riverviewlogs | exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

Entry tags:

exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: exploration mingle: rescue mission!
when: June 15 - August 15
where: The River Structure
warnings: violence and/or torture; please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

captivity

One of the major and most highly-valued cultural concepts in Riverview is that of exploration, expansion. Especially now that, with the recent influx of new arrivals, as the portal kicks into high gear for reasons not entirely known, the Inhabited City, already comfortably full, is rapidly becoming overpopulated. With all the refugees from other worlds pouring in from day to day, the city's safe space and resources are being taxed to their breaking point.

Right now, exploration and expansion is key, and each month, the government has decided to focus on a particular objective, in order to unite citizens in expanding, securing, and supplying the city for everyone's benefit.

the story so far

Exploration & Expansion Progress Report ● The Guardians of the Deep ● What Lies Beneath ● Plotting & Questions

After some serious flooding at the banks of the river, the cause was discovered to be the Guardians of the Deep, creatures protecting a circular labyrinthine structure underneath the river. Residents of the city explored and mapped the structure, and dealt with a good portion of the traps and other dangers, until they found a little piece of history in the Central Chamber of the structure, revealing that it was inhabited by the first people to live on the moon.

While this news has been exciting scholars and historians in the city, something a little more pressing has been bothering the average citizen - an ever-increasing number of missing persons. People have simply been disappearing all over the city, and only now are residents starting to realize why...

how it works

● Phases: Each prompt is a different phase of the operation. Characters may partake in whichever part of the operation they choose, whether it is a large and prominent part, or a more of a backseat or support role. Characters may participate in as many phases as they wish.

● Completion: When next month's exploration mingle goes up, the mission featured on this exploration mingle will be considered complete, and game canon, providing the entry has 200+ comments on it.

● Entry Reward: The reward for completion of this month's exploration objective will be...well, the safe return of everyone who was kidnapped. And some sweet hurt/comfort.

● IMPORTANT NOTE: Having observed how the pacing of exploration mingles has been going and how they are tagged, I have noticed that posting one exploration mingle each month has been a little hectic, both plotwise and for me as a mod (writing three mingles a month has been tough!). I have decided to space them out a bit further, and post an exploration mingle once every two months, starting with this one - the next exploration mingle will be posted in August!

phase i: the abducted

People don't simply go missing, they don't disappear into thin air, they have to be somewhere. And while those who are missing people keep frantically searching, those who have been kidnapped are the only ones besides the kidnappers who do know where they are.

Abducted by a group who have taken up residence in the structure under the city after last month's exploration died down, the missing are trapped in the Central Chamber, in fear of the kidnappers. Their abductors are a group of people that is starting to slowly take on cultist tendencies, believing that the remaining spirits of the First People still live in the structure, that it is a temple, and that those First People need offerings of host bodies to inhabit so they can return and bring their wisdom and magic back to the moon. Things are getting a little hairy - there's no agreement among the kidnappers as to how 'intact' the host bodies have to be and whether or not the sacrifice is in the form of alive or dead captives. Even worse, some of the kidnappers are only with the group to enjoy having power over others and using it to hurt them.

Captives are held in the Central Chamber of the structure, with next to no amenities. Blankets, food, water, and other necessities are in short supply, and they are kept huddled together, constantly guarded and either restrained, wearing or in the presence of a power suppressor to keep them subdued. But the captives haven't lost hope - they are working on getting a message out, finding a way to contact the outside world so their loved ones can rescue them...

This prompt is to play out interactions among the captives before they are rescued, and may include violence or other character suffering. It is also to enact plotted plans for the abductees to find connections with the outside world to summon help.

phase ii: distraction and infiltration

Once would-be rescuers become aware of where the captives are being held, they start making plans to rescue them - whether someone they love has been taken, they're just a good person, or they just want to feel like a big damn hero, there are lots of people willing to take the plunge and jump into the rescue. But the cult group has been in control of the structure for a while now, they definitely have the home team advantage. They know the lay of the land and where the traps are, and have used some of them to their own advantage.

