hadriel | psa [video]

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psa [video]

[ Arya sits in a grassy patch outside one of the spires. She keeps one hand on the sword in her lap, and every so often, looks fretfully up at the sky. ]

The dragons have come. I am guessing most of you have never seen a dragon, so you might be afraid of them. And want to kill them.

[ Arya frowns. A loud, powerful roar sounds from off-camera. Arya sighs. The roar doesn't help her make the point she's trying for. ]

And I understand your fear.

[ She leans into the camera. This is serious. ]

But you must not kill them. They could very well be the last of their kind. Dragons are dangerous creatures, but impressive ones. Killing these dragons could not only mean their deaths, but the death of all dragons. So keep yourself safe. But let them be safe, too.

[ Suddenly, the lighting becomes brighter. In the distance is a red-hot flame. ]

Shit.

[ Arya mutters, and cuts the video there. ]

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It was our combined strength, not just me. We had to escape the Irraka with a prisoner of war and they had no magic... it was enough to make them fear us.

[ He waves a hand at the gratitude, instead leaning into the scrubbing. ]

Don't thank me, I'll likely get us killed. But there's meat in the shops, that no one in the city will eat so it won't be missed. We can try and lure them over the river with it, towards the places no one ever goes.

Why won't anyone eat the meat? I suppose there goes my hopes of ever cooking some beef?

[Flick spooned some water over Pell's skin, rinsing off what soot he could before going after him with the soap again. He leaned in to press his lips to the top of Pell's head. He winced automatically when his friend said our. Cal. Too bad Pell didn't just leave call there and take whoever the prisoner of war was. They'd all be better off.]

"Prisoner of war? You've been through a lot."

Unless a cow wanders through, there go your chances. The meat found in the shops was tainted awhile ago, it turned people into nightmare creatures. I wasn't around for that but since then we avoid it at all costs.

[ He sighs at the touches and the little kiss, wrapping his arms around his knees and letting Flick take over completely. There are some bruises under the soot. ]

A lot in a short time, when I think back. We weren't really gone that long. A few years. But I've seen much of the way hara live. Or don't live, as the case may be.

I guess I'll have to branch out in my cooking then.

[It wasn't like he hadn't had to be creative before, living with Lormy, Mima and Lileem on the Esmeralda, they had to trade what they could get. Flick continues to wash off soot, trying to get a glimpse of Pell's skin underneath, and ran a hand through his hair. Pell always had a thing for his hair.]

You pressed a lot into a short amount of time.

We did a lot of traveling. It's strange now, to be in one place but not have it be one I could settle. For a time I thought Galhea... but it wasn't to be for me.

[ He splashes some water up over his face, sinking lower into the tub now. The ghost of Cal and that last night together after they fled sinks into his memory the same way. He shakes it off. ]

Wash my hair, Flick?

I heard you had gone to Galhea too.

[And now wasn't the time for his friend to find out that Cal had gone back. Even if Cal himself and Seel hadn't told him it would have been obvious. Tyson looked just like him. It was disgusting for Flick to think that anyone would have actually wanted to do that with Cal. But, he knew Pell felt differently. He spooned water onto Pell's hair and reached to find shampoo or soap, lathering it in.]

Seel's in Galhea, you know.

[Flick said, trying badly to be casual and to keep the bitterness out of his voice.]

Seel's in Galhea, you left Saltrock... where's Cal?

[ He holds very still as Flick washes the soot out of his hair, trying not to sound too pathetic or plaintive. ]

Do you know, Flick?

[Flick was silent for a while, and he may have massaged Pell's scalp a little too hard before reigning himself back and washing the soap and soot out.}

No. I don't know. [His voice was flat.]

Ah.

[ Pell wilts, even as he tilts his head back to be rinsed. There's pain in his eyes. ] It's unlikely he could have made it back alone, the way we came. I just worry that he.... might have done something extreme.

