[Introduction] We will meet before God...

[chromaggia_diva]

Comments

[notuptomygenes]

Shilo is just walking past when she's startled by the door to the ballroom opening, she hasn't seen it used much and didn't expect anyone to be in there. When she sees who it is, she just stops and stares, her eyes widen in horror and her hand covers her mouth in shock at the sight of all the blood. "Mag," she whispers, taking a small step forward.

She'd looked much the same when she'd first found herself at the hotel, and she's known other people who'd been dead, but it's still a shock.

[chromaggia_diva]

Mag pauses on the threshold of the ballroom and one hand goes to her heart. Unless something happened to Shilo, this place might be something different than the afterlife she had hoped and prayed lay on the other side of the veil of iron that hemmed in her life.

"Shilo?" she asks. "What is this place?"

[notuptomygenes]

"It's...really weird," she says, taking another couple steps toward Mag. "And no one really knows anything else about it. And...oh my god are you okay? I saw you fall, and you're covered in blood, and..."

[chromaggia_diva]

"Yes, you didn't need to see that, but I suppose it's true, that freedom isn't free and a high price has to be paid to gain it back," she says, sadly. Then a soft smile shows through the sorrow. "But it seems fate chose to give me a second chance at life, and give us -- you and I -- a second chance as well. The pain is gone and I'm healed, somehow."

[notuptomygenes]

"So--you're okay? You're not hurt?" The blood is still more than worrying but if it's only from before...Shilo wants to run to her and hug her but if she's still injured she doesn't want to hurt her.

[chromaggia_diva]

She shakes her head, smiling. "All my injuries have been healed, it seems," she says. "I wondered, as soon as I found that out, if this might be heaven, but it seems we're in another world entirely. Your mother would have called it a heaven of it's own: she used to say you find your own piece of heaven any place where you find happiness and relief from life's burdens."

[notuptomygenes]

"Yeah, it's not..." She pauses, takes a shakey breath. "Nobody really knows where it is. But nobody's heard of Geneco here so that's a good thing, right?" She hesitates, then goes the rest of the way to Mag to hug her tight. "...Hi. I'm glad you're here."

[chromaggia_diva]

"It means we are both free to chase our dreams and fulfill them on our terms, not the terms of anyone else, no matter what they might promise," she says. Forgetting the blood that still mats the feathers of her costume, she opens her arms and embraces Shilo gently but warmly. Then she holds the girl out at arm's length, looking down at herself. "I'm a fright," she notes. "I should clean up and find something else to wear. Do you know of anyone who could loan me something...?"

[notuptomygenes]

"There's probably something in a closet somewhere," Shilo says after a moment. "That's where I've been finding things, the closets...we can go look." She makes a small gesture in the general direction of the rest of the mansion. "And there's rooms, where you can clean up."

[chromaggia_diva]

"In that case, perhaps we should look for an open room," she says, looking up the hallway. "Is this place something like a hotel?"

[notuptomygenes]

"...Kind of? Not really. It's just a house...and people just end up here. It seems like there's plenty of rooms, so people can just pick one ...I can show you where my room is if you want, there's probably a free room around there."

[chromaggia_diva]

"I'd love that," she says, delighted, feeling a thrill pass through her. "We'd be as close as we should have been in our world. I could fulfill the promise I made to your mother. Oh, Shilo, it's an answer to a prayer I'd hardly dared to breathe." She's almost in tears of delight.

[notuptomygenes]

Shilo reaches for Mag's hand gives her a little smile. "Come on," she says, "it's up here." She points toward the stairs.

[chromaggia_diva]

She lets herself be lead, looking around, taking in the place: It's a sight for eyes as sore as hers, eyes that have been longing to look on a beautiful place that she hasn't paid for with her freedom.

[notuptomygenes]

Shilo is mostly quiet as she leads the way upstairs, glancing over at Mag every few moments because she can hardly believe this is happening. "Right over here," she says, pointing the way as they come off the stairs.

She'll have to introduce Mag and 'Rob' at some point, won't she. She's trying not to think about that bit yet.

[chromaggia_diva]

"Thank you, Shilo," she says, rather glad to be able to find some space to call her own. She runs a hand along the chair-rail along the wall, reading the space as she used to do when she was still sightless, an old habit that's died hard. "So, there should be an open room anywhere here?" she asks.