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31_days2014-01-18 07:35 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2014-01-18 07:35 pm
[Jan. 18] [Tales of Rebirth] The Flame Burns Low
Title: The Flame Burns Low
Day/Theme: Jan. 18, 2014 "you see time burning"
Series: Tales of Rebirth
Character/Pairing: Mao & Eugene
Rating: PG
Author's comments: Second person pov. Also depressing.
You look back and think it all went much too fast. It doesn't seem that long ago when first you met. When you were lost, amnesiac- when you were first born, actually. Your memories begin with him. With your most wonderful friend. Eugene, who protected you, who named you, who taught you nearly everything you didn't know by instinct from the start.
When did Eugene get so old? He was older than you, of course, from the get-go, but he wasn't old. He was strong, he was brave, he was resilient, in the prime of life. You traveled together and it for over a decade at least it seemed he was never the one to tire first. You were always the one who needed the breaks- the eat a picnic lunch, to rest your feet, to sleep. You didn't wait for Eugene to catch up. He led the way; he waited for you when you lingered.
But suddenly, one day, it seemed he wasn't so spry anymore. His braid had gone gray and other swathes of the color lightened his otherwise dark fur. But it was hardly as if he were weak or helpless. He was a little slower, but he was still the same old Eugene. You couldn't imagine a life without him. You adjusted your pace to match his. Sometimes you adjusted it to maintain that same old status quo- there was something pleasant about falling behind. You told yourself that things would always be that way- you and Eugene.
Gradually you had to slow your pace more and more though. Gradually the two of you traveled less and less.
By the time death came, Eugene was ready for it. He had lived out his life- a good one, a full one. He had made his peace.
It isn't the same for you.
You have always felt very comfortable with fire- it was in you from the moment of your birth, the spark, as it were, that created you- but you had not realized before now that time could be a fire too, burning up behind you, always just seconds after your last step, until it finally consumes you.
Everyone comes to Eugene's funeral. (who is everyone? Veigue and Claire and their children, Hilda and Militsa and the children who are Hilda's through love and chance rather than biology, Annie and her nurses, Tytree and his sister, Regent Milhaust, and more- everyone is many for so many loved him) His body, placed on a pyre, seems the heroic way to go. You, of course, are the one who lights the blaze.
You will have to burn on now without him.
Day/Theme: Jan. 18, 2014 "you see time burning"
Series: Tales of Rebirth
Character/Pairing: Mao & Eugene
Rating: PG
Author's comments: Second person pov. Also depressing.
You look back and think it all went much too fast. It doesn't seem that long ago when first you met. When you were lost, amnesiac- when you were first born, actually. Your memories begin with him. With your most wonderful friend. Eugene, who protected you, who named you, who taught you nearly everything you didn't know by instinct from the start.
When did Eugene get so old? He was older than you, of course, from the get-go, but he wasn't old. He was strong, he was brave, he was resilient, in the prime of life. You traveled together and it for over a decade at least it seemed he was never the one to tire first. You were always the one who needed the breaks- the eat a picnic lunch, to rest your feet, to sleep. You didn't wait for Eugene to catch up. He led the way; he waited for you when you lingered.
But suddenly, one day, it seemed he wasn't so spry anymore. His braid had gone gray and other swathes of the color lightened his otherwise dark fur. But it was hardly as if he were weak or helpless. He was a little slower, but he was still the same old Eugene. You couldn't imagine a life without him. You adjusted your pace to match his. Sometimes you adjusted it to maintain that same old status quo- there was something pleasant about falling behind. You told yourself that things would always be that way- you and Eugene.
Gradually you had to slow your pace more and more though. Gradually the two of you traveled less and less.
By the time death came, Eugene was ready for it. He had lived out his life- a good one, a full one. He had made his peace.
It isn't the same for you.
You have always felt very comfortable with fire- it was in you from the moment of your birth, the spark, as it were, that created you- but you had not realized before now that time could be a fire too, burning up behind you, always just seconds after your last step, until it finally consumes you.
Everyone comes to Eugene's funeral. (who is everyone? Veigue and Claire and their children, Hilda and Militsa and the children who are Hilda's through love and chance rather than biology, Annie and her nurses, Tytree and his sister, Regent Milhaust, and more- everyone is many for so many loved him) His body, placed on a pyre, seems the heroic way to go. You, of course, are the one who lights the blaze.
You will have to burn on now without him.