He has stabilized. He is still broken and battered from the weight of his sins, but he is alright - if not for a minute, then for however long his brief era of solace was. For a while he simply sits there, arms never straying from the body he cradles so close, seemingly unresponsive for quite a while. The words Diana speaks are naught but a murmur to him, and while he hears no discernible words, the Aspect still manages to understand; he sighs, arms still shaking, and attempts to speak. All that me manages to spill from his trembling lips is a shuddering hiccup. Taric turns his head to the woman sitting beside him, though the gaze he bears is not his own. It is filled with a wistful knowledge of all that exists, and all that has ceased to - it is torture. It is agony. It is the ethereal eyes of a man long gone who has been re-upholstered and re-invented, turned into something bound to a single goal.
For one moment longer, he is calm; collected; aware.
“You speak of… Redemption. We are chosen for this… But I don’t… I’m not ready. I don’t think I ever will be. If I am bound to some greater will, I can already tell that I will certainly disappoint.”
Despite the tears, despite the heartache, despite everything plaguing his soul, Taric manages to keep his voice unwavering for the time it takes to finish his mumbled sentiments.
“It’s… Honestly, it is all I have ever done.”
One word is all it takes to push him back over the teetering edge of his emotions. He’s slowly getting louder and louder, up until the point that he is screaming - and in that moment, that one single moment, it becomes clear just how this trial has affected him.
“I-I… I feel everything, Diana - I hear it all. I’ve always heard it, but… N-Never… Never this LOUD. Or this… This… Intense. A-And it’s not just… Not… just people. Every living thing in this world has a voice and they’re all screaming - they’re SCREAMING, Diana - they’re all yelling and crying and BEGGING, a-and I can’t do ANYTHING to stop it. I have to do something, I have been bound to quell this horror by whatever has cursed me, but… Everything is happening all at once, and I can’t handle this - I don’t know what in God’s name is happening, and I sure as hell can not handle the weight of all this life. It all lays upon me, one man, one… One single FUCKING Man - I - I… need… help. Diana, I need help.”
With how things are going, it’s incredibly obvious that he might just break out in tears again. He is shaking - be it from anger, fear, or from stress, it is not evident; but the emotion, raw and unopposed, is there.
While she understands his pain and his confusion, she knows that dwelling on it will not improve his situation. And NOTHING she or he could say or do would turn back time. Though Diana had come to terms with her own transformation, she would be lying if she claimed she never wished to reverse it in the past.
She hears him out, allowing him to speak as long as he needs. To release his worries, his frustrations, his pain and fear. While she did not understand all of it, she believed him. It would seem different aspects held different EFFECTS on their vessels...She wouldn’t envy him, but she was not one to coddle, either.
“ We are chosen...but we do not choose .” She states, perhaps a bit coldly. She’s never been particularly affluent with EMPATHY.
“ You can choose to view your situation one of two ways, Taric .” She continues, the bite in her voice vanishing into the SMOOTH, unwavering voice she normally used. “ Either this aspect chose you because you do not disappoint, as you claim to always have done ... Or it chose you so that you might change that .”
She takes a breath, turning her GAZE forward once more as she pushes off her knees, rising steadily to her feet. “ You will either accept what has happened to you, fight for your cause, and succeed ... Or you will allow yourself to be crushed by the weight of your responsibilities .”
Slowly, she turns around to face him once more, her discolored lips pressed into a hard line, a stern crease in her brow. But her pale eyes show a SOFTNESS uncharacteristic of the Lunari’s usual expressions. “ There is no turning back ... But you are not alone .”
She reaches one hand forward, extending it toward him. What he will choose to do from here, she does not yet know, but he had asked for her HELP. It was something Diana did not normally offer, let alone give. But for him, for their goals and destinies, she would make the exception, without remorse.
“ And now, neither am I .”