<Temperance Avila>: "The torment." Her mind was a red cloud of hate. Powerfully disjointed from the reality of the situation. Temperance's seclusion was exactly that except she would often find this mirrored image taunted at the lowest and weakest point. A Reminder of how she smiled, how supple and young her appearance once was; no mirror would reveal again. She broke every one to pieces, but no matter how many decoys she smashed, they kept coming back.
The ring was another piece of the tale. During the time Temperance spent away she had lost a few things; sanity, memories, channeling powers, cellphone, trinkets, and a few years. She left Harper Rock with the ring on her finger.
It was dark, her eyes blurry from a thousand tears shed. Temperance cried for the death of her mother and now she cried and fell apart at the bottom stair in front of the church. Her uncle inside, where God look upon him and smiled. She would put herself together eventually. Contacted the local coroner who had known Temperance as a child. Three days later she asked the gravekeepers to leave her at peace with his coffin deep in the hole. She sat and wept until dusk. Through the tears she pried the lid open, rested against his corpse and closed it. That was where she laid for two more nights. In the late hour, her mind cleared a deafening silence had been the only sound she heard after her tears went dry and she used whatever strength she had left to emerge from the grave. To this day the ring stayed somewhere in the dirt. She loved that ring. It was the only piece of human sybolism she had to a real life fairy tale, to be wed to someone that she loved.
The allurist scoffed back and tried to pull from the gypsy’s grip, “ A tarp? Let go of me!" She tugged again flipping her wrist in reflex, drawing the sharp dagger through Zodiac's skin. The same edge flipped into her right hand, it lay flat with the underside of her wrist and she brought up an arm slicing cleanly through the image of herself. It disappeared in an instant leaving Temperance to stumble with a fuzzy charge pulsing through her veins until she hit the floor.
<Zodiac>: She knew it could happen, but instead tried to reason with her love. It was more the shock of the cut rather than actual pain that caused her to cry out in what passed for her actual voice. Her hand jerked back in reflex just as she saw Temperance flipping the knife to her free hand. ”There is still some of what she was in her,” she thought to herself. Tempy was always the blade person to the gypsy’s firearms.
As the blade descended to its mark, the mystic stopped herself from grabbing Temperance. If psychic energy acted as electricity, she did not want to be the one at the end of the human chain getting the jolt. ”TEMPY! DON’T!” she shouted into the woman’s thoughts, but it was too late.
The decoy vanished in a puff, and suddenly Temperance had a very familiar look on her face as she fell to the floor. How many times, Zodiac wondered. How many times had she done this to herself.
She looked at the back of her still bleeding hand then down again. ”Why do you have to be such a stupid cow? I warned you!”
Zodiac licked the back of her hand to help it stop bleeding as she knelt down beside Tempy and patted her shoulder comfortingly. ”I did warn you,” she sighed softly. ”C’mon. Let’s get you up and back in the chair till your brain stops spazzing.” She gently hooked her hand around Temperance’s back and made ready to help her stand up.
<Temperance Avila>:"Who are you calling stupid?" She shoved her off again as she done before. She attempted to push off the floor alone, but only landed back into Zodiac's helpful grasp. Her tenderness bled through the scrambled mix of emotions like a bead of sweat dripping down the outer edge of a frozen icecube. It was only the start of something. Temperance stood and refused to walk toward the chair in which the decoy was displayed. She was not ready for any of this at all.
<Zodiac>: ”Who am I calling stupid? Let me see, who in this room is stupid enough to do the equivalent of sticking their finger in an active light socket?” she snapped and regretted it a split second later. She stood there helping support the woman and saw Tempy was determined not to sit back down. ”Another chair then?” she offered gently.
<Temperance Avila>: "How about a coffin?" She backed up a foot. At least it was real pain, she thought to herself and placed a hand to her head. It was the only direct hit that lingered on and left her either messed up or empty headed. This was the first decoy in 48 days. It took that long for her to feel somewhat secure and level headed enough to start looking for clues in why she came back here. She did not avoid the general populace because she was being arrogant or purposely dismiss them. She was only healing while finding her bearings between Wicksbridge to the Wilderness. It took her a while to find the right spare key and directions to their apartment in Ivy as well. In that, it brought her here.
<Zodiac>: A wise answer for a wise comment. ”I do have something close to one in storage. I can have Jennifer come up and help me drag it out.” Zodiac always tried (not always with success) to be a patient person when dealing with others, but usually her own emotions were not on fire at the same time. ”Look, love, I only want you to sit down till that jangily feeling in your head clears up. That’s all.” She reached out again to take hold of her. Temperance still did not appear stable and the last thing she wanted was for her to try and move, fall and possibly injure herself even more.
<Temperance Avila>: "I'm not a child!" Although she was clearly acting like one. Temperance turned opposite of Zodiac and simply walked out the door and headed down the stairs. She'd had enough. The meeting was pointless, clearly Zodiac had a million things going on and Temperance was here originally to make amends but instead built more rough edges. The town was large enough for her to disappear again. She was being selfish, who would notice?
<Zodiac>: Her Nana had always told her ’Count to ten, Angel before reacting if possible.’ She stood, mouth open in shock, as Temperance suddenly decided to leave. She blinked a few times as she counted in her mind. When she hit thirty, her emotions overrode her reason.
She focused her thoughts and locked onto the feeling allurist. “You do not vanish for almost a year, show up for a half hour, then walk out on me again.” she thought to herself. Even giving some compassion for her mental state, she did not put up with being dismissed so easily when alive and she would not begin now, not even for Temperance’s sake.
