InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "They stole my cheesecake."

Peitho (formortalhearts) wrote in nevermore_logs,
@ 2020-07-14 17:07:00

Entry tags:

hecate, luna olmos, peitho

WHO Peitho, Hecate, Luna
WHEN Monday, 13 July, evening
WHERE Peitho's place
WHAT Magic healing!
WARNINGS Talk of past violence.

After kicking Hermes out of the house for his disgusting behaviour, Peitho had stalked around the apartment, feeling both furious and unsure of anything. Oh, not of the fight with Hermes. He'd deserved everything she said, but about Luna.

Eventually she'd gone to find Luna in her room. The mortal girl was sitting on the bed, with her knees tucked up to her chest.

Looking at her, Peitho felt the last of her anger fading away. "Oh my dear Luna," she said, coming in and sitting on the bed beside her, reaching out to stroke the cheek that wasn't bruised. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

"It wasn't your fault," Luna assured her.

Peitho gave her a soft smile. "You're such a good girl," she said, leaning in and kissing her lips softly. "Michele has always been erratic, but I thought he was in a good place recently." She frowned at the lines on Luna's throat. "I see now that I was wrong."

With a deep sigh she drew Luna into her arms and stroked her hair. "It's alright now," she promised her acolyte. "You're safe, with me. I love you. I'm going to fix this."

She held Luna for a long while, rocking her gently as though she were a child, humming some one known song into her hair. Peitho wasn't very maternal, but she did know love.

Eventually she encouraged Luna into a shower and while the girl was in there, texted Hecate.

My love, Luna's been hurt and I would be eternally grateful if you would come see to her. I hate seeing her in pain, and I'm afraid that it's my fault that she is.

Then she put her phone aside and went to find Luna.

The girl was crying and sitting on the bottom of the shower, and Peitho peeled off her own clothes so that she could sit with her. "Come here," she said gently, drawing her into an embrace. "Here."

How dare Hermes suggest that Peitho would ever hurt Luna? She'd brought Luna here, she'd dragged her from poverty and sadness and given her the gift of their life.

Later, when they were sitting with takeaway, Luna picked at small pieces carefully, Peitho sighed. "I'd planned to send you to see Merlin tomorrow," she told the girl. "Before I saw what happened."

Luna looked up. She'd been told that Hecate was going to come and heal her injuries, something which she was immensely looking forward to. Peitho's lip was split, and Luna didn't know what to do with that right now. Didn't know how to process the violence that she'd heard outside of room from Hermes and Peitho. Didn't know how to process that it was because of her. Had she somehow destroyed a marriage that had lasted thousands of years?

"I can still go," Luna told her, voice quiet and rough "If you want me to."

Peitho shook her head. "I shouldn't have let anyone hurt you."

Peitho looked guility. Luna swore she had never seen that expression on her before, and Luna knew there was nothing she wouldn't do to remove it.

"Hecate is coming to heal me," Luna reminded her goddess, moving so that she could kneel at her feet in front of Peitho's chair. The talking hurt, but she wanted to reassure. "And then, after that, I'll be happy to go wherever you want me to." She smiled up at her. "Doing your bidding, it makes me happy. And if you think that it's safe for me to go somewhere with Merlin, then I'll happily go. For you."

Peitho smiled at her. Hermes was gone, but Luna was here. She leaned down and kissed you. "You are the sweetest girl, and you're a blessing."

Luna couldn't find the words to say that Peitho and Hermes had been her blessing.

The doors of the elevator opened with a ding and both women looked that way, Peitho smiling brightly at Hecate.

"My darling," she said to the witch. "I'm so glad you came."

(Post a new comment)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-14 10:17 am UTC (link)
	Hecate lingered in the entraceway, taking in the pair of them. Peitho wearing a split lip and Luna, at her feet, dressed in bruises. "Evidently," she said, with a small frown of concern as she moved to Peitho's side, touching her cheek before looking down at Luna. "Whose work is this?" (Reply to this) (Thread)

	formortalhearts 2020-07-14 10:25 am UTC (link)
	Luna looked up at Peitho, unsure of how to answer, and Peitho set her jaw. "I sent dear Luna to keep a friend of mine company in Colorado," she admitted, her tone far more reticent than usual. "He... did not treat this gift as he should have." She gave Luna tight smile, and Luna reached out to take Peitho's hand and squeeze it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

saffroncloaked
2020-07-14 11:14 am UTC (link)

"No," Hecate agreed darkly, lowering herself to the floor beside the young mortal. She liked Luna. There weren't many people out there that sang out to her turn me into the moon. Her eyes roamed over Luna, taking in the damage, wondering if she should make a visit herself to Colorado.

