kaisou | Un: Zodiac | Mid-Month Update

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: Libra App
WHEN: February 14th
WHAT: Zodiac Network Post
WARNINGS: None!

[We've reached the middle of February. Cupid arrows are still flying through the city, making people explain what's deep in their hearts. The post begins like the previous one had, with notifications of peoples coming and goings]

Ganymede has joined the app. Say hi everyone!

Valvatorez and Cassandra have left the app.

[The post then continues on as normal.]

Hello. Thank you for using the Libra App.

I got shot with an arrow on my way to work today, so let's make this quick:

I don't like any of you, I don't like doing these updates. Valentine's Day is nothing more than a sham meant to sell stuff and love is dead.

Now for a word from our sponsors.

This post is sponsored by Golden Peacock Jewelers. Show your love this Valentine's day with gold.

[Users will have the option to choose their own display names and user pics if they haven't already. If nothing is chosen, the app will use their real name and a quick photo taken of them from their camera's phone. Like always, there'll be no responses from Zodiac. And as always, feel free to keep backtagging the event logs! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Management" my ass. You're not gonna consider shit you already aren't cause you keep calling me that! I'm not stupid.

[Notice the avoidance of the friendship question.]

Now, now, Squall, I never called you stupid nor did I imply it. Relax, loosen up a little! We're all friends here, and friendship isn't bad, right?

[A long delay.

For another aversion, but not a denial!]

Why the hell are you so fixated on this? What does it fucking matter to you people?

[Hey, it gives Venti time to pour a glass of lovely dessert wine to go with his apple tart. What Ragna doesn't know won't hurt him. However, Venti does take a moment to private this conversation since it's about to get deep and he doubts that Ragna wants it to be public.]

Isn't it enough to be worried about my friend Squall? Or just another person's well-being in general? Ehh, but you probably don't believe me. Hm....

Ah, how about this? I've seen how loneliness kills a person. Loneliness is the kind of killer that works slowly and patiently. It wears you down until there's nothing left. Nothing but your painfully loud thoughts and doubts and sorrows and regrets. It makes you think there's no light and no way out.

But you wanna know a secret? That kinda thing is just playing with shadows and hiding the light from its victims. There's always a way back and there is a light at the end of it. It just takes some time and patience and kindness to yourself.

[This took a turn he didn't expect or want. He'd rather go back to being fucked with than being called out like this.

Dammit... Ragna forgot the guy was a god, what he wouldn't give to go back to the thirty seconds before he read this and every word stuck like glue in his head. He didn't need anyone, it didn't matter if he was alone.

It didn't matter if he was lonely, if his only companion was a proverbial noose and the abyss of vengeance he walked through every day where the only light was the fire that engulfed his home far, far at his back that haunted his dreams with the smell of smoke and the sound of cracked bone and his own screaming.

... So why the hell did he find himself walking towards a light he only found here, only visible halfway from a spiteful Onryou covering his right side view? Why did he find himself wondering just how much this guy knew how much loneliness killed?

There's a long delay, it would be easy to assume Ragna had just left Venti on read. But eventually a reply came.]

Are you speaking from experience here?

[It's a good question that Ragna asks. Both of them are cutting the bullshit and getting closer to the heart of things. Venti could spin what he has to say as a yarn, a tale to make it easier to remember for himself. It's easier to deal with the emotions when he can pretend it happened to someone else, to "Merlin" and not "Venti."

But then it would be insincere. Ragna isn't looking for him to spill his secrets. Only to check and make sure that the hand reaching out towards him is real, and won't be pulled away when he reaches back to it. At least, that's what Venti thinks.]

It'd be a lie to say I wasn't.

All the tales you'll hear of great and powerful people will talk them up. Let you think they're larger than life, that nothing ever bothered them, and that they were strong all the time. They always had the answer.

But they don't talk about how the loneliness killed Merlin just as much as his grief did, do they? Even Mondstadters didn't talk about how the Anemo Archon was most likely lonely after his best friend died for freedom. Maybe it's no wonder he befriended so many lonely people after the rebellion, and maybe I'm the same. How can I not recognize that loneliness when it's also in me?

[Something like that. It was more likely to assume Ragna would pull his hand away, tell Venti to run while he still could. Between his possessor and the 'BlazBlue', god only knew what would happen if he got too close.

Deep down, a hole was left in his heart by his family's death that he's only been able to fill with the idea of Krusnik burning like they did his home, his everything. Ragna was human at the end of the day, humans craved companionship and humans had hearts.

"I'm just like you... God only knows whose soul this actually is! But it doesn't matter... I'm a person! A human being!"

Who did he say that to? Who did he reach out to like this once before, lost in the depths of despair and loneliness thinking she was the only one of her kind, a horrible artificially made monster? It didn't matter who, really. Ragna Ayatsuki Mercurisson agreed with Ragna the Bloodedge on that matter.

No one should have to face such a crippling isolation.]

It takes one to know one, huh.

[...]

I don't think I need to tell you the risk that's involved trying to get involved with me. But if you gave a shit about that you wouldn't have helped Blade out with Mara like you did now would you.

I haven't walked in the light in a long time. I never thought freedom was possible until I saw Blade come out of that Labyrinth alive.

[He doesn't know how to see the light without it hurting.]

Unfortunately, there's always been a cost and risk to freedom. I'm not blind to that. But we talked about it and Bladie chose all on his own that this was the best path forward.

The light doesn't have to be so harsh when you step back into it. It can be as gentle as dawn, and there are places for you to find shade and let your eyes adjust if it's still a bit too bright.

If you ever need help from me or to just speak your mind, I'm here for you. You're my friend, after all! And I don't expect anything in return.

Well. Maybe the occasional apple or bottle of wine, but other than that!

[Ragna wasn't exactly a stranger to costs. Hell, the "freedom" to live came at one. But that could barely be called freedom now that he was forced out of his vengeful tunnel vision.

Is it freedom if you're bound to walk into hell anyway? Or is it just a delayed death sentence paved with good, if ultimately selfish intentions?

He chose this path, but somewhere along the line his possessor took hold of it, wanted to find control again. But his fate is not hers to control. He is no puppet on a string.

He stood on the edge of a new path that had a dream on the end of it that didn't end in loss of everything. It's too damn bright, too loud, surrounded by absolute freaks of nature. All of whom were offering their hands. None of whom were forcing him to take his first step. He'll do it himself, and damn if this shitheel ghost is gonna have a say.

Another long delay as if being left on read. And an eventual response.]

I'll think about it.

Take your time. My door's always open.

Alright, I'll let you go brood or whatever it is you do to destress! You got this, Squall!!!

Un: Zodiac | Mid-Month Update

no subject

no subject

no subject

Private Forever!

forever and ever

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject