[ P ] Mommy issues

Desperation all but oozed from his pores. Year of military training was the only thing keeping the Colonel together these days. With a few skilled shadows in his wake, Kenzo stepped boldly into Saora. This so called peace was well timed, though even wartimes wouldn't have been able to keep him from stepping into the highlands in search of his wife.

He had lost their trail in the lowlands and now he was following breadcrumbs. Frustration and hopelessness made for a lethal cocktail and had resulted in some innocent questioning going too far. Kenzo had only one regret, that he didn't have more to go on. There was so little he knew about this man, only that he was likely a lifelong criminal. But the Verlice family didn't buckle under pressure. Pressure created diamonds and Kenzo was full of sharp edges.

On the southern border of Aberdeen, he trailed the coast, his stride long and his pace agitated. Hackles stood mostly erect, as they did most days now. Emerald and lilac eyes blazed with a starvation for retribution. Dark nostrils flared, constantly sucking in air and all the scents that came with it. Everyday that Adeline was gone, was another day spent in the grasp of the monster who took her. Kenzo had seen what villians were capable of, their depravity knowing no bounds when it came to those stuck under their thumb. His mind ran rampant with all the possibilities of what his wife was enduring.

It made him sick to his stomach. He gnashed his teeth as a result. The once well composed Colonel now hung on by a thread, his control frayed and threatening to snap all together.




art + code: clae

In recent days, Merrin had developed an attachment to seashells. She had always admired them during long walks on the beach, but now she collected them. It became an almost obsessive hobby after she'd moved away from flowers and gardening. This activity would keep her moving in her old age just as well. It was difficult for her to spy a shell from afar and assume it was whole or that it was not one of similar size and shape to one she already had.

With her eyesight being so poor now, the elder woman had to go up to each she'll and examine it carefully before setting the ones she wanted to keep aside. Every once in a while she would find a friend living inside one and gasp with surprise before moving along. She found a curled looking shell with a beautiful opalescent sheen, perfectly intact and held it close once she'd decided she would take it. It reminded her of...well, no...she couldn't think that way anymore. Before her mind could get busy about the disastrous meeting with Lenora, she returned to peeling up more shells from the water-packed sand.

Merrin felt a thump, thump, thump against the seaside earth and she realized it was footsteps quickly. Her ears flicked upward before she tilted her head up, alert and ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Squinting, she saw that there was a large, lumbering figure headed down the beach in her direction. From the way it had its head lowered and stalking, she knew that she certainly did not want to be in the way. She would've scrambled immediately had the hulking mass not been so close already and so she flattened herself fearfully...until she caught a scent on the salty ocean breeze. Kenzo? She lifted herself slowly, but her body remained on-guard, unsure of what exactly he was doing there and why he looked like he would thrash the first wolf he saw.

@Kenzo

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

  

A flicker o movement caught his attention. His head snapped up, eyes zeroing in on the earthen form. Hope that it was Adeline was quickly dashed, this intruders coat was brown, not red. A moment later, recognition flickered in his expression. Merrin. Looking around, he realized he had traveled closer to her home than he ever thought he would again. Kenzo had not returned to these cliffs since he replaced the sheeps skin, ensuring she stayed warm in the winter after saving his life. But here he was, driven back into the highlands, back to these cliffs. The only difference now, was he didn't have the backing of the Imperial Army. They would go through the proper channels to find Adeline while Kenzo abandoned all propriety. She looked nervous, not that he blamed. She was not the first to look at him warily since he left home. Most had made it a point to stay out of his way. "Merrin?" Her name slipped from his tongue, gruff and impatient, though it wasn't directed at her. Her firstborn son approached, too far gone to real in the temper she knew all too well, courtesy of his father. He practically vibrated, the air around him crackling chaotically. But buried under his anger was a fear he had never known before, a panic that threatened to consume him. Anxiety sat like a stone in his belly, making it difficult to hold down more than a few bites of food at a time. Halting, Kenzo stopped a few feet away from his mother, if she let him. "If the accident will." "Kenzo Speech." "Adeline Speech"

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Kenzo acknowledged her in a tone that made her shrink slightly, shuffling to hide her shells as if he were going to take them from her. Merrin averted her gaze nervously, but otherwise, stayed where she was as she seemed to be contemplating something. When she finally looked at him again, there was guilt written all over her face as she tried to control her emotions. “I-I'm sorry, Kenzo, really I...I didn't intend to upset her, truly, I didn't!" She started, trying to plead with him, his expression making her fidget uncomfortably. He looked too much like his father, she thought.

