† 115

[holymadonna]

Look at the Calendar, this the fourth Sunday of December, Advent has begun for us, Christians. Will there be a special service in the Church, Gabriel? I would help you in all I can to set everything for this important date; Christmas is just around the corner.

[Rika + Rena]When would you two like to set an appointment for a medical check-up? I

Comments

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

[Aion had spotted Lilith a bit before heading towards the inner garden on his way back to his room. Only moments passing, he spent the time at his desk, sorting his thoughts out and incorporating a new piece to his puzzle, Fiore, before his mind began to wander. With Fiore here, the woman had more time to do things. With Lilith thoroughly angry with him for what he had done, he wasn't exactly sure if she was planning anything behind his back, recalling the various contraptions he found in her room once. Even so, he couldn't think of anything over there besides the garden itself. Standing up as he briefly stared out the window, he left his room to go in the same direction as she had, curious as to what was over there that was so important.

Once closer, he caught a glimpse of her placing the scissors down from the doorway and stopped. Quickly and quietly, Aion hid his presence as he rested against the wall beside the entrance to the room. Placing one hand in his coat pocket as the other adjusted his glasses on his face, he kept his ears opened. The look on her face... At least it didn't seem like anything suspicious was going on. To her words, he narrowed his eyes and averted them towards the door. Losing?]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

[Lilith rose and removed the garden gloves to set them aside the scissors on the floor. She was in such a mood; she would accidentally trim all her flowers if she continued. When she spun around and began to walk, the Saint noticed she wasn’t alone in the room.

Her distraction and his presence agitated her slightly. Did he see and listen? Her face was grave as her voice.]

Aion.

[She didn’t want to face him in this moment. It wasn’t just the anger she felt towards him, if it was only anger this would be less complicated. It was a myriad of emotions that mystified her. Before the shadow curse and her brush with illness, she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be surprised or angry over something so expected as his manipulations to Rena, after those occasions, Lilith was at complete loss. She had regarded him a child in many ways - he still was in some manner. But he had ‘saved’ her in a way. She had never faltered, never gotten sick and was always the savior… She wasn’t sure how to feel and therefore, how to act when she had relied on him by choice or not. She wouldn’t help him if she allowed herself to be coerced into his schemes.

She was frustrated and oddly grateful to still have enough of a heart to be perplexed when she stared at him, keeping herself from averting her gaze.]

Why were you spying on me?

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

[As expected, he thought with a grin on his face. Aion leaned off the wall and passed her, entering the garden. Hand gesturing as he spoke.]

I wasn't aware of a garden here. Your peaceful place, I take it. Enjoying your free time?

[He vaguely began as he fiddled with one of the roses. He wasn't about to openly admit that he was checking on her, despite it being for the right or wrong reasons.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

There used to be orange trees in the other wing, Rosiel was fond of the fruit. I didn't keep the garden as well as I wanted to. I don't know if those dried.

[She remained stiff while he walked by. She didn't dare to look at him yet, back turned when he began to look around. What did he expect to find in a garden?]

Enjoying... [She murmured and whirled around to glance at him somewhat distant. She reached for the bright blossom tucked in her hair and admitted] Ah, I was being overzealous against the weed and I trimmed a flower by accident. What do you think about it? I wasn't a careful gardener.

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

Overzealous, huh. Ha ha. Still, you've accomplished what you wanted to, haven't you? Or more so, what needed to be done?

[Aion averted his eyes towards her with a grin as he draws a bud closer to his face. Was that what she was upset about besides the obvious?]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

[ Did she? He made it sound so practical. Reasonable sacrifice in a way, but too much reason and not heart... She had known what Cain's goals and Seth's greed extended to. Was she different? She couldn't think the same. She couldn't sacrifice Abel. ]

I was fond of this flower. Honeysuckle... [ She began to walk to the honeysuckle section. Stopping her steps, she admired them for a while before she could bring herself to continue.] They stand for devoted love in the language of flowers. When I planted them, I researched their meanings. They are supposed to protect the garden from evil influences, but I...I accidentally trimmed this one before it fully bloomed.

