Private Finished Touch-ups

Kait · Jan 14, 2017

The car pulled away from the school. It was a black limo with tinted windows, black leather seats, and a built-in cooler with ice and drinks. Chloe was sitting, but at an angle, to prevent her tail from bending uncomfortably. Dalia would even have space to stand if she wanted to. "Help yourself to a drink, if you want." Chloe wouldn't let her get into the alcohol, but she might tolerate a caffeinated soda. They had caffeine-free too, as well as water.

Chloe finished texting Malara and Pandora. The text said she was taking Dalia to get a manicure. Technically, that was true, but it wasn't the reason they were here. Chloe was also taking Dalia to a clinic to magically heal that black eye she had been hiding under her cloak, along with any other injuries she might have gotten.

"So. Since I'm doing all this, I'd like to know. What's going on?" She didn't know why Dalia would try so hard to hide a black eye, even considering not going home so she wouldn't have to show either of her moms. If the last few months were any indication, the younger demon got into fights all the time. This had to be something really bad. The longer Dalia went without explaining herself, the worse Chloe imagined the truth to be.

@Kadakism

Kada · Jan 14, 2017

Dalia had quietly waited outside the school with one of the counselors, waiting for Chloe to pick her up. She ran her mind back through the events of that day, hoping she had made a good decision.
"I'm going to call your moms, get them to pick you up."
"No! You can't. Please..."
"Well I have to call someone..."
"M-my aunt Chloe. She runs the DSU. Please, just not my moms..."
It had taken several more minutes of pleading, but the counselor had finally relented. Dalia had known for a while that Chloe was pretty cool. Not lax by any means, but she wasn't as prone to overreactions as Malara or Pandora.

When offered a drink, Dalia reluctantly took a soda. She didn't like how fuzzy caffeine made her head but she felt like, maybe, she needed to feel that way right now. A quick, nervous glance at Chloe to make sure her aunt wouldn't stop her, and Dalia popped the tab and took a small gulp. It was syrupy and too sweet, but she tolerated it.
Settled down so her abdomen was laying on the floor of the car, Dalia fidgeted with her sleeves while Chloe texted her parents. They were going to get manicures. That was the story, at least. If everything went well, she could get home for dinner without either of her moms finding out about the fight, or the events that led up to it.

Chloe asked her question, and Dalia winced. She knew the question would come up. It wasn't really fair to ask for this kind of help without expecting to have to answer for it. But at least it was Chloe and not Malara.
"Um- ah..." the spiderling grimaced as she pulled down her hood, letting Chloe see the full extent of the damage. The black eye wasn't so bad, honestly. Her hair was a mess though, like it had been pulled roughly and then hastily smoothed back down.
"It's just a girl in my class. I kind of bullied her last semester. So I guess, over the break, she and her friends decided to give me a taste of my own medicine..."

It honestly kind of hurt to say. But now that it was out, she just kind of kept talking. The words more or less fell out of her mouth.
"They mostly just taunt me, throw things at me, pour drinks on me. It's usually not that bad. But today they threw my notebook in a toilet. So I got mad, and I hit Argenta. She's the leader. So they hit me back. I didn't think she could hit that hard..."
As Dalia spoke, she reached up and touched her eye with her claw. It stung, but only when she touched it. Whether it was her natural healing making the wound less severe or what, she couldn't be sure.

Kait · Jan 14, 2017

It was starting to make sense.

Dalia was mellowing out. That detail didn't click until the end of her story, when Dalia mentioned hitting Argenta as though that were an unusual response. She had been sitting there and letting the bullying happen this whole time without fighting back.

She was still being punished for the way she had behaved as a hatchling.

Chloe reached down and tried to give Dalia a hug. "That was awful of them. Don't... let them make you think you deserve what they're doing to you, okay?"

She noted Dalia's choice of drink. That was the last caffeinated drink she would let Dalia have today. It might have been a bad idea to allow it, but at least it would help her relax.

"Is your notebook okay, at least?" She knew how important that thing was to Dalia. "I have some friends in the library who know how to help with the water damage."

Kada · Jan 16, 2017

Dalia stiffened momentarily at the sudden contact. She wasn't really looking to be comforted, but had to admit to herself that it was nice. She relaxed a bit. "But-" she started, but closed her mouth. She kind of did deserve it, at least in her mind. But that was an argument she didn't feel like having.

The notebook. It had soaked in the water for several minutes when Argenta and her friends had beaten Dalia up. She hadn't thought it was worth saving.

"I- I threw it away. It was in the toilet for a while. I didn't think anything could be done about it." She shrugged, like it was no big deal. She could always start over, make new designs. She'd just leave it at home from now on, doodle on scratch paper during school.
Truthfully, she was actually really upset about losing her second notebook in a month's time, but there wasn't anything she could do about it now.

Kait · Jan 18, 2017

Chloe sighed. That must have been rough, having all of her drawings destroyed.

She fished for something to say that would make it better. There wasn't a solution that came to mind immediately. Talking about how she used to be bullied too came to mind, but it wasn't quite the same sort of situation - Chloe was bullied for being trans in the American south. This was something more personal, something that could probably be controlled somehow, but how would be beyond Chloe.

So after a bit of silence, she brought up their itinerary. "I'm going to take you to a clinic for your eye. They have healing magic. It'll take maybe half an hour to do all that. If you have any other bruises or cuts or anything, they can get those too." Which led to Chloe's next tough question. "Why don't you want to tell your moms about this?"

Knowing them, Chloe could begin to understand why Dalia might not want Malara or Pandora involved. But Chloe wanted to hear it from Dalia herself. She wanted to know that she wasn't making a stupid decision.

