video

[amethysts]

[Why are things floating.

Libby sits (this time on a table in the kitchens--chairs exist, girl, why are you like this) and she is surrounded by slowly drifting utensils.

She's already figured out how to lie about it. She never told anyone she wasn't telekinetic. (Because who does that?). So she'll just say they made her like this, and Jesse's secret will be protected while Libby gets to show off--because this is wicked sharp, and even makes her confident enough to roll up her sleeves, baring scars and soft white feathers.

She grins at the camera, which she turned on with her mind.]

'Sup, bitches.

[She's not opening this up to the network for any reason. Can't a girl just be bored?]



[What she sends to her--crew, that's what she calls them. Her crew, like she's some fucking gangbanging idiot.

But they're not her friends, and allies sounds so formal. So crew it is. (She knows that Jesse is a surprisingly good hugger, that Mouse has a sweet smile, that Nikolai doesn't want to be called Nik. She has to be careful, here, because if she's not--she's going to end up wanting to keep them around. She'll actually like them, and then where will she be?)

(It's already over.)

What she sends them is different. Still things floating, still on a table, but she looks serious for once.]

'Kay.

Status reports, if you got 'em. And I got one.

So--we're Jesse, Mouse, and Nikolai, right now. And me, obvious. Jesse, Mouse, Nikolai is going to be our protection around here.

But that's complicated, because--I've got in with Loki, too, and he is--wicked dangerous. But I want what he's got. And he can be useful. But I'll handle him, 'kay? He doesn't know you, just me, and--look what I can do.

[She waves her hand around and smiles, briefly, before--serious, again.]

I'll drop him when we can't use him anymore. Promise. But stay the fuck away from him, he's bad fucking news.

Comments

action;

[amethysts]

[Libby looks at him like she can't even understand the question. Like it makes no sense. But she understands perfectly.]

Yes.

[They killed her sister. No shame. Now or ever; her pain and guilt is bright and obvious.]

Even if they kill me they have to live with that.

[Now she makes her smile bright and painless. For Nikolai. She reaches out to gently push his arm.]

You look like Adam, you Boris Karloff fucker. It's a compliment. Act like him too. I should send you the 1931 movie.

[The one with the little drowned girl. She gets the symbolism. She gets it and it's hope, too, because in the books that little girl gets saved. Only in the film does she die, and Libby is something of a purist. People may want to erase their guilt--if it's not Libby it's every girl she stands for, every failed child who fell through a net and ended up Just Another Girl with a sharp tongue and sharper eyes. But she has Nikolai and the story can be different. Maybe she won't drown after all. And all of that fucking unkillable hope shines in her sharp eyes.]

action; why the fuck are you bleeding

[justthedriver]

[ Little girls die all the time in Nikolai's world. Die, gets born, traded like goods. Less valuable than a bunch of expensive alcohol - well, alcohol's delicious, you can sell it, multiple bottles can be given to different people. Little girls only have one virginity, and once you sell her to someone, her value becomes lower. Lower and lower the more she breaks, and Nikolai knows that fact well. He doesn't fuck little girls, no, but he's known plenty of men who do.

Semyon. Slaves give birth to slaves, and he can't help thinking of his own words when he looks at the bright hope in her eyes, and wonders if he has to watch as it's being strangled out of her.

He doesn't want to see it, he thinks. ]

Plenty people kill without regrets. [ He shrugs. ] Little girl you might be, but not that special.

[ It's a kind of warning. If you make your meaning in death instead of in life, you have no control over that meaning. You put it all in the hands of those that kill you, and that's a fucking foolish mistake. ]

action; don't have nightmares next to glasses man

[amethysts]

[Libby understands.

She has never been special. Expensive but not special. She's been bought and sold and traded by people who thought they could keep her--never special.

Nikolai can likely see the flicker of death in her smile. An easy thing to spot if you have even one clue about this girl tucking her knees up under her.]

I'm not. I'm nothing. But I will make them remember me.

[And you, she doesn't say. You remember me. Remember sometimes I was funny and I believed in you and I cared about silly things. Remember me.]

action; .... face or hands.

[justthedriver]

[ Nikolai snorts. ]

Don't know why you keep talking if you not going to listen.

[ Because it drives back to the same point again: that whether or not he remembers is up to him, to his memory, to his fucking choice. Not hers, never hers, because she doesn't control his head and she never will be able to.

There's no point being remembered, because there's always something disagreeable about someone else's memories of you. They're never fully accurate, and more importantly, those memories die with that person. What's the fucking point of trying? Nikolai builds his reputation when he's alive. When he's dead- when he's dead, he isn't going to give a shit.

He gives her another look before he turns around to walk out of the kitchens. ]

Got things to do. [ Like return Jaye her lighter. ] Don't get into stupid shit.

action; arm and I will have some badass scars according to the doctor

[amethysts]

[It's a little funny, Libby thinks, that Nikolai in what must be at least late forties will live so much longer than her.

A little funny and it crushes her heart in her chest. She'll never see twenty, no matter what. Her whole life will fit into two decades with room to spare and she can never tell anyone. He turns to go and she just--feels lost. Like she wants to explain why she can't listen to everything, because it's different for her.]

'Kay.

[He's almost gone--her voice rises like the chirp of a bird.]

I listen. I listen to you. I'm just--learning. But I listen. I listen to--everything you say, I'm trying.