Who: Gray & Elia What: Reunion Where: Elia's dome When: Backdated; late Sunday / early Monday morning, after shifts. Warnings: Mention of trauma and death probably; tbd
Finding Elia's new residence was easy enough. With the new proximity came the familiar second-sense of simply knowing, or feeling, where she was. Even while tending to the cirque's menagerie he'd sensed her presence, a comforting, aching familiarity like cool fingers pressed to his nape. There she was, a distinct force somewhat southeast of the stalls. There she moved, an elegant shadow, gliding towards Suadela as the sun finally set upon Yokohama.
Also, it was actually a dome. His split brow spiked in amused incredulity as he followed the internal compass afforded by the Void's influence like a looney toon following the delicious sent of pie and set first eyes upon it. He wasn't sure why this was surprising, exactly, but hey, leave it to El to surpass the norm.
A nervous flutter clawed at his throat, Adam's apple bobbing around a sudden dryness of the mouth. It'd been five years since he'd last seen her. Half-crazed in grief and vengeance, sinking deeper into the Void's influence. Of course they'd maintained communication once he'd left. She was there in the shadows some nights when he dreamed, a comforting solidity in the shapeless, endless dark. In the nights following his death, he'd lost her... And in those weeks, haunted and hunted and verging on insanity, she'd called him instead by more mundane means, his cellphone almost constantly alight each evening with her demanding to know just what, the heck, had happened.
So much had happened. So much had changed. Raking restless fingers into the soft, dampened curls of his hair, he hesitated outside her door like a nervous suitor. The sun was just beginning to rise on the cirque, the horizon limned in gold and lilac. Closing time, in other words, and around him the cirque shifted and tucked itself in like a sleepy child. He'd closed down the menagerie, rewarded his quadrupedal friends for jobs well done, and had gone home to rinse the smell of grass and animal from his hair and skin. A courtesy, really, after a full day of hanging out in the stalls and stables. And now here he was. Ready -- and also unready -- to face her again.
Elia. His teacher. Mentor. Sensei. Jedi Master. Whatever.
Would she be disappointed in what he'd become? Something altogether different -- altered -- from who and what he'd been before?
He raised his fist, hesitated one more time, then knocked. It was time to find out.