Kada · Jan 22, 2017

DAlia just listened as Chloe explained what they were going to be doing. She mentioned other bruises or cuts, and the spiderling shook her head.
"No. It's just the eye. I'm kind of sore, but they didn't bruise me anywhere else." Dalia picked at the sleeve of her jacket, a habit she had picked up lately when she was nervous or frustrated. She was kind of lost in thought, so she started at Chloe's question. Dalia stared at Chloe, kind of disbelieving. Chloe knew her moms. She should understand why Dalia wanted to keep them in the dark. She sighed.
"I don't want mama or Mal freaking out or overreacting. That's why I asked the counselor to call you. You're levelheaded, aunt Chloe. My anger already caused enough problems without getting theirs involved..."

Kait · Jan 23, 2017

"That's... about what I was thinking," Chloe said. "I just wanted to be sure that I'm doing the right thing, here. Helping a kid keep secrets from her parents is, ah, usually a bad thing."

She could just imagine Pandora wrapping this 'Argenta' girl up in a ball of web and hanging her from a tree. She could imagine her doing much worse things, too, and she didn't want to think about Malara doing anything drastic about this. She felt uneasy about keeping them in the dark, but it had to be this way.

Their car pulled into a parking lot and stopped in front of a small building. The sign said "Ixchel Clinic" and its sign had a red silhouette of a jaguar on it.

Chloe would help Dalia out of the limo. Soon they would be in the waiting room. It had a TV set to a local station, LuxTV. Magazines were available as well. The walls had a mixture of Mayan artwork and landscapes from the island. Chloe sat down in a comfortable-looking chair, hastily filling out the forms the receptionist gave her. She listed herself as Dalia's guardian, filled in as much as she knew about Dalia's medical history, signed her name on a bunch of papers.

Soon, she was able to hand the clipboard back. to the man behind the desk. She sighed when she sat back down. "I should've brought a book or something," She mumbled. And then, "How're you holding up, Dalia?"

She still felt uneasy about doing this, and her uneasiness wormed its way into her voice, shaking it ever so subtly.

Kada · Jan 28, 2017

Dalia looked around the clinic with a sigh. There was a cushioned seat with no back or arms that she could rest her abdomen on, so that was nice. Dalia had never been one for much TV, and the show on was boring anyway.
She felt bad for asking Chloe to do this for her. And she was feeling worse by the minute. The magazines, what few were about fashion or things she cared about, did little to distract her. All the same, she came across a couple she kind of liked and, when the receptionist wasn't looking, stuffed them into her backpack.

The unease in Chloe's voice stung. Dalia had done something bad. Again. She shrunk and mumbled out a non-committal affirmative response that she was alright. Continuing to pick at her sleeves, the spiderling wondered if she should just forget this whole thing. Just go home and face the music. But then she imagined Argenta going missing, her mom eating the Fae girl. And as much as that thought made her giggle inwardly, what came next did not.

"I'm sorry..."
The words were barely a mumble, and she didn't make eye contact at all as she spoke them. She pulled a thread from her sleeve, beginning to unravel the fabric. At this moment, more than any other time, Dalia wished she was as good at hiding as Ossa.

Kait · Jan 31, 2017

Chloe could see Dalia hurting. She could hear that apology. Slowly, tentatively, she reached out to pat her on the shoulder. "I'm honored that you trusted me enough to come to me about this. We'll figure something out."

They sat in silence for a while longer.

A nurse opened a door to the rest of the clinic. "Dalia Tor?"

"That's us." Chloe got up and, following the nurse, led Dalia further in. It was a short walk through fluorescent-lit hallways and tile floors. This part of the building was almost oppressively sterile, but somehow, as they walked further in, it smelled of rich soil and fresh rainfall, damp bark. They reached a sparse examination room, where a middle-aged woman with spotted cat ears met them.

"I'm Doctor Madrigal. I'll be taking care of you today, Dalia. Please get up on the examtable, dear." Doctor Madrigal's outfit seemed better suited to a colorful religious ceremony than a doctor's office. Her Central American home drizzled in her voice. She turned to Chloe. "This will only take a minute or two, Miss Black. If you could please wait outside?" She gestured to a second waiting area, more a room-sized indentation in the wall than a room in its own right.

Chloe hesitated. She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile to Dalia "I'll see you in a minute or two, then." As she walked away, Dr. Madrigal shut the door. She smiled at Dalia with kind cat eyes.

"So, sweetie, you probably know this already, but I'm going to heal your bruises using magic. But in order to do that I need to know what happened to cause them. It has to be the truth, or the spell won't work. Okay?" Dr. Madrigal found it easier to tell this lie, than to ask something like 'do you feel unsafe at home?'

"Is it just the eye?"

Kada · Feb 4, 2017

Dalia was silent for the walk to the examination room. It smelled weird and outdoorsy, but it was somehow relaxing. Dalia found herself no longer picking at her sleeve, tucking the loose thread into the sleeve.
She made a mumbled sound of protest as the doctor sent Chloe away. She looked like a predatory cat, but also had a motherly air about her. Dalia wasn't scared of her.

The explanation of her magic sounded kind of crazy. But Dalia somehow had two mothers and was a giant spider girl. Who was she to judge?

Taking a deep breath, she took off her hoodie to show that she had some very mild bruising on her stomach as well.
"A girl in my class. Well, a few girls. They threw my notebook in the toilet at school. S-so I hit one of them. And they grabbed me and hit me back... A lot, actually."

Search

Private Finished Touch-ups

Kait

Gay Idiot

Kada

Comradmin

Kait

Gay Idiot

Kada

Comradmin

Kait

Gay Idiot

Kada

Comradmin

Kait

Gay Idiot

Kada

Comradmin

Kait

Gay Idiot

Kada

Comradmin