#joshua while clive's carrying dion rn: hold on lemme grab our brother im NOT and WILL NOT leave him

[hisrising-archive]

CONTINUED, FROM @CINDERELLA-GUREI

the phoenix is left to reel in the sight of his mother's corpse, fit in the colors of house lesage, slowly drowning in a sea of her own blood. yet it is there, in the rosfield red that swallows her blouse and pools on the floor– that the reflection of olivier lesage stands; haunted. they are similar in some ways, and joshua cannot help but see a younger version of himself in the boy... if only for the scars they now share being unfortunately similar.

from the fall of their respective homes by way of raging eikon, to the death of one or both parents, they in this form of understanding are mirrors of one another. from rosalith to oriflamme, to joshua and olivier. they are brothers, but they are also foils.

approaching the boy with the same caution as he had attempted to approach their mother, this time joshua crouches— bending at the knee to make himself smaller so that the boy might trust him, or at the very least, feel on equal ground with the phoenix. " you aren't alone, your radiance. " not as joshua had been, buried underneath the rubble of phoenix gate. the dominant would not allow history to repeat itself, not to befall another child- let alone his kin.

ultima would heed joshua in this, that no more children would suffer his plots.

as the child steps back, away from joshua and further away from where the phoenix stands between the child emperor and the rest of their odd family, joshua stills himself. if olivier needed distance, the phoenix would give it to him— the boy deserved that much at the very least after all that he is coming to terms with, and forced to try to understand at his small age.

" i can't give you our mother, " he tells the boy after his cries, " neither can i restore your home... but if you come with me, i can promise you will not be alone. "