[ She can't help her excitement. She's nervous, but it means that they're one step closer to getting to them out of there. She can only hope that the situation hasn't become more dire. ]
[He's sitting up against a wall, half dozing--sleeping is easier said than done with no dry surfaces remaining--when the words scrawl across a nearby rock, and so he has to blink at them for a moment before he realizes they're not part of a dream.]
Good news is a nice change of pace.
[He feels like there are other things he should say or ask, but it takes several seconds before he figures out what one of those things is.]
[ It feels easier to focus on talking through everything, giving Jayden a play by play, than to focus on the things she's quickly stuffing into a pack for their journey into the mountains. ]
[Between the use of 'us' when describing that group, and the way she'd said in her first message that 'some of the Summoned' were on their way to the cave, it seems that way.]
Still low enough. We're all just kind of perpetually soggy.
[Which sucks, but then again, in some ways the water's been a nice change from being bloody and covered in dirt. But in others, it's really annoying, and he mentally rambles the next part rather than really thinking about it before sending it.]
Last place I was before I got here was wet all the time too. Just rained nonstop.
[ There is some truth to that statement, but if they were to peel it back to the root of the matter, the true culprit behind Hilda's indeciveness is her anxiety and belief that she'd be a detriment to both teams. She isn't a tracker, doesn't have any skills that could help her survive in the mountains, and certainly "can't" throw a weapon around. What she's also purposefully leaving out is that she's reluctant to leave Petra alone. ]
Makes sense. Sticking together's probably a good idea anyway.
[Cold or not. He doesn't know much of anything about her relevant skills, but there's at least a small amount of safety in numbers, and mountaineering is dangerous all on its own even without the potential of Acolytes or monsters or who even knows what else.
Being warm and dry sounds like some far off possibility, but at least he can take a little bit of enjoyment from complaining about Philadelphia.]
Just in some places. I was visiting a different city for the case I was working, where it rained all the time. Where I live has normal weather.
[Which is a totally objective statement of course.]
[ Teasing and jokes have been admittedly a little difficult the last several weeks, even for her, but she feels like even her poor, slightly off-colour ones have been landing with Jayden. And if this one happens to not land? Well, that's okay, not every joke was going to be a hit. ]
[Indeed it lands just fine, and he's joking in return. But although he means the light response, he also feels a strange mix of emotions that he could identify if he really thought about it, but he has zero intention of actually doing so and instead just ignores them.
Fodlan sounds vaguely familiar, but he's not sure why or if he's just imagining it, so he doesn't ask. But it does get mentally filed away for later, as right now he gratefully takes the distraction she offers.]
Yeah. It's the capital of the country, so it's real historic. Lots of things to do when I'm not working.
[Then he realizes something, and adds--]
You'd probably like some of the museums; lots of historic jewelry and that sort of thing. I don't know anything about it except there's a huge diamond that's supposed to be cursed.
[ Because he will come back and in one piece. As paralyzed as she is by anxiety, there's still a small part of her that wishes she could go to both places. Guilt lingers there as she thinks about not being able to go and get Jayden and Blake by extension but she had made her choice.
Hilda can't help but laugh a bit at his statement about the cursed diamond despite her words. ]
[But he's finding himself willing to entertain the idea that coming back might be possible after all. He's certainly not convinced, but there is at least some sense of hope that exists now.
And as she mentions it, he realizes curses have now come up twice in the same conversation, and that is probably a little strange yeah.]
I swear this is an outlier. Normally I don't mention curses at all.
I don't spend a lot of time in museums either, but one from a whole different world's kind of tempting. I wonder if there's weird dinosaurs or something.
[This place has monsters, after all. Who knows what kind of fossils might exist?]
[ Everyone loves a Hilda Goneril party! And even if they didn’t, surely that had to be a better prospect than everything she’d heard about what the pit had been like. ]
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳? 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭?
[ She doesn’t think she’s heard of anything of the sort in Fodlan, even in the books she’s read that she’ll claim she never has because they’re simply too dry for her liking. ]
The reunion part sounds great, it's just the 'grand' that's scaring me.
[Seeing a friendly face is a very nice thought, but he has terrible--but funny--mental images of surprise parties and people singing happy birthday in restaurants and other such events.