It's not going to be as easy as storming the castle.

There are two parts to this phase of the rescue: a distraction and an infiltration. Distractions are planned to draw as many of the kidnappers away from the hostages being held in the Central Chamber as possible, while those who are stealthily infiltrating will try to find another entrance into the chamber so they can surprise and surround the remaining kidnappers.

This prompt is to play out any plans for distraction and infiltration. If you have plotted something out on the plotting post, feel free to post up a header for specific groups for threading rather than an individual character top-level.

phase iii: the brawl and after

Distractions only last so long, unfortunately, and so eventually the whole thing is going to break down into a big fight. Rescuers versus kidnappers, on the kidnappers' home turf, and surrounded by traps left over from the First People, while pieces of stationary tech throw out auras and waves of power suppression. It's going to be a doozy of a fight, so prepare for an epic throwdown!

And once the dust settles, there's going to be a lot of injuries to tend to, a lot of people traumatized and hurt and frightened. A lot of hungry, suffering people will need to be transported out, given medical care, and brought supplies.

This prompt is to play out the final fight between the kidnapping cult and the rescuers, as well as anything in the aftermath of the fight.

phase iv: wildcard

Have an idea for a mission-adjacent plot, or want to make up an unexpected plot twist or problem and solve it with your character? Just write up a starter, and don't forget to give yourself props by submitting it for the Progress Report.

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[Asterion - Environment Art: Ariadne's Forest by Nicolas Mendoza]

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When he made like he was going to put her down, Alex just held on all the tighter for it, because she didn't want to be put down. She didn't want to let go of him and she didn't care if it made her seem soft or weak or less like the 'secret badass' that she'd touted herself to be. These days had been hard and terrible and she knew from experience they were going to be hard and terrible for at least a little while longer. Not for the first time, Alex wished there was an actual therapist here who could handle stuff like this, because she knew that she wasn't going to be the only one who was coming out the other side of it this worse than she was when she came in.

But there was one thing that Alex was certain of, and it was that she could handle anything as long as he was there and he didn't disappear again. Thankfully this wasn't like before when he'd gone off to find Coralee or to see Charlie, this was just the two of them needing to be together here, even if it did happen to be in Howard's house with all of the things and memories that entailed.

When he looked at her, Alex just watched him with a little bit of a smile before she nodded slowly. "Okay." Of course, she didn't say how long she was agreeing to stay in bed for, just that she was agreeing to stay in bed. And honestly, Alex hadn't slept in days, and she was shaking from pain, exhaustion and hunger. She wasn't going to fight the battle to stay in bed for very long or with very much vigor anyway. At least not until she'd slept the clock around at least once. "But I want a bath first." And then she wrinkled her nose. "No, I need a bath first. And I think I'm going to need to just burn my sandals." As a way of trying hard not to cry and fall apart again, Alex was instead thinking about things that didn't matter. Like: "I think I'm going to need to burn my sandals." Because right now, the strawberries were not cute, and she'd lost one somewhere and hadn't even realized it.

And then she seemed to think about it a bit more and Alex added softly: "You're going to stay in bed too, Richard. I know that you haven't slept the entire time I've been gone either."

Richard didn't actually believe that Alex would stay in bed, or that there would, at no point, be no complaining. He assumed that there might be forty-eight hours of not complaining. Food, painkillers, a bath, and sleep would take care of that. After that, however, she would grow bored or decide that she wanted, no needed to write about it. To let everyone know through her journalism that everything was okay now and that everyone was safe and home. It was the sort of person she was.

That didn't mean he would allow her to. She was injured with at least several cracked ribs, probably more. There was no way he would let her get away with the minimal amount of being taken care of. But he wouldn't argue it, not yet at least. That could come after everything else.

