Speech = "….."
Thoughts = […...]
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When someone heard the name of Callas, the Daunting Leadder of the Spina Di Rasula it always created some sort of effect in Fontaine.
The wicked shivered with fright
The innocents looked at them with hope
And even the wealthy families and merchants of the city were not as eagerly to dismiss his request as they would anyone else when he seemed to be one of the few people able to have a long and steady conversation with the Ludex Neuvillete.
Some people said that he was a magician
Others that he knew everything that went by in Poisson.
A strategist of the highest calibre.
A pirate turned noble in his endeavours.
However, as rumours went by he was lucky that none had gone to spread misinformation or slander. And dthat was a big surprise to be taken into consideration given how much the people of Fontaine loved their gossip and wild theories that popped from time to time in the tabloids.
Filled with nonsense more often than not..
But nonsense that people tended to believe nonetheless
However, he was sure that no one had the passing thought of him just having a liking to take a stroll out into the countryside from time to time. Especially with all the things that were set to happen tomorrow, but... what was there not to like? There air was clean, there was none of that buzzing of gears and clockwork going by like it did in Fontaine nor there seemed to be any problems in need of solving on miles around if you ignored the presence of Hilichurls at that.
But eh...details, right? Not that he had managed to find one for a while...
And lastly but no less important….no politics
The day the bushes started speaking Fontainian was the day he knew the end of times was coming. Until then, he better enjoy it as long as he could.
True, the day was actually more bothersome than normal. And perhaps wearing black and a cape in this particular weather was not the wises of choices, archon's knew why the sun had decided to shine so particularly insistent today on Fontaine. However sometimes a man had to make sacrifices to keep their style….. and who knew, perhaps a brigand with more guts than sense would try to challenge him and he could flash them with his expertise with the blade?
The ghost of a small smirk seemed to be about to warp around the edges of his lips at that thought.
But...it slowly died out.
Sighing loudly, half lid eyes gazing at the glimmering surface of the small pond of water a few meters below the slop he was sitting over, the light refracting from its surface, leaving a glimmering effect to take place on the waters.
He remembered when his father had brought him here, or more like dumped his ass down there without warning in order to tell him to learn to swim or drown, whatever came first...
Callas had cursed more in that day than anywhere else in his life
A fun memory nowadays…
..
..
But no, he had not come here looking for games or to reminisce about the past. In fact fun was the furthest thing in his mind at the moment.
The small clearing was a peaceful place, one that had always helped him to collect his thoughts when he felt troubled back then when he was a naive kid, a young brat and then….now. The sun shining dimly against the foliage while a small current of water dripped down the slop of the hill, filling a small pond a few meters underneath his feet.
A quiet place…away from all the deafening noise and stress of life that came with it.
Slowly, he put his hat over his lap before his hand clutched a small pebble between his fingers, spinning it under his palms...grinding it each and every time he clenched tightly his hand into a fist, feeling the way its rough texture bit into his skin the more pressure he put into it.
The warmth of the skin of his hand slowly cooling down the more he held it.
Someone would have told him that he should be watching over Navia
That he should be walking by in Poisson in case someone needed help
He should be rehearsing for the speech that was going to take place tomorrow..
The speech…
He gently rose his head, his gaze becoming lost as they tried to peer at something beyond the foliage of the trees obscuring the sky above his head.
It was surprising how something so simple felt so strange to him. He was no stranger to speak in public...but this was not the same as talking in front of his peers or those people he had come to know for decades.
The weight of the act felt more heavy on his shoulders..
Knowing that a more sensible He should be talking with Meluse and Silver about how to create a positive shift on his constituents about the new Aquabus line connecting into their homes…, to reassure them that a better tomorrow awaited them as now Fontaine and Poisson were now linked in more ways than a sheet of paper…..and plan for the worse if it came to it.
He sighed again, the edges of his lips slowly curling downwards for a brief moment. It seemed that he was doing this quite a lot this days, wasn't he..?
It was what was expected of him as the Leader of the Spina. What he had to do as the one the people trusted with their problems and necessities., but Callas could not…not today at least.
Not at the anniversary of her passing...
A pang of pain coursed through his chest as that line of though lingered in his mind for far too long for his liking, bringing forlorn memories tainted with the sadness born out of loss and grief, yet it was one that was rapidly quashed before it took too much hold.
Perhaps it was not something that any man should have to be forced to do, to deny themselves to grief…, to let it all out, but people depended on him. Adding to it his pride then a dangerous concoction was made.
Perhaps...that was why he always chose this day in particular to vent.
To walk away, to leave and not look back at the streets where a young stubborn man and a gentle soul that shone as bright as the sun met so long ago.
Where they shared their dreams.
Held each other hands
Laughed together
Cried together...
Callas closed his eyes, throwing the pebble from his hands into the pond below, hearing the soft splash that followed when it reach the waters below.
..
..
