Welcome Back! // Adella + Scuttle
adella-the-idyllic:
Adella would admit it readily if you asked; she lowkey idolized Sergio Gull. A world traveller! He lived his life free as bird and she always aspired to be like him. Even when Athena was alive, before her father’s poor coping led him to be so adamant about stay here, here, hereherehere, Adella lived for hearing Uncle Scuttle’s stories. And when she decided to study abroad in Italy? He was the first person she told.
And she called him crying before she had to tell Daddy and Attina. Oh, she knew they knew it was required for her degree at the time, a year abroad, but she knew they’d still stress her out and she just. Needed Uncle Scuttle to reassure her that Italy would be worth the stressful conversation. Adella was always dramatic, okay?
It was a wonder she didn’t realize acting was her true calling earlier. A lot of time wasted on that linguistics degree and becoming fluent in Italian, huh?
“Oh, when?” Adella adjusted her hearing aid, standing on her toes to kiss her cheek while she did. “I decided early December that I probably jumped the gun with the move to London. It was expensive, and I wasn’t getting many parts because I just, my acting chops aren’t very refined, you know? No real training. And Daddy’s money will pay to study acting at Pride U, but Della’s rent money had to pay for expensive acting, dance, voice, and accent coaching in London. It feels like a step backwards, honestly. But I know it’s where I should have started.”
The third Triton sister hummed and gestured to her hearing aid. “Also. My hearing in this ear got really bad, and I kinda got scared, so. I’m glad I came home for a while.”
She’d begun to lose her hearing in her left ear, little by little when she was a preteen. Some years, it didn’t deteriorate more at all. Others, like the past year, the drop was drastic. After three years of resting at the same amount of hearing loss, it jumped to around eighty percent. She couldn’t sing well, because she couldn’t hear the notes she was singing or the notes she was meant to sing. Even speaking parts were hard because she couldn’t hear.
She lost her old hearing aid drunk on the train one night and was too prideful to call home, admit it, and get Jeff to order a new one for her. And, she was too scared to go to a doctor anyway. Didn’t want them to tell her what she already knew. That her left ear was betraying her more.
“I missed you so much, you have no idea how crazy I feel without you around!”
Sergio had always seen bits of himself in all of the girls. Perhaps it was because he had been around them so long, he could pick out the little quirks that he was prone to as well. But Adella in particular, her desire to travel, her reluctance to stay in Swynlake despite her family’s wishes; he could never fault her for any of it. Sometimes, he was convinced that she was the younger, female version of himself.
He’d been careful not ask why, but offered an understanding smile when she supplied the answer anyway. It was a difficult thing to talk about, Sergio knew that. He’d hated when people asked his reasoning when he’d decided to move back. As if he had to justify his decision to them, when he could barely justify it to himself. It was a difficult decision, returning home after experiencing the taste of freedom outside of the city lines. Some of Sergio’s returns had bene for financial reasons as well, though his more permanent move back recently had been more out of concern for his father’s health. So he understood to reluctance, the dislike of admitting what sometimes felt like defeat, even if it wasn’t.
“Won’t be permanent, love. You’ll get another chance,” he said with a bright smile. “London, Hollywood, Broadway, wherever you like. They’ll be fighting over you one day. And every one of those so-called casting directors that didn’t give you a chance this time ‘round? They’ll be kicking themselves.”
He hummed and nodded, his eyes following her hand to the gesture at her ear for a moment before meeting her gaze again. Some things were just more difficult than others to watch over the years. As much as he loved watching his young nieces grow up, he also had to watch their difficulties. He still vividly remembered the day that her father had told Sergio what was going on, back when started years ago. Jeff had been worried, and understandably so, but there had been hope recently that it wouldn’t get any worse since, as far as Sergio knew, nothing had changed much in the last few years.
“It’ll be alright, you know that, right?” He said gently, reaching out to squeeze her hand, before his smile widened. “Besides, overcoming challenges make victories all the more satisfying. Not really all that fun honestly, if everything goes according to plan. But when you’re walking to red carpet one day, having health with all of the idiot casting directors that turned you down, and having to work around this little thing helping you out,” he added with a gesture towards her hearing aid, “Will make all the camera flashes just that much brighter, and everything you’re going to do just that much more satisfying.”
He smiled and tugged her closer again to wrap her in a hug, chuckling a little at her exclamation. “Oh I missed you too, Della. Nothing like another brand of crazy being around to make yours feel normal,” he teased. “I know you didn’t really want to come back, that you’d rather be out there on a set somewhere, but I am quite selfish, and I’m very glad to be able to see you more. Oh! Speaking of travels, I found something on my most recent trip. Thought I’d have to make another trip to London to give it to you, no hardship, mind you, I loved visiting you there. Now, just where did I—“ he broke off, stuffing around behind the counter to find the most recent objects he’d brought back.
“Ah, here it is!” He bounced back from behind the counter , a small book held close to his chest as he smiled brightly at Adella. “Now, I never quite understood the idea of keeping a travel journal— well, alright, I understood the idea, but I never quite liked it myself. Never could find things to write about, or there was too much, or I couldn’t put it into words— some things that you see, of course you understand, you can’t quite put into words. But a journal like this, is far better, I think. Thicker, card stock-type pages instead of lined paper, gives you a bit more liberties with recording things about your travel, I think. Put stamps in there, tape pictures, draw or paint something. Or tape leaves in it from odd plants you’ve never seen, really anything. I had one, exactly like this one as my first travel journal. Gone through several now, and I know you’ll fill up just as many one day, but I thought it was, well, honestly quite past time, that I got you your first travel journal of your own,” Sergio said happily, holding the journal out to her. It was simple in appearance, a dark brown, faux leather bound journal, with a hemp cord that looped around a wooden bead on the front to hold it closed. Some may call it old fashioned, keeping a journal when there were blogs and things about online where the same could be shared, but Sergio had always found a value in making something tangible with his own hands as a keepsake from his travels.
