Dawn of the Third Age/IC Logs/Talk At The Edge Of An-Teng

<Brazen_Sand> A small bat-winged cherub made out of scales and essence popped into existence next to Snow's head.
<Brazen_Sand> "This is Brazen Sand. Please meet me."
<Brazen_Sand> It said to her, and then disappeared as suddenly
<Bright_Snow> With a sigh, Snow ceases haggling with a merchant down a sidestreet of the city having been arguing about little more than the price of bread. Agreeing to the man's price she wanders off to meet Brazen.

• Brazen_Sand wasn't difficult to find at all. the massive being flew through teh air and blotted out the sun, a single glaring point on his forehead burned as bright as a star at midnight.
  

<Bright_Snow> Standing somewhat outside the city, in a form different from that which she had been in a few moments before Snow waves to Brazen, visible on the road above the rice paddies <Brazen_Sand> Brazen landed in the middle of the road in front of her, quickly scattering a group of frightened peasants as he slammed onto the ground with his feet, and towered over her.
<Brazen_Sand> He had assumed she would want to speak somewhere private, but this worked for him.
<Bright_Snow> She waits as he arrives, saying nothing, just quietly awaiting his reason for summoning her.
<Brazen_Sand> "We need to talk!" He said, loud enough for the wind to send her hair flying back.
<Bright_Snow> "Obviously." She replies, "Otherwise the summons wouldn't have been so restrained."
<Brazen_Sand> "What happened when I was gone and fighting that Abyssal?" He asked
<Brazen_Sand> point blank
<Bright_Snow> "The other three abyssal's were returned to the mud..." she shrugs, "well their current incarnations anyway. We each dispatched one."
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen nodded. "But that wasn't all that happened. You changed. Since that fight, you've acted differently."
<Bright_Snow> "Have I?" she says her cold stare slipping from Brazen's face and into the distance. "I hadn't really noticed anything."
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen looked at everyone staring at them...and huffed. What was THEIR problem? They were just having a chat like anyone else!

• Brazen_Sand looked closer at her while all 3 of his blazing eyes narrowed. "Snow, why won't you be honest with me? We're friends, we've gone through a lot together."
  

