Fantasy Cosmical Glitch ( ellarose & starboob. )

[starboob]

Juno’s been in and out of consciousness since the ordeal. She catches glimpses of Marjorie skirting about her bedroom, beckoning the captain to go back to bed. (The pirate cannot be sure if she dreamed this part or not, but the skeleton may have even swatted her on more than one occasion.) It’s not really like she has a choice or say in the matter as her body betrays her and listens to Marjorie. (She’s pretty sure she has a dream where Marjorie tells her she’ll heal faster if she just stays asleep instead of fighting through the process. That must have enticed her because after that? The pirate’s memories and thoughts all turn to black and become nothingness.)

(Well, except for the dream that plays over and over again through her head when she sinks deep enough into slumber. It’s hard for her to distinguish whether it’s dream or memory, because it all seems to blend together into a complicated mush, but it’s pleasant and convinces her to stay asleep. She doesn’t know where this dream is supposed to take place, because she’s never seen fields so green before––well, not up until recently––and she certainly never ran through them with James. But it’s so pleasant and taps into how the pirate used to feel around him (wild and carefree) that she doesn’t break her immersion. She runs alongside her friend, thirteen again. Thirteen and ready to take on the world. Each time this dream or memory plays itself, James runs ahead of Juno and she cannot make out his face. She tries to speed up so she can catch a glimpse, but he always remains just out of her view. This happens every time.

During the last playback of the dream or memory, the plot thickens when ground beneath them falls through and the two kids find themselves at the bottom of the Shrike’s pile of bones. Fear surges through Juno and she searches for James, but by the time she spots James, she is the pirate and James is nowhere. The Shrike’s cave has been turned into the lair and Juno is now inside of that dark tomb that seems to swallow light and hope. She can make out the entrance of the tomb and starts to walk towards it, but someone calls to her from behind. “Juju!” the familiar voice beckons and when Juno turns around, Olette lays crushed under that piece of ceiling. As she is starting to head towards the faerie, another familiar voice calls to her, “This is your last chance, Juno. Who is it going to be?” This voice belongs to the Duchess and as the pirate looks between the Duchess and the faerie, the entrance to the tomb starts to move further and further away from her, because her heart's already made this decision even if her body hasn't. The Duchess scoffs and snaps her fingers, “So be it. No one has your back now.” The door to the tomb rolls closed and––)

Her stormy eyes crack open and she’s somehow able to keep them open for longer than a few seconds or even minutes. Slumber doesn’t seem to be calling out to her or trying to chain her down, like it has all those times before. She attempts to sit up and has to slump back down again. Her stupidly buff arms, while still stupidly buff, are sore and aching along with the rest of her body. The room around her spins, forcing her eyes closed as she tries to collect herself. (She tries not to think about what led her to this state, but her last memory lingers in the back of her mind like cigarette smoke even after months of sobriety. ‘Did it even work?’ she wonders to herself.) With a hefty sigh, she braces herself to try again, this time with the knowledge that she’s not at her peak. She’s able to sit herself up, but doesn’t dare do more than that as the room starts to spin again and she has to play catch up with it before she can even attempt to get herself actually out of bed. ‘How long’s it been?’ That question invites a flurry more into her mind and before she knows it, she’s gingerly scooting closer to the edge of the bed so that she can get out and take care of her ship. (Maybe she wants to see if that wing actually healed. She’s fairly certain she managed to pull it off, but she’s not one hundred percent sure since she, you know, fainted right after.)

“Ah, so you’re up,” none other than Marjorie says, observing the pirate from the entryway. She sighs and offers her skeleton (since she has no body) to Juno for support and, for once (and by some miracle), she accepts. “You really should be resting, you know. This wouldn’t be so taxing if you just let us handle things for a bit. I could understand your concern with the hits the Duchess put on your heads, but it’s actually not even been that big a deal. Abigail has it all under control.” The pirate’s face reflects her confusion, but Marjorie pretends to not notice and continues prattling on as she helps the pirate into the bathroom. “I do wish you would just rest, captain, and since I know you well enough to know that you won’t, please don’t expend energy searching for Ms. Olette. I suspect she’s in the engine room––she’s been working tirelessly since she recovered from her own injuries. Ugh, I’ve even had to send her to bed. You really are a terrible influence…”

Whatever else Marjorie has to say is wrapped in cotton as Juno thinks of Olette. Olette and her wing. Olette and her white eyes. Olette and those cries of pain as she healed her. Olette and her wit. Olette, Olette, Olette. She thinks of her as she showers. She thinks of her as she stares into her wardrobe. She thinks of her as she follows the shortest path to the engine room. She thinks of her when she has to stop for breaks. She thinks of her when (headless) Abigail hands her a ‘Thermos’ and claims it’s a gift from ‘the Maestro.’ She thinks of straight up turning on her heel to leave when she finds herself in the doorway to the engine room, staring at her back.

Olette catches her before she can, however. Crap. What does she even say now? (What does she think she'll say to that? Everything has changed, unequivocally.) The pirate sighs and leans against the doorframe, trying to keep her exhaustion under wraps but her hollow cheeks and dark eyes might give it away.

"Just makin' sure you're not blowing up my engine,” she tries to hide her state behind a joke, but it comes out winded and it’s obvious she’s not creeping further into the room because she can’t. She pretends this is normal and just continues on. “And Marjorie told me you’d be here. She wouldn’t fucking shut up about you.”

Even though she’s definitely not ready to be moving again, she starts shuffling into the room. She just doesn’t want the faerie knowing anything is up. She doesn’t want her pity or her worry. She’s captain fucking Juno and she’s fine. This is fine. This happens. Her steps are heavier than usual, though, and by the time she’s close enough to the faerie that she can actually get a look of the wing on her back, she’s sliding down one of the walls to sit on the floor. This is normal. “Why do you care if ‘m in bed or not?” she doesn’t mean to say that out loud, but it is true that she is curious. They don’t care about each other (despite the fact that all recent events indicate that they very much do). “I’m feeling fuckin’ fine. I’m awake, so might as well make sure everything’s in order.”

The pirate looks at the ‘Thermos’ she had been handed earlier. She can tell it’s full of some kind of liquid and decides to investigate. A puff of steam hits her face and, as far as she can tell, it’s just some broth. She finds that the lid has two cups and pours herself and Olette both a portion of the liquid. (It just feels weird to keep this to herself. It’s no secret that the food is fucking crap on Desdemonia and this at least smells like it has flavor.) “You good, though? That, uh… Your wing looked pretty bad. Felt bad, too.”

“Have you tested ‘em out?” Personally, Juno would advise against trying out the wings too soon (as if she’s one to talk), but seeing as she’s been out of commission for the last few days, she hadn’t been able to offer her sage advice. She's curious whether or not the wing is functional; if her healing is more than just cosmetic. She runs a hand through her hair, effectively slicking it back since its still wet from her (cold) shower and looks away from the faerie, finding it difficult to look at her for too long. For some reason. “If, uh, they don't work I can take another look at 'em––in case I fucked up."

 

[ellarose]

Lettie puffs her cheeks out at the joke, though the playful frustration she wears doesn't quite reach her eyes. (They're a pleasant emerald green now, but she can't glamour away the concern shining in them even if she tries.) Juno is exhausted and obviously so. The faerie would know, because she's observed the pirate closely enough all this time to notice the way it weighs her down and carries through her voice. (And the reason why she's paid such close attention is, uh, survival reasons. Obviously! It's not because she likes listening to the sound of her voice or looking at her face or her stupidly buff arms or anything truly outrageous like that!) On top of this, Marjorie has also informed her that the captain ought to rest for another couple of days at least, so her worry here is totally warranted! Nobody needs to read into it or anything. Least of all her.

"A ship is only as good as good as its captain." Lettie says chidingly, wagging a finger before she turns to wrap up what she's doing. (...Is that a thing people say? She's not entirely sure. It sounds like a thing, so she just rolls with it like it is.) She figures the adage will distract from anything she's supposedly 'feeling' about all of this. Right. They've got to keep this professional! "Which means you need to make sure you're in working order first and foremost. You need to rest up so you're prepared when shit goes bananas again." She points her sparkly wrench at Juno indicatively before setting it aside. "Because you and I both know it will! It's only a matter of time." That's the kind of life they're living now. It's a simple fact. Still, it does seem that cubey has their backs while they recover from this one at least. They haven't left Desdemonia yet... but apparently whenever someone comes even remotely close to tracking Lady, they teleport to some other part of the world before they can catch up. (This information was relayed to her by the headless Abigail. One look at Marjorie's nod and Inez's shrug confirmed to her that the skeleton knew what was up for this one at least.) Still. Lettie knows they're not going to get away with teleporting across the skies of Desdemonia forever. Cubey has a mission and it's allowing them time to prep for said mission.

"The crew's got you. And I..." Lettie closes her (now bedazzled and pink) toolbox, thankful she's turned away for this part. "I've got you, too." Pfft. It's not a weird thing to say! Juno has already said it once before. (Twice, actually. Because the moments have been running on loop in her head as she drifts off to sleep at night.) She gestures all around the engine room to help herself shake it off the warm fuzzies the sentiment accompanies. (Not because warm fuzzies are bad or anything, but-- but-- this is still the pirate she's dealing with!) Cough, cough. Anyways. "Just like I've got this! It's only a matter of time before I'll blow your mind." Before the new and improved forcefields are completed, in other words. Her eyes sparkle deviously as she surveys her recent handiwork. While she's tempted to suggest they start running tests soon... she doesn't really want to prompt her sleepy pirate to get up or do anything right now. (Her sleepy pirate? What the fuck!? She's shoves her toolbox away, along with the temptation to bash her own head in with her wrench.) She just, ah, wants to prove that Juno didn't make a mistake by saving her. If loyalty's the best fucking currency, then that's what she's going to give! The very best she has to offer as a mechanic.

"Ripr won't even be able to sneeze in Lady's direction now without getting fucking fried. I'm telling you Juju, if we ever have a rematch the Lady Vengeance will have vengeance!" Hehe. In her imagination, Lettie might be embracing the concept of herself having an actual place on a pirate's crew a little too much. (Yeah, Juno has never told her that she's officially part of the crew. She is the mechanic and that's pretty damned close, though, so she's just going to let herself have this one.) Ravan, lover of all things badass and edgy, would be so fucking jealous of her right now! (Then again, Ravan's not at the mercy of a cube or... ah, whatever! Again, she's going to let herself have this one for now. Stress herself to death later.) The concept hadn't occurred to her as being appealing before because things were different before. There's just, ah, more self-respect that comes with this position. It no longer lingers in the back of her mind that deep down the pirate considers her a thing to be rid of or sold off for a profit at a moment's notice... Juno has assured her that she's got her.

In fact, if Lettie was bold enough (debatable, depending wholly on how desperate she gets) she'd even be tempted to suggest they try to scam people by 'pretending' to sell her off, taking the profits and then breaking out! Ahem. But she's not going to get ahead of herself here. She's just not going to assume that her time is out on Avangeline and she's already fucked.

Though somehow it seems kinda rude to steal all of Juno's thunder by showing off her forcefields (and brilliant ideas) after she exerted herself so much to heal her wings. She hadn't known that it'd take so much out of her. And she knows from all time that the pirate spent sketching her wing (doing that little thing she does when she chews at her lip) that she was at least a little anxious about it, too. Like, of course she's never worked with a faerie's wing before! Lettie's the only faerie she knows.

"Oh, please. I'm tougher than I look!" Lettie insists with a dismissive wave of her hand. (Yes, it'd been bad. It'd been hell. It'd obviously been hell! But Juno has already seen quite enough of her screaming and crying at this point. She's seen her in a state no one should ever see her in. Anyway, she doesn't want her to start thinking she's chosen a weak-ass mechanic over a fucking Duchess.) Has she tested them out yet? Well... kinda? But not really. She hasn't flown in so long that part of her might be a little freaked that she'll jump off a ledge and find out that she's forgotten how. Even if that's silly. She could fly before she could even walk. "I haven't taken to the skies yet if that's what you're asking. They're still a little sore is all. I'm not about to go breaking them again like a dumbass." She rolls her eyes. She's made this decision because she's smart, not because she's frightened or anything silly like that.

"Anyway, I think it's fair to say you've added faerie wings to your arsenal as a bone doctor. I guarantee no one else on Desdemonia can say that! So you should be honored." Lettie grins and punctuates her statement by unfurling her wings out behind her, opening them fully for Juno to see for the first time ever. (Hehe! This never gets old. She fancies the idea that she resembles a flower in bloom, opening its petals to greet a warm spring day.) They're much larger than they've always appeared flattened down behind her, shimmering with her joy (it's not a metaphor and this is a thing they actually do-- she's a faerie, she's magical as fuck and it's not silly!) glowing softly with calm, pastel hues. She flutters them so she's hovering off the ground just a few inches, just enough to show that they do indeed work (this is as much as she's been bold enough to try thus far) she turns a graceful little whirl in the air to show them off completely, her hair and skirt swishing around with the motion. She lands softly on the ground and glances behind her to admire them. (...For once, these aren't theatrics. She experiences genuine bursts of happiness whenever she reminds herself that her wings are working the way they're supposed to. She hasn't lost them or her ability to fly, like she feared she might. She'll get to fly again!) "You did good, pirate."

It's more than good, truthfully. Lettie thinks it's impressive. The pirate is impressive. (Juno is impressive.) This goes beyond just ripping their foes to shreds with those (stupidly) impressive muscles. She can help people, too. Like she helped her. Her cheeks and wings turn a faint pink as she sinks down to sit across from Juno. Not too close, but not too far either.

"I've gotten right to work on honoring our contract." Lettie assures, trying to sound professional. She's keeping this totally professional. (You didn't make a mistake, I promise.) Then she tilts her head questioningly at the broth that Juno has poured out. Two cups, meaning she's either saving one for herself or... is she sharing? Aw. She bites the inside of her cheek to keep herself from pointing it out. (It's... it's not like she thinks that's cute or anything. Pfft! Pfft.) "So... what you got there? Soup?" Uh huh. It's a very astute observation to be sure. Lunch breaks are... professional. Totally professional.

