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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:10 am
Once she left the resulting silence quickly became unbearable. "...Dammit." Balthazar scowled as he promptly hopped out of bed and followed after her, though he headed for the rooftops for some fresh air and try to clear his head. "Feel free to jump in and take over any time now, man..." he muttered to himself as he watched the people below go about their daily lives.
'...And do what? I can't very well just pop back up out of the blue like that! 'Sorry I thought you were dead; I just needed time to come to terms with my shattered life', is that what you want me to say?'
"...You son of a b***h; now you decide to speak up??" It wouldn't be long before Kaistern made a scene talking to himself on the roof of a building.
'She's doing fine for herself. I failed as a king, and you seem to be filling my absence well enough. Besides, this is what you wanted, isn't it? Unbridled freedom?'
"That's not...! Uuurgh!" Balthazar scratched his head in frustration. "Yes, I wanted freedom! I never said I wanted your life!" ...No response. He sighed. "You're just making things harder for the rest of us, you whiny little b*****d..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:23 am
Ophelia took the opprotunity to listen to the gossip and daily news people spoke of to one another as she passed by, wanting anything she could find to get her mind off of her latest insecurities. It didn't work. So she did the next best thing by buying a s**t ton of tacky glass plates, pulling aside a hansome servant boy she talked to frequently, and heading towards a secluded cliff not far outside of town. She would have gone alone, but she needed someone to throw the plates for her so she could shoot them. (At this point, it seemed that only her guns would provide the comfort that she needed.)
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:33 am
"I don't want to replace you, I just don't want to be ignored..." Balthazar muttered to himself as he wandered out of town. He could hear the sound of glass breaking in the distance and decided to investigate, having mixed feelings to find it was Ophelia. "Bit of a strange hobby to have. What'd the fine china do to you?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:38 am
"If this is fine china to you, I must seriously question your tastes. These are the tackiest things I've ever seen." Ophelia snarked, her cheeks rosied slightly at Balthastern's finding her as she vented her frustrations. "They're more useful if they help me keep my aim sharp. Also more relaxing this way too."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:47 am
"Somewhere a glass maker is weeping right about now." Balthazar said as he walked over to sit on the edge of the cliff beside her, letting his legs dangle below him.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:54 am
"Then he can go weep with the bags of gold I spent on these." Ophelia joked as she motioned for the servant boy to throw another. She seemed...surprisingly aggressive as she shot each individual plate, not daring to let any shatter by hitting the ground versus her bullets. Sometimes she even went on to shoot the falling shards into even tinier pieces of broken glass.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:59 am
"That seems...excessive. Now it just looks like you've got a vendetta against the thing." Balthazar said as he watched the fragments get broken down. "I sense venting."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:14 am
"This is the most convenient way to go about it." Ophelia reloaded her gun remarkably fast before going on to shoot the plates as they were thrown, each shot coming with a word emphasized in her speech, "I show emotion, people see a weakness to be exploited. I show my face in public for long, people see a human slut to take advantage of. I show too little coin, people see a slave to their <********> whims. I show too much, and people see a new corpse in their filthy a** alleyways." Ophelia sounded increasingly frustrated, and at this point, the servant boy threw one plate as high as he could before bolting. Seeing the Dulcinea like this never boded well for anyone, and that scary man with claws looked like he could handle it well enough. She reloaded before taking some final shots for the day. "I still pine for a husband that doesn't seem to want me anymore..." That last bit, though, sounded more sad than angry. Once she'd realised what she'd just said, though, her eyes went wide and she stood herself up as quickly as possible. "I'm sorry. I've said too much.." With that, she tried to head off as quickly as possible, highly embarassed with what she'd just said.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:25 am
"Ophelia, wait!" Balthazar scrambled to his feet and caught up with her, realizing he didn't actually know what to say. "This...hasn't been easy for me either." he probably should tell her about what Kaistern was up to, but she didn't seem in the mood for news like that. "I know I'm not Kaistern, but...Look, if there's anything on your mind, you're welcome to talk to me about it...Probably save you money on tacky plates you're just gonna smash later..." he looked away as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, saying things that more or less went against how he felt at the beginning of their little arrangement.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:38 am
Ophelia simply stood there for several moments, taking deep breaths to calm herself before she'd turn and face him. She was also fighting back tears, not wanting Balthastern to see her cry ever. She only dared to turn around and face him once she had herself under control. "Thank you. I don't know if I'll take you up on that offer, seeing as how you'd never have a free moment again if I did that, but thank you." She tried to deflect at least some of the situation with humor. Ophelia honestly couldn't tell if she did it well enough or not. "Again, though, I'm sorry for just shoving all this in your face out of nowhere. It wasn't very proffessional of me, considering the circumstances and all.."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:49 am
He was a little surprised she didn't ask him about his own troubles further, after all his talk of freedom in the past, but made no mention of it. Instead Balthazar just stepped forward and gave her a comforting hug. It looked like she needed one. "I honestly can't say when, but...he'll come back."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:59 am
"I don't know if I believe you, but thanks..." Ophelia was quick to reciprocate the hug, holding him as tightly as she could for several moments before letting go and making a vain attempt at regaining her composure. "You...you mentioned that things haven't been easy for you either. Since I had my little mini-rant, it's only fair that you get to do the same." In other words, her attempt at asking Balthazar how he was feeling without sounding too sappy.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:12 pm
Balthazar looked shocked for a split second before looking away with a grimace. "I just....I'm torn." he said turning away from her. "I really shouldn't exist. I'm like an imaginary friend that grew too big for its britches. I'm a stand-in, a substitute...I just wanted some time of my own before, a chance for me to do what I wanted instead of being stuck in his head all the time, you know? I never wanted to take over his life, not like this. I'm scared that I'm getting too attached to all this; that when he does finally come to his senses, I'm not going to want to go back." he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at his feet. "This has been...downright nice, and it kinda hurts knowing that this isn't my life, at least not one I can call my own. I guess what it boils down to is that I'm starting to realize that I can't have a life of my own."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:31 pm
Ophelia quietly listened to every word Balthazar said, carefully thinking over what she would say lest she ruin the moment between them. After a while, though, she came up with the perfect way to speak her thoughts on the matter. (Or so she hoped.) "For better or for worst, you and Kaistern will always be the same person. There is no changing that. There is also no changing that, despite whatever reason you came to be, you need each other. There are certain situations that Kaistern is best at handling, just as there are some that are best left to you." Ophelia took a deep breath before she elaborated. "The life you both lead belongs to you both, yet it doesn't belong to either of you. Fighting for one to have it all will leave both of you feeling frustrated and empty, I think. So long as you can both get along and work together, coexisting as part of the whole, I believe that you will both be happiest and live the most fufilling life you can. Neither one has to die, neither one has to dissappear." Realizing how long-winded that must have sounded, Ophelia let out a small sigh before summarizing the intent of her words. "What I'm trying to say is that your life belongs to both of you. Not just to you, yet not just to Kaistern either. I hope that one day you can both get past your differences and work together, leading a better life than either of you ever could without the other. You are both important parts of a whole, both important sides of the only man I will ever love and call my husband." Somehow she had a feeling that didn't sound exactly as she wanted it to. Which she promptly apologized for. "I'm..I'm terribly sorry. I must have sounded so insensitive just now, didn't I..?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:38 pm
That last bit kind of hurt, but he tried a smirk anyway. "Two sides of the same coin and yadda, yadda, yadda...Much as I could live with that, I'm pretty sure there are some things that we just can't share. I'm not the guy you fell in love with after all." he said as he turned to walk past her back towards town.
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