Her commentary about her sandals and needing a bath were met with a smile before he really thought about the idea of her taking a bath. "You're going to need help." Washing, he meant; doing it herself would probably put her in too much pain. Bending and all.

Dr. Richard Strand with his multiple PHds from Yale wasn't wrong. Alex wouldn't be able to stay still with this for very long. Where they differed however, was that she'd given herself an extra day of doing nothing than he had. She was banking on seventy-two hours, and then yes, writing about what happened, and of course finding out everything she could in the aftermath, including what was going to happen to those bastards who had done this and their entire cult. Most reporters would have excluded themselves from a story like this, but being as 1. Alex was the only actual reporter who worked for the site and 2. had never had a problem interjecting her personal life into her reporting (as evident by nearly the entirety of her podcast, especially her sleep notes and ultimately how it ended) so yes, she was going to write her story herself.

She'd already been composing it in her head in small pieces while she tried to fight to stay awake at night (now that was a new feeling) so that Alex didn't give the cultists a reason to take it out on someone else around her rather than herself. If there was one thing that Alex had to say about these bastards (and Alex never let one word work when a hundred would do) it was that they'd studied up on brainwashing 101 and had passed the final with the flying colors of the blood and bruises that their captives wore.

There was something else on the tip of her tongue when what Richard said actually caught up to Alex's rapidly whirling with it's normal rate of speed but fighting against the concussion there brain. Going pink under the purple and yellow of the bruises on her face, Alex couldn't stop herself from making a bad joke that was probably not actually a bad joke given well... the two of them. Her voice was soft and teasing, and she lifted her face from his neck in order to look into his eyes before she just said for his ears alone: "If you wanted to take a bath with me, my Richard, you just needed to ask." Sex was entirely off the table, of course, but for them flirting was always on, and had been since they'd met even if there was a line that Alex needed to force herself from tap-dancing over. Now, she could make all the jobs, hops and leaps over it that she wanted to. Or she could have anyway, if she thought she had the ability to hold herself up long enough to walk home.

Richard understood her mocking tone better than many people. Better than many people here seemed to think he did (which seemed odd to him). Besides, they knew one another well enough to know the other wouldn't even think of making a sexual move on the other while they were in these respective states. She'd known exactly what he meant, and he knew that she was saying it because she was looking for a trace of normalcy at the moment. For them, normalcy was squinting the line between what they ought to do and what they oughtn't.

So, of course, he leaned in to give a light kiss against her hair and reply in a low tone, "If I wanted that I could have done so for the past two months." After all, there were rare occasions that he forgot he was living with someone else and just left the bathroom in a towel. He would forever deny that it was solely to watch her face brighten in embarrassment. "If I'm too stimulating, I could ask Elizabeth to."

Alex just closed her eyes when she felt the brush of his lips against her hair, and it was probably one of the few places on her body that didn't hurt at that moment. Other spots on her hair were they had pulled her hair did, but right there, it was fine, and Alex could practically feel the fineness of it radiate out from the kiss to other places, not quite stopping her from shivering, but perhaps slowing the shakes down a little bit as she just kept tight to him. There was a small part of her that hated seeming this weak to him, as if it doing so would somehow manage to change the way he felt about her, but she couldn't help it. Honestly, Richard Strand was the only person on this planet (or perhaps any, with the close exception to Nic) who she'd let see her this vulnerable.

Shaking her head against his neck, Alex rejected the offer of Elizabeth. She knew why he sometimes would walk out in a towel and it was the same reason that she did it in sexy underwear: it was like a mini game the two of them had concocted to see who was the most affected by the other one. Richard was winning, obviously. He had the twenty years experience of denying himself sex and intimacy where as Alex rarely happened to deny herself anything. She was far too much of a hedonist for that.