 

[starboob]

‘She’s got me.’ It feels weird to acknowledge. It’s even stranger to hear. It just keeps repeating in her head too, like it’s stuck on loop. “I’ve got you, too.” (No one’s ever had Juno before. She’s always had to be her own everything––James being a brief exception. Will Olette be brief, too?) She rubs her hand over the knot in her stomach and steals a few glances over at the faerie, unsure of what to make of her. ‘I don’t think she’s lying.’ There isn’t really a point in her lying about this––like, that would be an odd con to pull since it’s not like she can get anything else out of the pirate. The pirate doesn’t have anything else to give. She probably says it because she has to––no matter what they’re stuck together so of course they have to have each other’s backs. It’s them against the universe and they never got to choose who their partner in this fight would be. This just makes sense.

Juno swallows and blinks through her astonishment, just barely tracking Olette with her eyes. (Being down here is a mistake. For so many reasons––one she can feel the entire weight of her body sinking into the floor and two, the faerie. They don’t do casual conversation. They don’t just talk. Yet there’s no erasing that Juno sought out the faerie. She could blame it on delirium; she could pretend it’s to make sure the engine isn’t being destroyed; she could even use the wing as an excuse, and none of that would be true. That’s the scary thing about it and Juno can feel reality settling in the pit of her stomach like a stone that will sink her.) She doesn’t have the energy to be worried over these revelations so she decides to just let them be and focuses her energies on staying awake. That, thankfully, is an all-consuming task.

“Yeah, well none of these boneheads can keep Lady running on their own,” at least Juno doesn’t have faith that they can. This isn’t anything against them––not entirely––it’s definitely more about the pirate’s inability to give up control. Control is just all she has and being captain of a bonehead crew gives her that absolutely. It’s better and more reliable than trusting living souls. (That’s why she can’t trust Olette and refuses to admit that she might.) “Captain’s gotta be prepared at all times. Good captains are the ones who make it out of the storms. Not the ones who lay up ‘cause they’re fucking tired.” Not that Juno is tired! Nope, she’s definitely at the peak of alertness and wakefulness. “‘Sides if these upgrades are everything you say, then shouldn’t matter if tentacled freaks are ripping holes in the sky. I’ve got back-up now.” While she is talking about the upgrades, she knows she’s actually referring to Olette and her bomberflies. Olette and her mirror. Olette and her weird ass raver magic. Olette, Olette, Olette.

Why are her thoughts so stuck on Olette?

She knows the answer is lingering somewhere in her deep self if she were ever bothered to find it and she decides she isn’t bothered. She buries her thoughts and focuses on, well, Olette as she talks about her recovery. “Good,” she nods, seeing no reason to point out that she definitely witnessed her crying and screaming like a baby. (Because it wasn’t like that at all. She had more right to those tears and screams than a baby ever fucking would.) “Since shit’s going bananas all the time,” that phrase sounds weird coming from the homicidal pirate’s mouth, but she’s too tired to worry about her image, “you’re gonna hafta be tough as nails, Olette. It’s the only way to survive.” That’s why Juno’s got to ignore the screaming fibers of her body that are begging her to lay down. Shit could go bananas at a moment’s notice and, really, what difference will it make whether the pirate is weak and asleep or weak and awake? At least when she’s awake, she can fucking try. (She still hasn’t totally accepted that Olette’s got her and that she’s not alone.)

“Anyway, yeah. Doesn’t surprise me,” she says in response to the faerie’s claim that her wing is sore. “It’s been broken for a while and out of commission. The muscles probably aren’t where they used to be before you fell onto my ship.” Even Juno, who’s only been out of commission for a few days, worries about what it’s going to be like getting back to her gym. (Marjorie has expressly banned her from using it, but Marjorie’s not the captain of the ship and making Phillip sit in front of the entrance won’t do anything to stop her.) “Uh, might wanna work it out a bit before taking off? I can, um, help.” Because Juno obviously knows about muscles so this offer makes sense. Her stupidly buff muscles speak to her qualifications.

“There’s no one on Desde…” All thoughts abandon her when the faerie’s wings bloom behind her back, sparkling even in the low-lighting of the engine room. They’re alluring in every sense of the word. While Juno has seen the healthy one before, and spent hours upon hours studying it, it’s a world of difference seeing them together and operating in unison. It makes it even more obvious why someone (like herself) would price them as valuable––of course, Juno’s beyond thinking of the faerie like she’s an object to sell. (She does also remember that faerie’s die without their wings and everything connected to them turns to ash, so it wouldn’t even be worth it to try and sell. But again, there’s no reason for her to be thinking about that when Olette is Olette. She’s her mechanic. They’re stuck together and she’s a better ally than Juno had initially assessed.) “Ah, that’s impressive, yeah,” she nods, too mesmerized for words to properly come to her. “Guess I can’t call you flightless anymore.”

Juno presses her head back against the wall, lazily giving herself a bit more rest as her thoughts swim through a pea-soup fog. She remembers what she had meant to say earlier, before Olette’s wings distracted her, and picks up as if she hadn’t stopped speaking. “I’m the only healer I know on Desdemonia. Far as I know, there are no others.” Now how and why Juno became the likely sole user of necromantic healing is a story she won’t tell. “It’s counterintuitive to necromancy and burns a lot of energy, but it's a good trick to know just in case.”

As she explains, she observes the shifting colors of Olette’s wings and notes the difference between this change and the one she observed at the Duchess’s estate (and the first time they ever met). She also notes how the wings now match the faerie’s cheeks (it’s cute, she will admit) and wonders if the color of her wings is related to her emotions. (She also wonders why Olette is blushing in the first place. Eh, maybe she’s just flush from working in the engine room?)

“Oh, yeah, I think so,” she pushes the second cup over to Olette, remembering that the faerie isn’t a mind reader and probably doesn’t understand that Juno had poured that cup for her. It had been her intention, sure, but she hadn’t indicated as much. (It’s been a while since she’s had to communicate transparently.) “Says Thermos on the canister. You think Thermos is some god we’re gonna have to fight because we stole their lunch?” She looks at the lettering on the container and tilts her head. “It’s from Abigail’s master or whatever. What’s even up with that?”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie puffs her cheeks out once again at Juno's stubbornness. This time it's a frustrated puff and it does reach her eyes. Geez. Obviously she's not going to change the pirate captain's mind on this front so easily. Even though she has back up, Lady's upgrades, the crew and they are not currently in the middle of a storm. (She has her, too, but... Lettie's sure those words don't make her feel nearly as secure as they made her feel hearing them from Juno while held in those stupidly buff arms. She's just a little faerie. A bug.) The timing is perfectly ideal for resting and she's just not taking it. According to Marjorie this is how she's always been. Seems like it'll take more than just words to get through to her on this one. In which case there's no need to waste her breath... but that does not mean she's given up the fight on this front. No way! (One day, she swears Lady will be so decked out that the pirate will find that she can't help but sleep soundly. She's already thinking of an alarm system to implement if enemies get within their range. Maybe if Juju has the added security that something will wake her if something goes amiss, then...)

'You're gonna have to be tough as nails, Olette.' Ah. There's her name again. It reminds her of the whirlwind escape that transpired before her wing got crushed and the fact that Juno did not remember Angelus's name. Which, yeah, they only just met him so that one wasn't too much of a shocker. But she'd also been calling the Duchess by the wrong names as well. Even though they had apparently, ah, spent the night together and everything. (She used to think that Juno only used the wrong O-names just to fuck with her... and based on the shit-eating grin on her face for some of them, it's totally fair to say that was sometimes the case. But not always.) Apparently names aren't important enough for to the pirate to remember-- it's as if her brain just trashes them as useless information and moves on. Lettie's name, though-- it's imprinted on her memory now. Like it's important. (Like she's important.) Beyond that feeling, though, there's a twinge of something else behind this advice. Does... does she think less of her now? Is she regretting her decision to help her of all people in the aftermath, thinking of everything she might've given up in exchange for some faerie she hates? Faeries are good for nothing but mischief and entertainment. Ah, shut up! She's been challenging these stereotypes her whole damned life. Onus, Onus, Onus. No! Though she hates her, the pirate has never once called her that. That was... she shudders, shoving the memory deep down. It doesn't mean anything. They're just words. She's got this and she'll fucking fight to prove it!

Ahem. At least Lettie's fucking pretty and she knows it! Juno confirms she knows this as well when she calls her impressive. (Ah! That's more like it. It's no secret that the faerie thrives when she's basking in attention and compliments-- but hearing one from the pirate sets the butterflies in her stomach all aflutter. Don't, uh, read into it or anything! There's just something honest about it coming from someone who usually takes every opportunity she can to lob insults and shoves at her. It's nothing at all like the compliments she'll get on Avangeline, from someone who will sweet talk her with the ulterior motive of taking her home and asking for something in return.) She beams when the pirate says she can't call her flightless anymore and all the fiendish thoughts crawling around in her mind melt away with a ghoulish scream. (They'll be back-- they always come back-- but for now she's allowed a moment of respite.) "This is nothing! Just wait till I'm flying for real." Her wings flutter with anticipation. Hopefully cubey will take them someplace cool soon! There are lots of worlds where she could see herself having a ball flying around. They probably have to take care of their mission on Desdemonia first... but she knows that topic ought to wait until later. She is not getting Juno worked up any more than she already is when she looks so damned tired. "But, yeah... I should probably hit the gym beforehand. Just to be safe. If you wanna check in that's cool, too." (She's trying to play it cool, anyway. It is nice of Juno to offer. Ah, seriously! What's been happening lately!? She never thought she'd see the day she paired the words 'Juno' and 'nice' in the same sentence.)

"...Really? Wow!" Lettie's air of cool instantly evaporates when she unthinkingly leans forward, her green eyes widening with awe. She understands that their worlds are essentially like night and day... but it's still surprising to hear that no one else has tried this form of magic on Desdemonia. Avangeline is all about research and experimentation when it comes to their magic. Being the first to discover something-- and something as important as healing-- would be enough to justify putting Juju's name in a history book. Stars, they might even go as far as to build a statue in her honor. Magic and its many different forms has always been interesting to the faerie. She can't help but feel enraptured learning more about this magic-- especially now that she's been healed by it herself. "It's way more than just a 'good trick', Juju. It's incredible! Seriously, you'd be a legend on my world for a discovery like that." She plays with her hair idly, a bit embarrassed at her excitement, and fights the urge to ask every question that pops into her head. "...It's just really cool." (Okay, back to playing it cool. She's being totally casual here!) "When'd you find out you could use necromancy for healing like that?"

Lettie blushes with an amalgam of bashfulness from getting overexcited and the fact that Juno is indeed sharing with her when she slides the soup over. She takes the cup between her hands, enjoying the way it warms her palms, and brings it to her lips to take a long sip. Hmm. Tastes fine! She's cool. She's casual. So casual. (She swallows quickly to avoid spitting her soup when Juno asks if the Thermos is a god. She bites into her cheek to keep herself from smiling. Any other day she'd have probably laughed outright at this-- but today it doesn't seem appropriate.)

"...Oh. 'Thermos' is the name of the soup container. So we should be fine? I think?" Lettie almost sounds doubtful about this, in spite of everything. They never know what to expect when it comes to anything anymore... and usually when she says things are fine they quickly spiral to a point where they are not fine. She doesn't want to jinx them again. Anyway, she automatically knows what the pirate is referring to when she talks about Abigail's master. "The Maestro. That's what Abby's been calling cubey." She shrugs. There is no explanation beyond that. She's not sure when Abigail and the cube bonded... or how. There are some things the faerie has accepted she might never understand. (Where did Abby's head go, for instance? She ought to find it soon-- because the faerie can't help but jump whenever she turns a corner and sees her walking around headless. Sometimes the cube balances on top of her bones as if it's pretending to be her head which is... freaking weird, to say the least.) "It should be fine. Feels like the cube's been looking out for us more ever since we agreed to take on that mission." Even if they could've used a save earlier when they were dealing with the Duchess! "Teleports us whenever anyone comes remotely close to us, too. So we're good for right now... good enough for you to get a little more rest after we eat, I'd say."

Lettie imagines most people are keeping their distance anyway. After destroying an entire fleet and the Duchess's estate, there probably aren't a ton of people who feel bold enough to fuck with them. Still. That doesn't eliminate the fact that the Duchess wants their heads. The safest solution would be to get them the fuck off of Desdemonia... but she considers that they probably have unfinished business to take care of in that tunnel first. Still, the faerie is going to suggest sleep before bringing that back up. Juno's in no state to be going on any missions right now!

 

[starboob]

Juno notices that Olette’s signature cheek-puff appears different than the one she gave her a second ago. This one is closer to the ones she is used to receiving from the faerie so she decides that she must be doing something right, because this is normal. Holding onto what is normal is all the pirate has living this bitch of a life now that the cube has decided that it owns her. (Still, the pirate is confused why she’s getting this variant of the cheek-puff––the one that usually indicates she’s sufficiently gotten under the faerie’s skin. All she’s done is refused to rest. Why does Olette care about that? Yeah, she’s said something about a ship being only as good as its captain and she does seem concerned about ‘shit going bananas’ again… but Juno’s always managed. No matter how fucking exhausted she’s been, she’s been the one who’s been above deck fighting off those creatures, not Olette. The faerie may be capable of handling herself, but the idea of putting all that pressure on someone else’s shoulders makes the pirate uncomfortable. She can only trust herself with her own life and that’s helped her make it this far.)

In the end, Juno decides to shrug this off. She’s in no state of mind to be fretting over what the faerie might be thinking about her. (This just proves how delirious she is, too, because Juno would ordinarily not give two shits or a rat’s ass about what the faerie thinks of her.)

