Sorry I Sicced Undead Hounds On You

[Yugam]

The warm glass pressed lightly against Ari's ear the phone rang on the other end, waiting for someone to pick it up. He worried about the oil marks that'd be left behind on the screen, and having to clean it. He always did, despite it being only a minor inconvenience that was always quickly and summarily resolved. But he always worried about it anyways.

It wasn't until he heard the dial tones end and the silence of another room hundred of miles away take over the line that the man finally opened his mouth and spoke. "Ronja? Hey, it's Ari," the man said first, before realizing she might actually know him better by his in-game name. "Er, Yugam. Ya know." He hated phone calls, but in lieu of meeting Nico's girlfriend in person, it was the next best thing. "I realized we haven't ever really spoken. And also that I should probably apologize for siccing the undead on you and stuff..."

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

It took a moment for Ronja to realize who it was by voice. But when the names were given, Ronja's confused expressions lit up in a mix of joy, followed by a hint of hesitation. She had already talked to Nico and Val, but there were Ari, Harper and many others from MIT that she still had to face and apologize to.

"H-Hey Ari-"

But before she could proceed with her words, his words pointed out a reality that was obvious, but hardly noticeable, followed by an unexpected apology, one that made her pause fo a moment.

"What..? No, no... I am the one that should... Apologize..." She sighed. "I tried to kill you... And... Luthien too..." Ronja said, then smiling faintly. "You were only protecting you... And her too... And you weren't really trying to hurt me... You were trying to snap me out of it, so..." Ronja smiled, even if he couldn't see it.

"Thank you, for coming to save me... And for keeping my friend safe from myself..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"H-Hey Ari-" Ronja's voice came through the line, allowing Ari to release a silent tense breath. For some reason he'd worried she'd have no idea who he was.

"I tried to kill you... And... Luthien too..." Even though Ronja couldn't see it, the man began to shake his head back and forth in denial. "No, that wasn't you," he said, sinking into his desk and letting his head hang backwards. "Its not your fault, don't worry."
"Thank you, for coming to save me... And for keeping my friend safe from myself..." What Ronja wasn't aware of was that Yugam had been prepared to remove Ronja entirely if it'd become clear there was no way to help her, or that she posed a greater threat than the group could have handled. He wouldn't have hesitated. "It's what friends do," Ari said.

"Anyways, I just wanted to see how you were holding up and stuff. I know Nico came by to be with you for a while, but I thought I'd check in anyways."

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

Ronja perked up at his words, with a faint rosiness growing on her cheeks, and a faint smile grew on her lips. So he did consider her a friend... Of course, after everything he had done, and his relationship with both Nico and Luthien, it was hard for her to think of anything different from a friend, so it fluttered her heart to know he felt the same.

Or maybe she was just overthinking and he was just using a saying.

"Thanks... I am holding up well... And I hope you are as well. I've heard... Things aren't going great in there... Right?" Her expressions became slightly bitter, knowing her partial responsibility on it.

"She... Did came here. And u-uhm-" She paused for a moment, fidgeting before squeezing her phone.

"Ari... There is something else too... I know it has been a while, but... Thank you for helping her all this time..." Ronja said, averting her eyes to the door and adding: "And for paying her a flight to visit me... When I was at the hospital..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"I'm doing alright, just been busy lately. Nothing like near-death experiences to kick you butt into gear," the man joked. "But yeah...thing could be better in there," Ari admitted, pausing. With so much time having been spent trying to rebuild the Embertorch, Ari wasn't entirely sure what the status of the other factions were. Better than the League? Sure. Good though? Not in the slightest.

"A lot of Landers left for Falderan," Ari began, sharing what little he knew. "A Starcalled nation isn't exactly appealing to them anymore. That, and well...you can imagine how hard magia have it now..." It wasn't comforting but it was better that Ronja knew before stepping back into game. "Things are rough..."

"Thank you for helping her all this time..."
"Don't mention it, really," Ari replied with a slight smile. "She's a good friend, and I care about her. Don't tell her I said that though, or I'll never hear the end of it."

