[ It's a newfound habit, the hands. One forged in the years since G'raha locked himself away. Something that he can offer in those ever-frequent situations when someone needs words from him that he cannot form. It doesn't matter if G'raha takes them or not. They are there. Will be there, until there is something more appropriate to offer.
He looks down, joining G'raha in staring at his ruined, burn-scarred hands. ]
I. I became dead. Several moons ago. Many people became dead. [ A promising way to start. ] The ironworks did not like this. And so they woke you up. They asked you to use the tower to change it. So that it would have never happened. And so you did. And now it is changed, and I am not dead. Many people are not dead. And you made sandwiches for me.
[ That... Probably isn't the best way to come out and say things of that nature, Marcel. Now all that Raha can focus upon is "I became dead" and "many people became dead." That had been the exact opposite of what he had wanted. People don't just become undead.
Well they do. Just not - augh! That doesn't matter!
G'raha is taking a hold of Marcel's arms. It's uncoordinated and he hasn't really gotten the hang of his fine motorskills yet so his fingers are likely biting into that arm harder than he intends. ]
[ The force of G'raha's grip doesn't concern him too much. Harder than he intends or not, he's not going to come close to the bone-crushing grip strength of a distressed Lyse. Frankly it's a miracle he still has arms left.
Sadly, it hadn't occurred to him that the idea that he died might be distressing. At least not when it was a thing averted. G'raha's distress catches him off-guard, even if his bruising grip does not. ]
It is changed, now. You have changed it, and. [ He frowns in thought, searching for words. ] And I would like to go on a journey with you, please. To see how many people are not dead.
My friend, I know what dead means, but there isn't a method to truly bring the fallen back from the dead. So how can you mean that you and others were once dead and now are not? How would I have contributed to this from inside the Tower?
[ There's no way that he could have changed things. He has been here, asleep. G'raha needs to know. Needs to understand what has happened while he had been under. People potentially dying is the very reason that he had locked himself away. Thus, if they had, then he would have been a failure, not victorious.
His tail is starting to move. It's still stiff in its motions, but coming to life all the same. Those ears are also starting to twitch, tingly and numb. ]
I... Please. Explain.
[ Even the fact that Marcel would want to go on a journey with him is baffling. They... Hadn't been particularly close? Companions, yes. G'raha would like to think friends at least, but it had been so hard to tell. Yet here Marcel is, imploring him like a true long-lost companion. ]
We did not become living again. It was- we did not stop being dead. That we were dead at all was undone, and- [ He's stumbling over his words a little, now. He had thought he was clear, thought he had explained, but he always has struggled with words. There was a reason he always seemed so well-suited to a life of isolation and actions alone. ] -and I will try.
[ He takes a deep breath, focussing on G'raha's fingers digging into the skin of his arms, and tries to coax the Echo into translating where he cannot explain fully. This time when he speaks his lips move, stumbling over words again, but what G'raha hears doesn't match the movement of his lips. It's close, almost, to how a Sharlayan textbook might record events. ]
{An eighth calamity struck, brought about by the death of another star. The surviving members of the Ironworks theorised that the Tower might be modified, allowing it to transport a being to this second star in the time before its destruction.}
[ And he looks up, looking at G'raha's eyes for a moment instead of both of their hands. ]
[ Once more, he's not entirely sure what Marcel is doing or getting at. But the Viera is going to try. And G'raha will try to listen in return.
Which he does. He understands, vaguely, the power being used is the Echo. Yet what he listens to is confusing all the same. Another calamity? The death of another star... ]
I... Understand the words. Yet the implications are just not possible.
[ The echo helps. If nothing else, knowing that he can rely upon it if he struggles again gives him the confidence to start forming his own words once more. ]
There was. An eikon. A metal one, made by the goblins. Capable of moving through time. And a thing asleep beneath Carteneau. Able to move between stars. I have made them gone, so that they cannot hurt people. But the Ironworks have been studying both of these. They made the tower able to do these things. And so you did them.
