Zompania Draft - Draftees and Reinforcements, mid-day 4-early 7

[lucetimods]

Who: Draftees and Volunteers
What: The draftees and the reinforcements must hold against the Third Party army until rescue arrives
When: From May 23 through the wee hours of May 26 (days 4-7)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Draftee information and Volunteer information
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the rest of the draft, beginning when the volunteer reinforcements arrive. Look up in the sky--your friends are parajumping in! Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

[wise_maiden]

[ The sounds might attract attention. Raine looks back as Sheena pulls them forward. It's still blurry, but there doesn't seem to be anyone around. Sounds of fighting - but not near them, not in their area. ]

Nothing yet.

[corrinesbell]

[No time to look. They're far enough from their initial building now that Sheena feels okay about letting go of Raine; 'follow me' is pretty implicit in what they're doing. Besides, the building she's thinking of is just across one more street.

There are more explosions in the distance, none of them Sheena's. They're too far away to pose any threat to them or their position, though.]

[wise_maiden]

[ Those explosions make it harder to continue, even with the need to hurry still pressing at their backs. She has to put every ounce of herself into following, especially when they're still out in the open. One step, another, but she slows, all but hugging the staff she managed not to drop to her chest.]

Sheena -- [Wait-]

[corrinesbell]

[Sheena turns back around, bringing an abrupt halt to her run. Raine is in the middle of the street hanging onto her staff like it'll stop her from drowning and when Sheena sees the look on her face she thinks that was one hell of a comparison, actually. She knows that look.]

Don't think about it! [She doesn't like to get in Raine's face like this but they can't stay exposed.] We'll worry about it later, just think about something else.

[Meanwhile they'd better start running again; Sheena won't let go of her arm this time.]

[wise_maiden]

[ Something else?

There isn't a something else to focus on. Sheena was here; she could focus on the ninja, follow her steps now that she was anchored back on again. Barely. There was something familiar about it. Trudging through the street and --

don't think about it. It's what she had been doing this entire time, after all. It was easier when there was someone to heal in front of her. Then she would have someone to fully concentrate on, and not get dislodged by all of those sounds. Why she had to keep pushing herself.

They were still running, though she was near out of breath. They were almost there. ]

[corrinesbell]

[Then they are there, into the relative darkness of a half-ruined building's interior. Sheena pulls Raine behind a domino pyramid of shelves and a portion of wall, and makes her sit in the clearest floor area there is. Hanging onto her adrenaline high is going to be tough, here.]

Why did you stop?

[wise_maiden]

[ They've stopped. The building is unfamiliar, but she sits down as directed, still holding on to the weapon. ]

... I lost focus. [ There are other, more automatic answers that she forces herself to reject, shaking her head as she looks at her lap. ] It got loud, back there -- I couldn't think. I'm sorry.

[corrinesbell]

[Sheena crouches in front of her, reaching for the staff to take it away. They're not gonna end up in a fight here, not for a while at least.]

Don't be sorry. I just wanna know what scared you that bad, and if you got hurt.

[wise_maiden]

[ It's a feeble, brief struggle to keep her hold on the weapon, but ultimately Raine doesn't have the strength, and it slips from her fingers, which bunch into the fabric of her robes instead. Was she hurt? Or just... tired. She couldn't be tired, not now. Not when there were still others out there.

She forces herself to find her train of thought again for those still waiting questions. Her throat is dry and it's difficult to talk until she forces a few swallows down. ]

I ... I-I was ... reminded of something that happened. Before you arrived.

[corrinesbell]

[Of course she could be tired. Running around a city-shaped battlefield, fighting and healing for days without rest, anyone would be tired.]

I thought so. Something really bad, right? [Sheena has a canteen of water with her, somewhere, but as short as they are on time, she wants Raine to calm down enough not to spill it or choke. She separates one of Raine's hands from her robe carefully; let her hold onto something real for a minute.]

Didn't answer that second one. Are you hurt anywhere?

[wise_maiden]

[ It's a lot at once. Those pointed questions she should have ready answers for. She still has to focus though, on swallowing and taking in the fact that there was a second question. ]

... Hurt? I don't... [ It's an easier question to answer than going back to the first, as the realization of that persistent blurriness hits her. Dizzy. Was it just because she was thinking of the incident? Or was it something else? She takes hold of that very real hand gratefully. ]

I'm not injured. I don't... think I am. I'm... dizzy.

[corrinesbell]

What kind of dizzy? D'you have enough mana to heal yourself from it?

[Although if she's dizzy from lack of mana, that won't help at all.]

[wise_maiden]

... yes.

[ Though it comes after a moments pause - they're sitting for too long and that makes her feel uneasy. But if she can concentrate enough for a minor spell to get herself going again ... ]

First aid.

[ There's the usual rush of energy, and that feeling of it being drawn to her, from her and over her. More alert, and yet... not. Which was strange, now that she felt ... clear enough to ponder that strangeness.

