I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then

[replicatedcourage]

Who: Sola and Vatheon
When: The wee hours of the morning
Where: Plaza
Style: Brackets
Status: Open to all CR great and small!

[At first the Hylian doesn't recognize where he is.

There's a heavy and wild intake of breath as if he doesn't expect for his lungs to expand. He scrambles for the nearest cover, nearly bowling over a hapless towel vendor in the process. He merges into the shadow of a building, nothing visible aside from piercing red eyes as he finally pauses to take in his surroundings, tense and suspicious.

What had Link done? He'd thought he'd been done for, that Ganon's resurrection was a failure purely because again he hadn't been able to spill the hero's blood. And he'd had so much time to plan, to send minions and monsters after him all along, to observe and prepare. But maybe that had been the problem, he'd waited too long. He should have attacked at the beginning when he'd been- well, not weak, he'd still defeated the Demon King, but when Link had his guard down during the reconstruction...

Dark Link's train of thought grinds to a halt as he finally connects where he is, as the jumble of memories he'd ignored suddenly appearing in his mind in favor of adrenaline still surging from his life or death battle start to sort themselves out slowly. They're hardly finished, but he knows this place now. He recognizes it.

Still standing in the shadows but no longer a part of them, Dark Link just stares.

Vatheon.

Home.]

Comments

1/?

[onlyasign]

[Sufferer was out late tonight. If asked, he'd say that he'd had things to do, but really, he'd wanted to spend some time around the coral and the Plaza. It's the time of month when new people tend to arrive in Vatheon, and he'd been hoping against hope that a certain someone would come back to him.]

[He's been dozing on a bench when he hears a small commotion near one of the towel vendors. He sits up, suddenly alert.]

2/2 okay wow, that was anticlimactic

[onlyasign]

[Someone has arrived, obviously; there's a trail of wet footprints leading into an alley. It's not uncommon for new arrivals to be scared and to hide, so Sufferer gets up and heads towards the alley. He pauses to snag a towel from the disgruntled vendor before continuing.]

Hello? It's okay, no one is going to hurt you. You're safe here.

pff, that's ok

[replicatedcourage]

[The voice is familiar, the kindness in it even moreso, though his mind is slow to sift through the memories from so long ago that he'd forgotten he had them.

He hadn't even noticed he was wet and the shiver that rolls through him takes precedence over sorting things out right now. He steps forward to snatch the towel, deciding if this person attacks that he-

No, they won't attack him. Far from it. Dark Link freezes as the memory finally clicks into place and it dawns on him exactly who is standing in front of him. He's frozen, hand hovering over the offered towel but unmoving as he stares. His voice is raspy when he speaks.]

Signless...?

1/2

[onlyasign]

[Sufferer waits at the edge of the alley, not wanting to scare whoever is down there. When the figure steps forward, he strains to see who it is, but the alley's too dark. Then the shadowy figure speaks.]

2/2

[onlyasign]

[And he knows that voice, he knows who this is, and all the tension he's been carrying for the last week or so melts away in one burst of emotion so white hot it almost blinds him.]

Sola!

[Cue one small troll lunging forward to ensnare his wayward son in a bone-crushing hug.]

[shippingmath]

[Being up late isn't anything new or special to Dirk, especially not when Roxy isn't there to pin him down and get him to sleep by virtue of falling asleep on him. If anything, her being asleep for so long is an incentive for him not to. He doesn't want to fall into a coma.

Not that he can control it in the first place. But it's what has him awake, and out of the house wandering the streets of the bubble even at this late hour.

His wandering takes him to the Plaza, and the coral. He doesn't intend to stop there, because even late at night, the Plaza's more likely to have people in it. Intending to move past, toward the other side of the bubble, he nearly passes by the alley Dark Link is standing in, but hesitates. Something is there, but he can't tell who or what. It's the curse of wearing shades at night.]

[makainoou]

[The wee hours of the morning are, well, around when Laharl tends to go to sleep anyway. He's on his way home to hit the sack coffin when he passes through the plaza and something familiar tugs at his senses. He doesn't usually pay attention to newcomers, because he's been here long enough not to expect any of the few people he gives a damn about to show up. In fact, lately he's just been losing people, so making more acquaintances who'll just leave again isn't exactly a priority.

He stops now though. Of course he's not going to call out, because that would be stupid and make it seem like he missed the kid or something. But he's nevertheless hoping--just a little bit!--that the familiar presence will reveal itself to be his missing vassal.]

