therealkaichan | Day 1, RO!Attis

At first, people had been wary of the silver haired man.

They knew he lived with another man in a small house not too far from the city. They knew the other man was kind and soft spoken, they knew he loved teaching and helping around. He was liked by everyone, even by those who always took more time to warm up to newcomers.

But the other man wasn't the same.

They knew he was some sort of musician, that was more than clear. He spent hours sitting close to the plaza's fountain just playing his guitar. He talked to nobody and looked at nobody.

With time he became another part of the scenery. Everyone knew of him, but not many knew who he was.

Sometimes, he was seen speaking to other people. He never approached them, it was always the other way around. As if those people knew things that not everyone was aware of. As if they needed something from the man.

Those people were rarely seen talking to him again.

Whatever the silver haired man did or said, only a few people visited him again.

Some people knew the stories.

They said the man was once called the Demon Scholar, long ago, and that there were few people who knew as much about demons as that man did.

They said the man hadn't aged in a long time, that he had participated in dark rituals and deals with demons. They said he had once bled a man and used his blood to draw symbols on the walls of a castle. They said he would do anything as long as you could hit the right price.

But the right price was rarely money.

People said the Demon Scholar dealt in information. He dealt in favors.

They said that he once drove a man mad until he paid what was promised. That he had a demon follow him, and that the demon told the truth every time the man lied. That the demon made the man bleed every time.

And that the man had begged the Demon Scholar for forgiveness. And that he had ended up paying double of the original price. Whatever the price was.

Nobody knew the man that had failed to uphold his price, but everyone knew that the Scholar had done that.

But the man in the plaza just played his guitar, sitting by the fountain.

His grey eyes looked absent, dead behind the glasses. He sometimes hummed the songs he was playing, and people said he had a nice voice.

That's all they knew, and all they wanted to know.

----------

She looked a lot like she did last time, Attis thought.

But last time had been more than twenty years ago, in a different lifetime, when Attis was the Demon Scholar who dwelled among his books, in the abandoned house in Prontera.

He had no right to speak, though.

"I never expected to meet you here." She said with a fond smile. "It's a nice song, mind if I sing with you?"

He shook his head, and she sat to his left.

"You never came back after that last time." She said, after the song was over. Her voice was still as beautiful as he remembered it, and it was almost heartbreaking.
"My life changed, Lily." He answered, and she nodded.
"I understand. You look tired, but you also look better than last time. As if some weight had been taken out of your shoulders."
"I suppose it has..."
"Have you been there to visit them...?"
"I did once. I felt empty." Empty. Just like the tomb.
"Like watching someone else's life. Right?"
"It's been many years."
"It has."
"I've forgotten his voice. I never thought it would be possible but it's gone. I used to feel bad about it, but that is gone as well."
"You've moved on. That's not a bad thing."
"You look the same as last time."
"So do you. But you are not the same as last time, Attis."
"I'm not."
"That's a good thing."
"It is yes."
"Let's sing once more."
"Yes, let's do that."

----------

The woman was looking at him. She had been looking at him for a while.

Attis knew this because it was impossible to not notice. Every time he looked up, she was there. He wondered if she needed something. People only approached him for that, after all.

Braided silver hair, grey eyes, pale skin. Playing guitar by the fountain. People had passed that description to each other in order to locate him easily when they wanted to request something.

The woman took a deep breath. And walked closer.

"Excuse me..." She said. And Attis looked at her, his fingers still busy on the guitar's strings. "I..."
"Do you need anything?"

The woman frowned a bit, taken aback by his words. She shook her head, then nodded.
"It's... It's absurd, I'm sorry."

She stepped back, and Attis' eyes went back to the guitar.
"Did he bother you, dear?" Asked a male voice. Attis did not get to see who it belonged to, and he didn't care either.
"No... Not at all, he just..."

There was silence. Tension. Attis looked up to see the woman and his eyes met the man's. He looked transfixed, as if he had seen a ghost.

"The Priest..." He whispered. And Attis chuckled.
"Have we met before?" He asked.
"We met in Glast Heim. Is it truly you?"
"That was lifetimes ago." Two lifetimes ago to be specific. When Attis was his Priest and he roamed the halls of Glast Heim.
"You let us go..." The woman smiled. "I'm still grateful."
"There is nothing to be grateful for. I did what I wanted." His eyes went back to the guitar once more, Attis remembered them, they were young, and they were so ready to die to protect the other. It was painful to watch them back then, to see that kind of hopefulness, that kind of unconditional love.
"Still... We were truly blessed to meet you that day."
Attis chuckled, amused. He shook his head.
"You look almost the same." The man broke the silence, in a quiet whisper. The woman softly hit him with her elbow, with a hushed 'don't be rude!'.
"I do? I suppose it is what happens when you take the wrong choices. Say, are you two still in love?"
"We are." They answered. Attis smiled a bit.
"Then live on. And forget me."
"You said the same that time." The woman smiled. "We will live on."
"But we won't forget you."

Attis laughed.