[prp] i'm just another lesson to be learned (ezra + leila)

[shibrogane]

"Eve didn't sign it," said Ezra. Whatever conclusion he'd drawn about that went unspoken. He said, "Left thumb," and pointed to where she needed to press it.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila brought her thumb to the paper. She didn't look at it, or at Ezra.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra took Leila's wrist in hand and pressed her thumb, hard, to the paper. It burned. She burned like she was touching a red-hot iron, not a sheet of parchment. It went on forever and ever and ever, until it didn't.

He released her. "If you try to tell anyone about this," he said. "You'll regret it."

cibarium

EZRA'S BETRAYAL
Leila cannot reveal just what passed between her and Ezra in this thread, or that Ezra intends to approach others. Should she try, her left hand will begin to burn again; the pain will be such that she will be unable to speak for the duration. However, in return for this, Leila has gained a boon. Choose one of these three below:
1. Psychometry - Leila can glean memories from touching living bodies. What memory is accessed depends entirely upon where Leila and her target are standing; Leila can only access memories that occurred in the place where she is at that moment. Additionally, these memories have no sound. Please acquire player consent before using this power.
2. Replicator - Leila can replicate magical traits from another's physiology through touch. So, for instance, she could replicate Lily's horns or Zac's galaxy eyes or Jeremiah's scent. She could also replicate a were's current form. Abilities such as Aleksy's sight or Jeremiah's magic-detecting eyes that are not caused by a physical difference in the structure of the body cannot be copied.
3. Papers, Please - Leila can detect secondary presences and mental effects inside other people around them, such as Melany and the Spinel Lady. Any geas-like spell is also detectable, such as Jeremiah's truth-teller geas or the noble geas. This registers to her as seeing a ghostly overlay of the other person or caster's face over the presented body. This power takes effect immediately. Quote shibrogane should you wish to use it in a thread.

 

[cibarium]

It went on for a year and a half eight years ago. Ezra's cold voice yanked her back to the present, which was no better. Leila had bitten down on her hand to stop herself screaming without realizing. One hand was bleeding, the other still burned, and she almost didn't notice, because the most intense pain was in realizing she still wasn't a parent. She was no one's mother. This hadn't been real.

And she couldn't tell Eve.

shibrogane

Papers, Please, please! O:

 

[shibrogane]

As Leila looked up at Ezra, she Saw him.

There was his burned face there before her, but it was fuzzy, unreal. Fuzzier still, difficult to discern, was the flaming silhouette of the Burning Man. Both of these were cast in bas-relief over an unburnt, younger copy of Ezra. It was this last Ezra that seemed realest of the three of them.

It was that Ezra that watched her as the other two turned away, back to the house with its cheerful yellow lights and Ezra's two daughters.

A moment later, she found herself back outside that nondescript door with nothing to show for it but teeth marks in her hand.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Biscuit creaked affectionately at Leila's feet, seemingly none the wiser about what had just happened. A curious eye was cast to the bitten hand, but it didn't cause alarm: instead the hen signaled she was ready to continue on after having waited attentively behind Ezra's door.

Leila gathered her familiar into her arms and slowly made her way home, numb and heartbroken.

shibrogane

and this is a fin :3 thank you for The Drama