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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/ThirdMovement|Third Movement]]
| + | #REDIRECT ADanceOfAngels |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
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| − | == Dance in Compassion ==
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Morning was coming slow. Slow and blury. The hallway on the second floor of the Heaven House was far too bright. Every sound was far to sharp, as if every sigh and laugh came out of the crash of a hammer on steel.
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| − | "Fuckin' hell," Seventh Moon groaned, clutching his brow as he moved slowly down the hall towards the girls room. Far bellow in the basement, they had left the Pack in a tangle of bodies and bottle scattered around the room. Business was starting up as they passed through the main floor as well, shifts in the Industiral changing and brining in a fresh load of soiled looking workers. No one noticed either of them passing through on the way to the top floors.
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| − | Someone in the room the two Exalts were passing by was getting a very early start. They let out an ear-shattering scream of pleasure and the Lunar Exalt froze, clutching his head tighter. "Fucking <i>hell</i>..." he snarled again, then looked back at Selina. "If they're <i>cheery</i> when we get there, I'm gonna kill 'um both. Just so you know..."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "<i>Awww..</i>.but they should get some fun once in awhile." Selina responds teasingly, having not drank alot of alcohol the night before and walking resplendant in her usual attire. She didn't make a habit of getting herself stone drunk. Unless the occasion demanded it...and some did at times. Her wings twitch at the cries of pleasure from the room they just passed by.
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| − | "Next time, a bath. With scented oils." She purrs wickedly, almost to herself and not looking at Moon as her turquoise eyes seem to light up. "Need one anyway."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "You too," he muttered in response to her prodding. Moving on with a hand to the wall, he continued to swear softly under his breath. "Every last fucker in 'ere that so much as smiles..."
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| − | "Bath would be nice..." he agreed at great length, as if finishing a thought. He gave the Windia a bit of a smile, despite the pain even that seemed to bring. "I'll help ya wash your back..."
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| − | In front of the room they had gotten for the girls, Moon stopped and groaningly forced himself to stand fully upright, running a hand through his wraggled black hair. "Don't knock too loud..."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "I would hope so." Selina continues in her wicked tone, stopping at the door and listening for a moment, then knocking quietly. Not too quietly, though, she wanted them to wake up if they were asleep and not insensible logs on the bed. "Last baths I had were in the airship, before that, Windia. With Vorpal."
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| − | She waits for the response to her knock, remembering that night. <I>Well, at least she wasn't sour then.</i>
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| − | That girl really needed to learn how to relax. Probably wouldn't be Selina who taught her, more was the pity.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti uncurls herself from around the peacefully sleeping Fiona and sits up as she hears the pair talking outside. She stretches as Selina knocks, arching her back in a way that seems nearly impossible, looking down at the girl with a mixture of guilt and and a sensation of ...pleasure at something done right.<Br>
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| − | <i>I hope.<br>I helped her ... and that can't be bad.<br>Can it?</i>
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| − | She quickly slips off the bed, then pulls on her carmine robe, adjusting the way it hangs about her body before she quietly pads to the door. It is a pleasantly smiling Fire Aspect that greets the pair, as she drops into a reflexive curtsey.
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| − | "Good morning to you, my lady, Moon." she says softly, as she rises fluidly to stand before them, awaiting whatever they might ask of her ... wondering if she should ask her question or not ...
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> <i>With Vorpal.</i>
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| − | Moon's blood shot eye flicked over to the Windia, his mouth open to ask a very important question when the door swung open and Kanti greeted her. Ah well, there was always later...
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| − | "Morning darlin'," he tried to smile again, though it was a bit more like a grimce as white light began flashing behind his eyes and thunder beat on the inside of his skull. He let the smile go before his head fractured or Kanti thought he was about to eat her, and leaned heavily against the door frame. "How's kicks, kid? Good night?"
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Putting a hand behind her back as the door opens, Selina waves with a half-upraised hand on the other arm, smiling benignly. "Morning." She also catches Moon's glance.
