INT - Windgrace Manor
Dorian had been keeping to himself and around the house for most of the day. Given that he wasn't entirely healed up yet he was donning a turtleneck to avoid any questions and it with his flannel pajamas was a bit warm for him. He caught himself more than once fanning his face when he ducked out of his room to find sustenance and libation. It was one such time just now and he had tiptoed downstairs in order to look for something to secret back upstairs to his room to snack on. Nothing seemed to strike his fancy enough to get into really building anything akin to one of his infamous sandwiches, booze didn't appeal to him, so he was perusing some of the blessed imported fruit that had appeared. He stood for a long time trying to choose between pear and mandarin, though eventually he'd just take both. It'd take a little longer to get there as his thoughts had to make a detour to the strange events which had occurred with the widow. A detour he'd take another detour from before mumbling, "Bloody hell," picking up two pieces of fruit and heading toward the stairs again and taking his malaise with him.
Dinah: Her experiments with the violin had not gone the way she had wanted. She was still frustrated with her inability to get the piano to make the sounds she wanted, and so Dinah drifted downstairs, levitating just enough that there were no audible footfalls. She was loitering in the corner by the record player, peering over the offerings there when dorian swore and headed towards the stairs and she smiled brightly, widely.
The mandarin lifted out of his hand, hovering just in front of his face, and the peel split apart like the petals of a flower, the segments spreading and rotating in midair in front of his face, whilst Di herself floated upwards, over, and behind him, haunting his back like a specter.
Dorian would usually be apt to play along with anything his sister wanted to throw at him; she was his very definition of the ideal playmate, afterall. Just now though, her sudden appearance and the very fact that he'd been too self absorbed to clock her approach which intensified the surprise, those things caused him to halt in his progress even as the orange was lifted from his hands. He didn't turn to face her when she drifted over and behind him, but it wouldn't be hard for her to see that he was more confounded than anything else, given his distracted then surprised starting point. The delight that was customary when he lay eyes on her was occluded for a few moments while he watched his fruit get prepared to eat with magic, and he sighed against the feeling of being caught out before finding his voice, croaky with disuse, "Hullo. Thanks, and ah..." He'd reach to try to take his fruit back before turning to face her, which would give him time to try and put a smile on his face.
Dinah 's face dropped, her own smile falling from her face at the clear distress her solar half showed like a light switch being flipped. It was a rare thing that he would be so despondent without cause, and for a moment she racked her brains...and skimmed his...to see if it was anything that she had done to cause this. A flicker of oil-slick iridescence danced over the surface of her eyes, and she let herself drop to the ground and the stupid predictability of being constrained by gravity.
"Are you sick?" she asked softly, her own voice soft, almost dreamy. Not quite there. The mandarin ceased spinning, taken from the air before she could let it fall and scatter to pieces, or worse "Not well? Or am I dreaming again?" she reached her fingertips for his brow. "so bundled, the fog is still gone, isnt it? the coldness is not returned? I do not feel it."
Dorian didn't seem all that interested in eating what fruit he'd grabbed as they just rested in his hands at either of his sides. He stared at his sister for a few moments of trying to guess what she already knew. He crossed his eyes looking up at the hand on his brow, and slowly as if to not dislodge her hand, he'd shake his head, emitting a quiet chuffle because it was easier than talking about what was distracting him. And upon her touch, he relaxed a little bit, enough to smile a small crescent of one that chased after the one he'd caused to flee from her face, as if he was starting over. It didn't go much better when he responded tripping over his words, "I am not sick. I am fine. You're awake. I just... I ah... I had a strange day. Yesterday. I am glad to see you. It's me, not you, but I am fine. Really. How are you?"
If she reached into his thoughts at all, Esher was there, in the space he was trying not to think about while pretending. He was pretty sure he was fine. Was going to be.
Dinah stared at him. THROUGH him. Fighting the urge to sieve through his thoughts. She was trying to stay in her own head today, she knew that she felt...disconnected enough from normal. At his quietness, his...subdued nature, the fingers touching his brow became her whole palm, laying across his head as she studied him, unblinkingly.
"you are not sick. you are not fine. you are hiding, lying to me dorian" she whispered, though there wasn't really any emotion behind it. Just the wide, golden owlish stare.
"Strange day." she echoed. It was very difficult for her to not reach in, to pry apart his memories.
She should not. She was not herself.
"Tell me." THAT wasn't phrased as a request, her hand still at his brow, watching in rapt fixation.
