It's funny. He never shared a room with anybody his whole life — not even when he got shipped off to boarding school — until he came here. Then one afternoon two autumns ago, he opened the door to find an elf calmly inspecting the space. When Elrond disappeared from this world, he'd latched onto Kelson, before he was even aware of the feelings taking root in him or how far down they reached into his soil. And when Kelson vanished, not long after Rhy, he and Kell had naturally fallen in together as if loneliness were a kind of gravity.
Now all the other beds are empty, and only his things are left.
After he drops the news on Jesper at the start of the week, a sense of urgency propels them together. Kell had been close with him too. Wilhelm should have seen Jesper this weekend, because they usually make time to connect during the one stretch of the month they're allowed to do so in person. But with Jesper jailed, and a meeting in Nocwich out of the question, they have to settle for the Horizon.
Tucked into a booth in the dimness of the Crow Club, Wilhelm raises his glass in a solemn toast.
"At least you haven't gone anywhere." The corner of his lips quirks. "Well, except to jail."
Despite the bone dry humor, he's worried. He's always worried.
Jesper went through a rough time with the gods' return but he managed to get through the entire thing without giving into his weakness. It helped so many people were willing to distract him, the morbol cage, and that Steve brought to him the attack on the base. It kept him sane. On the other end he wound up in the mining camp for time served and got the news about Kell.
It's always painful. Jesper's not used to the pain, despite that, but he thinks it's for the best. Each person deserves to have the same amount of pain felt each time, they were worth suffering over. Kell and Jesper had a special connection, as he does with all of his lovers in their own way, and he will miss him dearly.
"Eh, the mining camp isn't so bad, it keeps me busy." Jesper hates being lazy, he always has to be moving when he's anxious. He sighs though and raises his glass to clink with Wilhelm's. For all his suffering, his first thought is for Wilhelm, who has lost his fair share since coming here.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but at least we know this is what he wanted. He gets to be with Rhy again now." It doesn't make it hurt less for them, but it is a reassurance.
He tips back his drink — something strong is all he requested from Jesper, not that it matters much in the Horizon, where everything is a state of mind. His eyes sink into the deep amber liquid as Jesper reassures him. I was dying. Bleeding out on the floor of a cage. He wishes Kell had never told him that. He wishes he didn't have to know, so he could pretend it was a given that the Maresh brothers would be reunited and everything would be okay.
He hasn't shared with anyone else what Kell told him about the moment he was taken from his world and pulled into this one. He doesn't want to burden them with worries that they have no power to change. Wilhelm pulls together a weak smile.
"Yeah. It's what he wanted."
That much is true. Hastily, he leans into the other subject on the table.
"So it's not too bad? You're taking it very heroically."
Ketterdam liquor is hard as can be but Jesper picked something both tough and sweet for Wilhelm, he doesn't want to choke him on the harsher options. Jesper never asked Kell about his last moments in his world because they were very focused on the here and now and each other. He loved him though, very much, and he felt that love in return. He'll hold onto that part and assume he was right about going back to Rhy.
Wille changes the subject so quickly it surprises him, but he thinks maybe he just doesn't want to dwell in the sadness right then. He has lost enough that he thinks he can do that for him, move past it to focus on something else.
"I was very heroic blowing up that base too. We were very impressive." He beams. "And no one had to die for it, which generally isn't a concern of mine, but Steve was pleased." And Jesper did want to please his 'step-father' so he had very good restraint. He's not saying that because he's bloodthirsty, it's just that sometimes on a job, people die.
They would inevitably return to the matter of Kell, and the hole he leaves behind, the way water circles a drain — it has no choice but to submit to that downward pull. But for now, Wilhelm will fight against the current of his thoughts. Fight to stay afloat.
"That's good."
So far removed from the context of their home worlds, it's easy to forget sometimes that Jesper was part of a gang in a cutthroat city, where Wilhelm definitely would have ended up dead in a ditch, or kidnapped and held for a fat ransom. He doesn't think he could ever learn that cool acceptance. He still feels, two full years later, the weight of the lives snuffed out in Libertas and Nott.
"You would've gotten in bigger trouble."
If anyone had died. Hoping desperately for a buzz to drown out everything else, he sips more of his drink.
"That was his argument too." Jesper shrugs. "It's not like I was bloodthirsty, I just have to remember to kneecap." Jesper handily dealt with it and no one had to die for it. He really isn't someone who seeks out drowning in blood. The only time he did it and truly enjoyed it, it was when they were all captured by the cult and he needed to let out his pain somehow. Generally it's not smart to murder recklessly in Ketterdam either.
"They'll probably get it back up and running eventually, but not for a while. Long enough for us to keep trying to find a way out of Thorne." Jesper has not given up on this. It's been years of him swearing he was going to get his lovers out, and he is determined, he is stubborn. He will find a way even if it takes them becoming gods to do it.
He reaches over to take Wilhelm's hand, running his thumb over his knuckles affectionately. "How are you, sweetheart? Outside of the obvious."