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| − | <i>Aaaah, if it's the question I think, you'll be disappointed.</i>
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| − | "Have a restful night?" The tone she uses remains benign, but interested. Perhaps those two would begin to get used to her.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti betrays almost no outward sign of her nervousness at the lunar's rather savage appearance and of course, the Dark Angel, resisting the temptation to step back and away from them, holding herself in the doorway instead. She continues to smile at the pair as she thinks.<br>
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| − | <i>I talked to Her.<br>And She made me hurt Fiona ... hurt her so bad.<br>And then I cried for so long.<br>And then I healed Fiona, really healed her.<br>How do I say that to them?<br>I can't ... I can't tell them She's coming, but I have to... she'll be so angry.<br>I don't want her to be angry.<br>I ... can't. Yet. Moon looks terrible.<br>But I will tell them. Yes.</i><br>
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| − | "Yes my lady, in the most part anyway." she says still speaking softly, "I feel much better this morning."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Mmmm." Stretching, the hand not behind her back tapping lightly, softly on the doorframe now, Selina looks at Kanti with raised eyebrows, voice still benign, though with an undercurrent of craftiness. "No bad dreams? Well, that's good. We should see about how to spend the rest of the day. I think soon we may receive visits from others of my kind."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> <i>Tap, tap, tap</i>
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| − | Gritting his teeth and trying not to give Selina a dirty look as he looked over at her, the Lunar frowned. Frowned more, at least. "What makes ya think more of them are gonna show up?"
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> A brief moment of haunted terror trickles through into her eyes, as Selina metions sleep and dreams. And visits.<br><i>I should tell!!<br>She'll be so angry now I lied.<br>I can't telll her now...<Br>Silly. Silly Kanti.<br></i>
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| − | She pauses briefly, before she speaks again. <br>
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| − | "I don't sleep, my lady. I ..."<br>
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| − | <i>... see things I really don't want too. See far too many things.<br>Not that you care.</i><br>
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| − | "I don't sleep. I ... have a request though, if I might ask something of you, my lady."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "They can't leave us like this, in their rear and threatening their plan." Stopping the tapping, the Windian looks to Moon with a dirty, dirty smile and giggles. "And one of them wants to <i>play with me. Forever.</i> I'll give her exactly what she asked for."
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| − | Looking back to Kanti as she smoothes her naughty-girl _expression, Selina nods. "Something bothering you? Well, let's see if we can help -- ask away."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> He grunted slightly and nodded, as much as he was able. Made sense, though he was a bit disappointed that they might have caught up with them so soon. Moon hadn't been expecting to spend much time at home, but a little longer would have been nice.
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| − | Since Kanti seems mostly directing heself at Selina, Moon steps back and leans against the wall, letting his head drop, turning half an ear to their conversation.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> <i>she's talking about Her. she wants to hurt Her. I..I should stop her, but ... I can't. she's too strong ... too cold.<br>I hope She's strong enough.<br>Don't I?<br></i>
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| − | Kanti lets none of those thoughts show on her face, as she considers how best to ask her question, ignoring the fading look on Selina's face. "I would like to practice my Martial Arts, my lady ... It was hard for me to learn the style I know and ... I don't want to lose that ... please." her voice and her posture pleading slightly.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Selina blinks for a moment, confused, then she realizes what Kanti is referring to. "Ah...the katas? I don't really know much at all of martial arts..."
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| − | Her mother had tried to teach her, but Selina had never gone in for such things. As a half-breed, the charms she preferred were the ones that satisfied her visually, commanding the elements. And later, when she was Chosen, she'd never been interested in finding a tutor...
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| − | "But I suppose so. What would you have me do?"
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> <i>...she is listening to me? I'm lucky this morning...</i>
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| − | "I just need some space to practice, my lady. I was not expecting you to tutor me ... I could not learn your fighting style anyway, but ... I do not think there is anywhere in this building with enough room for me to move with my spear..." she trails off quiely. "If it would not be too much trouble, my lady."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Selina tips her head to one side, toward Moon, then looks at him with the same befuddled _expression. "Would there be a place like that here?"
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Roof." Moon speaks up suddenly, almost barking the word.
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| − | Looking up, he jerks a thumb up a the ceiling. "Mostly flat. Use ta be girls would go up and call down, till one fell off. Probably enough room, there." He shrugs a little. "Boil ain't big on elbow room. Could probably use a floor in the tower, too, if you don't mind all the noise..."
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> <i>..the roof might work...but wouldn't it be rather visible?<br>Well ... it's up to the Dark Angel.<Br>Where is this tower though...?<br></i>
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| − | She smiles gratefully at Moon, then turns back to the Dark Angel, to await her answer.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Selina starts, then shrugs. "Everyone will see her if she goes up there...I'd prefer the tower, just to be safe."
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| − | Looking to Kanti, the Windian lets one wing droop as she shifts her weight to one of her feet and puts a hand on her hip, the other to her chin. "Well, I guess you can. If the tower doesn't serve, you can use the roof. But I'll have to watch then, I'm afraid. In case someone who shouldn't, does."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Clock tower'd be better if you're worried about someone seeing..." Moon said as he experimentally tipped his head from side to side. No dizziness. The light was still bright and sound echoed a bit, but not as bad as when he first got up. Mornings after always hit him hard, but never long. "Only problem is that we have to break in and the gear-heads might frown on it a bit if they caught us..."
