hugtopia_logs | Take these stars from my crown

Entry tags:

Take these stars from my crown

♥ Who: Lucis Family + SOs
♥ Where: The food testing area
♥ When: Late Nov/Malom
♥ What: The Eosians getting together for a family gathering.
♥ Rating: Probably just PG?

Cor made a point of getting to the tower early so he could make some preparations, setting the table for the full family. Even Will is coming and that is so strange. Cor has never once in his life had a +1 for any kind of event. Yet here he is setting a table for nine instead of eight.

The prep work had taken weeks of going over the correct textures and tastes with the research team, something Ignis had taken on the bulk of the work for while the others worked on the wall. Still he was confident that they were close enough to get a solid match on many foods, leaving some of their bet recipes only very slightly off from the originals. Cor had taken over rolling a large selection of sushi as well as a light starter soup. Some of the more robust recipes had been Ignis' purview but, if nothing else, Cor is an efficient prep cook.

All in all there's a pretty spectacular spread when everyone arrives, something for everyone and a familiar Altissian berry cake for dessert.

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The question is a request for entry if he’s ever heard one. Somnus steps aside. He has little reason to turn away a visitor—doubly so when that visitor is Regis.

“I‌ was merely preparing for sleep.” Something he hasn’t done in millennia, yet he’s been finding himself wearier than before. “Come.”

The house interior is scarcely furnished but for the installments provided by the city. Its current residents are no homebodies, nor are they of a mind for indulging in decorations. Nevertheless, the living room has been outfitted to accommodate multiple people from the outset, and Somnus sits down on one end of the sofa after leading Regis inside. (There’s nowhere else to sit, however, suggesting that physical proximity doesn’t bother him in the slightest.)

Regis gives an acknowledging nod before following Somnus into the house. It makes him sad to see how bare it is. Even Ardyn has picked up a few odds and ends though it took him a little time to do so. Perhaps a little time will make Somnus more willing to personalize the house as well?

"If that is the case, perhaps I should leave this in your refrigerator before I sit?" He holds up the plate. If Somnus is getting ready for bed, food is the last thing he will likely have an interest in. "Ignis and Cor put a great deal of time into getting these dishes to taste as close to those from home as they could. No doubt some will be unfamiliar to you, but hopefully at least a few will carry the familiarity of home."

Somnus gestures to the table and the vacancy on the sofa in one fluid motion. He’ll take care of the food, whether he consumes it now or later. Regis, meanwhile, is welcome to sit.

“What brings you here?”

It isn’t just the food, pure as the intention behind it is.

It takes only a moment to leave the plate on the table and then to join Somnus on the couch. Regis doesn't seem bothered by having to share it, settling back and crossing one leg casually over the other, before resting his hands in his lap and answering Somnus' question.

"It was decided that tonight would be a night to celebrate our family be they of blood or heart. I didn't want anyone to be left out of that."

Be it by their choice or another's.

A decision that speaks for a fair heart, whereas he excluded his brother from their pedigree. Somnus leans forward to rest his arms on his knees.

“It was my choice to not attend.”

Regis nods, not surprised by the answer. While he did not know which it was until this moment, he couldn't imagine Ardyn telling Somnus not to come. The redhead would have just chosen not to come himself. It made more sense that Somnus had made the decision himself to avoid potential conflict.

"A wise decision and one I thank you for. Perhaps if we are given enough time, there will come a day where such a decision will no longer be necessary. In order for that day to come, though, we cannot allow the bond between us as family to be severed. If no others feel comfortable doing so, I will see to that bond."

It was the only decision. Regis has always been this way: aware of what’s necessary, yet committed to the needs of the heart when he can be. He treasures both his people and his family, which so happens to include Somnus, who studies the plate of food on the coffee table.

“The bond between family does not wane with time apart.” Two millennia of resentment and remorse later, he still hangs onto that single word:‌ Brother. And here beside him sits a beloved grandchild, even if they had never spoken face-to-face in the flesh until now. “Do not trouble yourself.”

Regis tilts his head, chuckling softly at that, "You still have a lot to learn about me if you think it is that easy to get me not to trouble myself over you. Were it, my father would have been a lot more successful breaking me of the habit."

Not wishing to focus on speaking ill of any of the line, though, Regis doesn't linger on that.

"You may feel that way, but not all do. It is true our family shares a different bond than most, one more difficult to break, but it can weaken. Grow thin and distant," he doesn't say it out loud, but there is a mild scold there, or perhaps more accurately, a warning.

