agueforts · 7 months ago
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anyone else think about the futility of overcoming one's own nature or is it just me and the shadow of a person i could never be if i tried
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missymarysthings · 6 years ago
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Reaching a Limit
Lorena Casey Stellato. Head of the Stellato Clan’s business matters, and slatted to be main adviser to the next head of the family when the time comes. Also known within the clan as Medusa Stellato. 
Current status? 
Waking down the aisle and completely fed up with her current life. 
She hates the dress, hates the venue, and hates the man waiting for her at the end of the aisle. None of it was chosen by her. Her dress? Her mother’s doing. The venue? Chosen by the groom’s family. The groom himself? Chosen by her father and is what is hated the most.
Speaking of her father, if that man could even be truly considered a father in anything but a biological sense, she could feel a slight coldness emanating from him as he walked her down the aisle. It was a clear ‘Don’t you dare ruin this!’ sign from him that was about to be completely discarded. 
While everyone else had been busy planning this blasted wedding and ‘partial merger’ of clans for the past two years, she was planning something of her own. They did not ask for her input on anything. She had no choice in any matter of this forced marriage. At first she tried to voice her opinions and objections. Try to get them to see this was not as good as they thought it was going to be.
However, they refused to listen.  
Not even the fiance. 
But then, Medusa supposed it was no real surprise. That man her father chose for her did not really respect her. Belittled her and her accomplishments. Seemed to just barely believe that she was a very intelligent woman. She knew he wasn’t really marrying her. He was marrying the family. She was just the way to bring their families together, for him to be in the favor of her father. 
Fine. She was accustomed to only being seen as a tool or means to something else as it was. Her father, Vincent, never truly saw her as a daughter anyway. Had she not proved that she had an sharp mind and intelligence, or a knack for doing business related things...
She knows she wouldn’t be here right now. He would have tried to have a son to replace her and she would have been tossed out, or sold off somewhere, or even killed. And her mother would have let him. 
But Medusa was finally tired of all of it. This...farce of a wedding and the engagement leading up to it was the last straw. 
They didn’t want her to be part of the planning for it? Fine. She could just continue to handle business matters...and plan her escape. Or death. Even that was more preferable. Her health wasn’t the greatest lately anyway. Still, every moment she was on her own that wasn’t being taken up by her duties...she was doing something to get away from it all
Finding someone to get the ring off of her right pinky and make an exact duplicate of it. Finding someone else to enchant it to mimic the it’s effects but allow herself to be able to remove it. That had been first and foremost. And that alone almost...ended everything. Having her powers finally released after being sealed away by her father and that blasted ring for so long, it was overwhelming. She barely recalls what had happened throughout that day except at the ed when she had put the fake ring on and later went home and explained away her exhaustion by saying she had done a lot of work. And had several files and records she could use to back up her claim she she had done a lot of work related things that day as well. 
After that it was trying to practice in secret when she could to learn her powers and control them. Learning the layout of the surrounding lands around her home and around the venue where the ceremony was going to take place. Taking notes of paths she could run or places she could hide. Finding caves she could possibly reshape even slightly to help her. Practicing making illusions that matched these areas well enough to be convincing. 
And still working hard enough and doing other things so no one would suspected that she was plotting something. Covering her tracks and planning everything well enough to reduce being caught in the act. 
She had to follow through with everything until the last possible moment. Or else it wouldn’t work. But it would be worth it. Worth it to finally escape being manipulated, controlled, underappreciated, and miserable. She would no longer have to be wary of her memories being tampered with, or her father’s punishments and ‘motivational’ tactics. 
One way or another, she would be free.
“Lorena...this is the part where you say I do. This what the rehearsals were for. Are you even paying attention?” the groom’s slightly harsh whispers brought her back to the moment. Everything else had been on auto-pilot after her father had brought her to the alter. Now was the true moment. “You look a bit pale...did those incompetent helpers tie your corset too tight? Is that why you can focus right now. Tsk. I’ll deal with them later,” he continued. She didn’t answer. “Afraid to admit it? Or you don’t want them getting in trouble? You women...”
