thisavrou | text; + action options; (cw character death)

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text; + action options; (cw character death)

[locked to people who know Elena Fisher]

elena's dead

[....yeah that's all. Odds are good that Nate will not want to reply to questions, condolences or comments regarding the recent tragedy, though Chloe Frazer might. However, he can be found...]

wandering; Once the shock has passed—if it ever does—Nate wanders for hours. Fuck, maybe days, he doesn't know. He just doesn't want to go back to the house in Region 1 where she isn't.

Eventually he finds himself in a well-wooded park. For lack of anything else to do, he climbs a tree.

at home; When he finally does make it back, Nate parks his ass on the couch, where he'll be sleeping until—well, he can't count on there being an "until." Maybe he'll just live on the couch forever. Sorry, Pepper, Varric, etc.

at the ingress complex; Nate comes by the facility a couple of times, to ask for news or if they can guarantee that they'll be able to bring her back, because he knows that people have returned, and he knows that they don't always.

He walks away both times, unable to stand it if the answer is no.]

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Nate?

[ She isn't surprised at the lack of response, and although she doesn't know enough about what happened after Allison's death to compare the grief of Leonard to the grief Nathan must be experiencing, she feels like she recognizes this mode of mourning. Barely acknowledge the event, go numb, go silent.

She gets up, visits his home, and finds him absent. That doesn't surprise her either. She makes a few inquiries amongst the neighbors and figures out what direction he took off in, hops on her motorcycle, and starts canvassing.

She hasn't driven this fast in a long time. It seems urgent to find him. What she'll do when she finds him, she doesn't know. She just knows him being alone isn't the best thing for him.

She's going so fast, she nearly misses him when she spots him, and she has to slow and go around the block in order to catch back up to him. She parks the motorcycle some distance ahead and walks to intercept. Has he even noticed her? ]

Nathan. It's Tex.

[He doesn't know that she replied because he hasn't even looked at this TAB in ages. He doesn't see her coming, either; the sound of his own name reaches him, but slowly, as if it's coming from a long distance away.

Nothing in his expression changes when he looks at her.]

Hi.

[ She lets him finish approaching before continuing to speak. ]

You're a long way from home, Nate.

I am?

[He comes to a stop, but he doesn't really look around. What does it matter where he is?]

Oh.

Yeah.

[ She draws closer, coming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, facing the direction he's facing. ]

How about we get a bite to eat. There's a cafe right around the corner here.

[ She doesn't know this neighborhood, but she had noticed it when she went around the block. How fortuitous. ]

I'm not hungry.

[He pretty much feels like he never wants to eat again.]

I know, hon.

[ She says it quietly, gently. ]

It'll taste like cardboard, but you need to put something in your stomach. Or at least have a glass of water. You'll need it.

[This must be the park people go to when they're lost and don't know where to go next.]

[Since the accident, Elizabeth has been making multiple attempts to force-shock her brain into realignment, with varying success. It's a hard thing to do when you're not sure where, what, or who will provide some kind of trigger, and Elizabeth's general disinterest in life and the world since the crash of the Moira has left her current self struggling for any kind of clue.]

[So now she's in a park. Nature is nice, she liked nature, maybe she'd have taken walks here before just to get some kind of woodland-based experience. As focused as she is on getting her nose to bleed though, it's not exactly easy to ignore a full grown man climbing a tree.]

[She stops and watches for a moment, looking around for friends or some other reason for climbing a tree, but there doesn't appear to be one. He's just. Climbing to climb.]

Hey! [She calls up.] Nice view?

I don't.

[He does, or will. But he'd rather not do anything that requires thought or action on his part or he might start screaming.]

[It takes Nate a few moments to realize someone's talking to him, and at first he almost doesn't reply. Speaking requires thinking, and that's the last thing he wants to do right now.

But he recognizes her—the girl from the library, back on the ship—and that makes her harder to ignore.]

I guess so.

[He recognizes her, but she couldn't pick him out of a lineup if she tried. Probably the bigger tragedy is that even after getting blitzed with his wife a few times, she has no idea who Elena is either anymore.]

[But hey, man climbing a tree.]

You guess so? Risky business for 'I guess so'.

