[ ... A sigh flutes out of her, somehow embarrassed, fond and resigned all at once. ]
Well, that explains it.
[ Then, pre-empting the question which would surely follow; ]
I couldn't stand how you looked at me at first. Or I guess... I couldn't stand how I felt when you did. It was like you were just seeing all the things about me I hate and I used to get scared. Like, "ah, what exactly must he be seeing to make me feel like that?" [ Another soft breath, almost a laugh. ] But I guess that was all on me. If you were seeing the real me, no wonder it made me so sick.
[ "After all, I've always hated her."
Another big dramatic sigh and matching attempt to play her words off as a joke; ]
I'm definitely taking all the wrong lessons from this, but I'm kind of jealous. [ it comes out more bitter than she means it to. ] It sounds exhausting but being able to just understand people's feelings like that... It'd sure solve a lot of my problems.
[ "You could afford to be greedier" he thinks, but doesn't say. She doesn't like what she sees when she looks at most people... she's scared of them.
He's always known, always seen that in her, but now she's saying it out loud... even if it's only because it's him. She's come farther than she realizes... a shame it took someone inhuman for her to reach that point. ]
You're welcome, then.
[ ...Not that he minds. If that means her true self is for him alone, then he can't say he doesn't like the sound of that. ]
[ Dryly but not unkindly: ] I'm still on the fence about thanking you for that, too. Most people ask before they go digging around inside you like that.
[ She would've said no, obviously. But it's the principal of the thing. Or something.
But then she gives another of those little huffs and that bitter look on her face finally softens and sweetens enough to not look so hard edged. It's not quite a smile when the action playing out across the screen is so gruesome, but... ]
I've gotten a little more used to it now, though. So I guess I don't mind if you keep looking.
[ As if he could look away... but he keeps that thought to himself. He wouldn't want to look away in the first place, after all. Not away from her. ]
In that case, I'll look all I want...
[ The rest of the movie is, as expected, nothing but tragedy. There had been a brief moment of respite with Knocknarea and her "Mab Match", but from there... it would be nothing but tragedy after tragedy.
Morgan's gruesome and almost anticlimactic death at the hands of her own court, the cries of a witch who just wanted a place to belong. The poisoned coronation, betrayal after betrayl, Artoria's first friend in Faerie Britain dying in her arms...
...it was honestly remarkable just how quickly everything began to collapse the instant Morgan fell. As though she had been the one and only thing keeping a dying country alive, and with her gone, everything simply went up in flames. Calamities sprung out and ravaged the land... the beast roamed the earth, the flames seared the skies, and a corpse rose from the pit.
Yet Oberon's only real reaction came from when a certain white-haired incubus appeared. ]
Ugh. Hate this part.
[ "Hate this guy" more like. That was possibly the most genuine groan he's ever expressed... ]
[ Maybe it makes her horrible to think it, but it's almost a relief when things finally start to collapse. There's no more waiting now, no tension. Getting jumpscared isn't exactly fun but in a lot of ways, it's better than stewing in the agony of anticipating it. There's no anticipation now - just noise, chaos, bloodshed. It's horrible, of course. But it's better than helplessly sitting and waiting for it to happen.
(She very politely does not laugh when it comes to his so called dramatic sacrifice, as it happens. But come on, seriously. As if they'd kill off a main character that quick with such little fanfare.)
It's only when he complains that she speaks up again - tipping her head back with raised eyebrows to give him an incredulous look. ]
Really? With everything else going on, this is the part you hate?
[ And just how much must he hate it to still feel this strongly after... who knows how many rewatches? ]
Everything else is my fault, you know. I mean, sure, I got everyone else to do all the hard work of burning everything to the ground... but I can't exactly hate the product of all my hard work, now can I?
[ In turn, he tilts his head down to look at her... which means his chin is against her forehead as she looks up and he looks down. ]
This guy, though... don't get me wrong, he's an "ally" of humanity, but he's the worst.
