savetheearth | Now I see fire inside the mountain [closed]

"He... I think he cannot have been older than ten, maybe younger. There were at least two other children with him, one of whose hand he was holding, and a number of adults." He rests his elbows on the table, crosses his arms. Defensive in a way, shoulders hunched over a bit, but also grim, looking at some point at Gabriel's shoulder - at least seemingly, it's not like he actually sees it much right now. His thoughts are on the memory.

"They were running, in a high place within a great hall. A bit like the main station up in New York, but much larger and longer, and in darker colors - and I would say finely crafted, but the boy's attention wasn't on it so I don't really know all that much about it. I assume that they were crossing a bridge of sorts, though there was no railing to it. "Some of the adults were carrying weapons, and everyone seemed in panic - rushing to reach the end of the bridge as quickly as possible. I don't know what they shouted, it was a language that I don't know, but I think the other me understood it. At one point close to the end of the bridge, the child next to me tried to turn around and I dragged it on, and then it - I don't know if he or she - screamed in my ear but there was shouting from behind and other me continued."

He pauses for a moment, caught up in the memory, not even noticing that he has come to merge himself and the former him. "When we reached the corridor at the end of the bridge and were a few metres in, I put the child down and turned around. There were still people behind us, and one of them - a man - had fallen and was only getting back on his feet again, the process made harder by the people rushing by in panic. I think former me wanted to go out and help, because there were hands on his shoulders and clothes holding him back from going back out and I only remember the sight of that man for... I'm not sure how long." He breathes, finally. "Until fire flooded the bridge and took everyone on it with it." He remembers the heat that even an indirect exposure to that fire brought, and that he was pulled back into the tunnel, corridor, whatever it was... And screaming. "I don't know what that boy screamed, then, but I'll guess he screamed for his father." And that is where the memory ends.

Sitting back in his chair, Gabriel watches Thorir. He notices the way that he slips into the perspective of his past self, and frowns faintly, but understands. It's hard to have a memory implanted like that and not do it.

"I can see why something like that would stay with a child." He says, softly. "Fire and death." He shudders; he's had an all too recent brush with that. What can he suggest to Thorir, though? Something like that will stay with him. Time will help him deal with it, but there may be worse things to remember.

The shudder is noticed, and worry for his friend let's the taller man shove his thoughts back by a bit. "He doesn't seem to have had quite as close a call as you with it, though. And I'm all the more glad that you are still here with us."

Gabriel looks at Thorir and grins. It's forced, and it doesn't meet his eyes, but he hadn't intended for this conversation to head back in his direction. He came here to support Thorir, not to add to his worries. "You know I wouldn't leave you. I probably landed on my head and bounced, that'd explain the lack of injuries. Nothing there to damage." He laughs, hoping that Thorir will let him put it aside.

But remembering the fire and smoke, combined with Thorir's recounting of his echo has left a hollow ache in his chest, the memory of something fluttering at the edges of his consciousness. He tries to push it away, he doesn't want to remember anything triggered by what Thorir's already remembered. "You said you thought it was your father?" He asks, refocusing on Thorir.

He won't follow further down that track, at least not at the moment - not with the expression in Gabriel's eyes. Instead, Thorir nods. "The way the former self called out for him, he must have been; either that, or a figure close enough to a parent to warrant the reaction. I at least think that he was too old for a sibling - he must have been in his forties, maybe."

"If he was that close to you then I'm sure you'll remember more about him in time." Gabriel says, his voice soothing. Not that he's sure that's a good thing or not, remembering their relationship will make the memory both harder and easier to bear.

"I wonder if the hall was his home, then." He muses aloud, and with that there's no holding back the memory that's been haunting the shadows of his mind. His eyes go blank for a moment and then he shudders again, taking a deep breath.

"Do you remember singing at all?" The fire that connects them could easily be separate but at the same time, the similarities there... Maybe Gabriel just wants to believe that they will both end up remembering the same thing, that he can tie their past selves together as much as their current selves so that they can endure it together.

"It feels like it was their home, the boy seemed familiar with the surroundings - but I could not say." He leans forward a bit more at the question, watching his friend intently. That's quite an odd question, one that certainly cannot stem from the description.

Which means...

An echo, most likely, and if it was triggered by what he just told the other man, most likely not a nice one. But. "Singing?" His voice is not incredulous though, only soft and trying to be soothing, which does not completely work between still being shaken himself and being confused by the thing.

Snapping out of it, he looks at Thorir and then sighs tiredly, sipping from his tea before he responds. "Singing. Some sort of... celebration, I suppose. And then fire over the mountains and battle." He says, voice oddly calm. He feels rather removed from it. Perhaps that's because, unlike Thorir's, it's rather dislocated. No figures in particular, more of the setting. Maybe unlike Thorir's past self, his tried to set it aside.

~~Or didn't survive to recount it again and again.~~

Thorir almost flinches when the odd vertigo of an echo hits him, almost expecting something echoing Gabriel's words...

But that is not what enters his mind. Instead he remembers... "No. He was inside a mountain." That doesn't sound right. "Inside the mountain. There was only one.

