[open se] woke up in heaven

W E S S E X

Wessex is one of the many who doesn’t know who the father of her child (and as far as she knows, it’s only one) is, or where that child is at the moment, or really anything other than she saw that Ru was pregnant and now she isn’t. So one of two things happened, and she isn’t about to ask which one. Today, unfortunately, isn’t about supporting her. Wessex is making it about herself.

“A threat isn’t transparency, it’s an effort to make things easier for him. Apparently whatever isn’t freely given will be taken by force.” Her mouth twists into something harder than the sorrow and begging she’d felt earlier. A line has to be drawn somewhere. “And that makes Nate and Azrael targets. I’ll survive him, but I don’t think they would.” Which of course, brings them full circle again to -

What she can and can’t ask of Hotaru. First denied taking a stance, now this… again, the roller coaster between them starts to gear up and the Wraith can feel herself want to pull away - and can’t quite help the half step back. “I don’t know what the Voice would need. Probably some bits of him - a manticore feather, maybe. Some hair? I’d never ask you to do anything dangerous.” And in case the Valkyrie was thinking it, Wessex has to add, crossing her hands over her chest and pulling herself into a tight, standing ball of tension.

“And I wouldn’t lie to you. I promise, I’m not looking for a weapon.”  

Even though the smart thing would be to make something like that.

The Wraith

Code blatantly stolen from the fantastical, wonderful Odd

Hotaru

Ru concedes the point with a tilt of her head, too drained to give either side the benefit of the doubt. She loves Wessex - but she had still stormed Halo, hurt Noah and Deimos, didn’t deign to have this conversation before instead of now. They are both manipulators, and Hotaru is too jaded to think there aren’t wires hidden beneath their shared transparency. There is always something. Subtle, subliminal, unintentional, however someone would describe it. At the end of the day, she is torn two ways, and her affection is not capable of tipping the scales when the people on the other side have earned it just as fully.

Azrael’s involvement burns. She hasn’t seen the child since their mother’s demise. Isn’t sure she’d be able to handle it now. But she and Rexanna had understood that they would love each other even from separate sides of the line. Kiada does not follow in her mother’s footsteps in that way.

Wessex retreats, and Hotaru lets her hands fall empty and limp at her sides. Her head feels like it’s full of cotton. Every action, promise, option out of this conversation a betrayal of one person or another. She can’t think, not when her heart is at the forefront of her mind. She’s not stupid, far from it, and haste has never rewarded her. For once, Hotaru intends to keep her fingers well away from this pie.

So instead she wipes tears from her ruddy cheeks, smooths golden hair away from her face, and lets her expression turn stony and sure. “Then I will talk to her first. Putting myself and my family at risk without knowing what she would need is senseless - and I’m only close enough by virtue of living under his reign.” Her hand lifts, thumbnail catching contemplatively between her teeth. Is she lying? There’s no way to know. Such is the unfortunate side effect of befriending a snake. “Just…don’t do anything. This conversation never happened.” For a variety of reasons. Hotaru’s hand lifts as if to reach, but is held close to her chest moments later, retreating. Eyeing the horizon, she turns and shifts, and lets the wind carry her back to the woods where she can sit and think in peace.

- FIN

what I did, do, to me and you, keeps me awake
if I were a ghost, you'd be the proof