Participants:
| Scene Title | Live Mas |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The women of the Honorable and Most Noble House of Mas meet to discuss the shape of freedom. |
| Date | September 19, 2020 |
The letter had arrived by courier, a bushy tailed, bright eyed teleporter that dropped it off with a wave and wink alongside: "One family toots!" Before she winked out of existence.
The contents of the envelope was just a letter, a short one at that:
I am here at the Lighthouse. Just you and me. Family time. Lots of things. I love you. Sorry again. Come to me. - A cloud
The Lighthouse had become a place of refuge for Eve and that went well with the history of this place. She sits on the upper floor, legs dangling out of the huge hole in the side of the wall. Joint in her hand and held to her black painted lips. Vibrant gold eye makeup contrasts the bright red dress she wears as well as her eyes of the same shade. Her fingers flutter as it fluctuates from red mist to pale digits.
Eve leans in and looks closely at the mist as it mingles with the smoke.
“Eve?” Odessa doesn’t need to ask for the confirmation that her cousin is present. From the moment she started to ascend the stairs, she could sense her above. Normally, she’d have no guarantee that the signature pinging belonged to any particular person (save for Aman Binepal, waiting just outside if anything should go amiss), but the hunger that underlies all of Eve Mas’ other emotions is unmistakable.
The call of the name serves to let her cousin know that she has arrived. That the footsteps in the stairwell belong to Odessa, and not an interloper. The step-click of shoe and cane are likely also an indicator, even if she hadn’t announced herself. Odessa has a few hypotheses about Eve’s own senses, given what she’s seen and experienced now, but there will be time for that later.
By the time she reaches the top of the stairs, Odessa is breathless, exhausted. She leans heavily against the wall and her cane for support while she catches her breath. A nudge is sent along the link between herself and her friend. I’m tired, but it’s alright.
“You couldn’t have picked a location with fewer stairs?” The blonde pushes off from the wall after a moment and meanders further into the space. She’s similarly dressed in red, a dress she received from Eve. A dress that once belonged to her Aunt Valerie. For all the griping, Odessa still smiles. Even if their last encounter ended on a sour note, it still makes Odessa’s heart soar to see her family.
"We've got to stay in tip top shape!" Eve snickers and turns her head towards, lowering her hand as it becomes fully flesh once more. "Hey there, Dorothy." There was a time where physical contact with Eve was forbidden, lest you end up burned. The midnight haired woman stands and comes over to bear hug her cousin.
"I'm so sorry about the…" Waving her hands in the air. "Ya know." Sheepish smile. "It takes some time, learning these new gifts. You weren't meant to see that side of it." Nobody was really.
"AceHarry." Swine. "What an interesting choice, does he truly take care of you, do you need a rescue? Are you safe?" Asks the woman who was currently on the run. "I worry." As a good cousin should and would. It's not as if she hasn't known what dress Odessa wears, but it took some time for Eve to make note of:
"Your Aunt Valerie used to look like a vision in that dress. The way she walked… talked… I wanted to be her." There's a wealth of love inside of her, fanning out like the volatile energy she used too, as well as loss and grief. Two things both women were intimately familiar with.
“Look, you get your entire body completely reconstructed from too little matter and then get back to me about keeping in shape,” Odessa quips back with a little sneer. Still, she wraps Eve up in a big hug that lacks any hesitation. She’s not afraid of a repeat performance of what happened at Rossignol. “I think I look pretty good, all things considered.”
Stepping back, she waves off the apology. “I know that… whatever that was, you didn’t do it on purpose.” Now they both know something about the other that no one else is supposed to know.
Odessa’s free hand reaches out to grasp one of Eve’s, clasping firmly and rubbing her thumb over the back of her cousin’s palm. “I wish I could have known her. I’m sure she would have taught me a lot about strength.” Eve’s sadness is one she would share even if it didn’t overwhelm her senses.
The subject of her beau isn’t entirely ignored, however. Odessa is quick to shake her head. “Ace is… He’s wonderful. We had a little bit of a rocky patch for a while there, but… He’s so good to me.” The fact that Eve knows his real name is a point of concern. Blue gaze lifts to capture crimson’s attention. “Eve… You can’t tell anyone about him. You understand that, right? We’re just trying to live very quiet lives. We’re trying to be normal.”
She’s serious, pleading. “He doesn’t want me to have to hide. He wants me to be able really live.” So why does she feel a pang of guilt when she defends him to her cousin? “Please, you have to promise me you won’t let on about who he used to be. Not to anyone.”
"Oh you look divine, Cousin, don't be silly." Eve grips Odessa's hand in return and smiles softly. "She would have loved you. She would have solved all of our nonsense before her next shift at the club."
On the matter of Ace:
"Well, if you care that much about him, then I wouldn't want to do anything of the sort. Secrets can be safe with me. I swear on our line, his secret is safe with me." Her emotions ring true and Eve steps back and considers the world outside the Lighthouse. "You've had quite the journey to get to this point. The amount of steps you must take to realize you are who you are."
