[It stings, but he's right. In many ways, he's right. She can't help but notice she's being taken perhaps too literally, however. Still, she waits for Atem to finish speaking, watching him the whole time. Just...to see him and remember him, like this. If they'd met under better circumstances, and he wasn't this creature or that, or a vampire that shriveled in the threshold of the hill house living room.
This is him as he should be, but this is also a person who existed so long ago none of the people who know him now even existed. It's weird to think about. But less important than seeing him hale and whole. That matters more than anything else.
She waits, and her eyes flick briefly to the stone around them again, picturing the rooms hidden within. When her gaze falls back to Atem, she sees that bid for openness, and chews her lip. There's a lot on her mind, so she decides to start with this:]
I think you misunderstood me. When I say someone is safe, they're not...they can't be infallible. They can't protect you from everything, whether it's in a place like this or a world with normal problems. But they're somewhere you can return to, right? At least for awhile. That's what I mean by safe.
But it's like you said. For as long as they can be with us, they're home, until conflict, time, or something else takes them away.
[She gestures with a hand. The room responds, melding Atem's simulation with a surprisingly easy shift into another land. The sky is still clear, but the palace is now open, and the water they've settled before turns to frothy ocean waves lapping at their feet.
It's a seamless blend of Egypt and the Italian shores of Lacco Ameno.]
My mother certainly couldn't have done a single thing to protect me. Not even from everything that happened shortly before I came here. She was a normal woman in every sense of the word.
That didn't make her any less important to me. Why would it? I wasn't anyone special, and neither was she, but we meant the world to one another. Because...we were the only family we had, and that was enough for both of us. We moved a lot, too.
[She smiles at that, a small thing.]
Maybe not to palaces like your family, but wherever rent was cheapest. She passed away a few months before I met Giorno and the others. And you know what? I'm...grateful. I can't imagine her enduring what I have, and if we did survive all that together, what would she have done when she woke up and I was gone, spirited away to some world she could never know or reach? I know it would have broken her.
[There's a pause. Almost like she's struck by something, but she brushes past it.]
So...I get it. There's no such thing as being invulnerable except to not be aware at all. [In so many words: dead.] But you can be safe sometimes, enough to recover and keep going. We're adaptable, right? For better or worse.
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This is him as he should be, but this is also a person who existed so long ago none of the people who know him now even existed. It's weird to think about. But less important than seeing him hale and whole. That matters more than anything else.
She waits, and her eyes flick briefly to the stone around them again, picturing the rooms hidden within. When her gaze falls back to Atem, she sees that bid for openness, and chews her lip. There's a lot on her mind, so she decides to start with this:]
I think you misunderstood me. When I say someone is safe, they're not...they can't be infallible. They can't protect you from everything, whether it's in a place like this or a world with normal problems. But they're somewhere you can return to, right? At least for awhile. That's what I mean by safe.
But it's like you said. For as long as they can be with us, they're home, until conflict, time, or something else takes them away.
[She gestures with a hand. The room responds, melding Atem's simulation with a surprisingly easy shift into another land. The sky is still clear, but the palace is now open, and the water they've settled before turns to frothy ocean waves lapping at their feet.
It's a seamless blend of Egypt and the Italian shores of Lacco Ameno.]
My mother certainly couldn't have done a single thing to protect me. Not even from everything that happened shortly before I came here. She was a normal woman in every sense of the word.
That didn't make her any less important to me. Why would it? I wasn't anyone special, and neither was she, but we meant the world to one another. Because...we were the only family we had, and that was enough for both of us. We moved a lot, too.
[She smiles at that, a small thing.]
Maybe not to palaces like your family, but wherever rent was cheapest. She passed away a few months before I met Giorno and the others. And you know what? I'm...grateful. I can't imagine her enduring what I have, and if we did survive all that together, what would she have done when she woke up and I was gone, spirited away to some world she could never know or reach? I know it would have broken her.
[There's a pause. Almost like she's struck by something, but she brushes past it.]
So...I get it. There's no such thing as being invulnerable except to not be aware at all. [In so many words: dead.] But you can be safe sometimes, enough to recover and keep going. We're adaptable, right? For better or worse.