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Horace lumbered out onto the back porch (which could hardly be called that, even though he'd dragged two chairs out there in an attempt to make his home look lived in). There was a bottle of rose in one hand and two mugs in his other. Any other glasses were just too fancy for porch drinking. One mug had colorful flowers that, if anyone looked closely, were actually dicks. It tickled him pink.

"Hey, Mels, mind if I join you?" He was here for a purpose, but it was damn awkward to bring up. "Brought wine."

"Of course it's rose. I'm not a heathen." He cracked a grin at her. In reality, Horace's favorite wines would always been the super sweet ones. Bonus points for bubbles. This one had peaches and strawberry notes in it or something - he liked it.

He flopped into the chair near hers, careful not to tip the damn bottle over himself. Horace poured them both mugs and set them on the tiny table he kept out here. "Ugh," he said. "Well, you know that meeting's coming up, right?"

"Yeah, I... think I need to. Like the whole 'if you don't vote, you don't get to complain' saying sort of thing? I dunno." He took a sip. Crisp and fresh, it was best in the summer, but the summer was nearly here. Then autumn would roll around, and the end of the world as he knew it.

"You're not going, are you?" Worry pinched his brows together.

"Hmm... I'm not sure it's safe," he said, after a bit, sounding sort of deflated. "It's not about you not knowing enough I think.. Well, I think you're going to be discussed, frankly. And it's shitty that you can't safely be there during." Horace took a drink of his rose, staring into the light colored wine.

"It's not fair that you don't have a say, but I feel like you'd... black out or something, around all that." He huffed out a nasal sigh.

"No, that's... that's why I came to talk to you." He hated seeing her like this. "I wanted to make sure I knew what you wanted." Horace set his mug down with a clunk and dragged his foot up onto one knee.

It was kind of awkward to speak, but he kept going. "Of course, the best outcome I think would be for you to be free - of her, of the mark on your back. But-" Horace sighed. "If we... if we can't do that, what do you want?"

"It... it... I heard it doesn't work like that for nobles. That nobles don't repeat and that's what a part of you is. It persists, unchanging, un-resetting. I think, if you died, it'd be permanent." Horace's jaw clenched. "But we're gonna find a way, me and Shiloh."

He looked over at her, then up at the sky. "Can you promise me something, though, Melany? Can you... just persist a little longer, like, don't give up, please. If the.. if the time rolls around, then..."

After she spoke, he did look back at her, catching the edge of her smile. Horace opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "If it does come to that, don't... be alone. I mean you don't have to b-be." A beat. "I mean - I'm not saying take an honor guard with you." He cracked a pained smile. The thought of her remaining alone after her own forced isolation was just... painfully sad.

"...I'm glad I met you, too. Looking at it from an outsider's view, it kinda sounds like a movie, doesn't it? Doesn't feel like one, though." He huffed out a little laugh. "Where's my special effects crew?" wished it was a movie, one of those that had a happy ending.

Horace waited a moment, wondering if Melany was asking what he thought she was. "I'd stay with you." But she'd be going down a road he'd been down before and could not follow. His fingers rubbed over the ring-shaped scar. There were too many promises he'd made and, even if everything reset, Horace had to keep trying.

"Harry Potter came back out of that forest, back to his friends. You're never as alone as you feel really, even if you're isolated a bit, sorry." Horace sighed. "And you don't have to be alone."

"Also, whatever, my fashion sense is perfect." He wrinkled his nose at her, his glasses going crooked with the movement.