little desire to do anything than lay on her straw bunk. One day, she convinces the guards to let her stay in her cell while the rest of her cellmates are released for their standard rec time.

Footsteps approaching, she cranes her neck to see if it's someone she recognized. Perhaps she can convince them to smuggle her another book or a pencil.

First, a resolution to the uncertainty knocking around her chest. Then, her nose wrinkles in irritation. She rolls from one side to the other, curling away, her symbol's noose emblazoned on her back.

Apparently she doesn't feel like talking. ]

[sankt]

[So Alina sees the Darkling briefly, then, and perhaps their eyes meet before she turns away.

Even at a glance he's looking much improved: properly groomed, clean-skinned and sharper-eyed, a man whose sleep debt is well on its way to being paid in full. What he wears now is soft and loose, not so different from the way he dressed in his chambers. Still, alongside this renewed comfort there remains a sense of hunger about him that renders all his sculpted edges a little sharper.

After letting the silence settle in place of a greeting, to her back he says,]

I heard they locked you away.

[solmate]

[ Even in the low light of the dungeon, he no longer looks like the ghost of himself, deprived of something that is his very nature. It itches at the back of her skull, her fingernails digging into her arms to keep her eyes steeled on the wall in front of her. She won't look back, she cannot look back.

Self-control is a fleeting thing, though, and Alina's reserve of restraint has been long emptied. The silence broken, she jerks up to meet his eyes. ]

I thought we left you.

[sankt]

How frustrating for you.

[His voice is as smooth as the gleam that crosses a turning blade. Whether she meant in the tunnels or in the Fold doesn't matter; the result is unchanging.]

Making the same decision, again and again, only to achieve the same result every time.

[solmate]

It's not a mistake I intend to make again.

[ Remembering the horrible sound of metal against flesh, how easily he crumpled to the ground makes her feel nauseous, but perhaps not as sick as the fact that she still regrets she wasn't the one able to deal the blow to his head. Would he beg the saints for mercy? ]

[sankt]

No? Planning a change in tactic? Or will your next attempt definitely be the one that works.

[That horrible blunt sound, and the ground rising to meet him—looking at Kirigan now, they'd might as well never have happened at all. This is the lesson she and her tracker have yet to learn. It wasn't a real question, anyway, so he leaves little room for an answer—]

Tell me how you imagine our future unfolding here.

[Not futures, plural; that would imply a divergence. There's just the one.]

[solmate]

[ It's a conscious effort, to not let herself be goaded into revealing too much information. Although that sort of hinges on her actually having some sort of plan or information to reveal. All she has is herself, Mal, and their combined resilience.

They're survivors. They'll figure out something.

It doesn't last for long, sitting up straight on her bunk, the low light illuminates the peaks of Morozova's collar poking out from her hair. ]

Since when do you care about what I think?

[ He's seemed perfectly content to make a path for the both of them regardless of what she wanted. Even if it resembled something she wanted. She doesn't have the luxury of forgetting. She's choked by it every moment of the day. ]

dungeon visits (freed cr)

[solmate]

[ Alina's last attempt request didn't garner much of a response, but this time she's come prepared. She's stashed the jam and candies Assistant Mage Jolene brought to her solitary cell and guards them closely. Her cellmates seem like nice enough people, but this is valuable loot.

It's a last resort though, and probably not even that valuable to the people walking around the castle freely. So, she's keeping them only if she can't find any other way to convince them. ]

Hey—

[ She sticks her hand out of her cell, trying to wave a visitor down. If she catches their eye, she motions for them to come closer. ]

hiiii c:

[falcony]

[ he's on his way out from his talk with mal when he notices the girl reaching out through the bars. sam had been planning on heading back up to get back to work on the crystal and the rest of what mal had told him, but finds himself unable to just keep walking.

sam approaches her easily enough, curious and a bit wary. it's not so much that he doesn't trust her as he's worried about having to turn her down if she asks him to help her get out. still, he's there all the same, checking her over and making sure she's physically okay at first before catching her eyes. ]

Name's Sam, by the way. So you don't have to keep yelling 'hey' whenever someone passes.

