open | out with the old dreams I've borrowed

[sempreborgia]

Lucrezia had been here a month although she's barely gotten out of her apartment. The snow made traversing the city very near impossible in her attire. She could use that as an excuse, of course. But the truth of the matter was that she was sad. Lucrezia had fallen into a deep depression upon her return to the Sforza household after her brother Joffre's marriage. Her only solace was that she would have seen Paolo once again. That solace had been ripped from her by this strange place. She didn't even have her family to pull her from her reverie.

So it is a month later, after the snow has so suddenly disappeared, that she puts herself together in one of her finest of gowns and silken stockings. It was amazing the things this magical apartment had supplied her. She pulls some of her hair back, styling it with beads and netting. She applies some rouge to her cheeks and lips. And with a cover for shade to protect her porcelain skin, she finally pushes herself to leave her apartment.

She might seem out of her time, Lucrezia Borgia, among the modern City of Itinere. But she'll be exploring all of the shops and other parts of the City. She'll sit on a bench in the park for awhile and pause in her walk to dip her fingers into the water of a particularly beautiful marble fountain. She's mourned for her past. This is her present. And above all, she is Borgia. She will make the best of it as is expected of her.

Comments

[apprenticemusketeer]

Lucrezia isn't the only one who is out and about in the city with the weather being so nice. While d'Artagnan has not kept himself isolated, he had not exactly been a man-about-town. He isn't a fan of being suddenly yanked into another place without his friends or ... without his friends. (He dares not think of Constance or he might lose his temper.)

So, there is a Musketeer wandering the city, admiring the flowers (as yet from a distance), when he sees the woman approach, and he gives a bow of the head as would seem appropriate for a woman dressed as she is (much like a queen). "Madame."

[sempreborgia]

Had she known that Paolo were here, Lucrezia would have pushed through her sadness at a more rapid pace than she had. She almost doesn't recognize him in the fact that his hair is longer and he looks somewhat older. But it is him, she realizes. And the moment she realizes this, the shade of lace drops from her hand to clatter to the ground as she whispers one word: 'Narcissus'.

Her arms wrap around his shoulders to pull him close. "Oh my heart, would that I could turn back time to reunite with you the day before and yet before and before." Lucrezia pulls back, her hands cupping Paolo's face and leaning in to kiss him. She speaks against his lips. "Kiss me thus and tell me you are real, my sweet specter. Or are you merely an apparition I have created for myself?"

[apprenticemusketeer]

Um.

Suffice to say that d'Artagnan did not expect to kissed thusly. From upclose, his face still clasped by her hands, he blinks. "Madame - " d'Artagnan is most definitely real, but he has a hunch he is not who she is looking for. "I don't know you."

[sempreborgia]

Watching him, searching his eyes, she seeks some kind of recognition from him that she doesn't find. For the life of her she cannot understand this. Surely God would not give her Paolo back only without the memories they share. He was too important to her to withstand losing him a second time. He was supposed to be the one good thing in her life now that she was married to the likes of Giovanni Sforza.

How would she have survived his brutality without Paolo's kindness?

"But why? When I know all of you in both wake and sleep?" Her eyes are imploring, begging him to see her and know her. But there is nothing. Her hands fall away from his face and she steps back, the light draining out of her again. The things Giovanni had convinced her of creep into her mind, an unwelcome intrusion. She is Borgia. And therefore she is ugly and unlovable. No one could want her.

Except her secret, her Paolo. He had wanted her.

[apprenticemusketeer]

Taking a step back, d'Artagnan feels the prick of something in his thigh. He winces, rubbing at the sting. "Madamioselle," he notes, feeling his head seem to fog. "I... I don't know. There is ... there is much about this place I do not claim to understand."

[sempreborgia]

"It is most unfortunate, my lord. For you share a face and build with one I admired dearly." By 'unfortunate' she meant 'heartbreaking'. For surely this ache she felt in her chest was real and true. It was an ache she had thought she was done with, an ache she had thought she had already worked through. Was it possible that he had forgotten her? The thought horrified her. That she might be forgettable.

Were Borgias so unlovable as this?

