idolpro | You're at the reintro. You're at the heartgame. You're at the combination reintro/heartgame.

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!heart games

You're at the reintro. You're at the heartgame. You're at the combination reintro/heartgame.

Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.
- Pablo Neruda

✦

bought a bubblegum scented sword so the last thing
my enemies realise is how fun and cute i am
- wolfpupy

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...all right. I think I understand.

What was it... aconite for anger, wild rose for "something different," lotus for "the descending angel" and star of bethlehem for "something changed forever"...

[ well.

she waves to the people? hey guys fancy seeing you again. ]

"Huh. Guess you're back."

You come here often, etc. (Neither of them make any move to actually help you out of the pond, of course, but they acknowledge you comparatively quickly. Possibly this counts for friendliness.)

It seems so. I take it this is a surprise all around?

[ she picks herself up out of the pond, and takes her jacket off to wring it out, at least. ]

She's still at a crossroads, then.

"Kiri was taken away from all of you, wasn't she. The decisions that needed to be made—they stayed incomplete."

Adalet glances at Harlowe; he answers her with a noncommittal shrug.

"So: yes. The roots of the thing... always go deeper than you think they do."

This time I'll do my best to finish the work.

Then, where to go next... I recall your colleague suggested heaven's garden or the vengeance room.

Or is it "roomm"?

"The extra letter is for emphasis." Harlowe's deadpan voice and earnest voice are the same voice.

"–But if that's what Quentin said, those are your options. There are some things he doesn't ever fuck up."

"Wow. Thanks very much for the vote of confidence."

Quentin looks exactly as travel-worn as he did when you saw him last.

"You're remembering correctly though, yes. I can show you how to use the bridges, if you're ready. Leli's, ah..."

He looks out across the clearing, and then at Adalet, and trails off.

"Ah. You can leave whenever you're ready, I mean."

If you don't mind. I'll try heaven's garden, first—it seems like the right one for me to look into.

"Hm. That's your Song—isn't it." There's the faintest hint of an edge to Adalet's voice.

"Or would be, if you were one of us."

...not a fan?

Quentin immediately looks like he is #dying.

"Leli Fell." You can hear the capitalization, there.

"So what do you think."

Well, it's not like I don't have a complicated relationship with religion. I wouldn't want to assume.

...and don't worry, I didn't bring any pamphlets.

"If you came into our Chancel with that kind of nerve—a problem with our choices—I'd probably have just killed you."

("Oh, yeah, he'd definitely have killed you." "He'd have killed you." Quentin and Adalet apparently agree on this one.)

"...But you didn't. Tried to die to get in, the whole bit. Even if you're no good at the 'dying' part. That kind of commitment to Familia—" A nod. "—It's worth something.

"And... yes. You could say our relationship with Heaven... and Leli's past... is complicated."

Adalet smiles thinly—a strangely forlorn expression on her.

"When Leli ennobled the three of us, she was still Leliel, after all."

[ she nods to harlowe— ]

Choice is the most important thing one has, after all.

Kiri's sort of... new to choices, though, isn't she. And she only ever knew Leli?

"...She only ever knew this Leli, at least."

("We had some...ah, misadventures with alternate universes, let's call them," Quentin offers by way of explanation—but neither of the others seems eager to go into detail.)

"But we would never have denied her the ability to make choices—certainly not with Harlowe around." (He grunts affirmatively.) "The entire time we knew Kiri, though... I don't think she ever wanted anything else. Just Leli. The way she cared about her..."

Adalet trails off, uncomfortable in a way you can already recognize as uncharacteristic of her.

"It went against the Code Fidelitas, and you know it." There's no compromise in his voice, but no judgment either.

"Not that any of us really care to be law-abiding." For a moment, Harlowe might have even smirked.

And around you, delicate white heads of Star of Bethlehem snowdrops begin to lift from the soil.

Edited 2021-09-28 02:32 (UTC)

The code of... loyalty?

[ her eyes linger on the flowers unfurling from the soil; it's a pretty straightforward visual metaphor, huh. ]

...well, I suppose—love is something that's very important to her, so I shouldn't be surprised.

[ she glances toward where Leli was, last time. ]

"Lord Entropy's laws for the Nobilis. Supposed to keep the War going smoothly:

"Thou Shalt Not Love Another
Thou Shall Harm None Who Has Done No Harm
Treat No Beast as Your Lord
Protect No Power From the Justice of the Code
Serve Thy Imperator Before the War, and the War Before Thyself."

Harlowe has clearly recited these same words dozens—perhaps hundreds—of times.

Leli is where you remember her, sitting on a smooth stone in the center of the clearing. When you look at her, you accidentally meet her eyes—she's been watching this.

[ she holds eye contact, and then looks back to the group. ]

"Thou shalt not love another"?

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That's the whole point of anything.

And... I suppose, speaking of which—I should get going, to do right by Kiri Hellfire, shouldn't I?

"Lord Entropy always liked me." Adalet distinctly doesn't make that sound like a good thing. "So personally..." Her voice goes uncharacteristically soft. "...I'm inclined to agree with you."

Both Harlowe and Quentin stay silent, then. In the quiet, you can hear the wind rustling the branches of tall pines (in the distance, some are burning); in the breeze, the purple aconite sways.

"....We'll never forgive the Locust Court for what they did to us. So. Good luck."

I suppose... I can understand that kind of feeling quite well.

I appreciate it. You, then—Quentin, wasn't it? If you would show me the way.

"Can do."

Quentin shoulders his pack. The course of the conversation has brought out an uncharacteristic steadiness in him—he is a man often lost, but in this, he knows exactly what to do.

"Here—" He gestures you over as he begins to walk towards the edge of one of the ponds, to the base of one of the crumbling bridges.

[ she follows, although she looks at the bridge a little dubiously. ]

...well, I suppose it doesn't have to make logical sense in a place like this.

You're at the reintro. You're at the heartgame. You're at the combination reintro/heartgame.

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