Together is how we belong.

--- "I wonder....what is the world like now, all these years later....?"

[ofhxrmony-blog]

Terrible Choices

"I can't believe you just did that."

"You're going to do WHAT?!"

"Let me count the ways that this is a bad idea..."

"Please tell me you're joking."

"You are going to have a LOT of explaining to do over this one."

"You can make all the excuses all you want, but you really fucked up this time."

"So... I did something that might have been a terrible idea..."

"Do you think we could just forget last night?"

"I'm not sure what happened, but I have a feeling I know who was behind it."

"You know that little voice inside your head that tells you not to do the thing? Listen to it next time."

"You're not a teenager anymore. Stop acting like it."

"What's the worst that could happen from all this?"

"Do not talk to me again."

"It really wasn't THAT bad a decision, was it?"

"Yeah. Okay. I screwed up. Now what do I do about it?"

"Don't try to pin this all on me. WE did this. You were involved."

"You don't have that little voice that tells you when something's a bad idea, do you?"

[text] What happened? Everything's a blur.

"Please, please tell me what I did wrong."

"That was just a giant clusterfuck, wasn't it?"

[guardianisms]

    “Is that an insult?” Eyebrows raised. “Tch, now, is that any way to treat your friends, Harmonia?”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

“Friend? I see I have been promoted quite a bit above ‘nuisance,’ hm?”

[hxrmonian]

    “…This is some sort of dream, right? In the very least, in the sense that I am still asleep in the castle. Physically, at any rate.”

    He doesn’t want to say it’s not real; it’s not physical, no, but to claim it wasn’t would be saying this was all in his head - imaginary. That isn’t true here. It has the qualities of dreams, but he can feel that there’s far more to it than that. Something about this is simply undeniably real. 

    And what’s more, he’s never so aware of the Dragon Force in his dreams; maybe that’s what lends to his feeling that this is something beyond his own mind. This is something more than Ciro himself.

    “You are an ancestor of mine, are you not?” He studies Harmonia’s reflection in the pond, then his own. “There is a certain family resemblance, I think…”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “A dream, hunh? I guess that would be the best way to explain it. Not physical, no, but it is in no way not real. After all, dreams have an end, and slowly they fade away, forgotten and simply your imagination.” He brushed his hand against the water once more, silent for a few moments, a smile pulling up the corners of his lips.

--- “An ancestor-- the ancestor. After all, it was with me that the Harmonia line started.” There wasn’t any tone of boasting or anything of the sort; just matter-of-fact. Harmonia was looking at Ciro out of the corner of his eye, studying his reactions, seeing the gears turning in his head as he seemed to process everything around him.

[guardianisms]

@ofhxrmony

    “About time I found you. A wonder nothing has managed to kill you yet.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “I don’t have to be a brute to be able to take care of myself!”

[hxrmonian]

@ofhxrmony

    One moment he was at his desk in his study - slowly drifting off, but too determined to find solutions to let himself sleep - and now… where was he? This place looked almost like the pond he often visited, a clearing amidst the trees, with reeds lining the water banks and a path worn from the footsteps of humans and majuu over the years. The only difference was the stillness - nothing stirred. The usual sounds of wind and ducklett and flowing water were gone. All he could hear was the gental hum of the Dragon Force, just as he could everywhere. He could only conclude that this had to be some sort of dream.

    He knelt down by the water, reaching out for it to see if he could feel the cold - to confirm that this wasn’t reality - when he suddenly seemed to feel… a presence? He wasn’t sure what he was sensing; in part, it felt a bit like his connection to Isshurem, a familiarity that could only be felt between linke souls. But this was different - it wasn’t Isshurem, it wasn’t the same powerful presence, but somehow, his connection to it felt… stronger. Complete. As though it were somehow himself standing behind him.

    Reflected in the blue and green of the pond, he could see who it was. Not himself, but there was a resemblance - the hair, the eyes, the build. The face felt horribly familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it.

    “What is going on?”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Hm, I wonder; what indeed?”

--- To see the world from another’s eyes, it was something else entirely. A surprise, though not exactly a bad one, per say. He had been trying to find a way to communicate with Ciro for--well-- quite a while now. He guessed though that the other had to have established the connection with Isshurem first, and then their souls were finally, fully, intertwined.

--- Harmonia sat down by the pond, his eyes gazing at the water’s surface. Fingers brushed against the water, watching the ripples softly flow along the pond, settling once more a few moments later. “Tell me, if you well, what do you think is going on?”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “That’s kind of hard to imagine, actually…” He couldn’t remember any time he’d seen a Harmonia, in picture or otherwise, with anything but green hair.

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Well, I mean, her husband was a redhead, so I guess it makes sense when you think about it. Actually, you may know them, considering he was a Devine.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Do… Do all Harmonias just fit the same general description…?”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Well--- my grandson was a redhead. Though my granddaughter has the green hair like her mother.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    The walk isn’t more than a minute or so, and Adair leads the way mostly in silence. At the very outskirts of the town, he pauses to move his sword from where it hangs at his hip to across his back with his shield and hide them both beneath his cloak. He catches Harmonia’s look as he does and explains.

