bursts into tears

[oversea]

Comments

[oversea]

[ it is not the first time they have run away, and very far from the hardest, as that will always be their abandonment of rhodes and his ship. but it's easy to think that when he doesn't know what the damage of fleeing will do here. he makes sure not to look at anyone.

...

when they reach the bars, he stops. ]

I'll put our belongings in the cart. Get the Doctor.

[transmit]

[ they can find out later that rhodes never pursued them is because it blew up. for now, he quietly nods, trying to vain to keep himself from spiraling into further paranoia. the solution to so many of their problems has been each other and the intimacy they provide, but that's hard when they need to keep moving. ]

Yeah. [ his hand finds thorns' shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before he moves on. ] I'll just be a minute.

[oversea]

[ he just nods, before getting their bags and supplies situated. they are leaving so quickly that their food stash is not as large as he'd want it to be, but they can just hunt and gather on the road, so it's not the end of the world.

but thorns will wait for him to return..... ]

[transmit]

[ he returns with docybara in tow, who looks delighted at the prospect of seeing both thorns and elysium in a rare second sighting. it scurries up to thorns and nuzzles its snout against him, while elysium just watches from a short distance. this is the happiness he needs to protect—he needs to stop worrying about other things, or he'll fail them like he's failed thorns so many times before.

he moves to catch up, readies the harness for the burdenbeast, and begins fastening it around him. ]

Anything we're particularly low on?

[oversea]

We'll likely have to go hunting as soon as we find a good spot for it that's safe.

[ safe as in distance, since he isn't sure how far out elysium wants to go before they stop anywhere. the problem with not knowing what they're running from is that he isn't sure if it's something specific to the town or if it goes on outside of it. ]

We have enough water that we should last a bit, but I'd still want to find some fresh water sooner than later to get more.

[ there's likely a well in town, but it would definitely be way too suspicious to go it right now considering they grabbed the doctor. ]

[transmit]

[ that's the real question, isn't it? which route they should take and how far they should go. that's the thing about operating with limited intel—thorns knows almost as much as elysium does.

tipping off someone on the inside would've potentially been more dangerous for them, if he personally wasn't on some kind of list by virtue of helping. did he make a mistake by taking up this job to begin with? maybe. but there's only moving on and not looking back. ]

We should be alright. Let's avoid travelling along the river and stick to the forested areas. We can scope out how safe it is for water separately once we've gained some distance from town.

[ …

he holds out a steam bun. the farmhand had given him a few as thanks for agreeing to help, and he hadn't exactly known how to deny her. ]

This'll probably be the last warm thing we have in a while, since we shouldn't start any fires.

[oversea]

Mm.

[ he takes it with one hand, using the other to give docybara a few pets to please him enough before their journey. ]

Let's get going then. We can try to get as much distance as we can before it gets too dark.

[ it being after work hours means nightfall will come much sooner than later, which has its pros and cons here; it'll be harder to follow them in the darkness, but it'll also greatly limit their ability to move... ]

[transmit]

[ the journey going without incident would be too kind. just when it seems like they're in the clear two hours in, elysium tenses. they come across campgrounds that can't be more than a few days old—this is far from a well travelled path, so one can only assume they'd taken it for the same reason they did. staying undercover. ]

… It looks like someone else had the same idea as us.

[oversea]

... But who is it.

[ is it someone who is just trying to flee, or people they would rather be avoiding. ]

Let's lay low, Elysium.

[transmit]

[ who is it indeed… ]

We have better odds if we stay together.

[ neither of them are going off alone for the wrong reasons. ]

[oversea]

We could change our path...

[ ugh

overthinking is so annoying. ]

Or we check out the camp.

[transmit]

We should at least check which direction they went in and try to avoid them. On the bright side, they weren't heading where we were.

[oversea]

... Mm.

[ he squeezes his hands ]

Let's go.

