Only a Crack in This Castle of Glass

[tyrants_son]

WHO: Felwinter and you
WHERE: Here, you never left
WHAT: Exploring the past of a warlord
WHEN: Calibrations Event
WARNINGS: Warsat involves Robo-death


The former observatory has been preserved better than most places during the Collapse, at least from what little can be seen as one steps down the hall. The air is crisp, chilly, and a glimpse out of a passing window reveals why- a windswept landscape nearly whited out by flurries lies beyond, the snow broken by lines of dark craggy rock and jagged terrain of the surrounding mountains. Turning around only greets you with a strangely blurred wall. It looks like there's only one way to go, and as deceptively long as it appears, things shift within the next few steps. The hallway itself opens up to a larger room, converted into a throne room if the large, gothic chair is anything to go by. A fireplace crackles off to the side, though it does little to alleviate the chill.

If he's not sitting in that throne, then Felwinter can be found standing, staring at the fire or some of the scant things found around the room. On a long table not far from the fireplace sits an old, battered book that's certainly seen better days. At the table's foot, a sad looking wooden crate, filled with even sadder looking, meager pickings of a crop. By far these things are amongst the more normal things that could possibly be reasonably found in such a place.

Off to the farthest side however sits a massive warsat that couldn't have possibly been brought in by any normal means, and no gaping hole in the roof to suggest it had come crashing in through there. Against the wall near it is a smooth black surface that reveals itself to be a computer console once one passes their hand over it.

Comments

[tyrants_son]

Quiet again. Felwinter stepped back around the table, and after a moment, sunk down to sit against the wall. Having a wall at his back was always a strange comfort. It was one less direction he needed to watch.

"Aarthi." With no context the word was surely confusing, but he didn't let the silence stretch too long as he spoke on, quietly. "The one who brought tributes every month. I'd meet her halfway down the mountain since those without Ghosts wouldn't make it to its peak." The only one who would venture up to deliver things to him. The only one outside of Felspring that he'd had conversations with.

"She was the one who made me realize that I wasn't the only one who lived in fear. Except the people at the foot of the mountain don't come back like I do," he said quietly. "She said I could help them. That the things I knew about what I found of Golden Age technology could change their lives."

[in_extremis]

The crackle of the fire seemed suddenly loud in the revelation of just how empty this space ways, that no one else could even reach. Did that make it worse, to suddenly have people in his space, in his head? The pop and sizzle was the only sound as Tony slipped out of the chair and came to slide down the wall next to Felwinter, where he wasn't looming over the Exo anymore and instead looped his arms loosely around his knees where he could resume the restless tangling of his fingers.

"Do you think she'd give me a shot?" he asked, letting his head thump back against the wall with a small, wry smile. Living here must have been a nightmare, but it wasn't like Felwinter could just abandon it, and despite Tony's teasing smirk, the concern twisting his brow said what his question didn't quite; that he would make sure Felwinter got home, and that they would all still be with him to keep helping.

[tyrants_son]

The company was unexpected, although Felwinter found he didn't mind it too much. Tony put on a show, but there was something beneath the layers of bravado. Gold. He remembered the conversation struck up by Felspring, although the reminder of her absence in this space made it more apparent just how lonely it could be.

The Exo turned his head towards Tony, and he had difficulty picturing how the woman would react to him. There was a mismatch in the man's expression, something to temper the attempted, one-sided frivolity. Felwinter looked away, deciding that an actual response had not been expected from him, simultaneously unsure what to do with that look. Relying on anyone but himself or Felspring was foreign territory. But here...there were people he could consider as comrades. Maybe even friends.

A fresh gust of crisp, frigid air came through the room as the doors to the throne room that had previously vanished then yawned open, to reveal the hallway once again.

[in_extremis]

That was Tony's cue. He gripped his own hands tighter, wincing slightly against the chill and squinting toward the door, not terribly inviting but at least a sure way back to the warmth of his bed. It didn't seem like Felwinter really felt the cold at all. With a last, lingering smile his way, a kind of apology for the invasion, Tony rolled up to his feet, then offered a hand to help him up to follow. No reason to stick around here alone, even if he didn't really notice that he was freezing.

[tyrants_son]

Considering his earlier eagerness to explore, an apology was almost funny. Felwinter however nodded- it wasn't as though they could help these things.

His head lifted then, the offered hand unexpected. Could he? It hadn't been something he thought about, as though he'd resigned himself to the cold and the solitude, another cell with a cell.

He did not want it.

Felwinter's hand grasped Tony's as he got to his feet. At least this time, he would not be left alone.