I. Met a man. Some months ago. In the days before the calamity should have occurred. And he brought me to this other star. There were things that were hurting this star. He asked that I help him make them gone. And so I did. And more things came to hurt it. So he made them stop. And now that star is safe. And so there will not be any calamity. And he-
[ This is where he falters. It's hard to tell, from the outside, whether it's from emotion or from the difficulty of trying to figure out where to say 'he' and where to say 'you'. It's hard to tell from the inside, too. He bites his lip, frowning. ]
-he has let me in to the tower. To see you. And to ask you to be happier than he was. Please.
[ This is... Quite a lot already. G'raha has to take a moment, to try to make everything disjointed make sense. That's not really Marcel's fault. He's absolutely trying and again Raha is shocked to find that the other is speaking so much. Trying so hard to make G'raha understand... Something.
He's just not sure what that something is.
A calamity. One so severe that the survivors thought that they should go back to a time where it could be prevented. This means that they had the technology and ability to integrate it into the Tower. Yet such a feat would require an enormous amount of aether and.
And it would be a one way trip. ]
"He." You keep saying "he."
[ There's no way a thing could be done without waking him. Though G'raha is now starting to wonder who the "he" is in this scenario. For Raha can't imagine that he'd allow anyone to go through this, if he had been alive in this situation. ]
He. Does not like me to call him by your name. [ He pauses. Corrects. ] Did not. The you who woke up after the calamity.
[ He chews on his lip, frowning. ]
He has made a plan. About you. And I love him but I do not like when he makes plans. He makes very bad ones. And you are not his to make plans at. So I would like you to leave here. To journey with me. Or to go back to Sharlayan. Or to stay with Krile. Or to collect large towers of books. Or whatever you would want to do if you were not here. So that you can choose whether you like his plan more than whatever it is you would want to do.
[ That's... That's what he had thought. Or, rather, that's what he had a sinking feeling it could be. Himself. From another time, of course, and now likely displaced. It's not surprising, really. There's no one else who could really have such an intimate knowledge of the Crystal Tower and operate it.
But it's odd. It's odd to hear that plans have been made for the him in the here and now. Marcel is speaking about this version of himself that he doesn't know, but with a word like love. Thus it dawns on G'raha that this attachment, the desire to wake him, comes from a rapport build with this man in the future.
Not necessarily one borne from their time together. ]
What is it, this plan of his?
[ Marcel seems to want his G'raha to make the choice, but it's not really sounding like there's much of one to take. ]
He- he would like to become you again. For you to become him. I do not understand the process. There is a stone, now, and it is holding his soul and his memories and his blood. I used it to enter the tower. It could be used to make you remember becoming him. But he said that there were risks. He said one of you might consume the other. Or that both of you might be harmed. Or-
[ He does not like this. He does not like this at all. His face scrunches in distaste and he does not look up to meet G'raha's eyes. ]
-I do not like this plan. I think it is cruel to ask it of you. And that he thinks it is right to be cruel because you are his to be cruel to. It would be right to let him be dead, and to mourn him, and to come here and tell you that your work is done.
[ Except he doesn't like that, either. He is trying to want that. But his voice shakes, just a little. ]
[ How Marcel managed to get into the Crystal Tower. Isn't this the entire reason why he had put himself in here? Because his blood could be used?
Apparently it doesn't matter. Even should he sleep for as long as he supposedly is meant to, the Crystal Tower will be opened. The technology, the ability will exist. So, then, what is the point of being locked away from the rest of the star? ]
No, I don't. I don't suppose I will be going back to sleep.
[ If nothing else, he wants to see Krile. To hear her voice and see her as it has been brought to his attention would be. A relief.
As for the rest of it, G'raha knows that there are memories within his blood. It's not surprising to hear that he could potentially house another. Odd to think that it is himself and that there is a version of himself that would yet want to live. Who is he, this G'raha Tia, to deny him that? To live a life that this other version clearly wants to have.
There are risks, yes, for anything involving the soul would be risky. Naturally Raha can't understand the particulars, though it seems that this other him clearly had. Yet Marcel doesn't want him to take that option? Would be okay with leaving the soul encased in crystal to just stay where it is? ]
Many would think your tale far-fetched. They may have a hard time believing it. Yet I know you are not one for deception or dishonesty. No, I don't believe you know how to lie at all, really. Not convincingly.
