The Abbey

[Vanitypirate]

"No, I have not seen the scar."

Florence froze as the cowl was tugged, and her gaze fixed upwards as he spoke, as if to see what exactly he was tending to. Though, as it turns out, there was nothing quite as wrong with her cowl as there was apparently wrong with her mask.

"You made this mask." She reminded him, weakly, but ultimately relenting as she straighted up, as her hand disappeared into the back of her cowl in pursuit of the straps' bindings. The other hand held the nose, poised and ready for its hold over her face to slip.

"If it did not damage the internal structure..." Her eyes peered over the mask first, sharp, but much more alert than they appeared before she had slept,
"You only need one gonad to reproduce. It... lowers the chance, especially among non-humans such as Missy, but it is a possibility."

The notes were long, a mish-mash of Italian and English verbage-- words mentioned with as much gravitas as 'daemon' or soul, with more words like 'amulet' squished in on the margins. The page was a veritable wall of word, and no drying illustrations or diagrams stared back up at Lekalis.

"It is a small chance. Do not risk it again."

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

Small chance..., he rolled the word in his mind, he began to think... Then remembered who he was with.

He watched her start on the straps before huffing in mild amusement, his hands came up around hers, and he rose a brow. Feeling, at once, their relationship still yet tangible as he felt her hands, through the gloves.
Blood pulsing through veins, 'neath skin, as real as his own. Honest blood, focused and determined blood.

Who was he to despoil it? Cause it frustration. He had never seen his self as corrupting, not how the rumors always spun it; yet here... now... At the point where he'd felt his fullest, he felt himself slipping so very swiftly into a very real, very vile, pit. Something he'd lived his entire life climbing out of.

The Ex-Lord took a steadying breath, his hands trembled lightly as he slid his fingers beneath hers, and saw to the straps.
"I-I know... Made it to protect you..." He explained quietly, feeling the buckles he'd used from her old mask.
"Aheh, let me--" He spake, presuming the process of undoing those buckles...
He'd stitched new leather over it, but the inner lining... He always found good leather grew on you like any friend, but like any old friend, the strands become more flexible: capable of bending this way or that, but more susceptible to cuts.
It was good to keep old leather... better to know when it needed mending too.
"... But I sacrificed much, I'm reminded of my ruin everytime I see it." He cointinued,
"But you do good work, you help people, help me... Love me, as you've said. Everytime you take off the mask of my Ruin, I'm reminded that they did it to help people they love." Lekalis explained, slipping the mask down, between them.

Finally able to see her oval face, its sharp contours, her nose and eyes... Her lovely almond eyes with chocolate hued intelligence at their core, surrounded by reddy whites, her veins still yet strained from her intensive sleep schedule.
He would have had her follow him in his youth, he would have fallen in love with it the moment he'd seen it. Who was he kidding; he had. He'd spent half a year trying to convince himself it was easy as getting her to bed with him, then the better part of that year realizing that it was so much more than just that.
It wasn't just flowery words or a talented touch or an agile waist, it was honesty, it was friendship made to something deeper than any love.

Indeed, as he looked into her eyes, his hands drifting to her strained neck; he could see her veins beneath that mask of skin. She was what he needed, and the moment he could have held his liberation, his retribution in his arms at last... He'd tossed it away to passion, passion what brought his old kingdom down.
It was a damnable cycle... He should have known. Some cosmic play, doomed to endless encore.

"I'm... I'm... I'm scared, Florence. I know I-I've fucked it, and I'm so sorry... So sorry..." He took a breath, licking his lips as his hands slipped down; over her trapezius again, smoothing out the hood, pushing it back to see her hair he'd groomed.

"... But we can fix this, right? There's a solution, here..." He looked down at the notes again, his finger tracing over those words he could see: Daemon, Amulet. To think he held such malicious deities at his breast sickened him.

"... A process to undo."
Lekalis tapped his amulet, looking to Florence, his frown slipping away to a confident smile,
"If anyone can patch this up, it'll be you." He squeezed her shoulder, closing an eye at her, bowing his head in endearment.
"You've always made me better."

[Vanitypirate]

Florence had seen it: she knew the feeling well, seen it often before in mentors striking fear into the heart of the student. She had been at the receiving end, long ago... the reminder of consequence-- natural, biological consequence-- to one's actions. Such consequences warranted an amount of sacrifice.

She had willingly sacrificed much to stand where she did.

"It is my responsibility to do good work."

