THE TAXIDERMY OF YOU AND ME ; private

[Suiteheart]

SUITE
HEART

The disgusting, dark feelings that had accumulated in her chest made her feel terrible, but she did not deny them. The fury that sparked to life in her gilded amber eyes was undeniable as were the subtle flecks of sadness. The look of complete and utter betrayal rested on the surface of her porcelain features, and if one looked hard enough, the cracks in the ceramics of her face were noticeable. She was breaking. It was a slow downfall, but she was coming apart at the seams.

All morning, Lorelei had been musing in her mind, explaining that what Margaery had done should have been predicted. Lorelei had been betrayed by Margaery before. The 200 year old version of herself was baffled by Suiteheart's stupidity in believing this go around could be any different. Suite tried not to listen, but Lorelei was persistent. And perhaps she was correct too; maybe Suiteheart had been foolish to believe Margaery would hold true to promises of any kind.

The Admiral was sat beside the ocean, eyes on the never-ending waves. Serenity was trying to break through the distressed feelings that swirled around in her heart and mind, but the tidal wave of emotions that rolled through her systems could not be stopped. Her sadness hurt. Her rage hurt. Her betrayed mindset hurt. Even though Margaery had returned, the anchor was not doing much to sate her. She supposed that was do in part to Lorelei having partial control and numbing the bond. Suite refused to fix any of it.

Margaery had shut of the bond to leave. She had turned it off so she could be with her father. So she could run. So she could break promises. Suiteheart (or Lorelei) did it to escape the feelings of guilt and sadness and confusion Margaery exhibited. "She is trying to make you feel bad for her, love. There is no need to listen to that," Lorelei had told her, and Suite listened.

There she sat, alone, by the ocean. The saltwater was her only comfort now, and even that was not any relief. Wave after wave gently lapped over her paws, and each time, the heat of her emotions evaporated the liquid. The water in front of her was beginning to boil as she felt that all too familiar tug of the bond she shared with Margaery.

"Why're you here?" the white feline questioned, not bothering to turn. "If it wasn't painfully obvious, I'd like to be alone right now." Her posture shifted for a brief second as Lorelei assumed control. She sat a little bit straighter, and her movements were tiny, robotic in nature as she turned her head to face Margaery. "Haven't you already caused enough damage, love?" Her words were glacial and sharp as knives. The feline's posture morphed again, appearing slumped and relaxed. Suiteheart was back once more, but she would not take her words back.

[b]suiteheart folie-mikaelson . ecliptic admiral . the ascendants . tags

© [color=black]MADI

[Margaery]

[align=center]

MARGAERY MIKAELSON-FOLIE

She hadn't yet been back for even a full day and already, her remorse laid heavily upon her shoulders- a brutal and unwavering force who's only goal was to cause her to crumple under the pressure of her own sins. Liar. Betrayer. Murderer. She had forsaken the sacred vow between she and Suiteheart, had so carelessly - so recklessly - disregarded the promise she had made to her wife in favor of her father. At least, that's what everyone believed. The real truth of the matter was far more complicated, and for once, Margaery had no desire to play the self-preserving queen that she usually did. The role of the martyr was one that she far from desired and yet, to save her children and her wife, she was willing to sacrifice everything... even the reputation she had so carefully crafted over months of gentle smiles and calculated appearances. He would kill them if she ever told the truth and so, she prepared to rest in the shallow grave she had quietly dug for herself. Perhaps she was better off on her own anyways- everything she loved had the terrible tendency of turning to ash and disappearing before her very eyes... and besides, she and Suite had always been a perfect match, surely that was why they were finally burning out.

[color=#b59693]"Isn't it lovely, all alone?" She sang softly, dismissing the sudden and overwhelming desire to cry. No- she couldn't. This was her fate and she had to remain unbothered. She had willingly abandoned her friends and family to pursue the dark danger that blossomed deep within her, she had decided to join her father lest he grow upset over her lack of presence. She was playing the good daughter, the one that was a daughter first- not a wife or a mother or a friend. There was no room for petty tears and lapses in her facade. She was Margaery Mikaelson, daughter of a king, she cried for nobody. Not even herself.

[color=#b59693]"Heart made of glass, my mind of stone." Somehow, someway, her paws always led her in the direction of Suiteheart. As angry as her wife was with her, their souls were too deeply intertwined for Margaery to stay away for long. She needed her, just as her fragile lungs needed air, chest heaving in and out as her breath quickened and quickened, a new sort of anxiety enveloping her in icy tendrils. But, she wasn't here to provide excuses for her absence or even try to own up to her mistakes. With her, she carried the burden of an option, one that would most certainly succeed in destroying her wholly and completely. For Suite though... for Suite, she'd sacrifice anything if it meant her wife would even have the faintest semblances of peace. [color=#b59693][i]"Tear me to pieces..." Margaery would swallow, once more brushing aside the urge to fall where she stood into a sobbing mess, [color=#b59693][i]"Skin to bone."