[ So let him at least reassure Marcel that he does, truly, believe everything that he's said. ]
Yet it would not just be him that would be lost, now would it? Those memories would contain moments spent with those that no longer exist - that may never. A sacrifice made that, perhaps, shouldn't be left "dead," so to speak.
[ He looks up at that. Confused. Uncertain. Just like that. Just like that, G'raha agrees to sharing his life. As if he finds himself less conflicted about it than he does himself.
Somehow, it isn't as surprising as it should be. Just as he was in insisting to lead the charge, years ago. Just as he was in locking himself away here. Just as he was in being the one to go to the first. Just as he has been in every plan he ever made, G'raha Tia is infuriatingly cavalier about his own wellbeing. ]
There is not a need for me to perform lying. I am stronger than anyone I could tell lies to.
[ It's less defensive and more the first words he thinks to say. But it is still a little defensive. Because he does frequently find himself needing to lie, and the only way he has of doing so is being very quiet while someone else tells lies for him. And he does stubbornly maintain that any situation that requires deception can be resolved just as easily with truth and an axe. ]
So you know, then. That I have said the truth about how I have missed you. You. And not the other you. It is not good, to not have anyone to tell me the proper names of the things I am fighting. I have to worry that I am calling them the wrong thing.
[ Yes, he still worries about the Phlegethon and Acheron mix-up. ]
[ Well... What has he does to earn the happiness that people want for him? No, this G'raha hasn't done anything to merit that sort of consideration. This other version of himself? He has saved the star. Not just one star, but two. Stopped a calamity. Earned the affection and loyalty of even Marcel, stoic as he ever had been.
So if someone should have a shot at happiness, a life that had been robbed of him, it's probably this other G'raha Tia. The one that no longer wishes to be called that name. ]
I am aware of how strong you are. It would appear that you have gotten stronger in the time that I have slept.
[ And really he had been referring to the entire ordeal - not necessarily that Marcel has missed him. But hearing that? Hearing that Marcel had missed him. His head jerks upright, ears wiggling. Then folding back in embarrassment. ]
...Something of that nature, is it really that important?
People- ask me things, now. Important things, that they write down for other people to read. And they do not think about how I might say something that is not correct, and how people might read it and believe an incorrect thing. I do not like it. That someone might be made to believe an incorrect thing because I am not good at knowing things.
[ Look, learning how important documents largely made up of his own very fallible reports of events eventually became in the future is kind of terrifying, and he's grateful that G'raha himself was the one to read them and better equipped than most to understand that his own words might not have been as reliable as people were portraying. ]
And it is nice to know the names of things. [ He trails off there, frowning in thought again before coaxing one of his arms back from out of G'raha's grasp. ] May I. Have your hand?
People ask you things. It would appear that I have missed much by being asleep.
[ Just what has changed? G'raha can't really imagine people asking Marcel things. Not because the Viera isn't intelligent or has nothing worthwhile to say. Moreover, Marcel himself doesn't appear to be the sort that talks much.
Even though he is doing so now. He really wants to know this because Marcel himself is different. ]
Oh. Apologies.
[ That oh is because he realizes he still has a grip on Marcel. G'raha sucks in a breath. Slowly removes his hands from the Warrior as he is coaxed to do. ]
[ Something new flashes over his face. Entirely new, something that G'raha would never have seen all those years ago. Excitement. He has things he wants to share. Little anecdotes that he knows he could lay before G'raha that would delight him. About Azys Lla and the Warring Triad. About the allagan ruins beneath the Burn. About Doma and Ala Mhigo being free, now, with futures ahead of them.
But he doesn't share, not yet. Because he will only get the details wrong, and once they leave he can hear it from people better at telling people things. Instead he just waits while G'raha releases his arms. ]
[ Yes, he doesn't really know that look. Raha's never seen what excitement looks on Marcel's face. It almost makes him smile in return. Almost. G'raha can't quite bring himself to do that since the world is awfully confusing right now.
And maybe that's yet another reason why it would be better for this other G'raha to just take his place. He'd understand, would know what to do with himself. ]
Well I certainly didn't think you would be removing it.
