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[There was some adjusting before the young and very pale girl sat back, looking past as if something was holding whatever was recording-]

Just keep it steady, Dinah!

[-letting out a breath then, sitting on a spread blanket and a basket just in view beside her covered with a cloth.

That was definitely a few gravestones in the background. All the same, Alice kept her tone surprisingly bright, even calm.]

Hello, I'm Alice. I know some of you are still popping in and out of the catacombs- or perhaps you're waiting for someone else to come up? Well, I live nearby and figured some of you might like some food after what bits of horror can be going on down there.

Food can be very comforting after all, right?

[A tap of a finger against the basket's side.]

I've a few hand pies of various flavors, along with more savory empanadas that someone kindly taught me about, and how to make. Hopefully I am very easy to spot if you are already out here! If not, I can try to come to you.

[She might look familiar to those who have met her darker haired twin also named Alice.]

Ah- I've also some tea on hand, if any desire a cup.

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I've just resurfaced from that hellhole for the third time in three weeks. Some snacks and tea would be greatly appreciated. [And she sounds it. Sayo's voice is cracked and exhausted. While the various moral dilemmas and traps were easy to deal with at this point—and she's gotten plenty of practice in tackling idiot heroes out of burning houses—having to look Battler and George (always the two of them, but there were a few additions of faces that were only familiar to Sayo after months in Trench this time, which put her in a particularly dour mood) in the eye as they told her they loved her and confessing her mountain of sins to the darkness has taken its emotional toll.]

Where can I find you?

Edited 2022-03-27 15:46 (UTC)

Then I'd be more than happy to supply them.

I'm in the graveyard where the catacombs let out- here, I can make it easier. Let me know if you spot it, otherwise I can try and give better directions.

[Whatever was recording her stayed in place as Alice stood herself up on the blanket, skirts smoothed down. Thinking back, hands were held together out of view and-

There was a flare of light sent upwards, bursting in to a rainbow of colors just above where she was. Fireworks, she thought of. Bit of gold here and there given just how much golden lights clung to her being, but the other colors a burst of something else. Something new to add almost.

A colorful display that should have been easy to spot-]

If you don't see the lights, I can try something else.

My... [Despite the fatigue evident in her tone, genuine wonder leaks into Sayo's voice as she watches the lightshow. No matter how many miracles and how much magic Trench shows her, it will never, ever get old to the girl who dreamed of being a witch on lonely nights. A smile tugs at her face when she sees the golden lights, too. It feels like coming home; something she desperately needed after these past few weeks and this latest foray into the catacombs.] Don't worry, I can see it clearly. It's beautiful.

I'm on my way.

[Sayo arrives dressed in a black turtleneck, a red leather jacket (with a cobra design emblazoned on the black, thanks, Lawrence-sensei), and faded black jeans, offering Alice a weak smile as she sits down. Between the outfit and the lack of Shannon's usual plethora of padding and makeup, she looks like an entirely different person than she was just a few weeks ago—and it crosses Sayo's mind that Alice has never actually seen Shannon before. It's an oddly lightening feeling, realizing that she's finally meeting someone without the weight of expectations of who Sayo ought to be.] ...thank you. On both my behalf and everyone else that's crawling out of the catacombs. Having something like this my first two times would've eased the blow at least a little bit.

[The first thing that came to mind, having gotten to experience fireworks for the first time in this place- why not use that and a mix of something familiar? To be a sign of something solid and warm, that could be sorely needed after something so awful? It seemed like a fitting thing.]

Good! I'll remain here.

[A few of the bat cats had gone to sleep, and white skirts were pooled around Alice again as he had a pot of tea floating nearby, steam wafting front the spout. It would be nice for a cup of tea soon enough.]

I wish I had thought of it sooner, but it took me a little to figure out what I could do that might be needed. [It took a bit, distracted as Alice could still get at times. Still, she was lifting the basket up to take the bit f fabric away at was helping keep the mix of hand pies and empanadas warm-] The tea might take a moment, but do you need a sweeter pie or something savory?

[Sayo sits down demurely, much of the tension leaving her shoulders. On most days, the grim atmosphere of a graveyard in Trench would dampen the liveliness of a tea party, but after being surrounded by the bones of the catacombs for hours on end it didn't seem that bad in comparison. She gently strokes one of the sleeping batcats while Alice gets the tea ready, careful not to wake it. At least the chimerical felines were always adorable.]

