Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi clung to Tom's arm, listening as he tried to comfort her. Still, his voice sounded uneasy, and even in such an upset state, she was fairly sure that she wasn't making him uncomfortable enough for him to break his calm shell. She rubbed her eyes, trying to stop the tears, before loosening her grip on Tom a bit.

"It's...okay to be scared, y'know?" she said quietly, looking up at her friend. She knew Tom didn't express himself, and probably didn't like to, but she wanted to be as much of a friend as he was to her.

[Big Uri]

"I know. Everybody's scared," Tom replied dully, just keeping moving forward, one foot after another. He could tell, even as a blind man he could see the fear around everyone. Even and especially those who acted fearless. He himself was scared, terrified if he was to admit it, which he never did. His fear kept him up at night, though he told everyone he was just keeping watch. He just got up every morning and got through the day mechanically, putting one foot in front of the next.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi opened her mouth, before quickly closing it again on second thought. He didn't want to talk about it. She wouldn't force him. "I'm...I'm here for you, alright?" she said quietly after a few seconds of silence. She doubted Tom would accept her offer, but it couldn't hurt to offer anyway.

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

Zackary nodded, following Paul to wherever he wanted him to be,.

[Creation of Pokerus]

Once they were in the field, Paul marked two spots in the ground and started digging at one of them. He'd retrieve the bodies later and finish the burial with his people.

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

Zackary moved to start digging at the other. "Not even at the war, and we're already burying bodies..." he muttered. In his mind, he wondered if his would be one of the next bodies to be buried...if they even survived. "So...have a plan on how to deal with the army thingy?"

[Creation of Pokerus]

"My plan? Hope they don't kill Percy and shoot until we run out of bullets," Paul responded, "A Flow war would be too messy to clean up." One scoop of dirt after another.

[Stabberz]

Nathan frowned downwards at the scenes he could see. The teleportation party was gone by now, Eithne's last order had been for Ryker to get them all out of there. His telescopic vision was fairly useful when it came to watching Kira and Luke, Zackary and Paul, and Tom and Heidi. Somehow he felt it calming to be hundreds of feet above the sky. He'd formed a frozen platform and was now sat on a chair of ice.

They had less that sixteen hours now, all Nathan was waiting for was Tom to get down from his high horse and come and find him so they could get the surrounding landscape to look how they wanted to

[Big Uri]

"I appreciate that, Heidi, I really do," Tom replied earnestly, offering her a small smile as they reached Eithne's limp body. He was glad that they had gotten there when they had, as it saved him from trying to solve his problems or having to keep them from Heidi awkwardly. Besides, now wasn't the time for him, it was the time for them to remember Eithne. Tom idly wondered when his friend's funeral would be or if there would even be one that he and Heidi would live to see.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi gagged a little when Eithne came into sight, squeezing Tom's arm a lot tighter. Why did there have to be blood? Why couldn't he have died some other way that didn't involve bleeding out? Maybe if she had been here, she could have saved him...but instead she'd run off and left him by himself. C'mon, Heidi, if you just give in to me, no one else will have to die... Mary's voice echoed at the back of her head.

She pushed the voice away, instead focusing on Eithne's attacker. She felt an anger boiling within her at the sight of the girl, her Flow kicking in, but she immediately shut it off once she was conscious of what she was doing. If she wasn't careful, she might give into Mary, and that wouldn't be good.

[Big Uri]

Tom worriedly looked at Heidi as he was unable to see what it was like. Though usually he was able to work past being blind, there were times like then when it really annoyed and upset him. Her reaction worried him, leaving him wondering how bad it really was.

"Is it bad?" he asked quickly, giving her a fearful glance. He wasn't even thinking about Mary coming out, too preoccupied to remember the risk of it happening.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi quickly looked away from the carnage, looking up at Tom instead. "It's...not as bad as it could've been," she answered truthfully. "He...he bled out, and I...well...I..." she trailed off, stammering over her words. "I hate it when people bleed out," she finished quietly after a few seconds. She thought that this would turn her into a sobbing mess, but now that she was here, she wasn't crying, even though she felt far more sad than she had before.

[Big Uri]

"I understand," Tom said sympathetically, noting the pressure on his arm and how audibly upset Heidi was and realising that he wasn't very good at comforting people again. He knew things were looking bleak at the minute, even more so for Heidi who was closer to Eithne than he was and could actually see the damage. He wondered what he was supposed to do, like if he should hug her or anything considering how tightly she was squeezing his arm, but decided it would be a bad idea.

"It's... It's gonna be okay, Heidi. I promise it'll be okay," he replied with a sigh, wanting to avert the hopelessness of their situation and not really sure if he was doing it well, but he felt he needed to say something.

