[open] I was tame, I was gentle, til the circus life made me mean

[ordinar]

Who: Wilhelm & pals
When: June onward
Where: Thorne, Nocwich
What: Catchall for hot boy summer
Warnings: Will update as needed



Closed and open starters to follow. :)

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[ordinar]

He doesn't know that the Horizon was once barred to her, doesn't realize just how crowded and noisy a place her mind is. But he can hear the pride shining through her declaration, and he can tell that this is important to her. Maybe it's because he once had to fight to tame his fire, but Wilhelm gets the sense that for her this is the culmination of some sort of struggle.

Closing his eyes and measuring breaths, he slips into the Horizon. Because he affixes River in his mind, he finds himself at the edge of a wood that's not unfamiliar, but not the same as he remembers either. Twilight colors the sky purple and stars begin to peek through.

That's where he sees River, waiting in the gathering shadows, and he catches up to her. In the Horizon, he still wears the sort of clothes he used to wear back home, a polo shirt with a jacket thrown over it, jeans and sneakers, an expensive watch that once belonged to his brother. But there are subtle changes, influenced by his evolving sense of style. The jacket is a little flashier than he would've felt comfortable with a few years ago, deep purple in color. His nails are painted green, much neater than he can manage in real life. And around his neck, he still has the necklace Kelson gave him, a pendant of polished white crystal that looks like the moon, which he never takes off.

"Lead the way, River." He starts to offer his arm, remembering that other life where they knew each other so well, but then he's not sure if she's comfortable with that.

[thoughts]

It was a point of contention for her, with how beautiful and liberating everyone said it was. She wonders what's different now, if the dream really has changed her and her connection to the Singularity even if it was all a lie.

Now stepping into the Horizon is as easy as a deep exhale, and River appears in a loose, flowy dress that always has the symbol of the Fool etched over her heart. Her feet are bare, unbothered by the dirt and wildlife growing along the underbrush of the forest. And when Wilhelm offers his arm, the way Eddie and Sylvain and so many others had only for her to shy away or evaporate entirely before they could touch her -

Well. Things are different now, and so is she. So she smiles faintly and loops her arm through Wilhelm's the way she would've before she lost herself in Serenity, and then she leads them into the enchanted forest. It's vibrantly alive in color and sound and creatures that glow or shift around in the shadows, trees that sway in the wind and stars that twinkle cheerfully from above.

She doesn't really speak again until they reach their destination, where the waterfalls create a discordant sense of music as water flows through the pools and things land in the water from the forest above. River loves this place, her face immediately lightening just by being here, and she leads Wilhelm to one pool in specific where he might notice some familiar creatures hopping around the rocks.

"Here." She releases his arm to crouch down beside the colorful frogs he had created for her in that alternate reality. She smiles warmly at them, not quite looking in his direction. "They get to have a place of honor."

[ordinar]

The quiet is comfortable, with her arm resting in his. Wilhelm occupies himself with taking in the scenery, ferns that brush his legs as he walks by, trees alive in the breeze, and a canopy of constellations peeking through the outstretched boughs. At the edge of the pool, surprise pops in his expression, softened by a smile that brightens as she echoes his words from before. He crouches down beside her, watching the little frogs hop over the rocks.

He can't remember when the whole frog thing started. He'd loved the fairy tale of the frog prince when he was little, but he always wished it had a different ending — he thought it would be much more fun to stay a frog. When his brother received from their grandfather a snow globe with a crowned frog squatting at its center, he'd coveted it. So much so that years later, Erik let him have it, a consolation prize for disappointing their parents and getting shipped off to a new school.

When he dreamed he was a god, his followers left him carvings of frogs in wood and stone, little figures molded from clay or sewn from cloth. The frog, which begins as a little black speck swimming around a pond and then grows legs and learns to hop out, was a symbol of evolution. Transformation. Now, Wilhelm likes to think of it that way.

One speckled frog leaps closer, unafraid of him. He glances at River.

"Are you going to give them names?"

maybe move to a wrap soon? c:

[thoughts]

She had always found it somewhat amusing, that their domains would come to overlap while also being vastly different from one another. Evolution and transcendence - two heralds with different approaches to the notion of change, of becoming a new version of yourself. But where Wilhelm came to symbolize growth, the natural progression from simple to more complex life forms, River represented a departure from the world as they know it, leaving behind all that's considered normal or rational.

It makes sense. He's always been more grounded than her. In many ways, he's a normal teenager finding his path into adulthood while River is just trying to be a whole person. 

She's always looked up to him, feeling so much younger and less mature despite not being that far apart in age. Something about this has a certain childlike innocence, like two kids wandering through the woods together and naming wild animals. River smiles warmly, breathing a little easier than she has in what feels like a long, long time.

"I hadn't thought about it. The first animal I named was Guò." The little nutkin riding around in Thancred's pocket. River grins at Wilhelm. "We can both name them. They're yours too. Wanna take turns?"

ok! c:

[ordinar]

What are their names? he'd once asked Simon, his first and only time at the other boy's house. And as Simon stumbled through his fish's names, Wilhelm slid his arms around his waist and kissed his neck. The memory is a fond ache now, not the sharp prod it used to be.

For almost a year, he'd kept in his domain replicas of those fish. Olle, Oski, and Felle, preserved in the glass of a fishbowl, until last spring, when he finally released them into a lake and said good bye to a lot of things he was still holding onto.

He's not the same boy he was when he got here, but even so he'd be surprised to learn how much River looks up to him.

"Wanda let me name one of her ravens Ferrari." He grins, knowing it's kind of a ridiculous name for a bird. "Okay, let's take turns."

Lowering his hand to the stone, he waits for the nearest frog to hop into his palm. When it does, he carefully cradles it close, inspecting the pattern of its spots as if he might be able to commit it to memory. He doesn't know how they're going to tell them all apart.

"I don't know how to tell if it's a boy or a girl... Um...what about...Sigge?"