Dorian immediately felt pierced by guilt when accused of lying, because he knew he was trying by omission to keep the facts of the matter obscured. When she didn't remove her hand from his head he didn't move away or anything, fairly sure she wasn't going to find a fever. As she began plucking apart the sparse strings he'd woven together, keenly and insightfully catching on that he was dancing around something, he'd sigh again. After which he'd try and level with her, "Even if I am certain you'd rather not hear this? Hear me out, give it a few days and we never have to talk about it. You've been through enough recently and... I really am fine. Pretty sure I am as fine as usual, or I will be soon. You know Callisto is a terribly strange place and terribly strange things happen all of the time around here..."
Dinah dropped her hand. Letting her arm go slack and hang at her side again, she continued to stare, unblinkingly at him.
"he knows I can see lies and yet he persists in doing it. I am not sure if he thinks i am stupid, or if he just wishes I was" she mumbled quietly "Perhaps you did not think i would notice or perhaps you hope that I would simply not care when the other half of my soul is covered and evasive and hiding and lying" she flinched at her own words, reaching her fingers to her own brow now, massaging at her temples.
"whatever it is is enough that I should be protected from it. Whatever it is, it is worse than them?" she turned, returning to her position at the record player, reaching for another sleeve to stare at it as if it would give her the answers she was looking for.
"...as you say, Dorian"
Dorian was pretty sure it was worse than admitting what had happened when she walked off talking about him like he wasn't right there. So after a moment of lingering and looking after her, and another moment of not liking the sudden gulf that had opened up between himself and his twin, he'd put the fruit back in the kitchen, irrespective of half of it being peeled and then head over to the bunny plate sideboard to find a cigarette. While he was doing this, he was trying to find the simplest possible words to say what had to be communicated, and, explained on the way there, "I was bitten yesterday. I am pretty sure I am no worse off for it. I'm just a little tired. It was--" He lit the cigarette he'd gotten, exhaled a plume of smoke while fixing his gaze on his sister, and then finished, "It was Llyw."
Dinah had remained staring at the concentric black rings of the record in her fingers as she tried to determine if this one would help her. The refusal of the fruit she'd peeled caused a fleeting sting of hurt as she absently became aware of it, though when he spoke about being bitten, she became very still, very still indeed...until he confessed that it was the widow.
She lowered her hands, the record remaining hanging in midair where she had been holding it, and she turned to face him.
"one disease of the isle is cured and another takes its place, I see" she murmured, voice light and sing-song. "I do hope Eli is at the academy today. I do not really want him to be inside" she trailed off to a mumble as she padded towards the carpet, heading straight towards the door clad in her robe.
Dorian went wide-eyed when she spoke of diseases in such a blithe tone. And as she started her march, he went to get the record first, snapping it from midair, tucking it under his arm then dashed after her to try and get in front of her, he'd walk backwards, pulling the cigarette from his lips and holding both hands out toward her to bid her stop in her tracks, pleading both with face and words, "Whoa whoa whoa Dinah wait. Where are you going? Stop, stop, I am fine. See." He'd pull the neck of the sweater that was surely the cause of the sudden outbreak of sweat on his brow, to show her the tooth marks which would have told the story before he could have. The skin had largely knitted itself together, but the clear indication of fangs was left til the last, with the fair sheen of scar tissue remaining as the widow's mark on him. "She was not herself. She was not at all well. But I am fine. Really. I don't think I am turning into anything or anything like that." If she made him get so far as the door, he'd stand with his back to it, blocking the knob and egress.
Dinah paused her walk as Dorian put himself in the way, and she tilted her head "she is NEVER at all well, Dorian. And now she has bitten you after everything you have done for her" she spoke softly, no sort of heat in her words, speaking as casually as if she were going to collect the paper. "I said when Maximilian attacked our family that I would not tolerate anyone harming us again. I am going to burn her house down and confine whatever sickness is causing her to attack my brother to ash." Her eyes lingered on the bitemark and she tilted her head, narrowing her gaze just a little, and she reached her hands out. Chilly healing magic poured from her. Helping him at least took precedence over enacting fiery vengeance at least.
