Welcome to the Depths | A Deadsweep Roleplay

[Mi'Jette]

"They're a faction? Doesn't that normally mean guards and the like?" I question weirdly.
"Really only difficult getting out because of how heavy Abigor is."
'Was I seriously missing something important?'
This faction business never made sense to me anyway, I just knew they held most of the inhabitants on this planet.
I shrug to myself and keep walking with him.
He basically said he'd explain things to me later, so I could deal with it regardless.
'How bad could it be?'

[Benji]

I toss more wood on the established fire, though the action makes me flinch a little.
I feared Raiders, like any sane person who spent their days in the wilder parts of the Wasteland.
I missed the days I had a Hund flag to ward them off.
I sit down a little ways from the fire, warming my paws as the night sky ascended and the temperature began to drop. My hood was down, and I leaned against my pack.
"Know any tribal voodoo to keep Raiders away, by any chance?" I ask her, chuckling as I glance nervously into the dark recesses.

[Mi'Jette]

My eyes were closed as I rested, listening to the sounds of the darkness while breathing quietly.
With legs crossed and my paws in my lap, I was content with the still of the night, as always.
It was always easy for me to blend in with the lack of activity around me in the darkness and I relished in the feeling so I could just listen.
I pry open my eyes to look at him and raise an eyebrow, the firelight reflecting off my eyes no doubt.
"Murder is not voodoo, Benji."

[Benji]

"Oh, goody." I mutter. "It means us commoners can do it."
I dig around in my pack and pull out a can, prying the top off and setting it neatly in the coals. If we were gonna make a fire, I was having a hot dinner.
"So, did you want to ... relax a little, or chat first?" I raise an eyebrow at her, the ghost of a grin on my features.
I wouldn't push it, but I wouldn't put a little fun out of the question.

[Mi'Jette]

The expression on his face made me tilt my head to the side again, a rather common action with me.
"You were going to explain things to me, or I was going to explain things to you," I reply plainly.
I crack my neck once I turn my attention back to the fire, reaching up to take my mask off again.
A yawn was tickling its way into my chest and I rub my jaw to settle the feeling after placing the skull in front of me.
"I suppose it depends on what you wish to know first."

[Benji]

I let out a puff of air.
"No fun." I remark, though I bounce back quickly.
"I want to know as much as you're willing to tell." I answer.
"I've never been able to talk to an actual tribal. Only heard about them from other wanderers."
I eye her curiously over the fire.
"I'm honestly astonished you speak the same language."

[Mi'Jette]

"We are not another species... Though I have met others that speak other languages. I have not cared to learn them."
I let my eyes follow the movement of the flames before looking up at the dark sky, almost as if waiting for a response from the night.
"I am a tribal, as you call us, but I do not follow the same beliefs as the majority. They do not hear what I hear and vice versa, which I learned from numerous occasions and so I have decided to keep my knowledge to myself while around them. My beliefs originated from a Bombay that lived in the village of my childhood. Nadya opened my mind and showed me that the Celestials decide our fates and they always lead us down the path that we are meant for."
A heavy sigh tugged at my body and I continue to stare at the sky as the memories of Nadya flooded my mind.
'Memories of Nadya... And my parents.'
"Nadya lived alone in my village and took care of me when my parents... Were occupied elsewhere. She chose to do the task because the Celestials had shown her that I needed to be shown the way. That I needed to be saved and gifted with the ability to hear them as well. I was elated at the chance to hear what Nadya did and it changed everything about me. They've kept me alive for this long and I can't deny that."
I look over at him for a few moments and shrug slowly.
"I believe in them because they believed in my ability to listen. They gave me the chance I needed."

[Benji]

I lapse into a fascinated silence as I listen to hear speak.
This was, after all, completely new to me. I was used to the company of other mercs while traveling, or bandits if I traveled with them for awhile. Their campfire stories all boasted victories and close brushes with death, but.. never had I been able to share a fire with someone so different. It surprised me, also, how open she was being with her past. Most were tight-lipped.
'I know I am. I hope she doesn't expect me to spill, too.'
I shift on my pack, continuing to listen to her.
'The Celestials, huh? Well, I guess the Hunds have their Ion...'
"So the uh... Celestials.. you just.. trust them? Like.. you don't ever question what they ask?"
That much blind trust seemed alien to me. I, like most of the Wasteland's inhabitants, was cynical and skeptical towards any judgement but my own.
"Do you even know what their motivations are in guiding you?"
I didn't personally buy into any of it..

[Mi'Jette]

"I trust them because trust in the living results in pain and isolation," I add.
"I don't feel the need to question what they wish of me because I have never done anything to upset my own reality."
After being around Nadya for so long, I started to call her my own mother even though the others in the village frowned upon the title.
She was labeled a witch and it started to look like she was converting me, which they strongly disliked.
"They do not tell me why, only that it is for the best. The Celestials have never done me wrong. I have no reason to question their motives."
"I questioned them once, when I was a child because I didn't understand why such things were happening to me, but I realized that it was necessary. Not everything that seems to occur to me or around me is apart of my destined path. I am simply apart of others' paths and I cannot be angered at the Celestials for what they decide."

[Benji]

I blink at her.
'Sounds crazy..'
I could agree with the trust in the living bit, but... all that other trust in some greater purpose and the paths of others.
Euch.
"I guess I'd have to be raised around it to understand.."
I'd heard tales of witches like that, though. Noone ever saw them.. It was energy better spent to worry about Raiders.
"Converting you to be a witch, huh? Guess I'm safe from Raiders, then, if the stories about witches hold any truth."
I try to break the serious ice with a joke, wondering if she has any more to say or if the talking burden had passed to me yet.

[Mi'Jette]

I listened to his comments and wasn't displeased, simply indifferent.
My past experiences in talking about my beliefs had shown me that not everyone is supposed to understand the same thing.
It simply wasn't how life worked.
"I do not understand the entirety of this world because I was alone most of my life. Only looking to the Celestials for guidance because Nadya's path led away from me when I was still very young. That was what caused me to question them and, for the briefest moment, feel bitter towards them for leaving me alone again. It took me only a few nights until I realized it wasn't about me. That's all it was."
An inhale stretches my back slightly before I release it and lie on my back, tucking my paws behind my head.
"As I see it, regardless of what we believe, we're all still alive somehow."

[Benji]

I'm silent for a long moment after she spoke, mulling over what I just heard.
'She's certainly not an idiot... just.. not traveled.' I amend my thoughts from earlier in the day.
I sit up, using the corner of my jacket to pull my canned soup off the fire.
"Yea." I say, finally. "I guess that's true."
I dig a much abused metal spork out of one of my pack's inner pockets, mixing the soup around some.
"You want some of this?" I ask. "One can is a lot. We could make it last to tomorrow night, too."
We could both eat a 4th of it, then we'd have food tomorrow night as well. Didn't need to go for gluttony.
Offering the other/s in your party food was also a small trust action.
I guess after this it was my turn.

[Mi'Jette]

I blink for a few seconds more than normal before looking over at him again.
Honestly hadn't thought about the necessity of sustenance such as food when I went out after Abigor.
All I remembered was to leave my scythe at home to attract less attention through my travels.
"I'll have a small portion once you're finished," I reply to him, figuring I should at least eat a little bit even though I didn't feel hungry.
Underneath all my armor and whatnot, I suppose I was fairly scrawny, but it hadn't slowed down my movements at all.
Nadya had taught me that smaller was better in most aspects.
... Partly to make me feel better because I was always shorter than the rest of the children my age.