ataraxionlogs | EVENT: ARIMA ▒ APRIL 22-23

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Arima Mining Colony
WARNINGS: Potential for gambling, drugs, violence, sex work.
SUMMARY: Passengers departing for and arriving by shuttle at the Arima Mining Colony.
NOTES: Covers April 22-23. IC event start commences post-Gunnery announcement. Divided by locations; players are free to indicate which day, and to begin new subthreads wherever they'd like! April 24-26 log here.

You step off of the shuttles into one of the bustling, heavily-guarded docks buried deep within the rock of an asteroid. Everyone seems too wrapped up in their own business to pay much mind to the group pouring out with you, and the mechanical sounds of takeoff, landing, and regular maintenance fill the air with clinks and whirs. As you begin to explore the colony, you find dingy and worn streets filled with a ruckus that's easy to get lost in: pushy merchants, booming, scratchy voices coming from inebriated patrons, and the scurrying footsteps of opportunistic thieves darting through the crowds. The colony no longer seems to profit off its mines, but this waystation for undesirables does have a taste for myriad forms of entertainment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I feel less and less worthy of it.

[ His certainty seems to remind her of her own, and with every touch, every brush of lips, every dragging stroke of his fingertips against her cheeks, she seems to strengthen and straighten. She kisses his fingertips when they graze near her chin, his palms if he lingers still enough; and her lips, though soft, are faintly chapped by the salted wind.

With certainty, one of her hands lifts, thin fingers encircling one of his wrists. Pulling him around her like a cloak against the cold of winter, so that his far taller frame is behind her, arms 'round her, and they're both leaning against the rail of the ship looking out. ]

Thank you.

[ It's just a whisper, fast snatched away on the breeze. ]

[ He could give, and give and give, the rush of all the air leaving lungs, into hers if it would give her life once more let him whither.

But he shifts when she pulls and it's a dance he knows, feels comfortable in. Like they had been able to do this since the day he'd realized that there would never be anything but her. His arms slip about her waist and he damns himself again for enjoying it so much --

He's whole and complete. The world spins the way it was supposed to. He's sure of the ground under his feet, the sky above him. There is no void, no smiling dark eyes.

He is Protector, she is Empress and they are where they are supposed to be. Together. ]

It is my duty. [ The worlds are accompanied by a warm kiss to the shell of her ear. ]

[ She feels real and solid under his arm, his kiss catching a lock of hair against her ear. Pressed so close, he can feel her pulse, just very faintly against his chest. Feel her own even breaths.

She grips his arm to keep it firmly about her, turning her face enough to kiss his stubbled chin. Lightly, as if she knows his comfort's spare enough for himself that she resists taking any for her own. ]

Quiet.

Just... hold me.

As you wish.

[ He falls silent, and stays that way for a very long time. Eyes falling shut at the feel of her lips on his skin, his arms pulled tight around her waist, curling around her body to block her body from the wind. matching his breath to her. Wrapping around and around. He'd been made to serve, made to die for, made to live with her as the first thing he went to. There had never been anything else. He finds content in that again, watching the ship cut through the water and the bay of Karnaca sparkle like the jewel it was said to be.

After some time ( didn't count the seconds, counted her heart beat, her breaths, never tried to count the days it seemed like), he lifted his head from where it rested on her shoulder. the breeze making his hair fall into his eyes. ]

Emily's smile is becoming more like yours. [ A compliment, and not. No longer his wide eyed girl. She'd taken his hand and seemed so shaken as she looked up at him. Smiling slowly like she wasn't sure she trusted it either. Like it wasn't something she should give.

But Jessamine's smile had always been beautiful. Heart breaking, to see it echoed. ]

[ She turned in his arms, elegantly agile, the ship's railing pressed against her back. Jessamine assessed him, hands smoothing up his chest (and it's as though she's eager for touch, starved for it, for sensation), her slim fingers finally latticing together behind his neck. ]

Emily. [ The name stuck in her throat, soft and low. She seemed to force herself straight, though he could feel that she wanted only to curl in on herself. Instead, she seemed to settle for the middle ground; kissed the corner of his mouth, lightly, the wind making their dark hair mingle about them, and tucked her face near his neck, cheek on his shoulder. As if it were the last safe place in the world for her. ]

Tell me about her. Everything you remember. I could... sense... but never see.

[ he gives it back, his palm flat to her back as he runs it up and then back down. Intent on warming her almost, even if the sun is bright here. ]

She is stronger than both of us. [ his smile is soft, head tilting back so she could fit against his side easier. ] Still a difficult child, but it has kept her spirit her own. [ then softer, sadder than that. ] She dreams of you, always. Thinks of you first.

Good. [ The one exhaled word is savagely relieved to hear that Emily's stronger; but hadn't Jessamine always been cool to her daughter, desperate to cultivate the strength in her that she herself had lacked, in the early years? ] She'll need that strength.

But I hate that I'll have become a ghost that haunts her. The shadow, the heavy current, the astigmatism in the lense...

[ He doesn't have the heart to tell her, it is not just her daughter she haunts. The entire Empire had fallen under the shadow of Jessamine's death. Something had changed, in everything that day. He had not realised until he saw it for himself. The grief and fear that prevailed in equal measure. ]

Your love will. [ he absently touched her, fingers trailing and curling about her as she pressed against him. Emily might, one day, move on. He knew he never would. ] She will remember that. [ maybe, if the fear of that death didn't grip her first. ]

EVENT: ARIMA ▒ APRIL 22-23

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