Who: Theseus and Sophia (ex-wife, possible ghost, or just Theseus' imagination) What: Having too much time to think about skipping town, now the guilt sets in... When: Monday afternoon Where: Hawaii, Theseus' boat Warnings: Just a spooked Theseus
Theseus had been out on the water for weeks as he sailed from New York to Hawaii. It was still within the confines of that invisible barrier that kept them from staying overseas for any length of time. Lust and the ocean had been his only companion, the longer she was there, the more he didn't feel the need to return home. He thought about sailing out further but the view here was nice. The sunset was far more extraordinary on the ocean than through New York smog.
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Greed hadn't gotten a chance to get rid of Theseus' stuff in the brief time he owned the boat but if he'd gotten to really explore, he might have been able to appreciate how Theseus even could hang on to a few things. It would be when he was rummaging for a box of old fishing lures that a wave would rock the boat and out fell a trunk that had been neatly tucked away more than 50 years ago and now was exposed since he moved out all the stuff in front of it. ___________________________________
The chest nearly knocked him in the head, crashing to the floor as a wave hit the boat. Everything inside the chest started to seep out the side where it had cracked open from the collision. The antique white material caught his attention, the soft lace detailing the outline. When he preyed open the chest, he got a full view. A dress he'd completely forgotten about that had one belonged to Zoe's grandmother, Sophia. ___________________________________
The material was gorgeous, it looked like sea foam with how intricate the lace was. Sophia wasn't as much into dresses as Zoe could be but she was a natural beauty just the same. The dress that was there and once forgotten was her wedding dress that she married Theseus in. And wrapped up in the folds was a bracelet with an anchor that he had given her instead of a ring. She'd loved it she was his anchor, finally a reason to make a home... and in the end she'd become like the rest, something to weigh him down. ___________________________________
She had been really young when he'd made her his wife. To Theseus she'd been exotic, a rare beauty with soulful eyes. Zoe had those same eyes. Theseus took the bracelet, fingering its tarnished link. "I thought I had more time..." He sat back against the wall, the air in his lungs feeling tight. He inhaled sharply, a strong exhale to follow as he lost himself in his thoughts. ___________________________________
"All you immortals think you do.." and she was sitting there on top of the trunk in that wedding dress, Sophia. Her skin was dark, just like her glossy hair that was jet black and hung open, and eyes exactly like Zoe's that could just see right through you. She looked young, like when he married her but it couldn't be real.. she was dead. ___________________________________
The voice drew his attention, as he'd expected to see Lust.standing in the doorway. It wasn't her, but perhaps he'd been away from the ocean too long. Theseus looked to Sophia in that pristine white gown. She was a vision as she had been when he first met her, he a stranger. He closed his eyes and opened then expecting her to be gone but she wasn't. "I'm a failure I know." He'd visited her once after he left her the first time. He should have stayed then, just a little longing. ___________________________________
She gave him a look, "Watch your mouth, that's my husband you're talking about." her eyes rolled to the side where the door to the cabin was, "Though honey, your taste has definitely gone bad." clearly referencing Lust. ___________________________________
"I wasn't much of a husband, I never have been." He was talking to himself he was completely certain. Maybe regret, guilt, or just too much wine. He chuckled at her quip. "It has hasn't it?" He agreed. ___________________________________
She laughed and wrinkled her nose at him, Zoe did the same thing without even realizing she got it from her grandmother. her laugh melted into a wistful smile, "You know what you were good at? Dreaming. And hoping. You made me believe in a life with you, you made me believe in a man that is now fading away." ___________________________________
"My dreaming days are done. Now I just sail aimlessly." He threw his hand to the air with a wave. He'd sailed all over the world, few times settling with hopes of belonging. He still drifted from his tethered rope, never fully keeping still. It was no wonder he left so much behind. ___________________________________
"Mmm... the call to the sea." she said the words as if they were once maybe something he had said to her and she saw them for what they were, an excuse. "Should be careful... it might look like you're running away." ___________________________________
"I'm always running..." his voice lingered in the air for a time, laughing it off, but knowing he was just waiting for the next chance to run. It felt different this time though. It felt like he really was leaving something important behind. Someone he'd opened up to, his child that was quite possibly better without him. ___________________________________
"From what, Theseus....? From your job.. from your life.. from her..? Or from yourself?" was it that he was feeling closed in or was he scared that he was finally opening himself up again to a child when before he'd been betrayed. Was it possible that he ran when he was close to becoming settled because it would be less painful to run than to lose it all.. ___________________________________
"She is better off. They all are. You were..." being scorned before left Theseus with little hope in himself. Settling down meant spending legends if time with family, and he was good at keeping them at a distance. Opening up let in a world of hurt. Phadrea had returned as well while he was in the middle of figuring out this father business. And now he was reprimanded by his own thoughts.
