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heartofthestar

Hear.
Feel.
Think.
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From:

placation

With another wave of new arrivals pouring in, I thought I might ask you...

The other Ancients who have appeared from your reality recently. How are you holding up about that?

[ Hythlodaeus is a preeminently charming and friendly man, and Lahabrea seems fine as well, but Maruki knows enough about her history to know he should ask. Should have done so sooner, but... well, the past month was a mess on several levels. Better late than never. ]

From:

heartofthestar

You needn't worry. Hythlodaeus is practically incapable of a negative though, I sometimes think.

[At this point, she has yet to even realized Lahabrea has appeared here -- their paths have simply not yet crossed. And Emet-Selch might very well have been a trick of the Labyrinth, for all that he has yet to surface again.]

From:

placation

[ Lahabrea tabled for the moment, because there's more to it than just their appearance here alone. ]

He certainly seems friendly, to say the least! He's come by Eyn Sof as well, just to chat. I like him a lot.

Did he tell you anything of the reality that he came from? Not your own, the other one.

From:

heartofthestar

We'd hardly established any difference existed in our conversation. It is not particularly surprising -- the timelines fractured quite a bit around that point, owing to time travel and predestination paradoxes.

From:

placation

I don't find it surprising either, given everything I know about how reality works and warps. That there are other realities out there that pull in others from their own disparate worlds makes sense. Somnius isn't unique in that way.

I've met a few others now who came from that same reality. What does surprise me is the fact that I was supposedly there with them. A version of me, at any rate.

From:

heartofthestar

That is not surprising. It came to pass that two versions of a person from my star existed at the same time, one at rest in the Crystal Tower and one on another shard, having traveled there from the future.

From:

placation

Stranger things have happened, I suppose. All in all, I'm better equipped to find out that there is another me out there in the universe than most people would be. Still, though - I want to know more about him, but it appears I was much less social in that reality. I do wonder why...

Ah, but I met another one too, Lahabrea-san.

[ ... ]

And he met Azathoth, so. There's that!

From:

heartofthestar

Please decsribe Lahabrea.

[He can tell how fast she typed that, because that is ACTUALLY A TYPO]

From:

placation

[ GIRL ARE YOU OKAY?? ]

Far be it from me to call anyone old, especially an Ancient, but... well, he looked physically older than you or Hythlodaeus-san do by far. Dark robes, red mask. Gruff... but not unkind.

Is everything okay?

From:

heartofthestar

It sounds as if that is the Lahabrea from before the Sundering, rather than after. A fortunate state of affairs, because after the Sundering, he became one of my most implacable foes and threats for millennia afterward.

From:

placation

Ah. I see.

Before that, you two were on good terms?

From:

heartofthestar

I would not call them bad terms. Professionally courteous on the rare occasion our paths crossed, may be the best phrasing.

From:

placation

Ah, one of those. I understand.

It must be strange, having other Ancients appearing after you've been here for a while. If anything about it - or them - does bother you, you'll talk to me, right?

From:

heartofthestar

Of course. You can guess, like as not, what I already feel. Some small measure of guilt, and some larger measure of grief. Naught of concern, I believe, for what emotions could come more naturally in this happenstance?

From:

placation

Of course, that's all normal. Expected. But that doesn't mean it isn't any concern.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to deal with me insisting on that.

[ ... ]

You know Eren Jaeger, right?

From:

heartofthestar

I should say, not of concern on a professional level at this time, as I cannot see any way those feelings are abnormal or maladaptive. I would of course expect you to care on a personal level.

I do know Eren, yes. We have fought together on occasion.

From:

placation

[ She's ridiculous... He's so fond. Not even gonna address professional vs. personal care at the moment. ]

Have you? I bet you two make a terrifying team.

He's become a dear friend of mine. So much so that when he and a few others moved onto a farm that he bought, he gave me a permanent guest room there to come and go as I please. It really was too kind of him...

Anyhow. My point is I now have free use of a really, ridiculously nice property. And a baby chick who thinks I'm its father, which I suppose is a bonus.

Come spend some time with me here. I want to hear about how you're feeling, even if it isn't abnormal or maladaptive.

From:

heartofthestar

That sounds delightful. And romantic, as well. An excellent tactic to both comfort me and woo me, I must say.

From:

placation

I'd say the latter was an unintended and happy consequence, but I would be lying, and I can't lie to you.

Please come over any time. I'm just hanging out by the pond, you can't miss it.

[ Location sent! It really is a very nice farm. Maruki's lucky to be able to call it another little slice of home.