Something sugary, I think. Trudging through miles of underground passages is a good excuse as any to indulge my sweet tooth. [She giggles, as opposed to her usual throaty cackle. Not all of Shannon's gentle mannerisms were lies.]

[It certainly didn't hurt that Alice had a little horde of them following her, given she fed and took care of them; always partial to cats simply because one had been her only trusted companion outside of her sister and Oz.

Dinah was somewhere nearby, even if for the moment small enough to be out of sight.]

I've a few that are chocolate cream- would you rather fruit? [She lifted both up, letting them float from the basket, and at least they could be told apart- the mixed fruit pie had little 'this is a fruit pie' bleed from where she'd cut one side of the crust so it wouldn't explode.] Take either, or even both, if you'd like.

There is enough.

[Before a sort of protest, to know it truly would be okay to take more than one- and just one was okay, too.]

Since I've finally left the underworld, it seems a waste not to eat the fruit now that it's safe for mortal tongues, hm? [Now that quip gets a cackle out of Sayo. Tea parties were both the domain of both witches and furniture, after all.

She takes the fruit pie and dives in, relief at finally tasting something other than dry dust and human bone clear on her face. While she joked about the fruit pie, she also takes up Alice's offer to try out the chocolate one—not too long ago she would've pretended to fret over which one to eat and insisted on only having one to keep to Shannon's character, so it's a relief to indulge herself.]

What kind of tea are you preparing? It smells delectable.

[There was a soft laugh-] Having actual food is a warm welcome given tea parties created of nothingness and everything. This is the first time I've made either on my own.

[The hand pies and empanadas- and after a few attempts and leaving the ones that wouldn't travel well in the kitchen, she'd succeeded and it was a nice feeling. To create something edible all on her own.

Not too bad, and she had a pair of good teachers- even if one was half a hobby.

She took the tea pot in hand, a tea up floating up to pour it in to.]

Apple cinnamon! I thought, perhaps, the warming flavor might be good if any were chilled to the bone of being undergrounds. I find the taste comforting. [She liked the season of Fall, where the flavor sounded like it was more common.

The tea cup was offered with a soft smile.]

If it isn't to your liking I have a normal black tea, too.

[Meanwhile, elsewhere in the trees around the graveyard, one Xerxes Break has been out hunting beasts again. Given that he's been at it all month, wanting to ensure the safety of both his own household and the stragglers from the catacombs who are stumbling either to the Sanguine Station or into his own backyard, the area is fairly quiet today. That's just as well. His own recent jaunt through those underground tunnels has left him feeling shaken and it's manifesting in overprotectiveness, as it often does, and so he's especially aware today that Alice has decided to come out and be a helper in her own way.

Alice is several times more dangerous than Break is and would have no trouble blowing any errant beasts to smithereens. Break is aware of this. Does it stop his fussing? No. Maybe it's that he doesn't want Alice to feel compelled to blow anything up. She's done enough.

To that end it's a relief when he picks up on her happiness through their bond, and assumes a person has come along to take her up on her offer of tea and snacks. Alice comes and goes as she pleases in Trench, but living in such solitude all her life seems to have left her a little shy in a way, and Break knows she's had some trouble reaching out to anyone he and the others haven't brought home. It will be a comfort, he thinks, to see this new progress in action for himself. So, lacking anything that is in want of being hit with a sword, Break turns himself toward the graveyard and walks out of the trees and stops dead in his tracks when he realizes the person Alice is merrily chatting away at is Sayo.

Break is on his guard instantly, his omen beside him with his ears up and pointed, and for a good long moment he simply stares. His expression is thoughtful.

...and then he decides to join in, finishing his walk to the blanket and folding his legs gracefully beneath him. Baltus elects to patrol instead, and disappears into the trees to roam around. Perhaps find Dinah.]

Miss Alice. Miss Sayo. [Businesslike, he rummages around in a pocket and pulls out a small skull that was probably a bird at some point, albeit with entirely too many eyes and an alarming ridge of pointy teeth along the beak. This, he presents solemnly to Alice.] I've found you a weird skull.

[You can't have a proper whimsical graveyard tea party without the Mad Hatter, and some skulls.]

Black tea is my favorite, but it wouldn't hurt to-

[The end of Sayo's sentence careens off a cliff, along with the rest of Sayo's balance and ease when she sees Break emerge from the trees. She remembers the nostalgic tea she shared with him in the intersection between her paradise and his, the games they played with each other over the course of their acquaintance that danced across the fine line of worrying and amusing in their stakes.

And how much he loved Ange and her new family. How he was entangled with her uncle. How he undoubtedly knew of Sayo's deeds by now.

