[PRP] the settling magic (fell & hart)

[azuredreams]

It was a rather hurried knocking that would catch Hart's attention. The magic was shifting, changing and it finally seemed to have settled and with it came changes. Perhaps Fell should not have been surprised, not after all the promises made by the Nobles (Jeremiah included), but it still came as a shock all the same.

Mostly because she had no idea what to do with all of this.

All of this, it appeared, was hair that was past her waist. It did not seem to matter that there were other things to discuss - like the shifting of the Court or how the air felt more breathable or that things had changed for them - because this was, clearly, the most important thing.

The rest of it could be sorted after this mess.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart flung open her door, a worried look on her face. With everything changing, she was concerned that, somehow, some of the people she'd known for years and year would disappear. But this, this was Fell and she smiled.

"Fell! Fell, what's wrong? Oh my god, your hair!" The fetch had missed her hair so, so much and.... oh wow.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Fell, normally the picture of prim and proper, was absolutely not that at the moment. "I don't know what to do with it, Hart."

There was a brush in her hand, mismatched eyes looking up at Hart with a wide-eyed expression. "It's been so long since I've had it like this and-" Her voice dropped, as if realizing that she was out in the open. "You were the one that always helped me put it up."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart grabbed her free hand and pulled Fell inside. "Come in, come in. I'm sure I can remember something." She shut the door behind her.

"This is good, though, right? Wow, it's so long."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Fell was grateful to be tugged inside, some of the tension bleeding out of her shoulders and the way she had stiffened up loosening.

"It is! I just wasn't expecting it to be-" Her nose (she had a nose again and didn't realize it; just like she did not realize the olive complexion she had) wrinkled up. "Well, it was not sudden. I was concentrating on my form and adjusting it - the little things we can do, you know - and started to think about my hair, how it used to be so long ago ..." She looked at Hart, shaking her head in a way that shook all the hair out.

Clearly and this is what happened.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart reached out and ran her hand over Fell's hair. "I love it. I haven't really tired to do anything yet. I want... to look exactly like I was... But, I don't know." She shrugged.

Then she crossed over to the bed and sat, patting the pace in front of her. "Let me brush it?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I missed my hair the most," Fell admitted. It was why she had taken to scarves and flowing fabrics, using those in place of the hair she no longer had. She smiled, a tiny one that revealed dimples long thought gone as she sat down where Hart patted the bad.

"I missed you brushing it too." Her head turned a moment, looking over her shoulder at Hart. "It's been so long for me that I don't really remember what I looked like, nor do I truly care, but I remember you," she said, hand briefly reaching behind and fingers resting against Hart's. "You were something."

Then her hand pulled away and rested in her lap, fingers twisting together as Fell turned back forward. "Perhaps now you can get that back? Your shape and form." A noise escaped, one of surprise and realization. "We might be able do actual make-up again, Hart."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I still remember how to braid it... it's gorgeous. It suits you, Fell." She smiled just before the fetch turned back around. Gently, she ran her fingers through the pale length before picking up the brush.

"I... I want to, but I don't remember what I looked like exactly. I can try things-" She filled herself out a bit, but it was like trying to replicate a drawing long since lost. "-but it all feels so slightly wrong. I want to be me." She began to work the brush through Fell's hair. "Tell me if it hurts."

At the mention of makeup, she paused. "Oh, oh. I've never putting on foundation again, but I love makeup." She let out a wistful sigh. When she'd been a part of Temperance's tithing, she'd bought so much makeup. "Do you think we can trick some of the nobles into shopping for us?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Fell looked pleased to hear that her hair still suited her, as if there had been a worry in the back of her mind that it would not. She leaned into the first brush of fingers through her hair without thinking, a soft sigh escaping.

"You've a soft touch, Hart, I'm not worried." Even if there were catches or snags, Fell did not doubt that Hart would take care of them and it would not hurt. "Do you remember some of those intricate braids? I cannot but I think I would like to once more." Then she fell quiet, thinking about Hart and gaining her old form. She understood, all too well, not remembering what she once looked like.

"It's been so long the ideal of me within my mind is not at all what I was but it is good enough. I think you should seek it out, Hart, and be your lovely self again." There was a soft smile on her lips, followed by a chuckle. "Foundation is frustrating - having to find just the right shade - but eyeliner? Lipliner? Do they still have lipstains? Those were fun ... Oh! Kohl! I am certain I can make that." Clearly, Fell was just as in love with make-up as Hart was, though her tone was more wistful still.

