[ A frown creases little Ajax's face and he glances down - then reaches out to try and pat at the pocket where the Gnosis had been, almost as though he doesn't believe him.
A creaking resonates through their little clearing, the trees at first bending back, and then forward. The sky dims all around them until the snow is the main source of light, blanketing white providing enough to see by so that Zhongli can easily see the way the light in those dark blue eyes fade out completely, like snuffing out a candleflame.
The next words Ajax speaks are in a voice much, much older than his. It's the voice of Childe Zhongli knows very well, heavy with unspoken emotion. ]
You played me for a fool, you know. Such a thing cannot be so easily forgiven. And yet - and yet, for you, I --
[ With a great, thundering crack, the ground splits open underneath them. The snow piling onto the ground immediately sifts through, disappearing into a yawning, black abyss.
Ajax is the first one to go, of course, and there's a moment where fear and desperation flashes on his face. He doesn't so much fall as he is yanked back, hand ripped from Zhongli's grip with the momentum and cast into the endless darkness.
And then Zhongli is pulled, too, and he's falling, falling, falling...
... until his feet lands on something soft, like grass. But no matter how much he might try to adjust to the dark, it does not adjust to him. It presses in, oppressive, invading his nose, mouth, ears, eyes, lungs like it means to consume him.
It only lets up fractionally when another noise begins to drift through the air; wet chews, slurps, cracks, gnawing. The sound of something feasting, and the heavy, overwhelming scent of fresh blood. ]
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A creaking resonates through their little clearing, the trees at first bending back, and then forward. The sky dims all around them until the snow is the main source of light, blanketing white providing enough to see by so that Zhongli can easily see the way the light in those dark blue eyes fade out completely, like snuffing out a candleflame.
The next words Ajax speaks are in a voice much, much older than his. It's the voice of Childe Zhongli knows very well, heavy with unspoken emotion. ]
You played me for a fool, you know. Such a thing cannot be so easily forgiven. And yet - and yet, for you, I --
[ With a great, thundering crack, the ground splits open underneath them. The snow piling onto the ground immediately sifts through, disappearing into a yawning, black abyss.
Ajax is the first one to go, of course, and there's a moment where fear and desperation flashes on his face. He doesn't so much fall as he is yanked back, hand ripped from Zhongli's grip with the momentum and cast into the endless darkness.
And then Zhongli is pulled, too, and he's falling, falling, falling...
... until his feet lands on something soft, like grass. But no matter how much he might try to adjust to the dark, it does not adjust to him. It presses in, oppressive, invading his nose, mouth, ears, eyes, lungs like it means to consume him.
It only lets up fractionally when another noise begins to drift through the air; wet chews, slurps, cracks, gnawing. The sound of something feasting, and the heavy, overwhelming scent of fresh blood. ]