depatrimoine-blog

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       no. no, that’s not possible. that can’t be right. not now. panic sets in and rinnah’s eyes widen as she scoots herself closer to callie. “no, callie, you have to try, please,” she begs, reaching down to tuck her hand beneath her friend’s back.

           the water succeeds, in a fashion. it rouses callie, but her consciousness is immediately greeted with PAIN. her spine feels as though it has been picked apart, and her vision flashes and darkens with each attempt to move. words take a moment longer still, and when she speaks, her voice is cracked and quiet.

                                               “ – i don’t think i can move…”

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       “sinclair,” rinnah replies, her arms crossed over her chest as she stands by the younger girl. “it’s changed, though, since pike’s become the chancellor. he doesn’t trust anybody, so he’s keeping the records to himself. sinclair would have let me see them; pike won’t.”

She watches the woman with wary eyes, neither confirming nor denying whether she could help. She goes back to her task of watering the plants, not meeting her eyes. “Do you know who usually has the paper?” That was innocuous enough; even if this was a trick to get her to do something stupid and get caught, she couldn’t get in trouble simply for asking questions, right?

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       “especially the ones twice your age,” rinnah replies with a playful smile, leaning back against the bar. “---but those are usually the ones that tip well, so embrace it.” 

       then she crosses her arms over her chest, eyes lifting up to her trainee’s face. “so, do you know how to make any drinks yet, or will this be your very first shot at it?”

“I’ll just revel in the good news then if you don’t mind.” Face scrunches up slightly as she turns a questioning glance towards the other woman, “Even the ones twice our age?”

Sarcastically she adds, “That sounds fantastic.”

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       “---no, i don’t,” rinnah responded with a weak smile, chewing on the inside of her cheek. she’d never fashioned a weapon for herself, and she hadn’t wanted to use a gun. she thought they gave too much power to the person behind it, especially when the grounders refused to use them.

                  “maybe we could start with fist fighting?”

“Teach you?” Octavia asked, surprised at her question. Or maybe not exactly that surprised, she was one of the best fight partners around here. And she wasn’t one to say no to an offer like that. “Sure, I can fight with you. Do you have any weapon with yourself?”

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@acosmiceve ( x )

       their conversation has been simple--- the same lines repeated, over and over, with sometimes the occasional experimentation with words that were not put together in text--- but rinnah has thoroughly enjoyed herself. she’s wanted for years to understand the language that her people had spoken on the ground, that had somehow died among the english that was now spread throughout the ark. her parents understood some, but only very little, and she’d clung to every word. she does the same now, clinging to each new word that comes from callie’s books, and from her lips.

       she’s parted her own lips to repeat callie’s phrase in practice when she hears a new one, and her cheeks burn as her soft lips curl into an almost shy smile. it’s different when her husband compliments her--- calls her beautiful, clever, wonderful--- it’s entirely different when her friend, her mentor, calls her charming. it’s unexpected, to say the least. “je vous remercie,” she responds, just in time to feel the older woman’s lips against her own.  

       her heart thrums quickly within her throat and a quiet gasp gets caught with it. large blue eyes search callie’s face, pleading for some kind of escape, and then she feels callie melting into it, lips pressing harder against her own. a quiet whimper of a moan leaves her throat and she reaches up to press delicate, trembling fingers to her friend’s face, very gently pushing at her jaw to break the kiss.

                       “i... callie, i can’t---”

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@hephxestus

       “---raven!” she’d known the younger woman had made it to the ground. she’d still been in earth monitoring, still keeping a record of the potential radiation levels on the ground, when raven’s radio message had finally come through. she’d been aching to see her since her own arrival, but she hadn’t been allowed to until after her surgery.

       now that she could, however, she was right at her side, her large eyes filled with excitement. she knew she ought to have contained some of it, all things considered, but she’d had so much fun working alongside raven in mechanics. she’d learned so much. “how are you feeling?”

