hexephre#Vierapril Day 30: Future
"Don’t let the threat of death slow you down. Let it push you forward. Live your life to the fullest – it’s yours, after all. Not mine, not Hydaelyn’s. Yours and yours alone.”
#Vierapril Day 29: Surrender
I woke up from the same dream
Falling backwards, falling backwards
Til it turned me inside out
Until one day I had enough of this exercise of trust
I leaned in and let it hurt, let my body feel the dirt
#Vierapril Day 28: job
“My soul is bound to the Keres. They lend me their strength. In return, they have a claim on my aether when I die."
“And you’re… alright with that?”
“Not really. But I did what I had to do.”
[it'd be way too much work to get the keres' canon appearances in game so we make do with some crows]
#Vierapril Day 27: Fix
Tell me, is something wrong?
If something's wrong, you can count on me
You know I'll take my heart clean apart if it helps yours beat
I just wanna build you up, build you up
Til you're good as new
And maybe one day I'll get around to fixing myself too
#Vierapril Day 25: Trail
The next voice to come to them is almost startling in its familiarity.
"Listen to my voice."
It is both theirs and not theirs.
"Listen to our heartbeat."
Tears spill down Xephre’s cheeks. But still they walk.
"I forgive you. I forgive you."
They walk.
"I’ll love you more than you’ll ever know."
And they walk.
#Vierapril Day 24: Hold
Xephre falls apart in his arms and lets out every fear and frustration that’s tugged on their heart like countless fish hooks begging them to drown, drown, drown. One by one, Ardbert gently removes the hooks from their heart, and slowly they remember what it feels like to rest. To float.
#Vierapril Day 23: Euphoria
It feels like a dance sometimes, somewhere between dream and performance. A conversation. Xephre is precisely attuned to his movements, reading his attacks and slipping through his defences as though the dance was choreographed. The sting of the blade and the ache of their muscles are the backing chorus to the performance, the blood and void an ever-evolving costume.
#Vierapril Day 22: Forsake
“Hundreds… hundreds of timelines… H-hundreds of versions of y-you, of everyone, and I – I left them behind – I've s-sacrificed my friends, I've killed m-myself in front of them, I've been petty and c-cruel and *evil*—”
#Vierapril Day 21: Beacon
Did you see the flares in the sky?
Were you blinded by the light?
Did you feel the smoke in your eyes, did you? Did you?
Did you see the sparks, feel the hope?
You are not alone
'Cause someone's out there
Sending out flares
#Vierapril Day 20: Free Day
All Xephre can hear is the distant, sourceless ticking that permeates Amaurot, always just arrhythmic enough to feel wrong, a broken chronometer that still believes it's working.
[in a perfect world they would be glowing from the inside but i couldn't wrangle the right mods to make it happen]