Irving Braxiatel. Terribly sorry, but I am far too busy to answer the phone just now, but please do leave a message. Don't reverse the charges. Thank you.
[He's finding this amusing now and letting her tuck into him. Perhaps finding out what all that was about can wait, he supposes and this is better than her being scared and worried.] It does seem to be.
[She's too damned tired after wandering about and moving is such a chore that staying put was the best she could really do. As long as he's not set on moving, neither is she. It's far more comfortable than it is awkward and Braxiatel is a rather decent Time Lord pillow. She's convinced it must run in the family.]
Can figure it out tomorrow. Light's good for find.[Another yawn. Her hair is everywhere in curls and waves as she settles. It's so much more longer than when she'd arrived, that she really ought to start plaiting it or something. She's trying to keep her eyes open and stay awake, but isn't finding much success.]
For finding lost fiances and. Idiot Time Lords. [She can't even say it like she's irritated, it just comes out sleepily wry. Ril's not sure she can really ever be properly upset with Six. At least not for long.]
[Her voice is filled with quiet amusement as she smiles. If there's one thing that puts Ril to sleep in a hurry, it's her hair being touched.]
As long as he comes home, I'll be all right. Not sure what I'd do if-- [Those are thoughts she needs to let lie, but in the same vein, it could happen. It could very well happen she doesn't have a contingency plan. That frightens her.]
Whatever it turns out to be, it will be in company. [He can't promise Six would come home, so he doesn't. But that at much is something he can promise. They'll figure it out.]
[She makes a soft entirely alien sound, not quite a keen, and buries her still cool nose against his neck. Ril knows, she knows she's not alone in this, and a part of her is sure that if he ever disappears, she'd truly feel it.
And she's afraid. She's afraid that one day she'll find out.]
[She dozes for awhile and her dreams are uneasy, the same mix of trying to find Six and watching him disappear, or finding him gone. As it has for the last few nights, she wakes groggy and frightened, and this time, even a little off balance.
She stirs a little, shivering.]
I should. [Ril's murmur is confused and she feels very much as if she's still stuck in some murky nightmare] I should go home. He could be home.
[Irving is a light sleeper, even as a human, so he rouses as she stirs. He recognises the shiver and rubs before he's even properly awake.] Take your time. He can call.
[She's not sure what makes her check, whether it's the way she can't go back to sleep, or the way the room's started to spin, or the fact that she feels as if all the warmth is leeching from her bones minute by minute. But she checks the lists.
Because as long as his name is--
And she can't breathe. She can't. Because he's not there anymore. His name isn't there and he's not going to call. Ril hangs there, frozen in horror, staring at the screen.
Everything they'd done in Asgard, every touch, every moment, everything they ever were hit her like a wave. The first time she touched him, his lips on hers as they danced home from the masquerade, the way she'd wanted him every second of every day to the moment she'd taken all of his pain from him before they'd both died. And she'd been at peace then, knowing she'd loved him.
Knowing she'd always love him.
And he was gone.
It wasn't a sound anyone should hear. It didn't make it all the way out, caught between a cry and a rattle of breath as her throat closed. He's not going to call, Braxiatel, she said, only the words didn't come. She was Antedan, she was a Pilot, and her anchor, the man she loved, the man who had taught her how to fly without wings was gone.
[Her wrist tilts as she struggles to accept that it's not just a trick of her mind, that his name isn't going to just pop back into place right next to the others, like a blip, or an accident, a network hiccup. He should be there, right after Four, nestled next to Eight, where her Doctors are supposed to be. He should be there, grey but coming home.
Grey but coming home to her, where she could put her arms around him and tell him-- But she can't think, can't move more than that tilt to let Braxiatel see, and there aren't words, and the cold is spreading, creeping into her bones. But she's not Antedan enough, not anymore, and she knows that this trauma is worse than anything Asgard has ever thrown at her. This isn't something the cold can protect her from.
