#1) pow and vi's dad was a miner (and just...a lot. heartbreakingly adoring of his children. also completely self-absorbed and dysfunctional | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

revelisms · 11 months

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Papa is too far gone to remember, now.

Papa, with soot on his clothes, coal-dust lungs and smoke-stained teeth; with his stiff-canvas collar tickling her chin and sunlight in his hair and his hands so warm—

Hey, sweet girl. Did'ja sleep okay?

She remembered his voice the clearest. It was all she could remember. Slurring and soft and centuries old.

And Papa was gone. Snuffed like a flame. Vi was burning. And Vander was there.

Vander, with his smoke-stained teeth and stiff-canvas collar. Vander, whose voice didn't sound right—

Hey, sweetheart. Hotcakes for breakfast, right?

The boys liked him—Vi liked him—Powder refused to call him Dad—

(Because he wasn't wasn't never would be—)

And Vander was gone. Burnt up in blue and fire. Vi was burning out. And she was gone, too—a blot of ash, swept back to the shadows; Vi was gone, and—

Never been fond of tea, myself.

A new voice. New face. Not Papa, not Vander, not Vi—

But he frowns like her. Has scars like her. Papercuts on his fingers and burn spots on his thumbs. Smoke-stained teeth and soft-silk collar, and a whole drawer of shirts that still smell like soot.

His hand is cold, so cold in hers—but he squeezes her fingers back, lightly, and it feels like—

Which jams do you prefer, child? Blackcurrant, or raspberry?

Dunno. We never had any of those.

Well. Snide, like a secret: Most the lot of us hadn't.

And he makes her toasted bread and butter, the way Papa used to. Lets her pick the jam jars by the color, the way Papa let her pick her juice by the prettiest shade. And she sits at the counter, stares at his scratched up hands and the night in his hair and his mismatched eyes, centuries old, and wipes her crumbs on her sleeve.

Powder would have refused to call him Dad—so Jinx does, too.

But he sets a coffee on the varnish, lights up a cigarette, and asks, Did you sleep well, little dove?

And it's almost—

Almost enough.

powder/jinx, on father figures / what you never said.

#haha cries #this kid #ugh #lil jinx just has my heart okay #at it again with the emotions #waves hands vaguely at whatever this is supposed to be #arcane #arcane fanfic #ficlet #prose #powder #powder arcane #jinx #jinx arcane #silco #silco arcane #also vi and vander #things i'm headcannoning that I can't get away from:#1) pow and vi's dad was a miner (and just...a lot. heartbreakingly adoring of his children. also completely self-absorbed and dysfunctional #(think glass castle)#2) pow/jinx never called silco dad even though he was the closest next best thing and hA post-end of s1 implications of all of that ya feel #also the PARALLELS #ghlksfHGHGH #writing

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