she began to open up. lulu had been happy to listen, and to absorb whatever she could learn about the woman she’d be sharing such a dangerous position with.[break][break]

but then, she seemed to stop herself. lulu’s head tilted, curiously, but then her eyes softened at the revelation. even more so than her hospitality, this was unlike her.[break][break]

”oh.”[break][break]

with a sigh, her gaze fell to her glass. ”i’m sorry to hear that. i also lost a lover, once.”[break][break]

she didn’t ask elisabeth how it had happened. it felt too invasive. she could hardly put into words how rinc had gone. it had been particularly brutal, from what she’d been told.[break][break]

”loss is such a common thing, in this life we choose to live. we’re so hardened to ignore it. but to lose a love is… tragic.”[break][break]

she raised, to top off both of their glasses, and then lifted hers again. ”to your husband.”

[attr="class","ooc"]Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-houndoom"]

”oh.”[break][break]

the confusion was reflected on lulu’s own face, as was the flush of red; but elisabeth’s response caused her to reflect, however briefly, in a way she hadn’t much since reviewing the news of her lover’s death.[break][break]

”i see.”[break][break]

her relationship with rinc had not been a fairytale. love had been there, wrong or not, beside the hate and the pain. perhaps it existed more so in his death, next guilt and confusion and self-loathing. these feelings were all codependent.[break][break]

rinc had been her first feeling of real closeness. it would be wrong not to mourn him. it would be wrong to remember him for the bad when there had been so many good moments.[break][break]

it had been her fault. it should have been her. they’d both always done wrong, to each other, and to the innocent. she was a bad lover, just as she was bad person, and nothing would ever change that.[break][break]

remembering the hands on her throat in the border, she kept her glass raised.[break][break]

”to mine, then. thank you.”[break][break]

she sipped, curiosity only growing in her eyes as it mixed with other emotions in the cracks now riddled across her hospitable mask.

[attr="class","ooc"]Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-houndoom"]

she sipped wine like cold blood, taste of a wound salting bitter tannins. there were some things time would never heal, no matter which way it flowed.[break][break]

it was difficult to imagine such resolve. she found herself almost envious.[break][break]

”your husband.” surprise was betrayed in her tone, and the way her thin brows raised. ”oh.”[break][break]

briefly, lulu wondered what her life might have been like had she even at least stopped listening to rinc so much. perhaps she would not have absorbed so many of his qualities. his temper, his mouth, his spiteful glare…[break][break]

but before him, she had been much less memorable. she supposed, at least, he had shaped her into a monster with real teeth. in such a dark world, that was something to be grateful for.[break][break]

it took her a long moment to answer. her gaze softened even more, a bit distant, a bit lost, even teetering at the point of remarkable transparency. vulnerability.[break][break]

”yes, well… i share your sentiment.” she confessed. ”my ex's ghost tried to kill me in the border. in my opinion, the dead should stay dead. we’ll just have to find a way to solve that problem.”

[attr="class","ooc"]Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-houndoom"]