Ril is afraid, she is afraid as her world itself shatters. Somewhere there's a blue coat without an owner and a silver bracelet wobbling on the pavement, collapsing in on the space where he used to be. Ril can feel the tight way the room presses in on her, the way her vision clouds and ripples as soundless tears roll down her cheeks. His voice is not his brother's.
But she thinks she hears it. If she's quiet, if she's very quiet, maybe she'll hear him again. Just once.]
Ril. [He nudges her.] Ril? [He's not worried, yet, confused. He checks her pulse and he's reasonably certain that that's not normal for her species.] Ril, wake up. [He shifts away from her.]
Her breath is shallow, her skin clammy, cold to the touch, and she doesn't react to her name, to his voice, and when he shifts her body slides, unresponsive. There is the faintest tinge of blue to her lips and the beds of her fingernails. She is Antedan and losing Six is as physically devastating as it is emotionally, as it ought to be when one's Anchor is gone. Perhaps the most terrible thing is that without him her body interprets his loss much like a Prowler death. It throws her into immediate and profound shock, much like she's just had a severe blow to her central nervous system. There's no blood, just complete system shock. Where he had been her buffer against Eth loss, there was nothing there, and the gaping hole where he'd made a home is wide again. Eth would have softened the blow, just as he'd done the moment they'd met, but Eth isn't here and neither is he. Unlike the coma he'd been in, he was gone.
Braxiatel calls her name but she doesn't stir, and the white of her hair falls forward as she lets a thin, shallow breath out and goes still.]
[A hell of a lot of muttered swearing ensues, in various languages, and he shuts the feed off before snatching up his Medic Corps kit and making a run for it.
Unless the door is locked, there won't be any knocking. He's just there, in the room, dropping to Ril's side.]
Ril?
[Okay, so it's probably stupid to call her name when she's in this state, but it's worth a shot. He wastes no time, reaching a hand out and just pouring healing into her. Eight normally scolds her for doing that, but this is a bit of an emergency.
[Irving only stops when he touches her. He watches Eight closely to see how he's doing and when he doesn't immediately collapse, he answers the question.]
It could have been a number of things. She came in badly exposed from the outside. Then we suffered some sort of... blackouts and fell unconscious. She attempted to wake up, but instead went into what I can only imagine was shock.
[His tone is calm, but not dry as it normally is.]
[Eight will pay for this healing dump later. For now, he's alright, even if he's mostly running on adrenaline now that his energy is starting to flag.]
Shock? Wh--
[Oh no.
His hand goes down to the bracelet on Ril's wrist, finding it on and open to the directory.]
Brax...look.
[He lifts her arm a bit, still holding the contact and the flow of energy. One hand comes up to touch the "screen"...and there's himself, Eleven, Four, Nine, Ten...oh. Oh no. Of course, Eight doesn't say it out loud, lest Ril regain consciousness and have that be the first thing she hears. Instead, he turns a pained look at Brax. Six is gone.]
[Irving reaches for her other wrist to feel for a pulse. He doesn't want Eight to exhaust himself more than is required as well as wondering how effective this treatment this is.
He looks over when the Doctor points out the absence, looking back at Ril with a vague nod. He's already quite strained from what's happened already, so any reaction beyond realisation concerning the Doctor's absence is hidden.]
Ril. [He adds his Influence to the word, willing her mood to be stable. How much that'll work, he's not sure. But if it was a symptom of that, which the Doctor is suggesting, or at least a factor, then it couldn't hurt.]
[It takes a long while for Eight's healing to pull her back, to stabilize her, but it does. Her pulse becomes stronger, less erratic, and her shallow breaths even out and are deeper, more normal. As Ril isn't quite aware, Braxiatel's power has nothing to pull on for a long while.
But she knows, instinctively where Eight is. Maybe it helps that as an incarnation, he's got a bit of Six in him, maybe there's part of her that can feel it in some oddly physical Antedan way. Her fingers find his and close as she finally stirs. Ril's head lists as she opens her eyes and she has to struggle to keep them open. Eight, that was Eight's Healing. And he'd dumped it on her, but it was his. Steady and warm.