Wilhelm already knows in his gut what he'll find when he drives to Kell's rose garden. His roommate never came back last night, and there was no sign of him when he woke up this morning. His messages evaporate one after another into a wordless void. He drives anyway, knuckles stretched white around the steering wheel, to see for himself.
When he parks at the edge of the road he's created, he can already see that something is wrong. Thick white mist rolls over the landscape meticulously crafted by Kell, except it's not vapor — it's nothingness. It's Kell's creations uncreating themselves in his absence.
Wilhelm rises from the driver's seat with a numbness growing behind his ribs. The car door slams behind him, and his feet carry him into what's left of Kell's fading domain. He traces the petals of a rose whose head hangs heavily on its stem, and the velvet withers, crumbles to dust.
It takes him another minute to realize that someone else is poking around in the dying garden. Shoulders stiffening, he swipes the wetness from underneath his eyes.
It took Chris a little bit to pinpoint the feelings he was getting. He'd had more than one change before, but they had always been people he knew. And usually around the same location. These were all spread out. And he had no idea who they were. So, Chris had taken a moment to try and separate the feelings out. The segregate the constant pain he was getting from Nebula, the fear and wariness from Sansa, to block them all out and focus on that one source of sad hopelessness; of upset. It took him an even little while longer to focus on it in the Horizon. Once there, however, it didn't take him long to figure it out.
This domain was dying. Uncreating itself. On purpose? Not based on the reaction of the other man, tracing flower petals even as they crumble away. The car he drove was an afterthought to Chris. Obviously it meant something, he could have chosen any mode of transportation here, but that wasn't the exact reason he was here. It was the garden.
Chris lurked long enough to be totally creepy about it, until he realized he was caught and the man wiped his tears away.
"I didn't mean to intrude." He did in fact. He followed you here Wille, like a creepy bloodhound angel. To be fair, you were screaming inside his head, and it was hard to ignore. Chris walked forward so they could be side by side. He opened his mouth to say something, only to realize that there was nothing he could say that could make this better. This domain obviously belonged to someone who this young man cared about, was distraught over. You can't say anything to make that better. But he also didn't think standing here and watching it disintegrate was really very healthy.
"They wouldn't want you to watch this, would they?"
Chris didn't reach out to touch them, it was kind of rude to randomly go around touching people who may not even like to be touched. Plus he noticed the shoulders stiffening. Being intruded on in what you thought was a private moment was awkward enough.
"I'm Chris. I.....heard you. Thought maybe you didn't want to be alone." Chris hoped Wille took that as in he heard the car, or his footsteps or something. And not in the ' my magical powers actually qualify as stalking.'
A guardedness rises up in his eyes as he considers Chris with a silent stare. His hands jam into his jean pockets. He's not in the mood to meet someone new, to stumble through small talk as if any of it actually matters. But the guy is right — he doesn't want to be alone either. Alone, Kell's absence jabs more sharply between the slats of his ribs. It clatters more loudly in his head.
Wilhelm's gaze drifts out over the landscape as it's slowly devoured by nothingness. I was dying. Bleeding out on the floor of a cage. Kell's voice, from one of the many nights they shared passing a bottle of wine back and forth last spring, keeps lurking in the back of his mind.
He hopes that Kell was wrong, that help was on the way in the second that he slipped from his world and landed in this one. He hopes that, somewhere in the vast expanse of the universe, Kell and Rhy are together and okay.
You have no idea what Kell would want, he wants to retort. He swallows it down.
Sure you are Chris thought, but decided not to say it out loud. He sighed loudly, breath hissing through his teeth in mild annoyance at his new charge, and vaguely wondered how other whitelighters made it without strangling their charges. Maybe it had something to do with being a full blooded actual angel.
"But you're not." He sighed again, realizing how stalker-y that sounded. "I know you don't know me......and...I'm not saying you have to be fine with, whatever you're feeling and going through. But sometimes just acknowledging it helps." Wow, look at him. He almost sounded like a whitelighter.
"Do you have a name? Look, I know you want me to leave, but I'm not. So you might as well tell me your name and be mildly civil. Or throw a fit. You're choice." Honestly, as long he got it out, Chris was good. Whether that meant throwing a tantrum, crying or just acknowledging his feelings. Whatever.
As far as Wilhelm is concerned, Chris is the one who decided to wedge himself into his space. If he doesn't like how Wilhelm reacts, then he can go somewhere else.
"I'm not throwing a fit." His voice cuts like a dulled knife. His eyes stab at Chris before returning to the fading rows of rosebushes. He slowly pulls in a breath and releases it. "I'm Wilhelm."
Tipping his head toward the garden, he adds, "This was Kell's. He was my friend."
The clarification is a little pointed. It's too weird to consider Kell in a romantic light when he was more like a brother to Wilhelm. He'd avoided treading the comparison when Kell was here, because brother is a sacred space that only Erik is allowed to occupy. But Kell had been by Wilhelm's side through some of his darkest days, and he wishes he could have told him how much it meant to him.
