[ oh. she's just so direct in her praise. is this what it's like, talking to him? he has to laugh right back. ]
Likewise, my Princess...! I've rarely met anyone so fearsome in their kindness.
[ then the contented rumbling settles, because—yes. he ought to tell her. ]
In our journey, it was... [ there's a moment's pause, tongue running against the back of his teeth. he is honest, and open, but vulnerability is a different beast. he can usually connect to others without it—it's something he'd rather contain in written word, carefully plucked over. but she wouldn't appreciate something so curated, would she? so he thinks, and recalls. ] I should start from the beginning. Lucien's journal—it is a terrible thing. Never so much as open its cover. It is inhabited by mages, whose influence worked on our minds immediately—we discovered the civilization they'd driven to terror and ruin, and our minds began to slip and turn against one another.
We came upon some of their technology, which created matter from... nothing. Like a god, yet not without a cost. It created a creature from our dreams—the faces of those we loved, or lost. My sister, my friends—you, Shouxue, Viktor. Countless others, amongst all of us.
I could not bring myself to fight it, but— [ he shakes his head ] it gave up fighting. Perhaps this 'dream' of ours simply didn't want to live. Its death, I think, only drove us further into madness.
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Likewise, my Princess...! I've rarely met anyone so fearsome in their kindness.
[ then the contented rumbling settles, because—yes. he ought to tell her. ]
In our journey, it was... [ there's a moment's pause, tongue running against the back of his teeth. he is honest, and open, but vulnerability is a different beast. he can usually connect to others without it—it's something he'd rather contain in written word, carefully plucked over. but she wouldn't appreciate something so curated, would she? so he thinks, and recalls. ] I should start from the beginning. Lucien's journal—it is a terrible thing. Never so much as open its cover. It is inhabited by mages, whose influence worked on our minds immediately—we discovered the civilization they'd driven to terror and ruin, and our minds began to slip and turn against one another.
We came upon some of their technology, which created matter from... nothing. Like a god, yet not without a cost. It created a creature from our dreams—the faces of those we loved, or lost. My sister, my friends—you, Shouxue, Viktor. Countless others, amongst all of us.
I could not bring myself to fight it, but— [ he shakes his head ] it gave up fighting. Perhaps this 'dream' of ours simply didn't want to live. Its death, I think, only drove us further into madness.