Wanderlust (Olkhon Island | Baikal Lake, Siberia)

[Sierra]

Sierra sighed. "I get your need to help. But she obviously can't be reasoned with in the water. She's afraid. Wouldn't you be? She put her hand on Tristan's chest and looked up at him. [coor=lightgreen]"No one should be hunted like that."[/color] She remembered the poachers and Snow and her body sagged a little at the memory. Never yipped softly from his spot with Bre. "Maybe there is another way to communicate wit her? Last thing you need is to be drowned by her trying to help. Can't we try the dream first? We are all dreamers we can all go to help. And if you don't go too deep she can't really hurt us."

[[ooc sorry it's short, was waiting on you thal but was always torn between finishing or whichever thanks for jumpstarting again ]]

[Thalia]

[[OOC: No worries, I would normally have caught you in chat before now but I haven’t logged in in a while. It just suddenly occurred to me that it was technically my turn, so I figured I’d post. As I said, she’ll stay in there now. Take as long as you need to finish up between Sierra and Tristan ]]

[Tristan]

Tristan’s frown was bone deep. It wouldn’t work. “I don’t think the dream will work. She wasn’t fully in it like we are. More like a human who is there unaware of their presence.”

He looked upon Sierra, noting her changing scent. “It’s reasonable to be frightened. You won’t lose me,” he said, cautiously laying a hand on hers. It was an unsettling motion for Tristan. They huddled close at night. They shared a bed and shared intimate dreams. But in the waking world, he hesitated, himself nervous about her response.

“I know I’ve given you reason to doubt. You have right to mistrust me. I won’t betray, though. Not one of my own. And we are of one kind,” he finished by wrapping his hand around hers.

“We’ll need a boat to cross the water. Once there, I think I can track her scent. I hope.”

[ooc: We can move on or join a different thread. I'll leave it up to Thal how we go next.]

[Thalia]

They were still talking when she emerged, and she used the opportunity to shut the bathroom door carefully behind her. If either happened to look in her direction, she only smiled. Thalia didn’t know these people, but she suddenly felt a lot like a leak sprung in a previously sturdy boat. Trying not to dwell on how awkward that made her feel, she hitched her bag and headed for the cabin’s exit, pausing to run a finger lightly down the splintered jamb where the door had been ripped free. The day was cold and bright now the sun was up; she could feel it warming her through, and she was eager to step out, eager to go. 

Exploring alone wasn’t anything new to her, and though she welcomed the company, if they fell back now it wouldn’t stop her pressing on. She owed them honesty, though. The risks Thalia took weren’t exactly well considered ones, and she’d only ever been responsible for herself before now. She glanced at the palm of her injured hand, thoughtful a moment before she tucked her fingers through the strap of her bag. The pull against her soul was like being called back home. Only it wasn’t home she ever found, just more mystery, more reason to wander. Aylin didn’t understand it, and Thalia had given up trying to express something so utterly intangible. She didn’t expect a pair of strangers to understand any better, whether they knew her life in the dream or not, but she didn’t suppose it’d stop her trying.

“Did you already see the Shaman Rock?” she asked, then paused, shrugging the question away with half a laugh as she turned back to them. “Well, of course you did, you can’t miss it on the island really... But did you know the locals don’t like women to go near it? Old superstition, lots of different folklore about why, and I wouldn’t normally, you know, it’s disrespectful... but there are rumours of underwater caves beneath it. That’s what I was looking for; it’s why I went at night.” Not the brightest of plans, though there had been a touch of desperate melancholy to her motivations after her conversation with her sister. She’d felt tremendously alone. Added to that, the only person she’d ever met who was actually like her, the only person who might have had any idea about what any of it meant or even just how it felt, had set her carefully aside with a warning that she meddled in things beyond her. At the time the quiet, vast waters of the lake had felt like a welcome. She had no way to convey any of that sanely, though, and nor was she sure she wanted to. The emotion just filled her up instead, overspilling into some distant longing that made her sigh.

