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 Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:12 pm
Shifting her canvas tote back to one arm, Orah unlocked the back door of Farah's garden and let herself inside her childhood home, the familiar scents of flowers and soil greeting her through the opened door. The back room of the shop was dim in the fading light of February afternoon, but she knew the place well enough to make her way to the stairs that lead up to the family's living space.
"Hi Da!" She called out through the beaded curtain to the store front, startling an older gentleman with large, round glasses and a distracted expression.
"Oh, Orah! Hello sweetheart. Is it Tuesday already?" She could hear him shuffling about behind the register as she made her way upstairs and it made her smile a small, pleased smile as she went. He never really changed, for good or bad. With how much everything else in life had changed, it was nice to have something that didn't. Him and this shop were such a steady rock for her... something precious.
What had changed, though, became apparent when she made it to the second floor, coming out between the living room and the spacious kitchen. Things had been moved, slightly, and what had once held signs of her particular touch had shifted to show more of the personality of the two men who still lived there. She wrinkled her nose a little as she paced into the kitchen and set her bags down on the counter, shifting some plates and pans from Art's lunch into the sink to be deal with later. She wondered how long it had sat there, and how long it might have sat if she hadn't come over for dinner tonight.
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:54 pm
Of all the things that were ever-changing, his house felt like one of the things that weren't. Matt had lived there, above the floral shop, for as long as he could remember, and though he had eventually acquiesced with Orah's absence and began to move things around, so much of it remained the same, just ... perhaps less neat. He didn't necessarily have the will or the energy to deal much with it beyond the needed; nothing smelled, but perhaps a plate was left out a few times too often, perhaps he left a shirt somewhere after coming in from shoveling the sidewalk and didn't think to perhaps put it in the hamper instead-- In this case, Matt was emerging from his room with a plate in his hand that he had perhaps left in his room a few days too long, slipping through the upstairs apartment to actually move it to the sink. Not to wash it, necessarily, but a step was a step-- He heard the door open but didn't quite register what it had meant before he had made it to the kitchen, and might have blanched in his embarrassment of assuming it was probably just his father. He cleared his throat, buried it down, coughed, and said, "Oh, hey Orah!" Shook his arms out, ran a hand through his hair -- it had gotten a bit shaggy lately, but there was a part of him that was so used to how long it was when he henshined that he wasn't really sure he cared about cutting it much anymore -- and made the rest of the way over to the sink. "Is it Tuesday already?" Might have sounded just like his father when he said that. "Sorry, didn't realize what day it was or maybe my hair would be a bit less --," he gestured at it loosely. "It's, uh, good to see you." It always was, really. His heart had shattered when his sister had seemingly vanished, and while she wasn't as easy to get a hold of as she used to be when they were younger -- always off saving the ******** world, he guessed -- it was good to have her back. Every time he saw her was a reassurance that it would stay that way.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 6:04 pm
She couldn't help the grin that stretched over her face when she heard the 'Oh!' from a familiar voice. Orah pushed it down, though it hid in the corners of her lips, as she turned to face her younger brother, one hand on her hip and the other braced on the counter.
"It looks like its a good thing I came over when I did." She said lightly as she looked him over. 'Shaggy' wasn't something she hadn't seen from her brother before and it had a warm familiarity she enjoyed. Something familiar about him, when it felt like every time she saw him, he looked different. He was growing up, she supposed. Becoming truly an adult. She shouldn't be surprised, when he was only two years younger than she was, and she felt... ancient.
Brushing off that melancholy thought, she straightened up and reached out with both hands to ruffle his hair before smoothing it back into place.
"You should get a hair cut, you know, just to neaten things up a little. You should at least look put together while you're working in the shop or you'll scare the customers away." She said as she stepped back, taking the plate out of his hands before adding it to the others in the sink. "I'm gonna get dinner started, if you wanna get out the plates and cups?"
This felt like old times, and it was a soothing balm. Things hadn't changed so much she couldn't find where the cooking things were, getting out what she needed to make the curry she had planned.
"And its good to see you too." She said as she unpacked the bags she'd brought, offering him a genuine smile over the produce she set out on the counter.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 6:22 pm
Orah looked generally the same as she had looked the last time he had seen her. A sense of paranoid relief, really -- was she in trouble again? Was something going to take her away again? Was the life he held as an agent of the Negaverse going to crash into his family's life in the worst possible way? Swallowed it down, continued with the casual embarrassment that was more accurate to his current state -- His thoughts cut, anyway, when she ruffled his hair, and he found himself giving her a sheepish smile that echoed itself in the mild flush on his cheeks. "Should probably at least fix the undercut, right?" When Orah stepped away, Matt reached up to run his hand through the part of his hair that was a bit oddly long, even considering his other life. "Not sure I mind it being a bit longer in general, though you're right. Probably should cut off the dead ends at least. So I don't scare the customers." Maybe get the dye job redone, too. His roots were probably looking a bit ruddier than they should have, considering-- Matt let out a puff of a breath and went over to the cabinets, starting to pluck out a few plates and setting them to the side. "How have you been?" He shot her a smile in turn over his shoulder, turning back to the cabinets. None of the plates he was grabbing were part of the same set, but it probably didn't matter. Usually, when they were younger, it was primarily working off whatever they've had-- "Guess you can see not much has changed here, right?" -- Did he have enough cups cleaned? He might need to look in a different cabinet-- Maybe he had left one in his room, too--
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:28 pm
His sister chuckled as she eyed his hair, tilting her head in consideration with a carrot in one hand.
