Open Post // Overflow

[undyingflames]

 

Feel free to hit me up with anything!!  I'm honestly always down for anything ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡
I've finished the game so spoilers are totally fine, though be careful looking in here if you haven't beaten it yet!

Comments

no worries!!! ꉂ (′̤ॢ∀ ू‵̤๑))ˉ̞̭♡ there's never any rush <3

[undyingflames]

His smile softens, fond, yet melancholy, and filled with a warmth that nearly reaches his cheeks. "Thank you, Brother. I can but hope you're right... that I have been able to live up to his image, to his ideals." He pauses and gently runs his thumb against the paper he's holding, across the words written, not reading, but staring at them distantly as he thinks of their father.

When he speaks again, it's quieter, softer, perhaps a bit sadder, more hesitantly, so much so that Clive might not even hear him. "...And your's."

Because he holds Clive's thoughts of him just as highly as their father's. As the person he's... loved, admired and looked up to for as long as he can remember, that he idolized for his strength, his courage, for how the people loved him... however wrongly that may have been on his own part as he put himself down to raise Clive up. Believing he could never be a leader like his brother, that Clive should've awakened as the Phoenix, not him. And he tried, after he awoke from his coma after Phoenix Gate, to live up to what Clive and their father wanted--believed he could be. To steel his nerves, to become stronger, become a proper leader to the Undying that he might discover the truth behind Ultima.

But... if Clive truly does look to try and find the timid, frail boy he used to know, rather than the man before him... it gnaws a worry in his heart. That he's maybe somehow disappointed his brother, that after twenty years, he hadn't lived up to whatever expectations Clive had of him. His heart aches at the thought, however much his head tells him Clive wouldn't think like that.

Then, after a moment, he sets aside his letter to take a new one too and looks back up to his brother and adds with a lilt of forced amusement, trying to move on. "As well as the children's. It would not do to disappoint them. I have often seen them in the Shelves when consulting Harpocrates. Perhaps I should speak with them, should it help in calming their curious minds that they might focus on their lessons."

He pauses again, a soft breath leaving him in a truer smile. There's no getting around worrying Clive, he always has, born as frail as he was. And he knows full well of Joshua's condition, how Ultima's prison takes it's toll on his body, so there's no getting away with lying. Not that he would. But if he can lessen the weight of his words so not as to worry him so much, he will.

"I am well, Brother. You needn't worry. My strength continues to wane with each passing day, but... there is naught I can do but rest, while we wait to depart for Origin. As Lady Tarja has--urged that I do on several occasions." His smile turns a little guilty, a little sheepish, a little amused.

((Sorry again! But finally!))

[shieldoffire]

Clive reaches over, pushing up at the corners of Joshua's mouth to make that smile less melancholy. "You've done more than that. You've kept up the ideals he taught you while being your own man. He would have loved that - and you for it."

The touch is meant as a silly thing, but the warmth of Joshua's skin still leaves an imprint on Clive's fingers, makes him look down and swallow, pretending to focus on the missives instead of the warm softness of skin beneath his fingers. "You never have to be concerned with meeting my standards. You've always exceeded them. If anything, I'd like if you took more breaks - rested more."

Joshua had never been lesser than Clive, or less deserving of the Phoenix. His frailer health had always been another burden to carry, and one Clive could see the strength Joshua took to bear it. That opinion had never wavered. Clive sees in Joshua all that would make a wise ruler - his kindness above all. He'd seen the strength it took to live with Joshua's gifts and burdens.

"There is no calming those minds," Clive says, faux-darkly, taking the change in topic as offered, ignoring the tingle of his fingers. "But you're welcome to try."

"It will wane slower if you do as Lady Tarja urges. Just ... know there is no shame in taking that rest. When this is all done, we have many days to look forward to still. I wouldn't want you to focus so hard on what is in front of us that you don't think to save some of your heart for what can come after."

absolutely no worries!! welcome back!! ♡(.◜ω◝.)♡

[undyingflames]

Joshua blinks at first when Clive reaches over to touch his face, poking and pushing at the corners of his mouth to encourage a brighter smile, pulling him out of the self conscious thoughts that had creeped into his mind, and then, he laughs. Gentle, soft and quiet as his laughs usually are, ducking his head a bit, but there's a certain heartiness to this one in a way he probably hasn't laughed in eighteen years.

It's a silly, playful gesture, true, which Clive's done twice now to cheer him up, but it's no less comforting, no less reassuring in the way only Clive's ever done for him in all the time's he's been there for him, to help ease the burdens and insecurities from his shoulders that he might breathe, think clearly. And he believes him... that he's become a man his father truly would be proud of... and Clive.

And as the touch lingers for the briefest moment, Joshua almost yearns to keep that comfort, that contact, just as before, and wishes to reach up and hold his hands there, to urge his fingers that he might cup his face instead so Joshua could feel the warmth and comfort of his palms against his cheeks and lean into them. Like at Twinside. But... he doesn't. And Clive pulls away.

"Thank you, Brother." Still, he smiles, truer and brighter now.

But the moment feels all too short. Wherein Clive finds himself grateful for the change of subject, Joshua doesn't as he feels his heart break deep in his chest, as Clive speaks of looking forward to the days ahead of them... of a future that doesn't exist for him... He doesn't know if Clive truly doesn't see it... or simply refuses to, but it fills him with a guilt, a sorrow that weighs down on his heart like an anchor.

But... he tries, just as Clive's always offered him reassurances, Joshua does the same. Not having the heart to tell him otherwise. His voice and smile softening a bit again but not enough to betray the sadness he feels.

"I know... I do not deny I have had little chance to think of what is to come after." There's a small pause as he places the missive in his hand to the side and looks up, finding a new focus in his brother, is expression almost bashful as he asks; "Perhaps, then... we should begin thinking of what it is that we might do? For when such a day comes."

It's terribly dangerous, cruel and sad, to think like this. To allow himself a moment to hope, to dream of a future that he might be able to spend at his brother's side when his fate is all but carved into the very stone that sits in his chest. He could tell himself that this is for Clive, to offer his brother the same reassurances he always does, to help him keep going to do what he must without grieving over his brother whom he just got back.

But he knows, there's a part of him that wants to have this moment too, to believe.