DECUS ♥ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisaroma) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
unknownseas2021-02-27 07:34 pm
thisaroma) wrote in unknownseas2021-02-27 07:34 pm
into each breaking wave
[ Well, that was — no pun intended — unfortunate. ...But in light of what they already saw happen the first two weeks, maybe it's not really that surprising, either; and maybe it's at least a little easier to recognize when something is going to be a lost cause, if not necessarily to accept it.
In spite of everything, this is the first time Decus has been in a halfway decent mood after a trial, which he can gather is... probably not the case for most of the rest. So he figures he can take on the party host duties for this week rather than push it onto someone who needs a break. Anyway, he wants to keep up this feeling-okay thing for as long as he can, and if he has too much downtime and starts to think about what happened a week ago today... he might end up a little less okay.
So, he brings some food down to the buffet from the cafes for a little variety (even though most of them probably aren't going to be too picky at this point), along with some tea and cocoa from Starbucks and a few harder options from the bar, and gets that all set up in as welcoming an arrangement as he can manage. And...
Well. Despite how he may come off sometimes, he actually is self-aware enough to realize that some of the others might not appreciate being reminded that he's still alive when three people who'd never had any intention of killing are dead. It doesn't really bother him, but he doesn't want to create unnecessary drama, either; so he doesn't put his name anywhere on the invitations he puts up around the place, just a simple:
food and drinks at the buffet
...Which is almost always the case, technically, this past week excluded, but hey.
And while he might come by to offer a drink or something to someone who looks like they need it, he's mostly going to hang back and let everyone do their thing. ]
In spite of everything, this is the first time Decus has been in a halfway decent mood after a trial, which he can gather is... probably not the case for most of the rest. So he figures he can take on the party host duties for this week rather than push it onto someone who needs a break. Anyway, he wants to keep up this feeling-okay thing for as long as he can, and if he has too much downtime and starts to think about what happened a week ago today... he might end up a little less okay.
So, he brings some food down to the buffet from the cafes for a little variety (even though most of them probably aren't going to be too picky at this point), along with some tea and cocoa from Starbucks and a few harder options from the bar, and gets that all set up in as welcoming an arrangement as he can manage. And...
Well. Despite how he may come off sometimes, he actually is self-aware enough to realize that some of the others might not appreciate being reminded that he's still alive when three people who'd never had any intention of killing are dead. It doesn't really bother him, but he doesn't want to create unnecessary drama, either; so he doesn't put his name anywhere on the invitations he puts up around the place, just a simple:
food and drinks at the buffet
...Which is almost always the case, technically, this past week excluded, but hey.
And while he might come by to offer a drink or something to someone who looks like they need it, he's mostly going to hang back and let everyone do their thing. ]
cw: mention of fucked up fire emblem shit
[But like. Wow? People actually bullying you for being nonhuman? What the fuck?
Alice's earned shred of sympathy from Flayn returns, though]Were those people...the Elf people. Were they...killed, at all? By humans?
i see your fucked up fire emblem shit and raise you some tl;dr fucked up symphonia shit
[ He frowns for a moment, then sighs. ]
...But it's also complicated.
[ ...And he's going to actually pull up a chair and take a seat next to her for this. There's no quick way to explain it at all, which is part of why he hasn't mentioned it often. ]
Our world had been split in two a really long time ago, and things shook out really differently on each side.
[ For a lot of reasons, most of which he's just not going to get into unless she asks, and some of which he may not even know. ]
In the other world, Tethe'alla, half-elves were shunned by everyone and treated terribly. A lot of them were relegated to the basements of the imperial research facilities and forced to do work for a government that didn't care about their rights.
...In our world, Sylvarant, there was this group of half-elves called the Desians that had lived through that oppression and hated humans because of it, so they used their power to turn that system on its head and take revenge. They established human ranches around the world, where they'd take any humans that opposed them and put them into forced labor for the rest of their lives... which usually wasn't too long.
[ Also for... reasons he's not going into.
... ]
I think most of us at the orphanage had probably lost at least one of our parents to them, so it's not like I can't see why they would have taken out their anger on Alice, even though neither she or her parents had done anything wrong.
