[color=#B2ACA9][hr][hr][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019a7fda-4b3c-73fa-bd76-0256177c1ffe.webp[/img][/center][hr][hr]
[table][row][cell][center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/39ba91976a0b3b3bd26aceaf87a51c1c/0ae09c5cdf48fa95-4c/s400x600/0aa9643962f9f3e01c170b0eb98c6499630d81cc.gifv[/img][/center][/cell][cell][color=2e2c2c]▅▅▅▅▅▅[/color][/cell][cell][color=2e2c2c]▅▅▅▅▅▅[/color][/cell][cell][right][sub]i see you
between the [url=https://youtu.be/fsu5ZZwzFyk?si=c0Ny-38srZp8zekM][color=#9770C1]willow boughs[/color][/url]
dropping bubbles to the wet grass
with the [color=#9770C1]sun[/color] gently
gently tapping
tapping your [color=#9770C1]eyes shut[/color][/sub][/right][/cell][/row][/table][hr][hr]
[sub][color=#9770C1]Location[/color] - Mother's Home ⟢ Streets of New Rome ⟢ Coliseum
[color=#9770C1]Trigger Warning[/color] - Implication of Domestic Violence [Last Paragraph of Italicized Section] and Horror Imagery
[color=2e2c2c]▅▅▅▅▅▅[/color][/sub]

[indent][i]Moonlight fell between the slits of his curtains, Damocles in the night air, a heavy harbinger that shone against his eyelids. Immediately, as if the pressure in the air dipped the room into a steep and sudden curve, a presence shocked Thomas' eyes open. In the deep recesses of his closet, a shadow of a hand pitched in black tar lifted. It sliced the air in its void before stopping, finger pointing to his doorway. A set of eyes in the dark blinked into existence, sudden enough that Thomas felt the air leave his lungs. Dark dots centered in a shock of white shone stark against the black dipped ink cloying, swirling even in the surrounding abyss.

It did not speak. It stilled like time had stopped in its surrounding space, deep compression that bent the room down, down into it.

Thomas almost–was just barely able to look away. To follow the long length of its willowy arm, the point of its finger, to the open door beyond its grasp.

Toward a head of tousled hair, unkempt from force, that whipped back toward Thomas in an abrupt snap. Face pale, mouth blue and gnarled in a vicious gnash of his teeth. Pupils blown, eyes wildly vibrating. Her room—their room broken in unrecognizable chaos. Her neck in his hands. Gripped. Squeezing. Squeezing. Squeezing.[/i]

[center][color=#9770C1]_____________________________________[/color][/center]

[color=#008664]"Thomas! Thomas, mon chou!"[/color] a voice ripped him from the ether of his dreams in a gasp. He looked up to the nervous look weighing on his mother's face.

[color=#9770C1]"Ma? What..."[/color] he turned to look out the glass walls of her home to the gentle rise of sunlight eking along the edge of the sky, [color=#9770C1]"What time is it?"[/color]

She merely looked down at him, face contorting into exasperation to her ignored distress. Thomas stared for a moment before groaning and rising from his spot on her couch. He must've dozed off last night. [color=#9770C1]"Just a nightmare. Nothing I can't handle. I should be able to handle. I can handle–Ma!"[/color] Her hand interrupted him as she gripped his chin and jaw, forcing Thomas to look up at her. He gave her a lazy, half-lidded gaze before she let go with as much force as an annoyed mother could muster, sucking air between her teeth.

[color=#008664]"Go get dressed. You've got a busy day ahead of you,"[/color] before she shuffled out to her garden, she turned toward Thomas, already pointing at the gathered produce piled onto a traditional wooden cart, [color=#008664]"Take that down to the stalls if you could? The attendees at my stand should take care of the rest, okay chou?"[/color]

[color=#9770C1]"'M not a cabbage,"[/color] Thomas mumbled, falling back onto his mother's plush couch. He rubbed his head into the pillow before falling out and getting to his feet. [color=#9770C1]"Yes, mama,"[/color] Thomas croaked, knowing she'd not leave until he answered her.

[center][color=#9770C1]_____________________________________[/color][/center]

Certainly, animals replaced men in various aspects of hard labor (and then machines did the same in larger capacities) and transportation of goods and people were indeed one of them. Thomas would rather that than menial, back breaking tasks such as this. It reminded him of his cohort days, tugging objects across long stretches of training fields with a belligerent bull of a man screaming in his ear. Or, at least loud enough it felt like he'd been directly next to him.

Once Thomas dropped the goods off, he waved to the nymphs and satyrs attending his mother's rather generous plot for her stall. A lot of the goods she'd place out were often sold in bulk and at a great discount because of that. Her own way of giving back to the home that nurtured her and her son. Many of the plants were often non-local, things she could grow due to her heritage and powers, though she often stretched herself thin because of it despite Thomas' concerned nagging.

He'd have to notify Avery of a few items she might want to snatch for her bistro. Maybe he'd grab a basket of fruit to carry around for the day. Though, perhaps later. He had a few items on his long list of errands to knock out:

Check the spa. Gather supplies for his workers. Make sure everyone's fed and cared for. Ensure he has enough staff for the evening, knowing just how many people might be filing through drunk out of their entire minds. Lounge about. Take a good hour-long nap. Miss the first few fights in the Coliseum. Get up in a start because he's missing the festivities he'd been woken up this morning specifically for.

Despite the urgency to see friends and alike duke it out for good fun, Thomas still dragged his feet through the tightly packed streets of New Rome. He trailed into the Coliseum with his basket full of charcuterie items (ones he procured from his mother's stall, where he nabbed the basket, and a few from various shops in the Garden) to park himself nearby those he knew the most.

Spotting a good few of his ex-cohorts and a number of folks he knew of, interacted with, all the like, Thomas worked his way through the crowd of New Romans to seat himself as middle of the pack as possible. His eyes settled on Avery before looking back up. Though he paused mid-gaze, trailing along the tops of people's heads, to fall upon a man standing in the midst of everyone. They locked eyes, black dot of a pupil in a sea of white so bright against the deep darkness that swallowed light whole. The world fell inward, silenced to the sudden vacuum eating away at the brightness. Everything bent, space groaning like breaking wood and steel collapsing in on itself. The shadowed visage of a man slowly lifted his arm, tar-like darkness sweeping night through the daylight–

Thomas breathed. He blinked. And in that instance, the man vanished to harsh sunlight and the sudden rumbling wave of chatter that buzzed against Thomas' ears.

Wind knocked from his sails, Thomas slouched in his seat, curling over the basket of food he'd been so willing to share. He looked back down at Avery, then let his gaze wash over Grover, then Madyalene, and finally up toward Rex and Eden. The sight of the two broke him from the stupor that settled in his mind, a fog that wouldn't leave in its sudden appearance.

Thomas moved up through a few of the folks around him, quietly apologizing for the intrusion. [color=#9770C1]"You two look like you need this,"[/color] he said with a smile that very much stopped short of his eyes, [color=#9770C1]"I think I might've lost my appetite."[/color] And with the basket of food abandoned at Eden and Rex's feet, Thomas sequestered himself to the darkest corner of the Coliseum cavea he could find, as if it would give him clarity.

Like he might find a man there, cloaked in the shade. An omen in the daylight. A promise that followed him from dream and sleep.[/indent]

[right][sub][color=#9770C1]Interactions[/color]: Eden [@Moon Child], Rex [@Altered Tundra]
[color=#9770C1]Mentions[/color]: Avery, Madalyne, Grover[/sub][/right][/color]