[ when river invites wilhelm to investigate the strange things going on around town, she asks him to meet her in nott instead of going through the portals together without explaining why. it's not terribly unusual for either of them to be in nott - wilhelm has his courier work, of course, and river finds excuses to cover up her visits to see yennefer.
today's quest is still a cover, although not quite in the same way. she never told wilhelm that they were seriously considering leaving the castle, let alone that it happened several days ago.
under the cover of dark, when there would be fewer people to notice, she and cassian took their scant few belongings and the sleeping bob cat to yennefer's shared home with stephen strange and thancred, and they've been crashing there ever since. it's a temporary setup until they can afford to get their own place, which is one reason why river wanted to do this in the first place.
the other is that it sounded like something fun to do with wilhelm. an adventure with her best friend in thorne, one of the people she will miss most dearly in her departure from the castle. so by the time they meet up near the elementary school that put out the call for help, she's smiling and very happy to see him. ]
[Today, Wilhelm plots his delivery route so that he finishes in Nott at the time he agreed to meet River. As he pedals toward the school, clouds blot out the afternoon sun, casting an ominous mood over their undertaking. Even so, he's grinning when he hops off the bike in front of her.]
Hey River.
[He was grateful that she asked him to join her on this quest. Up until now, he's always teamed up with Kell. They'd quenched fires in the fields surrounding Nott and enchanted crops to help the farmers get back on their feet after the devastation. They'd fended off feral hogs while transporting bodies through the twilight woods of Nocwich and captured wild horses in the grasslands of western Thorne. He was wondering whose group he should try to wedge himself into when River appeared in that uncanny way of hers, as if she already knew what he was looking for.]
I don't know if I'm ready, but...let's do this.
[He doesn't know if he believes in ghosts either. He's encountered what might have been his brother's ghost twice before, but one of those times he was losing his mind.]
Where should we start? We could talk to some of the kids.
[School must have just let out, because children are pouring into the schoolyard.]
[ in a way, it almost feels like coming full circle from the first time they hung out. wilhelm invited river to ride the sleighs together because she was new and he didn't want her to feel lonely. it's been nearly a year or maybe a millennia, an impossible lifetime that they've shared as some of the youngest summoned in thorne, trying to grow up in this strange world together.
now, river has invited wilhelm to look for ghosts because she knows she is going to be lonely without getting to see him practically every day, and she knows that he probably will too. at least they can still see each other here in nott, but it will never really be the same.
she tries not to let her melancholy show on her face, smiling pleasantly with her hands clasped behind her back. ]
What if you talk and I listen? I can look for clues.
[ she's used to seeing ghosts, after all - and maybe part of her just wants to see how wilhelm handles talking these supposedly unruly schoolchildren. ]
[River hides her melancholy well. But then, Wilhelm isn't the one who can feel another's gloom like the shift in winds before it rains. She might sense the clouds stretching over him, grey sheets of loneliness, as he picks his way around the holes left behind by people who are no less important now that they're gone. In her company, the clouds recede to the distance, but they linger all the same.]
Sure.
[His experience with young children is...limited, but how hard could it be to get some answers out of them? Surveying the schoolyard, his eyes land on a cluster of children gathered by the fence. While others have begun to disperse, these kids fixate on whatever is at the center of the circle they've formed. He sends River a look, then heads over.]
Hey, how's it going?
[One girl from the group glances up at him, but the rest ignore him. Suddenly Wilhelm remembers, oh yeah, that he sucked at making friends on the playground when he was a kid, and apparently that hasn't changed in the last decade. He shifts awkwardly on his feet.]
Uh...that's one of those Eifstide dolls, right? Cool.
[We're not supposed to go into the red room, one boy mutters. Another echoes him in a fierce whisper. Wilhelm turns a concerned look on River, because what the fuck does that mean?]
[ it's late in the afternoon when river and wilhelm finish searching around the elementary school. they haven't learned much beyond the strange things the children said and the creeping shadows that seem to cling to the dolls. the note says to return, so the logical next step seems to be investigating the disappearances to see if they can figure out where they're running off to.
the streets of nott are always bustling in one way or another, but it's around the time the day shift is shifting into the night crew, more taverns and bars opening as shops start closing. they've been asking for help so there should still be some that might be open for questioning or a quick peek around the building. ]
The sun will go down soon.
[ river mentions it offhandedly as they're walking down a main road, trying to figure out where they want to go next. it's not terribly safe to be out after dark here. she glances over to wilhelm, who still has the courier bike rolling along at his side. ]
[The crunch of the bike wheels through the dirt fills in the silence as Wilhelm deliberates. On one hand, Nott has a reputation for getting rough after the sun goes down. He hasn't run into any trouble himself in all his years of coming here — other than having to dodge shambling corpses the first time the Heralds paid a visit. Even so, he tilts into high alert when he's here after dark.
He reassures himself with the fact that a thief would have to be pretty thick to target Summoned and risk kicking the hornet's nest of the crown's contempt. Between couriering and pitching in to help the beleaguered town when he can, he has a pretty recognizable face around here. For better or for worse.
And on the other hand, they haven't found any of the missing dolls. Going back to the castle now will be like admitting they've wasted their time.]