A wink, "No matter the skin. Tell me, cousin…
"What on earth have you been up to?" Naturally there's a joint, pressed to Eve's lips.
The spike of nerves and guilt from Odessa brings with it the emotional equivalent of turning one's head. A whisper of cautious curiosity floats to her on the tether binding her and Aman. Is she all right?
Not that he'd know what the fuck exactly to do if she weren't, but he matches her concern nonetheless.
Ah, another source of guilt. Odessa turns her head as if to look over her shoulder, eyes closing for a moment as she sends a push of assurance back along the bond she shares with Aman. Yes, I’m fine. A little melancholy, but otherwise fine.
“I’d be a very different person if you and I could have grown up together,” Odessa muses quietly as she meanders her way toward the window to look out on the water. She turns a smile to Eve. “You mean since spending more time in prison?” She can poke fun at herself. “Well, once I got out, I struck a deal to… give myself a new start. I’ve got this new identity, this new form… I’ve got a chance to live without a target on my back.”
There are just rules and stipulations that come with that lease. “I’m constantly terrified I’m going to fuck it all up.”
"We would be, surely." Eve frowns at the lost opportunity, "Maybe in one of the other worlds, mm?" A brief stab of optimism, the grass could indeed be greener on the other side of the Veil. Listening to Odessa the taller of the cousin's steps closer, trailing her hand on the cracked Lighthouse walls. Gold accented eyes slant towards her back and her eyebrows raise and Eve moves until she's at Odessa's side.
Lifting the joint for her cousin to take without looking over at her but also to the water outside.
"The wanting to not fuck this up is a step, Dorothy." Smoke spews from her lips and flies out the hole in the wall into the fresh air. Blood red eyes watch it curl and waft out, eventually vanishing from sight. The smell is potent though, strong as ever. "You can try. That is enough." For Eve, for some of Odessa's family. Eve knew what it was to not follow through totally with changing who you have been.
"I have faith in you, cousin."
Odessa takes the joint between her fingers and takes a drag, holding it in for several seconds before exhaling again, watching the smoke drift out the window. “You know it’s only a matter of time,” she murmurs sardonically, a joke at her own expense.
“Sometimes it’s like I’m watching from outside of myself, you know? And I see the decisions I’m making, and I know they’re probably not the right ones. But I can’t stop.” Odessa takes another puff before passing back to Eve. “You ever get that way?” Surely if anyone understands this feeling, it would be Eve. Their insanity tends to come in very similar flavors.
"Almost every time, we are guided by instinct. Who's to say if it's bad or good? Or maybe something in between, yeah?" Nabbing the joint mid pass and taking a deep puff and closing her eyes, tilting her head back and blowing the smoke out towards the cracked ceiling.
"What's worse is when you've seen the outcome of your bad decision, but still, you do it anyway. My days as a seer… and my days now," Eve looks down at her fingertips, wiggling one at a time, "I've learned that it's maybe not just a force called Fate, we are stubborn, willful and if pushed hard enough can make the impossible happen, that's before the gifts that have been bestowed upon us." Another puff, another pass and another lazy plume of smoke leaves her nostrils. Crimson eyes intense on the horizon before them.
"Are we doomed to be this way forever? Is there another way for people like us? I'm not sure, but if there is, one of us will find it." Eve doesn't bet on it being her, but maybe Odessa, who was already taking steps to a better life… sort of. "We are the company that we keep, Cousin." It's here that Eve's tone lowers a bit, it's out of love if anything. "The places we hang around. Don't waste this chance, they seem lovely there, but…"
Fingertips flutter at the veil of smoke hanging in front of her face, "Your skin comes first."
“You mean Ace,” Odessa murmurs with a small smirk. “Oh, don’t worry, Eve. If there’s one thing I excel at, it’s looking out for myself first and foremost.” That’s an observation made at her own expense, not necessarily one that she’s proud of. If anything, Odessa always runs into trouble when she decides to look out for others first. Hard to learn to be good when it seems to have the most diminished of returns.
Sighing quietly, Odessa turns to face her cousin properly now, leaning her hip against the wall and crossing one arm over her midsection, the other hand stays wrapped around her cane. “Someone came looking for you at the club the other day. Said I should call if I knew where to find you.” That smirk makes a brief return. “I’m not going to, obviously. But I thought you’d want to know. Apparently you’ve ruffled some feathers.”
Her lips purse. “Have you considered… turning yourself in? I didn’t want to, you know. But if I hadn’t… I’d be dead.” Odessa knows this. “I don’t want you to wind up facing a similar situation. Just… give it some thought. I won’t push you into it. I won’t set you up. I know what my reputation is, but I don’t fuck over family.”
"Good, because I can't be close to make sure you stay alive. Continuing, our family. That's our only real duty, continuing in some way. We have to be alive for that to be a reality and not the stuff of dreams." It's a sad retort and Eve sighs and stretches her arms upwards, "So many times I've asked myself why not go in now."