She takes a steadying breath and a few seconds to recover before she steadies herself and turns to pick up her shade to lift it over her head. Her voice doesn't quite match up to her exterior though. "My sincerest apologies, my lord."

[apprenticemusketeer]

"Wait -" he says, before she can get too far, his pulse suddenly racing, the idea of her leaving suddenly seeming unbearable. "What is your name, Madamoiselle? I... I need to know." d'Artagnan retakes her hands, using them to pull her closer, parasol disregarded. "I... Tell me your name? Please."

[sempreborgia]

There's a momentary pang in her heart when that beautiful, sweet face has to ask her for her name. She wants so badly for him to know her, would will it into existence with just her own fortitude and desire if she could. But such things are impossible. Lucrezia had resigned herself to looking at impossible things from afar since her marriage to Giovanni. That is, until she had met Paolo.

Now, it seemed as if she were confronted with impossible yet again.

"I am Lucrezia... my lord." There's a slight pause behind her first name. She worries about people knowing her last name now. Giovanni had done that to her, using the word 'Borgia' as if it were a curse instead of her name. Even with her hands in his, she dips into a perfect curtsy, eyes lowered graciously before she looks back up to meet his gaze.

It feels so odd to ask him this. "And yours?"

[apprenticemusketeer]

She is... Well, she is so beautiful that d'Artagnan feels dizzy with it. "d'Artagnan," he tells her, smiling in something like wonder. "Of Lupiac in Gascony. Lucrezia," he adds, reaching for her hands. "I do not think I have met someone so beautiful." Suddenly, Constance is far from his mind.

[sempreborgia]

"d'Artagnan." Oh, what a cruel game this is. His words from those lips touch her heart in a place that has not yet truly healed. Such kind words that she had never heard from Giovanni, only from Paolo and her brother. And now, this d'Artagnan of Lupiac in Gascony.

Hope fills her eyes once again and she searches his eyes for any sign of teasing. "Do you mean that?"

[apprenticemusketeer]

"With all my heart," he tells her with quiet certainty, still holding her hands in his. There is no teasing to be found in his countenance, so sure is he to his heart, filled with longing for Lucrezia. "Do you think you could find in your heart a place for me?"

[sempreborgia]

But of course he cannot mean it. That doesn't mean that Lucrezia is any less affected by his words and that lovely, beautiful face of his. He's like an angel and Lucrezia is seriously considering clipping his wings and bringing him down to her level, to the level of a Borgia just as she had with Paolo, so starved for kindness as she is.

It's like a game. She can just treat it like a game of pretend as she often played when she was still a child. Her heart, though... could it withstand such a game? Could his? Was it fair to him, this d'Artagnan?

No. It would not.

It wasn't fair to both of them. And yet she cannot resist those eyes, those lips, that brow and his... countenance. "I think I could make room... d'Artagnan." She had to remember that that was his name. "If just for the pleasure of your company and a few moments of kindness."

She was Lucrezia Borgia. And she was wanted and lovable in spite of her wickedness and in spite of her name.

[apprenticemusketeer]

His eyes light up and his smile, too, is impossibly bright. d'Artagnan pulls Lucrezia closer, right against his chest, his arms circling her. "You have made me the happiest man alive," he tells her, wasting no time to lean in and kiss her.

[sempreborgia]

He pulls her close and she is breathless in a way she has very rarely, if ever, been before. Desire, built up for so long, will do that to a woman. And oh how Lucrezia desired and still does. She knows she is being absolutely wicked in allowing this charade to continue. And yet she does nothing to stop it.

Her hands grip his shoulders and she kisses him, again and again. His kiss is everything right now. "Your words are so sweet. Would that I could hear them always."

[minicaptain]

Naomi is still very, very new. So new, in fact, that she's still in the exploration stage of her stay here. So when she happens upon the lovely woman sitting in the park, she can't help but wander closer. Never in her short life has Naomi ever seen anyone wear anything like that. She's studied a little of Earth's history, mostly because her mother and half the crew are human, but she's still never seen anything quite like the stuff this lady is wearing, not even in the history PADDs.

