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littlefaerose · 7 years

Text

the cause is the cure

WHO: Marley Rose (ft. Olivia Wisteria)

WHEN: August 19th, 2016

WHERE: Avicenna greenhouse

WHAT: Olivia is disapproving of Marley’s unorthodox solutions to her problems, per usual.

WARNING(S): mentions of bodily injury and implied tree-related violence

“See, look! They’re starting to heal over,” Marley insisted, turning to show the length of her arm to Olivia. Underneath the concentrated rays of the sun lamps in the greenhouse, what had been deep grooves cut into her skin, winding up from wrist to shoulder, were finally closing up. The affected glamoured skin was still colored with an angry shade pink and blooming green, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore. It was healing. Olivia didn’t seem too impressed, however.

‘I told you not to keep going back to your room and that tree!’ she sighed in frustration, dropping the arm in her grasp as she returned to pacing. ‘That thing has a mind of its own. It wants to hurt you!’

“But what I’m doing is working!” Marley argued, moving to stand back under the lamps. “That thing is smaller. You could see that, couldn’t you?? It was smaller when you got in there and pulled me out-”

‘I couldn’t tell. I was a little too busy saving your ass,’ Olivia glared. ‘I don’t understand why you can’t just bite the bullet and have someone come professionally remove that thing.’

“Because!” Marley sighed herself, struggling to put her thought process into words. “Because we already know that hurting the tree hurts me. Who knows what would happen if they tried to uproot it?? And besides, I think I’ve finally figured out how to shrink it down myself.”

‘How? How, Marley?’ Olivia asked, exasperated. ‘How are you going to take down a near-sentient tree that goes berserk every time you go near it?’

“August 7th.”

‘... August 7th?’

“Yes. August 7th, 2016. Does that date mean anything to you?”

‘No.’

“I know it doesn’t. But it does to me.”

‘Why?’

“Because.” Marley blew a breath out, chewing the inside of her cheek. “Because it’s a day that changed me. A day I can’t take back, and a day I’ve been trying hard not to remember.”

Olivia frowned slightly. ‘Why?’ she asked.

“Because sometimes it hurt too much to remember.”

~*~

She lingered in front of the desk while the woman behind it adjusted the glasses on her nose and skimmed over a small packet of paper clipped together. The corners of her lips slowly gravitated upward, her head nodding as she flipped through page after page.

‘This is great,’ Professor Larkspur agreed, turning her smile back to the girl before her. ‘You said you wrote this for one of your Naturalization courses?’

“Yes, the one on Sex, Gender, and Society,” Marley nodded, taking the paper back. “I hope it’s okay if I use the material and expand on it for my extra credit paper for your class?”

‘I don’t see why not. I’d love to read on how your views on the matter have evolved after taking my class.’

Larkspur turned away then, shuffling papers together to put into her bag. A beat passed, and Marley still hadn’t moved.

‘Is there something else, Miss Rose?’ she asked.

“Yes, actually... I wanted to get your opinion on a matter,” Marley replied, putting her paper back into her bag. “A... relationship-related matter.”

‘Ah... well, let’s hear it!’

“Well... okay, so we’ve had discussions in class on dating,” she said, setting her bag down and perching on the desk opposite Professor Larkspur’s. “And I’m not a stranger to dating. Not really. I mean... I’ve had... something. Or a few somethings, in the past. And for a really long time I haven’t had a something, because I had other important somethings to do-”

‘Marley.’ Professor Larkspur chuckled, giving her a bemused look. ‘Go ahead and spit it out.’

Marley blew out a breath. “Okay - I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think I might be ready to try again. Nothing serious, just... casual. But there’s a problem.”

‘Oh? What kind of problem?’

“Like a past relationship problem.”

‘And why is it a problem?’

“Because... well...” Marley hemmed and hawed until Larkspur gave her another look. “Because I don’t think the door is completely closed on this past relationship. Like some days, I think we’re good and we’re just friends. And then the next, we’re not just friends. And I keep thinking that maybe... maybe someday, we’ll be more than friends again.”

‘And it’s keeping you from finding someone else to be more than friends with.’

“Yeah, I guess.”

