[Aubrey nods. Then remembers she’s on voice.] Yeah. I’ll wait outside, then.
Thanks again....
[She doesn’t hang up, but she does set the phone aside for a while. If Venat’s still listening, there’s a pause—some footsteps on wood, distant running water from a sink. Quiet; then the soft slash of a blade through long-dried overgrowth.
[The phone comes with her, pocketed, when she steps out. As described, Aubrey lives towards the northeast border of the treehouses; her house is small, and many tangles from the previous month have been left to wilt. A bridge off to one side, in better condition, connects it to a house that’s been cleared nigh-obsessively good as new.
[Aubrey herself looks fairly different than when she and Venat last saw each other, at least in broad daylight. Dark roots claw through her hair, and she’s scarcely worn her bright contacts since that long night. There’s also a pale yellow ribbon wrapped around her right wrist, like a bandage.
[Her face is still red, betraying a bigger outburst than the call did. But there’s a quiet, anxious anticipation in now-dry eyes. It’s light out today.
[Aubrey sits at the base of a nearby tree, looking up to the clouds with her chin in her hands, and waits.]
[Perhaps, Aubrey, just perhaps -- it may be difficult to feel pain and despair over the world and the state of the people in it, when but a couple of minutes later, Venat descends towards the treehouse on the back of a massive Afghan hound. Venat, of course, would say the wonder in the world is not her atop Argos's back, but everything she sees from up there -- but that's Venat for you.]
[Argos lands gently by the tree, a respectful distance away, so that Venat can alight from him with the smooth grace of a practiced traveler. She leans in to murmur a few quick words to the hound, running her hand down his neck as she does, then straightens to approach Aubrey with a warm smile.]
[She suspects Aubrey needs something like a mother right now. All she has ever been is the goddess of a star, but she'll do her very best nonetheless.]
[It’s true. Existential malaise has nothing on a giant floating Afghan hound.
[Aubrey stands as soon as the familiar comes into view, and watches, borderline reverent, as Venat dismounts. Awe supersedes anything else, though there’s no shortage of relief in the smile that breaks out from Venat’s approach. She’s got half a mind to hug the woman. They’ve only really met in-person twice, but… they are friends, right? Venat means a lot to her.]
Hey.... Wow. [Breathless, and more than a little dumb. Aubrey’s not sure how much distance to close; there’s no sword at her side to gauge that for her. But she does step forward, almost tentative.] Big dog you got there.
Argos and I traveled the world, back when I was an active traveler. Full glad am I indeed to be reunited with him here.
[Though the situation is slightly more complicated than that; as a familiar, this Argos is a creation of Venat's here, not the original construct that dwelt on the moon for ages until her champion found him. But thinking about that too much is simply not worthwhile, for the two shall not cross paths, nor is a familiar born from a concept truly not an original either.]
[Stepping forward to close the distance between then, Venat leaves a hand on her dog's shoulder as if too guide him. Argos is notoriously picky about the company he meets in many ways, but Venat had quite strictly told him of the two fights she had see Aubrey in and how he ought very well to respect that, so the hound patiently advances with his master, ducking his head a little so that Aubrey won't be intimidated.]
[Aubrey’s not intimidated at all; or, well, maybe a little as he gets closer. But not so much she doesn’t wave a bit, feeling a bit like she’s being introduced to her friend’s pet for the first time.
[Actually…] Can I… [Small throat clear.] Uh, may I, if it doesn’t disrespect your loyal companion…
[Dear Aubrey, Venat wouldn't have brought him so close if she didn't intend to permit that! And Argos himself seems amenable, dropping down to a seated position as his tail describes slow arcs on the ground.]
[There is but one thought at the forefront of Aubrey’s mind, as she reaches forward: Do not baby-talk the millennia-old traveling companion. He is a regal familiar.]
Hey, Argos. [She holds out a hand, palm up, for him to sniff; and should that be approved, offers a good lil scritch on the bridge of his snout.]
[Fine with her. This is the… maybe not the best day of her life, but it has improved substantially.
[Venat’s words do temper the dog-petting glee a bit, though.]
Yeah.... [Aubrey sighs, venturing to run her hand over Argos’s fluffy cheek. He has well-done braids.] I mean, I guess there’s no point hiding it. My friend [a nod back towards that connected house] must’ve gone off to the labyrinth. And I went with another friend, and it…
[The smile drops fully. She keeps petting Argos, though it’s become an absent gesture.]
[What can she say? Venat likes small braids such as that. Look at her own, after all. A little adornment, nothing fancy, merely something to add a little style.]
[The labyrinth. Of course it would be such a source of trouble... ]
[It’s occurring to Aubrey that that, if she’d been asked about dying out of nowhere like that, she would’ve been more than a little concerned. Venat is a saint.]
