[SE] fell from the pedestal right down the rabbit hole

Hotaru

I know that I should have told you that I would die
Just to hold you

Hotaru has never precisely introduced Sunjata to any of her friends, but then again she has never really had friends. Family, yes, but ever since Rexanna's death she has scarcely felt anyone fit that rank anymore. Gods, has it really been that long? Perhaps she should feel pain at the thought, but instead, there is only a deep love and gratitude for the fact that she has Alys now, and it's those thoughts that hide in plain sight in her smile. "I'd really like that. Perhaps you can even do a reading for him." One that would hopefully be as illuminating and optimistic as Ru's had been. They both deserve a lot of healing in their futures.

Dogged as she is - and Alys is apt in her comparisons - Hotaru alights upon this information with a greedy singlemindedness. "Plenty. Torchline, for one. It's a great getaway in Deepfrost regardless. The Oerwoud borders it, and is my favorite region of the wilds. Forests and color for miles." Though it's a trek, it's also her favorite place to visit Frey, the shrine in the treetops the one that feels most at home for her.

And if I just had my shit together I could be with you
But I'm too high on paranoia

Alys

"I would love to do a reading for him," Alys agreed, with only a touch of wickedness in her dark eyes. The cards never lied, after all, and she could learn a great deal about this man of Ru's by his reaction to the offer of a reading or by his reaction to the result. "It's settled, then," she said as she eyed the landscape shrewdly, comparing the wild tundra to her loose sketch and beginning to refine details. "I'll come visit you soon."

As for her own wants and needs, Alys was much more inclined to try to dance around them than to address them directly, and so it was that she listened to Ru's suggestions for travel with a sense of relief. If they talked about travel, they could stop talking about her loneliness and restlessness, and Ru could stop feeling badly for living her life - the very life that Alys had foreseen and gently nudged her towards. "Perhaps I will visit Torchline," she said. Then, remembering something, she smiled. "Do you know, when I first came to Halo, Tal was trying to open a courier location in Torchline, and I almost volunteered to work for him there. Perhaps I would have, if I hadn't fallen in love with Halo."

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

Hotaru

I know that I should have told you that I would die
Just to hold you

If Ru is capable of anything, it's reading the wickedness in others, so well-versed in it as she is - and how often she sees it in the mirror. Laughing, Ru shakes her head fondly in a cascade of golden hair. Sunjata would likely be flustered by Alys, but perhaps it would be good for him to have a reading as well. It had certainly changed her own life. In fact, their romantic reunion could almost entirely be attributed to Alys' reading for Ru.

Though Alys is usually not the touchy type, Ru knows her well enough to be sure of her own welcome, and wraps an arm around the seer's shoulders to pull her into a side-hug. "I'm glad you did. Halo would not be the same without you, my dear." And, with her cheek perched on Aly's shoulder, her next murmured sentence is meant almost entirely for Alys' ear alone - intimate and sincere. "I would not be the same without you." Another thing - another person - to add to her list of things she could not live without.

- Fin <33

And if I just had my shit together I could be with you
But I'm too high on paranoia