She heaves a sigh and seems to sink deeping into the floor. (Sleep is knocking on her door and Juno refuses to answer.) She rubs her eyes and blinks them a few times to make sure they stay open, but that only acts as a short lived fix to her exhaustion. Er, not that she’s exhausted! Nope, no. Juno doesn’t get exhausted because Juno doesn’t have weaknesses. Any potential weakness she might have, she muscles through and becomes stronger because of it. That’s exactly what she’s doing right now. ‘Just concentrate on Olette. You’ll stay awake if you can focus on something.’

Oof, but focusing on Olette only fills her (not) tired head with fantasies when she agrees to hit the gym just to be safe. Just imagining how her muscles might move and flex… Picturing her completing a few sets of pull-ups and watching her shoulders and lats tense... Ugh. Why has the goddess built Juno like this? “It’ll probably be good for you to have someone there to correct your form. Just let me know when you’re headed there and I’ll join,” she nods and even offers something close to small grin––a smile’s embryo, if you will. “And I’d like to be there to see your first flight post-recovery.” Her cheeks flush and she quickly adds, “To make sure everything’s alright and be there to spot you in case something goes wrong. Like you said before, ah, we don’t need you breaking your wing after it’s just been healed.”

‘We???’ Ugh, Juno cannot even question why she’s started to couple them together in her head. ‘We’re not fake girlfriend’s anymore. No need for that shit.’

Just when the pirate thinks that she has gathered her composure, it melts into (another) blush the second that Olette starts to praise her for discovering this alternative way to use her necromancy. “Ah, er, it really isn’t a huge deal,” she mumbles, feeling herself wanting to crawl into a shell so that there is not so much attention on her. She chews on the inside of her cheek as the faerie continues on, claiming that Juno would be ‘a legend’ on Olette’s homeworld for this kind of discovery. ‘She really thinks this is cool?’ Well, that becomes hard to deny when she starts asking more about Juno’s healing. She’s stunned into silence, because no one’s ever asked her this before. (No one else has been healed by Juno, so that could explain why. No one even knows that the pirate can do this––well, save for Olette.) The pirate scratches her cheek, blows out a raspberry, and tries to ignore everything that the question brings up––both good and bad. (Especially the bad.) “I dunno, I was a teenager. Prolly about thirteen or so? Nearly killed myself the first time,” she snorts, as if it’s nothing. “Necromancy can be dangerous like that, though. Almost any of its branches can kill you if you don’t develop the resistance to it first. We don’t give kids their first bones ‘til they’re at least three. Otherwise they might react and accidentally blow out their hearts during a tantrum.” She’s about to say more, but realizes she’s probably saying too much and boring the faerie with her inane ramblings on necromancy.

Instead, she watches as the faerie accepts the soup offering and feels, well, some type of way over it. She doesn’t know what this feeling is, but there’s just something unspoken in the transaction that both worries and excites the pirate. She shifts her gaze down and then stares into her soup. (Her jaw tingles and her tastebuds jump as she sips on the liquid and allows it to warm her from the inside out.) “The soup container has a name?” she tilts her head to the side, for some reason not hiding the fact that it hasn’t clicked that Thermos is a brand and her confusion only continues. “Right, QB…” Juno hums, pretending she knows what/who QB is. “Who’s QB?” But after she racks through the files in her brain, a light bulb goes off above her head. “Oh, the cube. Why’s the cube Abigail’s master?” For some reason, Juno’s got it stuck in her head that if there is something she doesn’t know (or if there’s something she can’t do), then Olette will have her covered. It hasn’t failed her so far. (So much for trying to not rely on anyone, right?)

As Olette continues on and explains that the cube’s been moving them away whenever danger starts to near, she does relax some. Some, and not all the way. “I’ll rest when I’m dead,” she replies, defiantly finishing her soup and keeping her eyes wide open. “‘Sides, now that we have a mission to focus on, we should probably figure out what that’s all about.” The pirate is still the pirate and she needs to keep herself occupied at all times. “The Duchess claimed we were in some kind of tomb when her henchmen knocked us out, yeah? Supposedly, she’s got sensors––I’d guess wards––that alert her when someone’s down there. If the cube wants us investigating the tomb, we need to figure out how to do so without the Duchess finding out. She’s probably got goons all over the place now who are just waiting to knab us again. That means we’ll have to go in stealthily. Might not be able to give Lady Vengeance a chance at vengeance against Ripr if we wanna go in unnoticed.” This reminds her to ask Olette about developing a cloaking system. (Before she approaches that topic, however, she’ll need to make sure she’s figured out a proper way to repay her since the wings are taken care of now.)

The pirate puts the lid on the Thermos and presses herself against the wall to brace herself as she rises. Her vision spots from the sudden movement, but at least she doesn’t outright lose her balance. She just has to stay still for a couple of minutes. “You done in here for the day? We can strategize better in the operations room. Once we come up with a plan,” and the pirate recovers more, “We can head back to the canyon. Sound good, faerie?”

 

[ellarose]

And strategize in the operations room they did, although Lettie's still reluctant to suggest they work themselves too hard when Juno is so tired. Whenever the pirate dozes during their sessions she tiptoes away and refuses to entertain the idea of waking her. Not that she could accomplish such a feat even if she did try. If the pirate can sleep through her legendary ragers with the skellies (she's thrown approximately five of them since that first night-- and a sixth is currently in the works for whenever they get another opportunity) then it's proven that she can sleep through just about anything. Because that crew of hers really knows how to party. They don't need to sleep because they're skeletons-- but even then, sometimes they like pretending to pass out as if they are. Juno may be a tough as nails pirate captain... but she is not a skeleton. (She seems to like pretending she is, though, acting she doesn't need sleep just like the skeletons act like they do. They're similar that way.) Stars. Obviously she needs rest! Hell, she probably only sleeps so deeply because she's stubborn about it. As much as the faerie tries to explain her opinions on taking advantage of their peaceful moments to rest, nothing she says ever gets it through her thick skull. So she does what she considers the next best thing and doesn't dare to suggest they hit the gym yet-- even if she is eager to fly again-- instead prioritizing their research over the next couple of days. Sitting in the operations room is closer to resting than physically exerting themselves is... and at this point the faerie will take any sort of compromise she can get. (Um. And for the record-- her investment in the pirate's rest isn't because she cares or anything sappy like that. Like the old adage (that she very well might've just made up) goes, a ship is only as good as its captain!)

The general consensus is that they need to revisit that tunnel to ensure they find whatever it is that cubey's been looking for. So their sessions mainly involve talking through what they can do to bypass the Duchess's defenses-- the sensors and potential wards she's got set up. Lettie suggests running a scan to locate weak points, like she did with that simulation so long ago. Although she's not sure if it will trace necromancy the same way and will need to eventually test this on Juno. Her usual methods might require a little bit of reworking, as magic harnessed by people is not exactly the same as magic harnessed by programs. In other words, it's a lot of technical mumbo jumbo she has to work through before she's confident they can navigate the tunnel safely. (She'll get there eventually! She does love the heist-- so she'll just treat this exploit like one as motivation. Besides, a petty part of her really wants to stick it to the Duchess for looking at the pirate like-- ah, no! No, no, no. Excuse her. It's for taunting her. It's all personal because she made it personal. Obviously. And sure, they exploded her fancy home and most of if not all of those mounted wings... but still.) The faerie also brings up the fact that Ripr seemed fixated specifically on the cube. There's not much they can do about this observation, though... not unless they're somehow able to take Ripr apart to see what makes it tick. That involves Ripr being taken out, though, and Juno has informed her that no one gets past Ripr.

Aligning with the subject of Ripr, Juno also suggests devising a way to cloak Lady. This does make sense. While Lettie is confident in her shields, it'll offer them yet another layer of protection down the line. (For encounters with creatures like Ripr and also for potential dangers they might discover on other worlds as well. It's a good idea.) However, this isn't going to be an easy feat. To create a durable cloaking system she'll need the right supplies and a substantial amount of time. (Time that she isn't sure that she has. Something about cubey's energy seems sort of... restless lately? It's weird to describe it, but the faerie feels it-- like a tingling of anticipation tap dancing over her skin.) Still, she uses her spare time to sketch out different concepts and ideas to eventually run by the pirate. (Juno also mentions finding a way to pay her back for this and Lettie continually draws blanks when she considers it. Her wing is healed... she lives on Lady. If there's anything else that the faerie wants, she's not sure if it's something the pirate can give. There's nothing that can be done to change her situation on Avangeline... provided she ever makes it back home at all.) Eventually she decides that she can count their training sessions in the gym as payment. Making that transactional fits in with the whole, uh, business thing they have going on!

It's only after a few more days pass and the dark circles under Juno's eyes are less pronounced that Lettie finally agrees that they train in the gym together. (...Since they have plans she takes longer than she'd like to admit settling on her workout attire. It's almost like getting ready for a date. Ahem. She just misses going on dates and looking pretty for them is all! It's all about the ritual of it. It's not about looking hot for the pirate or anything like that. Obvi! As she does this it occurs to her that she could have officially asked for the gym mirror as payment and curses herself for not thinking of it sooner. Damn! Maybe next time. Needless to say, she steals the mirror anyways and works tirelessly on assembling the perfect outfit. She's feeling violet today, so she goes with that for her eyes and hair and assembles an outfit composed of darker shades and blacks to match. It's more or less a workout rendition of her getup from that world that uses candy as currency. She styles her hair with a soft wave and pulls it back into a flattering ponytail. Once she's satisfied with her reflection she takes herself (and the mirror she stole) back to the gym to meet Juno.

Lettie arrives fashionably (emphasis on fashionably) late, so it's only natural that Juno is already there when she arrives. She saunters in and sets the mirror back where it belongs, flashing the pirate an innocent smile. Okay sure, she totally stole it (again)-- but she brought it back, okay!? That's what really matters at the end of the day. Once she really looks at the pirate (wearing a tank top it probably only took her two seconds to pick out) her face and wings automatically blush a soft pink. No fair. It doesn't matter if Juno takes two seconds to pick out her clothes because... muscles. Buff. Stupid. Muscles! The faerie almost physically slaps herself to break out of her trance until she considers what that might look like and swallows instead. This is fine. She just needs to remind herself what words are and how to use them is all. She's fine. She's got this. Totally!

"Knives." Lettie says, gesturing to the targets on the wall. Still got this! She stretches herself out in the sexiest possible way before summoning up her purse, reaching inside for her sparkly, bow-adorned knife. (The one Juno gave her the night they met that no longer resembles the one she gave her with all its glitz and glamor.) "Gonna warm up with the knives and then..." She whirls around quickly to fix her attention on something other than Juju and her stupidly buff arms. "Then we can start!"

What are 'we' going to do, anyway? Lining up her aim, the faerie throws the first knife and misses the bullseye just by about an inch. This is casual. Will I get to touch her arms?

The next knife lands two inches away from the bullseye. Stars! This isn't working. There's, uh, too much on her mind right now. Between the upgrades. Muscles. The mysterious tunnel. Muscles. The Duchess and her wards. Muscles. And the cube, her wing and everything else!

"So." So. Casual. Lettie is so casual. "What did you have in mind, Juju? Clearly you're the expert here." Because muscles. And she needs to know what's going on if she's ever going to focus on anything else.

 

[starboob]

Somewhere within the pirate’s stubborn mind, she does get that her recovery would be smoother if she just stayed in bed, but the idea of resting actually makes her sick. Whenever she does try to stay in bed for a few extra minutes (trying to consider the faerie’s concern), a slimy feeling begins to wash over her––because, in her mind, she’s being lazy––and she has to spring out of bed to rid herself of the sensation. She does do her version of taking it easy, however, and that seems to impress Marjorie. (Marjorie, who has now started to wink and nudge Juno whenever the skeleton catches her and Olette together. It’s worse when they’re just hanging out with no pretense that they’re planning. It doesn’t happen often or for very long, but there have been occasions where they linger after meals or planning sessions and just chat about nothing in particular. It’s all smalltalk and nothing big, but Marjorie’s blown it up into this huge deal. Whatever, Juno won’t let it bother her. There’s no point in encouraging her rumors with vehement denial. They’re just business associates. That Juno tries to rack her brain for safe topics when silence stretches between them for too long is just… part of team building. Olette may be convinced that a ship is only as good as its captain, but Juno knows that it’s the crew who really make everything work; having a solid team that can work well together is integral. That’s all this is. And, yes, Juno does sort of see Olette as part of the crew––not that she’s let on.)

For Juno, taking it easy mostly means that she doesn’t insist they go straight back to the tunnel to investigate and that she doesn’t hit the gym. She wants to, and she is restless just waiting, but she knows that she’s in no shape to protect anyone. She finds herself somewhat thankful that the cube has stepped in more and will teleport them at a moment’s notice. (That’s weird too, because unlike when it forces them to hop from world to world, these transitions don’t come with flashes of light or the faerie and the pirate landing on top of each other. In fact, no one really notices these changes. The only evidence of their movement is their location changing on the navigation system. Juno wonders if this has to do with the energy output needed to take them to new worlds in unknown galaxies versus light interplanetary travel. It would check out, if not for the fact that when she first experienced the cube’s teleportation abilities, it did only take them across Desdemonia and came with a flash of light and Olette landing on top of her. Maybe the cube is getting stronger with each planet? She’ll have to check-in with Olette about that.) Still, she does wish that she could be doing more than just sitting around––even if she knows, logically, that she’s not just sitting around.

This is actually what brings Juno to picking up a new hobby––cooking. While the cube has been providing them with meals, ingredients have also been appearing in the kitchen and Juno has curiously started to experiment. The experiments are so far disastrous, seeing as she hasn’t figured out seasonings, but she finds it fascinating enough to keep trying. (No, she hasn’t shared anything with Olette. In fact, she’s very much been trying to keep this a secret; that’s hard with the ship being so small, but she doesn't want the faerie to know. Juno might be embarrassed that she’s so awful at it.) At least it keeps her occupied during the quiet moments when the pair aren’t together.

