Wondering about the "Palace"

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra had been shown her room. It was large. Larger than anything she had ever seen. The bed could have fit all of them in it and still had room. But still to her, it would be as empty as when she first saw it, even with her in it. She explored the room, finding clothing of sweet elegance and softness. She had put on one of the lace dresses and

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[lexiromanov]

{Are you lost little sister?}

Alex had stood at the bottom of the stairway for a time, making certain that the voice he'd heard was real, before seeking Sestra out. He still wasn't entirely certain what he was seeing was real until Sestra face had lifted enough to give him a good look.

Padding out onto the stage was a disconcerting even without any kind of audience in the chairs below. His head cocked when he got close enough to read the words in the dust. "Is there something you need to tell me, Sesta-love." Alex crouched to get a better look at her face. Did she hear them... see them out of the corner of her eye?

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra was lost in her own dream. So much so she did not hear Alex padding up as he did. She raised her head, eyes soft and sad when she gazed upon him. A soft little smile pulled at the corner of her lips. Leaning on one hand, she reached up with the other to brush his cheek with the backs of her fingers.

"Nyet, moi brat, I am not lost. I was drawn here, by my heart." She wondered if he would understand. She shifted, looking down at the words. "Do you believe in ghosts, Sandr? The ones that linger upon the edge of darkness and call out to you."

[lexiromanov]

"I don't want to believe, not in that... but, da... I have to believe," Alex admits quietly. "This is an old place, little sister, filled to the rafters with memories. I suspect some of that can't help but spill over to anyone who might be willing to listen. It happens in places with a lot of history." Her fingers are kissed. "Shall I try to chase them away for a little while or are they telling you things you want to hear?"

[aeon_flux69]

"I'm willing to listen. This place has history for you? Will you tell me about them?" She ran her fingers over his lips then reached to pull him closer. "I heard a ghost," she whispered softly. "He gave me a red rose with a black ribbon on it."

She pulled back. "It was in New York but I can hear him here. What ghost talk to you hear? Dance with me?"

[lexiromanov]

"He gave you a real present?" Alex needed that clarified. "Be careful, little sister. Most gifts have strings as well as ribbons on them. I'd like to see your ghost sometime."

Sestra's hair is petted. "I hear lots of things... it's quite likely my imagination. Besides me, only Riene ever admitted to hearing them... and she was likely just trying to ease my doubts about my sanity."

Climbing to his feet, Alex pulls Sestra up with him. "There's a record player. Stay here a moment." The area is shadowed by the heavy curtains but there's light enough for Alex to check the label on the record before he sets the needle in place. Tchaikovsky. That's safe enough.

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra nodded then frowned at his warning a bit but nodded to that as well. "I know. I'm being careful. But..." She looked down because what she felt, it made her feel so... she couldn't explain it. "Okay," she answered him quietly to wanting to see her ghost sometime. She knew he was wanting to protect her. Probably do right by her this time she guessed.

She leaned into the petting in looking back up to him, "It's not, Sandr," she whispered, "I hear lots of things too. Here. They whisper from the shadows. They flutter just out of sight. It's not your imagination. Either that both our sanity is going."

She stood up with him, smoothing her dress out as he went to put the record on. She smiled softly, "What, no Madame Butterfly?" It was a tease as she held out her hand to him for him to take. "I've been learning to dance. My Ghost sings to me. The ghosts here want to sing."

[lexiromanov]

"No opera, baby girl. I don't care where we are. Opera makes me crazy. It makes my skin itch... like it's too tight." Easing up against Sestra, Alex wraps one arm around her and tickles his fingers down her inner wrist before catching a hand. "Don't respond to them, lover-mine. They can't touch us if we refuse to acknowledge them." Sestra just speaking of the ragged shadows had given them to much texture than Alex was comfortable with.

A Tchaikovsky piece is slowly building, slowly starting to drown out the whispers around them. Alex's shoulders drop a bit, un-tensing just a bit. Sestra is held close bringing back a sensory memory of Beltane and making Alexei smile. "You've got good instincts built into you, Sestra-love. Given time you'll hone them and likely know better than me who can be trusted and who can't... but let me worry about you for a little longer, let me make for the mistakes I've already made."