But his question required an answer, and she pulled back from his neck just enough to look into his eyes. "I just don't want to worry you, Richard. I can feel how bad it is even if I can't see it. If nothing else, I know I have that motherfucker's boot print against by ribs." Alex wasn't someone who normally swore in public, which said a lot about how she was feeling at the moment and what she thought about those bastards who had ended up kidnapping them. But mostly, she was worried what his seeing what had happened would do to him.

The shudder caused him to pull her tighter against him. Worry that he was holding her too loosely and creating her pain overtaking his thoughts for a moment. Still, he knew that if he held her too tightly, it would aggravate the ribs that she had as good as said were either broken or bruised.

Her excuse for why she didn't want him washing her, however, was unacceptable. She should have known him well enough to know that he was going to worry with or without seeing the damage that had been done to her. He'd worried over her sleep after all (maybe later than he should have, but he had worried.) On top of that, he would have seen them when she came out, dressed in her typical pajamas or not, they were sure to be a prominent thing in the light of their bedroom and the rest of the house.

"I'd prefer not to worry about you aggravating them." He doesn't want to worry about Alex entirely breaking a rib somehow (if they weren't broken) or ripping open a wound that had started to heal. All in the name of stubborn worry over him. He wasn't the one who had been tortured; she should think more about herself in times like these.

It said something, no it said a lot about how tired, hungry and in pain Alex was when she didn't get annoyed or fight him on it. The snapping part of her sleepness had passed several days ago, and it was one of the reasons that she'd earned more than her fair share of bruises. Alex really never did know when to keep her mouth shut. So for a minute, all the said was "okay." Her tone was simply soft and she breathed slowly and shallowly for a minute before she added.

"I hate people seeing me like this, Richard. Even you." She admitted softly, the times when she was most vulnerable on her show or with him tended to be her lowest points, and Alex knew how well if you showed a soft underbelly to the world when you were a reporter, it tended to end badly. After all, her sleep tapes and the dogged interest in the way that she believed demons were real had shot her credibility, and Warren hadn't been wrong when he'd fired the shot about a news company taking her back. It was too bad when she got home she couldn't use this time as a reference--if she did people would really think that she'd lost her damn mind.

But Alex couldn't be entirely vulnerable, so she tried to lighten the mood by curling in closer to him and adding softly. "I think this is entirely too delicate flower for my tastes, don't you?" Because wasn't he the one who said that she wa anything but that? And then she added just as softly: "do you think we can get out of the tunnels? I'm feeling really claustrophobic." Which was an understatement, because Alex was pale below her bruises, and she was trusting that the others would be the ones to get everyone else out. That said something too, and Alex wasn't even sure she could stand on her feet if he put her down. The exhaustion was hitting her like a stack of bricks now that it wasn't tempered with the sharpness of adrenaline.

The comment about not wanting him to see her like this stung, if only a little. They had been through so much, and she had seen him at his lowest, and yet, it still wasn't enough to allow him the same. But it wasn't the time to discuss that or get angry. Alex needed food, she needed rest, and she needed recovery. What she needed now was normalcy, a reminder that she wasn't facing this alone anymore. And it seemed, again, it was his turn now. Not that he minded in the least. He'd do anything for Alex, even believe in magic.

As worried as he was, he knew that leaving her comment about being too much of a delicate flower would stew in her. It'd fester until she began to create a hard shell around herself; at least that's what it would have done to him. "I would hardly call this being a delicate flower. If I hadn't gotten to you, you would have still been attacking those cultists." As much as she might protest, he knew he was right. Alex rarely never knew when to quit.

He started toward the entrance, thankfully, not far from where they were. Alex had managed to get further than she probably knew before he'd found her. Once they were at the medics, he looked around for someone available to take care of her injuries.

When Alex had said it, it wasn't meant to be in a way that was to hurt him of course. She didn't want him to see her like this because she didn't want him to worry. Not only did she not want him to worry, but she didn't want him to think that she was any less strong or capable or as completely mad as she had been the day before she'd gotten kidnapped. There was always the concern that if she was anything less than herself (and even when she was doing stupid and crazy things like going to Turkey she was still completely herself) then somehow he might feel differently about her. And this wasn't something that was exclusive to him, Nic didn't even have the front row view to Alex being at her most broken down that Richard had at the moment.