[ Though he'd never felt that way about it himself, even if he'd been in the same boat. Alice had just been a kid. ]
Two years ago, the Desians were defeated and the worlds were joined into one again. Humans aren't suffering at the hands of half-elves anymore, so life is a lot better for us. But... with the half-elf discrimination that was already rampant in Tethe'alla and the resentment a lot of the people in Sylvarant have for them, they're not really in a much better place than they ever were.
oh HELL YEAH then Flayn's going to go into DEEP NABATEAN LORE so cw: body horror
Flayn just looks increasingly horrified as Decus goes on, but he doesn't stop him from explaining things.]
So neither side was kind, no matter what kind of person you were. That...that is horrible, Decus.
[It's said wearily, with a heavy heart that aches for those she does not know. (And another notch in the "Sympathy for Alice" category, which is incredible.]
My people...in legend, we are called the Children of the Goddess. But I - I am moreso a Granddaughter of the Goddess, so...the colloquial term is Nabatean. Before I was born, there was strife between the Goddess and a group of humans who took the gifts of power she had given them and turned them into weapons. They thought themselves greater than she, and resented her for generations. So...they found a group of bandits led by a man named Nemesis, and had them storm our ancestral home - Zanado.
[She is quiet for a moment, shutting her eyes, trying not to think of Sara. Trying not to think of Sara multiplied by hundreds, thousands.]
They - they slaughtered every Nabatean they could find. Drank of their blood to gain their power - their Crests - and brought their bodies to Those Who Slither in the Dark to fashion their bones and hearts into weapons of terrible power. Nemesis himself took the Goddess's power as his own. And those of us who were left alive - myself, my father, my two uncles - came to find my aunt as the only survivor of the tragedy. [It's a simplified way of talking about it - who knows if Flayn ever saw the aftermath, really.] We banded together and fought back against Nemesis and his men, gathering humans to our cause...and my aunt, she...was very persuasive. She built what became the Church of Seiros on her words, hiding our true nature and twisting the truth of what had happened to our people so we could avenge them. I - I was hurt gravely in the penultimate battle, and had to sleep for a long time to heal, but when I woke - everything was a religion. I had become a Saint, and the people held the Crests their ancestors had taken, the weapons fashioned from my people, as marks of power and nobility. As gifts from the Goddess. If the truth were known, people might...come after someone like me, and...try to gain more power.
[Ooph we are hugging Jimmy Bear really tightly right now, as if this ugly, poorly made teddy can protect Flayn from people ripping her apart.]
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Decus looks comparatively calmer listening to this than Flayn had at his story — though there is a notable frown at the part about turning their bodies into weapons, because that is not entirely unlike what was happening at those ranches — but, damn. He knew Flayn had mentioned war and everything a few times, but he definitely wouldn't have guessed she'd lived through all of that. Even aside from the more objectively horrific parts of that... it was always disorienting enough for him just losing a few hours at a time, so he can only imagine waking up to changes as extreme as that.
He doesn't really love that whole church thing, which also seems a little familiar from what he knows of that part of his world's story, but at least it doesn't seem like Flayn herself is under any delusions about it. ]
Damn... I'm sorry, Flayn. I definitely get why you felt like you needed to hide now, though. I had no idea you'd been through that much.
[ It's too bad some of the same themes seem to be repeated from one world to the next like that, too...
He's quiet for a few seconds, and then he leans in a bit to lightly puts his hand on her shoulder. ]
You know, I don't think there are a lot of people who'd still be able to care about all of us humans here as much as you do after all that. You're a pretty strong person.
[ A very different kind of strength than Alice, and... maybe one that doesn't necessarily correlate to great decision making sometimes, but still. It's kind of impressive. ]
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I do not know about strength, but...I could not just ignore others in pain. A human and I might be very different, but we all still feel things, and have dreams and hopes. In that way, we are similar.
[Flayn could look at those who bear crests and not see the ancestor who might have stolen the life of a family member. It isn't their fault - they just don't know what happened, and their world is shaped with lies and secrets. How could she hold such things against them?]
But...since I have told you this. I do hope you will keep this information in mind, should anything happen to me. I plan to keep it a secret no longer, to anyone who asks, and. Well. I am not under any delusions, let us say.
[Like if Magica wants to drain her blood to get her dark powers back or some shit, fuck idk]
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At that request, he nods. ]
Yeah. I will.
[ If she's willing to be realistic about it like this, he doesn't see much point in offering any "hopefully it won't come to that" platitudes. ]
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[There does seem to be a measure of relief that washes over her.]
Truly, I...I am glad I can finally be honest. It has been a very long time since I could talk about it with anyone besides my brother - er...my father, I mean.