And… Juno hates to admit it, but she doesn’t mind spending so much time with the faerie. Maybe that’s why she comes up with things for them to talk about? She can admit that it’s nice to have someone (with a brain) to talk to. Olette manages to surprise everyday with her ideas and hypotheses and the pirate is comforted knowing that the faerie is part of her crew. (Again, she hasn’t admitted that verbally, but the shift has been made in the captain’s mind.) It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of upgrade Juno has in mind, Olette has never seemed stumped (and Juno has tried to stump her). It won’t be long before the pirate owes the faerie her whole goddamn ship.

Anyway, the day finally comes when Olette doesn’t cheek-puff at her in an exasperated way when she suggests going to the gym and Juno couldn’t be happier. It’s been far too long for her liking and she’s eager to get back––so eager, in fact, that she completely forgets that this means that she will be seeing Olette there as well. And that they will be working out together, because that is what Juno had suggested. This only occurs to her once she arrives at the gym and begins warming up with some light stretches and sets. ‘Fuck.’

That sentiment only skyrockets when the faerie saunters in with her ponytail swishing behind her back, dressed in tight workout clothes. She swears her heart almost gives out and she doesn’t even notice that the faerie is returning the gym mirror. (Ah, so that’s what had been missing.) “Knives, yeah, sure.” Juno swallows and gets up from the bench she had been sitting on. She pulls up the bottom half of her muscle-T to wipe her face as she walks over to stand behind the faerie to watch. She is surprised to see Olette miss her mark––Juno coulda sworn she was an ace at this. “You in your head or something, Olette?”

She lifts her scarred brow, but tries not to concern herself too much with, well, concern. There’s no need for that, because they’re just here to lift weights. They don't need to be asking each other personal questions. She clears her throat. “I was thinking we’d focus on your back today––mainly your lats, but we should probably work on your shoulders as well.” She chews on the inside of her lip and looks away. “Honestly, it’s best to round out your entire physique… I could help you build a regular routine. I–I mean, I’m not trying to turn you into a mini-me,” ‘Shut up, Juno. Just shut the fuck up!’ “but we could totally tone everything out. It’ll, uh… It’ll help your overall energy output and might help you with flight speed too.” Yeah, clearly the pirate has spent a lot of time thinking about this and she deeply hopes that Olette doesn’t read into it.

“I’ll do some demos of the exercises first––it’s important you have proper form, otherwise you’re just being an idiot in the gym.” She nods and gestures with her chin that they should head over to the rack. In a moment inspired by totally normal thoughts, she pulls off her shirt and tosses it to the side. (This isn’t to attract the faerie or anything––like, they’re just muscles––it’s just so that Olette can have a better view of the muscles she should be moving. It’s purely educational.) The pirate picks up a set of dumbbells and starts demonstrating the form for a basic single arm row. When she finishes the demo she turns and points to the muscles that Olette should be working––moving them so that she can see how her muscles should be moving. “Most of weightlifting is just having good form––it’s all about working smarter, not harder. You oughta start yourself off with something light so that you can get a feel for the motion and once you’ve got the mechanics down, you can start adding more serious weight."

“I’ve also been thinking,” she clears her throat and looks away from the faerie, “Since there are shit bananas all the time––” she immediately catches this mouth error and her face ignites into a red flame. (Look. It's hard to focus on words when she's staring at Olette. Staring at her form. To make sure that it is correct. Yup, that's it.) She quickly corrects herself, “Since shit is always going bananas, we should… We should start sparring. I need to know who I’m fighting beside. Shit’s important for survival. It will help us understand each other." She clarifies, "Er, understand each other's fight style, that is."

Juno tries to ignore the fact that her face is redder than a smashed tomato and soldiers on through to the next topic. "Oh, once you finish your sets, I can show you how everyone fucks up a shoulder raise."

 

[ellarose]

You in your head or something, Olette? Lettie keeps her back to Juno, worrying her lower lip as she wrests her knives free from the target. Ah, shit! Those stupidly buff arms are living rent free in her head right now and there's no way in hell that she's letting the pirate in on that fact. (Except it doesn't matter at this point that she's turned around, because her wings bloom with the same shade of pink that's painted all over her cheeks.) "It's just, ah--" In retrospect, she'll realize there are here of things that she could have said in this moment. Like 'why do you care' or 'it's none of your business' or something characteristically sassy like that! (A response that she'd have snapped out with the quickness of a whip before.) Instead what does she do? She proceeds to come up with a flimsy-sounding story. "Ah-- Abigail. Poor Abby! She lost her head." (Lettie honestly can't be sure whether or not she's lost her own head at this point.) "I keep wondering where it is. That's all." Yep. That sounds natural. Totally natural.

Although thoughts of Abigail's lost head naturally trace the faerie's thoughts back to the bastard who put her in that state. Angelus. Lettie still can't shake the fact that he looked familiar somehow. And he knew her full name when he shouldn't, shouldn't, shouldn't. (Even if she's just imagining it on some level-- his mannerisms, fashion and physique all dripped with that condescending stench that screamed 'man of status' on Avangeline.) What could he possibly be doing on Desdemonia? How did he travel there if not through the cube? As far as she knows, no one from Avangeline has ever traveled to other worlds before. (But who are you? Expendable, that's what!) Deep down, the faerie supposes she'd be unsurprised to learn that the higher ups have their own secret means of traveling all this time. If that is the case, though, why have her test the cube? Why not send someone to bring her back safely? And if Angelus is there for that purpose... then why does he need to go through the Duchess to get to that? Why use such underhanded means? It's a clusterfuck, basically, and now she's really getting in her head. Unless she's drawing up blueprints, working in the engine room or chatting with Juno, she can't help slipping into those dangerous rabbit holes scattered around her mind like a minefield. Focus, focus! Juju is talking about her back, her lats, her shoulders. Of course, focusing on the pirate also means acknowledging her muscles yet again-- it'll be an endless cycle if she doesn't stop it now. Lettie snaps her eyes to Juno's eyes and forces herself to keep them there.

Stressing won't fix a thing! The faerie will have to be her best if she to face whatever might await her ahead and by some twist of fate, the pirate is the only person in her life right now offering her help, so... might as well take whatever she can get out of this. And obviously Juno knows what she's doing because... muscles. Ah! Eyes up!

"Cool. Let's do that." Lettie gulps and nods. In spite of everything going on in her mind, she's heard just enough to follow along. Juno's got a whole regimen figured out. Back, lats, shoulders. Tone everything out. (Either she's given this a lot of thought beforehand or she's got it all figured out because she knows her way around the gym... which is probably the most probable option between the two.) So this is going to be fine. Right? Everything's cool! Everything's very cool until it gets, ah, unbearably hot. Because the pirate has decided that this is an optimal time to take her shirt off. The faerie gulps a second time. Oh.

Swallowing the strangled noise she's perilously close to making, Lettie's gaze flits frantically from Juno's averted eyes to her arms. Occasionally it slips further down to her abs, which she also gets a high definition view of without the shirt there to obstruct them. (Even if she always knows they're there. She's been pressed up against them before and that memory makes her particularly warm.) Hot damn. Arms. Look at her arms! (Her arms... which she needs to ignore while simultaneously paying attention to them. Which, yeah, is just as impossible as it sounds! She is only one faerie. One gay little faerie.) Juno is saying things about working smarter in the gym and there are currently no coherent thoughts being produced in Lettie's mind. (Might as well stick a note on her forehead! She's out of order on account of, ah, overheating?) Fiddling with her ponytail nervously, she pretends like she's adjusting it before nodding and taking a set of dumbbells for herself.

Lettie's so distracted that she doesn't even check to see what she grabbed. They're not as heavy as Juno's, that's for sure, but as she goes in to follow the pirate's lead she realizes that it might still be a lot for her. Fuck. She can't just go back to put them away because they're too heavy now. She needs to commit! (There are so many stereotypes about faeries she has the responsibility to challenge here! She has to prove that she's not weak. Going back now will be like admitting defeat.) Mimicking Juno's movements, she grits her teeth and hopes it isn't visible how she trembles with the strain. (Good news! She can lift it. It's agony, though.) The pirate is watching her movements intently, though, looking for ways to help and the faerie has a feeling she's going to notice. She's totally going to notice. Her own arms practically scream at her that this is stupid and to put them back already.

'Since there are shit bananas all the time.' Lettie's casually nodding along with everything Juno's saying-- but when she catches that she has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from giggling. Juju's face turns red and it's pretty cute. (Ah, what? No, it's not!) Taking advantage of how flustered she is, the faerie casually sets her dumbbells back where they belong, relieved to relieve herself of the weight, and grabs something she can actually manage. (Maybe she won't notice? Maybe?) Hoping that it's not too noticeable, she continues going along with the motions. This is smooth. This is fine. She's just testing what works for her, right? As a weight-lifting novice and all, that's perfectly understandable! She's fine. Not in her head at all.

"I'm totally going to win if this is about understanding each other's fight style. I've been watching you fight all this time, Juju. Ever since day one!" What? Lettie starts confidently... but that admission says a lot, doesn't it? (Well, she basically said the same thing to the Duchess. But that's when they were fake girlfriends and now...) She coughs awkwardly, her own cheeks matching Juno's own shade of red. "Sure, though. If you think it'll help." She purses her lips. Hm. Come to think of it, does their roughhousing count as sparring? Sparring has a more professional, honorable sort of sound to it. Truth is, she can't win against the pirate and her buff arms in hand to hand combat without relying on her speed and her own little tricks. (It's just a fact that Lettie is small and needs to level out the playing field for herself somehow.) "My usual style involves a lot of magic, though. Are we sticking with Marjorie's rules or--?"

That's when Marjorie herself pops out of hiding with a friendly wave, nearly startling Lettie enough to drop her dumbbells. (Ah! When the hell did she get in there!?) "No bombs..." The skeleton turns from Juno to Lettie. "Or bomberflies. So long as you set nothing aflame or try to kill each other..." The skeleton nods her head sagely, "Then I will allow it. Carry on!"

"Um. Is that a score board?" Lettie squints. Behind Marjorie there is definitely a score board. Rather than answer her, though, the skeleton grabs said score board and ducks back into her hiding spot as if she'd never been there at all. The faerie blinks twice before shrugging her shoulders and putting her dumbbells away. Just skellie antics, she guesses. (If they're really keeping score, though, she needs to make sure that she's on her A game. No way is she losing!) "Okay then." That's that then.

"Alright, Juju. Show me what you got." Lettie leans casually against a nearby rack. Because she's still casual. This whole thing is casual. (Show me what you got? Why does she sound like such a nerd!? Biting her lip, her gaze drifts back down to her abs and she wants to smack herself. Ah, geez. Will she have to spar against Juno while her shirt is off? She's genuinely not sure which is stronger... her fantasies or her need to win. Fuck.) "So how much do you normally work with, anyway? Like... do you think you could lift with a person sitting on your arm?" Um. Yeah! Casual! She's just curious. This is all curiosity. It's normal and it's not part of a fantasy she's envisioning or anything like that. If anything, she's goading the pirate to, uh, test her limits and shit. Yeah!

 

[starboob]

Olette’s wings are pink. How come they’re always changing colors? And why are they pink so often? Actually, that should not even be a question when it comes to Olette Licorice Radio, the queen of pink as far as Juno is concerned. (Never will she tease the faerie about the shade again. She’s learned her lesson several times over and she doesn't need to make that mistake again.) Still, unlike her hair, eyes, or even clothes, this doesn’t seem like something that the faerie has much control over. It’s different and, once again, Juno wonders what it is that turns them pink. ‘Embarrassment, obviously. She just missed her mark twice in a row.’ Juno decides to run with that, since there obviously isn’t a better explanation. Literally, there’s not. (And she won’t let herself think of alternative explanations. For several reasons! Mainly, it’s unfathomable to the pirate that Olette would ever blush over her. If not because of their tumultuous first few months together, then for the fact that Juno is Juno and Olette is Olette and that should be enough to explain everything. Like, Olette is way out of Juno’s league––Hell, they probably aren’t even competing in the same sport and Juno can’t imagine the faerie giving her the time of day. She’s probably got a gross amount of suitors wherever she’s from anyway. Not that Juno's been thinking about her dating life. Nope. Nuh uh.) Juno clears her throat and looks away from the faerie’s wings, deciding to focus on something that actually matters.

“Abigail’s skull is in my study––the fragments, that is,” Juno supplies, wondering why Olette is even concerned about it. Abigail is a skeleton. She’s already dead. What does it matter whether or not she has her own head? “You know she can’t feel that shit, right? She’s a skeleton. She doesn’t have feelings. I’ll fix her––it’s fucking weird seeing her with the cube for a head––but it’s really just cosmetic, you know?” (Juno doesn’t feel like investigating why she’s explaining this to Olette or why she even cares about what Olette is thinking.)

The pirate crosses her arms over her chest and watches the faerie grab a set of dumbbells, somewhat impressed with the weight she’s chosen. It’d be nothing for herself, but she imagines that that isn’t the case for Olette. After a few seconds, the pirate’s suspicions are confirmed when she notices the faerie’s form slipping. She almost says something about it, but Olette is smart and seems to realize this as she goes back to the stand and chooses a lighter weight. Juno makes a couple notes on her form, tapping on her spine in places where it should be flatter.

But when the faerie claims she’ll best Juno? Captain fucking Juno? The pirate has to step back and laugh, “Oh, please––just ‘cause you’ve got that nerdy advantage,” and she only has this advantage because she fucking pretended to be useless (Juno will get pissed about this later), “doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own. I’ve seen enough of your raver magic to know basically what you’re capable of.” Still, Juno doesn’t know what Olette is like with her wings mended. Quite frankly, Juno’s never fought an opponent in the sky unless it was another airship and she wouldn’t say that knowledge is entirely transferable. Olette will be a smaller and much faster target––like trying to swat an actual bug. Not that Juno will mention this (though maybe she should since it’s a pretty good joke). “Marjo––”

That’s about when the skeleton pops out of her little corner and Juno realizes they’re being watched. Several questions cross her mind, but there isn’t time to ask them when the skeleton lays out the ground rules for their sparring matches. Even if the pirate had been close to calling Olette a wuss for suggesting ‘Marjorie’s rules,’ with the skeleton actually here she decides against the taunt as Juno’s not in the mood for a lecture. Before the skeleton ducks away again (and Juno is totally oblivious to the scoreboard despite the faerie just mentioning it), she quips, “I’ll try to keep that one,” she sticks her thumb towards Olette and grins, “from settin’ things aflame. You know she’s a fire starter.” The skeleton nods and makes a tally on her board. Juno shrugs that off as nothing–– skeletons are brainless there is no point trying to understand them.