I’m not… sure what there is to say. [But there’s a lot. Soft dog fluff around her hand is grounding, somehow.] We fell. We woke up in a room, and this crystal was just… draining our life forces, I guess.
[She sounds too casual in her own ears, distant as it is. Detached, maybe. There’s no point letting the horror sink in, not when it…]
For a while there, I… [Her hand stops moving. It closes loosely around the longer fur by Argos’s neck, feeling his warmth and pulse.]
Ah. Few things are more insidious than making surrender seem so easy.
[Close your eyes, stop fighting, accept that you tried and failed. Perhaps even come to think that the fight had never been worthwhile to begin with...]
[Venat curls a hand before her heart.]
Do you feel weak for almost wanting to surrender? As if you let yourself and others down?
[As she suspected. Uncurling her fingers, Venat gestures widely to emphasize her words.]
But you did not. And whether or not you would have succumbed alone, you were not alone. Quite to the contrary, you had someone there to help and support you. Someone who did help and support you, because they valued you, your life and your presence in theirs. That was not luck or coincidence, but your own strength and conviction building from the past to the present, in a different form but no less yours because of that.
[Stepping forward, Venat reaches out to lay a hand on the girl's shoulder. Physical contact is not normal for her, by any means... what with coming from a terrifically repressed and impersonal society, then spending twelve millennia entirely alone in the depths of the aetherial sea. But new times call for new adaptations, and if this will help Aubrey, then no more need be thought about it.]
You are not weak, Aubrey. You are human. With all the flaws, and all the virtues, that come with that. And how could we feel let down, when you faced such a terrible challenge, yet overcame it and came back to us? Rather, I am proud, and glad.
[Something about Venat always manages to throw Aubrey. Not in a bad way. Maybe countless years alive will do that to a person, nigh-endless experience and wisdom and all that—but it never feels like she’s being talked down to.
[It feels like a hand on her shoulder, guiding and patient. It feels, maybe, like being… human.
[It feels like someone missing.
[Someone who surrendered. Someone who will never get to pet a dog or see the light again. Someone who would have told Aubrey she was proud of her, and glad she existed—even if, in the end, it wasn’t enough.
[Tears are falling before she can think to stop them, and Aubrey pulls both hands back to cover her face, shaking.]
Venat....
[Not that her voice can hide anything. She leans into that touch. She can’t help it.]
[Well. What more can she do than reach out to draw Aubrey into a hug?]
[For all her skills and knowledge, Venat is not terribly good at hugs. Sheer lack of practice over the course of a very long life means she has no instinctual ability to compensate for their height difference. And the robes she wears are quite voluminous, forming a barrier between Venat and Aubrey.]
[Doesn’t matter to Aubrey. She throws her arms around Venat and melts, burying ugly sobs in voluminous robes. It’s not the same, of course, but—nothing else is.
[It’s a chasm. Nothing fills it. Months in Somnius have found Aubrey in far, far closer contact with people than she ever had been, compared to four long years in Faraway; the ache lingers, always. Venat’s words, her presence, bring it into sharp focus.
[And yet. Aubrey has held Sunny close; he needs her, too. She’s leaned on Eren; he knows how it feels. She and Luz support each other with words, when all else fails; there’s no need to fall apart.
[Venat has lived a thousand lifetimes. What does Aubrey have to offer but a flash of bravery and the mess underneath? (The stories, and what they mean to Venat in turn, are harder to hold on to.) Pulling Venat tight is different. It’s indulgent. It’s missed. The girl craves it desperately.]
[Not just the stories, not just the meaning. Aubrey is an exemplar of what Venat holds most dear to her heart -- the human spirit, and its search for meaning in a life that has none inherently. When Venat said Aubrey and people like her are her light, that may have in fact been understatement.]
[Beacons of light and life. Laughter that warmed my heart like naught else before. They are my meaning and my purpose. My love. So that is what Venat offers Aubrey, even through an imperfect hug: warmth, purpose, and love unending.]
Would you care to tell me about her? Though she cannot meet me, through your words, I can meet her.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:03 pm (UTC)H-hi, Venat…
[Aubrey’s voice is choked and wavering. She manages a light laugh.]
S-sorry to surprise you… I kind of just. Wanted to hear your voice again, hah....
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:16 pm (UTC)[She sniffs. The state of her house is her last concern right now, for once.]
Yeah, I’d… I’d like that. [Inhale, shaky exhale.] Th-thank you, ah… Who’s Argos…?
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:40 pm (UTC)R-right, um… I’m at my treehouse. It’s—
[Pause. There was some way to send a location, she’d done it before, but everything felt like a mess. Verbal instruction would have to do.]
