notinthestars | I saw you in a dream

Entry tags:

jaune arc : pyrrhic_paladin

I saw you in a dream

The dreams had been plaguing her for months. Every time Pyrrha closed her eyes, she was back there on that tower - and it's no surprise, really. It was expected, in their line of work, the trauma that comes along with staring evil in the face - but it doesn't make it hurt any less. She's already berated herself, over and over, for going to the top of that tower. For Jaune, charging in after her, and for...

Well. They already knew how that ended.

It's far past midnight, edging towards two or three AM, she's not sure. Pyrrha sighs quietly, setting down Akoúo from where she was sharpening it. She should sleep - they had a fair amount of ground to cover in the morning. As much as she dreaded what she knew would be waiting for her the moment she managed to sink in to sleep, her body needed the rest. She wouldn't be able to serve anybody if she was tired. ~~She hadn't been able to help the one person that mattered, she'd be damned if she was ever so useless, ever again.~~

Pyrrha lays down, her sleeping bag snug tight between Ren and Nora. It calmed her, being close to their breathing, the warmth on either side of her. Proof that they were alive, that they were still there - that they hadn't slipped just out of reach the way...

She falls asleep slowly, restlessly - but tonight feels different, somehow...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Good, don't be too happy about it though. You're adopting seven high-energy sisters you're going to have to visit when this is all over. Hopefully Nora can tire them out for you." He was teasing, mostly.

Even if he had the sense to be embarrassed about changing in front of Pyrrha now Jaune wouldn't want to get out of sight of her for that long. Maybe when they were more comfortable that his wasn't just going to shatter in a moment.

Jaune seems to miss the blush and goes right back to curling his arm around her middle. "I feel like I should give you something too." He considers for a few moments "Oh right! It's not as fun as this hoodie, but I was thinking of an upgrade to Miló to go along with Nora's." He summons up Miló in its javelin form as she would remember it. "I was thinking maybe finding a way to get a conductive cable added it to it. That way you can hit an enemy while Nora holds onto the cable and sends electricity through it."

"I hope to meet them one day." Pyrrha says earnestly. She really does - her visit with Saph had been a wonderful thing. It had made her feel closer with Jaune - with the door she believed had been closed to her forever, up until now. Pyrrha pillowed her chin on her armored knees. "I don't have much family. Just my mom left, really."

It seemed like the other three members of JNPR had quite a bit in common when it came to family. But Jaune had brought them together, had taught them the real meaning of friends and family.

Pyrrha does her best to remain as unaffected as possible - luckily, Jaune is just as oblivious as ever and doesn't seem to notice her distraction. (The only reason she was ever able to keep it under wraps was his complete inability to notice when he managed to melt her into a pile of goo.)

She's glad he likes the shirt, and the suggestion gives her thoughtful pause. "We'd have to make sure it doesn't off-balance the blade. I'd have to look into decent conductor-resistant materials that would blend well." Pyrrha smiles, tilting her head at Jaune. "What would that team attack be called?"

"You should! They're all in one place so it'd be easy to visit them. Go with Saph if you guys are nervous about meeting them for the first time." He wanted them to be able to come together. To grieve together.

The mention of Pyrrha's mom gave Jaune some pause "I'm pretty sure I met her... she was really great." He doesn't want to bring down the conversation, but he thinks Pyrrha should know. "We met at the memorial, I think you guided us to meet." Granted he meant the Pyrrha that died. "I was really scared to meet her, but I'm going to guess you felt the same way when you first met Saphron."

To hopefully not drag down the conversation too much he switches gears to the weapon suggestion "Yeah I didn't think it'd be that simple, but it would mean Nora's electricity being able to go further."

He looks thoughtful at the question of the team attack name "I can think of two possible names. Lightning Rod or Lightning Bug. Which do you think works better?"

"I'd like that," Pyrrha nods, mentally adding on the if we ever finish our mission. There...really isn't an end in sight, if she's being honest. But it was a nice idea, that one day the fight might end and they'd all be able to go home - but if she was being well and truly candid...Jaune had already given his life for the cause. How could Pyrrha do anything less?

"Yes, she is. Taught me everything I know." Pyrrha glances over at him curiously. Guided to meet? She can only assume he means something beyond explanation, but if she was really dead in Jaune's reality...how could that be? (She's asking this as if what they're doing right now isn't beyond impossible). "Yes, I was. Saphron is lovely, though, she put me at ease right away."

