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Vamas - Westport

With the things packed up and being carried by Brun exclusively for the moment, the pair head down the hilly path into Westport proper.

A rough town, especially down by the docks, but along the northeastern outskirts it feels a lot like Respite, a lot of folks just trying to make the best of their life there. The town is something of a den of thieves and pirates, a boiling pot of folks who want to remain out of sight of the law.

Fiora grows tense as they walk along streets she clearly remembers, pointing out a few sights or occasional differences from her memories to Brunilda. Some of it is pleasant, but it's clear that Fiora was a difficult child who sought out difficult situations.

The house itself stands out on the street. It isn't the only one boarded up, but it is the only one with an obvious shop attached, the shape of the forge attached resembles the one in Respite run by Cavro. There's no smoke coming from the chimney, and everything within is quiet.

Fiora swallows... nudging Brun towards the door, "S-suddenly glad I changed this morning... I really don't want to talk with any old neighbors that might recognize me..."

Brunilda nods, having been glancing around to see if they have any company: "...I can see that. Guess we want to get in." She puts Fiora's pack down and starts opening it to get the key. "What do you expect us to find in there?"

Fiora sighs, "I really don't know... probably nothing... dust... and memories. ...probably no ghosts..." She shivers, leaning a hand against Brun. "In truth... I don't know. I don't know how Mom left it. If she knew she was short on time, or if it was sudden... did she leave me anything on purpose? Or will it just be a mess... I don't know..."

Brunilda nods: "Guess we will find out." She steps towards the door with the key in her hand, intent on opening it.

Fiora holds her breath as Brun opens the door.

Inside, a layer of dust does indeed cover everything, though Fiora left nearly ten years ago, the home has only been abandoned for the past few years. Everything is packed up into boxes that litter the floor, as if someone was planning on moving out and never left.

Random bits of forged metal, tools, weapons, all litter the tables, alongside scribbled papers, notes and blueprints.

Fiora takes it all in... "It's... just like when I left. Mom never could stop either..."

Brunilda steps in, looking around: "Been a while since anyone was here, that's for sure." She takes a few more steps: "... like someone was heading out... I wonder what happened here."

Fiora looks around, "Well uh, no... it was always like this. I mean, not exactly like this but... Mom could never really stop working. So it spilled over into the house. So... she really did just keep working after I left... I mean, not that I expected anything less from her." She slumps a bit, struggling with those thoughts.

Brunilda touches Flora's side with her trunk. "Guess that sort of thing runs in the family. Kinda does in mine too."

Fiora nods, keeping her hand on Brun's trunk. "...y-yeah... guess so. Heh, sorry..." She pauses a moment, looking down from Brun's shoulder as that realization really sinks in, "Ah... shit... I really have been just like her to you, haven't I? No wonder I was hurting you..."

Brunilda glances at Fiora and gives a lopsided smile. "I did not know her, so I am not able to make a direct comparison, but..." She gives the tiniest of sighs as her trunk caresses the possum: "Yes, you did kind of close off a lot. It worries me when you do that."

Fiora looks over at Brun, "I... I'm sorry. I... I will do better..." She glances back out over the room, "...we might have our work cut out for us, digging through all of his. Check out over there." She points towards a counter the divides the room off from the kitchen (though it's all one room).

The house itself leads back deeper to a tiny hallway that splits into three rooms, two bedrooms on either side of the hall and a linking room to the forge in the back.

Brunilda nods, dropping the topic for now. She heads towards the counter, walking around a lot of the boxes. "So... far as anyone anywhere is concerned, all of this is yours? To do what you want."

Fiora hums, "Y-yeah, pretty much. I got a letter telling me so... carrier had to track me down in Sarn... was a fucking bombshell of a letter, telling me she'd passed, that this was mine, and that my 'cousin' Erika was the only real family I had, a secret half-sister that she'd kept from me. Ugh... what a mess..." It's unclear if she means all the boxes, or the relationship in general, or just all of it.

Brunilda hums: "No kidding." She looks about the place: "Call it a hunch knowing you, but 'settling down in Westport' is probably not high on your list."

Fiora sits down on Brunilda's shoulder, "Not exactly, no... but... this is home in a weird way."

Brunilda glances at Fiora: "Yeah." She is quiet for a second: "So... guess we should start looking through what she left for you?"

Fiora pats Brun's cheek as she stands back up, then scampers down to hop onto the counter. "Well... mostly you. I can look through these papers and stuff but the boxes are gonna be a bit much for me in this size."

Brunilda smiles: "Yeah, probably." She watches Fiora for a moment, before turning around to randomly pick one of the boxes and putting it onto the counter.

Fiora walks across the counter, glancing over at Brun, "Most of it will be junk anyways... maybe we can sell it to another smith... but keep any blueprints and set them aside. At the very least, I'll give them to Cavro or something someday, maybe they can help him. The rest we throw out." She pauses as she looks down at the first letter on the counter, swearing, "This feels so gross somehow..."

Brunilda looks at Fiora: "Gross? Like... like we shouldn't be here, going through this?" She frowns, uncertain.

Fiora shakes her head, "No... more like... f-fuck... I don't know!" She sits down on the table, clearly fighting back tears... Brun has likely seen this face before, and were Fiora taller, she would be threatening to punch a wall about now.

Brunilda stops going through the box and returns her full attention to the pygmy possum, offering her trunk to her cheek again. "Mm. Take it easy, love."

Fiora closes her eyes tight, letting out a frustrated squeak. "Agggh! She Would leave me with all of this... she... damn't... she... she's gone..." She reaches out to Brunilda's trunk and squeezes, hugging it tightly as a good deal of repressed emotion comes out of the small possum.

