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Who: Ozymandias + you
When: 13th
Where: Looking Glass House/Memories and/or other locations to follow up with him
What: Memsharing!
Warnings: Death, attempts at blowing up an entire city that one time. No other warnings as of now, but will add as needed!

[Strangers will see nothing and pass by Ozymandias' mirror. Much as with other strangers' mirrors, there will be nothing about the mirror that catches the eye or suggests that it even belongs to anyone. But with any sort of familiarity to Ozymandias, the frame gives way the identity of its owner near immediately. How could it not when there is a blatant depiction of himself at the top of the frame? Symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt mark the corners, his beloved wife depicted beside him. Further knowledge of him reveals more details than just this. Great structures and temples along the bottom of the frame. Ramesseum takes center stage. Monuments and depictions of his beloved gods appear interwoven with this seemingly impossible complex. Each side holds depictions of great battles, those he fought in life and those after. An archer, swordsman, and lancer stand in defiance of a brilliant sun on one side. A young man is half-turned, a sea of people reaching to him.]

[The frame itself is, of course, golden. It shimmers with precious stones for those closest to him. A small reflection of his radiant light as pharaoh.]

((ooc: these are ota as far as i'm concerned! some of the memories will have present-day ozy for your character to interact with during the memory while some are going to play out for a bit beyond what's initially posted here. i'm down for your characters interacting with the environment as much as they'd like! any questions or other requests can be pm'd to this journal or to me on plurk (

rebreather)!))

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[She looks at Nefertari's body, but she's also staring past it in a way. She's thinking about the ghosts she saw once, who were not in a great place.

After a moment of thinking, she turns back to meet Ozy's gaze.]

Like a ghost? That happens to everyone?

[...Wait a second.]

You're a ghost? You did say that your people's writing was ancient at the time you came from....

Calling me a ghost is a bit of an oversimplification of what I am, [It also implies a sense of misery that Ozymandias refuses to identify with. Even if this afterlife of his is not what he would have chosen for himself, is not what was promised, he could never describe himself as being miserable.] But your assumption that I am no longer among the living and that I cannot possess a corporeal form on my own is correct.

But most who live and die will not experience the afterlife as I have. If they are able to reach their eternal life, they will find it impossible to return and walk among the living. My circumstances are different because of my place in history and the disturbance of my body from its resting place.

[Leslie's face, as it often does, spells out what she's feeling very clearly. When he says that he is no longer among the living, she looks like she's uncertain whether this should be a sad thing (death) or a happy thing (he's still around). When he describes the differences in afterlife, she frowns just a little. She feels like it's unfair that there are two separate afterlives that you can't choose between, but she's not actually sure who it's unfair for.

She probably would express the latter if she weren't blindsided by the last thing he said, which sounds pretty horrifying when you don't grow up hearing about excavating Egyptian tombs as just A Thing We Do.]

Someone dug up your body?

[By now, Ozymandias... Well, he would still prefer yet to be in the afterlife he was promised as Pharaoh. He would give anything to be reunited with his beloved and others in that eternal life. But it is not so and it does not serve him to dwell on such things as a child might when not given their way. And so, he finds and accepts the joys of what is in front of him, allowing himself the easy confidence that someday he will be given what he is owed. And so, he understands to some degree the conflict that appears briefly in Leslie's expression. It is not something that is wholly good nor bad. It simply is.]

It is a common practice in the modern era. Civilizations such as mine were once lost to the majority that came after. To them, whatever they are able to find is an opportunity to regain that knowledge.

[Ozymandias is successful in speaking of most things about the modern world he doesn't understand with a fairly neutral tone. But when it comes to the matter of robbing graves, it's difficult. His tone lands somewhere between his usual patient explanations and just the barest hint of anger. Although he knows that to a modern person, it is merely a pursuit of knowledge to something that would likely otherwise be lost to them. They do not think of the consequences beyond that, and he cannot fault them for that mindset truly. But faulting them or not, that does not undo the harm that it causes to plunder the graves of those laid to rest.]

[Leslie bites her lower lip. She can absolutely understand wanting to understand history. Being able to reclaim the times lost to history...that would be worth some level of invasion of privacy. But even if she were to accept reopening a tomb, the idea of moving a body makes her very uncomfortable.]

They still shouldn't have moved your body. People shouldn't ask more of the dead after they...died.

[Though she does end up having trouble sticking the landing, there's a firmness behind it, as she is absolutely confident in her conclusion.]

...Would it really have made you unable to reach, um, whatever comes after it when your body was disturbed? If you hadn't made such a mark in history.