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

A giggle escaped from Ronja's lips when the joke eased the mood a bit more, preparing the room for a grim reveal of what had been occurring inside of the game. Valeria, for most of part, kept the details out of Ronja's ears when they talked, but the brunette couldn't blame her for it. In the end, she was just trying to preserve her.

"I hope we won't need any more... near-death experiences..." Ronja wished, at the very least.

Her gaze fell at the second part, nodding briefly. "I... can understand it... But if anything, I wish not everything fell on... the account of magias. It is the fault of dissonance... whatever it may truly be." She sighed, rubbing her thumb on her fingers in a vague attempt to calm her down, uncertain about the future.

In the middle of those bad news, however, Ari's words brought a small smile to her lips.

"I know... You wouldn't do it if you didn't like her." Ronja said.

"But no promises..." She teased.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"I hope we won't need any more... near-death experiences..."
"Yeah, well, with our luck," Ari joked through the phone, though what he really meant was his luck. It wasn't like he didn't have his share of good luck (see lottery winner and hot streamer girlfriend) but it just meant his bad luck tended to match. And was sadly far more frequent. Such was life though.

"Yeah, I agree," the man nodded, sympathizing with the plight of the magia now. Most weren't in control of their own bodies. Some hadn't been affected at all, from what Ari understood. But still, somehow, the blame fell to them because people couldn't see past their own noses.

"Say," the man began, pausing for a moment as a sudden question began to form in his mouth before he'd even realized it was there. It wasn't the kind of thing that Ari usually spoke about, unless it came up. But with everything going on, it seemed some things, some memories, just bubbled up. Bits and pieces. "If you just kinda...forgot...everything. Everyone, me, Val, Nico. Wh-...What would you do?" the man asked. "S-sorry, I know that's a kinda weird question to ask so suddenly."

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

A small smile crossed Ronja's lips at Ari's joke, holding back a giggle for a moment, that soon slipped as she averted her lips from the phone. "Good grief... We are such a mess..." Laughing at your own misfortune was a good way to cope sometimes- And perhaps the only way, when misfortunes were so many that it was almost blinding your senses in every way.

Her attention slowly returned to the call, with the 'say' always preceding something that was more important than it usually would sound like.

The question was strange, indeed, and enough to make Ronja's grip on her phone tighten for a moment, mustering the possibility. To forget everyone? She wasn't sure in what context Ari meant, so at first, she responded considering the default-

"If I didn't remember any of you... I would just be as lost as I was before meeting Nico..." She explained, pausing for a moment.

"... I'm not sure..." Ronja pondered, uncertain. "I didn't know what I was going to do before meeting you all... So that's probably my answer. I wouldn't know what to do." She concluded.

"Or did you mean something else, Ari?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Countless miles obscured the strange frown the sat on Ari's lips, such that Ronja could not see it. More likely though, was that she could hear it in the man's voice when he responded. "K-kinda, I guess. I dunno..." his frown deepened as he tried to put his thoughts into words that made some loose sense. "I mean, Szofrit, right? Like she was able to control you, other magia. Overwrite your actions, thoughts. I guess 'forgetting' isn't really the right way to put it, just a part of it. How do you deal with that though, how did you-slash-are you handling that."

It was a confusing question. And a confusing situation, completely unlike anything that would occur in 'reality'. But, it would seem, reality had departed from the world a long time ago, and now all that was left was Wonderland.

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

The mention of the name made Ronja freeze for a moment. But she didn't allow it to overwhelm her, taking a long breath while trying to understand what kind of question Ari was trying to bring to the table. Was he worrying about her? Or was it plain curiosity? The question in the end, out of context, sure seemed like the latter.

But when adding everything else, it felt like a question with something else in mind.

Ronja didn't voice it, however. Both because she could be assuming things, and because who she was to be bothered about it. He had helped to save her, so the least she could do was answering his question, as uncomfortable as it was.

"I am not handling or dealing with it." Ronja admitted. "As for forgetting... I didn't forget it. Nor I had my actions overwritten. Rather than that, I felt it was right to do all that. I saw Szofrit as someone dear to me, and that I needed to help no matter what." She said.

