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 Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:27 pm
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He knew it was coming, as soon as the words had left Benitoite’s mouth he knew she’d be on him. That was how Melody always was, just as his mother had been after the divorce. In everyone’s buisness and private lives looking for anything she could use to get a handle on someone. He understood it because he had also been that way for a time, although a lot had changed since those days. Sitting on the cot of the small room he often hid himself away in, he smoked and he thought. Memories still swirled in his mind as he watched the smoke twist and coil its way up towards the ceiling. It had been so very long since everything had happened and even now he was still unsure of how to approach the topic with someone who had no reference point for the chain of events that had occurred.
Sliding off the cot and onto the floor, he moved beneath it and pulled up the loose floorboard. Years and years worth of notebooks lay hidden beneath his cot, away from prying eyes. Laying there beneath the cot, he opened the one that held most of the information about his earliest times as an agent. It was bittersweet as he read, the notes he had taken were so detailed and the way he spoke of people was so very much like his family had. It made him feel a little sick as he read but, it also gave him something to go off of. He stopped when he reached the illustrations he had done of some of the agents he had met and their youma. Shutting the notebook and throwing it back beneath the floor, he pressed his face to the cold wood and tried to think away the memories.
He knew she would be here soon as he heard the ping on his phone and Liam wouldn’t be here to run interference. She was going to get answers tonight one way or another and it didn’t matter what condition those answers left him in. Taking a deep breath, he slid out from beneath his cot and stood back up. Wiping the dust off of himself, he got dressed and made his way out to the kitchen table. Melody was already here and she had made herself at home.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:28 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:29 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:30 pm
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Bits of who she had known still poked through, now more than when she had first seen him again a few months back. Maybe it was because of the job offer they had both accepted or the fact he had someone to rely on. It was something she was still struggling with herself, she had never really been allowed to rely on anyone, just as he hadn’t been allowed to either as they both grew up. Taking a sip of her own tea, she smiled a bit thinking about how they had both been in the dark about Alexandre on that one little thing. “I think I would pay to see him being carried off, he always seems so fighty when it comes to the Negaverse. It’s a bit different than how he is when we are at social events, maybe it’s because he has to play a separate part depending on where he is. Much like we both do with work.”
There was that vagueness again, crows but no name. It was a person she was sure at least, given the way Aloysius seemed to almost deflate after bringing the topic up. That would explain how they had met though, if they had both been pulled into something large and apparently traumatic. He had left them somewhere, maybe the Rift? But if they were an agent the youma would probably have left them alone right? That was only a problem for senshi like herself. But she could tell that there would be no more information on that front. He looked like even bringing it up had caused him pain, it started to make her feel a bit bad about continuing.
Knowing it was probably like twisting a knife into her brother she pressed on with her next query. “If that was the beginning of the end, then what dealt the final blows?” She wanted to know, even if she had more than enough to bury him socially already without having any information from their involvement in the Negaverse. Even if she still didn’t really like him, she wanted to know what had happened.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:32 pm
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He had tensed up, waiting for the follow-up about who that person had been. Looking up in shock at her, he was relieved and surprised that she let things lay. The rest was a mix of events that he had to think about for a bit. “It was a quick descent, more and more of the people I had allied with had disappeared or died. I had been haunted by doppelgangers and found my own gravestone in this city. I would grow close to others just for them to vanish or perish. It was one thing after another, wearing me down on top of the guilt I carry. You know as well as I do that it was our way to keep it to ourselves, to keep it out of the light and view of others who would judge us. So I drank and drowned the guilt away. I drowned everything away and focused on things I could do alone. That is how things went, for the past nine years, until one night it was just too much to bear anymore. Liam found me on a bench in the park one night, I barely remember most of the walk home. Everything finally fell apart and I reached out for him. You know how the rest went, at least in part.” He wished they were here now, to offer that help and to keep things stable again. It was so easy to fall apart under the weight of his guilt and responsibilities after they had worn him down.
“Things are as they have been though, in regards to the things I research. Just as I helped with your stabilization, I seek to find more resonating crystals to aid agents. I also frequently aid those who wish to obtain their own personal youma as well, although that is not something you will be able to do given the fact you are a senshi.” Sitting up a bit, he tried not to look as weary as he felt. It was hard and he was so very drained after explaining himself because he knew in the end she still really wouldn’t empathise with him. There was just that big of a disconnect between who he was before and who he was now. He was still navigating that difference now as he picked up all the pieces.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:33 pm
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She just couldn’t really understand it still, it didn’t make sense but at this point, he had given her some answers. Even before all this, he had been the one who took their grandfather’s passing the hardest so maybe that was a sign of things to come. But even so, it was also true he had been working on helping her out more often as of late. Things had reached a somewhat happy medium and the lies and walls that made up this maze between them still stood strong. It would have to do for now, she could tell this was as far as she would get tonight with him. Truth be told she was almost certain she would never get more answers about the things she really wanted to know. She would have to see what she could get out of Benitoite or maybe find another General or Corrupt who had been around back then.
“I guess that’s where things stand isn’t it.” She huffed a bit and finished her tea, it would have to do for now. At least he was starting to draw his own lines in the sand over this, it was annoying though. If only he had given her names she could look them up in the database. Maybe she would make a habit of reading through it piece by piece to figure things out. Letting herself slump down a bit, she looked at her brother for the first time in a while as an actual family member and not a stranger. “Maybe that’s good enough for me, for now. You can wipe that tortured look off your face, we both know Liam doesn’t want to see you like that.” It would have to do, if she wanted things to be amicable between them.
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:34 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:35 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:38 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:39 pm
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Waving a hand in front of her nose as the smoke started circulating, she made a disgusted face at him. “You know I hate smoking, a*****e.” Pushing herself back from the table, she stood up and went to put her teacup away in the sink. He could do the dishes for both of them. “I get the message, I’ll head out so you can go back to being all haunted and tormented until Liam gets home. I will find out more one day, you know that right?” It wasn’t quite a threat but more a fact because she always found the information she hunted for. Even if it took a while and a roundabout way of connecting the dots, she would figure it out. It was just how she was, how their mother had been, and at one point how he had been too.
Gathering up her coat, she pulled it on and headed towards the door. “I still don’t forgive you for dumping everything on me while you were all boo hoo over all this. You have a lot of making up to do still but I’ll at least say you’re going in the right direction.” She had to make a show of things at least a little bit because, in the end, he had just dumped all the family’s financial and business decision making responsibilities on her while she was in college. Even if she had wanted to be in control of it all for years, she couldn’t let him get away without at least a little grief.
Closing the door behind her, she offered no final words or goodbye. There was a lot to think about now and a lot of threads to look into.
Melody WC: 1,531
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:44 pm
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