Fingers curl carefully, and then Lahabrea raps Elidibus very lightly across the top of the skull with his knuckles. "Enough of that."
He can recognize a spiral in others, at least, an unhealthy obsession - and this particular individual has had a long term issue with unhealthy obsession. It is at least, something to focus on in the absence of his earlier carving, giving him something else to turn his attention to than the lack of anything to turn his attention to. While it's something to feel, some distinct emotion, it's not really helpful ones, is it?
And confusion and frustration simmer alongside his endless wrath, in a cocktail of unpleasantness. "I will remind you the role of Elidibus, as the man who inducted you to that role." How ostentatious, to think anyone might know better than Elidibus himself what that duty was! "To steer mankind and the star upon its most beneficial course. Sometimes standing against us. Sometimes standing with us. But never apart, Emissary. Never apart, for then we would not in our whole be fourteen." A rote message reworded a little over time, it seems, for erroneous impressions have crept in, and Lahabrea allows himself the inklings of fury at it. It needed some small outlet, lest it find something else to latch to. Turn the dragon from fury at anything in its presence to things beyond its reach, beyond its ken. "How can you know the truest course, without being among those you are meant to guide?"
How much of that duty can be performed her? Perishingly little, but that didn't matter.
Silence again for a time, resuming the slow scratch of claws on skin, ignoring the discomfort of pulled feathers. He's torn out plenty himself, what's a few more? "I will remind you, should you forget. Because never have you been expected to bear the happiness of anyone but yourself." Only then does he let go, reaching instead for the gingersnap on his knee, plucking it up between curved ivory talons. "You enjoy these. Should you forget that you do, must we deny you ever consuming another? Nay, tis better to offer it up, and let you experience anew and fresh, the small happiness that is a simple snack." The cookie, meant for him but never eaten, is offered. "One need not a complete memory to experience joy. One needs merely to experience. Yours may be a past incomplete, and a future unwritten, but now ... now is full of many things. A cookie. A book. A chair full of strange things. And if any are experienced as if it is the first time, then that does not detract from the moment. Mayhap it can enhance it, and offer an ever new and refreshing perspective."
He won't go so far as to ever call it a gift. It isn't. It's a terrible burden. "Every time the cookie fades, there is another waiting to be tasted, fresh and pristine. Take it up, that momentary happiness. It matters not if it fades, for there is always another moment, and the thousand that come before it weakens not the thousand that may follow, each fresh and new and wonderful. Mayhap you must forget aught but duty, but to feel, without reservation, is part of that duty, for it binds us all, to each other, to our God, to our very star." And the ginger snap. "Take up your role, Emissary, and linger among us, suffering as we do, laughing as we do. As our God would, if He could."
no subject
He can recognize a spiral in others, at least, an unhealthy obsession - and this particular individual has had a long term issue with unhealthy obsession. It is at least, something to focus on in the absence of his earlier carving, giving him something else to turn his attention to than the lack of anything to turn his attention to. While it's something to feel, some distinct emotion, it's not really helpful ones, is it?
And confusion and frustration simmer alongside his endless wrath, in a cocktail of unpleasantness. "I will remind you the role of Elidibus, as the man who inducted you to that role." How ostentatious, to think anyone might know better than Elidibus himself what that duty was! "To steer mankind and the star upon its most beneficial course. Sometimes standing against us. Sometimes standing with us. But never apart, Emissary. Never apart, for then we would not in our whole be fourteen." A rote message reworded a little over time, it seems, for erroneous impressions have crept in, and Lahabrea allows himself the inklings of fury at it. It needed some small outlet, lest it find something else to latch to. Turn the dragon from fury at anything in its presence to things beyond its reach, beyond its ken. "How can you know the truest course, without being among those you are meant to guide?"
How much of that duty can be performed her? Perishingly little, but that didn't matter.
Silence again for a time, resuming the slow scratch of claws on skin, ignoring the discomfort of pulled feathers. He's torn out plenty himself, what's a few more? "I will remind you, should you forget. Because never have you been expected to bear the happiness of anyone but yourself." Only then does he let go, reaching instead for the gingersnap on his knee, plucking it up between curved ivory talons. "You enjoy these. Should you forget that you do, must we deny you ever consuming another? Nay, tis better to offer it up, and let you experience anew and fresh, the small happiness that is a simple snack." The cookie, meant for him but never eaten, is offered. "One need not a complete memory to experience joy. One needs merely to experience. Yours may be a past incomplete, and a future unwritten, but now ... now is full of many things. A cookie. A book. A chair full of strange things. And if any are experienced as if it is the first time, then that does not detract from the moment. Mayhap it can enhance it, and offer an ever new and refreshing perspective."
He won't go so far as to ever call it a gift. It isn't. It's a terrible burden. "Every time the cookie fades, there is another waiting to be tasted, fresh and pristine. Take it up, that momentary happiness. It matters not if it fades, for there is always another moment, and the thousand that come before it weakens not the thousand that may follow, each fresh and new and wonderful. Mayhap you must forget aught but duty, but to feel, without reservation, is part of that duty, for it binds us all, to each other, to our God, to our very star." And the ginger snap. "Take up your role, Emissary, and linger among us, suffering as we do, laughing as we do. As our God would, if He could."