Aaru, in my language, [he says, to make it a little easier for Leslie to make the distinction between where he should be and where he ended up with for an afterlife.] Or the Field of Reeds in yours.

[To her question though, he nods.]

Were I not who I am, I would be as you said earlier. I would be a ghost, likely trapped within my own tomb and the area surrounding it.

[And so that is why he says that to call him a ghost now is a little of an oversimplification. It's true that he is unable to move on to the next life as he should, that such a thing shall remain impossible until his body is returned and his tomb fully restored. But he is not quite so trapped as others would find themselves if they were in a similar position.]

Our tombs were a means of remaining connected to the living when there was a strong enough need for us to return. Those left behind would write to us and leave us offerings quite regularly and ensure that our tombs were protected. But if a tomb is poorly maintained or violated in some way, our spirits return and we do not leave until whatever wrong has been corrected.

[Which would be a near-impossible task for even Ozymandias to accomplish in the modern era. Most think of such things as ghosts as being fiction and with his body on display and so many of the treasures within his tomb now scattered... Even his temple is not whole any longer. Only through his summoning of it is it ever whole again.]

[Even in these circumstances, Leslie still takes a moment to mumble out her best attempt at pronouncing:]

Aaru.

[But the rest makes Leslie go a little pale, which is perhaps more noticeable now that she actually is outside at all and the default isn't quite so pale already. She still dreams of the ghosts she met in her world, being a common feature when she has a nightmare, and those are people she never met. Though he escaped that fate, the idea of it happening to someone she knows and likes as much as Ozymandias -- that it probably has happened to some of his people -- makes her stomach turn.]

[(She hopes the ghosts in her world will also be able to move on when the wrong has been righted.)]

I'm so sorry.

[She knows that she's not responsible and that she can do nothing about it, but the latter is part of the problem. This might be the only time she will even see his world. She's helpless to do anything about a wrong that has happened to a friend and she doesn't even think there is anything she could say to help him. It's a situation that leaves her sorry for him and so very sad.]

[Having nothing she can say about that hypothetical or the reality of it happening to others, her thoughts and her gaze both turn to the tableau of his memory.]

Is she -- is Nefertari at least going to be all right?

[Leslie is a gentle and sweet child. She cares so much for those she has never even met, worries about things that should not concern a child of her age. Ozymandias finds it to be endearing and somewhat unfortunate, too, that her heart should be as accepting and open as it is. It's not something he would ever discourage, but it goes without saying the amount of pain it might cause her in the long-run.]

[By now the Ozymandias of the past has laid down beside Nefertari. He still has a firm hold of her hand. As much as it has crashed into him that she is gone from this world and broken his heart into so many small pieces that it seems unlikely it shall ever be whole again, he simply cannot bring himself to let go of that hand. He has held it for so long at this point in his life, has always been able to rely upon her in all manners as Ramesses, as Pharaoh... The thought of being without is abhorrent. It's terrifying. It's painful. And so, he keeps a firm, tight hold of her hand as he whispers to her through his tears, his voice impossibly small and thin in ways that it never seems to be as Leslie knows him now.]

She will be, [Ozymandias confirms without hesitation. He rises back to his feet, turning his attention back to Nefertari as well although he places a hand on Leslie's opposite shoulder in a gentle half-embrace at his side. These matters are not easy to speak of when one is presumably so far from having to contend with them themselves, but she's done well.] Nefertari is in the Field of Reeds. When she was laid to rest, she was reunited with her parents and the son we lost... She will be there to greet the rest of our children as they all eventually reach the ends of their lives, and she shall look after the children of my other wives until they are there to care for them themselves.

[And what Ozymandias does not say is that she will still be waiting for him. She knows that his heart would not be so full of sin that he would not be granted passage to her. Even if she could not predict this particular existence for him, she would know something else must have happened to him. Something has delayed him. But he will return to her. Their love is too great for them to ever be parted forever. And that sweet moment of their brief reunion, in that dream, just before the universe corrected itself and placed her back where she belongs... That had to have been confirmation for her just as it was to him. They will find one another eventually.]

[Despite how much she might worry about overstepping boundaries most of the time, Leslie leans into the half-embrace -- not a lot, but enough that he can feel her rest a little bit of her weight against him. She's contended with death twice at far too young an age, but she has yet to deeply consider the loss of the ones left behind. The people she cares for all seem so invincible. But watching this memory of Ozymandias still holding his wife's hand long after she's passed drives that idea home.]