Instead of responding for a moment, Alex just hugged him more tightly around the neck, not choking him of course, but it was more of a combination of a cling and an embrace rather than just holding onto him as he carried her. Pressing a light kiss to the skin there, and Alex let herself be carried for a long moment while she considered what he'd said about the whole fighting thing. Laughter hurt, and the light sound of Alex's natural laughter was followed by the tiniest of groans, but she could still laugh after all of this. She could still laugh, and she could still be okay. Whatever else, Alex knew she'd be okay as long as he was there.

"I did need to get taken away from the body of one of the ones who took me. I'm pretty sure it was the asshole who kicked me when I was down. I may have returned the favor. Several times." There was a fierceness in her voice that chased away some of the deadened tiredness and the possibility of not being broken but bent a bit that had been in her voice before. "My dad gave me self defense classes when I didn't get any taller after I turned thirteen. He made sure I knew how to hurt a man if he ended up on the ground because of something he'd done to me." She had the absurd need to call her dad and tell him about it, but instead, she just casually opened it up to Strand even though she'd not said anything about it before.

Her comment made him smile, a soft puff of a laugh escaping as he listened. Of course, she had gone after the ones who had taken her. Alex was a fierce force to be reckoned with, and anyone who did would feel the wrath of her anger and revenge. He knew that to be more than accurate when he remembered her persistence at getting hold of him, or her playing with Warren when she'd gone to confront him by herself. It was, and would always be who she was, and he loved her for it.

Carefully, he set her down in front of one of the locals to be looked over. He let his hand slide down until he was holding her hand. He'd been away from her for too long already; he wasn't letting go of her any time soon.

"Try not to bite the medic." It was a tease, but one designed to distract her from what was going on. The checking of what was damaged was, he was sure, going to hurt.

Rolling her eyes at Strand and the comment about her biting people, Alex needed to bite back (pun intended) a comment about how she didn't bite people unless they asked nicely. If they were alone it would have come out, but her she was good. Alex kept holding onto his hand as she gave the medic a small smile. He frowned at her before he moved the light into her eyes and did the proscribed concussion protocols. Of course concussion protocols meant with that she was admitting that she had been knocked out more than once.

He wrapped the broken ribs she had and tutted about the bruises she wore. The boot print was still visible in its green and yellow glory. A sprained wrist was added to the pile of injuries most because of the bracelet of bruises around it from where she had been grabbed. All and all she was okay, just a mass of bruises and pain and need to sleep. Towards the end of the exam, Alex's posture became wobbly but she refused to be transported to the hospital.

Leaning against Strand, she just asked softly. "Can I go home? Richard will keep an eye on me and drag me to the hospital if he thinks I need it." A beat and a little smile to him: "I'll even agree to go if thinks I should even if I don't think I don't." There a concession to the worry of both boyfriend and healer.

The concession slightly placated his worries, but not as much as she probably hoped it would. The injuries were, expected. She'd been here for far too long and was far too stubborn to sit quietly and let others be abused. He could only assume that she'd taken the brunt of attacks any time she could. It was frustrating, but it was also no less than he would expect from her.

The healer still tried to refuse to let her leave, but Richard simply asked about heavy painkillers and ignored his argument. Even if Alex tried to argue with him, he would carry her there, if he had to. As embarrassing as it might be, it would be for her own good. Eventually, the healer relented, handing him a small vial of pills. Taking it, he put it in his pocket and turned back to Alex. Hopefully the binding and instructions for the concussion had thoroughly soaked into her head and she understood what was needed. If she didn't however, she would be sure to enforce it.

