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[angeloftruth]

Comments

[aglows]

Places that exist and are full of people that are alive!

[angeloftruth]

Irrelevant. I wouldn't be an arbiter of chaos of those places if they didn't exist.

[aglows]

Yeah, and your chaos is the problem. Maybe just stop.

[angeloftruth]

No.

[aglows]

You're a horrible man, you know that, right

[angeloftruth]

So I've been told, but I really don't care for your idea of morality.

[aglows]

So you've said. I don't see how living through centuries of our worlds existing could not at least imbue some semblance of "maybe these people are real and exist even if I miss my world."

[angeloftruth]

We've been over this and I've no desire to repeat myself.

[aglows]

Yet you sure seem to like hearing yourself talk anyway

[angeloftruth]

A racial trait, I'm afraid.

[aglows]

True, Lahabrea sure didn't know how to shut up either

[angeloftruth]

He was always worse about it than any of us. His days as a lecturer rubbed off on him.

[aglows]

And just how did your days rub off on you?

[angeloftruth]

I could never stop building replica cities in my spare time.

[aglows]

That would be sad if you weren't such an asshole.

[angeloftruth]

Sad? Why sad?

[aglows]

Because I saw the shades. The echoes of people you lost. It's been so long, and you still miss them.

[angeloftruth]

[Rude.]

Grief doesn't just stop, hero, despite what people may tell you. Grief stays with you for the rest of your life. Think about what that means for me.

[aglows]

I've lost people, too. But I would not sacrifice another to bring them back.

[angeloftruth]

And you will never live with your grief like I have.

Do not compare us. You cannot *fathom* what it's like.

[aglows]

One person's grief does not outride another's. I can fathom enough.

[angeloftruth]

So you've had the nightmares and the memories and the fever dreams for eons upon eons, have you? You've felt half-mad with the grief because everywhere you look the world is mocking your dead loved ones and has been for centuries? You've forgotten what it's like not to have the cries of the dead haunting your sleep after the first few millennia? Forgotten your mother's face, your brother's voice, your lover's smile, only to see broken and shattered pieces of them everywhere you go?

You can *never* fathom what I've been through, Dunya. Do not try.

[aglows]

( She doesn't respond for a while. )

My tribe was attacked one day when I was young. Most were killed. Half of who remained were captured. Those of us who could fled to Hingashi. Some were my family who were lost to us. Yet, I returned to the Steppes and even won the Nadaam. I am a princess without my birthright, and I took it back without sacrificing others.

Do not assume I cannot fathom your pain simply because I am not immortal, Ascian.

[angeloftruth]

Your pain is a shallow, weaker pain to the sort I've felt by its very nature. It will never deepen to the point mine has. It can't. You'll die before then.

[aglows]

Pain is not shallow because it's fresher. Bite your tongue.