<Brazen_Sand> He put a claw on her shoulder, in a friendly way.
<Bright_Snow> The last few people on this strech of the road scatter away ignoring the meeting in a traditional Tengese manner before disappearing over the horizon.
<Bright_Snow> She flinches at the touch, her eyes settling back on his. "Is that all?"
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen frowned at her, the movement of his tusks caught the light of the sun at their razor-sharp tips.
<Brazen_Sand> "No, it's not all. Something is wrong. I'm not stupid, and I want to help you!"
<Bright_Snow> "Help?" She looks surprised and then a little sad, "Believe me Brazen, in this you are better not doing so."
<Brazen_Sand> He shook his head sharply and groweled. "No, never! I'd never not help a friend!"
<Brazen_Sand> "I'm strong! As long as I live I'll use that strength to help others!"
<Bright_Snow> She pushes him off her eyes going hard, anger filling her voice, "Really Brazen? And if the friend asks you to help in the killing of another friend, what then?"
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen hesitated...no...it couldn't be..."Then I don't know...I'd find a way to help everyone. WHAT HAPPENED?!"
<Brazen_Sand> "What did Nomoe do to you?!"
<Bright_Snow> "Nothing..." something still remains unspoken, "yet." she says dejectedly.
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen stared at her with the full weight of his gaze, pushing her on to continue. "You two were acting so differently before. You were always holding hands and looking at each other the way I look at Wandering...It can't just flip like a switch. It can't!"
<Bright_Snow> In a quiet tone, "Yes, Brazen, yes it can." She says sadly.
<Brazen_Sand> "But WHY?! Why do you keep beating around the bush, why won't you TELL ME?!" He asked desperately
<Bright_Snow> "Lovers and friends become enemies in the blink of an eye, the trust you had in them betrayed." Her eyes again go to the horizon caught up in her own butter memories. "Some choose to hunt you, others leave you alone."
<Bright_Snow> Her tone hardens, "You kill the first lot and give the second their distance and never look back."
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen snarled. "You're wrong. Not all friends do that! You have people who love you. I love you, Snow, I'd never betray you!"
<Bright_Snow> "They all do in the end Brazen, sooner or later." She pauses thinking, "Or they die and leave you equally as scarred."
<Bright_Snow> "The one brutal truth of life is nothing last s forever. Not this road, not these paddies, not even love." She looks back at him, "Change is ever present and it acts on everything." <Brazen_Sand> Brazen took her hand gently. "But that's life, and you have to take all the joy you possibly can from it. Like right now. I've escaped the Yozis, and so I'll do the opposite of them. They want to scar teh world, I'll heal it. Starting with you."
<Brazen_Sand> "I don't know what's happened to you, but we can solve it together. Starting wtih this."
<Bright_Snow> "That is sweet Brazen, but somethings even with all the power at our disposal are immutable. Once they are done cannot be undone."
<Brazen_Sand> "Try me."
<Brazen_Sand> He said, completely serious. "The Yozis said I could never be free of them, and look what happened."
<Bright_Snow> She smiles, brightening the bleakness of the day, "They did that out of ignorance, what I claim now I claim from experience..." she pauses.
<Brazen_Sand> "I eat the impossible for breakfast!"
<Bright_Snow> "But I am happy that you are trying. In both meanings of the phrase." She says broadening her smile to take the sting out of the jab.
<Brazen_Sand> "What experience? Stop trying to be all mysterious!"
<Bright_Snow> "Just life Brazen, just life." She says beginning to turn away back towards the city and striding away.
<Bright_Snow> She looks back over her shoulder after a few paces and asks "Was there anything else you needed to talk to me about?"
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen snorted in frustration. "I can't believe this. Why don't any of you want to talk about this?! Do you just want to stay in your own little world, hurting by yourselves forever? Is that it?!" He shouted.
<Brazen_Sand> "Do you LIKE just standing around like a sad little martyr?!"
<Bright_Snow> She shrugs, "Perhaps we do Brazen, have you thought of that. Pain is a private thing."
<Brazen_Sand> "THAT'S STUPID!" He roared. "WE'RE SUPPOSED TO HELP EACH OTHER, DAMMIT!"
<Brazen_Sand> "Everyone goes like 'Oh Brazen you only think about yourself.' 'Oh Brazen you are so big and rude and don't think about what anyone else thinks!"
<Brazen_Sand> "And then I'm here trying to get to the bottom of what's happening with you guys, and you just give me the goddamn brush-off!"
<Bright_Snow> "And who said that forcing us to dredge it up is helping?" She raises and eyebrow, anger creeping into her voice though she keeps her tone level.
<Bright_Snow> Brazen has seen this before it quickly tends to develop into open fury, especially if provoked.
<Brazen_Sand> "Dredge it up?! IT'S ALREADY THERE! I SEE IT HURTING YOU ALL THE TIME!"
<Brazen_Sand> Brazen could, at least, understand open anger
<Bright_Snow> "So Brazen, who asked you to interfere. The pain is mine and mine alone. Can you take it and wear it upon yourself? And if you did what would that leave me with? Happiness, certainly not, I have not been happy in a long long time," she snarls, "though I possibly may have been coming close."
<Bright_Snow> "Moreso what would be left Brazen? Nothing.Nothing at all. The pain is better than emptiness. At least pain drives me."
<Brazen_Sand> "So you think that means you can just give up? You think that you can never ever be happy again?!"
<Brazen_Sand> "At least emptiness can be filled again!"
<Brazen_Sand> "And if you think that pain can work to drive you, GO ASK THE YOZIS HOW THAT'S WORKING FOR THEM!"
<Bright_Snow> Glaring daggers at Brazen, she whirls and begins to stride away. Muttering to herself, "I never said I'd give up."
<Brazen_Sand> "Then what do you call what you're doing right now?"
<Bright_Snow> The words hang unanswered, as Snow storms off.
<Brazen_Sand> "You can't run away from help forever, Snow! You know you can't do everything alone!"
He talks to empty air.