[prp] missed appointment (eve + melany)

[cibarium]

No, no, no were the words drumming away in Eve's mind as well, but the tone was different. She sat in place, and looked cautiously at the Spinel Lady, while at the same time feeling so sick to her stomach it was making her dizzy.

"I'm not part of your Court," she said wearily. "But I doubt you're here needing something from me."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Not part of my Court? Stupid girl." Melany seemed... taller, somehow. Colder. "Let me show you how separate from me you are."

She reached out and touched Eve's face. From that touch spread an anesthetic nothingness: Eve's fox-like traits faded, her senses returned to that of a normal human, there was nothing. Her magic was just... gone.

"Not part of my Court," repeated Melany, laughing. "Not part of me. How funny you should say that!"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

The gray fox slipped away and out of her as easily as having a piece of clothing slipped off, and Eve felt as vulnerable as she would have naked in front of this woman. The gesture stung, it was humiliating beyond description, and she had to keep a straight face through it all because it was only the first thing the Spinel Lady had done to her.

It could get worse.

It probably would, if she was here because Eve had truly caught her attention.

"So I'm wrong," Eve said. She hated being wrong. "I'll live with it."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Wrong indeed," said the Spinel Lady, and she dropped her hand. Eve's fox self was slow to return, but it did, repopulating slowly. "But it was you who summoned me out of that embarrassing little husk. How did you do it? Tell me, and I'll let you go."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

The relief Eve felt at the fox's return to her self was enormous. She couldn't hide it.

"It happened a few minutes after she turned on the lights in here," she suggested. She knew she was going to get some s**t. "My wife taught me a word for it... I think it's phototropism."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Don't be stupid," said the Spinel Lady. "What did you say that made her vulnerable to me?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve glared -- no, she glowered. Melany was the powerful one here, and that was far down on a long list of reasons why she didn't want to say anything.

Instead she asked, "What did you mean, when you said you would 'let me go' if I told you?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"What did you say that made her vulnerable to me?" The Spinel Lady was not here to negotiate. The fingers of one hand curled into claws, though she didn't raise it. Her hands stayed at her sides, the only sign of tension the flexing of her one hand. "I assure you, there is no way to escape me if you don't tell me what it is you did."

cibarium

Should Eve continue to be obstinate there will be... long-term consequences. They do not involve physical harm. This is an OOC warning!

 

[cibarium]

"That just tells me I shouldn't tell you a damn ******** this monster and ******** the consequences. Eve refused to help.

shibrogane

[shibrogane]

The Spinel Lady sighed.

Faster than a blink, she reached out and wrapped that clawed hand around Eve's throat. She squeezed. That awful anesthetic feeling again, but this time a tingling in Eve's fingers too, a strange glimmer of nothingness and of being cleaned out. Like being at the dentist and letting them vacuum all the suds out.

"You see, girl," said the Spinel Lady, casually, as if she weren't strangling Eve. "I love to hurt humans. No matter what I do to them, I don't feel bad. In fact, I often find that the worse I do, the better it gets, because no matter what I do to you, no matter how much I hurt you or how much blood I shed--" something hot was tracing its way down Eve's shoulder, down her spine "--it will never equal up to the hell you all sent me to when you marked that sheet with your bloody thumbprint."

She laughed, a sound like chilled bells. The Spinel Lady let go. This time, Eve's powers did not flow back. Nothing came back at all. She was empty, a vessel with nothing to contain. The Spinel Lady took a deep breath, and sighed, the sound of a small child contented after a large meal.

"Now," she said. "What did you say?"

cibarium

Eve has lost access to all of her powers.

 

[cibarium]

Another thing Eve hated was the dentist. Now their instruments were picking away at and sucking the marrow away from her bones, perforating her body with a thousand pointless needles just because. She shivered and wanted to be sick. She could believe every last word the Spinel Lady was saying, they were being slipped under her skin with practiced ease, and it would only be much later until she remembered how the word girl had rubbed at her like sandpaper.

And now Eve struggled: with her composure, her posture, her sense of reality. "I said I can't tell you," she repeated a few seconds later, with waning confidence. She could survive this, definitely not thrive like this, but -- "I don't see a good reason why I should. Even with your story."

shibroane

 

[shibrogane]

"Because I will never give her up until you do," said the Lady. "You're fond of little Melany, if only because your son is. Ezra would die for her. He has died for her. He would die for her, even now. And little Melany, she's too weak to fight me off."

She didn't come closer. Didn't have to. "But I can hurt him, and your lovely little wife, precious harmless Leila, and little Jamie, and dear darling Shiloh. I just have to let them see the husk you've become. I can end Tatiana and her tithe with a thought. And I will--if you don't tell me how it is you caused me to awaken."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

<******** could believe it, still, everything. That the Spinel Lady would hurt whomever she pleased. Even Lady, and Julian... what could she do? How much more empowered would she be to hurt people if she got the information she asked for?

"We talked about simple things." She shook her head, tired and dejected and humiliated. "She seems likable enough to be popular, all I did was reassure her in ways she's probably gotten from a dozen other people." Eve's voice was a bit too dead to sound as candid as it should have, right there.

"It'll be easier for you to hurt all those people you mentioned if I say too much. Won't it?"

shibruhgane

 

[shibrogane]

The Spinel Lady laughed. "You evade because you think you're protecting her and your loved ones. How sweet." She laughed, and smiled, and said, "I look forward to seeing how Ezra cries when the girl he loves dies, again. His tears are always so sweet."

cibarium

u can call in mels whenever u ready

 

[cibarium]

Eve crumpled in her chair. It was familiar chiding, too familiar, and it warped her sense of right and wrong to the point where she had no idea if she'd done the right thing anymore.

But if the Spinel Lady had made such a dramatic gesture out of needing to know, then it had to be the right thing.

Didn't it?

melancholies

shibrogane