mismanagement | IC Contact Post [Hadriel]

[Emily's timing is fortuitous. She's the second visitor of the day and Maketh has only managed to sit still for about an hour after Henry left - and after she'd promised him she would rest. And she did try. For a while.

It's hard not having anything to do.

Maketh opens the door promptly, a new coat buttoned over her bad shoulder. She's mostly out of uniform, barefoot and her hair in a loose braid. Getting dressed requires the use of both hands. Her left - and dominant - side has yet to be healed.

Soon, hopefully.] We wouldn't want that. Come in.

[She manages a smile. Despite everything, she is glad to see Emily.]

Thanks. [There's half a smirk on Emily's face as she says that, and she gives a quick eyeroll before she walks inside like she belongs here.] It's about time. Here.

[She holds out the travel cup (or whatever it used to be; it is now a travel cup) as she looks Maketh over.] Never thought I'd see the day you weren't in uniform. You don't look half bad.

[Impatient. Maketh huffs, taking the cup in both hands. It feels good against her skin, the warmth sinking in. Heat seems to make the trembling subside.] Don't get used to it.

[The moment someone fixes her, it's back to usual. The sooner the better, in Maketh's opinion.

She pushes the door shut with her bad hand, resolutely ignoring the way it shakes.] You had no trouble getting over here?

[All that huff earns is a shrug. Good, Maketh can keep up with Emily. That means she's not doing half bad, even if she's not looking so great on the whole using her hands thing.]

Of course not. It's not like this place is hard to get around in, now that we're not being made to want to fucking murder someone. [With barely a pause, she asks,] Are you actually okay, or did you lie your face off earlier?

Withholding information is not the same as lying my face off. [It doesn't technically count as lying, for one. She'll live. It doesn't help anyone to list her injuries aloud. Aside from Henry and whoever she gets to eventually fix the damn thing, no one needs to know the extent of it.] Your knife is on the table.

[Maketh doesn't point, since she's holding the coffee with her good hand and it hurts to raise her bad arm that much. Nerve damage is so much fun.] Why were you wearing a mask then?

Please. Don't act like you've never heard of a lie of omission.

[But whatever. More important is that the knife is, in fact, on the table. Emily approaches it, but she doesn't get to reach for it before Maketh asks. It's probably less creepy to answer without a knife in her hand, so she turns to face Maketh and crosses her arms, leaving the knife where it is.]

I was being Kuchisake Onna -- the Slith-mouthed Woman. She's this vengeful ghost from Japanese legend. Her husband thought she cheated, got really jealous, and fucked her up, so she came back to take it out on whatever poor asshole she runs into.

[That's a decent summary of the legend, but it's not actually an answer to Maketh's question. Lying by omission and all.]

[Maketh has, but doesn't wish to discuss it right now. She drinks some coffee, instead. To her surprise, it tastes almost right. Coffee never tastes exactly right unless she makes it herself.] To frighten someone, I assume.

[She pauses.] Did you?

Wow, so smart. Of course to scare someone. [Thank you, Sherlock!!]

Yeah. It was hilarious.

[Unfortunately, Emily had been too busy wanting to murder Rhys to enjoy scaring the shit out of him. ...now that she thinks about it, this is kind of the opposite of the prank on Hannah. Rather than do it solely for the laugh (and end up accidentally killing her...sort of), Emily had gone into this fully intending to kill Rhys.

Honestly, fuck Rage.]

But also, it took awhile to get the makeup done, so since I couldn't, like, not want to kill Rhys, I figured I'd do all I could to spend as little time looking for him as possible.

[There's no need to be rude about it. Honestly. Maketh rolls her eyes.]

Well, I'm glad you didn't.

[That ought to be said. Just in case. Maketh drinks her coffee, in the meantime.]

Why the...slit-mouthed woman, though?

[Get used to it, bitch.

