Complete Private Western Brisshal God's Menu

[Lune]

A Remote Settlement Somewhere in Brisshal

After things were over, Lune promised @Luthien that they would catch up with a meal or two. A lot of things happened since then, but they hadn't the time to properly communicate, and it's not something she would want to do in real life, either.

Separate Dayeon and Lune, as much as possible.

One random day, the elf would have received a message from the older woman out of nowhere.

Mail

Got a free time?

Let me know if you do. I'll send you a coordinate where I hang around. BBQ and stuff.

-Lune

The coordinate seemed to point towards the forest of Western Brisshal, almost touching the border between Astorea and Falderen. Explorers like Luthien would remember that there's no such thing as a hideout, village, or any building around here. But Lune did mention that there would be a settlement in the depths.

From outside the forest, the path leading to the settlement was mostly unmarked, perhaps intentionally to keep unwanting visitors from wandering into the territory. Not that people willingly explored the depths of the Astorean side of Brisshal with how dangerous they were.
A few modest, simple wooden buildings, sturdy enough to serve as shelters and houses, were spaced around the premises.

One or two people dressed in garb would sometimes wander around, doing simple chores like getting water. If they saw Luthien, they would just nod politely before continuing to do whatever they were doing. There seem to be only ten or fewer people living in the settlement, judging by the size of it.

All of it seemed pretty normal, perhaps except the fact that they all have white hair.

 

[Luthien]

Theoretically there were certain tasks and responsibilities that she wasn’t supposed to perform given her rank… though that hadn’t stopped her Yladian mentor from finding a workaround for it. Sure, Black Whistles were scarce and spread thin, but she hadn’t missed how Yugam‘s stack of things-to-do was always double in size from his peers.

"Think of it as training for when you inevitably rank up as well~" The quill she held slammed against the desk as the words echoed inside her head, a frustrated grumble escaping the blonde as she leaned back on her chair. "I’d love to know where he gets that audacity from—"

A quiet chime accompanied by an alert in her HUD distracted Lúthien from her thoughts, her fingers flicking through the air until the message popped up for her to read. Right, we did talk about a barbecue that time. It had turned out to be nothing more than a dream in the end… but she was glad to see her unnie had remembered it.

Mail

You know I always have free time for BBQ~

Let me wrap up stuff here in the League and I’ll head over, see ya soon.

Lúthien

The last bits of paperwork were finished off quickly and, after ensuring both Tubby and Tirsk had been fed, the ranger slipped out of the office through the window before Beleg had the chance to barge in for another favor.

​

"Been a while since I’ve visited these parts…" A figure slowly descended onto the unkept dirt road, almost impossible to discern if one had been walking through these parts. The familiar pink glow of her Investigation Mode was still present in her gaze, and she was certain this was the area marked by Lune’s waypoint.

She knew this place well enough, having mapped the area twice for the League, and the closest known settlement was quite a distance away. I guess we’re camping it up then—? Jury was still out if her sharp senses or plain dumb luck were the reason, but something unexpected had caught her eye.

Footprints, most of which had been successfully wiped and blended back into the wilderness… all except for a smaller one that she could only guess might belong to a Faerin or perhaps a young child. "That’s odd…?" While most of the creatures inhabiting the forest of Western Brishall had ceased to be a danger for Lúthien a long time ago, that didn’t mean the place was safe and harmless enough for people to be wandering about.

The Guild would occasionally place quests in the area to ensure the monster population didn’t get out of hand and threatened nearby towns and settlements, and even the League was known to send some of their younger recruits in small teams for training. Curiosity got the best of the elf as she continued to look for more clues as she headed deeper into the forest, and it wasn’t long before her eyes figured out the hidden marks meant to guide others towards an unexpected settlement.

A sigh escaped her as the glow dissipated from her eyes, having turned off the investigation mode with a tap of her fingers in the air. "Never a dull day…." White hair seemed to be the common trait among the few folk she could spot about the village, the very shade she’d seen on Lune and the young girl by her unnie’s side at that time.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

Upon noticing Luthien, one of the white-haired people would then make his way toward the building in the middle before knocking on the door a few times. After a while, the wooden opened, and a familiar black-and-white-haired head peeked out.

"Oh, you're here." She gestured for the elf to enter the abode as she thanked the man, who proceeded to walk away to the other house. "Let's come inside, make yourself comfortable."

