Eliphas conversation with Hina

[17:57] Hina Asimov whispers to Eliphas Aegeus: ... follow me. I think it's time I tell you what happened.
[17:57] Eliphas Aegeus says, "..."
[17:58] Hina Asimov says, "..."
[17:58] Eliphas Aegeus says, "Go on.. At your own time of course."
[17:58] Hina Asimov says, "Let's start from what you know."
[17:58] Hina Asimov asks, "What has he said?"
[17:58] Hina Asimov asks, "What did he say of me?"
[17:59] Eliphas Aegeus says, "Hmm..."
[17:59] Hina goes fully visible, which indicates this is probably serious.
(Hina Asimov)
[19:00] The statement itself bothered him as he preferred not to think back to the past. More so to remember the vulgar things that were said about a woman he held close to his heart.

"You want the honest truth?" he asked as he pressed his elbows against his knees. His palms clasped as he shifted around in his seat.

Sapphire hues turned to the flames as he'd give them the answer they desired. Hina would either come to dread them. Or come to understand.

"He told me that you were one of his best friends." Ooh look, it started on a good note. "One of the closest friends that he's ever cherished." the corners of his lips pulled as he smiled at the hidden memory. Thinking back to the moments that he had spent with his dearly beloved father.

His tone was soft, caring even. As if he was telling an old wives tale to his very own children. "My father told me how I'd love to meet you." he paused as he turned to flash her a grin. "Even though you were kind of dumb. Actually, he couldn't stress that enough actually." he laughed playfully.

Turning back towards the flames, he watched how the fire flickered about. Licking at the surrounding air as embers dispersed into the air.

"But he went on about how you were kind. But you never knew what was best for yourself. He.. He wished that he was able to help you with that. He really did." his words faded as he lingered on that moment, closing his eyes to think back to the time two had this talk.

How he rested alongside a wolf ontop of his bed, how his father came beside them and embraced them with his arms. Eliphas remembered how big Dallan's arms was compared to his body. It always made him feel safe, as if there wasn't any obstacle in the world that would stop his father from returning to his side. To be with him...

Those were the good times...

Reality came back to him as he reopened his eyes, his breath shook as his clasped his hands tighter. He missed his dad, but he couldn't do anything about it now. Not yet.

A sigh escaped his lips as he continued.

"He told me that one day I'd understand." but he still didn't. "That if not for you and Killian... That he wouldn't have been there that day with me.."

Tears welled up in the corner of his eyes as he sat up to meet Hina's eyes.

"He told me that I can rely on you."

Moving back to his knees, he wiped any tears away with the back of his sleeve.

"He told me that you and Killian were people that I could trust, no matter what. That I can rely on the both of you. Even if the world was against me. That I could come to you two." Killian had past, but Hina was still here with them, with him.

"The last thing I remember.. Was that he said if you were around. That I wouldn't end up like him." his tone grew warmer as he looked up to the sky above. Hoping that his parents were paying attention, looking down to them both. Smiling.

"Then."

With just one word, the Aegeus's entire demeanor changed. His knuckles whitened as his digits clenched harder. His very essence rose from his body, screaming nothing but hostility and bloodlust towards the Asimov.

Memories flooded back to the moment that his father rushed into the house, covered in dirt and grim. Angrily yelling about as they slammed their fist against the table, breaking it.

How they apologized to him, how they pulled him close and promised him that everything was going to be okay. The way how they kneeled before his childlike form, comforting him despite the expression they bore. Eliphas was too young back then, to young to realize what was going on.

But now? He understood.

"My father told me to forget about you, telling me thatI didn't need her, that we didn't need her."

Eliphas raised his head once more as his aura augmented, growing in size as the bench began to wane from his presence only.

"He said how you were a traitor. How you sided with monsters and held no morals. That you couldn't be trusted, and that I should never even get close you."

Refraining from carrying on as the memory carried weight. The only thing that rang in his ears was that his father said they should've killed them. Turning to face Hina, finally and at last. Staring them down as fate had finally brought the two together.

This encounter was a long time coming, and he wanted answers.

"So.. What did happen between you and my father?"
(Eliphas Aegeus)
[19:29] Eliphas Aegeus says, "Someone with extreme morals was bound to feel enraged at someone with no morals."
[19:29] … this, then, is her greatest failing - and it's clear, then, by the pain in her eyes that she understand why he's talking like such. The honest truth; one of the closest friends that he's ever cherished, but kind of dumb... reality shoots back, then, his aura growing.

