homecoming [o]

[toska]

the mamoswine leads the way - he has a long memory, and a elementary school girl did not. sophia returns home to find what she expects.

what once must have been a fine mansion stands in smouldering ruin. the red bricks lay in broken chunks across an overgrown lawn, rife with the thorny weeds with light blue flowers. the apple orchard has long been stripped of its bounty, the leaves long gone. only the jagged edges of the stumps tell of some violent story that nobody will care for. not even the woman who walks past them.

after all, this is not her house. her house was laid with white brick. what had once been an orchard had actually been one of the largest swimming pools in bellona, large enough for her mother's lapras and her father's walrein to swim about year-round. even a child could remember that much.

the ruins of her family's mansion has long been bulldozed over to make room for a house that she cannot recognize. one cannot recognize a house that does not even live in her dreams. there is no dark spot on the floor where her father's piano had been. there are no half-burnt photographs for her to recover in a decorated box. there is nothing, because the world cared enough to take them away from her.

phillip stands beside her to shield her from the incoming wind. he used to do that for her too, back when they were barely up to daniel's waist.

"...phillip, i want you to mud bomb the entire place down to the foundation."

the mamoswine does not immediately do as she asks. he knows her a little better than that.

<is that truly what you want, sophia?>

the hesitation is enough for her to despair. except this doesn't feel like betrayal, not in the way that it usually does.

"...no. no, it's not."

she wants a lot of things, and she will get none of them.

@open

[king]

"hm." alex watched the woman simply stand there, eyes filled with emotion. the howling of the wind is barred from his ears, covered with earmuff headphones. he breathed warm air into his scarf, warming his face. "sonata, she seems upset." the gengar nodded.

sonata looked over to alex, who returned the gaze. he melted into alex's shadow, who pulled his scarf higher up.

he stood and watched.

toska

[toska]

she does not even deserve to be in this place, so why can't she look away?

fire pokemon have already made short work out of this plot of land a second time. the grass still smells of ashes. scourge, eos, it didn't matter. physis supposes that it only means that she has even less to lose.

"...i would never forgive you if you died." she gently takes hold of the mamoswine's fur. it is a familiar touch. "you know that, right? you know that i have not forgiven him. not the both of them."

it's strange, because what is there to forgive? they owe her nothing. this house owes her nothing.

she will just have to take everything that she has not earned (you have earned them simply by being alive, phillip tells her, and she does not believe him).

"the cooking fires need to go." a few considerably weakened mud bombs take care of those. personal feelings aside, she didn't mind much else about the house. half the rooms seemed to have been obliterated, but the main wings still stand. for a lone woman, that ought to be enough.

she catches a voice in the wind. she does not turn around, not yet.

"i should hope that you aren't a realtor."

king

[king]

"if i were, i would be in a most unfortunate location." he looked pointedly at the burned grounds, raising an eyebrow. "but no, i'm not. i'm just passing through, but you're the first person i've seen in a while."

alex stepped over to the woman, coming up to stand beside her. "i hope you don't plan on selling the land regardless."

toska

[toska]

it's too late to save the home that she once loved. nevertheless, she stands with the resolve to stay. whatever it is now, she will simply have to learn how to live with the decay.

"surprising. eos has had plenty of time to move people in." bellona had been lost last spring, after all. "i think that my need is greater than theirs."

she starts to walk inside, wary for loose floorboards and other damaged structures. the mamoswine follows. he has not attacked phillip on sight - she supposes that is reason enough to tolerate the boy's presence.

king

[king]

he's not really sure why, but alex follows silently behind her. he vaguely wonders how the mamoswine fits in the house with all the worn floors. alex can feel sonata's presence behind him, reassuring him silently. "days have come and passed, as has this house's time."

looking around, it seems it was once a grand home to wealth. it reminds him of his own home, back way where. "i find there are few non-citizens these days residing in one home. in this world, everyone travels save for those who cannot. judging by your mamoswine, i doubt you are in great need of a home to stay permanently in."

toska

[toska]

the entrance is comprised of marble with cheri tree flooring near the south wing. sophia can remember a time when the entire floor was marble. light or heavy, big or small, all were welcome within regardless of personal attribute. delicate ice sculptures would welcome her whenever she came home from school - a personal hobby of her mother's. now, all that was delicate is gone. delicacy has no place here.

