[prp] missed appointment (eve + melany)

[cibarium]

Hearing Melany cry on top of it all only made the sting of losing her magic worse, but at the same time Eve couldn't help but empathize with the girl. She felt responsible because she was just inclined to feel responsible.

"My wife's on her way," she said. "Do you want to leave the building with me?"

shibrogane

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh watched her expression melt into absolute horror. What was it like, he wondered, having to deal with that sort of information? Having to shoulder that sort of burden? Having to live knowing you hurt the people you care about the most. He sat with her still, held her hand still, wished he could do something.

Would it have been easier if she'd just died at the ball? Was this sort of torment actually worth a second chance? Could this even be called that?

"You passed out again afterwards." He said quietly, "That's probably why your shoulder hurts... actually." A thought hit him then; what had been discussed in the listserv, the mark carved into her bone. "Where does it hurt on your shoulder? Is it okay if I look at it?" He frowned, "Just to make sure you didn't hit it wrong when you fell."

He looked to Eve again, "And then maybe we can all go when Leila gets here?"

cibarium

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany rose up to her knees and shrugged out of her cardigan. "It's like..." She turned her back to Shiloh and grabbed the back of her tank top, and pulled it up in the back. There, above her bra strap, was an angry red mark: a square-shaped rose among its many corners. Shiloh would know it as the seal on the Court Charter; Eve, if she cared to look, would recognize the center as the lock Renard had used on his journal.

"Can you see it?"

Some kind of clear fluid had bubbled up in the scarring, which was almost the dark purple-red of clotted old blood. It had clearly been recently irritated.

cibarium

Melancholies

 

[cibarium]

Eve peered apprehensively, remembering the drawing Ezra had sent, and how it matched what Renard hard drawn to unlock his journal -- seeing it etched into skin in such a way was a completely different feeling. It tied together the ends of the story Jeremiah had told her. She brought a hand to her face with a sharp breath. That noise alone was probably enough to signal to Melany how bad it was.

"I'll have Leila find a first aid kit," she said. "Melany, that... that's where she is." Her voice wavered and faltered like a skipping record.

melancholies

shibrogane

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh stood up very carefully with her, his eyes somewhat hollow. He didn't exhale sharply or gasp like Eve did, but his expression said everything that it needed. "Did you know you had a mark on your back, Melany? It's bleeding." He wanted to touch it, but refrained. It wouldn't serve any purpose anyway.

He thoughts ping-ponged back and forth. You can still save her, they said. It's hopeless, they said. One extreme, the other extreme.

All he could think about was Silk's words, how they held her down, how they splayed her back open with tiny ******** knives. He looked sick. He looked revolted.

shibrogane

cibarium

 

[shibrogane]

Melany's back was to Shiloh. "I have a birthmark," she said, faltering, turning to look at him, at Eve. "It's just a birthmark, you know? My mom used to say it was psoriasis or something, but it was never bad enough to have to hide in costumes--" she was rambling and she stopped. "It's just a birthmark," she said. "I've had it since I was tiny. You used to make fun of it when I wore swimsuits."

cibarium

Melancholies

 

[cibarium]

"I don't think that's a real memory," said Eve. She numbly took a picture of the mark with her phone and handed it over to Shiloh so he could show her.

---

A random student on campus was stopped midway to her next class, stunned to see that she was being cut off by one of her teachers. "Break up with your boyfriend at the party," said Leila, her voice harsh and urgent, before returning to her sprint through the music building to find Melany and Eve and Shiloh.

melanholies

shibrgane

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh did so, taking the phone to show Melany.

His face was contorted up with all sorts of agony as Melany tried to convince herself. Oh how she screamed, Silk had said, one for many. It made him so, so sick. He didn't want to crumple in front of her again. This wasn't his time to mope or be sad or feel helpless; he could do that privately, not in front of this girl who was already breaking down herself.

"They gave you that mark Melany." He said softly, evenly. "You were never born with it." His head dipped as he glanced down, but he looked back up again, looked into her eyes without faltering or backing down. Be strong, be strong, be strong. "Please don't hate yourself." Easier said than done; Shiloh knew that better than a lot of people. "I wanna help you, y'know? I wasn't kidding when I said I still wanted to be your friend."

cibarium

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany looked at it. Her horror melted slowly into numbness; her hands shook and she shoved the phone back at Shiloh. "I need to go," she said, "I... if I'm wrong about that then what else am I wrong about? It's not safe to be around me if I can hurt you like that and I need to, I need to be somewhere else, somewhere not with other people, maybe I--"

She cut herself off and pulled her shirt down, put her cardigan back on. It was stained wet and red over the mark.

"I'm so sorry," she said, and she turned on her heel and bolted.

Melancholies

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Melany brushed past Leila just as she found the door to the right room, and it took seconds of looking at Shiloh and Eve from the doorway for her to register who it was. Even without Ezra's ex there, it was an overwhelming scene, with a sense of dread and helplessness filling the room as easily as its softly buzzing flourescent lights.

With a steadying breath, she sent< i know you're not okay, you don't need to say anything > to her wife while looking her over, checking Shiloh from the corner of her eye as well.

"Let's get you both out of here," she said, her voice low and crackly. Looking to Shiloh more fully, she added, "I'm parked just outside the building... so I can drive you anywhere you need."

melancholies

we can wrap here or on your post!