terribly sorry, officer (baelfiery) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-05-08 17:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ~plot: ancient vallo, ₴ inactive: ella lopez, ₴ inactive: neal cassidy |
WHO: Neal & Ella
WHAT: Finding each other after Neal escapes the Viga-maðr island
WHERE: Civitas - conveniently, right during the protests!
WHEN: May 3rd
WARNINGS: Naaaah, though Ella gets some boo-boos after being caught in the scuffle
STATUS: Complete
Neal honestly could have kissed the ground when all the Outlander interlopers tumbled out of the boat onto the mainland - he didn’t, of course, just attempted to play it cool with the others while the Viga-maðr surged on ahead with their spears and clubs and raiding intentions - it was bound to be a nasty fight, but Neal wasn’t planning to stick around for it. Neither was anyone else who had business to attend to on the mainland - meaning, reuniting with loved ones and friends and basically just clamoring for something to do besides wonder whether a fifteen minute catnap beneath the shade of a tree was safe or not. He’d take an ancient city that was meant to be the skeletal framework for Vallo a thousand years into the future over more of the Viga-maðr’s ‘hospitality,’ that was for damn sure. So, right - boots on the ground and he was running, traveling as far on foot as he could go and harkening back to his days of pickpocketing to find enough in order to cover food later on. There was something resembling an agora, a marketplace, whatever the term was going to be - he didn’t have time to shop but he did at least grab fabric from one of the stalls, toward the back, where hopefully a few missing pieces would go unnoticed. A makeshift tunic was better than sticking out in his sandy arrival clothes (which were just jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt anyway). The crowds in the city were pretty intense as well - like a whole rainbow block of people through the dirt roads, and apparently something was going on. Unrest? Wouldn’t be surprising. He blended in as best he could, searching for Ella and hoping she found something more suitable to wear besides the taco shirt. She had luckily found a line of linens and clothing that had been left out to dry behind someone’s home the previous evening and while wearing the same thing for days on end wasn’t exactly how she wanted to spend her time, sometimes you just had to make due. It would at least keep the natives from looking at her as suspiciously as they had been. So now she was waiting near the temple, just as she’d told Neal, and was hoping against hope that he’d made it away from that tribe. The timing seemed to be an issue though. What she’d expected was a normal business day of foot traffic, or at least that’s what she’d witnessed the day before, but today? No. There was some sort of protest gathering and she had absolutely no idea what it was about. Which worried her. And made her tuck herself back against a wall just a little more, even slipping between a couple of pillars that were nearby to protect herself in case things got out of hand. “Oh jeez, hurry up,” she murmured to herself, first pushing herself up onto her tiptoes to look over the crowd to see if she could find him, and then deciding to use the base of the pillar closest to her to give herself a little more height. The palace was kind of hard to miss - he saw it towering above most everything else, a relatively large structure in all of its shiny ivory and gold splendor. Neal wondered who called that place home, but he wasn’t about to go breaking in to find out - tempting, but no. He had other matters to attend to - namely, getting to his kid who was probably out there doing God knew what. Slaying dragons or leading a charge on something or whatever - Henry had never been the ‘sit around and be quiet’ type, and all of this historical adventure stuff was right up his alley anyway. Making a beeline for the palace, when he got closer he thought he saw Ella pop up (she must be standing on something because...she was a smol) and he quickened his pace. “El Bell,” he called - not too loudly, but he waved to get her attention. “Over here.” This was going to be a nice reunion, at least. He’d missed her when he’d been dropped off in a less than desirable hostile natives situation. The more people that gathered, the more worried she became. This had been a bad idea, but how was she supposed to tell Neal to not go there now? It was way too late for that. But then the sight of a waving arm caught her attention and oh! OH! “Neal!” She said it in an almost too loud sort of voice, causing a couple of nearby heads to turn toward her in confusion, but the excitement of actually managing to spot him caught her by surprise. Because yes -- she had not expected to actually find him with this many people around now. Hopping down from her little perch, she made her way toward the direction she’d seen him, excusing herself as she squeezed past body after body. Until she couldn’t squeeze past one. She tried to apologize to the rather… huge man (he was a man, right?) she’d run into, but couldn’t get the words out before being shoved away and down with an angry grunt from him, tripping over her own feet once, twice, and hitting the gravel beneath her and at the feet of several other people who were still trying to push their way further into the crowd. Shit. This was even worse than a rock concert where there was headbanging, crowd surfing, and also people potentially getting stomped. Neal reacted quickly though - he had eyes on Ella and then he lost her, wanting to get to her as fast as possible. Thus, he wasn’t exactly polite when he wrestled his way against the flow of foot traffic to help her before she got crushed - it was sweaty and claustrophobic and, man, one thing after another? Right? He managed to close the distance without incident, however - and he stepped around to swoop in and perform a dashing rescue (maybe not as dashing as he would have liked, considering how literally hot and tired he was), helping Ella up and securing an arm tightly around