Dorian stopped backing up when she stopped her charge and nestling the album under his arm he closed his eyes against the cool feeling of accustomed magic finishing up the job. He was relieved that he could get out of the sweater, or would be, when clothes were anything akin to a concern again. "Thank you," he murred after his neck was back to pristine condition, and he edged over toward the sideboard to stub out the cigarette. He had winced a little bit as she made clear her intentions toward arson, and lifted his voice again, this time with the same pleading tone as before when he was on his backward dance toward the door, "I don't think it's worth setting a fire, she didn't hurt me, not really. Look, I am fine, aren't I? No disease here. She is troubled, that much is obvious, even to me, but those sort of people need help too. Right? She was mortified, and apologetic. So.... we do not need to take it any further, do we? I was never in any real danger."
Dinah tilted her head and she blinked. Just the once, and slowly, as if she couldn't comprehend what it was he was saying.
"She bit you." she said flatly "She was close enough to put her teeth into your skin. She ought to consider herself lucky that it is just her house I am setting fire to , Dorian, You know I am capable of far worse. You are NOT fine. you were furtive, and sulking, and LIED to me. To protect this widow and her curse. I meant what I said, Dorian, Noone will harm one of my family again. Step out of the way of the door please." She said placidly.
Dorian couldn't help but feel a little wicked tug of something like gratification that part of his twin's agita was over how close Llyw had been to him. But he found very little time to revel in it, because he was uncomfortably in need of being a roadblock. His sister didn't need him to move to leave if she wanted, so he reasoned she was still open to arguments despite what she'd said, so he grasped at a few and let them all spill back to back, "You are not even dressed! And I didn't lie! I just didn't tell you-- wait, just wait. Gods sakes, please just stop. I am not so precious that I can't handle the widow Esher! There are a thousand better things that you can do with your day... Right?" He held one hand upon the knob and the other out to her, half-heartedly beckoning her to stop.
Dinah 's fingers twitched at her sides, flicking out like the exploring legs of some insect. The oily sheen increased, for a moment obscuring the gold behind shifting iridescence, and she slowly took another step forward.
"I do not need to be dressed and have my clothes smell of smoke." she said simply "you kept it from me that she had bitten you. To the point that you were skulking around the house in a vexation wearing a turtleneck in tropical heat, Dorian" Her head cocked to one side.
"would you have told me at all, if it had healed before I had seen it? Would you have stayed away from me until it had, to protect this woman, this stranger who dare hurt you?" She dropped her chin.
"I can make you move if I have to, Dorian. I do not want to, but I can."
Dorian saw the shift in her eyes and if it was anyone else he was facing down his blood would have run colder. He admitted further with both his hands raised in surrender, "I just needed time. In all my years no one has ever bitten me and drank my--" He couldn't even finish saying it out loud now, and it had happened to him. It sounded so shocking and a bit grisly. "But I am not ill. I am still me. So... no harm was done. Not really. She didn't bewitch me. And she has more than enough trouble already without my adding to it. You know that. Your day would have been better had you not known about this, so yes-- I tried to hide it from you. Can we-- can we just start over?" He gave it a desperate last try, with words. And then with putting a hand on her robed shoulder to punctuate.
Dinah bristled still, teeth clenching so tightly that they practically creaked in her head. "Why are you so insistent on protecting this woman?" she asked from between them. "Think of the things you have done through the years to men who I have known for less than this. What makes her so special that she is allowed to harm you, flutter her lashes and pout and pretend it was an accident? you do not bite people by accident, Dorian. you do not drink their blood by accident."
The pleading tone, the hand on her shoulder seemed to quell her a little, softening the teeth-gritted thirst to burn into a seething. "you would have stayed away from me until it had healed. To protect the widow."
Dorian was relieved not to be shaken off and shook his head. He'd mutter his agreement at first, but gain vociferousness as he went on, "I would protect you both. I've no doubt you could leave her house a smouldering ruin, but I would really rather you did not. She is a pitiable creature. That is why you needn't worry about it, Dinah. Your energy is better expended elsewhere. It is not as though she is the one who rules my heart." He'd lock eyes with her after he'd let his gaze meander down the neckline of her robe and back again, "There is only one woman who reigns there. And I am sorry if I have been neglectful of reminding her."
But in his defense he did spend at least some of the time wondering if he was going to turn into a... whatever Llyw was. And a lot of it sleeping. Now he was very much awake and on his toes. With a warm hand on his sister's shoulder that would move down to try and take her hand in punctuation, to entwine fingers.
