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

[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.

[godsays]

I meant the pearl too.

Should we go back?

[fridgetothefire]

Back to what?

You were enjoying yourself, weren't you?

[She gestures at the water, and the flustered tension leaches away from her somewhat.]

[godsays]

[He was, actually.]

Can you swim like that?

[fridgetothefire]

Not like that. I swam in lakes, a few time times, but I can't hold my breath for very long -

I. Don't actually need to breathe right now.

[She breaks into a grin and dashes back onto the sand just long enough to pull off her long-sleeved shirt and shimmy out of her pants, leaving her in a plain bra and underwear. Her arms and back are wreathed in old, shiny-pink whorls of uneven burn scars, and her back is diagonally bisected by newer, thick scars where Dylan's monstrous claws gouged her. The remaining skin in between her old wounds pops, vividly tattooed, all of it stylized with heavy black outlines and geometric chunks of color, like snippets of a stained glass window with a variety of motifs: a looping red infinity, a black chess knight, a dark blue bat and and a small yellow one, a jack of diamonds playing card with black gloves and a familiar profile, a curling green vine with pink flowers, and stranger things. Then she plunges into the water, diving beneath the waves as soon as she reaches deep enough water. ]

[godsays]

[He follows slower, watching, a smile on his lips. He swims alongside her, and he nudges her to the billowing schools of fish. The bright ones, the beautiful ones.]

[fridgetothefire]

[With a thoughtful tug, she sends her death shark to hound them from the other side, and the whole school streams past, bright flickers darting close around them, deeming Zane and Anya larger but lesser evils.]