"Can you walk?" Of course, if she needed it he would carry her the whole way back to Howard's house; even if it might be a strain on his own body.

Alex was rapidly slipping into bitey mode when it came to the healer. She hated when people talked about her as if she wasn't there, and that's what this man was doing when he wrapped her ribs. Alex had been about to remind the healer that no one, and she meant no one made Alex's choices for her, be they good ones or ones that sent her home when someone else might have gone to the hospital to be whatever.

But the arch that was coming into her back, and the anger that was on her face (Alex was sometimes far too expressive for her own good) started to soften when the healer finally announced that she could go. Yes, if Richard wanted her to go the hospital or she needed to later, she would, but right now she just wanted to get the hell out of here and into a bathtub as quick as possible. She really wanted to wash her hair. Or have Richard do it, she guessed, because lifting her arms above her head was probably something she shouldn't do.

"I can walk," she said quickly, and she took a step forward, even if she was still holding tightly onto him for support. "I can get home, and we can always make stops along the way if we needed to." A part of Alex expected to need to. Not merely because of the injuries that she sustained but also because she'd want to make sure her people are all right.

Richard made sure that he moved slowly and carefully. Body bent to match her height and arm securely around her. He was ready to carry her if need be, which, they both knew would not be ideal for her pride; something that was already dented and dinged, especially when he had to carry her out of the cave. Still, her pride would heal, if she overdid it now her ribs might not heal properly.

"Before you do anything else you're eating and taking your medicine." Before a bath or bed, she needed to eat. He was sure that she was starving or would be once she smelled food, and the painkillers would help to dull some of the pain while he bathed her and put her to bed.

Honestly was more concerned with hurting him than what was going on with her pride, something that wasn't entirely new when it came to Richard. There had been times in the past when Alex had needed to swallow that down so that they continue working together, mostly when he was at his more dickish and she was at her most lacking with sleep. But this wasn't one of those situations, so she just kept holding onto him, turning her face into his chest for a moment with a sharp hiss when the sunlight hurt both eyes and head after spending so long in the dark. It wasn't something that she expected, but she should have given just the nature of how long she was held.

Perhaps it would surprise him, perhaps it wouldn't that she nodded about taking her medicine. "Yeah." She said softly against his shirt before she drew away a bit and slowly so that she the adjustment period on her eyes was less harsh. "I definitely want a painkiller the size of Seattle at this point." A beat, and there may have been a slight whine in her tone with her next words, because she was focusing on something else other than her injuries. "I have a headache the size of Canada. I haven't had any coffee in four days. Four days, Richard. Now that's real torture." She was making light of the lack of water and food and bruises and instead focusing on something that was safe and something that wasn't as heavy as the concussion or the starving or the dehydration.

Richard wasn't surprised by much of anything anymore. Not Alex's boldness or her timidness. Besides, after what she'd just been through there was no one who could say anything detrimental about her current behavior. Even if they tried, Richard wouldn't let them get many words out before he punched them flat on their ass. Richard wasn't a violent man, but he was a protective man who could have an explosive temper.

Her reaction to the sun was expected. She'd spent so much time in the cave with no light at all that it was going to feel like pinpricks inside her head from the sunlight, probably. So when she pulled her head against him, he held her tight, carefully moving forward before finding a safe place to rummage out his sunglasses and carefully put them over her eyes. "You need to rehydrate and eat; then the coffeepot is yours." Meaning he'd make it for her because she wouldn't be allowed out of bed. He just wasn't getting into that until she was well enough actually to argue.

Keeping her eyes squeezed shut for a long moment, Alex couldn't help but blink at the sensation of another pair of glasses over her nose. However, when it blocked out the light, Alex just let out a soft, grateful sigh. The sun still hurt way more than it should, but Richard's sunglasses definitely helped with that a fair amount if she was honest, and she always tried to be when it came to things lately.

