[Text]

[callmegladio]

hes gone

looked all over the city and hes gone.

tony is gone. ignis is gone.

im done.


[Sent from the arena... where he's fighting anything he can get his gubby hands on. Gladio deals with his grief in the healthiest of ways. Punching things and getting roughed up.]

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[callmegladio]

Yeah. That's where it hurts.

[Any other hurt, bruise, cut or broken bone couldn't compare to the ache in his chest. And yes, it would take time to heal. It never truly went away. Losing the others, the pain of that had never fully gone away, but it had been easier with Tony at his side.

And now he was gone.

And he was alone again.]

Yeah. Me too. Guess Verstael was right... This place, for all it's need of coupling and affection, really likes taking people away when they get too close.

[iustaegis]

[ She remains quiet for a moment, mulling over his words. Verstael: another name, another of the same world of Gladio's, has left.

Pyra's hand drifts from her chest, and she places her palm on the cushion between them, an offering of her hand. She knows that the world 'takes' people away, whether or not one becomes close to another, for there are a great many who appear, make little bonds, then vanish outright. The ones one becomes close to just hurt much more viscerally, when they vanish, because of those closer bonds. She knows that pain of loss.... But she also knows that pain is worth it.

For Gladio, though... She knows that he had come from another world before this one, losing those he loved in the process. Now he's lost another. And Tony, well-- he'd be gone from his own world, too. ]

You and him... Your time was precious together, here. I imagine you were closer than any of us thought. [ Glimpses of them here and there, at their bar, or at their birthday parties, or the way they interacted-- it seemed so sweet, as if they had known each other for far longer decades. ]

[callmegladio]

[Close enough he'd had plans on asking Tony to marry him... Again, a mistake of his, he should have known better. It had happened the same way on the train. Before he could utter the words he was torn from them.

Maybe that was his fate? He should devote himself to being a Shield, not someone else. Finding a partner for life was not meant for people like him.

Gladio gave a low, hollow laugh and shook his head.]

Precious... yeah. Yeah it was. He won't soon be forgotten... But I'll never see him again.

[And if he did, the chances of him being remembered, of being the same Tony, were astronomically slim.]

[iustaegis]

[ “Won’t be forgotten…”

What beautiful words, ones that are very true. ]

He… has a legacy here, you know. [ She begins quietly, thoughtful, and keeping her voice even. Somehow, this feels more as if they’re at a wake than not. ] The bar, the contributions at the arena, everything he built… [ A small, weak smile.

They might all disappear from this world one day, and what he gave to it will still remain. She never got to tell him that, she realizes, even though she had wanted to. ] And the impact he had on all of our hearts. Especially yours.

I see him in you. It’s like—…. [ She draws a breath, shakily. And if she can, she’ll reach for his hand, wanting some sort of connection rather than the crude distance between them on the couch. It feels too far, for all that they’ve interacted before. ] He’s still here, because of you.