tribulation

»déodat and éloi are twins so i guess you  could  count them as one,« freya said and while there was a glint in her eyes — no matter how alike the twins looked, their personalities were  quite  different — her voice did not give any hint that maybe, this was the closest she had come to an actual joke all week. typically preferring subtle, intellectual humour, even this had been drained after she had been in close quarters with her mother for a few days now. »and i think i only ever met one of your brothers.«

and she had not  yet come to a conclusion on what to actually think of james. he had seemed to be the kind of person that was difficult to read, even for her, and having grown up the way she had, freya knew that — danger could take many shapes and it was hardly unusual for her not to trust people. in fact, she did trust only a handful of people and was most annoyed by the fact that  basil  of all people had made it on that list. it was a lapse of judgement if she had ever seen one.

instinctively reaching for her  own phone, only to be reminded that her mother had confiscated it earlier to  force  freya to be a bit more social, she sighed deeply. however, this was — not too bad. if she did not have her phone on her, her mother could not yell at her for not answering messages. or, at least, this would apply if audierna rosen could be trusted to accept that sometimes, things were on her. »is … is your phone alright?« she finally asked.

"Still too many..." Josh mused aloud, deep eyes still staring at the backs of his eyelids, thoughts unrestrained and free-flowing as ever. It wasn't unlike him to drift from present conversation and into the depths of his own mind - certain intoxicants were responsible for this behaviour - and it was only at the mention of his brothers that he zoned back into reality.

"James, right?" As if summoned by the mention of his name, the shattered phone screen lit up once more with an accompanying ping! Presumably yet another text to really dig beneath his skin. Peeling one eye open, he posed another question. "What do you think of him?"

He often wondered just how much the outside world really knew of James Reynolds. Not a lot, he supposed, if so many people welcomed the slithering snake into their unsuspecting den. His gaze shifted from her to the device on the floor, and a dismissive shrug followed.

oh wo w. rip hisui's composure

welp

»brothers do that, sometimes,« freya said, eager to pretend that it had not happened, that she had not just shown such a  glaring  weakness. it was something that should no longer happen, especially not when she was among strangers. because people had the unpleasant habit of  talking,  of gossiping. and freya was not too fond of the idea that someone might deduce about her what she was trying to hide. she had made the choice to bury what had happened to her, she was not going to let anyone dig it up.

»i would know, i have five back home,« she added as she toyed with her bracelet, still counting her breaths as she found her back to her usual — attitude. »i understand.«

acting out, however, had  never been an option for her. or for any of her brothers. for one, existing in such a manner would instantly have attracted more anger, and secondly — their mother had tried hard to separate her children from one another, had made a tremendous effort to play them all against one another, something that had fortunately failed.

It seemed she was settling back into normality. Good, at least he could shrug most of the (admittedly, small) amount of guilt that the consequences of his actions had brought about. On that note, he allowed his open eye to venture away from her, and down to the phone he'd so carelessly dispensed from his person.

A soft ping could be heard, and though it looked as though the screen could have been better off, it could also have looked much worse given the circumstances it had been forced to endure. Oh, well, he'd be able to get it fixed without his mother catching wind of it, so long as he snuck out to the repair store in the early morning.

wow josh. just. wow. xD