video;

[gerosilas]

[helaena has found herself a blue dress and a white, lace-trimmed slip that doesn't remotely fit beneath it.]

Are there many children here? Babes, under ten years of age?

[she drifts towards a window, coming nearly out of frame.]

All of them suns and their wanderers, further away than I could fathom.

[she turns looks back at the camera.]

The sky will not meet the land, here.

Comments

[solitarynote]

[That wave meant Recognition. Good.

Still… her questions caused his head to tilt slightly. Become younger? Magic? He shook his head. Omori simply existed - he wasn’t sure what the rest of that meant.]

I remember. [Where Sunny’s voice was a soft disused whisper, Omori’s was a neutral - almost cold - tone. It took a moment for the child to recall her name.] Halaena.

[A kind lady. One who had stopped to pick up scattered candy. One who had attempted to assuage Sunny’s fears. It was like viewing the memory through a filter or an old projector, but it was still there.]

[gerosilas]

[gently:] Helaena.

[her children are small, and will need to be able to say all manner of difficult names if they live long enough.]

The sweets were nice, weren't they?

[solitarynote]

[Omori silently tested out the syllables again. He-lae-na. Good to know.

There was something in her tone, or the way she carried herself, that might have been inherently calming to Omori. Most people would stir his emotions negatively or not at all - like a wind grazing against the top of a pond, or a stone thrown harshly into it. Her voice was like a gentle tap, a reverberation that caused ellipses on the surface.]

[It was… nice. The child nodded.]

Mhmm. [A noise of affirmation. Even if his memory of his time with the woman on the screen was Sunny’s, Omori also knew the motions of collecting and consuming candy.]