Rey is having an emotional breakdown. Perhaps she will find solace in the heart of an innocent boy.

Joshua

Rey *Previously on Elona DW* 
22:25 Rey Relief flows through her like fresh air, and she can't help but smile as she looks down at her handsome..lover. She could use that word for him now. 
22:25 Rey Rey had already decided to let Lok sleep in...maybe..just maybe she could find a simple mission to do while he caught up on his rest!   
22:26 Rey A caravan attack, a sabotage mission, and a kidnapping request!  
22:27 Rey Lok Eventually, a man clad in black leathers makes his way to the job board. His legs are long, and his limbs are spidery. His hair: A distasteful black Mohawk.  He stands in front of the board for a moment, and takes the kidnapping request!  
22:28 Rey The thief lunges onto another branch, but not before your arrow hits him right between the eyes!  
22:28 Rey (I give up I suck at this...) 
 
22:31 Rey Rey stands there watching in horror as he falls..she hit him in the head...she hadn't meant to do that...she /killed/ someone 
22:33 Rey The fat man plays with his mustache and continues to grin. "Hm hm hm! Of course! Don't go ripping me off now girl!"  Rey gives him a beautiful and innocent smile, "Wouldn't dream of it sir, you'll get exactly what you're due." She nods politely to the bodyguard as well then tries to take her leave.  
22:34 Rey Lok 's eyes widen once more. "You...you killed someone...?"  Rey nods, tears are forming in her eyes. "I..I d-d-didn't.../mean/ to.."  
22:34 Rey ."Rey...I'll help you however I can, but understand this is /your/ mission. However /you/ want to deal with it, I will advice and aid you."  
"Rey...I'll help you however I can, but understand this is /your/ mission. However /you/ want to deal with it, I will advice and aid you."   
22:37 Rey Lok 's eyes narrow. "I know you're scared, but you've lost the right to falter here and now. You have just ended someone's life. It doesn't matter if he was evil or not, but you took his life for a purpose. You /must/ see this through."  
22:37 Rey But when a thief is behind the bow...they don't take a life. They /steal/ it.   
22:38 Rey 47  Rey 's eyes are dark with...hate...an icy cold block of aged anger that /never/ fully thawed out. You've never seen this side of her..it doesn't even seem like the girl you love.  She nods, her features resolute. She'd not allow a kidnapper to live..not on her watch.  
22:39 Rey Lok asks, "...Was it worth it?"  Her answer is soft, but it rings in your ears for days to come, "I..d-don't know yet."  
22:40 Lok ---- 
22:43  Lok leaves the fat man's room, and looks around for Rey. 
22:44 Rey She is downstairs, stiffly searching for valuable trinkets. 
22:45  Lok carefully makes his way downstairs. "Psst! Rey? Are you there?" 
22:45 Rey Her voice is flat, "Yes." 
22:47  Lok walks over to Rey. She doesn't seem...well. "Uh...Well, I'm going to look around a bit. Maybe find a cellar or something...somewhere he might have kept the kids." 
22:48  Rey shakes her head, "I checked. Nothing in there.." 
Lok arches an eyebrow. "Oh?" 
22:51 Rey She merely nods..looking somehow defeated. 
22:52 Lok Strange...even if the fat man recently settled here, he must have had /some/ place to store the kid. 
22:52  Lok mumbles to himself..."Maybe..." 
22:52  Lok makes his way to the entrance. 
22:54 Lok Why plan to request a kidnapping if you don't plan on containing the child? Usually, there's a proper cell, or torture chamber of the like. 
22:54  Lok leaves the mansion and looks around, squinting his eyes to better see in the night. 
22:55 Lok He spots a shed. 
22:55  Rey just follows him, then says, "Did you search his documents? Maybe..he was j-just the middleman.." 
22:56 Lok "No, I didn't see any documents. Then again, I didn't look. Good point...I'll double check. Right after this..." 
