Quest 296

[primrosella]

[Voice Post]

I, er...yes, hello again, everyone, it's so very nice to see you again! My, it's that time of the year again, isn't it? This must be our visit for the winter season, since the last one we had was, er, in the fall. It's, um, been quite some time since then, hasn't it?

...Yes, well, um. Yes. Er...

...Oh, honestly, this is ridiculous, I've never had such trouble with the visitors before--er, mostly, anyway, since there was that one time when--well, but that's beside the point. Um. It's just that there's someone here and I think he's been following me and I can't for the life of me puzzle out why, since every time I turn around he just up and disappears again! Honestly, I've never seen anything like it; normally the people who come to call are so eager to say hello. They don't usually sneak around in the shadows and turn up in nothing but glimpses wherever I go.

But, er, in any case, I am eager to say hello to people, and so please do stop by if you have a moment, since I'd like very much to visit with you if you have the time. And, er, I suppose if the person following me--or even if you aren't following me, but simply happening to turn up wherever I go on coincidence--can see this, too, then please do come out and say hello, yourself? I can't imagine why you wouldn't...

I'll be looking forward to it, very much so!


[OOC: As per usual, she's canonically from just after the end of Perils of Rosella, and with some very disjointed and vague knowledge of Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. Not that that really means anything to anyone, but. If something comes up that I don't want her to know, I'll just have her forget it, so have a party--anything goes! HIT HER WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT. Troll, threadjack, have a ball!

And of course, I am totally okay with backdating. ♥]

Comments

[primrosella]

[Her hands are shaking and she's wobbling on her feet, but she never takes her eyes off the two of them. Using that variety of magic takes it out of her, quite literally straight out of her, and in truth, she doesn't think she could manage that transformation again.

But of course, if she had to, she would. What does she have to lose?]

There you are. You're two of a kind when it comes to manners.

[portends]

[ And then the Black Dog does something he has not done in a very long time. He kneels, heeling the way an obedient dog would to a master. His head bowed: ]

Forgive my sister's intrusion, princess. Her eagerness to see my will done has driven her to act out of turn. [ A glance sideways at the white figure beside him, her sneers, showing his sister his teeth.

She ducks her head low, much lower than his. ]

[primrosella]

I...

[She wobbles again, the color mostly drained from her face, but keeps her feet. She wouldn't know what this means under normal circumstances, in full possession of her senses; as it is, she's still just staring from one to the other.]

You're...you're quite finished, then...?

[portends]

[ There are certain rules by which the Dogs must live, the first and foremost of which is that the eldest, the first, the Black, is always to be abided. When a man or beast or monster must fall then it is to the White to catch it and see that it is felled. And when a man or beast or monster must go free then, by the same rights, they must go free. ]

Her trespass has earned you respite. A day, no longer, then I will come yet again.

[primrosella]

And you'll keep coming. Every day. You'll never leave me alone.

[She takes a step back, her arm beginning to fall from the exertion of keeping it aloft.]

My old friend.

[portends]

[ His lips curl upwards and instead of a sneer it is, for once, yes a smile. He would seem just a boy, a young man charming and perhaps quite smitten, if it were not for the way his eyes continued to gleam. ]

And we are friends, Rosella, you and I. When we have our time together, I will make sure it is nothing short of lovely.

[primrosella]

[Her shoulders come down, her arms falling to rest at her sides, and for a minute she simply looks at him, that smile, those eyes, and lets the grim realization sink in that he's right, that someday he will come for her and there will be a day when she'll not slip free, that someday, someday, they will do this again because this is what will be waiting when her time finally comes.

But it's not today.

Not today.]

You'll have to catch me, first.

[Not the way the White Dog hunts. It's something deeper, those words, that weary defiance. It speaks of their history, her thousand narrow escapes, and promises her intent to try for a thousand more.]

[portends]

[ Somethings are inevitable. None know this better than the Black Dog, for in the end, everyone knows him. But none know him so well and so eludingly as Rosella does. His smile lingers; it is no longer hungry and his lips pull down over his teeth, making him seem that much more human. ]

You're so very determined to live. Even now.

[ The Black Dog lifts his head towards her, but the gesture is not proud but curious. ] You make me wonder what that's like.

[primrosella]

I have people I have to live for.

[She is always strongest, her determination most enduring, when she has to be for someone else's sake. On her own, she would grow weary, lie down, surrender long before this. But when someone is counting on her to live, then she'll live.

And when her kingdom asks her to die, then she'll die.]

It'd be different if it were only you and me.