"Unless you're growing it out, then probably." It was amusing to think how fluffy it was going to get if he did grow it out... half his head this fuzz puff of short hair, while the rest was long. Unless he cut all of it, which she sort of doubted he would. They both seemed to like long hair, and her own was down to her lower back again in the years since Alkaid had cut it. The only time she'd had her hair shorter than to her shoulders. "If you need me to set up an appointment, I can. I still have the barber's number in my phone."
Same barber they'd used for most of Matt's childhood. Art had never seen a reason to switch, as the man was around his age and the two always chattered whenever he went. Orah had rosey memories of sitting on the chairs out front looking at the pictures in magazines while the two of them got cleaned up and trimmed neatly.
"Oh, I'm fine." Orah said, making her voice as breezy as she could. "Everything is same old, really. Just working a lot at the hospital.... one of the older nurses retired. We're still working on finding someone to replace her, so I've been doing her rounds when I'm on shift." It had been a bit of a nice change in routine, but it hadn't been all that different from her usual. And that was just civilian life... there was no way she was going to mention anything wrong there that he'd fuss over, let alone hint that there was more going on besides that. The lonely, cold patrols at night when she wasn't working, and the danger present every time she went out.
But that wasn't new, really. She'd been doing that longer than she'd been at the hospital, and by now, Orah had learned how to keep her two lives (more or less) neatly separate. The space had helped... even though the familiarity of this routine just highlighted that distance she'd put between the two halves of herself.
The plates were the same, as were the cups. She couldn't remember the last time Art had bought new ones... maybe, once, when she was around twelve? They'd started running a little low on dinner ware, and she still remembered how please she had been to get to help pick out the white plates with the blue vine around the edge.
"What about you?" She shot back, turning the attention back to him as she diced the carrots and onions.
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 1:53 am
He could grow out the undercut. He hadn't had his whole hair at the same length in a long time, generally preferring to at least thin it out and style the top layers. It was a thought. It also sounded like one that might be torment -- if he let his hair get too much longer as a civilian, would he be one of those corrupted senshi stuck with the miles of hair that was completely unmanageable? Everything about that life was already unmanageable enough-- "Ah, yeah, sure, if you're willing," Matt rubbed his neck sheepishly as he located a few buried cups that he could utilize, pulling them out. "Might actually keep me on task if someone else schedules it for me. Not that you need to schedule my whole life! Just. Yeah." Clearly, he wasn't doing a good job at that, everything bleeding together and into each other and blending and spinning and-- It was almost a good thing to shift topics to Orah's job, an easier thing to talk about -- his sister always off saving the world -- then considering the opposite. He pursed his lips when she said she had to work someone else's rounds, asking, "And that's not too much for you?" Even if she kept the worst of it out of her words, it didn't stop a bit of minute concern slipping into his voice when he added, "Make sure you're taking breaks when you can." Of course, maybe this counted as a break. It did feel nice, at least. That reassurance that Orah was fine and well and still the same sister she had always been-- He should probably stop delaying answering her question, even if he wasn't entirely sure how to answer-- "Uh, it's been good." That was a lie, but what else was he supposed to say? He wasn't sure talking about nightmares of anglerfish people or friendships with Negaverse generals was really anything he wanted to broach. Best to keep her as far away from that s**t as possible. "Still trying to get used to life after college. I like working with Dad, actually. There's something nice about arranging the flowers I think." His brows knit. "Oddly enough." He guessed it wasn't that odd. "We've been around the flowers forever, guess they had to grow on me eventually."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2022 8:18 pm
She shrugged as she pushed the carrots aside and began to peel the onion in deft fingers.
"We've split up her duties as evenly as we can, so everyone is picking up some of the slack. Its not ideal, but someone has to do the work whether we have enough people or not." She said. Which was true about a lot of things in her life, really. She couldn't not do what she was doing, because there was no one else to fill in if she stopped, as a senshi or as a nurse. Thankfully, Matthew wouldn't have to deal with that if he stayed on at the shop. He got to split time with Art and whatever part timer or full time Art could afford to hire on. The shop could even close if it really needed to for a couple hours or a day, though that had consequences to income when that happened. Art was as much of a workaholic as his daughter was though, and she suspected that was part of why she was the way she was.
