PSL: Post-Purgatory

[itsananimalthing]

The door to the tiny one-room apartment-- barely that, more of a hiding hole in a larger building with a door and a water basin-- shuts loudly as Ridik kicks it shut, his arms full of groceries, books, and a weapon or two, plus the magical key he'd just used to get in. "Hey, girl. You in here?"

The set of two almost-room is small, but there's clutter in it, and she could be in a few places behind it or around a corner. If she's not, well, he'll have to go out again and hunt her down. They're working on getting this town safe, but they're not there yet. And fading or no fading, Liara is still as likely to be off wandering somewhere as she is in here where she's supposed to be this time of day.

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[brokers]

There is a rustle from behind the bookshelf, which has been nudged ever so slightly to the side to make room for one emaciated peregrine, still in the tattered veils that mask the extent of the corruption she has not yet purged since her last span of sin-eating.

"Shh," she warns in a rasping hiss, her gaze not straying from the narrow window set on a diagonal to her hiding place. "Do you hear them?"

[itsananimalthing]

Ridik starts setting things down-- carefully, so as not to make any more noise than necessary. He doesn't hear anything, though, so he makes his way over, still holding one weapon but none of the groceries. "I don't hear them," he tells her, somewhere between apologetic and a little wary, just in case. He's pretty sure she's imagining it again, but better safe than sorry. Liara has grown in importance and affection for him, since the loss of his other dear Peregrine, and he's not going to risk anything happening to her. Ever.

[brokers]

"Listen," Liara commands, and in that command there is a brief flash of the woman she had once been while she still walked among the living. She reaches up and taps the center of Ridik's chest with one bony finger. "Listen there."

[itsananimalthing]

"Pretty sure I don't got ears in my chest, sister." He takes her hand with his free one, wrapping the cold fingers up in his warm ones. He does try to listen, but he's pretty sure now that whatever it is, it's in her head. Still, he asks, "What am I listenin' for?"

[brokers]

"You'll know," she replies serenely.

And sure enough, perhaps a minute later there comes a sound from outside the window - the muffled giggle of a child up to something it knows it absolutely shouldn't be doing.

[itsananimalthing]

Oooooh. Not in her imagination, then. Though what his chest has to do with it, he has no idea. He sighs; children in Purgatory is a bad thing, to begin with. One alone outside his and Liara's window isn't any better. "Guess I'd better see who that is," he says, voice lower now. "Unless you already know." She'd been there listening for a while now, after all.