the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl
The alabaster mare has given it everything - but after such an outburst, during such an outburst, there is no room or energy left to deny him. His smell is a bit off - feral, as if he’s been living in a mountain lion’s cave - but it’s still him and not unlike the last time she’s been so emotional in front of him (about 2 years earlier) she just falls silent, empty, and lets him hug because there is a sense of normalcy in it.
But he pulls away, distressed over her words and she returns to reality as well. He just up and left without explanation, impregnated a mare and hadn’t come back to see how she was doing. Her heart had weeped for her newfound friend, and when one day she could not find the two any more she told herself that Nymf was right. There was no point waiting for him any longer - she would be here, yes, but not so much waiting any longer, instead focussing on her kingdom duties. But her mind would keep wandering, of course. If something had happened to him maybe.
But now, it’s like he’s hardly even there any more. She’s starting to suspect maybe he did indeed forget - which was weird - as if he’d hit his head too hard. He seems to be scared of her anger with him, though she doesn’t find herself capable of softening her gaze just yet, even at the head toss, but she frowns when her name sounds so entirely wrong on his lips. Like he doesn’t really know the meaning of the sound.
She takes a few steps backwards at the moves he makes. The black that takes over his eyes - it’s that alien thing - and the change that happens suddenly, right under her nose, and for a moment she just stares.
As always, her adrenalin-kicked first response is to freeze; instead of fight or flight. She can’t even find her voice. This had been what made it so easy for Arithmetic to just take her; and again she’s waiting for a predator to make the first move. But this time at least, her conscious mind is trying to shake her awake - these four steps backwards are not enough distance; but running would mean turning her back and the lion would surely kill her. But that lion is Svedka and if she calls for help someone might kill him, instead.
@[Svedka] so she basically put some distance (like, a few feet) between them but I suppose if the lion leaps forward that distance is closed easily. But it should give her that millisecond to lift her hooves