"I'm pretty sure I could drink like five gallons of water. They were so stupidly stingy with it, I swear. I know brainwashing techniques and everything but..." But even knowing what they were doing, Alex had shared her water and her food with the people who needed it more. Of course, that wasn't something that Alex was going to mention to him, because he'd do that huffy 'why do you do this' sigh, and be worried more, and he was already worried enough.

So she just wrapped her arms around him and gingerly held onto him for a long moment, because honestly what she needed along with the water and the food and the drugs was this: feeling safe because she was in his arms, which she would come what wil.

He knows. Of course, he knows that Alex would sacrifice herself to help others. It's who she is no matter what the situation. It's why Richard worries about her going to Geneva with him. He knows she'd do anything to save both him and the world. Even sacrifice herself.

Instead of mentioning any of this, however, he just offers her something that, while true, she would generally find amusing. "Five gallons of water would give you water poisoning." It is true, and she probably knows it. Still, it bears repeating in this circumstance seeing as many of the hostages would potentially try drinking as much as they could in one sitting. Something that can be just as dangerous as not drinking anything at all.

If it came down to it, Alex would sacrifice herself in Geneva if need be. She wouldn't argue, and she wouldn't fight it. If Thomas Warren pulled a gun on Richard, Alex would gladly step in front of it without a thought. But if he thought he was going to Geneva alone, Alex would gladly remind him that he wasn't. Even if he locked her somewhere and got on a plane, Alex would escape and be on the next one, no ifs, ands or buts. She was going with him come hell (literally) or high water (hopefully not literally.)

"Yeah, I know. And being sick would be terrible for my head and my ribs." Alex didn't want to be sick by any stretch of the imagination, and the concussion and her ribs and her face hurt enough that she didn't even want to think about throwing up. "Still, a ton of water though. And grilled cheese and tomato soup and coffee and a bath and then just crawling into bed with you and sleeping for a whole day sounds pretty great though." Honestly, that's what she kept thinking of when she tried to keep herself awake and out of the way of boots and things that hit: just crawling into bed with him and sleeping for a good period of time.

Richard pulled Alex closer to stabilize her better. If he were more of a white knight-type of person, he might have tried to carry her the rest of the way home through her protests. Richard, however, was not that type of person. He also knew Alex well enough to know she wouldn't want that. Even if, at the moment, she might need it.

"We'll see what you can keep down and go from there." It wasn't a promise, he couldn't make that in regards to what she would and wouldn't be able to eat, but it was an offer to try. "The bath and, other things, I'm sure I can accommodate. Although you may need someone to wash your hair."

In Alex's eyes, she was neither in need or want of a white knight. Instead, if she decided that she was in need of one, then she'd be more than alright with being her own. Yes, she'd needed rescuing this time, but so had gods and witches and soldiers, so she wasn't holding that against herself. Everyone had needed to be saved from the cultists, and the moon had come together to do it. So, she was just fine with that, and she was just fine with holding onto Richard for support as she walked slowly back towards the city, where they could catch a tram or something back home.

The mention of someone to wash her hair just made her smirk up at him, and she gave his fingers a little squeeze of amusement. "Oh? Are you rescinding your offer to do it so soon, then?" It seemed despite what Alex had said earlier, she wasn't going to be ashamed to have him see her like this. They were just bruises, and he'd already seen her cry. And naked in a lot of other ways, this would be fine. Honestly. She trusted him, and trusted that he could handle her when she was looking like this, even if Alex was actually worried about it. Well, worried about him, anyway. It was sort of one of those second nature things to worry about him.

He pauses a moment before glancing at her. He wasn't expecting such a response. Alex was prideful in her own way. She had already mentioned not wanting him to see her, so he had planned to respect her wishes. Not that he would, now or before, had any issue with doing something like this for her. Just before would have probably been quite a bit more awkward.

"You didn't seem interested in the idea." He wanted to give her a chance to change her mind. Still, if she was fine with him, he was fine with helping her wash.

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exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

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