ladiesss | PERSONAL COMM

There you go...

[she reaches down to... pat his hair, a little. or maybe the blanket covering his hair. whatever's closer.]

So... Who was it?

[he glances up with one of those weak, conflicted prickly looks that means he can't decide whether he's insulted that she's pitying him, or just wanting to selfishly soak up the attention. he doesn't have the energy he normally does for ego, though. and the question is a good distraction anyway.]

Oh, you know. [his lighter, sickened voice goes well with the sarcasm.] Crewmates of mine. And a necromancer, an elf who's killed someone I know, and some of their friends.

[of course he can't just tell her. she's pretty sure she's been in easier interrogations. so she goes back to sitting quietly and thinking through all the people she knows. Fenris is the only elf who's killed someone publicly. who's friends with Fenris? Jove, who is on Tek's ship. the necromancer...

following that logic, it must be... oh, please don't be Dorian. please don't be Dorian.]

What did the necromancer look like?

Beautiful. Fabulous mustache.

[voice weak but still just dripping with bitterness.]

Superfluously strong-willed.

[she... drops her face into her hands.]

Goddamn it.

You know him.

[it's not a question. it's a flat, tired statement.]

Don't tell me he's on your crew.

No, no. We're just... Friendsss...

[her voice can't get louder, exactly, but her pitch rises in frustration, words getting more close to hissing by the end of it.]

Though I was really counting on him not turning out to be an evil necromancer, jesus fuck. [she groans and raises her head.] Him, Jove, Fenris. Right? And what's his name, Cullen, probably. Anyone else?

[...oh, he probably shouldn't be as suddenly and quietly pleased as he is right then.

seeing someone upset over him being hurt is new. it's been a very long time since something like that has happened. it's kind of nice.

he's beginning to remember why he's invested so much in befriending this girl. it just might pay off.]

Other elves--one by the name of Finrod was once a crewmate of mine. There were others as well, but I couldn't tell if they were faces I recognized or not.

Ugh, he's my communications guy now.

[saying that she runs her fingers through her hair is kind of giving her hair too much credit; her fingers catch on knots and there may be a spider living in there.]

They should know better. I'm so mad.

They should.

[now that he's feeling less sick, he settles deeper in the nest, arranging the blanket closer around himself.]

...The whole thing makes me feel very at home.

...Me too.

[but it's definitely not a good thing to admit. she was really, really hoping she could trust these people, but... it was scary enough convincing Fenris she wasn't a demon. what if she ever turned herself into a dragon? used magic where they didn't expect it? she could be in a lot of danger...]

Dorian's a big baby. He'll be easy to mess up. Jove is gonna be harder, but... She'd be really stupid if she didn't figure out it was you, so I can probably make her feel pretty guilty. Fenris will never change his mind, though, so I don't think I can touch that one.

[he smirks--or maybe smiles. it's hard to tell. and he reaches out to pat one of her hands.

it's meant as a joke, but it's still a thing that he does.]

You're a dear.

[his hands are. creepy. her scratch-marked little mouth spreads into a frown.]

Can I, uh, do anything else? I don't think my healing magic would help, here...

[the frown makes him feel better. it always does.]

I don't think there's enough to heal, anyway.

[spreading his fingers and sadly gazing at his own halfway-translucent skin]

Okay...

[...she looks at his fingers too.]

So... More or less creepy than my bone trick, do you think?

Mm... [he pulls his hands back into the blanket folds. that's enough looking at his horrible flaws for now.] ...You should have seen me yesterday.

How bad was it?

[you know her. she's asking with full, disgusted interest.]

[normally, he wouldn't dream of elaborating. ...but hers is the only case in which he feels like he can get into the horrible details and keep his vanity perfectly intact.]

I'm not... right inside. I suppose I'm mostly some sort of shell, right now.

...And you could see it a little more clearly, before.

...Awesome.

[yeah, his pride isn't going anywhere.]

It's not the word I would use, but...

[if she wants to give him an ego boost over it, he isn't going to argue. so, he finishes the statement with a shrug, before he moves onto his next point.]

Though, if the process had gone completely correctly, my face would be completely different right now.

Oh, more like your usual thing?

[she looks over his blanketed form for a moment...]

What... went wrong with it? The process.

No, I mean it would be completely different. I would look like someone else entirely, for a time.

[and she really is the only person in the world who could get away with looking him over like that right now without bothering him.]

The usual process involves borrowing a body that no one else is using.

[...] Like a dead one?

[it takes her a second, frowning... until it finally clicks!]

Oh, because you're a death dragon. Okay. Creepy, but I guess that makes sense.

[he shrugs like it's something that has happened to someone else.]

A soul needs an anchor point when it's been displaced from its original body.

Oh... I guess that makes sense.

[her already-thin lips get even thinner as she thinks, for a moment.]

I wonder how fairy souls do it... Do we just hop into whatever body looks open...? [her eyebrows come down in what might almost be considered a squint.] Why have I never wondered this before?

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