Spinning out of control somewhere on the road to happiness

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

Forgetfulness has little to do with it, and Hotaru shrugs it away in a motion better fit for sliding furs off her shoulders than cringing away from an embarrassing topic. "It was for a short time. I ruled a similar place for much longer in the world I came from before The Voice brought me to Caido - ruled alongside Deimos, in fact." Until his death, that is. Outlanders are so few now that it feels odd to reveal it, where once they had been the news of the season each time they arrived. Ironic that they have both ruled Halo but never in tandem again. "Besides, you aren't the only one who had eyes only for King's End. I'd be a hypocrite to be offended." Her fingers play idly with the condensation on the outside of her glass in lieu of the easy shrug Colt makes, more ashamed of her reasoning than the other woman's.

Passion, in comparison, is easy and safe to fall into. Colt's support of Halo draws a genuine smile to Ru's face that stills her fingers, settling her emotions without drawing her attention. "You'd have made a fine Halovian then. Everyone there is a kindred spirit." Certainly after the skyboats and improvements that finally allowed native Halovians to escape if they didn't feel such a way about the snowy kingdom. Before The Voice's portals, well, there hadn't been much choice. "But it doesn't sound like the place for us these days, either." Halo will always be dear to her heart - cherished above all else - but it isn't home anymore. It can't be.

Finishing her first glass and sliding it deeper across the bar to be taken away, Ru cradles the second and blinks past the buzz in her veins. She's a terrible lightweight, and hardly a drinker at all, but she doesn't slow herself down either. Not tonight.

"You'd want to be incredibly thorough in your examination of each potential farmer. They'll be your greatest asset, but also your highest potential for ruination." She nibbles on the tip of her tongue after saying it, wondering if she's coming off preachy, or simply revealing that she's used to a level of underhandedness that even Torchline's underbelly can't quite match. Oh Helovia, what a gem you were. Instead of ruminating, she grins lasciviously at Colt's compliment and licks the honey off her glass with a tongue that might as well be pointed and forked. "Bad? Hardly, darling. It's my greatest pleasure to be noticed and objectified - second only to compliments unrelated to appearance, so you're currying immense favor tonight."

Gin sits on her lips as they purse thoughtfully in wake of her swallow. This doesn't feel entirely theoretical anymore - does Colt know that? Intend it? If so, or perhaps more accurately if not, how honest and forward should the Valkyrie be? "I'd be more than just a farmer. Botanist, curator, saleswoman, enforcer...the drug trade is controlled by a random array of short-sighted, power-hungry fools with little care for the quality of their product or the harm their products cause if contaminated or over-consumed." Her nose wrinkles, a flash of white teeth there-and-gone between her lips as she tsks. "Poison is only poison at the wrong dosage. You can be a benevolent villain - unless villainy is all you care about. Like I said: short-sighted." Power and control only last if you care about more than the immediate win.

Setting her glass down, Ru exhales a laugh as she shakes her head slightly. "More words than you needed for a question like that. It's a Frey thing; self-indulgence, the pursuit of pleasure and fulfillment, the grey areas of gratification deemed acceptable by society compared to the darker wantings of the heart...it's my favorite thing to think about." Safely shepherding the hungry and wanting to the doorstep of their desires - offering a way to achieve their pleasures without risk or judgment or shame - is as thoroughly a drug to a Frey demigod as the ones being discussed.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide