sa-hareth | arrival (mingle log)

[groundrules]

WHO: Everyone ever + the local Sa-hareth squad.
WHEN: Arc I: Sa-Hareth arrival.
WHERE: Sa-Hareth citadel, salt mine, the old jailhouse,
WHAT: Our intrepid heroes get commandeered into the frosty unknown.
WARNINGS: the glorious undead, background House of Dew mentions, at least one person's terrible sense of humour.

Comments

[jeoha]

It wasn’t the first time he had re-lived any of those memories. He dreamt of them, on repeat, mixed and matched them until it was all one solid and twisted lump of grief in his chest. He’d managed to compartmentalise it, for the most part. Managed to shove it in a box solely because his people and his country needed him. He hadn’t had time to mourn. Hadn’t had enough time to say goodbye.

He sucked in a breath, the air stinging viciously down his throat, his sight blurred and greyed by gathering tears. He sucked in another breath, shaky, suddenly aware again that he wasn’t in that moment, wasn’t in any of them. Wasn’t kneeling in a cold birch forest holding the only person that he’d ever really felt knew him—

His hand moved before he noticed it, striking out like a cobra, fingers gripping tight into fabric before he even knew he was grabbing on. It was taking everything he had to keep his wavering breaths from turning to sobs, everything in him to try to bring himself back to the present, and not to the worst moments in his entire life. His eyes were searching Mingyu’s face helplessly and thoroughly as he tried to understand what had just happened. He could see those same tears, that same grief, echoed and amplified in Mingyu’s eyes, and it tore at Lee Chang’s heart in more ways than he understood.

He knew, somehow, that Mingyu had done this. Had felt him there, in memories where he should not exist. None of his flashbacks had ever felt so real before. Mingyu had done this, somehow. Had taken this. His breaths were coming quicker, fingers tightening sharply in Mingyu’s sleeve as if he expected the man to pull away.

He could have asked what that had been, or how Mingyu had done it. But it wasn’t really important. The only burning question that remained after being forced to re-live his loss all over again was:

“Why?”