if wishes were fishes with tentacles

[wishinghell]

[ In the center of the courtyard, a young woman stands, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

If you have any kind of spiritual awareness, she probably feels like bad news. Something divine but twisted. ]

Comments

[pawper]

[She thinks about this for a moment. What light remains in her eyes dims further.]

Could I make you happy?

[wishinghell]

You shouldn't ask a question like that of me!

[pawper]

Why not?

[wishinghell]

Oh changer of forms, terrible things make me happy.

[pawper]

[She just smiles. It's an empty expression. There's an opportunity here, maybe.]

Like hurting people?

[wishinghell]

Aa-ah! How you know me.

Your smile is beautiful!

[pawper]

I don't think anything about me is beautiful, but thank you.

[A pause.]

You can hurt me, if you want. It's fine.

[wishinghell]

Would that I could show you how beautiful you are! Oh broken dearest lady wolf-changer!

[Sighing happily.]

I can make lovely things from your insides.

[pawper]

Ah, really? You must be very skilled.

[And then, as an afterthought:]

You can call me Lys, if you want. Or something else — it's all the same to me.

[wishinghell]

What a beautiful name, almost as beautiful as I could make your internal organs. Would you know what it comes from in my old language?

[pawper]

[The praise passes through her, like a gentle breeze, leaving nothing behind. She shakes her head.]

I don't even know what it means in the place I came from.

[wishinghell]

Dissolution. Coming apart. The most beautiful thing in all of anything anywhere--!

[She clasps her hands over her heart and trembles.]

[pawper]

[She laughs. The sound is very quiet and, somehow, morose. More like grief than mirth.]

Aha, that's pretty fitting!