Candid [Rosk]

[VoxApocrypha]

 Autumn Night, 1933
Auran Metropolitian Area, Casaran Borough 

---

 David sat in his living room within the mansion he'd inherited from his grandfather in the Overthrow. Perhaps it was fortunate they'd been able to rebuild it. 
But at some point he had found that living here was almost like being stuck in the past. There were some sections of the building that were closed off due to age, others due to damage. 
He hadn't considered repairing them, in part because to repair it all would be like trying to finance the construction of a small town - this building was massive, and it sat at the edge of a city so people would notice him spending money on himself, more than he did already to maintain his estate. 

 He laid back against his husband, Rane, the smaller Festria man with a more feminine and gentle build to him, who ran their hands over his chest in slow and sensual motions, nuzzling gently into his neck and muzzle, planting soft kisses across his cheek. For the moment he was relaxed, and after a long week of preparation, he was happy to finally find time to spend with his wi-... husband. People here didn't like that term, at least not on males. He closed his eyes, relaxing back into their embrace, and after some few moments, the two would hug him tight and hold onto him, muzzle tucked into his neck. 

 It'd be some few moments later that they heard the sound of knocking on the hard-wood of the door, and his eyes slowly opened, as did theirs. 
"..Who could that be now.." He mumbled softly. He felt his husband move their arms from around him, and gently press him up onto his feet, the Festria letting out a groan. 

"Fiiiine.." He said quietly, brushing back his hair and taking a moment to button his shirt back up. He stepped to the door, and then after a moment, would look through the peep-hole. 

 Cordelia. 
He would open the door and invite her inside, and she would come in, with David's husband having dressed themselves and stepped off into the kitchen. 
Before long however, Cordelia and him were discussing 'work', and Rane had withdrawn to the bedroom to read. They stood on the balcony, overlooking the edge of the city, the orange light rising into the sky blotting the stars. 

"..So then." Cordelia would look down into the yard after a moment. "I heard you're building a private army." She said, looking up at him. 

"Not so much a private army as it is a armed wing of the party." He'd reply, looking at her. 

"What do you plan to do with that army?" She'd ask, lifting her glass of wine to her lips to take another sip. 

David stared off into space for a moment. 
"..Kill Grinvelians with it." He'd say plainly. "When the time comes, it's going to be what's hiding behind every blade of grass the Grinvelians try to step over. And that time, unfortunately.. is fast approaching." 

Cordelia would nod her head. "..I considered raising the Frateris Militia again. For a time anyway, I didn't know if I would want to go through the expense to send them to Touli.. now though, I can see that perhaps, we may need it here." 

David would finish his glass, and turn to rest it onto the table on the balcony. 
"I think you ought to, if you seek to defend your homeland, like I do." He'd say. "..I do not want to use my arms in opposition to what I believe in, because despite what Runan might think, I don't intend to end Republicanism." He'd look out there. "I'm not worried about party radicals. They aren't a particularly strong bunch.. not right now, anyway. We'll see how it goes with the election." 

 Cordelia nods. 
"..Is the Grinvel Question a valid one?" She asked. David would turn away from the view and shrug, looking back at the house to avoid meeting her eyes. 

"..If people read investment reports they know that Grinvel and Galra are closely partnered, and their newfound partnership in a bloc with Galra, of all countries.. that's something we should all fear." He'd say. "Like it or not we're on a course for disaster. War is inevitable. Grinvel can't win a war against Roskana, I'm not worried about that. Grinvelians are a inferior people, and no matter what ground they gain, they'll never be able to hold it. Everywhere they go in Roskana, they'll be met with bullets. Every blade of grass will hide a rifle. Every house window, a machine gun. Every road is going to have mines in the cobblestone." He'd say. "To tell you the truth, Cordelia, I don't care what Grinvel does. A lot of people will die when they make their move but Grinvel as a nation state will cease to exist in the aftermath, because when the smoke clears, all that's going to be left of that shithole," He'd turn his head to her. "Is a smoldering crater."

[VoxApocrypha]

CANDID - Part 2

Winter Night, 1933
The Frontier, Roskanan West - Northwest Ald

The Wilderness Pine trees stretch as far as the eye could see into the distance.

Snow had blanketed the earth, covered the trees again, the first winter storms having already swept over the area. Now in the wake of another, a pair of hunters stalked quietly through the woodland, only a few kilometers from the border, maintained with a empty, flattened patch of earth between Grinvel, and Roskana. No trees grew there. The soul poisoned by bad blood, and a unhealthy amount of salt. Nothing could grow there. It was often called in popular media, the mark of bad blood - that such a border between two states would exist would be signifier that neither would ever be able to tolerate the other.

No reconciliation.

They were still too far to see it, but they knew they were close.

Slowly moving through the dense undergrowth of ferns and tall reeds and grass, weaving around the trunks of pine trees and staying within the grey bramble and weedy grass, Apollo and Cordelia kept their rifles close in hand but fingers away from the triggers. EAR rifles, both old, covered now in wraps that held sticks and pine tree branches to the frame, with the pair similarly having covered their fur up in the same wraps and stuck branches, twigs, pine cones, and other plant matter to them to make them appear as part of the woodwork at a glance.

