For once, there's no urge to snap back at the elf. (Though he could have. Though Sen had no right suggesting, or supposing, or— Shit, it's not the point right now.) (And he's not wrong, is he? Dima's been impacted by the sight of these children and their remains, but Faolan - Faolan and the embrace he so readily offered to the boy outside - hasn't been beyond his knowing.) Dima's grateful, almost, for the input, and doesn't take the words lightly.
Isn't taking any of this lightly. He hears what the girl is asking; he knows the risk in promise. How difficult it could be to reach from now to some distant future, to the time Dima can find the right practitioner or learn, perhaps craft a spell all of his own. And 'never' is, particularly for ghosts, a complicated term.
Still. He does know what he wants for them; it's a picture growing slowly clearer; it's a feeling in his sternum.
"You'll never be abandoned.
"I'll never abandon you." For all his faults. For all his lacks, hasn't he always defended his family?" There are bonds I keep above all else; in my care, you would stand among their utmost.
"If I leave home, I will always return to you. I will always sees to your care.
"It will take some time to bring you life. It must be done correctly; it must be done when we can bring you both, together.
"But we'll have you with us. I will— I mean to gather your bones. To wrap them in fine cloth, and keep you safe. Keep you with me— With us. If you can travel as you are now, or visit us at all, so much the better." He might, Dima thinks, learn to call up their ghosts; it isn't beyond possibility.
"When the time arrives— You'll have family, if you wish it. And I will never leave you to hunger, or to wither. I won't leave you without word, or without a way to reach me.
"You'll never be alone again. You will never be forgotten.
"I want life for you, Rose, Thorn. I want to see you thrive."
Behind Dima, a voice speaks, quiet but certain as Rin chimes in: "You'll have to show me your new dollhouse. You'll have to show me everything; I bet it'll be the greatest."
<.>
It's like penance.
(It isn't at all like penance.)
Dima's promises to never leave them, isn't it a little like mending, though? For the wrong he did -
For the wrongs others have done. To these children. (To Faolan.)
He doesn't know when tears first stung his eyes, but he blinks them away, warning himself off this path. It'll only bring harm later when Dmitri can't deliver. (When Dmitri vanishes from all their lives.)
He doesn't believe the promise that they won't be abandoned, but Faolan does know life can be lived after abandonment, and they deserve a chance to live. (And there are ways.)
There are ways.
To resurrect them.
To carry them until that time.
"You could -" His voice is weak, but he ventures again, "They're attached to something. Here. The dollhouse, or the room. They'll need something else to carry them with us-"
No.
"With you."
(No.)
He doesn't want to suggest taking a bone from their bodies. It's ghoulish.
"Something from the house."
Sen glances at Rin and, after an awkward pause, furrows his brow in pained apology and mouths I'll owe you.
Out loud, he comments, "We just happened to find a pair of rings downstairs."
Thorn steps a little closer to Dmitri, though he doesn't release Rose's skirt. It's clear what he'd like, but that what Rose decides, he decides.
<.>
If there's a moment's reluctance in Rin, it's brief, scarcely noticeable. There are always other rings, after all. There's more still to be found in this house, most likely, and—
Well, if nothing else, these kids definitely had dibs on the rings for a long, long time.
So Rin's already reaching into the Bag of Holding, and produces the rings. They move a little closer to the ghosts - to Dmitri and Sen waiting close, and what was it Sen said to the man? (it seems a lot like they know each other somehow, and doesn't that seem strange?) - and hold out their hand, showing the rings.
"These. These are what we found.
"Do you know these rings?"
<.>
Rose steps a little nearer to Rin and reaches out to take the rings - then stops, hand hovering as she seems to recall she can't touch them. (Maybe, that's what makes the decision for her. Maybe the desire to touch things, to feel things.)
"Those are mother's." Her hand doesn't recoil, however. There's a faint sorrow in her expression as she looks first to Rin, then to the men around her and Thorn. "But they're meant to be ours. One for Thorn when he -
"When he marries - and -
"When I'm - old enough -"
She stops speaking and her lip trembles.
Faolan and Sen both share the same thought: it's a wonder she kept it together this long. Faolan alone thinks it's a terrible thing, not to be able to comfort a crying child.
He does what he can, kneeling before them just as he did in the street, just beside Rin. He gives the girl an encouraging smile.
"Those will do," he says softly. "And you see, Rose? Dmitri can wear the rings, and then you'll go along with him until he make you well. Do you think you can take hold of a ring the way you've held on here, in this house?"
