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Petichar stung Wemmbu's nose, it had been a while since he stopped for a moment, really stopped.
He took notice to the bittersweet scent of finished rain. The way the water warped and rippled in distorted halos as he stood by its bank.
He hasn't had many opportunities to appreciate the world around him as it is, mainly being underground and when he wasn't, fighting a battle for arachnid. He hadn't time nor energy to truly pause, to appreciate this server, the builds that were ever so beautiful. All he saw were the ruins of them he left behind.
The grass swayed cold air against wemmbu, the dampness of its blades doing nothing to help.
He's alone. Not metaphorically, physically. He has egg, though it's hard to think about the angel's monotone voice contradicting him playfully when he knows he won't hear it for a long while. Not until he can find a way to get egg out of there.
So, for now, writing to him has to suffice. Wemmbu never really was much of a writer.
Not like how egg was.
Wemmbu missed that.
The way egg chimed in when he had finished another book, or thought a line was worth mentioning, or when he boasted about how many books he's written on the server's lore, or when he instantly gravitated to books in any scenario, throwing his hands up in mock offence whenever wemmbu told him not to.
The small things. The familiar things.
The indications of home.
Wemmbu should probably tell egg how his week has been.
Begrudgingly, he opened a book, put a pen against the page and sighed.
How do you start these things...
'dear egg'? Way too formal.
'Yo egg'? way too informal..
'Hi egg'? awkward!
"Hey egg, I'm sorry you're still not outta there.
I'll find a way it's just"
His pen hovered, he shouldnt make excuses for his own incompetence. Egg will never be safe with him, so its his responsibility to free him everytime he's captured.
"I'll find a way it's just
Since you're not really
Around
I'll update you on the lore bro don't even worry about it.
So basically, I got like fully scraped of my gear and Jaden too, they fucked up our shit bro.
Anyways, it's okay cuz after a couple missions, I got promoted to RIGHT HAND MAN. I could use the civ's xp farm whenever I wanted, all those chests of gear? Dude it was insane I might be coming out of my poverty arc.
so there's some war, I think, yeah civil war
Between parrot and cindercrest and arachnid joined
So that's like, parrot Vs me and flame bro. And cindercrest has like hella army bro parrot didn't stand a chance.
So in the battle right, parrot was actually winning, he was winning against cindercrest and then halfway through guess who pulls up.
ME!
and when parrot's panicking because BA BA BA BOOOM orbitals are destroying his city and soldiers and we end up winning.
I'm just too auraful
That's why I won't let anyone call me a-"
(✿◠ᴗ◠)
'lost cause'
The sign read.
A person or thing with no hope to succeed.
But that was strange, ever so. Because.. Mane wouldn't do that, mane wouldn't say that.
No, no. Not when mane made a promise with wemmbu. Not like this.
The ink bled into the grain of the wood, finalised. Conclusive.
You wouldn't be able to remove the ink without damaging the wood, even if you did then there'd still be the ghost of the imprint etched into the grain.
Wemmbu's heart pounded through his ears, it echoed through the cage of his ribs disgustingly.
The thrumming of his increasingly erratic breathing dried out his throat further as his mouth was left slightly ajar.
What a..funny joke.
Mane, Manepear, The Manepear wouldn't just abandon his student like that... He, he wouldn't.
Mane is a mane of his word, he's Wemmbu's idol! He can move faster than anyone, skilled in way Wemmbu couldn't hope to surpass but, just maybe he could learn to be like him. That's why wemmbu came all the way over here, begged Mane for a chance because..
He wanted to be just like him.
Did he really just...leave?
Why, why would he- where is- just why? He sought for reason, for his flaws, for just why.
He felt like a ship capsized in an ocean of betrayal, each drop of blood he shed coinage of his loyalty.
Every word, every fight, every time he stayed up training to try and impress his mentor.
It wasn't worth anything.
Because he was just a lost cause.
It was hard to think logically with the rushing of his blood and the pounding of his heart but the message was as straight forward as could be. His lip trembled before being harshly bitten between his teeth. He was, angry.
Angry at himself, at Mane, at anything he could blame to lessen the anger he felt at himself.
And finally,
A cold settlement. Not exactly acceptance. Itd be a very long time before wemmbu ever came to accept it. No matter how much he said he did.
The chill was more the feeling of that cold ocean's water enveloping him whole, the water burned in his nostrils and the back of his throat, he wanted to hurl, he wanted to reject the betrayal. Yet Mane was long gone.
Wemmbu knew he couldn't get him back.
His hand nudged the hilt of his axe, hesitating for just a moment before his grip tightened frighteningly, swiftly, he destroyed the sign and left, leaving behind a version of himself too. The weak one that wasn't worthy of Mane's presence, and never would be.
It was always going to end like this.
(✿◠ᴗ◠)
"We still gotta get back, are you gonna spend the night at your mansion or with me and cod master?"
Jaden pushed through the tall grass, he peaked his head in and smiled, sleeves dampened by the dew to see a wemmbu sat near the lake, a crumpled piece of paper floating in it.
"Huh, oh, uh. Yeah."
"Pfft what do you mean 'yeah'?"
Jaden's chuckle reverberated in the quietness of the mundane area. And, wemmbu found that he laughed too. He slapped Jaden's arm in friendly annoyance
"Shut up dude!"
Maybe, just maybe, wemmbu found what it meant to trust again, in the most unlikely people. Maybe he was over mane, oh void who was he kidding.
Against wemmbu's futile hopes, the ghost of mane's imprint still throbbed through the churning of his stomach as tears stung his eyes, harsher than the lingering sogginess of the petichar.
He realised he marks will never fully fade and the ocean will never dry out.
"Bro are you good?"
Wemmbu glanced, no, he looked at Jaden. Really looked. He heard the way jaden's voice changed with caution, maybe even concern, a small shift yet there all the same.
What he saw wasn't just a teammate, it wasn't a mentor,
not someone who saw of him as a weapon, as power,
not as another person who would abandon him in the shipwreck of himself time and time again, no, he saw a friend.
Someone who he found that he trusted with his life. And who trusted him with theirs.
Even if scars don't fade, maybe they don't have to, perhaps all he needed to do was accept that. And it's still a long way, but he was glad to not be alone on the journey.
Wemmbu sniffled and roughly smeared his sleeve over his face, a small contented laugh escaping him
"Yeah dude, I think I will be."
This time, wemmbu didn't linger around the petichar, he swivelled on his heels and followed Jaden out back to the civilisation.