Cordelia had buried a box of gold out here, some time ago.

She had never really said why they needed it, just that she needed it. Further back at their camp, was as well, his brother Adrian, whom gotten sick a couple days after they had arrived.
Their search had steadily drawn closer to the border, and while they remained well on their side of it, it was not uncommon for there to be encounters that ended badly for one or another party due to hunting accidents, or perhaps targeted harrassment. Crime happened here, the deep woods wasn't known for being safe.

Hunters, gangsters, sometimes animals.
But the big worry were gangsters, plenty got arrested up here, or in some cases plainly shot, when they had been found across the border by both local law enforcement, and the locals themselves, being people from the towns. This region was often called the 'Higher Cascades' of the Elvira Fjords. The only major city within a few days distance if they were to walk to it, was the Koian city state of Steamport, which serviced Roskana and Grinvel, and the cascades named such for its relative emptiness and cascading wilderness.
 
A lot of things happened out here that just were not reported on.
And its relatively quiet nature made it a easy place to hide things. Weapons, bodies, evidence, momentos.. money.

What they needed the gold for Cordelia had never told him. Not that he needed to know, in truth.
If she were worried about the potential for a run-in with bad people she would have likely had the Frateris Militia do this, instead of just them.

He had been able to sense his 'girlfriend' wanting to talk about his disappearance, and absence. He saw it on her face, saw it often.
And as they would eventually come to find themselves at the edge of a clearing, he would stop and crouch down behind a mass of ferns and bushes. They could hear water flowing through a small stream, and see the faint slope that lead down and out of view, into the trees. He rested his knee down, and checked the sky, the moon's light blocked but vision barely impeded, natural nightvision aiding his sight enough to make out the shape of a Vaygr Owl passing briefly through his vision.

He stared at the sky for a few moments, while Cordelia looked out at the clearing, and turned. The faint rustling was almost as loud as a gunshot in the night time environment of these cold woods.
"..We should build a fire."

---

Morning

A pit dug into the earth lay full of white ash, as the dawn brought a faint light to the world. Sitting next to each other, pressed against one another, Apollo and Cordelia were watching the embers catch on another pile of twigs they'd deposited in the firepit, slowly fed by the air of the breeze as it fed the flames. Apollo and them had both sat there for hours, the two awake and stuck like statues. They wore dense clothing and had dense fur, winter coats having grown in, the pair were well insulated from the cold but the warmth of the other kept them together then.

Still, eventually, the question escaped the mouth of Cordelia.

"..Why did you come back?" The question hung for a moment, with her soon moving her head to look up at him.

Apollo stared at the glowing embers and rising wisps of flame.
His silence lasted another moment, before he opened his mouth to reply, and found he had no words, at least at first. Closing his mouth, he would take a breath, and exhale the air out at the fire, watching the embers glow slightly as he spoke.

"I don't know." He'd say. "..I couldn't live in Kumosenkan. Not near her, anyway. I felt like a stranger in a strange land. I still do, sometimes." He would adjust himself on the rock he'd sat down on. "Roskana is the only place where I have people I can go to. It's my homeland, even if I don't know if I'd call this place home anymore." He'd tell her.

Cordelia would stare, and then turn her head back to the flames.

"You said you wanted a family with them. That you'd.. sired. Is that true? Did you just leave then?"

Apollo stared at the flames that were slowly engulfing the mass of twigs as he spoke, his eyes becoming unfocused.

"We tried. But it didn't take. As well, when the emotion left It wasn't a painless decision to leave." He would say quietly. "I found a way off of Kumosenkan and into Pomazziniki. Then I took boat rides back here."

"..I think back to that and regret all the things I should have done better. Knowing how much of that failure was my fault. Even if it's not all mine it certainly feels like most of it was.. and I was running from that feeling of guilt and shame, all the way back here. It's chased me across the world, stronger than ever.. almost as bad as the feeling when I left you behind." The words were spoken in near quiet, his eyes closing before then he would slowly let his head tilt, and come to rest against Cordelia's. "..I want to say it was a amicable split. But I think she lost interest long before that point, and just didn't have any interest or heart to tell me until it was way late.."

His eyes drifted towards the treeline, still cast in gloomy shadows and darkness. "..Right when I was getting comfortable being on my own again, here comes.. you." He'd say quietly, leaning into her and closing his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Cordelia remained silent for a time, before he gently wrapped her tail around his own.

"I'll never forget that you did it. But I have forgiven you, Apollo." She'd tell him, as her arm came up to his side, holding him. "I know that feeling, being followed by your sins everywhere you go.. and I can only give you this, dearest." She say. "Time does not heal wounds. It teaches you to live with them."

"..I remember you telling me that the first time." Apollo chuckled.
Cordelia smiled slightly.

"Well it's good advice." She said in turn, before she kissed him on the cheek.

Taking a deep breath, Apollo would squeeze her in the one armed hug, and silence would return, lasting until the fire went out.