ext_158887 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
31_days2009-09-08 12:05 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2009-09-08 12:05 pm
[Sept. 8][Suikoden III] I'm Not Afraid
Title: I'm Not Afraid
Day/Theme: Sept. 8, 2009 "how to be dead"
Series: Suikoden III
Character/Pairing: Sasarai, Forte Ismeiro, Roland Capette
Rating: PG-13
Sasarai saw it as part of his mission of mercy to the people of the island to visit every house that would have him. Dr. Ismeiro went along with him, offering his services to anyone who was interested and taking a tally of how many in each household had been effected by the disease. If people said no to Sasarai's overtures, he left them alone. Forte was displeased by the many inaccuracies that were probably plaguing his statistics due to this, but Sasarai brushed away his complaints with a word or two. Who could complain about the whims of the living when confronted on every side by so much death?
There was nothing much to say about the frightened people, sick or well, who refused to open their doors. There was plenty to say about the silent houses, home only to the dead (or those too ill to answer), but these were things no one wished to say.
Sasarai stood on the doorstep of one such residence, waiting for the answer to his knocking that would not come. He had tried an hour before to no avail. But he had come back because it was not in his nature to do nothing. After all, was he not here in Viela against the decision of the government and despite the heavy quarantine, risking his own life, not to mention the lives of two of his closest friends, because he was the one who said the things that others couldn't say?
He stared at the door, praying for it to open. It was a futile hope. He didn't have the physical strength to know down the door. He would have to call Kiht or Kiheiji or even Dr. Ismeiro to help him with that (actually, Dr. Ismeiro would probably be his best bet), but he had other means if he had the courage. He placed his left palm flat against the door near the doorknob and, drawing on the power of the fire rune embedded there, focused on carefully heating the painted wood, burning a hole through to the other side without much unnecessary destruction. With that accomplished, he easily reached his hand through to unlock the door and cautiously stepped inside.
Immediately he was struck by several bad signs- unwashed dishes on the counter and a drooping house plants, along with a thin layer of undisturbed dust. He had to steal himself for what he might uncover. His heart was beating fast, as if to protest its very life against this pale blue house's death. Sasarai nervously tiptoed inward.
The rooms downstairs were all empty. With each passing moment where there was nothing to be seen his feelings of tension escalated. It was very quiet. Viela was being drained of its energy along with its life. Taking a deep breath and adding an internal prayer for strength as well as protection, Sasarai head up.
A breeze brushed along the corridor, shifting his hair against his cheek. A window must've been left open. A weak cry startled him into vigilance again just after the wind had distracted him. At first he thought it might be a cat, but as he sped down the hall, he realized that it was a baby.
No matter how he had told himself to expect something of this sort, he still reeled back as he entered the open bedroom. The woman in the bed looked like a porcelain doll except for the scars of fever blotches on her cheeks. Her long, blond hair was spread out around her cold, white face. Dead. For how long? He pulled his suddenly heavy feet out of the quagmire of his own fears in search of the abandoned infant.
There- in a small room branching off of this one- a wooden cradle. And in it a healthy, but unhappy, baby. Hungry, probably, and needing to be changed, but alive, without a sign of Ghausu Fever. "There, there," he murmured, trying to temporarily placate the child as he scooped him up. Any of his colleagues in this difficult endeavor was bound to be better at handling the need so this child than he was, but simply holding him was no trouble. He had practiced with Lena's younger daughter on his occasional visits to her home.
If there was anyone else in the house he would have to come back for them later, though he sincerely suspected that there was no one else living- whether or not there were other bodies was the real question. With the squirming baby in his arms he headed out of the silent house and back to the makeshift hospital being run out of Kiheiji's house.
Nika was outside, pinning up laundry with the help of the merchant's two younger children. "Sasarai! So you did find something!" she exclaimed.
"More accurately, someone," he carried on, hoping to pass the child temporarily onto Dr. Ismeiro or Sir Stephen. "Did you know the family who lived in the pale blue house over that way?" he inquired of Sina and Tylo.
