(Closed) Mareuer Catch All

[mirshikar]

Who: Asura + Plotted CR
When: Mareuer
Where: Aefenglom, Dorchacht, and the respective Wildes of both cities.
What: SOL, Quests, Asura's birthday, and treehouse construction. Also, I'm always down for building new CR, so if you'd like a thread starter, feel free to hmu @ the March CR & plotting post!
Warnings: Will be updated as necessary.

Comments

[extirpator]

[ asura was a man who knew how to put you on edge — his words are firm and earnest, but they build and build and build, like an ember blooming into a flame. it leaves nier curious, a brow curving upwards a touch at his proposition.

reds and yellows and oranges overtake their surroundings, slowly coloring the trees. it's as though they've been catapulted into autumn itself, the crisp scent of leaves slices through the air.

for a moment, nier is quiet. cherish life — and yet he had destroyed it just as easily. with that promise comes a heavy burden, one that causes his eyes to stray, features now downcast.

the lumber feels near weightless in his arms right now. ]

I... [ asura had been different. had felt the worst, the ugliest of his feelings and embraced them for what they were. had given him something that hadn't known since he was a mere child, the memory far, far away from him.

so the words do not stay locked with the confines of his heart. they flow slowly, like a stream of water. ]

I don't know how.

[ it wasn't a matter of kindness. on the contrary, it had been the very opposite. a show of weakness, of dependence. ]

I've wanted the end for a long time. [ for as long as he can remember, on some days. ] The difference between this world and my own was—

The humans. They were always going to die. All of us were, no matter what we did.

I was the one who ended it.

[ all of it — he does not specify. the sorrow, or perhaps it'd been an inkling of shame, swims in his eyes, his grip on the wood now growing tighter. ]

I don't know if someone like me can hope anymore. But you...

I want to know more about you. Because you made me feel something I didn't know I could anymore. You were able to shoulder the burden of my emotions. You're strong, but a part of you understands too, as different as we are.

It draws me to you. I can't shake the feeling, even now.

[ that next revelation, of course, leaves him with a sense of nostalgia. there's a lighthearted shake of the head in spite of the conversation topic he's been presented with. ]

You're royalty. Makes sense. You guys tend to talk a certain way.

[ there's an edge of warmth to his voice. don't mind him. ]

I'll try. I can... [ hesistantly, for once. ] promise that. For you, and for my bonded, who asked the same of me.

A person like me with a dream. [ and a grimace. ] ...Maybe. But I want to see those flowers in your hair no matter what, alright?

[mirshikar]

You should not hold yourself so far apart from others. [ —is the conclusion which Asura draws after hearing the totality of Nier's words and examining them, the other man's confessions coalescing together into a stream which is not so weak as Nier himself might imagine. ]

A person like you walks alongside many, shares in their battles and bleeds all the same. I am a sovereign, yes, worlds away from here— [ No, Asura hadn't missed the warmth which suffused into Nier's voice upon the other man's articulation of the word 'royalty'. Who is it, then, that also wears a crown a n d has won Nier's affections? Could it be the Bonded which Nier had spoken of? Another?

My, my, Asura does wonder. True, the King is no Spring courtier—no champion of either love or desire—but as a Fairest (stereotypically chatty, prone to gossip, always in everyone's business), is it not his prerogative to speculate, investigate, and someday unearth the truth of things? But that is work for a fair-weathered day, one which does not already hold the promise of many hours given to labor. ] —but my rule would be empty if I did not live in the moment with my brothers and sisters, laughing and dreaming and battling through the trenches right along with them.

Those who you support do not look to flowers for hope. They look to you, and so you must find a dream for yourself. That both your Bonded and I asked the same thing of you is no mistake. [ And perhaps now, with two vows made, Nier will find his ambition. Decide for himself. Far heavier than the lumber which they carry, the burden of choice (this Asura has always known, and it had taken him years to truly learn what it was to live without the weight of shackles), but... Though Nier does not know how (does not know the way), there is time for him to learn. ] They are wise, and even if you should find yourself uncertain, heed their words.

They will help you along the way, just as I will. [ Because they do share an understanding, Asura and Nier, and not only in the daily struggle to view the world as it is, uncolored by wrath and the dogged pursuit of something beyond them. ]

Everything comes to an end, Nier. For every rise, there is a fall. There is no realm which I have walked where humans have escaped the embrace of death, however... [ That does not mean all ceases to exist. As Nier himself once said, he'd held the memories of the world even after its people had passed. ]

So too is the resurgence of life inexorable. It flourishes, even in the most inhospitable of places, including this one. [ Here, where they arrive into the enclosure beyond the forest hollow, the land cleansed of the infection and teeming with new growth. Setting down the bundles of heartwood in his arms, Asura gives a great roll of his shoulders, stretching, before looking again to his companion— ]

You realize, though, that 'no matter what' is a rather large ask. [ Like asking Nier to promise to find a hope of his own hadn't been the very same !! Still, the segue allows for levity in Asura's reciprocation of something he'd felt, wanted since he had siphoned Nier's emotions and repurposed them as power: ] You're fortunate that I'm drawn to you, as well. I haven't the will to rebuff you.

[ That is to say, with a broad and unabashed grin: ] So yes, then. No matter what.

[extirpator]

I don't mean to. [ it's a half truth, half lie. for a long time, he was a being who feared loneliness above all; the idea of dwelling in isolation, of being forced into it in such a cruel world was mortifying. but as he grew older, he'd begun to realize that perhaps it is when you're alone that you're free.

still, the feeling is biting and as relentless as it had been when he was alive. even more difficult is the prospect of accepting a warm hand rather than lending one. ]

But...you don't need to worry for me. [ his features harden with a shake of the head. it isn't stern, merely determined. ]

I'm a selfish man, and one who is free. I've already seen the end — so I'm not afraid of the future.

[ he is a victim of the horrors of huamnity, and has witnessed them rob him of his own earth — has almost had has his own self taken by them as well. as asura releases his weight of lumber, nier follows suit, gently easing them down onto the ground so as to not damage them. ]

I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I'm doing it because I like you. [ said firmly, earnestly, and with a dash of maschismo. the smile that dances along his lips is boyish. ] I want, just as you do. And to me, wanting is enough reason to do something, even if isn't to others. That's why you don't need to worry.

[ and of course, his eyes brighten at asura's agreement. he would absolutely be letting out a merry "haha, alright!" if he could — but he does not, instead opting to be at least a little graceful here. ]

I'll hold you to that. After you, [ a pause, before he takes a moment to joke. ] my liege.