Scene #9386: Tairngire Lily

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	Months after the ending of Lilian's 'Supervillain Readiness Simulation', the spur of the moment decision to organize one at all has fully cooled into several competing desires that have converted the entire reserved space into something decidedly 'mixed use'. More than that, with the extensive legal fuss around choosing to keep the facility (really, the land) for herself sorted out, rather than having turned it over to the Paladins fully, Lilian finally has a moment to metaphorically wipe off the sweat she's shed over what she's been doing with it on the side until now. Or she would, if she hadn't decided on a very specific, symbolic date, and if it weren't the most mind-numbing weight of pressure that she's ever felt about anything at all. It's the strength of 'the old Lilian' that she draws upon not to show it; that girl who would never dare relinquish one white knuckle of her grip on the few precious things she had, who was inexperienced in many things, but all too good at keeping her feelings to herself. On the day before the Spring Equinox, when Lilian contrives to take Tamamo to that fantastical castle the next day, for a 'celebratory tour' of its final ownership, removing those old feelings from their resting place doesn't fill her with the stress and shame that she'd expected. Rather, connecting the circle from then to now-- the girl she wishes she wasn't to the woman she became-- only fills her chest with a kind of lightness which eases her smile through the following day. Where everyone else was forced to filter through an entire transitional building set up to both monitor, administer, and isolate the event, Tamamo gets taken in both hands to follow through one of Lilian's personal 'faerie gates', shown through privately on a day where practically no one is around. The misnomer of 'training ground' is as starkly apparent as ever, when emerging under the crisp blue sky in the middle of the crystal clear valley, nestled between untouched wilderness and peaks so ancient as to have been worn gentle by time. Even despite it being her own idea, Lilian herself takes her customary moment to stand in the grass and breathe it in, this time, finally, able to hold Tamamo by her side. One one side, the high-angle vista of the little town, visible below, arranged by a hand both obsessed with aesthetics and fastidious about function, immaculately maintained, though currently with only the smoke and lights of a skeleton crew, like a preview of what could be. To the other, the single mountain that could still be called as such, its dramatic shadow cut on the side of the rising sun by the spires of a castle designed with even greater love, the sun shining where once the villainous black hole had throbbed between its towers.
Lilian Rook	The lake at one border, the forest at the other, the river that slices between the two; Lilian points them all out in turn and excitedly gives their names, the same as the stage. Little "Glascail", ancient "Cinniuint", the exact place in the woods from which the intrepid heroes had arrived, and the ridge on which Lilian had first made her appearance by carriage over the town; the enthusiasm with which she speaks of it is so effusive that she surprises herself. Even if it's but one step of the day, which is one step of the rest of her life, actually seeing the countryside rendered as it is-- like a storybook instead of another job-- makes it feel like her feet don't touch the ground. "You know, while I was working on it, I was thinking about showing you practically the whole time." Lilian says, now offering her hand to walk Tamamo down from the hill they'd started on. "The people who were going to run around it wouldn't be able to appreciate it, so what kept motivating me was 'Would Tamamo be impressed? Is this good enough for her?' It's hard to put your all into something for a year, even for me, unless you can draw a line from it to something more important, you know?" she says, then smiles. "That's you, by the way."
Tamamo	All of it's new to Tamamo. She's been neither a hero, nor a supervillain, after all. Well... anyway--! With no one around, Tamamo can do things like step up behind Lilian while she's taking a deep lungful of fresh Spring air, and wrap her arms around her. A moment's vulnerability, exploited by tight embrace. (Still not a villain!) And with her tall geta, just the height to lean comfortably around her shoulder and take in the sights. "Though I have heard you speak of it, the 'story' of it, from beginning to end, is still new to me. Ah, so, it was there...?" From the mountain, to the river, to the lake, to the town. "All for myself, was it...?" Her tone is playful, rather than surprised. "It is artfully arranged, a piece done with sloping earth and stone and brick, rather than with bright paint and deep charcoal. Oh, but now I must ask you to show me more of it. A castle is needed for this sort of story, I can easily guess, but what story was it?" She lets herself be led along, steps light and cloth fluttering. 'What was it you wanted to say? I'm listening.' She doesn't phrase it that way, aloud.