[replicatedcourage]

[He starts at the hug, jumping a little at the sudden lunge and grab. It's his first instinct to fight, to struggle against the clinch and melt again into the shadows where he has an advantage. But this isn't an attack, that slowly unfurling knot of memory has to remind him, it's...

It's something he hasn't felt in all his nineteen years. Or longer, he can't tell. He was in Vatheon after he died at first but before he'd been recalled to his Master's side, but it's all a jumble now, it's not the order things are supposed to be in and his mind trips over it and stumbles.

But he does know this, regardless of time out of order. This is family.

One he'd forgotten he'd had.

Slowly Sola brings his arms up to curl in his adopted father's clothes, lowering his head to bury his face against the troll's neck. As emotional as he is, he doesn't cry, but his shoulders shake a little under the weight of guilt.]

I'm sorry

[It's a whisper, lost in the fabric of Sufferer's shirt.]

[replicatedcourage]

[Dark Link peers from the shadows at the passerby... or not passerby, as the small demon stops. He can feel his power from here, enough that it's a wonder it all fits in that small frame. He knows that face too, pushing through his unsorted memory as if through a veil. Laharl, the name comes to mind finally. Demon lord, tried to enslave him when he'd first been here.

No, not enslave. He tries to sift through nearly two years of memory from decades ago, trying to place his interactions. They'd been... friends, after a fashion. He recalls thinking Laharl wasn't very good at it, but now he wonders if he hadn't had the right idea. Vassals are useful and you know where you stand with them. Friends are confusing and there's no clear hierarchy.

Not that he has any intention of becoming a vassal when he already has a Master, but at the least he believes he understands now.

He's not sure what possesses him to do it - it would be easier just to meld back into the shadows and let the demon pass - but Dark Link steps into the light of the plaza and nods by way of greeting.]

Laharl.

[makainoou]

[Laharl's eyes come to rest on Sola as he steps out of the shadows, and he feels something strange, sort of like relief. Whatever it is, he has no intention of letting it show. He masks the expression with a smirk, folding his arms.]

Hmph. So it is you.

[replicatedcourage]

[As with much of Vatheon, it takes Dark Link some time to place Dirk. He remembers having high regard for him, akin to the feelings he'd had for his adopted troll parents. Family. Dirk had been one of the few to speak plainly to him, even when he'd been naive and childish. He never judged, and that brings Dark Link relief now. The things he'd done, the things Ganon had set him out to do knowing full well they were wrong but forcing Dark Link into them anyway, into fratricide for a second time, not to mention countless casualties he'd actually succeeded in producing, they've changed him. Yet Dirk, as he remembers, will pass no judgement on the changes.

Or so he hopes.

But still he hesitates, no longer melded with the shadows but still under their cover with a hand on the wall to his right. Even if he expects their meeting to be calm, that Dirk would even welcome him back, he's afraid.

So much has changed now, it's been so long even if Vatheon doesn't seem to have changed. What can he say?

He shifts his feet uncomfortably, then decides he's being a coward and forces himself to step into the light regardless.]

Hello, Dirk.

[replicatedcourage]

[All Dark Link responds with is a nod, his posture straight and alert. But there's something he needs to know.]

How long has it been here?

[makainoou]

Since you left?

I dunno, a couple weeks? It's not like I've been counting the days. [That much is true. He really isn't sure how long it's been.]

[replicatedcourage]

Weeks.

[Weeks. It's been years for Dark Link. Several hundred, if not thousands while dead and those, thankfully, he doesn't remember but it's been nineteen with him conscious and that's long enough to feel somewhat disconnected.]

It's been years for me.

[makainoou]

Years? Go figure.

[Laharl shrugs it off. Seeing things from someone else's perspective has never been one of his strong points, so he doesn't even attempt imagining how disorienting that must be.]

You do anything interesting?

[replicatedcourage]

[Subjugate an entire kingdom through the command of a vast army of monster minions to try and resurrect his lord and master the Demon King Ganon using the blood of the man he was originally created to emulate and defeat having failed to do so once before.]

No.

[Interesting is not the word he'd use.]

[makainoou]

What, nothing? What's the big deal over it being a few years if nothing happened?

[replicatedcourage]

I didn't say nothing happened. I just said it wasn't interesting.

[He steps past Laharl, going to grab a towel from a nearby cart to dry himself off. There's a change in the way he carries himself. This is no longer the same heat-headed yet timid Hylian that left the bubble a month ago. He's not a little boy anymore on the inside.]

