[02:13] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[02:13] Maria Malibu exclaims, "...!!"
[02:13] Maria Malibu says, "..M-...."
[02:13] Maria Malibu says, "Mo-..."
[02:13] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[02:13] Maria Malibu says, "Mom...."
[02:14] Meryl Malibu says, "Hey, honey."
[02:14] Meryl Malibu says, "...Did-"
[02:14] Maria Malibu smiles!
(Maria Malibu)
[02:14] Meryl Malibu tilts her head, holding the other's hand.
(Meryl Malibu)
[02:14] Meryl Malibu asks, "Did you speak?"
[02:14] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[02:14] Maria Malibu says, "Mhm..."
[02:14] Maria Malibu she has been learning!
(Maria Malibu)
[02:15] Meryl Malibu says, "I see... proud of you, honey."
[02:15] Maria Malibu collides her head with her mother, sighing softly.
(Maria Malibu)
[02:15] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[02:15] Maria Malibu says, "Mghhh...."
[02:15] Meryl Malibu moves her free hand onto her daughter's crown, giving it a gentle pat.
(Meryl Malibu)
[02:19] Maria collides her head with her mother, she is able to hear her inner voice. A rural one, the voice of one who had lived their ENTIRE life in Nilharra. The voice of a rural girl, a western tinge to her psyche. Mana circuits collide, Maria establishing a connection to her mother's own memories and psyche.
["It's nice to see you, mama..."] Meryl hears, echoing upon her psyche. It was the voice of her daughter. A rural little thing, that carried an accent similar to her mother's own.
["Are you okay? I...stole your guitar...i'm sorry."] that little voice echoes, Maria smiling in her mother's embrace.
["Did you used to play alot back then?"]
(Maria Malibu)
[02:31]
Telepathy... something the mother lacked on in practice, yet the method was acknowledged, especially considering how much less it is invasive compared to other methods she had seen.
She almost nods to the other's words, though stopping right after out of fear that it may interrupt the connection, opting to speak instead.
"You too, honey. I missed you."
She gently breathes out of her nose, hearing her daughter clearly after almost two decades is quite an unexpected but welcomed moment. It is at least good to see or hear that a few members of the family are healing, at their own pace.
Air is sucked into her lungs, once again barely fighting the urge to nod or shake her head before speaking.
"Yes, I'm... doing alright, honey." A short, quiet exhale of breath from her nose, expressing a silent amusement alongside a tiny smile over her lips. "It's alright. Better than it rotting in a corner, I suppose."
"Though... do change the strings if you can."
Though the last question puts a halt to her answers, her mind drifting off into possibly decades to the past, the last time her hands genuinely held a guitar out of simple interest or enjoyment.
Her shoulders soon rise, though, gently shrugging. Words barely audible being spoken out of her mouth afterwards.
"Guess so."
(Meryl Malibu)
[02:41] It was an invasive procedure, yet only done when close to another. Maria had established herself as Meryl's daughter, that being more than enough for her inner voice to echo in her psyche. For that rural, inner voice to gently echo upon her psyche. That of an outlaw and a cowgirl. A novice, of course. Yet finding her way in the world that was Meranthe.
She had recently found the joy that was music, using it to move away from her grief and sorrow. It made her so happy, to strum that guitar, it removed her from her shadows, the darkness that bellowed in her heart.
Maria had loved her mother, enough that her procedure for telepathy had only affected her and her psyche. Mana circuits link, so tender and familiar. Darkness and all.
Meryl feels the darkness in her daughter's heart. The sorrow and grief, the desire for redemption and revenge...
Yet it did not matter.
For Maria had her guitar, she remembered Merly's voice, the very same shesung so many years ago.
All she wanted was to reignite it.
Perhaps in reigniting it, can she find her own, and move away from the shadows of her dear heart.
Maria was healing. From the pain and sorrow in her heart. But was Meryl? Did she remember how joyous it was to strum those tunes? To feel the light and sound in her heart?
Maria knew her pain. She knew the sorrow...
She wanted nothing more than to remind Meryl, of the love that she used to have. Of the passion kept in her heart, ih so long ago..
["Can I play for you?"]
She asks, that woman's psyche echoing against her mother's It was Maria's avenue of escaping her sorrow and shadow. She wanted to remind her mother of her past, of the joy that once filled her lips. Long, long ago...
When she was so young and naive, like her daughter.