Lilian Rook	"Hah . . . There was more of a 'story' than what was used in the end. I might have gotten a little carried away with it, but bits and pieces did come up across the various groups! Perhaps I should have been a little less precious?" Lilian is animatedly into the conversation. Though it's but the setup, perhaps the stage, for what she hopes against hope to accomplish here, today, so desperately it'd make her sick otherwise, the topic is a point of genuine joy, and thus she uses it as wind to her sails. "A little kingdom tended to by a gentle princess, the arrival of an ill-rumoured dignitary from the north, and after that, the conquerer-queen barely heard of in the south. The capture of the princess, but not before her last acts of encouragement to her people, and the construction of the new castle on top of the old . . . Ah, there was this whole bit about 'the hungering star'; the celestial calamity brought with her and all, but people barely dug into that." Leading Tamamo by the hand at parts, or simply by pointing at others, Lilian falls into their usual pattern, tried and trusted between the two of them and no else, of 'teleporting' Tamamo from sight to sight. They both know that isn't what it is, and so Lilian, secretly, finds it special; that Tamamo knows how hard she's working for the sake of one-sided convenience and the appearance of ease, and that she entrusts herself to her so much that it's a matter close to a little household ritual. Even if it gives her plenty of time to fret on her own, it eliminates all fear of Tamamo growing bored in the lulls. "I had, like, four hundred some actors on board for this. You can tell the village can house way more, but it's about efficient concentration of resources, you know?" She walks down the quaint smoothed-down cobble roads like air, pointing at each building with special care put into its facade, though the furnished interiors can be seen through their windows, like something out of a fondly remembered fantasy novel. "Here's the town square, where the heroes 'boldly' save a handful of strong men and beautiful women from being tithed to the castle; well, usually. Oh! I need to show you the design for the black knights! I really tried hard with those! Ah, and the inn there! The shops! Stocked and functional, I'm proud to say~ Even the A group-- with the people we know-- stopped by them! Nothing but praise~ I still have the suppliers and craftsman on dial, by the way!" It probably doesn't cost much, but certainly not nothing, to have all the lights on like this. It'd be like touring a derelict out of morbid curiosity otherwise. Lilian wants Tamamo to see it at at least its second best; to be able to imagine what it would look like 'alive'. It's important that . . . "I got sort of weird about it, because actors would have to be on set all day. There's water, electricity, real fields; you could actually live in a place like this. I disclosed the coordinates to no one, too, and there's a whole-- I wanted it to be free of interruptions, you know? Cecilia actually volunteered to help with it! Now that she has those powers, keeping even this much clean and tidy is just a day's work for her. It's kind of amazing."
Lilian Rook	Indeed, beyond the village's edge, tiny, probably ornamental hamlets are dotted around the countryside, connected by well-kept roads. The farmer's fields have been properly harvested and left to fallow, so as not to get overgrown, but they're still there. Wheel ruts in a high path by the town's overlook indicat where a carriage has been, that finally prompts Lilian to remove what she calls a 'design bible' from her bag, and show the concept sketch for; penned in her own hand. The next page is a mockup of the villainous ensemble; herself at the center and her two Immunes subordinates on each side, all in costume. It's not really relevant, but it feels like a chance to catch up on otherwise lost magic. "You don't think it's too daring, right? The outfit got huge positive marks. Ah, and Satsuki chose that giant armour suit-- that wasn't me. Oh gosh but you should have seen it. Ah, if you want to, that is, I can secure the tapes? Oh the surveillance system is all taken down, don't worry!" she says, with odd, baseless haste. "But it's a surprisingly convenient distance to the castle, despite how it looks. I had it all built at an angle where sunrise comes up unobstructed, but sunset starts a little early because of the mountain's shadow. It has that picturesque, 'lively nighttime' quality, you know?" ". . . I really liked it. Even if it was actors, and half of them were playing at being mind-controlled, it was a lot of fun. Not just for me, but for everyone here too. Sometimes I still get requests to come visit again. Show friends around. It was months of work." Lilian sighs, wistful rather than melancholy. "It was such a pain to keep from handing it over to the Paladins. I should have planned out something smaller, but now I'm attached to it. I sort of want people to visit more." Looking at Tamamo, Lilian does her best to purge her expression of extraneous searching, and says, "Could you imagine it? Staying near here for that long? Do you think you might come to enjoy it?" then holds her breath.
