secondchances | return to paradisa

He just shakes his head at her, smiling. She can grouse all she wants, but he knows she likes it. Deep down. She's cute even in a potato sack. He finishes scrubbing his feet and sets about getting his boots on, buckling them tight. He doesn't think he's worn these boots in years, maybe, as they're worn in in a way his feet don't initially remember, but they're sturdy for climbing the outer walls of the castle and that's what matters.

"Depends on what you mean by mistake," he murmurs, doing up the last buckle. "If you don't feel comfortable climbing, then don't. I'll go and slip into some rooms and unlock the doors for you."

"I can climb," she reminds him, stepping towards said window, "I just don't wanna look out there and see a sea of zombies."

Overdone. So, so overdone.

Taking a breath, she pushes the curtain aside to peek out. Or, she would, if the glass wasn't foggy with grime. Undoing the latch, she finally pokes her head out to look towards the city.

"... uh, well... creepy, but no zombies that I can see."

No destruction or crumbled buildings that she can see, but the gardeners have clearly taken an extended holiday. She can see overgrown trees, tall grass, and pathways leading towards the town are well overgrown.

"Don't like that."

He has to remind himself what a zombie is, and he's not sure it comes back entirely right. Corpses that got sick. No, that's not right. Oh well.

He joins her, boxing her in against it with an arm on each side of the window, leaning in over her to follow her gaze out. (Her hair smells nice, by the way.) It looks wild; not entirely unusual to him, as any county road can get that way without care, but it is strange for a place that knew to be so well travelled.

"I didn't mean to say you can't climb," he says, and he gestures for her to scoot. He'll go out first. "You're just nervous. And you use those ropes with the..." Ugh. "Bat hook."

Steph ducks out under his arm so that he can go out first. If they're about to find skeletons in a room, it is probably best he see it first lest she fall off the side of the castle and become one herself.

"I can do it the old fashioned way, don't you worry your pretty little head."

She ignores the part of her that feels like she hasn't properly stretched in a long time.

"Just like the good ol' days, right?"

They did their fair share of running around.

"You think I'm pretty," he teases.

Ezio chuckles, and he steps up onto the windowsill. With a hand on the top of it, he pivots so he's standing with his back to the precipice -- he can get a good look at the wall and its potential footholds. They're not too bad. There's even a great crack forming up the side of the castle, like there'd been a tremor that the old mortar hadn't quite stood up to. Must be sturdy, though. Very little has fallen. He gestures up at it, not sure if she can crane her neck out far enough to see.

"Our old friend isn't fixing itself up anymore," he remarks, and then he drops very suddenly off the edge, catching himself on the windowsill by his fingers, catching his feet against the brick. He grins at her. "Let's hope I remember what to do if I fall, hmm?"

"It's why I keep you around." Clearly.

She listens to Ezio, frowning. No upkeep here. No free stuff. Not good. She wonders if the city has things they might find useful, but to be honest, that place was only ever for the fun illusion of shopping and browsing and pretending to be sort of normal. Now, they might actually need it.

As much as she knows she can trust his skills, he makes her flinch.

"Ha-ha. Funny."

Steph waits for him to move before hoisting herself up and into the window. Admittedly, there's a weakness to her muscles she's not familiar with, the slightest strain under her own weight.

"Oh, yeah. For the record, we're sticking together, okay?"

It makes more sense to check different rooms, but that's how the killer gets you.

"Sì, sì," he promises. "I won't go far without you."

He starts moving across the surface of the brick, stepping here, leaping there. The first good jump has him rocking on the spot before he takes the jump, momentarily completely in the air before his weight settles on his hands again as he catches the next handhold. His heart skips; it's exhilarating. The wind feels nice this high up, too, buffeting the loose fabric of his sleeves.

He glances back at her to see that she's doing alright.

"Take your time," he tells her, a bit more seriously.

She's not sure if she's gone soft from the help of gadgets, or if she's gained weight, or if she just needs to loosen her limbs, but it's most certainly not like riding a bike. Steph knows better than to look down, at least, and it's by sheer force of will that she gets herself up on the wall. Ezio lays out the route, but she's slower and not as willing to fling herself along the stone just yet.

"I'm going on a diet after this," she mutters.

He moves swift along the path; it's a short one, given how many rooms are on each floor, but it still feels like quite a ways. He doesn't quite catch what she says, but he can tell she's not having a good time.

"Steady now," he calls to her.

The only trouble from this side is that the window is closed, and it's tricky to try and pull it open without a handle on this side. There's also not much ledge to stand on if he pulls himself up, and getting it open while hanging might be even trickier. Ezio sighs, glancing back at Steph to see how she's doing, and then he pulls himself up enough to cram his hidden blade into the gap and wedge it open.

Thank God it isn't locked.

Going down is easier than going up, but she's already decided she'll be taking the stairs. She's behind enough to not need to pause when Ezio struggles with the window. The climb is still less anxiety-inducing than whatever might be in the room.

Either way, she has a feeling they're not going to have much in the way of answers. When did they ever, here?

Grunting, she follows Ezio to the window and holds out a hand to be helped in. No shame in that.

