None of Us Would Ever Come Home Again [closed]

[Twinflame]

"Sure, yeah, you go right up and tell them all about it." K'ile lifted his hands to put pressure on the bases of his ears, wincing, but it helped his headache a bit. "I just hope they hear you over the sound of their own screams once they see your tattered flesh hanging from your bones." The Tia scowled up at the girl on the rocks. "Thanks a lot for ruining my mental image of my brother, K'aijeen!"

 

The dead girl's lips scowled beneath her veil. "I'll ruin your mental... head. I'll ruin your head."

[Naunet]

"No, you're gonna tell 'em. And kid, don't. Just... stop." Scraped and tanned fingers pulled roughly through strands of red-orange hair. He glared down at K'ile through the holes in his mask. "You can't seriously just want to give up their lives over your dumbass mistake when there's a perfectly good solution right in front of ya?"

[Twinflame]

"What solution is that? Do you want me to go, what, convince a bunch of strangers to help a tribe in the desert? Our tribe is nobody to anyone, and hostile to outsiders, and it'll just make things more violent anyway, and you don't get to boss me around just because you gave me a headache." K'ile's tail whipped around behind him. "I'm not throwing anything away. I'm handling it. Or I was before you dragged me off."

[Naunet]

"Doesn't look like handling it." Thal scoffed. "Handling it involves not handing over people to Amal'jaa. The hell's wrong with you to make that kind of call anyway? You've got no right making that kind of decision for other people!"

[Twinflame]

"Versus letting them all die off?" K'ile gestured southward. "Used to be the Amal'jaa and Miqo'te tribes didn't have a problem with each other. It's only the past few years things have gone sideways, and if we can put that behind us, what's the problem?"

[Naunet]

"What's the problem," Thal laughed dubiously. "What's the problem. Really? What's the problem with being tempered! Hah! It's no big deal, just giving yourself over to a primal. Slaves to the Amal'jaa! What could go wrong?"

[Twinflame]

K'ile didn't bother to respond to that, just crossing his arms and scowling at the man.

 

On the top of the rocks, K'aijeen remained silent for several seconds longer, burned tail shivering behind her, before she said with some fear, "They'll come again. Maybe soon."

[Naunet]

Thal groaned and shook his arms in frustration. "I can't just leave you to... ugh." He looked up and muttered to seemingly no one, "Could really use your fancy problem-solving skills about now, old man."

[Twinflame]

K'aijeen and K'ile both looked at Thal like they didn't know what he was talking about. K'ile's expression resolved into frustration. "The Twelve can't help you, and not all problems have perfect solutions. That's why I'm here doing this. My solution doesn't end with violence and death. It ends with my family being well-fed and secure."

[Naunet]

"Doesn't end with--what, you think the slaves the Amal'jaa keep are well-fed and secure?" Thal barked out a laugh and shook his head in disbelief. "I walked through that camp of theirs. They might not've known it, but they were suffering."

[Twinflame]

"Those are U-tribe." K'ile said, as though it were the best point anyone had ever made. "That wasn't going to happen to us. I'd made sure. Shan'Gai Chah is nobody's slave, and he was going to have the power to protect his family. From the Amal'jaa, from the desert, from the next Calamity."

[Naunet]

"You're delusional. And if you get killed? Someone else becomes this," Thal made a face, though it was hidden behind his mask, "Shan'Gai Chah? Gah, and you call me stupid!"

[Twinflame]

"And who's the one of us having to do all the thinking through on this, huh? You thought you'd just knock me out and then throw me back in my tent and this would all go away?" K'ile crossed his arms. "Their Chahs are leaders. Ritualistic types. I can get a say in things. I don't get killed. Unless some idiot like you lets themselves get bullied by a Roh, and apparently not then either."

[Naunet]

"I don't get killed is pretty tough talk for a guy who's lost fights twice now." Thal crossed his arms as well, mirroring K'ile's pose and whipping his tail about.

[Twinflame]

"Don't posture at me. Anyone can die at any time if the right person gets it in their head to kill them. I think the fact that it took a plotting Roh, two zombies and divine intervention to beat me means I'm doing something right." K'ile's tail whipped a bit faster than Thal's tail.

[Naunet]

Thal straightened his posture, looming above K'ile. In frustration he grabbed at the mask and tore it from his face to glare down towards the Tia. "No divine intervention, friend. You say they won't be interested in helping some unknown tribe? I think they've got plenty of interest in keeping the Amal'jaa out of land that's pretty close to their own people."

[Twinflame]

"And I say you've got too much faith in the Ul'dahns." K'ile pointed at Thal. "That city called drybone is where they dump the corpses of their own people, unwanted, so they don't have to look at them. They have no time to care about the disease and defense of their own children. They won't care about yours."

[Naunet]

Thal made a face at that. "I'm betting you don't know quite as much as you're letting on about them. Heck of a lot better than just running to the Amal'jaa."

[Twinflame]

"At least the Amal'jaa understand that the world is made of real things, not words and gil and dyed clothing." K'ile slid the rest of the way down the rocks, evidently having no fear of the Sun Drakes. "People need food, community, shelter and protection to survive, all things which the Ul'dahns are failing to provide to uncountable numbers of their own people."

[Naunet]

"So go somewhere else!" Thal threw up his hands. "Plenty of other places in Eorzea. Lots better than beastmen."

[Twinflame]

"The only other place to go is the Shroud, and they'd kill us as poachers as soon as we put up our first tents." K'ile shook his head. "Like we want to fight for territory with a bunch of Menphina's night-walkers."

 

"There are people in Ul'dah." K'aijeen offered silently. "I know of people who would say 'yes' to helping."

[Naunet]

"Finally," Thal sighed out. "There. See? Help. What people, kid? Actually no, let's just get to Ul'dah and quick. Got any of that fancy moving-fast juice left, old man?" That last sentence was muttered as Thal made to slide down after K'ile, in part to make sure the Tia didn't try to bolt.

[Twinflame]

Scowling up the hill, K'ile huffed, "People. She knows of people? Look at her. Look at what she's done to you. What kind of people do you think she knows?"

 

K'aijeen huffed down at him, "They're good people."

 

"I wonder what your definition of 'good' is. Looks a bit off."

[Naunet]

"Worth a look into," Thal tossed out almost casually as he dropped to the ground next to K'ile and tucked his mask into the waistband of his tattered pants. "Definitely better than anything you've come up with so far. So am I gonna have to drag you there?"

[Twinflame]

"No, I'll go to Ul'dah, long as we don't take a thousand years getting there." K'ile pressed his ears down again. "The Amal'jaa won't wait forever, and when they realize where we're going they might figure out what you plan on doing. Even if it won't work, they'll think it might and decide to hurry their plans up."