"I'll see if I can draw up any designs when I have a moment," Pyrrha promises easily. She'd designed her weapon herself, so surely she could figure out some way of making it work! Even if they didn't have the materials to really make it - she could imagine it here to show Jaune. "I like Lightning Rod. It...has a nice ring to it."

Jaune decided to elaborate on it without prompting. "We were looking for Oscar. When I found out the truth they found out through Jinn I... said some things I shouldn't have to him. He disappeared for a while afterwards and we were all looking for him." It was embarrassing to admit now, especially because he couldn't imagine Pyrrha having done the same thing.

"I was in a pretty dark place, not knowing what to do knowing what we do about our enemy." He knows he doesn't need to say it, so he doesn't.

A small smile crept on his lips "Then the weirdest thing happened. When Ren and Nora stepped away to get something hot for us to drink I saw a fall leaf. Most of the trees should have already shed their leaves by this time of year. For some reason I followed where it blew and it took me to the memorial." It could have been a coincidence, but then he met Pyrrha's mom there as well.

Jaune's smile grew as she talked about drawing up designs "That's great! You should probably be able to find the components for it in Atlas." he looked thoughtful for a moment "I think I can draw up the designs for something else too. Who knows it might come in useful for getting the airship."

"Ah." Pyrrha smiled sympathetically, casting her eyes down to her hands. Her gloves tightened infinitesimally, but she nodded understandingly. "I'm afraid I said something to the same affect. I'm sure you understand why." She wasn't really mad at Oscar - she doubted Jaune was, either. But the idea that Jaune had died for a lie, had died for nothing was...more than she could bear, at that moment, when all of their hopes were so tenuously hinged...

The fall of Beacon had changed them all. Pyrrha was no exception.

Pyrrha looks up at the explanation of the leaf, watching Jaune's expression curiously. The leaf had...led him to her? Well, the memory of her, anyway. "That...rings of a certain faith, doesn't it?" Her next smile is soft. "I'm glad you could find some comfort there." She had taken some of her own away from the experience, especially with meeting Saffron but...honestly, would the guilt ever abate? At this point, she really wasn't sure it would.

"Certainly," Pyrrha smiled at his enthusiasm, sighing only a little (a vast improvement, honestly). "If we ever get there. Oh?"

Jaune felt a little better knowing he wasn't the only one to lose his cool. However he did feel bad for Oscar having to put up with it from either of them. While he had some stern words for Ozpin, Oscar didn't choose to have the guy in his head. Oscar was just doing the best he could with the situation.

He nodded to her mention of faith "I guess you could call it that. I really felt like you, or I guess the you from my world, had been looking out for me and the rest of the team when we really needed it. We decided even if we couldn't fight with you by our side anymore we'd act like you were." It was a little weird to consider the fact there was actually two of them even if the other one of each of them had died. It would make the afterlife interesting to say the least.

"Well I guess I can talk about it now, but it was just an idea I had off the top of my head. I'd need to figure out the details." He held out his hand palm facing upwards and little metal capsule about the size of a walnut formed in his hand. "I was thinking maybe we could get you something like this." With a thought the item was cut in two, the two halves falling to reveal yellow dust in Jaune's hand. "If we could get something like this that breaks on impact and ignites the dust you could have a lot of tricks handy. Maybe it wouldn't be as effective as Weiss's semblance, but I think you could come up with some uses for it."

Oscar was honestly just as much a victim in the situation as they were, if not worse off by virtue of having no choice in this road. Even if Ozpin stayed quiet in his head for the rest of his life, the boy was marked now by Ozpin's enemy. Did anyone really think Salem would let Ozpin's host live if she had anything to say about it? Oscar was in this, whether he wanted to be or not. At least they'd all made the choice to fight - they'd made the choice a long time ago, when they'd all vowed to become Hunters and Huntresses.

"I've no other words to use for it. Everything else seems...weak, in comparison." Because she'd felt like that too, felt like she'd had Jaune's guiding hand on her shoulder at times, when she felt lost. He was the leader for a reason - yes, she was more combat experienced, but Jaune was the one they knew how to rally around. He was the one who knew what to say when things got tough. If Jaune had been the one, in the village with Ren and Nora - he probably could have comforted them better than her stumbling words (they'd gotten through it, of course, but she was never good with people. That was all Jaune). "But yes. We...I felt that same way. I guess...in a sense, you were?"