[ A small attempt at being witty. G'raha is trying, if only so the other can't really pick up on his more self depreciating thoughts. Yet his hand he does give to Marcel. ]
[ He takes G'raha's hand carefully, cradling it in one hand and pressing a finger into the palm of it with the other. And then slowly, slowly, he begins to trace the shape of letters. R, A, Q, I, A. ]
You may not speak this word. Never. It is not yours to say. But now you know it. And he does not. So if you remember it, once you are done, I will know that it is still you.
[ It's quite embarrassing, really, how his stomach flutters at the way Marcel holds his hand. Like it is something quite precious. His eyes then narrow, trying to make out the letters that are being etched on his hand. Ears then move, perking as he opens his mouth to sound it out -
Good thing Marcel tells him not too. He looks up then at the Viera. Understanding begins to dawn on his features. ]
Why... Why tell me?
[ There is only one thing that a Viera would say never to utter. It's their name. Their birthname. ]
[ He pushes G'raha's fingers closed, curling them in over his palm as if to trap the letters there. ]
It is a secret. I do not have any other secrets. There is nothing else I can be certain he does not know.
[ With that, he finally lets go and fumbles around in inner pockets of his cloak. He retrieves it from where it was tucked against his chest. A splinter of white auracite, it's surface stained with blood. He sets the stone down between them, stoking his fingers adoringly over it's surface. ]
This is him. It would be. Better. Maybe. For you to return home before you remember. But I wanted you to see him.
[ And if it would be presumptuous to refer to the Rising Stones as G'raha's home, he doesn't seem to care. ]
[ Raha, in return, holds his arm to his own chest. He understand now. It's the only thing that the other version of himself wouldn't know. That means that there is so much that the other does. Secrets that this G'raha is not privy to. Things that make Marcel look at that crystal - the auracite - and touch it so fondly.
He sees the look in Marcel's eye too. How could he make a choice that would rob Marcel of someone that brings such gentleness from him? That truly knows him. ]
Ah. You are probably right, of course. Do you mind? If I have a moment, I mean. My legs seem to be quite stiff still.
[ All while reaching out to touch that auracite. ]
I do not mind this. It is- it will be good. To rest a moment.
[ He should have kept hold of G'raha's hand, of course. He should have kept offering his arms. He doesn't. Instead, he closes his eyes and draws his knees up to his chest. He does not like this. He still does not like this, but it is good to have it out of his hands. They will return to the stones. And he can tell G'raha things as they go. About all the things he's missed. And then they will be safe at the stones, and people who understand the process better can guide G'raha through the process of the merging of souls. And he will only need to stand there and do as he is told.
His shoulders sink. He listens to the movement of water beneath the throne. To the sounds of the wilds of Mor Dhona and the distant thudding of giant footsteps. And he listens to G'raha's heartbeat - different in waking than in sleep - and dismisses the sound of movement as him trying to bring feeling back into his limbs. ]
The tea will be cold. When we return. This is acceptable. There will be more tea.
[ Oh... Marcel doesn't understand what the phrase means. G'raha would need to be more direct in telling him to leave him be for a moment. Though he has to wonder if that would even really work, given how he had come to be in the Tower in the first place. ]
You seem to be in more distress than I.
[ Why, though. It doesn't make any sense. Marcel had just admitting to having feelings for this other version of himself. Surely he would want him back instead of mourn, in all actuality. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-07 06:54 pm (UTC)He looks down, joining G'raha in staring at his ruined, burn-scarred hands. ]
I. I became dead. Several moons ago. Many people became dead. [ A promising way to start. ] The ironworks did not like this. And so they woke you up. They asked you to use the tower to change it. So that it would have never happened. And so you did. And now it is changed, and I am not dead. Many people are not dead. And you made sandwiches for me.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-07 09:40 pm (UTC)Well they do. Just not - augh! That doesn't matter!
G'raha is taking a hold of Marcel's arms. It's uncoordinated and he hasn't really gotten the hang of his fine motorskills yet so his fingers are likely biting into that arm harder than he intends. ]
Dead? What do you mean dead!?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-07 10:03 pm (UTC)[ The force of G'raha's grip doesn't concern him too much. Harder than he intends or not, he's not going to come close to the bone-crushing grip strength of a distressed Lyse. Frankly it's a miracle he still has arms left.