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| − | "Not that they ever do." he added with a grin.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> "Of course, my lady." she says, gratefully, smiling at the winged woman with geniune thanks, only the merest trace of her fear showing through her face. "Where is the tower?"
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| − | <i>Of course I don't mind if you watch ... I didn't think I'd be allowed to practice alone anyway.<br>... And I want you to see my movements ... maybe ... maybe you won't be so cold, then.<br>I ... I have to try.</i>
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Middle'a town," he rasped a brief chuckle. "Kinda hard ta miss it. Only fuckin' thing that ain't under smoke half the time."
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| − | This was gonna be interesting. Moon didn't quite know what the hell he was going to see, though he'd seen enough to have a general idea. That same sorta knee-bent flailing around the Black Feathers did. Only is was gonna be a young girl this time, not some wrinkled has-been in a robe. That had to make it better to watch.
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| − | He looked out the window at the far end of the hall, onto the too-bright dirty-white of early dawn peeking through. "Mm Might wanna get a move on, before the streets get too busy." Looking back at the girls, he nodded at the open door and the bed beyond. "How about the other one? Just gonna leave her?"
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Oh..." The assassin sighs, wondering what to do with Fiona. Chosen or not, it wasn't safe to be totally alone in this city in case someone came calling. Pity Moon's mentor was too creepy to leave her with him. And that assistant.
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| − | <i>Although I think he was more interested in me.</i>
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| − | "Well, shit. I guess she comes with."
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> <i>She's still asleep but...</i><br>
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| − | "I'll go and wake her then, if I may, my lady?" she asks softly, as she wonders about this tower, but looking forward to the idea of the practice.
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Catching the tone in Selina's voice, Moon waved down the hall. "Want I should go nab Sparrow or one the Pack girls and have them sit with her instead?"
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| − | Looking past Selina again, Moon smiled a bit at the lump in the bed. "Between you, me, and the wall, doesn't look like she's gonna be walkin' anywhere and I don't really wanna be seen carrying a girl over my shoulder." Not that it wouldn't be the first time he'd potato sacked a lady over to the tower, but if they were trying to avoid attention it probably wasn't the best idea.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Sure, as long as someone watches her to make sure she's ok." Then Selina looks at Moon slyly, remembering how he started when she mentioned bathing with the Pale Angel. "On the way to do that, I can ask you an interesting little question."
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| − | Switching her attention to Kanti, the Windian nods. "We should be able to find someone to stay with her, then."
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> "Thank you, my lady. Thank you Moon." she says, her voice happy, the fear well buried now, relaxing more with the thought of practice and with the (suprising) niceness.
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| − | "I'll stay with her until you come back with her if I may, my lady?" she asks hopefully, wondering if she'll be allowed.
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> There is something in the look she gives him that pricks at Moons spine and makes his head tip to the side. "Yeah? Might have a couple questions for you, too..." he answered in a faintly smoky tone, his gaze steady but playful.
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| − | He waves off Kanti's question casually, even though it's not adressed to him. "Yeah, stay put and keep an eye on the bed-warmer there. We'll be back pretty quick with someone who ain't hammered too much." Which could be hard doing, after the 'reunion celebration' last night. Fiona might end up with someone sleeping in bed with her.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Uh huh, it wouldn't do to leave her alone after all." Selina replies casually, after Moon, and then looks at him and giggles mischeviously. "Back in a few." With a nod to Kanti, she starts out of the room, Moon in hand, and closes the door behind her before beginning down the hall.
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| − | "Sooo..." Selina begins innocently, at least, it would be innocently if she wasn't expending no effort at all to hide the naughtiness. "Did I detect some surprise when I mentioned I'd taken a bath with the Pale Angel, darling?"
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Naw, just curious. Didn't think she could bath without turnin' the water ta ice." Moon answers her, too casual and conversational. Wriggling his hand free from hers, he wraps an arm around her waist, letting his finger tips glide across her back and close lightly over her hip. It would be a completely casual, friendly gesture if his finger didn't being brush slightly against the edge of her leotard. "Wonderin' just what ya did to keep it warm in there..."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Oh, she didn't melt, even in water that warm. As for what I did, oh, well, I..." She replies with her own question, sweet and suggestive, letting the pause insinuate things into Moon's mind before continuing. "...did nothing. I was a good girl, didn't make the poor girl feel out of sorts." Nudging herself into Moon's touch, the Windian chuckles. "She didn't want me to, so I didn't. Maybe someday she'll change her mind, aye?"