22:57  Lok makes his way to the shed. 
22:57 Lok The door is locked. 
22:57 Lok He takes out his lockpicks and attempts to unlock it. 
22:58 Rey She follows him lethargically.  
23:00 Lok The lock opens with a click. 
Lok slowly pushes against the wooden door to the shed. The door creaks as he opens it. 
23:23 Lok The walls are lined with bloodstains and shackles. 
23:24 Lok A putrid smell escapes the shed. 
23:24  Rey 's eyes widen..the smell of the place overwhelms her..she can't move any closer. 
23:24  Lok steps further inside. 
23:24  Lok widens his eyes. 
23:24 Lok "D-Don't...hurt me...please..." 
23:25 Lok A shape in the darkness. 
23:26 Rey Memories overtake her once more..even the unfamiliar voice cannot free her..instead Rey hears only her past screams ringing in her ears.. 
23:27  Lok steps closer to the shape. It's...a boy. His left arm is shackled to the wall. 
23:28 Lok The boy cringes. "N-No! Please! Don't come any closer!" 
23:28  Lok stops. This is a...delicate situation.  
23:28 Lok Who knows how long he's been here? 
23:29 Lok "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you." 
23:30 Lok The boy is still trembling, and he's about to burst into tears. 
23:30 Lok "I need you to calm down while I release you from your chains." 
23:31  Lok crouches over, and begins to lock pick the shackles...but then the boy freaks out and starts kicking and punching at him. 
23:31 Lok "Oof! H-Hey! Quit that! Come on, stop!" 
23:43  Lok continues to try to free the child, but to no avail. 
23:43 Lok The boy is quite...uncooperative. 
23:43 Lok "Go away! Leave me alone! Please!" 
23:44  Lok is losing his patience. 
23:44 Lok The boy starts sobbing as he kicks and punches at Lok. 
23:44 Lok "You know what? FINE. Stay here and /rot/ for all I care!" 
23:45  Rey is currently on the ground curled up in a ball. 
23:47  Lok sighs. Behind him is a crying kid with a tantrum, and in front of him is his mentally broken beloved. 
23:48 Lok All of this of course, is to be expected. After all, she killed what...four people in a day? 
23:48 Lok Or was it five? 
23:49  Lok counts his fingers.  
23:49 Lok Right..it was /five/, not four. 
23:49 Lok Anyways, what the hell is he going to do about all this? 
23:49  Rey whimpers pathetically. 
23:49  Lok tries to gently place a hand on Rey. 
23:50 Rey She starts trembling violently, and then flinches away. There is no recognition in her blank eyes. 
23:51 Lok The good news is, this is the worst part, and she'll get over it eventually. 
23:51 Lok The bad news is, Rey wasn't exactly the most...stable of persons to begin with. 
23:51 Lok The good news is, Lok will be with her every step of the way. 
23:52 Lok The bad news is, there's no telling what kind of person Rey will be when she comes out of this phase. 
23:53  Lok doesn't like the smell of blood and feces in his face, but it looks like he'll have to sit and wait until something different happens with one of these two. 
23:53 Lok Doing nothing seems heartless, but what else can he do at the moment? He can't exactly proceed until one of these two calm down a bit. 
23:54 Rey It takes a long time, nary an hour but eventually Rey seems to start to pull herself together. 
23:55 Rey She's still shaking, but at least now she recognizes you.."Lok.." 
23:56  Lok opens his eyes. "Huh...? Wha...?" He shakes his head. An hour of sitting in this horrible stench can make a man pretty out of it. "Rey?" 
23:56  Rey sits up slowly. "Lok..is..s-s-someone..in t-there?" 
23:57  Lok rubs his cheeks. "Yeah...was hoping you could...hold him down while I get him free or something." 
23:59 Rey She looks appalled, "What? N-n-no...we..c-can't touch him..n-not until he..lets us." 