She then takes a fighting stance, ready to show the faerie ‘what she’s got,’ but then straightens out when Olette asks her question. An insulting fucking question at that. It’s almost like the faerie fucking thinks that Juno’s muscles are just for show and aren’t functional at all. Out of sheer pride alone, she lifts her arm, pats her (flexed) bicep, and scoffs, “Uh, Hell yeah. Easily. You’d barely feel like anything if you hopped on me while I did my lifts. You’re like a fucking feather.” Okay. Okay. Why the fuck did she basically just volunteer the faerie to fucking hop on so she can show off how strong she is? And why does this conversation feel vaguely like deja vu? (It’s because this exact conversation came up when they were drunk, but Juno won’t ever make this connection as the memory is buried deep under an ocean of alcohol.) “My personal record is around––”

“Marjorie’s rules,” the skeleton interjects Juno before she can even start loading a bar. “You’re still recovering, captain. You can (hehe) lift Ms. Olette but no more than that lest you strain yourself and end up back on bedrest. Abigail has informed me that the Maestro is getting antsy and would like to finish things up on Desdemonia before sending you off to… Ah, I forget where.” She shrugs and then bats the air, “Carry on.”

The pirate scowls at the skeleton and the skeleton pretends she doesn’t notice. After a beat, she turns back to Olette with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’ll show you later. Why don’t you show me if you can get yourself out of a headlock,” she says by way of warning, because a half second later the pirate is bolting towards the faerie with a maniac grin on her face––

blip!

Before Juno’s stupidly buff arms can wrap around Olette’s stupidly attractive everything, the signature blinding light of the cube swallows the gym and when it fades away, the duo are spit back out into the… lair? (Okay, well there goes Juno’s theory that the cube doesn’t need to violently teleport them when it’s interplanetary.) When they land the faerie lands on top of the (still shirtless) pirate and the cube, followed by Juno’s whip and bag of shards, fall on her head and topple over the pirate––who is stiff as a board under the faerie. ‘So much. Skin.’ “Ah, er… Uhh.” Brilliant. Juno’s brain is broken. (At least the dim lighting prevents Olette from seeing her face, but that might not hide how warm she’s getting from being under the faerie. Who she doesn’t like.) Right, she doesn’t like the faerie! “Get off me,” she cracks out, not sounding nearly as harsh as she wants so she punctuates it by shoving her shoulder. Interestingly, she holds back from using force that would have easily pushed the other woman off of her. That’s probably just because she’s so exhausted. Not like there is anything to read into. Obviously.

“Guess we can toss our whole plan in the bin since the little piece of shit is apparently able to teleport us here directly,” she says once she’s standing on her feet again. She sweeps up her weapons and scratches her head, looking over the familiar lair. As far as Juno can tell, they are the only ones down here, but knowing that doesn't bring her any comfort since they had been alone last time and that didn't stop the Duchess from getting to them. This causes the pirate to stiffen once more. Her eyes narrow to slits as she carefully surveys the room, not moving an inch from her spot. She puts her hand on Olette's shoulder (why has she been so touchy with the faerie lately?) to hold her in place. "Look," she points to the ground. It's nearly covered in blood wards and when she looks over at the walls, there seem to be fresh glyphs traced on them as well. (She only assumes they're fresh because they shine brighter than some of the others.) "We're screwed, dude. Those wards are going to summon revenants and I don’t wanna find out what those fucking glyphs do. This is so fucked. What the fuck does the piece of shit expect us to do? Trigger everything and fight our way to the finish?”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie squints incredulously as Marjorie bestows a tally on Juno's side of the score board. Wait. What!? Shit! They haven’t even started their sparring sesh yet and already the pirate is scoring points. Is she being rewarded for observing the simple fact that Lettie (sometimes) starts fires? Because if this is a test regarding their observations about each other, the faerie has already won it like a hundred times over! Or, uh, is this because Juno can lift more than she can? Because she claims that she can lift the combined weight of something heavier than what Lettie can carry and also Lettie herself? If this whole thing is based on how much they can lift she’s fucked. She bites her thumbnail as she considers what all of this means when suddenly the pirate is running at her with the grand idea that she has to put her in a headlock. (Maybe she’s gotten too complacent with the overall calm of their 'recovery' stage lately.) The faerie involuntarily squeaks with surprise and takes a few steps back, belatedly reminding herself she now has wings to fly away with when— (blip!) they’re falling. (And she is squeaking yet again. Her wings are blushing pink again and this time it is because of embarrassment.)

But also because of abs. And muscles. And— Juno. Lettie lands on her, this time without any fabric present to create even a thin barrier between them, and a shiver runs through her entire body. (Not the cold kind, either. Because she is in fact very, very warm. Hot as a flame, really. Like she might as well be a match. A fire starter indeed.) Her wings flame red for the slightest instant as well before melting back into that familiar shade of pink. (Unfortunately for her, their luminescent nature means that they are plainly visible in the darkness of the tunnel.) The faerie short circuits with this realization and nearly hides her face against Juno’s chest to fight the embarrassment— a chaotic action which would have undoubtedly caused a whole chain reaction involving even more embarrassment— when the pirate gives her the solidifying shove. That pushes her back into her rightful place when it comes to her standing with the captain and she finds the strength to lift herself up instead. Puffing her cheeks, she gives Juno’s shoulder a light shove in return.

“G-gladly.” The faerie says, not sounding nearly as disgusted as she wants to. Lettie stands and brushes herself off with a sigh. Ugh. So much for cubey looking out for them and giving them warnings before dropping them into the heart of dangerous situations. Instead it throws them right into hell before they’ve even had one gym sesh! …It is possible that they’re under some kind of time limit, though. Marjorie did say something about the cube getting restless. (Hm. And she wonders where they’re meant to go next. Maybe there’s something they’ll have to do on Avangeline too? She can’t imagine what that might be, but she’s getting antsy to know what her own situation at home will be like— shit. Now’s obviously not the time for any of that. She needs a distraction pronto.) The cube has imprinted on them both. It knows shit. So there's a chance it realizes that they’ve recovered just enough to handle this now. That’s what she thinks as she surveys the minefield of blood wards and Juno stresses over triggering everything.

'Cause the faerie's got something that she didn’t have before. Her fucking wings! The Duchess doesn’t know that, either. Last she saw her she was crushed beneath that piece of rubble fallen from her fancy-ass ceiling. If everything Juju says about necromancy and healing is true, then the Duchess probably doesn’t even know that the pirate has fixed her up since then either. Hehe. Cathy doesn’t know who she’s messing with now.

Lettie steels herself, quickly assessing the situation they’ve found themselves in and how she’s going to handle it. Yes, handle it, because she is going to handle it. (This change of scenery calls for an outfit change as well. Naturally. There is no way that the faerie is going to be in the mindset to explore this mysterious, dangerous place while she’s casually dressed for the gym. Wearing the right outfit is a pivotal part of committing crimes sexily, okay? So she makes this change within seconds of their landing in the tunnel. They’re adventuring clothes. And attractive adventuring clothes at that, even if she can make just about any outfit she deigns to wear attractive. But she really goes the extra mile in this case. If the Duchess finds them again— or is watching them by any chance— she needs to solidify that she’s still hotter than her. The other reason is that she wants to look good in case if she butchers her attempt at flying over all of those blood wards. If Juno only remembers her as a temporary annoyance, then she wants to make sure it’s solidified in the pirate’s mind that she was a hot temporary annoyance.) Despite the gruesome imagery of herself fucking eating it replaying in her head, she languidly stretches her arms above her head and her mouth quirks into a smirk that matches her outfit in mischievousness.

“Don’t sweat it. I got this, Juju.” Lettie flips her ponytail over her shoulder with a bouncy, silky flourish and flutters her wings indicatively behind her. Then she, ah, she pats the hand that the pirate set on her shoulder reassuringly. (Wait. What? They’re not doing the fake girlfriend thing anymore! Fuck! She quickly retracts her hand, blushing pink again. As a save, she turns her violet hair pink as if to make a statement that this is a conscious choice.) Okay. So maybe she didn’t get to prep in the gym, but she has had time to heal as well. The initial soreness she felt after that first morning has since faded. (And she won’t be flying so high in this place that the fall would kill her. Landing on those blood wards though… nah. Those kinds of thoughts will get her nowhere. She’ll have to sell this with an air of unshakable confidence.) I can be useful. Healing my wings wasn’t a mistake. Choosing me wasn't a mistake. Anticipation bubbles up in her stomach as her fit lift off the ground, heels first and toes last, and for a moment she’s hovering at the only height she’s dared to experiment with thus far. With a bolstering breath she flaps her wings and takes herself higher and higher. Whew. So far so good. She’s got to give her muscle memory some credit here, because while her movements are a bit hesitant, it’s a lot simpler than the ordeal she’s built up in her mind. I’ve got this. Her wings move faster and faster until they’re difficult to trace with the eye, to the point that it’s like trying to focus on one individual panel of a ceiling fan that’s spinning round and round.

“Stand guard outside, okay?” Lettie knows that telling Juno to ‘wait there’ or ‘take it easy’ or ‘leave it to her’ might not go over well. The pirate does not like being told to rest, she knows that very well. Still. It seems that with this decked out security system, she’s the one out of the two of them who is the most equipped to explore deeper inside the tunnel. “I’ll go scope things out. If I can find whatever cubey wants us to find fast enough then maybe we can get the hell out of here before Cathy ever finds out.” With that the faerie takes off like a tiny rocket, darting off into the heart of the tunnel. Her body shines and glitches— while she’s zipping through the air, she resembles wisps of light and bone more than anything else. Like this she manages to bypass all of the blood wards and glyphs on the walls. (There’s damn good reason why she’s a queen of stealth!) The nervousness in her belly gradually transforms into something a touch more excited. Adrenaline and the thrill of flight combined, maybe? It's exhilarating to fly again, even if this is just a bite-sized taste of it. The cube appears in the palm of her hand and vomits out a beam of light that guides her where she needs to go. It seems like she’s on the right track with this…

Meanwhile, Juno is left in the quiet of the tunnel. This lasts for a short while... until a laugh rattles over the walls, indicating a hidden threat slithering in her midst like a snake in the grass.

“Juno, Juno, Juno. You really should've known better than to make an enemy of the Duchess.” Angelus clicks his tongue scoldingly. He reveals himself by stepping in casually through the end of the tunnel where they had fallen down days before. His hands are tucked in the pockets of his spotless white suit as he flicks his pink eyes towards the direction that Lettie took off in. That untouchable expression on his face warps into a disgusted scowl. “Faeries are such a nuisance. Especially when they can fly.” He arches his brow at her, his gaze piercing as if to silently gauge why her once mangled wing is now functioning the way it's supposed to.

This is when he shrugs and unfolds wings of his own, gliding effortlessly above the blood wards and whisking himself unharmed to the other side. (These wings are phantasmic, boneless, as if they’ve been created purely by magic instead of being an actual part of him.) “You made your choice, captain. Are you ready to face the consequences?”

Angelus tauntingly kicks at one of the blood wards, which then triggers a few more for the pirate to deal with, before he throws a haughty little wave and an insufferable “Have fun!” over his shoulder. At the same time he disappears into the depths of the tunnel after Lettie, approximately five revenants rise from the ground and turn their sights on Juno.

 

[starboob]

She’s pure magic. Okay, that might not be true. Juno is probably exaggerating, but there’s something about how Olette glows and glistens––red then pink (a steady pink)––that makes her seem so. The light glitters off her cheeks and the pirate damn near thinks she’s hallucinating, but she doesn’t put it past Olette to include glitter with the costume change. ‘Fuck, there must be sort of toxic fumes in the air.’ (Yeah, because that’s more likely that captain fucking Juno possibly being captured by Olette’s vanity. As fucking if.) Juno doesn’t even have time to make a quip about whether or not this is the time or place to be worrying about fashion, but Olette smirks and then says, “I got this, Juju.”

‘I got this.’

Juno doesn’t know how to process this. No one… (That’s a lie.) She wants to say that no one has ever had her before, but she knows that isn’t true. (Because of…) Olette has said this to her before––back in the engine room, soon after Juno recovered (sort of) from healing her wing. She hadn’t been ready to accept it then and now? ‘No.’ Except she doesn’t have a choice. Getting rid of these wards won’t be easy––especially not without the risk of setting one off and starting a chain reaction, so she has to trust Olette. Olette and her wings. Wings she healed. Wings that work. Wings that take her higher and higher until Juno’s the one craning her neck to look up at Olette. Then she’s gone––in a line of light and bone, she’s gone.

She doesn’t have words for what she’s just seen, because she’s never seen anything like it before. Incredible doesn’t feel accurate or even close to what she’s witnessed, and her awe causes her to entirely forget to ‘stand guard.’ In fact, to break the spell the faerie has cast over her, she has to slap her cheeks a few times to reorient herself to the obvious danger and peril of their situation.

Or just hers.

The laugh echoes through the chamber, grabs her attention, and has her spinning around to identify the intruder and, to be honest, she has no fucking idea who this pompous asshole is. (She's totally forgotten about the late dinner party guest.) He talks about the Duchess, however, and so Juno decides she knows enough about him to know he’s got a punchable face. He also speaks ill of the faerie and that earns him a punch that will break his entire face. Um, just because Juno doesn't let anyone other than herself make fun of/threaten her crew!