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| − | And then Selina taps Moon's wandering hand with her own, lightly. "Not now, not now -- maybe later. <b>Definitely</b> later." She adds assuredly.
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Feh," he huffs, sticking the tip of his tongue out at her. "Tease."
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| − | But he grins and his touch stops wandering, though his hand stays over her hip. "Later, yeah" his voice drops a little. "Later, I gotta make you show me what happens when you ain't being a good girl with other ladies..."
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| − | He disengages from her as they reach the stairs and stands aside to let her go first. "But we gotta find a lady for something else first... least, I don't think Kanti wants someone else rolling with her girl." He shrugged a bit. Who knows? He was still wondering just what went on in that room to make Fiona so damn wasted when she didn't even stay for a drink. "Probably one'a the house girls be good. Most of mine ain't likely to leave the basement on their own feet for a while."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "'bout not letting you tickle me further, or about not telling you stories of how I tickled the Pale Angel? And you want to watch me do it now?" Selina asks bemusedly, then nods to the rest of it tone not so bemused, but still light as they walk, the wing on the side of Moon moving up a bit. "Well, someone who'll just watch her will do, for now. Kanti's practice shouldn't take too long, not if I remember right from my mother. She can't be that rusty -- just fought me a bare number of days ago."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Little a'both," he answered cheerfully, moving back to her side as they get to the bottom of the stairs. "Ain't a problem though. We can make up for it later..."
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| − | Moon stops them both just inside the common room and looks around slowly, keeping things breezy in his voice. "And watch, help, whatever I ain't picky."
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| − | Things are still getting started in the main room. A few scattered clinents lounge on the couches and chairs, but most of the girls are still standing to the side while scurrying scullions wipe everything down. It doesn't take long to find a girl, a curly haired zafig who looked entirely too tired. A chipped coin later and a promise to bring her back something to eat and they were already back at the door with babysitter in tow.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti is sitting on the bed when they return, gently stroking the young girl's hair, running her fingers through it, tenderly straightening it as she does. Her warm smile down at the girl is interupted when they enter with the woman who will watch her. She turns to face, sitting up straighter, holding her head up before she rises from the bed. Her eyes look over the person who will watch Fiona, trying to see if she is okay.<br>
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| − | <i>Not that it matters. She is their choice.</i><br>
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| − | She smiles at the woman warmly "Watch over her carefully, please." she says softly, though with the merest hint of command in her voice ... something the other two Exalts must be imagining...
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| − | She stands and slips on the cloak they gave her, and picks up her cloth wrapped spear, standing there easily waiting to be told when to leave.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Well, let us be off then." Selina says evenly, looking at Kanti oddly for a moment, then resuming her normal mien. Odd, that, she had quite an affection for Fiona.
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| − | <i>I'll have to ask the Vestal why someday.</i>
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| − | Another thing on her to-do list once she had Charmaine firmly restrained before her. Pity the Lover wouldn't send her some nice soulsteel chains...
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| − | "I wonder how loud the clocktower is..."
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> While Selina gathers Kanti up, Moon lingers a moment.
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| − | "Now remember hun," Moon tells the courtesan, who simply nods mechanically to everything he says and stifles a yawn. "You ain't being paid to take no tumble in here, a'ite? Now, don't let that stop ya if she wants ta be friendly..." he pauses, waiting for her sleepy mind to register that, then ducks quickly to avoid the playful slap that comes sailing towards him. Retreating quickly to safety with a grin. "Just do like the kid says and keep her safe, Sammy. We'll bring ya back somethin' nice later."
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| − | "Pretty loud," Moon admits as they leave the room and close the door. "Ain't so bad on some floors, but lots of gears 'n shit in there rattling around. We won't go high enough to start getting the ghosts on us though."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Eh, my hearing'll survive." Selina says with a shrug, then chuckles. "Maybe I'll learn something -- I didn't get to analyze her technique quite so much when I fought her."
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> "Thank you for finding someone, my lady, Moon." she says, softly, though with pleasure in her voice.
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| − | Kanti walks quietly behind the pair, grateful for what Moon said to the courtesan, pleased that Fiona would be cared for while she was away. She follows them as they lead her out onto the steets, staying close, following at a distance that lets them know she's there, without intruding too much on their privacy ... as best as she could manage anyway.<br>
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| − | <i>Ghosts ... eh? Ghosts shouldn't walk ... if any came, they would know Lethe.</i>
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Getting through the streets is a little hectic at first, as they step out of the Heaven House and into the first real wave of black-caked miners and red-skinned foundry workers pouring into the Red Lantern District. Once they elbow their way through the crowd and out of the rows of pleasure houses though, things clear up almost frighteningly fast. While not barren, the streets on the way to the Dons are deathly silent and people seem more inclined to keep to the front porches of their apartments than to wander over much. It makes Moon darken a little, but he says nothing about it as he leads them to the foot of the giant clock tower in the center of the city. Here, it is especially quite beyond the steady heartbeat of the machines inside the tower.