[ Oberon complains frequently, but he's complaining with passion now. ]
Think about it this way. We're compatible, so we get along, right? Well, me and him? It's the opposite. We're as incompatible as can be, I'll never get along with him. He's got this really annoying clairvoyance that lets him see anything in the present... but that's creepy as hell, isn't it? He could be watching anybody anywhere and you'd have no way of telling... so I've allocated all of my camouflauge abilities to hiding me from him, specifically.
[ Wow, uh. He's really seething, huh? She's gotten pretty used to Oberon having nothing remotely nice to say about anybody by now, but this particularly pointed loathing is new. And at the same time it's kind of... low key? It's the way you'd complain about a coworker who grates on your nerves rather than the kind of bone deep base level irritation he expresses for everyone else just existing in his presence.
It's kind of... really funny?! She's trying her best to keep straight face and not just laugh right at him, but... ]
Wow. You really do hate his guts. That's the first time you've ever really complained about somebody like that.
[ She feels oddly pleased to hear it, though. It's kind of fun to think that even Oberon falls out with people for petty, human reasons like that. ]
But you know... you really can't say anything about the pot calling the kettle black. I'm just saying... there's an annoying blonde guy who died a little while ago but all of a sudden it feels like he's right here with us again...
[ Wow, she's definitely getting fearless if she's going to blatantly push his buttons like that. ]
[ A vein twitches in his forehead, and as such, he brings his hand up to pinch one of Ai's cheeks and start to pull at it. Push his buttons, will you? Someone is getting fearless. Oh he has no idea. ]
Aren't you getting a little too fearless? Not that I don't appreciate it, but still.
[ He says, while pulling her cheek remains the most he does. ]
Wh- hey, hold on! [ Accordingly, with her cheek pinched between his fingers, her voice comes out just a little garbled. ] Messing up an idol's face is off limits! ... But I guess it's a little late for that.
[ She has no idea of the rest of her bites are visible in here but that hickey on her mouth is as clear and vivid as it's ever been. Which, given that this is his dream, is probably exactly how he wanted it.
She reaches up with both her hands and promptly returns the cheek pulling. Counter attack, take that!!! ]
Oh, so your face is off limits, but not the rest of—agh!!
[ Her hands reach his cheeks before he can make a snarky comment about all the bites he put on the rest of her, not to mention the hickey still clear as day on her lip... and while they aren't hurting like they will be once Ai wakes up, she does in fact have a good amount of bites on the rest of her dream body too.
More importantly, though... if she's going to use both of her hands, then he has the right to do the same, now doesn't he? He lifts his other hand up to pull at her other cheek, beginning this mutual cheek-pulling while the movie continues on.
There they both are, sitting in a theater, pulling each other's cheeks like bickering children.
Nobody else sees the rest! But my face is the thing that gets put up everywhere, isn't it?! It's one thing to do it in places you'll see but don't you think going out of your way to damage the goods is a little much?
[ Not that she has to worry about that here where the worst that'll happen to her from people seeing her all bitten and loved is a little embarrassment... But come on, it's the principle of the thing!
Still huffy (or at least, pretending to be), she squirms out of his grip just enough to turn and... well, we're right back to Ai all but straddling his lap again. Though this time it's for the much less exciting purpose of giving herself some better leverage to continue the attack. ]
I was starting to think you were going a little soft for me but it turns out you're just as much of a bully as you always are.
[ Don't sound so pleased about that, Ai.......... ]
Damage? I'd say I'm improving the goods rather than dama—ow!
[ At this point escaping the embarrassment of having Oberon's bites and love on display is impossible, and all Ai can do is delay the inevitable... but it's not like she's fighting a losing battle.
Especially because her straddling him like this is, well... it's a lot to handle, even in a dream. The fact that she's straddling him in order to continue attacking him is only somewhat of a distraction. ]
...Yes, yes, I'm a big bad bully. I'm so mean.
