Forgive me, hearer, I cannot stay

[burntbridges]

who: Letha Regis, Winter Regis-Ivarsdottir, and all their friends.
what: Catch-all log for late February and early March; Letha reintegrates into society
when: Feb 24 forward
where: Alllll over the place.
warnings: Post-partum depression, homicidal/suicidal thoughts, Letha's tactless attempts to treat others like human beings, and possible accidental child injury. It's okay though, the baby heals quickly.

--

(This is a fake cut because there are a LOT of prompts, starters are below.)

Comments

[brightline]

[It's less about being different than it is that Marco's had every safe place he ever had taken from him. It doesn't matter how safe he might feel, he's always, constantly aware that what seems safe can become unsafe in a moment, without warning. Better to always be prepared, to always be thinking of which animal would be best to defend himself in various situations, where the escape routes are, where he can go to morph out, to brace himself for pain.

And when he looks at Letha, he sees her as potentially dangerous, just like everything and everyone else in the room. She has tarot cards and she's reading them, and this is Riverview - who knows if she has magic or powers or weapons hidden somewhere, that he doesn't know about? Who knows what she intends to do to him for his so-called competition for a place in Ivar's future? So he notices when she jerks alert, shakes her head, when she tears up and then dabs at her eyes. His own dark eyes catch every moment of it, he wonders what made her cry like that, out of seemingly nowhere.

Something strange is going on. But he doesn't mention it.]

Huh. Makes sense, I guess.

[Tilting his head, he keeps his eyes on her as he does what she asks, picks three cards without really thinking, and puts them in front of himself in a line.]

This should be interesting.

[He cracks a smirk, tilting his head a bit.]

Have at it, Princess.

[burntbridges]

[There's a twitch when he calls her Princess, just for a moment, where the curve of her smile seems to be holding back a very sharp retort. But she holds her tongue. If there's one good thing Ivar's taught her, it's to pick her battles with some semblance of logic. Instead she gathers the unused cards, stacks them neatly beside her, and turns over the first card.]

The Six of Cups - nostalgia, naivety, and reunions. The sweet cordial of childhood memories.

[Her painted fingernails press against the card, which shows two children sharing a golden cup between them, five more stacked in front of them. Her eyes close and she presses her ability a bit further, speaking those keywords with emphasis and straining for a clearer focus on the memories it makes him think of.]

[brightline]

[Marco can see the retort on her mouth just as clearly as he would've heard it if she said it, and his lips twitch a little, in an amused sort of way. For a moment, he has a vivid memory of Rachel - beautiful and blonde and amazonian, giving him that same sharp smile as she viciously tore into all his worst insecurities, remembers how much he'd loved it.

When she flips over the first card, citing childhood memories, Marco huffs a laugh in his throat, shaking his head.]

Last thing I need to think about, thanks.

[But they're there, in the back of his mind. His mother's beautiful face, with her dark eyes and all her shiny dark hair, the way she'd smelled, how it felt to be held by her. The gut-wrenching loss of her when he was only 11, the sense of abandonment by his father after she'd died. Like losing two parents, his only living one a zombie in a bathrobe staring at the TV. The blur of taking care of himself for so long, taking care of his father before even hitting his teens. The thrill of joy and fear at realizing his mother was alive but in the hands of the enemy, the gut-wrenching pain at knowing he might have to kill her in order to save the rest of the world.

But he doesn't say any of it.]

Hard pass. Next card?

animorphs is wild wth

[burntbridges]

[In all honesty, it makes Letha hesitate. She had grown up surrounded by family, and found it a bit suffocating. Her mother had been strict and reserved, which had made her butt heads with Letha quite a bit, but she hadn't considered that a childhood could be as harsh as this. Not only that, but Marco and his father would not have been able to speak to Marco's mother after her death, and that seemed dreadful, even if Letha had often wished not to be expected to keep in contact with her dead relatives.

She's once again reminded of how much she misses her brother, who she can no longer speak to from here. She had spoken to him nearly every night after he died, and sometimes she worried if it annoyed him...

Once again she snaps suddenly out of her thoughts, and her prickly smile softens into a sympathetic frown.]

I'll keep my thoughts to myself, then.

[She flips over the next card, which features a young boy holding up a large gold coin with a star engraved on it.]

The Page of Pentacles - progress, planning and potential. A growing awareness of earthly needs.

[She has a prickle of fear that this card will bring up more memories of Ivar... but surely Ivar is a bigger part of her life than he is of Marco's.]