[ it's a bit of a joke, hopefully to lighten up the mood at least a little bit. ]

hehe

[solmate]

[ For someone who had never met Alina, she probably doesn't look too different than what might be expected from a prisoner. Tired, kind of unkempt. Pale, like the light has been drained from her face. Her cheeks a touch hollow. All things that are easy to pass off as the result of imprisonment, aside from the antlers peeking out of her skin, but Alina's gotten good at using her hair and her prison garb to try and hide those. ]

Oh— [ There's a spark of recognition. ] Mal mentioned you. I think.

[ He mentioned a Sam, she's not sure if it's this Sam, but he's friendly enough that Alina is pretty confident that he is, in fact, the Sam in question. And that means she can immediately launch into her questioning rather than having to try and convince someone to feed her info about Mal. ]

Is he okay? Is he out of solitary? He hit his head, do you know if they took him to a healer?

[ Her questions are rapid, not waiting for an answer between them. Normally she wouldn't be so eager to give details to a stranger about them, but this is far from normal. If they'll ever have a normal ever again. ]

[falcony]

[ that doesn't really help matters, when it comes to sam feeling off about this whole experience. after talking to mal, after being down here and seeing this and feeling all of the injustice hit a little too close to home, sam is just starting to feel. a bit more than just frustrated. and seeing this girl reaching out, looking thin and dirty and unkempt, has sam working pretty hard to keep the unhappy tension out of his jaw.

the spark of recognition in her face has sam pausing, though. blinking once. ] Mal mentioned...me? [ he needs a second, maybe a second, before it clicks and sam has his own spark of recognition mirrored back to her. ] Oh, oh, you're Alina. [ there's a hint of a smile, if only because he can see it - why mal had called her pretty, how she could be the one who gets him to make rash decisions.

( sam is also struck with how young she is. how young they both are. there is a curling in his stomach, again, but he swallows it back. )

at her questions, sam lifts his hands in a semi-defensive manner at her insistence, trying to calm her. ] Hey, hey- breathe. He's okay. He's got that nasty bruise, but he was all together, and didn't seem to have any head trauma. Alina- [ he lifts his brows, waiting for her to pause, to take a breath. when she finally does, he lets a little of that smile peek through again. ]

He's alright, I promise. You don't know me, but believe me when I say that if he wasn't, I wouldn't be standing here. You can trust me on that. [ sam would be raising hell to get him out. but alina doesn't know sam yet, so it's possible she doesn't know that much either. still, sam lets out a breath and shakes his head. he would ask how two teenagers got themselves into so much trouble, but he doesn't need to ask. he can guess.

and then, after a short pause where he lets that sink in and for alina to hopefully relax a bit, sam lifts a brow. ] He told me it was your idea.

[solmate]

[ Her relief is visible, an almost tangible thing to know that Mal is okay. Maybe not totally fine but when have they ever had the luxury of being totally fine.

And then her jaw works, defiant and defensive. She swallows hard as if holding back a protest. Not one that butts up against the fact that it was her idea, no. Her protest is against the idea that given their circumstances, they had any choice but try and run.

Her knuckles tighten on the iron bars, her guilt obvious and plain on her face. It's her fault. It's always her fault. Who even lit the lantern on the skiff that day anyway? Maybe the Volcra wouldn't have even stormed the skiff if she hadn't forced her unit onto it.

Her head dips, shoulders slumping. ]

We were only going to look for an hour or so. If we couldn't find a way out we were going to come right back.

[ A fine idea in practice. Terrible in execution, but if he's already visited Mal then she doesn't need to explain that anymore. ]

[falcony]

[ sam sees the defensiveness in it, the way her jaw tightens, at his poke at her. he's not surprised in the least by the fire and stubbornness he sees reflected back to him. if anything, she's just about what he could have expected from the girl mal would not stop talking about.

there's a whole series of emotions that cross over her face, and sam suddenly feels a bit bad for hitting on what is apparently a sore point. his conspiratorial look drops to something a bit more concerned. ]

You don't need to defend yourself to me, Alina. I don't blame you two for trying to run- Mal's been trying to get you out of here since I met him. I'm more surprised it wasn't his idea. [ sam dips his head a little, trying to get alina to meet his eyes. he's picking up on a few things, here, but he doesn't know the girl well enough to assume anything at all. but that flash of guilt, that bunching of shoulders. god, these kids had it bad. ]

Where were you headed? [ a beat, and then sam gives a small, encouraging smile. he doesn't want this to feel like an interrogation - he's more curious than anything. ]

cell or rec yard chatter (prison cr)

[solmate]

[ Released from solitary, Alina missed the shuffling of prisoners out of the dungeons into the freedom of the castle. All she knows is they've at least gained one with Mal. ]

It feels like there's less of us... do you know if everyone came back from the mountains alright?