Let's keep looking. You know, I bet the kids just hid some of the dolls themselves. Something is controlling them, making them act strange. They might not remember doing it.
[He frowns pensively.]
I don't know about the ones missing from shops, though.
After the breeze that was rounding up and recruiting a bunch of horses, the Abraxan gods probably thought, 'Hey! These demigod kids had it way too easy, lets really give them something creepy and weird to deal with just to mess with them.' And lo did they deliver.
Percy learns pretty quickly that the Eifstide dolls are a whole tradition here, and they're important and they're made with precision and care, like they're supposed to become an heirloom or something. Mostly Percy just thinks they're rightfully creepy, and hunting for these dolls that have reportedly been moving around on their own feels like he's suddenly wandered into a horror movie, only this is literally his life.
Still, the first doll is pretty easy to find, which kind of lets them get the hang of it. Annabeth's the one who uncovers it first, a little figure with long dark hair and a colourful dress wedged between the place where a small stone staircase meets the retaining wall around it on their way into the main city centre. One of its shoes is missing, and Percy discovers it at the top of the stairs, which is so ... weird. But he tries not to put much more thought into it.
Besides, it isn't as weird as the one that Percy manages to find, its tiny little fabric-woven hand clinging to the thick stained rope of the hangman's noose in the square like it's got some serious issues to deal with. Because yeah, that's not totally terrifying at all, right? If a Headless Horseman decided to burst into the town square at that very moment and accuse Percy of murder, he wouldn't even blink an eye, he'd be so unsurprised.
Thankfully, that doesn't happen.
Instead, Percy hoists himself up onto the platform, feeling really bad about it, and pulls the doll down, tucking it into his pocket until he can rejoin Annabeth waiting below. He mumbles something like, 'You got a lot to live for, Eifstide Doll' before he does so, and off they go to hunt for the next.
It isn't until the sun has slowly started to set and the brisk breeze of the autumn night air starts to settle into Nott that Percy and Annabeth spot two other figures up ahead, and they've got ... bikes? You can get bikes here?
Well, that's news to him. ]
Hey! [ Percy lifts a hand to wave as they approach. ] You guys also looking for the creepy holiday Barbies?
[ it's all very unnerving and very horror-movie esque, but up against the literal hell she walked through all too recently, the bad vibes are mostly just that right now: bad vibes. like a creepy crawly undercurrent, keeping her a little on edge, but not in a way that's making it particularly difficult to move through the town on the hunt. it's just a doll, right? whether a city-wide prank or actual weird doll possession, they're presumably still just... toys. ]
[ annabeth gives her own little wave when she also spots the other two teens, wilhelm more familiar but still recognizing river in a vague sense. ]
We found some already.
[ she tilts hers side to side in a little mocking dance. ] This little lady lost a shoe at first, but at least she wasn't hanging around the gallows.
[ and she gestures vaguely with her free hand at the doll percy's carrying. by all means it should all be very creepy - moving dolls, the locations and the state of them - but so far it's the weirdness of it all that sticks to her most. ]
In his defense, he didn't know that Iris would be so hard to rouse from bed. Sure, his roommate is never awake when he leaves in the morning. Even when Kyle put a pause on morning training during Eifstide, and he had space in his schedule to sleep in, he ended up with a long stretch of time to himself before any life stirred across the room. But he didn't anticipate having to, quite literally, drag Iris from the cozy warmth of the covers.
This was the other boy's idea in the first place.
Nevertheless, they now lope across the castle grounds, Wilhelm with a hasty breakfast of bread and cheese in one hand and fire in the other to soften the cold, and Iris with his sketchbook. He can't help but gesture to the horizon, where the first hint of the sun begins to wake up the dark sky, and tease, "See? It's not even that early."
With the weather tilting cold and brittle, castle mages have enchanted some areas of the grounds to hold heat in, including a training area for the guards. Kyle and Wilhelm have moved their sessions to a corner of this lawn. When he began training under Kyle, he shrank at the thought of being watched as he failed at something new, but his anxiety around it has unwound as his confidence in his skills grows.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Kyle," he says when they arrive. Now that they're insulated from the cold, he dismisses his flame.
Dawn, as far as Iris is concerned, is the devil's time.
(Or what would theoretically be the devil, anyway, since apparently some version of that guy is actually here and he Isn't All That Bad.)
Yes, okay, technically this was all his idea. And yes, okay, technically he all but begged Wilhelm to let it happen. Let it be absolutely clear he still wants to be here, and still wants to be part of this! He definitely knows it's a privilege to be let in on something that would otherwise require extreme concentration, and he's well aware Kyle could have dismissed his request with a lofty declaration of Can't you find something else to keep you occupied? Not that he thinks Kyle would say that, but certainly the man wouldn't have been in the wrong for even thinking it. It's called "training," after all, not "things to do to whittle away the time." He's not at all ungrateful...
But gratitude doesn't make one any more of a morning person. Alas.
