Debut

[takecourage]

It should be fairly straight forward: she just needs to find the effluvia, the thing personal enough that it'll let North track down Tara on the other side, beyond the veil. The retainer should do the job; what could mean more to the pretty blonde girl that Tara had been than the possibility of perfect teeth? Alex fills the sink with water and drops the retainer into it. A pale hand grasps at it and, when she looks up, North is holding it, his perfect lip wrinkled with distaste.

"You wanted effluvia," says Alex, with the barest shrug.

The man in the doorway, not a gray but a man, living and breathing and furious, startles her. SHe opens her mouth to speak but it's too late, he's already charging at her, barelling into her and slamming her back against the wall. Her head cracks against the windowsill and she sees stars, shock singing in her ears. His thick fingers curl around her throat and Alex claws at him, black spots already dancing at the corners of her eyes.

Not like this, she begs. Not like this. Not like this.

Van Nuys girl to the end, she jabs her fingers into his throat, like she'd wanted to do to Darlington that day he'd set Lethe's jackals on her. His grip loosens, which lets her suck in enough of a breath to slam her knee up between his legs. When he doubles over, Alex shoves past him, hurtling into the hallway but, shit, she can't remember where the fucking door is and he's right behind her and it shouldn't have been possible for him to be this quick but here he is and she has the chance to think portal magic before he's on her again, and he's broken her ribs, she knows that he has and every breath screams with pain. Before she can get past him again, he has his hands around her throat again.

"Nowhere to run, bitch."

North is at the edge of her vision, shouting, though all she can see is the working of his mouth - from this far, she can't hear a word. He wants her to let him in, doesn't he? It's the only chance she has. She reaches out her hand to him. She lets him in.

Everything after that is a blur. She hears his bones crunch: his fingers, his knees but he still manages to punch her hard enough to send her crashing to the floor. Even North's strength can't keep her standing. She goes under. And she's only dimly aware of Turner there, with his badge and his gun, saving the day. Her pain is like a time-lapse photograph, blooming all in one go, and Alex can barely keep herself standing. She just needs to get back to Il Bastone. She just needs to get back to Lethe, and then everything will be okay

Except Darlington won't be there, will he? So maybe everything is never going to be okay again…

She hears Dawes' voice, barely stumbles up the stairs to the armoury and props herself up against the side of Hiram's Crucible. It vibrates softly, gently. Alex keeps herself standing while Dawes strips her down and then she crawls into the crucible, sinking down into the liquid that's warm as a dream. As she closes her eyes, Alex wonders if the crucible could burn away her past, her present, make it so she would never have to see another gray. Is that what she really wants?

Hurting so deeply, Alex closes her eyes and lets herself sink.

Comments

[takecourage]

Alex takes the weaving without hesitation, turning it over in her fingers. Unbidden, she wonders what Darlington would think of this kind of magic.

"Where it how?" She asks. "Like as a bracelet or do I tuck it into my bra?"

A beat after she says it, she remembers she's not wearing one.

[maloscuridad]

Nova snorts. "A bracelet." He knows full well that Alex doesn't have a bra to stuff it into and he made it too small to be worn on the head. Call him a jerk, but he doesn't think protection cantos should be used like flower crowns at Coachella.

"It's not strong magic. I don't have the ingredients for that kind of thing." He doesn't have the lifespan for it either.

[takecourage]

Alex slips it onto her wrist without hesitation, flexing her fingers once it's in place. She doesn't look at the gray in the corner of the room.

"Thank you," she says. "I appreciate it."

[maloscuridad]

Nova can't help but watch her face and notice that Alex's eyes don't go back to the corner. He doesn't necessarily blame her but he likes to know his magic still works, even if it's tiny shit like this.

"Don't thank me until you know it did the job," he says. There's a smirk on his face, like he knows damn well it did, and that hides the doubt that he might finally be crumbling.

[takecourage]

"It's nice to have something to have faith in," She says, drawing her feet up onto the sofa, curling in on herself a little. She fixes him with ink dark eyes. "So. What else do I need to know?"

[maloscuridad]

He laughs, but it's a private thing. The idea of someone having faith in him feels less and less believable some days. Unless Alex asks, he won't clarify that point.

The way she looks at him, it's like she probably knows.

"Where the fuck to start?" he asks, the question directed at the ceiling. "The city steals you here and some weird-ass no-name agency gives you rent money and an address. That's just starters. Everything else. Shit. I don't know sometimes."

[takecourage]

Alex lets out a grumbling sigh at that.

"Sounds like Lethe," she says, barely contained a roll in her eyes. It feels like her life hasn't been her own since Sandow walked into that hospital room and found her in cuffs. "What do I need to be careful of?"

[maloscuridad]

"Like the river in the Underworld?" The association with the name comes immediately, except he doesn't know any version of any myth that makes Lethe sound like Darrow. There's definitely still significance to it and that makes Nova curious.

"It's a city, so there's crime, but after that it gets complicated. You got magic users, mutants, fair folk, whatever. And if that's not enough, sometimes the city just goes apeshit and brings evil gingerbread men to life."

[takecourage]

"Yeah. It's just a name, though. We're the Ninth of the old societies at Yale. We're the ones who are supposed to keep the others in line." She snorts a laugh, still playing with the marigolds around her wrists. "I wasn't expecting that much ritual magic when I moved to New Haven."

[maloscuridad]

"Yale," Nova says. He knows what that school is and he's never had reason to dream of going. Boys like him don't go to Yale but apparently girls like Alex do. It puts an odd curiosity in him. It also puts a very instinctively New York feeling in him. "I heard that place is a'ight."

[takecourage]

The way he says it makes Alex smile and she takes a sip of her tea.

"It's a really fucking weird place," she says. "But you don't turn down a free ride, you know?" Especially not when you're in hospital in handcuffs.

[maloscuridad]

There, Nova thinks. That's what it is. He doesn't know what got her there but he can't blame her for taking the opportunity. Maybe he could be Yale material too, if someone gave him a shot. The thought passes and Nova smiles to himself. Not a chance in hell.

"Well, if you're used to weird, then you're already over the first jump."

[takecourage]

"Maybe not this exact flavour of weird," says Alex, rolling her eyes a little. "But I've definitely got form, yeah."

[maloscuridad]

"Honestly, if this place was a horror movie, twenty-four-seven? That'd at least make sense." More sense than demonic gingerbread cookies and possessed children's toys, that's for sure. "You learn how to roll with it."