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| − | Ignoring the iron-barred wooden door on one side, Moon leads them around to a decorative stone slab set into the opposite end and begins to push against it. The big stone block grates open slowly as Moon shoved his shoulder against it, letting out a sigh of stale air.
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| − | "A'ite," he announced, stepping back and gesturing to the darkness beyond. "Get in before the gear-heads start poking around at the noise."
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Wrapping her greatcoat around herself -- and her wings -- Selina steps inside first, eyes adapting to the darkness easier then they would have ten years ago, even five. She'd become a creature of darkness. Almost irrevocably.
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| − | Not that it was such a bad thing. So many nice things happened in the darkness as well as bad. The darkness was where everyone started.
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| − | <i>Even the gods, I wonder?</i>
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti steps through into the darkness after only a slight moment of hesitation, after the black wings of the angel before her, her eyes straining a little against the darkness, faint illumination provided by the glowing jewel set into the socket on her navel.
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Moon follows in last, then heaves the door closed behind them, the stone ceiling closed with a thump. The air in the clock tower is stale, smelling of iron and oil. A mere pulse before, the sound of the clock at work above them becomes a ruckus of grinding, cranking, rattling metal parts broken by the faint groan of support timbers.
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| − | "Hang on a second" Moon's voice drifts from behind them and a moment later there is a sharp scratch and flame bursts into the soft darkness. Holding up a torch from a box of them neatly arranged near the door, Moon grins. All around them, crates and rods and canvas is stacked through the big room they stand in. "Storage space for parts and shit. We found out about it pokin' around one night. Tower's a nice place to bring someone for privacy, y'know?"
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| − | Done explaining, he points past them to a ladder dangling from the ceiling and the wooden hatch above it.
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| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Hmm, it would seem so." Selina mumbles, then goes to the ladder, beginning to climb up with smooth motions, pushing the hatch above open and waiting for a moment to make sure nothing is up there already, before going through the portal herself. Her emerald hearthstone glitters a bit, catching the faint light and throwing it back from hundreds of facets.
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| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti winces unseen in the darkness at the assault of the noise, seeming all the louder for the lack of light. Then the torch is lit, Kanti blinking in the new light, looking around herself, at the random collection of crates and rods and the canvas covered bundles. She makes sure the spear is secure on her back, then flows swiftly up the ladder, her body bending through a seemingly impossible contortion to fit both through the hole with the spear on her back. When she reaches the top, she leaps lightly out, looking about the room she finds herself in.
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| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Going up the ladder last, Moon stops at the first rung a looks upward for a moment, then smiles. And to think some people really believed it was for shit to be last in line. "Don't worry 'bout bumpin' inta anyone." he calls up when Selina pauses. "Gearheads don't come inside much, just drift around outside and make sure no one fucks with the place..."
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| − | The next floor up brings them closer to the gears and the noise rattles off the empty stone walls that stretch up around them. Cooler than the storage space, the floor is nearly empty. Ropes and pullies dangle on a wooden frame above the hatch way and there are a few handcarts tipped on their side against the wall, but the only dominating feature of the room is great wooden ramp way coiled around the outer wall, leading up to a distant and darkened ceiling.
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| − | Letting the girls get adjusted, Moon walks around the room and uses the torch to light up several others that seem hastily wedge into the cracks in the stone. As more light pours into the room, it begins to reveal the glittering of wine bottles tucked into cracks and corners and a beat-up looking mattress propped against the wall.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Plenty of privacy, alright." Selina says off-handedly, unfurling her wings and then divesting herself of the greatcoat -- tossing it on one of the handcarts before making her way t the mattress. "Think I'll watch from here."
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| − | | |
| − | The Windian easily rights the mattress, then plops herself down on it, wings spreading more comfortably before she lies back on it, looking at Kanti and Moon with a smirk. "Don't worry, I'm not monopolizing it."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti looks about the room with the glittering of the bottles and the small mattress.<Br>
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| − | <i>I wonder...<br>No, don't think.</i><br>
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| − | Kani walks over to the carts, loosing her spear from the fabric wrapped around it, then slipping off the outer cloak, revealing the slight garment of screams below. She carefully folds the cloak, leaving in on the cart, then walking over to the mattress, standing vaguely before it, closing her eyes and taking calming breathes, relaxing more fully.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Stuffing the torch into the wall, Moon joins Selina at the mattress, sitting down on the edge. He rests his elbows on his knees and leans forward.
