Knowhere is a curious place like that. Sersi cannot say she's enjoyed what she knows of it, but like with Earth, she's found beauty even there.
"I've seen it, once," she says with a small nod. "The Guardians of the Galaxy are helping to rebuild there. Their efforts are so appreciated that the people of Knowhere decided to celebrate Christmas as they do on Earth. It was quite something."
It was baffling and curious - and utterly charming, in Sersi's eyes. Because of course she could see that play out and find it lovely, find it charming in its own right. Because what she was were not just criminals mining the skull of a celestial - she saw perseverance in the face of all odds. She saw life, thriving, blooming, growing from death twice over - the death of the Celestial whose head the people occupied, and the death that Thanos brought to Knowhere after leaving it in ruins to find one of the Infinity Stones.
Ikaris straightens from his slump a little, his blue eyes sharpening and looking more closely at Sersi. Realising, in one jarring moment, that they had both been at Knowhere recently. He had heard about the Christmas celebration, but had missed it by mere weeks.
To think that they had been so close. They had been ships in the night, almost crossing paths.
He tries to rein in his spiraling attention span, lasering it in to her question instead. He makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat.
“Difficult,” he says, honestly. “Our entire purpose — our life, our existence — was to serve the Celestials. And now we’ve killed one. Now, its corpse rears out of the Earth’s mantle. Now, I find other corpses, and the people living inside it don’t even care about the dead god. It implies that everything I cared about was meaningless.”
He looks down into his drink. “But everything you cared about still persists. So, then, I don’t regret my choice at the end. To help kill it.”
At the end of all things, it turns out, he would ultimately still choose her over his duty.
the road so far —
The Road Onwards
"I've seen it, once," she says with a small nod. "The Guardians of the Galaxy are helping to rebuild there. Their efforts are so appreciated that the people of Knowhere decided to celebrate Christmas as they do on Earth. It was quite something."
It was baffling and curious - and utterly charming, in Sersi's eyes. Because of course she could see that play out and find it lovely, find it charming in its own right. Because what she was were not just criminals mining the skull of a celestial - she saw perseverance in the face of all odds. She saw life, thriving, blooming, growing from death twice over - the death of the Celestial whose head the people occupied, and the death that Thanos brought to Knowhere after leaving it in ruins to find one of the Infinity Stones.
"How did you find that shift in perspective?"
no subject
To think that they had been so close. They had been ships in the night, almost crossing paths.
He tries to rein in his spiraling attention span, lasering it in to her question instead. He makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat.
“Difficult,” he says, honestly. “Our entire purpose — our life, our existence — was to serve the Celestials. And now we’ve killed one. Now, its corpse rears out of the Earth’s mantle. Now, I find other corpses, and the people living inside it don’t even care about the dead god. It implies that everything I cared about was meaningless.”
He looks down into his drink. “But everything you cared about still persists. So, then, I don’t regret my choice at the end. To help kill it.”
At the end of all things, it turns out, he would ultimately still choose her over his duty.
He would always choose her.