Will of the Abyss |š| Alice Baskerville (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wishforaneye) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deernet2022-03-27 01:18 am
wishforaneye) wrote in deernet2022-03-27 01:18 am
Video
[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.
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.
no subject
[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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
[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.]
no subject
Sayo recognizes that smile on Break's face, though. A snakeāor a golden eagleāhiding in the grassābehind a fanāwaiting 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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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?
no subject
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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
...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.]