Tamamo	'Perhaps I should have been a little less precious?' "Though I have never penned a book of mysteries, I feel it is an impossible balancing act, to make a puzzle to which all will find a solution, while none find it with ease. Perhaps so, then, and perhaps not. Was it to your own liking? I would consider that to be of greater importance. Ah, and yet, if the answer was reached by 'none,' that would be... a mystery you can reveal another time, should the mood still strike you." '...the celestial calamity brought with her and all...' "A 'hungering star,' is it...?" Tamamo looks too warmly serene to be hungry, right now. She cannot react 'while being moved,' of course, that being the nature of how Lilian's works with time. Still, she reacts with natural ease to every motion, long since understanding, and even, perhaps, going a little out of her way to be accepting. There was that time she walked through a town with stopped time, and the memory lingered, the way others seemed, somehow still hostile in their frozen states. Because Tamamo wishes to be anything but, she never lets go of Lilian's hand, and transitions seamlessly -- to any outside observer -- from leaning in to leaning in, trusting her lover with her weight and balance even where time flows one second per second. "A tithe of strong men and beautiful women, was it...? My, what a greedy villain." There's a smile of understanding there, too. They walk through a little fairy tale, too sensible to be a wonderland, but still with enough to wonder about. Tamamo looks into every window they come near, and down every path, taking the time to see each line formed with a mind to how it all fits together. The geomancy is one thing, though nothing so much to speak of in place of commenting upon each type of flower passed. Oh, but the sunlight... "Swiftly to rise, then sooner to sleep, might one say? Ah, but even after the Sun has set, there are those interests in which one might... find that one was wise to account for greater time." Not just in having lights left on, of course. 'You don't think it's too daring, right?' Tamamo quite carefully considers Lilian in a villainous outfit. "Hm... oh, 'too daring'? To dare rarely turns to ill, between the two of us, no?" So says the seer of miraculous luck. Though that wasn't what was being asked. "I am rather interested in seeing it, now..." 'It was months of work. ...but now I'm attached to it. Do you think you might come to enjoy it?' "For months?" No, that doesn't seem quite to be the question. Golden eyes catch green, and look away again just to have Tamamo bump into Lilian's side. Purposeful, of course, in taking a step too close together, though she could pretend otherwise. It's a soft reminder of presence. "I can imagine many things. It is not so difficult a thing to move my workshop, nor even my gardening, if there were a longer span." She stays close enough to lean her cheek to Lilian's shoulder, smelling of sunshine and the Summer's first breeze, even with Spring as far behind as it is... and, a little, of rose and lavender. "Only, do not ask me to imagine such a spell without you. That... would be far more difficult."