Maria gestures her mother inside, a smile clear on her features. Itmeant the world to her! To play for her dear mother, before the world had taken everything...
A singular joy, music. That her mother once loved.
That Maria can still love.
Hope, admis the sorrow.
(Maria Malibu)
[02:55]
Perhaps just like Meryl, Maria would feel a smidget of what her mother felt deeper down, an uncomfortable presence of... nothing. Years of caring, attempts to change and influence her surroundings for the better all of which lead to failed outcomes, only to find solace in indifference.
A deep breath is taken in, being exhaled shortly after as she does for once, nods. The guitar may as well earn its right to take an entire corner in their house.
The woman lifts herself up to her feet, grunting quietly as she does with one hand seeking the other's to move inside, wordlessly agreeing to her offer.
(Meryl Malibu)
[03:17] An owner of a lonely heart
Just like her mother.
The one who had suffered so much, who had wanted nothing more than love. For someone to aid and protect her, against this cruel world.
Who was Maria? She was the daughter of Meryl Malibu. Yet who else? Who had mothered her? And ignited the darkness in her very veins?
The shadows in her heart?
The mute pulls her mother's palm, clinging to them and pulling them inside. Her eyes were as sorrowful as any. Full of grief and anxiety. Why couldn't she save Levius? Why couldn't she save Lavenza? Why did they have to die? To cause so many tears to fall from her and her mother's face?
Maria understood the pain. She did not blame her mother, for they had been through much then they can ever imagine. Why take the Malibu seriously? Why care for her? Why give a shit for what she felt?
None of them cared.
All they cared was for their ego. All they cared was for power, they cared for nothing more than to see the palm in their hands. What did Meryl care for? What did she want, amongst all of that pain and sorrow?
Maria felt it. She was the only one who can understand. The ignorance and desire for...nothing. How many times have screamed in her room? How many times had she wished for the world to give her relief?
Indifference.
Hatred.
Blankness.
Why did it any of it matter?
"...Momma.."
She pulls her inside, an attempt to relieve Meryl Malibu. Remind her of what she once truly was, deep down inside. Until so much hatred had filled her soul.
Until that Witch betrayed her.
Maria strums, as they enter that desolate house.
Her digits cross that guitar, resembling the very same strums that Meryl Malibu had loved, so so long ago.
Her daughter strums, she scats, her lips leaving the final remembrance of the thing she used to love.
No politics, no hatred.
Maria Malibu, her daughter, singing about the sorrow in both of their hearts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LLzPPFc21o&ab_channel=BenHobson
"Dah, dah, dah, dah...."
"Hm...hm...hm..hmmhmh!"
Maria players her mother's guitar, scatting against the rythym as her digits strummed against that gentle guitar. She was rusty, of course. But she remembered the lyrics and words of her mothers.
She strums, continue to play the entirety of that ancient song.
"Dah..."
"Owner...of a lonely heart!" She strums, she keeps strumming, speaking naught but another word as she kept true to those ancient lyrics.
Digits strum and strum, moving away from the shadows of her grief and hatred. She continued to play, continued to strum as if the world depended on it.
As if her life depended on it.
"Duh...dah...dahdahdah!!"
"Owner of a lonely heart!!!!"
She stops, eventually. A single strum ending the song. Heaevy breathes, exiting her daughter's hue.
Was Meryl proud?
The shadows in Maria's heart escape, instead?
Replaced by a blush in her features.
"..."
The music would be stronger than her grief.
The shadows in her heart...
"..."
She tilts her gaze to the side, hoping that her performance had ignited her mother's soul once again.
Of what she once believed in, oh so long ago.
"..."
Maria coddles Meryl's guitar, staring at her mother....
(Maria Malibu)
[03:38]
The woman sets herself down on the opposing couch, listening to the strums of her old guitar, of which the strings were still surviving with some unfathomable miracle.
She watches, each move of her daughter's hand with one leg over the other quietly. Though the festering anger and sorrow soon dim down, seeing the music begin with her daughter first humming the melody, soon doing her absolute best to sing it. A little moment of silence, for once, Days of the past flashing before her eyes as they sit on where once used to be a stage, for patrons and friends alike to listen to her sing and play way back in the past, nothing but a distant memory, putting enough doubt in the mind that it was never even real in the first place, just a hopeful dream that never came to be.