The elder mother tried to remain present and conscious of the fact that she was speaking to her son and not the man that would have struck her without warning. She would have hated to incidentally flinch at any sudden movement from the lad when he didn't deserve such a reaction. “I...I wish it had gone differently...I just...I didnt know Ryker was so involved in her life and...and it scared me, Kenzo...it-" Merrin was cut off by her own cringing at how she sounded to herself. She took a glance out towards the ocean and frowned lowering her head in defeat with a long sigh. “I'm still so very broken...aren't I?" She asked to no one in particular, moreso sitting in a moment of self-reflection.

@Kenzo

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

Fear soured the air and Merrin started rambling. Her voice shook and she looked impossibly guilty. His eyes narrowed. No names were given, only see. For a time, he looked at her in utter disbelief. There was no way Merrin was involved in Adeline's kidnapping. Surely she wouldn't stoop so low. Obviously she didn't know the lengths her son would go to, to have his wife returned to him. Then she was mentioning Ryker. Confusion darkened his expression. Now that wasn't right. Ryker was his sister, she was the one soul in this world he knew would die before betraying him. The siblings were each others ride or die.

I'm still so very broken... aren't I? Clearly. Had Merrin ever actually done something to move on from her past? Or had she truly just replaced all of them with her new family and stuck her head in the ground.

"What are you talking about, Merrin?" He growled. "Ryker's involved in whose life?" Any other time, he might have tried to rein in the agitation in his voice, but Kenzo was too far gone. His nerves were shot and he was strung out on a lack of a sleep. He didn't have time for Merrin's second midlife crisis, not this time. But he couldn't leave, not yet, he needed to know what she meant. He needed to be sure that she didn't know what had happened to Adeline, to be sure that she wasn't involved.




art + code: clae

At the unmistakable rumble of his growl, her gaze became avoidant, worried that if she looked at him now, Kenzo is not who she would see. He seemed impatient, but also perplexed, as if he truly didn't know what she was talking about. Merrin lifted her body slightly, turning her sights on him with an equally confused expression. “Lenora...I'm talking about Lenora." She clarified, lilac orbs beginning to wander over her eldest son, concern furrowing her brows.

He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, reduced to an animalistic survival as last resort to keep himself upright. “I just thought...I assumed, and I suppose that's where my error lies...that's what brought you...why else would you be here?" She asked, straightening and taking a single step towards him, reaching out with a paw and then stopping herself. “When was the last time you slept, Kenzo?"

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

Lenora. His half sisters name fell from their mothers lip. Thats who she was referring to. But he still didn't know. He had seen Lenora recently, he rarely saw much of her at all. Work had taken up most of his time, leaving little freedom to check on a half sister he barely new outside of her military training. Not that he hadn't kept tabs on her progress until Rykers brutal thumb. Lenora had flourished much to his surprise. So why was Merrin fussing about her?

Merrin continued to speak in riddles, claiming that she thought it was something to do with Lenora that brought him here. "I still have no idea what you are talking about." He sounded exasperated. "I haven't seen Lenora recently." Whatever was going on with the young soldier, it didn't have to do anything to do with her career because then he would have heard about it.

Then his so called mother was stepping forward, her paw extended in concern. When was the last time you slept, Kenzo? His frown deepened, ears pressing tighter against his skull. "I don't know." But he knew exactly when he had slept last. The night he had come home right after Adeline, the night he had drunkenly fucked her in the hall outside their room. That was the last night he slept because the very next night, she was gone. The young Colonels teeth ground together. Since then, he had been razing the country side, hellbent on finding her.

Nothing else mattered. He ate and drank to keep him energy up, out of necessity not because he was hungry. When he did manage an hour or two of sleep, it was restless at best. "Adeline's been taken." The words were like acid on his tongue each and every time he said it. It only fanned the flames of his rage, fueled his animosity for the criminal who had taken. This would end only in gruesome murder and Kenzo had no regrets.




art + code: clae