Chapter 28
Feel free to get the vegan option, plant based food is better than you think and full of vitamins. Love you.
~*~
Gloria walked back to camp on her own, grumbling. Why was Alex's energy so different? Why did it react the way it was in conjunction to Gloria's? She had used magic before, and this hadn't happened! She had hoped that magic was something she'd be able to bond with Alex over, teach him the ropes, but now she'd hardly be able to touch him with magic on her mind. Yet another wall between her and Alex.
What was she and Alex? What was he to her, honestly? He was a flirtation. A second option. A choice to do something naughty. What was she to him?
Gloria looked up at the sky and the tree branches scratching it. Alex was temptation. Blake had been temptation too. She'd fallen for him and she'd seen where that went. He dominated her life and spun her into something that she wasn't. He'd turned out to be a murderer, among many unspeakable things.
Would Alex be that way, given the chance? He had the same spark to him, adoring but sly. Maybe her powers knew more than she did and were trying to keep her away from him and from making the same mistake again.
Gloria gave a mocking laugh to that. As if her powers were personified with a will and not just a tool for her to master and use.
Gloria was already halfway to camp when she remembered she could just teleport there, but the weather was nice so she felt no need to do anything but walk. What was the rest of the fellowship going to do again? Learn what plants were edible or helpful? Gloria already knew what plants near her in Brindleton Bay and which plants on the Islands were safe for consumption, though admittedly she wasn't as interested in the study of wild plants as Midshore. Midshore was always trying to combine new plants and minerals for new potions and concoctions, many of which ended up aiding people nationwide thanks to a robust mail system.
But what of Alex? What did she feel about him? What was he to her? Was he just a fill-in for Seneca while they were apart? They had great chemistry, she wouldn't deny it, but great chemistry didn't make a great relationship, and Gloria wasn't willing to throw away what she had with Seneca. It was too good. Seneca was the long game, Alex was just a magnetic bump in the road.
The scenery started to look familiar as she walked, and the first sign she was taking the right way back was Ashton's head popping out of the foliage.
"Ah, Gloria! How's training going?" he asked, brushing his hands on his pants, then grimacing as a berry smeared on them.
"I was asked to leave because my magic doesn't get along with Alex's," Gloria grumbled as she stopped to chat and slowed her pace.
"Even his power is hard to get along with?" Ashton asked, laughing.
"You laugh! but apparently it's very rare. We can't use our powers next to each other or we get jolted,"
"I saw the reaction before you guys left, it looked funny from a third person view but I can see how it would be hard to function with," he said as he looked down at the plant in front of him, breaking eye contact. Was it the autumn chill bringing a flush to his cheeks or was he blushing? "How's Aquila doing?"
"Cool as a cucumber, as always. The whole thing with Arhun seems to have rolled over pretty well- either that or she's good at compartmentalizing it," Gloria responded. Ashton nodded and bit the inside of his cheek. She continued, "You two seem kinda close at times. How're you holding up with it? It's never easy seeing a friend be taken for a ride like that and I think we're all pretty angry at Arhun and Maria. Though Alex was betting on them the whole time..."
"If I could give Arhun a piece of my mind about it..." he said quietly with reigned anger. "There's nothing worse than leading someone on like that. Sure, they weren't dating, and we don't know the depth and width of their relationship, but come on! How do you just jump into a relationship that fast, and the fact they were so indiscrete! They woke up nearly the whole camp! The embarrassment of it, not only for Arhun and Maria having their intimacy public knowledge but also for Aquila! We were all rooting for her, and yet... here we are,"
"Better to know now than to have it come out later that he wasn't happy, I guess." Gloria said. "We want what's best for everyone, and if Aquila wasn't best for Arhun, then Arhun wasn't the best for Aquila. Her prince charming is out there, just waiting for her to step into his life. Or stumble. She's rather clumsy," Gloria gave a good hearted laugh. "How anyone can be so graceful and clumsy at the same time, I have no idea,"
"She does a good job at both, yes," Ashton smiled and looked up into Gloria's eyes. "Aquila is good to have a friend like you. She's the type of person who needs someone to help her and support her, and you've been a good strength for her," he straightened his back and took a deep, clearing breath, stepping away from the sentimentality that had snuck in. "And with your introduction, she can train under a strong spellcaster like Midshore! The sky's the limit for our friend,"
"Yes, our friend is well looked after, by both of us." Gloria nodded. "Now, what plants are we looking for?"
