Unto more wilder asks (not that kind 😩🙏🏻)
What if some kind of hocus pocus magic happens and the RO's see a glimpse into parallel universe and they see MC. They thought that MC would have a different fate but really, MC is still sick with some kind of incurable disease (Yeah! Too much fluff going on in the ask, I choose chaos and angst 😤)
Can I just say I love how you answer asks because you take time to craft this cute little scenarios for us to enjoy. It's like a reward for us readers 😌✨
Thank you so much for saying that. I'm glad you are liking the Asks. When I have the time, I really do like putting my mind in them as much as possible for each character. Downside is that it may take a bit of time if I have trouble. Some of them come to me easily and others I have to chew on for a while, but I truly do enjoy them - maybe too much at times!
Guess I'll have to take my fluffy mittens off for this one.
Oswin: This isn't fair. It's not fair that his MC had to suffer already, but is this really their lot in every life? He can't help but feel that pull between them even though this isn't his MC. It feels like them, like an extension of their soul. Tears gather in his eyes as a sob bubbles up from his throat.
Zahn: An uncharacteristic bitterness charges through them. As if MC's suffering wasn't enough already. Does that mean there is another Zahn out there too? Will they find each other? This blasted curse was the only reason they met. At least something beautiful came from it, but Zahn would change it all if it meant MC never suffered.
Duri: Figures. It's always the best people that get the shittiest hand. How many times have they watched that play out and how many times will they be subjected to it again? They can't keep watching this.
Rune: This isn't their MC…it isn't. They need to stop looking at this and ignore it. MC is fine, their MC is fine now. Stop looking. They bite their lip until they taste blood. Is all of creation really this cruel?
???: A familiar disgust settles on his heart as he watches. Is nowhere safe for them? Does this mean there is a version of himself in this world too? Are they just as pathetic? Will this version of himself at least help, or will they… He needs to see MC - now. He needs to be sure that they're okay.
Thank you for the ask! I hope these are sad enough to counteract your fluff allergy, lol. ^_^
Just a side note that part of these were written while listening to "What does the Fox Say," and I think I may need to talk about that in therapy to someone, lol.
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a blouse
These important stories, we rehearse them for years in our head but never tell. These stories are ghosts, bringing people back from the dead. Just for a moment. For a visit. Every story is a ghost.
Chuck Palahniuk
day four: miss missing you / grief
rating: g
words: 900
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“I’m back,” Lucy sings out, kicking the door shut behind her. She expects Lockwood to appear to take the groceries and is mildly put out when he doesn’t. After a moment George emerges from the kitchen in full apron and gloves and her heart sinks. “Oh no. What happened? I was only gone an hour.”
“Mrs. Bishop came by with the survey,” George says gloomily.
Lucy blinks. “And?”
“And I don’t know!” George follows her into the kitchen. “Lockwood’s voice got all… brittle, though I don’t think she noticed. They talked about nothing, he thanked her, she left, and he just stood there staring at the closed door, totally silent.”
Lucy pauses in putting away the groceries. “What did the survey say?”
“Nothing they hadn’t told us. He left the survey on the side table and went upstairs.” George sheds the washing-up gloves to put away the spices she picked up for him. “I haven’t heard a sound since.”
Lucy bites her lip. “Well, maybe he’ll come down for dinner.”
Lockwood doesn’t appear all evening. George makes dinner and then starts cleaning the library when Lucy insists on doing the dishes. She turns on the radio to drown out the silence with limited success.
Once the dishes are done she puts the kettle on and steps out to stare up the stairs again. She goes to stand in the library doorway. “This isn’t… normal, is it?”
George pushes his glasses back up his nose with a forearm. “No, not really.”
“Should we check on him?” George’s eyes widen. “You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it,” Lucy says with exasperation.
“Not really, no.”
“What, not even when he’s in there not making a sound, not eating?” George’s lips thin and he shrugs. “Boys,” Lucy mutters, shaking her head. In the kitchen, the kettle whistles. “Well, I’m making tea and I’m going to check on him. You’re welcome to join me,” she says as a parting shot, certain that he won’t.
While the tea brews she toasts bread and pulls one of the cutlets back out of the fridge. George comes in while she’s spreading mayonnaise on the toast. “Suppose he doesn’t want us to come in,” he says. She turns to him in surprise. “Suppose he wants to be left alone,” he adds, a bit pointedly.
