[ closed ]

[oblige]

WHO: Dion Lesage oblige and Sleeper definecat
WHEN: Early October
WHERE: An unpopulated area.
WHAT: Sleeper's checking on a sad dragon.
NOTES\WARNINGS: References to death.


In the days that followed confirmation of the Phoenix's disappearance, Dion had continued his search. It was assured to be fruitless, just as it was the last time he'd vanished, but he can no more readily accept it than he did then. He knows what his friend has gone back to — and he knows what he hasn't gone back to.

When first they'd crossed paths in Aphaia, Dion had learned the Phoenix had not long outlasted him. What time he'd bought him amounted to precious few minutes. The thought itself was crushing, yet the other man had seen hope in their life here, fighting for their world once again.

He was always so good at finding reasons to hope.

Yet now, once more, he has disappeared. Dion doesn't want to accept what that would think for him. So he searches, using his dragoon leaps to cross rivers and hills and patches of urban sprawl. Occasionally, he draws upon his aether and takes to the skies, the shadow of his massive wings sweeping over unpopulated stretches of the bubble city. He sights and senses no signs of the Phoenix, but he can't bring himself to stop. Giving up the search would be the same as giving up on someone who'd not given up on him.

Occasionally, however, Dion has to relent. The aether composing his great draconic form unravels, vanishing in eager moth-eaten patches until it vanishes with a glimmer of light, and Dion drops to the land below once again. Despite himself, he examines his right arm, yet his focus is distant. He seems to be looking through his arm, at something else, somewhere else.

The Phoenix was the best of their world. Why, then, did this happen to him?

Comments

[definecat]

After making sure Clive had at least gotten some rest and a bit of comfort with their loss, Sleeper had moved on to the other person they knew had close ties to Joshua. Unfortunately, that particular person had been soaring above the islands in a fruitless search for one they had lost. But finally they manage to be in the right place at the right time when Bahamut comes down for a landing. As Dion stares into nothing, Sleeper pads over, rubbing against his legs in a feline greeting.

"I'd ask if there was anything I could do to help, but..."

It's pointless to try to get back people who had vanished from Etraya. Sometimes they returned, but sometimes they didn't. It made it worse, in some ways.

[oblige]

Spotting Sleeper, Dion does his level best to muster up a smile. It's a brittle thing, for all that he has never been able to overcome the intensity of his emotions, but it is good to see them. The effort is sincere, though the result is a sad attempt. As though he might make up for it, he leans to gently pat Sleeper's feline form, that he not fail entirely at a proper greeting.

"We've no power over such things, I know." It's a bleak truth in the moment, though one he cannot deny, though the strain in his voice suggests that he'd like to. None of them can do anything about the comings and goings of those from their world. He takes a moment to clear his throat, that he might rid the feelings from his voice. He won't, but he feels compelled to try. "Did we cross paths by chance, or have you found me this day?"

The latter seems apparent, for all his roving, but it is something to say.

[definecat]

"But those of us who remain are there to support you if you want it."

A tacit invitation, because they don't think they can bully Dion into a better place the way they had managed with Joshua's brother.

"I was with Clive earlier. Made sure he got hot food, a good hug and some sleep. I understand the need to search. I felt the same when my parent vanished, even though I knew because of what we were to each other. It's just...I don't want you to get hurt because you spent too much looking for someone who isn't where we can find him right now."

[oblige]

Dion finds himself touched by the kindness and concern, these things being relative rarities in his own world. At least, when it came to personal matters, to his feelings, he'd had but one person he could speak with. Carefully, he sinks to a seated position beside Sleeper, and his body's protests along the way prove their point.

"Thank you... For looking after him." Dion can't help being grateful for that too. He wears his emotions too plainly, and he has feared what Clive might glean from his expression or body language. These things he must try to rein in before Clive sees him. "And I am sorry to hear your parent vanished as well. I can likewise feel the absence, we can sense one another, but it is difficult to accept, knowing what it means for him."

He's silent for the length of a weighted pause. "And I am alone in that knowledge." This he will not change, for it would devastate Clive.

[definecat]

Sleeper considers, and just as they did for Clive, begins to put on mass so they can be large enough to serve as a comforting bulwark in their humanoid form, seated beside him.

"I may be young, but I've seen plenty of strangeness in my lifetime. Including learning that death isn't the ending we assume. Or that it is always permanent."

They can't consider that for all they were expected to save their worlds through their actions, it wasn't possible to save their hearts as well. Which is why Sleeper puts an arm around Dion, an invitation to relax some of that reservation and just talk.

"In my world, my biological parent survived, but his preferred host, Eddie, was murdered. They weren't joined at the time or Venom would have died in the explosion. It...well, there are ripples, echoes in the world sometimes. A part of him definitely lives. Bedlam was proof of that, because no symbiote could mimic a form that perfectly without direct knowledge."

[oblige]

Dion listens quietly as Sleeper expresses their thoughts. He doesn't take to contact as readily as others may, though he doesn't shrink from it. The proximity itself is a quiet comfort, and the tense line of his shoulders eases for it. Once more he finds himself grateful, knowing well no one need do these things for him.

