Fate - First Reply As Darkness Falls Over Moonlit Pines

[Jin Lolthous]

Sleepless nights were not uncommon on Phorasmos. Wailing spirits and ghosts long since past had the tendency to keep one’s wits about them, and on such a dangerous island it was essential to stay vigilant. Vigilance was simply a state of being at this point for Jin Lolthous. It was as natural to her as brushing her teeth or combing her hair, weapon always on hand or nearby. She had never been one to be troubled by the looming shadow of death. So it was a rare sight to see her wandering out the boundaries of the small village Parumora, at the hour of the wolf.

Fully clad in her spirit armor, her mother’s soul a constant companion, an unusual air of pensiveness lingered around her subdued figure as she headed towards the Twin Pines. She often enjoyed walks through the eerie forest. It had a way of settling the questions that plagued her mind before a mission, or her concerns about her father.

However, those were not her concerns currently. There was a shockingly startling melancholy wavering in her soft gaze as she walked the familiar path. Thoughts of the home she never knew, her grandfather, the mountains her mother had grown up on, these were the ponderings of a woman who had only known one side of her existence. And while she’d loved it on her island where everything made sense, the deep longing that occasionally reared its head, did so now with great relentlessness.

Unexpectedly, she smirked to nothing in particular as her eyes averted towards the ground. “I’m not being a sap...” She mused to herself, a playful tone almost audible, before her features returned to that uncanny, abnormal wistfulness.

Her feet led her steadily onward at her easy pace. Promptly stopping at the roots of a very old, familiar tree, she placed a hand on its trunk as if in greeting. The sound of rustling in the distance had her sword drawn in an instant however, and it pointed in the direction of movement. Her eyes warily scanned the encampment of trees for signs of life.

 

[Tristan Locke]

"Easy there," came what would have been a familiar, soft voice. Alongside the rustling of leaves and brush, the shifting of metal plates atop each other would make themselves known. A fellow armored figure ducked beneath branches and through vines to join Jin in her solemn wandering.

"Didn't mean to startle you, but you know...unwise to go shouting out here and all," Tristan said, pulling his helmet off and letting his tousled blond hair fall free. "Couldn't sleep either?"

He tried and likely failed to force a smile at his comrade in arms, his mien instead twisting into something of an awkward grimace.
"I know I'm one to talk, but the Pines aren't exactly the safest place for a stroll..."

 

[Jin Lolthous]

Jin’s tension eased at the sound of a familiar voice. Tristan. She shook her head, a small smirk forming on the corner of her lips as she caught sight of him.

“Well one hardly expects to be followed in the middle of the night,” she retorted. Her sword still upheld as she watched him pull his helmet free. She considered messing with the younger mourner, and perhaps if she hadn’t been in such a somber mood, she would have.

Finally, she sheathed her sword and removed her own helm. “You could say that...,” she said in regards to sleep. She quirked a brow at his look of discomfort. “Well I guess I’ll be glad for your protection then?” She mused lightly with a touch of sarcasm. “If you’re so uncertain about taking a stroll, what compelled you to join me?”

Propping her helmet under her arm, she found a proper root to take a seat on. All her previous worries had flown to the back of her mind in the midst of company. While she was familiar enough with Tristan via missions, they hadn’t spent much time outside of that. Perhaps insomnia was normal for him. Maybe she could probe his thoughts on the matter?

 

[Tristan Locke]

Whoops. Well at least he'd gotten Jin to lower her blade.
"I...heh. I can see how it might look like that. Following you wasn't exactly my intention."

With a grateful nod, Tristan stepped closer before taking a spot on the ground near his impromptu companion. Instead of finding a proper seat, he simply picked a patch of fallen leaves and sat cross-legged near her.
"I should think you'd be the one offering protection," he joked, a nod to her greater experience and skill. "What prompted me? A bit of insomnia, a funny feeling from Fane, a barely visible silhouette slipping into the tree line beyond the village...just trying to look out for everyone, I suppose."

Tristan sighed heavily. That wasn't wholly true either.
"Or a wondering. I don't know. Still trying to figure out my place here. I feel like I'm not doing enough..." he trailed off. "So why'd you go wandering off, then?"

 

[Jin Lolthous]

Tristan’s jest elicited a chuckle from the significantly subdued mourner as she nodded to his explanation. “Is insomnia a regular occurrence for you?” she asked nearly immediately, her gaze sharpened on him with rather stern curiosity. Until it broke into a small smile. “And what’s this funny feeling about?”

His sigh alerted her to more serious concerns that troubled the young man. Jin’s brows knit upwardly in a sympathetic look. “We’re all doing what we can, finding your place takes time. Don’t be in such a hurry,” she smirked, nudging him in the shoulder with a knuckle. “Haven’t you heard patience is a virtue?” She couldn’t help but try to cheer him up, despite her own feelings of contemplation.

And when he finally inquired for an explanation of her own, she sighed as well. Her gaze drifted up to the clear-ish night sky where the moon hung like an almost forgotten night light. It’s glow the only thing ensuring visibility between the pair. “I’ll have you know, insomnia’s not usually part of my purview,” she said in her usual lighthearted tone. She paused for a moment, considering whether she really wanted to bring down the mood of their small party.

“And restlessness is easier to settle by expending energy,” she finished. It was the general truth of it, but she saw no reason to trouble him with her anxious yearning.

 

[Tristan Locke]

Getting a laugh out of a Mourner always felt like an accomplishment, especially one his senior. It also, perhaps strangely, put him a bit at ease.

"Is it not for you? That is to say, 'yes.' Honestly I don't know how the smiths manage to sleep so soundly," he pondered his own statement a moment before the connection made itself. "Then again, a lot of them are natives...as are you, right?"

Tristan rolled his shoulders forward a few times, trying to shake off the rust of rest.
"As for the 'feeling' I mentioned, well...I suppose it's just how Fane tries to communicate to me. I'll get a chill here, a lingering sense of unease there, and it will feel just completely foreign to me. I'm not entirely sure what the implications of all that are."

The playful punch of Tristan's shoulder was remarkably genial and...well, human for a member of a group of people he'd come to believe were anything but. It earned a genuine smile from him. One that didn't fade when Jin's disposition began to settle back into the more typical degrees of dour he'd come to expect from his comrades.
"I know, I know. I appreciate that. Maybe I'm just a bit restless too."