[OPEN Mini-Log] After the Storm

[witheredpeonies]

Who: Annabel Lee (witheredpeonies) & You
What: Clearing her Mind
When: After the Gala
Where: Oak and Iron Tavern
Warning(s): None yet, threads will carry warnings in subject lines

The Gala had been eventful, and now Annabel Lee is tempted to close herself up like a fan. A dangerous thought, given she genuinely does need allies, given the danger represented by everyday life in Pumpkin Hollow. So she figures out a way to be out in public without feeling vulnerable: she brings her personal chess board to the Oak and Iron, sets it up, and begins playing openings for herself, while offering a mild smile to anyone who walks into the room.

Care for a game?

Note: Annabel Lee is a very good chess player; she's defeated every potential suitor for several years in a ruthless manner. While it's not impossible to beat her, many characters will not.

Comments

[witheredpeonies]

"What surprised me was how many other people wanted to bring bandages and kindness. To make it okay. To fix the situation--for both of us." Even if it couldn't be fixed that night.

The rook vanishes under Annabel's hand. Under one of the bishops.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"People will do that to you. Kindness is part of who we are." River's losing momentum again, playing to eliminate threats instead of advance her victory. "You've got a fierce friend in Zelda."

[witheredpeonies]

"That's not my experience of the world." That comes out quiet, soft, uncertain. She doesn't move a piece right away, studying the boardstate for a long moment.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"...Yeah. It hasn't sounded like you've gotten much kindness." River closes her eyes, and goes for it.

She's ready to bleed.

"...Zelda made a claim in your name, when she tracked me down. But I wanna hear it from you."

[witheredpeonies]

"Which claim is that? She was exceedingly drunk at the time. I'm not sure she's used to drinking like that."

She almost, almost smiles.

[somebodychildofanyone]

A smile breaks out on River's face. "Yeah, she was wasted, and powerful as only certain kinds of drunk people can be."

"...She said you want to work things out."

[witheredpeonies]

"I want to work through this. To..." She throws her curls over her shoulder, chasing words. "...to examine the situation fairly, without yelling and jumping to conclusions and unfair bitchiness, and then to figure out what comes next."

[somebodychildofanyone]

River's eyes open again, ears bobbing faintly. Looking down at the board to see if Annabel has moved yet.

"I'm gonna keep losing at chess until I figure out what I want ahead of time," she offers, softly. "Love's not too different in that regard. I...made a big mistake, assuming that the off-the-cuff explanation of the idea of dating was the same as you understanding it and agreeing to it, and I am sorry for that. So. Instead of assuming, let's...ask. What do you want? Why date me in particular and not, I dunno...woo Ms. Leeds?"

She's still feeling the sting in her insecurities.

[witheredpeonies]

"Dahlia? I keep reading her as a threat. She's in a position of authority, she's dainty and pretty and also, she's clearly quite taken with the dark-haired man she danced with several times at the Gala. What I want is..."

Lenore.

The silence that hangs in the air in lieu of that answer is a hard one.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"...I'm not gonna flip the table at your honest answer here, Annabel. Am I just the only game in town to you? A pretty face, some pointed ears? I've been that for people before. I'm not happy about it, but I have been."

[witheredpeonies]

"Your ears have nothing to do with it, for me. I'm aware what they mean to you, but that's not relevant here."

Annabel takes a deep breath.

"There was a woman I knew, once. No, more than once, as each time we met, she had changed a little. At one point, she disguised herself as a man, to court me. And I think there's a chance she was the one who killed me."

But she doesn't know the full story. She can't know the full story, yet.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"...Sounds like she put up a hell of a fight to be there with you."

She'll let the implied murder go, for now. Gods help a hypothetical Lenore player though.

[witheredpeonies]

"Faked her own death, took on the name of her dead brother, challenged the schoolmasters of Nevermore Academy at every turn..."

A pause.

"She isn't here."

[somebodychildofanyone]

River nods. Sets her coffee down. She reaches a hand out, holding it for Annabel to take, if she wants it. "...I'm sorry. Even imagining a relationship here's gotta be hard if you intend to go back to feelings that deep and complicated."

[witheredpeonies]

Annabel doesn't seize River's hand, but her own rests lightly on top.

"All feelings are complicated."

[somebodychildofanyone]

"...Maybe so." The lightest brush of River's thumb, there against Annabel's hand. "Annabel...you amaze and delight me. Every talk has been a new challenge, every little joke and verbal parry has my heart fluttering. But I'm not an abstraction. I can't be. I'm gonna drink, and fight, and bleed, and say stupid shit. I'm almost as new at this as you."

[witheredpeonies]

"I don't want you to be an abstraction. I think I want you to be my friend, first. Not as a dismissal of the possibility of more, but. Because I think I really need a friend more, right now." Somehow, putting that into words feels childish. Juvenile. Petty? No, not that, not quite.

[somebodychildofanyone]

A nod, small, quiet.

Softly: "You said some things back there, Annabel."

River's ready to be a friend. But she was still hurt more deeply than she ever expected.

[witheredpeonies]

"I know. I did. Things based in my world's view of women and what we're supposed to be." She looks up, makes eye contact. "What I've always been supposed to be, too."

[somebodychildofanyone]

"It hurt. It was a damn relief when the vampires attacked, that was a problem I could at least solve, but...woke up this morning and it still hurt." River's eyes close again, and she focuses on her breathing. "...I had a better reputation as a merc than I ever will as a necromancer. That you'd consider me at all was like a dream. And then..."

And then what happened, happened.

[witheredpeonies]

"And then I tore you apart." A sigh.

"I am sorry for that. I...Zelda and Eddie pointed out how awful that was, to me, that night."

[somebodychildofanyone]

A shaky breath out. River nods, but...

"I can't say I didn't get my own licks in. I was mad, and cast insults on your character that I really shouldn't have, not as a friend or a swain."

[witheredpeonies]

"I might have deserved them, at that point. A little bit." She ducks her head.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Still." A tiny squeeze, just River's thumb against Annabel's hand. "If...if we want to try again later, we know to talk now. In the meantime, my door is always open to you, Hell or high water. Standing invitation."

[witheredpeonies]

"Both hell and high water feel like they might end up being literal here." Not that she wouldn't look for River under those circumstances. Either of them. All of them.