Archeval, Darth Imperius (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkeststars) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2021-05-23 10:44 pm
darkeststars) wrote in westwhere2021-05-23 10:44 pm
Entry tags:
the promised distraction.
WHO: Archeval, Eleven
WHEN: May 24th, shortly after Lan Wangji's announcement.
WHERE: Around the farm.
WHAT: He promised he'd try to keep certain people out of the way of the cleanup, and he knows where to find exactly one of them, so...
WARNINGS: Frank discussion of death, maybe. Arche being an asshole, probably.
The farmland they're staying on is a fairly expansive place, but if Archeval opens his senses to the brush of minds around him for a little while, he's more than familiar enough with Eleven's to zero in on the one presence who's consistently been somewhere nearby since day one of this whole ordeal. He turns his attention away from the quartz for now as he heads over to find where El has gotten off to, closing in quietly to simply watch for a little while, not quite sure what he should even say. Something... something comforting? He feels like normal people would probably say something comforting. But death simply is what it is, one of the normal facts of living. He's been giving it the finger for twenty-three years, but many beings of his acquaintance haven't been so lucky. He's seen far too much of it for the idea to shock anymore. People die. Sometimes gruesomely.
...still, someone like Eleven should be spared the sights, though, if someone like Archeval can help it at all. It doesn't make the galaxy any better a place to spread around this particular misery.
He finds a spot to lean on and cross his arms over his chest as he looks on softly.
"...I'd like to ask a favor, if you're amenable," he says at last.
WHEN: May 24th, shortly after Lan Wangji's announcement.
WHERE: Around the farm.
WHAT: He promised he'd try to keep certain people out of the way of the cleanup, and he knows where to find exactly one of them, so...
WARNINGS: Frank discussion of death, maybe. Arche being an asshole, probably.
The farmland they're staying on is a fairly expansive place, but if Archeval opens his senses to the brush of minds around him for a little while, he's more than familiar enough with Eleven's to zero in on the one presence who's consistently been somewhere nearby since day one of this whole ordeal. He turns his attention away from the quartz for now as he heads over to find where El has gotten off to, closing in quietly to simply watch for a little while, not quite sure what he should even say. Something... something comforting? He feels like normal people would probably say something comforting. But death simply is what it is, one of the normal facts of living. He's been giving it the finger for twenty-three years, but many beings of his acquaintance haven't been so lucky. He's seen far too much of it for the idea to shock anymore. People die. Sometimes gruesomely.
...still, someone like Eleven should be spared the sights, though, if someone like Archeval can help it at all. It doesn't make the galaxy any better a place to spread around this particular misery.
He finds a spot to lean on and cross his arms over his chest as he looks on softly.
"...I'd like to ask a favor, if you're amenable," he says at last.
no subject
"Yes, it matters. If you bury it too deep, it won't sprout properly. Too shallow and the roots might not anchor it well. A good rule of thumb is about twice as deep as a seed is wide."
He doesn't know why he's so nervous, just watching. That Archeval expressed a desire to give life over taking it is plenty enough reason to learn, and tells him far more than he'd ever dare to ask. There isn't any reason the man can't handle pressing a seed into the earth.
no subject
"Ah... tell me before I've used too much, I suppose...?"
He barely did anything, of course, but he feels an odd, shy sense of accomplishment as he wets the soil. It will certainly be something to come back to this later. And whatever else Eleven might have on his mind, he's here and participating right now, so...that's something too.
no subject
"It looks okay. You just want to make sure to water it whenever the dirt feels dry."
He stares at it a moment longer, then huffs a look up at Archeval. "I'll help if you need it, but I'm going to let Vanya know this is your patch to take care of and learn from."
no subject
"Earned myself a new responsibility, have I...? Well, that's only fair. I'll try not to touch any of the rest of these just in case. But if this is my bit now then I guess I may as well do a couple more."
And he will pull over the little bag of seeds to do exactly that, making some more shallow holes and dropping in seeds.
"Vanya, hm? Have you two been the main caretakers around here...?"
no subject
The more they could grow here, the better.
He meets Archeval's eyes for the moment he glances over, then nods with a partial shrug. "I haven't heard from anyone else with experience in farmwork, but I see a few others stop by once in awhile.."
no subject
"Well, we're probably lucky to even have two," Archeval sighs, setting the can down as he finishes watering his last spot.
"Considering the warlord was quite selective in his choice of kidnappees, it seems. I suppose the rest of us would just be stuck muddling around in the dark with this if the pair of you weren't here. Though I don't think I've met a Vanya yet." He's a little surprised that their number is large enough now for him not to have run into everyone at least once. And here he thought he'd made a decent catalog after the raid on the slave ship.