[Flick sighs, and continues to rinse out Pell's hair, washing out more soot. He rinses more than he needs too, trying to prolong the inevitable. Cal. Why did it have to be Cal? Yes, Pell, Cal did do something rather extreme.]

He did come back to Saltrock for a bit. But then he left. I'm not sure where he went. I think...I think Cal's sick Pell. And he needs more help than he could get at Saltrock.

[ Because Cal consumed Pell's being for the past few years. Even in death he's obscenely in love with the har, flaws and all. ]

...sick..? Where better is there go to?

[It was that kind of love that Flick thought was a sickness. Corrupting.]

We couldn't help him. I tried. Seel tried. He was very hurt after you....after you died.

[ This has been Pell's worst fear since waking up here to discover that he isn't dead. What of Cal? Would he regress to Uigenna? Would he be a broken shell? Worse, would he be just fine, though that'...wasn't the outcome, obviously. ]

Why do you hate him so, Flick? I can feel it when our skin touches.

[Flick drew away, falling in on himself. Even talking about Cal makes him feel wrong.]

He made me do something horrible Pell. I think he turned me into a bad person.

I don't think so. No matter what someone makes you do, no one can turn you into something else but you. And you're still Flick.

[Flick drew his knees up to his chest.}

You don't think our actions taint our souls? I think there's something horrible in me, Pell.

They may, depending. But it takes more than just that to change who you are.

...And I could be quite crude right now.

If it's a difference between crude and self recriminations, I'd take crude. Make me believe?

[ A wet but warm hand settles on Flick's neck as Pell draws him in to share breath.

With it is echoes of all the support Flick ever offered him, and a true belief of goodness in his friend... and a desire to get out of the tub and prove that further. ]

[Flick responds in kind, drawing into the warmth and friendship he tasted in his friend. It had been so long since Flick really let himself relax. Both himself and Lor had taken such lengths to appear unattractive and avoid attention, ever since the Uigenna. It had been years since those days, but the fear stayed with them both.]

[Flick let his friend pour his belief and love and hope into him, he needed it. Pell was still hopeful, and here he had a support system. Back home, Flick with Mima and Lileem and Lor, they had learned to be afraid.]

[ The kiss breaks only when they need air, and Pell lets his hand fall to the rim of the tub. ]

I don't feel anything horrible in you. I never have, and I don't now. And I've felt horrible things in people.

[ He knew there was a darkness in Cal, could taste the Uigenna deep inside him, thrumming in his blood. He chose to believe the best, and was rewarded for it. So it could be argued that even if he did sense something changed in Flick he'd ignore it in favor of their past and his friend's current actions -- those are what mattered -- but the fact was he didn't. So he smiles, then reaches forward and turns off the tap. ]

Let's think of happier things. Like what I'm going to do to you once I'm clean.

[ Said perfectly innocently. ]

Flick couldn't but think back to Wraxilan, who had told him his association with Cal had blacked a part of his soul. He believed Pell, one of his truest and deepest friends, but he couldn't but wonder, if he'd shared part of himself with Wraxilan that Pell couldn't see. The part that made him create Aruhani in the first place, and enjoy what the Uigenna had done to him.

That was not the types of thinks a har should be thinking about when there's a perfectly happy, very naked har offering to roon your brains out.

"I'd very much like to think of happier things." His eyes flickered to the water and back to Pell. "Make be believe it?" Flick offered a hand to his friend, hoping he was strong enough to chase away the nonexistent darkness Flick worried was still inside him.

What better way is there to cheer your friend up, really? He could use a distraction from worrying about the dragons as well. Pell rinses off one last time and twists his hair over his shoulder to get the water out, then takes Flick's hand to stand up.

"Someone's gotten in your head about this, I can see that much. Time to stop thinking."

(( fade to black? ))

Flick took his friends hand, and let him lead him to the bedroom. Even if Pell didn't know what he had gone through, what Wraxilan had said, he trusted him. Pell knew him well. And he knew his friend could banish the darkness. At least temporarily.

((sure!))

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psa [video]

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