hey, uh. it's Iggy.
I might have an idea about the itchiness going around?
I might have an idea about the itchiness going around?
Junpei told me he got bit at the Duchess' party. Ianthe healed it up. He said it really, really itches there.
So. I dunno. Maybe see if anybody else got healed by Ianthe.
So. I dunno. Maybe see if anybody else got healed by Ianthe.
yeah he said Zlatka did it when they had sex. like a love bite, you know?
[ Her tongue is a twisting agony of pain, that is not hers, but how is her heart to know the difference when it was cut open just as freshly? A solid awful beat that was Murphy's loss, seeping through everything as she wept and wept and could not stop and if there is a fitting punishment, perhaps it is this. ]
Murphy... is Murphy being taken care of?
Murphy... is Murphy being taken care of?
Good... good. I -
[ She rubs her fingers at the back of the other hand, dragging over her knuckles to even herself out. ]
Is he .... does he need anything? Something special, a meal? Uhm. I could...
[ She's not welcome, she knows she's not, much as it beats at her senses to want to be near to him. ]
[ She rubs her fingers at the back of the other hand, dragging over her knuckles to even herself out. ]
Is he .... does he need anything? Something special, a meal? Uhm. I could...
[ She's not welcome, she knows she's not, much as it beats at her senses to want to be near to him. ]
Mavis is saying she's not Kuruko any more, right? But she still only really knows a lot of things their way. Their traditions. I don't think she's really going to want to drop all of it, but, I don't know, I'm trying to think of ways to make it easier for her. Translate stuff.
Yeah, but it's different when you want to. Then there's a reason. Things you want to get rid of, even if you can't let the rest go.
[He'd know.]
But you did that challenge with her, right? That time she almost killed you. So I was thinking maybe you could tell me how that whole thing worked, and we can figure out if there's ways it can translate.
[He'd know.]
But you did that challenge with her, right? That time she almost killed you. So I was thinking maybe you could tell me how that whole thing worked, and we can figure out if there's ways it can translate.
So she could take his name, Ari.
[Complicated. More complicated than he really wants to think about, has just accepted it's important to Mavis and moved on. It helps that Gaius isn't here any more. Which hurts Mavis in turn. Complicated.]
None of them are left to fact-check her, so it doesn't matter. Whatever she thinks is how they did things is how they did things, now.
[Complicated. More complicated than he really wants to think about, has just accepted it's important to Mavis and moved on. It helps that Gaius isn't here any more. Which hurts Mavis in turn. Complicated.]
None of them are left to fact-check her, so it doesn't matter. Whatever she thinks is how they did things is how they did things, now.
When we first got dropped on the ground, he kind of made himself in charge. Talked the right kind of talk, acted the right kind of way, so we all listened to him. I listened to him.
But we were a bunch of criminal kids with no laws for the first time. We were assholes. I was the worst. So when they find the Chancellor's son dead, killed with my knife, it was easy math. Ark law is any crime gets you floated. No airlocks on the ground, though, so they string me up, and Bellamy's the one who kicks the box out from under me.
Only I hadn't killed Wells. This kid, Charlotte, had. Bellamy knew that, but he didn't want to kill a little girl, and he would've let me hang for it if she hadn't piped up that it was her. They cut me down, I want her head, Bellamy grabs her and runs into the woods, and me, I get a mob together and go after them.
She jumped off a cliff, in the end. She killed herself and they exiled me, left me there. The Grounders find me, torture all the information they can out of me, then make me sick and dump me back at the camp to spread it to everyone else. Bellamy wanted to kill me, but Clarke doesn't let him, and while they're sick, I kill the two guys who tied the rope they hanged me with. Tried to kill Bellamy, too. Strung him up. Kicked the stool out from under him. So he'd feel what I felt.
He got saved, same as I'd been. Definitely wanted to kill me as soon as he saw me, after that. But the thing was, the whole world was coming for us. Grounders wanted to kill us, Mount Weather wanted our blood, ALIE wanted to stick computer chips in our brains. And even with the rest of the Ark down on the ground, we were still the only ones who really gave a damn about us.
I saved his life a few times. He saved mine. I don't think there's anyone in the universe who knows me better than him.
But we were a bunch of criminal kids with no laws for the first time. We were assholes. I was the worst. So when they find the Chancellor's son dead, killed with my knife, it was easy math. Ark law is any crime gets you floated. No airlocks on the ground, though, so they string me up, and Bellamy's the one who kicks the box out from under me.
Only I hadn't killed Wells. This kid, Charlotte, had. Bellamy knew that, but he didn't want to kill a little girl, and he would've let me hang for it if she hadn't piped up that it was her. They cut me down, I want her head, Bellamy grabs her and runs into the woods, and me, I get a mob together and go after them.
