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[figlia_morbida]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, TRISH UNA. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 867.53.099.99 *** Zigazigah has joined 867.53.099.99 <Zigazigah> Don't talk to me. <Zigazigah> Thanks.

Main Username: < Zigazigah >

Public Appearance UN: < Western_Horizon >

Anon: < sharpdistance > , < kidcharlemagne > (not actually anon now because of Hinata)

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[figlia_morbida]

[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.

[knifemonopoly]

[Ah.

A person who won't hurt you. Not necessarily a person who guarantees safety.

He sees.]

I see what you mean, now. A person who is safe, who won't hurt you...not a person who can keep you from being hurt. That makes more sense.

[It probably says something about his state of mind, about the state he's been in for weeks--months--a year, now--that it's that kind of safety his mind jumps to, rather than "a person who won't hurt you, who you can shelter with."

He's been in danger no matter who he's with. He could be in danger now.]

Yeah. I know what you mean...when Yugi was brought here, it was a cruel thing. It's better, that he's in the Sea of Souls...

[In the end, Yugi hadn't been someone he could call for help, and he didn't want Atem's.

Sent away.]

Still, I'm sorry...that things happened in a way that made you feel that way, about losing her. That's more than anyone should have to endure.

[He looks out at the ocean that she's opened up, and the coastline beyond it. It's a lovely shore.]

You've called up a beautiful ocean.

"He's been in danger no matter who he's with. He could be in danger now." AUGH

[figlia_morbida]

[What Atem has been through is not something Trish has seen. There's shades of it, certainly, but she can only meet him from her own heart. She assumes he's taking her literally, and she can understand that mindset, but only from an incorrect point of view. Specifically, she imagines the logic to be akin to that of a child's, which makes sense, considering he can only remember his childhood and the weird double-life that he woke up to thousands of years later. And a child, they see certain people as invincible, able to shield them from the scary parts of the world. She gets that because she was in a similar place, once, although she had every nail of that assumption painfully pulled from the latticework of her understanding, leaving deep bores and chipped wood as reminders.

There is no such thing as being protected entirely, and there never was.

It's the sum of what she and Bruno spoke of, and how the only sort of safety that exists is the safety of relief. A safe person is thus a relief from the world. But then, Trish has a support network, one that rushed to her side the moment she woke up here. So it's easy for her to say these things, and assume they'll stick. It's easy for her to assume Atem's support network is even more vast than her own.

Why wouldn't it be?]

It feels awful to say, doesn't it? But it's what I believe, so I'm glad...I'm truly grateful you understand where I'm coming from. We know they weren't weak, but what we have to deal with...

[Trish shakes her head.

She'd shake it more at that assertion too, but curiously, it's one Bruno shared too. Another person that feels that way about her, and she can only wonder if she comes off that weak too. But she's too stubborn not to see this through with them. With him.

The ocean continues to rise up to meet them, and Trish reaches down to let it submerge her finger tips. Farewell, ducks.]

...Thank you.

[Whether that's directed toward his prior comment, or his observation of the beach is unclear.

And she continues, gesturing to the rolling ocean waves, where a large, rocky outcropping breaks the otherwise smooth horizon:]

This is the Bay of San Montano, one of Ischia's most beautiful beaches. There's almost always clear skies here. The sky in your palace reminded me of it, and also made me think...even if you're from a thousand, thousand years ago, you've meshed with us so well. In fact, so many of us would never have met without this tiny, broken world, so if there's anything I'm grateful for in being aware of every inch of our pain here...

It's that if I have to endure something so awful, I'm happy it's with people like you.

[Because...Atem is safe.]