Immediately as Luthien entered the hut, a charcoal burner pit was visible in the middle of the room with several sitting pillows around it, and Ryujin already sitting on one of them while humming a melody. She recognized Luthien quickly and gave her a polite but shy nod.

The room and the entire hut itself felt like it was still largely unfinished, yet good enough to serve as a place to rest. Simple, dim candle lights along the walls gave off a warm vibe.

"I didn't expect you to come right away. We just caught a local feral pig this morning." The kid's eyes glimmered as soon as Lune mentioned the word 'pig'. "By 'we', I mean them. I just chill around here. Come, sit while I prepare stuff."

The older woman, who was dressed in kimono-like simple clothes and now sporting one horn disappeared into the back room, which seemed to be the kitchen part of this small house. "So, it's been some time, huh?" Her voice echoed through the walls of the hut, further emphasizing how compact it was. "I'm not good at starting a conversation. You know it by now."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

Lúthien stood out like a sore thumb against the apparent inhabitants of this small settlement, and it wasn’t long before one of them had nodded for the elf to follow. A glance here and a curious haw there escaped her as Lúthien looked around, far as she could tell this place was fairly new and still being worked on—confirmed as she followed Lune into what the blonde could only assume was her new home.

"Well, you didn’t specify a time in your message—" Despite the barrenness of the room, expected given its unfinished state, the charcoal burner and pillows arranged in the middle gave it a warm and inviting atmosphere. "—and Beleg wasn’t around to stop me so..."

A soft bounce of her shoulders signalled the end of that sentence before Lúthien returned the timid nod from Ryujin with a smile and a wave of her own, glad to see the kid doing well as her fingers danced with precision through the air. "Brought a little treat from the city." It wasn’t long before a paper bag materialized from the confines of her inventory, a sweet scent slowly wafting around the room, before Lúthien gently pressed it against the girl so Ryujin would take it.

Dough Re Mi had quickly become a favorite place of hers, and she’d been more than happy to serve as a trading liaison of sorts between them and the Sun Claws in the Hylands. Their partnership had meant a continuous supply of glutinous rice for the store, and the mochi donuts made from it had become a popular item since.

Her voice dropped to a whisper as Lune disappeared into the next room, winking as she spoke to Ryujin. "You can have one while food’s getting ready, okay?"

She gently ruffled the girl's hair before finally taking a seat for herself across from what Lúthien assumed was the kitchen. "Sounds like we’re in for a treat today then~" She did her best to keep her tone light and airy despite the countless questions lurking inside her mind—something that always seemed to happen whenever she got the chance to catch up with the IRL idol.

"It has… long enough that a new place popped up in the woods." Lune was good at hiding when she didn’t want to be found, and the blonde tried to respect her unnie’s privacy for the most part even if she heavily disagreed with Lune’s methods. "Care to share the name of it?"

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Hmm. Maybe he's working on that side project again." She recalled that one time Beleg and a middle-aged man approached her to enlist her help. In the end, all she did was continuously pour energy into a weird mirror shard for hours in a dark room.

While the blonde elf wasn't looking, one mochi donut already disappeared into the young girl's mouth. The paper bag containing the rest was placed on her side while she continued to munch on the pastry, seemingly not a stranger to it.

"It doesn't have a name. Yet." The woman appeared from the corner, bringing a long wooden cutting board with her. There were small plates and various cuts of pork meat already sliced on top of it, some thick and some thin. "I don't reckon it needs one right now. Only a few people live here, working and enjoying their second chance at life." Lune placed the cutting board to the side of the charcoal burner so that either side could easily access the meat before sitting down.

She turned to Ryujin, instantly noticing the trace of a mochi donut around her mouth. "What did I tell you about sweet foods?" A light smile formed on Lune's face, causing the smaller girl to wipe her lips. "N-not too much..." Even as she smiled, there was a tiredness apparent behind her blood-red irises. It was easy to tell that her frame became significantly smaller too, especially compared to when they went together to the Hylands or the MITHRA. Someone with Hyper Sense like Luthien would recognize that she no longer radiated that overwhelming energy that resided in her chest.

