fondofapples | Inbox -- Genessia

Regina Mills
~~Queen~~ ~~Mayor~~ Mother
Sorceress
Fond of Plants

"You've reached the inbox of Regina Mills. Leave a message. If it's urgent, it's probably too late."

(text, voice, video, action, ooc planning if necessary for Genessia only)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hellorhighwater

hey beautiful

just talked to your ex

tell me i do not have permission to disembowel him

or cook his brain inside his skull

or weave a fishing net out of his circulatory system

the setting his heart on fire thing is also appealing to me

but he has only one eyeball to watch pop so that might be less fun

i could do them all but then id be late coming home for dinner

and i pride myself on punctuality

From:

fondofapples

Thor is not my ex. He's a friend I had sex with a couple of times, no feelings involved.

You absolutely do not have permission to attack Thor because you're mad he touched me.

If you need to get macho and demonstrative, come break some furniture with me.

From:

hellorhighwater

not mad

no macho bullshit involved

im just dying to split him from hole to hole

ill respect your wishes but i still want him dead

From:

fondofapples

[ She frowns at her phone, concerned and confused. ]

Then, why? Call me if you'd rather talk.

From:

hellorhighwater

~~id rather crack his fucking ribcage and wear his gall bladder as a boutonniere~~

[He promptly deletes the message because one, it'll probably piss her off...and two, she's right: he'd rather hear her voice. Maybe that'll take the edge off.

A few moments later, he's switching to audio.]

Talking about it's not gonna make me want to open him up and play with his organs any less, Beloved.

From:

fondofapples

[ She suspects he'd rather pluck Thor's remaining eye out then talk to her about this, but she needs to hear what's going on with him. ]

It had better. Because while I hate denying you anything you want, I'm prepared to say no forever.

Neil. [ Her voice warms and softens, as though she's reaching through the phone to wrap around him. ] Love. What's going on here?

From:

hellorhighwater

[She meant it, too—and she had hooks deep enough in him to bring him to heel, too. The small, rational part of his brain was sighing with relief, crying out yes, thank you, don’t give up, don’t let me fail you, but the rational mind wasn’t in control.

Not until she spoke to him in that way she had, soft and warm and gentle and saying his name in that caressing tone that is her most diabolical weapon—filling him with white light. It makes his eyes fall shut and a barely audible sigh leave his lungs...

And that blind, foundationless flare of panic jerks him away from the light. Everything is cold and hard and dark as a New York winter again, as is his flat tone.]

Nothing’s going on. I’m an assassin, I like to kill people, and he had hands on something that belongs to me. I don’t need a reason.

[Even if that sneaky fucking rational mind snuck in and gave her one without him realizing it.]

Edited Date: 2018-10-04 01:29 am (UTC)

From:

fondofapples

That makes about as much sense as me murdering the prostitutes you slept with. The only difference between Thor and them is that I didn't pay. There was about that much sentiment involved.

[ She sighs quietly, uncertain how to make him understand how pointless being jealous of Thor is. The phone isn't going to be the best way to do this, but she can't leave work for a few hours yet, so it's going to have to get him through unless he needs her badly enough for her to lock her office door from the inside and teleport home for a bit. ]

I'm not a toy to be passed back and forth between men, Neil. I chose you, and he couldn't have me now even if he wanted me. Not because you won't allow it, but because I have no interest.

From:

hellorhighwater

No, you're not a toy. But you are mine.

[And I don't get to keep the good things.

He can't squeeze the words out, and he can hear that quiet exhalation--she's frustrated with him. He knows he sure fucking would be, because he's a walking headcase with homicidal tendencies.

And it's only a matter of time before she realizes it, before the stains she saw on his heart really sink in...before she gets tired of the ways he upsets her and the vicious way he loves her. It's a matter of time before any man or woman that's had a taste of the serenity in Regina's arms, and if that man or woman is a better person than Neil? Of course she's gonna come to her senses.

...and not a single goddamn fucking one of these old thoughts had been in his head before the last guy she fucked showed up.]

If you did try to murder the working girls I bedded, I sure as hell wouldn't blame you. Especially the rotten lays.

[A weak, blood soaked attempt at humor. His head is full of blood, and he can feel the fire smiling in his veins. His fingertips feel numb, the way they used to when the bigger kids would come around the corner, and Neil knew he had something they wanted. He can still feel the shock of each punch up his arm, smell the burning flesh...]

From:

fondofapples

[ It's something in the way he says 'mine' just then, not with confidence and pleasure and desire, like he does when they're alone, but almost defensively, like he can't hear her saying she's not going anywhere. That Thor isn't a threat. That there's nothing to worry about.

He sounds...like she feels when she starts panicking that someone or something is going to take him from her because it's good and she's happy and she doesn't get to be happy.

And now it makes sense, as much as these sorts of things can. A minute ago, he was going to have to get by. Now, there's not a chance in hell she's making him deal with this alone. For his sake, but probably also for the sake of anyone he has to 'bounce' on this shift.

Her voice quiets, her warm alto slipping husky to velvet the steel in it again. ]

Tell whoever's watching the bar that you need a meal break. I'll be there in five minutes.

[ She doesn't give him a choice or a chance to argue. Just disconnects and goes about the things she need to do to be gone for awhile. ]

From:

hellorhighwater

Regina, no--

[The line is already dead. Shit.

For a second, he considers not listening. Just working, and playing it off when she gets there--but that's a piece of him he just isn't ready to let her see: the liar, the eager killer, the part of bloodlust where he comfortably stops caring to the point he can don any mask and make it convincing.

Besides, he knows that tone at this point: he won't stop her, he won't escape her, and not in the fun way where she'll pin him down and wear him out.

So he leaves his table, talks to the ~~NPC~~ bartender to extend his break, and he walks out of the Drunken Monkey, heading around to the side of the building. It's in comfortable shade, a good vantage point if she decides to walk up and not teleport--which isn't fucking likely. Leaning back against the building ensures she can't sneak up on him, at least.

He's thinking tactically--the way he used to when he was a kid. Goddamnit.

Hoping to wear himself out, Neil summons a fairly large ball of dragon fire, siphons off the flame, and when she arrives, is distracting himself by manipulating raw magic between his hands. The energy is a glassy, pearlescent orb by then, hovering between his palms, the oil slick rainbows on its surface shifting colors rapidly as he tries to give the magic form through the force of his will.]

From:

fondofapples

Six minutes later -- six, not five, because she decided to walk the last bit of the distance to settle herself -- Regina came through into the shady part of the clearing near the tavern where she imagined Neil would put himself. She imagined correctly, because there he was, twice as much of a wreck as she'd feared, and her stomach knotted again to see him playing with raw magic.

He didn't do that without cause, and this time, the cause was fear-fed rage strong enough that the exhaustion that came with manipulating raw magic was preferable. Her heart hurt for him, made her wish she'd never told him about Thor, because Thor never would have.

Brows pinched over eyes dark with shared pain, she strode down the dirt road to him, not stopping until she stood at his side, her body close enough to his for him to draw her heat if he needed it. "Neil, love, can you put that down, please? I can't very well hold you with magic in between us."

From:

hellorhighwater

For a long moment, Neil said nothing--barely reacted, showing no real sign he'd heard her. His gaze had lifted when he heard her approach, flicked back and forth between the energy and her face as she moved, but now he was lost in the power he was manipulating again.

That lasted all of five seconds before he narrowed his focus, lip curling in a subtle grimace of concentration--and forced the magic to take shape.

With a muted flash of white light, he shot out his hand to catch the CD jewel case that appeared.

"Blessid Union of Souls." he explained tersely, showing her the cover of the album briefly before he turned it back towards him, reading the track list with a sudden, painful wave of nostalgia. "Listened to this thing nonstop for three straight days on a Discman I borrowed from a classmate. Memorized the whole thing."

Because, as was expected, he'd come back to the home from school one day to find that someone had raided his shit, and no one had seen a thing.

Speaking a spell she was familiar with at this point, Neil held the CD aloft as glowing coal energy began to burn it away, ashes drifting into the air and away, transporting his little prize home. Once his arm fell again, face still tipped to the sky, it found its home across Regina's shoulders.

And, per her suspicion, he was almost too hot to touch--and just starting to shiver.

From:

fondofapples

Listened to it for three straight days, and then what? She didn't know, but she strongly suspected it had disappeared like so many other things that had mattered to him. So she stood with him, facing the CD until it had burned to ash and drifted away--and only then did she ignore the heat that rode him to draw him into her arms.

"Take what you need," she told him, perfectly cognizant that as hot as he was, he might need more than he'd ever taken from her before. She didn't care, as long as the broad back beneath her two hands stopped shaking with the chill.

"I'm here. With you. Yours, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm considerably harder to steal than a CD and much more likely to murder my abductor, hm?"

From:

hellorhighwater

That got a quiet huff of laughter from him, weak but not totally humorless. She wrapped around him like a furnace, even though he knew he was the one putting out heat. It was so easy to wrap his arms around her in turn, sink into her, where he could just bathe in her warmth until there was nothing left, until he feasted on every last morsel of her fire...

Neil didn't let himself steal her body heat, and he felt that lance of fury from the power in his veins. It pushed the fire back out of his head again--and she was so warm, holding her helped.

His queen, his beloved...his mate. And goddamnit, he was too fucking transparent. Women made him stupid...no, not women anymore. Just her.

Drawing a shaky sigh, he pressed his face against the top of her head. The word that left him was low, breathy, more felt than heard...and for the first time, it carried something Neil rarely let show: fear.

"...promise?..."

From:

fondofapples

"If you stop being stubborn about warming yourself," she replied tartly (because his fear triggered her own and reassurance was a bit of a trick when she was still afraid), "Yes. Otherwise, there's no point, since you'll freeze to death before it ever becomes an issue."

She knew, of course, that that wasn't going to be answer enough, and even if all of this made her nervous, it wasn't what she wanted to tell him either.

So she backed half a step, enough that she could see him without having to crane her neck up under his chin, reached up to take his face in both hands, and made sure she'd gathered back his full attention. "I promise. On my hope of redemption and of seeing my son again, I promise that I love you and I will not leave you."

From:

hellorhighwater

There they were--the fangs of his queen, not biting but scratching skin, just enough to remind him they were there. Maybe he was broken in ways that couldn't be fixed, but the way she bristled didn't feel like bristling--it felt like those hooks sinking deeper, pulling him closer. It was admonition for disobedience, wrapped around love and concern and things that fucking terrified her, but she gave them to him anyway and accepted them from him in turn.

So she upbraided him--and it made him laugh, just a little, because it was reassuring.

Then she took his face between her hands and she did promise--swore, even, on the most cherished things she held in that flawless heart of hers, and it wasn't so reassuring anymore.

It was more frightening because he believed her. She loved him, and she'd tear down the sky itself to stay with him...but he knew better than most that not all promises were broken. Sometimes, they were simply negated by a universe that had other ideas.

Neil simply wasn't allowed to keep good things. And there were so many things now: ways to use his skills for good, kids he was crazy about, a mate that kindled in him a love that stripped him to the bone...Ember's Breath, he had a family. He'd never had one before, and the last man she'd been with was here. It was a sure sign that the end was near. This was the moment it would all fall apart.

Her oath was certain. Nothing else was. That was what turned him right back into the scared kid that had jumped off a cliff because he had so little to lose, with no guarantee that the dragon who coaxed him to the edge would actually catch him before he fell.

Dahgo. This cliff was higher, the fall would hurt more...and he could only lose by remaining on the edge.

Shutting his eyes, he leaned into her touch with a shaky sigh and opened his own ribcage instead of Thor's with a nod.

"Okay." he murmured, reaching up to catch one of her hands so he could turn his head and kiss her palm. "I believe you."

From:

fondofapples

"Neil." Her heart broke for him and poured out in the single breath that was his name.

She drew him in, as close as their relative heights would let her, and pulled her fingers through his hair, the most soothing gesture she shared with him. For several very long minutes, she didn't say anything, only held him, kissed his temple when she could reach it, his jaw when she couldn't, and existed in the perfect peace of the pain she feared so much grown impossible with her heart already torn asunder.

And when she did speak, it was to say first, softly, "You're starting to understand what I feel, and I wish you weren't," while rubbing his back, with her hand low and protective, over his kidneys.

She found some sharpness then that went with her need to protect him and added, "And you're still being stubborn about my body heat. Take it," she said and dared him to disobey and meet with Her Majesty's displeasure.

From:

hellorhighwater

He went into her arms without resistance, stooping so he could press his face against her shoulder, her neck, whatever he could reach to breathe her in and let her rain kisses over his face and jaw--and shivered with pleasure, not the cold, when her fingers slid through his hair.

What he hated was that she was right. Maybe. He wasn't totally sure--but she scolded him again for resisting her, and he couldn't find it in him to disobey, to resist when he felt so cold in more ways than one.

With a sigh, he curled his hand around her nape, pressed his face against the top of her head, and drew deep, warming himself with her body heat. He'd stolen from others, the women he used to pay for companionship, but he could take so little from them when he was truly cold, not unless he wanted to kill them.

Regina had a little more than some, had fire at her fingertips, a spark in her that his power liked--but the moment he felt her shiver he stopped, wrapped her tight in his arms to let his overheated skin give back what he had taken.

"Good things don't last." he finally confessed against her hair. "They don't stay. I learned that lesson a long time ago--I came to terms with it. Now...it's like I've forgotten every goddamn thing I ever knew, and it's making me stupid. I'm sorry."

From:

fondofapples

Somehow she never minded the chill that came when he drew the heat from her to warm himself. It was, she imagined, a little like feeding a vampire (but one who'd rather die than sparkle) she'd fallen in love with. But safer and better, since once he felt warm, the dragon fire beneath his skin could safely warm her.

And she might even be willing to admit that him warming her when she felt cold made her feel safe, secure, cherished. It was that which made it possible for her voice to stay steady, her touch to be protective, her kisses to be tender, when he confessed her own worst nightmares.

"Love does that," she answered him. "Makes you want what you know you can't have, and then you're terrified of losing what you somehow got." A breath to calm her own rising fear and then, "Don't apologize for loving me enough to be afraid of losing me." It made her a very little less scared to know he needed her beyond sanity and safety too.

From:

hellorhighwater

That thrum of tension that came on the edge of a deep breath...it made him hold her a little tighter, nuzzle the top of her head unthinkingly in a gesture of comfort, run a hand along her spine to soothe away what he'd come to learn was fear in her.

"I'll never apologize for loving you--just for being an idiot about it." he assured her with a breath that was almost a laugh. "Just for..."

The words clogged in his throat, wouldn't come out. Because it was so tangled up in survival, in life and death--in things he dared not speak aloud lest he tempt the Sky Maker's wrath to find him even in this place.

"...just for being afraid."

From:

fondofapples

"Oh." Her voice came at him flat and slicing like a whirling discus. "So it's fine for me to be afraid. Fine for you to comfort me when I'm scared. But you have to apologize for it, because you're a big tough macho man."

She glared at him and if he didn't see the claws coming out and the fangs dropping, he wasn't paying attention. Because this was exactly the same bullshit she suspended Keith over a firepit for.

From:

hellorhighwater

Neil met her gaze, looking for a moment like he'd been physically slapped by the flat, venomous tone, by the way she glared at him like she actually meant what she was saying.

"In what world did I ever give you the idea that I knew a fucking thing about pride, Regina?" he asked quietly, releasing her and taking a step back. "Was it the story about the plethora of beatings I took growing up? The one about the first two kids I ever put in a burn ward for throwing a punch? Was it the stories of the king I love and serve, who has never seen me as truly worthy because I dare to show his enemies mercy? Or is it the god who made my king, the one I pray to every day for nothing more than to be worthy of the queen I have offered what precious little good is left in me, and the path I have chosen to experience the love I have for her?"

Raking a hand back through his hair, he stared at his feet for a long moment, shaking his head.

"I left behind the ideals of the world I was born in when I chose to serve the throne." Lifting his gaze, he glared right back at her. "I am not a packaged product of the world of Man, Beloved. Don't treat me like I am."

From:

fondofapples

It wasn't the words, although she did listen and was reminded that he couldn't be the Sheriff if he wanted to. He didn't have that cold, slithering calculation in him for all the reptile in his history.

And it wasn't the look in his eyes, but that hard glare served to set her back a step. Not in fear, because he would never hurt her, and even in his feral, hissing fury, she was his 'Beloved.' But he hurt, and that was her doing.

No, it was him taking a step away from her that broke through to her. When she'd had her hand in his chest, he'd kissed her, and now he was stepping back.

Her hands went to her hips, defensive, but she forced herself to take a breath. To think over the frantic beating of her heart that she knew for the combination of fury and fear of pushing this too far, finally showing him something he couldn't forgive.

"Pride, fear of weakness, fear of vulnerability, whatever it is, it doesn't change you cooing 'I've got you, Beloved' when I'm scared and telling me it's okay. It doesn't change you telling me not to apologize for being vicious and cutting, and turning around and apologizing for being afraid," she spit out, still angry, but Regina-angry, not Evil Queen-angry. She slashed a hand through the air, but didn't follow it with the magic that boiled up and charged the air between them. "If it's okay for me, then it's okay for you. And if it's not, then it's not."

From:

hellorhighwater

“Dahgo.” he reminded her flatly. “I have removed my heart, I stand weak and vulnerable and immortal. Don’t you get that? I love as the gods have loved, I have real power for the first time in my fucking life because of what I feel for you. A power my own king fears so greatly, he bade me keep my heart when I swore to cut it out for him—and when power is wielded with fear? People get hurt.”

In a fit of pique, and to make a point, Neil summoned a ball of dragon fire and turned, lobbing it at a tree a few feet away, watching as it began to burn with a brilliant red light.

“No one knows that better than me. In the world of Man, there are two dead men and eight mutilated teenage boys to attest to that.”