[limbo] // do you walk in the valley of kings

[discutio]

[To cast out the Usurper and usher in dawn's light will cost the life of the Chosen. The voice that had shaken him down to the very core of his existence still echoed in Phoenix's head, words utter nonsense to him now and yet...something about them hurt more than he could measure. Hurt like the gravest news about a dearest friend, hurt like something tearing at his heart and soul. Though the details were lost in a haze of a previous life's memories, he understood the bottom line. One life, the one dearest to the man Phoenix once was, would have to be sacrificed to protect all else-]

[Don't try to justify this! She didn't need to die!]

[Hurt like the agonized rage in that snarl, thundering fury to match the torrential rain around them. The fury of someone who had lost everything, someone--someone whose name he should have known, whose loss he understood and yet couldn't remember the source of. That woman--no, his sister, something terrible had become of her and nearly become of someone just as close to Phoenix's own heart. Everything came in flashes; a man in white and a sword flashing with lightning, faces he failed to recognize and one he knew already. The man in black that had posed briefly as another was a danger above all others, and somehow in the chaos of memory Phoenix understood his past self had known that. 'Oh, what good is a world that only ever lets you down', said the mocking tone, a knife toyed with idly above the unconscious form of...of someone. Someone that meant everything, someone that Phoenix would gladly die to protect.]

[...Maybe he would, the relic of untold power in his hand before he had fully consider what he was doing. It didn't matter. it didn't matter at all what happened to him, because he had sworn-]

[Whatever it takes...I will protect him-!]

[In a memory of rain-soaked stone, the world erupted in flames and agony before going dark forever.]

[In a kitchen in Limbo, there was a clattering of whatever Phoenix had been holding falling to the floor before he very swiftly followed it.]

Comments

[discutio]

Even so, I'm not interested. Why do you want me to hit you so badly?

[schardynfreude]

Because you were not capable of hurting me in a way that mattered before.

[discutio]

So you just want to prove a point?

[schardynfreude]

Apparently that's not good enough for you.

[discutio]

Because I don't want to hit you, and I don't understand why this is such a sticking point at the moment.

[schardynfreude]

Fine.

Is there anything else in the air that needs cleared, or perhaps even further muddled?

[discutio]

Perhaps I should be asking you that.

[schardynfreude]

You're the one who wanted to talk.

[discutio]

And you're the one in greater conflict.

You're always trying to help me when I'm insisting it isn't necessary. Is it so terrible to have it reversed on you?

[schardynfreude]

And how do you propose you help?

[discutio]

I'm trying to offer to let you talk and clear the air as you choose. We can't very well tell anyone else all of this, so who do we have to confide in but each other?

[schardynfreude]

And we have confided. What more do you want?

[discutio]

...

[Phoenix sighed, sightless gaze drifting to the ground. It was a question he couldn't come up with an answer to, and yet to leave things like this felt...wrong, somehow.]

I don't know.

[schardynfreude]

None of us do. If you've questions, ask. Otherwise... [Sure there's more he could say, probably, but like. He's a little bit Done with this whole feeling things intensely thing. No thanks. Refund please.]

[discutio]

The only question I have, I already asked. I was only...concerned about you.

[schardynfreude]

Concerned. About me. Not yourself? Was this whole thing because you were concerned about me, when you're the one who--

[He snaps his mouth shut and just. Huff! HUFF, sir.]

Well, I don't know what I could do that could be concerning. Can't rightly die again in any event, so I suppose the worst could really be walking off and just never coming back like Kingslayer. [He's being flippant. This is far too flippant for right now.]

[discutio]

Chiron, you watched my past self set himself on fire, when would I ever be concerned about myself.

[speaking of flippant.]

...I don't want you to disappear. I can't explain it, knowing how little sense that must make now of all times, but...it would feel wrong, I think, to not have you with us.

[schardynfreude]

You certainly cared far too much about someone who only ever let you--

[He abruptly stops everything for a good long moment, including breathing.]

...In any event. [right. right then.] Funny thing, how much you care about others but refuse to let anyone care about you in return.

[discutio]

[Phoenix sighed, taking his sunglasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose.]

About that. I...owe you an apology, I think.

[schardynfreude]

...Do you.

[discutio]

I have, perhaps, been a little more resistant to your offers of help than I should have been. I failed to recognize that's just something you seem to do with everyone, rather than...

[He trailed off with a sound of faint annoyance, pocketing his sunglasses.]

...I assumed you were underestimating my capabilities, or presuming I needed looking after. So I wanted to apologize for my misunderstanding.

[schardynfreude]

...For someone so observant [you KNOW what he MEANS] you can be spectacularly stupid.

[discutio]

...Pardon me?

[schardynfreude]

You just assumed my friendliness was just me taking pity on you? Goodness, did you presume I never interacted with anyone else as well, or that I became a completely different person around them? [He tuts quietly.] Is that what the issue has been all this time?

[discutio]

I can't explain why that felt like the obvious explanation, just...

[It just did, and he couldn't remember why.]

...I suppose it has, more or less.