[ ...though of course, when your defenses are as non-existent as his, the only thing you can do is attack back. ]
You could try and sound a little less proud about it.
[ He could. But he's absolutely not going to. She really ended up with an annoying Servant, didn't she?
Finally, she lets up on tugging at his face and instead presses her hands to his cheeks. After seeing Faerie King Oberon blown up to such huge sizes on screen, it's a little funny to be up close with the real thing. ]
Let's call it a truce. For now. Otherwise I'll end up missing the end of the movie and you'll only have yourself to blame.
[ His cheeks, like the rest of him, are as pale as ever... but he's there, and he's warm. ]
Right, right... we are approaching the climax, after all.
[ He'll let Ai turn herself back around so she can look back at the screen, with them having agreed to their truce just in time to see them make it to the spirit cavern, where the truth behind the world they were in would be revealed.
A white titan and it's defeat at the hands of humans and a holy sword... or in this case, the lack thereof. The six faeries who allowed the world to be destroyed simply due to procrastination, and the giant fluffy god sent to reprimand them.
The first of many betrayals, the rage of a once kind but now dead god, and lastly... the Faerie of Paradise's memories.
[ This is the part that's been hardest to watch so far. It's bad enough that everyone in the movie's snooping but being brought along with them makes Ai feel like she's paging through the poor girl's diary. No, it's even worse than that - at least with a diary, you get to decide what gets written down. With your memories, there's no filter.
This really is a miserable tragedy. ]
Everything really was doomed from the start, then.
[ She mutters that under her breath. ]
If I'd found that out... I probably would've given up then and there.
Yeah... that would be the reasonable reaction, wouldn't it?
[ His clawed hand finds hers again and grips it. ]
I'll admit it, Morgan did a splendid job with the cards she was dealt... but it was always going to end this way.
[ A long-dead land being artificially kept alive for 14,000 years... delaying the inevitable was all one ever could do, as the faeries themselves squandered whatever hope they had for something better. Twice did they reject the savior sent to them... Artoria's winter memories prove that much.
And yet... ]
"Ngh... Gaaah, that was nasty! The faeries at your place are pretty horrible, you know that!?"
"H-Huh!? D-Did you just talk, staff!?"
[ Honestly, it wasn't a very good lie. He sounds exactly like himself, and not at all like the actual Merlin who Ai has now seen for herself. ]
"No, I'm not the Staff of Selection. I'm just a nosy old busybody. Ugh, I swear... I wasn't planning on getting involved, but now I just don't think I have a choice. Listen up. I'm Merlin. Merlin, the Mage of Flowers. I'm going to be your teacher from now on. Don't forget it."
[ This time, he actually felt somewhat prepared for Ai's commentary on that front, as if he's aware of how bad of a lie it was.
But thinking about it from the perspective of a liar like him... that just meant that "Merlin aided Artoria Caster" was made into a lie. That it wasn't the mage of flowers who came to her aid, but himself.
It's no wonder, then, that her magecraft is the way it is... his teaching method was about as unorthodox as you can get. She would ask to learn something, he would leave for a few days to learn it himself, customize it so that Artoria could use it with her limited magical energy, then impart that knowledge onto her. ]
"Hmm, I see. So you'd need a tool you can charge with magical energy, and a spell you can use to make gunpowder explode? ...This is dangerously close to magical terrorism."
[ Honestly that speaks more to Artoria's preferences than his. Yet despite his witty remarks and foul mouth—that was almost certainly imparted onto Artoria herself, considering the way she is in the present—he taught her everything (within reason, he still can't fly) without complaint.
For a few years, before the staff was eventually confiscated from her, he had essentially raised her... hadn't he? ]
Of course you are. But that's exactly why I was expecting a better lie. ... but if it works then it works.
[ It's... well, she doesn't want to call it cute. That makes it all sound so twee and lighthearted which it pointedly hadn't been. But she can't help but wonder if even this tiny slice of togetherness had been just as much for Oberon's sake as it had been for that girl's.
