Orange slows at the water’s edge. Green sits with one hand pressed to the soil, shoulders tight, breathing through the ache the land keeps giving back.
Orange the Colossus
The ground is still sick here.
He lowers himself beside her with care, big hands open and empty, making no rush of words. The little breeze carries damp reeds, dust, and the faint metal hum from far off.
Green the Colossus
It hurts less when I keep touching it. That’s the strange part.
Green flexes her fingers in the dark soil, then lets her head tip toward Orange, just enough to show she notices him there and is not asking him to leave.
Green the Colossus
I can feel where the poison passed through. Like a bruise under the whole oasis.
Orange shifts closer, his hulking frame a steady wall against the dimming wind. The water catches the sunset in broken gold, quiet and stubborn.
Green the Colossus
Stay a moment, Orange. It helps when someone is here.
“I sot with her and take hold of her hand. The vines on her arm snaje their way up mine aswell and in this moment of contact the vines grant us a nental connection that lets us communicate to eachother through thoughts”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Orange eases down beside Green, close enough for his shoulder to nearly touch hers. He reaches out slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, and sets his hand over hers in the soil.
The thin vines on Green’s arm stir at the contact, then slide over Orange’s wrist, seeking the warmth of him like roots finding rain.
A second presence opens behind Green’s eyes, quiet and intimate, carrying her ache without words.
Green the Colossus
You can feel it too now. Not just the pain, the shape of it.
Orange the Colossus
The land here is speaking through her.
Green the Colossus
It never stops. The only relief is when someone stays long enough to share the weight.
Their linked hands rest still beside the water, while the distant factory’s vibration ticks through the ground like a slow, buried pulse.
✓ Quest Accepted
Deepen Orange and Green’s shared bond
“I hold her closer in a gentle and caring embrace mentally telling her that i will fix this even if it kills me”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -3)
Orange draws Green into a careful embrace, broad arms folding around her shoulders while the vines stay braided across his wrist. The tremor in the ground keeps time under them, but his grip stays steady.
Orange the Colossus
I will fix this, even if it costs me everything.
Green the Colossus
Then let me hold some of that weight with you.
Her voice comes low and rough, but her body leans in instead of away. The contact eases a little of the strain from her face, as if the shared pressure has a shape now.
Green the Colossus
It hurts less when I am not the only one hearing it.
The factory pulse ticks through the soil beneath them, distant and stubborn. Orange’s burned forearm tightens around her, and one of the vines slips higher, resting against his wrist like a cautious hand.
Green the Colossus
Stay a moment longer. I want to remember this feeling before it fades.
“I stay holding Green and let her lean on me”
Orange stays where he is, a steady wall at Green's back as she leans in and breathes easier. The ground gives its faint factory pulse below them, but for a moment it feels farther away.
Green the Colossus
I can rest here. Just a little longer.
“Is Green feeling less alone now?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 20)
Orange the Colossus
Her grip on my arm is loosening, the tension in her shoulders finally fading into the rhythm of the earth.
Green the Colossus
I was so afraid that being the only one who could hear the land's decay meant I would always be the only one to carry it. But with you here, Orange, the weight... it feels like it's finally being shared.
“I cradle her in my arms and tell her to rest if she can”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Orange draws Green closer and folds his arms around her, steady and careful. She lets herself sink into him, one shoulder easing down as the trembling earth rolls under the shore.
Orange the Colossus
Rest if you can.
Green the Colossus
I will. With you here, it is quieter.
Her vines slacken against him, no longer straining to listen. The water still shivers, but her breathing slows to match the low pulse beneath them.
Green the Colossus
For once, the burden does not feel like a sentence passed in secret.
Orange holds her there as the distant factory's rhythm keeps thudding through the ground, a faraway reminder that the world is still working somewhere beyond the oasis.
Green the Colossus
Stay a little longer, Orange.
Quest Complete
Deepen Orange and Green’s shared bond
Fault Removed: Traumatic Flashbacks