Feb. Catchall, OTA

[sandinmyhair]

🧙 WHO: Bruno and all of you. Yes, even you!
⚔️️ WHAT: Event stuff, quest stuff, and anything else.
🕒 WHEN: Now.
🗺️ WHERE: Here!
⚠️ WARNINGS: None, will update as needed

Prompts live in the comments. Or feel free to drop your own prompt!

Comments

[sandinmyhair]

Yeah, that'd do it.

"Yeah. Good thing all I need to do is let him out to hunt, huh?" He can't imagine there's such a thing as Hellhound Kibble. He accepts the towel with a murmur of thanks and gets to rubbing the stuff out of his hair. Fortunately there isn't all that much in it, though he's ended up with a frizzy patch, now.

He chortles, smiling that same almost wistful smile that he always does when Joph tells stories of his home. Everyone should have people like that in their life--people who drive you mad but whom you love with all your soul.

He's not going to let that aching empty spot hurt today.

When the other steps out of the room for a moment, Bruno waits, still smiling a little, idly scritching between Elizabeta's ears with one finger. And when he reappears with the bundle of yarn Bruno tilts his head.

He unfolds it. It's... it's a gift. Something made specifically for him. "Thank you...." He grins, and that grin is already getting wibbly. He'll probably never not have that reaction when people gift him things; that warm little squeeze in the chest, that lump in the throat, the tears in his eyes even though he can't stop smiling.

He strips the ruana off, carefully putting it aside, and pulls the hoodie on over his head with an immediacy one usually doesn't see from someone who hasn't got a Yule Cat in their folklore. The warmth soaks in and he nearly melts. Impulsively, he wraps his arms around Joph in a tight hug--a thing he does rather a lot, really.

Fuego emerges from under the table, yawns, and wuffles: Ate your feelings again, I see?

Rude! Bruno flushes a dusky red with a slight twitch as those words hit home. "Uh. Yeah. Well. Y'know. No point in staying in bed if you wake up in the middle of the night with dreams you don't wanna remember and wow, wouldja look at the time, it's I-said-too-much o'clock." He quickly grabs the plate, upending Elizabeta from where she'd been sniffing at the bits left over. She squeaks indignantly and Bruno murmurs something about not wanting her to get sick before he steps into the kitchen to very pointedly rattle dishes about. He's Not Upset, No Sirree....

[gutteringlight]

Jophrey returns the hug with a sheepish laugh. "Yes. Well. Hot stew and a fireplace can only do so much, after all. And you'd be amazed at what you can do with good highland wool, even without magic." Oh gods, do not let him start talking about yarn "Oh! And I made sure the pocket was big enough for Elizabeta." He glances over at her and smiles. "Or you can ride in the hood, if you're so inclined."

They've barely separated when Fuego's comment sends Bruno fleeing towards the kitchen. He follows, pausing only to give the hellhound an exasperated look, and lays a hand on the other man's shoulder. "You miss them," he says. "I wish I could say it gets better with time, but..."

[sandinmyhair]

Bruno goes still when touched, but doesn't pull away. After a moment he sighs, shoulders slumping.

"I have so many dreams about them. Sometimes they're here with me and other times I'm home, again. And I don't know which is worse, the ones where their lives are the same without me or-or the ones where me not being there causes some kind of disaster." He drops the bunched-up washcloth into the water with a small splash and watches it slowly expand. "Is it worse than when I was in hiding? I dunno. I can't watch them, or listen to them, I can't-I can't smell food cooking, I can't try to fool myself into thinking for just a moment that I'm back with them. Sure, it's not all right there, just out of reach, enough to drive me nuts, but I'm cut off completely, now."

He'd said only the vaguest of things about his ten years in the walls of his own home until now, usually as a self-depreciating joke here and there. This is the first time he's strung together this many words about it, and he's starting to look as though he regrets it. He briefly looks up at Jophrey and his usual rueful half-smile is back.

"Or maybe it's just papayas and oranges, huh?" He blows a sigh. "Nothing I can do about it right now except, well, 'eat my feelings,' I guess," he concludes with a small laugh.

[gutteringlight]

"This probably isn't much of a comfort, but...from what they told me, time has stopped everywhere but here. Your home, my home...everywhere. So...once we've fixed everything, and I know we will, we'll go home to the same family we left with not a breath of time passed." He smiles to himself and grabs one of the dishes to dry.

"I had another family once," he says after a pause, staring at the faint outline of his reflection in the plate he's holding. "Before the Psions, before...well, everything, really. They're gone now. Even after four years, the what-ifs never stop." The bone dry dish starts to squeak under the equally dry cloth, but he doesn't seem to notice.

[sandinmyhair]

"Well, I guess that's one worry taken care of." He does vaguely remember Felih having told him something similar, but to be honest, that whole day was a bit foggy, what with the near-drowning. "I wonder, though, how long I'll be here. What if I come back home and I'm suddenly several years older?" He chortles. "Ay, Bruno," they'd say, "You look even worse, now!"

He's not the oblivious sort, though, and he notices the squeaking, as well as Jophrey's words. Now it's his turn to try to be comforting, and he reaches out a hand, placing it on the other's, probably to stop him. "That's the thing with families, I guess. You never stop worrying. The what-ifs never stop." He smiles that sad little smile of his. "I'd like to hear about them, if you want."

[gutteringlight]

Jophrey laughs. "I don't think they'd recognize me anyway. I was a bloody tailor before..." He cuts himself off, his smile fading. "...Well. Before the Calamity. Nearly ended the world. I had the buggering idiot luck to survive but the rest of my family?" He shakes his head.

"But you would have liked them, I think. My youngest Lily, she wanted to be a healer, and she already knew more about plants and herbs than I ever could. Sweet and gentle as a lamb, she was.

"Now Anya? Anya was fierce as a coeurl, and with twice the fight in her. She wanted to join the Ser--well, the army, and gods, was she furious when I wouldn't allow it." The smile returns, just a little. "As if any father'd allow their daughter to run off in a bloody war. Another year and she wouldn't have needed my leave but...well."