She doesn't have hers grow back. Instead, eye contact is maintained; the look on her face goes from simply leery to mournful, hands balled gently in her lap.

"Dallan was the first person I met here in Esshar - southern Esshar. He's the one who taught me pyromancy, the one who let me live in his dorm room with three others despite the fact that he didn't have to." The kitsune begins slowly, looking away - as illusions conjure up, familiar scenes forming in front of the pair.

It demonstrates what she discusses, as a dark blue and pink figure converse on top of a mountaintop, to be shortly joined in adorm room by orange, golden yellow and purple figures. They all appear to be females, except for the dark blue one; the golden yellow and pink ones have ears and tails familiar to kitsunes.

Her tone is soft, caring, and still so sorrowful as she speaks. "I... was dumb. Am dumb. He isn't wrong about that - I thought I could fix the world solely by making friends with everybody, including him. We were close. He was the reason I didn't wind up with Alexei.

He warned me about the symptoms of the sylavanum. It's the reason that we broke up, and we never truly repaired, even after he got off of it." It's demonstrated in the fire as well, figures dancing about - rather dramatically, in fact.

"He was never the one to first think that I never knew what was best for myself. I was the first person to say it, and for the longest time, I was right. He did help me. He did." Eliphas gets his time topause as playful laughter echoes through her mind-

The fire flares, looking almost real in its illusions for a few scant moments. They gain details.

The scene shown is one up in the upper floor of Dallan's house - that wolf that he remembers lays at the man's side as he is despondent over his wife's death, the child sleeping on his bed. Killian and Hina mutually work together to stop him from drinking something, and the air is filled with a pungent aroma...

Magibane?

"He could rely on me; even when Killian died, I remained with him, even as he began to slide further downwards. He could rely on me; I trusted him with everything, with my breakdowns, with my tears. We never got the chance to mourn our mutual brother's death together. I wish we had."

If only it'd been her, she can't help but think.

… and that's when the tone, then, grows to pure sorrow.

"But - two things happened. One was that I fell in love with Dimitri. We had known each other for years, and slowly, we had grown closer; I was his light, his Lotus, his humanity.

The second one..." A different scene plays in the fire now, Dallan's own feelings about the matter - a yearning, a reach out for that purple figure just to witness her light amidst monsters, getting too close to one.

"Your father fell in love with me a few years after your mother's passing. I had always viewed him as a friend and a brother, somebody to trust with my life; he, on the other hand, couldn't understand why I'd chosen Dimitri as the one to spend my life with."

The argument, then, plays out in front of their eyes. The blinded man snaps on her. They had been civil, and had agreed to a dinner, and then he tells her-

"'Don't come back until you've rethought your relationship with Dimitri.' Those were his exact words, said as he ushered me out the door. I wanted to make him happy - I truly did, but...

I wanted one thing for myself. He was insistent that Dimitri would be the death of me. Simply wanted me to be safe, even in his own... semi-psychotic way.

And then I never went back."

The tone in her last sentence... it's full of disappointment in herself, sheer fear at the potential reception of this.

"Things went downhill for him from there. He slipped further and further down, and in the end...

He died on the same day he was proven wrong. Dimitri's patron asked him to sacrifice me - for everything he'd ever wanted and more. Instead of simply doing it, he asked me if I wished to live. I said yes; of course I did.

We sobbed into each other, even more so when I felt the spirit fragment of him leave me. It was scared of what he'd become; it disappeared from me, and..."

A hesitance.

A hug offered, a voice quieted.

"I am so sorry. I failed your father, and the fact that I didn't try harder to be there for him when he wanted me gone is one of my greatest regrets. That's the reason I've tried to be there for you so much."

A pause, as he speaks more wor
(Hina Asimov)
[19:29] A pause, as he speaks more words, and she remains where she is in order to talk to him.
(Hina Asimov)
[19:30] Hina Asimov says, "... I had little to no morals; he wasn't wrong on that, even as Dimitri's actions divorced further and further from my sense of decency as time went on."
[19:30] Hina Asimov says, "But I did have a sense of responsibility to him. For once - the only time in my life - I wished to be selfish."
[19:31] Hina Asimov says, "... I heard his wishes for me once he died. A last link between the dead and the living, unheard since then."
[19:31] Hina Asimov says, "He wanted to do it himself. He never forgave me; I don't blame him, I don't..."
[19:31] Hina Asimov says, "I can only hope I can do right by you, Eliphas."
[19:32] Hina Asimov says, "I can only hope, and try."
[21:05] Eliphas remained still, as his hues glowed with pain.