She draws a breath and closes her fingers a little more around his and squeezes lightly.]
You'll. [Ril swallows with difficulty and her voice is raspy.] Hurt yourself. I'll-- [She cuts herself off as she remembers as lets out a soft keen. Braxiatel helps a little to dampen her immediate reaction, but it doesn't negate it. It's too massive, too deep a bond to really alleviate.
Ril makes herself move a little in an attempt to try and curl into Eight as much as possible in order to stem the way her body wants to just shut down and she inadvertently trickles her own healing back into him from worry alone. It not an awful lot, but it's palpable.]
[When he feels her start to try to give it back to him, he instantly pulls back on the healing, worried that she might try to give it all back out of instinct and they'd have to start this all over again.
Eight has never been altogether certain of how Ril works, specifically, but he hopes what he and Brax are doing will help. They certainly can't bring Six back to her. They have to do this on their own.
Giving Brax a little lost look when she curls into him, he pulls her up to cradle her against his chest and holds her there.]
I'll be fine, Ril. Just...tired, probably. You just concentrate on staying with us, alright?
[He doesn't see what Ril is doing to the Doctor, aside from the obvious curling up to him, but as she starts stabilising, he tapers off the Influence.
Slowly, in case this was entirely emotional. He doesn't like to keep control for too long as he has his own limits. If he reached it, it would stop instantly. And if it was ineffective, then he'd have summon more people, which would only embarrass and distress her.
He goes to her other side, pulling up his blanket, which is, of course, extremely soft and quite warm, around her (and parts of the Doctor).]
Why don't I get us some tea? I know the Doctor could use the boost and it might warm you up, hm?
[She focuses on Eight, her fingers hooked into whatever fabric she can find as if not being close would send her right back into a tailspin, which it probably would. Other people wouldn't have embarrassed, no distressed her at all, but really, Eight is all she needs. He's holding her pieces together as he cradles her and she wordlessly fusses at him, but it's all show.
Even pale as she is, she's more concerned about him overtaxing himself. It's so much easier to focus on Eight as she buries her face into his chest. She really has no words for Braxiatel, and she's not sure she'll drink the tea, but she'll try.
It'd be hot, and she is still very, very cold, and she knows Eight's presence is the only thing keeping her functioning, and the only reason she hasn't just stopped. The emotional component to Ril's collapse is minuscule compared to magnitude being physically separated from her Anchor much like being separated from her ship, but there are bits of Six in the Doctor, in Eight, and while it isn't the same-- She'll have to adapt. She canadapt, Pilots were meant to do that, trained for it. But no one told her about what true Anchors were like, maybe because no one knew.
Priis help her, but nothing save being ripped away from Eth could hurt this much. Ril was sure of it.
She shifts to stare up at Eight with wide, terrified and heartbroken eyes that keep trying to overfill with tears she can't quite keep in check. Gods forgive her, but she can't let go of him, now.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
becauseichooseto
no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 04:36 pm (UTC)Can figure it out tomorrow. Light's good for find.[Another yawn. Her hair is everywhere in curls and waves as she settles. It's so much more longer than when she'd arrived, that she really ought to start plaiting it or something. She's trying to keep her eyes open and stay awake, but isn't finding much success.]
For finding lost fiances and. Idiot Time Lords. [She can't even say it like she's irritated, it just comes out sleepily wry. Ril's not sure she can really ever be properly upset with Six. At least not for long.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 05:01 pm (UTC)Then it must be wonderful for finding the Doctor. [Like he could resist a pop like that.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 05:27 pm (UTC)Such trouble I get for the price of one.
[Her voice is filled with quiet amusement as she smiles. If there's one thing that puts Ril to sleep in a hurry, it's her hair being touched.]