Lilian Rook	'Was it to your own liking?' That question gives Lilian reason for pause. It's the same kind that Tamamo's questions often do; obvious in a way that nobody else asks them, and thus striking in a thoughtful way. She only has to think about it for a few seconds, but just having the opportunity makes her smile. "It was, on paper. But I think . . . once it made contact with people whose goal it was 'to win', I realized that I'd started to lose enthusiasm for it. Or rather, I no longer wanted to put something with that much care in front of them." The fact that she's showing it all to Tamamo stands on its own. 'A 'hungering star,' is it...?' "Do you happen to remember a certain comment by a certain idiot princess?" Lilian says, giving into a look-back grin and eyebrow raise. "Of course the 'hungering star' was none other than a black hole in this instance. To match the 'dawn princess', you see~" She gives her hand an extra squeeze, and turns around twice in the act of walking forward half a dozen steps. "The villain has to be greedy~ Or else it isn't a proper simulation!" Lilian says, followed by a laugh that's nearly relieved. When was the last time she got to do this? "That wasn't quite my thought, but now that you mention it~" she stops, one hand behind her back, the other put to her chin in faux-contemplation. She takes two extra deep breaths of the familiar air. 'I am rather interested in seeing it, now...' Lilian laughs quietly, bites her lip, and turns back around, 'coincidentally' clearing her throat. If she'd heard 'one second per second' out loud, she might have blushed. But that's her last opportunity to revel in the moment, before the pressure in her chest returns. 'For months?' "Or however long." She tries very hard not to backstep. 'I can imagine many things.' "And what does it feel like when you do?" she says, all but holding her breath. 'It is not so difficult a thing to move my workshop, nor even my gardening, if there were a longer span.' Lilian dearly hopes the thudding in her chest isn't something Tamamo can feel, or hear, when she leans against her. 'Only, do not ask me to imagine such a spell without you. That... would be far more difficult.' Lilian exhales, and breaks into a nervous giggle. Then the nerves leave her, and the giggling becomes genuine. For reasons beyond her comprehension, she stops to wipe her eyes, feeling the need arise spontaneously, and then she slides her hand across Tamamo's lower back to hold the opposite side of her waist, and says, "Well . . . we can see the castle in a moment. But there's something I'd like to show you first. A little secret that . . . never came up. Does that sound good?"
Tamamo	'. . . once it made contact with people whose goal it was 'to win', I realized that I'd started to lose enthusiasm for it.' "And so, you wished for another audience, I see. Ah, but of course, to be one's own audience is fine, as well. Some things we make we truly only make for ourselves, that thoughts may be put to paper... or to stone, wood, canvas, or in an arrangement of blossoms." Tamamo says, not speaking to anything in particular, but simply musing about creation, while letting herself get closer or farther from Lilian in the steps she takes, without letting go of her fingers. She's been often like that, lately... though it isn't as if 'holding hands' is new. 'The villain has to be greedy~' "One must have a certain selfishness... in seeking one's own happiness, perhaps... and the prices one is willing to pay, for such... well, that is what makes the 'villain,' after all." But Tamamo gives it another moment's thought, and says, "No, rather, it is the 'presentation,' after all, is it not? One can be greedy, but the villain is the one who is seen." Her own stance on such things is more consistent if looked at that way. But now... Lilian exhales, and breaks into a nervous giggle. It's not as if she could fail to notice. It's not as if she hadn't already noticed, simply from paying close attention. Tamamo can be equally proud of her eyes and ears, each striking in their own way, though that's only a part of it. She hears, feels, closes her eyes, and thinks, trusting her continued step to Lilian, and says, "A little secret... there was talk of secrets, sometime recently, and I thought to myself... 'the greatest value in a secret is in sharing it with just one person.' That, too, is a bond. Oh, but you did say it was a 'little' one. There is no need for me to think so deeply upon it, then, is there? Lead on, my Lilian, and let us see it."