Thorn looks uncertain if hopeful, but Rose's nod is almost eager in its certainty.
Faolan glances at Rin and offers a wan, grateful smile, then reaches out and carefully - almost reverently - takes the tattered doll from the bones at the feet of Rose and Thorn. The boy gasps and reaches out in a panic, but Faolan meets this with patience. "Dmitri will mend you, and I'll mend Hildabear so she's waiting for you."
<.>
Oh, no.
(The poor child. The poor children.)
(He will mend this. He will.)
There's nothing Dima can do to reach them, touch them, and though he isn't particularly practiced at handling children, he knows they could use an embrace— Faolan's, perhaps Sen's, if not his own. A hold, a hug from someone with a caring that runs to their core.
He curses himself for not knowing better magic. He thinks thanks to Faolan for speaking, for thinking quickly, for the rings and for holding the bear; it's something, and the boy must see the meaning.
(Dima noticed as well the particularity of Faolan's words: That the bear would be waiting. The bear, alone? The bear, alone in promising.
He won't think on it now. He won't entertain the twist of sadness, sorrow that it brings. This isn't the time for his own concerns.)
"Yes; we'll have Hildabear ready and waiting, and she'll have adventures to tell you about. While you hold her; while you and your sister and I all sit together." He doesn't precisely think about what he's committing himself to; he also knows the meaning in his words, and knows no pull against this vow. Someone ought to aid these children, and there's plenty of room in his home in Morovsk. There's plenty of coin, should Dima choose to commission a home all of their own.
He doesn't like to see these children abandoned, and stranded as ghosts. He won't let this continue.
And he nods. "You'll have your rings, as well. They were always yours, and waiting for you; I'll keep watch of them, I'll keep them until they sit upon your fingers.
"Your mother's wish will be fulfilled.
"And you'll be so beautiful, so handsome with your rings."
Dima cants his head slightly, manages a smile. "I am Dmitri. This is Faolan, Sen, Rin. I think we'd all like to help you—" And. Because what Faolan suggested holds weight; because it's a better-than-viable approach: "You need only take hold of your rings, and we'll begin."
<.>
It's apparently no difficulty at all for the children to grasp on to some tangible connection; their images fade for a moment, then appear once more, if a little less vividly. They each step away from their bones and towards Dmitri, Rose quietly instructing Thorn to be brave. (Hearing this, Faolan wonders if she's speaking more to herself.)
He tries not to think about the small pieces of speech that remain ingrained with him; things Dmitri said that might promise (a home) (a family) (love?) a world Faolan knows won't be his. He focuses instead on the task before them of carefully wrapping the bones; his cloak is sacrificed for the task. After a moment, Sen stoops to help him, surprising Faolan with the care he shows.
(Even if he does keep casting glances up at Rin that Faolan would characterize as 'adoring'.)
As they work, Thorn tugs Rose's skirt and whispers to her, and Rose wipes away ghostly tears, sniffs, and instructs, "Hildabear should be there, too, until you can mend her."
<.>
Rin stands very near, more moral support than anything; as far as they can tell, Sen and Faolan have a deft handle on wrapping the bones, and they don't want to upset anything by intruding a hand. It seems important that this be done with care. It seems important not to break the solemnity of this moment, and what Rin does speak is simple, again soft—
"It's good you have Hildabear. I can tell she really wants you with her."
Dima does offer a hand here and there - adjusting the shift of a bone; looking to Rose, to Thorn, then adjusting another placement - though he strays from interfering with Faolan and Sen's work. Mostly, he remains attuned to the children (the ghosts) and to the room around as best he can. To listening for any changes in the atmosphere; to seeing whether the children seem to be particularly discomforted as hands ready their bones for holding.
He raises a hand toward Rose, toward Thorn, and tilts it slightly sideways. As if offering the shadow of a gesture, a reassuring, slightest touch. "Both of you are very brave. You've been brave all this time.
"You can rest now, children. It's all right; you can hold close to one another, and to Hildabear, and let us take care of everything." He's taken the rings from Rin, or Rin's slipped the rings into his hand, and Dmitri closes his fingers around them, slipping his eyes shut briefly, nodding to himself. "You've done so well; I can feel your presence in these rings.
"Thank you. I— You ought to be very proud of yourselves. Brave Rose; brave Thorn.
"Everything will be all right; I swear it."
<.>
When the children vanish - though their ghostly presence may still be felt near at hand (figuratively and literally for Dima) - and their bones carefully stowed in the Bag of Holding, the party is free to continue on to the staircase leading down into the dungeon. Faolan argues there's no need to search the rest of the attic; whatever's left to be dealt with, it's in the basement.