her so she could lean against him and not have to put her weight on the ankle she seemed to have rolled on the way down. “Jesus - “ He was relieved to see her, yes, and he dropped a kiss onto her temple in greeting. “Let’s get out of here, okay?” Through what was a protest, apparently - people all in black, shouting about something regarding The Ivory Three and Savior. These politics didn’t concern him right now - he just wanted to escape in one piece. The sudden fear that she was going to be crushed overwhelmed her and she struggled to get to her feet, letting out a whimper when her ankle gave out under her weight. Great. Great. But then she was being pulled up and she looked over, relieved that Neal had managed to find her. “Okay,” was about all she had time to reply with before he was half-carrying her out of the crowd. She was careful to not put any weight on her ankle if she could help it, wincing a little the couple of times it happened as they found their way back toward where she’d been and away from all of the people. “That got insane a lot faster than I thought it was gonna. Jeez.” Ella sighed a little and gestured for him to let her lean against the wall, frowning a bit as she looked down at her ankle. “That guy was a dick.” Meaning the one who had shoved her down for no reason whatsoever. “Thank you for finding me, Neal. No one seemed to really care that I was down there, so… uh. That… that was definitely scary.” “Yeah, not the most polite crowd,” Neal agreed with a rough chuckle, having brought Ella to a less populated area - in between buildings, against a wall, was a good enough place to assess how much damage was done. He wished he could just conjure some ice for her ankle - but there were no doubt medicinal herbs that could help with it instead. Witch hazel, chamomile, stuff like that - if he had to, he’d see about healing too, surely there was a coven that did that sort of thing. And while it would have been a last-ditch effort for him (since he preferred to trust actual science and medicine) he’d see how Ella was feeling. If that bad boy was swollen later on, well. Maybe they’d have no choice. “Looks like you scraped yourself up too,” he noted, slipping his arm around her again. “Come on, let’s find a place to hunker down. Then I can run out and find you something for that ankle, so it doesn’t get worse.” She’d been so caught up in the pinching sort of pain in her ankle that she hadn’t even had time to assess the burning pain in the heels of her hands and along the side of her arm that she’d fallen against. Yeah, there was blood. And dirt. And bits of rock. Ella looked at her palms with disdain and then brushed them against the fabric of the dress she was wearing -- sorry, person who she stole it from. Hopefully they didn’t want it back. But she paused when he went to put his arm back around her and lead her away from the wall, taking a moment to actually look up at him again and see him. Maybe it was just being caught up in the moment of everything that had just happened in the last few minutes, but she felt tears prickle at the corners of her eyes and she leaned up as best she could, wrapping both of her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. “I am so freaking happy to see you,” she breathed a moment later, burying her face against his neck. So what if he smelled like dirt and sweat and fire? She was just happy to have him there with her finally. Neal wasn’t too surprised by the hug but the tears shining in Ella’s eyes did rattle him a little - not in a bad way, more like an ‘overwhelming emotion’ way. Because he’d been worried about her as well - he’d been on that island and planning for the worst; it had been a really big stroke of luck that the Viga-maðr decided to coordinate an attack and raid for that day - if they hadn’t, who knew where those who were unlucky enough to land there instead of in the city would actually be. Or, well, fuck that. Neal knew where he’d be - it’d be Life in a Cave all over again, until he was stubborn enough to swim his damn way to the mainland. He’d have done it after strapping two planks together and just floated there, even. Anything to get to his loved ones. “Hey,” he soothed her, rubbing her back and holding her tightly to him - they could take a moment, that was alright. Ella probably needed the reassurance and, honestly, Neal did also. “I’m glad to see you too, El Bell. It’ll be okay. We’re gonna get through this and get back home.” He didn’t know how, but. It would happen. She didn’t outright cry, but the emotion was evident all the same as she held onto him, breathing in his scent and just letting him soothe her as best he could right then. Which was actually pretty well, if she were being honest. She’d been worried about him, scared even, after finding out he was on some creepy island with a less than welcoming tribe. What could have happened to him was not something she wanted to think about. And thankfully she didn’t have to, because he was here now. He was here, and he was with her, and he was okay. And she was okay, or at least she could be once they figured out the ankle situation though (though she was fairly confident it was not broken). Letting a few moments go by, she finally pulled back enough to lean up and pressed a much needed kiss to his lips, feeling herself relax a little more at the contact. It didn’t linger long before she broke it, somewhat reluctantly, and gave a small nod. “I know we will. I don’t think any of the weird stuff that happens in Vallo lasts too long…” Though ending up in some ancient civilization wasn’t exactly fun weird stuff. “Hopefully this isn’t the exception to that rule, huh?” That kiss wasn’t particularly deep, or particularly long, and it didn’t have the intensity that made Neal’s lungs feel like two balls of fire - but he liked it anyway, for its simplicity. The simplicity and the sweetness, and the way he held on to keep gravity from pulling him down quickly. There was a rightness to it also, a quickening heartbeat - and, yes, he felt lots better afterward. “I guess we’ll see,” a sheepish grin flickered on his