And how is he going to explain dinosaurs? Give him a brief moment to dredge up the concentration to made this maybe make sense.]
Yeah, they were animals that used to live in my world, but it was millions of years before humans. We just find their bones sometimes now. They're kind of like giant lizards? But they're actually birds.
[...Maybe he should thought about this description a little longer after all.]
[ That is a fair enough statement. Not everyone wanted to be the centre of attention after all. But a grand surprise party isn't what she had in mind. ]
That's true. I definitely won't object to a cake of any size.
[Aside from having strong opinions on coffee, he doesn't typically put much thought into food. But after all of this, a cake sounds amazing.]
Uh, kind of, yeah. Some look like wyverns and dragons, but they don't have wings. Some do have wings but don't look like dragons. There's also one that looks like it's got a duck face on a lizard body.
[This is surely clearing up any confusion. He'll have to make a terrible drawing for her later, or even better, conjure one up in the Horizon.]
[ The food situation hasn't been great down there. Even if they're so close to getting them out of there, the last thing she wants to do is make it worse somehow by making him think about food. ]
[Both because he doesn't want to think too much about food and because he's actually not sure what the answer is. Also who knows; maybe this world has some weird cake flavors he's never even thought of, and he'd miss out if he picked something boring.]
Hey, save calling me a liar for when I tell you about platypuses. Unless you have those in your world, in which case you shouldn't be too surprised by weird things with duck faces.
[ It's not simply for his benefit either; Hilda loved crafting surprises as much as she enjoyed receiving them.
There's a moment before her next message goes through. Petra has burst through the doors herself and there's a flurry of activity as they throw things they might need into bags. She knows that the next couple of hours will likely be filled with preparation and as reluctant as she is to cut off communication, she'd rather Jayden focus his energies on himself. ]
[The short delay doesn't alarm him, but he does notice it. It's easy enough to figure out, combined with her last message, that it's time to go and so he keeps his own response simple.]
Yeah. Be careful yourself, and see you on the other side.
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𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰.
[ Several days later, she sends a message in part to check on him and in part to keep him informed. ]
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘑𝘢𝘺! 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
[ She can't help her excitement. She's nervous, but it means that they're one step closer to getting to them out of there. She can only hope that the situation hasn't become more dire. ]
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Good news is a nice change of pace.
[He feels like there are other things he should say or ask, but it takes several seconds before he figures out what one of those things is.]
What about the others?
[The ones that got out.]
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[ It feels easier to focus on talking through everything, giving Jayden a play by play, than to focus on the things she's quickly stuffing into a pack for their journey into the mountains. ]
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘶𝘵.
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴?
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[Between the use of 'us' when describing that group, and the way she'd said in her first message that 'some of the Summoned' were on their way to the cave, it seems that way.]
Still low enough. We're all just kind of perpetually soggy.
[Which sucks, but then again, in some ways the water's been a nice change from being bloody and covered in dirt. But in others, it's really annoying, and he mentally rambles the next part rather than really thinking about it before sending it.]
Last place I was before I got here was wet all the time too. Just rained nonstop.
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[ There is some truth to that statement, but if they were to peel it back to the root of the matter, the true culprit behind Hilda's indeciveness is her anxiety and belief that she'd be a detriment to both teams. She isn't a tracker, doesn't have any skills that could help her survive in the mountains, and certainly "can't" throw a weapon around. What she's also purposefully leaving out is that she's reluctant to leave Petra alone. ]
𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘥𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯? 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘺.
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[Cold or not. He doesn't know much of anything about her relevant skills, but there's at least a small amount of safety in numbers, and mountaineering is dangerous all on its own even without the potential of Acolytes or monsters or who even knows what else.
Being warm and dry sounds like some far off possibility, but at least he can take a little bit of enjoyment from complaining about Philadelphia.]
Just in some places. I was visiting a different city for the case I was working, where it rained all the time. Where I live has normal weather.
[Which is a totally objective statement of course.]
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[ Teasing and jokes have been admittedly a little difficult the last several weeks, even for her, but she feels like even her poor, slightly off-colour ones have been landing with Jayden. And if this one happens to not land? Well, that's okay, not every joke was going to be a hit. ]
𝘜𝘨𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘸𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘍𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥?
