Solus zos Galvus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emet_sulk) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
avalononline2022-08-01 10:15 pm
emet_sulk) wrote in avalononline2022-08-01 10:15 pm
Entry tags:
video; got any mushies?
[ For the first time, Emet-Selch is trying out a video post instead of his usual text. The feed shows a man in his mid- or late-30s with long, dark brown hair that has been tied into a loose braid. His streak of white hair hangs free and frames the right side of his face.
He clears his throat and sits straight, looking at his device's screen (and therefore not into the camera, as the more tech-savvy would). ]
Greetings. I am-- My name is Hades. I am an alchemist...and a goldsmith. I manage a business known as Polydegmon's Lapidary and Brew within Camelot City. In light of the sudden surfeit of mushrooms this season, I would be willing to purchase any unusual or magical fungi you may happen across as you forage. I will also accept the more common varieties used in potion-making.
[ He pauses, glancing slightly off to the side as though reading something. In the background, something that appears to be a flying betta fish with iridescent scales glides past serenely. ]
Ah, I do take custom commissions on potions and jewellery, provided they are not used for nefarious purposes. And I have a grimoire that new alchemists may peruse should they visit. I do believe it is 'that time of the month' again.
[ With that, the video cuts off. ]
He clears his throat and sits straight, looking at his device's screen (and therefore not into the camera, as the more tech-savvy would). ]
Greetings. I am-- My name is Hades. I am an alchemist...and a goldsmith. I manage a business known as Polydegmon's Lapidary and Brew within Camelot City. In light of the sudden surfeit of mushrooms this season, I would be willing to purchase any unusual or magical fungi you may happen across as you forage. I will also accept the more common varieties used in potion-making.
[ He pauses, glancing slightly off to the side as though reading something. In the background, something that appears to be a flying betta fish with iridescent scales glides past serenely. ]
Ah, I do take custom commissions on potions and jewellery, provided they are not used for nefarious purposes. And I have a grimoire that new alchemists may peruse should they visit. I do believe it is 'that time of the month' again.
[ With that, the video cuts off. ]
no subject
Small wonder at your irritation over my technique with the greatsword. And small wonder your advice proved so informative, when I was learning technique from he whose skill spurred me to adopt it.
[She knows, well does she know, that her utter lack of acrimony must cut far deeper than if she and he had been at each other's throats at the very moment of revelation. He must surely prefer to hate her without compunction or complication...
But how can she be angry? For all his moodiness and flaws, Emet-Selch -- Hades -- is and has been a good man; the fact that he never once struck at her out of revenge or even simple frustration, here in Avalon, proves that. And if he spent seven eras damning people to misery and hell on Etheirys, it is less than she herself had done in the moment of the sundering.]
no subject
What were you trying to do - remember me? After sparing no effort to see the last of us dead?
no subject
[And any number of arguments could be made. That only one of them moved forwards. That what he sought to remember had died that day Meteion gave her report, after no small time of sickness unseen... That their own insistence in fighting had brought them to their ends, never her aggression...]
[But why?]
[Her voice is soft, but her expression perfectly smooth. A poker face had perhaps never been a gift associated with Azem, but Hydaelyn wore one for centuries.]
Our quarrel is over. We are both returned to the aetherial sea, only to be reborn here. Ever was our fight over ideals, for had we none worth fighting for neither of us would have had our Council seats.. and full well do I understand yours, for all that I opposed them. I do not ask you to forgive. I do not ask you to forget. But it would be my dearest hope that we can leave all that has happened in our past, where it belongs, and be reconciled. Neither of us deserve this new life, here, yet for now we have been granted it. Let us not waste it.
[Perhaps more emotion would make the appeal stronger, but she cannot bring herself to let him glimpse just how much of herself she puts into this plea. After all, putting up a show of strength had been her way for so long... that perhaps she no longer knows how to be so genuine with anyone save those closest to her. No, to Her, for She is who they knew, and now She is not Herself, nor Azem, but only Venat once again... and who had ever known her?]
no subject
[ It starts out heated before he cuts himself off, breathing hard. He'd spent so long hating her. Even now he disagrees with her assessment that their people could not have found a way to move forward. She, and she alone, is the reason for their losses as far as he's concerned.
Where is his resentment supposed to go if he puts it aside? It was one of the pillars that continued to sustain him even as all the rest had crumbled over time. ]
I finally have a life here, with Hythlodaeus, [ he says past gritted teeth. His voice is pitched low so the man himself cannot overhear from wherever he is in their home. ] I already nearly lost him here once. If you disturb what we have, if you draw him into any sort of trouble, if he dies again because of you--
[ Now he looks straight at the screen (although it still appears as though he's looking down because he isn't staring into the camera)-- ]
I will kill you and use you to bring him back. I have nothing else left to lose now. Do you understand?
no subject
Hades. I know naught of discussion that has transpired between you, here and now, after all things. Perhaps Hythlodaeus has told you, openly and without a chance for doubt, that he would ever and always wish you to spill blood to undo the choices he undertakes of his own free will. And if that is so, I crave pardon. But if not...
[She lowers her head, just that much, the fingers of her hand rising to her forehead.]
You have said it yourself. You have a life here, now. We do not know how long it will last. Perhaps we will return to the aetherial sea once more, at the end of all this... I would think it likely. Yet we are here now. This time is a gift for all of us.
