028 ☣ public post

[fridgetothefire]

[When the view clicks on, Anya is obviously changed. She has the glowing blue eyes, and her skin looks almost grey. She isn't quite light-skinned enough for classic pallor, but the color is leached from her face. She sits still and straight, with a degree of composure that is, in fact, precisely normal for her. She missed breakfast today, and now it's quite clear why.]

I've allowed Arthas to make me into a zombie for a few days. It is entirely temporary, and I am in control of myself and my faculties. There is no need for anyone to be alarmed.

Comments

[fridgetothefire]

[A very thin, wiry smile.]

Thank you.

[The shark, moseying through the shallows, finally darts in toward her shin, and she strikes, a spear of ice forcing itself into existence between her hand and the water in the flash of an eye. She accounts for the refraction of the water and skewers it cleanly, a cloud of blood blooming around her ankles as the shark thrashes. She hoists it out of the water, and it slides farther down the icicle toward her hand. When it stops twitching, she sighs softly, viscerally satisfied. She extracts the ice and drops it carelessly into the water to melt, then holds the small shark in both hands, peering at the hole punched through muscle and sinew and cartilage, carefully rebuilding the connections.]

I still have to see how I feel when it's gone again. But the prognosis is good, I think.

[godsays]

[ He doesn't flinch, when she spears the shark. But he doesn't really like it, either. Interesting how deep his aversion to violence sometimes runs - just as deep as his need for it. ]

I like people better alive.

[fridgetothefire]

[Arthas called it a failsafe, that she would hunger before she exerted herself too far. She keeps pushing herself, using as much magic as she can. It hasn't driven her mad yet, another successful experiment. Killing replenishes the acrid power sliding through her, and like this, with animals, it doesn't bother her at all. She raised chickens from eggs, watched them hatch and named them, chased their bodies in circles after Papa cut their heads off when they were grown. She wonders what shark tastes like.

She reaches for the dark sizzling energy that animates her body now, cups an oily handful of it in her mind, squeezes it tight, like a piece of coal, like a seed, and plants it amid the shark's patched flesh. Its eyes ignite, glowing white-blue just like hers, twitches in her hands. She lets it slip back into the water, and it swims in tentative circles around her.]

I like being alive better, too. But I'm glad I got to try this.

[godsays]

[ And, at this, he is fascinated; he draws himself out of the water to watch, and settles back when the shark is swimming again. ]

What's it like?

[fridgetothefire]

Like - halfway between a dumb puppy and a puppet. Only the leash, the strings, you have to spin them out of your own nerves and veins.

It doesn't hurt, but it - tugs. Like something vital in you bare and extenuated a little.

[She sends it to circle him in turn, slow enough to examine, close enough to pet.]

[godsays]

But you're not a puppet, like that.

[ He toys with his fingers and the surface tension of the water, thinking about touching the shark. ]

[fridgetothefire]

I'm a different - kind, of undead thing. It's a lot harder, and more complicated, to reanimate something that can think and take initiative. Normally I'd be under his control ultimately in any case, but the point of the experiment - from his side, I mean - was to see if you could make a death knight with free will.

[godsays]

[He is silent for another moment, considering the possibility that he'd just been looking for puppets, that she is a puppet now.

No, he doesn't believe that. She's too much of herself.]

So that's why he was offering.

[fridgetothefire]

[She nods. She considered it too. She isn't sure whether he could still take control of her, if he wished, and she suspects he could, but she's sure he hasn't. He isn't as clever or convoluted as she is, and he wouldn't leave her believing she were independent if she weren't.]

Yes.

[godsays]

Thank you for telling me.

[Honesty deserves thanks, doesn't it?]

[fridgetothefire]

Thank you for listening.

[godsays]

That's not so impressive.

[fridgetothefire]

It was all I wanted for a long time.

Even here - any time I tried to talk to anyone about it, it always got all turned around into being about how hard it was to have powers taken away, because they were so important to everyone else. Or Spock's weird issues with being half-human that I understood because we were sharing a brain but he still wouldn't let me -

[She's getting angry again, and she cuts herself off.]

Anyway. I appreciate it.

[godsays]

You're welcome.

[Not much else he can think of to say. Her presence has soothed him, too, nonspecifically.

He spots something on the ocean floor, and dives. Swimming with hands and feet feels odd, still, but he manages it well enough, and he's not under for long before he surfaces again.

There's a pearl between his fingers.]

Do you want it?

[fridgetothefire]

[It's pretty and not metal and part of the ocean. She doesn't hesitate. Even if it doesn't last long, outside the CES, she'll have it until it's gone.]

Yes.

[godsays]

[He wades out of the water, and holds out his hand, dropping the pearl into hers. He could have thrown it, but it seems more meaningful this way.]

[fridgetothefire]

[She catches it, then - after a moment's thought, holds it against her throat, manifesting a thin layer of ice, choker-style, as a setting for it.]

Thank you.

[godsays]

Beautiful.

[fridgetothefire]

[She can't blush without blood, but she ducks her head a little as she smiles.]

Well, I've been practicing. I have to use it while I can, right?

[It's Zane. She assumes he means the magic, and is no less pleased and flustered for it. The power may not be hers naturally, but the skill is; Arthas said she was good for a beginner.]

[godsays]

I meant you.

[fridgetothefire]

[What, no.]

...Zane, I'm an actual corpse.

[godsays]

[He shrugs.]

I wasn't really talking about that.

[fridgetothefire]

Well...make up your mind?

[Now she's just confused.]

[godsays]

You're not just what you look like.

actual keywords

[fridgetothefire]

Yeah, but...

[There are other, less appearance-specific adjectives for that. Which sounds incredibly stupid even in her head.]

...thanks, I guess.