[One morning, you wake up - Lup wants you to meet in the kitchen, and… she seems just… so tired. And she explains that, during the night, a city called Cordelia was destroyed by the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, and… estimates put the death toll in the low thousands. And Lup tells you all this with a stone-faced expression and adjourns the meeting and everybody kind of goes back to their quarters, except you. You stick around.
“You know you didn’t… mean… to make something like that. I understood the rationale you came up with, I mean… it was just damage, it was just… damage. The other ones that we made, it can be twisted and perverted in so many different ways, and I think— at least the way you explained it to me, that by making something that was just… damage, you would limit it— you didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
She won’t meet your eyes. “I know that, Taako. I know, I— and I know it’s good, like— The Hunger’s not here, and The Hunger’s worse than anything we've done, I get all that. I just— I can’t help but ask… did we make the right decision?”
“I mean, hindsight’s 20/20.”
“Yeah.”
“ We don’t, who knows if— if the shield would have worked. You know, sometimes there aren’t right decisions. Sometimes there’s just decisions, I mean— at the scale that we’re talking about, the devastation The Hunger brought to all those worlds? I can say pretty certainly that— it’s better than that, right?”
“ It’s got to be, I know. You’re right.”
She still looks really bummed out.
You sigh, deeply. “Okay, I’ll do it one time!”
You go to the record player turn on a truly heinous song and do an incredible dance routine. One unable to be put into words. You do it because it always makes Lup laugh. ‘Cause it’s really ridiculous.
She laughs, she laughs so hard she has to sit down at the kitchen table, and she watches the rest of your performance, and…She laughs so hard that she is, like, crying a little bit? And she wipes those tears from her eyes and says,
“ Taako, I can’t… I couldn’t have done any of this without you. I wouldn’t have made it here without you. I… I know we don’t say this enough, but… Thank you.”
Because this is a memory, however, you know something. That was the last conversation you ever had with your sister.
When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful, and poetic, and satisfying; others are… abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy. Where Lup went, she didn’t intend to end up there, and she certainly didn’t intend to spend as much time away as she did. But from your perspective?
Lup was there, and then the next day she wasn’t. And you all searched for her—Barry tirelessly, painfully so—but she was nowhere to be found.
And all you had to go on was a note that she left behind on that kitchen table. And its two-word message offered no clues to her whereabouts, but simply a promise that was left unfulfilled:
[That’s a very sad memory about sisters! It’s such a shame he can’t relate at all. It takes a minute for all the sad and scared - being so scared that you might have hurt her beyond repair, being scared of your powers - to drain away. And then he rubs his forehead again.]
[elsa crumbles. first, to her knees, then slumps to the floor, face in her hands.
she's not crying. but she's not making any sound at all. her expression, hidden, is unreadable—but the arms taako has his hands on are tense, bunched, unmoving.
it's a long, long, long moment before elsa moves again, removing her hands, eyes damp but not wet, staring blankly ahead. almost robotically, she answers.]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-10-28 09:17 am (UTC)she flounders, and catches him, spinning around as she tries to keep her balance???
but incredibly, she does manage to keep a hold on him, still panting, nearly laughing in disbelief.]
You really--you really just went for it, huh?
no subject
Date: 2020-10-28 06:27 pm (UTC)[Just still in her arms, because she’s a magical disney princess.]
And yeah, it’s called, uh, self-confidence! I’m amazing, therefore, you’d definitely try to catch me.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-29 01:24 am (UTC)[and she's carefully placing him in her old bed, before surveying their new space.]
Well, it's... I mean, it's no pile of leaves in the woods, but...
1/2
Date: 2020-10-29 06:16 pm (UTC)[Rolling onto the bed, but, he sort of also rolls over one of those bubbles? Oop—]
no subject
Date: 2020-10-29 06:17 pm (UTC)“You know you didn’t… mean… to make something like that. I understood the rationale you came up with, I mean… it was just damage, it was just… damage. The other ones that we made, it can be twisted and perverted in so many different ways, and I think— at least the way you explained it to me, that by making something that was just… damage, you would limit it— you didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
She won’t meet your eyes. “I know that, Taako. I know, I— and I know it’s good, like— The Hunger’s not here, and The Hunger’s worse than anything we've done, I get all that. I just— I can’t help but ask… did we make the right decision?”
“I mean, hindsight’s 20/20.”
“Yeah.”
“ We don’t, who knows if— if the shield would have worked. You know, sometimes there aren’t right decisions. Sometimes there’s just decisions, I mean— at the scale that we’re talking about, the devastation The Hunger brought to all those worlds? I can say pretty certainly that— it’s better than that, right?”
“ It’s got to be, I know. You’re right.”
She still looks really bummed out.
You sigh, deeply. “Okay, I’ll do it one time!”
You go to the record player turn on a truly heinous song and do an incredible dance routine. One unable to be put into words. You do it because it always makes Lup laugh. ‘Cause it’s really ridiculous.
She laughs, she laughs so hard she has to sit down at the kitchen table, and she watches the rest of your performance, and…She laughs so hard that she is, like, crying a little bit? And she wipes those tears from her eyes and says,
“ Taako, I can’t… I couldn’t have done any of this without you. I wouldn’t have made it here without you. I… I know we don’t say this enough, but… Thank you.”
Because this is a memory, however, you know something. That was the last conversation you ever had with your sister.
When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful, and poetic, and satisfying; others are… abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy. Where Lup went, she didn’t intend to end up there, and she certainly didn’t intend to spend as much time away as she did. But from your perspective?
Lup was there, and then the next day she wasn’t. And you all searched for her—Barry tirelessly, painfully so—but she was nowhere to be found.
And all you had to go on was a note that she left behind on that kitchen table. And its two-word message offered no clues to her whereabouts, but simply a promise that was left unfulfilled:
“Back Soon.”]
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 07:46 am (UTC)That was your... sister. Lup.
But she did come back. [...] Right...?
no subject
Date: 2020-10-30 06:15 pm (UTC)Um—- Who—-? I didn’t get, like, any of that. Fuck.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-31 01:18 am (UTC)You forgot.
You forgot her.
[of all the memories to lose. and they were so close. to lose... your sister...
...sister...
elsa exhales in shock, complexion fading to a ghostly pallor. she stumbles back, and another bubble pops on her hand as she moves it to balance.
imagine forgetting your sister.]
no subject
Date: 2020-10-31 04:01 am (UTC)Uh— Is that your sister?
no subject
Date: 2020-10-31 09:49 am (UTC)[he face is still pale, hands shaking as she clutches them together in front of her.]
I don't remember anyone...!
[in front of taako's eyes, elsa is having a full-on meltdown.]
no subject
Date: 2020-11-01 09:53 pm (UTC)Reaching out? He’s not good at this. Putting hands on her arms, either side.]
Hey, woah— okay, um, it’s okay! It’s cool, you’ll— they come back sometimes! You just have to wait, it sucks, but they come back!
no subject
Date: 2020-11-02 01:47 am (UTC)she's not crying. but she's not making any sound at all. her expression, hidden, is unreadable—but the arms taako has his hands on are tense, bunched, unmoving.
it's a long, long, long moment before elsa moves again, removing her hands, eyes damp but not wet, staring blankly ahead. almost robotically, she answers.]
Yes.
Perhaps they will.