Lilian Rook	'And so, you wished for another audience, I see. Ah, but of course, to be one's own audience is fine, as well.' "Well, to be honest, I had your audience in mind from very early on." Lilian says, smiling at the easy admission. "I was even considering asking you for a guest appearance. As the beautiful princess, of course~" she adds, stopping just to laugh. "Perhaps that would have been a bit exhibitionist; though that wasn't why I decided against it in the end; it was to spare you the tedium of dealing with those sub-par heroes." Lilian halts just to lock eyes, and say, "If we want to spend time together like that, we can afford to be more selective now, can't we? No need to try and squeeze our moments into the cracks of missions and outings, surrounded by them. We can do whatever we want." 'No, rather, it is the 'presentation,' after all, is it not? One can be greedy, but the villain is the one who is seen.' "Oh nooooo~ I must be becoming a villain!" Lilian laughs, taking up Tamamo's hands again. "Such a terrible and insidious corruption! After I'd just gotten everyone to give up and walk off playing rebels without a cause at me, too!" She sticks out the tip of her tongue at the thought. "However will the Multiverse withstand it? Being so greedy with my perfect, beautiful, one in a trillion girlfriend, where everyone can see!" No matter how much she laughs and smiles, the word 'girlfriend' comes out with just a bit of a hitch. A microscopic breathless pause. 'Oh, but you did say it was a 'little' one. There is no need for me to think so deeply upon it, then, is there? Lead on, my Lilian, and let us see it.' Lilian swallows as quietly as she can. She says-- -----[stop]----- "Haaaaa . . . okay. Breathe. God. Okay." Eyes closed, Lilian presses her hands to her face, not daring to do much more in place. One delicately falls to her collarbone the next, as if it could regulate her pulse at a touch. "Don't think about what else it could be. This is like every other thing you've committed to in your entire life. Don't make this the only one you welched on. You'd never get over it if someone saw you hesitating now after everything else you've marched through." Lilian says to herself, taking deep breaths that she forcefully turns square for a while after she fails to slow them down. "It's supposed to be scary. It is for everyone. But it's frightening because you're expecting something that you can't quite believe is real, not because something terrible might happen. It's no different from that time, all those years ago." Feeling her heart rate slow, Lilian drops her hands back to where they were, exhales, and says--
Lilian Rook	-----[start]----- "Then a little detour is in order." Squeezing both of Tamamo's hands tight, Lilian says, "I promise you that it'll be worth it." . . . . . . . . It's quite a ways from the village. Perhaps an hour by foot. A ways from the castle, too, partially around the side of the gentle mountain it watches over. You'd never see it from town, but from here, you'd just about see the twinkling lights far away. Nestled in the foothills, along the axis of the sunrise, what Tamamo sees next isn't the maniacally involved and beautifully detailed interior of the castle's multiple floors, but a little cottage with its back to the forest, overlooking a lake. It isn't in quite the same style as everything else, though it's close enough; storybook pretty, but modified, perhaps, with a certain extra helping of attention, moved by an architect's hand towards a vision that is more precise than a grand theme. An unassuming house, sized for only just a few, with a sunrise facing porch and town-facing windows. A simple path winds down to the lakeside, where there is a pristine beach and a dock for a single boat, and a clearing on the other side has the stone and mortar hallmarks of an unplanted garden. Rosy wood and decoratively framed windows are paired with a practical roof for all four seasons, and the subtle signs of heating and cooling under its raised foundation. Little pieces of white ruins covered in green lichen and vines are strewn here and there in the middle distance, at once somehow mysterious and familiar. And when Lilian, without explanation, opens the front door with a key she has on her person, even the interior has that firmly cozy, yet slightly unfinished atmosphere. An all but fully furnished living space with a fireplace, winding stairs to an open second floor and loft, an old-fashioned kitchen and new era tea lounge with a view of the garden. But bare desks and tables, and open spaces on the walls, seem to ask for more. As if she were secretly worried that the floor would give out if she were to step too heavily, Lilian leads Tamamo into the sunny space, glowing from each window, and quietly shuts the door. Taking a moment to breathe it in; the scent of outside, the herbs crushed in a tabletop bowl, sun-warmed wood and a fragrant recent fire, she steps across the living space to the mantle and picks up off it a long rectangular box wrapped in purple cloth, pulling on the cord that binds it shut on her way back. She asks "What if it were here?" Folding the cloth under one arm, Lilian levels the unassuming case of polished wood beneath over both palms, and says, "With me. For a while longer." Taking one last look down at the box in her hands, Lilian takes a deep breath, holds it as if to keep down an unimaginable pressure, and then, extending the box to Tamamo, and then slowly, gingerly, with ever so much lightness and gravity together, she lowers herself to one knee. "And when you've had your fill of here, then somewhere else. Wherever you want to go, forever on and after."