"Our daughter is growing one step at a time..., every day she looks so much like you.." He muttered softly, slowly tilting his head back, his blue eyes glancing at the blue skies above his head.
".."
"We also managed to finish the new Aquabuss line...just like I promised you. And the Ludex himself wants me to make a speech about it, hah...could you believe that? Me making speeches?" He scoffed at that ludicrous idea, yet there was a hint of mirth in his voice.
Of all the things that humourless judge could throw at him….none had been as funny as said request.
It was a bit funny in its own way.
".."
"Yeah, I thought the same….but I suppose that I could find a thing or two to say if only short enough to avoid boring the common folk to death..." After all, it was always such a pain to be stuck in a chair when a nameless idiot started blabbering about without end.
No need to continue such an annoying trend.
He shook his head one more time in the pang of mild amusement that hit him, bringing a hand to his face, fingers darting to the strands of his eyepatch. The phantom pain slowly retuning, but it was not that sting that made him grimace ever so slightly.
No...
It was the lack of her warmth.
"If only you were here to see it…."
It was a bitter thing...
To say it..
More so to admit it.
Alas, the president of Spina Di Rasula was not so easily deterred by what ifs and what could have been. Life was just that way, he was hopeful that with all their efforts, Poisson would change for the better. And if it cost him his other eye? Then so be it, he would pay any price if only to make Navia live in a better world than the one he had found.
Perhaps one day he would show this place to his daughter.
Ah, he could almost picture it...the two of them alone with their thoughts in this place, accompanied by the peaceful silence of the countryside and that person coming out of a set of bushes- [Wait what..?] He stumbled on his thoughts the very moment he realized what that las thought had been.
His face creasing in confusion.
A person..?
Here..?
That could not be..! As far as he knew no one was aware of this hidden small pond, it was far too disconnected with the main travelling routes to be noticed. An adventurer? Doable thought..., but unless they were lost and stumbled on it he could explain how they came to be here in the first place.
His head buzzed with activity as he tried to understand whether it was mere happen-stance or someone had actually tagged him. Nonetheless...none of that changed that there was a person at the other end of the shore. Tapping his knees he stood up from where he stood if only to take a better look
She was young..and tall to boot. Wearing elegant yet practical clothing for the weather….which seemed to have seem better days for now it appeared to be stained with some sort of black ooze? Blood? Dirt? It was hard to say from where he stood. Still, it was not enough to hide away her physique nor the shades of her dazzling mane with the way it was tied in a long ponytail behind her back.
For something that looked drenched in practicality, it was kinda stylish he had to admit…
He liked that.
Or perhaps he was just happy to find another cape wearing individual in this weather.
Making up an idea in his head he was about to show himself and drop down the slope to greet the woman that had just now loosen her ponytail, freeing her hair to cascade down her shoulders and back.
However something put a stop to to such plans.
And it had to do with the way the woman was fidgeting with her...shirt?
He did not understand.
However when the woman took her first steps into the water and a spot of glistening, bare skin started to be exposed from her heaving chest in the form of a prominent cleavage a cold shudder started to crawl behind his back.
She was disrobing of her dirty garments…
And she had not taken notice of HIS presence..!
[Oh please...not again!] Panic and something else started to flare up in his heart as button after button came undone. He tried to raise his voice, to warn her not to do that... the last thing he ever wanted was to be called a pervert like in his youth for a moment so much alike this one.
Once was way too many..!
But by then it was too late as the last button came undone and-
"Sacrebleu~!"
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A/N
grifman275 : "lmao, Arle Burton. She needs to put some of these pictures on the fridge." Oh yes, they are going to put those drawings to good use.
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"And despite how brutal this was, it was self-defnese and a mercy killing." = True, but that wont stop her from the trauma that comes from it even if with time will go away. You just dont wake one day and kill dozens and sleep soundly the next day. Sadly for her, it just going to get worse.
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she'll get some research grant/phd in hilchurl studies cause no one was insane enough to do it haha." Why do I have the feeling that Suncrosse would want to get some notes from Bena about Hilichurls if she ever heard of her "studies"?
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"But will she become as strong as Canon now that she has a caring mother and isn't fighitng to overthrow her and getting stronger as a harbinger?" You underestimate the power of Murphys bullshitery laws going hand in hand with Tevats predestine screwed fate system trying to push things into the "correct path".
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Akira-Fiction: Oh? Muchas gracias por tus palabras, estoy contento que hayas encontrado la historia no sólo atractiva sino tamibén interesante. Espero que puedas disfrutar el resto de la historia y sientete libre de dar más reviews :)
Kirby The God Eater: When I was young I liked Nightmare before Christmass...but as I grew up I ended appreciating and loving the story of Corpse Bride. Perhaps the reason I did not saw the tragic beauty of it before had to do with that feeling I had that the ending for the bride felt not as happy as I would have wanted, however..I now do believe that the Bride got while bittersweet the best ending that she could have gotten for Victor gave her what she had been denied in life.