Departure In The Aftermath (Kara)

The bell rang as Tamwyn stepped through the door of Eclipse Unlimited. The shop was of course owned by his sister Kara and he had arrived a few days after they had spoken where the revelation that they were indeed family came to light. He had placed an order from her for a bulk of materials that he himself could not craft. Simply because of a lack of capability in creating custom compounds and such things. Really, he wasn't much of a chemist anymore since he had returned. Like all of the knowledge had simply gone from his head. Still, Kara had told him that the materials would be available that evening. Since he was leaving the village he would need to pick them up as he intended to never return if he could help. In his hand the amber eyed man held a scroll, his fist clenching onto it as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world to him and he nearly jumped when a cute, chipper, and polite voice spoke up. "Welcome to Eclipse Unlimited! My name is Priscilla, how can I help you today?" She would ask, her bright blue eyes looking toward him as he stood in the doorway like a fucking lump.

"O-Oh, my apologies. I'm here to pick up an order and to leave a message with Miss Darhk. I'm leaving the village and wanted to ensure she was informed of such information. My name is Tamwyn for the order. It's just a bunch of materials." He would say, his eyes looking tired but still quite a bit frazzled. He was coming down from an emotional roller coaster ride and his body was reacting poorly. He needed to get away from this place and fast but he wouldn't leave with the materials and letting his sister know. He knew he could call her with the Twin Seal, however he did not feel the need to bother her with such an interruption. Leaving her with a message would ensure she knew that he was gone. He needed her to know that so that she knew if she appeared next to him as she claimed she could it might not be safe. Even then he felt strange just leaving. However he was mentally and emotionally strung out and he wanted to avoid a long conversation if he could help it.

He clutched the scroll to his form tightly, his eyes meeting Priscilla's as she brightened up in recognition. "Yessir Mr. Tamwyn! Your order is ready. Please wait here a moment while I get it." She would say, turning to step to the back for a moment without giving him a chance to respond. He didn't mind, the less he had to say the better at this point. By now news would have spread of his return to the village from the Mountains. It wasn't exactly subtle, the obvious proof of that dripping from his hair onto the floor. He grimaced down at it. He hated leaving a mess and so he was definitely content to stand right where he was as Priscilla had stated. Ragardless, the village by now knew he had returned with a corpse wrapped in a cloak, a relatively small one. The rage and sadness he had demonstrated as he walked with solemnity toward the palace would undoubtedly be spread around too. No, it wouldn't take long for news of his wives death to spread. He wanted to get out of town before the 'condolences' and the 'I'm sorry for your losses' began. He honestly did not know how he would handle them.

[1]

Kara was sitting in a comfortable armchair in her suite in Shimiko Towers, reading up on the latest ’medical breakthroughs’ to come out of the ‘best and brightest’ in the world’s leading medical experts. It was comedy to her and as such she was laughing as she heard a sharp knock on the door. Grumbling under his breath Doku, her beautiful and stupid body guard, would answer the door, swinging it just wide enough to converse without letting whoever it was get a view of his Mistress. After a short conversation Doku would close the door and walk to the living room where Kara was sitting still engrossed in her journal.

“Mistress, Tamwyn has arrived at thuh Kumo shop. Dja wonna go now?”

Eloquent as ever, Doku informed Kara of what the messenger had told him - a runner sent by Priscilla as per instructions from Kara should Tamwyn enter the shop. Kara had of course been concerned when word of Tamwyn’s return home had spread like wildfire. This return had not been a jubilant one as this time, instead of a resurrection there was a corpse. Kara knew what it meant and when she hadn’t heard from him initially she had set up the instructions with her various employees to alert her immediately should he arrive anywhere she could speak with him. Priscilla for her part was busy ‘looking’ for Tamwyn’s order so that the messenger would have time to reach Kara. She would have used the Twin Seal to get his attention, but she also didn’t want to unduly bother him in his time of grief. Him arriving in her shop though, that was practically him reaching out to her anyway, so she felt not at all bad about meeting him under those circumstances.

Putting aside the medical journal, she would rise from her seat and smooth out the imaginary wrinkles from her black gown. She slipped her bare feet into the five inch stilettos beside her chair and moved over to Doku. Placing her left hand on his shoulder she would nod solemnly, “Yes, Doku. We need to go now. Do me a favour though, and be kind. The man just lost his wife by all accounts and no matter how you feel about him, now is not the time.” Doku would nod in agreement - he was an ass to be sure, but he wasn’t that much of an ass. With a sudden surge of chakra both Kara and Doku would pop out of existence and reappear in her shop, Doku looking slightly queasy.

