Dead Empress Backwater ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind

And so I tell myself that I'll be strong

Seri Donata

and dreaming when they're gone

Seri opened his mouth to answer his friend’s scoff, but words never came out… and Seri paused for a moment as he considered it. Perhaps his own perspective was warped… an only child who happened to have siblings, none of whom he was close to… and yet it didn’t stop him from weighing in.

“Wolves are complicated, Er… just because he thought with his dick and made a mistake doesn’t mean he isn’t who you thought he was… clearly all it takes is one time, and at least he’s sticking around and by her. Would you rather he have run away from his responsibilities as a father? It just means that he made a mistake. I’m sure he realizes that enough internally… especially with your Da driving him out.” He added, sympathetic to Archer but not in a way that would stand against his best friend either. “And family is even more complicated… I found out who my dad was after my mom threatened to fight him on the mountain for telling me.” That had become something of a core memory locked away in his mind.

He couldn’t say he was close with Kateri in any way, shape, or form… not when he hardly knew her apart from the fact that they shared a father. “What kind of brother did you think he was?”

Seri's response immediately felt like a defense of Archer. Eros tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, to understand that what his friend was trying to do was dissolve the knot within the young Valle's heart. It didn't make it much easier to hear and bear, however. He found himself irritated, even a little... hurt, he supposed.

"The kind that doesn't get horny when he's supposed to be crying."

The answer came sharply, and Eros was back on his paws swiftly after. The tide of emotions within him had shifted again, and just like that he no longer felt like explaining anything more to Seri. If he didn't have a problem with what Archer and Kateri did, then good for him. He could be happy with that and leave Eros to his own feelings, then.

"I don't feel like justifying myself right now. Can we just not?"

And so I tell myself that I'll be strong

Seri Donata

and dreaming when they're gone

He watched and listened as Eros shut down in front of him, snapping at him and getting irritable and he let out his own frustrated sigh. He didn’t know how to help. He wished he did but it was becoming clear that he had no idea with the way that Eros reacted.

Was it justifying? Or was it his resistance to accepting that he couldn’t control everything? Seri didn’t know.

He loved Eros. He wanted to see him happy… but nothing Seri did seemed to work.

And so wordlessly, he turned and walked away, intent to give the other man the space he had requested. If Eros didn’t want to, then they wouldn’t.

The sound of Seri's frustration sent Eros' ears backwards against his skull. Still he waited for a response, expecting verbal but instead receiving a physical sign. Without another word his closest friend turned and left him alone. He watched him go, a deep emptiness taking over with every step further the Vuesain took.

Eros did not know what to name the emotions that broiled within him. All he could recognize was the chasm growing within, the distinct absence of those he'd once trusted explicitly. With unfocused eyes, the young Valle eventually meandered elsewhere...

(This post was last modified: Sep 26, 2023, 08:11 AM by Eros.)