The stone plate on top of the flaming charcoal was already hot, and when Lune took a cut of pork fat with wooden chopsticks and dragged it across the makeshift pan, the fat quickly sizzled leaving a trail of juicy, fatty oil.

"Everything going well in the League?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Ugh, don’t remind me of that…" The thought alone was almost enough to give her a headache, and even her elven memory had struggled to fully remember everything about that job. "It makes paperwork feel like a blessing."

Veildiving as they had called it was as foreign of a concept as her own dreamwalking, and it didn’t help that Beleg often danced around most of her questions about it. "...I bet Grimr isn’t even his real name."

The rustling of the paperbag didn’t go unnoticed, and her gaze shifted to catch the last bites of Ryujin as she made one of the mochi donuts disappear. A faint chuckle escaped the blonde before a finger lifted to tap the corner of her own mouth, attempting to alert the younger girl of the powdery stain in her face, when Lune returned from the kitchen.

"C’mon, let me spoil my cute lil’ niece a bit unnie~" She knew the older woman wasn’t mad, the light smile on her lips told that much, but that wasn’t the only thing those perceptive rubies picked up on as they took in Lune’s form. Her lips pressed into a thin line as the flash of a memory crossed her mind, before the ranger forcibly pushed those thoughts away.

They could wait until later…

"If I was a caenis my tail would be waggin’ right now~" Instead she chose to bring the attention towards the various cuts of meat that Lune had brought from the kitchen, the familiar sizzling being one of her favorite sounds in both of their worlds.

"Understaffed… so y’know, biz as usual I guess." she answered as her hands reached for another pair of wooden chopsticks, carefully placing some of the thinner strips of pork on the fatty trail Lune had made. "Most of the gold recruits have crafted their orange whistles by now, so they’ve upgraded to glorified messengers."

It was funny to see the look on their faces when they realized it, surely the very same one that must’ve been on her own face long ago when she’d been in their shoes. "Lively too since quite a few are young, but Beleg never complains about the noises echoing down the hallway of our offices." None of them did really, and she preferred them to the echoing wails of memories Lúthien sometimes wished she could forget.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"I see..." She placed a few thin meat strips of her own, letting it hiss as they made contact with the stone pan. The heat transferred from the ember is hot enough just to let the pork belly cook comfortably as they talk without overcooking the meat. "Yugam must be really busy too, huh."

Most of the factions have also experienced a shortage of manpower recently. She didn't know if it correlated with the number of players decreasing (which is good, if true), or whether Astorea was slowly losing its grip.

Silence fell after that as Lune ran out of things to ask surprisingly this quick, with the sizzling of the meat the only main sound that filled the room. The aromatic smoke escaped through a small opening on the roof, and the smoky aroma would have turned every living being in the vicinity hungry.

"Oh, Ryujin." She turned to the girl who was staring right at the sizzling pork belly, gesturing her toward the kitchen corner. "Be a dear and bring us the teapot?" The white-haired girl quickly nodded and made her way toward the back with penguin-like steps.

Several cuts were already perfectly cooked, as Lune moved them with her chopsticks to a smaller plate to the side. It was unfortunate that she didn't have anything that resembled condiments that are used in popular BBQ, but grilled meat is grilled meat.

Letting out a deep exhale, as if desperately trying to revive the conversation, the woman finally opened her mouth again. "I've enjoyed the quiet, peaceful days." She gestured to the cooked meat, letting Luthien grab a piece. "It'll be great if it could last, but we know it's not going to be the case."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Hah, you have no idea... honestly, I’d never seen so much paperwork stacked onto a singular desk in my life." It didn’t help that Black Whistles were a rarity as it stood and, after the burning of the original Embertorch, the League’s numbers had drastically reduced even more.

"Technically I shouldn’t even be touching the stuff based on rank, but there’s not way he’d be able to get through all that workload on his own… and Beleg always turns a blind eye when I’m in their office." Despite the annoyance in her voice Lúthien didn’t fault her mentor. He was just trying to keep the League afloat, just like everyone else that had chosen to remain after all had been said and done.

"He had some IRL stuff to do today though," she said, a pointed look given to Lune as she spoke. Though Lúthien didn’t vocally mention what that might be, the blonde was certain her unnie could figure out what it was. "So no barbecue for him this time."