Pyrrha makes a vague gesture to Jaune's person - what else could this be? They still have no answers, only speculation...

She watches attentively at the demonstration, head tilted to the side as the capsule breaks in two. "Something I could set off with my blade, you mean?" As opposed to having to be in the gun form to ignite dust...well, it was definitely another way of fighting, she'd just have to practice to perfect it, and probably add another pouch to carry them, but that was simple enough if they could find a way to make it work.

"You're right, I don't exactly have any other words for it." Maybe it was that faith they had in each other that allowed them to meet across universes. Part of him had to idly wonder if the afterlife was kind enough to their alternate selves that they were drawn to each other as well.

Shifting his focus to the weapon talk he shook his head "I mean you could set it off with your blade, but I'm thinking of something that gets set off by a sharp impacts with any surface so you could use your semblance to throw it at somebody or at the ground beneath them. Basically the shell breaking could create a spark that can ignite the dust." It was just an idea and he wasn't too married to it.

The items disappeared from his hand and he settled down "Maybe that's enough weapon talk for now though? I mean this is kind of our break from all that. We can do whatever we want here." He wanted to help her with weapons and tactics, but they didn't just have to do that.

Who could say? This was all too much, and Pyrrha wasn't inclined to question it overly - well, there was a part of her that did, but the larger part of her was just relieved he was here at all. If she had to lose him again, well...

"Ah, I see. Interesting," Pyrrha props her chin in her hand, considering it. Obviously, she only has to touch it to use her semblance on it, and she'd certainly be able to throw it hard enough, that was no trouble. Pyrrha looked down at her belt, considering the alterations she could make to it to accommodate...

"Oh, yes, sorry." She flushes a little, smiling apologetically as the items dissipate. She ran a hand back through her ponytail, smoothing it on her shoulder, red curls bouncing, unruly under her hand. "I guess we just spend so much time around it now, you know? It's consuming. I...haven't thought about much else in a while."

She hadn't even really been able to contact her family - she's sure it's much the same with Jaune - beyond the letter she'd sent from Vale before they'd started on their journey. Letting her know she was okay, she was safe after the attack, but there was something she had to do before she came home...

Jaune nodded to that. A frown creasing his face for a moment. "Yeah, but it's what we have to think about to protect everybody. Just... I think I learned it's good not to get so caught up in it either. What we're doing is important, but we can't forget what it means to be a person too."

He relaxes and settles in beside Pyrrha again "Anyway I think I'm getting better at creating these memory items! Here I think this could be good for both of us." Jaune summons up two mugs of hot chocolate, one he hands Pyrrha.

"I think I'd like to stay in this room for tonight, but how about tomorrow night you show me around your memories of Argus? You went to school here so you know the area better than me."

I'm not sure I ever knew how to be a person. Pyrrha thinks to herself, sparing a glance at Jaune before looking away - before the frown can crease her brow too far. Since the first moment Pyrrha could remember, she wanted to fight. No, not to fight - to protect, that's always been her mission. It's what she was good at - everything else, not so much. Jaune - he was the best of them. He was the heart and soul, and he was the reason Pyrrha felt like she had started to know herself.

She can't help the smile that stretches over her face when Jaune conjures up the hot chocolates - it feels warm and real even through her gloves, and Pyrrha revels in the sensation, as if that might make Jaune more real by extension.

"That's fine by me," Pyrrha agrees, bumping her shoulder up against Jaune's. "They're nothing special. But I'll show you, if you like."

Once she grabs the hot chocolate Jaune wraps his free arm around Pyrrha.

"They are special, because they're your memories." He insisted. To him there was nothing boring about Pyrrha. He wanted to know everything that he could now that he had this chance.

"I think it'll be pretty relaxing anyway and we can go anywhere we want." The one thing he definitely wanted to avoid for the moment was anything that reminded them of Beacon. That was awful enough to relive as often as they have.

Jaune wraps his arm around her, and the heady rush of conflicted feelings rushes through her again. Happiness, because it's him, but the melancholy sadness of him being gone, too. She wonders if she'll ever stop feeling that way (maybe not, so long as Jaune only exists in her dreams, but it's more than she had before, so she'll take it). Still, Pyrrha does something she might never have had the courage to do before, and lets her free hand entwine he fingers with Jaune's, where it's dangling from her shoulder.

