[Area] The Virtuous Victorian

Elsey has definitely seen better days.

She hasn't slept.
She hasn't even eaten anything.
She could only keep watch of both the ship and the area surrounding it.
The dark splotches that have appeared in the vast expanse of space has only made made this stressful turn of events worse.

When is her friend coming back?
When will this ordeal be over?

She doesn't know.
And it's driving her to the edge.

The door to her room is ajar, it's apparent that the sound of what seems like rattling is emanating from the opening.

There's also what seems like a pale glow pouring out of it as well.

Theta finally wakes up after who knows long of resting on one of the many couches in the lounge.
It's quiet, aside from Enrich's groanings at one of the tables. Has it been a string of hangovers or just one hangover? Who knows.
Then again, Theta's never touched the bottle in his life. Never got that far. Probably for the best.

He notices the christmas tree, and most of its presents are still there. He half expects Rudolph to walk out from behind it, but that doesn't happen.
Theta is really starting to miss the other seths. Not to mention Alpha Seth.
Out of curiosity, he checks the presents to see which of them are left.
Surprisingly, there's one specifically labeled for him. From Alpha.

Theta tears the wrapping paper away from the package and opens up the box.

It's an old brass lantern.
A real one. Made of unshakably real materials.

Leave it to Alpha Seth to get him exactly what he wanted.

Theta decides to try it out. Fading back into pure spirit form, he enters the lantern.
It feels... alright.
He slips out of the lantern and re-applies his usual form. He can rest again later.
For now, there's some other things he wants to do.

Theta picks up and carries the empty brass lantern with him as he walks to the door. It doesn't seem like Enrich is paying much attention.
A short walk, powered by his own gratitude, and Theta arrives at Alpha's door. He opens it and walks inside.

---

Alpha Seth is asleep in bed. He's probably only been sleeping about an hour or two from his perspective.
Theta watches his Alpha counterpart for a little while. He's still breathing, so that's good.

He seems to be tossing and turning a bit however.
A bad dream maybe?

Theta wonders if he should intervene.
Considering how nice he was to get him a real lantern, he practically owes him.

Theta has made his decision. He'll follow Seth into his dreams and assist him there.
He puts his ghostly white hand into Alpha's warm pale hand. For some odd reason, it feels as if he's not alone.
There's others connected to him.
Mainly Thoren.

He tries to communicate to Seth and/or Thoren through this method, but not much happens, aside from a slight chill.
It must be a pretty deep dream.
Theta takes a moment to write a note before doing anything else. On real paper with a real pen.



With the note in place, Theta grabs Alpha's hand again and focuses on Alpha's projected location. It's difficult to ascertain, but something seems to beckon him past some sort of point of no return.

...he's having second thoughts about this though. Theta lets go and decides to wait for a couple minutes first.
Maybe it's best that a seth is still active over here, just in case.

Fannie's heart nearly skips a beat as she stands there in shock.
This is not good.
This is not good at all.

She has to do something for Lady Elsey!

"Lady Elsey! Your grandness!" She rushes to her side, making sure to rub her own hands together for extra warmth before trying to help her sit up.

It's generally accepted in common temporic tradition that when tending to another who is ill, you should be as warm as possible to ward off Winter. It's more of a folk remedy/old guardian's tale, but customs like that don't fade so easily.

"Can I get anything for you? a glass of lemon water? tea? cough syrup?"
Fannie tries not to jitter too much from the stress, though she's still quite shaky. To see an incarnation of the First Temporic in such poor shape... it's hard to bear the sight.

Fannie tries to keep her breathing stable despite the worryingly terrifying look on Elsey's face.

Months? It certainly doesn't seem like its been months. At least for her.

"...months? It feels like its been mere days, perhaps a week..."

She tries to comfort Elsey as she begins shaking too; holding her hand and keeping an arm around her.

"Elsey... you mustn't give up hope... I believe she's still out there. If there's anything I learned from her it's that miracles are possible." Fannie is trying to hold back tears, though it's difficult in this moment.
"Perhaps the uneven time that surrounds us... perhaps it has worked in her favor? Seth and the others have not needed maintenance all during this odd stretch..."
She looks again at Elsey, though it's difficult in her current state.
"But you... you need to focus on caring for yourself. Kat would not like to see her dear friend worried to shambles for her sake... let me help you, Elsey. Please..."

Enrich gains enough lucidity to notice the box leaking darkness and quickly chucks it through the doorway leading to the spaceport, and slams the door shut.

She does not want to deal with that shit today.

"Maybe we can't do much, but at least we can be here for each other..."
Fannie gives Elsey a hug, and just holds her as long as she needs it.