imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

[doesn't especially seem bothered by the strange physics. this was rather far from what he'd been considering, but it's interesting. but going to move around, for a bit, trying to figure out what is where, and what he can stand on.]

[The buildings themselves seem sturdy enough. It's when he looks (or wanders) up the water path that there will be a sense of vertigo as the brain tries to reconcile with all of the other senses.

Intensity settles for leaning against the railing near the water wheel]

Well?

[that's kind of...dizzying. but is going to wander up the water path, on the edge.] Oh, I, ah, see. Dizzying both inside and out... [balancing carefully along the edge. absently reciting, with a faint, fragile smile.] There once was a maiden, who lived at the bottom of the world...

[He watches Persephone walk along the water's edge silently for now. He didn't actually expect him to go up there]

[going to reach a hand back down towards him. come up here. very careful to make his body language cute but unsettling at the same time.]

[He climbs up on the water path, pausing to let the vertigo subside before he takes Persephone's hand, moving in closer than necessary.

Raise your trait with his own of "no sense of personal space"]

[he doesn't move, even as Intensity gets much too close in his personal space, just is very still. just tilts his head to the side, like a little bird, and smiles up at him demurely, with that gentle-if-unsettling smile.]

[Starts leading Persephone further up the edge of the water path if he'll allow it]

And did this maiden ever dream of living at the top of the world?

[will allow him to lead him up] I wonder who, ah, wouldn't dream of light, all the way down there, in the dark.

The kind of person that thrives in shadows.

Even shadows require light, do they not?

Only to distinguish themselves from other shadows.

...But what would they be, ah, without something to reflect?

They'd be nothing.

Tell me, which do you think is better? Knowing of the light but never being able to reach it. Or only knowing the comforts of the dark.

...they, ah, say that ignorance is bliss, but for, ah, me? I think I would rather, ah, know about something beyond endless dark.

[Chuckles at that, as if amused by her answer]

So did the maiden at the bottom of the world ever make it to the light?

[Said as they are approaching the top of the waterway]

The way was long, and hard, that led up to light - but, ah, there are two endings for this story. which is the one that you would rather hear?

What are my options?

One is, ah, the expected end to the tale. A happy end. The other requires sacrifice.

Just because it requires sacrifice, does that mean it can't be a happy end?

That would, ah, depend on what is being sacrificed, wouldn't it? A heart, a companion, a life...those lead to more bittersweet endings.

Everything worth having has a price. If what you wanted was just given to you, it wouldn't be worth the effort in the first place.

[nods in agreement]

...but sacrifice for nothing and that achieves nothing is, ah, meaningless?

Now you're catching on.

...so, ah, an ending where the maiden died but saw the sun as they did would be a happy ending, because they got what they wished for at the last, but an ending where they died before they got there would, ah, not?