[quackers are yummylicious]

"Y-Yeah...it'll be okay," Heidi repeated weakly, hesitantly letting go of Tom's arm and moving closer to Eithne's body. She bit her lip, before using her Flow to close Eithne's wounds as she knelt next to him.

It was here that she found herself crying once more, suddenly trying to get his blood flowing again. "Wake up..." she whimpered, before repeating much louder and more forcefully, "Wake up, dammit! You weren't supposed to die!" She continued to sob, quite far from believing Tom's words of comfort, no matter how much she wanted to.

[Big Uri]

"Heidi, look, I... I-uh...hm," Tom began, starting a couple of sentences and finishing none of them. He didn't know what to say, not wanting to repeat the obvious lie that everything was going to be alright, and not wanting to be realistic and tell her that Eithne wasn't going to come back no matter what she did. He stood there awkwardly, feeling like a loser since he didn't know what to do.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi turned to look back at Tom as he seemed to lose his ability to speak. She felt horrible. Eithne was dead-- that wasn't supposed to ever happen. Tom seemed to be at a loss for words-- that wasn't supposed to happen, either. The two people that she relied on for constants in her life were failing her. "What?" she asked hollowly.

[Big Uri]

"I-I'm sorry," he replied somewhat lamely, not sure how Heidi looked at that moment but judging that by the hollowness in her voice that he had failed her, and he felt terrible because of it.

-----

OoC: Realised how fucked both Tom and the village would be if Heidi had been upset enough for Mary to come out.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi sighed, looking back at Eithne and hesitantly shutting off her Flow. "Sorry, Eithne..." she murmured, before turning back to Tom. "Okay, since we're all doing an awfully shitty job of being friends, I guess I'm gonna have to take matters into my own hands," she announced, as if she was speaking to more people than just Tom.

She looked down at Eithne. "You need to stop being so dead. It's a shitty trick," she scolded, before cracking her knuckles and grabbing the front of Tom's shirt again, yanking his head down a little. "And you need to stop being so damn passive. So let's get angry! It's a start, y'know," she laughed, before slapping Tom rather hard.

[Big Uri]

"Huh-ow! Stop that," Tom asked her, surprised at the strength of the slap but not shocked enough to break his calm shell. He excused it rather quickly as her just being upset at Eithne's death and at his inability to be there for her in a difficult time. "That actually hurt."

[quackers are yummylicious]

"That's the point," Heidi responded, rolling her eyes. "I don't think that Eithne likes it that much, either, you being so damn sad. And since you won't let me in, I'm just gonna force my own opening!" She probably wasn't thinking that clearly, but Tom was upset and this was the only thing she could really think of that would make him at least open up a little...or at least the only thing she was willing to do. She slapped him again, though not quite as hard. Her hand was still stinging a bit from the first one.

[Big Uri]

"I just- ow! Damn, Heidi, will you give it a rest?" Tom asked woundedly, recoiling a bit at the slap. Heidi was stronger than he had expected, and Tom was really bad at keeping track of people within the nearest couple of meters to him. If they moved he couldn't really keep up, and if they moved their hands or anything not in contact with the ground he couldn't see anything at all.

[quackers are yummylicious]

"No, Tom, I won't!" Heidi snapped in reply, hitting Tom again. "You are my best friend in the whole world, and I am going to do anything I can to help you!" Stupid Tom, had he forgotten how to even express emotion? Good god, how long did it take to get through his thick skull? Wasn't she the stupid one? She supposed it didn't matter, but she didn't want Tom to keep all his emotions bottled up inside, and if she could get him angry enough, then maybe he'd let them out, even if she had to be the punching bag.

[Big Uri]

"God dammit, maybe start by not fucking hitting me?" Tom suggested, sarcasm and irritation evident in his voice. Heidi's actions confused him, not sure how it was supposed to help him. He didn't understand her wanting him to let out his emotions, something of a foreign concept to him. He figured that she had been cool with it up until then, so it was something to do with Eithne's death. He wasn't very good at reading Heidi even after all their time as friends.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi bit her lip, starting to get a little on edge now that she could tell Tom was getting angry. "Why don't you try to stop me?" she egged him on nonetheless. "What are you afraid of, Tom?!" She didn't want to make Tom angry, but she felt like it would be good for him, considering she couldn't really think of a time where he'd acted on his emotions. Anger was definitely a good place to start.

[Big Uri]

"Hurting you," Tom gave her the obvious answer, hoping it would snap her back to her senses. He straightened up to his full height, though he had lost weight during the past few months from not eating and had lost much of his muscle. His face was red where he had been hit, and his calm looked a little more forced. "Hurting anyone. Same as always. Ain't changin', Heidi."

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