OOM: getting Away from it All and Into a Whole New World...

[withamagicword]

In a quiet room, in a house of Paris, a closet door opens.

Out step two people, a tall woman and a tallish young man. Billy grins at Melpomene and nods.

"Welcome to Paris."

The hall was well-furnished with rich accouterments. And it was large. When you had a friend like Bruce Banner, who loaned you a house, it was generally a very good house.

Billy grins as he looks around.

"Looks just like he described it."

Comments

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene looks around, marvelling.

"Just like old times."

She slips out of her jacket and lays it on the bed, presuming that this is her room. If not, that can surely be rectified.

[withamagicword]

He nods.

"I was thinking we could get ourselves ready and then go out to the malls and stores tomorrow morning. Was there anything you would like to do tonight?"

His voice is a little strained. Recent events have worn him thin as a reed.

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene makes a non-commital movement.

"I do not know what you have planned to begin with."

[withamagicword]

"Tonight, I didnt make any plans. I figured when we arrived we could decide whether to wander out or stay in. I havent been here myself before, but I have directions to a restaurant nearbym if you would like dinner. Otherwise, we can simply adjourn until tomorrow morning, and hit the malls then."

He smiles at her.

"You are my guest. I want you to enjoy yourself here."

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene actually feels alive for the first time in a while.

"I would like to get out, if you don't mind."

She wants to see how much has changed in these few hundred years she's been gone.

[withamagicword]

He smiles a little.

"Sure. Any ideas where you would like to head first?"

He raises his voice as he moves out into the hall and opens the door to his room, putting down his bags and slipping his travel wallet into his pocket and slipping his coat on. He pops back out and grins.

Maybe this wont be so bad. As long as he doesnt think of... and he firmly shuts his mind on those things.

[tragic_mask]

ooc: Do tell me if this doesn't make sense or if I go too far. But Mel can read minds, so.. here goes.

Melpomene tries not to wince at the bright, overwhelming waves of hurt eminating from Billy's mind. She can see his thoughts clearly-- not so much in words, but in rows of pictures, like a storyboard.

She shakes these off-- they are not hers. And says-- "There is one place to which I would like to go back..."

She puts her hands in her pockets and looks out the front door. "Paris is unfamiliar to me in this age. I think we're going to need a map."

[withamagicword]

ooc: that is fine

He nods and arches an eyebrow. He concentrates on her and now.

"It hink we can manage that. There is supposed to be a shop just outside and down the street that caters to tourists. Those usually have maps."

He grins a little.

"Whenever you are ready..."

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene does her smile-that's-not-supposed-to-be-one.

"Perfect. You seem to know your way around for someone that's never been here before."

She walks down the spiral staircase, booted heels clicking on wood and one hand on the spiral railing. Then she looks up.

"You coming?" Her eyes spark, and then she's out, slipping into the stream.

[withamagicword]

It is a yawning but ready Billy who is with Melpomene the next day as they head again for transport, to head to the Mall and costume hunt. He smiles a bit as he glances around, leaving behind the darker nightmares he experienced last night.

His good mood can banish neither the dark circles under his eyes, nor the slightly haunted look in them.

Nonetheless, he does look forward to this and smiles at Melpomene as they head down the street.

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene strides along, looking into shop windows that positively shout "expensive" directly into her good ear. Despite this, she thinks she's going to have fun-- not least of all because of all the coins and papery things weighing down her pockets.

"Going to get anything?" she says to Billy, still watching her reflection pass by in the windows.

[withamagicword]

He considers this, then glances at her.

"Maybe... If I can ask a favor? I am probably not going back to the Bar after this, not for awhile, but, if I make sure we get a cart, would you mind taking some things back there for me? I can give you my key so you can just put it in my rooms... if that is okay?"

He looks a little hesitant as he asks. This friendship is very new, after all.

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene dislikes favors... but only the other kind. Yes, that kind.

So, she shrugs. "Yes. If you don't mind me scoping out your walls and laughing at your bedsheet design."

... and that's certainly not a grin.

[withamagicword]

He snorts slightly, a relieved grin on his face as he relaxes a little.

"I don't mind. Just don't mess up the collector sheets, they cost a bundle."

Pokerface again. He may nor may not be serious.

The next minute he grins.

"Thank you. A lot. And yeah, in that case, I might get some stuff. When I was looking into coming here, I heard that somewhere around here, they sell these carts, like luggage holders? Except made for shopping stuff. Much more elegant ones than the shopping carts in America, from what I saw..."

He keeps his eyes open as they go. He doesn't like to use his magic to spend money a lot, feels too much like cheating, but... now and then, especially after being cooped up on the Rock and Milliways for almost two years personal time? He feels like it is justified to blow some money. So, he had produced quite a bit of cash for this trip, doing it the hard way to make sure it was real and wouldn't fade, or disappear, or anything silly like that.

