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Entry tags:
[mission: hyrypia] the mountain seems no more a soulless thing
CHARACTERS: Hyrypian Team
WHERE: Hyrypia - Mount Mideria
WHEN: DAY :044 - DAY :045
SUMMARY: The Pilgrimage arrives at a base camp. A letter is delivered. The ascent begins.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!
((OOC Notes: This log covers the arrival to the Mount Mideria base camp and the climb during the day following. Please refer to the MISSION: HYRYPIA ooc information for a detailed description of this location. If you have any questions, please hit up either the mission's question thread, the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))
WHERE: Hyrypia - Mount Mideria
WHEN: DAY :044 - DAY :045
SUMMARY: The Pilgrimage arrives at a base camp. A letter is delivered. The ascent begins.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!
HYRYPIA - MOUNT MIDERIA
DAY :044THE BASE CAMP
THE WIND HOWLS through the valley at the base of the mountain. The chill nips at the heels of the Pilgrimage for the entirety of the slow, winding climb through the jagged foothills to the slash where the base camp sits tucked back into the looming mountain's dark face. It's dim here, but at least the wind doesn't cut so as the envoys are led into the heart of the bedraggled seasonal outpost.
The small town nestled in the cool grey stone seems as much a part of the mountain itself as Rabadocean made. The buildings are low and broad, as so much of their architecture is, but unlike many of the other places they have been the spaces between buildings are narrow, and the buildings themselves are quite small (the better to insulate). The buildings are clustered into ‘U’ shapes, with a central fire pit in each one that heats the rest. It seems quite old and in fairly good repair, but there’s a little-lived in feeling to the whole place. Dust can be found in the corners and crevices, and there’s little personalization anywhere. As it turns out, the camp is not occupied at all times, and no one lives here permanently. It is only filled as it is now on occasion, and while the Morran servants and household members seem quite familiar with the place they seem to be passing through.
One of the Morran which led the party from the coastline, through the foothills, and finally to this overcrowded interior courtyard, climbs onto one of the low stone retaining walls. She raises her hand to cue the muted blast of that now familiar horn. When she speaks, her voice is amplified by the technomanced clasp of her heavy fur cowl."Welcome, friends. My name is Lysan Morran and you have my gratitude for a peaceful journey since we left the Red Coast." She seems young, though serious - her dark hair twisted into a heavy plait. "We'll be staying in the place for one night only, and then will begin our ascent up the mountain. I have heard that you've faced many dangerous things in your time here on Hyrypia, but this trial before us will be the most dangerous of them all. The conditions on the mountain are cold, the nights are dark, and the peak is no place for division. Tomorrow, and for some days after, this mountain is our enemy. With that in mind, I invite anyone who prefers to take the long way around with the baggage to do so. I would wish you well and hope to see you again in six days' time.
"Tonight, each envoy will have their own house here and a delegate of my house will attend to each lodge to see to it that anyone who wishes to make the climb is given equipment and supplies to do so. Tomorrow, we go."
With a curt nod, Lysan Morran then lowers hand hand and hops down from the wall. She and her retinue evaporate into the tangle of the base camp's close stone structures, leaving the rest of House Morran's servants to show the separate envoys to their houses.
Each envoy is instructed to keep their belongings packed - anything that isn't strictly necessary for survival will be transported around the mountain alongside anyone who doesn't want to make the climb. Every participating individual will be outfitted with an individual tent, and individual, highly insulated sleeping bag, a parka, extra gloves, goggles, a number of spikes, axes, ropes, and raked hooks to attach to their shoes to assist in the higher climb. They will also have to pack in their own food, clothes, and water, as there are few beasts who will be able to accompany them for the entirety of the climb.A MESSAGE IN THE DARK
IT ISN'T SLIPPED BENEATH THE DOOR. No, it's brought in a box carried under the arm of a Meradan musician who arrives in the company of her band. They are all wrapped in heavy furs and beautifully embroidered cloaks, bemoaning the cold in good spirits as they insist on visiting their good friend, Gildor. They stay for an hour, have a short jam session, admit they personally have no intention of climbing the mountain but that they wish the Carbauschians and the Meradans mad enough to do it all the best, and then they take their leave: "We should be gone before someone suspects of us murder," one of them jokes (poorly).
The box is left behind.
Inside the box is a lovely, seafoam green cloak in a rough approximation of Carbauschian style embroidered with a rich red thread. When unfolded, a letter addressed to Misato falls from it. It reads:Thank you again for your kind and thoughtful gift. I've found great use for it here and thought I might at last return the favor. Please convey to your companions that my thoughts are with you and that I look forward to working together during the task that lies ahead of us tomorrow. I seem to recall an earlier conversation that I would very much like to continue given the opportunity.
