Checking on Best Female Friend (Shu, Mura, open)

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar walked through the halls and kept his face neutral and bare. He wore thefull uniform of the Head of the North of the Amestrian military. His Major general ranks blazing off his collars, the head of Intelligence/Head of the North insignias were right above the left side of his breast where "Mercenary" was sewn in. On the Right side was Murazar. The hadaori he wore over his shoulders was the of the Lord Captain-Commander of the Black Company.

He wasn't being formal per se, but he was impressive as Gurthang hung at his waist on the left side in a nondescript leather sheath. The Ebon sword seemed menacing and evil in the evening shadows. His single nine millimeter pistol was on his right side in a holster with a few extra clips side-by-side. His mechanical eyes scoured the halls looking for the right doorway to Shula. Who was now a Brigadier General and Head of the South.

He gave himself just a touch of a small smile as the screams in his head lessened only a moment. He knew her from the beginning, she deserved and earned this... thrice over too. All the people he walked past either froze and stood at attention as he passed simply because of his rank and positions that they had only heard of as he was one of the most important people in Amestris. Or they walked on by as he wove them off to carry on. All the humbug over how to respond to higher rank annoyed him, it mean't nothing so long as people followed your orders without hesistation. Which was rare these days.

He finally found her door and brushing his uniform off a bit and frowning at himself for not bothering to do anyhting with his hair as usual knocked on the door, waited a moment and opened it and let himself in. He grinned slightly and simply said charmingly as usual." Miss me little lady?"

[Shula Brighton]

The evening sun was always one of Shula's favourite things to watch. All her life in her little room, she had a perfect view of the western sky. After dinner she loved to curl up by her window as the bright blue of the sky would fade and then blur with purples and oranges, the sun sinking into a pool of molten reds and golds somewhere behind the mountains. For a little while she wondered where that gold went to as it dripped down the rocky peaks and diminished, leaving Meissan blanketed under deep black and blue velvet sky dotted with endless flecks of silver light. South was beautiful, too, especially now that it was beginning to bubble and grow with new life and mark its place as a center for rebirth, but the evening sky just wasn't the same. Maybe it was the mountains being too far away, or maybe she just missed that dusty little village that was so small it wasn't on most maps. When she'd first moved to South when she was eighteen, even though South wasn't far from Meissan and she'd been there often enough for medical things, being there and staying there.... it made her homesick.

Evening was a good time at South HQ, though. Most people were getting ready to clock out, and the bulk of the work had been done for the day, leaving only a mild stream of work for the night shift. Since the apartment complexes hadn't been finished in a lot of places yet and those that had were a decent distance from HQ, many of the employees had opted for the apartments attached to the building. Shu would have gone nuts. She liked the little loft her family had built for her; it was airy and full of tall windows that overlooked the water. But it was still so empty because it was missing what she wanted most right now. Her work was done for the day, yet Shula didn't really want to go home. Not alone. The last several nights she'd taken to simply staying later and later, finding more to do until she would have no choice but to go home long enough to sleep and come back. Anything to not think about Drachma. Anything to distract her. Anything to keep her from looking at every opening door and answer every phone ring and text message, waiting for it to be him.

A small knock suddenly caught her attention, Shula's breath holding without her even being aware of it as she looked up. ”Miss me little lady?” The initial hope in her eyes faded, yet retained their surprise. Fox... was here? Shula took in a breath and pushed up a faint smile as best she could, glad to see her friend even through the puffy pink edges around her eyes pointed out what she'd been up to, and the dark circles under those eyes clearly pointed out what she hadn't been up to. She looked up at mechanical violet eyes as she stood, walking away from her desk to go and hug the mercenary tightly. She was off from her normal self, she knew; she was very off. But she was trying.

”Fox,” Shula said, wrapping her arms around Murazar's waist and squeezing tightly. It was a long moment before she opted to let go of the mercenary/ ”I've missed you, Fox... It's been a while since I've seen you. What have you been up to?” She was lacking her normal enthusiasm, her usual happy-fox self very quiet and a little distant. This wasn't Shula. This wasn't Bright Eyes, the granddaughter of Eyes High. This was a woman trying to keep herself from falling apart as she lived in the throes of despair.

[Murazar Dauthi]

He held onto her tightly as if letting her go would break her, his frown turned to worry. She was crying, why? What had happened? Well other than alot of death and destruction of course. He was a magnet for those sort of things. He chuckled lightly as soon as she asked her little question and finally let go, at least so tightly anyway.