[It's the description of Nefertari in the afterlife (Aaru, she reminds herself), though, that causes her eyes to well with tears and a few of those tears to overflow, one by one. It's a beautiful image of a woman with much love to give, and she can also understand the part left unsaid, except without any knowledge of that one reunion.]

You've lost so many people. [Her voice is choked as she thinks of them. Nefertari. Their children, one lost before his time. His other children and wives. He may have even been close to Nefertari's parents.] And you're being kept away from them because you did so much for everyone else. It's not fair.

[He hadn't actually told her what mark he left in history. She doesn't even know who he had been. Your Radiance suggests that he was a man of power and authority -- a noble? a ruler? a high priest? Any of them suggest a person who could have made a mark on history by any number of means. But Leslie can't even conceive of the possibility of Ozymandias being anything but someone who helped others.]

And even if you hadn't been, you would have been trapped in your tomb because of people taking away your body. It's not fair!

[Ozymandias might not be given to dwell on such things as a child might when not given their way, but as mature as she can be at times, Leslie is a child and she is not able to let it go.]

Edited 2020-07-31 16:30 (UTC)

[It would be unfair to Leslie to say that no part of Ozymandias doesn't agree with her protests. Of course, something within him feels it is deeply unfair that after the life he lived, he should find himself separated from Nefertari. That he should not find himself among his children, reunited with his beloved family with perhaps only one unfortunate exception.]

[But he is not a child. He can tolerate such unfairness because it is simply a fact of being and who should know that better than the King of Kings? It has always been his duty to be fair in all things, and he has done well at that. But he recognizes the chaos that always threatens to disrupt the natural order. It is that which he was protecting his people from in ways that they likely never could see or understand. What he continues to stand against as a Servant in a facsimile of what his afterlife ought to have been.]

[Ozymandias' hold on Leslie tightens as she struggles against the unfairness of it all and contends with her own helplessness to effect any real change to the circumstances. What a dear and gentle heart she possesses that she would be so upset on his behalf when she really knows so little of him. When most in his own world who know more likely would not ever spare it a second thought in their quest for knowledge or power.]

Those things are unfortunate, [he says. It's the closest Ozymandias will ever come to agreeing with her decrying it unfair.] But, Leslie, you forget all that this life has afforded me. I have been able to experience eras far beyond my lifetime and lands foreign to me. I have been blessed with glorious battles that would have been otherwise impossible and served alongside other noble warriors to protect humanity.

[He crouches back down to her level with a soft smile. Very gently, he takes one of her cheeks into his hand and turns her face to look to him, not at the grief before them.]

I have even been so fortunate as to have met you. [He brushes aside one of her tears.] And what a magnificent gift that has truly been. It is not something I would trade for anything.

[Leslie grew up knowing only unfairness and helplessness, but after a few months with a taste of how the world can be, she hates facing the parts of the world still beyond her reach or the reach of those whose strength she borrows.]

[As he begins to speak, though, it is not long before her crying grows quiet. Her tears still flow, as Ozymandias’s gentle comfort doesn’t cause the need to completely suppress the reaction the way the easily angered people of her younger years might, but old habits die hard. She barely needs to think to push any sobs down, which leaves her able to give his remarks full attention, though she does quietly sniffle occasionally.]

[She only understands about half of what she hears, though. Seeing new eras and foreign lands...she’s had a taste of it in coming to Aefenglom. But it’s the first time anyone has talked of...well, any feelings about battle. Leslie’s desire to learn how to fight has much more to do with a strong admiration for people who happened to also be known for their military accomplishments. She’s thought very little of what she might use that strength beyond keeping people safe in a vaguely defined way and some private fantasies of breaking the arm of the people who tormented her, the way Duchess Salvatore had done to one of them when he tried to steal her back. For her, battles are footnotes in records of wars in dry textbooks that gave the titles and contents of the fifth emperor’s fifteen diaries about as much space. She’s never asked anything about battle from those people she admires and none of them have talked of their feelings about the battles they fought. Are they glorious? Are they something to be glad for the chance to experience them? The question is filed away in her brain the same way the question of having many wives has been.]

[And, in a way, she half-understands that meeting her would be something to be prized. A few others have expressed as much to her, but she still has to press her lips closed for a moment to avoid bursting into renewed tears of a different kind before she can speak.]

I think...I’m the fortunate one, to get to meet you, and everyone else. ...You’re really strong, to be able to think that way about something like this.

[Ozymandias' smile remains warm and gentle for her even as she must tamp down her emotions once more.]