"Not even the birds are up yet," he still grouses, raising his voice over the very obvious sound of birdsong. He has yet to extricate himself fully from Wilhelm's side, his smaller body apparently taking longer to acknowledge the lawn's higher temperature compared to the rest of their walk. He does, eventually, but not without stifling a yawn in Wilhelm's sleeve, purely out of spite.
"Morning," he greets to the oldest of the trio. His tone is slightly more chipper, but he doesn't say good morning as if on principle. "Thanks for letting me tag along."
Kyle had chatted with some of the guards while waiting - wondering if the boys changed their minds. He's never been overly strict with Wilhelm about their schedule, not by the standards of his own training. There was no punishment for being late, especially when they first began and it was more important to encourage him. And he suspects reason for the lateness today has to do with the boy Wille's bringing...
"Good morning." Kyle will add the good, anyway. His hair is tied back, and he's dressed in casual, tight-fitting garments meant for allowing movement - fortunately they don't need to worry about the morning chill thanks to the mages here.
He takes a second to study them both, eyeing the sketchbook in Iris' hand.
"You're welcome to join us, if you want." And then, to Wille. "Why don't you show Iris how we warm-up?"
The only punishment Wilhelm has ever incurred with his occasional tardiness is some mild teasing from Kyle. Nevertheless, he's sharply aware that the man has chosen to give his time and energy to help him, so he tries to be respectful of that sacrifice.
Wilhelm squeezes Iris's arm to warn him that he's about to step away. Once he has shed his overcoat and scarf, he's dressed similarly to Kyle in fitted but flexible pants and a tunic. Sometimes he still misses hoodies...
"Sure," he nods.
And once he's settled onto the grass, folding at the waist to reach for his toes, which enables his tattoo to peek out from the hem of his sleeve, he shoots a look up at his roommate. Mischief crinkles the corners of his eyes.
"Yeah, don't be afraid to jump in if you really get inspired."
Oh, hoodies? You mean like the one Iris is sporting right now? Tucked underneath his own woolen coat, of course, and crafted in an oversize enough style along with a belt to cinch at his waist that it still more or less passes for a tunic......... but is still very much a hoodie for those who know how to look for one.
Don't worry, Wilhelm — Iris can stock you up on his super fashionable (but not necessarily always functional) hoodies. You too, Kyle.
"That's what the sketchbook if for," he replies, nose wrinkled at the very thought of physical exercise. He was doing well enough under Heather's instructions back home....... but he was also under the threat of being kicked out of the valley if he didn't comply. Here, he highly doubts Wilhelm and Kyle would conspire to toss him out of the castle just because he's opting to spend the morning perched on a low bench overlooking the training area instead of actually participating.
He draws out his pencil, flipping to a new page. Then he looks to Kyle, entreating.
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abraxaslogs2024-09-01 09:06 pm
jesper
It's funny. He never shared a room with anybody his whole life — not even when he got shipped off to boarding school — until he came here. Then one afternoon two autumns ago, he opened the door to find an elf calmly inspecting the space. When Elrond disappeared from this world, he'd latched onto Kelson, before he was even aware of the feelings taking root in him or how far down they reached into his soil. And when Kelson vanished, not long after Rhy, he and Kell had naturally fallen in together as if loneliness were a kind of gravity.
Now all the other beds are empty, and only his things are left.
After he drops the news on Jesper at the start of the week, a sense of urgency propels them together. Kell had been close with him too. Wilhelm should have seen Jesper this weekend, because they usually make time to connect during the one stretch of the month they're allowed to do so in person. But with Jesper jailed, and a meeting in Nocwich out of the question, they have to settle for the Horizon.
Tucked into a booth in the dimness of the Crow Club, Wilhelm raises his glass in a solemn toast.
"At least you haven't gone anywhere." The corner of his lips quirks. "Well, except to jail."
Despite the bone dry humor, he's worried. He's always worried.
sorry I'm here finally
It's always painful. Jesper's not used to the pain, despite that, but he thinks it's for the best. Each person deserves to have the same amount of pain felt each time, they were worth suffering over. Kell and Jesper had a special connection, as he does with all of his lovers in their own way, and he will miss him dearly.
"Eh, the mining camp isn't so bad, it keeps me busy." Jesper hates being lazy, he always has to be moving when he's anxious. He sighs though and raises his glass to clink with Wilhelm's. For all his suffering, his first thought is for Wilhelm, who has lost his fair share since coming here.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but at least we know this is what he wanted. He gets to be with Rhy again now." It doesn't make it hurt less for them, but it is a reassurance.
<3
He hasn't shared with anyone else what Kell told him about the moment he was taken from his world and pulled into this one. He doesn't want to burden them with worries that they have no power to change. Wilhelm pulls together a weak smile.
"Yeah. It's what he wanted."
That much is true. Hastily, he leans into the other subject on the table.
"So it's not too bad? You're taking it very heroically."
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Wille changes the subject so quickly it surprises him, but he thinks maybe he just doesn't want to dwell in the sadness right then. He has lost enough that he thinks he can do that for him, move past it to focus on something else.
