"Something I love about him?" she scowled. "I don’t know. .. that’s a stupid question anyway. Ask me again later… maybe when I’m not in a bad mood." There was a long pause, and she drummed her nails on the table. "Fine… there’s this sort of weird… innocence about him sometimes — I know, that sounds totally stupid… but still. Sometimes he’ll just look so surprised and - I don’t know - emotional? And then it’s gone. But those moments where something shows through. . " She looked away.
"The other question’s easier… I could list a whole hell of a lot of things… but I think the worst thing. . the thing I hate most. . is that I can’t just forget about him."
For Nessie from Caspien: Begonia, Lavender, orange lily, and sycamore
Niesseri looked at the bouquet, frowning as she took stock of the contents. The muscles of her jaw tightened and her hair hissed and writhed about her head. “Asshole,” she muttered and threw the bouquet in the sink hard enough that begonia petals shook off. The Mordesh had every intention to send it down the garbage disposal, but she did not. Instead, she stared at the sink a long while before picking the bouquet out and hanging it upside down to dry. Somewhere she could see it. So she would remember.
Caspien scowls for a long moment, before huffing. "Look, I don't know why you keep pestering me about Niesseri and I, but it's certainly starting to get on my nerves. Seeing as I'm sure humoring you will get you to leave me be for a time though I shall do so. One thing I like about her is her hair, the fact it seems to be a living entity of it's own is intriguing and something I actually wouldn't mind studying sometime. As for something I dislike, there are so many I could choose, but I suppose her general ability to irritate me with little effort is high up there." he pauses, just staring the person down a long moment. "Now go away."
☻ A drabble of our muses on their wedding day (for Nessie and Caspien because I'm evil like that)
“Are you sure I look okay?” Niesseri asked, smoothing the front of her gown and turning to look in all angles of the full-length mirrors.
“You look beautiful, Nessie,” her sister said, making one final adjustment to the beadwork before stepping back to look at the younger woman. There was an almost wistful look in Morganella Pathos’ eyes as she gazed at her little sister.
Nessie smiled, willing her hair to behave itself so that she could fit the filmy veil over it. For once it actually did what she wished, and she gazed at her reflection for a long moment. “I’m scared,” she said finally, chewing the inside of her lower lip.
“Oh, Nessie…” the other said, pulling her into a hug. “You’ll be just fine… It’ll be over before you know it, and then you’ll be Mrs. Niesseri Albatox. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I know,” she sighed, “but it just doesn’t seem real… I guess I’m scared I’m gonna wake up and this will all have been some kind of dream.”
“It’s not,” Morganella gave her sister a smile. “It’s real. Now, no tears, your makeup will run.”
She nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay. I’m ready then… let’s go find Aureus.”
***
Niesseri’s heart was pounding so hard that she thought almost that it might be audible over the music of the organ. She could certainly hear it, echoing in her long ears. The aisle stretched out before her and she clung tighter to her brother’s arm as they began to walk between the rows of pews.
The old ruined church was terribly empty, she noted, only a few friends in a cluster near to the front. Caspien had invited no one, but she had not expected him to. He was not the sort for friends, and the woman was fairly certain that her husband-to-be had no family left to speak of.
They were halfway to the pulpit before Nessie allowed herself to finally rest her eyes on Caspien himself. He stood, statue-still, in front of the priest. She felt her breath catch and she might have stumbled had it not been for her brother beside her.
The man was dressed in black from his shoes to his classic tail-coat, the ensemble contrasting sharply with the pale grey of his skin and the shocking pink of his hair and Vitalus augmentations. He stood there, watching her move towards him, only the faintest of smiles showing at the corner of his ordinarily cruel mouth. He looked terribly handsome, the woman thought, feeling her cheeks warm somewhat in a blush.
Morgan gave her a reassuring smile and handed her the flowers – a bouquet of weeping cups – as she stepped up to take her place beside her groom. The priest began speaking, but Nessie’s mind was occupied completely with Caspien Albatox as she looked up into his eyes. Before she knew it, she was answering the priest’s questions with a soft “I do,” and a ring was slipped onto her finger.
Caspien lifted his bride’s veil, gazing down at her a long moment before tilting her chin up and leaning down to kiss her deeply.
She grew quiet, frowning and seeming for that moment to look a little lost. “I… he’s just…a diversion.” A pause, she shook her head. “No…I guess that’s not true… It’s complicated, okay?”
“Caspien,” the name fell from her lips in a nearly silent whisper. She could hear him in the darkness of the room. He was quiet, and that she could hear him at all told Niesseri that he must want her to be aware of his presence. He was close. She began to turn, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She froze, listening to the sound of her racing heart.
The hand slid down her arm to wrap long fingers around the space just above her elbow. Again she began to turn, but the warm breath on her long pointed ear sent a shiver through her and she took in a startled breath instead.
His other hand rested on her hip. How had she known it was him in the first place? Something akin to panic began to bubble up inside her and she tried once more to turn and look. “Caspien?” she asked again.
“Yes?” The word was breathed against her skin and the affirmation ought she supposed to have given her some comfort, but his grip on her arm was vise-like and the room just seemed too dark. There was a smell, too, like antiseptic. Familiar. She reached out with her free hand and found the edge of a table. A table fitted with restraints. Gooseflesh rose on her arms.
“How did I get here?” she asked, trying again to turn. She was unable. He moved her forward until the fronts of her thighs were touching the edge of that table.
“You don’t remember?” His words were still spoken into her ear, she could feel his lips moving against her skin, his breath in hot contrast with the biting chill of the laboratory. She shook her head just slightly, just enough that her hair shifted. Hair? That didn’t seem quite right either. The woman lifted a hand to her head and could feel the soft cords of dreadlocks. Wasn’t her hair supposed to be… The thought was jolted from her mind by the feeling of sharp teeth nipping at her ear.
“Wha- no I don’t… remember,” he had stepped forward as she spoke, his body pressed against the back of hers. Her heart was racing. “Are you going to kill me?”
Whatever answer she had been expecting was not the amused chuckle she received. “I thought about what you said.” He was no longer speaking into her ear, instead he was murmuring the words into the skin along her hairline, down her neck (there was something odd about that fact as well, but she couldn’t quite concentrate on what it was.)
“Oh?” that was all she could manage as she felt his hands move, deftly unfastening the buttons of her top.
“Yes,” he went on, brushing sharp teeth over her skin causing her to lean her head back and let her eyes fall shut. “I don’t think it will work though.”
“What?” If he meant to kill her now, this was a remarkably cruel manner in which to inform her. Especially considering how with his body pushed against hers, she could tell that his consideration of her ‘offer’ had had at least some hand in her presence here.
“You won’t forget me. I won’t let you.” He pulled the top down her shoulders so that the sleeves bound her arms behind her back. “I will have you, and then you will be able to think of nothing else.”
With that, he started in on her shorts, simply tearing open the fastenings and pulling them down over her hips. She gasped, startled, her eyes snapping open.
She couldn’t move her arms. They had become tangled in her sheets. It took only a moment or two to extract herself from the fabric’s bonds. A dream. It was a bloody dream! Niesseri sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her cords of hair slithered sluggishly about her head. It had seemed so real. That was the nature of dreams though.
The clock beside her bed read 3AM, blaring the time in a bright Vitalus green. Nessie picked up her pillow and flopped back down, holding the soft thing over her face. ‘. . you will be able to think of nothing else . .’ he had said.
“Hell,” the woman said aloud. “Little late for that one.” Here, in the dark, alone. That was the only place she’d admit it.