XP awarded: 480.
That should roll everyone over to level 3. (Meaning everyone now is at level 3 / 900XP.)
no subject
Isn't taking any of this lightly. He hears what the girl is asking; he knows the risk in promise. How difficult it could be to reach from now to some distant future, to the time Dima can find the right practitioner or learn, perhaps craft a spell all of his own. And 'never' is, particularly for ghosts, a complicated term.
Still. He does know what he wants for them; it's a picture growing slowly clearer; it's a feeling in his sternum.
"You'll never be abandoned.
"I'll never abandon you." For all his faults. For all his lacks, hasn't he always defended his family?" There are bonds I keep above all else; in my care, you would stand among their utmost.
"If I leave home, I will always return to you. I will always sees to your care.
"It will take some time to bring you life. It must be done correctly; it must be done when we can bring you both, together.
"But we'll have you with us. I will— I mean to gather your bones. To wrap them in fine cloth, and keep you safe. Keep you with me— With us. If you can travel as you are now, or visit us at all, so much the better." He might, Dima thinks, learn to call up their ghosts; it isn't beyond possibility.
"When the time arrives— You'll have family, if you wish it. And I will never leave you to hunger, or to wither. I won't leave you without word, or without a way to reach me.
"You'll never be alone again. You will never be forgotten.
"I want life for you, Rose, Thorn. I want to see you thrive."
Behind Dima, a voice speaks, quiet but certain as Rin chimes in: "You'll have to show me your new dollhouse. You'll have to show me everything; I bet it'll be the greatest."
<.>
It's like penance.
(It isn't at all like penance.)
Dima's promises to never leave them, isn't it a little like mending, though? For the wrong he did -
For the wrongs others have done. To these children. (To Faolan.)
He doesn't know when tears first stung his eyes, but he blinks them away, warning himself off this path. It'll only bring harm later when Dmitri can't deliver. (When Dmitri vanishes from all their lives.)
He doesn't believe the promise that they won't be abandoned, but Faolan does know life can be lived after abandonment, and they deserve a chance to live. (And there are ways.)
There are ways.
To resurrect them.
To carry them until that time.
"You could -" His voice is weak, but he ventures again, "They're attached to something. Here. The dollhouse, or the room. They'll need something else to carry them with us-"
No.
"With you."
(No.)
He doesn't want to suggest taking a bone from their bodies. It's ghoulish.
"Something from the house."
Sen glances at Rin and, after an awkward pause, furrows his brow in pained apology and mouths I'll owe you.
Out loud, he comments, "We just happened to find a pair of rings downstairs."
Thorn steps a little closer to Dmitri, though he doesn't release Rose's skirt. It's clear what he'd like, but that what Rose decides, he decides.
<.>
If there's a moment's reluctance in Rin, it's brief, scarcely noticeable. There are always other rings, after all. There's more still to be found in this house, most likely, and—
Well, if nothing else, these kids definitely had dibs on the rings for a long, long time.
So Rin's already reaching into the Bag of Holding, and produces the rings. They move a little closer to the ghosts - to Dmitri and Sen waiting close, and what was it Sen said to the man? (it seems a lot like they know each other somehow, and doesn't that seem strange?) - and hold out their hand, showing the rings.
"These. These are what we found.
"Do you know these rings?"
<.>
Rose steps a little nearer to Rin and reaches out to take the rings - then stops, hand hovering as she seems to recall she can't touch them. (Maybe, that's what makes the decision for her. Maybe the desire to touch things, to feel things.)
"Those are mother's." Her hand doesn't recoil, however. There's a faint sorrow in her expression as she looks first to Rin, then to the men around her and Thorn. "But they're meant to be ours. One for Thorn when he -
"When he marries - and -
"When I'm - old enough -"
She stops speaking and her lip trembles.
Faolan and Sen both share the same thought: it's a wonder she kept it together this long. Faolan alone thinks it's a terrible thing, not to be able to comfort a crying child.
He does what he can, kneeling before them just as he did in the street, just beside Rin. He gives the girl an encouraging smile.
"Those will do," he says softly. "And you see, Rose? Dmitri can wear the rings, and then you'll go along with him until he make you well. Do you think you can take hold of a ring the way you've held on here, in this house?"
Thorn looks uncertain if hopeful, but Rose's nod is almost eager in its certainty.