Tamamo	She couldn't help but remember, couldn't help but notice, when they arrived at the cottage. The lake, the wood, the distant town, the planned garden -- each thing she'd mentioned, at one point or another, now materialized, and brought to her. Though she couldn't help that, Tamamo tries to keep that fluttery feeling inside. She knows there's 'something,' but she's ever made it a point not to read her own future. That would rob some joy of living it. This anticipation, in particular, is nigh wholly novel. It's a feeling she's not sure she could bear long enough to properly examine. And then, inside, even more so. The little signs of both recent and longer-term care, the thoughts toward a future at a dozen steps. The spaces left to be filled in, a part of that. "What if...?" She repeats, not quite comprehending on the first word, but each after then makes it through. Golden eyes brim, too quickly for her hands to cover her face. Relief, the letting go of a breath that turns into a hitched laugh. She twists back and forth in place, peeking through her fingers, lips curled upward. "If... oh, if it were, with someone like me..." The effort to reach down and accept the box only comes from the fact that she must now fully reveal her face, even though there was nothing she was hiding. Still, it's difficult, with even her ears bent down in this sudden bout of feeling, and still, she does, taking the offering in both hands. "I... oh, I forgot what I was to say..." She opens it.
Lilian Rook	'What if...?' All of that calming and bracing, all that carefully built-up self talk; ten seconds; that's all it gets her. All it took was a word from Tamamo, or perhaps only the sound of her voice, and Lilian's heart has shot back up into her throat. For the first time in her life, she wishes she could skip time rather than stop it. The thing that so thoroughly dictates her existence, the only thing that could offer her reprieve right now, has become a maddening zeno's paradox. Being keenly aware of that fact, and thus utterly at the mercy of the next few seconds, Lilian experiences the most vividly felt moment of powerlessness of her entire life. 'If... oh, if it were, with someone like me...' "It couldn't be anyone else." Lilian says, so automatically, so urgently, that she marvels at how easy it is to say when even standing still feels agonizingly impossible. Only the impulse to hold her breath, so tightly that her diaphragm throbs with dull pain, manages to stifle the helpless noise in the back of her throat as Tamamo's fingertips find the seam in the lid, and pull it back. She'd rehearsed the rest so many times that Lilian imagines the wave of dizzying relief that comes over her must be what people feel when they jump from unimaginable height, and no longer have any choice but to fall. The inside of the box is filled with sunset-coloured velvet, and laid overtop it is the profile of an achingly familiar sword; what would be humble bronze, of no great size, were it not gilded from tip to tip in dazzling patterns that reflect the light of the window tenfold, until it shines like the sun. The only point at which it doesn't is where something is attached to the very end of the hilt. Lilian's eyes betray it a single anxious glance, where she steadies itself at the reassuring sight. Her lips move silently at first, and then the first words spark, and carry on from there. "A long time ago, She once honoured humanity with the bestowal of Her treasures, and conferred upon us her blessings. Though it is but a possession of Hers, that I have retrieved it from what was once its grave and sought to restore it to its full glory is a gesture by which I might honour Her in return." Lilian says, and breathes deep. "In return for honouring me, of all the people alive, to be entrusted to answer your Question. I return this Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, one of humanity's brightest treasures, to Her; in hopes that it conveys even the slightest fraction of the pride and gratitude that I feel for being given the chance to share all of this time with you, Tamamo-no-Mae, my love." Reaching, as delicately as if it might below away, to the hilt, Lilian plucks, the fasten from its end, and reveals it in the light as a ring, held between her fingertips over her upturned palm; a band of white gold with a single round diamond amidst a tiny swirl of engraved flowers; sunflower, lavender, and forget-me-not. She hesitates not at all. Over and over again in her mind, she had decided and doubled back on this moment; whether to do one thing or the other, what it would mean, if it would betray or reaffirm. All of it was pointless. Lilian moves on nothing more than instinct, swept up in what feels 'right' in that exact, crystallized moment in time. Lowering herself to one knee, she looks up into Tamamo's eyes as the unbelievable words leave her: "So if it would please you to take one step further on this journey, to allow me to give my everything to show you all the happiness in the world," Lilian squeezes the ring with gentleness fit for a hand instead. "Will you marry me?"