It's early evening, the summer sun just beginning its inexorable descent below the horizon, and he really ought to put said baby chick in the coop for the night. But she's asleep in some flowers and he's comfortable leaning up against a rock to read, so if Venat does choose to join him, that's how she'll find him. ]

From:

heartofthestar

[As should be no surprise, Venat arrives by air-dog not long after he'd extended the invitation. Luckily, she is keen of eye, and understands he's out here for more than just a place to read against a rock, so Venat lands Argos some distance away. The two approach on foot instead, with her hand raises to greet him.]

From:

placation

[ OH. Unintended bonus, perhaps: Argos might like the farm too! Do familiar dogs need to run the way real ones do? Probably not. Maruki doesn't know animals, much less familiars. But it's a thought that crosses his mind as he stands, book dog-eared and left aside, and makes his way over to meet them halfway.

He's been deliberately slow introducing Venat to the finer points of partnering with someone (get bent, BB) – and happily so, at that. It's more enjoyable this way, easing into even the simplest shows of affection that no one would think twice about back in his true reality. It lends a significant weight to every act, and for an endlessly sentimental guy, that's only ever a boon.

Still, though, there is always this: Greeting Venat with arms outstretched to wrap her up in an embrace, hugging her close before separating just enough to be able to look her in the eye, smiling like every star in the sky. ]

Thank you for joining me. It's a nice place, isn't it?

[ To say the least. Eren's wish had been for a simple farm; what he got is a little absurd, including the massive farmhouse some distance behind them.

Maruki unwraps one arm from around her to extend a hand to Argos as well, never one to leave him out even as he's unwilling to let go so quickly. ]

From:

heartofthestar

[This gesture, the warm and casual hug, the emotions -- they're all very foreign, as he well knows, and in some respects uncomfortable and even scary. Yet in the same moment, they hold warmth and comfort and delight. So Venat ignores all her negative feelings, or rather challenges them quite directly, by returning the hug without hesitation. The only barriers between them are ones she has constructed, and thus, ones she must dismantle.]

[Argos noses on up to give Maruki's hand a sniff and a quick lick. Between the man doing a decent job at making Venat happy and proving he's no weakling during the battle against the Green Knight, the dog has fully accepted Maruki as worth being around at this point.]

No doubt I'll agree once I actually view it. I fear you've taken up my attention entirely.

From:

placation

[ And yet, for as foreign as he knows it all is for Venat, she's not bad at this at all. (Then again, has she ever truly been bad at anything in her long life? Somehow, he doubts it.) A faint flush rises in his cheeks at that, but he doesn't fluster or try to hide it. ]

Well, loath as I am to leave that spotlight...

[ And he does linger there for a few moments longer, merely smiling at her, bringing a hand up to stroke a few loose strands of hair back. It's a powerful affection he feels, constantly squeezing his ribcage; these small outlets for it matter.

But then he swings around to stand by Venat's side instead, an arm still wrapped around her waist, the other gesturing expansively to the fields, the farmhouse, the barn, that tree off in the distance that's perfect for napping beneath. It's a bucolic, beautiful place, and Maruki has to laugh a little. ]

You'd think that cottages and castles would be the most jarring sights for a city guy like me to contend with, but no. A farm is somehow much stranger. Still, I'm becoming fond of it.

Edited Date: 2024-08-26 07:47 pm (UTC)

From:

heartofthestar

Is that not because cottages and castles are fantastical to you, whereas a farm is something quite real and relevant? Rather than viewing something you know you could never see, you are viewing something you instead would never see.

[That is her own estimation, in any case. She might herself feel this way about romance in the midst of all this madness -- a surprisingly real thing, and so much stranger for all that.]

Praytell, what grows here?

[She leaves one arm around him in turn, mimicking his gesture and finding warmth in it. The strength of a person standing beside her is welcome in its own unusual way, and rather than finding herself adrift in unfamiliarity, she instead wonders what comes next.]

From:

placation

[ Maruki hums his assent at her observation; as ever, Venat is right on the money.

At her question, though, he has to laugh and give a self-conscious scratch to the stubble along his jaw. ]

Eh, good question...

[ It cannot be overstated just how much he is a useless freeloader here. He might have learned to enjoy hiking and camping, but outdoor manual labor? Never. He does no work on this farm, and thank god for it. ]

They have a vegetable garden, I know that. And there are a fair few animals – chickens, Eren's horse, and this... dragon thing...

[ A squint, a furrowed brow. What the hell is Patrasche? He may never know. ]

Aside from that, though, I think that Eren mostly wanted the land to have the privacy away from the rest of Somnius. Not for any real practical purpose. I can't say I'm not grateful for it.

[ An affectionate little squeeze around her waist, then, as he gestures over to where he'd been relaxing by the pond, in case she'd like to join. ]