hadriel | voice

...It can’t be…
...a nightmare…failed...
...couldn’t have… died…

[He’s muttering to himself, so only a few stray words are clear enough to be heard, at first. He hadn't intended those to be heard, necessarily, as he's checking that the phone is even on. Then, he clears his throat and speaks normally.]

Kain Highwind of the Guard reporting in. What is the current situation with the demons? I can… [He pauses, more mentally disoriented than anything. The reality of the situation is still sinking in, the memories of being possessed are… deeply unsettling. Not again. He can’t believe he’s lost himself again.] I can go anywhere I’m needed to continue our fight.

[Sigh. Well, there it is. He's in a bit of denial over what happened, but he knows deep down the truth of the matter. He'd been possessed, and... killed. Shadow, that hedgehog had ended his suffering. For now, he’ll throw himself into fighting, a warrior above all else. Mental distress will just have to get shoved deep down inside. But there is… something else bothering him. He belongs to the air, to the wind. He wants to feel that breeze on his face, to see the sky change in color. He’ll even take overcast if he could just see clouds again. The withdrawal is real.]

This is unrelated, but… How can everyone withstand a place without a sky for so long, anyway? Does anyone know if there's some way to see it again, even for a few moments?

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[She wants to ask him if he's alright, starts this message to do so, and then abruptly thinks better of it. She barely knows him. He probably doesn't remember her, and... still. It's too much. She shouldn't insert herself in a place that doesn't concern her.]

There might be, uhm, some cracks in the cave ceiling, but... I doubt it.

[She wouldn't even really know what she's looking for, seeing as she only ever saw glimpses of sunlight through the barrier, in the throne room with Asgore.]

Was it, uh... nice, though? Or, uhm, is it. The sky, I mean. You seem to m-miss it a lot.

[Yes, the voice is definitely familiar. Kain at least tries to keep track of those he meets here, since it's important to know who may be an ally... or a foe. He ponders that for a moment.]

Fortunately, I can jump high... perhaps I could look for cracks when I do.

[It would be better than nothing, though it's sort of reminiscent of someone looking out of a prison cell at the sky outside. He tries not to let that thought overcome him.]

The sky is everything to a dragoon. It's where we fight, where we belong. When we jump and soar up there... it's like nothing else in the word. So... Yes. I do miss it. [Right, she's one of the... the monsters, like Eidolons, who'd never been to the surface.] I especially miss how much it can change... night and day, and weather...

[She listens, enraptured at the thought of it. Of course she's studied the human world, obviously knows about the cycles of the sun and moon, and Snowdin had some simulated patterns with the snow occasionally melting enough to once again fall from the cave ceiling. But she's never heard a thunderstorm. Never felt a hurricane. Frankly, it all seems kind of scary and unpredictable, but he seems to love it. Adore it.

She wishes she had something she loved that much. Something that... made her that happy.]

That sounds like it makes you, uhm, r-really happy. I'm sorry you're stuck down here, uhm... so f-far away.

[Kain hadn't really considered it in that way. He's not the sort to be a jumping-for-joy, exuberant happy. And yet... and yet, whenever he stands on a high ledge, the wind in his hair, staring at the world below... there's a peacefulness he can't get anywhere else. Same for when his feet are far off the ground when he jumps. It's quiet and inward but there all the same. Yes. Happiness.]

It does. Make me happy, I mean. Of course, I have to endure its absence the same as everyone here... but that doesn't stop me from missing it.

I hope I have the chance to see it again someday, though.

I'm s-sure you will. We will, uh, get to leave here someday, and you'll g-get to go home to your friends and the sky.

[Well, he will. Not her, anyway. She has nothing to go home to.]

It's okay that, uhm, you miss it t-though. That's pretty normal for, uhm, somewhere you spent a lot of time.

I hope you're right. I was just in another world not my own... I have to wonder at this point if I'll even return home at all.

[He'd thought that leaving the Gods' War would mean going home... but it hadn't. Not yet, anyway.]

Yes, it's very important to me... I can't imagine life without it. I never imagined I'd be stuck in a cave like this.

I never imagined s-seeing the sky.

[Oh god. Ohhh lord she said that out loud. Haha, good job Alphys, a person you basically just met, gettin' all emotional on them! Wonderful!]

I mean, uhm, nothing. I'm sure you'll, uh, m-make it back. We'll all leave eventually, uh, right?

Hm? Is something wrong?

[Kain may not be the best with dealing with emotions, but even he can recognize that there's... something going on there.]

We have to leave. We can't possibly remain here forever.

H-Hah! No, uhm, it's nothing. We just, uhm, need to wait until we get out, and go home. It's okay.

[hhhhhhh nope nope nope, here comes One Big Backpedal away from THAT tire fire of emotional compromise.]

If.... you're certain. [Kain sounds pretty unsure about things himself, but he isn't one to press things too much.]

We'd better be able to find a way out of here. I've left too much undone back home that I must finish.

[He's... he's nice. Not pushing it. She's thankful.]

I'm sure you'll g-get home. Especially if, uhm, there's people waiting for you.

There are... people who I left too long ago. I must return to them.

Well, uhm, it s-seems to be, uh, even if people leave, they don't remember being gone. Or, uh, something like that. So, i-it'll be like you never left?

So this place tampers with our memories as well? Is that to be my fate? To go through so much on other worlds, only to lose it all... it seems almost pointless.

If we, uhm, maybe find a way to go back without it being unpredictable-- like, uhm, f-fixing the door, then, maybe we won't have to. I don't know. There's a lot of, uhm, p-possibilities. Though it'd probably be, uhm, p-pretty jarring to go back to your old life with a bunch of memories in the middle.

It seems as if fixing this door will be a very difficult process overall, or so I've gathered.

And... I suppose it would be strange to keep those memories. But they're still my memories, and I'd prefer to keep them.

Well, uhm... I'm s-sure we can, uh, figure this out. Or at least, the gods will.

But, uh, good luck g-getting home, regardless.

Thank you... and you as well, if you have the chance to leave this place. One way or another, someone must figure out a solution to our problem.