Chasing a star you know you'll never reach is all sorts of lonely, after all. ]
I don't want you ever teaching Aqua or Ruby any of this if you ever meet them, by the way. They're clever enough to pick it all up and that's exactly what worries me.
Heh... if they were to ask, who would I be to refuse?
[ He says, as if it wouldn't be a whole hassle to have to teach anybody else. The spells he taught Artoria were specifically tailored for her to use with their minimal pool of magical energy at the time. If he were to teach anyone else he'd have to do that all over again for them... though if Ai is any indication, he doubts either of her children would have a particularly large pool of magical energy to take from either. ]
Besides, I'd have to earn their trust somehow, right? If I ever meet them, that is.
[ As if he wouldn't be starting below-ground in that regard with them. ]
[ She'd said it as a joke but... what would have to happen for him to meet them? Would they have to come here? ... Would Oberon come back with her, if she ever managed to go home?
No matter how she turns the idea over in her head, she can't quite figure out how to make it work. None of it ever feels quite real.
She turns her attention back to the screen - to the girl's ill-fated spring memories - before she speaks up again. ]
If I could take you back with me, then I would, you know.
[ His arms grip her a little tighter. It's not a conversation they could avoid having, isn't it? If they win... if he obtains the grail for her, what happens then. Obviously, sending Ai back with a second chance is a given, a chance to not answer that door... to keep the door chain on, call the police, live to perform at the dome—but more importantly, live out the rest of her life with her children...
...but what about him?
What place does a doomsday device like him have in that life? Just a memory? A Midsummer Night's Dream? ]
...Well, that depends on what's possible with the grail. [ He starts talking in his usual flippant attitude, of course. ] Still, regardless of what happens, so long as I live on in your memories—in your dreams—then that's good enough for me.
[ . . . She could call that out as a lie as easily as anything. No matter how good he is at telling them, how could something like that be anything but a lie?
But she doesn't. Instead she huffs out a sigh and shakes her head. ]
Maybe it's good enough for you. But that's nowhere near good enough for me. Sorry to say, but my memory's actually pretty bad. So we'll have to do better than that.
[ Assuming they even get close to winning, of course. Oberon had promised and she believes him and yet... ]
I guess I'll have to figure out a really greedy wish.
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no subject
Well, that explains it.
[ Then, pre-empting the question which would surely follow; ]
I couldn't stand how you looked at me at first. Or I guess... I couldn't stand how I felt when you did. It was like you were just seeing all the things about me I hate and I used to get scared. Like, "ah, what exactly must he be seeing to make me feel like that?" [ Another soft breath, almost a laugh. ] But I guess that was all on me. If you were seeing the real me, no wonder it made me so sick.
[ "After all, I've always hated her."
Another big dramatic sigh and matching attempt to play her words off as a joke; ]
I'm definitely taking all the wrong lessons from this, but I'm kind of jealous. [ it comes out more bitter than she means it to. ] It sounds exhausting but being able to just understand people's feelings like that... It'd sure solve a lot of my problems.
no subject
[ His voice is oddly serious when he responds. He sighs, his chest rising and falling against her back. ]
...Besides, I can't imagine you'd enjoy it. You wouldn't like what you'd see looking at me.
[ The truth can be ugly, but lies can be even uglier. ]
no subject
[ it's an uncharacteristically blunt response, only barely softened to a joke by the bitter smile on her face. ]
It's funny, right? I'm an idol who loves everybody. But a lot of the time the first thing I think when I see people is just how much they scare me.
[ It's always been fear, after all. Fear of rejection, revulsion. Fear of being hurt, fear of being misunderstood.
Or maybe fear of being understood in her entirety - and having them be repulsed by her all the same. ]
I guess that's why it's not so scary with you anymore. I don't have to wonder what you're seeing. ... So maybe that's good enough.