A soft smile adorns her face at first, soon a chuckle which she puts in a great deal of effort not to get too out of control, in case it causes her daughter to shy away or get distracted. All of which out of proudness for her daughter.
The music concludes, and a hearty applaud is given to her daughter, her smiles plastered over her face persisting for quite some time, the effects of time once again showing their signs in form of thin wrinkles near her eyes and at the corners of her lips.
"Beautiful, honey."
She gently sighs out of her nose, looking to the floor before getting up on her feet again, setting herself down next to her daughter before arms wrap over her shoulders.
"Mom's really proud of you."
(Meryl Malibu)
[03:44] "..."
"..Uwh-...wuh..."
"..."
Nothing but embarrassment caught in her daughter's hues. A fervent blush, her strumming halting as she lowered her hands against her mother's ancient guitar...
"..I..-..."
Maria huffs! Finding herself dropping her mother's guitar and hugging her tight. The grown woman, still finding the slightest bit of solace in her dear, poor mother.
Her arms embrace her once again, silence leaving her lips.
Words were not needed.
Was that...whiskey upon her breath?
It was noticeable, as her dear little daughter kisses her on ghe cheek.
"..."
"Th-...thank you..."
"Momma..."
"..."
(Maria Malibu)
[03:54]
A gentle smile creeps up to her lips again, amusement being found in her daughter's sheepishness. Her one eye closes as the kiss is planted onto her, the smell of alcohol not so foreign to the woman for her to particularly react, yet drinking so early in the morning... that was something.
She lets the hug remain, the words of the other getting a hum and a soft nod from the woman.
"...Mm..."
"...Thank you too, honey."
Some respite amongst obsoletion and what would be the nearing of her retirement, as the approach of the loss of her home draws near.
(Meryl Malibu)
[04:02] The little girl was not an outlaw. The sleepiness in her hue, expressing what she truly was deep down in her heart.
A anxious, scared little girl. A facade of an outlaw. finding solace in her sorrow, into the mother who had birthed her.
Her eyes close, holding tight toward the poor Malibu.
The legacy of Meryl was on her shoulders now. She'd keep true to her freedom, of her rebellion. Perhaps the only one that fought for her freedom. The only one who denied what fate had in store for them.
Maria followed her own rules.
And what she wanted now?
Was to continue to sleep, adrift against her mother's shoulder.
When she woke up, would she remember to deny the world, to follow her own rules, to follow her heart.
As her brother had done before.
"..."
"...zzz..""
For now, however? She sleeps. Caught in her mother's embrace.
"zzzz..."
Remembering what they lived for.
As well as herself.
(Maria Malibu)
[04:06]
Noticing the alcohol induced sleepiness washing over her daughter, the woman pulls her into a tighter embrace, letting her head rest on her form as hands gently combed through long strands of hair.
"...Sleep well, honey."
"...We'll pull through." She mutters the last of her words with a sigh, assuming the other is too out of it to particularly be able to hear any.
Once sleep utterly took the younger Malibu, though, would her mother decide to lift her up again, carrying her upstairs slowly to her room.
(Meryl Malibu)
[04:07] Maria Malibu says, ".."
[04:07] Maria Malibu says, "Zzzzzzz"
[04:08] Maria Malibu says, "Honk....shooo...."
[04:13]
{Character Loaded, IC Year: 2135}
[04:16] {Item} You picked up Rowboat..
[04:21] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[04:21] Maria Malibu says, "Wuh..."
[04:21] Meryl Malibu asks, "Hm?"
[04:21] Maria Malibu says, "...."
[04:21] Maria Malibu smiles!
(Maria Malibu)
[04:23] Maria Malibu hiccups!
(Maria Malibu)
[04:23] Maria Malibu says, "..."
[04:23] Maria Malibu hugs her mother...before goingg to bed...
(Maria Malibu)
[04:23] Maria Malibu thinks, "I need to stop drinking."
[04:23] Maria Malibu thinks, "Where the fuck am I."
[04:23] Maria Malibu exclaims, "...!!"
[04:23] Maria Malibu hugs her momma....again...
(Maria Malibu)
[04:23] Maria Malibu says, "Warm......"
[04:23] Meryl Malibu hugs her dottir.
(Meryl Malibu)
[04:23] Maria Malibu says, "...."
[04:23] Maria Malibu says, "Uwghhhfhfgh...."
[04:24] Maria Malibu says, "Goo-...nigh...."