Later, she thought. To Luna, she held out a hand. "Let's put you back to rights. Shall we go to your room?"

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	formortalhearts 2020-07-14 11:19 am UTC (link)
	Luna nodded. Luna would, in all honestly, have followed Hecate anywhere she asked. She didn't know if that was something about her connection to Hermes and Peitho, or just that she was magical and beautiful. She took Hecate's hand and together they went to the bedroom. Peitho got up and poured herself another glass of Dinoysus' wine. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-14 11:42 am UTC (link)
	Hecate gently closed the door behind them for a little privacy from Peitho. She knew they were bound close, but healing could be an immensely personal thing. She released Luna's hand so she could sit wherever she was confortable, and took a seat herself on Luna's bed, sitting crosslegged on the soft covers. "Will you tell me where he hurt you?" she asked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-14 11:47 am UTC (link)
	Luna moved to sit on the bed as well, beside the dark haired goddess. "Strangled me," she whispered, touching her throat. "And this." She pulled her hair right back so the painful bruise on her cheek was easy to see. She was so glad that Hecate was going to make these things stop hurting. She was ready to be able to swallow again without suffering. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

saffroncloaked
2020-07-14 12:11 pm UTC (link)

Hecate's eyes searched the skin on Luna's neck, as she wondered if there were more injuries Luna wasn't showing her. Many called on her when they were hurt, many more to seek justice on those men who caused the harm and yes, she thought, she would pay this bastard a visit later. "Okay, Luna, close your eyes if you would like to. I am going to lay my hands on your throat. It won't hurt, but it may not feel entirely natural and for some this can be upsetting." She thought, though, that Luna walked the boundary between natural and unnatural rather gracefully, and that normally she did not seem like an easy person to unbalance.

Still, who was normal after being strangled, by one of Peitho's friends, no less?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

holyrites
2020-07-14 12:16 pm UTC (link)

Luna nodded her consent and closed her eyes. When Hecate's hands touched her throat though it reminded her suddenly and so strongly of what had happened the day before that she made small yelp and flinched back. Hecate hadn't even started the part she'd warned Luna about and she shook her head.

"Sorry," she whispered, and forced herself to relax. She didn't close her eyes again, thinking it would be better to see that it was Hecate's hands.

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saffroncloaked
2020-07-14 12:59 pm UTC (link)

"No," she said. "You don't need to apologise for this." Hecate sat back, considering. "I'm going to start with your cheek, instead," she decided. The throat was such a intimate part of the body, after all. She raised her fingers to touch Luna's cheek, at the borderline where her undamaged skin started to darken, and began to knit back together all that was wrong, mending the burst capillaries and soothing the pain. She paused when she had finished, to gather herself again, and to make sure Luna didn't need a moment to do the same.

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holyrites
2020-07-14 01:35 pm UTC (link)

Luna did close her eyes then, and she could feel the magic working through her body.

As a child, Luna had wanted nothing more than to grow up to be a witch. Every game was about having magical powers, about dancing around a fire in the woods performing rituals. She used to make up 'spells', which were really just bad poetry and throwing together spices from the kitchen into a saucepan.

Growing up had been the slow realisation that there was no magic in this world to be found, no matter how much she wished for it. She moved away from home and in and out of shitty situations and even though she played with tarot deck and made jokes about her own witchy aesthetics, she knew that the world was only what was on the surface, no deeper waters to be explored.

But then had come Peitho. Peitho who had said, everything you believed and wanted is real and you can be a part of it. There was magic and gods and ghosts and Luna was having her injury healed by the Goddess of Witches herself, and it was a blessing beyond blessings to be gifted what she had always wanted so much.

All the pain, all the difficulties, all the suffering: everything was worth it to be a part of this world, to see the curtain lifted and behold the truth behind it.