[ All she's ever needed is for just one person to really see, after all. ]
no subject
[ "You could afford to be greedier" he thinks, but doesn't say. She doesn't like what she sees when she looks at most people... she's scared of them.
He's always known, always seen that in her, but now she's saying it out loud... even if it's only because it's him. She's come farther than she realizes... a shame it took someone inhuman for her to reach that point. ]
You're welcome, then.
[ ...Not that he minds. If that means her true self is for him alone, then he can't say he doesn't like the sound of that. ]
no subject
[ She would've said no, obviously. But it's the principal of the thing. Or something.
But then she gives another of those little huffs and that bitter look on her face finally softens and sweetens enough to not look so hard edged. It's not quite a smile when the action playing out across the screen is so gruesome, but... ]
I've gotten a little more used to it now, though. So I guess I don't mind if you keep looking.
no subject
[ As if he could look away... but he keeps that thought to himself. He wouldn't want to look away in the first place, after all. Not away from her. ]
In that case, I'll look all I want...
[ The rest of the movie is, as expected, nothing but tragedy. There had been a brief moment of respite with Knocknarea and her "Mab Match", but from there... it would be nothing but tragedy after tragedy.
Morgan's gruesome and almost anticlimactic death at the hands of her own court, the cries of a witch who just wanted a place to belong. The poisoned coronation, betrayal after betrayl, Artoria's first friend in Faerie Britain dying in her arms...
...it was honestly remarkable just how quickly everything began to collapse the instant Morgan fell. As though she had been the one and only thing keeping a dying country alive, and with her gone, everything simply went up in flames. Calamities sprung out and ravaged the land... the beast roamed the earth, the flames seared the skies, and a corpse rose from the pit.
Yet Oberon's only real reaction came from when a certain white-haired incubus appeared. ]
Ugh. Hate this part.
[ "Hate this guy" more like. That was possibly the most genuine groan he's ever expressed... ]
no subject
(She very politely does not laugh when it comes to his so called dramatic sacrifice, as it happens. But come on, seriously. As if they'd kill off a main character that quick with such little fanfare.)
It's only when he complains that she speaks up again - tipping her head back with raised eyebrows to give him an incredulous look. ]
Really? With everything else going on, this is the part you hate?
[ And just how much must he hate it to still feel this strongly after... who knows how many rewatches? ]
no subject
[ In turn, he tilts his head down to look at her... which means his chin is against her forehead as she looks up and he looks down. ]
This guy, though... don't get me wrong, he's an "ally" of humanity, but he's the worst.
[ Oberon complains frequently, but he's complaining with passion now. ]
Think about it this way. We're compatible, so we get along, right? Well, me and him? It's the opposite. We're as incompatible as can be, I'll never get along with him. He's got this really annoying clairvoyance that lets him see anything in the present... but that's creepy as hell, isn't it? He could be watching anybody anywhere and you'd have no way of telling... so I've allocated all of my camouflauge abilities to hiding me from him, specifically.
[ Oh, he's dragging dragging this guy, huh? ]
no subject
It's kind of... really funny?! She's trying her best to keep straight face and not just laugh right at him, but... ]
Wow. You really do hate his guts. That's the first time you've ever really complained about somebody like that.
[ She feels oddly pleased to hear it, though. It's kind of fun to think that even Oberon falls out with people for petty, human reasons like that. ]
But you know... you really can't say anything about the pot calling the kettle black. I'm just saying... there's an annoying blonde guy who died a little while ago but all of a sudden it feels like he's right here with us again...
[ Wow, she's definitely getting fearless if she's going to blatantly push his buttons like that. ]
no subject
[ A vein twitches in his forehead, and as such, he brings his hand up to pinch one of Ai's cheeks and start to pull at it. Push his buttons, will you? Someone is getting fearless.
Oh he has no idea.]Aren't you getting a little too fearless? Not that I don't appreciate it, but still.