"I felt like that. And when I think about back then, it still feels like what I did at the time was the right thing."

She averted her eyes to the window.

"But I know it isn't the right thing. I don't even know Szofrit truthfully, I'm not her friend, and I don't even know her objectives. Killing innocents.... I couldn't possibly aim a gun at Nico... At Val and..." When she realized, she had been squeezing her phone with all her strength, and her free hand clenched enough to leave nail marks on its palm.

She paused, taking another long breath.

"I think that's why it is called mind control..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

There was an audible exhale of breath as Ronja finished speaking. At the end of the day their two situations were completely apart from one another. Incomparable, really. He had a chance to fight, in way. Ronja never had a chance.

"It wasn't you though," he reassured the woman on the other end of the line. "Forgetting who we are, who you are, that's all one thing. But being made to think and act one way? That's even worse...You know none of us blame you for what happened, right?" Ari asked. How could any of them possibly? If they had, they wouldn't have fought so hard to bring Ronja back home alive in the first place. At the end of the day, the only one to blame for what happened was Szofrit. Maybe Nico was right, and they should've killed her. But if they ever wanted to stop something like that happening again, they needed her alive. Ari just couldn't see another option.

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

It wasn't you.

Such sentence has been hammered into her mind many times already. Mostly from herself, trying to convince herself. Yet, deep down she knew it was a bit of herself in there, even if twisted to the core- which was what hurted the most. She knew that less of being forced to do something, she felt immensely compelled to do it, and that filled her mind with a dilemma.

Yet... Here he was, trying to reassure that it was indeed not her, that no one had blamed her. And he wasn't even her closest friend in that group.

Her free fist clenched briefly, and a pang of guilt ran into her chest until she halted and took a deep breath, pondering about it. "I... Think I know... Thank you." She sighed, rubbing her arm with the now unclenched hand and trying to push away those self-blaming thoughts.

"I will need to work on a way... To go back... I know none of you blame me... But I'm sure a lot of people hate me... Especially in MIT..." A lump formed in her throat, remembering she had kidnapped some of her friends, and even her roommate.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

It didn't take a genius to figure out that, despite what she said, Ronja didn't know, or believe that she wasn't at fault. Maybe it could be said what did it matter what she thought in the face of what everyone else believed. Or maybe, what did it matter what everyone else thought in the face of what she, herself, believed. Life was not so easily bisected. They both mattered, and the failure of one was more than enough to make the other insignificant. And what could Ari say in the face of that?

"You'll manage," was all he could really muster. He couldn't speak for the MIT. He could hardly speak for the League, as small and dwindling as their numbers had become. At least that was one truth that Ronja knew though, and one she had no delusions over. Despite what he and the others they knew might've thought, the world would blame her and all the others Szofrit had overtaken. "Ya know, if you need a hand, or just someone to vent to so you won't worry someone," they both knew who he meant, "just hit me up, okay? I'm here for you too."

@Ronja Bubblyfoot

 

[Ronja Bubblyfoot]

The little Ari had mustered wasn't taken in a bad way from Ronja. In fact, it made her muster a small smile. It was a small encouragement, but perhaps this type of thing was exactly what she needed. The offer for help was also taken with joy, and... It did feel nice, in a way. She only had Nico to count on all these days, and a lot of feelings were suppressed, especially because Nico herself had her own troubles and her own conflicts among everything that had happened.

It felt very comforting.

"Thank you, Ari." She said, with a slightly more lively voice. "I won't forget that, If you ever need help, you can call me too... I will do everything I can..." There was a determined hint in the tone of her voice, that already told that 'no, you can't reject it'.

"... Not just because I am owing you one... Uhm... Probably two, or even more than that." She allowed an embarrassed giggle escape her lips, before a knocking on her door made her pause and rest a finger on the speaker of the phone before looking at it and responding in german, only to be talked back.

"... I have to hang up now... But... Truly... Thank you very much."

@Yugam