The pirate rolls her shoulder back and gets into a fighting stance, only to drop the pose when the douchebag unfurls wings of his own. At first, she assumes that she’s going to get her first experience fighting an aerial opponent (that’s not an airship), but a moment later it all clicks together and her eyes widen. “Olette.” She wants to shout it, she wants to warn her, but she can’t. If not because the prick has already disappeared down the tunnel, then because there are now revenants for her to deal with. (And she guesses that with these five triggered, more wards will activate through the course of the fight.) “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

This is a less than ideal situation, but you know? Story of Juno’s fucking life and complaining won’t get her any closer to the faerie. (Who she only cares about because she's her mechanic and that's it.)

She dodges one of the revenants that morphs into the boy with the bludgeoned skull. (It’s…) Then she drives her whip-turned-sword into the heart of the beast that resembles a bat-fox hybrid. (It’s likeness is of the one that nearly tore her eye out in the pits.) Another takes on the form of a mutated steward with razor sharp claws coming out of its nail beds and flames bursting from its mouth (the revenants can only be so accurate). With so much movement in this section of the lair more wards are triggered, as predicted, and now there are at least six additional assailants and likely more to come. Without taking her eyes off the number of enemies, she feels down to her hip, out of habit, to search for her bombs. Bombs that aren’t there because the cube only left her with her whip, her bones, and in her fucking gym clothes! (As if this is a practical fucking way to fight. Like, Juno’s not particular about her clothes like some faeries, but this is fucking ridiculous. And perhaps the cube can sense that? Or something does, because soon after she’s thought this, the sports bra she had been wearing starts to light up and morph around her body until she’s wearing a white open shirt with a thick dark coat over it. On her dominant side, she also has a skull shoulder plate and on both arms she's wearing leather fingerless gloves and vambraces. The loose pants she had been wearing also glow and transform into a pair of dark trousers and her shoes become heavy leather boots similar to what she usually wears.)

If only the transformation had been mesmerizing enough to hold back the revenants that are multiplying like rats. While the armor forms around her body, she still has to beat back the group that is fast driving her into a corner. She knows she’s got to do something big and fast, but she hasn’t used her magic since she healed Olette’s wing and while she knows it hasn’t left her, she doesn’t know if she’s got enough in her to handle this. (And she won’t know until she tries.) “Fuck it, I’m dead either way,” she mumbles, fisting a handful of shards in her hand as she eyes the enemies that are closing in on her. She spots a small gap between the cluster and shoulders through them until she’s out the otherside. As soon as she reorients herself, she fans out the shards so that they form a semi-circle around her. After a beat, the shards shake and then burst forth into stakes that impale several of the revenants while keeping the rest at bay. Now, with so many of the wards activated, it’s easier for Juno to navigate herself towards the tunnel without triggering any new ones. However, just for good measure, she creates more barricades to prevent any from following after her (or at least slow their pace). Once she's sure that she's safe-ish, she starts the dreaded damage check while bolting towards where she thinks Olette zipped off to.

While Juno catches up to the faerie, Angelus tails after the fluttering spot of pink, who is also conveniently lit by the relic. “Oh, Ms. Lycoris Radiata,” he sings in his annoyingly perfect pitch as he glides down the tunnel, barreling after the faerie. “I do believe that we have some unfinished business to attend to. You are in some deep shit, now, aren't you?” He laughs and the cadance bounces off the walls, making it sound twice as threatening.

“Surrender the relic and perhaps I can talk Cassidy out of mounting your wings. Considering the damage you caused to her estate, I would say that I am being rather generous with my offer here.” Though, somehow, Angelus doesn’t sound sincere. He sounds malicious, like he's out for blood and the energy blast he hurls towards the faerie might indicate his intentions perfectly: hand over the relic or die. "Don't think your pirate is going to save you––she's already dead." Either he doesn't believe that anyone could survive all those traps or perhaps he wants to learn how much the pirate means to the faerie.

 

[ellarose]

"I seriously hope you know what you're doing, cubey." Lettie's talking to the cube right now because there is no one else around to talk to. (Where there was some light emanating from the glyphs all around them before, there is nothing now to light their path except for the meagre sources she and the cube combined have to offer. Together they're the equivalent of two lanterns at best. Otherwise darkness is all that awaits her from every possible angle and it's impossible to say just how narrow or deep this tunnel goes. It swirls around her tauntingly. It feels like she's breathing it in through her nose and mouth. (Recalling how Ripr initially came from underground does not help matters, either. Those chattering teeth and green eyes... ugh. At this rate she'll psyche herself out if she stays quiet.) It's not that she's frightened of the dark, or enclosed spaces, or anything like that. Haha. No! She's just, uh, cautious! And so she talks to the cube. It's not weird-- shut up! (Not that anyone is saying anything except for her. Juju isn't even around to supply a bewildered expression in response to her antics.) "You should've at least given us a warning before taking us here. We were making plans to come back and everything!" She purses her lips and furrows her brow, all business. "...And now that we're talking, what is up with you pretending to be Abby's head? It's freaking weird, dude! It's been giving me nightmares."

All that awaits the faerie in return for her chatter is more silence and more darkness. Geez. If Juju were there she would have had something to say. Hopefully the pirate is doing okay where she left her by herself. She's got to be, right? And-- and she's only 'hoping she's okay' because she's the captain of the ship she's been living on, obviously! As long as she doesn't touch those blood wards or set off the glyphs she should be all right. Juno of all people knows how to hold her own. Handling every monster the cube threw at them, even that frightening tentacled thing, and all no thanks to the faerie. And like, she singlehandedly taught herself how to heal with necromancy and everything! Which is... fucking awesome. (There is no other way she can phrase it except for that it's fucking awesome. Juno is still Juno, she acknowledges, but there is no denying that the way she healed her wing was awe-inspiring.) But even someone with big muscles shouldn't have to carry everything alone. Juju has obviously been alone for a very long time... and she's still recovering. While she is just one faerie, she is one faerie who is going to handle this one. She's got to!

Whatever awaits Lettie at the end of this tunnel... she is going to face it. Because she said she's got this and needs to prove herself! This is her chance to prove that she's capable of holding her own, too. Healing me wasn't a mistake. Choosing me over the Duchess wasn't a mistake. She is not just a magnet for chaos. She can be something more than that, right?

Of course, nothing can ever go according to plan because Lettie will always be a magnet for chaos no matter what. This is evident when a sing-song voice calls after the faerie, bouncing off the walls and ghosting chills over her ankles. Her nerves shimmy and dance like sparks beneath her skin and her eyes ignite with alarm. Shit! Angelus! (The faerie keeps thinking about it and still cannot place him in her mind. A doorman at the estate? A higher up in the corp? And she could've sworn she's seen douches just like him hanging around with one of her brothers. It's hard to say.) "Ugh, it's you." She speaks to him like he's an annoying fly, because she needs to uphold her end of the 'do to others as they would do to you' adage-- and his type on Avangeline often treat faeries like flies. It is Juno's way to punch foes in the face. Lettie flies faster. "We have no business as far as I'm concerned. I'd prefer you fuck off and mind your own fucking business, thanks!"

You are in some deep shit now. Lettie's heart pounds wildly in her chest, she feels the darkness she's been inhaling flooding her insides, wrapping around her throat. Her wrist burns. She remembers the sound of dragging chains against starry, marbled floors. She presses her eyes shut and flies faster. (Her wings ache in protest.) You're fast. You've got this. She can outrun him, sure, but this tunnel surely has an end. When she reaches a dead end then what? She guesses that'll be for future Lettie to find out. Maybe she can buy time for cubey to do whatever it is that cubes on a mission need to do... and then cubey will teleport them the fuck out of harm's way? Sure, she'll go with that. (Is Angelus there to drag her back? Yes, drag. For a while all she wanted was to go home. Now that she knows that her concept of time has been fucked every since she left, there's no telling what going home will do to her. Sometimes she catches herself thinking it might be okay to just adventure with Juno on Lady, away from Avangeline for the rest of her--) Then Angelus starts threatening her with what the Duchess will do to her and the faerie almost breathes a hysteric laugh. "I have trouble believing you'd be nearly that persuasive if that's the hand you intend to play here, Angelus." That has been a threat that's been hanging over her since her first night away from home and at this point, she knows she has a fighting chance. Like sure, the Duchess is nothing to sneeze at and she doesn't want to face Cathy again or have her wings mounted. But she and Juno-- eek!

Lettie swerves away from the energy blast just in time and hastens her pace. Her healed wing creeps with the beginnings of a cramp and sweat beats at her brow. Fuck.

'Don't think your pirate is going to save you. She's already dead.'

What... what? Lettie barks out an incredulous laugh while something inside of her breaks. (Not her. Not Juno. Not that stupidly buff, fucking badass pirate captain Juno.) She doesn't have time to investigate what it is because there are more energy blasts to dodge. Every breath she takes is a razor blade in her throat. The darkness feels darker. The tiny faerie feels tinier and more alone than ever. I left her back there. She laughs again to drown out her thoughts, the sound a touch unhinged, and throws one of her knives back in Angelus's direction. It clips his arm (probably feels like no more than an insect sting to the likes of him), putting a tear in his once-perfect suit before clattering to the darkness of the tunnel floor. Inspecting the red stain on his arm, his expression warps with annoyance.

"In your dreams! There's no way Juju would go down to a bitch ass punk like you!" Lettie sticks out her tongue playfully, twirling away from the retaliating energy blast before her expression warps into a fierce glare of her own, exceeding Angelus's in intensity. (Right. There's no way. She would've at least heard sounds of a fight happening because Juno is too stubborn not to go down without a proper fight.) In fact, it's insulting that Angelus would dare to say something that fucking preposterous. Juno's not dead. She's not. She readies another bedazzled knife and tosses it with a cry that has no right to sound so anguished. This time it ends up lodged in his shoulder and she winks before turning to focus on her beeline to the end of the tunnel.

Lettie starts to believe she's actually going to make it to the end of the tunnel and buy the cube the time it needs at the same time that the bones in her wing crunch up like they're caving in on themselves. Cramps. Fuck! She's pushing herself too hard after her recovery. She's faltering and Angelus takes this advantage by shooting an energy blast that actually lands. (She glitches herself just as it hits, lessening the impact of the blast.) Either way she's going down... but if she squints hard enough, she can see the faint hint of some ancient text glowing on the wall at the end of the tunnel. The cube warms in her palm. Does it want to scan it? (Another door? Another puzzle? Possibly. But with Angelus on her heels there is no time to decipher it.)

Angelus is gaining on her. Fuck it. "Cubey, go do what you need to do. I'll buy us some time." Lettie grits through her teeth. (She might look silly talking to the cube. But it's apparent that it can hear her voice when it discreetly teleports out of her hands as if to do what she says.) Then Angelus catches up and finishes gravity's job by tackling her down to the tunnel floor.

"The relic, if you please." Angelus whams her down repeatedly by the shoulders with an excessive amount of force, no doubt to disorient her as the back of her skull connects with the ground and throws a shower of stars in her eyes. (Again she feels sympathy for poor Abigail, who he bullied until her skull shattered altogether. Unlike Abigail, though, she is not dead and this hurts like hell.) He wrangles her wrists from the tangle of their limbs and forcibly flattens out the palms of her hands at either side of her, brows pinching with alarm when he finds them empty. Lettie blinks dizzily but manages a smirk nonetheless. "Where is it you little minx!?"

"...What? I never had the relic. Juno did." Lettie bats her eyes innocently. "I was just scoping things out."

Angelus tenses as if calculating all of this in his head. The faerie's pale eyes flash at this. "Surely you'd have found it on her when you 'killed her'? I've gotta say, Angelus, you're real sloppy for a right-hand--"

Angelus slams her against the ground again, harder this time, and effectively silences her with his hands wrapped around her throat. "Cute... you must think you're so very clever. I know what I saw, faerie. You have it. You had it. Where did you put it?" (Yeah. Well if he were clever he'd realize she couldn't answer while he had his hands around her throat. He does seem to put this together and loosens his grip.) Desperate, Lettie sends a butterfly towards the ceiling.

"I don't have it. You've already seen for yourself." Lettie coughs resentfully, a touch dramatically to keep Angelus's eyes fixed on her. (The butterfly lands on a pointy stalactite hanging just above them.) "Now get your hands off of me! I'm warning you--"

"Not until you hand over the relic!" Angelus demands. Then his expression turns smug. "Either way, I'm delivering you to the Duchess. I'm sure she'll know how to make you talk when she clips those wings of yours--" Suit yourself. Lettie glitches herself out of his grasp, zipping away in perfect time as she sets off the butterfly on the stalactite with a loud BOOM!

It falls and crushes Angelus beneath it before he can even register what's going on. Whew. As she watches him squirm and finally go still, Lettie's eyes flicker and turn completely white. Her hair is still pink, but a lighter shade. She doesn't need saving. She said she's got this and she's got this. (And Juno is still alive. She has to be. Because if she can take Angelus, so can Juno. Never mind the fact that he was still alive to chase her--)

Lettie turns and moves to investigate the wall (door?) that the cube was so interested in. Unbeknownst to her, Angelus's body twitches beneath the fallen stalactite. It dissolves into a shadow and slithers along the ground behind her, slowly rising and taking shape again--

 

[starboob]

“Fuck,” the pirate gasps out as she plunges into the pitch black narrow passageway. She can see nothing in front of her, not even her hands or the tip of her nose. She has to put one hand on the wall to help guide her and even has to remind herself to not look back in case she accidentally disorients herself. Olette is down in this tunnel somewhere and with that albino freak chasing after her, she cannot afford to galavant and waste time. Time that her mechanic may not have if that weirdo flies as fast as her. “Fuck,” the pirate repeats, again, feeling a sharp bubble form in her side. She grunts and jams her fist into her abdomen as if that will actually burst the cramp. Already, she knows that shouldn’t be pushing herself this hard. She knows that she’s feeling winded and faint from more than just running or fighting—her body is still weak from healing Olette and while she doesn’t regret the choice, she's definitely not used to getting gassed so soon.

