Closed | A Dying Light

[notathreat]

WHO: Ellie, Viktor
WHAT: An old signal tower is in need of repair.
WHEN: Early Harvestmere
WHERE: North of Hercinia
NOTES: Simple task not as simple as advertised.

Comments

[notathreat]

Ellie pats his shoulder; normally it'd be more of a clap, but she doesn't want to send him falling over.

"Almost shit myself when the Rift exploded and stunned them," she confirms, a little shaky as she looks back on the room, then reaches out to offer her arm to help him down the last few steps. She's utilitarian as she does it, in the unthinking way of someone very used to supporting someone else.

It takes a second for her to place the familiarity, and her heart sinks a little as it lands on Tommy. Fuck.

"What about you?"

[grindset]

The offer is met with a wave, subdued to the politest nonverbal refusal he can offer. He's got it, or has at least decided he's got it, and that dovetails nicely into,

"I'm fine."

He isn't, really—not even in secret, he looks absolutely and overtly terrible at this point—but what else is new? They're both still in possession of their requisite pieces, capable of moving around and reasoning, and thus they still have a job to do.

"Research says the likelihood of a sealed rift re-opening in the same spot is low." He says this as he reaches the bottom of the stairs, gets both feet on the level stone with visible relief, and allows himself barely a moment to feel it before moving on. "So we should be good to leave it overnight."

Please, he means, let's not sleep in the tower.

[notathreat]

Ellie closes her eyes for longer than a blink but lets him. It was easier to ignore when they were closer to strangers than people who have had to rely on each other for safety and support.

Fuck it, though. It's none of her business if Viktor wants to waste his energy on stairs.

It's not the time to bring it up.

So Ellie turns to follow him, heading to the center of the room and past the residue left there to kneel down next to it, open up her pack.

"Yeah," she mutters. "This place gives me the creeps."

She hitches her bow across her shoulder to avoid knocking it on the ground, then ends up staring at it. The fade-crystal that's been worked into the sides of the bow's body are glowing faintly, like it's reacting to the sister-material left behind by the Rift.

"... oh shit," she mumbles, running her thumb along it. "That's cool."