queenofheartsrp | ００１ ☠ video/action;

[She has not moved from the place where the Labyrinth finally spit her out, lying in the grass curled into herself. The vine has come to investigate, now that she has been returned to the Garden. Where has she been? Has she learned her lesson? Perhaps.

She's filthy. Her hair lank and knotted, her clothes muddied and ripped. With her arms wrapped around herself, she claws at her skin with blunted nails, keening miserably. She has hardly ceased since the storm ended.

She rocks back and forth, her forehead pressed into the dirt, and as she falls onto her side, the vine follows curiously. Her face is bruised and crusted with blood, wounds she had not felt at the time, and truly she does not feel them now.

The vines slithering finally draws her attention and she makes a low whimpering sound. Her face is dry of tears, at least. The dead do not cry in such a way, even if her mouth is trembling.

She stares at the vine a moment longer before she draws herself up and tries to slink away from its gaze, but it follows her. She gives up eventually, sinking back down at the base of a tree and hiding behind her drawn up knees. That same piercing little wail eventually begins again, muffled from within her protective huddle.]

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[she doesn't know what a "pervert" is (probably for the better) but she can understand the basic idea. Tentatively, she tries to hold Zinc's hands still, stop her from harming herself.]

But you're not trying to hurt me. So you don't want to, you really don't.

Isn't there...something else you can eat?

[the image of the woman in her mind, the way she can understand it best, is something halfway between Heartless and Nobody, but conscious, still hanging on to humanity by a thread. A terrible, lonely existence. She wishes she knew what to do.]

[She had scratched Barbet once, when he had done the same. She had been so sorry for it, had been pathetically docile for him, for weeks, because she hadn't meant to.

When Xion does it, her hands automatically go lax, a lesson well learned.]

There... there is meat, in the arena. The bears don't cook it, just carve it up. I can eat it. It's still hungry.

But it's better than nothing? [She's so cold. Xion wants to go find a blanket to wrap her in.]

We can go there...it might still be okay after the storm.

[Her shoulders twitch, muscles tensing. Why is she in this terrible place. She was just going to hurt someone else. Maybe Xion who was just a child. Being eaten alive was a gruesome death for anyone.

She can't cry, but she whines softly, turning over to bury her face in the girl's shoulder. She wants to hide somewhere, curl up and wait for the rot to take her. She would never starve would just grow hungrier and hungrier until it drove all her limited sanity away.

...she has to eat something. Even if it is just raw meat, to keep it the animal quieter.]

I have to stay away, from everyone. It's too much, when they are noisy, gathered.

[she puts her arms around Zinc's shoulders tentatively. Hugs always made her feel better.]

Stay away...? But there are people everywhere here...

[but a quiet place, that was possible. Maybe.]

what if...you made your own house?

[Hugs make everything better, Zinc agrees. She doesn't say anything at first, just relaxes, fingers curled loosely in Xion's jacket.]

Maybe.

[She'd never had to stay completely alone. Barbet had always been there, even if he ignored her sometimes, even if she was alone. Not human, and different from the other undead. One side she could never go back to, the other was unwanted. Maybe alone was best.]

It's for the best.

People could visit. Just not all at once.

[she knows loneliness when she sees it.]

I'll come. Every day, if you want.

[She nods. There were a few people who wouldn't be upset with her, who might come visit. It wouldn't be too bad. She would ask Kuja, maybe the witch would want her somewhere nearby to make paintings for her, maybe not.]

It will be quiet.

Okay. I can get you some magic dirt, and you can make a place you want to live. How's that?

[She gives those cold hands a gentle squeeze. She can't see Zinc as a monster, not when she herself has been considered a thing, an object, less than human.]

Somewhere quiet...maybe near the forest.

[she thinks of Paderau's altar, and the shells she and Mahalia had left there. The only bits of their ocean that hadn't disappeared. She'd go there sometimes when she needed to be alone.]

You're very cute, Xion.

[Maybe she should say that Xion is nice. Zinc wasn't really used to nice people, hadn't been a nice woman herself, hadn't seen the value of it when she had been so beautiful and so intelligence, completely independent of anyone else. She hadn't needed anyone, and she had not been nice. Kindness had seemed patently foolish to her, the mark of the stupid and naive.

Her opinion... hasn't exactly changed. Just her needs, and her view of herself. Perhaps she isn't naive, but she knows she isn't as bright as she used to be. If her mind was still her own, she wouldn't be in this situation.

She squeezes Xion's hands back, gently. She doesn't always know her own strength, but she tries to be careful.]

Cute...

[people say that a lot. She likes it, because she never really got compliments before coming here. She's not sure what it has to do with their conversation, but it makes her happy, a little.]

Thank you.

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