"...then i suppose that it is the only fitting place for me in the world." she, who is a ghost. she, who has long since lived past her time. it is not a home, but it's closer than anything else that she has. she walks past the niches in the wall and the stern statuettes that would never have been here under her mother's jurisdiction. "i suppose that you feel at home in the land's company."

king

[king]

a wave of loneliness hits alex. he follows silently, fingers brushing along the walls. "i've yet to find somewhere i feel at home." he thought back to the dream world. "only once did i find comfort in a person, in the dream world. she was eos, but i saw the stars in her eyes."

he smiles. it is silly to think of eos in that way, to them he is scum. a scoudrel. someday, when eos is gone, he will finally walk free of the chains of the virus. perhaps then he will find companionship. "upon our next meeting, she attacked. c'est la vie." he laughed, cold, harsh, emotionless. alex thought back to how many people despised him now. "we accepted the virus at a cost, we will never have a home again."

toska

[toska]

sophia pauses.

"i knew a man like that, myself. he was my prophet, and the future sprang from the words that he gave me." hope fell from his lips like a waterfall. she had drowned herself in it, vowed not to make the same mistakes before taking the plunge again. at the same time, all the men worth loving were prophets. "the cost of refusal is higher." as if that was any real platitude.   

the mamoswine is an intellegent being, and he stops when they reach the floorboards. it is a place that he cannot touch, and sophia decides not to visit that wing again, not after this.

the windows have long since been smashed, and a cold breeze blows through the mansion. sophia supposes that she could always see if there were any references on home repair in the library of lost things.

king

[king]

"a lifetime of pain or a painful death. somehow, i wish for the latter."

toska

[toska]

physis surfaces.

"... i live with the former. it's not so different from being human."

not so bad when physis refused to apologize for being alive. that's the only way that a hades agent could live, really. sophia was all fluff and apologies, but physis knew how to exist without regret.

here, she tries to lay sophia to rest again. sleep, dearest princess. sleep so that you may reclaim your kingdom come morn. 

"living as a human or a scourge, you're going to suffer either way. you might as well fight."

she isn't really sure whether it's safe to go up to the second floor or not. either way, phillip would not be able to follow. she supposes that her psychic sign will have to do in the case of any real danger.

"is your partner here?" it was only polite to ask, but even politer for a guest to declare themselves at the door.

king

 

[king]

"some say make love not war." alex snapped and sonata emerged from his shadow, elongated against the walls as the sun lowered. "this is sonata. he travels in my shadow primarily." it was on days like this that alex wished for a warmer companion, sonata was too heartless. he thought alex's emotions were silly and strange. "forgive my manners. he prefers to stay closer to isolation."

toska

[toska]

"it's convenient." she states it as fact from personal experience, not observation. physis still has not gotten used to having a lumbering mamoswine instead of a swift and silent froslass at her side.

they had already passed the staircase. physis turns in that direction and lays eyes upon alex for the first time.

hg|Og7sx <50 she recognizes him from her days working at pax institute

[king]

alex struggles typng this post because his arms are bent as shit bc his bf is right next to him and typi ng is awk as fuck.

he looks up into her eyes, looking for some emotion. "i suppose so." he murmurs, before something clicks in his head. he always did have a good memory. "you look very familiar."

toska

[toska]

"i should hope not."

she means it. physis only wonders about alex for a moment before shuffling the concern to the back of her mind. they're hades agents in a forgotten castle. that's all that matters at the moment. at the same time...

"a named location might help"

physis walks in the direction of the stairs, testing each step carefully. the mamoswine stays behind with some regret.
 king