Violet nodded slightly as he explained the story to her in simpler terms, but she still didn't think he was doing much to really sell this idea to her. She looked at him, with a mixture between sympathy and worry.
"I mean, I get it, it's just, it's hard to hear that story, and not come away thinking 'everyone sucks', right?" she said. "I mean, it all started because men made the weapon, right?" she asked. Again, not entirely unlike her own world, when she thought of Shinra and what they did. The SOLDIER program leading to Sephiroth's rampage. Information had been scarce about it, but it had been a matter of record that Sephiroth was now a terrorist, and had attacked Shinra Tower. Or maybe she only knew that because she was in a privileged position with her parents. She never actually had found out how wide spread that news got out.

But she decided not to bring that up right then, as it'd only muddy the issue, and proving her world was just as bad probably wouldn't help her point at all.

"Okay, well, whew, that's a relief," Violet smiled when he confirmed that they couldn't make any more concepts on Zephron. That was for the best. No God-killing planet-destroying monstrosities made by accident any time soon, which was something positive.

He went on to explain how she could have modified her body if she was an 'Ancient', but he couldn't, and neither could she, and it needed 'Aether' anyway.
"Uh, yeah, sure, totally normal," she nodded sceptically, because, it was anything but, but she decided not to argue the point too much. He then went on to say that he doubted that Zephron was truly a fractured part of his own world, and she sighed. "Well, there goes another theory up in smoke, I guess," she sighed. And she had thought she had something there. For once, she had thought she had a lead, but it seemed to be another dead end. How could so many people be ripped from their realities and yet not a single one knew why? There had to be a clue somewhere. She just had to FIND it.

He also went on about how no new bodies could be made, and the people in question saved the world by fighting various bad guys, and she just nodded. Right, yeah. Big fight, world saved, that was fine. She wasn't about to report on all of that. She figured it wasn't particularly interesting to the citizens of Torensten. Or to her. She had never been big on action stories, and she felt like she had enough cosmic importance stuff to write about to not worry too much about a later battle.

She laughed a little when he called her question 'curious'.
"Hey, you may basically be a god, but you clearly haven't spoken to many teenage journalists," she teased, since to her it was one of the main questions she'd ask. "Far from it for me to tell a guy who's 'aeons' old anything, but I'm pretty sure platonic besties don't usually sit together and watch colours swirl in silence, just to enjoy each other's company. Plus, that whole, playing tricks on each other thing? Sounds like a major crush to me. And besides, it's been Aeons! People's feelings can change. There was this boy in school who I always bickered with. He kept calling me a spoiled princess and prissy and complain about how much perfume I wear and stuff, and god, I HATED him for it. Then, one day, my friend tells me it's 'cause he has a crush on me. And I'm all like, 'ew, no way', but over the year the idea of dating him kinda, sat in my head, and by the time that school year was up, I was totally into him," she explained. And then she paused. "Of course, by that point he'd moved on and was shacking up with my OTHER best friend but y'know, the point is, feelings can change over time. How'd you know he still doesn't feel anything?" she prompted. She might have been looking to solve the greatest cosmic mystery in the universe, but Violet could never resist a little love-gossip.

Hythlodaeus

Violet noted that he didn't go into too much further detail with her read that the version of events he had presented; well, it was all down to humans being awful. She was no stranger to that, really. Midgar was a mess because of Shinra. She was pretty certain of that these days. And even if it wasn't Shinra, it was AVALANCHE. It was humans killing humans and causing problems. They even said the meteor was summoned by Sephiroth, who was a human (wasn't he?). Her world had been dying because of humans being idiots. It sounded like Hythlodaeus's was the same.

Luckily, the conversation moved on, to a topic she was more comfortable with. That was, who loved who. And he began to explain that he could literally 'see' love in people. Which immediately made Violet think about all the embarrassing crushes she had, which made her feel slightly sheepish. She listened to what he said, but she still wasn't sure she entirely agreed.

"Do you ever think that because you can see everything, sometimes, you might misread what you see?" she suggested. "Because, look, I get it. You're an ancient all knowing being who can read emotions and I'm like, eighteen and some rich spoiled brat from Upper Plate One," she said, because she forgot for a moment that he'd have no idea what that meant. "But trust me, even I know love is complicated. There are loads of different kinds of love, but it's all still love. Like, how I felt for that boy back in high school? Totally different from say, how I feel for Genesis, who, oh my god is hot," she explained. "But a celebrity crush and love are different. And the love for one person might be different from love for another person. Just because he doesn't look like you expect love to look doesn't mean it's not love. I mean, have you tried talking about it?" she suggested.