    “Sorry - people don’t always trust armed strangers wandering about. Don’t want to give off the wrong impression.” It was a habit he’d only gotten into recently; Clara had looked absolutely through with him when she had to explain it the first time he’d tried waltzing into one of the bigger towns with his new weapons on hand. Sure, they were a little harder to get at in a pinch, but it was better than attracting any negative attention.

    “Come on, let’s start looking.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “No, I understand.” He had seen it firsthand himself many times, after all. There was always so much distrust, and it made him sick to his stomach. The Maju with the humans, the humans with the Maju-- and even both of them with their own kind. At least him and Isshurem had been able to calm the hostility a bit, but----

--- They still had so much farther to go.

--- He shook the thoughts off, and refocused on the task at hand. They needed to find Zweilous, before the sun started setting and it got dark, or worse.

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “…Great. In that case, we should hurry up before she gets herself into any trouble. Come on, this way.” He waved Harmonia forward, starting in the direction of town. All he could hope was that they didn’t run into anyone too unpleasant; sure, he had his sword and shield on hand, but he didn’t like his chances without Braviary if things did end up going to shit.

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Ah, okay.” He followed Adair, trying not to show how worried he was. While he had been able to prevent a full out war, and most people and Maju had accepted the need to work together, there were still those on both sides who didn’t wish for them to mingle. And if Zweilous ran into one of those people, well, it would be easy to assume she didn’t have a partner---

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Well, it… it isn’t exactly a common name,” and certainly not the one he’d expect to hear around here. Most of the people of Isshu lived much farther north. He shrugged - he was just wasting time dwelling on all of this. “Anyway, that Zweilous–do you think she would wander into town?” No doubt they’d be in for a heap of trouble if she did.

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Strange clothes and a strange name, hm?” Harmonia laughed before pondering Adair’s question. Given how big of an eater Zweilous was, it was pretty likely for her to go into town, smelling food. Not to mention she would probably eventually try to locate her partner. “She may have. It would be wise to take a look to see.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Harmonia? Really?” He’s reasonably taken aback. So not only is this man the spitting image of the hero in his favorite story growing up, but he shares the same name? He has to wonder if this isn’t some kind of joke. Surely he means he’s a Harmonia, right? No one from centuries ago could be alive now - no human, anyway. (At least, that’s what he’ll assume. Trying to wrap his mind around the thought that his childhood hero was standing right beside him was a little too much for him right now.)

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “You sound quite surprised.” It had been sometime since anyone had expressed surprise at finding out who he was, but he guessed there were probably still people taken off-guard at meeting him. After all, he doubted he seemed like anyone who would stop that war between humans and Pokemon, so he never took any offense to it. Not to mention he had ruled for only 14 years until his daughter had taken the Dragon’s offer.

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Oh, no, you don’t have to worry about that,” he laughed. “I’m happy to help. I can imagine - it must be pretty stressful to have a partner up and vanish. Besides, you seem nice enough. My name is Adair, Adair Devine. And you?”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Artemis hatched Zweilous herself a few years ago, and with how rambunctious the Deino line can be--- well, they have gotten quite close.” He couldn’t help the wide smile on his lips. “You are a Devine? And here when I think I have met everyone, I find I have not. My name is Harmonia.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Got it. Braviary, come here a minute,” he flags his partner over and explains the situation (the flying-type seems to scoff at the mention of not causing trouble, probably because it’s practically Adair’s trademark). He sends Braviary off to start the search, then returns to Harmonia. “He’ll come find us if he spots her.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Thank you very much for the help. If there is anyway I can repay you, do not hesitate to ask.” A finger raised to Harmonia’s chin as he seemed to notice something. “You know, I do not think I have gotten your name. May I ask what it is?”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Ah. I haven’t seen her around, but I can help you look. Wouldn’t want her to be found by the wrong people before you can get her back. I can get my partner to go searching, too. I’m sure Braviary could track her down faster.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Oh, thank you-- the help is very much appreciated. As long as Braviary does not get too close to her if he is able to locate her. She tends to like trying to fight everything see can, being a Zweilous.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Heh, I don’t know if that would be my first choice of things to be remembered for. A specific Zweilous? Because as far as I know, you’d be hard-pressed to find a wild one around here.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Hey, it would be something to be remembered for, and is that not what everyone want? Does it really matter too much why? And she is my wife’s partner. She a red bow on the back of her heads.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “You look like something from an old Isshu storybook. What are you doing wandering around way out here?”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Hey, who knows? Maybe one day my clothes will be so memorable that they will write a story about me! Anyways, I am looking for a Zweilous.”

[fusionbolts-archive]

    “Wow. That is quite the outfit you’ve got there.”

[ofhxrmony-blog]

--- “Ah, really? I guess that is not the first time I have heard my taste in clothing is strange.”