...

...

...

Good morning.

[it took him awhile to look down and notice him....]

...

[puts his hand out for his homework]

Call it what you like.

What.

Hmmm....

No.

[man standing emoji]

Hm. No worthy opponents stand before me in the hall...

Hm.

[The smile shifted to an amused smirk. He grasped Aulus' chin with his gauntlet, tilting his head up to inspect his face.]

Very well. I find myself...unstimulated. Surely that brilliant mind of yours can devise something worth my attention.

Loyal like a dog even now, hm? How amusing. Are you so lost without a master?

[A smile grew across his features.]

...Asina, was it?

Still alive. Good. I may well have need of you, shortly.

Such a long rest. Too long, I should think.

Hmm...and he will not show himself otherwise? How cowardly.

(He wasn't keen on forgetting anything. The ecstasy he'd at last found in this tedious existence was something he clung to fervently.)

...very well. I shall observe your "bliss" for the time being.

...

(He held his stance awhile longer...before putting away his blade. The Warrior had become a mere puppet, but of what? Was the master elsewhere, or within?)

...I shall cut your strings.

Who is it that guides your hand?

...something has possessed you.

(He took his scythe from his back, pointing it the way of his "friend".)

I wonder if it can fight.

I do not desire empty bliss, no.

Nor is the illusion of such of any worth. How much of this empty peace will it take for you to drown in, before you simply seek the eternal quiet of death?

Surely to be like this is no different than being dead.

Yet was it not those memories which gave you the strength, the motivation to stand and fight for others? For the weak, the unable?

(He looked entirely unamused.)

You seek a false salvation. To forget that painful things exist is not to erase them.

Hmm...no. The scars upon my body are fond memories of our encounters, and the scars upon my mind...

I suppose, recently, I have found meaning in them, as well.

Was that not wisdom you came upon far before I?

Were you always the type to flee from adversity?

How disappointing.

"Hm."

He finds himself standing by the side of a bustling town center. How unusual, to be amid the common folk without a sword in hand.

((Haiiii I will try to be active here 🫶🫶🫶))