If you’re headed here from town, I’m at the edge of the grounds. There’s a bridge, and— I can meet you and Argos somewhere, instead…?
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 07:07 pm (UTC)[Aubrey nods. Then remembers she’s on voice.] Yeah. I’ll wait outside, then.
Thanks again....
[She doesn’t hang up, but she does set the phone aside for a while. If Venat’s still listening, there’s a pause—some footsteps on wood, distant running water from a sink. Quiet; then the soft slash of a blade through long-dried overgrowth.
[The phone comes with her, pocketed, when she steps out. As described, Aubrey lives towards the northeast border of the treehouses; her house is small, and many tangles from the previous month have been left to wilt. A bridge off to one side, in better condition, connects it to a house that’s been cleared
nigh-obsessivelygood as new.[Aubrey herself looks fairly different than when she and Venat last saw each other, at least in broad daylight. Dark roots claw through her hair, and she’s scarcely worn her bright contacts since that long night. There’s also a pale yellow ribbon wrapped around her right wrist, like a bandage.
[Her face is still red, betraying a bigger outburst than the call did. But there’s a quiet, anxious anticipation in now-dry eyes. It’s light out today.
[Aubrey sits at the base of a nearby tree, looking up to the clouds with her chin in her hands, and waits.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 07:20 pm (UTC)[Argos lands gently by the tree, a respectful distance away, so that Venat can alight from him with the smooth grace of a practiced traveler. She leans in to murmur a few quick words to the hound, running her hand down his neck as she does, then straightens to approach Aubrey with a warm smile.]
[She suspects Aubrey needs something like a mother right now. All she has ever been is the goddess of a star, but she'll do her very best nonetheless.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 07:37 pm (UTC)[It’s true. Existential malaise has nothing on a giant floating Afghan hound.
[Aubrey stands as soon as the familiar comes into view, and watches, borderline reverent, as Venat dismounts. Awe supersedes anything else, though there’s no shortage of relief in the smile that breaks out from Venat’s approach. She’s got half a mind to hug the woman. They’ve only really met in-person twice, but… they are friends, right? Venat means a lot to her.]
Hey.... Wow. [Breathless, and more than a little dumb. Aubrey’s not sure how much distance to close; there’s no sword at her side to gauge that for her. But she does step forward, almost tentative.] Big dog you got there.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 07:46 pm (UTC)[Though the situation is slightly more complicated than that; as a familiar, this Argos is a creation of Venat's here, not the original construct that dwelt on the moon for ages until her champion found him. But thinking about that too much is simply not worthwhile, for the two shall not cross paths, nor is a familiar born from a concept truly not an original either.]
[Stepping forward to close the distance between then, Venat leaves a hand on her dog's shoulder as if too guide him. Argos is notoriously picky about the company he meets in many ways, but Venat had quite strictly told him of the two fights she had see Aubrey in and how he ought very well to respect that, so the hound patiently advances with his master, ducking his head a little so that Aubrey won't be intimidated.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 07:57 pm (UTC)[Aubrey’s not intimidated at all; or, well, maybe a little as he gets closer. But not so much she doesn’t wave a bit, feeling a bit like she’s being introduced to her friend’s pet for the first time.
[Actually…] Can I… [Small throat clear.] Uh, may I, if it doesn’t disrespect your loyal companion…
Would he like a pet?
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 08:01 pm (UTC)[Dear Aubrey, Venat wouldn't have brought him so close if she didn't intend to permit that! And Argos himself seems amenable, dropping down to a seated position as his tail describes slow arcs on the ground.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 08:09 pm (UTC)[There is but one thought at the forefront of Aubrey’s mind, as she reaches forward: Do not baby-talk the millennia-old traveling companion. He is a regal familiar.]
Hey, Argos. [She holds out a hand, palm up, for him to sniff; and should that be approved, offers a good lil scritch on the bridge of his snout.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 08:37 pm (UTC)You sound as if you have been having a rough day.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 08:52 pm (UTC)[Fine with her. This is the… maybe not the best day of her life, but it has improved substantially.
[Venat’s words do temper the dog-petting glee a bit, though.]
Yeah.... [Aubrey sighs, venturing to run her hand over Argos’s fluffy cheek. He has well-done braids.] I mean, I guess there’s no point hiding it. My friend [a nod back towards that connected house] must’ve gone off to the labyrinth. And I went with another friend, and it…
[The smile drops fully. She keeps petting Argos, though it’s become an absent gesture.]
It almost killed us.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 08:55 pm (UTC)[The labyrinth. Of course it would be such a source of trouble... ]
Do you wish to talk about it?