[ She figures it might be a nice way to at least keep his mind off the slowly rising water levels. ]
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[Indeed it lands just fine, and he's joking in return. But although he means the light response, he also feels a strange mix of emotions that he could identify if he really thought about it, but he has zero intention of actually doing so and instead just ignores them.
Fodlan sounds vaguely familiar, but he's not sure why or if he's just imagining it, so he doesn't ask. But it does get mentally filed away for later, as right now he gratefully takes the distraction she offers.]
Yeah. It's the capital of the country, so it's real historic. Lots of things to do when I'm not working.
[Then he realizes something, and adds--]
You'd probably like some of the museums; lots of historic jewelry and that sort of thing. I don't know anything about it except there's a huge diamond that's supposed to be cursed.
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[ Because he will come back and in one piece. As paralyzed as she is by anxiety, there's still a small part of her that wishes she could go to both places. Guilt lingers there as she thinks about not being able to go and get Jayden and Blake by extension but she had made her choice.
Hilda can't help but laugh a bit at his statement about the cursed diamond despite her words. ]
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴?! 𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥. 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘦𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺. 𝘞𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯'𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵.
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[But he's finding himself willing to entertain the idea that coming back might be possible after all. He's certainly not convinced, but there is at least some sense of hope that exists now.
And as she mentions it, he realizes curses have now come up twice in the same conversation, and that is probably a little strange yeah.]
I swear this is an outlier. Normally I don't mention curses at all.
I don't spend a lot of time in museums either, but one from a whole different world's kind of tempting. I wonder if there's weird dinosaurs or something.
[This place has monsters, after all. Who knows what kind of fossils might exist?]
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[ Everyone loves a Hilda Goneril party! And even if they didn’t, surely that had to be a better prospect than everything she’d heard about what the pit had been like. ]
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳? 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭?
[ She doesn’t think she’s heard of anything of the sort in Fodlan, even in the books she’s read that she’ll claim she never has because they’re simply too dry for her liking. ]
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[Seeing a friendly face is a very nice thought, but he has terrible--but funny--mental images of surprise parties and people singing happy birthday in restaurants and other such events.
And how is he going to explain dinosaurs? Give him a brief moment to dredge up the concentration to made this maybe make sense.]
Yeah, they were animals that used to live in my world, but it was millions of years before humans. We just find their bones sometimes now. They're kind of like giant lizards? But they're actually birds.
[...Maybe he should thought about this description a little longer after all.]
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𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘬𝘦.
[ The image she conjures in her mind is...definitely ridiculous looking and she can't help but snort a little bit at the thought. ]
𝘎𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥𝘴? 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴? 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘺𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘴?
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[Aside from having strong opinions on coffee, he doesn't typically put much thought into food. But after all of this, a cake sounds amazing.]
Uh, kind of, yeah. Some look like wyverns and dragons, but they don't have wings. Some do have wings but don't look like dragons. There's also one that looks like it's got a duck face on a lizard body.
[This is surely clearing up any confusion. He'll have to make a terrible drawing for her later, or even better, conjure one up in the Horizon.]
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[ The food situation hasn't been great down there. Even if they're so close to getting them out of there, the last thing she wants to do is make it worse somehow by making him think about food. ]
𝘈 𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦!? 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘦, 𝘑𝘢𝘺.
[ Nope. Definitely made it worse. ]
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[Both because he doesn't want to think too much about food and because he's actually not sure what the answer is. Also who knows; maybe this world has some weird cake flavors he's never even thought of, and he'd miss out if he picked something boring.]
Hey, save calling me a liar for when I tell you about platypuses. Unless you have those in your world, in which case you shouldn't be too surprised by weird things with duck faces.
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[ It's not simply for his benefit either; Hilda loved crafting surprises as much as she enjoyed receiving them.
There's a moment before her next message goes through. Petra has burst through the doors herself and there's a flurry of activity as they throw things they might need into bags. She knows that the next couple of hours will likely be filled with preparation and as reluctant as she is to cut off communication, she'd rather Jayden focus his energies on himself. ]
𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦? 𝘉𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦, 𝘑𝘢𝘺. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯.
no subject
Yeah. Be careful yourself, and see you on the other side.