Best Regards,
Ser Ilya MorONWARDS AND UPWARDS
COME MORNING, DARKNESS LINGERS. The sun rises behind the mountain, and very little of its light reaches inside the gap to the base camp. The air is cold and sharp and warns for the days to follow as it cuts down from the mountaintop to the valley below.
The Pilgrimage that assembles in the early gray light is a radically reduced one. Many of the smaller, less key envoys who had attended for their own varied reasons choose not to go or lose some portion of their contingent. However, almost the entirety of the Descendant, Carpathan, and Meradan envoys seem to be intent on continuing their journey. There are less servants, less guards, but still a healthy contingent from each major envoy buckling on their kits as instructed by the Morran guides.
And then at last, the climb begins. It's tough hiking at first, but surely everyone here is used to being on foot now. The pace is methodical, but patient - the Morran guides are quick to tell anyone in a rush to conserve their energy. There's plenty of mountain ahead, which means the day's climb is punctuated by frequent pauses and a number of small, light meals. Hiking turning into light climbing, traversing intermittent shelves. The cool air turns bitter, the wet damp turns to a dry, chapping cold.
They reach the first true cliff face late in the day. Hand and foot holds run in irregular, jagged guides up its face. Rather than tackle the climb while dark looms, the Morran guides instead insist on making camp in the shale at its bottom. Tents are pitched, portable technomanced heaters are broken out, and meals are eaten as the Hyrypian sun sets, rugged and beautiful, behind the smudged sliver which must be the coastline on the horizon.
But eventually, darkness reaches this place again.
((OOC Notes: This log covers the arrival to the Mount Mideria base camp and the climb during the day following. Please refer to the MISSION: HYRYPIA ooc information for a detailed description of this location. If you have any questions, please hit up either the mission's question thread, the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))
2.
[ You stayed, stop drifting away, his sharp tone commands. Daydreaming and stargazing is nice, but it's only filling him with vague feelings of homesickness, prodding at the gaping holes where the rest of his brood should be. They're far away, only Joshua stayed behind ( good Joshua, who he made a promise to -- the same way he'd promised Bellamy, who was gone now -- ). ]
It's not like we would have held it against you.
no subject
Wouldn't you?
[There's something a little wry in the words.]
I don't know if going would have helped, anyway.
no subject
[ Hotly, he stomps his way over to the space where Shiro has been sitting, looking up at the stupid stars for his broodmates or his boyfriend (?) or his cool lion. Something that's out there, and not at all in the here-and-now. Ergo, not helpful. Shiro's melancholy is not helpful either, and maybe Bakugo is the worst one to try and handle that. He's abrasive and brisk, digging for the root of a problem rather than trying to unpack it slowly. ]
-- everyone's looked at me like I'm the one who's gonna' go nuclear, but you're the one with all the baggage.
[ Going? Staying? Only one thing matters to him: ]
Just commit. You made a decision, you have to treat it like it was the right one.
no subject
Wasn't quite what I meant. But... never mind.
[It's not important. Compared to the kid, yeah, he does have all the baggage. And it's very tempting to conjure up the mental image of himself literally hauling everyone's bags up the mountain... so he does. Briefly. Holding it up against the yawning sense of nothing where there should have been voices. Blank spaces in a mental sky where there should have been stars.]
[He leans forward, elbows on his knees.] I have. I'm staying. It's... you've still got people in your head. Broodmates.
It's hard to adjust back to quiet when you're used to three other people bouncing around.
[That's the problem he's got to adjust to. More than anything.]
But don't worry. Hasn't kept me down before. Just... needed a minute.
no subject
[ The symbiote tells him otherwise, and the yawning abyss between himself and the majority of his brood ( minus Joshua, who for some reason or another, remained behind with him -- ) makes his chest ache in a way he doesn't enjoy. Some part of him yearns for them, but that part of him is just going to have to accept that this is the way things are. He's also "younger" than Shiro, given more to individualism than cooperativeness. ]
Stop listening with your brain, then. You've got ears, we're still here around you.
[ It's not the same, but it might... be a little soothing. ]
Man, you need a lot more than a minute.
no subject
[It's a genuine question. There's nothing accusatory in it. He'd honestly felt the same way when the others had been here. He could handle this -- he could do this without the people hammering in the back of his mind.]
[And now they're gone.]
Is that why you're here? Going to fill the silence?
[Another dusting of dull, dry humor. The sort of bleak jokes he makes whenever anything goes wrong.]
Probably. Maybe two minutes.
no subject
[ Surprising him, actually. He'd thought Joshua might be the one kid who saw the practical side of returning to the station, but the dumb idiot had actually signed on for an extended stay with the Hyrypians. Part of Bakugo is infuriated by the knowledge, but the symbiotic part is deeply content. ]
No, I'm here because your brain sucks and I don't know what to do about it.
