She imagined that she would be such too. Maybe she’d be a milliner, like her mother had pitied in bedtime stories. Pins would prick her lips until the black flesh was marred with scars, exhaustion would bleed the youth from her eyes. Maybe she would marry a normal man, shame the family more just to put the boat in.
But house Vogelstein was there. She thought of the coming festivities- at least, she thought they were still happening. Jane remembered her family as a proud one that sheltered its scandals. They may speak among themselves, but to her and to the streets they would bathe her in their affections.
Fuck ‘em. Fuck the lot of them. Jane’s hoof kicked into the earth subconsciously, as it built up in a hard yet reassuring way.
Veil needed her. There lived multitudes of knowledge and wisdom in the mare’s eyes of which Jane could hardly dream, but she lived in a form that ate now. A form that felt friendship, that cared for Jane in whatever deep way that went beyond what blood had tied Jane for so long. She’d be damned if the innocent, caring Veil went out on the streets for Jane’s warm bed and falsely friendly servants.
Jane would need a job. That would be the first thing she would do in the morning, Jane told herself. In her current state it was unlikely that Veil could work, and Jane worried that others might abuse the tenderness of her silence. Tonight, however, they must find a bed and some dinner. A bit of coins were Jane’s companion, the leftovers of her valley south. For now, it could do.
~
The change of scenery didn’t seem to affect Veil much, but the pepper did. Jane’s small friend bowed in a sneeze, and Jane felt a small wash of affection. What a mortal act, what a little normality that it was so easy to ignore. “Bless you,” she said as the mare sneezed, and a friendly gleam shone in the brown mare’s eyes. But it was certainly uncomfortable, and she tapped Veil’s shoulder in comfort.
Jane continued until they came upon a small house, a fumble of a building that jutted out of the earth as though it had been born there. It didn’t seem so much that it had been put together by workers, but that it had crawled its own way up out of the soul of Novus to find its way to downtown Solterra.
Veil pushed forward without hesitation, and Jane felt admiration for her companion. Bravery, loyalty, these things emanated from the Nebula. Maybe I can be a nebula on earth. She and I, in each other’s orbit for a little while. The earthy mare, streaked with the lines that marked mine walls, called out until a figure came down.
~
A grey mare, old and obviously living on charity, came down the stairs; back leg dragging from some old e. She was a unicorn, her horn humming with that old glory that must have once marked her a beauty. If her eyes were to believed, she did not imagine that beauty gone.
“So sorry to disturb you, Ma’am, I saw that there was a sign for tenants wanted on the door.” Jane pulled out her money immediately, but the unicorn’s eyes shimmered with an irritated arrogance, as though Jane were bribing her.
“Women shouldn’t be without chaperones or men.”
“Would you rather that we were with men without marriage?” Jane’s voice was sweet, innocent, but there was no doubt that the both of them knew what she was saying.
The unicorn scoffed, her horn bobbing a little beyond her skull. The white gleam of the sun through a window caught the piece of keratin, but there was as much power in that piece of bone as in Jane’s markings. Beautiful yet void. “You talk a lot of nerve for someone who’s looking for a room. I know your type- rich girl fallen from grace. You’re all the same, and I know that if not me then you will keep on wandering downtown until you find yourself in a whorehouse.”
Jane rankled a bit at the insult, but she knew better. She had heard enough petty insults in her time to put up with them. “Sorry, we just need a room for the night. Like you said, you know the type. Enough time for a job, and then I can afford a place higher or… elsewhere.”
The mare laughed loud, but it was not quite wholesome. “For a night, then. For a night.”
~
The room swirled with upturned dust, even though it was not a rarely frequented room. Along with sweat came the scent of sweating hides, despair, falling. Jane ignored it, instead falling onto one of the beds. There was absolutely nothing in the room, aside from two beds that seemed a breath away from breaking. The walls were made of wood that let the light through the cracks, and she hoped that they wouldn’t be here come winter.
“This is it for the night, Veil! But first. Something to eat.” She snatched up her coins once more and winked as she headed for the door, using a key to lock it behind them.
Tagged; @Veil Nebula. Ooc; omg i missed her
i've never felt more alone
it feels so scary getting old