They had arrived in the back of the shop where Priscilla was dutifully rummaging through random items to give Kara more time, and the young woman yelped in surprise as Kara and Doku appeared. “I’ll take it from here, Priscilla.” The young employee nodded and moved out of the way as Kara picked up the small crate of materials she had set aside for Tamwyn and carried them into the front of the shop. Both Doku and Priscilla remained in the back, though Doku hovered near the door dividing the space as was his duty. All told Priscilla would have made him wait for just over six minutes, and in that time more water had undoubtedly dripped into a puddle at Tamwyn’s feet. Kara did her best to ignore the mess, and instead focused her golden gaze on her brother, assuming he hadn’t run off into the rain. She would place the crate on the front counter and then move around it to where Tamwyn stood. She didn’t know how to deal with loss, as was evidenced by her expensive and fairly self destructive habits, and she most definitely did not know how to deal with a family member that was grieving.

Kara was well versed in psychology, but she had never been so close to trauma as she had been in the past few years. She knew all of the things you were and were not supposed to do in a situation like this; but all the knowledge in the world did not prepare her for how she would feel. She wanted to tell him she was sorry, that he had her condolences. . . and she would have meant it. But the words sounded empty and hollow even as she recited them in her head. To see his face, his pain and the way he gripped a small scroll. . . her heart broke for him. She didn’t like feeling vulnerable like this, but she had also made the conscious decision to attempt to be a good sister to him, and part of that was sharing grief.

She couldn’t think of what to say, so she did the only thing that came to mind in that moment. She would reach for him to embrace him, a comfortable hug unlike the one before that had been so awkward and filled with the unknown days before. Whether he allowed it or not, she would speak quietly and calmly. “Tell me, dearest brother. What do you need?”

Tamwyn waited for a time, moving not far from where he had been but moving all the same. He realized about two minutes after Priscilla had gone into the back that he was blocking the front door. That was not acceptable. So he stepped aside to ensure it was not block and used his free hand to pull his hair back behind his head so that rather than most of it dripping directly onto the ground as it had been. It would instead be dripping mostly upon his clothing. It wasn’t like he was not already wet after all and this way he kept most of it from the shops floor. He did not intend to be a bother. Or at least he intended to be as minor of one as possible. Alone in the front room he would be with his thoughts as he replayed the conversation with Ryuko again and again in his mind. Particularly the words ‘“If you wish to cast blame for this incident perhaps you should start with yourself!.”’ They had been vicious words, and he had been doing so the entire time. Even as he threw accusation after accusation at the woman and the ANBU in her command.

He still felt like they had failed. It wasn’t hard to navigate those mountains. However he was far more focused on his own part to play. If he hadn't been so weak against Raiju. If he had only won, or even just survived long enough to let Shimiko take care of it. This never would have happened. If he had managed to live, then Yenn would not be dead. What was left of her would not be sealed up within the scroll he held to his chest. He had lost track of time at this point and failed to realize that he had been waiting for a bit longer than one might have expected for a simple pick up. So it came as a surprise to him when Kara herself strode out from the back room, carrying a small crate and setting it upon the front counter and moving around to him. Her golden eyes staying on his and his on hers. She moved to stand before him, and he watched her. Watched as she stood there before she moved forward, arms outstretched, and wrapped her arms around him.

It wasn’t the awkward hug they had shared earlier. This was a hug that spoke of care, and closeness. Of one sibling trying to do what she could for another. Instinctively, his arms snapped up around her. Hugging her tight, and without any control his shoulders would begin to rise and fall as he sobbed. No water escaped his eyes to dirty her however. He had run out of tears on the way to the village. When she spoke, her voice was calm, and quiet. Exactly what he needed at that moment. A hug, and a voice that sounded of comfort. She asked him what he needed and he took a moment to compose himself. “I’m leaving the village. Ryuko said that as far as legality was concerned my commission hadn’t been reinstated from when I died. So I was a private citizen. I can’t stay here, can’t be here. I only stopped by to pick up the materials and to ensure I got a message to you. I didn’t want to bother you by using the seal.” He would say, speaking for more than he would expect to if he was being perfectly honest. “Ryuko and I argued, quite publicly, well, in front of her ANBU anyway. I blamed her and them for what had happened. I was angry, Ryuko told me to blame myself. Granted that’s a paraphrase. Regardless, I can’t be here anymore. Won’t be here anymore. I think I’m going to travel around and try to clear my head after making the equipment I told you about before.” He would say simply, his voice dropping off into quietness before shaking his head. “But you asked me a specific question and I’ve been rambling. I’m sorry, I can’t think of anything specific you could do for me, my sister. I’m going to travel and find a suitable place to bury my wife. If anything I might ask how you managed to do it after Damien. How did you hold yourself together? I feel like I’m about to fall apart and I don’t know what to do.” He would finish, his voice cracking at the end due to the heavy emotions.