Tamamo	'It couldn't be anyone else.' "Ah, those are the words..." Tamamo smiles, her eyes wet. "The words I... no, the words for which any maiden in love cannot help but yearn, is that not so? These feelings must be..." She trails, then cuts off with an unsteady breath. "Ah, to even speak with my heart so aflutter is..." Shining, golden eyes widen upon realizing what was in the box. "Lilian, how did--?" Only to quickly add, "No, that can wait. It is only... I could not have expected you would go to such lengths." With the quiet ghost of a laugh, "Ah, but that is strange of me to say, after all." Smiling sunnily, "You have, time and time again, sought to impress upon me the lengths to which you will travel, and to reach. I do not know why it is... that there should be some part of myself that continues to be surprised, as if there could be some mistake, that it should be 'for me.'" With a tear rolling down her cheek, "You have made me so happy, my Lilian. My love." She reaches, first, for the sword. A divine artifact that was, for centuries, said to be too holy to look upon, and one of a history that took several turns -- but it's just right in her hand, restored like this. Lightly lifted, turned, her eyes running from hilt to tip, and then turning it around and down, letting it weigh her right hand, while she extends her left to Lilian. A little less shyly, now, for having a blade in hand. A little more regal, and shining as brightly. Her cheeks, still, are wet from that overflowing of emotion, feelings that couldn't be suppressed, even if she wanted to. 'Will you marry me?' "To walk together, to take that one step further, and every step after it, so long as you live... yes. A thousand times, yes! Oh, Lilian, I love you so, beyond the meager words I know to speak... but I will show you, this I promise."
Lilian Rook	It's funny, Lilian thinks, that once the words are out, the moment of truth is almost weightless. Once there's nothing left, she can do nothing but believe in Tamamo; and if she has to trust Tamamo, then there is nothing to worry about at all. She holds her breath. She forgets to blink. It feels as though her heart has stopped completely. But the agonizing pressure is gone. It's only as if time paused for breath. 'No, that can wait. It is only... I could not have expected you would go to such lengths.' "You know how I am." Lilian says, her face turning faintly red. "Of course it would be a sword in the end, hah." 'I do not know why it is... that there should be some part of myself that continues to be surprised, as if there could be some mistake, that it should be 'for me.'' Lilian will recognize, in hindsight, that this was the instant she understood that everything would be alright. Though the words squeeze her heart and prick her throat in the moment, they're a thousand times over familiar. If even Tamamo can feel that way, then there's no reason in the world that they can't . . . 'To walk together, to take that one step further, and every step after it, so long as you live... yes. A thousand times, yes!' Every part of how she imagined it, except one. The feeling at the moment she reaches out, the warmth of taking Tamamo's hand in her own, the ring gliding into the place that Lilian's heart had ached thinking about time and time again, the beatific view of Tamamo from one knee; even her tears are just as she'd imagined them. Everything is, except the explosion of warmth in her chest and the hot rush of energy that propels her to her feet the moment her lips leave Tamamo's hand. As natural as the pendulum swings back the other way after it has reached the apex of the first, the picture perfect transitions into the irrepressible excitement that throws her arms around Tamamo and presses her face to a neck as if the moment had a mind of its own. "Then I want to walk a thousand million billion more steps together, until you can't even think of one more question and then some! I love you, so, so much, and I can hardly imagine showing you just how much that is even with all the time in the world! I promise to you, forever, that I'll show you in every way I can, until you can't remember ever wondering! That the even chance to try is mine-- there's no one happier and I've never been happier and I want you to be a hundred times happier than this too! I love you!"