2019-03-15: (One of) These Days

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BGM: (Darksign ~ Alex Roe - Branded with the Darksign) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMgYvI-NcY0



"Sorry," she says to the headstone, crouched atop her grave.

"But you were wrong. And I'm not about to reach out for a hand that slapped mine."

---

So even Josephine wanted him dead. Perhaps he should have expected that the wastes had changed her. She had not deigned to write him -- or even send word via Memory Cube -- in over four years. Still, that much...

He fidgets with the bandages that cover half his face, considers another dose of the analgesic he had procured, but decides against it, rising from his seat below decks.

Power through it. Control it. As ever.

---

"Looks like the waste's still spreading. Just like you always said, huh? 'One of these days, even a place like this is gonna be a ghost town.' ...Turns out it was our ancestors what did it."

She exhales, a sound that is at once a dry laugh and something utterly its antithesis.

"Still dunno if you'd want to know that, if you could. Was that the answer you were hoping to find?"

---

A storm is brewing upon the sea. Around him the crew takes steps in preparation; he can feel the vessel lurch underfoot. The boards creak out in preemptive misery. Gripping the railing near the staircase, he stands there a revenant in the growing dark.

"Hey-- shouldn't you be resting?" one of the sailors calls out, spotting him there.

He waves his free hand, as if to dismiss that concern. "No. I wished to see it for myself."

It had been an ignominious defeat, for certain, but it had also been freeing. The scales had fallen from his eyes, and no more was he shackled to Marze. To Krosse, even.

Other avenues await.

---

"Don't worry, though. I'm not giving up. I still haven't found my own answer."

She reaches out, brushing away a stray bit of dust from the stone.

"You always did say I was as headstrong as a mule."

---

"One of these days," he murmurs, as the rain begins to fall, "eternity shall be within my grasp." And the world will know it.

To the south, then.

His single eye reflects the storm.

---

"One of these days," she says to her sister's headstone, "I'm gonna cover that grave of yours in flowers."

She halfway smiles at the thought.

"Until then, though, wait for me, sis."