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deathsmajestyIt had been a very long and exciting weekend for the two children currently staying in the creepy mansion in the woods. Much of it had involved looking for a prince and/or the most beloved big brother in the whole world, but there had also been a thorough searching of the mansion. (The zombie servant sternly told to "Stay away!" whenever he had come close enough to raise Lili's hackles. Ignis could be friends with him all he wanted, Lili would never trust a zombie in her whole life, absolutely not.)
Parts of the mansion seemed really amazing. There was a whole beautiful ballroom wherein Lili had spent a solid fifteen minutes holding her gown up and sweeping around the room in large circles, singing to herself and laughing at the way it echoed. And there was a library was almost as big, with thick leather-bound and hardcover books, all of them in languages she couldn't read. She found a shelf full of paperbacks with covers that made her blush and shove them away quickly. She might not know the language they were written in, but kissing books were obviously kissing books and she was not interested, no thank you. And while the clothes in the wardrobe of the room they'd woken up within had been all kid-sized, Lili had found a whole chest full of sparkly jewelry that she'd promptly set about playing with, including a glimmering golden headdress like the kind she'd seen an angel wearing once.
There was also a veil of burnished metal chains that rested on a fancy stand, but looking at it gave Lili the heebie-jeebies and she had given it a wide berth, shaking her head slightly whenever it caught her eye. Once or twice, she thought she'd whispering coming from it, but she'd sternly said, "I'm not listening!" and the whispers had quieted down.
But then there were other parts of the house that weren't so bright and pretty. Many of the rooms were shut up, dark and dusty and spider-webbed. Some were empty, others with furniture covered in sheets...or shrouds. Still others, Ignis insisted weren't safe and asked her not to go in. After the first time, when her foot went through a floorboard, Lili had listened without complaint. Especially since he let her hold his hand when they went into the really dark rooms. Not that she was scared of the dark! She wasn't a baby. But...you know, they had already found one surprise zombie in the kitchen! What if there were more? (She had also insisted on sleeping with a candle burning, but that wasn't because she was scared, it was because it was a strange place and if she woke up in the middle of the night, she didn't want to bump into anything or fall over!)
Most interestingly, Lili had found a folder of the most amazingly realistic paintings she'd ever seen. She'd called Ignis over to look at them, and he'd told her that they were something called photographs, taken by something called a camera, and had explained some of how it worked while she'd flipped through them all. They were of a party in the ballroom - Stark was in some of them, but nobody else Lili recognized - though that made sense, since it clearly wasn't a party where children had been invited. The most amazing thing was that there was a woman who looked so much like her mother in many of them. Same long black hair, same high and somewhat sharp features, forming a face that few would envision when imagining a classic beauty, but that most people still considered beautiful all the same, same elegant way of carrying herself. The only difference were that her eyes were purple (like Father's! And hers! And Josu's!) and not blue. And her mother would never be looking at a man other than Lili's father the way she was at the strange man with whom she shared most of the pictures. Lili wasn't sure if she liked this man. Sure, the lady wasn't her mother, but still.
They had gone through the pictures for what felt like hours, first imagining who these people were and what they were celebrating, with their weird outfits and spooky decorations, and then shifted to talking about fancy parties and events they had gone to, how Ignis sometimes felt out of place, how Lili had often grown bored and impatient, how they'd both looked to their companions - him, his prince; her, her brother - for comfort while struggling to maintain the most proper facades they could, because duty before all. Eventually, the two children had fallen asleep, curled up together like puppies amidst scattered pictures and secret confessions that only came out in the dark of night when you were very, very sleepy.
While it was Lili that had fallen asleep that night, it was Liliana who woke up the following morning, staring up at the underside of her canopy, silently asking What the fuck was that? It was definitely something she couldn't unpack before coffee, a tangled snarl of emotions from grief to amusement to vulnerability to fury. She would have to consider just how much damage this weekend had done, but again, that wasn't something that could be undertaken until after coffee. She felt almost hung over - not from the weekend's sugar intake, but from the sheer number of emotions a single weekend could inflict, both then and now.
Josu...
Her cat, of course. She was thinking about her cat.
But with the weekend firmly banished from her mind (and it has been, she'd decided not to think of it and so she steadfastly was not!), the next thing to consider was the...tiff...from Friday. She had promised Ignis they'd talk the following day, but the 'Fandom shenanigans' had certainly put paid to that idea. And now it was Monday and all of the built-up impetus had vanished. Perhaps...perhaps if she didn't mention it, neither would he? And they could just go about their day like everything was normal. That certainly seemed better than opening herself up even more, as if the weekend hadn't contained more than enough of that.
She knew that if such...dalliances...were to thrive, letting things go unaddressed wasn't the healthiest option. On the other hand, if it couldn't weather a little thing like this, what hope did it have of surviving any of the things that a close association with Liliana Vess would bring, especially with his insistence of throwing himself headlong into her problems? Of all the ends that this relationship inevitably faced, surely this one was by far the kindest.
Looking over, she saw that Ignis stirring, woken up either by his Grixis-cursed internal clock or her own restlessness. She thought briefly of getting up, pretending she hadn't noticed, taking another few moments to compose herself in privacy. But then he opened his eyes, and sightless though they might be, seemed to meet hers and the faintest of smiles crossed his face.
He had green eyes, her memory whispered. Like the sunlight through the leaves of the Caligo Forest.