A dark eye cut towards Hart, there was an impish gleam in it. "I've no doubt that we could. We may not even need to trick. If we're to no longer be servants but instead compensated ..."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart laughed a little. "Let's start with something simpler, Fell. At least until my fingers remember hair again." She dragged her fingers through Fell's hair, the moved the brush. Slowly, but thoroughly, she began to smooth out any tangles or loops.

"When I was tithing for Temperance, I bought a lot of palettes on her dime." She smiled a bit wickedly at the thought. "I'd go and steal them if they weren't suited to her coloring instead of mine. Maybe I'll still take one..." She grew quiet for a moment.

"I don't remember if I was lovely. But I look at myself and it feels wrong, like I need to have a different body, like this is almost right, but it's not. It was worse when I had to wear the glamour for the tithe...." Leaning forward, she picked up a lock of hair and rubbed her cheek against it for a second. So, so soft. "Your hair smells good, Fell."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Fell laughed, a bright happy sound that was so unlike her presence around most of the Nobles. "Of course not now, Hart, but later ..." That wistful tone was back, though Fell seemed to relax more and more as fingers worked through her hair.

The way, it seemed, to put her at ease was through this.

An equally troublesome look was on her face as Hart spoke but her voice was earnest and honest. "I would take one," she replied, "just because- Well, you earned it. I somehow doubt she'll put it to use as much as you will anyway." There had been worry, when Hart had taken Temperance's place, that she would not be seen again. The recent Nobles had, in short order, done away with many of them that were left.

When Hart had returned, not happy but whole and uninjured, the weight in Fell's chest had lessened considerably.

A feeling she had not felt in a long time suffused her- heat in her face as she flushed over the comment about her hair. Fell lifted her hand, catching Hart's briefly and pressed it to her cheek. "Trust me when I say," she said firmly, "you were - are - lovely."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart smiled; the sound of Fell's laugh was really something else - all light and wonderful, like the ringing of a bell. She wished Fell would laugh more. It suited her. But at the same time, Hart was kind of okay with being one of the few to see this side of the fetch.

Her thumb stroked Fell's cheek briefly before she pulled her hand away; soft skin, warm. A strange sensation fluttered in her stomach. "Hah, well, say that when I don't look like a hideous corpse. You, on the other hand..." With a lingering touch, she pulled her hand away. Becoming a fetch had made Hart more vain than she'd ever been as a human; it was maddening.

She began to twine Hart's hair into a waterfall crown - she'd fishtail the ends.
"Did I tell you she tricked me and I... I fell for it, like an idiot."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Hm?" Fell tilted towards the touch, still not quite registering that she was - in fact - no longer a shambling being of wasted flesh. "I'll say it no matter what you look like, you know, but - yes, I will tell you over and over if you can regain your true shape."

There was a small smile as she tilted her head properly for Hart to work with her hair, though it faded at the mention of her being tricked. "She- what? How did she trick you?" She frowned and sighed. "The nobility often go to lengths that we do not expect." Not that this was a case where she was impressed with that which the nobles did, no. Fell was more concerned about Hart's well being, though she still knew her place.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Hart sighed heavily. "Apparently, when fetches take on the glamour of a tithe, they become susceptible to things we normally aren't. Like alcohol, drugs." She gave the waterfall braid an expert little twist at the end to keep it from undoing itself while she gathered up Fell's loose hair.

The silky strands slid through her fingers. "She... Noble Temperance put something in a drink and told me I was going to die." Twist, one strand tucked over, one under. Methodical. "I should have known better, Fell. I... I worked with medicine before." Hart fell silent. It hurt to talk about how stupid she'd been.

"I was... so scared. I didn't want to end up like Dies or Rill, idiot though she was. Fell, I wanted to come back, but better than a fetch, and then I just.. wanted to come back at all." Her hands stilled as her mouth twisted and she drew in a shaking breath.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Fell had not known that about being a tithe- she had never had a desire to take the place of another, knowing her place was within the Court. The magic afforded to her, even at the cost of servitude, was better than the life she had had previously.

Her shoulders stiffened as Hart continued, explaining the deceit that Temperance had used to beat her. Not caring about what it would do to the progress of her braid, Fell turned around and faced her. It did not last long before she was leaning forward, her arms going around Hart and hugging. She released long enough to lean back and look at her face.

"I was worried because of the recent nobles," so many of the Burning Man's fetches had been killed, "that you would not return at all." Not even as something more than a fetch. "I am not happy to hear she did that but I am glad you are safe and whole." A hand pulled back and pressed to Hart's face, cradling it. "Besides, if she bested you- Then you make sure she is worthy of her title, of your assistance if you wish to give it, and if she's not? Have nothing to do with her. She must be worthy of you, sweet Hart."

The Semblance of Unity