[ He's not very polite, but he means well by his words. It's the same sort of helplessness he feels towards Juno, who's mind is a mire he's irrevocably drawn to by virtue of His Broodmate Is Hadrian "Too Soft For This World" Black, Juno-Lover Extraordinare. ]
Sorry your team-- brood-whatever-- are all asleep. Sounds like it really sucks.
no subject
[And he means that. With the way this place works, it's a lot harder to be on your own than anyone really thought. Himself included. He'd wanted it, in the beginning. Wanted to be alone in his own head. But now...? Now it just feels like too much empty space.]
Well -- that makes two of us. [He may have laughed a bit, at the candor there. It's true, really. His brain has never been in great shape since he got here, has it?] The ones who were helping... they headed back upstairs.
[His eyes flick up to the stars again, before dropping to stare at his hands. His voice lowers. Something tired and heavy.]
They tell you it's like losing a limb -- when you lose one of the ones you're close to.
I... guess I was a lot closer to all of them than I thought I was.
no subject
[ The answer is testy, like Shiro's good intentions are just dragging -- harsh as sandpaper -- across a flayed-open wound. The burst of his mind suggests an injury dragged to light, a hurt he's been harboring throughout this mission, finally bursting like a rotting fruit, even as he tries to draw it back to where he can forget about it for a little while longer. ]
I don't know how to help.
[ He repeats it, and it sounds a little less like he's baring his teeth, and more like he just... hates that he can't fix Shiro. ]
Hadrian's too wrapped up in Juno's existence. Elliot thought telling everyone I was gonna' fuck up the mission was the right thing to do. Rogue said she'd defend someone who'd hurt us, who hurt her. I didn't even get to meet the last one, she was just -- here and then gone. They're all lousy.
[ Ah.
He's envious of you, Shiro. Because you miss yours, and he doesn't. ( They probably don't even miss HIM. ) ]
no subject
[It's not pity. There's none of that in his head. Some kind of cold applied to this sort of raw, covered wound Bakugo is holding. Something to apply to it. he reservation in place of the harsh unrest.]
[He shakes his head, pushing a hand through his hair.]
You don't have to. I don't think it's anything anyone can fix. Not me, either.
[When he looks back up, there's the sympathy. Smoothed over like you would a crack.] But you want to, is that it?
[Because of his situation with his own brood?]
no subject
[ Bakugo shifts himself closer, an act less to draw comfort from another's presence, and more because it's just... difficult for him to continue the conversation like this. The wind is shrill, the fire is loud. He's unwilling to swap to the link between them -- it's an act of weakness. Instead, he strains his decaying ears and hunches over, leaning close, posture more like a dismissive punk than a boy with a piss-poor auditory system. ]
-- it's like. There's this terrible thing you did, and you can't get over it no matter how you look at it. It's stupid, and it's holding you back, but any time you try to get your hands around it to do anything it just. Tries to suffocate you.
[ He's definitely not just talking about Shiro right now. ]
If I can't fix you, how'm I gonna fix me?
no subject
[No shame in needing a hand, here, as far as Shiro is concerned. He does hunch forward when Bakugo does, though. So he can hear the conversation, over the drone of the wind.]
What happened? [Because yes. He gets that sense. There's more here than what's messed up in his brain.]
Because I'm not sure if I can answer that without knowing a little more.
no subject
[ excuse u shiro, don't ask him this question ]
I fucked up, and dragged somebody down with me.
[ the way he says it is rushed, like he just wants to say the bare minimum and NOT have it poked and prodded at. like a stone that needs to be turned over, to see where he's just raw and bleeding underneath, a haunted festering thing he can ignore but can't escape. and it's coming up now, here in this sort of place where he usually finds solace. where he usually goes to be ALONE with his thoughts, and even that's been wrested from him. and his mind just burns and burns with a single image. ]
-- no, fuck it! I didn't just drag "somebody" down. I fucked up so bad, the greatest hero in the whole damn world had to come save my ass, and when he did, my fuck-up cost everyone everything. Because of me, my entire world's not safe, and this stupid Enemy could come and it came for me and it was gonna' hurt everyone. Because All Might wasn't able to win any more. 'Cause I took that from everyone. It's like I killed him!
no subject
[But enough about him. Because there's something important here. Bakugo needs to get something out. Well, maybe "need" is the wrong word for it. But something's coming. Something to be addressed. Something hot and raw and hurt. He wants to lift a hand, put it on the kid's shoulder.]
[Something cool and metallic against all that hot feeling.]
So every time you try to come to terms with it, it's crushing you back down again? Like thinking about it makes it more real.
And when it's real, you can't do anything but relive it? Can't work it out, you're just...
Stuck?
[Stuck seeing it on loop again and again and again until you couldn't tell what was really happening, anymore? Or just stuck reliving the guilt, seeing the doors close over Allura's face, seeing Lavellan's lifeless body fall, seeing Keya in a puddle of her own blood... thinking, knowing, you could have done more?]
[It was like I was up there just to watch - no I lost Allura - I should have been there - ]