Video.

[supercilious]

[ It's well after midnight. The camera feed is a mess of black and grey, the Forge screen the only illumination. It turns Arthur's face sickly, throws unusual shadows across it. His voice is low. ]

Tell me a story.

[ There aren't many left familiar with the way he demands this in bored, petulant tones. ]

About someone you lost.

[ An

Comments

[voice]

[hirac_utzum]

[He isn't sure why he responds. This is personal, a memory jealously guarded, and yet, here he is, in a strange place he does not yet understand. Maybe in sharing this, he can let go of the ghosts of the past--a ghost he has become himself, as he is certain of his own death back home--and perhaps, allow something of his own motivations, his own faults be known.

He very intentionally leaves the message unlocked.]

Once, a very long time ago, an ari-- a young cadet joined his people's military. He thought that he could make a difference, that he could be a hero to his people.

But then he discovered that his people were not the benevolent presence in the world that he believed them to be. That they had done terrible things in the name of war, committed genocide all so that... certain slaves would not be used against them in battle

[voice]

[supercilious]

[ Hitting mighty close to home there, buddy. ]

I, too, know the moment when you speak with someone you loved and they do not know your face. You'll find it's almost common here, where we are meddled with on the whims of children in a tower.

But I am sorry. At least you know she lives on, as herself, as the things that you loved about her, even if it isn't with you.