londoncallingrpg

miss_ives posting in

In the new year, Vanessa had found that she could actually approach life as a whole with less gravitas than she had in the last few months. She had not seen Prometheus again since the evening at that occult museum (nor had she read in the papers about the theft of a vase from there, but she had not gone back since, and it simply might not have made it into the papers), but while she was no more protected than she had been before his gift of the talisman, at least her home was warded now, courtesy of Felix Harrowgate. That was a welcome luxury.

But even more surprisingly, Vanessa Ives was making plans. Plans that would take her far from everything she knew, if only for a fortnight. And in good company, at that. Her initial misgivings about Yves had eased with time, and she was glad of her spontaneous decision to ask him whether he would like to accompany her. A trip abroad, somewhere neither of them had any ties, might well be what they both needed.

She had finished her inventory of Prometheus's shop, for all that a lot of items in it were described rather than identified. She still opened up the shop some evenings, as well as on the weekends, when she could, but as the time for the trip came closer, she found herself distracted both at work and in the shop. Distracted, and in a surprisingly elated mood.

She was just cleaning some items in the shop when the door bell jangled from someone coming in, and rather than turn around to face them straight away, she glanced at a mirror to her side. Her eyes widened at the figure she saw in it, and she turned around in a start. "Mina!"

Here was her beloved Mina, pushing back the hood of her white coat, as beautiful as she had ever been. She even had a smile for Vanessa, and Vanessa did not know what to make of that. Why would Mina smile at her?

"I do not blame you," Mina said. Unlike Vanessa's usual visions, she stayed, and spoke to her. Could it truly be her? Could Mina have found her? Why? "Any blame has been washed away in your suffering."

"I do not deserve that," Vanessa answered, surprised at the steadiness of her own voice. "I cannot forgive myself."

"I am married now," Mina went on. "He's no soldier, but he is good to me. A lawyer. Jonathan."

"I am happy for you," Vanessa said, finding it to be true. Whatever had pushed her to seduce Mina's captain, it was nowhere to be seen now. She took a step closer, and then another, expecting Mina to vanish with proximity. Her visions of her never let her get close.

But here she still was. Was she real? Could this truly be her? Could it truly be Mina smiling at her now, sad though that smile was?

"Poor Peter," said Mina, and Vanessa frowned in remembrance. There had been three of them. She had loved him too. "If only you'd gone after him, that day, after you kissed him. If only you'd told him you loved him for his weakness..."

"How can you know that?" Vanessa asked, her frown more pronounced now, and a tightness in her chest that spoke of ill tidings.

Mina's eyes shifted, a red glow shining out, as her features darkened, and Vanessa could not move. "I know many things now. My Master has taught me them." There was a gust of wind through the shop, and then Mina's face was as beautiful as it had always been, even in her distress. "Things no one ought to know. Vanessa. Save me!"

Vanessa reached out to her, but the door to the shop had burst open, and she was too late, too slow to catch her friend's hand, and Mina was gone in an instant, in a scream, leaving Vanessa's breath short, reaching for someone who was not there, and terrified for her dearest friend.

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From:

sunsongs

Brutal recording session over, Coby'd felt like stretching his legs – instead of the wings he really wanted to stretch, but he was still wary of flying without Anael to hide them from sight, and catch him if he wiped out – before heading to a pub. He wasn't paying much attention to where he was walking until a sound up ahead broke through his dark mood enough to register without him exactly knowing what he'd heard. When it was followed by a chill running down his spine, there were a few things he could've done. He could've continued on to the pub. He could've turned around and gone another way.

Or... he could stick his nose into things, sense be damned. Being Coby, he went for that one. Especially when he realized he was outside Prometheus' shop, and the door was wide open. He walked up, stopping abruptly when he saw the look on Vanessa's face. Only a moment, though, before he closed the distance between them, reaching out but not touching her without knowing she'd want it. "Vanessa?"

From:

miss_ives

Vanessa took that last step closer, her hand closing with surprising force on his forearm. Her eyes were a little wild as they met Coby's, and she asked, with more than even her usual intensity, "Did you see her just now?"

From:

sunsongs

Now Coby was really worried. Vanessa was almost frantic with... fear maybe, and he'd never seen her this way. "No, I didn't- See who, Vanessa? What's wrong?"

From:

miss_ives

"Mina, she -" She cut herself off, then let go of him and stepped out into the cold street, looking around for her friend. She knew that she would not see her, but she had to try.

From:

sunsongs

Frown deepening with concern, Coby followed after her, looking but not seeing anyone out of place. If you asked him, she needed a drink or a smoke, or tea or something, to settle herself for whatever they were dealing with, but he'd follow her lead for now.

"She what?"

From:

miss_ives

"...she was here," Vanessa finished, her voice distant and devastated. She blinked a few times, then turned back to Coby, frowning as if she were only just seeing him. "I'm sorry. I had an - unexpected visitor." The cold outside seemed to catch up with her and she wrapped her arms around herself, then stepped back towards the shop, looking questioningly at him to check whether he followed.

From:

sunsongs

Of fucking course he followed, wanting to wrap arms and maybe wings around her until she felt less off balance, but restraining himself for now to only staying close.

"'Unexpected visitor,' that's more of your British understatement." Once in the shop, he closed the door behind them, not sure what was going on, but not wanting to invite the whole world to it. "I don't know what she was or why she was here, but it was something wrong."

From:

miss_ives

Vanessa moved over to the kettle; making tea would give her something to do, and she could rely on the routine of it. "I don't know what she has become," she said, after a few seconds, slightly trembling hands busy, mind on Mina. "I only know what she is to me."

From:

sunsongs

"Someone special." Coby let her make the tea, knowing from his mom it was the ritual of it as much as the tea itself. Kind of like packing a bowl for him. Or for his mom.

He didn't add that something about Mina had made his wings itch, without him even seeing her. Or point out how Vanessa was spooked, which she already knew and didn't need or want the reminder.

From:

miss_ives

Vanessa did not reply for a moment, and rested her hands on the counter as the water boiled, and she was left with nothing to do with her hands. She took a few seconds, composing herself, then turned around to face Coby. "She was the dearest person in the world to me, and I betrayed her."

From:

sunsongs

A bitter bile memory of Anael looking at him-not-him, of an angel's love betrayed by mortal hatred, seeped along the edges of Coby's mind, and he reached out for her in something like understanding. "We all do things we'll regret forever."

From:

miss_ives

Vanessa caught his hand and gave it a squeeze, but immediately let go of it. "Quite," she simply agreed, and walked across the room to the counter behind which lay her purse, so that she might grab her cigarette case.

She did not deserve to be comforted over what she had done, no more than she deserved Mina's forgiveness. But the latter, at least, would not be about her, she hoped.

From:

sunsongs

"And now?" Coby asked as she pulled out her cigarettes, reflexively drawing a lighter from his pocket to light one for her. Shaky hands and lighting a cigarette didn't usually go together easily. The flame tended to remind you just how shaky you were, and Coby hated that when it was him.

OTA