Scene #1646: What Dreams May Come ft. Eleanor and Amalthea

Owner	Pose
Eleanor Lamb	The house is dark, the Sisters in bed, the home secured for the night. Of course, Amalthea's one of the people who has a key, being an Aunt and all. It's likely where Eleanor has ended up. And indeed, the Big Sister is down in her lab, curled up on a couch, hugging at her own knees and Definately Not Crying. Her radio is on a counter across the room, whispering words she can hear, but doesn't want to. A half empty bottle of wine sits on a table in front of the couch.
Amalthea	That debacle was something alright. After staggering out of Elliana's dream with the others, Amalthea distanced herself somewhat, before deciding just what she needed. Because feeling like a complete heel is not among the list of feelings she enjoys. It's not out of the ordinary for her to show up at the house sometimes, to spend time with the Little Sisters. It's a little late now though, but it's closer, and more relaxing than spending the whole trip back to her mountain fortress brooding. The dark estate isn't as welcoming a feeling as she had hoped for, and she's not so rude as to wake the sisters, so it's the Big Sister she seeks. And finds half in a bottle of wine and Not Crying. Without a word, the unicorn plucks up the bottle, flumping on the couch with a grunt, and taking a long swig, right from the bottle. "You too, huh."
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor can hear Amalthea come in, can hear the Unicorn shuffle over, but she doesn't look up, not even a little bit. Bangs over her eyes. Face in her knees. Looking very much not like a Big Sister. Just a scared young woman. The next words are muffled into her sweatpants. "Why did I ever agree to any of this? I... I... She is a monster but that was a horrid violation."
Amalthea	A slow breath, and Amalthea lets it hiss out in a small puff of steam from her nose, before she responds. "We didn't exactly handle that gracefully, no." Confirmed in open candor. "You're wrong though, she's not a monster." Amalthea pauses here for another slug of wine. It won't do a thing for her, but it's probably better that she make it go away, in the event Eleanor isn't packing Booze Hound tonight. Though the alcohol content won't affect her in the least, the act of sipping allows her time to pause. To think. To take her mind off things, if only for the span of a single breath. "I'm not exactly feeling much like a noble knight, here, myself. I feel like I should be twirling a handlebar mustache and wringing my hands." Admitted further before she goes on. "But I guess it made sense. That dream was too perfect. Obviously we'd unconver the nightmare in it like a squad of bumbling fools. All of her dreams are nightmares after all."
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor's words are quiet. "It would have been a nightmare upon waking, Amalthea. A respite within but a wave of regret and loss and revulsion at what could have been. But within, that was not a nightmare. That was a piece of Elliana's hopes and dreams and wonderment at the possibilities of her life and we violated that." The bottle floats forcefully out of Amalthea's hands and Eleanor takes a long pull herself, handing it back over afterwards. She is avaoiding contact with her friend. "That could have been me, you know."
Amalthea	The bottle lifting right from her hands results in a curl of doll-jointed fingers, balling into a fist with a motorized hum. "That nightmare. Was a lie." She says levelly. But then she rises. "And in that nightmare she lied. Elliana Fairchild never lied before." She points this out amid the slow, rhythmic shuffle of pacing that begins, much akin to an agitated lion. "The undercurrents were there. It was a nightmare while she slept, just as bad as it would have been upon waking." Though she takes no offence at the lack of contact, but it sets a pretty lousy tone for the conversation, as she turns her head to glance back over her shoulder. "That could have been any of us there."
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor's eyes close. a little drunken wobble of breath, before she whispers. "I'd considered, so... so many times, locked up in my little cage. Father gave me my self, but what to do with it. I watched him, through eyes that couldn't even percieve what was going through his head. Watched him lay out justice, but not be cruel. Give his health and safety for the weakest among us, but still show no mercy to the unworthy. He balanced anger for truth and I..." The sudden calm quiet discussion on the radio across the room catches her ear for all of a moment, before she slumps her shoulders. "I watched and am watching all of you fall apart. I... this is... not what I wanted. At all. This... I..." She triesto swallow back tears but it's not working. "I... I tried. I look at all of this and I just... I... I know I've been bad at connecting with people but the ones I care for just... I..." Her shoulders shake.
Amalthea	Pointedly-- POINTEDLY Amalthea reaches over and, unless stopped, she's going to shut that radio off. Unfortunately for her it's not so easy, with her own internally wired, but she does the best she can to ignore it vitriol spreading across the waves. "And you're here, now, because he wanted you to be. Now you're grown up and have to make your own choices for yourself, as any of us do. And for what it's worth, in my opinion you have made good decisions, leading to a good life. Not all of us have that opportunity. Fairchild certainly didn't." But then she pauses, casting that eye upon the Big Sister, a deep, soul-piercing stare. "You're bad at connecting with people? There are six girls upstairs who might want to call bullshit if they heard you. Do you want to know something, Eleanor? Truly know something?" She leans in, tilting her head to focus that eye in, with a small buzz of an aperture-like pupil. "I don't understand humans. At all." She lets that sit for a moment before leaning back. "I lived alone in a forest for three hundred years. The last twenty years have been very new for me. Oh I can fake it well enough. But the hearts and minds of man are a mystery to me as as flight is to a penguin."
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor's hands grip at her knees a little more, but she doesn't back away from the closeness of Amalthea. She does, however whisper. "I know thee hearts of man, Amalthea. The heart of a man is to take and take and take and there are precious few who rise above that, rise aobe their base urges. I am evidence of that. My Girls are evidence of that. I... I keep with my girls because we have a connection. We are agents of greed, of cruelty for money. Slaves to the Gene. I..." The Sister stops as the radio is switched off, and she bites her lip. "Sorry about the dig at you and Ellestaria."
Amalthea	"My wife is the only, and closest person I feel anything of a true connection with. Everyone else... I sit around. I smile. I make jokes that others laugh at. I nod my head in a mockery of understanding. That's it. Even this shrug is vague mocking mimicry." Amalthea says and pointedly shrugs. Now she flumps back on the couch. "You're wrong though. I ask: Is that what you and the Sisters are now. Even after being rescued by your father? I'm a static being. Humans are malleable. Did that not change you?" It's food for thought, and she leaves it right out there before going for the wine bottle again.
Eleanor Lamb	Eleanor's eyes droop closed, and she bites her lip. "I... no, that's not what... You..." She leans her head forward on her knees and then... acquieses. She turns on the couch, to pres her back against her friend, her coworker, and just shivers. "Call it self-loathing. I know what godness is, I know the moral choices, I know all of that, but my Self gets in the way like its supposed to and I just have all these Voices that drive me to... they drive me places I do NOT want to go and just watching everyone snipe at each other just..." "I listen to that all day, every day in myself. I know I am not human. I know I will never be alone like that, no matter how much I want to be. Even Utopia can't take the voices away. He can only dull them for a while. I just... I don't want the girls to be like that. I don't want to be like that. I can't be like that.... that Might Have Been."
Amalthea	Back to back is fine, as Eleanor presses aside her. Amalthea takes one last slug of wine, before she decides it has a better use, and holds it to her side in a lazy pass to the Big Sister- who clearly does need it much more. "Eleanor Lamb. If you know goodness, then look at the goodness in yourself, and rejoice that it is there." The unicorn says solemnly. "Heed not the voices. It's already obvious, to me, you aren't that. You aren't What Might Have Been. You are what you are now." "We all are what we are right now."