paradisa | 009 | Dictated/Action | forward dated to morning

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cassandra cain

009 | Dictated/Action | forward dated to morning

[Room 503]

[When she wakes up, she wakes up alone in a room she doesn't recognize and she feels like she's still on fire, she can still feel the Lazarus pit burning her mind away and the heavy, oppressive feeling of something on her chest. Through her chest, making it hard to breathe-

And then it passes, and she catches her breath, and she's alive again. For a few long moments she sits in bed and waits for her body to calm back down, for her heart to stop racing, but her mind is a blissful blank she doesn't really know what to do with. It makes it easier though, she doesn't have to do anything.

Sluggishly she gets out of bed, checks the window. It's Paradisa, she remembers now. But everything looks different from her view from the window, the city looks completely different and she can't seem to find anything that looks familiar, no landmark to tell her where her home with Stephanie and Tim would be.]

Right, her friends. She should probably... do something about that, shouldn't she? Luckily her journal is just there, resting on the bedside table, so she flips it open and talks to it.]

I'm... awake, I guess. Alive again. [But her voice sounds so dull.] Things look different outside. How long... was I gone for? Is everyone okay?

[Friends]

My room's on floor five, room three. Door's open.

[She knows she has to do this, that some of her friends will need to know this information, it's just hard to really admit to.]

I went home. I-

[She stops after that, because what can she say? She doesn't want to explain, she can't put the right words to what she's done, how she's failed.]

Things changed, there.

[Assassin-types]

If you were asked, by anyone, to kill... the person who killed me? Please don't. He wasn't in control, didn't know... what he was doing. It wasn't his fault. Please, just leave him alone.

[Lucrezia]

I need to see you. Please come here.

[Room 510]

[She doesn't bother with a filter to Ezio because he's just right there, she can walk the few feet to his door and knock on it. She still feels exhausted, drained of everything except the desire to see his face and the stupid, selfish need for someone to just hold her and to get away from her own room for a little bit. She feels guilty, letting people come see her only to find she isn't there, but there's only so much misery she can look at.

And then, because she thinks maybe he should have some sort of warning, she calls out to him.]

It's Cass, Ezio.

[Room 321]

[This is her last stop. She doesn't want to go to everyone she knows and comfort them for the loss of her, it's exhausting to even think about, but she needs to be here. She needs to see Joel and tell him what he's probably been refusing to believe these past two weeks.

What he did wasn't his fault. He doesn't deserve any retribution that her friends might have planned against him. She still loves him, because it doesn't matter what he's done, he still deserves her friendship.

She has to tell him all of these things, but it's very likely she may just end up hugging him very tightly.]

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Welcome back, Cassandra.

Alive... again? [Elsa sounds confused, and a bit worried. Worried enough that she doesn't bother switching over to her preferred method of writing in her journal instead of speaking to it.]

What do you mean?

[ Lucrezia should be glad to finally hear Cassandra's voice again, when there was always the chance that she might not return. But hearing it now has her secondguessing everything she's done since then. Threatening Joel, letting Ezio clean up her messes, everything.

So she doesn't make her way there yet, replying over the journal instead. ]

Welcome back.

[Alright, that's... not actually the kind of response she was expecting on this filter.]

Thank you, James. [James, just in case. Who even knows what might have changed since her encounter with Joel. Two weeks is a long time.] Guess you... made it through that okay.

[Okay is sort of a relative term here...]

Oh, uh... I died.

[Twice, technically. She's really not good at softening that kind of blow even when she is thinking straight, but she at least remembers to say something to clear things up after the fact.]

It's okay, though. I'm fine now.

[N O P E]

Where are you, Lucrezia?

Better than you. [Mostly.] Naught but bad dreams for the rest of us.

[Walking bad dreams, but. Bad dreams.]

[Oh, there she is.

Death here is an awkward thing for Brock; his own death didn't really bother him that much, and so he finds it difficult to be too wildly upset about the deaths of others. People die and then they come back -- it's shitty, but what can you do? It turns out fine in the end.

But Molotov flipped out when she came back, he knows, and so he's cognizant enough to realize not everyone is the same as him.

He still keeps it casual anyway.] That doesn't seem to happen every time, going home.

[Connor's heart is fit to burst when he hears her, so much so that it takes him some time to respond. He didn't know if she would come back; he'd barely known Molotov when she died, and didn't know anyone else at all who had died in his year here. It felt unnatural, waiting to see if he ought to mourn, if his grief was appropriate or premature, and the perversity of it all makes him more resentful toward this world.

But then again, she's come back and he's glad for it. His own hypocrisy irritates him, but he swallows it down and speaks up quietly instead, tone soft and a little hesitant. It's awkward and he doesn't know what to say, so he opts for the subject of business.]

We are not mercenaries, nor are we in the habit of misguided revenge.

[ Two weeks in exchange for two weeks feels about right. There was something that had been said on the journals before, something about how residents killed by other residents don't come back. He doesn't know if he's relieved or if he should be worried for his life.

Always thinking about his own hide first. He knows who it is at the door because he's been paying careful attention to the journals. Joel let Tess pick a fight over it, but this one is his. Belongs to him.