[ He says, while pulling her cheek remains the most he does. ]
no subject
[ She has no idea of the rest of her bites are visible in here but that hickey on her mouth is as clear and vivid as it's ever been. Which, given that this is his dream, is probably exactly how he wanted it.
She reaches up with both her hands and promptly returns the cheek pulling. Counter attack, take that!!! ]
I'm just calling it like I see it!
no subject
[ Her hands reach his cheeks before he can make a snarky comment about all the bites he put on the rest of her, not to mention the hickey still clear as day on her lip... and while they aren't hurting like they will be once Ai wakes up, she does in fact have a good amount of bites on the rest of her dream body too.
More importantly, though... if she's going to use both of her hands, then he has the right to do the same, now doesn't he? He lifts his other hand up to pull at her other cheek, beginning this mutual cheek-pulling while the movie continues on.
There they both are, sitting in a theater, pulling each other's cheeks like bickering children.
...what the heck are they doing? ]
no subject
[ Not that she has to worry about that here where the worst that'll happen to her from people seeing her all bitten and loved is a little embarrassment... But come on, it's the principle of the thing!
Still huffy (or at least, pretending to be), she squirms out of his grip just enough to turn and... well, we're right back to Ai all but straddling his lap again. Though this time it's for the much less exciting purpose of giving herself some better leverage to continue the attack. ]
I was starting to think you were going a little soft for me but it turns out you're just as much of a bully as you always are.
[ Don't sound so pleased about that, Ai.......... ]
no subject
[ At this point escaping the embarrassment of having Oberon's bites and love on display is impossible, and all Ai can do is delay the inevitable... but it's not like she's fighting a losing battle.
Especially because her straddling him like this is, well... it's a lot to handle, even in a dream. The fact that she's straddling him in order to continue attacking him is only somewhat of a distraction. ]
...Yes, yes, I'm a big bad bully. I'm so mean.
[ ...though of course, when your defenses are as non-existent as his, the only thing you can do is attack back. ]
no subject
[ He could. But he's absolutely not going to. She really ended up with an annoying Servant, didn't she?
Finally, she lets up on tugging at his face and instead presses her hands to his cheeks. After seeing Faerie King Oberon blown up to such huge sizes on screen, it's a little funny to be up close with the real thing. ]
Let's call it a truce. For now. Otherwise I'll end up missing the end of the movie and you'll only have yourself to blame.
no subject
[ His cheeks, like the rest of him, are as pale as ever... but he's there, and he's warm. ]
Right, right... we are approaching the climax, after all.
[ He'll let Ai turn herself back around so she can look back at the screen, with them having agreed to their truce just in time to see them make it to the spirit cavern, where the truth behind the world they were in would be revealed.
A white titan and it's defeat at the hands of humans and a holy sword... or in this case, the lack thereof. The six faeries who allowed the world to be destroyed simply due to procrastination, and the giant fluffy god sent to reprimand them.
The first of many betrayals, the rage of a once kind but now dead god, and lastly... the Faerie of Paradise's memories.
Specifically, her winter memories. ]
no subject
This really is a miserable tragedy. ]
Everything really was doomed from the start, then.
[ She mutters that under her breath. ]
If I'd found that out... I probably would've given up then and there.
no subject
[ His clawed hand finds hers again and grips it. ]
I'll admit it, Morgan did a splendid job with the cards she was dealt... but it was always going to end this way.
[ A long-dead land being artificially kept alive for 14,000 years... delaying the inevitable was all one ever could do, as the faeries themselves squandered whatever hope they had for something better. Twice did they reject the savior sent to them... Artoria's winter memories prove that much.
And yet... ]
"Ngh... Gaaah, that was nasty! The faeries at your place are pretty horrible, you know that!?"
"H-Huh!? D-Did you just talk, staff!?"
[ Honestly, it wasn't a very good lie. He sounds exactly like himself, and not at all like the actual Merlin who Ai has now seen for herself. ]
"No, I'm not the Staff of Selection. I'm just a nosy old busybody. Ugh, I swear... I wasn't planning on getting involved, but now I just don't think I have a choice. Listen up. I'm Merlin. Merlin, the Mage of Flowers. I'm going to be your teacher from now on. Don't forget it."
