#udaeus.

Maddox had died. Again. Well, in a manner of speaking, since the future had seemingly not happened. The memories remained, however. Of how he had died, and once he'd found a new vessel, of how he had become possessed. It certainly didn't sit well with him, especially considering he had wanted no part in the war. Which meant getting back to normal had been a little difficult, given how he expected those damn gods to slip in once again. And so he had decided to take some time off, in a sense. To enjoy what Rome could offer, before it was perhaps destroyed once again. It was in the middle of some of that enjoyment, when an unfortunately familiar individual caught his attention. "Now, now, I figured you'd have run off again," he mused, glass lowered to the table before him.

maddox & udaeus —

How fortunate for him that his return to Rome came with the unavoidable invitation to a masquerade party. The mask had been fitted firmly to his face, but he doubted many knew its features. Another body plucked from an unknown street from an unknown city that he had passed through in his last one. It benefited him greatly when one was never certain who they would cross paths with. Even when it seemed everyone else was so acutely hidden behind their own masks. Many would be unrecognizable, if not all, except for one singular individual. An individual who Maddox had believed to have died thousands of years ago, during the same time that he himself had died.

The annoyance, however, that Maddox had once felt whenever his gaze landed on the Spartoi seemed nonexistent within his very core. It seemed to have been replaced with a curiosity, a sense of relief, and an unknown feeling that propelled him forward. Fingers adjusted the mask upon his own face, assured himself that it was fitted appropriately before he moved to stand before the other. "Now, now, aren't you a sight."