It really does feel like she’s going to pop a lung with how fast she’s running and it’s by a rare grace of the goddess that Juno doesn’t trip over anything on the ground. (Olette’s her responsibility now. That’s all this is about. She’d stick her neck out for any member of her crew––well, no, she wouldn’t and that’s only because they’re boneheads who are already dead. Olette isn’t and so she has a duty to look after her. She probably has… Actually, Juno knows she doesn’t have a family waiting for her, but Juno isn’t supposed to know that so she shoves the knowledge to the side. This is only about protecting her mechanic, because she promised to watch out for her. She’s got her.) ‘Come on. Faster, you piece of shit.’

That sentiment only doubles when she hears the explosion some distance ahead of her and even catches a brief glimpse of two colorful dots. Her heart stills. (She knows that the explosion was from Olette. She knows it.) “Fuck!” she shouts, repeating the curse like it might actually help her reach the faerie faster. The faerie can handle herself. Duh. She only pretended to need saving for reasons that Juno will never understand and even so, none of this means the captain is going to leave her hanging. (“Buddy system!” James had scolded her once, smacking her upside the head. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? Because that’s how you end up becoming revenant fuel.”)

When the pirate is finally near enough that she can make out Olette’s soft glow as well as the cube’s, her panic doubles, eyes widening as she watches the shadow emerge behind her. (Shadow? Why does this seem familiar?) It raises its hand and splays out its fingers to reveal long, sharp claws. Tauntingly gentle, the shadow strokes the newly healed wing with the tip of its talon, but that’s all the shadow is allowed to do.

A second later, Juno claps her hand down on the back of the fucker’s neck and digs her fingers into its flesh like she’s trying to pop its head off with her fist. She then slams the shadow to the ground and barks, “You don’t fucking touch a lady’s wings! That’s super fucking rude.” She then hocks a load of spit into those bright red eyes. (She’s seen those eyes somewhere, but where?) Juno doesn’t concern herself much with these details and instead she does what all Junos do best: punch motherfuckers in the face. The creature struggles and squirms beneath her, cursing, but Juno doesn't give it an inch of leverage. Even if her fists feel like stones and her lungs feel raw, she doesn't slow and continues to grind her knuckles wherever she can hit. (No one touches those wings.) While the shadow may not be able to free itself from beneath the homicidal pirate, it has enough room to swirl its wrist, gather energy into its palm, and thrust at Juno, sending her flying backwards with a blast to the chest. (She’s definitely been hit with this stuff before.) Her back collides into the solid rock wall next to the door the cube’s scanning and hits it with enough force that a crack shoots up from where she landed. It runs across the ceiling until it hits a cluster of stalactites, causing them break and collapse onto the ground, effectively creating a barrier between Juno, Olette, the cube and the shadow fuck.

The pirate groans and flops onto her side and, being the pirate, she’s quick to shuffle up to her feet and search for Olette. “Your hair’s not pink-pink,” she says, for some reason just blurting out the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, whatever. She did just have her ass thrown into a rock wall, so she probably hit her fucking head. Give her a fucking break. “You good? Where’s that other bug-fuck?” Juno mildly regrets saying that and, no, she doesn’t realize that the ‘other bug-fuck’ is also the shadow. “You take care of him? I took out at least seven revenants back there so that fucking cube better hurry the fuck up.” She gives the cube an accusatory look that also looks particularly menacing in this lighting. That’s when she takes (stumbles) a few steps back to look at the wall. She quirks a brow.

“It took us all the way down here for some religious graffiti?” Once again, Juno recognizes the symbols on the door. It’s the pre-Calamity runic script and while Juno doesn’t know it (she’s not a nerd), what’s on the wall is tagged all over on Desdemonia. It’s an old saying. “Only death shows mercy.” The pirate shrugs, offering the meaning. “Well, northerners tend to say, ‘Only the goddess shows mercy,’ but they’re fucking morons.”

The cube’s scanner clips shut and then it seems to turn and face Juno–– like it’s questioning how the pirate knows this. (The cube is a cube so obviously Juno has fucking lost it if she thinks that thing is trying to communicate with her.)

“You’d have to have been born yesterday to not fucking know that.” Juno says to Olette and not the cube because the cube is a fucking cube and the faerie is probably curious too. (That’s presumptuous. The faerie definitely doesn’t care about what the pirate has to say.) “How’s that supposed to help us?”

Before anyone can answer that question, one of the cube’s faces flips around to reveal a speaker. “Bonehead, look,” it says in Juno’s voice. (Of fucking course. How amusing.) Then the cube points with a beam of light to the runes that are now shining on the wall, presumably activated after Juno identified the script. “Walk through,” the cube continues on, but this time in a bunch of different voices, like it’s sifting through radio channels for the right words.

“Uh, that’s solid fucking rock?”

“Hurry.”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie squints up at the symbols she doesn't understand, practically melting her brain with her attempts to try to trace them back to her studies involving the glyph structures and texts from other worlds. (Nope, no dice. She's drawing a total blank. At some point her studies faded to the background as her life became an endless cycle of work, work, work and portions of it are hazy now. It bothers her that she's so lost in a subject she ought to be more confident in, but it's not like there's anything she can do to amend this now. Even with all her knowledge about decoding such texts it'd take an incredibly long time to translate whatever the text on this door meant to say.) Hopefully the cube knows what it's doing here, because that's what she's relying on right now. Shit. 'I got this' was a pretty bold claim back there, wasn't it? (Why'd you go and talk yourself up when you're not sure if you can deliver? Why the fuck did you do that?) She bites her thumbnail anxiously, watching the cube flick left and right as it shines a light over the symbols. Rather than wonder what might be behind the door, what the future mission will entail, or even the fact that they might be unearthing ancient secrets... the thought that whirls around her mind like a carousel gone berserk is the fact that that bastard had to be lying. Juno is alive. She has to be.

'You don't fucking touch a lady's wings! That's super fucking rude!' ...It's not Juno. Can't be. The voice that bites out words so fiercely is defending a 'lady'. (A lady with wings, that lady being her. Lettie. Lettie who has always been the equivalent of a bug in the pirate's mind. Distinctly not a lady.) But then again, it can't be anyone but Juno. Lettie whirls around just in time to watch wide-eyed as Juno slams the shadow creature down to the ground, her every punch highlighted in cinematic slow motion through the lens she's watching it through. The faerie blinks twice with pure shock and time speeds and moves the way it's supposed to again. Fast, fast, fast. Just like the pounding of her heartbeat and the pounding of the pirate's fists. It doesn't give her nearly enough time to properly appreciate Juno's muscles in action or her new threads. It does give her time to appreciate the fact that her pirate is absolutely still kicking (just as she thought) and also enough for her to fret that she is pushing herself when she's not fully recovered, tussling with that shadow freak. (That shadow freak who she hadn't even noticed creeping up behind her like a... well, a creep. The fact that she'd been so unaware sends an icy serpent of a chill slithering down her spine. Had Juno not shown up when she did--) "Juju, look out!" She cries out, her voice tight with something she's not going to investigate when she notices the creature flicking it's wrist, blasting the pirate back.

Lettie flinches and ducks down when this causes more of the ceiling to crash around them. Her breath gets caught in her throat. (Fuck. Calm down, Letts. It's not like she's a stranger to chaos. Finding an exit won't be a problem. The cube will get them out of this. So why is she so stressed out right now?) Maybe because the crunching sound brings her back to the Duchess's estate, the rubble, the pain of being crushed beneath it-- but next to that, there's something else. Something more. The faerie peers through the darkness to find Juno. Oh stars. Is she okay? She isn't hurt, is she--?

Juno says something about her hair not being pink-pink and Lettie finds that she doesn't know what words are anymore. She barely brushes the side of her (now messy) ponytail with her fingertips, weirdly self-conscious. All that effort figuring out her look for the gym and now she's... ugh. Her eyes are white again too, aren't they? Phasing around drains her way too quickly. Turning slightly to the side, she attempts to glyph her eyes back into the violet they were before. (This works about halfway. Just like her hair is not pink-pink, her eyes are not violet-violet either.) Geez! It'll have to do. She did not care about this so much before. (Well, she does care in general. But around the pirate it never really mattered before. The pirate was the pirate. What did she care what she thought?) Then again, Juno did call her a lady before. Even knowing what she looks like under the glamours, she called her a lady and something about that tickles her pink (literally, because her wings turn a noticeable pink-pink at the memory)...

This feeling is effectively crushed with that 'other bug-fuck' comment. (The faerie's wings flare an angry red, then a cold blue, which then mixes to turn them violet with pink undertones. It is so dark that every change is impossible to ignore, what with the way the colors light up the tunnel in every shade of her emotions.) Ugh. Stupid pirate! It shouldn't fucking matter, anyway.

"Yeah, I'm better than good. I'm fucking fantastic." Lettie huffs out, annoyed that her annoyance is showing. "I totally crushed that bastard." She glances towards the wall of rock that blocks the place hiding where Angelus's body ought to be. (In the chaos, she has not put together the fact that Angelus and the shadow creature are one and the same either.) Never mind the fact that he almost crushed her skull like he crushed poor Abigail's. She brushes her hand lightly over the bump forming on the back of her head, discovering something sticky and bringing it back to find blood. She snaps her fingers shut to hide it. It's nothing. "...Like I said, I've got this." Then she quirks an eyebrow at Juno. "Are you good?" And then to throw in a dig of her own she smirks impishly and looks the pirate up and down to regard her new outfit. She pokes her arm playfully. "Aw, Juju! You're looking real cute. Have you been experimenting with fashion magic? It's useful, isn't it?" (Never mind the fact that she looks fucking ho--) Ha. What? No, she isn't making any comment whatsoever on the pirate's appearance. Who's asking?

Anyway, sure. Lettie's 'got this'. Even if she didn't notice that shadow asshole creeping up behind her. Even if she doesn't recognize any of these symbols and now she's left feeling like a silly little faerie. Because apparently Juno took care of seven revenants, that shadow creep, and now she's reading the text off the wall like it's no biggie. (Which is all a lot more useful than fashion magic.) She takes a long breath. But that's fair. This is Desdemonia. This is the world that Juno comes from. It's only natural. It's only natural but it doesn't stop her from deflating just a little bit. So much for proving herself.

"Only death shows mercy, huh." Lettie peers at the text as she repeats what Juno said, committing it to memory just in case. "Evokes a warm, fuzzy feeling. Doesn't it?" (She tries to joke it off as she thinks of the clattering chains, of the reaper and...) She wraps her arms around herself for comfort. It's too dark in here. With the rocks blocking their path, it's too cramped. She's going to suffocate if she stays here any longer.

...This is when the cube shatters the reverie and confirms one of Lettie's theories by fucking talking. The cube is fucking talking! Talking. The cube is talking. Holy shit!

"Cubey, you can talk!?" What the what!? The faerie just had a whole conversation with the four-sided bastard and it didn't say anything in reply. While her eyes are still wide with awe, she puffs her cheeks out with mild annoyance. Geez. Just what is she going to do with the cube and the pirate?

"Call me..." There are static sounds and then the cube supplies a recording of Abigail's voice. "The Maestro."

Lettie doesn't pay this any mind. (Pffft, no way she's calling the cube 'the maestro'.) She is also distracted because it (belatedly) registers with her that the cube insulted Juno and she can't help but snort before bursting into a fit of giggles. Her starry freckles seem to gleam a little brighter as she laughs. "...Cubey called you a bonehead." A mature observation to be sure.

"Hurry..." The cube repeats and then adds again with Juno's voice. "Boneheads."

Hey! "Don't be rude! We're going already." Lettie's cheeks puff up again and she rolls her eyes. It's solid rock but she has got this one. She reaches down and holds Juno's hand before she can chicken out of it. "I got this one. Don't freak out, 'kay?" It quickly becomes evident that the faerie is grabbing her hand for more than just reassurance when she closes her eyes tight and the light that emanates around her begins transferring over to the pirate as well. Like this, she's able to glitch both of them through the door to whatever is waiting for them on the other side. Whew. It leaves her a bit dizzy, blinking through a daze as she tries to observe their new environment. The cube quickly beams out a glow that illuminates it even more.

"Looks like a treasure trove of some kind." Lettie hums contemplatively, watching as the cube sails out ahead of them as if in search of something specific. Once there was a time when such a discovery might have excited her. However, too many of her treasures have turned to ash by now for her to go getting her hopes up. There are some items piled around that she recognizes-- and some of it that she doesn't. There's an extravagance to the way these items are placed despite the fact that they're outdated and covered in cobwebs."Does any of this stuff stick out to you, Juju?" She squints at the cube when she notices it hovering around something that seems to be flickering in the very back? It becomes evident that this might be important when there's a mechanic clicking sound, a whirring, and then a flash of light illuminates the entire room with an image of what looks to be a city? "Whoa."

 

[starboob]

The pirate pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration––she cannot fucking believe that she talked to that fucking bastard cube. It’s like she’s turning into Olette or something and that fucking thought terrifies her. No way does she want to be a pretty fucking faerie––she’s a badass fucking pirate! Not that there’s anything wrong with being a pretty fucking faerie, of course; it’s just not for Juno and she doesn’t appreciate that raver magic is rubbing off on her and turning her into a fucking dweeb. (The logical explanation that she is just picking up on some of Olette’s quirks as a result of their time spent together does not cross the pirate’s mind. In her mind, it’s impossible for her to succumb to such afflictions and so it makes sense that the only explanation is that the faerie oozes magic that’s now gotten all over Juno to dweeb-ify her. Not that she thinks Olette is a dweeb. She’s too pretty for that.)

Er, anyway, the pirate can’t chastise herself too much over her misstep when Olette grabs her hand out of fucking nowhere and leaves Juno’s mind blank and her cheeks blushing. (Very dweeb-like, might she add.) Then the faerie reiterates that she’s got this (and Juno withholds a biting comment in her bewildered state) and all of a sudden their bodies are glowing all weird. Juno doesn’t have time to whip out her usual catch phrase as she’s pulled through the fucking solid rock wall and when she comes out the other side? Goddess, she feels like she’s going to hurl. She clutches her stomach and sucks in a breath to hold down whatever it is that she ate last. (Mostly like a piece of bread, because she recently “discovered” you can grill up slices to give them a nice toasting. It’s incredible.) When the wave of nausea passes, she finally utters, “What the fuck.”