Florence wondered if he would be willing to do the same, watching him now, if he could willingly sacrifice, rather than run blindly into such a thing in the pursuit of some passion.

Her eyes followed unflinchingly as his hands moved about her person, from shoulders to neck, before moving to the notes laid out to dry. Those sharp eyes glanced down to the mask, almost longingly, before flicking upwards again.

"This... complicates the problem, greatly." She nodded, slightly-- the movement of assent was much more subtle without that corvine cone strapped to her face.

"But I will fix this." Vowed the Crowgazer.

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

He took a clearing breath and nodded, his eyes glancing away as she spoke her piece; her honesty went as far as her words did. Duly noting her own shared glance, to the mask; he didn't need to look at her face to know that she wanted to wear it again.

Lekalis nodded, again, as he reached out and ran his finger along the stitching he'd done along the crown of the beak, before plucking it up at the point. Holding it easily, bouncing only lightly before he balanced it at the center of weight, on his finger, holding it out like some skull.

Looking at it, then to Florence with a risen brow.
"Ah: I said we, Florence. Come now; you sure you had enough sleep?" He inquired, as his gaze only bored deeper into Florence's own,
"Shall we say it together again?" He asked, though he presumed and pressed on again with a flourish of his free hand, holding the mask still in his other.
"We will fix this."

//

[Outisakanobody]

The time had finally come. She had put it off and gotten distracted too much, and would not let it happen any more. Even if a part of her didn't feel fully prepared, she gathered as many of her holey servants and gave them the message to carry out through the hamlet. With the simple message, they scattered to spread the word.

It was high time for another sermon, and, sadly, there was no one else to give it besides Grace.

[twostepsback]

Titus adjusted his gray woolen scarf as he entered the Abbey, folks who knew about him would probably be none too happy about a Gillman attending church service, but so what? "If they don't like, they can bite me," Titus grumbled.

Charis was already amidst the Abbey Pews, waiting for service to start.

[Vanitypirate]

"I have not slept adequately. You are correct."

Florence narrowed her eyes, almost pensively, as she brought a hand up to lightly scratch her jaw, two individual swipes of the nail before she let the arm swivel stiffly back down at her side.

It would be difficult; Lekalis had chosen the worst possible candidate to court, but a good doctor always prepares and accounts for complications...

"We will fix this." She obeyed in her typical drone.

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

The Ex-Lord clucked his tongue and shook his head, nodding, though, as he brought his hand to hold the mask of the Crowgazer more properly, securely; setting it between them vertically, he looked down to it, between their close set forms, and then to Florence's face once more.
"Thought so..." He mused, at her mention on her irrefutably dire sleep patterns.

Still, with his free hand, habit and instinct had him brush his knuckles lightly against her neck, the pads of his fingers gracing her sharp jawline, as his eyes followed them in kind.
"... We will fix this." He assured, looking to her as their closeness collapsed unto more intimate proximities.

His brow hovered 'aught but a few inches away from hers, bowed forward slightly as his eyes roamed her lips, then flicked to her eyes; curious, calm, collected. Inky pools, with a glassy... or rather, mirror-esque surface.
"Do you... still love me?" He asked somberly, his thumb trailing along the edge of her chin.

//

[Vanitypirate]

Florence was as still and rigid at close proximity as she was when he stood a handful of feet away, and she stared vacantly back at him as he approached. She vaguely felt the impression of the mask, what with her robes, but she remained aware of it.

"I have no reason to have stopped."

For such sentimental information, she went about it as blandly as any lecture. She rose her chin as it was thumbed.

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

His features shifted from determination to amusement in a simple shift of a skeptical brow; he pursed his lips and sighed contentedly.
"That's rather debtable, don't you think..?" He sighed, cocking his head to one side, examining her ever curt cheeks and eyes: he could see her lashes and flicks of her pupils moving only so much as demanded, no more, no less.

"... Come now: even base animal instincts would imply that a creature intimately joined with another, would show some sign of malicious skew of mindset. Roderick, for example." He explained with chilling confidence and ease, a small toothy smile splitting his lips as he leaned forward and pecked her cheek, taking a step back as he held the mask against her abdomen with his one hand; the other trailing back to his self.

"And the cultures of Florence... Italy, Europe as a whole, are rather... Monogamous." He shrugged, looking at her desk, then to Florence; he supposed she had her own established polygamy of sorts.