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

[Aion listened as he straightened up and sat himself down on the bench. Another made up thing people loved to believe. Language of flowers and its meaning? Evil influences? He had to chuckle a little at that.]

Protect the garden from evil influences, you say. I'm quite interested to know just where this evil is. A honeysuckle is a honeysuckle after all. You've just chosen it over the weeds that you see as annoyance and place a higher value on it, making it far important than anything else in this garden. [He glanced towards her.] So you've lost one from a miss you've made. [He stood up again as he walks over to her, reaching for the flower in hand.] Make use of it to its fullest and care for the rest wisely. [The sinner spun it once in his fingertips before placing it back into her hair, giving it back its final role while alive.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

Ah... they must mean the weeds and the ailing that affect plant life.
[She turned her head, looking over her shoulder to watch him sit] A flower is a flower; a person is a person. But aren't we more than that? Individuals with a meaning? Flowers can't choose their own, but we can. [Her body tensed when he approached. She wasn't afraid of him, but quite confused. She should be angrier, she shouldn't be listening either. She shouldn't even speaking of this subject; nobody else have listened to this, not even her dearest friend Elissar. But to her, Lilith was a Commander.]

...I wonder what gives me that right; a better gardener wouldn't have been so careless and losing one of their flowers like this.

[A person shouldn't be so detached to view others as seeds to cultivate and grow. She didn't want to follow that road.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

So even you of all people place yourself higher than the 'mere' flower? Ha ha... [Aion snickered to the thought. Leaders always have to push on. He was certain she knew that as well. He spoke in a more serious tone as he stared down at her.]

That flower doesn't pursue anything, Lilith. Your pity towards it is only your own ego.

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

No, I don't. The metaphor was flawed since the beginning. [It was the flowers who gave meaning to the gardener in a way. Meaning and burden she had chosen to carry by herself.]

It isn't pity, Aion, is love. Haven't you ever loved someone else but yourself? [It was rhetoric question. She knew he cared about a selected few. She had witnessed some of his softer moments.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

Is that so? Ha ha ha, Love, huh? What a bothersome emotion. Heh, even he asked the same damn thing.

[A big mocking grin on his face but the eyes told a different story. Damn her fucking presence.]

I'll leave that answer to you...

[With that said, he turned away towards the exit. He had to leave. His shell breaking.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[holymadonna]

I don't know what he believed.

[He came to get into her skin? He wasn't going to run away so easily when she was making progress on him.]

But I know you care about your people, Aion. I don't know why could you consider it a weakness when is a strength. Are you still shackled by your upbringing?

[She knew where to trim to make her see her point. A society like he described Pandemonium used to be. Something he tried to break free off, denying feelings wouldn't make him free, but the opposite.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP

[jiyuna_togabito]

[The check was done. She wasn't plotting. Just why someone would stick around him when they surely knew they'd be manipulated in some way, he couldn't figure out. He somehow seemed to always dig himself a hole with her around. Clouding his mind. Aion briefly stopped to look over his shoulder as she finished her sentence. Not only himself but her as well. Shackled by emotion was more like it, whether he liked it or not, and that was enough. He had to keep his goals in mind.

The sinner decided to played it safe and kept silent as he started to walk away again.]

[Cathedral: Inner garden] AP - why aren't you on line bb? ;_;

[holymadonna]

[As Aion glanced behind one last time and retreated, Lilith whirled around, kneeling to place the Honeysuckle on the ground beside its siblings. Trimmed or not, it should remain with its and follow the cycle of decomposition and make the soil more fertile. Even those cut blossoms can be given another uses.

Aion.

He pretended to not feel anything. She envied that privilege. Envied his emotional range she had witnessed in the past. She envied she had to struggle to keep half of her feelings intact. She loved and loved deeply, but in a less attached way Abel was able to do. How many millions of lives were lost before she could be moved into action?

It wasn't too late for Aion.

She smiled as she began to water her garden. He didn't seem to realize what her intent was.]