Faolan glances at Rin and offers a wan, grateful smile, then reaches out and carefully - almost reverently - takes the tattered doll from the bones at the feet of Rose and Thorn. The boy gasps and reaches out in a panic, but Faolan meets this with patience. "Dmitri will mend you, and I'll mend Hildabear so she's waiting for you."
<.>
Oh, no.
(The poor child. The poor children.)
(He will mend this. He will.)
There's nothing Dima can do to reach them, touch them, and though he isn't particularly practiced at handling children, he knows they could use an embrace— Faolan's, perhaps Sen's, if not his own. A hold, a hug from someone with a caring that runs to their core.
He curses himself for not knowing better magic. He thinks thanks to Faolan for speaking, for thinking quickly, for the rings and for holding the bear; it's something, and the boy must see the meaning.
(Dima noticed as well the particularity of Faolan's words: That the bear would be waiting. The bear, alone? The bear, alone in promising.
He won't think on it now. He won't entertain the twist of sadness, sorrow that it brings. This isn't the time for his own concerns.)
"Yes; we'll have Hildabear ready and waiting, and she'll have adventures to tell you about. While you hold her; while you and your sister and I all sit together." He doesn't precisely think about what he's committing himself to; he also knows the meaning in his words, and knows no pull against this vow. Someone ought to aid these children, and there's plenty of room in his home in Morovsk. There's plenty of coin, should Dima choose to commission a home all of their own.
He doesn't like to see these children abandoned, and stranded as ghosts. He won't let this continue.
And he nods. "You'll have your rings, as well. They were always yours, and waiting for you; I'll keep watch of them, I'll keep them until they sit upon your fingers.
"Your mother's wish will be fulfilled.
"And you'll be so beautiful, so handsome with your rings."
Dima cants his head slightly, manages a smile. "I am Dmitri. This is Faolan, Sen, Rin. I think we'd all like to help you—" And. Because what Faolan suggested holds weight; because it's a better-than-viable approach: "You need only take hold of your rings, and we'll begin."
<.>
It's apparently no difficulty at all for the children to grasp on to some tangible connection; their images fade for a moment, then appear once more, if a little less vividly. They each step away from their bones and towards Dmitri, Rose quietly instructing Thorn to be brave. (Hearing this, Faolan wonders if she's speaking more to herself.)
He tries not to think about the small pieces of speech that remain ingrained with him; things Dmitri said that might promise (a home) (a family) (love?) a world Faolan knows won't be his. He focuses instead on the task before them of carefully wrapping the bones; his cloak is sacrificed for the task. After a moment, Sen stoops to help him, surprising Faolan with the care he shows.
(Even if he does keep casting glances up at Rin that Faolan would characterize as 'adoring'.)
As they work, Thorn tugs Rose's skirt and whispers to her, and Rose wipes away ghostly tears, sniffs, and instructs, "Hildabear should be there, too, until you can mend her."
<.>
Rin stands very near, more moral support than anything; as far as they can tell, Sen and Faolan have a deft handle on wrapping the bones, and they don't want to upset anything by intruding a hand. It seems important that this be done with care. It seems important not to break the solemnity of this moment, and what Rin does speak is simple, again soft—
"It's good you have Hildabear. I can tell she really wants you with her."
Dima does offer a hand here and there - adjusting the shift of a bone; looking to Rose, to Thorn, then adjusting another placement - though he strays from interfering with Faolan and Sen's work. Mostly, he remains attuned to the children (the ghosts) and to the room around as best he can. To listening for any changes in the atmosphere; to seeing whether the children seem to be particularly discomforted as hands ready their bones for holding.
He raises a hand toward Rose, toward Thorn, and tilts it slightly sideways. As if offering the shadow of a gesture, a reassuring, slightest touch. "Both of you are very brave. You've been brave all this time.
"You can rest now, children. It's all right; you can hold close to one another, and to Hildabear, and let us take care of everything." He's taken the rings from Rin, or Rin's slipped the rings into his hand, and Dmitri closes his fingers around them, slipping his eyes shut briefly, nodding to himself. "You've done so well; I can feel your presence in these rings.
"Thank you. I— You ought to be very proud of yourselves. Brave Rose; brave Thorn.
"Everything will be all right; I swear it."
<.>
When the children vanish - though their ghostly presence may still be felt near at hand (figuratively and literally for Dima) - and their bones carefully stowed in the Bag of Holding, the party is free to continue on to the staircase leading down into the dungeon. Faolan argues there's no need to search the rest of the attic; whatever's left to be dealt with, it's in the basement.
XP awarded: 480.
That should roll everyone over to level 3. (Meaning everyone now is at level 3 / 900XP.)