“Then he’s welcome to tell us so,” she says, raising her chin. “I forgot the lettuce; hand me a leaf?”
She adds six biscuits along with the mugs and the impromptu sandwich and carries the tray up, George trailing behind her. When she nods for him to knock, he gives her another wide-eyed look and takes the tray instead. She rolls her eyes hard and reaches out to knock. Just before her knuckles make contact, she hesitates. George snorts softly. “Not so easy, is it?” he asks.
“Shut up,” she retorts, and clears her throat. “Lockwood?” No response. Having come this far, Lucy feels the only thing sillier would be to give up now, so instead of knocking she turns the doorknob.
It turns easily and she steps inside before she can second-guess her actions any more. It’s completely dark, which startles her. Every other time she’s had a glance inside, either the curtains were open, a light was on, or sometimes both. “Lockwood?” she says again, anxiously. She’s not sure what she’s afraid of, but… She feels for a lightswitch near the door and flips it on.
Lockwood is laying perpendicular on his bed with his legs off the side, fully clothed and on top of the covers, holding something made of silvery-purple fabric. His face scrunches up and one arm rises to cover his eyes. “Wha…?” he begins, and then yawns.
“Erm,” Lucy says. “You… disappeared.”
“Hmm?” Lockwood sits up by degrees, rubbing his eyes. The fabric slips out off his lap and he lunges for it, crashing to his knees next to the bed and clutching it protectively to his chest. He sits on the edge of the bed, pulls the fabric up to cover his nose and inhales, eyes closed.
None of them move for several seconds. She takes a deep breath and soldiers on. “You ought to eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” he mumbles into the fabric. It’s shimmery like silk and perhaps the size of a shirt.
“Even so.”
He lowers the fabric back onto his lap and feels it between his fingers. “It doesn’t smell like anything,” he says, almost matter-of-fact. “I don’t think it ever did.”
Lucy can’t think of anything to say to that, so she takes the tray back from George. “George made cutlets for dinner and all I did was put it between some toast, so really you ought to thank him.”
Lockwood still hasn’t looked up from the fabric. “Mum wore the same perfume,” he says. His voice isn’t matter-of-fact, she realizes, it’s detached in the same way as when someone’s been terribly hurt and they don’t feel it yet.
“Oh,” George says, voice dropping.
“I’d forgotten,” Lockwood says, sounding even more distant. He smooths the fabric across his knee.
Lucy’s resolve crumbles. “Do you… I could leave the tray?”
Lockwood looks up, his eyes dull, and there’s an awful moment of silence before he says, “Please stay.”
Lucy doesn’t wait; she climbs onto the far side of the bed and sets down the tray. “George, don’t get crumbs on the bed.”
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@lco-angst-week
this one. this was a genuinely rough one, bc as soon as i saw grief and thought of lockwood i knew where this was going, like seeing a car crash coming
(in case it wasn't clear, mrs. bishop wore the same perfume as his mother and it bowled lockwood over. i've spent so long picking at this one that i'm not sure it's coherent anymore but i'm also forbidding myself to keep picking at it)
in my case it was a sweater, not a blouse, and i sat on my bed just holding it for a long, long time. i don't even know what emotions i was feeling. they were big, and they were tangled, so i just held her sweater to my chest and let them wash over me for a while. it didn't smell like anything, either. i do have a bottle of her perfume, tho, and i get a glimpse of her dressing up for a party every time i smell it
also i hate the title of this one but writing it wore me out so stupid title or no up it goes ¯\_(┬◡┬)_/¯
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They That Bargain Ghosts
a sad little ficlet because @noahcaptainn told me about the Nastya coat theory with Death to the Mechanisms so my brain went off the rails because I want to know how Jonny got it so uh,,,, enjoy
cw guns and mourning
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Brian threw a hand out to stop the others in their tracks. It had been a long while since they had a proper family outing, but this planet had looked as good as any and they needed time to think. After Ashes disappeared in a bizarre encounter involving time travel, and with Ivy, Marius, and Raphaella currently absent, it couldn’t exactly be counted as the whole family, but at least they knew the other three were coming back. Brian, Jonny, the Toy Soldier, and Tim had decided to do some violence, take time to process, and perhaps formulate how to find Ashes.