She jumped off a cliff, in the end. She killed herself and they exiled me, left me there. The Grounders find me, torture all the information they can out of me, then make me sick and dump me back at the camp to spread it to everyone else. Bellamy wanted to kill me, but Clarke doesn't let him, and while they're sick, I kill the two guys who tied the rope they hanged me with. Tried to kill Bellamy, too. Strung him up. Kicked the stool out from under him. So he'd feel what I felt.
He got saved, same as I'd been. Definitely wanted to kill me as soon as he saw me, after that. But the thing was, the whole world was coming for us. Grounders wanted to kill us, Mount Weather wanted our blood, ALIE wanted to stick computer chips in our brains. And even with the rest of the Ark down on the ground, we were still the only ones who really gave a damn about us.
I saved his life a few times. He saved mine. I don't think there's anyone in the universe who knows me better than him.
Yeah. Crap always goes sideways a lot quicker than people think.
[He'd said as much to Mavis. People were messy. Sometimes small things snowballed before you realised they'd even happened, whether anyone wanted it or not.
This wasn't the topic he'd really meant to touch, though.]
But you said she's always going to hate you on some level. I'm saying I think I might always hate Bellamy, on some level.
[He'd said as much to Mavis. People were messy. Sometimes small things snowballed before you realised they'd even happened, whether anyone wanted it or not.
This wasn't the topic he'd really meant to touch, though.]
But you said she's always going to hate you on some level. I'm saying I think I might always hate Bellamy, on some level.
[A huff, almost a laugh.]
I don't know if that's what I was doing.
[Comfort would be straight up reassurance, wouldn't it? Telling Aristaeus that of course Mavis didn't hate him. Or that she wouldn't forever.]
More like... It's part of it, I guess. Sometimes stuff happens with someone, and no one else is ever going to know it like you do. You and them.
I don't know if that's what I was doing.
[Comfort would be straight up reassurance, wouldn't it? Telling Aristaeus that of course Mavis didn't hate him. Or that she wouldn't forever.]
More like... It's part of it, I guess. Sometimes stuff happens with someone, and no one else is ever going to know it like you do. You and them.
[It's still strange, hearing that. He isn't sure it ever won't be. Telling people about his past usually feels like a confession, a revelation of something terrible, a reason not to stay with him. It's hard to think of as people wanting to know because they want him.]
Well, you already got one dose of my screwed up today. I'll give you a break before the next load.
Well, you already got one dose of my screwed up today. I'll give you a break before the next load.
Ari —
[ Not Master Aristaeus, not Aristaeus, just - Ari, and just her, quiet, and scared and doing her best to face what happens with whatever is left of her pride. ]
... I need you to make sure that Murphy, Ianthe and Sweeney are looked after. They will not be well. Can you do this for... for me?
[ Not Master Aristaeus, not Aristaeus, just - Ari, and just her, quiet, and scared and doing her best to face what happens with whatever is left of her pride. ]
... I need you to make sure that Murphy, Ianthe and Sweeney are looked after. They will not be well. Can you do this for... for me?
Edited 2024-09-21 15:43 (UTC)
[ Calm she must keep calm as she runs the prayers in her mind, over and over, her mother's guidance ringing like a bell. We are thr flat surface that shows nothing of the ebbing current, we are the tides that come and go and never falter.
She must not falter now. ]
They have set up an arena. For those of us who will not partake of the poppet dolls.
We must fight to the death.
She must not falter now. ]
They have set up an arena. For those of us who will not partake of the poppet dolls.
We must fight to the death.
They do not.
[ She takes a slow breathe out.
She must grow up, and she must accept what being a Queen means. Even if it means her own end, her vanity, her fear, must come second. She will not let go of her morals, and for it, must face this reality head on. ]
If they did, they would stop it. It would compromise their position with the Duchess, and there is no hope, of we are all at odds. There is no reconciliation for the better, if we lose our heads.
[ She takes a slow breathe out.
She must grow up, and she must accept what being a Queen means. Even if it means her own end, her vanity, her fear, must come second. She will not let go of her morals, and for it, must face this reality head on. ]
If they did, they would stop it. It would compromise their position with the Duchess, and there is no hope, of we are all at odds. There is no reconciliation for the better, if we lose our heads.
[How long, and how much, has she craved to hear those words. To know that she has done well, that she has made glad the people around her?
She takes a second to swallow down not tears of hurt or fear. But happiness, something washed clean after so many years. In and out, one after the other to get her voice back to even. ]
Ari - I have always - I just want to keep my family safe, and know - know that I have no shamed you. I do, that is, I am always -
[ She swallows. All the words are too much, and all their meanings confused on her tongue.
