[EP] The eye of the storm

[st_arkcrowblack]

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.

Comments

[st_artandstoke]

Jag stepped gingerly over to Snow, but stopped a cautious few feet from her, and sat down across from her, cross-legged. "Hey."

He wasn't sure what the fuck was going on, but something was. He wasn't sure he could help, but she was even angrier than him. So he could be there, and not judge her, just in case it helped.

Kitty & Snow

[st_alksthroughwalls]

One good turn, do unto others, simple kindness. Call it what you wanted to call it. Piotr's departure yesterday didn't make her less sensitive to Kashaw and Zahra's departure. If anything, she was more so.

And without Kash to heal the wounds Snow had made in her hands, well. When Kitty saw her, she brought water, gauze and betadine she kept behind the counter in the bar. She didn't try to talk anymore than Snow had.

Snow & Vax

[st_abby]

When Vax heard the howling... He hadn't known who it could be. And it occurred to him, as he watched the girl rage from a hidden distance, that he hardly knew Snow's voice as he heard it. Shit. However much he would miss Kashaw and Zahra, for all his love of them... He didn't need them to function, as Snow had needed Kashaw.

Once the violence seemed to have bled out of the girl, the cat settled into her lap, her wounds tended if not healed... That was when Vax approached. He was silent as shadow, but he knew how easily she startled, so he made sure she could see him walking towards her from the front and at a ways off.

[st_alkingherprey]

"Do you need something alive to hit?"

She'd heard the commotion, come to see--and while Snow's rage was a little frightening, it wasn't disturbing. It was, in a lot of horrible ways, familiar.

It was the thing she ran from for so long, cutting out pieces of herself so she wouldn't fall into that pit. It was the fire and the fury that became love and pleasure and healing when she let it in and cherished it the way Jason had taught her to. Until he'd gone, she'd stopped running, stopped fearing...she grieved and moved and thought like a normal person.

Allison couldn't do that anymore. So she went back to cutting.

Standing near the desk, out of the way of projectiles, Allison waited until the sleek little cat (dark like Todd, put him away, forget him and cut him out) stopped the torrent, then finally spoke up before she walked towards Snow, crouching a couple of feet away out of both caution and deference.

When she'd lost Jason, she'd feared and craved help. When she lost him, she died inside for a while...when Jason was gone, Allison had put on the mask and torn through a lot of bodies.

"Sometimes, your own blood isn't enough." she continued, a mixture of grim knowledge and sorrow in her otherwise stoic expression. "If you need something alive to hit, we can go outside. Only thing I'll ask is you let me check your hands--as long as they aren't broken, we're good to go. I can take it, promise."

[st_ripetail]

The lobby wasn’t usually a disaster area, but it also usually didn’t contain a bloody Snow with a kitten. Rocket’s ears flattened briefly, but he walked up to the girl anyway. “Bad morning?”

Vex & Snow

[st_ubby]

Vex had been taking a shift in the clinic when she'd seen Lillith's message. She could have gotten someone else to cover, or put a damn sign on the door telling anyone to go looking for one of the doctors, but once she'd heard from Percy and Vax over the earrings to overcome the immediate panic that she'd lost one or both of them too, it had seemed best to stay where she was, where someone could find her if they needed. But she'd worried. About Lillith. About Curnen. About Snow.

So when, on her way through the lobby, she saw Snow, broken and bloody and cradling Kash's cat, she didn't even think. She released Trinket from Raven's Slumber, inky black darkness flowing from the necklace and coalescing into the beloved bear as she crossed to drop to her knees beside Snow.

Trinket dropped down in front of Vex and Snow, blocking them off from the rest of the room without Vex having to tell him something was wrong. His head pressed gently against Snow's leg, not disrupting the tiny (to him) ball of fur that smelled of cat and Kash.

"I'm so sorry, darling."

Regina x Snow

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina had been out for a morning ride, so the message came to her late. She'd just brushed down Grace and returned her to her stall when she checked her messages. No sooner had she seen it than she felt the tears jump to her eyes.

Oh, Snow.

Focusing her magic, she sought the necklace Snow still wore and tracked it to the lobby. The mess she found there told her that Snow had already learned, as did the look on her face. Regina gave a pained sigh and slid down the wall beside her daughter and put an arm around her. Words would come later. Her presence mattered first.