"Its good that you like it. I know it was kinda boring for a while. I think we just had to grow up a little to really appreciate it." Not that she'd had trouble with that. She'd always loved running the store, helping customers and making arrangements. Matthew had always just been so restless... he really was growing up if he was growing out of that phase. Man, 'life after college'. It was so weird to think of him as being done with college already. She felt so much older than him, the spare two years between them always surprised her.
"What do you do when you're not working?" Orah asked as she moved on to the potatoes. "Still hanging out with the same friends?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:05 am
It's not ideal, but someone had to do the work. Wasn't that the truth... Matthew found himself snorting lightly under his breath at the truth of it, slipping from one room to the other as he set out the cups he had scrounged out and returned to look in the fridge for something good to add as a drink. "Suppose that's the disadvantage of working at a hospital. Not exactly something you can just stop doing." He knit his brows as he pulled out a juice, quickly inspecting it to make sure it was actually still good-- "Well, still remember to take breaks." It would be a lie to say that the restlessness had entirely faded. He found himself releasing it in different ways -- from patrols where his main priority had become beating people up before he took their energy, to running unnecessary parkour routes and climbing up upon abandoned and decrepit places without fear. Flowers, after all this time, felt like one of the odd things that actually brought him some focus. "Yeah, I think so. Stick kids in front of flowers and tell them to run the register, boring as ******** right?" He cleared his throat. "Sorry. But I don't know, you're right, I do appreciate it more. There's something nice in the fine work of floral arrangement. Something I can focus on." That felt personal. Yeah, he was going to shift that. No need to let her know he had poured so deeply into it as a distraction when she had disappeared, the florals being one of the few things in his whole life that had remained relatively stable-- "Uh." Couldn't say what he actually did. "I work out a bit? I do parkour. Uh, I don't really hang out with many of my old friends anymore. I guess we kinda drifted apart." Lost contact with the one he felt some interest in, too... "Do you do anything outside of saving the world as a nurse?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 4:04 pm
"Sure thing, Dad." She chided him with a half smile.
The vegetables went into a pan with some oil to start cooking down and she stirred them as she shrugged loosely.
"I don't blame you for finding it boring. If its not something you want to be doing, that's understandable. Sometimes I wanted to be doing other things too. But I'm glad its better now." She turned to watch him over her shoulder as she leaned a hip against the counter, the wooden spoon loose in her fingers. He got a sharp look for mentioning parkour, but there was any injuries on him that she could see, not even bruises, and she felt like she would have been told if he'd broken something with that dangerous activity. It was probably too much to think he was always very careful with it... she'd have to cross her fingers and pray he never actually got hurt with it. "I lost touch with a lot of my old friends too. Another part of growing up, I guess. People go their separate ways."
Not like she hadn't seen a ton of that, too. Even personally, which made her turn away when he asked about her off-time so he wouldn't see her wince as she stirred the vegetables. Once, the answer to that would have been 'spending time with Laney' in one of the various little activities and hobbies they'd enjoyed together. He'd known Laney, she'd worked for the shop part time, and she hadn't hid the fact that they'd been dating... and it had been fairly obvious when Laney had quit the shop and moved on. Now? Confronted with it, she felt embarrassed that her real answer was 'Nothing.'
"I'm so busy with work, half the time I have just enough energy to make dinner, lunch for the next day, and watch an episode or two of the Great British Bake Off before I start nodding off." She said, casually shrugging like it wasn't a big deal. "On weekends I clean the apartment and tend my plot in the community garden. Sometimes I go out to a movie with friends. Its not a lot, but I enjoy it." It was partly the truth. If you left out all the powered stuff she really filled her time with. Endless lonely patrols. Lonelier nights at home with both Laney and Arian gone. At least her garden on Ida was thriving, along with the planet itself. As much as she didn't really like it, she felt like she'd gotten good at being alone.
"I suppose Da is up to the same old stuff too?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 4:23 pm
The Dad chide earned her a snort. Yeah, maybe he did sound a bit like the old man when he talked like that... Couldn't help but worrying, though. She and their dad were some of the things that kept him doing what he was doing. He couldn't just run away from his problems and shed his identity in the way that some of the other forced recruits had seemed to over the years. To do that, he would lose his family, and that felt like too much. And the Negaverse had given him some good things, he guessed. The healthcare and the hospital were nice. It was at least a place he could go to and get patched up where he didn't risk his sister noticing-- Or noticing him potentially getting himself injured doing parkour. She looked at him sharply, he offered a wily grin and put his hands up. That fell, though, when she said she lost touch with most of her friends too. He guessed that tracked. As she turned away, he found himself thinking of Laney and the fact that she had stopped working at the shop a while ago. He hadn't heard of Orah finding anyone since, and maybe asking what she was up to hadn't been the best move. And then she mentioned the hospital work just made her so busy, and Matthew leaned against the counter for a moment, crossing his arms with a frown on his face. Orah was off saving the world, but maybe she was in as much of a rut as he was. "God, sis, you need some time to yourself that isn't just cooking and baking shows," he shook his head, before turning his gaze out somewhere in the middle distance. "Yeah, Da's the same as ever, right? It's kinda nice, honestly. Feels like the world is chaos sometimes, but his florals and his shop keeps him focused. I think he misses having us all in the house, though. It's just me now, right? Not me and you?" Empty nest syndrome and all. "He likes when you visit, I know that much. These dinners feel like we're a family."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 5:41 pm
She nodded as she stirred the curry, pushing down the melancholy the way she did so often now.
