buttsbuttsbuttsmate | You Unlocked Fast Travel!

Speaking of distractions, the local elven performer is totally down to be one.

Naeris had noticed Velo's shocked visage earlier in the day. Who wouldn't, really? She hardly ever lost her cool. For that to happen, something had to have gone amazingly awry. Related, and adding to the mystery, Velo's sudden changed occurred when the group should have been celebrating. They'd been victorious and managed to do some good for the Archivist! That's something to be happy about, right?

But Velo clearly wasn't, and that needs addressing.

She's gentle when she approaches, knowing full-well that Velo isn't exactly the best when it comes to sharing emotions, but it's worth giving a try.

"Hey! Are you busy?"

Velo starts a bit as her thoughts snap back from wherever they were to Naeris. She tries to play it off with a smile.

"Oh, uh, I'm just-" she looks down at what she was doing, realizing that she's been spending the past five minutes screwing and unscrewing the same bolt and accomplishing nothing.

"-...No. What's up?"

Yeah that's... not quite alarming, but definitely a little on the unnerving side. This is going to take a bit of chit-chat to get to the bottom of.

"Not much! Just exploring, really."

Naeris plops down on the floor, her tiered robes forming a little dome around her as she settles in, although she's clearly open and ready to bounce (perhaps literally) if Velo indicates that to be her preference.

"Do you have time to chat?"

Velo has an idea where this is going to go. If this was just a chat, Naeris wouldn't have asked beforehand. She's very sensitive to the feelings of others, and Velo hasn't done very well in hiding the fact that she's uneasy.

She puts down the device she was working with and starts to put her tools away, if for no other reason than to have an outlet for her unease.

"Sure. What's up?"

Naeris offers Velo a wide, happy smile at her acceptance. Hey, maybe this is the start of a positive change in sharing emotions! Wouldn't that be nice?

"You seemed a little... I don't want to say off, but you were kind of quiet when the Archivist put everything back together. What happened?"

It wouldn't make sense to ask if Velo is feeling okay. She's clearly not, so Naeris goes for the next best thing. The next best thing that won't just end up with a yes or no answer.

"Nothing bad happened, if that's what you're worried about. It's just-..."

Velo pauses for a bit, trying to find the words. The words, and the resolve to say them without breaking down.

"I wasn't expecting, uh..."

Her father. ...Well, no. The Archivist wasn't her father, but he sure does look like him now. She slumps forward in her seat, resting her elbows on her legs.

"Imagine if someone suddenly appears in front of you, and that person looks and sounds exactly like Githal. Except they aren't, and you know they aren't, but it still looks exactly like them and you can't get that out of your head."

"If you ever wanted to know what my father looked like, you've got your answer now."

That answer gets Naeris to pause and reflect not just on Velo's words, but also on the events that led up until now. Suddenly, it all makes sense: the timing, the emotion, all of it. She didn't blame Velo for feeling uneasy back then--everyone is entitled to their feelings, no matter what the cause, after all--but that only goes double now.

Envisioning Githal taking care of the Archive... seeing his goofy smile perfectly mirrored on a face that was a carbon copy of his, but lacking that unique spirit behind it, sends a pang straight through her heart.

"I see why that's difficult for you," Naeris starts, fiddling with her thumbs, "It's a lot to be reminded of all at once."

Somehow, Naeris acknowledging that is was difficult makes her feel a little better. All of this is really hard to deal with.

"I... I wanted just to run up and hug him when he first formed, but then he started talking, and I knew he wasn't my father. I don't hold it against him; the Archivist is a good person, but it's hard to look at him. It... it just makes me miss the real thing."

Tears start to form in the corner of her eyes. Memories she thought she suppressed were coming back: The invasion of her home, her father yelling at her and the rest of her family to escape as he picked up a hammer to buy them time... that was the last time she ever saw him.

Velo slides from the chair she was sitting in, joining Naeris on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chin. She is Very Not Okay right now. Or maybe she's never been Okay, and it's just now catching up. Maybe it's both, she doesn't know how to deal with it.

The first step to going from Not Okay to Okay is recognizing that you're Not Okay to begin with. There's nothing wrong with that.

That's what Naeris would tell Velo if those words carried any of the weight that comes with their particular situation, but this is something that requires a little more nuance and thought outside of the usual platitudes. Not that there isn't any use for them, it's just not the right time.

So she just leans over instead so her head can bump against the side of Velo's upper arm (normally it would be the shoulder, but that dragonborn lady is just so dang tall!), letting her hair spill down and cushion them both. There's literally no muscle on those bones, girl, we gotta get you to a gym.

Naeris is quiet for a few moments as she thinks about what she can say. Coincidentally, or perhaps because of their conversation, she falls back on what she's seen and heard Githal do whenever he's counseled either herself or another member of their congregation. He'd always been good at that: lending an ear and giving advice.

"Tell me about your dad?"

At this point, anything's better than silence. Velo adjusts herself to better support Naeris and answers, slowly at first, trying to find the right words.

"He was... he was probably the most gentle person I've ever known. You know what he looks like: big, imposing, could probably take Gorudak in arm-wrestling... but he was easygoing, almost always had a smile, and always made time for my sister and I. He worked as a blacksmith, but even while he worked, he would still include us. He'd teach us how to cast an ingot, or how to make an alloy, or just listen to us as we'd tell him about our day."

