Yeah, maybe.

Even if it's wildly implausible I vote we tell Imliss that it's theoretically possible that he might be okay someday until and unless she comes up with better coping mechanisms.

And not tell her that I'm pretty sure what he actually wants is for the world not to need him so he can find a way to stop existing.

Does it make me a terrible person that my first reaction to that was that maybe I could find a way to create a version of him from just before the terrible shit happened so the person-he-was-before-that gets to live and he doesn't have to?

I think he'd be fine with that.

I don't know if that means it would be the right thing to do.

I'm not sure there is a right thing to do.

It feels like--oh, your trauma is inconvenient to me, I'm going to get rid of you and replace you with a version that's easier to deal with.

He doesn't want to be alive. He still wants us to have him, or to have the things he could provide us. It's 'how do you get the things you want'.

I don't even know if this is a thing I could theoretically do so I don't have to figure out if I should for a good long time.

Please don't mention that I even thought of it until I know if it's doable or not.

For sure.

I think for best coping I want my bad news staggered between periods of cuddling and other delightful thank-god-you're-not-dead activities and I am done with bad news for now.

Fair enough.

He kisses her.

They are still at the chapel and a certain amount of lack of decorum is expected from "newlyweds" but it's still in public.

He really can't even pretend to care but if she does they can go back to the hotel.

She's pretty sure Vegas still has laws against public sex and getting arrested would be way more inconvenient than going back to the hotel so yes.

I think Nelyo's half-expecting to have to bail us out for that. But yeah, let's.

She really doesn't want to be arrested for public sex! She's pretty sure the police would try to make them let go of each other at some point in the process and that wouldn't end well.

No it would not. I fought a god and mortal policemen are not taking you away from me.

But the poor mortal policemen don't have the context to understand why, and therefore don't really deserve his wrath, so they should avoid the whole issue altogether. Also, she's pretty sure assaulting police officers and fleeing the state would be harder for Maitimo to deal with than public indecency. And they do have such a nice hotel room.

They will go back to the hotel room and not make Nelyo's life hard.

At some point during a sleepy cuddly interlude she laces their fingers together and conjures their rings.

Oh, Idaia.

Is there a way to make them last-

I can hold them for a long time. And conjure them again when they disappear. I can't make them permanent.

Still. Thank you. I was buried with it, it's probably in the Atlantic somewhere...