Brian felt himself shaking, one hand wrapped into a cold bronze fist and the other held out stiffly across Jonny’s torso. His gaze was fixed on a small shop across the street, his dead metal eyes somehow containing the angry embers of a glare. He turned slowly to look at Jonny. The ache in his chest was the only real sensation, and therefore the most acute.
It didn’t take long for Jonny to see what had caught Brian’s gaze.
It was a long, dark coat, hanging in the window of the run-down shop. It wasn’t anything particularly unique — almost every planet had something similar for the citizens in colder climes — but it was distinct. The coarse cloth hung stiffly, the same way it had for millennia. It looked a bit odd without the body it was made to be wrapped around and the belt to cinch it tight, but the dull gold chevrons on the cuffed sleeves were recognizable enough.
It only took Jonny twelve steps to reach the window, where the name clumsily stitched onto the collar’s inside lining was distinct. Brian didn’t need to approach, didn’t even need to see Jonny’s face to know what it said.
Nastya.
But Brian did see Jonny’s face, and it fell, crumbled, and shattered into utter, overwhelming grief. Brian’s heart began to scream in pain as the usually stoic and coarse gunslinger had to put a hand on the window to steady himself. The telltale flashes of falling tears glittered momentarily in the air as they fell, and Brian noticed that Jonny’s knees were shaking, his shoulders curling in on himself like they hadn’t in so long. Jonny looked a bit like a child in that moment, frozen and trembling and trying in vain to hide his tears.
Brian walked to Jonny haltingly, although not quite as unnaturally as the Toy Soldier who joined their group mere seconds later, and Tim after that. They didn’t touch, they just stood in a silent cluster about their first mate and stared at that dark figment from another time.
Nastya had gone Out. She had gone a long time ago. So where had the shopkeeper gotten the coat? Jonny was apparently asking the same question, because in an instant the solidarity of grief was broken by Jonny’s fist slamming through the window, causing millions of tiny shards to explode like stars as it broke. Jonny was through the window and into the shop before any of them could stop him, and he breezed past the display with Nastya’s coat on it to squeeze a hand around the shopkeeper’s throat.
“Where did you get it?” Jonny growled at the poor old woman, gasping for breath as she looked at him with pure fear and bewilderment. “The coat.” Jonny gestured and shoved her towards the relic.
“A-A traveling merchant I do business with,” she stammered, her hands fluttering in panic. “They have excellent vintage finds, and I’d never seen anything of quite fine make, so I bought it.” There was a long silence, and Brian stepped through the now-open window. Faintly, he registered the doorbell — that must be Tim and TS entering as well.
“How much is it?” Brian asked. Jonny’s eyes were glazed and angry, and Brian did not want to cause this woman any more distress. Better they bought the coat and got out of there. The woman stammered and stuttered through her response, and Brian paid her what she was owed (plus a little extra for the broken window). He picked the coat off the display gently, brushing away broken glass, and offered it to Jonny.
The look in Jonny’s eyes as he accepted the coat was hollow and lost, as dark as a cavern and just as empty.
It took a long time to get back to the ship — at least it felt like it. It didn’t take long for Aurora to notice the thing in Jonny’s arms, and when she did she fell immediately silent. Brian and Tim and TS sat around the kitchen table without saying a word — what was there to say? Presumably, that Nastya was finally gone for good, there was no more hope of her return. Presumably, that someone had scavenged the well-kept coat from her gray corpse. Presumably, that none of them knew how they were feeling, even TS, who was only supposed to be pretending. It only took fifteen minutes before Tim’s shoulders shook and he broke down into tearless sobs, and he got up and left because Brian and TS were too mechanical to provide comfort. Nobody tried to stop Jonny when gunshot after gunshot fired in his room, and nobody went to check to see what he was shooting. They knew.
It was nearly a year before Jonny would wear the coat, and then he hardly took it off. It was nearly a year before Aurora became anything more than an ordinary spaceship again, and her return was the same day Jonny’s grief grew into determined homage.
“How do I look?” Jonny asked the group in the dining room, now consisting of Brian, Ivy, Marius, Raphaella, Tim, and TS. The coat was big on him but in an oddly comforting way, like Nastya’s presence was still there somehow.
‘You look like a captain,’ Aurora’s words — the first in eleven and a half months — illuminated on the wall opposite him. ‘She would be proud.’
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