And there is also a request. A request not to push him away.

Even if the bond were to thin, their sense of duty will still unify them. Regis, of course, won't accept that for an answer. Somnus is not deaf to the request that underlines the warning, and to it he closes his eyes.

"Do as you will, then."

Regis raises an eyebrow to that, not that Somnus will see it, then smoothly...well, he smoothly is Regis.

"Excellent. Well, in that case we should probably start with getting someone in here to brighten this place up. It's just a box, dear grandfather. We can't have you living in such dullness."

Somnus. What. Have. You. Done?

Down, Reggie.

Somnus' eyes open. This isn't the first time he's been told to decorate.

"I share this space with another. Neither of us requires decor."

He's already sitting down. What more do you want?

"That's not the point. No one requires decor, but it does help make a place feel more like home. Or, in this case, a home away from home. It doesn't have to be much, just a little something that reflects who you are. Do you have any hobbies?"

Please tell him you have at least one hobby.

A home away from home. He has one home, and that's the only one he needs.

Something he does for himself on his own time—here in Havenwell, there's this: "I sleep." Lack of rest won't help anyone, much less the gods.

Regis sighs, pressing two fingers to his temple for a moment before shaking his head, "Well, if there was any doubt where that particular family trait came from, there should be none now. What about decorating your room so that it looks like what you had when you lived or setting it up to reflect a trend you liked in the years that came after? You have been given a chance that most of the line has not been given. You are able to exist outside of the Ring again for a while. Yes, it is not by choice, but since we don't know how long it will be until we can return home, should you not make the best of it?"

Somnus watches Regis. If he minds the comment about his old habit, he doesn't show it.

"I was given this chance to heal the dying world. That time is better spent on contact."

"Mere contact does seem to work for many things here, but if you've not realized, contact with meaning does even more. Achieving that will be easier in a place that the other person feels is welcoming," Regis looks around the house again. "This place does not give off that feeling, I'm afraid."

Regis is under the impression that people visit. To Somnus' knowledge, he's the first guest to have stepped past the front door. He isn't wrong, however; this place wasn't occupied with the intention of making it welcoming.

"I leave at dawn and return at night. Contact with others occurs out in the city."

"You're out all day?" Regis considers himself a fairly social person, but even he finds the idea of that tiring. Perhaps that is why Somnus sleeps so much.

"What do you do? Just hold hands and walk? Don't you ever feel like coming back here with a few others to have a talk over lunch?"

All things considered, he hasn't been sleeping well. It's been far too long since he even needed sleep. But there are days when he rests well enough to make up for the days he didn't.

Speaking of, he leans forward and takes the dinner plate onto his lap. Who would lunch with him?

"I train at daybreak. Crossing the city takes time, and there is much to see."

More than Somnus probably imagines. Regis would, at least, though he doesn't feel as if it is right to ask when they are still getting to know each other.

"What will you do once you have come to know the city inside and out?"

The city is far from static. The people in it are ever changing, and there's almost always something happening. But if he should reach the point where those people and things start to take a monotonous turn, he can go elsewhere. A single city doesn't make the world.

"I will look beyond its wall."

That answer draws Regis up short, a frown suddenly drawing deep lines into his face. Had Somnus not seen what lay outside the wall while it was being repaired?

"Beyond its wall is not fit for any living being and is not likely to be so for quite some time."

How fortunate that he's dead, then. Anyway, it'll be some time before he steps out of city bounds. Somnus isn't too concerned about that.

"I do not intend to leave now. But I would know what else lies out there."

And who, perhaps.

Regis is very tempted to remind Somnus that spiders live out that. Spiders and something with a very large hand, but he bites his tongue.

"We all would like to know that, but first we must make sure this place is stable. It won't do us any good to make a discovery out there, only to have this place falling apart in the meantime."

But, he is obviously singing to the choir on this one. Somnus is doing more than his share of hand holding to help with that.

With a sigh, he relents, "Someday, I will just buy you a gaming table of some kind. Chess. Maybe checkers. Did either of those exist back in your day?"

Of course, the city has to be fortified first. Repairing the wall was but a single process. There's more work to be done yet, and he has every intention of doing his part before throwing himself outside.

While Regis speaks, Somnus takes a bite of the leftovers and swallows in time to answer, "Chess was widespread among the people. I have no need of it here."

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