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[He endures the hair mussing, because it's Athessa, pulling away after a reasonable amount of time with a grin. And he starts tying the bracelets on before he bothers to fix his hair--so you know they mean a lot to him--with this little flame of love and pride and friendship burning away in his chest.]

S' all right, you didn't burn 'em. And you ought to know I'll go anywhere with you. Especially to trash something.

[Largely, one-handed, he gets a loose knot tied, then pulls at it from the other side with his teeth, tightening it up.]

How'd you find out about the house, anyways? No one'd been there for ages.

[ Her own grin of love and pride and friendship etc. dims slightly at the question. He asked it before, in the estate, and she'd waved it off with nothing more than it's a long story.

But it's unlikely that either he or Jenny Lou didn't notice the dried blood on the floorboards upstairs, and the signs of a futile struggle. ]

Do you want the quick version, or the involved one? I gotta warn ya, Matty, it's— [ She chews on her bottom lip, trying to find the right words. ] —Well it's hard for me to talk about. And if I tell you...there's no untelling it, ya know?

[ It's the least she can do to give him the choice, and trust him not to look at her differently. ]

[Self-conscious, he stops pulling on the end of the bracelet with his teeth, and looks at her instead.]

Well--you haven't got to tell me anything. Not if you don't want to. If it's hard to talk about, I mean.

Just that-- we're friends. But I do mean that. We're friends. You wouldn't have to untell me anything, afterward. I'm not going anywhere. If you don't want to, well, you can say that as well. And I'd not press on it or anything. 'Course I want to know, as we're friends, and if it's something-- I dunno, something--I want to know. But--it's yours to tell, I reckon. So

[He does a quick little shrug, then looks back to the bracelet. It is mostly knotted on. Matthias gives it a little twist, once around his wrist. It doesn't drop off.]

[ He wants to know. And he's given her the option to say nothing. It means a lot, maybe more than he even realizes.

She considers it for a long moment after his rambling tapers off, looking at the bracelets and thinking about the wooden halla she carved those beads out of, about the wooden floorboards with the last remnants of Devigny painted on them. ]

First time I ever saw the inside of that place was when I was fifteen. I don't remember how I got there, not really. Um— [ Athessa shakes her head, deciding to skip over the details that follow. ] —Yeah, so...Devigny. He used to take girls off the street and I dunno, wherever else a piece of shit like him takes girls from. And he'd...rape them and when he got bored of them, drop 'em off at the Crimson Cat 'cos the bawd there was in his pocket.

[ She lifts her hands in something like a shrug, or like she's holding out some invisible concept in a box. Ta-daa. ]

I was one of those girls. I dunno if Ciara was, but that's where I met her, too. [ In case he remembers their chat outside of Sonia's party. ]

Trashing Devigny's place has been something I've wanted to do for fourteen years.

Edited (a href tag was broken) 2020-08-26 06:16 (UTC)

[Matthias stops twisting at the bracelet when she begins to speak. He keeps his eyes fixed on it at first, tracing the shape of the beads without touching them.

What she says--her story, brief though it is--begins to take shape, and between the words there's the rest, lines and details that fill in without being said. Quiet hallways with closed doors, facades that hide what's horrible. He's not stupid. He knows what the world is, the shapes that move under the surface and pull you under. And so does Athessa. Which he knew, sort of, not in any conscious way or with any real thought. Just a knowing.

He remembers Ciara, when she says the name--only talked about her the once, but it pulls pieces of that conversation back to him, fits in these new pieces and horribly sets the scenes that he had constructed only vaguely.

There isn't anything to say. This is one of those times where you only listen. Even Matthias, who never shuts up, knows that. He's heard confessions enough to know that. He looks at Athessa, not at the bracelet. Just her.]

I'm glad you did. I'm glad you weren't alone. That I was there as well. [It's not his, the house and everything in it, a thousand shades that Athessa can only see, but she gave him this little piece. She is his friend.] I'm glad you told me. And that it's--that part, I mean, it's over. It isn't. But it is.

I'm glad he's dead and you're not.

Me too. About all of it. [ Her smile is back, not sad or strained or in any way false. It feels good to have him understand and not pity her, and to be able to think about that place as just a house that bad things happened in, rather than some grim spectre looming over her. ]

I think it is, though. Over. I didn't get to kill him myself, [ though she really, really wanted to, ] but I finally got to put my foot down. One final fuck you to him and his stupid house, and that fucking wine. I didn't think I was gonna be able to drink it, actually, but I did, and I mean it didn't taste good but it didn't take me back there.

[ Surprising even herself, she laughs. Disbelieving, full of relief. And when she takes a breath, it feels...clear. ]

He doesn't get to take up space in my mind anymore.

Yeah.

[Softly, and with finality. Not good, precisely. Her laugh is what's good. The rest of it comes after things that happened, even if they shouldn't have--if the world was better, like, if people didn't hurt you because they could, because of a right or because someone said it was right or any other reason--so it's not good, even if it is, a little. There's not a word for it.

He looks back at the bracelet. Gives his wrist a little shake.]

Derrica, she's the one what made the first one of these for me. 'Cause I told her I was-- I don't, you know, think always. Go too quickly. And she said the bracelet would help, that I could look at it and I'd remember, or touch it, and I'd remember.

I reckon you ought to have one. Not-- to remember any of that. To remember that--you know, what you said. That he doesn't get space with you any longer. That sort of remembering. For when it comes back.

[ Athessa hadn't known where the bracelets came from, just that he wore them all the time and that they'd been lost. Hearing that they were important, and that Derrica was the one to give them to him...feels weird.

Mostly, she's happy to know that Derrica cares so much about Matthias, to give him something that mattered to him. Not that she'd expect any less, because Derrica's wonderful, but ya know.

Athessa smiles and tips her head in a considering nod. ]

Maybe. I'm terrible at keeping track of things like that, though. Maybe I should get a tattoo of one instead. A permanent reminder.

They'd just be tied on, you couldn't loose 'em if you tied tightly enough.

[All the same, he brightens at her idea.]

A tattoo'd be brilliant, though. It'd need to be somewhere you could see it, whenever you looked. Around your wrist.

Around my wrist, huh. [ It's silly, repeating him and looking at her wrist like she doesn't already know what she'd get there to ground her. ]

Well alright, then. I guess I'll start looking for a tattooist.

[ She fetches up the pencil again, spinning it around her thumb and catching it in writing position. Show off. ]

So what's next on the list?

[He rolls his eyes a little at the display, but he's got a grin on his face, too, appreciative.]

Right. Erm-- well, more. I want to learn more. Diversity of spells, like?

[ She nods and starts writing, still smiling, happy to help. Together they can come up with a list that sounds right, looks perfect, and that Matthias can defend with his reasons without floundering too much.

And when they're done, as promised, Athessa will return the pencil she pilfered to Flint's desk. ]

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