HOTARU
She's in a long black coat tonight
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
So few remember the cruelties the Valkyrie is capable of. Deimos was the most solemn keeper of her secrets she could ever dream to have, but at what cost? As her hands claw into Tal’s vest, Ru wonders if maybe she has approached this all wrong. Perhaps she should have bled the world dry before it ever had the chance to do it to her son. Perhaps she should do it now, to keep safe those she loves, those precious few that remain. Talyson’s strong but trembling arms shake out the darkest flecks of her degrading soul, out into the moonlight where she can’t ignore it anymore.
Her huff of a laugh is a hollow, resonant thing. “They both died by my hand,” she admits easily, “I think I’ve earned the arrogance to say ‘only’.” Hotaru would never dismiss Sah’s help and efforts, but in the end she had been the superior predator. Again that slick, obsidian creature inside curls restlessly in her gut.
It subsides as Talyson quakes, something more protective crowding it out as she holds him tighter. Bright irises gone flinty in the moonlight as they sweep the dark beyond as if inviting the banshees to return, to dare to rectify their mistake. “Just as you would have taken any blow in their place, they would have done the same for you or any of their brothers in arms. They would not have wanted you to torture yourself; we all knew, when we stayed here, what fates might await us.” To assume anything less would be insulting to their memories, the independence of their choices and actions.
It is different with Enzo. Her baby. Her son, so young, she never should have let him choose…
Hotaru is jolted out of that spiraling void by his sudden release of tension inside her arms. It’s corrected moments later, and she tucks him closer. “Only once. I was able to heal it myself; not even a scar.” It’s the closest she can get to a soft, comforting tone, so exhausted it has been by tending to Flora. Her heart - if any of it remains - cracks further. “I - Tal, do you know - did we lose anyone else?” A mere whisper, and far too revealing in her word choice.
Her huff of a laugh is a hollow, resonant thing. “They both died by my hand,” she admits easily, “I think I’ve earned the arrogance to say ‘only’.” Hotaru would never dismiss Sah’s help and efforts, but in the end she had been the superior predator. Again that slick, obsidian creature inside curls restlessly in her gut.
It subsides as Talyson quakes, something more protective crowding it out as she holds him tighter. Bright irises gone flinty in the moonlight as they sweep the dark beyond as if inviting the banshees to return, to dare to rectify their mistake. “Just as you would have taken any blow in their place, they would have done the same for you or any of their brothers in arms. They would not have wanted you to torture yourself; we all knew, when we stayed here, what fates might await us.” To assume anything less would be insulting to their memories, the independence of their choices and actions.
It is different with Enzo. Her baby. Her son, so young, she never should have let him choose…
Hotaru is jolted out of that spiraling void by his sudden release of tension inside her arms. It’s corrected moments later, and she tucks him closer. “Only once. I was able to heal it myself; not even a scar.” It’s the closest she can get to a soft, comforting tone, so exhausted it has been by tending to Flora. Her heart - if any of it remains - cracks further. “I - Tal, do you know - did we lose anyone else?” A mere whisper, and far too revealing in her word choice.
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
