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

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. ]

[solmate]

[ It shouldn't surprise her to hear that Mal's apparently been planning something from the beginning. He (maybe a little less than genuinely) joked about trading places with her and kept her company for long stretches of hours until the guards kicked him out.

Ideally, she rubs her thumb over her other palm, twisting her hands, thinking of how he reached through the bars to hold her hand. She misses it. ]

Anywhere.

[ Her answer carries an honest sincerity that edges close to desperation. Truly anywhere if they could get out. Alina might have had to give up a chance at restoring her light if they actually could run. A trapped animal would gnaw off its own leg for a chance at freedom, but ultimately she didn't have to make that decision.

The collar slipped back around her neck, a leash tugged her back. Even wolves learned how to obey a master with enough time. Did they just get tired of fighting? ]

Anywhere. [ Her conviction feels a little more forced now like she's trying go convince herself. ] He can track, I can... [ Well, never mind. She actually can't do much right now. She'd probably be a drag and slow him down. ] We'd survive.

[falcony]

[ the sound of her voice tugs at something in sam's chest. he feels like he knows mal well enough, but in seeing the desperate hope in alina's face makes him wonder what exactly it is they've run from. what they're still running from, here. he feels the urge to let his small smile drop if only because he doesn't even know if it will help anything, given the survival he sees written all over her.

but what is he to do? they want to run, to get anywhere else, and now they're both in cells. cells that phoenix works day and night to get them out of, but progress only moves so quickly. sam's eyes dart off down the hall, to where mal's cell is, and he lets out a breath. something like a sigh. he hates how helpless he feels, that he can't just make a few calls and make this happen, but they're all in new territory here. ]

Listen- I know you two will survive, and I'm not going to tell you to stop trying to make a break for it. [ he turns back to alina, looking a bit more serious now. ] But there are people on our side- [ he gestures between them. ] -who are working on getting you out of here. And that's harder to pull off when we're not all on the same page.

[ part of sam wants to tell her to hold tight, to trust that the work they're doing will get them free. he wants to tell her it'll be alright, and that she and mal will both be okay in the end, if she can just hold still...but he won't. he doesn't know what it is he's seeing in her eyes, but it stops any niceties or placating words he might have said right in his chest, and instead, sam shakes his head. ]

Just...you or Mal give me a heads up next time you try something like that, okay? I can't help you if I don't know what you're going to do.

[solmate]

[ Alina sucks in a measured breath, her eyes warily scanning Sam up and down. Mal trusts him. She wants to trust him too. She's been burnt so many times recently, though, when an ounce of compassion turned out to be anything but.

Saints, at least Thorne had the courtesy of throwing her in an actual dungeon instead of dressing it up and pretending it was something else.

She and Mal have the luxury of appearing ordinary at least. What could Sam or anyone possibly want with a simple country boy and girl? She swallows hard, her voice quiet but resolute. ]

Okay.

[ By which she means, absolutely not. Maybe. Probably. She needs to talk to Mal more to get a better feel for what's happening, what he thinks of Sam. She ducks her head. Charismatic men and devious women have knocked her off balance; she's not sure she can trust herself or her judgement anymore, let alone anyone else. ]

I don't think this— [ She raises her head, gesturing to the dungeon around them. ] —is going to change anytime soon.

[ So no jail breaks, at least for a bit. ]

[falcony]

[ sam is no stranger to distrust - if he counts his inner circle of colleagues for the better part of the last five years, he's actually quite expert in recognizing it. so he doesn't fault her for the lookover, and why he doesn't shy away from it either, his look remaining open. honest. she'll pick up on the fact he generally says what he means after they've had more than a single conversation, but until then sam can be patient.

he can take her answer, her okay. because whether or not alina trusts him, sam trusts her. and maybe that won't work out for him, and maybe there will be stumbling blocks on the road ahead, but all he can do is hold up his side. trust mal, and by extension, trust alina.

and as she gestures around, sam's eyes follow her hands. look to the cell around her, her cellmates. there's a look of displeasure that crosses his eyes for half a second at the state of things. at the hell they're putting people through down here, but then it's gone. ]

We're working on it, I promise. just need a little more time. [ and then his expression softens. ] Until then, what do you need? Food? Clothes? How can I help?

[solmate]

[ Time. She supposes she has plenty of that. She should be good at waiting, since she's done it her whole life. Too bad she's horribly impatient. Her lip pulls to the side as her head rests against one of the cool iron bars, seemingly resigned to the fact that she must wait even if she isn't very pleased with it.

It is not the most mature move the Sun Summoner has ever pulled, but part of the advantage of being an anonymous teenager is that someone like Genya or Baghra isn't in the background telling her to stand up straight or stop looking like someone's kicked her dog. She has to beat herself up about those things, and honestly she isn't very good at it.

She wears her youth fully, at least for this moment, and it's only exaggerated with the cautious hopefulness that crosses her expression when he asks how he can help. ]

Paper. And a pencil or ink. [ Not very precious things on the surface, but clearly invaluable to her. She pauses, taking a breath in as if to go on before stopping herself again, at war with whether or not this next request is too greedy. Ultimately, her desire to ask wins out. ] And books? If you can sneak them down...

[falcony]

[ that's just it though, isn't it? sam has no idea who alina is outside of the fact she's close to mal, she's young, and she's been locked in a cell. as far as sam's concerned, she can look and act however she wants to. sam's not going to judge her.

he does light up a bit himself at the hopeful look she gives him, nodding along as she asks for more items. because yes, okay, that is something he can do, and when he mentions paper and ink, sam simply nods. they are pieces of who alina that fall into place pretty easily, but it does hit sam once more. how young she is. how unfair all this is. he remembers mal mentioning that she's been down in the dungeons since they arrived, and the guilt in his chest continues to grow. ]

I'll see what I can snag. [ if they were any closer, he'd reach on through the bars and squeeze her hand. as it stands, he's not in the mood to push his luck, so all he can do is smile at her. ] And I'll be back, probably tomorrow. But take care of yourself until then, okay?

[ that's when he'll head back up the stairs, slowly trying to plan how to sneak down whole books in his tunic....whatever. it'll work. he'll figure it out. ]