[color=lightgray][right][sub][b]TIMESTAMP[/b] — Afternoon, Tuesday, July 21st, 2021 || After [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5432160]Woman of Many Names[/url] 
Featuring [color=dc143c]Mordechai Boaz[/color] and [color=BB986B]Mitena Strongbow[/color]
A [@Brutalbx] and [@Aces Away] Collab[/sub][/right][/color]
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[color=lightgray][indent][indent]Some chapters don’t always end when you think they will and Mitena found herself in just such a story

After her heart to heart with Penelope, the indigenous songstress believed that this unique and foundation shaking part of the story was over. She had spent time with each of the puzzle pieces that were the representatives of her late brother’s soul. Their arrival upon the dusty roads of Blue Hill was unexpected but not unwelcome. Tena had longed to understand Charlie more, to glimpse into the life of her spirit twin and understand why he made the choices he made. In her conversations with the Eden quartet, she had learned some but not all. It seemed that with Charlie, just when she thought she had all the answers, someone changed the questions.

She had said her goodbyes or at least she thought she had and was settling in at Silverheel when her Stargirl messaged her that the tale wasn’t over and that there was still something left unwritten; Mordechai wanted to meet with Mitena. The Serpent, her brother's comrade and close friend, a boy who lost his own blood due to the actions of the Raven. He had the most visceral and raw reaction when they held their earlier talks. If any one of them had words left unsaid, it was Decky and Tena wanted to give him as much time as he needed.

After hopping on her bike, the native beauty traversed the full length of the Blue Hill Reservation to reach Adora’s place. When she had arrived, she parked up next to the old tree where she remembered playing as a small child and stood next to it, her hands on her hips and her breathing heavy. She wasn’t sure what to expect from the next few minutes. Tena had learned that the Great Spirits plan during all of this was kind of haphazard and all over the place. She couldn’t predict it; she didn’t want to. She wanted to read on and see what came next.

Messy black hair greeted her as Mitena made her way to a bench to the west of the property which sat in the shadow of the hills. From a distance, she wondered if it could be Charlie but she knew better than that. She knew it was a part of him though, a part that was eating away at itself, a part that needed her. Tena took the seat next to Decky, crossing her legs towards him and staring up at the great green yonder. [color=BB986B]“You wrang?”[/color] She said in her best lurch impression. The next move was his.

The voice the native woman used prompted a small burst of laughter out of Mordechai. The serpent may not know much about Disney musicals or tv dramas, but the Addams Family was universal. It was actually a pretty good impression, too.

[color=dc143c]“I did, thanks for comin’ back ta Auntie’s so quick,”[/color] He began, eyes on the same tree she had parked next to as memories of climbing with Danny, Jokes, and Creed bubbled to the surface. Pure moments in his childhood were few and far between, but with Blue Hill being the first place the Boaz brothers ever went outside of Edenridge, removed from its influence and crushing grip, it was also the first place that the brothers actually acted like the young children they were at the time. Everyone that stayed around Adora seemed to understand that, and Mordechai remembered days where it wasn’t just the Southie boys climbing that tree, some of the rez kids also coming around to get to know the two boys who seemed to be adopted under the Diamondheart woman that was starting to build her home there. He absently wondered if at any point Tena was one of those children, like Forrest and Illara were.

[color=dc143c]“I’m sorry, for the way I responded earlier,”[/color] He finally continued once he’d collected his thoughts, looking into the deep brown eyes that seemed to try and read the hidden parts of his soul. [color=dc143c]“It wasn’t you. I was lookin’ for answers ta questions I should’a walked away from a while ago. I was actin’ like ya knew Charlie’s mind and reasons just ‘cause ya got letters from him, just ‘cause you’re his sister. Then ya said my nickname and I just-”[/color] He looked away, clenching his fists in his lap and taking a deep breath. [color=dc143c]“Danny gave me that name,”[/color] He smiled, and the action was full of sorrow and loss but it was a smile nonetheless, something he was slowly getting used to doing as he healed with each step he took. [color=dc143c]“He couldn’t pronounce my name when we were kids so that was all he could get out. It just became the runnin’ nickname because before I lost him I didn’t use my real name anywhere, so I was either Decky or Boa ta those close ta me,”[/color] He looked at her again as his smile lessened but didn’t disappear. [color=dc143c]“I just go by Mordechai now. Ya couldn’t have known any’a that, I’m sorry.”[/color]

