Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aska settled on the end of the bed, opposite Whisteria. He kept his hands curled in his lap, and his eyes on Aoi. "I'm not sure how helpful I'll be in that," he admitted, "I've only known her for three weeks."

For a time, nothing seemed to be happening, but that wasn't strange inherently; the only injury Aoi had sustained was a mild concussion from hitting her head on the floor, to hear Nicodeme and Erasme tell it, but that was still an injury. That would take Whisteria's attention first, and then the exhaustion of the gem. Aska sat patiently, but even he couldn't stay silent for the length of time apparently required. "I'm sorry I left like I did," he said. "I hadn't planned to be gone as long as I was." The fact that he'd been successful seemed to pale next to the reality of his delinquency. He could come home now, could be the kind of husband Whisteria deserved, could know his daughter without fear of being stolen from her... but he didn't know that Whisteria would want him to.

A muscle in Aoi's cheek twitched, and he sat up a little straighter. The small, callused hands clenched tight in her covers and she tried to shy away from the hands touching her, but she hadn't awoken. Yet, Whisteria would hear: Oh. It's... you. Althai stirred, and said, I didn't expect her to resist me so much, a little shame filtering into his tone. She reeeeeally doesn't like me. Am I that much of a jerk?

She has a ******** spell on her that I'm not strong enough to break, Althai protested. She would've been fine if she'd just let someone break it like I told her to, like, a week ago!

"You've been out for a week," said Aska, deciding not to question how he could still hear the god in the jewel; for the moment, it was convenient. "Is Lady Aoi alright?"

Oh, shut up, bitched Althai, but he fell silent for a long minute, and Whisteria could probably feel him poking around his host. Aoi's expression changed, from the open sweetness of sleep to something darker, but Whisteria's hands were calming, and her features smoothed out, returning to a placid rest. The change of status was obvious, even to Aska, who lacked any sort of healing training. "She's sleeping now," he said. "Not comatose anymore. Right?"

Althai grumbled unintelligibly for a moment, before he said, I told her to break that stupid spell, but she was all, nooo, if it slows you down I'm gonna leeeaaaave it. Why does this always happen to me?

"Because you're an a*****e," Aska said. "Whisteria, is she alright?"

"We'll let them sleep," said Aska, and there was a grumbling current of compliance from Althai. "Are you hungry?" The servants' kitchen would be preparing for dinner at this hour, but there was always journeybread, and he'd become quite friendly with a few of the other tributes while he'd been serving here. He felt fairly sure that he could scrounge up something decent to eat.

He poked his head out of the bedroom; Janine had gone, but there was a covered tray, steam just twisting out from under the silver lid. "I'm a first-year tribute," he said, pointing to the collar, "so I'm actually not allowed to leave my patron's quarters except when explicitly ordered to by her." It was a relief to avoid having to sneak out and go down to the kitchens, he supposed. "It's risky, otherwise. Especially so close to the tributary."

Aska remained standing, watching his wife a little uncertainly. "I wouldn't blame you, had you... moved on," he said. "I was terrible about communicating... many things happened, but that's no excuse."

He shook his head. "You haven't met Nicodeme or Erasme yet, but they have wings and feathered ears. You're fine, I'm sure." The purple skin might be odd, but he'd met the previous Emperor's wife; Europans didn't match up to standard humans, coloration-wise. He thought there might be some organelle differences, too. Something about symbiotic bacteria in their home planet's atmosphere? It wasn't really any of his business, though.

"I'm very good at being a servant," he said, taking her hand. "I like to make things easy for other people. And Aoi is easy to take care of, really. I like the work..."

Aska sighed, and settled on the couch, taking Whisteria with him as he did. "That won't happen now," he said. It would be Aoi fighting for her self in the face of a god, not him, and he was selfishly glad for it. "And if you still want me, I'm yours. It doesn't matter to me who else you love, as long as you're happy."

He paused, then, before he asked, "And... how is Lily?"

"High Priestess," he said, running his fingers through her hair, gently tugging through any knots he found--there weren't many. "That's new. Tell me about it?" He could sort of extrapolate what she meant, and he remembered Xun well enough. The Dragon King had seemed kind, and there were few from the past couple of years that he remembered that way.

He smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Sounds like an exciting life." He didn't expect Lily remembered him at all; he'd been there to see her born, and then... well, he'd left. Without much warning or notice to anyone. "Aoi has promised me safe passage anywhere I like, once she succeeds in overthrowing this current Empress. I could come home, if you'd welcome me there." Not that he imagined he'd want to entirely abandon the woman who was now Althai's host; but he could live with his wife and child and still look after her. He loved Whisteria, and he wanted to be with her. That was the long and short of it, and he was pretty sure Aoi would understand.

Aska heard someone shifting around in the bedroom beyond, and he said, "Did we have a timeline on when she ought to be waking?"

Aska didn't know what Ulduar was, or where, or even if it was a person: but he did know that there was a lot Whisteria wasn't telling him. Those were questions to ask later, though, once Aoi woke up and everything had calmed down. Maybe after he got permission to leave, they could spend a day doing nothing but catching up. He was sure Aoi would grant him that. "So I'll still be predeceasing you," he sighed, "some things never change." Aska, after all, was only human.

Though he did have those disturbing new powers popping up...

He didn't get to broach that topic with his wife, because Aoi surfaced from the bedroom. "You," she said, gesturing at Aska with one hand while the other clung white-knuckled to the doorway, "didn't tell me it--" and she pointed at the rock "--could hijack my body and make me do dumbass s**t."

"To be fair," said Aska, "You do plenty of dumbass s**t on your own, so I wasn't sure anyone would be able to tell."

For a moment, he was concerned he'd pushed a little too far, from the way Aoi's face screwed up. Then she put a hand to her temple and rubbed at it, a gesture he knew all too well. "You should probably sit down and eat something," he said. "You've been out for a week."

He did not expect her to sputter with outrage and book it out the door with surprising agility. "Maybe Althai just likes her better than he liked me," he said, shrugging.

"I'm not sure Althai was capable of liking anyone at all," said Aska. "And when he did like them, he pretended he didn't." He'd loved Embless though. Just as much as Aska, which had been weird. But Embless was dead now, and that about killed all the appeal of ever going home again for Aska. He'd only gone back in the first place to make sure she was alright for himself, before the god subsumed him.

Which, thankfully... hadn't happened. "If she passes out and falls down the stairs, d'you think I'll be in trouble," he said, doubtfully. No, they'd probably blame Nicodeme.

He sighed. "I want to hear more about what you've been doing," he said, "and I'd like to let you in on what's going on here, but I'm fairly sure this isn't the right place. Now that Aoi's awake, we can probably go down to the undercroft and talk in more private?"