15; rising sun

[asea]

[A peach-colored waterway stretches on for many yards, overlapping here and there like a labyrinth. With nary a crack in the walls, the lighting is dim at best, casting a purple hue on the enclosed environment. The floor is wet; it's been used mere minutes ago, and the smell of sea water blankets the faint odor of blood.

Frantic footsteps.

Clad differently from his usual whites and blues, Walter runs into view. Shirley and Fenimore flank him.

Wordlessly, Walter falls into a battle stance, sliding his dominant side forward and readying his fists.]

You two go on ahead. I'll stay here and slow them down. [Shirley protests, but he persists:] There's a hidden room off to the side up ahead. Go hide there. I'll catch up soon.

They're here. Go. Now.

[Fenimore is obviously a victim of torture. Bloodstains climb her body, and her dress is torn at the hem, though bandages indicate a crude treatment prior. The fear of being caught again is apparent in her hasty reaction as she bids Shirley to do as their alleged savior says.

The girls run away.

Melanie and Stingle appear. The woman has a sadistic look about her, her superiority coming off of her in droves as she addresses Walter mockingly.]

Looks like there's a new knight protecting the princess.

[Walter raises a hand, his fingernails glowing.

Then, looking past his pursuers, he stops. His eyes widen briefly, and the glow vanishes. The memory seems to come to a complete pause while he stays rooted to his spot and points—past Melanie and Stingle; to you, an unwelcome spectator.]

You. Why are you here!?

Comments

[asea]

[Walter grimaces at her unwitting intrusion. He thought he would be able to at least finish this without witness. The powers that be, for whatever the hell reason, seems to consider this a must-watch.

He's already on his knee, the stronger one of the two, head lolling to the side, away from Zelda, in suppressed pain. The teriques has been dismissed. Shirley and Fenimore are present, the latter gasping at something he'd said just before Zelda's "arrival."]

A few scratches?! I'm surprised you can even move!

[His strength sapped by the realness of the memory, he can't mute his own words.]

I'm fine. We have to get out of here quick . . .

[zelda_hylia]

[The two girls don't even seem to notice her presence. Zelda turns and covers her ears tightly again, though she knows it won't do any good. She'll still hear every word. Even so, she can pretend that she doesn't hear any of it, and maybe Walter will feel the intrusion a little less keenly. He doesn't know just how sensitive a Hylian's hearing is, and even if he does, if he wants to he can pretend right along with her that she doesn't hear any of it.]

[asea]

[He notices her actions out of the corner of his eyes, and despite her good intentions finds himself still wary (and weary). Her very presence unnerves him, but logic argues that this is the best Zelda can do. Walter can't resent her any more for it.

He resents the dream as the conversation carries on and he bows, against the throbbing of his beaten body—yet the pain isn't so bad, actually, at least here. It is a dream, after all. The motions are more practiced than anything. His senses are severely numbed.]

It is my mission.

[Shirley says his name. Fenimore is flummoxed.]

Wait, what are you talking about? Shirley, tell me what's going on!

Watch how you speak to her, girl. Do you know who this is?

[Is he going to wake? This is getting too close to privy information for comfort. Yet a part of him still rages at Shirley's protest, and he has no intention of sharing in the shame. Loud and clear, even if he suspects Zelda can hear it (one can never be careful enough no matter outside appearances).]

This woman is the hope of the Ferines. The guiding light for whom we have waited 4,000 years: The Shining One. The Merines.

[He doesn't even look at Zelda's back. The look on Shirley's face is too distracting.]

[zelda_hylia]

[Zelda may not know what a Ferines or a Merines is, but his tone gives away the gravity of the situation, not to mention phrasing like "guilding light". In that moment, she remembers the look on Shirley's face when she found out Walter was in the city very well. Relief, but also trepidation. It didn't make much sense to her then, but now it does. The Merines must have an important duty of some sort, one that Shirley isn't entirely sure she wants to face...

And here she is trying to make sense of it all even as she's trying to not listen. Walter was right to be irritated at her presence, Zelda won't be able to forget this conversation even if she tries. Her memory is far too good, and that's even without taking the nasty little desire to have information on everyone to persuade them to do as she says if such a situation ever became necessary. It's something she tries to repress, but the practical side of her can't resist gathering up information when it becomes available.

Having given up on trying to not listen, she continues to stand with her back turned and her ears covered, hearing every word.]

[asea]

[All goes quiet.

Then, Fenimore speaks up. Softly, as though she's holding something fragile, even almost depressive.]

Ever since I heard the rumors of the birth of the Merines, I'd wondered what sort of person it would be. And after I was captured, my faith in the existence of the Merines grew even stronger. The whole time, I prayed for the Merines to help us . . . to lead the people of the water to salvation.

["But" only hangs in the air for so long. Fenimore's tone is now one of escalating rage, perhaps nailing the reason why Shirley was hesitant for Walter to reveal her identity. Or perhaps not. Either way, Fenimore's shyness has been cast aside as she reacts in bitter anger.]

But . . . it's you! Where were you while my friends were being killed one-by-one?! Living with Orerines? With Senel? [Walter's breath hitches. Even the dream seems to distort for a bit, before straightening.] I have no one left! All of my friends were killed and you did nothing! If you are the Merines, then act like one and fulfill your duty!

[Walter's voice cuts through her venting. Quiet and intense, gentle and severe. Fenimore is a Ferines, and a young victim at that, but he won't allow even her to dirty Shirley's image. To hurt her, when Shirley, too, is a victim. They shouldn't be fighting.]

That's enough.

Walter! Don't you have anything to say to her?

[He doesn't even have to stop to think.]

I have faith in the Merines.

[Shirley's gasp is the last sound heard as Walter crashes forward. So does the memory, falling to darkness and ejecting Zelda with Walter's "fading" consciousness—only for him to wake in his apartment unit, shooting up into a sitting position. He seethes, remembering the publicized nature of his sleep.

Bastards.]

Text | Private

[zelda_hylia]

[When she comes to, she sitting in her own bed, SFC in hand, the memory of what she heard still perfectly clear. She doesn't know what to say to Walter. What is there to say? "Sorry I barged in on your life?" Hopefully he already knows that she didn't mean to. In the end, she decides that he would only consider one thing relevant.]

I will not mention your dream to anyone.

[She doesn't say what she heard or not, only that. Zelda just won't mention any of it.]

[asea]

[He has to wonder if someone besides Zelda saw the accursed dream, wonder if they, too, heard the truth of what he's been trying to hide for so long. After all that commotion about coming off as a socially accepted "human," his dream would naturally, in a fit of irony, destroy that with blunt exposition.

Vatheon has been exposing more and more of him lately. He despises it.

Walter stares long and hard at Zelda's message, before flicking the communicator back onto the nightstand with a clatter. He doesn't answer back.]