As much as Emily hates to admit it, Chris was right. She would've regretted murdering Rhys, and she's really glad she didn't. All her excuses for wanting to kill him are shit. Sure, he's kind of an idiot (okay, a lot an idiot), and extremely inconsiderate, but those aren't grounds to kill him. Emily isn't actually sure there are grounds on which she'd kill anyone, so yeah. It's good that she didn't.]

Same.

[That's as much of a thanks as Maketh will get on the matter.

As for her question, Emily shrugs.] First ghost that came to mind. Easy to pull off, too.

[And, like, why not.]

You're not gonna freak out over this shit later, are you? I'm not in the mood to get punched in the next rest of my life.

Ghosts don't frighten me. [Maketh makes a face, glaring down at her coffee. She wishes dearly that she'd been better that day, with the mirrors and what they prompted. But it did happen, and she had to survive the aftermath.

It could have been much worse. They've come to an understanding now.

Maketh rocks back on her heels.] I can't promise I won't do it again. Not when the gods can warp our perception of reality. I don't wish to, for whatever that counts for.

[This is another thing Emily regularly does, bring up things you've done to her. (If the reverse occurs, she'll find a way to dismiss it quickly, how dare you.) It's not personal so much as a way of reminding people that she has (or should have) the upper hand.

And really, Emily gets what Maketh is saying. For someone so stubborn, and so obsessed with being in control, Emily sure does lose it a lot where these gods are concerned.]

Yeah. Same. So, like, in that case, it wouldn't be your fault. I'd still be pissed, but I wouldn't be pissed at you for very long.

[She imagines the opposite would be the same, though she wouldn't be happy about having to apologize and wait for Maketh or whoever to get over it.]

[Maketh nods slowly.] I don't blame the woman who did this to me.

[Carrying a grudge won't help anything. She has to be objective about these things as best she can.]

[Maybe carrying a grudge for Rage-induced bullshit won't help, but holding a grudge for other shit someone has done? That's totally allowed.]

Whatever, she's still a bitch.

Perhaps. I wouldn't know. [Maketh lowers her mug slowly.] Oh. She was rude to you. On the network. I'd forgotten about that.

'Rude'? Seriously? So do you think Rage was just, like, giving us some anger management training? [HONESTLY, MAKETH.] That bitch is willfully ignorant. That's a level or ten beyond just 'rude'.

[Maketh hesitates.] No, I...I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. I'm not saying it right.

No, you're absolutely not. [Emily huffs.] At least you know when to stop and say you're sorry.

[It's not quite a compliment. Maketh drinks her coffee slowly, trying to parse her way around the situation. She always ends up feeling confused by Emily.] I'm trying.

[She hesitates.] Do you want to sit down?

[An invitation to sit means they're on the way to... maybe not friendship, but more than being acquintances (or people who fight with each other). And that's good and all, but there's no need to go straight from bitching at each other into heart-to-heart territory.

Besides, Emily doesn't have any coffee of her own right now, and like hell is she going to sit here and watch Maketh drink hers.]

No thanks. I'm gonna take this knife back and make myself some coffee of my own. [She pauses.] If you get healed in, like, a day or two, bring us back the cup.

[If not, she'll send Josh over or something.]

[That's probably for the best, because if Emily did stay, then Maketh would be obliged to fix her something - a coffee of her own - and that wouldn't end well for either of them. The coffee maker requires two hands at the best of times.

These are not the best of times.

But it's something. It's almost polite.

Maketh still isn't quite sure how that's happened. For a while she had assumed she'd spend a good deal of energy avoiding Emily after what had happened. Instead they've become...well, not friends, but something.

Civilians make no sense at all.]

I will. Thank you, Emily.

[It's not really fair to judge the rest of the world by how Emily acts, but it's not something Emily cares nearly enough about anyway. So she just shrugs, picking up the knife, relieved beyond measure that she didn't end up stabbing Rhys with it. Probably would've hurt like a motherfucker.]

No problem.

[She doesn't smile when she says that, and she offers a quick smirk as she heads out, leaving the brief moment of awkwardness behind.]

IC Contact Post [Hadriel]

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