Sadly, it hadn't occurred to him that the idea that he died might be distressing. At least not when it was a thing averted. G'raha's distress catches him off-guard, even if his bruising grip does not. ]
It is changed, now. You have changed it, and. [ He frowns in thought, searching for words. ] And I would like to go on a journey with you, please. To see how many people are not dead.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-07 10:35 pm (UTC)[ There's no way that he could have changed things. He has been here, asleep. G'raha needs to know. Needs to understand what has happened while he had been under. People potentially dying is the very reason that he had locked himself away. Thus, if they had, then he would have been a failure, not victorious.
His tail is starting to move. It's still stiff in its motions, but coming to life all the same. Those ears are also starting to twitch, tingly and numb. ]
I... Please. Explain.
[ Even the fact that Marcel would want to go on a journey with him is baffling. They... Hadn't been particularly close? Companions, yes. G'raha would like to think friends at least, but it had been so hard to tell. Yet here Marcel is, imploring him like a true long-lost companion. ]
None of this makes any sort of sense.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-07 11:02 pm (UTC)[ He takes a deep breath, focussing on G'raha's fingers digging into the skin of his arms, and tries to coax the Echo into translating where he cannot explain fully. This time when he speaks his lips move, stumbling over words again, but what G'raha hears doesn't match the movement of his lips. It's close, almost, to how a Sharlayan textbook might record events. ]
{An eighth calamity struck, brought about by the death of another star. The surviving members of the Ironworks theorised that the Tower might be modified, allowing it to transport a being to this second star in the time before its destruction.}
[ And he looks up, looking at G'raha's eyes for a moment instead of both of their hands. ]
This. You understand this?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 01:44 am (UTC)Which he does. He understands, vaguely, the power being used is the Echo. Yet what he listens to is confusing all the same. Another calamity? The death of another star... ]
I... Understand the words. Yet the implications are just not possible.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 02:54 pm (UTC)There was. An eikon. A metal one, made by the goblins. Capable of moving through time. And a thing asleep beneath Carteneau. Able to move between stars. I have made them gone, so that they cannot hurt people. But the Ironworks have been studying both of these. They made the tower able to do these things. And so you did them.
I. Met a man. Some months ago. In the days before the calamity should have occurred. And he brought me to this other star. There were things that were hurting this star. He asked that I help him make them gone. And so I did. And more things came to hurt it. So he made them stop. And now that star is safe. And so there will not be any calamity. And he-
[ This is where he falters. It's hard to tell, from the outside, whether it's from emotion or from the difficulty of trying to figure out where to say 'he' and where to say 'you'. It's hard to tell from the inside, too. He bites his lip, frowning. ]
-he has let me in to the tower. To see you. And to ask you to be happier than he was. Please.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 04:40 pm (UTC)He's just not sure what that something is.
A calamity. One so severe that the survivors thought that they should go back to a time where it could be prevented. This means that they had the technology and ability to integrate it into the Tower. Yet such a feat would require an enormous amount of aether and.
And it would be a one way trip. ]
"He." You keep saying "he."
[ There's no way a thing could be done without waking him. Though G'raha is now starting to wonder who the "he" is in this scenario. For Raha can't imagine that he'd allow anyone to go through this, if he had been alive in this situation. ]
Who.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 07:39 pm (UTC)[ He chews on his lip, frowning. ]
He has made a plan. About you. And I love him but I do not like when he makes plans. He makes very bad ones. And you are not his to make plans at. So I would like you to leave here. To journey with me. Or to go back to Sharlayan. Or to stay with Krile. Or to collect large towers of books. Or whatever you would want to do if you were not here. So that you can choose whether you like his plan more than whatever it is you would want to do.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 09:19 pm (UTC)But it's odd. It's odd to hear that plans have been made for the him in the here and now. Marcel is speaking about this version of himself that he doesn't know, but with a word like love. Thus it dawns on G'raha that this attachment, the desire to wake him, comes from a rapport build with this man in the future.
