✧ ˖ @chrysalidembers asked:
“ Miss Elysia! ” Is the near chirp for her attention, the fledgling she knows as Firefly seated a few paces away with crutches leant orderly beside her. Fingers flutter in a wave, a little beckon for her company. “ It's a pleasure to see you again. I hadn't expected to find you here. ” Elysia has always been beautiful, Firefly is yet to discern a side to her that is anything but. Each petal that unfurls as pretty as the last. An unshakeable truth it proves itself to be now, with Elysia fitted in fuchsia and crowned in blossoms. Charmed she is, by the visage of a lovely girl. Envy is an emotion too acrid to go alongside admiration that is stoked in her chest, but there is something slightly just shy of self-conscious beating it's wings as she thinks of what Elysia sees in turn. It is not that she thinks herself ugly or underdressed, it is simply the qipao she donned was one with a fur lined collar and fabric snug against her skin, cosy if she were to pick one word. Whilst not scarce of detail, she would not quite consider it ornate. Simple, as that was the extent of her desire, to be something simple and a figure so normal she is forgettable to a passer-by's memory. “ You look beautiful. ” An easy compliment to give as it is an honest one as lips soften to a smile. Fingers twiddle with the unlit incense stick, pad of her thumb feeling out the groves. “ From where I come from...we did not partake in traditions like this. Honouring the deceased. ” Not for their weapons, she means but she does not say, not for their children born to die. “ There was a...girl I knew once. ” AR-214. “ I think you'd have gotten along well. She was a little shorter than I am...but otherwise we looked close enough to be twins. ” Clones. “ Always wore her hair in twin tails...just a bit below her shoulders. Her favourite colour was red, I think, the pins, hair ties and glasses she wore were the same shade. ” For all the choice she was denied in life, Firefly would not let her individuality to be lost to death. “ You remind me of her. Both of you are...easy to talk to. It always felt like she was...in love with life. Or she was skilled at finding the love in life. Can you...recall that ribbon I wore when we were in Penacony? When I first tried it on she was there with this...recording device and captured the entire thing. I was flustered at the time but...now I think I understand why she did that a little more. ” Eyes had been kept the sky, to the endless expanse above that her mind can so easily fill with severed silver, now flick back to rest on ego. “ I want to light this one for her. If it wouldn't be any hassle...would you mind joining me as I do? ” / BURNING INCENSE
"Oh, hello there~"
There is something to the shift in Elysia's expression-- how her smile does not change or widen, but rather how her eyes soften and her chin inclines just so-- that says she is happy to see the girl again. She waits not for an invitation before sweeping to perch beside her, silver bells like distant laughter in her throat.
"You should see a mirror," she replies in turn, honey-sweet, as natural as beads of dew on watercolor petals. And she's right, simplicity suits the gentle likes of the other, leaves room for the warmth in her eyes to shine through. Eyes flit to where lithe fingers worry the stick of incense between them, then back to Firefly's sweet face with only the barest flicker of how deeply she understands.
"I'm sure it would mean a lot to her, being remembered as she is by you."
Gently, Ego reaches for a stick of her own.
"And I'm sure she was as lovely as you are, if your words are any indication. It's no hassle at all."
Her opposite hand moves for a match, strikes it, and extends the flame for Firefly to light her own upon. Only once she has, once fire has become curling, silver smoke, does she bring it to light her own.
"Mourning is important, remembering is important. It's only because we remember that we can go forward, after all. And everyone deserves someone to remember them like you remember her."
The match's light dies and Elysia hums, holding the incense up towards the sky. Eyes follow where it wanders, where smoke trails and dances until it peters-out into nothing.
"The people we remember, they're why we should have hope. They would want us to, after all."
When she looks again to Firefly, she is still smiling.
"Thank you for telling me about her, now I can remember her too!"