The sunny atmosphere of the tea party vanishes like fog blown away by the north wind, and Sayo tenses, looking Break in the eyes. Please, she begs with her expression, please let me have this.

She doesn't know whether she should be relieved or more nervous when Break says nothing and instead sits down, presenting the skull to Alice... although looking at the malformed bird cranium is oddly calming. A pleasant absurdity that was likely the prelude to a deeply uncomfortable conversation.]

...now that's a prodigious number of eye sockets. Quite impressive.

[If she'd noticed the sudden stop, or change, Alice didn't make a comment on it, even as her gaze lingered on the other for a moment- Sayo's change in demeaner was curious, of course, and was noted despite that, humming softly as she then turned with a brightening of that smile once her gaze landed on Xerxes Break.

A laugh, hands lifting to accept the skull with a coo of sorts as if she'd just been handed a particularly adorable creature. Careful as he turned it on fingertips]

Oh, this will be one to join my personal collection! [Rather than the ones she collected to use in trades for items. Most of the shop owners had very much gotten used to the fact she carried skulls and things on her person to use as currency.

The bird's skull was delicately placed next to her, even hanging a little in the air with a slight bob; all the better to not get misplaced for the moment.] Thank you very much.

I suppose this shall be a little more of a picnic now?

[Spoken as she looked between Sayo and Break, letting the cups lift from where she'd had them tucked behind the basket.]

I suppose it is, isn't it? It seems there's nothing prowling about but the omens at present, so I have a little time to indulge.

[It is a curious reaction, inasmuch as that might be the most open and honest expression Break has ever seen on Sayo's face, and that includes their conversation back in January. She'd slipped a couple of times back then, but had subsequently tried to hide her own displeasure at her uncharacteristic flubs, and that's what started their little game in the first place. He does know what she's done -- and so does Alice. Break filled her in on the matter after she picked up on the intensity of his distress over it through their blood bond. What he doesn't know is where Sayo has run off to, what she's been doing in the time since or who she might have allied herself to. He also doesn't know how much he should care, so having her turn up more or less on his lawn instead of making him decide whether or not to try and track her down is honestly very convenient.

He smiles pleasantly, in a way that is not actually very pleasant.]

Then, Miss Sayo -- this is Miss Alice, the young lady we spoke about briefly back at the Snake Den. [The one he and the others freed from her prison in the Abyss. The one Sayo felt the need to express gratitude to him for, on Alice's behalf.] Given the sorts of assumptions people make over our coloring in this place, these days, Miss Alice is my precious niece.

["She is my niece" sure is another way to say "I bring her skulls and she coos at me about it". He does not introduce Sayo to Alice properly in turn. That he's uncovered her real name and is using that instead of "Shannon" is probably enough of an indicator as to why, and Alice will certainly be able to feel that he's gone very focused over her presence, like a cat who hasn't decided yet whether it wants to bother hunting an intriguing bird.]

I suppose it is, yes! You'll have to show me the ropes; I've really only had two-person tea parties. [Alice has a skull collection. She is officially Sayo's favorite weird little girl in all of Trench. (Even though the hole torn through her heart when she first found Maria's corpse aches at the small ways Alice reminds Sayo of her, of what Break told her and how she went through so much pain.)

Sayo recognizes that smile on Break's face, though. A snake—or a golden eagle—hiding in the grass—behind a fan—waiting to strike. While she's glad she hasn't been forced at swordpoint to leave the tea party or worse, Break's expression leaves her ill at ease.

It's been a while since she's felt like prey.]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Alice. [Sayo laughs, although there's an obvious nervous tint to it.] As you can probably tell, I'm... acquainted with your uncle.

Most of mine were with Cheshire and the Dolls- it's nice to have other company now, of course. [She meant it, even as Alice realized who this was. The person Break had told her of, and- well. Her own relationship with that sort were strange.

Yet there was something about how Sayo was before Break turned up, one that had her sorting through thoughts and memories as her smile never changed from a warm expression that reached her eyes. There was something more, wasn't there? More than what Break had been told, for all the memories she'd kept close and let go of, something was there-]

It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Sayo. [It truly was, and if anything Alice's expression softened.] I can, yes- but I can also assure you this tea party isn't going to be interrupted.

[Her head tipped, that smile well in place as she looked towards Break.] It wouldn't be proper.

[Break was watching, and she knew exactly the type of look it was. She knew far better than some-]

How much did he tell you of me?

