linkingup | FOR THOSE WE HAVE LOST

[After all the palaces he's been to, never would Arven have thought he'd be glad to see some gold eyes at the end! But they're Fray's, and they're no longer flickering like crazy.

Arven stands for a moment, panting as he calms down from his rage. Then the adrenaline wears off and the exhaustion of casting so many healing spells catches up to him.]

Phew...! [He plops down in the snow to catch his breath. Mabosstiff comes up to lick at his cheek in celebration.] Thank goodness for that.

[He eventually looks toward Fray with a grin.]

Welcome back, man.

[Mood, except it was all the debuffs. And Shadow Wall. And Living Dead. And all those Electric spells.]

Thank you for bringing me back to my senses. Even though it did mean a particularly grueling battle.

[S-Sorry about that...]

[He waves that off.]

We've had plenty of practice with those. [Then more seriously:] If I gotta be honest, the memories were harder to deal with.

[...Ah.]

Yes. You have my apologies for those as well. It wasn't my intention to inflict those on you, though obviously I had little say in such things.

[He can guess that it was a desire to be understood that caused him to do that but also: what the fuck Chaos-controlled self.]

Is there anything I can do to... make up for that, I suppose?

You just said it yourself. You couldn't control it, so I don't blame you or anything. It's just...y'know. It was super personal and felt so real. I really resonated with it. I guess it made me realize how I hadn't gotten a chance to grieve for things that happened back home.

[He cuts himself off and rubs the back of his head.]

S-Sorry, now I'm oversharing.

[Hmmm.]

You don't have to or anything, but if you really wanna make up for all this, maybe you and Argenti and Sayaka can join me and Mabosstiff and Mafuyu on a picnic sometime. I'll treat you guys to the Arven Special sandwiches.

[Fray listens, head inclined slightly to the side as he considers it.]

Of course, I'd like that. I'm not particularly skilled at cooking, but if there's anything I can do to help with it, do let me know.

[As for the first part...]

Don't apologize. After all, I do understand. V'rhas has not properly dealt with that grief either.

I'll teach you how to assemble some tasty sandwiches that'll knock Argenti's socks off, then. How's that?

[Come on, Fray, learn some excellent meals for extra romance points.

Anyway,]

...I'm not surprised. I dunno how anyone could easily bounce back from that. I...didn't exactly see my dad die in front of me when it happened, but I did watch him leave. That probably doesn't make any sense, but it's a long story.

You have the memory too though, right? Since you're a part of him and all. How do you work with that?

[He nods at the first part and though he's curious about the second, he doesn't ask. Not right now, at least, as Arven's undoubtedly still struggling with it. As for the questions...]

All of his memories are as clear as my own. It can be hard to separate what is mine.

[Obviously the events here are solely his, but the rest? Yeah. Not really a surprise he ended up having an identity crisis palace.]

As for how I work with that... Well, I imagine today made it very clear that I haven't. I suppose that's something I need to learn as well.

[So even the mentor doesn't have an answer yet. Something about that is oddly refreshing to Arven.]

Mafuyu told me it's okay if the solution doesn't come easily, but man...it's hard to not let it fester either. Guess we'll both be looking for the right balance.

Indeed. We're both lucky to have others to look out for us to ensure that we do learn how to process it.

[Mafuyu has seen enough suffering, and she'll recognize it in Arven. She won't let him hurt if she can help it, Fray's certain of that. And Argenti... well. Obviously Argenti is good at helping him through things, given everything today was.]

FOR THOSE WE HAVE LOST | FRAY'S PALACE

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