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| − | | |
| − | "Do your thing, darlin'" he smiles encouragingly at Kanti, then fades as she readies herself. Cheering probably wouldn't help her relax much, so instead he watches her intently in silence.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Mmmhmm," Selina demures from on her back, bringing her arms behind her head to prop it up for a better look at the Dragoness, lithe body leisurely laid out almost to its full length as she stretches. "I think this'll be good for you."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti's posture changes, assuming a simple, relaxed pose, spear held easily.
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| − | She opens her eyes and then around her bands of green and flames appear, dancing between the swirling bracers on her wrists. Then as suddenly as they started, the flames and the bands of green cease. She seems to be radiating bliss, and a certain sublime contentment, something in her eyes and posture causing a brief amount of reproach even at a hostile thought.
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| − | | |
| − | <I>Both of them ... watching me ... I will have to be good.</i>
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| − | | |
| − | The katas that she works through start of slow, body and spear flowing through them with easy, langurous grace, moving in a series of parries and attacks against imaginary foes, holding her position before the bed still, swirls and shifts in the fabric as she twists revealing more of her black scarred skin. As she starts to move with more defined motions, a faint incense starts to fill the air, sandalwood scents permeating the room.
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| − | | |
| − | Then she starts to really move, bringing footwork into the dance, for a dance it is. A dance of spearthrusts and defensive sweeps and deceptively gentle looking blows, but a dance none-the-less. As she dances the clouds of incense get thicker around her, visible when the torchlight catches swirls caught be her motion, and she forgets about the rest of the room, caring only for her flow. Mixed up in the combat katas and merciful, lethal techniques, her movement to the tune of her mind is by parts beautiful, elegant, seductive, joyous, innocence, filling any who would harm her with remorse even as it entices those who would protect her, letting them take pleasure in her beauty, letting them admire the grace with which she moves, calling for them to do as they wish, as long as it is not to harm.
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| − | | |
| − | And then the dance stops, the slow-seeming blows coming to a halt, the swirling of the carmine gown she wears slowing, the spear ceasing in it's sweeps, her chest heaving slightly at her exertions. Once more she stands relaxed, radiating contented bliss.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Moon blinks. It's the first movement he's made since the dance begin. He has yet to start breathing and yet to notice he stopped at any point. Color flushes his skin, a sensation he's never known before pulsing through him. After images of elegant movements, swirling limbs, and delicate grace burn themselves slowly into his eyes and his mind alike. There is a halo around the tiny girl standing in front of him; a scarlet circle of flame and her own pure innocent. The Lunar doesn't know what he has just seen, his thoughts scattered into an autumn cloud of harmony, but it will never leave his mind.
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| − | | |
| − | <i>Tiny. Fragile. Peaceful. <b>Innocent.</b></i>
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| − | | |
| − | The strong must protect the weak. A shiver runs through him. This is not weakness before him, but it <i>must</i> be protected. It was too precious to allow the taint of hurt to ever touch it.
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| − | | |
| − | Moon blinks again, and with a sudden gasp that reanimates him, leans back slowly away from Kanti. He swallows hard and licks his lips, letting out his first breath in a whisper. " sheeyit"
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Turquoise eyes widened, drinking in the sight of her delicate martial dance, Selina only now notices she's sitting on her knees -- kneeling, wings drooped dejectedly behind her. I tried to kill her?
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| − | | |
| − | That must never happen again. <b>Never</b>. And she would have to punish Charmaine for scarring her. She would break the Vestal, and let her know that she'd never touch Kanti again.
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| − | | |
| − | So beautiful, and she'd tried to kill it. <i>How could she do such a thing?</i> It wouldn't happen again. Kanti must not think she's alone. Yes. Being alone was terrible.
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| − | | |
| − | <i>You'll see my scar...</i>
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti looks towards the pair on the bed, heart still beating in her chest after her exertions, eyes widdening just a little at the looks they're giving her, at the effect of her flowing dance, her outpouring of her joy at the world, of the bliss she gets just by being alive, at her love of all Creation.<br>
| |
| − | <i>she ... is looking at me with warmth ... I... let her know warmth.<br>And Moon ... he is pleased and ... he feels the warmth too.<br></i>
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| − | As she realises this, a warmth of her own fills her, pleased at having done what she set out to do, pleased at having pleased them, and she kneels, a grateful _expression on her face.
