Voice (via grasshopper candroid)

[happybirthdaytoyou]

[There's a brief moment of silence before Eugene starts talking. He tells what follows in the same voice that he used to use to tell bedtime stories to his daughter.]

Once upon a time, about eight hundred years ago, in a foreign land in the Black Forest, there was a king named Owes who had a Desire-filled Soul. He wanted to become a god. He bade his alchemist to create life using medals and so they did, making colored medals in sets of ten. But the medals didn't come to life because they were complete in their sets. So the king took from every set of medals the tenth medal and the rest sprang to life, becoming the Greed: beings of living unquenchable desire.

The king then turned his alchemists into silver medals, cell medals, and from his Greed he took more of their colored core medals. The king had a magic belt and he used the belt and the medals he took from the greed to become all-powerful. With it he could fly. He could turn into water and back. He could duplicate himself manifold times. He could make the earth shake by stomping. He could glow brighter than the sun.

The Greed were unhappy at this theft. Together they vowed to take back their medals and the king's magic belt. And so they fought the king until finally they had him at their mercy. Or so they thought, for the Red Greed, the Bird Greed, had been the king's ally all along and he had led them into a trap. But the king himself had played the Red Bird false and so he took more and more of the medals, thirty medals strong, for he was determined to devour them and their power, a king become a god.

It was not to be. The power was too great for the king and he became a stone coffin full of medals, his magic belt the seal. And so it is there in that coffin that the Great King Owes and his Greed slumber eternally, dreaming their dreams of desire.

[Eugene is quiet for another moment.]

After the lighter bugs attacked our kitchen, I remembered that story. I feel like I heard it decades ago when I was a small boy, that the story itself is something very important to me, that it's a true story.

I don't think it's a story my parents ever told me.

I wanted to tell it to all of you before I forgot it.

[Another brief pause.] I'll be leaving for Japan the day after tomorrow. I found out a few days ago that my uncle--my mother's brother--was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He's unmarried and childless. I volunteered to care for him until... until he doesn't need anyone to anymore. I've spent the last few days making preparations so that business doesn't suffer for my absence. You'll still get your birthday cakes. I left instructions for that and I'm sure Shiro will see it happens if nothing else.

I know once we leave Locke City we forget about the Secret Numbers Club. I will miss you all. I hope that you will still all be here when I come back.

[OOC: I'm having to drop, but I'm still going to be replying here and backtagging my old posts. I'd like to come back someday, though, when life is less hectic and I can handle a fast game again.]

Comments

voice;

[hollowleg]

Boss... I'll miss ya. Thanks for letting me be your apprentice. I'll send you letters, alright? Not about the numbers club, because you won't believe me, but about the bakery.

I'll be sure a birthday is never missed!

Voice

[birdinthehand]

...that's a strange story.

[Not stupid. Not dumb. Not senseless. Not crazy. Strange. Takayuki's usual desire to snark at weird network things hasn't reared up. This is... he's not sure what it is.

Probably just getting emotional, hearing such a serious goodbye. Yeah. That's it.]

We'll try not to wreck the place in your absence, yeah?

[There. Humor. That ought to cover things up nicely.]

[audio]

[skickpowered]

[That's quite a story you have there, Eugene. However...]

Heeeh, I'll miss your cakes too.

[Ah well, it happens. People come and go as they say. There's nothing he can do about it. For now, he can only send his farewells.]

Ne, do take care on your trip! Maybe I'll send an e-mail or two to you while you're there.

text; japanese

[controlsdesire]

[Considering what he knows about himself so far, Shuji isn't quite sure he's not this king full of betrayal. The story sounds far too close to things he can remember experiencing and items he's started to acquire. But, more than anything...]

I believe your story. Is that all you remember?

[His mode of communication is fairly predictable, Eugene. You might be able to figure out it's him already.]

[Video]

[destinedforrock]

[Cinderella begins tuning in because the voice catches her attention. The story told barely leaves an impression in her mind - she's doing the listening equivalent of skimming, enough to expect she'll know it if she hears something really abnormal. It registers to her as no different than a bedtime story, however much she ought to know better by now.

The interesting part comes after the story, then.

And her jaw starts to hang open. She isn't disease-minded, but she gets the point - poignantly.]

Oh...

Oh, my.

[The pony who speaks is at a loss for words. All this sort of thing happens, anyone has to know, but the announced departure of someone who she has nothing but fond feelings and associations toward, spookily solemn, and for a reason like this is jarring.

She stays blinking tongue-tied another second.] I-I don't know what to say, but do take care, of course!

[Video]

[talktothedoll]

[Mort knows all about the reason Eugene is leaving. He can't argue, and they'd discussed things at length, but there is no changing the fact that he will miss his brother greatly.

He didn't know about the story. It's entirely possible that if Eugene had tried to tell him, he was distracted by his own remembrance from that evening when the bugs had set fire to everything...he tried not to think about it.]

...I don't remember Mother or Father ever telling that one...

[ text ]

[mezool]

[ as azure listens to the story, she feels a little - well, off. huh. ]

That's a strange story. I'm sorry to hear about your uncle. I think you're doing a good thing.