Ezio is up and through the window in no time, and he takes her hand the moment she reaches for him, locking it around her wrist so she can lock around his. He braces his other hand around the window and tugs. She'll have first sight through the window -- he's too busy looking at her.

"Well done, dolcezza," he murmurs. "Not so bad, hmm?"

At least he's still able to haul her up with ease. She grabs onto him to steady herself once she's in the room, about to reply, when she chokes on the words and instead grabs his arm in surprise rather in support.

"Ohmygod."

The first thing she sees, right on the bed against the wall, is what is clearly a human skeleton. She was worried about corpses of all manner, but she wasn't entirely prepared for a pile of bones laid out as someone maybe taking a nap on top of the duvet.

"Oh, no..."

She hopes it's no one they know. Knew. Please, convenient memory gaps, stay strong.

"Oh, crap. This is exactly the sort of creepy I was worried about." Sorta. Letting go of Ezio, she ventures forward to see if there's any faded signs of violence. Which leads her to another thought.

"So... it's probably good neither of us took tumble. I'm taking this to mean we don't come back anymore."

Ezio twists to look over his shoulder, and he leans back against the window frame for balance so he can gather Stephanie closer to him, at least until she pulls away again. That is a body, and it's regretfully not the first he's seen in a state like this -- but it is strange to see it so undisturbed, laid out peacefully. If it weren't for the bed being soaked in long-dried fluids, so red they look nearly black, he might have thought it deliberate, but he knows. The soft tissues are long gone, and the bones fall away from each other, just far enough to look distorted.

He shakes his head. Her point about Paradisa's old immortality settles heavy on him, too, but such bitterness is part of life.

"That is likely safe to assume," he remarks. "Are you alright?"

Skulls are probably her least favorite aesthetic, and she looks a little green around the gills, but she manages a nod.

"Yeah." Not her first body, but her first in this state. "Do you think... all the rooms...?"

"Unless a whole castle of people chose to lay down and die quietly in their beds, not likely," he says, gently.

Ezio gets up from the windowsill and comes over to looks. Not his first skeleton, not even his first like this, but it's the bedding that truly bothers him. If a body is left somewhere to rot, the weather washes the mess away. God takes the soul, and the earth takes the body.

"Bad luck, it would seem."

He goes to unlock the door.

"I hope you're right."

She lingers, staring at the bones. It's impossible to tell what happened here, other than time. A good amount of time, which is just confirming the state of this world.

Snapping herself out of it, she forces herself to go to the door, to breathe air that is slightly less stale.

"I'm umm... pretty confident we've been gone for a long time, and a lot's changed. And not for the better. I don't know if we should stay in the castle, Ezio."

But she's also not sure what they'll find in the city.

When she joins him at the door, he brings a palm down her back, guiding her out it. He worries about her sometimes. He's not completely sure why, in that moment, but it feels right to be -- he feels partially responsible for her upset with death, too, and he's not sure if that's right. She's a grown woman, but she's still a little tender, isn't she? Or maybe he's hardened. A little desensitized, like his hand has been held over a flame for a bit too long.

It's better to have too much empathy than too little, he thinks.

"We'll see what else we can find. At the very least, we'll strip this place of any necessary supplies."

She wonders if maybe they wasted away here too, somehow. What if they were the last brought back? All the hundreds of possibilities and knowing they're likely not going to find an answer is just as upsetting as the skeleton of someone whose name isn't even on their door.

It's all something she thinks about giving voice to, even to the extent of opening her mouth, but then she thinks better of it. Maybe later.

"I'm not too keen on seeing what's behind the rest of the locked doors. Should we try the kitchen or ballroom?"

He nods.

"The kitchen might be wise," he said. "If there's no food here, we have no business living here."

"Thankfully, I think my appetite is gonna be MIA for a while." Even before the skeleton and its stained bed, eating was going to be late, at best.

Taking his hand, she starts to lead them to the stairs.

"I have a feeling we're going to be disappointed. You?"

He closes his fingers around hers in turn.

"I am not particularly hopeful," he says. "I believe we will be bedding down in the city tonight... so I suppose we must find some coin, as well."

"... assuming anyone is there."

She's hoping no skeletons, at least. She could stomach an empty city to some degrees, but one littered with bones? Not so much.

He's thinking. If the people aren't here or they're all dead, and there aren't stores of things to eat, they will very quickly run into issues feeding themselves. Are there animals to hunt? Would they be able to grow anything before they would starve?

He let out a long breath.

"We'd best pray they are, Stephanie," he replies, a little sternly. "Or else time will be running short."

"Even if there aren't people, there has to be... something. Let me tell you, after all the crap we've both been through, going out because we starved to death is just too freakin' stupid. I refuse."

She's trying not to wonder if that's not what exactly happened to their upstairs neighbor.

Ezio doesn't relish starving. He thinks, idly, that he'd end it on his own terms first. He has no recollection of the world beyond Paradisa -- he thinks the could starve just trying to march away, but he supposes, too, that things were always different out there.

He levels her with a serious look.

"I will not let you starve. I promise that."

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