//

[Vanitypirate]

Florence quirked her head, even frowning a touch, despite the peck on the cheek-- which she had scarcely registered with little more than running the pad of her thumb over her cheek where his lips were.

"I do not understand." She spoke plainly, looking down to the mask: such implied, social customs were lost on her, but an uncertain assumption lead her to believe that he wished for her to take it back, and so she did with her gloved hands.

She held the thing gently and quietly looked it over, brow furrowing at that crack across the lenses. Thankfully, it was only superficial.

"I do not seek... marriage, or coupling. That is not my place."

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

His brows rose in surprise; the frown perhaps being the most apparent expression she'd, well, expressed since he'd known her. Granted, he'd seen it a few times before, it was still a curious anomaly. Albeit, a bit disheartening one.
Lekalis hummed, and kept a small smile, flickering a bit at the frown as his eyes danced about the room; thinking of ways to restate and rebuild.

"Errr... Monogamy; not persay, marriage but... Yes; coupling, is typically done between two individuals who, as you've said: love eachother." He explained with a shrug, his eyes drifting back to hers as he relinquished his grip on the mask. Thinking 'aught of having to wait for her to do so.
His hands shifted to rub her arms gently, kindly.

"A-and some theorize that this is because of Nature's own protectiveness over a mate: how a male deer will fend off offending males from a female carrying it's child. O-or Cats and Dogs and the like. It extends to offspring; connections typically deemed to derive from Love." He pressed, a brief chuckle coming out from him as he realized he was trying to rationalize Florence's own disproval of his relationship beyond simple binding. Though, he knew he didn't want to ruin their relationship... He wanted proof that it existed.

Still, he took a breath; realizing his scatterbrained intellect on the matter was rather plainly coming through. He brought a hand back to rub the back of his neck.

"You mentioned you Loved me: I want to know why you don't feel like... Like anythings changed?" He spake with a mixture of happiness on the matter, but also confusion, as his hands reached out and clasped her shoulders; his self leaning forward as though to better divine something from her features before he brought a hand up to push some of her hair out of her face and behind her ear.
//

[Vanitypirate]

"My purpose is not to mate and bear offspring." Florence reminded him, holding the mask squarely between her two hands. For all his shifting about, to and away from her, she had hardly moved. "I am incapable of producing children."

She lowered the mask a touch; her hands grew tired of hoisting the great, beaked thing up, so she allowed her arms to slack.

"I do not love you for the purpose of procreation." She nodded, a subtle motion, bereft of the beak of her mask.
"I work to ensure that you lead a long, productive, virile life."

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Lekalis/

"What about a happy life, Florence..?" He asked with utter sooth; hardly raised in passion or contempt, as he queried her rather plainly, flatly.
"... I could just as easily live a long and productive, and virile, life by my lonesome. I have, so far... What I haven't been, is happy." He explained with a huff, looking to the mask, and her lack of equippage with some raised humors. His smile widened and he sighed contentedly.

"Your purpose, to me, is to be my companion; as wholly and honestly as that entails. N-not just copulation." He explained with a nod,
"I want you to be happy, I want you to smile and laugh with me someday; I want to hold you in my arms after everything seems manic." He pressed, his passion rising in almost recordable escalations.

"I want you to... to someday see past the purpose you've got burned in your psyche. I want you to know what you mean to me." He paused, shaking his head, smirking as he squeezed her shoulders emphatically,

"What you really mean to me. Not just the encyclopedic meaning behind what I say or do, but the feeling in your breast; an intangible pull and flutter." He sighed, at last, biting his lower lip as he looked to her notes, the mentions of the amulet, before his eyes set back onto Florence's features.

"That there's... There's more to you than just some predescribed purpose from education and tutors and employers. That your purpose to me is much more than just keeping me healthy; I want you to see me... likewise, with more purpose than living long, productively, and with utmost virlity." Lekalis shot her a small smile, though he felt it was yet still beyond her comprehension; so he let go of her, for now, and flicked out his cape in flush, and idly flapped it in the air to let it roll out of its folds naturally.


//

[Vanitypirate]

"I cannot make you happy. I do not know how to."

The words were as plain as ever, blunt, in contrast to Lekalis' honed sharp.

"I know how to ensure that you are alive. I am your companion in that regard." She watched as that cape unfurled in all its crimson glory, shimmering in the dim candlelight of the abbey's archives. She looked to it and then back up at Lekalis, admitting,

"I do not know how to do anything else."