"I was very heroic blowing up that base too. We were very impressive." He beams. "And no one had to die for it, which generally isn't a concern of mine, but Steve was pleased." And Jesper did want to please his 'step-father' so he had very good restraint. He's not saying that because he's bloodthirsty, it's just that sometimes on a job, people die.
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"That's good."
So far removed from the context of their home worlds, it's easy to forget sometimes that Jesper was part of a gang in a cutthroat city, where Wilhelm definitely would have ended up dead in a ditch, or kidnapped and held for a fat ransom. He doesn't think he could ever learn that cool acceptance. He still feels, two full years later, the weight of the lives snuffed out in Libertas and Nott.
"You would've gotten in bigger trouble."
If anyone had died. Hoping desperately for a buzz to drown out everything else, he sips more of his drink.
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"They'll probably get it back up and running eventually, but not for a while. Long enough for us to keep trying to find a way out of Thorne." Jesper has not given up on this. It's been years of him swearing he was going to get his lovers out, and he is determined, he is stubborn. He will find a way even if it takes them becoming gods to do it.
He reaches over to take Wilhelm's hand, running his thumb over his knuckles affectionately. "How are you, sweetheart? Outside of the obvious."
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been a bad week I'm back
<3
Let's wrap on this one, we can do something in the event!
chris
When he parks at the edge of the road he's created, he can already see that something is wrong. Thick white mist rolls over the landscape meticulously crafted by Kell, except it's not vapor — it's nothingness. It's Kell's creations uncreating themselves in his absence.
Wilhelm rises from the driver's seat with a numbness growing behind his ribs. The car door slams behind him, and his feet carry him into what's left of Kell's fading domain. He traces the petals of a rose whose head hangs heavily on its stem, and the velvet withers, crumbles to dust.
It takes him another minute to realize that someone else is poking around in the dying garden. Shoulders stiffening, he swipes the wetness from underneath his eyes.
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This domain was dying. Uncreating itself. On purpose? Not based on the reaction of the other man, tracing flower petals even as they crumble away. The car he drove was an afterthought to Chris. Obviously it meant something, he could have chosen any mode of transportation here, but that wasn't the exact reason he was here. It was the garden.
Chris lurked long enough to be totally creepy about it, until he realized he was caught and the man wiped his tears away.
"I didn't mean to intrude." He did in fact. He followed you here Wille, like a creepy bloodhound angel. To be fair, you were screaming inside his head, and it was hard to ignore. Chris walked forward so they could be side by side. He opened his mouth to say something, only to realize that there was nothing he could say that could make this better. This domain obviously belonged to someone who this young man cared about, was distraught over. You can't say anything to make that better. But he also didn't think standing here and watching it disintegrate was really very healthy.
"They wouldn't want you to watch this, would they?"
Chris didn't reach out to touch them, it was kind of rude to randomly go around touching people who may not even like to be touched. Plus he noticed the shoulders stiffening. Being intruded on in what you thought was a private moment was awkward enough.
"I'm Chris. I.....heard you. Thought maybe you didn't want to be alone." Chris hoped Wille took that as in he heard the car, or his footsteps or something. And not in the ' my magical powers actually qualify as stalking.'
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Wilhelm's gaze drifts out over the landscape as it's slowly devoured by nothingness. I was dying. Bleeding out on the floor of a cage. Kell's voice, from one of the many nights they shared passing a bottle of wine back and forth last spring, keeps lurking in the back of his mind.
He hopes that Kell was wrong, that help was on the way in the second that he slipped from his world and landed in this one. He hopes that, somewhere in the vast expanse of the universe, Kell and Rhy are together and okay.
You have no idea what Kell would want, he wants to retort. He swallows it down.
"It's fine," he finally says.
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"But you're not." He sighed again, realizing how stalker-y that sounded. "I know you don't know me......and...I'm not saying you have to be fine with, whatever you're feeling and going through. But sometimes just acknowledging it helps." Wow, look at him. He almost sounded like a whitelighter.
"Do you have a name? Look, I know you want me to leave, but I'm not. So you might as well tell me your name and be mildly civil. Or throw a fit. You're choice." Honestly, as long he got it out, Chris was good. Whether that meant throwing a tantrum, crying or just acknowledging his feelings. Whatever.
"Friend, or lover?"
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"I'm not throwing a fit." His voice cuts like a dulled knife. His eyes stab at Chris before returning to the fading rows of rosebushes. He slowly pulls in a breath and releases it. "I'm Wilhelm."
Tipping his head toward the garden, he adds, "This was Kell's. He was my friend."
The clarification is a little pointed. It's too weird to consider Kell in a romantic light when he was more like a brother to Wilhelm. He'd avoided treading the comparison when Kell was here, because brother is a sacred space that only Erik is allowed to occupy. But Kell had been by Wilhelm's side through some of his darkest days, and he wishes he could have told him how much it meant to him.