With a gesture, she summoned her love back into the room she had just left and glared at her.
<Temperance Avila>: She was half-way down the stairwell when a sudden pull and rush of energy sent her flying back to the same spot she once stood, right in front of the mystic. She was a bit dumbfounded as to how it even happened. Maybe it was all an illusion, her walking out the first time. This time she would. ”Forgot something.” She grabbed the stained dagger from the floor, turned around, and walked back out without a word.
<Zodiac>: ”Oh you *****,” Zodiac ran to her storage room and grabbed a length of rope and a wooden chair and did some quick preparations. She waited longer this time, more to calm herself down more than anything before she focused again and summoned the woman back in front of her.
”Have a seat!” her arms shot out and pushed Temperance backwards to fall back into the waiting chair. The rope hung around the gypsy’s neck like an oversized noose and was quickly lifted off and dropped around the allurist’s arms and pulled tight. Calmly, she walked around her, adding a few extra coils of rope around her to keep her in place before tying it off. ”Comfy?” she smirked as she grabbed a folding chair and sat it in front of Tempy. She straddled it and leaned on the back of it while she watched her love debate her predicament.
<Temperance Avila> : Lucky for the mystic, Temperance couldn’t teleport or run out of this situation. The hog tie happened so fast that it made her head spin. She huffed, struggled, and screamed out before a tired rush took over every inch. She was too weak for this. Had it not been for the dagger she now dropped in Pandoras Main shop, she’d never lift from Zodiacs grasp the first time. Jennifer was downstairs and about to acknowledge the girl before she suddenly disappeared to the top floor. Sitting there in thought, the pull was something she’s felt before. Not just today, but in the past. It reminded her of Deux Corbeaux and the folks there she lived so closely too or the few times the allurist was caught out after dusk. Zodiac knew better than to let her sleep out in the sun, so she would summon the woman back to their apartment. She realized now this was not illusion or parlor trick, it was the only other in the room that stuck her right back where she once stood.
Temperance wiggled again, but not as dramatic as before. She blinked and stared across the room, examining things as if it was the first time. Like a few minutes before, a tenderness began to seep into her heart, warm over her veins, and cloud her mind of the rage. She was not sure what this was as she has not felt anything as soft or delicate in a year or more. Her faded blues looked back to the mystic, she spoke in a slow low tone, ”“How did you bring me back? What do you want from me?”
<Zodiac>: ”How did I do that?” her lip trembled a bit. Had Temperance forgotten so much in such a time not to remember this? ”We trusted each other very deeply. So much so, I was always able to find you if needed. If you was in danger, I could pull you to safety in a second.” She sighed while considering how to continue. ”We loved each other. Was the only way I could be so in tune with you to do this, and if I still can then somewhere inside of you a part of you remembers this.”
”Now what do I want?” her eyes blinked in confusion. ”I...want to help. Understand what has happened to you. You came back to the apartment and then to here, so I assumed you wanted to talk to me at least.” Now the bubble of fear she had been keeping down and hidden within was rising up again. ”I’m sorry for what you found at home. I have lost loved ones as well, so I know it sucks. I’m just trying to understand and listen, but you ain’t doing anything but attacking decoys and hurting yourself.”
Why was it so hard to figure out her own problems? Her own life? People came to her, and some paid her, for her advice and insights into such things, but when it came to her own she was damn near clueless most of the time. ”I just wanted to know if…” she began, but then shook her head in resignation. ”I just wanted to know if you still loved me” her mindspeak barely a whisper now as she untied the rope let Temperance loose from the chair. ”No more summoning. If you want to go so bad, then go. Come back when you feel like talking, or don’t” Zodiac dropped the rope onto the floor and stepped back, clearing a path to the door for the allurist.
<Temperance Avila>: To some small degree, Temperance wished Zodiac could have pulled the allurist out of the deep depression she had been consumed by while away. She could not put her finger on when exactly it had gotten so deep, but once she was it was too late. The primary reason in which she decided to sort out the beginning of the troubles herself was to not draw attention to herself to town nor any others that would stop at the front doorstep. Zodiac for sure would have stuck out like a sore thumb, with her extravagant style, even dressed as a normal the bright purple hair would be a dead give away. The town she came from knew everything, everyone, and took special note to newcomers.
She nodded in silence after listening to what Zodiac had to say. It was not the second time that she referenced her as love, Temperance noticed it now rather than before. Her mind clearing as much as it could despite the scramble, "I'd be dishonest if I said I do love you, only because I'm not sure I remember what that feels like.” She paused a moment to look around, ”Suppose it explains my stuff at your place.” She shrugged and rubbed her arms after being released. She stood to her feet, but not in a rush this time with some softness bleeding through and her composure much like when she entered the shop. "I just had a gut feeling that I needed to talk to you.”
<Zodiac>: She stood still and firm, despite the fact it felt like one of Iris’ horses had kicked her directly in the heart, but there was still something there. ”Yes, we needed to talk, and I am glad you came by,” her mental voice still soft, but halting at times. ”I guess we both have things to figure out now. Take the time you need to think things through. I am not going anywhere. Just let me know what conclusions you come to.” She turned away and wiped her eyes again. A yes or no would have been far easier to deal with than this, but she was Syzgany. ”Anyway I can help you in this, just ask.”
<Temperance Avila>: She nodded and neared the exit, before exiting she paused to say, "I'm sorry I cut you." The allurist pointed out then closed the door behind her.
Edit1: Reminder to reader: This happened Oct.2013.
Edit2: Fix the missed bold & italics that we wrote in.
