[Voice/Action]

[thenightmarebegins]

I feel there's something of significance that I'm forgetting...

[With that said, Vincent takes off to sit under a tree by the larger lake and quietly Brood think. He feels in a more pensive state than usual, if that's even possible.]

Comments

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[Terra mulls that over, remembering some of those forms quite vividly.]

How old are you, then?

[She looks at him as though trying to guess, but can't pinpoint him as being older than Edgar or Sabin.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Physically, I stopped aging at twenty-seven. Chronologically... at least sixty. [Although he wasn't technically aware during much of that time, but that in itself is ANOTHER long story.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Sixty years....

[That makes him almost as old as Strago, though he certainly doesn't look it.]

...what is that like? Not aging, I mean.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[Vincent has a favorite analogy for this.]

It's often as if... the rest of the world were a river, flowing along with time, while I'm a stone, forever set in place.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[Terra frowns.]

That sounds lonely....

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I suppose that it is. But it's possible to adjust, eventually, and become accustomed to it...

[He's more or less accepted it by now, although typical Vincent must brood a little anyway.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

Still...I wonder if there's any way for that to change.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

I doubt that... but I've adapted.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

...how? How do you get used to something like that?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Only with time. Although I was asleep for some of those decades... I still grew used to the idea that I will endure this life eternally.

[...and this existence is far better than the nightmares he spent those decades in. That time had honestly felt more like an eternity than being out in the world of the living.]

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound weird, but...I hope you're wrong. You shouldn't have to think about how you're going to outlive everyone.

[She stares downward, saddened. Her understanding of love may be incomplete, but the thought of everyone she cared about aging while she was doomed to spend life without them was too much to bear.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

[...and people wonder why he's such an angstbucket...]

Even so... I'm used to it.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I guess so, but....

[She sighs, wishing there was a way she could help.]

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

That effect is irreversible, as far as I'm aware. The same for the monsters within me.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

...I'm sorry.

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

It's all right. What's done is in the past.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

What will you do now?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Carry on as I have been. I have no choice.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help....

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

It's all right. You have no obligation to do so.

[esper-flight.livejournal.com]

[She blinks at that.]

Obligation or not doesn't make a difference to me. Should it?

[chaotic-dirge.livejournal.com]

Well... no, I suppose it shouldn't.