(open | february log)

[fulgency]

Who: Ozymandias + you!
When: All month!
Where: Lots of places!
What: Open prompts for speed-dating quest/general + closed starters. Feel free to message me at rebreather or this journal if you'd like a closed starter!
Warnings: nsfw in caren's thread

Comments

[belligerentwarrior]

[Who's to say it hasn't already found her with its claws, swallowing those dearest to her whole and leaving her to wallow powerlessly in a glorified graveyard for ten years?]

[A look she would've recognized if Fang were watching. Her hands close around the paper shreds in her hand, clench into a feeble fist. He means well. It's a departure of their usual conventions, even if it's nowhere near confiding, it's still more honest than they typically are with one another. Ozymandias means well, but something about his sigh, about his words, that scrap unpleasantly across her tired nerves. Her brow and the edges of her mouth twitch downward at her fist, and she plows forward as if he'd never asked a question.]

Spare you? What, you want me to say I'm fallin' apart at the seams? Should I swoon and go, [her voice pitches falsely upwards,] "oh wise elder, solve all my problems!"

[Fang leans back against the couch, arms spreading along the back, finally turning her gaze back to him. She was a proud woman, but it was a comfortable and malleable sort of pride, not the brittle kind that cracked against every offense. A part of her knew she wasn't at her best, snapping and prickling like this.]

I'm not gonna pretend I'm not a right mess, but it's not lip-service when I say I'll get a handle on it.

[fulgency]

[Ozymandias' posture straightens as she snaps at him, likely making it clear he anticipated more a response to his question and sweeping this aside and letting the topic drop than anything else. But it's not a look of a surprise that flickers ever so briefly in Ozymandias' expression. It's more akin to what might happen if one were to place a hand unwittingly upon a hot surface, in that fraction of a second before reflex sharply withdrawing the now injured hand. But he straightens and the look is gone just as quickly as it appeared, replaced by something far more measured and contained.]

[He opens his mouth about to say...only gods know what. There seems to be many things he could say to any of this. Some of it perhaps reflect too much of that expression. There are probably also words that probably are more offensive and angrier than is really warranted or helpful. But what point is there in telling her that he'd rather the truth than listening to her try to convince herself that after enough time it won't matter when it so clearly will? She's made it clear where the line is, and he has overstepped it already. Ozymandias closes his mouth, jaw clenching for a moment as his gaze drops to the floor near Fang's feet. With the next breath, the tension is released.]

Very well. [His voice is quiet, even. Ozymandias lifts his gaze back to her, his expression now neutral. He might as well be looking at a stranger.] If that is your wish, then I shall leave you to it.

[He doesn't revisit his question. He doesn't issue command or permission to leave. He doesn't say goodbye. Ozymandias takes a few steps back towards the doorway before turning to leave the room. With as sensitive as Fang's hearing is, she'll no doubt recognize the sound of his steps ascending the stairs after he's out of sight.]