Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

[bigdamnprincipal]

Oh look, there are tables and chairs over here too. Enjoy the food!

[WAIT FOR THE OCD PLEASE. OCD IS UP. This is the FIRST post for general mingling. Please use this post first, if your browser can handle the comment load. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are here and there is more room for mingling here.]

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Re: General Mingling

[withoutverona]

"It is okay, my lady," Romeo said, reaching for her shoulder. "It sounds as though your world is quite different from mine in some ways.

Re: General Mingling

[the_merriest]

Rikku flushed. "Thanks," she said, oddly reassured by his hand on her shoulder. "It, uh. Is. Kinda awful in some ways. I don't think I'm going back. The fighting that you were mentioning? Is your home ... at war?"

Re: General Mingling

[withoutverona]

"That," Romeo said hollowly, "depends on what one sees as 'war.' My family and another family have had a conflict for generations, if not centuries. It has claimed and ruined lives; it took my wife's, my best friend's, almost my own. But officially, it is not a war."

Re: General Mingling

[the_merriest]

"Your wife?" Rikku's hand flew up to her mouth. "I'm so sorry. Are you ... I guess that's a stupid question, you know. 'Are you okay.' Like you'd go, yeah, you know, fine, totally. I ..."

She shook her head. "My home ... we ... it wasn't really a war, there, either. We didn't believe what they believed, so they came for us. Burned our city to the ground. And the followers shrugged it off. We must have done something to deserve it, they said. You know what those Al Bhed are like."

Re: General Mingling

[withoutverona]

Romeo shuddered. "At least it was only my name that was the problem, no more. A man can shed a name more easily than he can a belief."

"My wife," he tried to explain, "Juliet. She was of the other house, and we were married secretly but one day before we were torn apart." By the death of Tybalt, but Romeo still had enough guilt about that that he didn't want to explain it, couldn't even really think about it. Best to cut to the end. "She believed I was dead, and, unwilling to live in the world her parents would have made for her, took her own life." With my gun, and that still killed him to think about. "It was last July. Each day is long and weary, but it is becoming easier."

Re: General Mingling

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "It's ... taking a while for things to change. I mean, it's over, it should be over, but no one's willing to just let go. The hate's been around for too long. Maybe nobody knows how to think straight without it."

She bit her lip. "That's ... that's awful," she said softly. "But ... you're here, you know? My ... cousin Yunie, she lost ... he wasn't her husband, but he was her world, there near the end. And when we ... lost him, she just gave up. Stopped trying. Watching her ... I couldn't help. That was the worst part."

Re: General Mingling

[withoutverona]

"Somehow, by the grace of God or his fury, I am here," Romeo agreed. "How goes it for your cousin?"

He sighed. "Hate lasts far too long, I think. Longer than love, even. Perhaps one day when we're all dust and all there is is dust, from horizon to horizon, perhaps then we wil be free from it."

Re: General Mingling

[the_merriest]

"She's ... better," Rikku said, a light smile threatening to break through. "He ... it's hard to explain? He wasn't really dead. Just ... lost. It was complicated, and dangerous, and kinda weird, but ... I found him again, and brought him back. For her. So they're ..." She squeezed her eyes shut again. "Oh, wow, that's ... tactless, isn't it? I'm sorry."

She took a breath and let it out. "I try not to hate them. The ones who ... did all of that. 'Cause if I do, if everyone does, you know, it'll never change. But it's so hard some times."

Re: General Mingling

[withoutverona]

"Not tactless if it is true," Romeo said. "I am glad that she -- that they -- got that gift."

"To me," he said slowly, "if still I hate, I am hating myself, and I cannot do that each day."

Re: General Mingling

[the_merriest]

"It was incredible," Rikku said softly. "For her to be able to have that again, you know? It was scary, getting him back, but ... it was worth it. She's worth it, I guess."

She considered his words. "I never thought of it like that. But you're right. It's just the other side of the same coin. If you hate them, you are them, and it goes around again."