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「Atem smiles at him upon his appearance, it's nice to see him, actually. He'd probably do the same regardless. No worries at least he's not there to kill him or anything, just to talk.」

Hey, I have a question for you, well, a couple — I've been talking to Rage 「Because for some reason they kind of were friends?」 I asked her about the library a while ago. She said that your people never quite used it. Is that true? Why does it exist at all?

When Fear initially opened the Door, one of the things it brought it was a load of books. We don't use books - have never needed to. I created the library to house them, in case those who we brought later could use them.

[Which didn't really happen.]

「That... is... incredibly disappointing, Hope. But what was he was even hoping to get as an answer? It makes sense.」

Ever thought of using that space with something else now that it's destroyed?

Such as?

What, isn't it obvious? A Dueling Stadium, of course.

「Hope, friend, he's sorry.

He's also kidding, obviously kidding. Or maybe not so obvious to Hope, things considered.」

A what?

[That doesn't really sound like Hope's kind of thing.]

「It's not! But Atem chuckles anyway.」

Nothing, nothing. 「He waves his hand in a never mind gesture.」 I was joking.

「Humans do that. So annoying.」

I don't suppose you could give people readable books, do you? A real library for them enjoy? Thing is, the books that the Door brought weren't really useful to anyone.

「As the most items it tends to bring in anyway.」

I am afraid I don't have the time to write a library's worth of books for you. Or even one or two. If the Door brings in more, however, you are welcome to them.

That's a shame, it could be helpful to know more about you and your people. They deserve to be remembered.

Actually... I wanted to ask you, 「He goes a little serious, respectful maybe.」 you don't have any kind of cemetery around here. Did you... never let them die?

We are not dead yet. We do not need to be remembered, we will survive.

And there are no cemetaries because we don't have them. We never have. Your people leave bodies to dispose of, ours do not. I thought that was obvious.

「Not obvious, not really, he had heard something about someone finding remains at the bottom of the lake. And that's when it hits him, he's talking about his own kind.」

By, your people, I meant the original inhabitants of the city.

「Don't these so-called gods consider them as their own in some way? The one thing that is obvious is how different they are, that's for sure.」

You mean our hosts.

As I said, we do not have a tradition of cemetaries.

「That's so strange to him still.」

What do you do to honor them?

Are you not capable of honoring your dead by remembering them?

「A nod.」

Yeah, we are capable of that, but my people has always gone further than that, trying to preserve as much as possible, memory fails, people forget, we try that not to happen.

「This is turning to be a little grim, maybe a change of topic is in need. He's got the info he wanted anyway.」

Hope, do you think we'll have to face the Null again? That there will be another invasion?

「It's not entirely disconnected anyway.」

We are trying to keep that from happening. If we face them again, I do not know if we'll fare as well as we did then. That wasn't the entirety of their forces.

[It could be much worse.]

However, I believe in the efforts we are making.

「Welp... he had been imagining so from the start, but to have Hope saying it, it only makes him worry further, not that he'll let that show. He merely becomes a little serious.」

Rage and I were talking, I tried to have her spar with me, mainly just for fun but she didn't understand the concept; we humans —and other creatures— often need to do things several times before becoming good at them, specially fighting, if we train every day a little we become stronger, faster, more durable. I know many that have been doing so ever since the invasion, just in case. I was thinking... about the library, maybe we could reuse that space, make a place where people can train, get stronger. Doing it outside is not so bad, but having a place to do so might help others, something like a gym...

「He gives a little shrug and he finally stands from the floor, dusts his pants a little and stretches from having been on the hard floor for so long.」

Maybe you'd like to consider it. 「He probably should get going but--」 Ah...! There... is one last thing I'd like to ask out of you...

「He pauses as he looks up at Hope, he's not sure how to ask.」

It is an interesting proposal. Creating building takes a lot of energy, however, so it isn't something I can simply decide to do one day. I will take it into consideration.

[He looks back, apparently calm.]

Yes?

We could always help, but thank you.

「Ah... here goes nothing.」

Can I see your real form?

If you would like. Have you spoken to Love? They stay in their original form all the time. That's what we all look like, so mine isn't anything surprising.

Yeah, I would. You're are not them, I doubt you're as pink.

No. It is a lovely color, but I like mine better.

[So he changes - there's no transformation, he just changes from one form to another instantly. One moment he appears human, the next he looks very similar to Love - a large, sparkling, glowing amorphous cloud-like mass. It's true, he's not pink. He's a delicate lavender color instead.]

「Oh... Okay, he was not expecting that. AND HE LOVES THE COLOR! Sparkles, yes... it's all he ever wished for. It's hard to hide his delight at the view, if this sparkly cloud has learned anything from human expressions over the years.」

I don't know why I imagined you to be silver colored. But this one is just as good.

「Can he touch him? Can he? He attempts to do it anyway...」

[Wow rude! Hope flashes for a moment, bright colorless light, and disappears, returning to his human form. You probably should have asked first, Atem.]

I trust that is enough for you.

「Oh no! He often doesn't have the need to ask for things, he never did in his life, why start now? He retrieves his hand as if he were to get burned.

But there hardly is any disappointment in his features.」

Thank you.

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lingeringhope - 2018-10-17 07:35 (UTC) - Expand

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puzzlingly - 2018-10-18 22:23 (UTC) - Expand