All these wet noodles, good lord.

[velocirainbow]

[ So sometime late into Sunday, right before sunset, Cielo can be seen running through camp, soaked, and bleeding profusely from one of his arms. He's just screaming like an idiot, out of breath, making hand gestures at anyone in the cabins or the lodge. He doesn't stay long in one area, looking for help wherever he can.

He is also, incidentally, looking for Stan if he can find him. ]

Help--de clearin'--everybody real badly hurt, we need first-aid, I can only do so much, bandages...! Anythin' you got! An' pain medicine! We gwon need a lot!

Comments

[velocirainbow]

[ Gonna wander over to come see her, he knows she's gotta be exhausted. ]

... 'Ey, sista. Dat, uh. Dat sure happened. Sorry I snatched you--I didn't get a chance to apologize. I know it prolly... freaked you out a bit.

[fallbymyhands]

[she opens her eyes when she hears Cielo, turning her head to face him]

. . . no. It's all right, Cielo. If anything, I think you saved me.

How are you feeling?

[velocirainbow]

... I'm jus' glad you okay. I don't think my leader'd ever let me hear de end of it if I let any of you guys get hurt.

[ He smiles a little more freely, less tense, relieved she seems to be as okay as she can be. ]

I'm fine. My arm'll recover.

[fallbymyhands]

[she pushes herself up, pulling up a genuine (but tired) smile herself]

Did another healer tend to it? I'm sorry; I used most of my magic on Ren, so I wasn't able to assist you or Tsukino. . .

[velocirainbow]

Chuuta helped me. So did de cranky, tiny brudda.

[ It's obvious he means Minitsuru. ]

You exhausted yourself, sista. I'd be in de same boat, if I had any of my healing magic equipped at de moment. I'll see if I can get another item to help us in de future, jus' in case next time. You were really amazin', though.

[fallbymyhands]

Ah. . .

[she doesn't feel amazing. not with her injuries, and not with the scolding she got afterwards]

I'm used to fighting Shadows. I thought our trip into this Metavers would be routine.

[and boy, was it anything but]

But in the end, we all would have perished in there if it hadn't been for your quick thinking. Thank you, Cielo. We all owe you our lives.

[velocirainbow]

[ The compliment makes him turn a little red, like he isn't... expecting something so special from such an amazingly competent person. ]

... L-look, I'm jus' used to dat sorta thing. It ain't no big deal. We shoulda... been more careful. But--but we got out, an' we learned stuff. Dat's what matters, right...? Maybe... we can use it to help everybody. An' you helped. We all did. It was all'a us.

Comrades. We worked together to get outta dere. You got his phone out.

[fallbymyhands]

[. . . she chuckles at that]

Yes. I hope, at the very least, the information we received was worth the danger. Although considering everything, our survival should be paramount.

Tomorrow, I'd like to compile what we learned and compare it with all of the information we have so far, to see if we can reach any conclusions.

[velocirainbow]

[ He... doesn't respond to the survival comment, but... ]

I think we could prolly figure out a lot, if we all got together. We need to give everybody time to cool down anyway, dey all pretty mad... but, I still respect you, sista. I don't think our decision was wrong. I mean, gwon' in. Maybe how we went about it, but not de thing itself.

[fallbymyhands]

[there, she. . . hesitates]

We learned that this rock god is a child. We learned that the souls of the deceased are somewhere we can reach, and although we cannot communicate with them directly, that thought is still comforting. We learned that this child god seems to be killing us at the behest of. . . someone else. Perhaps the organization for whom Red and Pines work.

We-- made mistakes, yes. [although again, she hadn't even thought about telling anyone, because to her? this was supposed to be routine] But I believe it was necessary for us to enter that Palace for the sake of learning more about this god, and this camp.

[velocirainbow]

... I wanna know somethin'. Our comrades... were in dere, too. You think dey were dem things Ren talks about? Cognitions? Or... do you think dey were de actual souls of our real friends, tryin' to drown us?

[ He looks down. ]

'Cause... 'cause it was weird how dey jus'... let us go. After dey put up so much fight, when we got in.

[fallbymyhands]

Did you hear the way Talcott reacted to Ren earlier?

[about the item Ren said Talcott tried to give them. the one that turned into an eyeball]

He said it was supposed to be a notebook. I believe it was them, and not these "cognition" Ren warned us about.

The. . . the corpses that tried to drown us, however. . . those were likely cognitions.

[velocirainbow]

[ He swallows the lump in his throat. He doesn't want to cry in front of Mitsuru. He needs to be strong. ]

... You prolly right. Dey seemed different from de othas. Dunno why Natsume tried to hurt us. Maybe dey thought we were enemies first? But... if dey're dere... dat means de dead from de camp WE know, personally, everybody dat arrived here, is prolly all okay. Or... in some form, somehow?

I mean, we ain't seen 'em all, but I think it's safe to make dat guess.

[fallbymyhands]

[she nods]

I believe that's a safe guess as well. I can't even begin to speculate as to Sakasaki's motives, but. . .

[hm]

Knowing that our comrades are there, that their souls are at least somewhat within reach, is a comforting thought.