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"At least there's balance."

"Is there? It feels like it's not fair. Shouldn't ugly balancing out beautiful?"

“Well, yeah, that makes sense. As long as the positive balances out the negative.”

Not everything, you're probably just depressed.

I... I think it's a little more complicated than that...

Try some extra vitamin D.

Edited 2019-09-04 20:31 (UTC)

"That seems...a little subjective, but I don't guess you're wrong." No, really, the small, elfin-looking person is considering this seriously.

Beautiful like flowers, beautiful like sunsets over golden sand, beautiful like the sound of music.

"What makes beauty seem bitter to you?" He asks after a moment. "Because it can't last?"

"They do... In the grand scheme of things. It just doesn't always look like that, o-or look fair from down here on the ground."

Some vitamin D.

"That's partly it, but... Well, depending on what it is, there's other things too. It's like so much is eager to destroy or corrupt what is beautiful. There are always strings. Beauty so often has to make sacrifices just to exist. It's... sad. Bittersweet."

"That's very poetic." He's thinking it over still, and he's not sure whether he agrees fully or not. "Some thing are beautiful because they don't last, or because they're delicate and rare, I think."

"But that seems like an oversimplification, too. I don't know. Are you thinking of something specific? You do seem kind of down."

Mmhm. If you’re wearing sunscreen like you’re supposed to you aren’t getting enough.

So to stop things being bittersweet I need to not wear sunscreen?

"I've had to let go of a lot before I was ready to, lately. That's all. Friendships, dreams, that sort of thing." He offers a fleeting smile of dismissal.

"You're right that losing beautiful things is bittersweet, but you're right too that it's not just that simple. I... I think that it's more bittersweet because of all the things that happen while you have them, while they aren't gone, that makes the final loss so poignant."

If you ’d rather get skin cancer. Or take the extra vitamin D

"I'm sorry. That does sound painful." Rondo is genuinely sympathetic, although he has that slightly-withdrawn air of propriety that some upper-class types maintain instinctively around any sign of heavy emotion.

He's not going to pry. That wouldn't be right.

He considers the stranger's opinion for a moment, then says, "In that case, is it that they're inherently bittersweet themselves, or that we make them that way, by holding onto them so tight?"

"It's alright," he assures the elf. Besides, it's not anyone else's problem. Nobody else should be burdened by it.

He offers a small smile to help them skip over that particular topic.

"I don't know," he admits, the scrunching of his face somewhere between apologetic and thoughtful. "How can people not hold onto them tightly? I don't think anyone could help themselves... I don't think we could do anything if they're inherently bittersweet either. Except try not to be pained by it."

"I don't know," he shakes his head a little. "Sorrow and loss are part of life. Everything I've been taught says there has to be a balance. Maybe we have to be pained by it."

"But sometimes my race has a different perspective on this kind of thing than other people do. We live a long, long time. Even the land changes around us. It's normal for things to feel ephemeral. It's normal to have them and lose them and gain something else later. That doesn't mean you have to ignore feeling bad about it. Just...know that you'll come out the other side."

"I hope that doesn't sound dismissive. I'm trying not to be."

"It's not dismissive," he assures the other with a tiny shake of his head. "You're exchanging your ideas with mine. It's the opposite of dismissive."

Still, the answer makes his fingers flick against each other in a twitchy motion.

"I was always taught that there needs to be balance. It doesn't need to be so connected, though. I don't think. It's not rightly balanced if beauty is painful as well as everything else in life that's so hurtful. I'm not sure how it can be viewed so differently with time. Life events are unrelenting. There's always something happening."