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       ripa; reaper. natrona; traitor. she wonders if they’re tied together, or if she was a traitor to her people before she became a reaper. she wonders if her people believe that becoming a reaper is a choice, and that in doing so--- in harming your own people to get the drug--- you’ve become a traitor. she opens her mouth to ask when she feels arun’s weak fingers tapping on the cup, and she glances down at it, turning to cross the room and fill it at the sink.

       “---but i do fear your kind. especially the reapers. i’ve never seen anything like it. i’m no warrior.” she turns the sink off and turns back to arun, returning to place her hand beneath her head again so that the can further refresh herself.   

       “does trikru think that you choose to become a reaper? is that why you’re a traitor?” rinnah asks, eyes lifting to the grounder’s face. “or did you do something else?” she’s quiet for a moment, chewing on the inside of her cheek before she speaks again. “lincoln’s home is here. i’m sure if you don’t hurt anyone, since they were willing to bring you in...”

the relief is overwhelming. & such tender touch, however fearful & reluctant, reminds arun that she is human. she is a person. she has returned. & regaining possession of her own mind is worth any amount of pain. gods, the euphoria that floods her veins could bring tears to her eyes. & it does. arun blinks at the emotion and tries to focus on taking small, cool sips of water. 

her throat is parched & clenched, so some moisture trickles from the corner of her mouth as she empties the cup of its contents. right after, she looks up to make eye contact & inhales a shallow breath when her native tongue is spoken at her. badly accented; but understandable. arun stares into blue eyes & lifts a corner of her mouth into a weak smile.

   ❛ you fear far less than you think. ❜  only the brave would learn to communicate with their nightmares.  ❛ i am not trikru. ai laik ripa. natrona. ❜  she taps the cup, indicating that she would like more water.  ❛ i have no home. ❜

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       “trigedasleng,” rinnah repeated with a gentle nod, her eyes now focused on octavia’s face. she could tell that the girl wasn’t fond of her wariness of the much larger man beside her, but she didn’t address it. she didn’t want to talk about it.

       “could you teach it to me? i haven’t been able to find anyone else who understands, and i think if more of us understood what they were saying, we could better be prepared for... well, anything. peace, if marcus gets us that, or a war, if they don’t accept it.” again, her eyes shifted to lincoln, and she addressed him. “what do you think? it would be helpful, wouldn’t it?”

     octavia had learned not to trust the adults, not to trust those older than her - those who deemed themselves wiser and smarter than she was. what good had they done? her mother had kept her under the floor, made her feel unwanted; as if death itself was better than the life she lived. instead of showing compassion, understanding and a heart, she had been arrested by those three times her age and now they were looking at her for help? after they had ripped her family apart, made her angel of a brother do things she never thought him possible. she catches the nervous flicker from the blonde, as if lincoln was something not someone.

                    ❛ someone had to learn. tridedasleng —- it’s called tridedasleng. ❜

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@foxofthe100

       “---can you help me?” it’s not necessarily what the girl was arrested for--- pickpocketing, if rinnah is remembering correctly--- but she’s certainly going to be much more sneaky than the older woman.

       “there’s a piece of paper i need. a record of all of the contact they’ve made with the other stations since we’ve landed. i want to see it.” i want to know if they’re lying about anything.

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               “i didn’t know he was going to---”

       she pauses and glances away, lips pressed together as she tries to remind herself why she’d voted for him in the first place. ruthless, she thought. fearsome. the grounders would fear him the way she feared them. so was it really so surprising, what he’d done? her large eyes lift to meet bellamy’s, and she reaches out to grasp his hand. she hopes it’s as comforting to him as it is to her, just to know there’s someone else struggling with this decision.

       "i’m going to start translating as much as i can. tell him ahead of time if they’re planning to attack us. maybe, if we know for certain they’re not planning to be hostile, he won’t have to kill them.”

