Relaxation at its finest

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

Here's someone you probably wouldn't expect to enjoy themselves on shore leave.

Cargn, being an Astartes Adept, never really took shore leave, just sabbaticals in between missions for training and meditation. But he could understand the importance and appeal for others, and he decided to take the time as a small indulgence he would allow himself.

So there he was, sitting at a table in an outdoor beachside cafe. A cup of tea in hand, he stared (as much as one can stare without eyes) out at the horizon. On the table before him was a dessert plate, with what appeared to be a half-eaten, multicolored, semi-fluorescent gelatin cube.

He seemed to look rather content. After all, this was the kind of peaceful world that practically could never exist in his own reality.

Comments

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

He chuckles again.

"I am rather long lived, my dear. Half a century for me would be about the same as a couple years for you."

[starlightace]

"W-wow. That's a long time," she chuckles, kind of sheepishly. "But... a little rest and relaxation never hurt, right?"

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"I suppose not," he said, taking another sip of his tea. "You ought to order something. They have a rather...interesting selection here."

The glowing gelatin cube on his plate could attest to that.

[starlightace]

"I can, er, see that." She's eying the cube with something not unlike trepidation. "Does it taste any good?"

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"A bit sour and bitter, but I like it," he says with a grin. "You, however, might prefer something a bit more...conventional."

[starlightace]

"I thought vacations were for trying new things," Nanoha counters wryly. "But you're probably right."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"You only live once, as they say. Though I suppose in my case it is one rather long life."

Cargn has always been the most adventurous among the Grey Knights. He was even the first Grey Knight to ever get drunk off of Fenrisian ale back when he was still an initiate (not that he'll ever admit it).

[starlightace]

"It is. In your world, er... how long do people usually live?"

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"That depends, really," he said with a sigh. "I believe the average Hive City citizen lives only around 50 or 60 years. Nobles, due to the vast amount of advanced medical techniques they can subject themselves to, such as juvenat treatments, often live to be anywhere from two to four centuries."

"Most Astartes Adepts like myself don't live to see more than four centuries, though that is more from deaths in combat than old age. I myself have been blessed to serve the Immortal Emperor for nearly eight centuries, though a handful of others have lived longer."

[starlightace]

"Oh." For a moment, the expression on her face flickers, though she herself wasn't sure whether it was at the idea of a world where the wealthy had such an extreme advantage over everyone else (who seemed fairly short-lived, come to think of it), or at the thought of a world where death in combat was more common than death from age.

"Your world sounds very... harsh."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"To say the least."

The average length of career for an Imperial Guardsmen from the time they set foot on their first battlefield to the time they drew their last breath was seven minutes. For the Eldar, the only two options that awaited them after death was to be trapped in a gem for all eternity or have their soul devoured by Slaanesh.

To say it was harsh was to say the sun rose in the east.

"My time aboard the ship has been the first I have ever encountered someone with such an...optimism as yours. It has been an enlightening experience."

[starlightace]

Nanoha looked up again, managing something that resembled a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I'm glad I could have helped - with that, at least."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

That got a small smile out of Cargn.

A peaceful world, one where the thought of death and war were far from everyone's minds, the type of world which could never exist within his own reality.

That was what he fought for.

"You have my thanks, my dear."