001 ☀ Stahn Aileron, Otome Yanagiya

[majinken]

Comments

[mombastic]

I mean, you do have your own kind of 'fluff'...

[ Otome, don't tease. ]

[majinken]

Ahaha.. well...

[she's not wrong, but it's also why the sheep all follow and listen to him. it's important friend business.]

[mombastic]

All the same, I'm happy to have the chance to finally meet them all! I can see why you're so fond of them.

[majinken]

I'm really glad you could meet them too! I wasn't sure if you ever could, so... I'm really happy about it!

[mombastic]

I probably should try to understand how this even happened in the first place... [ was it Fumi's fault, it probably was-- ]

[majinken]

Oh.. right. I guess we really do need to figure out that part too. You probably have a lot going on back in your world...

[he knows she can't stay forever, even there are definitely some things he'd like to happen before she leaves.]

[mombastic]

Not as much as it used to be, at least.

[ Things have finally settled down a lot. ]

[majinken]

That's... a good thing, right?

[he would assume. but he's pretty sure asking to make sure is probably better than just assuming.]

[mombastic]

Yes... we managed to finally set things right, hopefully for the last time.

[ No more resets, please. ]

[majinken]

Good... That's really good to hear. I hope you really have peace in your world now.

[well, as much peace as any one world can have, at least.]

[mombastic]

And I hope you have peace in yours. I think we've both worked pretty hard to make that happen.

[ She can't imagine Stahn hanging around home if the world hadn't been made safer, anyway. ]

[majinken]

Yeah. It's peaceful now... there's still a lot of things all over that need to be fixed, but...

[they're on the right track, even if there's a lot he's still unsure about. in the end, it's still a very bittersweet thing, even if he's obviously happy his world is safe.]

[mombastic]

But you've worked hard, haven't you? You and your friends.

[ she's very proud. ]

[majinken]

Yeah... it was hard, and... a lot really happened. But everyone is safe now.

[everyone who survived, at least.]

[mombastic]

... There's... a place I have to go to, isn't there?

[ One person she'd known, who wasn't safe... ]

[majinken]

[it was only a matter of time before this came up anyway, honestly.]

Yeah... I can bring you there when you want to go.

[mombastic]

Whenever you're ready, then.

... Please.

[majinken]

[the air immediately feels heavier, and it's not like stahn doesn't understand why—this is something that is important to otome just as much as it's been to him all this time. he's had time to get at least some semblance of closure...

(some. only some.)]

It's back this way. [he motions further out on the pasture, towards a large hill that she won't be able to see beyond from where they're standing.] It's pretty close... maybe about ten minutes away.

[mombastic]

I see... that's not that far at all. [ Actually, that's closer than she expected, and Otome's gaze is distant for a moment as she follows Stahn's motion. So... over there.

Part of it almost doesn't seem real. ]

[majinken]

Yeah... it's part of our property, it's just all the way at the end of the pasture.

[and there are reasons for that, which she may understand once she sees what he has to show her and why.

first is getting there, though, and he'll lead the way at a pretty leisurely pace. stahn himself hadn't really planned on going that way today, and it does take a bit out of him to do so so suddenly.

(but for otome, especially when he has no idea how long she'll be around, he'll suck up the emotional weight of that place.)]

[mombastic]

[ She's sorry to put you through this Stahn, and she'll apologize properly later, because she can definitely tell that a lot of his cheeriness has been swapped out for solemnity... but for now, she follows along in silence. She has her own thoughts to mull over. ]

[majinken]

[it's something he wants her to see anyway—the entire day has been a whirlwind of surprises, so what's another one?

this one is just more solemn because it all ties back to the parting of bonds he's still mourning. he's in much better spirits than he could be; in cerealia he had definitely been in far worse shape mentally and emotionally than even this right now.

progress, growth—a lo of that has happened.

it isn't long though before they arrive where he wants to show her; it's a small area of trees at the very back of the property. there are a couple of sheep meandering, but it's quiet otherwise. and in the space beneath those trees are a few small stones with names carved into them.

ritora, clemente, atwight, dymlos, igtenos, chaltier, and at the very end beside that leon.

it's a small memorial for the friends that had been lost in the quest to stop miktran for good, something squirreled away from the eyes of the world that could never truly understand it, but it still tended to carefully. stahn knows he probably doesn't have to say anything quite yet—otome will likely be able to figure out what it means, even if she has more questions.]

[mombastic]

[ She definitely has more questions. She'd been expecting at least one of these stones, but Otome does a double-take when she realizes: she knows some of these names. Not all of them, obviously, and some she's only heard and never encountered for herself, but as she steps closer and crouches down to peer at these markers, she lingers on both Dymlos and Chaltier before her gaze moves to the end.

Otome had known what had happened, had discussed it with both boys, but her last memory of Leon is him standing in front of her, alive and well and slightly grumpy. Now, as she reaches out carefully to touch the top of the stone... it doesn't feel real. That Leon was actually... ]

I see Stahn's taken good care of you. [ softly, as though she doesn't trust her voice to maintain anything about that volume. ] I hope you're not causing him too much trouble.

[majinken]

[it's hard for stahn to watch—otome was the one person here now that knew the life beyond this world. she was the one person who knew how far leon had come, the ways he'd grown and changed.

she knew of the way he and stahn had fought as they tried to figure out what to do, how to get past their problems and dilemmas and fix a friendship that had been strained by circumstance. but upon his return to his own world, he was left with the harsh, harsh reality that he had no idea...

well, what happened to leon.

did he just return to the bottom of the sea? had there been another world that he found himself in, a place for him to start anew like stahn and otome both had so desperately wanted for him? there are still a lot of days where it hurts for stahn; leon was the most precious person in his world outside of his sister and grandfather...

and otome was the only one who really knew it.

but stahn is stahn. and maybe at one time, he would have sat that and said that he was sorry. sorry he couldn't save leon, sorry that she had to see nothing but a stone in his memory. but instead, what she'll get are words of fondness and quiet resolve.]

Wherever he is now... he can live freely. [he wants to believe that. even if he wonders those other things, what he truly wants to believe that leon found somewhere to be, that he would recover and live happily, even with them there alongside him. and also:] But he won't be forgotten here either. Not as our comrade, and not... as my best friend.

[see, leon? stahn did what he wanted, he saved their world so everyone could live happily, and now otome was there to be able to see that much too. they did well, somehow, they all did well.]

[mombastic]

[ Of course he wouldn't be forgotten. Absence didn't mean a complete and total lack of Leon, after all. Otome still remembered her colony encounters, and she's sure Stahn has a plethora of memories of his friend. And there's no guarantee that Leon isn't living safely somewhere else, where they may never see him again, but he's doing better. And that... Otome's no stranger to, even before she'd met them. ]

If he exists in more than one place, in some fashion... I think that's a good way to think of it.

[ In Otome's memories in Japan, in Stahn's memories here, wherever he ended up... Leon's never going to truly disappear like this. Even if it's not the most ideal... he's still with them. ]