[ "My Winter Memory... wasn't all that bleak." ]
no subject
Okay, maybe the mood isn't really right to be making fun of him. But she really can't help herself. ]
Merlin, huh.
[ She doesn't take her eyes of the screen so there's no way to see her expression but. Somehow, the tone of her voice is enough. ]
Sure. I totally buy it.
no subject
[ This time, he actually felt somewhat prepared for Ai's commentary on that front, as if he's aware of how bad of a lie it was.
But thinking about it from the perspective of a liar like him... that just meant that "Merlin aided Artoria Caster" was made into a lie. That it wasn't the mage of flowers who came to her aid, but himself.
It's no wonder, then, that her magecraft is the way it is... his teaching method was about as unorthodox as you can get. She would ask to learn something, he would leave for a few days to learn it himself, customize it so that Artoria could use it with her limited magical energy, then impart that knowledge onto her. ]
"Hmm, I see. So you'd need a tool you can charge with magical energy, and a spell you can use to make gunpowder explode? ...This is dangerously close to magical terrorism."
[
Honestly that speaks more to Artoria's preferences than his.Yet despite his witty remarks and foul mouth—that was almost certainly imparted onto Artoria herself, considering the way she is in the present—he taught her everything (within reason, he still can't fly) without complaint.For a few years, before the staff was eventually confiscated from her, he had essentially raised her... hadn't he? ]
no subject
[ It's... well, she doesn't want to call it cute. That makes it all sound so twee and lighthearted which it pointedly hadn't been. But she can't help but wonder if even this tiny slice of togetherness had been just as much for Oberon's sake as it had been for that girl's.
Chasing a star you know you'll never reach is all sorts of lonely, after all. ]
I don't want you ever teaching Aqua or Ruby any of this if you ever meet them, by the way. They're clever enough to pick it all up and that's exactly what worries me.
no subject
[ He says, as if it wouldn't be a whole hassle to have to teach anybody else. The spells he taught Artoria were specifically tailored for her to use with their minimal pool of magical energy at the time. If he were to teach anyone else he'd have to do that all over again for them... though if Ai is any indication, he doubts either of her children would have a particularly large pool of magical energy to take from either. ]
Besides, I'd have to earn their trust somehow, right? If I ever meet them, that is.
[
As if he wouldn't be starting below-ground in that regard with them.]no subject
[ She'd said it as a joke but... what would have to happen for him to meet them? Would they have to come here? ... Would Oberon come back with her, if she ever managed to go home?
No matter how she turns the idea over in her head, she can't quite figure out how to make it work. None of it ever feels quite real.
She turns her attention back to the screen - to the girl's ill-fated spring memories - before she speaks up again. ]
If I could take you back with me, then I would, you know.
no subject
[ His arms grip her a little tighter. It's not a conversation they could avoid having, isn't it? If they win... if he obtains the grail for her, what happens then. Obviously, sending Ai back with a second chance is a given, a chance to not answer that door... to keep the door chain on, call the police, live to perform at the dome—but more importantly, live out the rest of her life with her children...
...but what about him?
What place does a doomsday device like him have in that life? Just a memory? A Midsummer Night's Dream? ]
...Well, that depends on what's possible with the grail. [ He starts talking in his usual flippant attitude, of course. ] Still, regardless of what happens, so long as I live on in your memories—in your dreams—then that's good enough for me.
[ But he's lying. ]
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But she doesn't. Instead she huffs out a sigh and shakes her head. ]
Maybe it's good enough for you. But that's nowhere near good enough for me. Sorry to say, but my memory's actually pretty bad. So we'll have to do better than that.
[ Assuming they even get close to winning, of course. Oberon had promised and she believes him and yet... ]
I guess I'll have to figure out a really greedy wish.
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