IC Contact | Hugtopia

[carbungle]

| voice | text | video | action |

Please use the new post going forward!

Comments

[astralera]

Try explaining the situation and that you would like its company, and maybe it will acquiesce. Just because such assistance may not be strictly necessary doesn't mean it wouldn't help you a great deal.

A ring meant to occupy restless fingers. My



[ She sends what she has written so far, finding it too difficult to continue right this moment.

Hades was her enemy, her friend. Her companion, her partner, her lover. The person she grew to depend on more than any other.

The person who would be her betrothed, if only she had the courage to ask him sooner.

Can she call him that if she knew the answer, but she hadn't yet initiated the standard motions?


A few minutes later sends along another message. Attached to it is a small video clip of a ring she wears (on hands much thinner than Noct might remember). It's a broad, metal band with an intricate, spiraling skyline silhouetted across the the face. She takes the fingers of her other hand and twists the silhouette, spinning it under her fingertips. ]

My fiancé gave it to me many moons ago now, so I would stop fidgeting with my scales.

[carbungle]

[He'd been confused by the pause and had waited, keeping himself busy with other messages, so when the rest finally arrives... ah. That's a clear sign as any to him, as he'd done the same thing before when struggling with Luna's absence here or the memory of her death. It's like everything stops, when the reminder comes. That she's gone, that he's unlikely to see her again. That he misses her, that a piece of his heart has been severed and is now out of his reach.

He watches the video a few times, a lengthy pause on his end as well, and there's something curiously soothing about watching it spin. He can see the appeal.]

i'm sorry. i didn't know he was gone too

is there anything i can do?

[He knows he has very little to offer, but she's helping him, and doing things for other people - even little, inconsequential things - has often served as a blessed distraction from his own problems.]

[astralera]

[ She had hoped it wouldn't be so obvious, but has never been good with subtlety. ]

Just remember that he lived. It is what he wanted.

[carbungle]

[Sadly it's just not her gift.]

it isn't much, but i can do that.

did someone erase him from the history books too

[astralera]

He was one of three survivors of the Old World.

Only those survivors remembered the world that existed Before, and the people that lived upon it.

Hades loved those people with all that he was.

It was this love that spurred him to destroy my worlds, and why I had to kill him.

[carbungle]

things were a lot more complicated then i knew, sounds like.

hades?

[astralera]

The Ascians I spoke to you of before... The people who destroyed seven worlds and ruined another

He was not their leader, but had been their most powerful member.

Emet-Selch was his title. Hades was his true name.

[carbungle]

why didn't he use his name?

[astralera]

My companions and I were eight fourteenths of what he considered to be truly alive. Those of the Shards are viewed by Ascians as even lesser.

To give us his name would be to see us as something closer to equals.

[carbungle]

uh, yikes

[what an asshole!

...he will refrain from saying this.]

[astralera]

He was Tempered by the eldest of all Primals. Because of this, he was incapable of seeing any life upon the Sundered world as worthy. For twelve-thousand years he tested the limits of his bindings and worked within them.

I was working on a way to free him of those bindings, and a way to bring his soul home with me.

I could have given him new life and purpose.

The gods here are cruel.

[carbungle]

[Ah. Tempered, again. The more he hears about that thing, the more grateful he is to have avoided the effects.]

sometimes it feels that way

but without them we wouldn't have the people here that we lost, either. i can't hate them even if it's temporary.

[astralera]

More than once I have heard the saying 'it is better to have lost and lost than to have never loved at all'

Now I can't help but think it utter gobshite.

[carbungle]

it's a shitty thing to say to someone who just lost someone. not like it makes it any better

but i think it's okay to feel it, and that's how i feel

[astralera]

I never understood it, before. But perhaps it's different when you know they loved you in return.

[carbungle]

maybe. wouldn't know.

[they never talked about that, never got that far. like when they were children, she was here and gone too quickly.]

[astralera]

I met Lunafreya only once so I could not say how she loved you, but I can say with certainty that she loved you and your family both.


I have some pictures from your father's birthday, if you would like them.

[carbungle]

i





not yet

i can't look at those

[A different sort of trauma, that one.]

[astralera]

I understand.

They will still be here when you're ready.

[carbungle]

thanks, i'll let u know.

[Ahhh hell, he does not want to think about this. Anything, anything- oh.]

so.... you saw them as kids? in the echo

[astralera]

Not in Ardyn's, but Somnus'. I'm not certain of their ages, though Ardyn's voice had not yet matured.

[carbungle]

must be weird, seeing someone else's perspectives like that over and over. was it at least a good memory

[He knows his wasn't, so.]

[astralera]

Seeing their perspective was never so odd to me, as it was an ability I've had since I first awoke. Experiencing them is ... 'weird', yes.

The first memory was.

With hand to chin, Somnus leaned forward to scrutinize the pieces. Even he could tell that he had lost.

When Ardyn took the king, Somnus had visibly sagged in disappointment. He had clapped his hands upon his lap as he straightened up, Ardyn watching him closely the whole while.

"You really are amazing, brother." His voice was so very young and childish; filled with emotion he shared openly. "This time we'll do as you say."

"This time?"

Ardyn's voice was filled with such mirth, not yet weighed down with sorrow. He extended his hand for his brother, and Somnus all but jumped at the opportunity to take it.

He was so happy. Walking together, hand-in-hand with his beloved older brother. He could not fathom life without him by his side.

[carbungle]

you have a good memory

[That could be a double meaning, there. Both are true.]

i know what-ifs are kinda dangerous but still

wonder what they'd be like now if things hadn't gone the way they did

[astralera]

[ She can't help but find the humour in being told that as an amnesiac. ]

I think...

Aera would have finally made Ardyn her husband. They would have been happy, and had children. Ardyn would have been both joyous and terrified beyond measure, constantly doubting his abilities as a father.

Somnus would have reassured him when necessary, and teased him ruthlessly in his own way when it wasn't. He would have loved his nieces and nephews as fiercely as his own.

They would have been a family.