tell me now of the very soul that look alike

[inferus]

WHO: Wrath + Red + Others
WHEN: Event threads / Tower Aftermath threads
WHERE: Serthica
WHAT: November Catch-All. Please let me know if you would like a closed thread with either of mine.
WARNINGS: Cursing, memory-loss, curses, talks of Hell/demons. Will edit if more specific warnings come up.

[ closed starters will be below. ]

Comments

[matermali]

Vanessa hasn't imbibed enough of anything to feel much beyond the slight calming of her nerves, which is enough to make her appreciate Red's words for what they are without worrying too much about how undeserving she is of such considerations. She hopes that Red has met others to also earn such a trust, and that she will continue to. That she will know love in all its forms, and with each heartbreak find a way to turn that love inward. To do what Vanessa never could.

The image of Red sitting in such a position is all too familiar. How many times has Vanessa clutched at her knees whenever the ground below felt too unsteady?

She stretches to pull the ash tray near, resting the cigarette there should Red wish for any more. Vanessa isn't sure she needs it, but she isn't one to hinder the vices of her friends. She's one to sit near and nurture, at least when she isn't drowning in her own woe. The vision that Red creates is enough to pull Vanessa out of that self-pity, long enough to appreciate that trust that Red is offering.

Carefully, she smooths back the girl's long hair, letting it trail between her fingers after combing it behind her ear. She would have chased the minotaur ceaselessly to try to save Red. She would have found a way to tear into it with the bats even sooner, more like.

"It was the Doctor who managed to save you." Something that he had done more than once. She had expected him to be clever, and he was when he used the rope, but she hadn't expected an axe throw quite like that. "I know in my heart that he, too, would do anything to ensure your happiness."

[growlies]

Red breathes out the heaviness in her lungs and stares at her own hands. She doesn't say anything in response, because there's nothing to say. This entire world is temporary. They're not supposed to be here. The beacon will be activated again, and they're all supposed to go through it back to where they belong, back to their own worlds, far away from the one that brought them together.

This isn't that place where they belong. No matter how much she cares about Vanessa, about the Doctor, about Emilia and Hermione, and- and Fei's already gone. No matter what she'd do to protect them. The rest will go too, and if she gets sent back, she gets sent back somewhere she doesn't belong. Really, she doesn't belong anywhere (too mortal and not, too girl and not, too monster and not), but what a depressing fucking thing to say or think or anything.

She looks over at Vanessa - an aching kind of smile. She does take the cigarette, another drag, focusing on Vanessa's gentle touch in her hair as her eyes close again.

"The beacon's gonna get activated next, huh? If we do what we're supposed to do here."

[matermali]

She hates to talk of it, but there's no use hiding from the path that the Merchant has been driving them all down. It's always been a precarious state of being–a family in transit–yet the closeness is no shallower for it. The loyalty will be lifelong, for however much longer that is, if Vanessa's memory will remain her own. She hopes that Red will remain a presence in her heart until the very end.

"That is the hope."

She doesn't blame Red's lack of enthusiasm for the idea. If Vanessa didn't have to go...if Sir Malcolm's life didn't depend on it, then...what would she do? It's a dangerous way of thinking. Far too indulgent.

"You don't have to go, should it be activated. Will you make a new life here?"

If Serthica remains too dangerous, then there are safer cities, aren't there? There will be threats everywhere, no doubt, but what does Red have to fear with Cerberus at her beckoning? Isn't it better to take the gamble for the idea of freedom? It's something Vanessa would risk, if she could.

[growlies]

"I don't know."

Truthfully, Red hasn't really thought about it much. If she stays, she stays surrounded by a bunch of people who are entirely human, who don't tango with gods, who were born and will one day die. She stays in a world where the Undead want to claim her, and they probably shouldn't get their hands on Cerberus. If she goes, she doesn't know what happens either. Hades will try to find her, but maybe she'll have time before he does.

She did escape with two people who could have been her friends maybe if she were able to spend any time with them before being dragged here instead. She never thought she'd actually be able to leave the Underworld at all when she escaped, thought it'd drag her right back in and under its water, drown her for trying. Probably it's only because Persephone was with them, and it was her hand she held on the way out.

She doesn't lift her head again even when she asks: "...what about you?"

[matermali]

Vanessa doesn't much like the thought of Red returning to a life spent running. Yet, how can Vanessa pass any judgment on such considerations? Vanessa has spent her whole life running, though she would like to claim she had turned to face the beast more often than not. In truth, she'd only faced it to invite it in.

Despite her growing connection with this place—with Red and the Doctor—she has obligations as well, and for the first time in a long while, Vanessa is returning so that she can stop running. It's the only way to save her friend. Sir Malcolm had once called her the daughter he deserved, and it had not been meant in kindness, but it was true enough. Their past sins and paths forward were inexorably twined, and she knows that she can't abandon him now.

Even if it means returning to where Satan thrives.

Eyes cast off to the side, Vanessa sighs and murmurs, "My path forward is the same. Serthica hasn't changed that."

But it has changed how she feels about it. In some ways, she's found a peace with what's within; in the connection she's found to others who are strikingly like her. In other ways, it has sent her adrift. Her life could have been better here, even in its current state. At least here, nobody hunts the Mother of Evil for her singular use and nothing else.