But what to do about it? They couldn't just sit here and just ... though her grip on Sheena's hand is a little tighter without her thinking of it. And those sounds again - ]

There's something ...

[corrinesbell]

[Sheena has an ear on the outside - there's fighting, but it's far enough away and not a threat yet - so she isn't really paying attention until Raine grabs hold of her hand even harder. Turning back to her, she connects at last the look of her eyes with the pattern of things going on around her and frowns. More of a glare, really.]

It's stuff blowing up, isn't it? That's what's scaring you?

[wise_maiden]

[ Her eyes quickly flicker away at the glare, though her grip doesn't lessen. ]

... I ... y-yes.

[corrinesbell]

[Some of the fire goes out of Sheena's stance.]

I can't fix that one. Definitely can't be loud enough that you don't hear it or something. But, look- you're fine with me, okay?

[Something she wishes she'd heard more often herself, come to think of it.]

Go ahead and...lose it a little bit, if you want to. There's really no way to make it go away until you do. [And she speaks from experience.]

[wise_maiden]

It won't... go away until we're... out of here. And even then... [ Would it really go away? That -- feeling? She falls quiet again, listening, wincing. ]

[corrinesbell]

Out of here? What, out of this building, or out of this city?

[As familiar as she is with the kind of panic that rises from inside and takes over completely, ignoring protests, Sheena also knows that what works for her might not for Raine.]

Can I help?

[wise_maiden]

... this city ... or maybe even more than that. I don't know. I -- I don't have the time to think about this right now. [ The struggle to put that edge to her tone is real. ] People are hurt -- or worse and I... I can't just sit here, Sheena!

[corrinesbell]

So, what, you're gonna run back out there and freeze up the next time something blows up? [Still crouched in front of her, Sheena intends to stay there, actually blocking the best escape route.] If I was the one sitting there losing track of myself, you'd make me stay until I found me again. So that's what you're gonna do. There's other help for anyone who's hurt...and there's nothing we can do for the ones who're worse.

[Painful and terrible as that is to say. Sheena doesn't lose a friendly, supportive tone through the whole exchange.]

It's okay to be scared of that, y'know.

[wise_maiden]

I need to get back on track. So I don't freeze again. [ Her eyes are doing a lot of darting to those possible escape routes before she lowers her head again, swallows and breathes. ] Until we get out of here, there will always be someone in need, s-so that's where I should be.

[corrinesbell]

[It is unlikely Raine, in her confusion, could get away faster than Sheena could catch her. Instead, she's worried about just how strong someone can be in the midst of really freaking out.]

I think the part you're missing is that right now you're that person. [Another, very loud sound breaks into their hiding spot; it's so close and so wood-sounding that Sheena thinks it's the other building going down, partially or all the way, but she holds on tighter to Raine against any possible attempts she could make to run.] And you're already here.

[wise_maiden]

I'm --

[ Boom. It's lost, in the sounds of the building and Sheena's words. I'm not that person. I can't be that person.

But she's already there. Her free hand presses to her forehead, the heel pressing into the area between her eyes as her fingers crumple themselves into her bangs and squeeze into a fist. While Sheena hangs onto her, keeping her there, keeping her still, even as her trembles continue to dominate. ] This isn't --

[ Isn't the place, isn't the time, and wasn't that all ironic. ]

If I told you what happened, you'd ... I don't know. This isn't -- I can't be that person. I'm ...

[corrinesbell]

Someday I wanna hear what happened, but I'm not asking you to tell me now. [Sheena has a free hand, and it finds a place on Raine's shoulder. She's really shaken up, by whatever this is, and Sheena has the distinct impression she's getting a look at what happens when she herself panics this way.]

When I'm that person, you stick around and help me out and you don't let me take no for an answer. So I'm not gonna let you do it either.

[Maybe she's not the best at being comforting, but she will never abandon a friend in trouble. One knee on the ground now, she looses Raine's hand only in order to get the other one out of her hair.]

It's gonna be okay, Raine.

[wise_maiden]

[ People needed to be told about it. Certainly after they were back and had more time. The sheer... repercussions that could be faced by the population was another one of those strands, hanging there. And yet here Raine was, being faced by the same person who had once looked at her and told her that their efforts weren't good enough, saying words that weren't too dissimilar to ones that Raine had once said herself, even though it felt all too far away now. Gone, melted, drowned -

... What would Sheena have thought, or have felt, if it were her here, in this position? And yet here she was, telling her that it was okay, when it never would really be okay. Leaving Raine with the question, then, of whether the word "okay" still had any meaning. Even if in the village, things had a habit of drifting towards a "status quo" after enough time.

Wouldn't that be a laugh -- and she does laugh, suddenly, at the thought, at even trying to consider it, though it's pained and caught in her chest, which suddenly feels tight and awful because it was all wrong like a hideous joke. And the laugh turns into a choke, shortly after. ]