"Oh, right." They can fly and probably normally do go other places in the forest. Yuya was just sort of... imagining them as Estinien's pets.
Yuya dusts his hands off, a little unnecessary, before he falls into step beside Estinien. At least, from this angle, he isn't too tempted to stare up at Estinien's pale glow. "So you were staying at an outpost? Alone?"
Some of them are making their best effort at being his 'pets' in the sense that they follow him around for food and what probably constitutes snuggles. Estinien keeps those moments to himself, though.
"Not alone. Himeka remained with me," he says. The place he was staying isn't far from here - just one of the hollows in the main tree. "I had... concerns about what these changes could mean for me. For other people." He looks downward. "I've seen the like before, and for most of history, 'twas a death sentence."
"You have?" He straightens up a little, curious. If Estinien has come back, then he's sure that means he's safe. So the revelation doesn't leave him any more worried than he was before. "Do you mean that whole illness or just the... uh, the glowing thing?"
"To be changed by a force that intended to make a puppet of you," he clarifies grimly. "The way its essence washed over me... 'twas much like a phenomenon we called tempering, in which a soul is contorted to more closely resemble the being that corrupted it, and filled with naught but the desires that had been inflicted upon them by that touch."
He's not completely certain, even now, but he would do not good for the rest of the Pleroma were he to hide away forever.
"Those with physical changes were the furthest gone."
"Oh." Yuya rubs the back his neck, not sure what to say for a moment. Or rather, not sure where to start.
So it's a minute of quiet between them before Yuya looks up at Estinien again. "Well, it didn't want to... exactly puppet anyone. I mean, the... thing that was spreading that whole thing."
He waves his hands vaguely. "More like... drawing everyone into it?"
They are just entering Estinien and Himeka's hut when Yuya says this, causing Estinien to stop in his tracks. He seems to go entirely still as he processes what Yuya said, turning back to look at him.
"You had a close experience with it, then?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah." He rubs the back of his neck, glancing aside as he leans in the doorway. "Kind of like I was becoming part of it, but I didn't go anywhere after all. And I guess it left and all of that stopped."
Totally normal and reasonable things, and not at all kind of alarming in hindsight. But he's fine! He thinks. "It really wanted to share peace."
"That creature doesn't know the meaning of peace."
His infection had been a state of unending torment that followed him beyond the destruction of his body. To feel his mind slip away, his control leaving him, had been absolute hell. Nevermind the physical pain it caused.
He still wakes at night thinking of it, sometimes.
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hippocarnival) wrote2022-03-02 05:45 pm
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"I have," he says. "Some eventually found me at the outpost, regardless..." He shrugs a shoulder and then gestures for Yuya to follow him. "Come."
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Yuya dusts his hands off, a little unnecessary, before he falls into step beside Estinien. At least, from this angle, he isn't too tempted to stare up at Estinien's pale glow. "So you were staying at an outpost? Alone?"
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"Not alone. Himeka remained with me," he says. The place he was staying isn't far from here - just one of the hollows in the main tree. "I had... concerns about what these changes could mean for me. For other people." He looks downward. "I've seen the like before, and for most of history, 'twas a death sentence."
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He's not completely certain, even now, but he would do not good for the rest of the Pleroma were he to hide away forever.
"Those with physical changes were the furthest gone."
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So it's a minute of quiet between them before Yuya looks up at Estinien again. "Well, it didn't want to... exactly puppet anyone. I mean, the... thing that was spreading that whole thing."
He waves his hands vaguely. "More like... drawing everyone into it?"
no subject
"You had a close experience with it, then?" he asks.
no subject
Totally normal and reasonable things, and not at all kind of alarming in hindsight. But he's fine! He thinks. "It really wanted to share peace."
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"That creature doesn't know the meaning of peace."
His infection had been a state of unending torment that followed him beyond the destruction of his body. To feel his mind slip away, his control leaving him, had been absolute hell. Nevermind the physical pain it caused.
He still wakes at night thinking of it, sometimes.
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"I don't really know why it left, though. It was just like... waking up? When the infection stopped."