It was clear to any who saw that he was the kind of mess that the puddle dreamed of being when it graduated from ‘puddle school’. Although he personally didn’t know what that might entail. Eventually however he would let her go, dropping his arms from her and stepping back a step. Giving her a shadow grateful smile to her for the gesture. No one had bothered to hug him since he returned. Granted he hadn’t exactly given many a chance. His golden eyes would look into hers, giving her his full attention for the question he had asked. He needed to know, like a fish needs water he needed it.

When Kara held her arms out to embrace Tamwyn she wasn’t sure he would accept, everyone dealt with pain differently and it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for him to wish to remain untouched. So it was a bit of a surprise when his arms snapped to hug her tightly, though in retrospect she shouldn’t have been surprised remembering his reaction to her news that they were siblings. She hugged him tighter as she felt him shake as he sobbed, and then a curious thing happened. . . Kara empathized. Her throat stung as grief welled up in it, tears pricked at her eyes and rolled silently down her cheeks as her heart cried out for him. She stood there and held him until he stepped back, not willing to break the embrace until he did.

She listened quietly, biting back her own sobs as he explained what had happened when he spoke to Ryuko and what his intentions were. When he finally took a step back from her she would try to subtly wipe away the tears from her face before looking up at him again and answering his questions. She would attempt to place her left hand gently on his arm as she spoke, her voice still calm and quiet, years of practice hiding the heartache in her voice. “My dear brother, what a terrible burden to bear.” She was angry to hear that he had been publicly blamed for his wife’s death, while he himself was dead, by the Queen no less. “If you must blame yourself, do not do it for long. That will destroy you. I do not believe it was your fault, but it doesn’t matter what I believe. What do you believe?” The question was mostly rhetorical, meant to inspire introspection more than anything, however she would give him a second to answer if he so chose before moving on. “I understand not wanting to stay here. . . but. . .” She had to consider her words carefully, in her own time of grief when first hearing the news of Damien’s murder she had been vehemently against being told what she should do. With a sigh she would lower her hand from Tamwyn, assuming he had allowed her to place it there, and run her organic fingertips over her metallic arm as she thought. “How did I hold myself together. . . Well, I didn’t. I fell apart. I was. . . a wreck. I drank more than anyone my size has any right to live through and then when that didn’t prove to be possible anymore. . . I buried my pain in anything I could get my hands on. Doku, for example. And countless others. It wasn’t. . . isn’t the best approach, but it holds the pain away for a while. If you like, I could take you away from here. I have a city, Darhkvale, far from here and all the haunted memories that Kumogakure holds. You would be safe and cared for there, it might give you some respite. Just say the word and we can leave immediately.”

If Tamwyn agreed, Kara would summon Doku and direct him to carry the small crate of supplies and then stand next to her and Tamwyn. Outstretching her left hand she would direct both of them to grasp it and in an instant they would disappear from Kumogakure, her focus on a kunai.

[Exit Thread - Using FTG to take Doku and Tamwyn with her to Darhkvale.]

He felt their hug tighten as his sobs began. Felt her hold him tight, and he relished the contact, needed it. He was always a very tactile person. With Yenn he had always been touching her, and not always sexually, although there had been plenty of that. He just enjoyed the physical contact of people. So when he stepped away, it was indeed reluctantly, but he would do so and he would catch her subtly wiping away tears. Although he would not comment on it. This was a day for many of them as far as he was concerned. When she raised her hand to his arm he wouldn’t even try to stop her. Her voice when she spoke was quiet, and calm. He would listen to her, nodding as he noted everything. When she asked what he believed he would pause and think. What did he believe? He didn’t know, and that could either be a good thing or a bad one as far as he was concerned. However for now, for that brief moment, it didn’t matter. He could take up that issue with himself later.

He would listen intently as she spoke of how she had dealt with it. Nodding in understanding when she commented on drinking, and using individuals in order to help get through it. Honestly, Tamwyn feared he might go down a similar path. Even now he wanted a strong drink and felt the need for physical contact. The desire for someone, anyone, to help him forget for a time. Then however she would speak of a possibility and his eyebrows would raise in mild surprise. It was perfect. She had a city that was not near Kumogakure. He could get out of the village immediately and he could have a safe place to get his head together for a time. Nodding his head, almost desperately, he would agree “Please..” He would say as the only word in response and she would immediately summon Doku. Tamwyn would nod to the man in greeting, for once not starting anything and Doku not starting any in return. Now wasn’t the time, and when she outstretched her hand and directed both of them to grasp it, they would. Doku carrying the crate of materials under one arm while Tamwyn held only the scroll in his hands.

[Exit]

[3]

Instant traveling to Darhkvale via Kara using Flying Thunder God. All aboard the Kara Express.