The quiet sizzling of meat and fat on the heated stone pan filled the silence that settled between them, though the elf didn’t seem bothered by it. It was expected even, certain that her unnie’s mind was probably as cluttered as her own—if not more—despite the relative peace that had seemingly settled over Arcia since that day.

"Oooh... What tea are you brewing for us today, unnie~?" The thinner strips of pork didn’t take long to cook, the first batch carefully placed to the side before some of the thicker cuts found their place on the hot stoneware.

"I've enjoyed the quiet, peaceful days. It'll be great if it could last, but we know it's not going to be the case."

"Yeah, dreams can only last so long…" She’d like nothing more than to be proven wrong, but perhaps it was due to knowing these peaceful times wouldn’t last forever that the elf had been busy as a bee lately. Her eyes hadn’t missed the look of disappointment that had crossed Lune for a moment as she stared at the cooked strips of pork, a smirk tugging the ends of her lips as her fingers tapped the air.

"Almost forgot, have a little surprise for you as well." A clay pot materialized into her waiting palm. The tiny onggi was held up for Lune to take, excited to see what expression would show on her unnie’s face once she spotted the contents inside.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Well, more time spent on paperwork means less time spent pursuing dangerous stuff." She joked, "I'm just gonna say that I found these rank hierarchies of the four factions weird, like straight ripped out of comics weird." Trying to establish this kind of impactful leadership in a game where people could easily drop out just doesn't work.

Perhaps Astorea learned this the hard way now that the factions face a member shortage.

"Oh," Lune remembered that he must be handling all the stuff that comes with buying an entire apartment building. Yup, all this time her brother was a millionaire—or billionaire, there's virtually no difference when the money's already too much to count. Val literally only found out recently too, man's really good a broke barista act. "Guess everything's going well? Place's good to go in weeks or so?"

Ryujin returned to the middle of the room carrying the teapot carefully and passed it to Lune before the older woman proceeded to slowly pour it into the small drinking cups. "It's aquarose tea," Made from the leaves of a weird plant whose blue flower doesn't even look like a rose at all. "The young man who lived next building gifted us a set, said it was a pretty luxurious drink from where he came."

It looks like tea and smells like tea, so probably just going to taste like normal tea.

She was already going to grab a piece of meat before the elf suddenly handed her something. Opening the clay pot, she already knew what it was upon seeing it, smirking "It's not a proper barbeque without some ssamjang, is it?" Pouring a bit of the condiment into the smaller plate, she dipped one of the thinner slices before passing it to Ryujin, before taking another meat for herself.

"Let's eat."

She nodded slowly as the pork belly disappeared into her mouth, processing the fattiness of the meat combined with the savory, slightly spicy addition of the paste. "That's the closest thing to an actual ssamjang without bringing Korean chili peppers here." Lune gave it praise.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Agreed… which is why I never tell Beleg to lower it." Although it was meant mostly in jest her unnie did have a point. "Seems you have your own workload here too."

”Maybe whoever came up with it was a Marvel or DC fan." A quiet chuckle escaped as Lune touched the matter of the faction ranks, keeping an eye on the thicker pork slices. On any other form of game it would’ve worked, but not with something as realistic as TerraSphere. "Who knows, maybe these peaceful times lead to new changes… hopefully before the whole system crumbles down."

”Yeah. The offer got approved a while ago, but the building needed some TLC to get it ready." It felt surreal to talk about it even now, but she’d pinched herself enough times in the past to know it wasn’t just a dream.

"Aquaroses…?" That was a flower she hadn’t heard about before, her gaze straying to the unassuming liquid in her small drinking cup she took from Lune. It looked like any other regular green tea, with an aromatic herbal fragrance that felt soothing to the nose.

She took a moment to turn the fattier cuts on the stone pan as Lune dished out some of the ssamjang into a small plate, before a thin strip of pork found itself pinched between her chopsticks with a dab of the famous condiment. "Mmm~" Few things compared to a Korean BBQ, and she couldn't help the delighted hum that escaped her with that first bite.

"Yeah, their miso also tastes slightly different too… but it's still similar enough to feel familiar." It seemed to be a common theme among the flora and fauna of TerraSphere. "Maybe we’ll find actual Korean peppers in a locked region one day—!?"

