[Millways] By the Lake

[cloakandclaw]

Much like the days when he first got to this place, he finds that the trees by the lake soothe him. It's a stubborn door that refuses to open, even under the threat of emergence by a planetary elemental: there's nothing he can do about it. No stranger to disappointment and to captivity, he knows he has little choice but to wait it out. If this is where he's destined to be, then... he will have to do his atonement from a distance and remain separated from his beloved.

Tonight, he's crouched on a low oak branch overlooking the lake. It suits him; it suits his mood; it suits his need for silent observation. The night is crisp and chill, but it doesn't bother him: he's neither warm nor cold. The neutrality of temperature he felt on the boat he took to the western continent is nothing new but being home again served to reinforce it for him. Still, he refuses to give thanks to Chaos, who he still likes to see as an unwelcome intruder to his solitude.

To his thoughts of the past, and of Lucrecia, and of home: does Chaos share his thoughts? Feel what he feels? He doesn't know: his memories of time in that form are very poor indeed. It's almost as if he wasn't even there.

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[cloakandclaw]

Now there's a question he chooses not to answer: it's so personal and deep he's absolutely disinterested in discussing it in any depth whatsoever. If it were his choice, he would be so much more than lost.

He'd be dead. He never asked to be... reborn, reanimated: the taste he had of death was comfort enough in a vast sea of unhappiness and... the concept of being lost is tempting. But like death, it's something Chaos won't allow for him: in all his travels across his home world, he's unerringly put one foot in front of the other and moved swiftly and effectively toward his target. At first he thought it was a remnant of old Turks training but he's learned differently. Chaos's sense of direction is unerring, flawless, and brings him where he -- it -- wants to go... at least on his own planet.

When he turns to answer Maya, he's impassive as ever. Thoughts burn, but they do so privately. "Everybody does, from time to time."

That's what he'll admit to at the moment.

"And you?"

In the lake, something -- some creature -- laps at the surface rhythmically. The sound is almost soothing.

[joiningyousoon.livejournal.com]

Maya is lost. She has been ever since the burning sands of Kar Dathra's Gate, even if she hasn't always been ready to admit it.

Her eyes flick away swiftly, to the lake. She tucks her legs gracefully underneath herself, and there's quiet (disquieted, under the surface, though not really due to the question or the subject) good humor on her face when she looks back at Vincent. "Everybody does, from time to time."

[cloakandclaw]

"Touché." There's a moment of companionable silence during which the both of them simply... look out over the lake. There's no need for words to fill the silence -- it's not an uncomfortable silence -- but eventually he turns back toward Maya and nods.

"I think... I'll give it another try."

Getting lost in the woods here seems to be as valid a thing to aim for as anything else. The worst that will happen is... he'll get lost. And then Chaos or some other form will wake up from deep slumber, tap at his thoughts, and direct him back to where he needs to be.

It happens every time.

"A good evening to you, Maya Antares." As he stands, the cloak rustles around his legs for a minute before billowing out behind him. For now he'll walk, but it's one of his few pleasures to soar from treetop to treetop in this place.

As long as he's alone.

[joiningyousoon.livejournal.com]

Maya's eyebrows rise, just a little, but she lifts one hand in a wave. "I'll see you around, Vincent."

With her enigmatic companion gone, she turns her attention back to the ripples of wind-on-water across the lake. She glances at the shard of glass resting in the sand beside her, and one side of her mouth tilts upward.

Maya pushes sand with one finger, building the walls around the glass just a little bit higher.