st_arkcrowblack: (Feral child)
st_arkcrowblack ([personal profile] st_arkcrowblack) wrote in [community profile] strangetrip2018-10-09 01:19 pm

[EP] The eye of the storm

Anybody coming to find out what all the noise in the lobby had been about would find a girl sitting on the floor with a cat in her lap, bloodied hands stroking over its black fur.

When Yasmeen had gone away, when Sansa had gone away, Snow had managed to get herself out and away from the inn where she could let her noise out without fearing any person, or more importantly, the horses. And both those times, Kash had found her and helped her scrape herself back together. She had come so much to rely on him being there, that at first she hadn't believed it. She'd gone searching, like a child trying to grasp the meaning of dead. She'd wandered all over the grounds, gone to his room, gone to the stables, gone to the clinic, walked miles of paths. It was only then that she'd given up and asked Darryl.

Then she lost her shit.

She howled, threw anything small and breakable that she could lay her hands on, and punched the walls until her knuckles were raw and bleeding.

What was she going to do without him? Kash had always been there for her when she didn't think she could talk to anybody else. He had saved Juno. Who would help her now when any of the animals were injured or sick? Who would hear what she was saying, even when she couldn't say it? He was her friend. Perhaps the best friend she'd ever had.

This was what happened when you trusted people. They just left. They just fucking left.

And she probably would have screamed herself hoarse if it weren't for the feeling of a furry little body slinking around one of her ankles. Of course she wouldn't have been the only one left behind (which was a cruel and unfair thing to think, she was not the only person who loved Kash. She just didn't care right now). She crumpled to her knees and Socks climbed into her lap. After a long moment she began to pet him, no longer the little kitten she'd held out to Kash last Christmas. There was no peace in the silence, but she could not continue to rage with Socks holding her down. The moment he left that place, it would all rise up again. So for now, she sat there in the mess she'd made, staring at nothing, her blood running into his fur.
st_oriedqueen: (behind these eyes)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-10-24 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
"All right." Regina took the no for what it was for the moment. Snow wouldn't bleed to death from any cuts on her hands, and if the cat still permitted her touch, she wasn't bleeding too profusely.

She sat quietly beside Snow for a few moments, trying--a little frantically--to think of anything she might have said or done in the past few days to upset her daughter, but could think of nothing. As they didn't ordinarily fight, it more likely had something to do with Kashaw's departure, and Regina's relationship with loss was too erratic, extreme, evil for her to understand immediately what.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know you love him very much." It might not be comfortable for Snow to hear, but it was true, and for Regina, anyway, probably a reasonably safe thing to say.
st_oriedqueen: (behind these eyes)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-10-28 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Every instinct pulled toward her daughter--except the black, violent rage that threatened the forces that had done this to her. And so Regina sat, likewise trembling, caught between the softest throngings of maternal love and the fiercest of primal urges, not to mention the twist of empathy, deep in her chest, for the loss those tears represented.

Snow had shook off her touch earlier, so Regina didn't immediately pull her into an embrace. Instead, she reached for one of those raw, bleeding hands, and held it gently in her own, resting on her own thigh, where Snow's blood dripped and stained her clothes. A visual statement of her feelings, that when you cut Snow, she bled.
st_oriedqueen: (hug snow)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-11-09 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
As soon as Snow began to list, Regina caught her. She gave Snow a moment to pull away, and when she didn't, she wrapped an arm around her daughter's trembling shoulders and drew Snow in against her chest. If anyone knew how hollow words would be now, it was Regina, so she simply pressed a kiss to Snow's hair, held her, and let her cry.
st_oriedqueen: (beautiful scrutiny)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-11-10 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
"I wish I knew, love."

Although it was probably best she didn't. If she knew who had hurt her daughter like this, no vows against black magic would hold her against making them suffer. She would rather have lost Dyson than have Snow lose Kash, rather suffer anything that see her like this.
st_oriedqueen: (hug snow)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-11-17 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
Regina smoothed Snow's hair out from between her face and Regina's shoulder and then stroked it flat against Snow's cheek to curtain off the harsh light of the lobby. It probably didn't help much, but it was something.

"Love lasts forever," she said after a few quiet moments, sudden tears streaking her cheeks in empathy. "Long long long after today, you'll still be able to think of him and remember how it felt to be with Kash, and know he's still there somewhere remembering you too. It's not the same as having him here, I know. But hold onto that. And believe in it. You and I found each other again. Maybe you and Kash will too."
st_oriedqueen: (hug snow)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-11-19 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
When the first wail went up, Regina's heart shattered her ribcage. She held Snow tightly to her shoulder, grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck, and summoned her teleportation mist.

Snow hated her own room. Regina's was red. She took Snow to Dyson's room and they hadn't been there seconds before there was a bark at the door. Not Dyson, but Aesop, and Regina didn't let go of her wailing child, only gestured at the door to let the dog in. He immediately jumped up on the bed and crowded into the hug.
st_oriedqueen: talking to henry (maternal)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-12-03 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
No longer a puppy, it had still never occurred to Aesop that he wasn't a perfectly good lapdog (except when Dyson was telling him not to be), and he certainly didn't get the memo now. Instead he plonked himself on Snow, leaned past her to lick Regina in greeting, and then nuzzled at Snow worriedly with soft, inquiring wuffles.

Regina didn't have anything to add to the conversation that would make more sense than the dog. She just did the only thing a mother can do when their child is crying about something they can't fix: held on and made gently soothing sounds and gestures, while mentally arranging the things Snow would need when she did finally stop.
st_oriedqueen: (listening)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-12-06 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
The truth was that no one place would be better than any other when it came to losing people. Anywhere else, Kashaw and Zahra and their unborn children might have died as suddenly as they disappeared from here. But Snow knew that.

"Want to help me destroy your room?" It was nothing significant, but it wouldn't hurt either of them to spend some rage. Regina more even than Snow. "If we run out of things to break and burn before we're tired of it, we can destroy mine, too."
st_oriedqueen: (listening)

Re: Regina x Snow

[personal profile] st_oriedqueen 2018-12-08 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Stay in and watch movies?" Regina settled with her back against the headboard and just stroked Snow's hair. "Root beer, ice cream, and popcorn."

It sounded like something Emma or Mary Margaret would suggest; which might make it weird, but not necessarily a bad suggestion. They'd done it when she arrived. Maybe just being with Snow would help a little.