The unexpected sweetness as the tea touched her tongue caused the elf to sputter, the strong caramel flavor being the last thing Lúthien had expected it to taste like when she took a sip. "T-That’s… huh."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Well, I'm not doing all the physical stuff." Lune shrugs, her eyes scanning the unfinished furniture in the room. "People around here pull their own weight, and I got someone else helping too."

Oros had been kind enough to send some of his village folk to help with the groundwork immediately she told him about it. She had the idea of settling somewhere near his hidden village, but Falderen was and still isn't an ideal place for Starcalled, especially her who was marked by Tyldr.

"Oh, nice." A sincere smile formed on her face as Lune nodded slightly. "Congrats on the new place. I'm still not sure why he needed an entire apartment for the two of you."

Meanwhile, the younger girl sitting next to her was still processing the dipped pork belly, seemingly impressed by the condiment, quickly taking another cut as the pair conversed.

As soon as Luthien sipped the tea, Lune let out a small laugh. "That was also my exact reaction. No added sugar or anything." The tea's natural sweet, caramelly taste was not something you expect when looking at the color nor though the soothing aroma. "I would understand if they used the leaves for cooking, but tea?"

"She really likes it though." She turned to Ryujin, handing her a cup of the aquarose tea. "But yeah, at this rate I'm not surprised that by next time you visit, you'll be bringing me a jar of kimchi."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Dee—" The snap and pop of the meat pulled her attention away, a sigh escaping the blonde before she turned the pieces to reveal a nice sear on their side.

"It’s really good, right~?" A glance towards the younger Ryujin made Lúthien chuckle, deciding to table that topic for later, before one of the slices was carefully placed onto the girl’s plate. "There’s more where that came from, so don’t hold back okay?"

A couple of pieces also found their way to Lune’s plate before Lúthien placed the last two onto her own, replacing the cuts with more of the thinner strips as her unnie talked about the tea. "Really caught me off-guard, nothing about it hints at how sweet it’d be." It was no surprise that Ryujin enjoyed it so much, kids always tended to like sweeter things after all.

"C’mon, don’t go spoiling your surprises before I finish them unnie." A soft chuckle escaped her as she thought of a few “projects” she was working on—both IRL and within the game—before the dipped piece of pork in her chopsticks disappeared into her mouth.

Bless the first soul that thought cooking meat over an open flame was a good idea.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

For the next several minutes, they enjoyed the juicy pork cuts; belly, loin, and even the neck while chatting lightly.

As Lune put aside her empty plate along with the chopsticks, she turned to the side to notice that the smaller girl already dozed off, hugging an extra sitting pillow in a curled position. "And she's gone already," The woman exhaled with a light smile, refilling the tea cups. "Looks like the morning hunt was tiring. I'm glad that she's starting to communicate with other people though."

Or perhaps it was the amount of food causing food coma. They ate so much yet there was still a lot of pork meat left in the kitchen, as she planned to split the rest to the settlers for dinner.

Sipping the abnormally sweet warm tea, the horned woman looked at Luthien's crimson eyes. "You look like you have a hundred questions to ask." Not any light talk, but proper catching up. It's like a tradition every time they meet in-game by now, made worse by the long passage of time. "I'll try to answer as best as I can. It's not like I'm trying to hide things anymore."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Man, doesn’t get any fresher than this…" Every cut of pork had been delicious, and yet there was still so much meat leftover despite how much of it they’d all eaten. A single pig might not feed a whole village, but it was probably more than enough for the amount of people Lúthien had seen around here.

"Oooh, she was part of the hunting party?" Her gaze shifted towards the tuckered out girl, currently bested by the after effects of a food induced coma. A hand reached out to tuck some loose strands of white hair behind Ryujin’s ear. "I take it she’s been doing well then?"

A few bottles of water had eventually found their way out from the ranger’s inventory as they’d eaten. One had been given to Lune, the other to the girl, and the third was currently held in her hands as the blonde took a few sips. Interesting as the tea had been she’d never had a sweet tooth of sorts, and she had alternated between it and her water throughout the meal.

"That obvious, huh?" A light shrug of her shoulders followed as her unnie hit the nail on the head with her words. "It feels like they multiply every time we get together too."

So much so that Lúthien never knew where to start.

Her hands stacked some of the empty plates together, liberating some space on their small table as she spoke. "Let’s start with the most important one then." It allowed her enough space for her right elbow to rest against it, her face propped against her hand as those perceptive eyes looked towards Lune.