"We'll see if you still say that tomorrow," Pyrrha chuckled quietly, turning to smile softly at him. "Yes, we can. I've seen every inch of this city."

Beacon...there was a part of Pyrrha that wanted to go back. Sometimes if she closed her eyes, she thought she could see their dorm just as they'd left it (but sometimes, she couldn't remember what color Jaune's comforter was, and wasn't that scary, in it's own way? Time fades all things, whether you want it to or not. One day she just might forget and never remember).

As their fingers intertwine Jaune feels a sense of peace flow over him. Whatever this was, however it worked, Pyrrha was here. He could touch her, hold her, encourage her. All the things he'd wanted so desperately to do all these months.

"You'll always be interesting to me," he responded in quite the sappy, but genuine line. There was nothing she could talk about now that wouldn't have his total attention.

"Of course I'll do the same thing if you want. Oh maybe I can show you where we used to camp!" It would be a good change of perspective from all this snow.

It doesn't really matter if it's sappy or not, because it's Jaune. The flush spread unbidden over Pyrrha's cheeks, and despite her best efforts, she wasn't able to quell it (at this rate, she'd be matching her hair soon enough). She wonders, idly, if they'd ever have been like this if they didn't know all too well what it was like to live without the other.

"I would love to see them," Pyrrha nods, letting her thumb brush over the back of Jaune's hand gently. She tilts her head thoughtfully, considering that. "Perhaps it is near where we camped. We...seem to have taken similar paths."

For once Jaune was noticing Pyrrha's body language and her blush. It made him smile and he leaned into her more. Just wanting more contact with her and knowing that at least in this dream world she was there.

He gave a nod "Yeah we passed it while we were working our way over to Haven. I imagine the best route is still probably the same."

"Did you ever go camping as a kid?"

She was never in any position to deny him anything, least of all now. Pyrrha's blush deepens, but she certainly doesn't mind, cuddled close to Jaune's side.

"It makes you wonder...what other things might be different, between our worlds." Pyrrha muses on that for a moment. "That must not be the only thing that changed..."

"No, I didn't. It was just me and my mother and she...had to work a lot." She worked hard, and encouraged Pyrrha to chase after her passions. But...with just the two of them, they didn't have huge family activities like camping.

(ooc: sorry for falling off the face of the Earth there.)

There wasn't much Jaune could say to that. It helped him realize how lonely growing up must have been for Pyrrha. The team, just like for him, were the people who finally understood her and they could look after each other.

Not wanting to simply sit there in silence though he had nothing to say he instead hugged Pyrrha tighter and after a few moments just ended up pulling his partner into his lap.

"When this is all over you should take everyone camping. It's a lot of fun."

[ooc: no problem, I'm honestly just as bad xD <3 ]

Their world was a harsh place - Pyrrha knew this, else she wouldn't have set out to become a Huntress. To protect those who could not protect themselves. The team...her friends...she had finally found people who understood her, and who cared about her. And Jaune...he had been the glue that held them together.

Jaune hugs her tighter, and Pyrrha can't help but laugh, albeit wetly, before allowing him to pull her into his lap. She wipes discretely at the tears - she is so tired of crying - and shakes her head. It's so optimistic of him to see an end, but, that's Jaune. She can't say that, though - it feels too raw and hopeless. "Maybe I will."

She wishes he could come with them. What is the point of this, except to dangle what she cannot have, just out of reach? "I'm worried. About Atlas, about this plan...I just don't know."

"I'm not sure either," he admitted. Then he smiled warmly "but now that I know you're by my side. How am I going to lose?"

He hugs her middle. "Hey do me a quick favor. Shut your eyes for a moment."

Once she does he'd begin saying something that had been burned into his memory "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

His smile is warm, and Pyrrha aches. He's just as she remembers, maybe even better (grown, he has grown). She eyes him for a second before dipping her head slightly in a nod and acquiescing. Her eyes shut, and she tenses minutely when Jaune begins the mantra incantation - of course she remembers it, she remembers it well. It's an old verse - she thinks it's part of a poem her mother read to her, but she can't quite remember. It's always stuck with her, and when she was old enough, she used it as a mantra to focus her semblance, to shape it, to assume control.

She didn't do much to protect Jaune though, did she? She made a promise, and she broke it. Pyrrha exhales slowly to calm her racing heart, resting a hand gently on the side of Jaune's neck. "...you remembered."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I saw you in a dream

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject