Victim of Forbidden Love

I won't go until I get some I won't go until I get some I won't go until I get some So bring it right here~♪♫

                            “[ I don’t get what you want at all anymore, Vi.]”

.

.

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     “… I don’t know, Ru. I don’t know… And I’m not sure I ever did, at this point.” Faced with bare reality, Vi droops, the hope she brought with her snuffed by his words.

     “You’re right. You’re right, and I’m wrong. You always have been, and that’s what I just can’t understand.” The sneer in her voice is bittersweet- Turned at herself, her own realization. She sinks, lower, falling back on her rump and hanging her head, searching the ground for the words she needs

     “You reach out to me, I reach out to you, and— I always just push you away. I don’t understand why, or even how I manage it. I’m trying so hard to make things right, I really am- Please, Ru, you have to believe me!”      Words tumble from her mouth, explanation turns into pleading as her throat closes on her, and when she looks up again there’s tears in her eyes, pooling where her faceplate meets the skin before rolling down the satin-sheened metal.      “I- I don’t KNOW what I want anymore!” Vi bawls, the dam bursting and all the sorrow she’s kept inside gushes forth, drowning whatever else remains.      This is her truth, and she can’t hide it from herself any longer. No more room for denial, for anger, for bargaining, the wound must be opened fully and the pain of washing it must be had, before it can heal.

     “I want you, and- and I want things to just be okay again! I don’t even care anymore if it never goes back to the way it was before!”      “You’re not the target of some— crusade, I- I thought you needed help, but— It’s me, okay?! I’m the one who’s broken, I admit it! I don’t know who I am, or what I want, or how to even find out!”      Breaths come in gasps, she can’t get enough air to feed her hoarse voice or beat back the creeping black at the edge of her vision      “I just live my stupid little life in my stupid little farm and pretend like pulling a plow and baking a-apple pies is all I need, but it’s not!”      “I— I...” Words fail the poor beast, and she buries her face in her claws, silent but for her sobbing and sniffling for some time before she finally finds herself spent, and wipes her nose with the back of a claw

//: Hey.

//: Are you still there?

//: Are you okay?

//: ...

//: Do you still care?

[Y-Yes??] She deliberately writes out the stutter in her response text,

[There has been little cellular reception at the places I have been frequenting lately. I am sorry.]

…

……Some time later:

A bow of their head, a smile; courteous.

< I hope I am not disturbing your peace. >

Raven finds her as she emerges from the depths of a stagnant pond, water rolling off her leathery hide in beads, leaving only a damp sheen and some stray duckweed behind on her broad back. She's clutching what looks (beneath the algae and muck) to be a strange fragment of technology in her beak.

(If he bothers to scan it, he might find a signature matching a location deep in Ultra Space, a civilization contacted a scarce few times before apocalypse befell them)

She walks to the shore before responding, growing taller with every step up into the shallows and pushing a prow surge that kisses the black chimera's ankles when it reaches him.

"[CV-MAU-06]? These days, that's just my digital alias. Please, call me Vi." Her voice is rich and smooth, the lighthearted chuckle that follows is like a touch of sweetener in otherwise black morning coffee delivered in bed with a kiss.

👇

(dash game)

     “Alright, not home.” A good rule is to not argue with patients on things like this. “Is my barn okay? It’s quiet, and nobody will find us. I have tools to put you back together there.”      …Not the way she likes to have visitors, but, it’s the most practical choice she can think of.

[DICTIONARY LOOKUP FAILED- INITIATING INTERNET SEARCH...]

"Handsome, strong, and not terribly bright?"

"Yeah, that's Bell~"

"Geez, aren't you a subtle fellow? Begone."