#again I am so sorry this was originally meant as a silly shitposty starter about Elwin being a dumbass with Great Taste in food

[phoenix-flamed]

Sometimes, you return from a business trip to Dhalmekia at a ridiculously late hour, and instead of going to sleep like a responsible person, opt to sit in your kitchen eating a bowl of sugary cereal because you've lost control of your life.

This was one of those times for Elwin Rosfield.

The cereal tasted awful to him -- it was pure sugary nonsense, with a sprinkling of oats added in as if it somehow made a difference in how healthy it was. Even the marshmallows tasted more like chalk and bitter disappointment than anything substantial. But he continued to eat it, slowly, almost carefully, while his deep gaze remained steadily fixed upon a particular spot across the room.

The spot held no significance; the cereal, on the other hand, meant the world to him, purely because it had been little Joshua's favorite. The boy wasn't supposed to eat it, for the same reason he shouldn't be eating it now. And yet, in spite of his former wife's protests, his father couldn't help from buying a box for him every once in a while as a treat or reward.

Or that was the excuse. In truth, he'd done it purely because it had made his youngest son smile, a smile that was brighter than the sun itself and full of just as much warmth.

The spoon hit the half-emptied bowl with a dull clank, thanks to the milk softening the blow. With a heavy sigh, the businessman leaned back in the dining chair he was occupying, then practically slumped down in it. The quietness that permeated the air within the house was agonizing, taunting, haunting. And he hated every minute of it.

@primalvessel