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september quest shenanigans
CLOSED ⚝ wilhelm
today's quest is still a cover, although not quite in the same way. she never told wilhelm that they were seriously considering leaving the castle, let alone that it happened several days ago.
under the cover of dark, when there would be fewer people to notice, she and cassian took their scant few belongings and the sleeping bob cat to yennefer's shared home with stephen strange and thancred, and they've been crashing there ever since. it's a temporary setup until they can afford to get their own place, which is one reason why river wanted to do this in the first place.
the other is that it sounded like something fun to do with wilhelm. an adventure with her best friend in thorne, one of the people she will miss most dearly in her departure from the castle. so by the time they meet up near the elementary school that put out the call for help, she's smiling and very happy to see him. ]
Wilhelm. Are you ready to find some ghosts?
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Hey River.
[He was grateful that she asked him to join her on this quest. Up until now, he's always teamed up with Kell. They'd quenched fires in the fields surrounding Nott and enchanted crops to help the farmers get back on their feet after the devastation. They'd fended off feral hogs while transporting bodies through the twilight woods of Nocwich and captured wild horses in the grasslands of western Thorne. He was wondering whose group he should try to wedge himself into when River appeared in that uncanny way of hers, as if she already knew what he was looking for.]
I don't know if I'm ready, but...let's do this.
[He doesn't know if he believes in ghosts either. He's encountered what might have been his brother's ghost twice before, but one of those times he was losing his mind.]
Where should we start? We could talk to some of the kids.
[School must have just let out, because children are pouring into the schoolyard.]
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now, river has invited wilhelm to look for ghosts because she knows she is going to be lonely without getting to see him practically every day, and she knows that he probably will too. at least they can still see each other here in nott, but it will never really be the same.
she tries not to let her melancholy show on her face, smiling pleasantly with her hands clasped behind her back. ]
What if you talk and I listen? I can look for clues.
[ she's used to seeing ghosts, after all - and maybe part of her just wants to see how wilhelm handles talking these supposedly unruly schoolchildren. ]
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Sure.
[His experience with young children is...limited, but how hard could it be to get some answers out of them? Surveying the schoolyard, his eyes land on a cluster of children gathered by the fence. While others have begun to disperse, these kids fixate on whatever is at the center of the circle they've formed. He sends River a look, then heads over.]
Hey, how's it going?
[One girl from the group glances up at him, but the rest ignore him. Suddenly Wilhelm remembers, oh yeah, that he sucked at making friends on the playground when he was a kid, and apparently that hasn't changed in the last decade. He shifts awkwardly on his feet.]
Uh...that's one of those Eifstide dolls, right? Cool.
[We're not supposed to go into the red room, one boy mutters. Another echoes him in a fierce whisper. Wilhelm turns a concerned look on River, because what the fuck does that mean?]
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CLOSED ⚝ annabeth, percy & wilhelm
the streets of nott are always bustling in one way or another, but it's around the time the day shift is shifting into the night crew, more taverns and bars opening as shops start closing. they've been asking for help so there should still be some that might be open for questioning or a quick peek around the building. ]
The sun will go down soon.
[ river mentions it offhandedly as they're walking down a main road, trying to figure out where they want to go next. it's not terribly safe to be out after dark here. she glances over to wilhelm, who still has the courier bike rolling along at his side. ]
Should we keep going?
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He reassures himself with the fact that a thief would have to be pretty thick to target Summoned and risk kicking the hornet's nest of the crown's contempt. Between couriering and pitching in to help the beleaguered town when he can, he has a pretty recognizable face around here. For better or for worse.
And on the other hand, they haven't found any of the missing dolls. Going back to the castle now will be like admitting they've wasted their time.]
Let's keep looking. You know, I bet the kids just hid some of the dolls themselves. Something is controlling them, making them act strange. They might not remember doing it.
[He frowns pensively.]
I don't know about the ones missing from shops, though.
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Yeah.
After the breeze that was rounding up and recruiting a bunch of horses, the Abraxan gods probably thought, 'Hey! These demigod kids had it way too easy, lets really give them something creepy and weird to deal with just to mess with them.' And lo did they deliver.
Percy learns pretty quickly that the Eifstide dolls are a whole tradition here, and they're important and they're made with precision and care, like they're supposed to become an heirloom or something. Mostly Percy just thinks they're rightfully creepy, and hunting for these dolls that have reportedly been moving around on their own feels like he's suddenly wandered into a horror movie, only this is literally his life.
Still, the first doll is pretty easy to find, which kind of lets them get the hang of it. Annabeth's the one who uncovers it first, a little figure with long dark hair and a colourful dress wedged between the place where a small stone staircase meets the retaining wall around it on their way into the main city centre. One of its shoes is missing, and Percy discovers it at the top of the stairs, which is so ... weird. But he tries not to put much more thought into it.
Besides, it isn't as weird as the one that Percy manages to find, its tiny little fabric-woven hand clinging to the thick stained rope of the hangman's noose in the square like it's got some serious issues to deal with. Because yeah, that's not totally terrifying at all, right? If a Headless Horseman decided to burst into the town square at that very moment and accuse Percy of murder, he wouldn't even blink an eye, he'd be so unsurprised.
Thankfully, that doesn't happen.