00:00  Lok widens his eyes. "Oh. Uh...I see." 
00:00  Lok scratches his head bashfully. Now he feels like an ass. 
00:02  Rey looks sad, not upset with you in the slightest, "My love...n-no one can exp-pect you to understand...b-but..people like me..." She is at a loss for words. 
00:04 Rey "Touch..is..the enemy. F-f-for a very long t-time. Men too..most often." Her face softens, "You n-need to be gentle..and patient. I'll show you..if I can.." 
00:04  Lok takes a deep breath. "Alright. Lead the way my dear." 
00:05  Rey first hugs onto him, as though borrowing the strength she needs to face this. 
00:06 Rey Then she takes a deep breathe and steps inside..the very echo of her nightmares. 
00:06 Rey "Is anyone in here?" Her voice is soft, a little scared even. 
00:07 Lok Silence. 
00:08 Rey She ventures in deeper, "I'm here to help..I promise. I was t-trapped like you once." 
00:10 Lok You see the boy. He's curling up against the wall as best as he can. 
00:10 Lok Still, you are met with silence. 
00:10 Lok The moonlight shines through the opening of the shed, revealing his wide terrified eyes. 
00:13  Rey takes off her cloak, she knows his darkness adjusted eyes will be able to see her more clearly then. She makes her voice as soothing as possible, recalling how Hawk calmed her when she was young, like he was soothing a frightened beast. "I'm a lady. I'm not like those bad men. I am here to bring you home." 
00:15 Lok The boy stops trembling. He opens his mouth, as if to speak, but then closes it shut, and you are once again met with silence. But hey, this is definitely progress! 
00:16  Rey tries her best to look comforting, she doesn't smile, and is sure not to look him in the eyes, "Here, you must be cold. Take this." She nudges her cloak towards him. "I bet you're hungry too.." 
00:18 Lok It takes a minute or two to get a reaction out of him, but he carefully takes the cloak, and clenches it tightly. 
00:19 Lok In a barely audible voice, you hear him say, "Yes..." 
00:20 Rey She pulls out a bit of her dungeon rations, and holds it towards him, "It's not very tasty, but it will help you feel better..try to eat slow though.." 
00:26 Lok He quickly takes it from your hands, and eats it hungrily. 
00:27  Rey hopes he won't end up with too bad of a stomachache, "So what's your name?" 
00:28 Lok You barely heard him, but it sounds like he said, "Joshua." 
00:30  Rey asks, "Hi Joshua. I'm Rey. And if you want me to..I can take those heavy shackles off of you. I bet they hurt." 
00:30 Lok He hesitates, and then he nods slowly. 
00:32 Rey She nods, "Ok, I'm going to move closer and try to pick the locks. If it's ever too much for you, tell me to stop and I'll wait till you feel better. You are in charge here now. Ok? Tell me when I can start." 
00:34 Lok Joshua takes a deep breath, and then he nods.  
00:35  Rey moves towards him and bends down, she pulls out her picks, "Everything ok so far?" 
00:36 Lok You are met with silence, but he doesn't seem scared or anything. Well, anymore than he should be that is. 
00:39  Rey is careful not to touch his skin, instead grabbing onto the chain and shackle as she attempts to pick it. 
00:42 Lok The boy is finally released from his shackle, and he immediately starts rubbing his left wrist. 
00:42 Lok He stares at it, as if in awe, and then looks at you with wide eyes. 
00:42 Lok Joshua then jumps at you and hugs you as tight as he can. 
00:43  Rey smiles, and holds onto him gently. 
00:43 Rey The child feels like skin and bones.. 
00:44  Lok walks up to Rey. "Hey there...kid. Sorry for scaring you..." 
00:44 Lok Joshua buries his face into Rey's arms, hiding from Lok. 
00:44  Lok rolls his eyes. "Right." 
