[Temenos knows what fate awaits his parents, having seen their deaths repeated on Lobelia's own body, and blessedly, he's spared from witnessing them a second time. Still, he isn't immune from what he feelsโ rather, all that he no longer feels.
Happiness, sorrow, elation, pain. Conceptually, Lobelia knows what these things mean. His parents, doting as they were, did their utmost to keep Lobelia from knowing anything but happiness, and yet it remained just out of his reach for all of his life.
What does it mean to be happy? What does it feel like? The wave of elation that followed in the wake of his parent's deaths at his own hands was short-lived, overwhelming as it was, and Temenos will feel that same madness course through his veins. What goes up comes down just as quickly, replaced with that same insatiable emptiness.
No matter what Lobelia destroyed, happiness was always fleeting. Lives snuffed out in an instant, entire cities toppled, oceans of blood pooling at his heels. "Happiness" came to him with each and every escalation, but when it abandoned him, it did so viciously. With each moment recounted, that guttering emptiness compounds, carrying a crushing weight all its own.
It was only on this island that Lobelia had begun to accept that he'd never fulfill his parents' wish to seek out happiness at any cost. What remains of this memory begins to fizzle and fade, but not before a pair of sharp red eyes cut straight through Temenos and pierce into his empty heart.
"I know what happiness is. I had it in my hands. Like a jewel. Oh shade of a man, will you scrabble at me for a mere taste of it?"
With that, the memory dissipates, leaving Temenos and Lobelia back where they began.]
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Happiness, sorrow, elation, pain. Conceptually, Lobelia knows what these things mean. His parents, doting as they were, did their utmost to keep Lobelia from knowing anything but happiness, and yet it remained just out of his reach for all of his life.
What does it mean to be happy? What does it feel like? The wave of elation that followed in the wake of his parent's deaths at his own hands was short-lived, overwhelming as it was, and Temenos will feel that same madness course through his veins. What goes up comes down just as quickly, replaced with that same insatiable emptiness.
No matter what Lobelia destroyed, happiness was always fleeting. Lives snuffed out in an instant, entire cities toppled, oceans of blood pooling at his heels. "Happiness" came to him with each and every escalation, but when it abandoned him, it did so viciously. With each moment recounted, that guttering emptiness compounds, carrying a crushing weight all its own.
It was only on this island that Lobelia had begun to accept that he'd never fulfill his parents' wish to seek out happiness at any cost. What remains of this memory begins to fizzle and fade, but not before a pair of sharp red eyes cut straight through Temenos and pierce into his empty heart.
"I know what happiness is. I had it in my hands. Like a jewel. Oh shade of a man, will you scrabble at me for a mere taste of it?"
With that, the memory dissipates, leaving Temenos and Lobelia back where they began.]