i am the vanguard of your destruction

It was an exquisite kind of mayhem. It was.. baffling. It...

Well, fuck.

There you had the Moon in all her glory—the one who had taken so much from Helovia, and offered so little in ways of explanation. The one who seemed so fickle. The one who had used her magics in an attempt to feed on his fears and bend his soul to her will. Someone he had admired (worshiped), and then, slowly, grown to hate.

But then the hate had turned cold. And what was left was tired, cold rationality.

Hadn't he said it to them, when Hototo had given his life for them? (Or had he just thought it?)

The dead are dead.

Vengeance is the coward's justice. A hollow kind of retribution that leaves you just as empty as before—and those you loved just as dead.

Gods, everyone was so fucking stupid, thinking with their hearts and running with the high-fire of their impulses.

Bleeding.

(He can still hear her in the cavern, lightning blasting the place to bits; he can still hear her crying, the raw strength of her grief.)

"Idiots," he snarled, knowing well how many he condemned; some he saw, some he knew, some he neither saw nor knew. But what could he do? What could he do, to stop a throng of angry mourners from attempting to murder the goddess he had no particular like of? Why should he risk himself for her—the one who had so carelessly, so blatantly, threatened him in his own home?

If you are so powerful—

But Gods can die. They all knew that, now.

Diego circled. Irma stretched her tired wings and soared up, too.

Someone shouted, pleading in Hototo's name for them to stop. Ampere, the stupid mare who had yelled at him about his owls, looked on the verge of being swarmed. He couldn't decide who she had been fighting for, anyway.

The wolf was being swarmed, too. "Be safe," he mouthed at the shapes of Tembovu and Nyx. Then..

Then, it was time to act.

But he was passionless, charging into the fray with a tired sigh instead of a bellow of rage—careening carelessly towards the group swarming the Goddess.

Look at me, you fucking bitch, I'm coming to your rescue—

But I doubt you need it—

Ugh.

He didn't want her thanks, though; didn't want her honors; didn't want anything from her. It was just the bitterness in his blood whispering.

Someone else—some golden boy—was slashing at anyone who came near, and Mauja picked the other side of the shady goddess, trying to shoulder anyone near her aside.

"FOOLS!" His voice was a practiced roar, rolling out like thunder across the fray, eyes snapping this way and that for an attack. "Still your rage! There is nothing for you here—the grief you carry lies within your hearts, and it will stay there until it has bled out in all your tears!" I have lost at her hands, too. "Revenge solves nothing. Her death would solve nothing.

"Those we loved will still be dead."

Well, that was what he wanted to say, anyway—question is, would they let him finish, or attempt to run him through first?

So please get a fucking grip and stop trying to upset the precious, delicate balance of Helovia's celestial life, please and thank you. There are more important things you should focus on, like, oh, I don't know, A GIANT FUCKING WOLF THAT WILL GORGE ON YOUR SOUL IF YOU LET IT LIVE?????

Priorities.

But then even his dispassionate passion began to grow cold in the dark mists.

[ TEAM LOL THEY WILL STAY DEAD AKA MOONY
Stays far away from the mad Thranduil swings, but does his best to shield the Moon goddess with his own body. @Random Event because herpes. ]