06 . the sleepy town expedition.

[necrolord]

Who: necrolord, Gideon, Harrow, Paul, Kaworu, "Shannon," Mako, Ford, Shiro, Ruby, Luna, Faith, Willow, Ezra, Zhongli, Perell.
What: An intentional family-and-friends roadtrip to a forbidden holy ruin. A less-intentional catacombs adventure.
When: 3/14.
Where: Sleepy Town and the Catacombs.

Content Warnings: Sleepy Town-typical themes of grief, loss, and surreal landscapes. Catacombs-typical horror per the March event. Also, note all the usual warnings of this character.

[ See this doc for info! ]

Comments

cw: ghost, asphyxiation, references to child abuse and parental death

[lipochrome]

It is easy for Gideon to not mind the ghost. She's been ignoring ghosts for years; she takes after her father like that. They look almost identical, at times: relaxed shoulders, easy smiles that don't reach ice-brittle eyes.

She is trailed by another twin. This woman wears Gideon's face, except older, twisted into a perpetual rock-hard scowl. The fire-red hair spilling onto the orange jumpsuit is exactly the color of Gideon's, and where Gideon has a longsword strapped to her back, this woman has a massive gun. She looks upon the entire group with contempt; would call every last person here scum had she not lost the ability to speak after choking to death.

The stone threshold has the finality of a tomb, and God does something worse than open a door.

He confesses. He claims that nobody loves him, and Gideon, who spent the better part of eighteen years unloved, knows that to admit to a life without love is to ask for it. The part of Gideon that her mother gave her wants to bristle, to lay out the cold and sharp truth of it's your fault. Of you don't deserve to ask for anything.

But Paul and Harrow wrap God into an embrace, and Gideon knows that if she pierced God with that dagger, she'd slice through Harrow and Paul in the process. Harrow says she loves him; God accepts her love.

Gideon is standing outside it all. Gideon is standing before a door. Gideon is five years old again, understanding that this kind of love is not for her. Who is she to intervene? Maybe there's nothing wrong with loving God. Maybe the problem is, as it always has been, with her.

Here, she stands in front of her mother and behind her father. It is like the door is asking her to make a choice. But this place does not understand, just like Harrowhark never understood: she is nobody's son or daughter.

So she does not speak up, nor does she intervene. Gideon stands at attention, taut, her throat working. She does not look at the ghost behind her. Gideon Nav has not said I love you to a ghost in eight years, but she still remembers what it was like. She remembers that they do not answer.

In the end, Gideon's choice is not her mother, and it is not her father. She chooses Harrow and Paul, a choice she will make over and over again, if she has to.

Commander Awake Remembrance Of These Valiant Dead does not say anything, either. And the next time Gideon turns around, she will be gone.