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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:43 pm
Ophelia followed after him like a lonely puppy that wanted attention. "I've said my piece. How you take it is your business. But..." Ophelia bit her lip, a little embarassed to ask such a thing after so long. Not only that, but she didn't want to shatter the closeness they'd built up as of late. "...you never said that you didn't love me, did you?" If he told her outright that he didn't love her, Ophelia would drop it and take it as her fears and suspicions being confirmed. If he did, though, she didn't really know how she'd handle it.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:47 pm
Balthazar stopped in his tracks. "You're right. I never said I didn't." He hoped to leave it at that as he kept on walking. Anything more would just make things more complicated than they already were.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:03 pm
"Did I ruin things between us?" Ophelia asked, sounding for a moment even more vulnerable than she did before. She hated it, being this weak. Being this fearful of being alone. Being so clingy and jealous and heartless as she was. Most of all, she hated to think of what she would become if Balthastern didn't want to be near her anymore.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:17 pm
Balthazar sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Never before have the words 'it's not you, it's me' ever been so true..." he decided to just bite the bullet and turned to face her again. "...Hypothetically speaking, let's say I did have feelings for you. Just...let's pretend, okay? I'm not saying I do or don't love you, we're just...pretending here, okay? You fell in love with Kaistern. You married Kaistern. Same body or not, we're still different people. What would we do? Use you like a timeshare and trade places every month or so?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:30 pm
"I dont know." Ophelia averted her gaze, feeling more ashamed of herself than ever. "I just...don't know." She did her best to hide it most days, but she was pretty miserable when not around Balthastern. She felt like her life didn't have much more meaning than just gunning down people that pissed her off. She had a surprising bit of self loathing welled up inside of her, a permanent fear of being abandoned and other issues that she had yet to face. Kaistern's being gone this long made her fear that he didn't love her anymore, that he was simply treating her like another difficult problem he just didn't know how to face. Now Balthazar was being so nice to her, since he and Kaistern were both the same person - a troubled man with dissassociative identity disorder, she almost felt like she had her husband back until he started avoiding her again. For all the bravado she put up, for all the images of strength she tried to make for herself, she was just as much a childish woman in her own way with her own set of issues. "All I do know is that I'm tired of being left behind like this..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:57 pm
"Ophelia..." Balthazar pulled her into another gentle hug. Now it seemed they both could use one. "Kaistern is...." he sighed. "Kaistern's having a lot of doubts himself right now. He thinks he failed as a king and that you're happy with me and don't need him anymore. But I'll try to talk some sense into him tonight and see if I can't drag him back out again."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:12 pm
"Why does he think he failed as a king? If anything, he should be blaming the circumstances we were given and the already difficult political climate left behind from your father's reign." Ophelia seemed genuinely surprised to hear that Kaistern believed as he did. Still, that didn't stop her from taking advantage of the situation and hugging Balthastern anyway That also didn't mean that she wanted either gone in the least. Ophelia had become quite fond of both Kaistern and Balthazar, for each were sweet and charming in their own special ways. She tried to get that message across to them at times, but somehow she got the impression that she wasn't doing a good job of it.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:23 pm
"Like I said, I'll see what I can do. Just know that I can't make any promises." Balthazar said apologetically. "I don't like seeing you so down any more than he does. At least, any more than he should."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:31 pm
"I know. Thank you for being so sweet to me." Ophelia tightened the hug just a little bit, resting her head on his shoulder for a couple fleeting moments. She'd give a 'thank you' kiss on the cheek, but somehow she feared that would be going too far.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:35 pm
"Come on, let's go home." Balthazar said, letting the hug break when Ophelia wanted it too. On the way back, he kept an arm around her shoulders, deciding that if Kaistern wasn't going to be there for her, he could at least do his job as stand in. The question of course was how far could he go before it stopped being okay?
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:47 pm
Ophelia quietly walked alongside Balthastern, calming down considerably as time went along. As they drew near the guild HQ Ophelia mentioned, "There is..another path to our quarters, if you'd like to take a route that's a little less public." In other words, that kept her out of public sight in regards to the Guild. No guests were allowed, and many of the lower ranking members did not reccognise Ophelia as their leader - causing perhaps far more trouble than either of them would like.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:52 pm
"Sure, that's fine." Balthazar said calmly. He felt a little on the emotionally raw side after all that, so he was pretty quiet.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:56 pm
Ophelia let Balthastern along through a hidden escape route not too far away, eventually leading them both through a well hidden doorway into their room. "If you don't feel like facing anyone, feel free to use that pathway so long as you aren't caught or being persued."
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 3:00 pm
"I'll keep that in mind, though hopefully we won't have to use it too much." Balthazar said as he sat down on their bed.
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 3:06 pm
"If we play our cards right, we never will. Still, it's nice to have an alternative when you want to avoid somebody." For Ophelia, this was done to sometimes avoid the more annoying co-founders when they made an issue out of nothing or tried to discredit an actual issue as nothing. (Still, they were useful from time to time, so she kept them around anyway.)
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