[the_archive]

[Jon looks around, while seeking one of the sunnier parts of the yard.]

I'm not certain. A few have been freed.

[solmate]

[ Oh. Alina pauses for a moment, crossing her arms clearly feeling a little sour. Then again, if Alina wanted a better chance at getting freed, she probably shouldn't have made a run for it. Or fought with the Darkling. Or left him unconscious in the depths of the mines.

But otherwise there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to who's missing. ]

Lucky them.

[the_archive]

[Jon nods agreement, looking around the yard, and up.]

I sponsored Coraline out of here, before- well.

[solmate]

You were out before?

[ That catches her by surprise, her eyebrows lifting as her head turns quickly to look back over at him. ]

Sorry— [ She calms herself, trying to not act too interested on what's happening on the outside. ] My friend was out before, but we ran into some trouble in the mines... I didn't know anyone else was moved into here.

[the_archive]

[Jon shrugs, still a little stiff, and gives her a look that while still tired, is sympathetic.]

I'm sorry for your friend.

sometime after horizon

[solmate]

Aleksander,

Already her lips twist into a sour frown looking at it immortalized in ink in her own script. Paper is precious though, relying on the kindness of the honored others to smuggle parchment down to her. She could try scratching it out, but then she is left with a record of this transgression. It'd be easy enough for him to figure out what she's attempting to cover up. She absolutely cannot reuse this piece to draft a note to Mal.

(She decides to leave it.)

Still, drops of ink pool on the paper as her pen hovers in the air, unsure of how to proceed. Finally, she decides on the shortest possible way to communicate her agreement, should anyone able to read Ravkan see it by chance she has plausible deniability.

We all do what we must to survive.

-Alina

She folds the note as soon as the ink is dried. It now only presents the small problem of getting the note to him. Susan won't do after she's asked her to only ferry notes to Mal. Sam is an even worse option; Alina's sure Mal has already warned him about Kirigan.

No, this is a delicate matter that will require a different courier. Thankfully, it is not too long until a potential one finds himself walking in front of her cell.

"I recognize you."

[photophobic]

There she is. Kylo's lips tug into a shallow, lopsided curve. How strange it is, to connect the girl from the crystalline desert with Alina, the presumably less culpable half of the pair that brained Kirigan with a shovel and left him to die in the Frostwurm burrows.

"You should," he says.

Admittedly, Kylo doesn't look particularly comfortable down here. In the dampening field of the dungeons, there's a dramatic shift to his posture. He looks, possibly, pained.

"Strange, isn't it. Which of us supposedly belong down here."

[solmate]

Alina's chin tips back, confused. Is she supposed to know him from somewhere else? Tall and pale and one of the two that actually didn't find her domain terrifyingly hostile, it's easy to mentally associate him with Kirigan. Younger, of course, but she'd bet good money that everyone is. Certainly not as collected either.

"I haven't done anything to deserve being down here," her protest comes quickly. It's not a lie, she honestly doesn't like to dwell too much on that Frostwurm encounter that it's easy to push out of her mind. Especially when there are other encounters with him on the brain...

[photophobic]

"No?"

Kylo's tone is more curious than combative, which might be more infuriating than he'd intended depending on just how similar to Rey she truly is.

"From what I've learned, I think most of the summoned have done something that could justify imprisonment. Perhaps all of us."

[solmate]

Her lip twitches, pulling taught into the faintest sneer borne more from immaturity than anything else. She's tired and impatient. She wants little more than to be free of these dungeons. No... not even that. The dungeons are tolerable. It's the stifling emptiness that's taken the place of her light that robs her of a peaceful night's rest more than the thin, straw mattresses.

"Then just call me unlucky," not a new thing. She could go on a tirade about how other people deserve to be down here more than her, but it's not exactly an easy transition from that to needing a note delivered to him.

[photophobic]

"Or unwise," Kylo points out. "If you hadn't sided with your friend with the shovel, you might have been pardoned along with Kirigan. The others who proved themselves willing to co-operate and were released."

He watches her expression for a moment, then lets his eyes track down to the antler points piercing up through her skin. Somehow, he'd expected them to be a fiction of the Horizon much like his own fire-tipped fingers. Interesting.