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra placed her hands where they should go upon Alex, remembering what little her Opera Ghost had taught her. "Oh, Is that a bad thing? Or is it just an...thing you don't want to experience right now?"

Sestra started moving, she hard the whispers starting to die but not before the told her things. Violet eyes smiled in turn up to him, "I don't have good instincts. If I did..." She sighed in looking down. She pressed in more into Alex, "Things went bad. I'm sorry. But I guess he loved you more and I pushed to much." She laid her head upon his shoulder.

"Will you worry for me either way. I wish you would come to see me more often. I think I should move out. Get a place of my own. Will you help me? Sandr..." She sighed, "Who is Maria? Nicki?"

[lexiromanov]

"It's a thing that's best kept to time when I can lash out, and now is not such a time." Opera and tequila and a few other triggers were best used in a secure environment with a playmate he didn't care about bruising

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra had loaded Alex down with question, letting him choose which ones he wanted to avoid, which ones he felt okay answering. She kept her head upon his shoulder, fingers rubbing gently at the back of his neck. "Some things are best not shared," she whispered, "Not at certain moments, with certain people

[lexiromanov]

"A great many children have cried here at the estate, Sestra moya," Alex admits the next part reluctantly. "Myself included." His head shakes. "There's been over 200 years worth of living and dying here. Children of royalty. Children of servants. Children of science

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra looked up into Alex's eyes, as if she could see the images of that history playing in his eyes. His face also showed the uncomfortable knowledge as well and the way his nose wrinkled as he said it, the shadows it created made it even more clear

[lexiromanov]

"I speak to my daughter... daughters... one more than the others. None of them often though." Alex's eyes close briefly at Sestra's questions. "They aren't like you and Aeon, beloved. Olga's skill level..." He shook his head. "It was over twenty years ago. She made up twelve babies... not twelve fully developed copies. The genetics weren't perfect. There were flaws, physical and mental flaws... and the way they were raised..."

Alex isn't quite sure he wants to go in this direction, considering 'what' Sestra is. "I love them, in different ways. I miss them sometimes... even the ones that are dead... sometimes." Even the one he killed himself, sometimes. "But none of them need my protection. The three that are left are the strongest, the steadiest... the best adjusted." That's not exactly true. Kate was likely the best of the Catherine's by most people's definitions. "The three that are left are the most like me... so they don't really need me."

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra reached up, caressing Sandr's cheek when his eyes closed. She listened intently and wondered if Olga new of her. The perfection Trevor had accomplished in her. Would she be at risk to this woman in wanting to study her. And would Trevor give Olga this information? Would... would she now too be able to do the same thing?

"Children always need their father, Sandr. Sometimes, even when they don't want to admit it," she smoothed her hand over his neck and shoulder. "The others miss you too... sometimes," She whispers softly as she looks over his shoulder. She pressed in closer to him, "I know I would. I would miss you, Sandr." She looked back to him. "You are the only family I have known since... the only one I have. I know it's not by blood or... those other ways. But I don't want to be alone here. You won't let me be alone would you?"

[lexiromanov]

Alex's frown at her intuitions is hidden in Sestra's hair.

"Blood isn't the only thing, angel. The only sister I've got by blood is Carolina... and I know her the least of all. It's time, exposure... shared perspectives." Alex kisses her. "I'll try, Sestra-love. I'll try to be what you need, to take care of you... but my track record..." His head shakes. "I'm just glad you're clever and strong in your own fashion. Perhaps we can make up for one another's flaws. Yes?"

[aeon_flux69]

Sestra looked up to Alex because everything else she read, blood seemed to mean everything. But for Alex, it seemed different. She returned his kiss, holding him close. She liked it when he called her those names. It made her feel wanted and loved, cared for at least by someone.

"But we have to stick together, promise we will?" She gave him a little squeeze, "That no matter what we will look out for each other? And I don't care about your past track record, it's what you do for me is that all that counts."