14. marmoreal

[exnihilo]

[Private to Iris and Simon, text]

thank you for trying


[Private to Mal, text]

What happened to you?

[After you saw me.]


[Private to Luna, voice]

Do you like pancakes?


[Spam for Mickey, Helena, Cassel, and Stephen]

[Sometime in the night, she breaks into their cabins, quietly. She just wants to watch for a while. Just wants to see that they're okay. If they wake, they might find her perched nearby, scribbling in a notebook. Or maybe just staring, small and still, chin on her knees.]

Comments

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

[Helena's lying curled up small in the bed that had been Elizabeth Childs' and then belonged to her sestra and now belongs to her. She wakes almost as soon as Mira opens the door but she goes on breathing slowly until the other woman comes into view. Seeing who it is, she rolls over a little, brushing her hair back from her face.]

Mira.

spam;

[exnihilo]

[She lets out a soft breath of her own, at being recognized; seen, named, known. She almost smiles.]

Hello, Helena.

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

[There's a beat before the smile breaks over Helena's own face, but it's wide and open and pleased.]

Hello.

[She doesn't wonder what Mira is doing there. It's enough that she is there. The bed is big enough for two and she pats the empty side with a slow hand: an invitation.]

Come.

spam;

[exnihilo]

[She wriggles in next to Helena, presses her face for a moment into the wild mane of her hair, shudders softly.]

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

[She's never had this, unless it was in the womb. She'd hugged Sarah and felt her shiver with the touch but here is an almost-sister who comes to her, who worries and cares and presses close. Who wants her like she wants to be wanted. She sighs and turns a little in the bed to face Mira, almost shy. She doesn't reach to touch her, even though she would like to.

Her voice is small and comes after a few quiet moments.]

Are you well?

spam;

[exnihilo]

I was trapped.

[Whispered quietly.]

There was a hall of statues. And I was -

[There.]

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

[Ah. Her eyes track Mira's lips as she speaks and when she stops, Helena's eyes fall shut for a moment before she whispers back.]

You were caught there, when it ended?

spam;

[exnihilo]

I was a statue. I couldn't -

[She chokes. She couldn't anything.]

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

You're not, anymore.

[She brushes Mira's hair back from her face with a gentle hand, soothing; her fingertips shake as she strokes her cheek then still when she rests her hand lightly there.]

You're here.

spam;

[exnihilo]

I don't want to be trapped like that. Not again.

spam;

[adelphoktonos]

No. [Sympathetic, soothing. Of course not. She's quiet for a moment or two, and then, a little cautiously:]

Something like this, has it happened to you before that place?

spam;

[exnihilo]

I. I don't know. I don't remember.

There were times here I moved without wanting to - or, or I wanted whatever someone else wanted me to want. And.

[Quiet, almost a whisper.]

Once before I did that to someone else. Locked all his nerves and made him be still for me.