Brunilda holds Fiora and lets the possum lean on her as much and for as long as is necessary. She kind of suspected this would eventually get to Fiora.

Fiora sobs into Brun's trunk for a prolonged moment, finally slumping her arms down, "I'm so... so... So tired... th-this is all my fault, Brun. I'm the one who ran... I've tried to stay angry at her for so long."

Brunilda ssh's softly. "We all make mistakes." She continues holding Fiora, the possum looking even more tiny and vulnerable than usual.

Fiora puts her hands over head, "I'm the mistake..." She looks up at Brun, feeling every bit of the helplessness and pain magnified by how small she is right now.

Brunilda smiles softly and whispers: "For what it's worth, I do not think you are."

Fiora sobs, slowly smiling up at the elephant with a sigh. "Done plenty of mistakes with you too... I- I'm sorry I've dragged you into this. W-we never should have come here."

Brunilda hums, holding Fiora in her hands and trunk. "Well, here we are. I figure we make the most of this in the least painful way we can, and move on."

Fiora does her best to hug back the much larger elephant as Brunilda holds her, "D-don't... Don't let me push you away Brun. I don't want to end up like... This..." She motions towards the house before gripping Brun's hand. The home does paint a pretty bleak picture of the occupant. Alone. Obsessed. Consumed with work at the expense of her loved ones.

Brunilda smiles warmly at her lover: "I won't. I promise you, I will not let you shut me out again." Her expression darkens slightly: "Fiora, we have seen a lot together. Some things we definitely regret even seeing. There is no way I will ever want to leave you alone after all that."

Fiora nods, sniffling as she keeps a tight grip on Brun's hand, "Mom drove everyone away... Erika's Dad, my Dad, Me... I won't... I can't do that. I need you, Brun. I love you."

Brunilda nods, her trunk touching Fiora's cheek. "I love you too, Fiora. And you are not your Mother."

Fiora laughs softly, just luxuriating in Brunilda's touch all around her. "Thanks..." She sighs, wiping tears away and smiling up at the elephant. "Guess I still gotta clean up her mess though."

Brunilda chuckles softly: "Yeah. But we can take our time, I think. Much easier when we're both big, and I suspect pretty soon neither of us is going to be for a few days."

Fiora sighs, slowly pulling herself together, "Well... do as much as we can like this, rest up here when we're both small, and then I can do the rest once we've swapped. ...I do feel so helpless like this..."

Brunilda smiles, brushing her thumb on Fiora's belly: "Well. Still beautiful though. But I get what you mean, so many things that are hard or impossible when we're small."

They have done some research onto reversing the curse, but haven't had much at all progress. Doesn't help that neither of them know magic or have the resources to hire someone skilled and expensive to figure it out.

Fiora squeaks at the touch, "At least I know I can trust you with this... I just gotta... you know, let you help me. I... can do that."

Brunilda hums, putting Fiora back down on the table. "What options might you have, love? Right this moment, you get to mostly call the shots for the stuff you want me to move."

Fiora hops down and sits on the table, crossing her legs beneath her. "Keep fighting and struggling and walling off all this pain... b-but I can't do it anymore. I've lost that fight."

Brunilda smiles: "And you don't have to fight anymore, I think."

Fiora nods, managing to smile back, "Yeah... I think I'm okay with that..."

Brunilda leans onto the table as she motions at the assorted boxes: "So... should we start looking if there's anything worth saving in all this?"

Fiora pushes upwards and walks to the edge of table to overlook it all, "Y-yeah... who knows, maybe we'll find some mythical star metal to forge better armor with? Or at least some old nostalgic drawings from kid me that Mom kept in some random shoebox."

Brunilda nods, thinking. "If nothing else, should bring you some closure about all this. So we can take our time."

Fiora nods, "That would be nice, yeah. It won't be a ghost that I keep running from... it'll be... done with."

Brunilda smiles softly: "Sounds good to me, then." She leans down to touch her trunk on Fiora's cheek again.

Fiora reachs up to rub Brunilda's trunk, "I think I said it before but... I do like how your trunk feels. Thanks... for putting up with me."

Brunilda smiles: "You put up with me, even after, or possible despite everything."

Fiora smirks, "Or... because of everything." She hugs Brun's trunk, closing her eyes. "Because you're stubborn enough to wear me down, but uh, in a good way, I mean."

Brunilda nods: "We will ignore any commentary about broken ribs, yes. It's in the past." She leans down to give the possum a small (depending on one's perspective) kiss.

Fiora lets out an eep, laughing as she (sorta, kinda) kisses back. "Ribs heal, Brun!" She looks out over the room with all its assorted junk and sighs, "Some things don't."

Brunilda gently redirects Fiora away from the room and to look at her. "Hey. One step at a time, love. You don't need to fall down a rabbit hole of feeling bad for things you've done."

Fiora lets Brun's touch guide her back, and smiles up at the Elephant, "Okay... just... one step at a time."

Brunilda smiles: "That's the spirit. Let's go find us some food to fuel figuring this all out, then come back here and start sorting?"

Fiora nods, feeling quite a bit of weight lifted off her currently quite small shoulders, "Sounds perfect. I know a few places... well, I used to. But I can point out where they used to be at least. The rest I'll leave up to you."

Brunilda smirks: "Not all of it. You need food too, and we both know our diets aren't exactly the same when the change hits."

Fiora pokes Brun's trunk with a laugh, "You know what I meant! But... yeah. Figuring out food is at least doable."

Brunilda offers her arm to her much smaller girlfriend: "Shall we head out, then?"

Fiora takes Brun's arm and quickly climbs up it, perching on her shoulder once again. "Let's go." She takes one more long look at the house, sighing once again before she looks up and smiles at Brun.

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