00:46  Rey tries to bundle up Joshua in her cloak snuggly. She shoots Lok a 'back off' look then says to the boy, "Joshua, that's Lok. He might look all scary and grouchy, but he's a good guy. I promise. Actually do you want to know a secret?" 
00:48 Lok Joshua looks up at you. 
00:50  Rey whispers to him, "Lok fights the bad guys. He got the man who hurt you." 
00:50 Lok Joshua gasps, and looks at Lok with wide eyes.  
00:54  Lok doesn't meet Joshua's eyes. Killing isn't exactly something he's proud of. It's just something that needs to be done sometimes. 
00:56 Lok "Anyways...let's drop him off somewhere and go home." 
00:56  Rey cuddles Joshua a little tighter, it's strange for her to think of it...but the feel of a /child/ in her arms is so..right. 
00:58 Rey "Lok. Look at him, we aren't dropping him off anywhere. he's coming with us." Her tone leaves little room for argument. 
00:58  Lok widens his eyes. "Wait, what?" 
01:00  Rey gives you a fierce glare that suddenly reminds you of..Shira, "He's coming with me. At least for tonight, you are welcome to come along too."  
01:03  Lok narrows his eyes. "Now just hold on dear, I'm not suggesting we drop him off just because I don't want to take him home with us. Taking him home with us is simply not an option!" 
01:04 Lok "Where are we going to take him? To the inn? We don't have a room there anymore, we were only allowed one night's stay. Which leaves /my/ place, which is just...well, you know. And forget the living conditions, we'd be taking him back to /Derphy/. That's...just wrong." 
01:07  Rey furrows her brow, her ears twitch in annoyance, "We have more than enough ill gotten gold to afford another night at the inn." She closes her eyes as she cradles the boy, "He's needs a night of rest, and a good meal at least, from there we can look for his family." 
01:10 Lok What? Spend gold on /another/ night's stay at an inn? Now that's just wasteful. 
01:11 Lok "That still doesn't change the fact we'd be taking him back to /Derphy/. We can get him a good night's rest and a meal anywhere! Heck, I'm sure /someone/ will do just that, doesn't have to be us you know." 
01:13  Rey cooly says, "Hawk would take him in, in a /heartbeat/." Was that meant to hurt you? She continues,  "It's sad that I have to convince you to help..someone who's suffered like me." 
01:14 Rey Her voice is full of disappointment, "I thought you'd understand Lok." 
01:14  Lok is taken aback by that statement. He /is/ trying to help him!  
01:16 Lok "If /Hawk/ took him in, that's an entirely different story! He'd be living in the equivalent of a fortress if he was with Hawk! Good food, a good bed to rest in, and he'd be surrounded by good people! I'm not saying we're not going to help him, I'm saying for the boy's sake, we can't take him back to Derphy!" 
01:17 Rey She raises her voice, "Then where should we take him? Because I'm /not/ going to just leave him on the streets!" 
01:17  Lok raises his voice also. "When did I /ever/ say /that/? Is that what you think of me?" 
01:17 Lok Tears start to well up in Joshua's eyes. 
01:18  Rey hugs onto him tighter, and walks away from Lok, heading towards the inn. 
01:19 Rey "Ssshh, It will be ok. I won't let anything bad happen to you Joshua." 
01:21  Lok walks over to Rey. "Rey, stop! We're /not/ taking him to Derphy, and that's final. We can spend the night in Cyber dome instead." 
01:22  Rey turns and asks, "Then where will take him Lok?" 
01:23  Lok arches his eyebrow. "I...just said we were going to spend the night in Cyber dome. Do you assume I only meant you and I?" 
01:25  Rey sighs, "I mean after that.." She walks back towards you, "lead the way, I've never been to the Dome." 
01:26 Lok "What do you mean? You said it yourself, we have to look for his family don't we?" 
01:27  Rey gives a look, "And if that goes..poorly? Then what?" 
01:27 Rey you a look* 
01:27 Lok "Wha...then we find a safer place for him! 