Dinah 's teeth peeled back, sharp and angry at the start of his words. "You would protect her from ME! she is lucky that I just want to burn her house, Dorian, by all rights I could pull her wretched teeth out and wear them for earrings, start a jewelry collection of my own. The men you wear did less than that and you know it. she caused you to LIE to me. you know I can see it, you know how I hate it when you lie to me." She wrenched away, albeit momentarily, rubbing her hands over her eyes "it makes your aura...spiky and unpleasant, and I hate it"
She lowered her hands a fraction, sullen gold eyes watching him though her fingers, though she didn't resist when he took one of her hands. "What use for your heart does she have when you give her all of your chivalry whenever the wind blows too hard and she falls afaint again? I mean it, Dorian. If she ever. EVER. tries to harm you, or anyone else from this family again, 'by accident' or otherwise, I will twist out her teeth, one by one, and send her to Maximilian."
Dorian loosened his grip on her hand and slid his fingers until they just had twined fingers and the backs of their hands against one another. This would give her the easiest chance to slip away if she didn't want anything to do with him. Dorian was shaking his head because it seemed like he'd said everything all wrong. A cleverer man would have never upset his sister like this. He'd nod agreement, no appreciation, to her backing off and granting the widow reprieve. He answered quietly, and solemn, "Thank you, my gracious dread queen." But he'd quirk up a smile at her after he'd addressed her that way, promising he wasn't done. His next words were a bit quieter, "If you're still feeling particularly merciless..." He pursed his lips and turned to look toward the staircase, taking a half step toward her to recover the ground lost when she wrenched away. He still held that album tucked under his elbow, and he kept meaning to do something about it, but the timing had all been wrong.
Dinah looked down to where their hand knotted together. For a moment, her jaw worked, glancing towards the window with a scalding expression on her face. When Dorian referred to her as a 'dread queen' though she scoffed, her free hand massaging at her temples again.
"Queen of nothing but whispers and lunacy. Queen of the madhouse, of hearing gods-damned musicĀ with notes that doesn't even Exist yet" she snapped, but at least it wasn't directed at him. She curled her fingers a little tighter at his quieter words, not backing away as he approached, but stepping in and bowing her head against his chest.
"No one will ever hurt you again. No one will ever hurt any of us again. I promised it, and you've already made a liar of me by stilling my hand." she muttered into the turtleneck.
Dorian bent to rest his head atop hers for a moment, and while there he'd fling the album toward the couch so that he could close his once again free arm around her. He didn't like for her to disparage herself as she'd just done, and didn't like making her feel forsworn, so he'd try to undo it all. His whisper close to her ear was heated with the certainty that the words would fall on the perfect ears to fix the problems she spoke of, as if mere words might, "I was not hurt, so you are not a liar. And you are my beautiful, passionate, powerful queen who can have no rival. Whose day I mean to salvage. Come, let me show you, hm?"
The hand around behind her had snaked its way under her hair to rest upon her lower back. He threw caution of who might see them entangled together this way to the wind as he had for long months of living on Callisto.
Dinah curled her free arm around him, bunching her fingers into the sweater. She tilted her head towards his whispers, huffing a soft sigh, and she nodded mutely at his words.
"I am not afraid of a rival. I do not think such a person exists." she let go of his hand to clutch the other around his back, her tone still a little sulky, but she nodded at his suggestion of proof, pressing her face into the crook of his neck.
"I don't like seeing you vexed." she mumbled, her grip tightening just a little. "if I bite you, Dorian, know that I shan't hide behind the facade of 'an accident'" she added with a faint smirk. Rage quelled, at least for now.
Dorian chuckled in agreement when she agreed there was no such rival, and pressed his hand fully against the curve of her back before grabbing a fistful of robe because it dared obscure her skin from him. When she spoke her tenderer other words, his first response was a warm grumble of no particular verbal structure. But it spoke to a few things: his appreciation of her fierce protection, of her care for his wellbeing, and of course the welcomed promise of feeling her teeth on his skin again. To his thinking, there was no better time to continue making certain there was nothing wrong with him than the present. Thus he'd dip quickly in a move she'd seen broadcast before to lift her into his arms. She didn't need carrying, but he needed to prove he was every iota himself. Once he had her in arms and everything felt normal, if heady as things with his twin always were, he'd swiftly begin making his way to the staircase before stopping in his tracks, and then turning and heading back toward the kitchen. If things went the way he hoped, he'd really want the fruit sooner rather than later. He'd ask her a second favor, though it was so hot on the heels of the other, "Would you mind grabbing my mandarin and that pear for me?"