"Shh, its alright little one. I wouldn't worry about me, this time I just accidently threw my soul side-by-side with Reila's and I went into another of my famous comas. By the end of it I managed to get back in my body only because of sheer willpower and her being exhausted from the conflict. Dont worry little one, what i'm concerned about is whats going on with you right now. What's made you such a wreck? For goodness sakes, all I lost this time is memories. Not whole ones, just bits and pieces. You look like you've lost your entire world."

He cocked his head sideways, his magnenta eyes looked at her. The screaming in his head mingled with his own screams of rage. The memories that did flood into his mind as he saw her were filled with holes, segments would seemingly skip past other segments. It wasn't even smoothly done, it was as if the chunks were just torn out of him and he never noticed until he left reilas body. He figured pieces and the bits that he cant remember she should be remembering or at least know of.

He rose and eyebrow at her he never could lie to her completely if ever. She was one of the few people who understood and accepted him for what he was and the decisions he usually made. Although she was distanced from them, he felt he could trust her at least somewhat. Wait trust? I trusted people before? I.. barley remember those times. Xan. My cousin. My Brother-in-arms. He's the only one I can fully trust, Lucas comes second and then Shula here. Shut up Gurthang!

He mentally snarled at Gurthangs cynic laughter, the damn blade was just waiting until it claimed the blood of its masters 'Friends'. He kept the worried look on his face for shula. Gurthang threw out there about how selfless he was for these so-called 'friends'. Murazar was half ready to melt the damn blade down, damn how useful it was to hell. The burning pits could use its personality. Or was it all in his head? That possibility always occured to him and he shrugged it off as if it no-longer mattered. He was battered and broken, soon he would consider himself human and yet not human. A monster living in a mans body.

[Shula Brighton]

Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow; Shula knew it wasn't sitting too well with Spade or Reila, and that the people working under them (that were left) were especially deflated by it. It stung. But what Shula was choking on was the loss. Of everything. Friends were dead. Coworkers. People she loved and thought were her friends had not only left her to die, but straight-up told her to go die. That hurt far deeper than dislocating her shoulder had. That still hurt like a bitch, but that would go away. What Hild had said to her would stay etched in her soul for a very long time, if not forever. But what had hurt the most were the losses she was being forced to accept but wasn't coping well with. Multiple sources confirming all together that her brother was never coming back to her even though she insisted that she'd seen him in Drachma. He'd lead her to where everyone was, he'd heard her and told erh to follow him, een if he didn't slow down. She'd seen him... She had!

The counselor insisted that he was gone, though, and her denial was just hurting her worse. Shula stayed close to Murazar for a long moment, the familiarity comforting her senses. Like having Spade stay over, and then Csilla and her father come, Shula needed people right now as she tried to work through the void that was consuming her soul. Red eyes closed a moment as she listened. One of Mura's... famous comas? Comas. They're all the rage Her heart sank. Mura was able to separate souls from bodies; it only made sense he could put his somewhere it didn't belong and find his way back without much trouble. But Mura isn't everyone, and the doctors said that our guess was as good as theirs if he'd come back...

"What's made you such a wreck? For goodness sakes, all I lost this time is memories. Not whole ones, just bits and pieces. You look like you've lost your entire world." The corners of Shula's mouth tried to smile, but the muscles wouldn't move in that direction. She was taking all of this all at once very, very hard. Her hand moved up, wiping her eye and cheek with her palm even though her eyes would not raise to meet Mura's.

"Well, that's because... I have." Shula pulled away slightly more, trying to pull herself back into one piece even though that was a losing battle. "I'm being told that I've lost two of the people that my world revolves... and I'm not quite sure how to handle that." A soft sniffle escaped Shula as her arm raised again, wiping her face with the sleeve of her jacket. "My brother's dead and never coming back. And Acra... A-Acra may never... wake up."

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar frowned softly, the screaming of the souls in his mind swiftly turned mourning and despair. The chuckling of morbid laughter from Gurthang in the background was hideous. He put his hands on her shoulders and forced their eyes to meet, and strength seemed to bellow out from him." Little one, pray and hope for Acra. Miracles do happened to those that deserve it, and both of you do deserve such miracles. Your brother god rest his soul, I never knew you had a brother. If you dont think it'd be to hard on yourself would you like to talk a bit about him with me?"

