[ voice ]
I left and returned, and nothing had changed. Everyone I knew, or most of them, were still here. Zack and Angeal. Kenpachi and Cloud, too. Lenalee. Sakura...
[ She trails off, quiet. She wasn't here the whole time, but she remembers them. All of them. And more, too.
And now they're gone. Anatole seems kind of lonely, compared to what it was. She's ( Read more... )
[ She trails off, quiet. She wasn't here the whole time, but she remembers them. All of them. And more, too.
And now they're gone. Anatole seems kind of lonely, compared to what it was. She's ( Read more... )
[It's not something he knows he believes, himself. But he's not about to let Mei know that. That's another thing Anatole has change about him--before, he would not have given or accepted empty reassurances. But there was a period where "hope" was all that kept him moving, so he understands, now. The need for it.]
...One of mine did, in a sense. But not the way I had wanted [As for the other one...well, as long as he is here, it will have come true.]
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[ And she really hopes he is. ]
What happened?
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...I'd rather not talk about it. Suffice it to say, it was a trick of the mist...and nothing more. [Nothing more, he's told himself, over and over. It's the only way he can make peace with having watched his brother die, again.]
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... My wishes came true. [ Focus change! ] But I think I have a new wish.
Do you have any new ones?
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...What is your new wish?
[Passing over her question, for the momen t. He's never been that good at expressing what he wants, and right now...he's not even sure if there is anything to wish for. Overall, he's content, still discovering the little things that can briefly bring him any amount of happiness.]
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[ She says it as if it's very serious, too. ]
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I see.
...Are you allowed to tell the wishes that already came true?
[He barely opens himself up to her, so the least he feels he can do is allow her to share what she wants with him. For some reason she always seems to enjoy spending time with him. And there's partly the curiosity of knowing what she had wanted--insight so that maybe he can come to learn the kinds of things that make her happy.]
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I think that is okay.
[ She's okay that he doesn't open up to her like Yachiru might. It's okay because that's how he is and she likes him as himself. He opens up, whether he realizes it or not, just in his actions. ]
My first wish was to restore status to my clan.
[ With her prince, but that's another story. She's sure that, in the years to come, Alphonse will be beside her. ]
I know that will happen... even if I am not the one to have attained the way of immortality.
[ She's still sad about it, frustrated because she fought so long and hard for it, and through her smile it might be heard, a bit of bitterness that she can't quite get rid of. ]
Do you want to know my second wish?
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...and fervently hopes that he can someday be even marginally worthy of it. He can hear that slight bitterness, though, and that urge is there, for reassurance, even though he does not know the politics of Xing or the situation of her clan.]
You can't be expected to carry such a burden on your own.
[You're a child he always tells her, particularly when she wants to help with the rent and other such things that should be his to deal with. He's determined to preserve as much of her childhood as he can, so that that innocent light remains in her eyes for years to come.]I'm glad your people will be restored, and those that know of your efforts will be ( ... )
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She lowers her head, quiet for a while. ]
I didn't see it as a burden. They were my people and it was my duty to them. Wouldn't you do the same?
[ Even children have responsibilities. How great they are depends on need. She knows this, has known it since she was old enough to read and write, cook and clean. This was her responsibility and it made her proud.
She smiles softly at that, holds the Forge close, almost wishing it were video. Her response is quiet. ]But I did not do it. It ( ... )
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It's a bit of a bittersweet memory--waking up in that camp to strangers who had saved his life and promised not to sell him out, merely because he was Ishbalan. It's pathetic, in retrospect, how consumed he'd been with his hatred, not to see the harm he was doing to his own people--giving the military reason to oppress them further.]
I don't...know. I've done them more harm than good, in my life. With the choices I made.
[He doesn't know why Mei is always so quick to believe the best about him. Perhaps, it is merely a child's innocence. But it makes him afraid, too, that someday he will hurt her enough to break that faith. He doesn't know what he would live for, then.]
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The Forge shakes in his hand a moment before he sets it down, and Scar is very thankful now, that the conversation is in audio, because he can only imagine what his expression must look like.
There's only silence for awhile, then, as he tries to sort out his thoughts.
Mei said she had gotten her wish, but...he can only feel guilt about it. Because that was not him--it was someone else, who had lived a different life. In all the time he'd spent with Mei, he had never been able to manage something as simple as a smile. And yet...and yet, this stranger had come in over those ten days, and gave her what she'd wanted. It was an odd sensation, to be jealous of oneself, but he couldn't help that bitterness ( ... )
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...I'm sorry.
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