pc: yves

[sacredpath]

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week 3; monday

[sacredpath]

[welcome to the memory zone... i'm throwing us right into it. she opens a door and they appear in the funhouse.

(you can watch this video for visuals / atmosphere if you like).

The memory is unfocused, hazy around the edges, something that happened long ago and is half forgotten, as though some of the glass on the funhouse mirrors is fogged or hazy. Maybe if you explore down a particular path, more will come to light, but for now, you follow.

A little girl wanders the forest, lost and fearful. It’s a cool night, not cold, but enough to shiver from the wind. It is pitch black except for the full, bright moon overhead, but the trees here loom impossibly tall overhead, nearly blocking out the light. She’s obviously worried, but not afraid. She keeps looking up at the sky, checking the position of the moon, taking a certain direction. She chews her lip and looks uncertain with herself, and she’s cut and bloodied her face from a branch, but she keeps wandering.

There’s no way to tell why this child is lost here, whether she’s been abandoned or left here on purpose or if there’s some other reason. There are a few branching side paths that maybe reflect thoughts, memories of earlier that night, of the reason, but Shadowheart - the real Shadowheart beside you - doesn’t choose to look that way, as she suddenly freezes in complete terror.

Bounding out from the woods is a large wolf. Impossibly large, really, imagined here the way it looked to the child it was looming over, much bigger and fiercer than her. The child is frozen as well. The wolf’s golden eyes are trained on her, fierce and dangerous, its teeth bared. As it pads slowly towards her, its ears press back and its tail swishes back and forth. Not even the posture of an animal hunting prey, but an animal itching for a fight, making itself an obvious threat.

Tears are rolling down the girl’s cheeks and she stumbles backwards, trembling. But then she realizes, behind her, is a woman in a mask, who puts a gentle hand on her shoulder.

And then there’s a path out of this section of mirrors, and a feeling like you must take it, you must leave this memory, because the only other direction to turn is down a dark, dark corridor and everything is telling you that you don’t want to go that way. Whatever memories continue on in that direction, they're hidden, and perhaps they should remain hidden. But Shadowheart is still frozen from fear at the sight of the wolf, so she has not yet left this memory behind.]

[noirges]

[ yves follows, and his guard remains up. he knows forests well, explored so many himself, and wolves were encountered enough times—though it's rare to see one so intentionally aggressive. he moves automatically to collect the child, but he's beaten to it by the woman. and only when she's gone does he look back over his shoulder and realize that shadowheart is also still so fearful.

he steps in front of her then, as if to approach her with a friendly face instead of a wolf, and slowly reaches out to take her hand as he'd done before. a light touch, one that can be rejected at any moment, but hopefully grounding.

softly: ] Shadowheart? Hey. I'm right here. I won't leave you alone.

[sacredpath]

[the touch does help. she lets out a breath she was holding.]

Sorry. I'm - the wolf - it's silly, but -

[she's fought demons, monsters, creatures far more powerful than this, but this wolf holds such a place in her nightmares. the mirrored walls reflect it; despite lacking memories of so much else, waking up night after night having dreamed of the wolf that was attacking her. her all-consuming fear, and the reminder to feel grateful to the people who saved her, no matter what else they did to her. wolves always remind her of that fear, she always freezes in terror when she sees them.

but they're still here in this memory, and unlike the dreams, it continues on without them. the woman takes the girl away, but her fear is not abated by this. she keeps turning her head, turning her so she won't see, as the other women in spears surround the wolf and pierce its body. the little girl winces at the wolf's horrible help, feeling sorry for it despite everything.

but she only sees it for a brief moment, before the woman in the hood and mask steers her away - that the wolf transforms back into a man.]

[noirges]

It's not silly.

[ soft and reassuring, and he'll run his thumb over the back of her hand as he says it. he glances in the direction of everything happening—and he winces himself when the wolf is skewered.

as the transformation into a man comes, he does still put himself between the shadowheart he's with and that figure. he doesn't try to obscure her view, in case she wants to understand what's going on—but he does move automatically like he'd be able to do anything to protect her against mirror poltergeists ]

[sacredpath]

[she doesn't understand what's going on. or at least, she has barely more context for it than he does. her context is that it's not unheard of for people to transform into animals where she's from, she knows druids, she knows of people with curses like lycanthropy. but she doesn't have any idea why there's a person here. an elven man, older, with long dark hair. the resemblance is pretty clear, and he reaches for the girl, and he calls out a name - Jenevelle.

but then the memory is over; the girl is taken away, she doesn't see anymore, she doesn't see what happens to him, so the memory can't continue.]

What...?

[noirges]

[ ah. he does remember that name. ]

... he must've been looking for you, even if I... don't understand what's going on.

[ he looks around then, wondering if there's a way to go deeper into memories. he keeps his hold on her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze ]

Do you want to keep going?

[ he won't force her, but... if she's confused, maybe she wants answers too ]

[sacredpath]

[she swallows, holding his hand. this memory is over, there's not a way to follow it, exactly. they could go deeper, try to learn more, find out what happened later. but she's uncertain about it, afraid.]

I want to know who that was. But I'm not sure - there are things I'm not sure I want to know about.

[noirges]

Alright.

[ softly. he runs his thumb over the back of her hand then and takes her hand into both of his to cup it gently. he looks around, as if trying to figure out the way to leave—but he can't promise they won't see anything else. these mirrors have a mind of their own. ]

... you can close your eyes, if you don't want to see it. I can't promise we won't hear or feel anything but... I can try to get us out of here.

Is that okay? Can you trust me?

[sacredpath]

I can trust you.

[though she's a bit unsure about it - after all, as little as she might want to know, she hardly wants him to know things about her that she doesn't know. so she won't close her eyes, but she will follow.

they can leave this area. everything else from this time is hidden, forgotten, and anything to see is buried at the end of dark hallways. just flashes of things, memories. remembering the cloister where she grew up, being trained to say her prayers, her tongue always tripping over the words as she nearly said old prayers she could no longer remember. training, being observed like a specimen, harsh punishments whenever she failed.

they took prisoners sometimes. enemies, selûnites. the same man's face among them, but unremarkable. fully a stranger in her eyes.

but that's it - there's nothing else to see, and then they're out of this area.]

[noirges]

[ he'll hold her hand as he goes, taking the lead to try to get them out of there. he doesn't linger and for now, he doesn't ask questions. it's hard to feel like it would be alright to, when shadowheart was as terrified as she was of the wolf. shaken up to this extent.

still, these things do make him frown. to be treated like a point of observation rather than a person, and the punishments make his mouth pull downward. he keeps his hold on her hand relaxed on purpose, even though there's a tension in his shoulders like he wants to intervene.

the portion with the enemies is confusing, and the fact that she no longer reacts to that man... what is this?

when they're out and only then, he'll turn to her and tell her more than ask: ]

I'm going to hug you.

[ just a fair warning but

after all that, it just seems appropriate. so he'll be gentle about it, let her pull away at any moment if she wants but... he does bring her into an embrace ]

[sacredpath]

[it's less these specific things she was seeing and more what they represent - a period of her life that is basically unknown to her, where anything could have happened, even things she doesn't want to know about herself or things she wouldn't want yves to know.

but she nods, and will accept the hug.]

...I don't know who he was, but. They captured him, not killed him.

[only the next time she met him, she didn't know him anymore.]