"How've you really been, Dee?" It was impossible to miss the concern that furrowed her eyebrows, conscious that the once overwhelming source of energy that had replaced her unnie’s heart was gone.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Nothing beats freshly cut meat. And we'll be going to dry some of the rest as a stockpile too." The guys from Oros' village were kind enough to show them the ropes on how to properly prepare and stock up food. It's not like there are many of them living here now, but it'll be good to just try to be self-sustaining, especially now that Lune doesn't do Guild jobs anymore.

"Mm-hm, she's confident enough to use her magic again. Only simple ones, though."
Perhaps subconsciously she didn't want to use too much of Lune's energy, knowing she's now always low on it. "I can stay unplugged for days too, knowing the others will look out for her."

She knew that it was going to be hard to answer as soon as Luthien rested her head on her hand. The older woman looked away at first, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm just hanging on." By a thread, perhaps. She sighed, knowing that she was not being truthful again, before dropping the fact on the elf. "By that, I mean I'm deteriorating."

Lune motioned towards the left side of her chest, once where a crystal resided. "I was prepared to use it. And I did, to ensure Szofrit would never be a threat to anyone else." Even if it wasn't enough, the lethal magic outburst would still give an opening for Levi to finish the Mother of Machines. "And Yugam. And Ronja. And Fiora. I'm not the only one who lost things that day."

"Yugam put my heart back to where it was, but that meant I had to sustain Ryujin and several other people on my own." It was clear that the 'other people' she mentioned were the white-haired settlers. "Not an easy task, even if we had been preying on orcs and goblins in the vicinity." Because no one's gonna question the moral implication of doing just that.

"But I guess it's enough for now."

Barely, perhaps.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Oooh, sounds like you guys have it all figured out hmm?" There was no mockery behind her words, but instead genuine curiosity at what her unnie was planning—and she always liked learning new things, especially when food was involved. "Let me know when you guys do that, I’d love to give you a hand."

She listened as Lune spoke about Ryujin, a faint smile tugging the corners of ehr lips as she watched the peaceful look on the girl’s sleeping face. It was nice to hear she was coming out of her shell with time, though it didn’t lessen the worry in the pit of her stomach as Lúthien’s stare fixed on her unnie again.

The fact Lune avoided her gaze confirmed that the older woman knew where this conversation was heading, but uncomfortable as it might be it was a topic neither could continue to ignore.

"I wish things had gone differently that day." Pure dumb luck was the only reason the elf hadn’t followed in her friends’ footsteps and respawned in the temple along with them. So many things had gone wrong that day, and it had cost them so much more than she had ever thought possible.

"You never did explain why she’s under your care…" Lune had brushed over the topic when she’d first introduced Ryujin to her, and Lúthien hadn’t pried further once it became clear her unnie didn’t want to talk about it. "Or why there’s more of them now."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Probably after the meal. The day is still pretty long."

"Perhaps. Or if it didn't go that way, it might have gone even worse." Luthien wasn't wrong, but what the elf lamented, Lune had chosen to forget instead. "I have accepted that it was the best outcome we could have gotten, despite our sacrifices."

Preparing to finally let it out, the woman swallowed her saliva, before she finally explained.

"Months ago, I'd been walking in and out of this ruined town. Every single time, I would see her begging for coins and food." Lune remembered the cold of winter on a particular day when she handed the girl a loaf of bread, promising to improve the lives of people like her.

"One day I found her already collapsed, and it was too late for any healing to restore her; her organs had already been destroyed for so long. I brought her to Yugam, figured that the ritual thing he did to my heart was worth trying." Even if it meant dependency for life, she wasn't going to ignore a life that she had the chance to save.

Her left hand reached for the sleeping girl's arm, slowly caressing it. "Without any other energy source, there was no other choice than to link her to me. As long as I have lifeforce in me, I can sustain her indefinitely."

Exhaling softly, Lune looked back at Luthien.

"Those people around here, they're pretty much like her. There was just simply no way to save them by other means; even our magical powers have limits."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Yeah… we can’t change the past." She knew as much, but that didn’t mean the blonde liked it. Sure, veildiving had offered a tempting alternative at first, but she knew better than to trust it—and Grimr—fully… and, far as the elf could tell at least, their actions in that pocket of time and space hadn’t changed anything in the present.