And no, there was no singing." He wonders about that detached tone. But then, if Gabriel was already older (after all Thorir's memory speaks of a relatively young child, probably not even a pre-teen), and he seems to not have remembered any specific deaths there...

"Different places, then." Gabriel sighs and sits back. "And yet close enough that your memory triggered one of my own. I suppose battle must have been common in some of the places that people came from, it's the fire that seems out of place. And that they both took place in the mountains."

Leaning forward again, he looks straight at Thorir. "If this is the only unpleasant memory that will return I'd be surprised. There will be good memories as well, but it seems that for most people who they were in the past was someone important - someone to whom things happened to. Have you thought any more about talking to Mardís?" Because she'll notice eventually, and Gabriel can be there and he can understand, but he can't provide comfort in the same way that the woman that Thorir chose to spend his life will will be able to. And aside from anything else, the bigger support system they have the better it'll be.

He wishes he could say that he isn't afraid of what he might remember. But it would be a lie, because he is. None of what he has gotten so far has spoken of a positive past life, there's been only hatred and hunger and battle and now death. Looking at his own life so far, he gets the feeling that some cosmic entity is trying to make up for the last one.

"I want to tell her, but I need to find help with it." He frowns faintly. "It was pointed out for me that people who are hesitant to reveal themselves to their close ones might be even less likely to reveal themselves to strangers, for safety concerns."

"My offer of help still stands, for whenever you're ready." He offers again. "I just think that she'd be able to stand beside you through this as well as any of us." His tone is gentle, though; he doesn't mean to push Thorir in any way. The other man must make the decision when he feels that it's right, and that has to be his decision. As long as he doesn't leave it until some physical change forces him to declare himself, that would probably not go down well.

He nods at that; it is good to have Gabriel to fall back on, even if there may be others on the network who have much more obvious changes on them. "If you are further along when I go through with it, I will call upon your help." Having the other man there to second what Thorir is saying might be a help of it's own, anyway. "I trust you to not speak of this talk to her?" More that it happened in general than the content - he wouldn't feel the necessity to ask about the latter, not with Gabriel. But he's not sure what he would claim it to have been about if she hears that it happened at all.

Gabriel doesn't like lying, and if he promises this to Thorir then there may come a situation where he can't avoid it. But at the same time he doesn't want to put Thorir in a situation where he has to tell an even bigger lie to his wife, so in the end he nods. Hopefully he can avoid the situation where he might have to lie.

"You make it sound like I'm pregnant." He laughs. "We still don't know how far this process will go." While he'll readily admit that it's rather nice to see his hair line filling back in, he's slightly concerned at the same time. He prefers his physique now to the frailer one he had at his peak.

"Well, you are certainly expecting." He's not sure about that either and just hopes that it will stop before Gabriel reaches twenty, because at that point things will just become not only troublesome but also awkward for everyone involved.

"I just hope that this will not last forever." The whole numbers things. Not that they'll be able to sit it out, he doubts that, but maybe they will be able to return to their old lives in a year or two. He won't bet on it, but hope does not have to be well-founded.

"I've seen people talking about other people forgetting about the whole affair. If you leave the city apparently the memories fade." Gabriel says, frowning. He had considered it for a while after the earthquake, but in the end had set the thought aside. He's built a life here and has no intentions of being driven away, but he also doesn't want to be the coward who backs out of this. And he really does believe that it might be safer to be in the know then out of it. "I suppose that's not really an option for you either, though.

There must be a reason that this is happening here and now. When that's passed, things may return to normal." Or at least as close to normal as they can, depending on what happens.

He shakes his head at the comment about leaving not being an option for him, because really, it isn't. His life is here - family, friends, stores and everything. Even if he wanted to run away he couldn't.

"The only question is how long it will take for it to pass, then."

Gabriel hadn't expected anything less from Thorir. He feels bad for him, really. Why did it have to be Locke of all places where this set off? "Unfortunately I doubt there's an answer to that.

I wonder if we're all here because of this numbers thing, or if it's centred on this city because this is where most of us were born, or ended up." He muses aloud.

"Or if everyone has the potential for it, and only this place can awaken it."

He picks up his now empty tea cup and moves to get up to place it in the sink. "Put no more of it. We both need to sleep."

Gabriel sighs and nods, standing as well to bring his cup over. "Do you think you can sleep now?" That was his main worry, after all. He doesn't want his friend to suffer, and he can wait for longer if needsbe. "I can stay if necessary, I have nothing to do tomorrow until our plans for the evening aside from some paperwork."

He shrugs, but there's little helping it - it certainly helped to talk, to get those things straight a bit and know that he's not alone in it.

"Delaying the attempt will not help at this point."

Trusting Thorir to know himself, Gabriel nods and smiles. "You can always call me if you need me." Thorir should know that that's always the case anyway. He always has time for his friends, especially for something like this where there's only a limited amount of people that Thorir can talk to. The advantage of his partly self employed status is that he can normally shuffle things around to accommodate his friends.

"I will if I do. And if not, I'll see you tomorrow."

He will see Gabriel to the door and then head upstairs again, hoping that his wife did not wake.

Now I see fire inside the mountain [closed]

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