[color=BB986B]“You don’t have to say sorry to me, for anything.”[/color] Mitena rested her hand on top of Decky’s quaking one and offered him a warm smile to carry with him. [color=BB986B]“I don’t know you, any of you. And you don’t know me. Everybody has lines and it’s only when we truly know someone that we learn that there’s space to colour outside of them.”[/color] Her deep doe eyes drifted to the same tree that her brother's soul sibling gazed upon and she let out a small little laugh. [color=BB986B]“I used to climb that tree as a kid. Fell on my ass, soooo many times.”[/color] She brushed some of her dark raven hair away from her face and returned her attention to him.

She wondered about his life and everything in it. She knew of the Decky in the book, the badass, the renegade. Tena read about his adventures and sat in awe. If anything, she may have had a little bit of a crush on the boy in the book. The man that sat with her was different. She could see in glimpses in his eyes that the boy who belonged in Neverland was still there but like her Charlie, he had been weighed down by hard times and harsh lives. Lacing her fingers with Mordechai’s, Mitena tried to capture his gaze. [color=BB986B]“So what do I call you then?”[/color]

Mordechai looked up from where he’d been looking at their joined hands in confusion. He hadn’t flinched when he reached out to him, hadn’t even twitched when she’d rested her hand on his and intertwined their fingers. Legs and his friends had done a wonderful job of reacclimating him to such gestures, normalizing them and reminding him that contact can be kind, but he still flinched more often than not before coming to Blue Hill. It was like his anxious, restless spirit were suddenly and [i]finally[/i] settling beneath his skin. Trying to mirror the affection, learn her way of comforting, Mordechai squeezed her hand lightly like he had with Poppy earlier on the porch before responding to her, maintaining eye contact and letting her see him and the windows to his soul.

[color=dc143c]“Everyone’s got their own nickname for me,”[/color] He responded honestly. [color=dc143c]“Jade calls me Key, she shortened it from Grease Monkey after I started calling her Harley Head. Boa’s my Serpent name, someone I love calls me Mob. If ya want, we can just start with Mordechai and… and as we get ta know each other maybe somethin’ personal will come ta ya,”[/color] He reached up his free hand to scratch the back of his head in a tell of insecurity, and even in the moment he took the time to be proud he didn’t go for his track scars first. [color=dc143c]“I take on nicknames like Batman takes on family members.”[/color] He looked over at the tree once more, recalling her earlier comment.

[color=dc143c]“I’d been wonderin’ if we ever met before last night,”[/color] He admitted honestly, trying to search his faded memories for a face like hers. [color=dc143c]“I’ve been comin’ here since I was ten, stayin’ with Auntie Adora. Her sister Tama, her family would bring me and my lil’ brother here all the time. I think I actually sprained my ankle the first time I ate shit fallin’ from that tree.”[/color] It had freaked Adora out when he hadn’t cried at all, but of the adults and other kids staying with the young woman at the time, she was the only one that hadn’t seen Decky the night he and Sonny came to join the Serpents. A sprained ankle barely registers to him.

[color=BB986B]“Trust me, sweetie. You’d remember a face like this.”[/color] Tena teased with a wink. [color=BB986B]“Truth of the matter is, chances are I was working. After my mother passed I spent all my time on the farm helping out my Auntie Jay. So if we did pass, it was definitely as ships in the night.”[/color] Although she enjoyed joking with Mordechai, the young woman couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness. To hear that Decky and other Southies had spent some of their youth in the open ranges of Blue Hill and Charlie, who belonged there, never even visited as far as she knew, it was a dagger in the side.