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| − | "Thank you. Thank you for letting me move as I needed too." She says quietly, her voice somehow carrying over the cogs and machinery.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> Her Malfean whispered, but its void-wisps of insight were lost in the emotion Selina felt. She rose. First to one knee, then she stood, swaying a bit. Stepping off the mattress. "Those scars, Kanti. They must hurt you so." Her voice seemed to radiate sympathy, empathy, almost as if she felt them herself.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Thanking them? She was thanking them... ? Moon brushed his hand absently across his shirt, confusion dizzying him. Why thank them when she had just shown them something so beautiful? He should have been in her place.
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| − | | |
| − | It seemed wrong to throw her sentiments back at her though, so he nodded slowly in acceptance, scarcely noticing when the woman on the bed beside him rose. Only when Selina's body and wings obscured Kanti from sight did the daze clear a little. Enough that Moon let his weight go and fell back against the mattress, staring up into the darkened ceiling and thinking about warmth and dancing.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti looked up at Selina she stood, banishing all the fear she felt at seeing the dark angel towering above her, her mind flashing briefly back to the rainswept forest of several nights ago, when the Dead Ones spoke through her. She doesn't let it effect her, refuses to fear her, wanting, hoping that the symmpathy she saw on the Dark Angels face wasn't false.
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| − | <i>Please ... no more coldness ...</i><br>
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| − | "They don't hurt so much, not now, my lady."<br>
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| − | <i>They remind me of Her. And that is good.<br>who has never seen my dance like that.<br>Why did I show you?<br></i>
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "You...'not so much'?" Selina grimaces, then shakes her head, undoing her belt, letting the weapons clatter to the floor with it. "N-no, you're wrong. You're afraid of admitting it." Her voice breaks for a moment, and then she moves a hand back, undoes something at her neck. "Like I was." The last sentence is a hoarse, loud whisper.
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| − | | |
| − | The collar at her throat opens, and Selina slides her leotard down after undoing it, around her hips, to her feet. Pale skin, blushing a bit, and scarred. Whiter scars crisscross over her torso above and below her waist, back and front. Her leotard hides many of them normally, the boots and gloves that she has not taken off, yet more. But one scar dominates all the others.
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| − | | |
| − | Raw looking, reddish -- an alien scrawl of characters that center around a small magic circle a little bigger then her palm, drawn over her womb. Pulsing with obscene, infernal essence in time with her heartbeat. Still active for all these years.
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| − | | |
| − | "Some of my...legend...says I'm barren, Kanti." Selina bends down, picks up her leotard and tosses it on the mattress behind her, then she takes a step toward the Terrestrial. "This is why."
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| − | | |
| − | Naked empathy is on her face now, her voice wavers. "It still hurts."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti remains kneeling, looking up at the mostly naked Dark Angel, now towering above her, so very close to her, her eyes tracing over all the scars on that pale kin, her mind imagining the pain of each and every one of them. How it must have felt. Her eyes don't waver though.<br>
| |
| − | "Truely my lady, they do not hurt that much. They were seared into my skin that I might be beautiful. And I was, for Her." she says this with acceptance, more than acceptance of the scars that crisscross her body in black occult patterns.<br>
| |
| − | <i>So many scars ... so so many scars....and...</i><br>
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| − | Her still beating heart catches in her throat as she sees the strange, twisting, pulsing scar. There.
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| − | "I'm sorry my lady. I'm sorry you hurt." she says as a whisper "There is nothing I can do for that scar." she says apologetically, wishing she could. Wishing she could heal it all away. She lets her eyes drift back upwards to the Dark Angel's face, so high above her.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> For a moment, Selina's face shows relief that Kanti doesn't feel pain from her own scars, not like that anyway. The concept that she may be lying can't stick, for some reason. And then bleakness enters Selina's eyes.
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| − | | |
| − | "So it's just me."
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| − | | |
| − | The bleakness freezes, shatters in a fleeting moment. Cold fury, icier than the grave and hungrier than the Void rages through her for a few moments. The Dark Angel shivers with a forlorn, hopeless anger, directed far above Kanti's head, straight into the wall. Her feathers stand on end as she clenches her hands into fists so tight that her nails draw blood. And then that too breaks, and she stumbles backward, released from the invisible hand of her fury, to fall on the mattress, sitting roughly.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti trembles where she kneels, as she watches the cold wash over the Dark Angel and then the rage in every fibre of her being.