She opened her eyes with a smile, and the movement didn't make her cheekbone hurt.

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	saffroncloaked 2020-07-15 08:47 am UTC (link)
	"That's better," Hecate breathed softly through her smile, touching Luna's cheek with the back of her fingers. "Hale and hearty. Shall I continue?" She didn't want to rush. Hecate was not a rusher. In fact healing was a thing that should not be rushed, though words like should were words she rarely applied to herself. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-15 09:06 am UTC (link)
	Luna nodded, and decided to hold off her actual words of thanks until after. She assured herself she wouldn't flinch for Hecate's touch this time. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

saffroncloaked
2020-07-15 09:31 am UTC (link)

Hecate moved, careful careful, and yet deliberate in her touch. The throat was a more complex creature than a cheek, but it was a rare thing that mystified Hecate. Although immortal, her own throat was as organic, as biological as Luna's, and although there were mysteries in the universe that even she did not understand, the human throat was not one of them. She pulled at the strings of the world, rearranging reality around Luna so the injuries were gathered away from her. First, they settled for a moment in Hecate's own throat, and next, rolled off her, pulled away as the moon pulls the tide.

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	holyrites 2020-07-15 09:34 am UTC (link)
	Swallowing had been agony since she'd left Michele's, since that long walk home, since passing out in a hotel room, but then, suddenly, that pain was gone. She took a deep surprised breath through her mouth, and that didn't hurt either. "Oh wow," she said, reaching up to touch her neck. "It's... all gone." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

saffroncloaked
2020-07-15 09:45 am UTC (link)

Hecate shook her head, but there was not a trace of reproachfulness in her expression. "Nothing is ever gone," she said. "But, yes, it is no longer yours." She settled her own self with a centering breath, watching Luna's surprised pleasure with pleasure of her own. She almost said: 'I will make sure the pain goes to someone worthy' but held back, not wanting to taint Luna's relief.

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	holyrites 2020-07-15 09:49 am UTC (link)
	No longer yours slightly unsettled Luna, and her expression darkened, just a little. "Do you mean... the pain and injury goes to someone else?" She hadn't realised that was how this worked, that she was only easing her pain at the cost of another somewhere. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-15 10:40 am UTC (link)
	Hecate took a moment before responding, following her various answers down various pathways. Each answer she considered was true, but in varying degrees of softness. "It does," she decided, in the end, to answer plainly. "And I have a mind to deliver it straight back to the man who gave it to you." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-15 10:44 am UTC (link)
	"I wouldn't be so against that," Luna admitted, rubbing one hand over the other. "Better than some innocent person minding their own business." Feeling like her throat had been crushed wasn't fun. She didn't want some nice unsuspecting human getting it from her. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-15 11:22 am UTC (link)
	"I wouldn't give it to an innocent," Hecate said, with an even but gentle look. "You can trust me with your pain, it will go somewhere it is deserved." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-15 11:23 am UTC (link)
	"Okay," Luna said firmly, showing that she believed the goddess. "I just... I wouldn't want someone to suffer for me." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-15 12:33 pm UTC (link)
	Hecate smiled at that, and leaned forward to press a kiss against the precious girls forehead. "That's a beautiful sentiment." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-15 12:36 pm UTC (link)
	Was it? It seemed like a kind of normal sentiment to Luna, but the gods had their own standards for things. Luna was trying to decide if she should say what she was about to say... but then it was coming out of her mouth. "Peitho and Hermes had a fight," Luna told her quietly, looking down at her hands and frowning. "Because of me." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-16 12:33 am UTC (link)
	"Ah, Peitho's lip," Hecate said, wondering how much damage Peitho had done to Hermes in return. "Was it because of you, or was it because of what happened to you?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	holyrites 2020-07-16 12:38 am UTC (link)
	"About what happened," Luna told her carefully. "They sent me to my room and I tried not to listen. It didn't feel like my place." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	saffroncloaked 2020-07-16 07:25 am UTC (link)
	"In the middle of a fight between Hermes and Peitho is definitely not your place," Hecate agreed, knowing full well the tumultuous nature of their fights. "Those fights are like storms. Destructive, messy, but they'll pass." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)