Mm.

[ She's not interested in arguing with him. It's not what he needs at this point. ]

How about we just go in and sit for a little while, then. You don't have to look at the menu, or pick anything out. Just sit with a glass of water for a while.

[ They're drawing closer to the corner and Tex sets an arm on his back to steer him around the bend. ]

It's right here.

[ Worst case scenarios are easier to deal with by not dealing with them - that's what he tells himself, anyway, as he puts all of his attention on his most immediate concern: the person who's still alive. The rest of it doesn't feel real just yet. It's a good arrangement, in a way. ]

where are you?

[ He doesn't really expect an answer - he's already resigned to hunting Nate down before he even hits send - but it's worth trying the easy route first.

When that yields the expected results, he pockets his TAB and beelines directly for the garage — the fact that he just about collides with Hawke on the way is a testament to their identical mindsets. Without missing a beat or so much as blinking in greeting, he shoves open the door to the garage and points inside. ]

We're taking the bike.

Edited 2017-06-16 00:58 (UTC)

I have wine.

[Not a question, not concolences, and not a comment on the tragedy per se.

Dorian is just really good at enabling self-destruction.]

[Hawke hadn't tried to text Nate. Not for lack of caring but just... not knowing what to say. So instead she just blindly gets up to go do something. To find him and... well she didn't know what she'd do. There wouldn't be anything to do. But she could at least be there.

Tony's shoulder collides with her own as they both try to move towards the garage and she's happy. Happy that he's had the same idea and happy that she doesn't have to do it all alone. She nods and follows him, allowing him to get on first and then swinging her leg over the back of the seat and wrapping her arms around his waist. Maybe a little tighter than necessary.]

And you thought it was stupid when I bought it.

[It's a shitty quip but it's all she's got right now.

So off they go on the great Nathan Drake Hunt of whatever year this is. They hit every spot in the city. Every street, shop, and tourist attraction in the first district. The big farms in the second (which is miserable because Hawke learns hay fever is a real thing apparently). Tony has to climb a rather comically large tree in the third district because Hawke insisted that her lack of upper arm strength made scaling more than a branch or two physically impossible. They wander around some buildings in the fourth district that are so deep the pressure hurts their ears. They hope that Nate might be in the fifth district because he's a nerd like that, but no one has seen someone who matches his description.

After what feels like every hour of the 22 waking hours on Thisavrou and the sun begins to set, they turn around to head back home exhausted, frustrated, and just... numb. Hawke finds herself nearly nodding off against Tony's shoulder and has to keep jerking herself awake. She's tired but the heaviness of the situation, made worse because they weren't able to find Nate, weighs on her. She wants to just drink and sleep and hope that she can't remember any dreams and will have escaped 8 miserable hours.]

...He'll come back eventually, right? He wouldn't sleep in a tree or something like that. That's pushing it, even for him.

[It's said more to the ether than it is to Tony but as they pull into the garage, he's really the only one to hear it anyway.]

[ Tony is absolutely not letting Nate find out he climbed a tree for him, though he might actually be able to live it down given current events. He'd still rather not test it.

By the time they park the bike back at the house and drag themselves back inside, he's feeling pretty close to defeated. If Nate doesn't want to be found, that's one thing. But with all of Nate's - no doubt - worst nightmares being realized, it's difficult to push away the chance he might go do something stupid or reckless to blow off steam. It's probably what Tony would do. ]

I absolutely believe he would sleep in a tree. You probably just made me climb the wrong one—

[ And lo! This is probably the portion of the conversation Nate is treated to as they wander into the living room. Yes, Nathan Drake: not in a tree, or in the sewers, or in any of the towers or the farming district or anywhere else, but right there in the living room, on the couch. In perfectly plain sight.

Tony feels a wave of overwhelming relief crash over him, but also. Fuck's sake. ]

— Of course.

No one would sleep in a tree! Not even me and my name lends so many jokes to-

[Hawke bumps into Tony as he stops and then glances over to see he's looking at Nate. Nate, safe and sound and back home. Hawke has to laugh a little under her breath as some of the heaviness in her chest dissipates. Things don't usually work out for her like this.

