Hymn felt heavy, something was wrong. He'd flickered in and out of Abaven's lands for the last few days but as his paws "carried" him over the familiar territory now he felt like something was choking him. He was more tangible now, he could actually feel things now though he found moving too fast made him feel very very bad indeed like his head was suddenly filled with thousands of buzzing flies and like he was sinking into the ground. So he moved calmly even as a feeling of dread started to fill the man up. He was drawn one place and one place only, his sick son's den. The sight he saw first made him frown, Noko was standing at attention outside of Octave's den and the man picked up his pace just as much as his current state would allow. "Noko?" He asked and the lemur looked back at him, and he realized she hadn't been at attention. Rather she'd been forcing herself to stay upright while tears flowed down her face, hiding her anguish, from Octave or everyone else he could not say.

"You said you weren't an angel of death." She tried to make it sound light and playful but there was a genuine bitterness and fear in her tone and Hymn felt his heart break. "He's not doing well, I don't think he's got long left." Hymn approached her and gently scooped up the lemur, ignoring her shocked squeak as his paws actually connected with him and then she collapsed into his forelimb, unable to stay any stronger. Then Hymn entered his son's den.

—  hymn

I gotta whisper
'cause I can't be too loud

Octave could feel his own mortality creeping in, it hovered at the peripheral of his vision, a dark mass that buzzed and shifted but refused to allow itself to be fully visible, when he turned his head it shifted with him so it stayed just creeping at the back of his mind and his sight. He felt stiff and even his strained breathing felt like it was coming from underwater. He wasn't coughing anymore though, no he was well beyond that. Though his lungs strained for oxygen he was well past the point of having enough strength to squeeze his diaphragm into a single cough. So instead he breathed his rattling, wheezing breathes and laid otherwise rather still. He knew Noko was somewhere out there, having popped out to try and get something to soothe him, though his illness was resistant to everything and the man had started to slip into light sleep when a familiar scent got his attention and slowly he opened violets to see his father enter his den, Noko clutched to his chest. Though the lemur quickly approached his side, snuggling into his stomach silently, and then a warm figure curled around behind him and Octave knew his father was cradling him, just as tangible as Noko was. The world it seemed could get stranger.

"I never got to say goodbye to Kite." Octave croaked. It was his worst fear, to abandon the man the way his brother had left behind his whole family.

Octave & Noko

Octave looked worse than even Hymn had on his death bed as an old man. He smiled softly and let Noko leap from his arms to the ground to snuggle into Octave's stomach. Hymn gently moved to curl around the frail frame of his son. Octave who'd already faced so much, who'd struggled with his anxiety and who'd managed to find himself a small network all his own despite it all. Octave who looked so much like Hymn's own bastard father, Octave who proved that no matter what blood ran through your veins evil was a choice and not predetermined. His poor, sweet son. Hymn had already ushered one son home, one estranged daughter... He didn't want to have to bring another home with him yet. It broke his heart to know he had no choice. Hymn could feel it. Though to him it felt like the warmth of the sun on his pelt, it carried the scent of the place he spent the rest of his time, among his wife and children. With his mothers and Psalm. It was creeping up on the pair of them and he felt Octave shiver, and he knew it felt cold to those still alive, he remembered that well from his own passing.

Octave spoke and Hymn gently licked the top of his son's head. A soft, wavering hum pulling from his lungs, a lullaby from when they'd just been tiny bundles at Oria's stomach and he'd fallen in love with them. Had promised himself he'd never let himself become a stranger in his children's lives again.

—  hymn

I gotta whisper
'cause I can't be too loud

His father's voice reached him through what felt like a fog, creaking and sounding as he remembered him as an old man and yet the gentle tune carried him to images of his childhood, of playing with Allegro and Novel, of days spent with his mother. It summoned images of the melancholic way his father would sometimes gaze off into the distance too, of the night he told his children in soft tones of their older sister. Where she was he had no way of knowing... The tune eventually drifted to an end and Octave felt the chill creeping in closer.

"I can't remember when I last told him I loved him." He said, Octave's mind returning to Kite nearly instantly. "Do you think he knows?" He knew his father could not know but he couldn't keep his fears inside anymore, he wanted no more regrets than he was already going to have.

Octave & Noko

It crept in closer, beckoning father and son to accept the warm embrace of the world beyond their lives. But for all he knew it to be peaceful and filled with love the aches of the world he'd left behind didn't leave, they only dulled and in some of them the time to took for it to go from a heart-rending ache to a familiar friend was long and the last thing he wanted was for Octave to carry the guilt of his own death with him into what came next. So Hymn held him close and nodded. "He knows." Hymn said gently. "I am certain he knows." He squeezed his son closer to him, felt the weight of Octave's ribs, the way his body had withered in such a short time.

"And if not, then we will tell him... Together." There was conviction there even if Hymn was not certain of what he could actually promise. "I don't know how wide spread everything is right now but we'll go, as far as it'll let us. And we'll find Kite, and we'll tell him goodbye together, and you can tell him just how much you love him." His voice shook then, he wanted it to be true, wanted it to be something they could do.

—  hymn

I gotta whisper
'cause I can't be too loud

It was coming faster now, it was in him now. The chill was creeping up his legs, which he could not move now even if he wanted. The thought was a nice one, a good one. He imagined getting to introduce Kite to his father, of being able to hold the little man in his arms one last time with the knowledge he had to savor ever moment of it. "That sounds nice." He rasped, his body barely able to  form the sounds. He slid eyes closed, an image of him and Kite and his father talking playing before his mind's eye. And then of holding the man, of kissing him, of telling him over and over and over again he loved him.

Octave's last thoughts were of Kite. Octave's last thoughts were of love.

-Exit Octave via death-

Octave & Noko

Octave

Rest in Pieces.



You gain:

• Creepy Contact Lenses (player-bound)- The fireflies help you to equip this item that once applied cannot be removed or traded. Can look however you like. May not change color, rotate, or otherwise alter once in the eye.
  
• Permanent Somnium Pass (player-bound)- One time use. Allows a Somnium character to return to site permanently. Restricted to only threads where you have permission to enter, no trespassing, pass will be revoked if abused. Post in Maintenance when ready to use this pass.
  

Hymn

You shake yourself, feeling your pelt's weight around you for the first time in a long time.