#[whoops I went a little overboard on setup]

[unlockthestars]

50 Dialogue Prompts // Accepting

@damnbrosius asked: “I’ve been waiting a long time.” Ambrosius to Aster. He's also lying, he was summoned as recently as a week ago, but lucky Aster for being the one to find the staff in the sand, right?

The fall of Atlas had displaced thousands of citizens. Some of them were handling things a lot better than others, and Aster knew he was going to have his work cut out for him. It was going to be a lot of long days and nights, talking through the trauma of what had happened, but right now, this was where he was most needed.

He was taking a little bit of a break after talking to a family who had had to evacuate after generations had lived in the kingdom, going back as far as when the Academy had been known as Alsius. It was all they had ever known, and all of them were having trouble adjusting.

Aster had listened, letting each family member (they'd requested to talk to him as a group) talk, express the complex emotions they were feeling about….everything. He'd recommended a few exercises, reassuring them that what they were feeling was perfectly natural, that they weren't broken; they were just going through a lot right now.

And they weren't the only ones. There were a lot of heightened emotions right now, and Aster needed to take a walk, to clear his head, so he could continue being of service.

He filled a canteen and slung it over his shoulder, walking the relatively short distance to where the portal had appeared in Vacuo. So many people had come here from Atlas and Mantle through that single portal…., and they would never be able to return home.

Aster surveyed the area, though there were few signs of the turmoil that had happened here only recently; the sands shifted quickly here, covering any trace that might have been left or uncovering previously hidden ruins seemingly at random.

He knows he's not going to find much out here, that he should head back to the city, to talk to more people. But as he turns to head back, something catches his eye, mostly buried in the sand. Aster heads towards what appears to be some sort of gem, glittering in the sand. Had someone dropped this after coming through the portal?

Intrigued, he quickly digs the gem out of the sand…, only to discover that it's attached to a staff, which started to glow the moment he touched it.

And then suddenly, floating before him is a tall, very muscular, very naked blue man who had just declared that he'd been waiting a long time.

Aster's eyes widen, and he almost drops the staff he'd found, but something tells him to hold onto it.

His tail twitches, angled slightly upward, but otherwise very still. "I'm…..sorry to have kept you waiting," is all Aster can think to reply.