face. “I think it’s my first ‘big’ thing since arriving, so I don’t have much to compare it to.” Raining candy really wasn’t on the same level as this. He straightened up a little from where he’d ducked to kiss her, keeping a hold on Ella. They probably should get somewhere safe - just because he didn’t exactly trust that more protests wouldn’t break out. “You been staying anywhere in particular?” he asked. “Or we can find something. An apartment, a room, something above a tavern - there are probably options.” In this time period, people spent most of the day outside and travelers would often take shelter beneath the covered sidewalks of the marketplaces - so any rooms weren’t all that furnished anyway, but they’d make something work. The kiss seemed to help him as much as it helped her and knowing that made her heart thud a little harder in her chest, but in a good way. She smiled up at him, tempted to just kiss him again, but that could wait. At least until they were somewhere a bit more private. Ella shook her head a bit in response to his question. “I wound up here with a few other people, but I got separated from them and ended up staying in… a barn of some kind last night? I had to be real sneaky about it.” She sighed a bit, glancing down at her ankle again. It at least wasn’t swelling too much and she carefully tested putting a bit of weight on it, cringing a little, but not immediately feeling the need to lift it back up from the pain. Progress. “I haven’t really…” There was a pause and she frowned a little, gesturing that they could keep walking now if he wanted to. “I kind of suck at this whole survival thing. I saw that others are using their own skills to basically barter with natives for food or money and I’m just over here without anything to offer. It blows.” They could go slow - and hopefully not for very long, so as to not test the limits of what Ella’s ankle could actually bear. So Neal continued along, keeping his arm around her to be solid support as they walked. “I think we can do better than a barn,” he assured. “On my way to you I managed to pick up some cash.” Not from the street or anything - but she knew what he meant. That type of survival reminded him of his days in London, dirty and soot-streaked (the skies darkened by unregulated coal burning, the smog was in the air and everyone breathed it in), breaking into expensive households just to be able to swipe leftover food off of tables belonging to the wealthy. He’d learned a few tricks then, and in the Land Without Magic when he managed to escape Neverland and travel a world away - so he was certain they’d be just fine. “You can teach them to make tacos though?” he teased gently, and when they came upon one of the restaurants (it was basically a place to pick up cold cuts or, possibly, hot food from the counter - nothing fancy, more like seedy and probably doubled as a gambling den but they couldn’t be picky right now) he went inside to ask if they had a room above the actual business. Luckily, they did. And Neal had a few coins to get them settled. Ella felt like she was in some weird version of Skyrim, or maybe an all too realistic renaissance faire. Who knew? Either way, she was grateful that they didn’t have far to go and that he’d managed to secure them a room, even if it was above some seedy looking combination meat market/tavern. With her able to put a little weight on her ankle, getting up the stairs was slow, but not impossible. They made their way into the room -- small, dirty, and it smelled -- and she immediately hobbled over to the edge of the bed to sit. It would definitely be better than sleeping in some sort of hayloft, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable (she really couldn’t wait to get back to Vallo and her own bed). “This place takes LARPing to the extreme,” she commented after a moment, looking around the space before turning her attention back to him with a smirk. “How’d you manage to get away from the tribe? Just ran as soon as you hit shore?” “Basically,” Neal smirked - because, yeah, it was a good tactic. Fuck everything and run - no one really had any better plan, and there didn’t need to be one. Best to just keep it simple. “They didn’t care about us anyway. Mostly they just wanted to attack the village they were pissed off at for whatever reason.” So it really wasn’t a hardship that all the Outlanders had scattered - the Viga-maðr considered them a burden, dead weight, and so forth. They were probably glad to be rid of them all. He leaned in and dropped a kiss on the top of Ella’s head. “Stay put?” he suggested. “I’ll go get something for that ankle. Shouldn’t take me long.” And hopefully a meteor wouldn’t fall from the sky while he was gone. Small favors, Vallo. Considering she wasn’t keen to leave immediately, she gave him a soft smile at the kiss to her head and reached to grab his hand for a moment, giving it a squeeze. “It’s not broken, just… if you can find me some fabric to use as a wrap, I should be able to makeshift something to keep it steady.” Ice would have been nice too, but she was pretty sure a place like this didn’t have ice, so she’d just have to deal with wrapping it for support and keeping it elevated to make sure the swelling stayed down. “And be safe, okay?” The smile faltered a little then, her eyes scanning his face for a moment. Neal nodded, giving Ella’s hand a squeeze. “Fabric and I’ll see if I can find herbs, probably - there are some that are cooling and help with swelling.” Ice was probably not going to be a thing unless he could track down a mage who generated some of that, but he wouldn’t go out of his way and keep her waiting forever - he’d work with what was available. “I’ll be safe,” he added, with one of those crooked grins that crinkled his eyes at the corners and dug into the lines there. “Escaping a hostile island and elbowing my way through a protest - all in a day’s work, right?” Maybe they were kind of due for something relatively normal after this, and he’d brainstorm while he was out. TopGolf was looking downright lazy compared to their current adventures, after all. |