And before she was even aware she was moving, she was rolling over on several errant pictures to slide her fingers between his and whisper, "Little you was wrong. You belong anywhere you wish to be."
[Open for visitors or if said gentleman (who was absolutely modded with permission) would like to respond]
Parts of the mansion seemed really amazing. There was a whole beautiful ballroom wherein Lili had spent a solid fifteen minutes holding her gown up and sweeping around the room in large circles, singing to herself and laughing at the way it echoed. And there was a library was almost as big, with thick leather-bound and hardcover books, all of them in languages she couldn't read. She found a shelf full of paperbacks with covers that made her blush and shove them away quickly. She might not know the language they were written in, but kissing books were obviously kissing books and she was not interested, no thank you. And while the clothes in the wardrobe of the room they'd woken up within had been all kid-sized, Lili had found a whole chest full of sparkly jewelry that she'd promptly set about playing with, including a glimmering golden headdress like the kind she'd seen an angel wearing once.
There was also a veil of burnished metal chains that rested on a fancy stand, but looking at it gave Lili the heebie-jeebies and she had given it a wide berth, shaking her head slightly whenever it caught her eye. Once or twice, she thought she'd whispering coming from it, but she'd sternly said, "I'm not listening!" and the whispers had quieted down.
But then there were other parts of the house that weren't so bright and pretty. Many of the rooms were shut up, dark and dusty and spider-webbed. Some were empty, others with furniture covered in sheets...or shrouds. Still others, Ignis insisted weren't safe and asked her not to go in. After the first time, when her foot went through a floorboard, Lili had listened without complaint. Especially since he let her hold his hand when they went into the really dark rooms. Not that she was scared of the dark! She wasn't a baby. But...you know, they had already found one surprise zombie in the kitchen! What if there were more? (She had also insisted on sleeping with a candle burning, but that wasn't because she was scared, it was because it was a strange place and if she woke up in the middle of the night, she didn't want to bump into anything or fall over!)
Most interestingly, Lili had found a folder of the most amazingly realistic paintings she'd ever seen. She'd called Ignis over to look at them, and he'd told her that they were something called photographs, taken by something called a camera, and had explained some of how it worked while she'd flipped through them all. They were of a party in the ballroom - Stark was in some of them, but nobody else Lili recognized - though that made sense, since it clearly wasn't a party where children had been invited. The most amazing thing was that there was a woman who looked so much like her mother in many of them. Same long black hair, same high and somewhat sharp features, forming a face that few would envision when imagining a classic beauty, but that most people still considered beautiful all the same, same elegant way of carrying herself. The only difference were that her eyes were purple (like Father's! And hers! And Josu's!) and not blue. And her mother would never be looking at a man other than Lili's father the way she was at the strange man with whom she shared most of the pictures. Lili wasn't sure if she liked this man. Sure, the lady wasn't her mother, but still.
They had gone through the pictures for what felt like hours, first imagining who these people were and what they were celebrating, with their weird outfits and spooky decorations, and then shifted to talking about fancy parties and events they had gone to, how Ignis sometimes felt out of place, how Lili had often grown bored and impatient, how they'd both looked to their companions - him, his prince; her, her brother - for comfort while struggling to maintain the most proper facades they could, because duty before all. Eventually, the two children had fallen asleep, curled up together like puppies amidst scattered pictures and secret confessions that only came out in the dark of night when you were very, very sleepy.
While it was Lili that had fallen asleep that night, it was Liliana who woke up the following morning, staring up at the underside of her canopy, silently asking What the fuck was that? It was definitely something she couldn't unpack before coffee, a tangled snarl of emotions from grief to amusement to vulnerability to fury. She would have to consider just how much damage this weekend had done, but again, that wasn't something that could be undertaken until after coffee. She felt almost hung over - not from the weekend's sugar intake, but from the sheer number of emotions a single weekend could inflict, both then and now.
Josu...
Her cat, of course. She was thinking about her cat.
But with the weekend firmly banished from her mind (and it has been, she'd decided not to think of it and so she steadfastly was not!), the next thing to consider was the...tiff...from Friday. She had promised Ignis they'd talk the following day, but the 'Fandom shenanigans' had certainly put paid to that idea. And now it was Monday and all of the built-up impetus had vanished. Perhaps...perhaps if she didn't mention it, neither would he? And they could just go about their day like everything was normal. That certainly seemed better than opening herself up even more, as if the weekend hadn't contained more than enough of that.
She knew that if such...dalliances...were to thrive, letting things go unaddressed wasn't the healthiest option. On the other hand, if it couldn't weather a little thing like this, what hope did it have of surviving any of the things that a close association with Liliana Vess would bring, especially with his insistence of throwing himself headlong into her problems? Of all the ends that this relationship inevitably faced, surely this one was by far the kindest.
Looking over, she saw that Ignis stirring, woken up either by his Grixis-cursed internal clock or her own restlessness. She thought briefly of getting up, pretending she hadn't noticed, taking another few moments to compose herself in privacy. But then he opened his eyes, and sightless though they might be, seemed to meet hers and the faintest of smiles crossed his face.
He had green eyes, her memory whispered. Like the sunlight through the leaves of the Caligo Forest.
And before she was even aware she was moving, she was rolling over on several errant pictures to slide her fingers between his and whisper, "Little you was wrong. You belong anywhere you wish to be."
[Open for visitors or if said gentleman (who was absolutely modded with permission) would like to respond]