Tenzin comes and rubs at her legs, mewling pitifully like the lost creature he is without his mother. Wordlessly, Hawke picks up the cat and then pitches herself over the back of the couch to set next to Nate.

And that's it. She doesn't say anything at all. Just sits.]

[Nate's not sure why he finally decided to come home. Maybe it wasn't actually a decision; it could have been something his body decided on its own when he got too tired, or when the sight of other people got to be too much when he's never felt so alone in his life.

The fact that no one was home but the animals when he got there didn't make it worse. Didn't make it better, either. He might have made it here but he hasn't come out of this horrible fugue state either.

He doesn't react to the sound of Tony and Hawke coming through the door, just keeps twisting his wedding ring. When he feels her sit down beside him, his hand spasms, clamping down on his finger so hard it hurts.]

[Shit.

Shit, shit, shit. This was the kind of shit he was supposed to have left behind. Thisavrou wasn't perfect, but it wasn't Thedas, either. People died regularly on Thedas, and even if Varric never got used to it, he still knew to expect it.

But not here. Not that bright woman he was supposed to start writing with.

After having to write letters of condolence for Hawke back home, Varric was more than tired of writing flimsy platitudes out for mourning friends and family. He didn't want his friend to receive emotionless apologies.

He waited until the man was back, and had slept a suficient amount of time, before he marched to the couch with an armful of bottles. Said bottles were dropped onto the slumbering man, all while Varric cleared his throat.]

Get up, Nate.

[Hawke doesn't have any memory of falling asleep. It's like her body simply hit a point of exhaustion and then shut down. And normally she likes to stay shut down except for the sharp itch in her nose that she can't seem to rub away in unconscious sleep.

She raises her head slightly only to realize she's been dozing on Nate's shoulder and his cheek resting against her the top of her head as he sleeps. The movement of her hand to her nose dislodges a blanket that's wrapped around them both that she pretty sure wasn't there before. Tony is nowhere to be seen, probably off to his own room or to his workshop, too wound up to sleep or just too old to sleep on a couch. Tenzin is curled between them also asleep and probably the source of her itching nose.

Hawke yawns, stifles a sneeze, and then winces slightly at the soreness from sleeping upright and on a couch.]

Hey.

[She pokes Nate awake if he hadn't already woken up due to her shifting next to him.]

Let's go sleep in a bed. Properly horizontal and everything.

[the keyword is "let's". Let us.]

[He barely notices that they're still moving. One foot in front of the other, a little at a time. Walking is automatic, like breathing; he does both despite not seeing much of a reason to continue with either.

He doesn't answer Tex. But he does sigh, and his shoulders slump, and he lets her guide him.]

Not if you know what you're doing.

[He's quiet, enough that she might have to strain just slightly to hear him properly. Kind of rude, really, but he's not thinking about manners in tree-ground communication just now.]

What's it matter?

[He could fall and break every bone in his back and not feel a thing.]

[Nate doesn't reply until the next day, and when it comes, there's no acknowledgment of the time that's passed.]

okay.

[Wine sounds amazing right now.]

[Nate genuinely likes Varric, and since they've moved in together, he's gotten to know the dwarf well enough to think that they're pretty good friends themselves, even setting aside the link of their friendships with Hawke.

But were he capable of alternating numbness and searing agony, he still wouldn't hold it against Varric if he opted to step back from all this...this. They only met a few months ago; what can he be expected to say? What can anyone be expected to say?

He doesn't actually need to still be sleeping by the time Varric does show up, but extra naps are great because they lead to blissful unconsciousness. He cracks an eye open to see all the bottles--almost as good as sleep.]

I'm up.

[It's amazing he was able to sleep at all. The presence of two stalwart friends on either side of him, combined with sheer exhaustion, have to be the only thing that did it. Nate's groggy when Hawke wakes him again, and doesn't register the details of her suggestion.]

No. [His face catches, and he starts to pull back.] 'mfine. Don't want to go up there.

[The quick flicker of his eyes toward the path he'd take to his and Elena's space should tell Hawke that it's not sleep or a proper bed that he objects to. He just can't face climbing into their bed alone.]

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Wandering!

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At Home

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