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| − | <i>I caused that ... I should have seen... she....<br>I hurt her and I pushed the warmth away.<br>And now she's cold again.<br>And it's my fault.<br>My fault that she hurts.</i>
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| − | | |
| − | Kanti starts towards the abyssal, wanting to hold her, to put the warmth back into her if she could, when she realises the robe of screams she wears, stopping, frozen , no idea what to do, her face painted with regret and concern and guilt.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "We all stripin' down then?" Moon asks, his tone as light as he is able and cold blue eyes soft as he looks up at Selina's back.
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| − | | |
| − | He hasn't spoke, but he's listened. Talks of scars and pain; no place here for them after what they've just seen. But it cannot be denied and the fluttering passage of sympathy, empathy, and anguish in the Dark Angels voice fill him with sorrow. It made his own scars ache beneath his clothing. And staring at the asssassin's back, he wonders for the first time just how much pain she's gone through.
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| − | | |
| − | The Lunar sits up slowly beside her, carefully brushing past her wings. Her near nakedness doesn't bring the reaction it should. Instead of longing, he looks over her pale scars with an understanding. All save the one that pulses on her belly. Like the black markings on Kanti's flesh, that one is beyond him. And looking at Selina's face, he realizes something.
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| − | | |
| − | <i>I don't know shit about pain</i>
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| − | | |
| − | "Kinda wondered why you never took that thing off" he says quietly to her, looking down at the infernal marking. It should be revolting, but instead it simply is.
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| − | | |
| − | Kanti moves and he looks up at her. Lost? Hesitant.
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| − | | |
| − | <i>Don't be.</i>
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| − | | |
| − | Moon's arm suddenly comes up and wraps itself around Selina's shoulders, pulling her against him without a word. He holds his other arm out towards Kanti, beckoning her over with a tip of his head. She needed to do this too. Both of them needed it.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti looks towards the Lunar as he holds the pale woman in his arms, watches his hand extend towards her, sees the nod. And obeys. So, so easy to obey the commands you wanted. As she moves towards the pair, her body twists in a way that perhaps it shouldn't, sheding the robe woven of her screams, before it touched Selina. she didn't like the screams. She presses her warm body up to the lunar, up to Selina.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> Moon's other arm closes around Kanti as she presses against them and draws both the woman into him, and each other, tighter. Breathing deep, the Lunar let out a drawn out sight. How was he going to protect them? And from what, the past? He couldn't. Fuck, he could barely take care of himself with what they were dealing with now. But, it couldn't stop him from trying somehow. Just had to find out how to try...
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| − | | |
| − | "Heh..." he smiles faintly after the silence lingers too long and squeezes them both once, tightly. "Guess I got two women in bed after all..."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> She couldn't cry, not really. No tears were left in her for that scar, they'd all been shed years ago. Some in Lorna's embrace. Somewhere back in Selina's mind, she realized that it was a Lunar comforting her again, albeit not a half-breed like Lorna Greer.
| |
| − | | |
| − | But she appreciated it. Eyes downcast, Selina lets Moon draw her in with his arm, lets Kanti move up to her. So many scars. But only one of hers was really from <b>him.</b> This was what He Who Holds In Thrall had promised her the power to overcome, what the Lover had promised her the power to overcome. That someday, she would kill him. Release his essence out onto the hell-iron of Malfeas.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "It...also looks good on me, too..." The Windian says in a low voice, barely able to make herself heard over the windmills. "That's what...they say."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti presses up to them, letting Moon pull her in closer, pressed up to the two powerful Exalts, wondering how she came to be here, then ... not. The warmth is what matters, and the closeness, nuzzling against his neck slightly to get closer, relaxing in his arms and in her presence, the fear not touching her. Not now, when she's like this.
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Seventh Moon:</b> "Naw." The Lunar answers in a voice empty of praise or jest. "You just make anything look good darlin'."
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| − | | |
| − | Rubbing his broad palm up and down her arm, he tips his head a little and touches his brow to Selinas as Kanti shifts closer. He strokes the young girls hair, running his fingers through it absently.
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| − | | |
| − | <i>Be warm. Be strong. Even if I gotta pretend to be...</i>
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Selina de Windia:</b> "Hmm." Selina muses, shaking her head. "I didn't mean to scare you, Kanti...that anger wasn't directed at you." She pets the Terrestrial on the head, wings drooping still. "I'll keep my ideas about Charmaine to myself, for now. What's between me and her is between me and her."
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| − | | |
| − | <b>Kanti:</b> Kanti makes soft, warm, contented sounds as the pair of them pet her as she lies against Moon. "I ..." she says quietly, then pauses "...thank you, my lady." she eventually says, turning her head on the lunar's chest to look at Selina, smiling gently.
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| − | | |
| − | ----
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| − | | |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/ThirdMovement|Third Movement]]
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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
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