Inyme walked home alongside Alice, too tired at the moment to want to risk the fine point control her teleportation grid required right now. As she let the younger heroine talk, she admitted to herself that she was more exhausted than she'd planned on and really should have allowed Alice's backup to assist her in the final push rather than going herself. Between hiding herself first from Mentalists in the Council bunker and then the traitor Alice'd gotten to help with the Devouring Earth, she was already pressing the limits of her still not entirely repaired powers in a combat situation. What had made it worse was their choice in enemies. Most Rikti were aware of the massive lifeform known as the Hamidon, but Rikti Mentalists were trained to draw upon the collective willpower of the Rikti mental network to reinforce themselves when combating its creatures. Inyme had no such backup, and the strain of resisting the Hamidon's will as expressed through its minions' barely independent minds was telling on top of her attempts to shield her thoughts and the similar but less powerful hivemind she'd fought off while attacking the Shivans in Bloody Bay. Altogether, she felt ready to collapse as soon as she got into her room, and armor be damned.
"Anyway, I think I'll head home, look up some paperwork for getting the hero name on my liscense chan....Inyme? You okay?" she asked, something about the other woman's mental "picture" as Inyme'd been teaching her to look at seeming....off for the other woman. Inyme began to look up to say something, before she swayed violently, Alice's quick reflexes the only thing that'd kept her from swaying into traffic.
"Inyme!" Alice cried, holding her up. "Are you alright?"
"...f-fine....merely....tired....need...to rest..."
Inyme could feel Alice's amateurish attempts to discern more detail, but was too tired to resist them. The strain of fighting the Devouring Earth and the Shivans came to fore...along with something else.
Rest...need...rest....somewhere....safe....Alice....
Alice looked at the girl worriedly, which was about all Inyme was able to make out before unconciousness claimed her....
****
...soft...warm...where...where am I?
Inyme's eyes cracked open as she realized in a brief moment of understated panic that her helmet and armor had been removed. However, an ambient probe about the room revealed only Alice....and a warm lump on her chest that was probably Neko. Inyme let a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding out as she relaxed from the "fight or flight" tension that'd seized her. She was somewhere safe...she wouldn't be discovered....she could rest....
****
"Looks like she's dozed off again," Neko said quietly as she noticed Inyme's breathing grow deep and regular again. "Though I felt for a second she was going to spring out of here like a wildcat."
"She's a soldier," Alice said. "She probably was freaked out by not remembering how she got here in the first place. I know I'd be tense if I'd passed out and woke up some place strange."
"True...." Neko said, her tone just slightly worried as she curled up again on top of Inyme. Alice went back to browsing through Icon's costume designer, looking for a look that spoke to her. As she looked through a few tones of blue, she savored the slight feeling she'd gotten from Inyme when she'd immediately relaxed upon realizing where she was, classing Alice's place as "safe". She looked over at the dark skinned woman sleeping on her couch again, before turning back to the computer with a smile.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
"Anyway, I think I'll head home, look up some paperwork for getting the hero name on my liscense chan....Inyme? You okay?" she asked, something about the other woman's mental "picture" as Inyme'd been teaching her to look at seeming....off for the other woman. Inyme began to look up to say something, before she swayed violently, Alice's quick reflexes the only thing that'd kept her from swaying into traffic.
"Inyme!" Alice cried, holding her up. "Are you alright?"
"...f-fine....merely....tired....need...to rest..."
Inyme could feel Alice's amateurish attempts to discern more detail, but was too tired to resist them. The strain of fighting the Devouring Earth and the Shivans came to fore...along with something else.
Rest...need...rest....somewhere....safe....Alice....
Alice looked at the girl worriedly, which was about all Inyme was able to make out before unconciousness claimed her....
****
...soft...warm...where...where am I?
Inyme's eyes cracked open as she realized in a brief moment of understated panic that her helmet and armor had been removed. However, an ambient probe about the room revealed only Alice....and a warm lump on her chest that was probably Neko. Inyme let a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding out as she relaxed from the "fight or flight" tension that'd seized her. She was somewhere safe...she wouldn't be discovered....she could rest....
****
"Looks like she's dozed off again," Neko said quietly as she noticed Inyme's breathing grow deep and regular again. "Though I felt for a second she was going to spring out of here like a wildcat."
"She's a soldier," Alice said. "She probably was freaked out by not remembering how she got here in the first place. I know I'd be tense if I'd passed out and woke up some place strange."
"True...." Neko said, her tone just slightly worried as she curled up again on top of Inyme. Alice went back to browsing through Icon's costume designer, looking for a look that spoke to her. As she looked through a few tones of blue, she savored the slight feeling she'd gotten from Inyme when she'd immediately relaxed upon realizing where she was, classing Alice's place as "safe". She looked over at the dark skinned woman sleeping on her couch again, before turning back to the computer with a smile.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."