almost but not quite.

Pripyat Soul · 01-23-2011, 05:35 PM

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SSWM: 607

The boy listened as she spoke, the woman letting her own guard down, and he was amazed to hear that her life was so similar to his own. He nodded when she asked if she knew many others in his pack, it seemed he knew them all, at least by face and name if not on a more personal level. All of Phoenix Valley has taken a small part in shaping him, even if Jefferson and Geneva had left the biggest fingerprints in his malleable clay soul. “I know most of them, yes. It’s hard not to, being the son of the leaders.” His smile was kind of lopsided and his chuckle hesitant, unsure of himself, but he supposed that Fia would understand. From the way she spoke of her own past, it seemed she would understand. At any rate, Pripyat hoped that she understood. It was so rare to come across someone he connected with on such a level, having always been surrounded by those older or younger than himself, and only ever those so immersed in Phoenix Valley. No one else could be the child of Phoenix Valley, and so if he was looking for someone who understood what it was like to be a proverbial prince or princess of a pack he would have to look outside of his own home. And here she was, or so it seemed.

“Everyone knows me, or at least my face and name. They are all really nice though, understanding…” He hadn’t ever encountered an unpleasant being in Phoenix Valley, it was only outside his home that bad things existed. “I think they understand me, mostly. Even my parents seem to understand me. At least they are asking me to be anything I’m not. ” Geneva understood the sensitive boy, and Jefferson too seemed to be in tune with his son to some extent, although their interactions were often awkward and full of strained silence. They had a relationship and it was functional if not perfect and Pripyat didn’t mind that at times his father puzzled him. No one looked at Pripyat as anyone but who he actually was, and no one expected him to be more than that. Perhaps here they differed, for Fia seemed to come from a place where she felt alone and misunderstood, and Pripyat never felt that way. If anything he felt too understood, too taken care of, too dependent upon them all.

A sigh escaped him as he looked over Fia again. Her words had seemed to come so easily and it was perhaps this that allowed him to speak so freely to a stranger. He had told a similar story to Noah, but perhaps Fiachra Gervase would identify more with it. The stuttering man had understood his wanderlust, his need to do good in the world, but had Noah really known the suffocating feel Phoenix Valley sometimes placed upon the boy? “If anything I think it’s the lands. Being born there, I know it’s my home, I feel I can’t go anywhere else. I don’t really want to go anywhere else, but I don’t want to always stay there.” He looked at her with his vibrant eyes, did she know this feeling too, or was he just blathering on as an idiot might? “You left though? Did you want to leave your pack behind? Do you miss it?” Would he really miss it, or perhaps only for a while? If he were to leave, which he wouldn’t, would life become normal after a few days, weeks or months? As if Phoenix Valley had never laid it’s stamp upon his sorry skin?

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