So she settles on the thing that matters most. ]
- I love you - and to be... to be your family, gives me courage most of all.
She takes a second to swallow down not tears of hurt or fear. But happiness, something washed clean after so many years. In and out, one after the other to get her voice back to even. ]
Ari - I have always - I just want to keep my family safe, and know - know that I have no shamed you. I do, that is, I am always -
[ She swallows. All the words are too much, and all their meanings confused on her tongue.
So she settles on the thing that matters most. ]
- I love you - and to be... to be your family, gives me courage most of all.
( in the aftermath of jim's maze: unusual quiet and danny scratching at the barrier of aristaeus' mind, politely knocking to be let in. )
ari
( jumbled, like there's interference. it comes through clearly a second or two later: )
aristaeus, i need a favor.
ari
( jumbled, like there's interference. it comes through clearly a second or two later: )
aristaeus, i need a favor.
i got nicked under the ribs in jim's maze a day or so back.
( was it a day? it might have been longer. danny isn't sure how long he was in there. it felt like a space similar to the void, that line between reality and unreality. )
i know it ain't right of me to come asking for you to fix me up and taking advantage of your generosity, but i'd really appreciate it if you could help me out just this once.
( he's already built up a stack of favors for ianthe, and she's not a woman danny wants to be indebted to, as much as he likes her. he's not stupid. )
( was it a day? it might have been longer. danny isn't sure how long he was in there. it felt like a space similar to the void, that line between reality and unreality. )
i know it ain't right of me to come asking for you to fix me up and taking advantage of your generosity, but i'd really appreciate it if you could help me out just this once.
( he's already built up a stack of favors for ianthe, and she's not a woman danny wants to be indebted to, as much as he likes her. he's not stupid. )
the woods, probably about half a mile or more due east of ( my daddies' cabin are the words he thinks, but he catches them before they can make their way to aristaeus, though some of it slips through, butchered and mangled, a little slip of tv static spelling out my daddies, my daddies, my daddies. ) my cabin. jem's cabin. i think. i don't know, fuck. i took a break 'cause walking was getting annoying.
Edited 2024-10-27 22:40 (UTC)
( that's all the confirmation danny needs to fully slump down where he'd been standing, propped elbow-first against a tree. he settles at the base, between two gnarled roots undulating from the dirt like twin worms. )
it was cesare.
( as for the answer of how, )
before you say anything, i let him do it.
it was cesare.
( as for the answer of how, )
before you say anything, i let him do it.
i didn't want anything out of it, just caught him following me like a little mouse over some bullshit i told him a few weeks ago.
( the most unsubtle man in existence: cesare borgia. )
it was a decent opportunity for him to get all his big feelings out.
( the most unsubtle man in existence: cesare borgia. )
it was a decent opportunity for him to get all his big feelings out.
...Aristaeus?
[ a low growl from a stranger, tinged with reluctance. khoriya had almost disregarded the name written on the label of the package in favor of wolfing (ha) the contents down without a second thought, hungry as he is.
but something about the name pings a distant thread of memory. mavis had spoken to him of her consort before, when she had offered him her aid. back during the dregs of summer, after khoriya had made himself into an abomination.
...
so he'll do this 'aristaeus' the bare courtesy of inquiring. for her sake. ]
[ a low growl from a stranger, tinged with reluctance. khoriya had almost disregarded the name written on the label of the package in favor of wolfing (ha) the contents down without a second thought, hungry as he is.
but something about the name pings a distant thread of memory. mavis had spoken to him of her consort before, when she had offered him her aid. back during the dregs of summer, after khoriya had made himself into an abomination.
...
so he'll do this 'aristaeus' the bare courtesy of inquiring. for her sake. ]
Did she fucking marry you too without telling me?
Did you, at any time, marry Gilia?
If so, she didn't tell me. Just like she didn't tell me she married Murphy.
If so, she didn't tell me. Just like she didn't tell me she married Murphy.
I didn't think so even with her fondness for you, but apparently my own wife was hiding things from me.
And I can't even ask her why.
And I can't even ask her why.
She told me when she fucked up messing with Murphy and Danny's souls, accidentally including herself, but she didn't once mention that counted as marriage.
I didn't say shit to her about Cesare, didn't try to get in the way of their marriage. And yet this with Murphy. I like Murphy.
Liked.
I didn't say shit to her about Cesare, didn't try to get in the way of their marriage. And yet this with Murphy. I like Murphy.
Liked.
Sweeney knew she was waiting for an answer from Murphy. That's what he said when I asked him if he knew.
But apparently I'm fucking special.
But apparently I'm fucking special.
No, I need to go cry, get drunk, then force myself sober again so I can make my twelve o'clock.
I hope you have something other than whiskey.
I am a lyctor. Your booze will have to work for that.
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