Welcome to Gaia! ::

With work later in the day, once school got out and the children were able to move on to their extracurriculars, Brielle didn't have time to go out of town to any hiking trails, but she was still feeling the need to move and get some fresh air and some sun on her face. Walking was a habit that she had gotten into when everything had fallen apart, and even though some of the anxiety and grief in her chest had lessened now that Ganymede was no longer in the clutches of the Negaverse, it didn't mean that they were gone.

Olivia hadn't been answering her texts, and that had Brielle worried in a different way.

The walk was helping to settle her mind, though, even though she had only ventured as far as the park. At least, the walk was settling her mind until she looked up from watching some ducks paddle around in the pond and she saw Devyn sitting alone at a picnic table.

Yes, she had only spoken to him for a short time at the Christmas dinner, but his face had burned itself into her mind after everything that had been said.

Well, everything that she'd said.

There was nothing that said she had to stop and talk to him. He seemed happy enough, sitting there alone and pecking at his fries. Brielle could have turned around, or hoped that he didn't recognize her. Her conscious won out, though. He deserved an apology.

She walked over in the end, trying to keep any nerves from showing through on her face. "Devyn?" she asked.

If he'd just asked how she was, then Brielle might have been able to shoot back the reflexive answer that she was fine, but he hadn't asked that. He'd asked how she'd been, presumably since the last time they'd talked at that party.

Brielle's gaze went distant for a moment, although her eyes never left his. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, strained. "Did Michael not tell you?" she found herself saying.

He might not have.

Brielle hadn't known that Michael was Sessrumnir back at Christmas, but she knew now. She also knew he'd said nothing while Devyn had been asking after the old Sessrumnir, Percy. He'd obviously kept secrets from Devyn to spare his feelings before.

But that, she had to remind herself, was between them. She was here to apologize for putting her nose in his business.

"That's fine. It's fine. I'm just," she paused, "Sorry. For making things awkward at Christmas. That's what I wanted to say to you."

Brielle softened slightly as he apologized in turn, even as she shook her head.

She slipped into the bench across the table from him, and murmured "Thank you," as she took a fry. So that she did not end up saying something impulsive again, she forced herself to chew it slowly.

"It's not your fault that you didn't know," she said with a small shrug, "And you weren't intruding. At least, you weren't intruding any more than I was."

She might have carried the Gallo name, now, which added a bit of permanence to her presence at the house and at gatherings, but there was always the nagging knowledge at the back of Cybele's mind that she'd been some poor thing invited in. She'd been feeling better about that, more a part of things, but then the grief had washed through the house and made everything strange again.

"I was having my own issues with war, and with loss, I suppose, when they took me in. I think Momma was trying to do the same for you, it just-" she cut off to thoughtfully eat another fry, "Escalated."

She glanced down at the table. "But yes, it's been a rough few months."

The sheer amount of burgers that he was holding on to got a curious look from Brielle, but hardly a judgemental one. She grabbed one, mostly out of politeness, and she started to peel the paper back but didn't take a bite yet.

"I don't know how much Michael knows about me, anyway," she said with a small shrug, and even though she was also being slightly distant, sort of polite to the point where she lacked warmth, she didn't hesitate at all in talking about these things. "I don't know much about him. I don't know that he'd call me family. We hadn't met before that party."

Then at the party, it was hardly like she'd made a good impression, and then the next time they'd met had been that fight where she hadn't been able to help save Empyrean or Ganymede. It made things awkward, but that was between her and Michael, not Devyn, no matter how close the two might be.

"I don't mind talking about it," she said with a small shrug, although she did give a quick look around to make sure that nobody was listening before she continued, "It was almost two years ago now that I was corrupted into the Negaverse against my will. They can do that. They can reach into your chest and destroy everything that you are. Your memories. Your free will. For a while there, I almost thought they'd taken my humanity. Ganymede still saw it, though."

Brielle never spoke about her sister with anything but pride, and this was no exception.

"She helped me get out, and then she and the others gave me a family."

Devyn meant well. Brielle knew that. He was sharing his food, his table, and his time with her despite any past awkwardness.

He still hit a nerve.

Everything about Cybele changed in a split second when he asked his question. Her shoulders tensed. Her free hand clenched so tightly that her fingernails dug into her palm. Her lips pressed thin. Her throat was suddenly burning. There was a heat behind her eyes, too, and Cybele had to clench every muscle in her body and force herself to count to three to keep herself from screaming in his face.

"It doesn't call to me," she said, and her voice came out flat instead. "It didn't call to me. I didn't want this."

She shouldn't be reacting like this. She knew that. A few months ago, yes, she might have thought it was shameful to be tempted or tricked into the Negaverse, but after hearing Albireo's story?

Still, she couldn't help the way her eyes were quickly turning red at the suggestion that she'd chosen anything about this.

"But there's only so much you can when you're caught, and drained, and they put their hands in your chest and pump Chaos directly into your starseed." A beat passed. She couldn't look Devyn in the eyes, so she stared at the table instead. "And no, I'm not any stronger. I just recovered to being as strong as I was before. It could happen again."

Brielle's face softened. It didn't relax all the way. She was still on the verge of tears, or possibly some other type of explosion, but now she looked embarrassed about it. She took a bite of food and chewed slowly, to buy some time to breathe, and process.

When she looked up again, she wore thin smile. "See, now I have to apologize again," she said. "I don't have any experience with Chaos outside of what I've seen of it. Whispering, constantly?"

She could visualize darkness consuming people more easily, given her own experiences with the Negaverse and her role in snuffing out lives, but the thought of something constantly calling you towards death was somehow more uncomfortable.

She'd had Chaos controlling her thoughts, but not so directly.

"I can't imagine what you've been through, either. I've only been alive for a bit over a year, you've been dealing with all this for, what, a thousand?"

If he was guarded, she could certainly understand why.

Brielle had no idea how to wrap her head around the concept of being alive for so long that years started to blend together. Some of her memories from her time in the Negaverse were blurred, and they all felt distant, but that was because of the damage to her starseed.

Her newer memories were crisp, and she thought about the best ones before she went to sleep, over and over again, as if that would keep her from losing them if something else happened.

"You don't owe me anything," she said with a wave of her hand. Maybe she wasn't completely relaxed, or over what he'd said, but she was close enough to it. "If there was something to make up for, you've already done it by getting me this food. It's good."

Brielle was picky about what burgers and fries she liked, but these were not too greasy. "I'm glad you want to help Earth. We can use all the support we can get. If you need a second opinion on your planet, let me know. I think I've helped chase Chaos off of three worlds at this point."

She wasn't sure if that made her an expert, or what she could do about whispering, but if there was Chaos out there, she would always try to destroy it.