[ It's a bright and sunny Wellstone morning when Ariane makes her way down to breakfast. She's dressed for the weather in a lightweight yellow dress, which she has nonetheless paired with some bedazzled brown boots. Her plan, initially, is to grab a pasty and then go back on her room to work on her painting. But things in Wellstone never go according to plan.
It's the sound, initially, that leads Ariane to believe something is off. A mechanical click and whirr, totally unfamiliar to her. And yet.
There's a tall, dark-haired woman sitting at the table. Right now, Ariane can only see her from behind. She steps forward, guessing that somehow, for some reason, this woman is the source of the sound. The woman's face comes into view. There is a seam running across the bridge of her nose; there is a flare in her artificial lens; there is -
- a desert, cold, lifeless, littered with bodies, you left them behind you are left behind this is all that's left
- a song, a warmth, a touch, a heart
- REMEMBER OUR PROMISE.
Ariane is crying. She touches the underside of her eye, and her fingers come away stained with red. She blinks. The whirring continues. There is someone else, here and now (whatever that means), and Ariane will not leave her like this.
She sits beside the other woman, and lays a thin, gentle, trembling hand over the other's. She forces a smile, and it comes out weak and watery and all wrong. ]
Hey. [ Ariane whispers, her rasp close to breaking. ] Come back here. Wherever you are, there's nothing left for you out there.
ii; cw: eye gore
It's the sound, initially, that leads Ariane to believe something is off. A mechanical click and whirr, totally unfamiliar to her. And yet.
There's a tall, dark-haired woman sitting at the table. Right now, Ariane can only see her from behind. She steps forward, guessing that somehow, for some reason, this woman is the source of the sound. The woman's face comes into view. There is a seam running across the bridge of her nose; there is a flare in her artificial lens; there is -
- a desert, cold, lifeless, littered with bodies, you left them behind you are left behind this is all that's left
- a song, a warmth, a touch, a heart
- REMEMBER OUR PROMISE.
Ariane is crying. She touches the underside of her eye, and her fingers come away stained with red. She blinks. The whirring continues. There is someone else, here and now (whatever that means), and Ariane will not leave her like this.
She sits beside the other woman, and lays a thin, gentle, trembling hand over the other's. She forces a smile, and it comes out weak and watery and all wrong. ]
Hey. [ Ariane whispers, her rasp close to breaking. ] Come back here. Wherever you are, there's nothing left for you out there.