“You are an inconsiderate bastard, and I never wanted this marriage in the first place,” Medusa said, and loud enough for everyone attending to hear. She took off the engagement ring and threw it soundly on the ground between them. “I do not and will not take you as my husband! Ever. There is no love between us. You do not even respect me. It will not work and all it is-at it’s heart-is a scam both you and my father are trying to play against each other. And I will no longer play any part of it!” she declared and, lifting up part of her dress slightly, began to run for the exit. 
However, as she reached the doors a wall of ice blocked her. She turned slightly to see her father standing, his eyes glowing faintly with a scowl on his face, looking her way. “This is a bad time to be having second doubts Lorena,” he scolded without raising his voice. “You’re clearly not feeling well. Take a few deep breaths and then come finish the ceremony. Then you can have some time to rest before you come back for the reception. And then you will feel so silly about how you are acting right now,” he continued. 
Medusa did not falter. She knew he was angrier than this. He was just doing damage control, so that he did not look bad. She knew very well what would happen if she went back and did as she was told. She would not be herself after she ‘rested’. But she was done with this, and she had an advantage. 
“No. I know very well what I am doing and saying. I am not just speaking or behaving oddly because of illness. I am done with the abuse I have suffered because of the family, and what I stand to face should I go through with this unwanted marriage that I had absolutely no say in until now.” she said back. She then made a deliberate show of taking off the fake ring that subdued her powers. 
Medusa almost laughed at the shock and flare of anger that shown on her father’s face. She dropped the ring and her own eyes began to glow. “From now on I will be my own woman, or die trying,” she said before pointing at the ice wall and shattering it with a spike of stone. “Goodbye.”
Once more she lifted her dress slightly and took off running. Raising her own wall of stone behind her. She cared not about the shouts and sudden talking that arose. No doubt full of confusion and outrage and other things. She just had to run. Get to one of the places she had scouted out before they caught up to her and tried to drag her back. 
When Medusa made it to the forest that was near by she quickly went to the first place she had mentally noted. Wasting no time she grabbed a sharp rock and started tearing into the dress to get out of it. She had some satisfaction destroying the dress but she could not relish in it either. Once she could get out of it she threw it down and tossed aside the heels she was wearing. Leaving her in just the corset and undergarments. 
She grabbed the outfit she had stashed nearby but paused a moment. It sounded like some kind of commotion in the distance and it worried her. She quickly threw on the light burgundy jacket and matching skirt, leaving the blouse behind and not bothering to button the jacket, before slipping into the flat dress shoes she had. She could not risk trying to put on the blouse as it had buttons as well. It was perhaps the one folly of her planning. Either way, she took off running once more before the sounds could get closer. At least now she could move faster than before. 
However, her health, and the corset, took its toll on her sooner than she hoped it would. She knew she would not be able to make it to her next spot without collapsing. So Medusa went to the nearest cluster of trees, put herself in a decent spot within them that was lightly hidden and curled up on the ground. 
The next part she was nervous about. She was always nervous when she practiced it. But it was an option she had to use. She would not be able to sustain an illusion for long enough. She took a few deep breaths before creating a stone oval around her. It was just big enough to fit her, but it had to be small enough to be convincing. It had to look like it belonged there. The outside looked rough and weathered, but on the inside for her it was smooth and had a few little holes so air could come in. 
This was it. 
Either she could hide long enough for them to pass by or give up...
or she had just created her own tomb.
And for now all she could do was think of the one boy she saw when she was little that she can’t really remember. Maybe she had actually met him briefly. She wasn’t sure anymore. Medusa knew her memories of him, and of the event had been tampered with, and being older now did not help either. All she could say for certain was that it was a gathering of some clans. She had been dragged along by her parents. And this one boy had captured her attention for one reason or another. 
But she could never stray too far from her parents. And she thinks the boy had brothers. Maybe she didn’t meet him but had heard someone else say his name? Medusa wishes she could get those memories back. Maybe then she would know if she had crossed paths with the boy again since then. If she knew him now without realizing it. 
Medusa supposed it did not matter now. Even if she wonders these things. Wonders what that boy grew up to be, if he was married, or other things...she may not make it out of this situation alive. 
And even if she did...it may be too risky to find out anyway.
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