Not necessarily one borne from their time together. ]
What is it, this plan of his?
[ Marcel seems to want his G'raha to make the choice, but it's not really sounding like there's much of one to take. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 10:16 pm (UTC)[ He does not like this. He does not like this at all. His face scrunches in distaste and he does not look up to meet G'raha's eyes. ]
-I do not like this plan. I think it is cruel to ask it of you. And that he thinks it is right to be cruel because you are his to be cruel to. It would be right to let him be dead, and to mourn him, and to come here and tell you that your work is done.
[ Except he doesn't like that, either. He is trying to want that. But his voice shakes, just a little. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 10:46 pm (UTC)[ How Marcel managed to get into the Crystal Tower. Isn't this the entire reason why he had put himself in here? Because his blood could be used?
Apparently it doesn't matter. Even should he sleep for as long as he supposedly is meant to, the Crystal Tower will be opened. The technology, the ability will exist. So, then, what is the point of being locked away from the rest of the star? ]
No, I don't. I don't suppose I will be going back to sleep.
[ If nothing else, he wants to see Krile. To hear her voice and see her as it has been brought to his attention would be. A relief.
As for the rest of it, G'raha knows that there are memories within his blood. It's not surprising to hear that he could potentially house another. Odd to think that it is himself and that there is a version of himself that would yet want to live. Who is he, this G'raha Tia, to deny him that? To live a life that this other version clearly wants to have.
There are risks, yes, for anything involving the soul would be risky. Naturally Raha can't understand the particulars, though it seems that this other him clearly had. Yet Marcel doesn't want him to take that option? Would be okay with leaving the soul encased in crystal to just stay where it is? ]
Many would think your tale far-fetched. They may have a hard time believing it. Yet I know you are not one for deception or dishonesty. No, I don't believe you know how to lie at all, really. Not convincingly.
[ So let him at least reassure Marcel that he does, truly, believe everything that he's said. ]
Yet it would not just be him that would be lost, now would it? Those memories would contain moments spent with those that no longer exist - that may never. A sacrifice made that, perhaps, shouldn't be left "dead," so to speak.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 11:19 pm (UTC)Somehow, it isn't as surprising as it should be. Just as he was in insisting to lead the charge, years ago. Just as he was in locking himself away here. Just as he was in being the one to go to the first. Just as he has been in every plan he ever made, G'raha Tia is infuriatingly cavalier about his own wellbeing. ]
There is not a need for me to perform lying. I am stronger than anyone I could tell lies to.
[ It's less defensive and more the first words he thinks to say. But it is still a little defensive. Because he does frequently find himself needing to lie, and the only way he has of doing so is being very quiet while someone else tells lies for him. And he does stubbornly maintain that any situation that requires deception can be resolved just as easily with truth and an axe. ]
So you know, then. That I have said the truth about how I have missed you. You. And not the other you. It is not good, to not have anyone to tell me the proper names of the things I am fighting. I have to worry that I am calling them the wrong thing.
[ Yes, he still worries about the Phlegethon and Acheron mix-up. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-08 11:45 pm (UTC)So if someone should have a shot at happiness, a life that had been robbed of him, it's probably this other G'raha Tia. The one that no longer wishes to be called that name. ]
I am aware of how strong you are. It would appear that you have gotten stronger in the time that I have slept.
[ And really he had been referring to the entire ordeal - not necessarily that Marcel has missed him. But hearing that? Hearing that Marcel had missed him. His head jerks upright, ears wiggling. Then folding back in embarrassment. ]
...Something of that nature, is it really that important?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 12:09 am (UTC)[ Look, learning how important documents largely made up of his own very fallible reports of events eventually became in the future is kind of terrifying, and he's grateful that G'raha himself was the one to read them and better equipped than most to understand that his own words might not have been as reliable as people were portraying. ]
And it is nice to know the names of things. [ He trails off there, frowning in thought again before coaxing one of his arms back from out of G'raha's grasp. ] May I. Have your hand?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 12:43 am (UTC)[ Just what has changed? G'raha can't really imagine people asking Marcel things. Not because the Viera isn't intelligent or has nothing worthwhile to say. Moreover, Marcel himself doesn't appear to be the sort that talks much.