Lúthien was silent as her unnie finally revealed how she’d come across little Ryujin and the others, her gaze drawn back to the peaceful face of the sleeping girl as the older woman caressed an arm softly. "That’s just like you Dee… you’re always trying to save everyone." She wouldn’t reproach her unnie over it, Lúthien would’ve probably acted similarly had she been in Lune’s shoes…

"But you can’t save everyone if you don’t take care of yourself first." The crystal had made the impossible seem attainable, but that source of energy was now gone… and there was only so much Lune’s own life essence would be able to endure before it gave way.

"Besides, you’re not alone in this world unnie." She reached for the tea kettle, refilling Lune’s cup before topping off her own. "So trust in your friends more… maybe we can find an alternative together, okay?"

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"And yet, there might be more lives lost because of me." She was not going to pretend that she stood on the moral high ground. There were so many ways, perhaps better ones; it's just that she chose the most selfish acts to try and protect the people she cared about. "I'm just trying my best."

Still placing one hand on the sleeping girl's head, she explained how she was able to survive.

"The orcs, goblins, and bandits... We've been feeding off them." No matter how much they went on a leeching hunt, there seems to not be an end to their number. She would say it's justifiable as it's doubling as an effort to cull threats considering some weaker Starcalled still roams Brisshal. "And in turn, the others redirect excess lifeforce back to me."

She nodded as Luthien shared her optimism about an alternative, not challenging the thought despite her thinking that it wouldn't exist. Lune raised her cup to slowly sip the newly refilled tea. "I don't know how sustainable that is, but it is working for now. Still, I prefer a less predatory lifestyle."

The woman placed the teacup down, her hands making a gesture to open her inventory. "I'm certainly not going to complain much, especially now that I'm just sitting around here during most of my playtime." After a few button presses, a notebook manifested out of thin air, and the one-horned idol passed it to the elf.

"Turns out that just taking the world in slowly is a great source of inspiration. I've been writing a lot of songs here."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Look, we can’t save everyone..." That was hard to do already when players and their free will was concerned, and the matter only complicated itself further when Landers were thrown into the mix.

The Embertorch being burned to a crisp had meant most of the maps had to be manually restored, which meant a lot of traveling around the multiple regions to do so, and had afforded Lúthien the view of how other Starcalled treated the supposed NPCs of this game. Some were amicable enough, willing to go out of their way to befriend or lend a hand if needed, although Lúthien doubted many of them would be willing to risk actual death for the people of the land if push came to shove.

A larger part were tolerant, interacting with the Landers the same way they would’ve in any other game—seeing the Landers as the piece that would enable the next side quest or a lucky lore dump if they interacted with them. She had fallen into that category herself in her earlier days of the game, though it had been almost impossible to keep viewing them in such a way upon seeing how uniquely complex each one of them could be…

And then you had the lowest of the low, the absolute dirtbags that justified any harmful actions and treatment towards the Landers as acceptable due to perceiving them as nothing more than code in a game. Her lips pressed into a thin line at the thought, before the blonde released her held breath in a long sigh. "The fact that you’re trying is already better than plenty of others, so just keep doing your best."

Lune’s explanation offered insight into the method currently being used to sustain the people here. "I see… it’s not a bad method really, two birds for one stone kind of deal even." There was mutual benefit to be found: Lune and her people continued to sustain themselves, and the roads remained safer for Starcalled and Landers alike.

"So long as they don’t bite more than they can chew everything should be fine." That was probably the trickiest part of it all, though the chances of them coming across way out of their league seemed low given the area Lune had chosen to settle on. "But it won’t last forever, especially if you keep… expanding."

The appearance of the notebook shifted the conversation into lighter territory, the blonde accepting it before flipping over the pages carefully. "Yeah, this world is quite beautiful when it’s not trying to kill us~" A smile tugged at the ends of her lips upon seeing the various verses and notes inside, glad to see her unnie focusing on something she truly enjoyed.

"Y’know, you never did give us an answer unnie..." The offer to move in with them had been extended a while back, and it was one of the reasons why they’d chosen to buy an actual apartment complex instead of just a simpler place for themselves. "You know I’ll assume it’s a yes unless you specifically state otherwise."

@Lune