"You're really pretty," she says as she walks up, as blunt as ever. Still pretty much convinced this is a holodeck simulation, she decides to see if this lady is one of the main characters she should be following. "Are you waiting for someone?"

[sempreborgia]

Lucrezia had spotted the child from a distance. She hasn't traveled outside of Italy and has never seen one with such adornments as were on this ones brow. It makes her curious over where she's from, of cours. As the child approaches, she offers her a soft smile accompanied by a curious tilt of her head. The shock of red hair reminds her of Giulia Farnese's mane and as such was something to be coveted.

"Why thank you. Certainly you are on your way toward being a great beauty yourself." She scoots over, shifting her skirts with her and then pats the seat of the bench next to her. "I merely admire the change of weather and the serenity that comes with it. And what of you?"

[minicaptain]

With her mother being blonde, it's really anyone's guess as to where Naomi got her red hair. She likes it, though. Not many people on Voyager have hair like hers.

"Thanks," Naomi says brightly, hoisting herself up on the bench so she can sit with the woman. "I was exploring. I've never been here before. I want to know what else is here and who all the people are."

Or something like that. It's in bad taste to tell a hologram that she's exploring a new simulation. That way lies madness.

"I'm Naomi. What's your name?"

[sempreborgia]

"You must keep yourself most occupied, for the many places and people there are to see." She says, her voice light and airy, almost playful. It was not long ago that she was still very much a child herself. Although now there is a darkness in her that hadn't been there before. She no longer walks on air, as Cesare had said.

She dips her head, her gaze lowered briefly as a soft smile shows on her lips. "I am Lucrezia, Naomi. While I've been here for awhile, I still know very little of the strangeness of this place."

[minicaptain]

"Nice to meet you, Lucrezia," Naomi offers, her happy smile still in place. Curious she may be and happy besides, but she is also a very smart young girl, especially for her age. "You still know more than me. This is my first day. I've never seen a place with so many flowers like this."

Then again, she's had very few experiences with things that weren't programmed into the holodeck, so this can't really be counted right now. It will be once she realizes that this is real and not a simulation of some kind. When that happens is anyone's guess.

"But you're right. There's a lot to see. I don't think I've found half the things there are to find."

[sempreborgia]

"They simply appeared overnight in perfectly ripe condition." Lucrezia explains, her gaze lowering to the ground across the sidewalk from the bench where they sat. It really was beautiful in spite of the jarring way in which they had appeared.

"Last night, when I took rest the ground was covered in a pristine white snow. And this morning, I awoke to this." She shakes her head. "It is a sorcery for which I am afraid I have no explanation."

[minicaptain]

Naomi has an explanation: either someone is manning the controls to the holodeck and switching things around at will or the holonovel is programmed to do this sort of thing when certain things are triggered and the hologram woman is programmed to comment on them. It's really simple.

"I don't, either," she says instead, looking at the flowers. "They're really pretty, but I shouldn't touch them anyway. Mom would say I should let them grow." She does. Usually. "How long was the snow around?"

[sempreborgia]

"The snow was perfect on the ground for several months to hear tell of it." It had been on the ground when she had arrived a month ago. It had still been on the ground only yesterday. Now it was nowhere in sight.

"I have only been here a month, Lady Naomi." She explains. "And I have yet to make it out into the city until now."

[minicaptain]

"Weird," Naomi says, frowning. She's pretty much convinced that someone is at the holodeck controls. This is all just way too weird.

"We could explore together, if you want," she offers, glancing up at the woman. "I'm planning on exploring as much as I can. I want to know everything there is to know about this place."

[sempreborgia]

"Such a lovely offer cannot go without an answer of yes, my sweet girl." Lucrezia stands, lifts her shade with one hand to keep her face from the sun and adjusts her skirts. Then she offers Naomi her hand. "Come. We will be great explorers together, you and I."

[minicaptain]

Naomi decides she likes this woman a lot. When she's in this simulation, she's going to come looking for Lady Lucrezia every time. Taking the woman's hand with a bright smile, she heads off. Explorers are perfect. It's just like it would be on Voyager if she were Captain.