As long as he comes home, I'll be all right. Not sure what I'd do if-- [Those are thoughts she needs to let lie, but in the same vein, it could happen. It could very well happen she doesn't have a contingency plan. That frightens her.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 09:39 pm (UTC)And she's afraid. She's afraid that one day she'll find out.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-28 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 10:04 pm (UTC)She stirs a little, shivering.]
I should. [Ril's murmur is confused and she feels very much as if she's still stuck in some murky nightmare] I should go home. He could be home.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 10:53 pm (UTC)Because as long as his name is--
And she can't breathe. She can't. Because he's not there anymore. His name isn't there and he's not going to call. Ril hangs there, frozen in horror, staring at the screen.
Everything they'd done in Asgard, every touch, every moment, everything they ever were hit her like a wave. The first time she touched him, his lips on hers as they danced home from the masquerade, the way she'd wanted him every second of every day to the moment she'd taken all of his pain from him before they'd both died. And she'd been at peace then, knowing she'd loved him.
Knowing she'd always love him.
And he was gone.
It wasn't a sound anyone should hear. It didn't make it all the way out, caught between a cry and a rattle of breath as her throat closed. He's not going to call, Braxiatel, she said, only the words didn't come. She was Antedan, she was a Pilot, and her anchor, the man she loved, the man who had taught her how to fly without wings was gone.
He was gone and she couldn't follow him.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 11:30 pm (UTC)Grey but coming home to her, where she could put her arms around him and tell him-- But she can't think, can't move more than that tilt to let Braxiatel see, and there aren't words, and the cold is spreading, creeping into her bones. But she's not Antedan enough, not anymore, and she knows that this trauma is worse than anything Asgard has ever thrown at her. This isn't something the cold can protect her from.
Ril is afraid, she is afraid as her world itself shatters. Somewhere there's a blue coat without an owner and a silver bracelet wobbling on the pavement, collapsing in on the space where he used to be. Ril can feel the tight way the room presses in on her, the way her vision clouds and ripples as soundless tears roll down her cheeks. His voice is not his brother's.
But she thinks she hears it. If she's quiet, if she's very quiet, maybe she'll hear him again. Just once.]
no subject
Date: 2014-04-30 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-01 11:26 pm (UTC)Quieter.
Her breath is shallow, her skin clammy, cold to the touch, and she doesn't react to her name, to his voice, and when he shifts her body slides, unresponsive. There is the faintest tinge of blue to her lips and the beds of her fingernails. She is Antedan and losing Six is as physically devastating as it is emotionally, as it ought to be when one's Anchor is gone. Perhaps the most terrible thing is that without him her body interprets his loss much like a Prowler death. It throws her into immediate and profound shock, much like she's just had a severe blow to her central nervous system. There's no blood, just complete system shock. Where he had been her buffer against Eth loss, there was nothing there, and the gaping hole where he'd made a home is wide again. Eth would have softened the blow, just as he'd done the moment they'd met, but Eth isn't here and neither is he. Unlike the coma he'd been in, he was gone.
Braxiatel calls her name but she doesn't stir, and the white of her hair falls forward as she lets a thin, shallow breath out and goes still.]
no subject
Date: 2014-05-02 12:33 am (UTC)[video]
Date: 2014-05-02 01:49 am (UTC)I'm here. What's happened?
[video]
Date: 2014-05-02 11:15 am (UTC)[Video] ---> [Action]
Date: 2014-05-02 05:39 pm (UTC)Unless the door is locked, there won't be any knocking. He's just there, in the room, dropping to Ril's side.]
Ril?
[Okay, so it's probably stupid to call her name when she's in this state, but it's worth a shot. He wastes no time, reaching a hand out and just pouring healing into her. Eight normally scolds her for doing that, but this is a bit of an emergency.
Finally, he glances up to Brax again.]
What happened?
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-02 06:07 pm (UTC)It could have been a number of things. She came in badly exposed from the outside. Then we suffered some sort of... blackouts and fell unconscious. She attempted to wake up, but instead went into what I can only imagine was shock.