[color=#b59693][i]"Hello, welcome ho-"

[i]"Why're you here?"

For a moment, a heavy silence occupied the air, leaving Margaery only to stare at her wife through large, dark gray (and darkening) eyes. She opened her mouth to respond but quickly fell silent, her need to defend herself extinguished the moment she recalled her mission. Under no circumstances could she reveal the truth... It was far too dangerous and the consequences... Gods above, she couldn't deal with them. Instead, she resigned to listening to Suiteheart speak, visibly wincing as her last words rang in the air. A paw would rise instinctively at them, clutching at her rose necklace and then tugging upwards, pulling it off of her neck until it simply dangled in the open air. [color=#b59693]"I came to give you a choice, Suiteheart," She extended quietly. Contrary to the storm of emotions that was currently rising in her chest, her voice was apathetic, laced only with a certain melancholy that she prayed her wife could not detect.

[color=#b59693]"I will walk away and I will never come back if that's what you so desire. You obviously don't want anything to do with me, so why not end it? I betrayed you. I left you. Leaving is the only way to ensure that you'll be happy." And safe from me. From him.

[color=#b59693]"Loving me... It's a death sentence. I know that now... Perhaps I've always known that. Just tell me what you want. Anything.... Anything you want."

[Suiteheart]

SUITE
HEART

The singing that drifted towards her only made her more enraged. Her wife's soft voice once brought her such happiness and ease, but now, it only reminded her of broken promises and severed ties. She didn't want to hear the lyrics that seemed to so accurately portray Margaery's life. She didn't want to hear anything but the waves and the roar of blood in her ears.

She had cut the singing off, and the look upon the chocolate point's face hurt her heart. She hated the things she did, the things she said, but she was damaged and was lashing out because of it. Besides, Suiteheart had never been one to be able to control herself. That was one of her many vices. It wasn't an excuse though. No, especially not now that she wanted Margy to hurt the way she did.

Darkened eyes watched Margaery reach towards the rose pendant around her throat, the accessory she had given her wife while they were still dating. The white feline expected the General to rip the necklace away from herself and fling it away, but ever the graceful princess, Margaery simply and elegantly lifted the pendant from around her neck before holding it in the air, away from herself.

Despite the numbed bond, Suiteheart could feel the torrential downpours that beat down in Margaery's heart. She could detect the sadness and loss the other woman felt, but she refused to acknowledge it. Lorelei was right. This was all a ploy... It had to be: the hollow words, the stinging dismay, the offering of "a choice."

Suite scoffed at the words. "I don't have choices, Marg. I have responsibilities. But I guess you don't know about those, correct?" Her question was bathed in Lorelei's pompous way of speaking, with sharp-edged and crisply articulated words. A faux pas perhaps, but she let the cruel question hang in the air while she closed her mouth to listen to Margaery's offer.

The next words that poured from Margaery's lips were met with cruel laughter on Lorelei's part. The titter was hollow and lifeless; no humor was contained within it. "My, my, my. Walking away? Haven't you already done that?" Her voice was more accented now, a clear sign that Lorelei was not parting from control any time soon. Suiteheart had willingly ceded power, for despite everything, half of what she wanted to say, she couldn't. Lorelei could and would say everything. "If you want to leave, then get on with it. You have done nothing to help anyone here. And for the umpteenth time in your pathetic, little life, you've betrayed me - us." The feline was moving now, paws guiding her closer towards the other. "The funny thing about all this, Margaery, is that you continue to repeat those words - almost like a promise that you'll be better. You aren't better. You will never be better. You're a monster, Margaery Mikaelson.

"You always tell us how terrible and awful you are, and why? We don't feel bad for you. None of us contain an ounce, a shred, of concern for your petty affairs. You cause all your own problems and then weep like a child when it doesn't fix itself or when we don't fix them for you." Her words were slow, harsh, and sharp. Lorelei hoped her speech would sink into Margaery like Niklaus's claws sank into Suiteheart, like Margaery's metaphorical knives had sank into Lorelei's back.

The white feline moved forward quickly, snatching the rose necklace from Margaery's grasp. "Such an ugly, little thing, isn't it?" Lorelei twirled the object around in her paw before removing the locket from around her neck which made the neck-like scar stand out all the more. "Perhaps you'd like to take your gift back as well, hm? We won't be needing it with you gone, love." She tossed the silver heart-shaped locket in Margaery's direction.