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 09:07 pm (UTC)[It’s occurring to Aubrey that that, if she’d been asked about dying out of nowhere like that, she would’ve been more than a little concerned. Venat is a saint.]
I’m not… sure what there is to say. [But there’s a lot. Soft dog fluff around her hand is grounding, somehow.] We fell. We woke up in a room, and this crystal was just… draining our life forces, I guess.
[She sounds too casual in her own ears, distant as it is. Detached, maybe. There’s no point letting the horror sink in, not when it…]
For a while there, I… [Her hand stops moving. It closes loosely around the longer fur by Argos’s neck, feeling his warmth and pulse.]
I almost wanted to surrender.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 09:18 pm (UTC)[Close your eyes, stop fighting, accept that you tried and failed. Perhaps even come to think that the fight had never been worthwhile to begin with...]
[Venat curls a hand before her heart.]
Do you feel weak for almost wanting to surrender? As if you let yourself and others down?
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 09:28 pm (UTC)[The motion catches Aubrey’s attention. She glances at it sidelong, and it’s just a bit familiar; a coincidence, though, surely.
[Her eyes don’t stray any higher.]
That’s… exactly how I feel, yeah. If Luz hadn’t been there, I…
I think I would have.
[It wasn’t just the crystal, was it....]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-02 09:41 pm (UTC)But you did not. And whether or not you would have succumbed alone, you were not alone. Quite to the contrary, you had someone there to help and support you. Someone who did help and support you, because they valued you, your life and your presence in theirs. That was not luck or coincidence, but your own strength and conviction building from the past to the present, in a different form but no less yours because of that.
[Stepping forward, Venat reaches out to lay a hand on the girl's shoulder. Physical contact is not normal for her, by any means... what with coming from a terrifically repressed and impersonal society, then spending twelve millennia entirely alone in the depths of the aetherial sea. But new times call for new adaptations, and if this will help Aubrey, then no more need be thought about it.]
You are not weak, Aubrey. You are human. With all the flaws, and all the virtues, that come with that. And how could we feel let down, when you faced such a terrible challenge, yet overcame it and came back to us? Rather, I am proud, and glad.
cw death talk (uh, moreso than the rest of the thread)
Date: 2024-06-02 10:14 pm (UTC)[Something about Venat always manages to throw Aubrey. Not in a bad way. Maybe countless years alive will do that to a person, nigh-endless experience and wisdom and all that—but it never feels like she’s being talked down to.
[It feels like a hand on her shoulder, guiding and patient. It feels, maybe, like being… human.
[It feels like someone missing.
[Someone who surrendered. Someone who will never get to pet a dog or see the light again. Someone who would have told Aubrey she was proud of her, and glad she existed—even if, in the end, it wasn’t enough.
[Tears are falling before she can think to stop them, and Aubrey pulls both hands back to cover her face, shaking.]
Venat....
[Not that her voice can hide anything. She leans into that touch. She can’t help it.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 02:25 pm (UTC)[For all her skills and knowledge, Venat is not terribly good at hugs. Sheer lack of practice over the course of a very long life means she has no instinctual ability to compensate for their height difference. And the robes she wears are quite voluminous, forming a barrier between Venat and Aubrey.]
[But nonetheless, she tries.]
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 08:19 pm (UTC)[Doesn’t matter to Aubrey. She throws her arms around Venat and melts, burying ugly sobs in voluminous robes. It’s not the same, of course, but—nothing else is.
[It’s a chasm. Nothing fills it. Months in Somnius have found Aubrey in far, far closer contact with people than she ever had been, compared to four long years in Faraway; the ache lingers, always. Venat’s words, her presence, bring it into sharp focus.
[And yet. Aubrey has held Sunny close; he needs her, too. She’s leaned on Eren; he knows how it feels. She and Luz support each other with words, when all else fails; there’s no need to fall apart.
[Venat has lived a thousand lifetimes. What does Aubrey have to offer but a flash of bravery and the mess underneath? (The stories, and what they mean to Venat in turn, are harder to hold on to.) Pulling Venat tight is different. It’s indulgent. It’s missed. The girl craves it desperately.]
S… Sorry.... [A gentle memory says, “Don’t be.”] Y-you just… someone who I—
[She forces a swallow. It’s been a while.]
I wish she could’ve met you....
no subject
Date: 2024-06-07 01:08 pm (UTC)[Beacons of light and life. Laughter that warmed my heart like naught else before. They are my meaning and my purpose. My love. So that is what Venat offers Aubrey, even through an imperfect hug: warmth, purpose, and love unending.]
Would you care to tell me about her? Though she cannot meet me, through your words, I can meet her.