[His tone is calm, but not dry as it normally is.]
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-02 07:13 pm (UTC)Shock? Wh--
[Oh no.
His hand goes down to the bracelet on Ril's wrist, finding it on and open to the directory.]
Brax...look.
[He lifts her arm a bit, still holding the contact and the flow of energy. One hand comes up to touch the "screen"...and there's himself, Eleven, Four, Nine, Ten...oh. Oh no. Of course, Eight doesn't say it out loud, lest Ril regain consciousness and have that be the first thing she hears. Instead, he turns a pained look at Brax. Six is gone.]
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-02 07:53 pm (UTC)He looks over when the Doctor points out the absence, looking back at Ril with a vague nod. He's already quite strained from what's happened already, so any reaction beyond realisation concerning the Doctor's absence is hidden.]
Ril. [He adds his Influence to the word, willing her mood to be stable. How much that'll work, he's not sure. But if it was a symptom of that, which the Doctor is suggesting, or at least a factor, then it couldn't hurt.]
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-02 10:50 pm (UTC)But she knows, instinctively where Eight is. Maybe it helps that as an incarnation, he's got a bit of Six in him, maybe there's part of her that can feel it in some oddly physical Antedan way. Her fingers find his and close as she finally stirs. Ril's head lists as she opens her eyes and she has to struggle to keep them open. Eight, that was Eight's Healing. And he'd dumped it on her, but it was his. Steady and warm.
She draws a breath and closes her fingers a little more around his and squeezes lightly.]
You'll. [Ril swallows with difficulty and her voice is raspy.] Hurt yourself. I'll-- [She cuts herself off as she remembers as lets out a soft keen. Braxiatel helps a little to dampen her immediate reaction, but it doesn't negate it. It's too massive, too deep a bond to really alleviate.
Ril makes herself move a little in an attempt to try and curl into Eight as much as possible in order to stem the way her body wants to just shut down and she inadvertently trickles her own healing back into him from worry alone. It not an awful lot, but it's palpable.]
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-03 12:25 am (UTC)Eight has never been altogether certain of how Ril works, specifically, but he hopes what he and Brax are doing will help. They certainly can't bring Six back to her. They have to do this on their own.
Giving Brax a little lost look when she curls into him, he pulls her up to cradle her against his chest and holds her there.]
I'll be fine, Ril. Just...tired, probably. You just concentrate on staying with us, alright?
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-03 11:39 am (UTC)Slowly, in case this was entirely emotional. He doesn't like to keep control for too long as he has his own limits. If he reached it, it would stop instantly. And if it was ineffective, then he'd have summon more people, which would only embarrass and distress her.
He goes to her other side, pulling up his blanket, which is, of course, extremely soft and quite warm, around her (and parts of the Doctor).]
Why don't I get us some tea? I know the Doctor could use the boost and it might warm you up, hm?
[Action]
Date: 2014-05-03 12:39 pm (UTC)Even pale as she is, she's more concerned about him overtaxing himself. It's so much easier to focus on Eight as she buries her face into his chest. She really has no words for Braxiatel, and she's not sure she'll drink the tea, but she'll try.
It'd be hot, and she is still very, very cold, and she knows Eight's presence is the only thing keeping her functioning, and the only reason she hasn't just stopped. The emotional component to Ril's collapse is minuscule compared to magnitude being physically separated from her Anchor much like being separated from her ship, but there are bits of Six in the Doctor, in Eight, and while it isn't the same-- She'll have to adapt. She canadapt, Pilots were meant to do that, trained for it. But no one told her about what true Anchors were like, maybe because no one knew.
Priis help her, but nothing save being ripped away from Eth could hurt this much. Ril was sure of it.
She shifts to stare up at Eight with wide, terrified and heartbroken eyes that keep trying to overfill with tears she can't quite keep in check. Gods forgive her, but she can't let go of him, now.]