[Perhaps less so her. Perhaps she is here because Hades had preceded her, and the forces that govern this realm know that balance is required... or perhaps their eternal conflict has bound them, by some arcane means. Disturbing thoughts, not worth thinking. Not now, as she looks back into her phone and the eyes of the man on the other side.]
[I close my eyes, tell us why must we suffer
Release your hands, for your will drags us under...]
Your anger, your hate, your grip on the past -- they hurt you, and only you and those you care about. And you are clear-sighted enough to know in your heart that no small amount of that hatred is for yourself, not me. It serves no purpose, it brings no strength, it only sustains the misery you have dwelt in for so long. Like a sword after the war's end, its time has past. You have lived with it long enough, my comrade of old... put it all aside, and with it the barriers that keep you from the happiness you wish for.
[My legs grow tired, tell us where must we wander
How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?]
no subject
No, I'm fine, 'Daeus. 'Tis nothing.
[ A few more reassurances before he turns back with a brooding, morose expression. Some moments pass where it's clear Hades is attempting to calm himself - enough at least so that it doesn't trickle over the bond he now shares with his friend.
When he speaks again, it's at a much lower volume. ]
...You're wrong. Anger and hate are all that sustained me during the aeons following the Sundering. Such is the world you left us with, Hydaelyn. A world where kindness is repaid with the knife of betrayal, where generosity is laughed at and taken advantage of, where sickness and death dog one's every step. But I tried being merciful. I tried being kind here - and still they took Hythlodaeus and beat him to death because they thought I had a soft heart. He did not choose THAT death now, did he? He spent his final moments in helpless terror because I could not find him in time to free him. When they were done, they left his broken body on my doorstep.
[ His eyes bore into her image on the screen. Once, that gaze of his would have been most piercing, but mortal eyes are far duller. Mundane. They see a fraction of what they once could. ]
Should I have caved into their demands instead, do you think? Made them the deadly concoctions demanded of me and turned away from the suffering they would have caused to others? No, they would have continued to coerce me by threatening him, and Hythlodaeus' continued well-being would be paid in blood regardless of the choice I made. You may not have had any hand in creating this world, but such are the lessons I have learnt in the one you sundered. I don't doubt that before the turn of the next year, I will have to punish some young upstart who thinks the mass-slaughter I committed several moons ago was exaggerated, because mortal man is incapable of remembering the lessons of the past.
[ It takes incredible effort not to let the entirety of his raw anguish show on his face. He's tired. So damn tired. That tiredness is why it's easier to hate her than unpack the gamut of reasons for his own guilt, else there would be nothing to stop him taking up a knife and slitting his own throat. Honestly, he deserves worse for everything he's done. The moment Hythlodaeus is truly gone, there will be no further reason for him to live. ]
But no matter how much I hate myself I will always loathe you more, because you would have kept Hythlodaeus and all the rest of our people trapped in your gods-damned prison until the end of time if Fandaniel had not thrown himself into the Cradle and been slain by the Warrior of Light!
no subject
[Mayhap. But on the balance, she believes that Hades needs a mirror held up to his soul, to find a way to come to peace with all that has happened. Mayhap she'll not feel her duty done until she can bring what peace she can to him, now that the ethereal sea and rest have been denied them both.]
[And so to seek that path of peace, she takes up words of war.]
How swift you are to blame me... when I did not cast the vote that put him there to begin with. When the Convocation cast out the one member that would not accede to the Zodiark plan. You and your comrades knew the price, a full half our people, and you were willing to pay it with no chance that it would ever be undone -- until the moment someone you knew and cared for volunteered to be among that half.
I accept my guilt, Hades. I condemned all life to suffer in search of advancement, and well do I deserve scorn and contempt and hatred heaped upon my shoulders. You hide from yours, and run from it. Through your own actions, your own choice, you lost your friend. When given the chance to undo that, you destroyed all that was good and noble and wise about yourself in the hopes of undoing his freely-chosen sacrifice... out of guilt, and the very inability to move forward from the past and learn its lessons that necessitated my actions. And ever thereafter you pushed the stars down the path of suffering you now sneer at me for creating. You and yours, from the start, did all you scorn - paying trust with betrayal, kindness with malice, and setting civilization after civilization for sickness and death and worse.
[Suddenly, it's too much. Venat moves abruptly, the sound a heartbeat later indicating that she'd punched something out of view. That's enough to take the edge off, but no longer can her voice or her face maintain that perfect calm.]
From the beginning! From first principles, Hades, you chose sacrifice! And then you, who alone possess the strength to recreate Amaurot solid and substance whole, chose sacrifice again rather than spend time and effort and heart to rebuild the world that needed it! You started this, Hades. You put the world down the path of cruelty and suffering, of walking a backwards path paved with the souls of your people, long before I ever stirred to action. And though my heart grieves for Hythlodaeus, after your tale of what befell him, I've no sympathy for your pain, for you played the role of those heartless thugs first and gladly, willing to harm and kill to get what you want because you believed other people weaker than you, and thus worthless. And yet you blame me.
no subject
THUD. The device bounces off a wall and lands facedown on the floor. Everything stills. In the background, muffled voices. Concern, more anger, and then after a few minutes someone picks up the phone and cuts the connection without looking at the screen. ]