. . . there's only so many times I'll let you do this, you know.
[ the physical contact makes him uncomfortable, flustered, like somehow being reminded he exists in his own body is too jarring and awful to think about ]
[the illusion fades from the cut skin - it looks and feels like wood, and yet strangely it's just as easy to cut and fold as normal skin
she remains quiet while dahlia speaks, her feelings a constant swirl of love and pain and love and despair and something darker beneath that doesn't quite surface]
...I do understand, I think. I wish I'd met you before coming to this place.
[there are tears in her eyes, but whether they're from pain or sadness is impossible to tell]
[ dahlia's thoughts just become static, loud and persistent. ]
If we'd met sooner, maybe neither of us would have been monsters.
[ she moves to start suturing the open blood vessels, humming a bit as she does. ]
Rot is incurable. Even if you reach in, scrape it all out - there's nothing anyone can do. The stain remains, one so persistent even the strongest solvent imaginable couldn't cleanse it. I hoped -- I hoped to change that - because the gods can, of course, when you die - and for that "hubris" I was cursed. All of us are just playthings for the bigger fish in the pond and there's always a bigger fish. So the most I can do is save what parts of humanity I am able to. And the most I can do for you is love you, because at least that'll make the stain fade.
she's having a doki that you're having a doki! And despite her dark mood, there's a rush of warm adoring affection, if a shy one that doesn't know how to express itself, or if she should hold it back or not.]
[Sorry, Sekhmet isn't very good at controlling her emotions so a flood is unleashed of just how much of a crush she has on Iris which is actually Quite A Lot. She cares about Iris deeply, intensely. She wants everything good for her. She is attracted to Iris, she thinks that she is cute and beautiful and wants emotional and even physical intimacy. Sekhmet is filled with deep emotional need, a hunger to love and be loved, and this is pushing its way to the surface.
But there's also embarrassment, even panic, because she fears that this would hurt Iris, that what she wants is probably different from what Iris wants.]
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