Work Text:
The first ‘Savy, where are you’ is a prayer.
The seventh‘what happened?!’, an act of despair.
Lina steps out of her car—for what? A breath of fresh air that doesn't soothe her, and a few strides on the sidewalk that fail to ease her mind.
Her eyes wander toward the starless sky, searching for hope or answers. Of course, she finds none.
Never has she felt as alone as amid the purple haze and neon lights of a Los Ojos night.
It's now been three days since Savy went missing, leaving doubts and worries in her wake. Since then, every hour not wasted sleeping in a Capra Capsule has been spent trying to gather clues, picking up pax near the Stanzmaschine and chasing ghosts that, come to think of it, she might have been chasing ever since she left Cactus Flats.
Has there ever been a single moment in her life when she hasn't been running after Savy—when her best friend has stopped to let her catch up?
Ah—the answer to that is probably the only certainty of this wretched week, isn't it?
She gets back into her car. The heat is too stifling to cool her head, the streets too lifeless to warm her heart. A tap on the bright screen right to her wheel, then profiles scattered throughout the city appear. Strange people at strange hour, and none of them Savy.
The complete lack of signs slowly gives rise to a frustration that start overshadowing her anxiety—a betrayed red that, at the corner of her Feelgrid, blends a hint of purple into her dejected blue.
She's trying so hard not to resent her endangered friend—Savy's probably the victim, she can't blame her for being in trouble. Yet Lina is the one who finds herself lost, penniless, homeless.
Why did Savy ask her to give up everything, to move in with her, if she was dealing at the same time with something so huge?
Bigger, in any case, than Lina.
She fights back treacherous tears as she starts the engine. Another helpless ride among the towering skyscrapers, another lonely drive without knowing where she’ll sleep.
How tragic it could be, this desperate search for a soul in the darkness of a city. But she has read a few books, and is well aware that characters in such stories are usually equally desperate to be reunited—even Orpheus, when he screwed himself over and turned around to find himself alone, at least had the consolation of knowing that Eurydice had loved him.
Lina, sending heartbroken messages that echoed through an empty night, isn't even sure Savy cares.
The first ‘Savy, where are you’ was a prayer.
The thirteenth ‘I'm worried’, a surrender.