InsaneJournal

WHO: Pandora & William Shakespeare
WHEN: Thursday morning
WHERE: William's place
WHAT: Pandora has woken up on the very wrongest side of the bed.
NOTE: Reposted as a favour



Pandora woke before dawn, uncomfortable and tight in her own skin. In the gloom of the bedroom she shared with her husband, Pandora curled closer to Epimetheus and kissed his warm chest, letting the slow sleeping rise and fall of his breaths try to calm whatever felt wrong. She wasn't in love with Epimetheus, but that didn't mean she didn't love him as best as she could. She wanted her Titan husband to be loved and safe and, just as he made her feel loved and safe.

He just wasn't enough. Pandora needed more than he could give and she knew, even when she was feeling petty and vindictive and cruel, that it wasn't his fault. Pandora needed more attention and affection than any man could ever give her.

Eventually she drew away from Epimetheus' warmth and out of the bed, padding toward the bathroom as light began to find its way into the apartment. In the bathroom she flicked the switch and caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink. Her breath caught and she moved quickly to the glass, pressing her hand against it to make sure she really was seeing herself.

Dark hair, dark eyes, the heavy features of another woman.

No.

Surely she was dreaming. Surely this was a nightmare. She slapped her own arm and it stung. She splashed water against her face and it was a freezing shock. But the woman in the mirror was still dark, staring back at her as terrified as she felt.

This was what she had looked like when she had been the Dark Lady. This was almost what she had looked like in Ancient Greece.

Pandora knew only one thing - she couldn't let Epimetheus see her like this. She was golden now: she was golden and fair and men looked at her wherever she went. How could she possibly live behind a face that wasn't beautiful? (Was this face beautiful? With herself Pandora couldn't even tell. She had been created as the most beautiful creature, but when she looked in the mirror she eternally doubted that beauty. And this morning it was even more difficult to think rationally about her own appearance.)

She dressed quickly in the dark of the bedroom and began the walk to William's house, breaking into a jog. After flagging down a taxi she called William but his phone must have been off. She cursed him for that and tried to take deep breaths to calm her.

At William's she pounded on the door with the side of her fist, unable to stand there and be calm when she wasn't even the same woman she had gone to sleep as.

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-01-26 08:38 pm (local) (link) Track This
Since classes had begun again, William found himself with his favorite glass of English tea. He had embedded himself onto the couch with a pen clipped between his lips as he skipped over a quite handsomely written paper. It abused every grammatical law possible.

His finger had just curved around the glass of tea when that loud pound came to his door startling him from his work. It actually felt like an assault against his door. Unhinging himself from his couch he opened the door to a very frantic brunette. Immediately he knew without her uttering a single word. Taking Pandora by the arm he led her into his apartment.

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[info]pandoros
2012-01-27 01:30 am (local) (link) Track This
There seemed no hesitation in William and once inside Pandora kept hold of his hands. "Look at me!" she cried, although there was no way he could have missed the change in her.

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-01-29 09:48 pm (local) (link) Track This
His hand cupped her face as if her appearance had no effect on him. This was the Pandora he'd fallen in love with. His Dark Lady.

"I am looking at you," he said with the soft tilt of his head, thumb stroking her cheek.

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[info]pandoros
2012-01-29 10:48 pm (local) (link) Track This
"What's happened?" Pandora asked him, the desperation clear in her voice. Her hands hand moved to touch his, using him to keep her steady. "My face- this woman- William..." She wanted him to repair this for her, to return her golden beauty. How would anyone love her when she looked like this again?

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-01-29 10:56 pm (local) (link) Track This
She was tragically uncomfortable in this form for one reason or another. The past it brought up between them, the love, the hate, the obsession.

"You are still beautiful. You are the lady I fell so helplessly for. This is how I remembered you." He couldn't bring her back to her golden form, he wasn't quite settled on how she'd reverted. He'd assumed that his presence and their constant affair had only unsettled the balance of things as she knew it now.

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[info]pandoros
2012-01-29 11:10 pm (local) (link) Track This
"Promise me?" She whispered, leaning her cheek against his, her voice breathless. "Promise me that I'm still beautiful."

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-01-29 11:23 pm (local) (link) Track This
"I would not lie to you dearest." He held her against his chest, stroking her long dark locks through his fingers. "Your fair skin glows against that dark halo." Yet, he knew in time he would curse her just as much as he loved her. She wasn't completely his. She had never been.

His fingers spread through her hair, cradling her head, lips just a soft brush against her forehead. "Why do you fear that you are anything less of perfection?"

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[info]pandoros
2012-01-30 12:10 am (local) (link) Track This
Pandora reached up, wiping at her eyes quickly. "My beauty is all that I am," she reminded him, because how could he fail to see that? "And now- this face, it was never perfection even when you loved me."

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-01-30 11:42 am (local) (link) Track This
His thumb wiped the tears from her cheeks, both hands cupping her face. "You still shine with beauty. In my minds eye this is who you are to me." There was nothing wrong with her face or any part of her. She was a goddess. "You are a goddess," he reminded her in a faint whisper, leaning in, lips hungry to envelope hers.

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[info]pandoros
2012-01-31 02:56 pm (local) (link) Track This
William so often had the exact words she needed - which was made it so much worse when he didn't have the words. But today he could help her and today this wouldn't turn into an argument. She could bury herself within that desire of his and use it to make herself whole once again.

Pandora's kiss was desperate and breathless as she wrapped her arms around William.

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[info]theworlds_stage
2012-02-01 12:03 am (local) (link) Track This
His fingers curled through those soft locks, tongue burying itself into her mouth as he let her find her comfort. She was distraught. He would continue to fall into her trap so that he held some importance within her world once again. She was his shining candle in the dead of night.

They could tour the city together now without a thought as to who saw. He wouldn't look as a father to her as he had in Elizabethan days.

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[info]pandoros
2012-02-01 02:15 am (local) (link) Track This
"I need you," Pandora whispered against his lips as she began to draw his clothes off. It was less that she needed William, and more that she needed someone who would worship her unquestionably as he did. In truth it could have been anyone. Pandora just needed - more than anything today - to be desired.