All Colors Are Fading

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

If Hotaru is sunshine then Maea is snow, and though she melts in the Valkyrie's arms and gleams with light of her own like delicate hoarfrost, that chill still lingers and tickles at Ru's awareness to signal that something isn't quite right. Patient as ever, Hotaru doesn't press or pry just yet and instead wrinkles her nose in a playfully teasing expression at Maea's clarification. "Do you think of me often, then? You're so sweet." Once upon a time Hotaru might have yearned to be in the heads of everyone she possibly could be, but she's quite content to cultivate her power anew in the peaceful pastoral fields of King's End with little interruption from outsiders. "I'm glad to see you too," she adds on warmly, balancing her teasing with reciprocation.

Tired and weathered as she seems - though Ru can't gauge whether the affliction is physical or mental - it's convenient to drag her along on this particular errand. If the fire cannot rejuvenate her, perhaps time with a friend will.

"Of course! Honestly, Ancients can make a fortune as glassblowers; the tools I can use to shape the glass are limited, using your hands would achieve so much more detail." Hotaru had utilized magic where the tools had failed her - take that, anti-Abandoned Grounders - but Ancients could blow that creativity straight out of the water. "The forge is already hot, so let's start melting shards together in the crucible first." Ru pulls Maea into the forge by the hands with an encouraging smile that leads the way as she maneuvers backward to settle them both by the forge's oppressively hot mouth. 

From her hip pouch comes a large array of glass chips of varying colors but decently uniform size, tinkling merrily as she pours them into the fire-clay container she'd also brought to avoid cross-contamination with the forger's metal-specific materials. The Valkyrie steps aside to provide Maea room as she points into the heart of the forge's fire with one hand and extends the clay container with the other. "Put it as close to the center as possible, and nestle it down into the coals beneath the charcoal layer if you can please." Tongs could do the job decently but Hotaru suspects Maea might need this time to feel useful and involved. Something in her gut - or maybe Ru just remembers seeing that expression in her own mirror so many times over the years, and recalls what little had helped her back then when she hadn't known how to talk about it.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me