[ at the very least, thorns can use the corazonix for a wider search range. his worry is always just whether or not he finds something may depend on if he's using it at the right moment, which is impossible to know beforehand. ]

[transmit]

[ it'll be okay.

while thorns searches with his corazonix, elysium checks for nearby signals. even though he's pointedly ignored certain things during work, it doesn't mean his brain doesn't catalogue the information for potential use anyway, grip tightening around his flag. the frequency they seemed to be most active in was…

this. and it seems to be fairly busy, even now. ]

Are you sensing anything?

[oversea]

There's... two decently sized groups, one closer to the town and the other further away. I don't know which one came from this camp, or if they're together and just split up.

[ he frowns slightly, giving docybara a pat before he starts to complain over lack of attention. ]

You?

[transmit]

Ah. I'm probably picking up on them communicating with each other.

[ …

there is one other person that thorns should keep from complaining, and that's elysium. his forehead hits thorns' back. ]

I should intercept it, shouldn't I?

[ this pandora's box-ass situation. but if it gives them information to get away safely, that should be the priority. ]

[oversea]

... Probably, yeah.

[ he is aware of why elysium is hesitating, since the more they know the harder it will be to not get involved, but the last thing thorns wants is for them to get blindsided like they did before. ]

[transmit]

Right…

[ takes a few steps back to save thorns from radio waves.

a look of concentration crosses his features, and there is that tangible shift around him that often comes when he's using his arts. slowly, but surely, voices are transmitted through his flag.

they will learn the following: four teams are already in place, with the rest to set up in the coming weeks. they get a general compass direction of where they are, and there is something about setting up an entire perimetre and experiments being ready to be let loose at last. other than that, nothing. it's hard to expect too much context from a single interference alone.

his gaze flicks over to thorns. ]

We can't be sure if this information is entirely accurate. It could be a relay to tip us off… but I guess we have directions to look out for now.

[oversea]

Yeah.

[ there's a long pause as he tries to find some sort of satisfactory answer. ]

... Maybe we should send a messages to Rhodes. They might have Operators nearby who can help.

[ just sending one message doesn't mean they'd be back in regular contact with them, right? ]

[transmit]

An anonymous tip that isn't so anonymous given the send method… I could do that.

[ He fiddles with his flag.

… ]

I can't reach the landship.

[oversea]

What do you mean? Is your transmission getting blocked?

[ it's easier to jump to the conclusion that something is wrong on their end instead of it being on r.i.'s side. ]

[transmit]

I just——can't. Like it doesn't—…

[ … ]

I'll leave the message with Miss Ch'en in Lungmen. That's… probably the better idea and should achieve the same effect.

[ ah.

copes while he tries to not think about what this means while also constantly going back to it. he's fine. ]

[oversea]

[ ...

okay, well, now they have two problems. but thorns will wait as elysium sends the message along to its new recipient. he continues to hold onto elysium.

while they are both attached to rhodes, thorns is aware that elysium's attachment is greater. yes, he chose thorns over the organization, and would probably keep choosing him, but that doesn't mean it's a particularly easy decision. if anything, the fact that they can't just reset things again is probably making that even worse right now. if something horrible happened before, they could just try again. they're now stuck with whatever mess that occurs. ]

... We should find somewhere we can set up camp for now.

[transmit]

[ the real problem is that as long as elysium exists, resetting the timeline is always on the table. no matter how firmly they've agreed to shelve it forever, that agreement is only verbal and fragile because of it.

he doesn't realise his hand is shaking until well after the transmission is over. pointedly, he keeps his gaze away from thorns. ]

… Yeah. If their sights are on Yan, then we should head toward Kazdel and Siracusa.

[ which

are significantly less friendly places to roam, but options are a luxury that don't have. ]

[oversea]

[ ...

he turns his attention to docybara as he speaks, as if that makes it any easier. ]

We can try to find out what's happening over there. It shouldn't be too difficult to get information.

[ the hard part is that once they do it'll likely be harder not to get involved, even if that involvement is only reestablishing contact. ]