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Walkelody: Another Wedding


Darth Woodrack

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On 23/04/2020 at 11:23 PM, Silva said:

Not that she carried a knife around with her. That would just be asking for trouble.

Nearby, some guests looked like they'd be leaving soon. Most of the festivities that she and Lusk had ignored were winding down.

Lusk watched as the wedding slowed, most of the major events already done. Now, it would just be small talk between everyone, which didn’t interest Lusk. But it wasn’t like he’d come for the people at this wedding. He’d come for the wedding, the food, and maybe another meeting with the young Atium Ferring he had the pleasure of training.

He glanced back at her and took in her words about weapons, storing some atium. He had so much feruchemical charge built up in his atiumminds over the years he hardly needed to store to get more age, but for once the lines of old age that overcame his face were welcomed. As much as he used to dislike it, the old age made him calmer, more thoughtful. A little smarter, too, thanks to his body’s extrapolation of the extra years of experience.

“Your life and mine are very different,” he said, then raised an eyebrow as if it was obvious. “You’re young, I’ve got a few years left to go. I can afford to be flippant with mine. And you should use your life while you’ve got it — believe me, if I train you only to have you die on me, I’ll bring you back alive just to yell at you.”

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10 hours ago, I think I am here. said:

“Your life and mine are very different,” he said, then raised an eyebrow as if it was obvious. “You’re young, I’ve got a few years left to go. I can afford to be flippant with mine. And you should use your life while you’ve got it — believe me, if I train you only to have you die on me, I’ll bring you back alive just to yell at you.”

Unfortunately, his argument was flawed. As they both were Atium Ferrings, a few years left didn't really mean much. Additionally, she never had really bought his argument of being of poor health at age 46. Common sense told her not to challenge it since he wouldn't change his mind. For once, common sense won.

"Necromancy. Quite the fearsome threat." She suppressed a laugh. "Though, that really'd be quite inconvenient for you. I'll do my best to avoid death, for the time being," Freedom said. 

She didn't say anything for a moment, letting her eyes wander. Her age wandered too, mostly subconsciously storing away years until she reached near where Lusk was hovering. She didn't often go that far. Too many deep philosophical topics clouded her thoughts and there were miscellaneous aches and pains that came with the territory.

Today, though, there was one topic that she realized was worthwhile, if only because she was thinking from the older and wiser perspective. "I don't think I'm going anywhere," she said. There was something different about her voice. More vulnerable. She couldn't tell if it was because of the age or just a side-effect of subject. "You speak of creating this great reputation of Atium Ferrings as Invested to look up to in awe, but I'm not going anywhere. I haven't done anything. I have no plans of doing anything. I'm so lost and overwhelmed with no way or inclination to back out.

"And I feel like I should know what to do. Where to go. What to accomplish. How to fulfill that. But beyond finding another Atium Ferring to pass on this legacy, I've got nothing. I am nothing. Just another link in this short chain. The brittle one that will break if pulled on too hard. The one with no idea as to how to reinforce itself."

Freedom looked away and ceased to store away so much age, instead, staying a few years older than normal. One or two. She forced herself not to think. Thinking would mean acknowledging what she'd just said and she couldn't. 

Deep breaths. No thinking. Just waiting. And prepped to run. Even though that would accomplish nothing.

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On 07/05/2020 at 7:54 AM, Silva said:

Deep breaths. No thinking. Just waiting. And prepped to run. Even though that would accomplish nothing.

Nowhere to go. Lusk stared at the snack table, hovering his eyes over the white polka-dot pattern of the tablecloth. He moved his hands behind his back, didn’t nod or grunt in understanding when she spoke, but listened all the same. I don’t think I’m going anywhere. A thought that he’d encountered once, too, in all his years. If he wanted to, he wagered, he could de-age precisely back to when he’d felt like that, but he didn’t feel the inclination right now.

When she stopped, he glanced at her and crossed his arms. Behind her, more and more people were leaving the party, the bride and groom probably already long gone.

“There’s not really a ‘point’ to life, when you think of it,” Lusk said distantly, and darted his eyes to her immediately.

“That’s not nihilism. But the truth is that we don’t come with a list of directions stamped onto us when we’re born. We have no inherent purpose, no magical reason we were brought into this world, and certainly no ‘destiny’, as some would have you believe.” His gaze softened and he uncrossed his arms.

“We’re brought up in a world where the heroes defeat the dragons, where all around us is a buzz of activity, a hub of different people all wrapped up in their own conflicts and situations of epic proportions. It’s easy to think that’s the meaning of life, there. That everyone has to be the young underdog who beat the big bad wolf, or the resourceful scholar who cracked an impossible code.

“The ‘point’ to life is to be,” Lusk said, and by now it seemed like the young Ferring wasn’t even there, that he wasn’t speaking to a kid in an emptying wedding hall but that he was talking to himself. All of himself. From the scared child to the stuttering teen to the grief-stricken failure, to the temperamental warrior who knew no peace in his soul. All of the different Lusks, the fractured aspects that made the man who stood now. All striving to find their places in this sprawling universe.

“It’s to live, to make goals to entertain yourself, to occupy yourself with something you like and not care about anything else. Maybe you want to escape your home planet. Maybe you want to be popular, or want to get fit, or want to kill your father, get promoted, form a heritage of atium Ferrings, start a farm, or whatever.“

At this, he turned to the young Ferring. The young Ferring, with so much of her life ahead of her. He clasped a hand on her shoulder.

“You say you’re not going anywhere. But don’t have to go somewhere. You don’t have to go... well, anywhere! You don’t have to have a plan, a massive mission to save the universe, or run a guild, or anything. All you have to do is live. All you have to do is exist, and maybe, just maybe, if you want, you can find something you like, and do that. And storm the ardents who say you need  to ‘do something’ with your life, because the only person who matters in your life, is you. Freedom. And nothing can change that.”

He opened his mouth to say more, but coughed instead and crossed his arms again, his face frowning again and his age returning to normal. What he’d said was enough for the young Ferring, hopefully. Nothing more needed to be lectured to her. He looked around the hall.

“Meanwhile, this party seems to be coming to a close. Looks like the fun part‘s over, and some people are dimming the lights, over there. I guess that’s our cue to leave, huh?”

Edited by I think I am here.
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3 hours ago, I think I am here. said:

“Meanwhile, this party seems to be coming to a close. Looks like the fun part‘s over, and some people are dimming the lights, over there. I guess that’s our cue to leave, huh?”

"Yeah. Seems to be," she agreed.

She felt lighter. Every time Freedom thought she'd figured him out, Lusk managed to turn that assumption on its head.

It shouldn't have been surprising anymore. Regular people were like onions with their many layers, but Atium Ferrings were more like a sack of onions. All of the different layers making them up in their lives accessible. The different onions of stages of life shown at different times. What's seen one day, buried at the bottom another. Even if the onions all had some similarities and were built off of one another.

Maybe the onion's weren't the best comparison, she decided. 

"Thank you," Freedom said. She turned to walk away, then stopped. "Try not to die, okay? Don't forget, I'm not the only young one here. You've got life ahead of you yet."

Then she left him, knowing that he would protest that last statement if she even gave him a fragment of a chance.

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