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"No honey, you are." she crossed her hands at her wrists and rested them on her knees as she leaned forward, "You never thought about her. Or me. You're thinking of yourself. And you are one person you can't escape no matter how far you sail." he could abandon his wife, and Zoe, he could run from them, but he'd never escape his own thoughts. ___________________________________
"How are you so calm?" He was anxious inside, a feeling he usually ran from. Were his thoughts out smarting him? Sophia wasn't even real, was she? "She can manage without me. She has who she really wants. There isn't enough room for me." He was just making excuses for running, it was what he normally did, only this time he had a conscience. ___________________________________
She smiled, her eyes crinkling, "I'm not real, so that helps." she put her hands on her waist, "Do you really think I'd pick this to lounge around in?" meaning the wedding dress. But she was teasing. About what... that as unclear. She pressed the tips of her fingers together and just pierced him with her gaze, she didn't say anything about his excuses, she only said, "Zoe's first word was 'wa-wa' Not mama or dada, but 'wa-wa', water. Only baby I knew who would cry her head off and stop as soon as you popped her into a bath." she smiled, "Happy and calm as a clam. She was a pruney butterball half the time."
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Theseus always missed out on the growing up. He'd realized that it wasn't any easier dealing with them grown up, it was more difficult because they had questions, and the only answers he had now we're the same tired ones.
He was just a coward.
"I took her sailing once..." it would have been better without Greed who invaded everything. "I've never seen someone so excited about sailing other than me. She's so much like you, I thought....I thought she was you." He'd been so disappointed when it wasn't. ___________________________________
She smiled warmly, "You always did find me again. But never stayed.... when you weren't with me... your mind was on sailing.. and at sea..." she looked to the porthole, "Your mind is wandering back to what you left behind.." it was a clever way of never being satisfied, having a handy reason to always leave no matter where he was. ___________________________________
"I have..." left in her own Zoe seemed to need help, but not his. "I feel as if I'm not who she really needs." But he was everything she needed. Zoe needed a parent, a family. She had depended on him as so many did, he'd grown as a father figure only to kiss it away from Lust's prod. ___________________________________
"Like this? No, you are not who she really needs. But the man I know you're capable of being? That you have been in brief glimpses? That is who she needs." she sighed softly, "Honey, Zoe hasn't had a father figure in a very long time.. even when she was younger, the man in her life was barely ever there. She's been searching her whole life for stability and by running away you just prove to her and yourself that you are not the man for the job." ___________________________________
People didn't believe in Theseus. His story was one of a man who did what he had to succeed. It didn't always mean he did the most admirable things in order to achieve a goal. His own father believed him a turncoat, valuable as he may be. In the end Theseus was the guy who got the job done but with underhanded deals. His relationships were summed up the same.
To have someone have any kind of faith in him was a godsend. "Why have faith in me?" Under it all was a good man who'd been abused the right to be as such. ___________________________________
"You see what many, including myself have never seen. I'm a man of many hidden talents." He smirked with that rugged charm. A swindling smile that usually got him in trouble. For Sophia, it made him blush a little.
She smiled like the answer was obvious, "Because deep down, maybe buried a bit deeper than most people are willing to dig, is a good man." she gave him a look and put her hands on her hips, her full lips smiling as she raised a brow teasingly, "Or are you doubting my good taste?" since she had chosen him to love and marry. ___________________________________
She smiled, "Zoe saw it too." she leaned forward again and said softly, "Maybe it's time to stop hiding... see for yourself what I saw. I wouldn't run away with just any man, Theseus. You know I wasn't a fool. There's a reason I picked you, honey." ___________________________________
They'd met at a time that an interracial relationship was a radical move. Sophia had her choice of men, but she chose the stranger, against many people's objection. She'd followed a rogue like so many if the young hearts he'd broken before. Once they left for him, once things got hard he made a dive for new horizons. Rarely did he come back, and in this case he felt it his duty to prove he could be a hero.
"And what if she rejects me?" Zoe would hate him. ___________________________________
Sophia shrugged her shoulders, "Then you try again. Or you give up. In the end it comes down to what's worth it to you." she had waited her whole life for Theseus, for just a couple of years with him and then one last visit years after he abandoned her with their child, but for her, it had been worth it. He needed to figure out how much of Zoe's hate was worth taking to earn back her love.
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Giving up was something Theseus did when there was no other option, or when things got downright messy. He didn't like messy, and even running away now, he still felt he was tangled in a web of regret and deceit. He was just condoning his own bad behavior and rewarding it with what always kept him steady---the sea. She didn't have any answers for him this time, the ocean was quiet, just a soft whisper telling him to turn around. Or maybe that was actually his conscience. He didn't reply to Sophia (or whatever hole his mind was digging for him), but he did give it some thought.