CLOSED | prompt eight | RUIN

[dondarrion]

prompt eight | R U I N dressing-room style. closed to rog.

 

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RUBY | venus

[dysmorphia]

[ It had gone all terribly pear-shaped in the end. (It always does. No exception. They either leave, they move on, or they burn her. But sometimes, every once and a while, she thinks to leave first.)

Her tone attempts detachment and fails. ] Better him than me.

[pictured]

[ It takes Stella a moment to register that anything has been said, being somewhat preoccupied by picking away the lace at the corner of her current picture frame. ]

Oh— oh. I suppose so. Better their bones than ours.

[dysmorphia]

[ In general, Ruby doesn't like her siblings — her sisters usually on the receiving end of the worst of it. Unwarranted for the most part, but mother's children have never been known for even temperament. Being the girl in the vanity means that Ruby has plenty of faces, none (save one) are hers.

And so, a bitterness lingers about her, a resentment of all her beautiful sisters and the face they get to keep all to their own. Stella, though lovely, is one of the few who get a free pass. (If only for all the times she's come and swept up Ruby's bones after the fact.) ]

No one will miss them. Not really. But you— you'd miss my bones, wouldn't you, Stella?

[pictured]

[ Stella's expression seems to collapse at the very thought, mouth pulling into a frown as her brow pinches. She shakes her head fervently, the curls of her hair waving about her face as she does. ]

Oh, terribly, terribly. You know I would.

[ By contrast, there isn't a sibling among them that Stella doesn't care for to at least some perfunctory degree. If she's told to scram, then she will, though the bones, if there are any, always find their way back to the house one way or another. (She has a gentle heart — a fault, in a brood like theirs.) ]

[dysmorphia]

I know you would, [ she affirms, her tone overly sweet like the way a person might coo at a pet dog. Just because Ruby knows doesn't mean it doesn't feel wonderful when her sister reminds her. (She could be sweeter if she wanted to, could give the illusion of something more resembling genuine care but when it comes to her siblings, Ruby is selfish. She knows she isn't the only one guilty of such a crime.) ]

I would miss you too, as much as bones could miss anything. That's why you must never go away. [ (I need you, but not in a loving way. In a needy way, like a parasite.) ]

[pictured]

I'm always watching, promise.

[ Overly sweet or parasitic, there are few interactions with her siblings that Stella doesn't welcome. She likes the acknowledgment, much in the same way that Ruby likes the confirmation. (But sweet and airy though she is, things have gotten ugly with her from time to time — the same holds for all of Mother's children. There are many ways of driving a person mad, and as it happens, Stella is familiar with her fair share of them. A girl in a picture frame can do more damage than one might expect.) ]

And you know how to call for me, don't you?