MORI, ayuka ◦ Hebigumo Foundation Representative ◦ #804080
[for_peace][/for_peace][for_sirens][/for_sirens]
A flute of champagne was offered to her, and who was Ayuka to be rude and turn down such an offering? Okay. So the truth was that she was the sort of person who almost never turned down a good drink or meal. “Grazie mille!” She said as she took the drink. And then it seemed they were toasting, a sign of praise for the woman Ms. Mori had been discussing. She noticed the man, with his length of gorgeous dark hair (similar in hue to the brave woman’s), did not speak. He did not introduce himself, but instead seemed to let Ainsley take the lead. And then she noticed the barest hint of color to his cheeks. Of course, there was part of her that very much wanted to probe. Just a little bit. To try and figure out the mystery which he naturally represented. Except before she could, the sound of nervous laughter hit her. And that seemed to consume her attention. Her gaze fixed upon Ainsley’s feature, leaving her to reach out with some part in the core of her that desired to understand the woman better.
Why was that laughter not more confident? More jovial? Ayuka was normally very careful when it came to her ability to feel what other people felt, because. Well. Frankly, most of the time she simply didn’t want to. She wanted, most of the time, to be in absolute control of her anger, and her sadness, and her humility.
And in a moment, she stroked just barely against something deep inside of Ainsley that made her eyes mist over. Internally, she pedaled backwards rapidly, like someone who has swam out too far into dangerous waters only to find themselves confronted by a wall of water or a patch of sharks. It was familiar and different all at the same time, the depth of that sadness she felt. It was like the greatest sense of loss, the heaviest of burdens that was tied in chains as an anchor around her heart. She recognized it. It was the terror and the deep ache that came with losing something fundamental. The severance of some powerful connection.
Ayuka had first felt it years before, when she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant. This had gone on for years. And while her sisters all seemed to be able to make healthy, happy babies - she was left with nothing. Nothing more than an empty nursery and this desire that grew more and more with every passing month. And no matter the methods they tried, nothing worked. No supplements. Early stage fertility treatments did nothing. And when she did conceive. Well. Things never went quite as planned. And she was left with these thoughts. That maybe she was toxic. Maybe there was something wrong inside of her. They went on until that dark day when the doctor confirmed every fear she had.
It was the grief of knowing she could never and would never be a mother in the way her own mother had been. She had scarcely gotten out of her bed in the days and weeks and months after that. She had barely eaten. Barely done what was needed to survive. She watched as her friends drifted away. As her husband inevitably left her. There had been many times when she had thought the point of living had passed.
This of course, all before she had adopted her daughter Paisley. She had eventually moved past that wrench to the heart. In truth, she didn’t know the best way to respond. Technically she had intruded upon Ainsley’s emotions without permission. But in that moment, in those few seconds when she felt that deep pain paralleled in another person - she felt that she and Ainsley were sisters. Women who had crossed across a deep and perilous chasm on a narrow and rickety bridge. She reached impulsively, her flute still in hand, and hugged the other woman. She did not know the specifics of what Ainsley had gone through. She didn’t need to. Didn’t need to know if ‘it’ had happened a day or a month, a year or a decade prior. Maybe she didn’t even really need a hug. That wasn’t the point.
“If ever you are in need of anything. Anything. Tell me. If it is in my power to grant you, I will.” She said as she pulled away.
By that point, the mist had cleared from her eyes, and the darker feelings had been released.
And then the pieces began to fall into place. Brother and sister. That explained the similarity in features, and the connection of the names. Both of them originating from a form of Gaelic. That happened to be one of the very few cluster of languages which the polyglot Ayuka had trouble with. Still she could recognize the origins all the same. “Art and food? Two of my favorite subjects!” She said with a grin. The moment of impulse from before had not been forgotten, but had instead taken its place in the past. “Do you take any of your work to art or craft fairs? Or do you sell it online? In galleries?” She asked before downing the rest of her champagne and then placing the empty glass on the tray of a passing server with a briefly mouthed ‘thank you’.
“As for Hebigumo, we deal largely in agricultural technology. Our primary focus is on helping communities produce sustainable and healthy food, as well as clean, fresh drinking water. Of course that is just a cover for our more nefarious intentions.” She said with just a spark of mischief in her smile. “Originally, our aims were purely medical. You’ve heard of the tech which connects the brain to prosthetics? Neural linking is all us. In fact, the only reason we became a corporate entity was to keep research afloat. Most of what we develop we give away, rather than sell. Ours is a project of passion rather than profit.” All of which probably could have been found on the Hebigumo Foundation web page. But Ayuka was in public relations. She could have given that little blurb in her sleep. It was true enough though, not delivered in an overproduced nor trite fashion. “And what about you, Ms. Ainsley? Your brother is an artist, and what is your life’s passion?”