"Beyond the fact that you two need something healthier than frozen dinners once in a while, I like coming over and cooking. It does feel like old times, warm and familiar. And I like the company. Arian's been in Europe for months and the apartment feels pretty empty sometimes. I come over here and get to listen to the two of you and chat with Da about shop things. Its nice." Orah busied herself getting rice in the cooker, rinsing it in the sink before setting the machine to run.
"Maybe you should stop by sometime. We can get coffee or something, get us both out of the house. Maybe go watch a movie?"
She wasn't even sure what he was in to these days, if they had any tastes in common... but maybe they could find out together, and find something they could do. Orah had spent so long mothering him, this felt sort of strange... but she couldn't really mother him the same way she used to when the two of them had very separate, apparently busy lives. Could they work on being just... siblings for once? Was that something she herself could handle? The thought of it made her both nervous and excited.
"Could you go let Da know this'll be ready in fifteen? As soon as the rice cooker is done, we can eat." She said as she dried her hands on a towel, surveying her preparations with a critical eye.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:12 pm
Oh, Arian was still in Europe? Damn, she had been by herself for a bit then-- "... I think I agree with the both of you, yeah? It's nice. A break from the monotony. And the loneliness." Not that he was lonely, or anything. ... Maybe a bit. Maybe too used to the rhythm and the monotony and the distance he had started to enforce after he felt his life falling to pieces and he fell more into this Negaverse forcefully recruited bullshit-- Right. He shook himself out of the anger that threatened to boil over with a bright, "Think I'd like that! You know any good movies coming out? I admittedly haven't been paying much attention, but I'm sure one of the million and two superhero franchises has something coming soon--" Could he and Orah just hang out a bit? It'd be ... nice. Remind him why this s**t was worth it-- "Yeah, sure," and Matthew turned for the stairs, disappearing downstairs for a few minutes before he returned back up with a chuckle and a, "He knows. He was working on an arrangement but he'll wrap it up." And then they could just have a normal dinner. Like nothing had happened. It'd be nice.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 2:33 pm
When the rice was finally done and their father had come up to join them, the little family sat down to eat together the way they had for so many years. Art was happy to chatter about the shop and ask Orah questions about her work, reminiscing on some of the misadventures she and Matthew had had as kids.
He seemed to enjoy having both his children home. Orah wondered if he felt the lack of her around, for more than just the mothering she had done for him and her brother. He'd always been so wrapped up in the shop and taking care of them, she wondered if missing part of that made it hard for him.
She smiled warmly and laughed at his stories, providing some of her own about times he had been absent minded enough to get himself into trouble she'd had to clean up for him. It was nice, dipping into the past and remembering times that were rose-tinted with memory. Times that had been, she thought, easier than they were now, even with her mother gone.
After dinner was a few hands of an old card game Art had taught to his children, and Orah played more for his enjoyment than her own. Cards had never been her favorite, but having some time to spend her with her father felt good, comfortable, and something she had missed. By the end of it, nearing time for her to leave, had Art settled in his chair in the living room while she cleaned up dinner, stacking things into the dishwasher. She hummed as she did it, sort of glad to have a task that she could do for her family, rather than purely for herself.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 4:22 pm
For a bit, he swore he could delude himself into thinking he lived in a world without Orah's disappearance and without his conscription into the Negaverse, and he could just immerse himself in their stories and his father's reflection on the old times and the things his sister brought up... And he contributed too, of course, even as much as he found himself just listening and pretending, though his stories were carefully plucked from a selection where he didn't have to remind himself of what was happening in the background. Nothing from old crushes. Nothing from times where his conscription had been actively pressing on him. Nothing from the times where it was just him and his father not by anyone's choice-- After dinner and an old card game, Art was of course retreating to his favorite chair -- knowing him, he'd probably fall asleep there for a bit -- and Matt was getting up to join Orah back in the kitchen. He picked up a few more items that should probably go in the dishwasher. Best the whole house had a reset. "Glad you came over tonight," he offered, holding out a couple of stacked cups to her. "It's been good."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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