Mia Ausa; Lunar: SSSC; Um...bar place?

[mm_aura]

There is a reason why Vane's Guildmaster is nicknamed the Ice Queen.

It is not easy to forgive...

There isn't anything in particular that's wrong with how she rules. On the contrary, a lot of good has been done. The only thing is, a lot of it has been done alone. No help from others, no potential Premiers, no hint of outside help. And that is

Comments

[onlyneed1shot]

Camille notices the frozen shield. Cleaning her gun at a nearby table, she pauses for a moment and just watches.

Milliways.

Magic.

Bruja

[onlyneed1shot]

"Couldn't get rid of all of them?"

[gorgonfondness]

A few more dark chuckles.

"Surely I'm not that bad yet?" she says, oddly clear.

But she knows she is. She really is.

"Too long. It's been too long. Or rather, it never was. Every time I thought things changed, they didn't. And they took it all. Mind and heart and loyalty and body, so what does it matter anymore?"

[onlyneed1shot]

Oddly enough, Camille's expression just turns rueful.

"That...sounds about right."

[gorgonfondness]

"Then why? Why press on?"

A hand goes into her messy hair.

"Do you find what you're looking for?"

[onlyneed1shot]

"Because I'm stubborn."

Then she stops at Mia's next question.

"Half of it. Too early to tell for the other."

[gorgonfondness]

"I'm not very fond of stubborn anymore."

Beat.

"And I'll never eat gelatin again."

[onlyneed1shot]

Those two sentences sound like they might make sense, but only in context.

"Oh. Why not?"

[gorgonfondness]

"A man and a woman, sort of."

Beat.

"The worst and yet not the worst of offenses. The final straw."

Tears sting at the corners of her eyes.

"The proof I needed. The last of me."

[onlyneed1shot]

"You've lost me."

[gorgonfondness]

"The last one I cared about. It's always the ones you care about, isn't it? The father that wasn't, or at least wasn't fatherly, the mother hidden, yet you give until they take. And that isn't all, so then there are others. Friends switching this side and that, enough to make you spin. And then there was him, and now I can't bear him, what he did with me and what I have become after it."

Another dark laugh.

"And the worst of it is, I almost want him to hurt me again. At least then I'm not hurting myself."

[onlyneed1shot]

(Think how much you'd miss me)

(Damn it, Dominic!)

"...I have to say, that him hurting you and you putting up with it without some....fairly useful gain, isn't any better than whatever you do to yourself."

[gorgonfondness]

"Is it putting up with it if it makes you feel sick?"

It does. Just thinking about it can make her physically ill.

"Moot, though. Haven't seen him in two years. But his mark is still on me. I guess...I guess I would put up with it because he is the only person who has hurt me that way."

So if Mia is going to be hurt, she might as well be hurt by an expert with experience. Even like this, one could almost see her upbringing, how she is used to the best, or in this case worst, in life.

[onlyneed1shot]

Yes. That's putting up with it

She doesn't say that, though.

(He left his mark)

"The man who marked me, I shot."

[gorgonfondness]

Putting up with it is part of this sickness. Not that it's mattered since, as she said, she hasn't seen him for two years.

"I see him again, he will burn."

[onlyneed1shot]

That gets a response; a quickening of her blood, an awkward swallow.

"Not in the bar."