Instead, Percy hoists himself up onto the platform, feeling really bad about it, and pulls the doll down, tucking it into his pocket until he can rejoin Annabeth waiting below. He mumbles something like, 'You got a lot to live for, Eifstide Doll' before he does so, and off they go to hunt for the next.
It isn't until the sun has slowly started to set and the brisk breeze of the autumn night air starts to settle into Nott that Percy and Annabeth spot two other figures up ahead, and they've got ... bikes? You can get bikes here?
Well, that's news to him. ]
Hey! [ Percy lifts a hand to wave as they approach. ] You guys also looking for the creepy holiday Barbies?
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[ annabeth gives her own little wave when she also spots the other two teens, wilhelm more familiar but still recognizing river in a vague sense. ]
We found some already.
[ she tilts hers side to side in a little mocking dance. ] This little lady lost a shoe at first, but at least she wasn't hanging around the gallows.
[ and she gestures vaguely with her free hand at the doll percy's carrying. by all means it should all be very creepy - moving dolls, the locations and the state of them - but so far it's the weirdness of it all that sticks to her most. ]
omfg i'm sorry this is so late!!
<3
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kyle & iris
In his defense, he didn't know that Iris would be so hard to rouse from bed. Sure, his roommate is never awake when he leaves in the morning. Even when Kyle put a pause on morning training during Eifstide, and he had space in his schedule to sleep in, he ended up with a long stretch of time to himself before any life stirred across the room. But he didn't anticipate having to, quite literally, drag Iris from the cozy warmth of the covers.
This was the other boy's idea in the first place.
Nevertheless, they now lope across the castle grounds, Wilhelm with a hasty breakfast of bread and cheese in one hand and fire in the other to soften the cold, and Iris with his sketchbook. He can't help but gesture to the horizon, where the first hint of the sun begins to wake up the dark sky, and tease, "See? It's not even that early."
With the weather tilting cold and brittle, castle mages have enchanted some areas of the grounds to hold heat in, including a training area for the guards. Kyle and Wilhelm have moved their sessions to a corner of this lawn. When he began training under Kyle, he shrank at the thought of being watched as he failed at something new, but his anxiety around it has unwound as his confidence in his skills grows.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Kyle," he says when they arrive. Now that they're insulated from the cold, he dismisses his flame.
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(Or what would theoretically be the devil, anyway, since apparently some version of that guy is actually here and he Isn't All That Bad.)
Yes, okay, technically this was all his idea. And yes, okay, technically he all but begged Wilhelm to let it happen. Let it be absolutely clear he still wants to be here, and still wants to be part of this! He definitely knows it's a privilege to be let in on something that would otherwise require extreme concentration, and he's well aware Kyle could have dismissed his request with a lofty declaration of Can't you find something else to keep you occupied? Not that he thinks Kyle would say that, but certainly the man wouldn't have been in the wrong for even thinking it. It's called "training," after all, not "things to do to whittle away the time." He's not at all ungrateful...
But gratitude doesn't make one any more of a morning person. Alas.
"Not even the birds are up yet," he still grouses, raising his voice over the very obvious sound of birdsong. He has yet to extricate himself fully from Wilhelm's side, his smaller body apparently taking longer to acknowledge the lawn's higher temperature compared to the rest of their walk. He does, eventually, but not without stifling a yawn in Wilhelm's sleeve, purely out of spite.
"Morning," he greets to the oldest of the trio. His tone is slightly more chipper, but he doesn't say good morning as if on principle. "Thanks for letting me tag along."
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"Good morning." Kyle will add the good, anyway. His hair is tied back, and he's dressed in casual, tight-fitting garments meant for allowing movement - fortunately they don't need to worry about the morning chill thanks to the mages here.
He takes a second to study them both, eyeing the sketchbook in Iris' hand.
"You're welcome to join us, if you want." And then, to Wille. "Why don't you show Iris how we warm-up?"
Stretches.
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Wilhelm squeezes Iris's arm to warn him that he's about to step away. Once he has shed his overcoat and scarf, he's dressed similarly to Kyle in fitted but flexible pants and a tunic. Sometimes he still misses hoodies...
"Sure," he nods.
And once he's settled onto the grass, folding at the waist to reach for his toes, which enables his tattoo to peek out from the hem of his sleeve, he shoots a look up at his roommate. Mischief crinkles the corners of his eyes.
"Yeah, don't be afraid to jump in if you really get inspired."
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Don't worry, Wilhelm — Iris can stock you up on his super fashionable (but not necessarily always functional) hoodies. You too, Kyle.
"That's what the sketchbook if for," he replies, nose wrinkled at the very thought of physical exercise. He was doing well enough under Heather's instructions back home....... but he was also under the threat of being kicked out of the valley if he didn't comply. Here, he highly doubts Wilhelm and Kyle would conspire to toss him out of the castle just because he's opting to spend the morning perched on a low bench overlooking the training area instead of actually participating.
He draws out his pencil, flipping to a new page. Then he looks to Kyle, entreating.
"Don't go easy on him just cuz I'm here."
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cw: vague reference to fantasyland homophobia
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