i close my eyes

[solarpurpura]

Who: Eden and you. (open)
What: Sad creeper girl is sad.
Where: In the city /or/ Eden's place of solace.
When: Night
Warnings: Je suis au désespoir.

There is an empty place in her arms where Sapphira should be. It is cold at night without her daughter, and as the awareness of that fundamental lack penetrates her consciousness, the nightmares

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[itaidakimasu]

Yako sees the forest for the first time in broad daylight, and even takes a few steps towards it, before memories lock her into place. The trees are different breeds, and the wildlife is probably different as well...but she can't bring herself to enter a place that could dredge up the whirlwind of emotions that was spawned within the last forest she was in.

The one where Neuro and Sicks began fighting for the final time, where she brought Sai back to his senses...and where Sai died in her arms.

She can berate herself all she likes, call herself names so creatively degrading that Neuro would be proud, but ultimately the best she can do is turn around and promise to come back at night. Darkness, she knows, has a way of transforming a place, draping it in shadows and moonlight until it is almost unrecognizable.

It's still a forest, and she's still ashamed of her cowardice, but she had never visited that forest at night, so perhaps she can keep her ghosts and inner demons carefully bottled up for just a bit longer. It's a cop-out--she'

[solarpurpura]

There are ghosts and demons hidden away in every corner of the world. Sins and black magic lurking in the veins of the very earth. This what Eden has always known, the same dark threads running throughout her own blood, turning it thick and tarry, a disgusting ooze, but ripe with power

[itaidakimasu]

Yako frowns when the other doesn't so much as stir, and cautiously begins to move forwards. The sound of her footfalls are softened by the thick detritus of vegetation coating the ground as she draws near, but still the woman doesn't turn. Yako brushes back an errant strand of blond and wonders if she simply hadn't been heard. She had communicated with both D and Ladon while in the same room before, but they had been standing close together.

Hesitantly, she reaches out, stopping short a few inches before actually touching the figure's shoulder. Her constant abuse at the hands of her demon boss had only increased her natural courtesy for the personal space of others, and she knew first hand that startling somebody who was already upset could end quite badly.

Excuse me...? she tries again, brown eyes full of concern.

[solarpurpura]

It is good that she does not touch. The young woman in question would not appreciate it, all her life her skin has bruised easily, hands turned purple from handshakes, arms turned blue from hugs. Her brothers know how best to gentle her, her daughter knows how best to sooth.

Even still, even though she has not been touched, Eden gathers herself away from that hand. She looks up through the nest of dark hair that has fallen across her face, her cheeks are wet and her eyes are dark, but there is something feral and wounded there. Do not touch me. Do not.

She stares at the other girl. She does not have her own portal with her, but the device that Yako carries picks up well enough for the both of them. The first thought to fully settle into her mind in clarity is,

Who are you.

[solarpaws]

It was heart-clenching to see a child in despair

[solarpurpura]

The goddess shines like a star in the night, truly she does, her white coat turned silver, the red markings across her face gleaming. Such bright things have never belonged on the Hill, and if her mother and Adina were here to see it, they would try to capture her. Helah would covet such a prize, she loved beasts, more than any else, and she would have been enraptured by the prize, would have spent hours cooing over it in its cage.

They never would have been able to keep her. She was too bright, too full of warmth and care and life for their Hill which had been raised to its dark height through sin and decay. But this is not the Hill, the rest of the Morrison family is a long ways from here, the heavy web of their power does not encompass this land; it is only a dream within a city filled with them.

Eden stares at the shining sun and continues to cry without daring to extend her hands outward.

[solarpaws]

Amaterasu ceases her steps halfway, her head lowering, but her eyes still laying restlessly on the woman. She whines at the site of tears, even though it goes silently unheard, and she steps closer. Child, she calls a second time, coming to a stop and sitting in front of the woman when she was in an arm's reach of distance. I am here.

The wolf then, extends her head to her.

What is it that troubles you?

[solarpurpura]

The small girl gives the wolf a mournful expression. To be called child and cared for to warmly is a strange thing to her. Her mother was not a warm creature, she loved possessively and she fed her babes on human flesh from as soon as they could drink the broth. She punished harshly, she decided absolutely. She was nothing like the sun and Eden wonders if this should truly be allowed.

She reaches out to touch the creature's soft fur hesitantly. She knows it is delicately soft, pleasant to the touch. But is it allowed.

Eden hangs her head for a moment before she falls forward onto her knees, arms wrapped around the goddess's neck, weeping inconsolably.

Sapphira is not here. Sapphira will be turning three in the autumn, a lithe girl with pale skin, dark hair, and Eden's delicate face, set with large black eyes.

[truailligh]

Old habits die hard and even in the absence of death - something that still leaves her unsettled because death always happens, except in this strange endless city - Shirley still goes out fairly late, trying to ignore intrusive voices in her own mind as she makes sense of this place, walking for hours and hours until she's left limping back to the house she stays in. And while she can't see if tairngreacht works, there are other magics she can explore and so she finds a secluded spot, opens up one of the old scars on a rarely bared leg and thinks: claochlaigh.

And to her great surprise it works and there's a rustle and a crack and where she would normally caw, there is silence.

A hooded crow is instead where the girl once was and it takes flight, circling lazily around and around until the forest is spotted and even if things are not the same as the woods of home, the feel is more or less like the woods there, especially in the dark and as the crow, it doesn't matter if she talks or not although she has no idea if her thoughts can

[solarpurpura]

Crows are not allowed on the Hill. Not since Badb Catha's littlest one spoke to the harpy on Father's behalf. Eden sees its shadow cast from overhead and turns her wet face up to stare at the creature. This is not the Hill, not truly it is only a dream and the crows come and go as they please. Badb's crows had never paid much mind to Mother's edicts anyway, why would they take to the words of a witch when they served a goddess? The crows still loved her father, even if he was no longer allowed to love them in kind, even if the littlest crow looked sour whenever she spoke to him.

A tradition in their family... to be watched by the birds. Her sons would have guardians of their own, when she was old enough to bear them.

Eden wonders if the bird is part of the dreamworld, or one of the dreamers.

[truailligh]

It's with a start that Shirley recognises Eden and if it were possible for a crow to look concerned, this crow would. As it is though, she leaves the branch to land on the ground (because the last time she shifted back whilst in a tree, she fell out and well, she doesn't heal well at all) and tentatively tries the thinking thing.

It's a pain in the arse to not be able to talk properly at night, it really is.

Are you alright Eden?

[solarpurpura]

She covers her mouth with her hands, and every time she blinks, more tears tumble off of her dark lashes. She had not expected the bird to be a visitor for her, or to be someone who knew her name. She wishes, right then, that it was Dallas come to tell her that her father misses her, and that Sapphira will be all right.

It isn't Dallas.

Miss Shirley? She knows she has been asked not to call her 'miss' but it slips out too easily for her to truly care at the moment.