Talking helped pull people through the darkest of times in their life. Only a positive attitude for Acra who may yet live and talking through her brothers death would pull her through it. If she was willing, he sadly could not heal people of these things but he could try. He caused enough suffering, death, and destruction of the mortal realm to last a lifetime and yet he had only more to do.

Sometimes he was more than just willing to pull the trigger on himself. In fact he nearly did so once already, he still thought about it sometimes. The screaming driving him straight into the arms of madness. Was he there already? Or merely on his way? He held onto shus shoulders, his violet eyes nearly unblinkingly seeming to look into her very soul, which according to his reputation was easily that possible. He almost felt like Judgement himself sometimes at the gates of Heaven and Hell. Yet he believed if he was to head to either place it would be the latter not the former. After all he was just an undeserving soul that would be forgotten by all who knew him i nthe end. He was just wishing for a name that would last centuries and beyond in history that was well known to as many as possible. A living Legend.

[Shula Brighton]

Be patient. Wait. Pray and burn incense. Make offerings. Stain your hands, arms and legs. Repeat. There had been no body left to burn, and bowls of Aaron's favourite foods were regularly left for his spirit. For a little while their mother had also refused to accept it, stubbornly protesting against her ex-father-in-law that her son was a strong Ishvallan and would survive. But as communications had returned, days of no word crept on. While Shula was in the hospital after the initial destruction she'd called her mother after leaving Spade's room, when she changed her mind about calling the doctor to euthanize her. She'd called Amira to tell her everything would be alright. even though she herself didn't know if it really would be. At that time, the thought of Aaron being dead hadb't even had a chance to cross her mind, her days had been so hazy, filled with drug-induced sleeps, painful tests and her own struggle to simply continue breathing. It wasn't until she left with Spade for South days later and after her aggrievous exchange with Raistlin that it dawned on her that Aaron was missing.

Shula's hand raised up, wiping her cheek again, the traces of the henna stains that patterned her skin peeking out from under the cuff of her jacket. Mura had tried to force her eyes up, but they only glanced up to him before looking away again, the exhaustion showing clearly. Maybe she would ask Spade to just start forwarding her whatever work from Central he didn't want to do; the longer ste stayed in her office and had something to keep her busy, the less she could sit and think about things. Her head shook softly as she let out a soft breath.

"No... I think I just need to either find more busywork, or clock out and get out of here for a little bit before I go nuts." She pulled away from Murazar a bit more, turning to look out the window at the water. It really was beautiful in the late afternoon, especially how it reflected all the colours and light. She'd never been to the sea, and except for the disaster in Drachma never out of the country or further from home than Central. The world's biggest man-made lake would have to do. "Maybe go work more on my opus if you want to come with me..." She shook her head lightly. Her floating garden would be a wonder for the whole country someday, she was determined. But she hadn't been working on it much the last few days, far too wiped out and trying to drown herself in work or research. Slowly Shula looked back to Murazar. "Still.. Thank you for coming to visit me, Fox. I really have missed you."

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar sadly smiled to her and threw his arm around her shoulder as if to cradle her and tell her it was alright. Except he didn't say those nice and yet false things. The man if you could call him that anymore was all about the Truth. He preferred the Truth over any kind of lie anymore, even if it tore his soul apart and broke it. Which he was close to, just barely preventing himself from breaking down.

He spoke instead softly," Talk to me, let your feelings out. I'm a friend, that should mean I can shoulder some of your pain and hardship, no?" He had seen the garden atop the waters of the craters lake. He had been involved and made history too many times. He wondered amongst the screaming and agony of the souls how it would all end. Would he kill himself? Would a friend or former one do it? Or would an enemy finally win?

He spoke to her softly again in answer to her question and comment," I'm just a demon in a mans body. Your one of the last friends I have left, if not the only one. I suppose we should water your gardens, after all we wouldn't want the plants to die?" He didn't want to talk about how he was still the head of the north sector, but no longer on the briggs staff. It was sort of a sense of freedom and now he had only the fuhrer over him in terms of contracted to the Amestrian Military. At the same timethe loss of friendship to Reila and to his mind by default the rest of briggs was a hard hit to his emotional heart. If he lost shu... Well hell he had nothing left then did he? However his little hints here and there would always hint at what probably needed to be brought up, but he would never allow it too far to be brought up enough to display weak emotions.

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