[Attention back on Sayo then, allowing a few pies and empanadas to rest on plates that sorted themselves between three people, along with the cups of tea.]

[It wouldn't be proper, she says, sending Break a clear and easy-to-read message about her wishes here, and he bows his head once in acknowledgement. He doesn't quite defer to Alice in the way he did his Rainsworths back home, because the truth is that the relationship they've built here in Trench is still too new for that. Break dutifully obeyed his Rainsworths because he loved them. A great deal of his subservience to Alice is because he's long had very good reason to be afraid of her. Even so, Break is indulgent of Alice, more and more by the day as she proves herself so much more stable and loving in Trench. If she wants him to behave himself now, he'll behave, content to quietly play the part of the well-mannered servant as he plucks a plate out of the air and waits patiently for Alice to float him the sugar bowl.

Plus, for all that Alice no longer has the ability to outright read souls as she once did his, she's still perceptive in a way that only happens when your own soul is directly attached to a realm where the wounded and broken are pulled in to become warped into "dolls". Break has no problem at all letting her take the lead.]

...enough. [Sayo's smile turns bitter as she says that. The amount of suffering the girl before her must've gone through- It was selfish to compare her scars with Alice's.

But she still can't help but see herself in her. Two lonely girls, trapped in a golden birdcage.]

The way he talked about you, I was under the impression that you hadn't washed up in Trench. [She laughs, rubbing the back of her neck. Sayo had let the atmosphere get the better of her that night.] I was pretentious enough to thank him on your behalf, which is rather silly considering I'm talking to you right now. Embarrassing, isn't it?

[Xerxes Break got an entire sugar bowl to himself- quite clear by the fact there was a second that stayed right within his reach with a clear presence, and the other moved between Sayo and herself. Why not let him choose to either spoon or dump his sugar in to his tea?

Alice was indulgent of Xerxes as well, even if her reasonings were different.]

Perhaps- but it means it's something that rang strongly with you, too. Am I right? [And that was enough to quell her own anger, when she had the time to sit, to think with a head so very clear. She'd been able to forgive Jack, and had only been happy the one lie of a promise finally came to be- even if she was still processing some things, it meant something.

What that could be- well, that was yet to be told.] A want of something so badly, I don't blame anyone for being afraid of me still in a place like this. Even if I'm finally of my own mind.

I know very well how dangerous I can still be- still am. [A glance towards Break, and her smile softened. Of course she knew, that was something of a subject they'd gone over before the thought of the blood bond formed.]

I still finally get to be me.

[Indeed, Break keeps the sugar bowl's spoon between two fingers to hold it still as he just dumps a chunk of it right into the cup. Manners are a thing Break possesses in spades and uses only when he damn well feels like it.]

In this place, outside of such inconveniences as corruption...it is a matter of choice.

[He pipes up smoothly, only because Alice has acknowledged him again. They have that blood bond not only because Alice is dangerous in that sense, but because Break himself is too, and has already learned the hard way that even minor issues in this place can make him very reckless indeed. Given that he is a man who once decided making a demonic contract and committing a whole lot of murder in an attempt to rewrite time was a fantastic way to solve all his problems, he does not want to know what he might do if Trench really gets its claws into him. They both hold one another accountable through that blood bond -- and it's become a matter of genuine comfort to him, an undeniable proof that Break is not the only one of them who has chosen to turn his back on what he is capable of as best he can. A reassurance that if he is the one who slips, someone who knows him inside and out and cares about his wishes is waiting to snatch him back from that precipice.

The blood bond has become a way to protect that choice.]

Edited 2022-04-01 21:34 (UTC)

I'm afraid my perdition was one far more of my own creation. [Sayo shifts, turning her face away from Break. She can hear the sharp point in his words, even if it wasn't intended to jab her between the ribs. Consigning herself to playing the part of the humble maid and prolong Ange and Jessica's pain was no one's choice but hers, no matter what justifications she tried to armor herself in.]

...I've been trying to keep myself away from those I've hurt because of that. It was my choice to damn us all, no matter how you look at it. They deserve to heal without looking at the person who caused those scars.

[She takes a deep breath, staring up at the dark and dreary Pthumerian sky.]

And I can try to do the same as you. Try and find out what being "me" means, other than being miserable.

[A fire to burn out rotten foundations can also purify the forest around it.

Despite plummeting to what should've been her lowest point, Sayo has found a way to climb up without the weight of Shannon holding her down.]

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this seems like a good place for break to show up

Sounds good to me!

J'arrive

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