A small, melancholic smile comes over Velo's face as she keeps talking. The tears are still there, but if ever there was an appropriate time for tears, it was now.

"I remember Kovel and I would ride on his shoulders into town when we needed to go shopping. Unless we started fighting, which was a lot, then he'd carry us upside-down for a while until we promised to stop, unless Mom got one of us into a headlock first. ...My family was weird, now that I think about it."

Just as sometimes anything is better than silence, sometimes just listening is better than speaking. So Naeris stays quiet and still, only shifting along with any nudges of Velo's arm and glancing up at her friend's face, catching as much of the story as she can though facial expressions and involuntary movements.

She catches those tears brimming at the edges of Velo's eyes. Calling attention to them would only cause more harm than good.

Naeris can picture the memories that Velo is sharing, clear as day in her mind's eye. She may not know much about Kovel, but she understands sisterhood--moreover, she understands that special bond that comes with a family that's made of nothing but pure love and enjoyment of one another's company. She smiles.

"Yeah, you all sound super weird."

That tiny smile turns into a full grin.

"Which is just another way of saying you're all perfect."

"We were, yeah." Emphasis on were, because that's all gone now, replaced with slavery, then jail, then eldrich abominations and the end of the-.

No. Now is not the time to focus on the bad things. Now is good thoughts time. Sad thoughts, but also good thoughts.

"I just wish I could let him know how I'm doing now. He would have been delighted to know I demolished an Empire building, even if it was an accident. ...Actually, mostly delighted, but he would also point out every flaw in my work, and then help me do it better."

Velo falls silent for a while, entertaining the notion that she and her father would more than likely become terrorists if they were together after the takeover.

"Actually... Naeris, this is selfish to ask, but do you know how to give last rites? If we ever have time from this world-saving thing, I want to give him a proper sendoff. Maybe go back to where the village used to be and find something of his to hold a funeral."

“It’s not selfish at all,” Naeris reassures Velo, “And I’d be happy to do it! Just as long as neither of you mind that it’s a Lliiran ceremony.”

Granted, although she received and passed the appropriate training for last rite ceremonies (Coruthel wouldn’t have accepted anything less than Naeris’ best during those exams), Naeris had never actually held a funeral before. Not even Githal—maybe out of some strong denial over what happened, or perhaps because of the intense guilt she felt over her failure to do her job in protecting him—has had a ceremony held in his honor. At least, not one held by the little elf. She’s sure that Coruthel conducted a Temple-wide ceremony for the beloved Grand Revelmaster that would’ve outdone anything she could’ve accomplished. Again, Coruthel wouldn’t settle for anything less than the best, doubly so for her dearly departed husband.

She wonders about the other Mummers who’d lost their lives on that mission and the sendoff they’d received. Their bodies certainly didn’t have the luxury of a respectful burial, so any ceremony Coruthel held would’ve been strictly symbolic in nature.

…Suddenly, Naeris realizes she may have very well been one of those ‘buried’, thanks to the amount of time it took for word to reach the Temple that she was okay. A morbid chill runs up her spine.

What was that like? Sending off your husband, your daughter, and some of your closest friends, all in one swoop? Naeris is confident that the ceremony was impeccable, but how did Coruthel feel throughout it all? How much resolve did it take to keep a neutral—if not downright joyful, as tradition demanded—countenance? She reaches up to touch the wedding ring dangling from her necklace, the urge to contact the strongest woman she knows rising in her chest.

“It’s the right thing to do. If we don't make the time to show each other how much we care, then we’ll lose sight of what it is we’re fighting for. Who we’re fighting for.”

"Well, my father always said improvisation was one of the best tools he had, so I'm sure he won't mind. He probably would have gotten a kick out of it. I can hear the eulogy now: 'Hey, dad. I couldn't find a cleric of Bahamut so I grabbed a party goddess instead.'"

Velo chuckles a bit despite herself. Humor had always been her biggest coping mechanism, which was another thing she got from her dad. The prospect of going back and paying respects will be something to look forward to.

However, that makes another thought cross her mind. The Empire took her land for a reason. The village sat on top of a rich mine, so the is probably still an active operation there. The thought of it makes Velo uneasy, both in knowing what happened and knowing what she'll want to do once they're there.

"Thank you, Naeris. I appreciate it. ...There is one other thing, though. Whatever's there, please stop me if I try to destroy it. A part of me wants revenge, but I know, rationally, it's useless. So just... help me stay focused. I don't want go get carried away and cause another revolution with a body count."

Revenge.

Ooooooh boy, she can understand the allure of revenge. She's fallen to it once or twice even before her little stint in Drodon—the one that undoubtedly landed the Lliirans into even more trouble all because she couldn't hold back the unbridled rage that came with injustice and the homicide of those she'd called family. A reaction that didn't even bring that family back, let alone the one person she wanted to return the most.

It left her in a pit of guilt so deep and dark that she simply couldn't talk about it to anyone, except a couple of party members. The same pit that she wouldn't want anyone else to experience.

So Naeris is solemn in her resolve as she nods.

"Okay. I'll help keep you on track. Promise."

You Unlocked Fast Travel!

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