Professor Larkspur sighed, taking off her glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose before leaning forward on her elbows to regard the much younger fae before her. ‘Alright. I’m going to be frank and honest with you. Is that alright?’

“Of course.”

‘Then let me first say this - I’m well aware of the other important ‘something’ you’re talking about. Your responsibility, to your sisters,’ Larkspur nodded in her direction. ‘It’s a rather weighty decision, choosing whether or not to stand with the general concensus of the fae. It’s not one to make lightly, no matter which way you go, and either way, it can still have an impact on other things... like your relationships.’

She rose from her chair then and moved to the front of her desk, leaning back against it.

‘I know you have pressures from all sides, people telling you what to think, what to do, what to believe. It can be difficult to know what is true, and what is best for you yourself. First and foremost, I would encourage you, in all things - do your research, know all the facts and all of the options, but ultimately make your choices based on what is good for you.’

Marley shifted a little uncomfortably. This wasn’t exactly the talk she’d come for. Thankfully, Professor Larkspur moved on.

‘With that being said, you’re young. You’ve got the whole world and a lifetime of opportunities, of experiences, at your fingertips... but when you put more of your focus on the ‘maybe someday’ of life, you risk missing out on the here and now. What’s ready and waiting right in front of you,’ she explained, her expression softening. ‘I’m not saying that ‘maybe someday’ is not a possibility. Anything is possible in a world like this. But waiting around for ‘maybe someday’ may mean missing out on something, or someone, truly great.’

“So... you’re saying I should let go of ‘maybe someday’?” she asked.

‘I’m saying it wouldn’t hurt to close the door and start looking for that open window instead,’ Larkspur clarified, smiling. ‘And if someday that doors re-opens and you’re ready to walk through it? Then great. But don’t limit yourself by sitting there and waiting for it to open wide to you.’

~*~

‘... I don’t get what you’re trying to get at here,’ Olivia huffed. ‘Letting go? Closing doors? How is that supposed to help your tree problem?’

“Facing the fear and doing it anyway,” Marley quoted... well, herself. Technically. Her doppel-self had said it, so close enough. “I’ve been scared and reluctant to let go of things in my past. I’ve been scared to face things about myself, and all of that stress, that anger, that frustration? It made that monstrous thing start growing. I made it start growing.”

‘So?’

“So... shouldn’t it make sense that I need to face all of that to make it stop growing?”

Marley left the bath of warm light to close the distance between herself and Olivia. She stopped long enough to pick up the gnarled, twisted root that had clung to her arm when Olivia pulled her out of her room moments earlier, and held it up for her to look at.

“You see this? This is the root I pulled out of the floor while I was in there. While I was facing - August 7th,” she waved her free hand in a non-committal gesture. “I had to face the memory of that day, and every day that tied into it, and I had to accept that that chapter of my life is over. Long over. That I want and need to move on from it. It was only when I did that, that I could pull this out of the floorboards, and the tree shrunk. I swear it did, Liv.”

Olivia yanked the root out of her hand and tossed it aside. ‘Marley, are you listening to yourself?? You almost got mauled! AGAIN.’

“But what I’m doing is working! I could really be on to something! And if I had help-”

‘No. No no no,’ Olivia furiously shook her head, ‘I’m drawing the line, Marley Rose. I can’t keep being involved if you’re going to insist on willingly putting yourself in harm’s way instead of being reasonable about all of this.’

“But Liv-”

‘I can’t. I won’t,’ Olivia emphasized, pushing past her for the exit.

“But I need you!” she shouted after her, “I can’t do something like this on my own!” She huffed out a breath of disbelief as the door to the greenhouse opened and promptly snapped shut. Sure, she’d expected some resistance but a flat-out ‘no’? It felt like as hard a blow to the gut as she’d gotten from the tree. What ever happened to asking for help?

She pursed her lips, hugging her arms to her chest as she turned back toward the abandoned sun lamps. The cogs were still turning inside her head, Olivia’s refusal aside. If she wouldn’t help her...

... well, someone else might, right? Maybe more than one someone. She just had to figure out who and how.

#paras #olivia wisteria #the cause is the cure #tw: injury #tw: violence

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