“That’s where she found me. It was a deep way down in the water, and it’s where I’m going now. But it’s just a hunch, I don’t want to lead you into thinking I have answers for any of this. I really don’t. I just know that my hunches are usually… something. Not always a good something, but not nothing. So I’m going to see it through.”

Articulating proved more difficult than she’d thought; she’d never had to put words to the feelings inside. Maybe it sounded deluded. Did it sound deluded? She looked at both of them, her expression utterly guileless, but tried not to read too much of their reaction. Noctua’s departure was still too fresh in her mind, and it still hurt more than it should have done. Not to mention Aylin’s soft suggestions that this was all a result of psychosis (did you even really meet the Pope, Thalia?). Doubt was not a friend she welcomed for any length of time, but she was still only human. It was far easier to do, and to be, and to live, than it was to think everything through. Neither was doubt something she chose to share. She didn’t want their pity.

Her smile was slow, but it was genuine as she stepped out onto the path, like she really could just let all that worry pass her by. Or maybe she just found the outside air a relief. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was, but by the encroaching trees she figured they were somewhere on the trail between the village and the water’s edge. The sky was bright and mercilessly clear. No doubt the water would be freezing, but the walk would be pleasant and sunny at least. “You were in the dream, and apparently I even told you to come here. Perhaps you were just supposed to save me from the rocks, and this is where we part? Or maybe we’re supposed to find her together, and I can’t even do it on my own. I truly don’t know. But I don’t want to put anyone or anything in danger.” The last was said with a brief and contrite look at Sierra, which she hoped was understood in the way it was meant. Thalia didn’t mean to cause the tension. She didn’t even know for sure she had, but, well, she wasn’t blind either.

“I understand if you might need the chance to, ah, talk before you follow the crazy lady.” She laughed a little, but the label cut a little deeper than she intended to say aloud. “I’ll be down by the water.”

[[Thalia’s plan is to dive back down in the water by the rock, where the guardian attacked her when she channeled. She’s right, there IS access to a cave down there, which she will find. The cave is not quite what it seems.

FYI I don’t plan on Thalia and Soren meeting at this point (although the threads will relate since they both involve the water guardian). Soren and Kemala’s boat is leaving from the mainland.

Thalia won’t be persuaded to search for the guardian by boat if that’s what you guys decide to do. I feel like Sierra will be (sensibly) very anti the “let’s swim down and find a cave that may or may not exist” plan, so I don’t want to assume you guys come (although obviously I hope you do so I don’t have to write the thread on my own, haha).

I’ll start a new thread for it, I just need to know if Thalia spends some time waiting before they show, or if they follow now. You can either reply that IC or let me know OCC, I don’t mind.]]

[Sierra]

Sierra smiled when his hand enclosed around hers. It was safe and comforting and while it didn't ease the fears she nodded. "I'm with you, whereever you go." Never still sent images that were untranslatable. He wanted her to know something, but without the dream they weren't going to find out now. They were both pups in comparison.

[[ ooc: I'm not sure Sierra's gonna go swimming, but she'll go where ever tristan goes until the water part comes up lol Sierra I'm thinking doesn't know how to swim being raised in a bunker and all. ]]

[Tristan]

Tristan planted himself like a trollstone in front of Thalia. “There is absolutely zero chance I am letting you free dive into the water again,” he said, golden gaze gleaming coins. “I have swam with you in the dream, but this is real life. You were nearly killed last time you tried. At least get tanks, equipment, fins, something first,” he nearly growled at her lack of preparation. “Not even a wetsuit!”

He pulled out his wallet and in short order revealed his own series of proof of his experience. Iceland was known for its surfing and there wasn’t much else to do for entertainment, not in the Westfjords anyway.

He started to take off his shirt, intending to have something dry to put back on for when he returned.