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene pretends not to be clueless- she hasn't been to Europe in years and the carts could be made of chocolate and hover 2 feet above the ground for all she knows. She stops in front of Au Printemps and looks up.

"Here, perhaps?" she murmurs to herself.

[withamagicword]

He glances sidelong, shrugs and heads that way.

"Why not? The worst that can happen is they dont have it, right?"

He grins at her and heads inside. He goggles a bit at the place and the stuff inside, not having to work to look like a complete tourist.

[tragic_mask]

... Melpomene, on the other hand, slips into the crowd, boots treading softly through the lobby. She's good at blending in.

"Where are your evening gowns?" she slurs, in perfect (of course) Parisienne French, and listens as the tux-ed guide directs her upstairs.

[withamagicword]

Over a week passes, possibly two, and they shop, and explore, and find a lot of stuff that makes it's way onto their carts and into the house they are using.

Store after store sees them coming and is left somewhat richer for the experience and they gather clothing, costumes, and masks galore for the masque, as well as personal items.

Somewhere along the way, Billy finds a soft mask of black velvet stretched over a thin cage of gold and silver wire, all held together by careful craftsmanship and presents it to Melpomene as a gift.

They have fun, and explore and it is only as the time ends that Billy starts to feel edgy again, and uncomfortable. His nightmares are coming stronger and he knows it is time to go. So, on one afternoon, he heads to her room and knocks.

[tragic_mask]

The last few weeks have been the most marvelous Mel has had in quite a long time- at least a century. So she's enjoying every moment.

Now, she is lying on her bed after one particularly exhausting day of shopping, eyes closed and hands behind her head.

"Come in," she says.

[withamagicword]

He slips in and smiles, but his smile is short lived.

"Hey... how are you feeling?"

Some of his unsureness may show in his voice.

[tragic_mask]

Her smile reveals nothing, but it sure looks good on the surface.

"Oh, excellent..." She eyes him. "And you?" Doing him the courtsey of asking rather than going straight to the source.

[withamagicword]

he would appreciate that, if he knew.

"I am... not so well. I think it is time for me to get moving... like, within the day. My nightmares are getting worse and... they are starting to intrude on the daylight hours. I need to go find some answers."

He shivers as he wraps his arms around himself.

"I never told you much about what happened, because I wasn't sure you wanted to know, but if you do, I will tell you."

[tragic_mask]

It's hard not to intrude, but Mel's had plenty of practice.

"I am always willing to listen."

[withamagicword]

He settles down and begins to talk. He tells her of meeting and falling in love with Stephanie and then backtracks to tell her how he gained his powers and abilities. He explains about the Six who contribute their powers to him and then, he goes on with the story. he tells her about how things went with Stephanie, at first very well, then his perspective on the end, with Steph deciding she liked someone else and just breaking it off with him suddenly, no warning. He tells her frankly of how he felt afterwards, the feeling of loss and despair that filled him and of how his return to Milliways went from bad to worse with meeting the new guy Steph was interested in and finding him to be everything Billy despised in a person.

He tells her then of his conversations with Steph as well and how they eventually filled him with anger, and a beginning hate. He tells her of how he had begin to deal with that and get past it until he met some mysterious woman who manipulated him and who unleashed those feelings back to a full flame. He explains then about his powers and how he was still growing into them, and how the power, itself, was corrupted by the newly awoke hatred and rage.

He explains how Rachel told him of he power, over the course of several days, gained a dark sentience, filled with hate, and possessed him, controlling him completely.

He tells her about the attack as others have told him and explains his lack of memory as anything more than hazy images. He tells her about what he now knows happened and about his horror when he was told, having woken up in the cells after Rachel freed him from the horrible possession.

He tells her then of how his spirit has flagged and gotten weaker and how he has faced that he needs somehow to purge this darkness from himself, or lose everything he believes in. He tells her all he can and when he is done, his voice is hoarse with emotion and talking and tears crawl down his cheeks. But he is also standing and determined.

"I have to find a way to stand on my feet again, to find myself... if I dont... everything I believe will have been for nothing."

[tragic_mask]

Her eyes search his. Somehow, it is different having him speak the words. She is used to seeing dark waves crash from the mind out into the open air. The hurt, the sorrow, the betrayal. There were good things, but so many worse ones.

So she knew some of these things, had the sense of all the tears and pain he'd had, but it was still painful to watch the tears on his young face as he told her everything he'd been through. It seemed to be too much-- and so she said.

"This is too much for you. You need to... take a load off." She smiles briefly, not particularly joyfully, thinking of Sisyphus-- of Prometheus.