Eve shrugs, "I'm not ready!" Proclaiming to her cousin, to herself and to the world with the way she leans her head out of the hole in the hall and shouts, "I'm scared." Twisting to face her cousin and rock from side to side. "How did you find the strength? I have control right now, I have freedom. My time… isn't…" The dark haired woman stops and pulls from the joint again and passes it. "I have to know more about myself, about what's happened before I can."
It's the last thing she's come to after her outburst, Eve stands there silently. Contemplating the floor and then the ceiling. "Who was it? That came?" She tries to find another point to stand on. Something else to examine and analyze that isn't her own emotional distress.
I’m not ready! Odessa feels this in her chest like a fist squeezing around her heart. I’m scared. She accepts the joint, because she needs to take the edge off, too. “I know what that feels like. Not knowing who you are.” There’s a sharp note of worry that breaks through the other feelings and it has her turning her head to the right to glance over her shoulder as she blows the stream of smoke out of the side of her mouth, away from her cousin. She can’t quell the other emotions, but she can send back reassurance.
It’s not alright, but it’s okay.
“Some Agent named Castle. Said he was from the Department of the Exterior. They won’t know how to find you. I’m going to obfuscate as much as I can if they come sniffing again. Don’t waste your worry on that.” The joint is set down to rest on the window sill in a groove between the stones. “Eve…” The younger Mas girl opens her arms, her smile sad because she feels it inside of her, that fear and that indecision. “Come here.”
"Ah, the fucking Fuzz. You know I've basically sided with the Man at this point and I worry of my street cred." It's a mild deflection from the earnest moment the two just shared, but the hug is not denied.
Eve lays her head on her cousin's shoulder and scoots in for that hug. Sighing softly and closing her eyes. "We used to not be able touch, things get better slowly. I do know it. But when you're living in the shit isn't it just impossible to see the cleanliness on the other side?" Even when they dragged their shit along with them to eventually muck up that space.
"I'll go soon, of that I promise. Don't do anything to get any trouble though, play it smooth cousin. There is much to do. Much to learn."
Odessa cradles the taller woman against her, wishing she could pour her love into her so that she would understand. Wishing she could help her realize she’s not alone. Her fears are real. Her fears are valid. But they don’t have to consume her. Odessa doesn’t have words for that.
“I don’t feel the hunger in you now,” the empath offers as a consolation. She thinks it has to be reassuring to know. It must be, mustn’t it? “Your control will only improve with time. Mine has. And you’re… so much stronger than I am.” Odessa smooths Eve’s hair with her hand, smiling against the side of her head. “I believe in you. Even when you’re scared and don’t think you can go on.”
Slowly, the blonde withdraws, but keeps her hands on her cousin’s shoulders. “We’re Mas women, and we’re a lot of fucked up things, but we aren’t quitters.” Wisdom imparted, the ball is in Eve’s court now. What she does with this freedom she has is up to her. Freedom means she has the choice to give it up in the name of having a better, more stable life after. “I love you, no matter what you chose.”
"To ache for what lies deep within you, what should never be taken. Blasphemy, an energy I have no right to." Eve doesn't carry on further, but her crimson eyes close and she continues to clutch her family close. "No, we aren't quitters."
Wisdom is taken and tucked behind her ear along with a strand of raven dark hair. "You've gotten quite good at reading people. Maybe your gift was what you were meant to have all along. Maybe it was just what you needed." And just what Eve needed right now.
But there was much to do. Too much.
"I'll send you another message soon. Science fairies gathering! We have to find the truth in my bones, what makes them dissolve into the red nothing. What makes me tick tick tick." Eve slides out of Odessa's grasp and dissolves into that moment. Spinning as a crimson cloud in the air, expanding herself outwards until she covers the ceiling, a mass of glittering crimson haze. She only shows off for a moment more before she's gathering into a ball and descending to a point right at Odessa's feet. Her cousin reacts to the display with wonder and an appreciation for the fact that it’s something meant just for her.
"Say you'll come!" Eve's hands jut out from the crimson cloud as does the rest of her and she's clasping onto her cousin's arms with a wide smile. "It'll be safe! You're the first Science Fairy I trust! Who better to poke to and prod and stick the thing on my tongue to say AHH?" The older woman cackles and dances backwards towards the large gap in the wall. Her cousin knows how Eve usually likes to leave places like this.
Jumping out the window.
"I'll be behaved, mmm? Do this for me!"
“Of course I will,” Odessa promises. “I’ll always be there for you whenever I can.”
Eve cackles and a smile draws itself along Odessa’s face as she watches her coalesce into that brilliant red haze and slip away through the gap in the wall. For all the world, she looks like an ill omen, but to her family in this moment…
The amorphous shape of Eve Mas in all her vermillion-wreathed glory looks like freedom.