There's no reason to talk about it.

[makainoou]

What's the difference?

[A lot of boring things happening is pretty much the same as nothing happening. But Laharl watches Sola for a moment. He had an inkling when he first sensed the kid, but he definitely seems different somehow. Colder might be the way to put it. Maybe he's had time enough to realize the two of them aren't actually friends.]

I guess something happened you don't want to admit. You suffer some embarrassing defeats?

[replicatedcourage]

[Had a subordinate said something like that to him in years past he would have killed them where they stood, but as he recalls Laharl far surpasses him in strength. Yes he could probably at least hold his own for a time, but the diminutive demon is closer to Ganon's level than his own.

He's in no real rush to die yet again. Three is enough.

Even so Dark Link throws the sopping towel at Laharl, still quick to anger even if he can keep it in check now.]

Don't talk about things you have no idea about.

[not_heavens_adam]

[Johnny hadn't been keeping normal hours. He hadn't really been keeping any regular hours at all. He trusted Fai to work the tavern when Johnny decided to sleep instead or, if no one was available, he found himself feeling fairly apathetic towards the whole thing.

Tonight was one of those nights when he kept the hours he was prone to keeping back home. It was no secret that this was about the time newcomers would show up, but he wasn't looking for anyone nor was he holding his breath that he'd find anyone familiar, especially at this time of night.

Which was why he didn't fully recognize when he caught a familiar scent. It wasn't until he'd actually gotten deeper into the plaza that it finally registered. The vampire froze for all of a second before he was tearing off in the direction it was coming from. He stopped in the mouth of the Alley, the darkness in it practically nonexistence in his eyes.]

...Sola?

[He smelled different, that was part of why he hadn't picked it up at first, but there was a core of similarity. Even just looking at him, Johnny could see there was something off, something he couldn't pinpoint right that second, but it caused fear and dread to shred his stomach.

He took a few steps closer.]

Sola...do you remember me?

[aim_exorable]

[Helpless towel vendor, you say? A Zahhak is on the case! Darkleer had simply been passing through the plaza after an early visit to the horses, but when he sees a local in distress, he gets out Archermedes and follows where he's pointed. It's probably nothing, but you can never be too sure.]

[He peers into the alley cautiously. Trolls are naturally night creatures, and Darkleer even moreso than some, so he sees through the darkness quick enough and finds his eyes widening behind his shades. When Johnny had reported Sola going missing, Darkleer had dealt with it like he usually dealt with loss- working overtime.]

[To see the young man back... Darkleer puts his bow away, but doesn't stop being cautious. Being away from Vatheon can do things.]

Sola?

[replicatedcourage]

[The voice and the tall man creeping into his hiding place has Dark Link stepping backwards deeper into the shadows. He's afraid. He hadn't thought of what would happen when he saw the vampire, if he was even still in the bubble, because he didn't have time to think of it. He hadn't even had time to sort out everything else he was feeling over what had happened, over suddenly remembering an entire other short lifetime that had been the precursor to the one he'd just left. It had been so different. So bright and happy and everything the past nineteen years weren't.

And he's afraid, because after he'd embraced that darkness, could he ever really capture that light again? Johnny had called him his hero, he remembers. His light. What if it wasn't the same? What if he went to Johnny and was found lacking, different?

Extinguished?

But he can't just say nothing. He can't just hide here and hope Johnny will go away and he never has to face that question, nor does he want Johnny to leave. Sola he called him. His name. His own name that he's not sure he deserves anymore, but he'll answer to it all the same.

His voice is barely a whisper from the depths of the shadows he's wrapped around himself, tiny, fearful, and heavy with regret.]

I remember.

[replicatedcourage]

Darkleer?

[He's surprised to see the hulking troll, though after a moment he's not certain why he should be. It may have been years for him but he has no idea how much time has passed in the bubble. Long enough for his absence to be noticed at least.

Cautiously, Sola steps from the comfort of his shadow and goes to Darkleer, standing at his full five feet and four inches instead of slouching as he had in the past. He's alert but not furtive, possessed of a confidence in himself and his abilities that pervades his posture and certainly makes him appear much older even if his face remains the same as it had before he had gone.]

It's good to see you.

[aim_exorable]

[Definitely different... How long as it been for him since he's been away from Vatheon? Still, Darkleer gives him a reassuring smile. A bit tired, but he's trying. And he's so glad to see him.]

We all missed you very much.

[And he'll lean down for a hug, if Sola lets him.]