GRATIA // PSL

[skeletoncity]

So, here's what Irahl knows.

He's alone in a dark, cold cave. He has most, if not all, of his gear. No one is guarding his location. As he heads away from the spot where he came to consciousness, no one tries to stop him, and no one gets in his way. The few people he finds down there seem human, and not about to approach the nearly-seven-foot man that comes stalking out of the lower tunnels. Honestly, everyone here seems a surprised and a little astonished about his... Entire scene.

There is a way up. It's a maze of twisting corridors and confusing passageways, half of which feel too small for him. It's bigger and bigger groups of people, some of which scatter like schools of fish, and some of which have to be pushed through to get anywhere. It's climbing up into streets lit with dingy lights, graffiti-covered hallways, warehouses, weird holes in stone walls that may or may not be windows. It's alarm bells, it's people yelling at each other down the street. It's just an absurd number of stairs. A couple of people make an attempt to stop him somewhere, and it goes poorly for them.

Elsewhere, events are being set in motion where Irahl cannot see. But he's on his way out.

Eventually, more people try to stop him. At the end of another long stretch of Underground city, a group of official-looking folks are putting a real effort into blocking off the obvious exit, and some of them have weapons.

Down a side alley, into another tunnel, and then the space opens up into a... Plaza, of some sort? The floor is made of stone. The buildings surrounding it are made of stone and are hard to distinguish from one another. At at least the ceiling (also made of stone) is a lot higher than before. Cavernous. There's some kind of sculpture in the middle of it, some impressive feat of geometric stonework that gives the illusion of defying gravity despite weighing literal tons.

This is where someone finally catches him. Sounds have been echoing unhelpfully down every passageway, making it hard to tell if people are coming or going - but this series of quick footsteps comes from an upward direction before someone hits the ground about five feet in front of Irahl.

His clothes are different. His hair is better-kept. Maybe if the situation wasn't quite so tense, there'd be time to see the ways in which his face is different, the way his eyes don't have quite as vicious and sharp a gleam as they used to. But whatever Irahl can take in of him, there is Robin, having hopped down from a rooftop to put himself between him and the exit again.

"...Holy shit."

Kind of weird that he looks absolutely shocked to see the person in front of him, though.

Comments

[hatesblindjokes]

Vincent huffs. This is frustrating, but he's so tired, and his own brain is more than ready to grab onto the out that he thinks is being offered him.

"...'Kay. I'mma get ready."

So he finally heads fully into the bathroom, brushes his teeth, and changes into pants a little more suited for sleeping in.

He is so busy trying to outrun his own brain chewing on why he was nervous about this to begin with that when he comes out of the bathroom, he heads right on over to the bed and starts pulling up the covers so that he can climb in on the opposite side.

[indigochild]

Irahl also huffs under his breath, but he has to admit that there's no real reason to be huffy. He isn't used to having someone so enthusiastically in his own space when they have another choice--Robin not included--but he doesn't really mind all that much. On the ship, they had both been operating under excuses that they could name on why they'd moved their bunking situation to the cargo bay, and then never addressed it again. So, if anything, it's the skipping right past the pretense stage that is a little agitating. It also makes keeping up that work-mode distance more complicated.

All in all, it's jarring and a little vexing, but he doesn't really mind it.

He settles down on his side of the bed (on top of the covers, as he often does even when alone) while Vincent gets ready, and by the time Vincent is done, Irahl has also settled with the fact that his roommate is kind of clingy and he's apparently okay with this fact.

As Vincent is pulling back the covers and climbing into bed, Irahl mutters, "If my alarm goes off and I'm not up, punch me awake."

[hatesblindjokes]

Vincent still doesn't know what the deal (or... lack of deal?) was, but once he's laying down he's very quick to convince himself that whatever it was, they can figure it out in the morning. After some sleep.

"You got it, man..." Vincent says, more into his pillow than at Irahl.

Admittedly, Vincent does like being able to sleep near other people more than he likes sleeping alone. And Irahl's a very comfortable person for him to be around, so he's... Secretly pretty happy, underneath it all, that this is how things worked out.

[indigochild]

Even with the supremely exhausting day he has had, Irahl has never been known to fall asleep quickly in a new place without the help of alcohol. The fact that he has just had an unexpected bout of confusion just before bed hasn't helped this fact, so he is left with an exhausted but busy brain after he turns off the lamp to try and sleep. He can't even muster up the energy for specific, productive thoughts. It's just a weary slurry in his head.

Somewhere along the way, as he drifts in and out of semi-consciousness, one element finally begins to separate itself and rise up into his awareness. Eventually, lying there in the dark, Irahl realizes that he's anxious.

He's too tired to be able to tell where exactly this anxiety is coming from, which isn't terribly unusual, but it is inconvenient. He's sure it has something to do with his big day coming up, or the whole lifechanging ordeal in general, but it doesn't really matter when he needs to be sleeping right now.

This isn't new. It's just frustrating. Of all the times for him to be stuck in a familiar half-asleep loop of nameless worry, of course it had to be tonight.

He's about to wearily resign himself to the fact that he'll be in a slow spiral for the few hours left of the night, because he knows how this goes by now, when he eventually realizes that there is one factor that is out of the ordinary in this case. And, with that thought, he remembers that he does know of one thing that has helped him out of this state in the past.

So, as unobtrusively as he can, Irahl rolls over in Vincent's direction and nudges his arm out until his hand lightly bumps up against the side of the other man's shoulder and rests there.

It's just a tiny, inconsequential anchor, but it does the trick. There's something about being able to reassure his subconscious mind that a friend is right there, and isn't going anywhere, that calms him down enough to finally fall asleep.