(no subject)

[we_bring_hell]

Nothing is wrong. Well, nothing new is wrong. It's just that sometimes you wake up and hate everything, starting with yourself and extending outward from there.


She has snarled at Gideon, banished Gideon to the distant past, and is now sulking about being abandoned by Gideon. She was trying to work on the Lyctoral theorems, but her bile got in the way, and now she's chewing on her interdimensional communication mechanism.

She is considering burning characters into her living bones while her cavalier is away and without a healer standing by, because she may be 90% of Gideon's self-control but Gideon is 70% of her self-preservation.

The Mountain Goats is blaring; Transcendental Youth.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

"Tolerably," she says, clipped. "Ingress came by -- your idea?"

"She introduced me to a thestral."

[we_do_bones]

"I asked her to make sure nothing killed you while I was gone," she admits. "And nothing did, so good job, Ingress! What's a thestral?"

[we_bring_hell]

"A strange magnificent beast... a bit like a flying skeletal horse," she says. "It was... fearsome." She says this in rapt tones, the way a normal person might say beautiful.

[we_do_bones]

"Sounds horrifying and extremely Ninth," Gideon says. "Lan Wangji introduced me to a bunch of rabbits. They were cute and fluffy and not scary at all."

[we_bring_hell]

"It was," Harrow says, her tone turning Gideon's words into compliments once again.

"That sounds... was it pleasant?"

[we_do_bones]

"Yeah," she grins. "They were the softest. I've only caught glimpses of the demon bunnies in the woods before, I didn't think I'd ever see an actual rabbit. I liked them."

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow herself softens. "I'm glad it was good."

She leans her head against Gideon's solid, comfortable abdomen. "I'm sorry this space became uninhabitable."

[we_do_bones]

Her hand slides to the back of Harrow's head and holds her there, lightly, protective.

"It's okay. I was getting on your nerves, and you get to have time to yourself if you need it."

She pauses, clarifies: "As long as you're not actively injuring yourself because no one's around to help, I mean."

[we_bring_hell]

"Myself is the last person I want to spend time with," she says. "Unfortunately, it is unavoidable."

"You enjoyed Cloud Recesses generally? Furry creatures aside?"

[we_do_bones]

"Yeah."

She leans back a little, thinking, as her fingers play with Harrow's hood. "It was beautiful. Everything was so green, and there we so many people. More people than I've ever seen in one place. Did you know Lan Wangji was such a big deal? Everyone was just about falling over themselves to be nice to him."

[we_bring_hell]

"Yes, his brother is the leader of their clan. We are equivalent in rank, given the pretense of my mother's continued existence. It is not really that long since we began using our given names."

It sounds kind of awful, to her, and Harrow probes the queasy feeling that gives her gingerly, like a missing tooth. "The type of place you might like to live, given your head?"

[we_do_bones]

"Nah."

She shrugs. "I mean, they invited me to come back and train and I might take them up on it – always good to learn more techniques, you know? But it was quiet AF. And there were so many rules. And you would probably hate it there, so."

And honestly? She's not going anywhere Harrow doesn't want to be.

[we_bring_hell]

She relaxes faintly. "But Griddle. When I hear the words quiet and rule-abiding, irresistibly an image of you forms in my mind," she deadpans. She closes her eyes and lets Gideon take more of her negligible weight.

"Your fidelity is indeed big as a mountain, Nav."

[we_do_bones]

She grins, because Harrow's got her pegged. "Yeah. Also I already got in trouble with Lan Wangji's uncle."

Her thumb pushes back Harrow's hood, runs fondly over Harrow's shorn scalp.

"I told you. One flesh, one end, loser."

[we_bring_hell]

The brush of Gideon's thumb over her scalp is pleasing; the touch, the gentleness, the rightness in the resistance of the bristles. That feeling of rightness, absent all day, pierces her like an arrow, and she turns her head to her cavalier's hand, almost unconsciously seeking more.

"I would expect nothing less," she murmurs. "What did you do?"

[we_do_bones]

"We started out in a little town near Cloud Recesses, walked around a market. That's where we saw the paper cuttings. Went on a boat. Oh, hey, did you know Lan Wangji can fly on his sword?? He says he'll teach me how to do it."

She says, willfully ignoring the part about how he has no idea if it's something she can learn.

So awesome.

"Then he showed me around Cloud Recesses. I got to meet his brother and his uncle. His uncle does not have a sense of humor, by the way."

[we_bring_hell]

She meant what did you do to get in trouble?, but this is interesting anyway. "I did not. He offered to teach you their methods of cultivation?"

[we_do_bones]

"If I can learn, yeah."

She's not sure how she and Lan Wangji got to be kinda like friends, but honestly? It's one of the things she's happiest about from Milliways.

After what's happening right now, anyhow. "Who knows if I can, but either way he's amazing with Bichen and I could learn a lot from him."

[we_bring_hell]

"I doubt very much there is anything involving a sword you cannot learn to do, Griddle," she murmurs. She lets her eyes close, and leans against Gideon like a handy tree obelisk.

[we_do_bones]

"If I can learn to fly on one, then I'll agree with you."

She lets Harrow lean on her, and cups Harrow's head with a gentle palm. "It seems like you're feeling a little better. I'm glad."

[we_bring_hell]

"Perhaps I have simply grown exhausted by my self-indulgence."

"Thank you for withdrawing. It does me no good to make you the victim of my -- theatrics."