     This is something he’s thought about a lot lately. It occurred to him the second he walked through the gate, after the massacre of hundreds of grounders. Men and women were were killed for simply being in Pike’s way. When the man first became chancellor, it seemed like a good thing. He made promises to protect the people of Arkadia, though he failed to mention at what cost. So far, the cost has been innocent lives. Friends locked up, those who don’t deserve to be. Like Lincoln. Like Kane.

        “Honestly? - I don’t know.” A sigh, and a hushed afterthought, “It seemed like the right choice at the time.”

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       her eyes move slowly over the grounder’s frame, her chest aching. she feels guilt for approaching her with this while she’s in such a state, but she worries that she won’t be able to bring it to her once she’s well again. this is something that must be addressed now, before the grounder is able to hurt anyone else. 

       she’s quiet once arun answers, pressing her lips together and chewing on the lower one thoughtfully. thin fingers reach out for a cup half full of water and she steps forward, slipping her free hand beneath the taller woman’s head and tipping it up as she presses the cup to her dry lips.

       when she speaks, it’s experimental--- something she’s never gotten to try on someone who’d grown up speaking it--- and it’s softer than the things she’d said before in english.

                          “---ai fir raun trikru.”

the restraints they had used to keep her down had bruised her wrists and midsection. ugly & black, the markings combine with a few of the open wounds that litter her skin. scabbed, picked at & likely to scar, the feeling of bugs beneath her flesh had persisted. despite the return to herself. 

at present, arun is too weak to battle against those bugs. too weak to even lift a container of water to her lips. which is why she barely moves when this strange woman invades her new found sanctuary & decides to ask questions.

    ❛ no. ❜  & if even there was the urge, one lone trikru warrior against foreigners with guns would be suicide. & arun has not yet reached that stage of desperation.  ❛ water. please. ❜  finger twitches at a nearby container. 

arun can hardly lift her own head, never mind reach for it.

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@redhazed

       the grounder makes her nervous. she’d seen reapers. when they’d first landed, they’d run into a group of them, and it was the most horrifying thing she’d ever seen. she can tell that this one is weak--- that she hasn’t eaten, that she’s sickly--- but she can’t tell whether or not she’s going to hurt someone once she’s recovered.

       she approaches her with caution, her jaw tight as she tries to keep herself strong.

                             she’s a lot bigger close up.

       “---you’re not going to hurt these people after they help heal you, are you?”

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@slayxdemons

        “---you don’t think we made the wrong choice, do you?” it’s her first moment of doubt since voting for pike. she’d chosen him because she’d known he would be just as ruthless as the grounders, that he wouldn’t back down because of some nice words from their enemy. she hadn’t chosen him because she thought he’d go and wipe out an entire army with no indication that they were planning to attack.

                         “... choosing pike, i mean.”

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@fosskaigona

       “---will you teach me to fight?” if she seems nervous, it’s because she is. she’s never hit anyone in her life. octavia seems her safest bet to train with not only because they’re about the same size, but because she knows octavia won’t hold back.

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@ginatcnic

       “---the good news is, you’ve been hired for one of the easiest jobs on the ark,” rinnah explains, her smile warm as she lets her large eyes lift to gina’s face. “the bad news is the guards like to flirt with you all night.”

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@skaigrounderiisms

       she recognizes her, but only just. that’s the girl they kept under the floor, octavia blake. she doesn’t look afraid any longer. maybe she really was meant to be on the ground. rinnah hesitates to approach her until she hears her speaking trigedasleng to lincoln, and then she pushes her way through the mess hall to reach her. her eyes flick nervously to lincoln for only a moment before they rest on octavia.

                     “---excuse me. you know how to speak the grounder’s language?” 

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@acosmiceve

       “---callie?!” rinnah’s steps are quick as she crosses the creek to get to her friend, and she drops down on her knees to touch the woman’s throat so that she can make sure her heart is still beating. as soon as she confirms that callie is alive, she splashes cool water onto her face, trying to wake her. there’s no way she can carry her back on her own.

                  “callie, please, we’ve got to hurry. wake up.”