01:28  Rey nods, that answer seems to satisfy her...for now..but you doubt that is the last you'll hear of it. 
01:30  Lok sighs. "It's a bit of a walk...but it'll be safer. We /just/ rescued him from a kidnapper. Going back to Derphy is just...illogical at this point. Come on...this way." 
01:34 Rey You think you hear her mutter, "He'd be safe with /us/" but you can't be sure. Well at least she's following you. 
01:39 Lok The walk to Cyber dome is long and silent. 
01:39 Lok They had half a night's journey ahead of them. 
01:39 Lok Eventually, Joshua was too tired to walk. Lok offered to carry him, but of course he refused. Rey however, was happy enough to carry the boy. 
01:40 Lok Rey seems to be doing okay...maybe Joshua had something to do with that. 
01:40  Lok sighs. 
01:40 Lok Still though, it seems to Lok that Rey's thinking a bit...irrationally at this point. 
01:41 Lok Again though, she did just kill /five/ people in a day, so given the circumstances, this is pretty good. 
01:41  Lok frowns. 
01:42 Lok Still...she didn't have to yell at Lok like that. It's not like he wasn't going to help the boy. Sure, he doesn't like the idea of paying for another stay at an inn, but he's not going to dump him out on the streets. 
01:42 Lok Tonight has been an eventful night indeed. 
01:43 Lok In a way, perhaps they're lucky to have found the boy. Rey seems to be coping with her trauma quite well thanks to Josh. 
01:43 Lok One problem though... 
01:44 Lok How long are they going to be stuck with this kid? 
01:45  Rey held the boy tightly against her. She couldn't help but smile, even though her arms felt half dead from exhaustion. 
01:46 Rey She should feel terrible right now..she killed today. More than once. 
01:47 Rey And the small taste of vengeance had only made her feel...empty inside..until she saw the boy. 
01:49 Rey Then her reasons made sense. Vanquishing evildoers wasn't enough...at best on it's own it was just killing for the right reason. 
01:50 Rey But saving a suffering innocent...that was more than enough to inspire Rey to bloody her hands again. 
01:52 Rey Until tonight, Rey had never understood how Hawk could take so many lives and still /live/ with himself. Now she understood. 
01:54 Rey He could do it because of people like her...people that he'd /saved/ even at the cost of losing himself. 
01:54  Rey missed him something terrible right then.  
01:55 Rey Especially since Lok was acting all standoffish like this...like she was an annoyance to him. 
01:57 Rey She wanted to be angry at him, for being like this after their /perfect/ night..but she couldn't find the energy to be upset for her own sake.. 
01:58 Rey When he was thoughtless towards the boy though...she'd wanted to scream at him..though she knew it'd just make things worse.. 
01:58 Rey It wasn't fair of her to expect Lok to understand what she'd been through..but sometimes she wished he would.. 
02:01 Rey It wasn't fair of her to expect Lok to bond with the child either..but he didn't have to be so..callous.. 
02:01 Rey Would he be like this with their children as well? 
02:02  Rey flushed at that thought...it was too soon to be worrying about such things right now. Afterall, it's not like they're married.. 
02:05 Rey She blushed more at that thought, he /hadn't/ even taken her to meet his family yet..for all she knew he was the type who wouldn't commit unless Hawk forced him to at knifepoint. 
02:05  Rey couldn't help but smile at that image. 
02:08 Rey Lok could be..difficult. It was true, but it didn't change how she felt about him. 
02:08  Rey loved him simply for putting up with her, and caring about her, and trying to be a better man..for her. 
02:12 Rey Nothing would be the same now..she'd killed. She was like Lok and Hawk now. She didn't know if she'd be ok. 
02:13 Rey But as she held the sleeping boy in her arms, well, at least now she knew it was worth it. 
02:14 Rey No matter how much it hurt her. 
02:15 Lok -SCENE-