Even though he is doing so now. He really wants to know this because Marcel himself is different. ]
Oh. Apologies.
[ That oh is because he realizes he still has a grip on Marcel. G'raha sucks in a breath. Slowly removes his hands from the Warrior as he is coaxed to do. ]
My hand?
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 01:10 am (UTC)[ Something new flashes over his face. Entirely new, something that G'raha would never have seen all those years ago. Excitement. He has things he wants to share. Little anecdotes that he knows he could lay before G'raha that would delight him. About Azys Lla and the Warring Triad. About the allagan ruins beneath the Burn. About Doma and Ala Mhigo being free, now, with futures ahead of them.
But he doesn't share, not yet. Because he will only get the details wrong, and once they leave he can hear it from people better at telling people things. Instead he just waits while G'raha releases his arms. ]
Please do not worry. I will return it as it was.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 01:54 am (UTC)And maybe that's yet another reason why it would be better for this other G'raha to just take his place. He'd understand, would know what to do with himself. ]
Well I certainly didn't think you would be removing it.
[ A small attempt at being witty. G'raha is trying, if only so the other can't really pick up on his more self depreciating thoughts. Yet his hand he does give to Marcel. ]
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Date: 2023-01-09 02:15 am (UTC)[ He takes G'raha's hand carefully, cradling it in one hand and pressing a finger into the palm of it with the other. And then slowly, slowly, he begins to trace the shape of letters. R, A, Q, I, A. ]
You may not speak this word. Never. It is not yours to say. But now you know it. And he does not. So if you remember it, once you are done, I will know that it is still you.
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Date: 2023-01-09 02:22 am (UTC)Good thing Marcel tells him not too. He looks up then at the Viera. Understanding begins to dawn on his features. ]
Why... Why tell me?
[ There is only one thing that a Viera would say never to utter. It's their name. Their birthname. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 02:50 am (UTC)It is a secret. I do not have any other secrets. There is nothing else I can be certain he does not know.
[ With that, he finally lets go and fumbles around in inner pockets of his cloak. He retrieves it from where it was tucked against his chest. A splinter of white auracite, it's surface stained with blood. He sets the stone down between them, stoking his fingers adoringly over it's surface. ]
This is him. It would be. Better. Maybe. For you to return home before you remember. But I wanted you to see him.
[ And if it would be presumptuous to refer to the Rising Stones as G'raha's home, he doesn't seem to care. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-09 03:04 am (UTC)He sees the look in Marcel's eye too. How could he make a choice that would rob Marcel of someone that brings such gentleness from him? That truly knows him. ]
Ah. You are probably right, of course. Do you mind? If I have a moment, I mean. My legs seem to be quite stiff still.
[ All while reaching out to touch that auracite. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-10 01:17 am (UTC)[ He should have kept hold of G'raha's hand, of course. He should have kept offering his arms. He doesn't. Instead, he closes his eyes and draws his knees up to his chest. He does not like this. He still does not like this, but it is good to have it out of his hands. They will return to the stones. And he can tell G'raha things as they go. About all the things he's missed. And then they will be safe at the stones, and people who understand the process better can guide G'raha through the process of the merging of souls. And he will only need to stand there and do as he is told.
His shoulders sink. He listens to the movement of water beneath the throne. To the sounds of the wilds of Mor Dhona and the distant thudding of giant footsteps. And he listens to G'raha's heartbeat - different in waking than in sleep - and dismisses the sound of movement as him trying to bring feeling back into his limbs. ]
The tea will be cold. When we return. This is acceptable. There will be more tea.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-10 01:34 am (UTC)You seem to be in more distress than I.
[ Why, though. It doesn't make any sense. Marcel had just admitting to having feelings for this other version of himself. Surely he would want him back instead of mourn, in all actuality. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-10 02:00 am (UTC)[ Is he distressed? It doesn't feel as if he has any right to be. He looks over at G'raha, blinking in confusion.
Is this what distress is meant to feel like? Like exhaustion and anger and fondness and terror, all of them tangled together? ]
-I am tired. I think. The last day has been. Long. Difficult. It will be good, when everyone is safe. To rest.
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