Broken wrists and fingers supported by nothing but two splints, he doesn't present much of a threat. He wouldn't present one otherwise, knowing her skill. Joel lets Cass drift inside the room, the door unlocked. He's leaning against the windowframe, standing and looking out over the Castle grounds.

Nothing but tension and silence for now. ]

Edited (missing words thug life ) 2014-03-11 17:39 (UTC)

Died?!

[The shock and horror is quite clear in Elsa's voice. This was a girl she barely knew, one that she had only really spent a short time with, so it surprises Elsa a bit that this bit of news effects her the way it does... but on the other hand, she's talking about coming back from the dead. What in the world...?]

But how... you're still here.

[That's something they have in common, actually. She'd died twice even before coming to Paradisa, three times if you count stopping your own heart, so one more with the knowledge that she would eventually come back again didn't bother her much. It had been for a good cause, to stop Joel from hurting anyone else and to protect Lucrezia. She doesn't regret it.

The only bad part about it, really, is that other people have suffered while she was dead. That's the part she'd like to take back.]

Probably for the best. It's better here.

[There's an exhale there that could almost be a laugh, if it had a little more life behind it. That was funny, James.]

That's true. But I mean it, James. You'll leave him alone, right?

[What do you say to some one who has just returned from the dead, welcome back? Sounded trite... ]

I was not asked, however I do know the one who did you harm was being searched for. If you want him to remain safe you should speak to Ezio.

Good. He's not a bad man, doesn't deserve... to be hurt.

[But her voice goes a little soft now, now that she knows Joel is safe from Connor at the very least. He's so young, he doesn't make friends easily, he'd already lost so much.

She's concerned.]

Were you okay, while I was gone?

[This is a new voice, but if he's talking about Ezio and she's never talked to him before, how many people can it really be?]

Plan to. He's just... a few doors away, will see him in person. Are you his dad?

[She closes the door behind her as she comes in, but it's only for privacy. There's no aggression written anywhere on her, just a frown. Has he been hiding this whole time?

It makes sense. It was probably the best move, considering the people she's become close to here. As she makes her way over to him, she can't help but notice his hands. Still bandaged, still ruined. Two weeks and he hasn't done a thing about them?]

Joel... [She sighs, frowns more, and when she's right up next to him she reaches out to put her hand on his arm, gentle and light.] Should have fixed those...

Giovanni Auditore, si. We did not have a chance to meet before, but I have heard a little about you.

[It was a noble sacrifice. ]

There are many who will be relieved to hear you have returned.

Castle brings people back, after awhile.

[She doesn't mean to sound so blase about this, has to force herself to remember that death isn't like this for most people. Death isn't something you typically come back from.]

You can come here, if you want. See for yourself... that I'm really fine.

[ He has been hiding in various spots, and away from the Castle until the Castle turned everything upside down. Again. He looks more like the scavenger he arrived here as, less the gentled and watered down survivor that all these luxuries have turned him into.

Two weeks is not nearly long enough, because her tone of voice nearly tricks him. He knows at least one resident is gunning for revenge. Not certain how many others there might be. Joel twitches out of reach, pacing away from the window to put a decent gap between them. ]

There's only one way to square this.

[ A dark mutter. It's unclear whether he's offering himself up, knowing he can't run forever, or he's just accepted that there's no other way.

He thinks he's just accepted there's no other way. ]

Either do it or get out.

[Ezio's dad. Of course she knew she'd get the chance to speak to him eventually, it was kind of a guarantee, but the circumstances now seem a little bit odd.]

Glad I'm back, too. Hope you've heard good stuff, not just... that I got myself killed.

[She lets him go, lets him have his space and watches his body speak to her more than she pays much attention that what's coming out of his mouth. This is what she expected, more or less. The ties between them are frayed now, hanging on by the thinnest of threads. He'd rather cut them, sever her away completely, than go through the pain of strengthening everything again.

But she isn't going to allow that. Not after returning home, losing everything there, who she is is gone. All she has is Paradisa, her connections here. Her family here, and she refuses to lose Joel because of something he didn't even want to do.

Why doesn't he see it wasn't him? His body, but not his mind. It doesn't count, it wasn't his fault.

She closes the distance he's put between them at a slow pace, and once she's close enough she leans up, puts her arms around his neck, and hugs him.

That's all. It's just a hug.]

No.

Yes. Stephanie informed us that it was not his fault. I think it was taken to heart, but of course I cannot speak for everyone.

[He hopes so, though. This place doesn't need even more bloodshed.

But anyway, how awkward that she's asking about him when she was the one who died... Cass, no...]

Um... yes. I am fine.

There were a good many things happening.

[No he... had mostly just heard about her death. It had been on everyone's mind.]

But, this gives us a fresh chance to come to know one another.

[Unless she had also been told stories about him as many of the others had. Something he deemed very likely. Ezio had done a good deal of talking it seemed.]

Auditore's given you a bad impression of us if you think we so readily take lives.

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009 | Dictated/Action | forward dated to morning

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action; room 321

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