Welcome to Gaia! ::

Of all the things Maebe had been called in her lifetime, too fancy of a speaker was never one of them. She looked mildly startled for a moment, before settling in with a pleased expression. "That's kind of awesome. Pretentious as ********, but I've never been considered that before. I like it."

Taym would have been proud. Her smile disappeared, as that thought immediately sucked the joy of it all away.

"How are we doing? Am I beautiful yet?"

"Yep, that's what I meant. Fancy and pretentious are on the same wavelength. I look forward to telling Taym someone called me that. He'll say I was lying and that I could only wish to be pretentious."

She said it as if she was proud, smirking quietly at the idea of getting to brag about it. The smirk disappeared when Chel prodded her for a sob story, and her toes curled with tension. "What sob stories are those? You mean my life before Deus? Because I don't share things lightly, you know. We could share with each other, if you want to know so much."

That was exactly what Maebe did not want to hear. The life she'd been living at Deus was starting to wear her thin, revealing a core that had been hidden from the sun for so long that it withdrew and recoiled when exposed. "I was in a relationship. Now I am not." That was the barest, most watered down explanation of what had happened, and she knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Otto wanted to be alone. Then, he asked Cami to return to him. And not me. Those are the breaks." She shrugged noncommittally, unable to keep the gloom from passing over her face. "Your turn."