[color=BB986B]“I hope you know that you’re always welcome here. You and the others.”[/color] Mitena tightened her grip slightly to match the southside man she held in her embrace. [color=BB986B]“Hell, maybe I’ll come to you. By the sounds of it I’m going to need to stop your friend Penelope off tomorrow morning. I think she likes it here.”[/color] A knowing smile crept upon her lips as she thought of the girl like a flower and the obvious and instant connection she had made with Tena’s cousin Forrest. [color=BB986B]“I’d like for us to be friends. What Charlie Jay did…I can’t undo that. I can’t forgive that. All I can do is offer you my heart in friendship and a home here whenever you need it. My brother described you once as the king of the lost boys. Maybe Blue Hill can be your neverland, Peter Pan.”[/color]

Mordechai’s heart twisted painfully at Mitena’s final words, and he fought the tears rising only because he refused to let melancholy take over the beautiful and important moment the two of them were creating together. [i]King of the Lost Boys[/i], the entirety behind the meaning was lost on him as he didn’t get the reference- not beyond knowing that Peter Pan was one of the books Charlie had had on his bookshelf from the first time Decky entered the other boy’s room to the bitter last- but the words alone seemed to peg Mordechai, or rather [i]Decky, Boa[/i] down to a T. At ten years old he and Sonny had stumbled into the Serpents angry and broken, with no idea how to act with others. It was a wonder how Poppy, Charlie, and Jade had stayed around him before that; pure instinct and reaction, snapping at anyone too close to Danny or Sonny and no idea how to reciprocate friendship. They really put up with a lot when it came to him. 

But then the Serpents had expanded his world beyond his locked down house and the school yard. He and Sonny had risen through the ranks like rockets shooting through the sky and by the time they were all getting tossed in Juvie, they’d become Captain and Lieutenant of the Carlisle Crew. He wasn’t stupid, all of them were lost somehow. Even the Legacies had their family traumas and histories. They were all lost, and they all understood each other. He thought back to the way the serpent den lit up when he’d returned last month, all his lost brothers seeming to lose some of the weight they’d just had on their shoulders. 

He was important to them. Charlie saw that even when Mordechai himself couldn’t. Charlie always saw, just like his Angels did, and he shared what he saw with a sister he [i]couldn’t[/i] see while Mordechai continued walking through his life blindly. He could only imagine how hard it was for Charlie, feeling so alone and so lost, to see Mordechai and Danny carrying each other through life and knowing he had someone out there he could feel that connection with. If only fate had dealt him a different hand.

[color=dc143c]“Thank you,”[/color] Mordechai whispered, lifting their joined hands up to his chest and dropping his head as if he were praying. With the light breeze carrying leaves and birdsong all around them, the moment truly felt like a spiritual experience. [color=dc143c]“For helpin’ us. Poppy, Jade, me…” [i]Even Puff,[/i][/color] He thought though didn’t say out loud. [color=dc143c]“You’ve sat there and played healer ta a bunch’a broken people. We all dropped so much on ya, but I know you’ve gotta be hurtin’ too. So thanks, for bein’ strong when we couldn’t, and understandin’ where we were confused. I’d love ta get ta know ya and see ya again,”[/color] He thought to her comment on Poppy and his own small smile took over his lips. He hadn’t missed her earlier mention of Resi at all- he’d just been far too confused by her bagel comment to register the rest of her words- and he knew what it meant when someone’s mere name made his Street Angel glow like that. Like she’d glowed around Charlie. Just like he’d known with Jade when she talked about Anya. He looked back up and steadied his gaze on hers once more. To show Mitena his appreciation, to open himself up to her as fully as she had to him and the other Edenites, Mordechai ended his schmaltz with, [color=dc143c]“If you’re gonna be comin’ inta town, maybe you’d…maybe you’d like ta meet my kids? I got a daughter, Viva, who I became a dad ta on accident,”[/color] He laughed, remembering his reaction the morning before when she’d introduced herself to Jade with his last name slapped on as well. [color=dc143c]“And a son, Chai. He ain’t even a year old yet.”[/color]