~*~
The clock on the bedside table ticked as Seneca laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He had no desire to do anything, no drive. His homework wasn't pressing, and after the conversation he'd just had with his mother he didn't feel like accomplishing anything. What was it all for if he was at her beck and call? If she could summon him to play the part of her trained monkey whenever she wanted, was it really worth keeping in touch? She was the Prime Minister, could she ask anything of him and he'd have to comply? He'd spent years trying to unravel himself from her, only for this to happen again. She was getting her claws back in him no matter how hard he tried to get away.
You're being dramatic, he told himself. She's your mother, and she's acting out of concern for not only herself, but also you. It's just unfortunate that she couldn't have been a better mother. She doesn't know how to let me live on my own.
What did all of that matter when he was stuck between a rock, a hard place, and the floor was lava? On one side, Gloria was hours away by car, on another his mother wanted him to conform to her view of how things should be, and to add fuel to the dumpster fire Deliah was constantly raising the pressure here at his place of residence. If things kept going as they were, he was going to buckle on some front. Who could he turn to? He already leaned too much on Nora for a release from the stresses of his life, and Gloria could only talk on the weekends and the stray night when the moon was full.
The clock kept ticking, and Seneca rolled over and hoped for a magical event to happen that would make him feel better. Was he going to spend the weekend with Gloria or was he going to spend it with his mother? One was a strong desire, the other felt necessary. He wasn’t politically illiterate. He knew that the politics game could be either a heavy handed one or a delicate show of power. His mother had always been the kind to show her support for a cause through example, and if she visibly ate dinner with a few heads of the Others and her son was among those present, he’d have both the removal of anonymity and the shining spotlight of support and protection. He would be the opposite of a nobody, he’d be a major topic of conversation. He could be a public figure, which was something he’d tried very hard to get away from.
But his mother also rarely asked things of him these days. Since she was appointed Prime Minister and the threat of his father’s tyranny had been erased, she’d backed off. She no longer had to live through her son, she could live for herself, and in turn she’d let Seneca live his own life with his own passions. Perhaps he owed this to her? For funding his schooling and part of his house payments. It would be best if Gloria was at the dinner too; another Other at the table and showing the connection between Seneca and her, but Gloria was just a private a person as he was and he didn’t need the paparazzi digging into her either, or her family’s history. The killer of the king was still unknown, and the fact that it was Gloria’s mother and former queen didn’t need to be investigated.
Seneca rolled over and picked up his phone, flicked open his phone and texted his mother.
I’ve thought about the invitation to dinner, and at this juncture I don’t see a point in joining you. If the loyalty of the family comes into question, I will reconsider at that time, but the image that you are sending currently is that of the head of government being in support of the Others, not that your family is.
Feel free to get the vegan option, plant based food is better than you think and full of vitamins. Love you.
^Seneca is bored. I don't blame you, being stuck in a small room with white walls.
^This one wasn't an awkward curse hug, it was just how they greeted each other! I didn't realize they were such good friends.
^Gloria. Gloria, we're on a shoot right now!
^That's right, put the phone away for 10 minutes, ok? Thankyou.
^ You may have noticed there is no actual clock on his bedside table. That's because there isn't one in the game, to my knowledge. Sims 3 had them, but sims 4 apparently thought no one uses alarm clocks anymore. Which to be fair, all of my alarms are on my phone these days...
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