He brushes off his gloves a little as he sits back in the grass. Those black clothes have acquired a couple of dirt stains by now.
"You'd make a fair teacher, I think. From one to another."
no subject
"I haven't shown you much, or explained anything in detail." He'd glossed over a lot of information with short, bare instruction and overused the phrase 'it depends'. "You just have low standards."
But he doesn't feel up to much more. Eleven pillows his head on his arms and gives Archeval a side-long glance.
"I know you've just been trying to make me feel better with all this."
no subject
"Thought I was clear enough when I came to find you earlier. I could've asked you this on any day, but I picked today and told you exactly why, now didn't I?" Arche gives him a dry look. It itches a bit to hear it described in such weirdly altrustic terms, but that is essentially what he's doing really, so. Probably no point starting an argument about it, when that might only end up highlighting that he's partly out here because of Wangji too.
Maybe some other day.
"And in that case, then congratulations on exceeding my fantastically low teaching standards, I suppose," he drawls out, reaching over to start gathering up some of the supplies he carried out here.
"But either way... and more importantly. I do see what you mean, about this place. Being surrounded by nothing but tundra and half-dead trees gets a little wearying."
no subject
Eleven hums shortly, looking back out at the garden and the vegetables in varying stages of growth. In the quietest of moments, he likes to imagine he can feel them growing.
"We couldn't not try," he says, arguing against an absent judgement as his fingers curl into his sleeves. "Even if it was always going to end like this, or like that half-dead animal in the desert, life is precious. If there's a chance.. and if there isn't. Otherwise, I may as well give up in my world, too."
no subject
"They had the right to choose their own end, and they did. But that doesn't make it meaningless -- what you did for them. What the other two did for them either, offering them that. Their last days were far kinder than they might have been. That's not nothing."
no subject
"I'll keep trying," he decides with quiet conviction, then pushes himself to his feet. "Someday, I want my title to mean something. In the meantime, there might be at least one more thing I can do for them."
no subject
"Your title. Luminary, yes?... Someone who brings light to dark places."
For a moment, standing there as a black stain against the gray tundra grass with cloak tossed about in the cold breeze, the Dark Lord stares over very solemnly indeed.
"Not everything is yours to fix, hero," he says quietly.
"But you do plenty of illuminating already."
He stands there for another second in silence before turning away at last, taking a step back toward where they picked up those supplies so he can put all this away.
"...So. What is your plan now?"
Hopefully he's not about to have to scramble to come up with a second distraction.
no subject
Eleven reaches for the journal tucked into his pouch and taps into the rose quartz network to write a quick question of Alina while Archeval is occupied, then breaks the connection to respond.
"If we bury them, the wolves will probably dig them up. I can help burn them, and offer prayers for their passing."
A proper ceremony would have a real priest and their families present, but this is what they can do now.
no subject
He'd just as happily keep Eleven away from whatever mess has been made of the corpses as well, but a hero of light has probably seen a few dead bodies in his time, and it sounds like El is probably already fairly set on this path anyhow. Perhaps taking some kind of action will help him sleep better. Far be it from Archeval to tell anybody not to do precisely what they can live with, no more and no less.
But hopefully those bodies have been bundled up away from the mess by now. Or maybe Lan Wangji, the man who apparently can't be bothered to lift a finger for menial labor, has managed to get it cleaned up. Stranger things have happened.
"Well, I will do my best to absorb the lesson," he murmurs a little dryly as he walks over to tuck the supplies away.
"And I won't shirk my duty, since you've gone to the trouble. Suppose that means I'll see you here bright and early tomorrow."
no subject
Idly, he wonders what it is Archeval thinks he's illuminated, and resolves to ask some time.
"I do feel a little better," he assures the man, in case there is room for doubt. Though there isn't any telling how he'll feel after the ceremony, or if he crosses paths with Lan Wangji. "More clear-minded, at least."
The Luminary isn't the only one able to lift people out of dark places- just as well, as his own light wavers more often than not.
"I look forward to seeing your seedlings come along."
no subject
It's a bad habit he indulges too often, willy-nilly getting close like this. Probably going to get him knifed in the back someday. He really has gone inexcusably soft since first being handed the Council seat. But... it's certainly made surviving in this place more bearable, even if some days are like this.
That's not nothing, either.
"Well, if they turn up black and withered one day, please know that I still tried," he says with another bone-dry glance. He's hardly El's babysitter, so he's not going to patronize him so far as to follow him around the whole farm, but as the other turns to leave Arche will walk with him to the edge of the garden to watch him go.
"But I will do my best."