[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]

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.

[schardynfreude]

Ah. One of those feelings.

Well. [...Well!] I don't know where this leaves us in any event.

[discutio]

Perhaps we could...start over, and see where things go from here. I can at least be a little more accepting of your aid from here onward, if you still wish to give it.

[schardynfreude]

Start over and lose the rapport we've so painstakingly built up, hardly.

We'll just have to see.

[discutio]

If that's what you want, that's fine.

[He took his sunglasses back out, sliding them into place.]

[schardynfreude]

I simply do not understand your viewpoint that this past both matters quite a bit and doesn't seem to matter at all. You strange fellow. Reckless.

[discutio]

It matters as much as one does or does not wish it to. I choose to believe the Chiron in front of me now is not the one that stood in the same place then. At the same time, I recognize that I need to know who it is I've forgotten--who I needed to protect to the point that I care nothing for what I gave up to protect him.

[schardynfreude]

I stabbed a woman in front of her fiance and mocked them both for it, impersonated someone to gain your trust, used some form of magic I know not whence it came, threatened your prince, threatened your friend, and then fought you and left you. That was me. Back when I was living.

[discutio]

And you seem quite upset about it now, in a way I can't quite picture that person caring enough to be.

I don't know how else to explain this to you, except to say simply that I want to trust you. Until you do something here that makes me find you dangerous, I am not simply going to think you a threat because of our past.

[schardynfreude]

...I see.

[He hesitates, because it's still A Lot to take in, but...after struggling with the sentiment for a moment:] Thank you.