✶ imeeji: memory
Apr. 9th, 2021 04:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scattershot➤ Part 1
It's never easy, ending a life that you've cared for... even if you believe they go on to a better place.
The Time Left to Us
Summary
✶ Alisaie and her friend Tesleen have been joined at the Inn at Journey's Head by the Warrior of Light, and the three are sharing a meal. It's rare for the sanitorium to receive visitors, something Tesleen remarks upon as she offers the Warrior of Light an extra serving of broth, something she's prepared specially.
✶ Talk turns to the subject of the patients, sat pale and staring on their beds, with Tesleen telling her companions that she arrived at the hospital with her mother, who was showing signs of the condition. Though she could not be saved, Tesleen was unable to face up to what she knew would have to be done: she explains that it's the same for most of the patients. She tells the Warrior of Light that a merciful death when the time comes is really all the practical treatment that can be given to the Inn's patients.
✶ Tesleen's responsibilities weigh heavy upon her. She often finds herself wishing that the Warrior of Darkness, who she describes as a servant of death who shepherds souls to the sunless sea of the afterlife, could take away her patients' pain instead - though she believes this is simply the stuff of bedtime stories. Though Alisaie thinks he sounds rather ominous, Tesleen feels comforted knowing that he treats the souls of 'sinners' and 'eaters' the same.
✶ A disturbance among the patients, previously silent and immobile and now stirred into life, interrupts the conversation, and a frantic nurse asks if any of the group have seen a patient named Halric. Tesleen feels the patients can sense something out there and she, Alisaie and the Warrior of Light split up to search outside for the boy.
✶ After a short but fruitless search, Alisaie regroups with the Warrior of Light, who has also seen no sign of the child. Alisaie warns the Warrior of Light that Sin Eaters are out in force around the sanitorium, and as if to prove her point a massive angelic-looking figure holding a sword is spotted flying above them - one of the nasty ones, Alisaie believes. Chasing it down, they find Halric, Tesleen and the Sin Eater, hovering a few feet above the ground and gazing straight at the silent boy. When it moves to strike him down, Tesleen, the only one close enough, slices off one of the Sin Eater's wings, begging the unmoved Halric to flee - only for her to be run through by the Sin Eater as the others watch.
✶ Tesleen manages only a few words to Halric before undergoing a sudden, violent and terrible transformation. She is agonizingly warped and changed into a malformed, winged creature who stammers out a broken apology before flying off after the departing Sin Eater.
✶ Appalled by what she has just witnessed, Alisaie collapses, stricken by horror and guilt.
Notes
✶ The Inn at Journey's Head is, essentially, a euthanasia clinic. Knowing there is nothing to be done to save the patients they take in, Tesleen and the other caregivers seek only to take care of them while they still can, and then kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible just before their illness can run its full course. The nightmarish transformation that Tesleen undergoes is exactly the fate she has been sparing her patients from, explaining precisely why such measures are necessary.
✶ This memory does not make it entirely obvious what Alisaie's role in all this is, but she is clearly fully aware of the nature of the Inn's work, and of the awful necessity of it.
✶ It is extremely bright here, in a way that looks honestly wrong.
✶ The player-character Warrior of Light, who accompanies Alisaie, is seen as a humanoid shape made up of blinding white light surrounded by a rainbow corona, of indeterminate age, race and gender. None of their individual features are discernible, and though they can be seen to be speaking their voice cannot be made out.
It's never easy, ending a life that you've cared for... even if you believe they go on to a better place.
The Time Left to Us
Summary
✶ Alisaie and her friend Tesleen have been joined at the Inn at Journey's Head by the Warrior of Light, and the three are sharing a meal. It's rare for the sanitorium to receive visitors, something Tesleen remarks upon as she offers the Warrior of Light an extra serving of broth, something she's prepared specially.
✶ Talk turns to the subject of the patients, sat pale and staring on their beds, with Tesleen telling her companions that she arrived at the hospital with her mother, who was showing signs of the condition. Though she could not be saved, Tesleen was unable to face up to what she knew would have to be done: she explains that it's the same for most of the patients. She tells the Warrior of Light that a merciful death when the time comes is really all the practical treatment that can be given to the Inn's patients.
✶ Tesleen's responsibilities weigh heavy upon her. She often finds herself wishing that the Warrior of Darkness, who she describes as a servant of death who shepherds souls to the sunless sea of the afterlife, could take away her patients' pain instead - though she believes this is simply the stuff of bedtime stories. Though Alisaie thinks he sounds rather ominous, Tesleen feels comforted knowing that he treats the souls of 'sinners' and 'eaters' the same.
✶ A disturbance among the patients, previously silent and immobile and now stirred into life, interrupts the conversation, and a frantic nurse asks if any of the group have seen a patient named Halric. Tesleen feels the patients can sense something out there and she, Alisaie and the Warrior of Light split up to search outside for the boy.
✶ After a short but fruitless search, Alisaie regroups with the Warrior of Light, who has also seen no sign of the child. Alisaie warns the Warrior of Light that Sin Eaters are out in force around the sanitorium, and as if to prove her point a massive angelic-looking figure holding a sword is spotted flying above them - one of the nasty ones, Alisaie believes. Chasing it down, they find Halric, Tesleen and the Sin Eater, hovering a few feet above the ground and gazing straight at the silent boy. When it moves to strike him down, Tesleen, the only one close enough, slices off one of the Sin Eater's wings, begging the unmoved Halric to flee - only for her to be run through by the Sin Eater as the others watch.
✶ Tesleen manages only a few words to Halric before undergoing a sudden, violent and terrible transformation. She is agonizingly warped and changed into a malformed, winged creature who stammers out a broken apology before flying off after the departing Sin Eater.
✶ Appalled by what she has just witnessed, Alisaie collapses, stricken by horror and guilt.
Notes
✶ The Inn at Journey's Head is, essentially, a euthanasia clinic. Knowing there is nothing to be done to save the patients they take in, Tesleen and the other caregivers seek only to take care of them while they still can, and then kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible just before their illness can run its full course. The nightmarish transformation that Tesleen undergoes is exactly the fate she has been sparing her patients from, explaining precisely why such measures are necessary.
✶ This memory does not make it entirely obvious what Alisaie's role in all this is, but she is clearly fully aware of the nature of the Inn's work, and of the awful necessity of it.
✶ It is extremely bright here, in a way that looks honestly wrong.
✶ The player-character Warrior of Light, who accompanies Alisaie, is seen as a humanoid shape made up of blinding white light surrounded by a rainbow corona, of indeterminate age, race and gender. None of their individual features are discernible, and though they can be seen to be speaking their voice cannot be made out.