2nd Message ☆ Video ☆ Open to courts

[parallels]

[The locket feed switches out to show Clara out in the fields around Caer Glaem. Her face is dirty and smeared with dirt and sweat. Her hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and she stands with a shovel, surrounded by piles of dirt. There is also a pile of delicately picked tulips set to the side. Clearly, she's been putting her best foot forward when it comes to the requests from the court.

She licks her lips before starting, as if she's trying to follow what she's rehearsed in her mind.]

So Clara Oswald, here. Nice to meet anyone I haven't spoken to before. Phones and lockets that act like phones aren't really my thing. [Well that was a poor intro. She sighs a little and moves it along.]

I've been collecting the flowers on the graves to bring back to Caer Glaem. I figured it might be a bit of a nice thing to brighten up the crypts and to honor all of these people. Every time, we visited my mum's grave we'd always bring flowers. But none of these people have anyone to bring them flowers. No one even knows who they are. Figured that maybe that's something we could do. It's not about war, it's just about doing what's proper. That at least, I can get behind, threat of an evil spirit or not.

If you'd like some flowers let me know, I'm going to bring them back to the city. Maybe we can arrange them into something? Can't say that's my specialty but I'm sure there's someone out there who can.

...And then, second part of what I wanted to broadcast. It's a bit of a new direction. More cheerful one though.

[She shifts the camera down to show a little winged dog that is currently chewing on a bone next to her.]

Right so.

I've never owned a pet before. Not even a gold fish. Most I ever had was was one of those little keychain toys when I was ten.

But I got this one as a boon and he's a bit well. A handful. As puppies and children tend to be. In desperate times, my resources are books or my own cleverness; and cleverness has no bearing on puppy logic and I can't imagine there's "Simarg Cub Training 101" in the library, I'm running a bit dry here.

[The pup barks and flies up to lick her face. She laughs, a little more honestly than usual, and pats his head.]

Basically, pet owner advice is desperately needed. I'm sure I can spin whatever you can give me into something useful for this little one.

Comments

[parallels]

Even if we aren't sure about this war, the dead deserve some respect. Like you said, it's only proper to do something about it.

[She sighs softly and looks over the flowers.]

Hopefully it means something.

[wroughtsteel]

It means something to us, at the very least. And I think flowers upon a grave are meant for the dead beneath them, whether someone put them there or they came to be on their own. Much like the flowers you would bring to your mother.

[parallels]

...I brought them every year. Maybe even... Even sometimes after I thought that maybe that would be the year that I stop.

[She bites her lip. Sometimes the topic is easy to talk about and others it gets much harder.]

It just feels right.

[wroughtsteel]

Why did you want to stop?

[ She pauses, then adds in a soft tone. ] I think I could never stop visiting my mother's grave, though flowers... I never brought her.

[parallels]

...I dunno. Thought maybe sometimes, I wasn't moving on. I was always thinking about the "what if"s and not now. It got better though, as I got older and started healing a bit.

[Ah. The worst way to be kin. Both motherless children.]

But you're right. I could never really have stopped.

[wroughtsteel]

That's a thought that comes every so often, I think. Even as you heal and move on... to lose a parent lingers with someone. I can't help but wonder, even if rarely, how it would have been.

[ She's moved on, she's healed, but it's not the sort of thing one can truly let go. ]

As you should not. It's right to keep her both in your memory and your heart, always.

[parallels]

I still think about it. About how life would be so much different if she were here. Don't mope about it anymore but I still wonder.

[Time heals. But wounds leave scars and scars never truly heal.]</small. It is right. It's made me who I am. And I quite like who I am.

[wroughtsteel]

Much would have been different, as is when people are taken from our world far too soon. My parents both, leaving behind me and my brother... though we were lucky to have an uncle who took us in as if we were his own.

[ Despite whatever complications happened later on, she is still grateful for that. ]

Then we are the same in that regard. [ She smiles, her tone lighter as she changes subject. ] I would ask your name now, if only giving mine in return! I am Éowyn.

[parallels]

Clara. Clara Oswald.

[Then her face darkens.]

I'm sorry. I can't imagine both parents. It was hard enough losing mum.

[wroughtsteel]

Thank you. It was a long time ago, some memories of them aren't quite as vivid anymore, though I remember enough to know that I miss them.

It's a comfort to know, at least... wherever they are, they're not alone.