“I am serious,” he said, tugging it over his head. The newly inked tattoos were on full display buried in the hair on his chest. “I will tie you up to a tree if I have to.”

[Thalia]

Unprepared for the reaction, she nearly walked into him. The ferocity of it took her back for a second, probably because he’d seemed so mournfully lost inside the cabin. Foolish, really, since she’d only been contemplating the broken door moment’s before. His yellow eyes flashed, and she suddenly remembered the drawing of him with teeth like boar’s tusks. “Let me?” she repeated, blinking, like the concept was a foreign object. The rest filtered in somewhere, but felt an awful lot like the bars of a cage. She didn’t argue his exterptise, and it was even sensible, but the snap of his voice made her bristle.

She waited it out. Refusing to step back, despite that he stood so damn close she had a long way to look up to meet his eye.

“What makes you think this is a decision you get to make? I don’t need protecting, Tristan. I know what it looks like. I know what I look like, but I don’t need that.” Her temper flared in turn, but mostly it was pure stubborn fire: the sort of reaction of someone who’d lived a long time by their own rules. The sudden tempestuousness hovered light at her senses, though she tried desperately not to let it close. “My swimming’s fine. I nearly died because–” But he wasn’t even listening. It hadn’t been the water. The fuzzy edges of her memory recoiled, but her eyes widened, the epiphany dropped almost as soon as rose because he was yanking the shirt over his head like after that entire tirade about safety he intended to dive in his own skin.

She pressed a finger to his chest, right at the heart of the dream-marks, and it certainly did not feel like he had a wetsuit either. “I won’t be left behind. And you will not tie me to a tree.”

[Tristan]

Tristan huffed and felt the push backward. He looked down, shocked with Thalia’s defiance. It was an iron will that her finger pierced. He knew what she looked like too, but unlike Thalia, Tristan saw two versions of her. There was the girl standing in front of him, eyes flashing angry and determined, but there was another version of her. A beautiful, glowing creature that enticed and enthralled.

She called his bluff. He’d not actually tie her to a tree nor really impede her beyond threats. “Let me go first. Let me talk to her,” he said.

[Thalia]

The chuff of his breath made her wonder if he was about to bite, but he only stared down with those unnatural eyes. For a moment she considered just moving past, like a river snaking around his feet, to see if he really did plan to do more than stand like a stone in her path. But while she would plunge on irrespective of their decisions to come or not, or even whether they tried to stop her or not, she did crave both the company and the connection. Her comment before had been offhand, but spoken out loud it had rung her with a startling deeper truth. She didn’t think she could do this alone, not successfully. But, persistent as wild waters, she realised then that she did not think he could do it without her either.

“If I thought she hurt me on purpose, I would not be going back,” she said quietly. It probably wasn’t much in the way of reassurance, but it was the truth; her measure of the risk was that it was worth it, at least for her. Her life was ruled by urges beyond her control, and the frustration of sitting idle, of waiting and ruminating over whether this really was all madness, was far more frightening a prospect to her than diving into those unknown waters and maybe never coming back.

She did nod, though, quiet a moment in turn. Her eyes were full and thoughtful, awash with calmer waters and things she did not speak. She wasn’t sure if his overbearingly protective streak was for her benefit, or for the creature they both came to find, but she was so tired of being told to be careful, of being assumed out of her depth. 

When her gaze dropped, his tattoos were at eye-height. A sigh stirred the hairs on his chest, not quite a sign of acquiesce, but one that accepted he had fears of his own, whatever they truly were, and that she did not wish to make those fears harder for him to bear. Her finger traced the centremost symbol before she thought better of the gesture, following the pattern she had drawn in her sketches and not the faded imprint on his skin. “Together,” she said, tucking her hand finally away. “I will follow behind you, and I won’t put any of us in danger, but please don’t ask me to wait behind.”

[[new thread here when you’re all ready. If there’s anything else to add here first, feel free.]]