His breaths shortened as he struggled with his ideals. He wanted to know the honest truth. To what happened with his father, and how Hina was involved with it. He was only but a child when his father had left him, even then he couldn't very well understand it.

Not until, much.. Much later. That his father was dead.

He only wanted the truth, all of it. Straight from the kitsune's mouth.

Meeting her eye, he searched for any answers that lied within. Looking her over before he finally released a sigh. His fist unclenched, now resting in his lap, but his aura remained as an overarching threat.

Playing this daring game, he listened to each syllable that left her lips. Each word that she spoke, and every vowel she uttered.

Only hoping that she'd say nothing but the truth.

Blue hues followed as she spoke. About how Dallan was the first person to greet them in the southern hemisphere of the peninsula. How they were the one who taught her pyromancy. That they even welcomed her into their dorm.

His eyes flickered to the manifestation of her illusion. The representation of her past and collective memories.

Following along, he watched how they interacted with each other. The figures of pink, and dark blue. Figures that he only could assume were his father and Hina. Then the scene transformed before their very eyes, remodled into what he could only assume to be a room as more colored figures joined them.

Watching carefully, he listened how everything played out.

How Dallan was the reason why she didn't end up with Alexei, the Don and father of the Docro's. How they were transfixed by the world known drug called, Sylvanum.

The figures danced, showing the detailed scene that took place decades ago. Helping him visual what had happened all those years ago.

Then Hina spoke up, admitted that she was the first person to claim that she didn't know what was right for themselves. That they didn't know which way to go, or what was even right for them; something that he related with himself...

Slowly, his aura diminished as she continued on.

Finally, a scene showed. The very one that he remembered all too well. Sitting forward, he watched how Dallan sat still as he fell asleep by the wolf's side. Killian and Hina collaborated in preventing Dallan from drinking something..

Why did that bottle look familiar...?

As the story went on, it became evident that even after his mother's death. That the two latched onto the other, in times of need, in times of want, even in times of comfort. Especially after Killian's death. The two needed each other.

That was, until Hina had fallen in love with Dimitri. The one who claimed that they would climb through hell itself if Osrona ever dared to lay it's hands upon her or his spawn.

"So... My father was in love with you. While you fell in love with Dimitri." words escaped once more.

Another image flared to life, one of an argument that played between the two. Dallan and Hina, over dinner as the argued about their differences.

Eliphas felt the resentment she held, her disappointment in her words, as the decisions they made replayed; and just as their words end. Everything truly went down hill.

He remained still as he heard of Dallan's last wish, their words.

The Aegeus's vision blurred as the sound around him vanished, the only thing that he was able to hear was the sound of his own heart beats. With each passing second, it beated louder, pounding against his chest as he unconsciously moved to accept her hug.

Time itself felt as it stilled, seeing as he finally came to know the truth.

He wanted to be angry with Hina, he wanted to lash outand blame her for all of his problems. If only she tried harder. If only she had left Dimitri for him.

If only.

Slowly, he pulled himself back to reality as he shook his head side to side. As much as he wanted to place to blame on someone else, to focus it solely on her. He knew deep down it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be him, and that's something he'd have to accept.

Taking a breath, he pulled away from the Asimov. Only to later to offer to hold her hand.

"As much..." pain strung at his words. "As much as I want to hate you.. To berate you for the things you dragged my father through..." he choked. "I can't. You didn't do anything wrong... You lived your life the way you wanted too, you did the things that you believed that you had to do. Even in the end, even at my father's final breaths."

"I can't fault you for what you've done. If what you said is true.. Then all I'd want from you is to uphold your promise." his eyes rose to meet theirs once more.

"I forgive you."

"And even if you still feel guilty.. Even if you still feel wrong in some way. Then I'l
(Eliphas Aegeus)
[21:06] Sobbing into their chest as he became overwhelmed with his emotions.

"Live your life alright?" his words shook as his body trembled before the older Kitsune. "Don't be foolish anymore, make things right okay?"

Pulling away, he stared up into the Asmiov's face as tears streaked his own. "Just as my father would've wanted.. Don't try.. Do it.. You'll be there for me as I will for you... Okay?" he muttered.

His breath labored as he pressed his forehead into the nape of her shoulder. "We're family now... Okay? Just as you and my father were... Just as... You and my father were...."

(Eliphas Aegeus)