"You'll do anything I ask?" Lorelei questioned, arching a fictional brow. "How about starting things off with owning your mistakes? Maybe we should start with no more lies? Maybe you shouldn't keep breaking our fucking promises." The last demand was unmistakably Suiteheart. While everything that proceeded those were were straight from Lorelei and Lorelei alone, the last request was solely Suite. And her words were shaking with a thousand different emotions.

[b]suiteheart folie-mikaelson . ecliptic admiral . the ascendants . tags

© [color=black]MADI

[Margaery]

[align=center]

MARGAERY MIKAELSON-FOLIE

[color=#b59693]"Stop."

She no longer detected the desire to shower Suiteheart in kindness or thinly veiled apathy set in place to protect her, no no... The moment that her wife permitted Lorelei to surface was the moment that Margaery let her own demons out to play. Her demeanor would shift, that elegant stance becoming far too comfortable as the storm that danced within her gaze morphed into a dangerous red shade. Hatred, an all too familiar companion of hers, blossomed like some sick and poisonous flower in her chest, successfully clouding her judgement as her consciousness swapped with another's. Genevieve despised Lorelei. The little librarian had indirectly led to her creation, the hurt and betrayal Margaery felt towards her lover forming an entity all on its own. She had had years to contemplate the words she would utter when she was finally reunited with the bitch, and oh, how she was about to enjoy this.

[color=#b59693]"Margaery really didn't want to have to fight back," Genevieve would comment idly, raising her paw to further inspect the well-loved piece of jewelry that dangled from it, [color=#b59693]"It's a good thing that her and I are separate people then, isn't it, sugar?" She cackled in that wicked way of hers, eyes twinkling like two small, burning flames. Through the bond, she so dearly hoped that Suiteheart and Lorelei both detected the easy shift in emotion as melancholy gave way to malice. [color=#b59693]"A century and a half ago, I laid your precious library to absolute ruin. How I've waited for the day to finally do the same to you, you heartless bitch." She appeared visibly conflicted for a moment however, that almost too-smug expression becoming something else- something laced with anguish and turmoil as she looked upon the one girl she had ever loved, the one girl she would only love. A perfect match. A perfect match. A perfect match. The words replayed over and over in her head, the claws from her free paw unsheathing and sinking into the ground.

[color=#b59693]"Maybe that's why we burnt out."

Her tone, her voice, her words... Margaery had resurfaced, looking more weary now than anything else. The earth would crack beneath her, emanating a low groan as rock and dirt split just as her heart did now. [color=#b59693]"I want to blame my father..." She murmured quietly, her rouse once more in place. She could fix all of this with the truth, dismissing Lorelei with the genuineness of what actually happened the fateful day she left. But she couldn't. Their relationship was a quickly sinking ship and she, the captain of it, was destined to slide under the surface of the waves and suffer at the hands of the ocean. [color=#b59693]"I always like to say that it was him who made me this way, who stripped me of my humanity, who made me the monster I am today, but you want the truth and that's far from it. I've always been my own undoing, and while it's true that there have been temporary lapses where you've made me a better person, I know that I'll always be broken and dark inside." She was driving her wife away willingly only for the chance to keep her alive, keep her happy. It killed her to be saying such things, it killed her to even ponder the idea of actually walking away and never looking back. But for Suiteheart and her children... she'd sacrifice her home, her own happiness, her comfort.

But the moment that Lorelei snatched the necklace from her open paw was the moment that something broke further within the chocolate point. Her world only continued to shatter as the locket was tossed at her feet, breath catching in her throat as she felt blindly for it. [color=#b59693]"So this is it then. One thousand years of love is coming to an end because you're permitting an old, excuse my language, bitch to destroy our relationship? Maybe I'm not the one running away, maybe it's you, maybe it's always been you. Always and forever- family above all. My father is my family too, Suiteheart Folie... How dare you try to keep me from him?"

She was unnaturally angry, an unkept wildfire ready to turn everything in her wake to ash just as she always did. Nothing could tame the rage that danced so fervently in her chest, nothing could mute her utter turmoil as she removed the damper she had placed on the bond so that Suite, too, could feel everything that she did. Usually so calm, so collected, Margaery truly did look the part of a beast as she stared at her wife, the ground beneath her paws shuddering as her emotion continued to rise. [color=#b59693]"Let it all out, Suiteheart. Show me how you really feel. I know Lorelei is desperate to kill me again."

Margaery paused, swallowing hard.

[color=#b59693]"Why deny her that luxury anymore?"

"Let her have some fun."

[— MALKYN.]

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