"Uh-huh, that's Roland Capette," Sina piped up.
"Roland," Sasarai repeated. "What a nice name."
Day/Theme: Sept. 8, 2009 "how to be dead"
Series: Suikoden III
Character/Pairing: Sasarai, Forte Ismeiro, Roland Capette
Rating: PG-13
Sasarai saw it as part of his mission of mercy to the people of the island to visit every house that would have him. Dr. Ismeiro went along with him, offering his services to anyone who was interested and taking a tally of how many in each household had been effected by the disease. If people said no to Sasarai's overtures, he left them alone. Forte was displeased by the many inaccuracies that were probably plaguing his statistics due to this, but Sasarai brushed away his complaints with a word or two. Who could complain about the whims of the living when confronted on every side by so much death?
There was nothing much to say about the frightened people, sick or well, who refused to open their doors. There was plenty to say about the silent houses, home only to the dead (or those too ill to answer), but these were things no one wished to say.
Sasarai stood on the doorstep of one such residence, waiting for the answer to his knocking that would not come. He had tried an hour before to no avail. But he had come back because it was not in his nature to do nothing. After all, was he not here in Viela against the decision of the government and despite the heavy quarantine, risking his own life, not to mention the lives of two of his closest friends, because he was the one who said the things that others couldn't say?
He stared at the door, praying for it to open. It was a futile hope. He didn't have the physical strength to know down the door. He would have to call Kiht or Kiheiji or even Dr. Ismeiro to help him with that (actually, Dr. Ismeiro would probably be his best bet), but he had other means if he had the courage. He placed his left palm flat against the door near the doorknob and, drawing on the power of the fire rune embedded there, focused on carefully heating the painted wood, burning a hole through to the other side without much unnecessary destruction. With that accomplished, he easily reached his hand through to unlock the door and cautiously stepped inside.
Immediately he was struck by several bad signs- unwashed dishes on the counter and a drooping house plants, along with a thin layer of undisturbed dust. He had to steal himself for what he might uncover. His heart was beating fast, as if to protest its very life against this pale blue house's death. Sasarai nervously tiptoed inward.
The rooms downstairs were all empty. With each passing moment where there was nothing to be seen his feelings of tension escalated. It was very quiet. Viela was being drained of its energy along with its life. Taking a deep breath and adding an internal prayer for strength as well as protection, Sasarai head up.
A breeze brushed along the corridor, shifting his hair against his cheek. A window must've been left open. A weak cry startled him into vigilance again just after the wind had distracted him. At first he thought it might be a cat, but as he sped down the hall, he realized that it was a baby.
No matter how he had told himself to expect something of this sort, he still reeled back as he entered the open bedroom. The woman in the bed looked like a porcelain doll except for the scars of fever blotches on her cheeks. Her long, blond hair was spread out around her cold, white face. Dead. For how long? He pulled his suddenly heavy feet out of the quagmire of his own fears in search of the abandoned infant.
There- in a small room branching off of this one- a wooden cradle. And in it a healthy, but unhappy, baby. Hungry, probably, and needing to be changed, but alive, without a sign of Ghausu Fever. "There, there," he murmured, trying to temporarily placate the child as he scooped him up. Any of his colleagues in this difficult endeavor was bound to be better at handling the need so this child than he was, but simply holding him was no trouble. He had practiced with Lena's younger daughter on his occasional visits to her home.
If there was anyone else in the house he would have to come back for them later, though he sincerely suspected that there was no one else living- whether or not there were other bodies was the real question. With the squirming baby in his arms he headed out of the silent house and back to the makeshift hospital being run out of Kiheiji's house.
Nika was outside, pinning up laundry with the help of the merchant's two younger children. "Sasarai! So you did find something!" she exclaimed.
"More accurately, someone," he carried on, hoping to pass the child temporarily onto Dr. Ismeiro or Sir Stephen. "Did you know the family who lived in the pale blue house over that way?" he inquired of Sina and Tylo.
"Uh-huh, that's Roland Capette," Sina piped up.
"Roland," Sasarai repeated. "What a nice name."