I cannot take full credit for that strength. [Were it not for Nefertari, he knows that he would be neither half the king nor man that he is. In some ways, she molded him into who he eventually became just as much as his father and grandfather had. But where separation from someone so integral to his life could be something that could threaten to break him or turn him down the wrong path, he is able to yearn for her without making such mistakes. Her love is still a guiding force for him even from so far away. Ozymandias simply refuses to be anything or anyone less than worthy of her affection.] Thank you for your words all the same.

[He nudges her a little closer to himself before wrapping his arms around Leslie. It is not so much for the sake of comfort or even to really shield her from anything in particular but to instead create a small space of privacy. So she does not have to work quite so hard to keep her emotions under control and she can be just a child.]

But promise me, Leslie, that you will not allow such matters to weigh upon you. Your focus should be on the wondrous life you have yet to live, not on these matters of spirits from a very distant and ancient past. I would not have you burden that gentle heart of yours with such things and cause yourself grief and worry when it is not necessary.

You needn't weep for either of us. Nefertari and I shall see one another again when it is meant to be. [Faith does not even come close to describing the strength of his belief in this. He may very well be describing an accepted fact about the known world with how certain his tone is.] But for now, I am content with the life I have at present, and I am at peace knowing that she is safe and with those that love her.

[As he wraps his arms around her, Leslie hesitates for a moment before clinging tightly to him. She’s slow to hug others, but when she does, she holds on with all of her (limited) might.]

[“Your focus should be on the wondrous life you have yet to live, not on these matters of spirits from a very distant and ancient past.” Except that she can’t. While she wants to live an ordinary, happy life, she is already too tied up in the matters of spirits stretching out centuries into the past, back in her own world. But maybe she can promise to not let the ones that she touches in this world stick to her. She has other duties and she can barely gather the strength to manage the ones she has already.]

[That confidence that he’ll see her again and that he worries more about her than himself...is that what it means to be in love? She has precious few examples to judge on, but if it’s something like that, then even with the grief in this memory, she can see why she’d been told that marriage is a woman’s greatest happiness. ~~By an awful person who kept complaining about her ex-husband.~~]

...I can promise it if you promise me...that you’ll tell someone when you’re feeling lonely. Then I won’t need to worry over this.

[Ozymandias holds onto Leslie a little tighter in silent acceptance of her clinging to him once she makes the decision to return the hug. She is allowed to stay there for however long she would like, no questions asked.]

[Her request that he also makes a promise catches him somewhat off-guard. None would be so bold as to demand that he make or keep promises of any kind. A girl so mild and at times meek in temperament as her is the least likely of all, too. Then again, he thinks, perhaps he ought to expect more of what is not expected when it comes to Leslie. There is no telling the great amount of potential that lies within her and could she not be the sort of person who might ask kings to make such promises? A gentle heart, after all, does not mean a cowardly one.]

[He meant fully what he said about his gratitude for the opportunity to know her, but moments like this are exemplary of why that is.]

You have my word.

[It seems a simple enough promise to keep in any case when he is so rarely ever struck with such feelings of loneliness and he staunchly refuses to dwell on what he might lack.]

[If this had happened during Feoveuer, when she first arrived, she might have held back from making any such request of him. Learning that he was such an important person as to be called "Your Radiance," she certainly would have been too worried about etiquette to hug him so fiercely.]

[But she's met many people in her time in Aefenglom, of many different social standings. She respects many of the "common" people she's met among the Mirrorbound more than she would any of the Aefenglom nobility, and she's met emperors and kings who call her a friend. The ideas planted in her mind as she began to question lies she was told were true back in her own world have begun to blossom in Aefenglom.]

[Ozymandias may be a very important person. He might even be one of the most important people she has ever met. But she's been given the time to know Mr. Ozymandias as Mr. Ozymandias, and she cares about Mr. Ozymandias's well-being deeply. His Radiance will not change that. If he asks her to call him by some title or bow in his presence or something like that, she will, but it's because she respects him as a person who has done great things, not for a title from a country far away in time and space.]

And you have my word. [There's a wet sniffle as she holds back the last of her tears.] I promise that I won't let this weigh on me. ...But I hope that the day you see her again is soon.

[She will be staying in that embrace for a while. She doesn't think she should watch more of this private memory, particularly since she promised to not weep for them. She can't do anything about hearing things, but so far, this memory has been a relatively quiet one.]

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{open | event catch-all}

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nefertari servant when. she could be a rider because ozy won't stop carrying her everywhere.

a prolonged game of the floor is lava

a pharaoh is strong enough to walk on lava hahahahahaha

redefining what it means to walk like an egyptian

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i cannot believe this little girl called him out like this

he may have the moral high ground but he underestimates her power