[color=BB986B]“I would love that.”[/color] Tena could feel the tears begin to well in her eyes to match Decky’s. In that moment she realised she could be a surrogate for her brother. She could enter the lives of these fractured people and be for them what Charlie could’ve been had he not given up on himself. She could be a friend, a healer, a lover and a soulmate. Reaching upwards, Mitena took a hold of Decky’s handsome face and kissed him. This was not to be misconstrued as a romantic moment, this was her thanking him. Thanking him for letting her in and letting her be what their Charlie could not. She pulled herself away and dried the tears in the Serpents eyes with a smile. [color=BB986B]“Thank you for letting me in.”[/color]

Wiping her own eyes, Tena leaned back against the bench and let out a great sign. [color=BB986B]“Well this has been a very emotional day. I am absolutely getting shitface drunk tonight…then maybe I’ll run myself a bath, play a little Boyz II Men and have a cry.”[/color] She laughed out loud at her own joke before glancing down at her wrist and Charlie’s leather brace. [color=BB986B]“Spirit, he’s such a dick.”[/color]

Mordechai had accepted the kiss for the thanks that it was and settled back down beside her, following her gaze to her brother’s bracelet. Mitena was an extremely openly affectionate person, she wore her emotions on her face even as she read those of her conversational partner like a book. Decky grew up using physical interaction to fill a void he didn’t understand, staring into an abyss that never stared back, it looked like Tena used it to traverse the abyss and discover new things, to share her knowledge and strength. She was someone that people like him and his angels, people like Natalia, deeply needed. 

[color=dc143c]“Yeah, yeah maybe,”[/color] He replied with a small huff of laughter, his smile finally settling on his face. [color=dc143c]“In his own fucked up way though, he laid the foundation for us all ta meet. If he’d never reached out ta ya, if it weren’t for that assignment I couldn’t even [i]do[/i], ya never would’ve known about us before we got here, and shit could’a gone a lot worse. Ronnie wouldn’t’ve known ta send us here with that lil’ white lie’a hers. Those two were always lookin’ out for others more than themselves,”[/color] he closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh air. [color=dc143c]“I’m sorry it took all this for us ta meet. It’s at the cost’a your energy and mind. I actually meant ta just say sorry an’ ask ta meet another time, but I guess Blue Hill still had plans for me. I’m not gonna tell ya or ask if you’re gonna be ok, that shit never works for me, and I don’t make promises. You can call me, though,”[/color] Mordechai brought his phone out and handed it over to the young rocker once he got to the contacts page. [color=dc143c]“I got a friend that always falls inta the roll’a Healer, and I know how taxin’ it can be. Don’t do it alone, please.”[/color]

Tena gently stroked Mordachai’s face. [color=BB986B]“I’m never alone.”[/color] She said as she raised her hand once again to show off her brother's brace. [color=BB986B]“Charlie Jay is always with me. Same as he’s with you and Penelope, Natalia and Jade. He’s a part of us. All of us.”[/color] She was hesitant to name which part because she didn’t know. Charlie had a lot about him and to fracture his soul into pieces for them all to carry? That sort of medicine was special. [color=BB986B]“Don’t worry about me.”[/color] She quickly typed her number into his phone and handed it back. [color=BB986B]“I’ll definitely call you. A lot sooner than you think.”[/color] Tena got up to her feet and dusted herself off, trying to discard any sadness into the wind. 

[color=BB986B]“You better fly home soon, Peter Pan. There’s lost children waiting to be rescued.”[/color]

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