What Ipomoea did not know what Sloane had once been a happy child. Well, happier than she was now. She had the innocence of a child, the ability to see things that adults could not. And yet, being a triplet had worn her already unloving mothing down. Someone had to go…and it had been Sloane. So from the moment she had been born, she had been pushed away, picked on, told that she was unimportant. A seed of self-doubt and self-loathing had been planted and had begun to grow. It had made her life hostile to the point that she weaned herself early and then left her family behind. Perhaps if the environment had been different, she would have had the personality of the stallion before her. But unfortunately, that was not the life she had been given.
These sorts of thoughts plagued her mind often. She wondered what life would be like had she grown up different, about what she might have been like if she really knew her mother, father and her siblings. What would her life be like if she had never found Novus? If Rift had never swallowed her whole and spit her out here? So many questions, so many things that she wanted answers to. And yet, she had no answers.
And so, she settles on finding out information about something that she knows she can get answers to. She wants to know about Delumine, about what makes this place tick. What about this place kept those here that called it home. She may be relatively new, but she knew this place had history. She had seen the libraries, the way the scrolls filled the place from floor to ceiling. So much history and she couldn’t say she knew much of anything about this place or of Novus as a whole. And so, she asks him.
When he begins to speak, she turns her head to better hear him. Feet take her a step forward, a step closer towards him so she might be able to hear him over the roar of the whitecaps below. She listens attentively, but she is confused about how such a place can be quiet and yet loud. She says nothing however, trying to focus on the fact that Delumine is a place of learning. Sloane likes to learn.
But there is a change in his voice. The way he says this place celebrates life and living is shadowed by a tone she’s heard before. He’s hesitant, but then he continues, saying that this place can be somber. While these people crave knowledge, knowledge can come with a high price. This too, she knows well enough. “All things come with a price.” Everything from giving life to another, to taking one. To sharing a secret or making a moment. Everything you lived and breathe ultimately came at a price for someone. It might not be a price paid by you or paid at that time, but everyone would pay up eventually. That’s just how life worked. Did the people of Delumine not understand this?
He doesn’t linger on that piece of information, preferring to dwell on the happier thoughts of this place. It didn’t surprise her, not really. After all, she can see the way he looks at the world through foggy glasses. He chooses to see happiness and hope where she chooses to see reality. They each had a very different way of looking at life but each was entitled to their own opinion.
But then he continues, saying that above all, Delumine is his home. She sighs. “I have never had a home.” She’s always been a wanderer, lurking within the shadows and trying to find someplace that she might belong. But as of yet, nothing has captured her attention for long. She moves from one home to the next with each one just being a temporary residence. Nothing drew her in and kept her there. She was unsure if Delumine would be any different than the “homes” she’s known before. “I have yet to find my…niche, as you call it.” She still felt like a stranger, like an outsider. Perhaps it was because she could be hard to get along. No everyone appreciated her sarcasm. And yet, here Ipomoea had discovered a side of Sloane that not many ever got to see. The more self-conscious side, the side she always was trying to surprise.
@Ipomoea
