THE TOWN SQUARE.

[atrueheroine]

[Page silently watches the church burn for a little while, once she's emerged safely from it, before turning away and heading to the town square to meet up with everyone else. It makes sense to rest here, as they did last week, after another town with another tragic story to tell.

At least that time, however, they'd all survived it unscathed.

Once she's made it over to the group, she drops her pack onto the ground and collapses next to it, staring at her feet. It's going to take a bit to...process all of that, and while she'd love to get up in front of everyone and make some kind of rousing speech, she just doesn't have it in her at the moment.

Instead, she'll look up from the stone of the square, eventually, casting her eye over everyone and saying (almost to herself)-]

...I hope everyone is all right.

[That is likely far from true, but...well. They're all alive, Wesker is dead, and that's something. She's trying her best not to look at that little tree-sculpture with the key around its neck.


OOC: Second verse, same as the first! Here's our post-event mingle post, to talk about what the hell just happened in there, lick our wounds, and beg forgiveness from...from Flower Girl. Top-level away; Page will have her own up, if you'd like to talk to her.]

Comments

[abysstery]

[Heinwald is used to working alone, but honestly, in this case he’s thankful that there is someone else in the same position as him. He and Yusei have a connection, and they can discuss the situation in a way that no one else can.

So he’s attentive when Yusei approaches. He had planned to visit with him as well, but Yusei found him first. He shifts a bit so he’s properly facing Yusei.]

Ready to talk about it, then?

[planetary_bonds]

Better now than never.

[Okay. He'll start.]

Regarding the Shimmer itself...what do you think this means...? I can't help but feel like it could go a few ways.

[So. He's starting with a broader picture. It's easier to think like that, than to focus on his own role in all this.]

[abysstery]

Are you referring to its mechanisms or its aims...?

[planetary_bonds]

...Both, I suppose. Either it got itself into our heads, or...it's not as malicious as we think it is.

[His face crumples.]

I can't think of any other reason why I would agree to such a thing.

[abysstery]

[He can tell that Yusei is having an even harder time with this than he is. The lack of an answer as to why definitely makes the situation more frustrating...]

We knew the risks. We must have had a very good reason for it. [...] To the point of not informing Vitali about it.

[He doesn’t want to consider the possibility of Shimmer influence just yet. He wants to believe that he had all of his faculties at the time.]

[planetary_bonds]

I'd like to think that.

[Now, he wonders.]

Do you think those versions of ourselves went home? Or did we stay with that piece, somewhere in this world?

[He can't imagine not going back. There's too many things for him to resolve back home, too many answers to find. Surely, that other version of him must have been the same. Right?]

[abysstery]

[Heinwald is absolutely in agreement on that front.]

Knowing myself, I doubt I would have wanted to stay behind in this world. There is little here for me outside of investigating the Shimmer.

[The tech is cool and all, but he has a life back home that he would like to return to.]

Wesker spoke of the Shimmer being within us, but this piece seems to be a separate entity in comparison. Perhaps one of us brought it to their home world.

[planetary_bonds]

...You think that's a possibility?

[Yusei was about to counter with doubt, but then he remembers that Wesker only mentioned feeling the piece leaving the boundary. There's nothing about where it went after that.]

He was able to sense whether it was growing or not out there...you think he would have been able to sense it in a different world?