inbox

[sealeted]

portal.


✪ ✉ ✆

"You've reached Hakuno Kishinami. I'm a bit new to using things like this, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

Comments

[babbylon]

It seems to me you're a bit busy for that sort of pedestrian lifestyle.

[Understatement of the century, really.]

It would've been a grand adventure, if I had truly been yours. If our times aligned. Fragments of another reality aren't quite the same.

[sealeted]

Well, Velber is dealt with, and... we're fighting demons here, and I found the time to open up a shockingly popular shop. Once things are taken care of and I go home, I'll have a lot of spare time. Altera is a child again, so maybe I could find some other children among the NPCs and refugees for her to play with.

[It would be nice. She liked the fake memories of school from the Preliminaries, after all.]

Well, in another timeline I'm sure that Hakuno Kishinami is having a grand adventure across the cosmos.

[babbylon]

[A rare bit of childlike wonder enters Gilgamesh's eyes—more specifically, the spark of a lone experience he has yet to have.]

I've never been to space. Maybe we could...

[...go together.]

[sealeted]

I remember a little, in that portal world. Before...

[He killed himself so she wouldn't die alone.]

Well, I imagine that ship is probably in your treasury, right? So, you definitely have the capacity to try it out, if the fancy takes you. Maybe as a celebration for when you kick this curse, or something.

[babbylon]

I don't have any idea what that might look like, as of right now.

[Kicking a curse. Repentance. Making apologies when he's never made one in his entire existence.]

I only have the pieces of a dream. An inkling, at best, of a puzzle I don't know the shape of. Celebrations are a faraway fantasy.

[sealeted]

Well, struggle towards it all the same. It's not like there's anything else to do.

[Except, you know, accepting the state of things.]

[babbylon]

I am King. I do not struggle.

[Definitively:]

I prevail.

[sealeted]

Everything that lives, struggles, Gilgamesh.

[She shakes her head again, but leaves it at that.]

What happened next?

[babbylon]

[He's always hated how cunningly forthright she can be.

With a moment of hesitation, Gilgamesh guides the book shut.]

I shall tell you more another time. It is best savored in pieces, rather than all at once.

[That or he's just fabricating an excuse to come see her again. Not that he'd ever resort to such an underhanded tactic.]

Keep this safe for me. It is one of my most precious possessions.

[sealeted]

[Life is complicated and then you try not to die. If she knows anything, she knows that.]

I suppose so.

[All her Servants are sparing, when it comes to anecdotes about their mortal lives.]

...are you sure you don't want to tuck it back in the gate?

[babbylon]

My Gate becomes increasingly difficult to access by the day. And I know that...

[...in spite of everything...]

...you will treat it with the respect it deserves. It is best with you.

[sealeted]

I'll certainly do my best to take care of it.

[She knows old books should stay out of direct sunlight, so maybe a locked drawer would work...]

[babbylon]

It is always good to spend time with you, Hakuno.

[Gilgamesh rises to leave, stretching his wings with effortless deftness compared to his earlier fumbling.]

Take care of yourself, as well.

[sealeted]

I always do.

[That may be the biggest lie she has ever told him to date.]
Have a safe trip back.