"So some part of this Eddie surely remained... There are varied faiths in Storm, but some belive souls are reborn, to live a life anew. Yet they will be another person, live another life, knowing naught of what came before." They have no way of knowing whether souls do reincarnate, of course. How could they? Dion would like to think the Phoenix— that Joshua might live a fuller, better life. That he could have all that this lifetime had denied him, and yet... "I had hoped he might live more of this one, for all that he had endured. He deserved at least that much. His kindness and warmth was a rare and precious thing, I knew that from the first."

[definecat]

Sleeper feels the tension in Dion's body, and waits a bit to see if it goes away. When it does, they just leave it as a weight across the shoulders, an invitation to take as much comfort as is needed.

"No, his body was obliterated, but he wasn't dead. Eddie Brock is the King in Black. Or so it seems. I'm not really a part of the main hive so I can't sense things the way others might. Remember, I'm the black sheep in my family. Well, me and Toxin are probably the outcasts. Toxin would be my nibling, and thank goodness they aren't anything like their parent. Another reason I don't give much weight to fated outcomes. Even history can be changed if one is able to be there for it."

A pause, and a sigh. "I have to believe that a being that could save worlds is also able to set things on a better course."

Otherwise, some worlds would just put themselves right back into line for destruction.

[oblige]

As Sleeper explains, Dion listens quietly. He knows not the word nibling, but it sounds close enough to sibling that he feels he can safely venture a guess. The names his kind choose are curious to him, but Sleeper may well feel the same regarding Dion's people.

"The black sheep...or the black cat," he muses mildly. It's a bit shy of an attempt at humor, knowing well enough that his own family held no love for him. His father never had, and he'd never truly known his mother. Anabella disdained him for not being a pureblooded noble. So it went. "Do you believe we can change that which has already come to pass?"

It's a small question. A quiet one. He means to understand the hope Sleeper has, never having been the best at holding onto it himself.

[definecat]

"If not what has already happened, then at least to retrieve those we lost. If Echo can bring us back from death here, why not there? Too many good people die who should have had more time. Letting even one have more time should be something they can give us."

They don't know for certain, but they want to believe that there is more this than toying with lives and champions for worlds that might cease to be. Because he and Dylan are not from the same time, and it's something to ponder. Not with their brother, of course. Dylan worries about too many things.

"Perhaps your Phoenix will yet rise from the ashes. That is what all my world's legends of them speak of."

[oblige]

The last comment makes a smile tug at his lips, small though it may be. "The same is said in my own, though it is understood that it cannot undo death." Still, rising from the ashes was indeed the Phoenix's domain, and there is a comfort in the thought that other worlds maintain the same thing. "It represents hope, and..." He pauses, debating with himself, before he adds, "Joshua had always embodied it."

His capacity for hope had been so great that, even as children, Dion had found it infectious. It was so easy to believe they could build a better future together, they and their nations friends united in improving the world.

Reality had proven a harsh, cruel thing.

He lapses into silence for a time. His fellow Dominant had overcome so much. Though he had died on his own terms, he should have had the chance to live on them too. "...I hope you are right. I would give whatever was needed of me, that he might live his life."

[definecat]

Sleeper wasn't sure what else to say. They just wanted to be there when the man who had been such a good parent to Silas was hurting.

"Maybe we should hold some kind of remembrance. Grab some cocoa or mulled wine or something nice and share memories of who he was to all of us."

[oblige]

Remembrance.

The word has ties to the first time Dion had met Joshua, Warden of Fire, the Phoenix's Dominant. Of course, the Remembrance Ceremony was something quite different, a meeting of rulers and heads of state from the nations of Storm to sign a treaty. Altogether different from what Sleeper suggests, naturally.

Dion is silent for a few long, drawn moments. "Would you wish to do so? I know not how it is for you— your memories of the Earth mission." He had often wondered, for Sleeper had taken on the role of Silas so completely they truly became that child for a time. It was difficult to find the words with which to ask, though he had wished to understand.

Would it have been impolite or intrusive? At the same time, it seems that time spent together remains with Sleeper, what with the way they look out for him, for Clive. Might it help Sleeper as well, to talk about Silas' father?

[definecat]

Sleeper considers for a long moment.

"Human brain chemistry is really complicated. It's very off-putting when your normal state is much more controlled," Sleeper begins, considering. "You and Joshua gave me something to hold on to. A way to be. And made things fun. I would like to think I didn't drive you too crazy with always wanting to watch the same show or listen to the same song."

In their defense, they hadn't forced inane singing dinosaurs on anyone.

[oblige]

Dion is quick to shake his head. "You induced no measure of madness, worry not. I rather enjoyed being a parent for the span of the mission. Such a life was never like to happen for someone like me, so... I'm grateful to both of you for that time." It made him realize, while he had long accepted his role, he would have loved to have a family.

"And lest you forget, other children wailed at the top of their lungs without provocation quite often at the theme park." To Dion, Sleeper was far from a terror as Silas. Even, mercifully, sparing them from those inane singing dinosaurs.