She realised that this was slightly outside her remit as a journalist, but she couldn't help herself. Seeing romance in jeopardy was far more important than a story, right? Plus, if it all worked out, she could have both!

"I mean, I dunno, staying by your side after all this time, it sounds like a kind of love to me," she said. "Maybe not the same love as you have, but love none the less. Friends are pretty easy to come by. He could go find somebody else. But he chose you. Despite knowing how you feel about him. Doesn't that tell you something?" she asked.

Hythlodaeus

Violet cocked her head slightly and smirked.
"You're a boy. Of course you're used to thinking you're right. Most boys are," she teased. She wasn't quite being literal. No, she had meant 'all-knowing' in the sense that he could detect emotions and was apparently thousands of years old, but she couldn't resist the playful tease. "Of course, they're usually wrong, but hey, they don't listen to us," she shrugged. Obviously meaning 'girls'. At least in Violet's experience, after all.

She was slightly surprised however that he ended up agreeing with her. Not because she thought she was wrong, but because in her experience, older men did not listen to the teenage girl and her opinions on things. However, she had felt confident in what she was talking about, and he seemed to realise it too, as he started speaking about the range of feelings he had. She had lost slight track of who the mysterious third person was, but she didn't need that to either write about or understand love across the aeons.

"See, being in 'limbo between life or death'," she practically said the quotation marks out loud given she didn't really understand what they meant, "for most of time and he still waited for you, that's a pretty big sign. Maybe there's more to life than what even you can see," she suggested. She did however pause a little, and frown when he suggested it was something 'deeper' than love. "I'm not sure there is anything deeper than love. Love is the ultimate emotion we feel for each other. It doesn't mean it's just romantic or friendly or sexual, it's not just like, lust, or whatever. But love... it's complicated and weird and can come in loads of forms, but I also think it's pretty infinite. Love is a thing that can't easily be defined. Even if you've got super cool aura vision or whatever you call it," she said, waving a vague hand and deciding not to check her notebook for the terminology she had scribbled down earlier.

She laughed a little when he called her a 'teenage journalist', and she had to admit, she hadn't expected to be able to change his mind. He was basically a God, and she was a snobby kid from upper class Midgar. She knew that she was. She tried to be understanding, but at the end of the day, she knew she was posh and spoiled. She hadn't expected to be get through to him, and it made her realise that perhaps she really did understand more about people than she thought. Maybe she was actually good at her job.

"Hey, I'm smarter than I look," she teased when he said that. "And don't say that's not hard!" she added quickly, knowing the impression her blonde hair created. She smiled when he said he couldn't promise, but he'd try. "That's good. You should try. For you, not for me! It doesn't affect me," she reminded him with a smile.

Hythlodaeus

Violet hadn't actually meant that there were, perhaps, auras he couldn't see. She had meant it more literally. That he had thought he understood everything when perhaps he didn't. But however he took it, it seemed he was at least willing to consider her point. Which was a start.

And not bad for her ol' ego, either, given she had basically just schooled a God on wisdom. Not bad for a teenager from Midgar.

"Y'know, I've interviewed quite a few people, and I always find, the most ignorant ones are the ones who think they know everything," Violet pointed out. "You gotta be willing to accept there might be more than you know to actually learn, so, uh, good start," she nodded. Okay, maybe she was trying to play up the whole 'teenage wisdom' thing a bit, but she couldn't resist.

"Thanks, I try," she smiled when he told her he DID think she looked smart. That was reassuring. Especially if he could see her 'soul'. You could try and dress smart, act like you were intelligent, but at the end of the day, it was nice to hear that someone who could see who you were on the inside thought the same. Especially since Violet sometimes had her own doubts about herself. Oh, she tried, but sometimes she felt like an inexperienced, spoiled ditz. It was nice to hear that she wasn't.

She smiled as he began to think about using his music, because it seemed obvious. To hear a musician wonder how to express himself was kinda ironic, she thought, but luckily he landed on the obvious answer soon enough.
"No, no, keep talking, I think it's cute, hearing you figure it out," she giggled softly. "Writing him a song sounds like a great idea. I mean, of all the people with the talent to express how you truly feel, you're a musician, right? You were basically born for this," she pointed out. In the same way she supposed she was a writer, so she was probably born to write how she felt about someone... one day. But somehow that seemed less romantic than a song. Especially a song from an ancient God...


Hythlodaeus