Then she says it again when she looks up at the piles and piles of ancient junk. “What the fuck?” Okay, not junk upon closer inspection. It’s actual fucking treasure. It’s more capital than Juno has ever fucking seen in her life and despite her low birth, she’s seen fucking class. (Thanks to her frequent nights with the Duchess. Though she supposes those nights are long behind her…) “I… I guess you always did promise you’d get me treasure,” she quips, too shocked to really offer anything else. Of course, while she does know that none of this will last one trip with the cube, she does wonders if maybe she can find this place again when this is all over and really fucking get her dues for all the bullshit the cube has put her through. Shit, what’s in here would easily make her the richest fucking person on the ground––it might even be enough to her herself a ticket skyward. The pirate smooths her hair back as she spins around to take this all in. “Fuck…”

“Nah, I’ve never seen any of this shit before. Looks like it’s from before this place turned into a shithole.” That makes it even more surprising that it’s even here. She would have guessed that someone else would have already beaten them here and cleared the place out. It’s not like the puzzle on the door was that hard to figure out and clearly people have known about this place given their earlier experience with the Duchess (Cathy?). (Now that she’s thinking about it, why couldn’t the Duchess access the tomb before? Obviously she would have known the glyph to open the door––it’s plastered all around her estate––but she was clear that they were the first to have seen the door open. She also suggested the cube was supposed to be inside that section… Eh, maybe she shouldn’t listen to whatsherface. She was lying through her teeth that whole fucking night anyway.)

Juno’s inspecting some golden idol with haunting jewel eyes when something in the chamber gets activated and pulls the pirate’s attention away. “What the fuck did you do, bonehead?” she hisses from across the room. (Yeah, Juno hasn’t and won’t forget Olette teasing her over the cube teasing her.) Once she’s by the faerie’s side again, she follows her light purple eyes (weren’t they white earlier?) towards the cityscape that they’re now surrounded by. The pirate actually jumps back in surprise, though she supposes she shouldn’t be that shocked by a quick change of scenery since that’s been her life for the past few months (or just a week in Desdemonia time).

“What the fuck…” she repeats for the zillionth time, spinning around to look up at crystal blue skies. Sure, she’s seen this shit before, having been chucked across several worlds, but seeing skies like this still overwhelms her every time. (Desdemonia used to have blue skies––she remembers seeing those pictures and wondering what that’d be like as a kid.) The piles and piles of treasure are transformed into industrial-esque buildings made of stone and brick, they’re accented with brass lining, and each building seems to have a smokestack pumping out thick black clouds into the clear skies. There’s one building that stands taller than the rest––almost like it’s reaching for the sky itself; it’s white, cylindrical, and seems to actually be made of columns that are closely fit together. Then at the top, there appears to be a globe starmap that makes the building look somewhat like a fancy observatory. Even from this distance, Juno can see the globe slowly rotating around and, occasionally, a constellation on the map will brighten, a hole will open in the globe, and an airship will emerge. While the airships are familiar, there are also ships like she’s never seen before––ones with sleek designs and chrome plating that make them look like they’re from space and not Desdemonia (if this is Desdemonia).

The street they're on takes a bit longer to come to life, but soon enough people, shop signs, and vehicles all begin to glitch into place and breathe more life into the city as they bustle around. The figures, while obviously meant to represent people, all have blurred out faces; the shops signs are written in that same script as before (making Juno think maybe this is some alternate reality of her planet); and then odd vehicles––like ones that look as though they are just one giant tire with a driver’s seat in the middle of the barrel––whizz past them. Instinctively, Juno puts her arm in front of Olette even though they aren't even close to being run over. She pulls her arm away and rubs her neck when she realizes the strange action, and avoids looking at the faerie soon after. “Your, uh, magic mirror ever show you this place? Think we’re supposed to go here next?” Though why show them? The cube’s never shown them where they’re going next, so it’s probably––

“Move over, filth,” a bitchy voice says from behind them and when Juno turns to deck whoever’s decided to talk to them, she’s stunned when she sees the likeness of the Duchess and nearly falls on her ass backwards. (But it’s not the Duchess––maybe it’s the hair? ‘Cause she’s pretty sure whatsherface’s hair has more red in it and this woman’s hair is a deep brown, similar to chocolate. Her face also seems more narrow, though just as sharp as the actual Duchess's.) It also becomes clear that she is not actually talking to the duo when two holographic figures jump out of the way from where Juno and Olette stand and the not-Duchess phases through them as if they are not there (because technically they are not).

Juno’s eyes slide over to look at Olette, just to make sure she’s seeing the same thing. Before she can even supply her signature phrase, another figure trails after the not-Duchess. This one is small and has wings sprouting from their back. Obviously a faerie. But… faeries don’t exist on Desdemonia––if this is Desdemonia, even. Though she doesn’t know where else it could be if one of the Duchess’s ancestors, she assumes, is here. “Uh, you recognize the faerie? ‘Cause I recognize the other figure. C’mon,” she pulls on Olette’s arm, “I feel like we’re supposed to follow ‘em.”

While Juno definitely isn’t one to care for gossip, she is intrigued by the clips of the conversation she catches. More so when she notices the not-Duchess waving around the cube. “We have to get this to the commodore. He’ll want to know what we’ve found––this is going to change everything. Just imagine––soon, we'll be able to harness the magic of the gods and stars and with that kind of power we will be unstoppable. We will change so many lives with the maestro out of the way."

 

[ellarose]

"...Guess I did." Lettie replies absentmindedly when Juno speaks of the treasure she promised. Yeah, that's right. That was her haphazard scheme to escape the mess she found herself in, anyway. (Yep, that's her. Trying to buy her way out of everything when in all actuality she's got nothing to pay up with. Sigh.) Not that the faerie had intended to honor that after her first couple of attempts to get away. The never ending chaos the cube threw them towards swallowed everything else up. Lucky for Juno that they're on Desdemonia, that this treasure is actually on her world and doesn't necessarily have to burn away before she puts it to use somehow. (Unless they're ambushed and everything in here ends up on fire first. And knowing their track record that is definitely a possibility.) From the faerie's perspective the piles of treasure standing around them seem to mock her. Her reflections in dusty, long-lost valuables mock her too. There's no light in her eyes, no excitement about treasure the way there used to be. Now it only serves as a reminder of everything that she needs in order to survive back home. Because it's not like she'll be able to take any of this back to Avangeline, despite everything she's been through thus far to to make it to this point. (...It's not like this mission is going to help her escape her fate, either.) Angelus might not have been there to take her back the way she thought, but... what happens if cubey ever takes her back home? What does her future look like now? Does she even have one? She's running out of time. It might already be out as far as she's concerned. (And when she considers that, all she wants to do is lie face down on the ground.) "Maybe you can finally get yourself a second dining room chair." Is what she says to distract from thoughts of the hustle, of money, money, money. "We'll really be living in the lap of luxury then."

The cube hums and sets off the simulation, then, and Lettie rolls her eyes when Juno blames her for it. "Wasn't me. Bonehead." She holds up her hands and then blinks, looking up at the crystal blue skies and then side by side to see the buildings and people filling out the streets around her. The haze of her own misfortune is quickly scrubbed away from sight as she gazes with particular wonder at the airships in the sky. Namely the orb, the glowing constellations and the holes they emerge from. Oh stars. "Are they returning from other worlds? But travel across the worlds is..." She squints. Unheard of! Researchers on Avangeline surely would have grasped the means if it were already possible. Right? Before the cube, she hadn't heard of anyone from Avangeline managing to do anything beyond studying the worlds through looking glass magic. (Then again, she's been given various reasons over time to suspect there might be quite a few secrets hiding at her world's core. And why would they ever trust a lost little faerie with--) Lettie is distracted from her thoughts when Juno's arm snaps in front of her and she shakes her thoughts away, reminding herself to stay rooted in the present. She considers thanking her (what) but then realizes the 'danger' is non-existent to begin with. This is just a simulation. (Juno is not used to simulations because she comes from Desdemonia... but it seems there are simulations on Desdemonia, because the one they're experiencing is proof. Maybe every world hides its own secrets.) "No. Never." It's strange. The concept of travel across the worlds is advanced... and yet the rest of the tech all around them seems to come from a capsule from the past. It's all very vintage. "Maybe. Cubey's probably showing us this place for a reason, so..."

Lettie knows it's not real. None of it is. It's a simulation. Doesn't stop her from stiffening when she also turns to see the woman who very vaguely resembles the Duchess they faced the other night. But what causes her to stiffen even more, to the point that she's practically as statuesque as a solemn stone figure in the Star Grove, is the faerie trailing behind her. (It's strange. Viscerally so, like a punch to the gut. It's been so, so, so long since she has laid eyes on another faerie.) This one is either incredibly traditional or she genuinely comes from the past, boldly walking the streets barefoot and wearing a dress with light, billowy fabric. There are wild flowers in her hair and on the vine belt around her dress. It looks like she's ready for a festival. (They still hold traditional festivals on Avangeline sometimes. Lettie remembers her mother having trouble holding her still in front of the vanity, carefully arranging flowers in her hair when she was still a child. All for nothing, as it turned out, because she had to borrow Ravan's broody, vampirish cloak to hide under the hood and keep her identity a secret from her devoted stalkers. She returned home disheveled (but happy) and earned herself a stern lecture for her carelessness.) There is something about the other faerie that's unnervingly sickly. Like a faerie who has been kept away from her source for too long. When she speaks she speaks in whispers.

"Yes, of course." The simulation faerie replies to the Duchess look alike in that frail, soft voice. Lettie holds her breath when the other faerie moves her hand to push a lock of honey colored hair behind her pointy ear, her droopy sleeve falling slightly to reveal a scar around her wrist. She's been marked. Her hand snaps around her bracelet to make sure it's still there, almost as if she's been stung, and all she can do is numbly follow Juno's lead as she pulls her along to follow the two women. "That is what Deimos told me."

Wait. Deimos... as in Deimos Ailanthus? That geezer who founded the corp? His portrait still hangs up in Crane's office to this day. "No, I don't recognize the faerie..." Lettie says in a daze. (Faeries don't make history beyond serving the heroes in their quests. They reward kindness with their magic or follow the orders of contracts. That is their reality. And knowing what she knows of the mark on this one's wrist...) Yikes. She does recognize the name Deimos. It's got to be him, right? This has to be an important piece of history that they're witnessing here. (Is this what the corp wants her to bring back? Are these long lost fragments of their roots? Maybe they knew how to travel to other worlds and at some point lost the ability...) She rubs her eyes with the heels of her palms, scarcely believing anything she's seeing or hearing, but continues walking after them nonetheless.

"There are so many I long to protect. And just think of the future generations that can go on without facing the same problems we have faced." The faerie sighs wistfully, writhing her hands together. Then she closes a hand around her scarred wrist, a lot like Lettie tends to. (It's like seeing another reflection of herself and it sinks into her chest like a razor sharp shard. Lettie wants nothing more than to drape a curtain over the mirrors and lie flat on her face.) "If you believe the commodore will help then we must hurry. Our... our timing must be precise, Cressida, as the worlds must be properly aligned for this to work."

"...I think I'm going to be sick." Lettie wheezes under her breath, feeling lightheaded. (Angelus did slam her head on the ground one too many times.) And obviously this is going to go wrong. Whatever this faerie is trying to do for other faeries, she hasn't changed shit for them. Let alone made history on Avangeline. And if this world is actually Desdemonia? Uh oh. "I have a bad feeling about this." Destroy the maestro... as in cubey, right? And the cube is difficult enough to destroy that they're seeking out a commodore for help?

It isn't all too long before they're standing before the commodore himself. (Well, more accurately the other faerie and Cressida are standing before the commodore. Lettie and Juno might as well be ghosts in the simulation world.) His uniform gleams with all kinds of badges and he sits at a desk that's so fancy that Lettie can practically smell the mahogany wafting off of it. It seems they skipped ahead in time a few leaps, perhaps in the aftermath of the two presenting their case to him.

"The maestro is under the goddess's protection. If you've the mettle, you must take it up with her. Underground there is a hidden chamber beyond where her offerings reside. A chamber where you can contact her." He stands and paces, stroking his chin. "You've made your case. The power this promises is much too great to ignore... although it is still much too early to say whether the goddess will heed your words the way I have. I can send you in with weapons and reinforcements. Do you believe that will that be enough, lady Cressida?"

 

[starboob]

The tiny little faerie fascinates Juno more than the Duchess's ancestor. She is only the second faerie who the pirate has ever seen and she cannot help but to make subtle comparisons between this projected one from the past (?) and her forced partner in whatever the fuck this is. The more she stares at the faerie’s wings, her honey colored hair, and the way she moves, she starts to get a feeling that something with her is off. Not being an expert in faeries, however, Juno doesn’t know what to make of this; she decides to not concern herself with this enough to ask the actual resident faerie expert. Whatever’s going on with this one is probably not the important information that the cube is trying to share with them anyway.

When Olette expresses her surprise seeing the airships and various other types of ships popping through the globe of stars, Juno gives her a questioning look. It does effectively communicate, ‘How do you not know this?’ and not in a way that also suggests she’s stupid for not knowing. If anything the pirate looks bewildered. Olette Lycanthropy is probably (definitely) the smartest person that Juno has ever known––fuck, in the pirate’s mind she might even consider her the smartest person out there with what she’s seen her do not only to her ship, but also out on the battlefield. She’s incredible. So if this is something that shocks her? Juno suspects they’re about to discover a long lost scandal, because the pirate sure as fuck knows Desdemonia hasn’t had faeries or other off planet visitors since… Well, she doesn’t even know how long since she would have said ‘ever’ before and now she knows that that assessment is not accurate. “Honestly, I’m not even convinced this is Desdemonia. It just looks so fucking different…” She doesn’t need to ask what happened, because she already knows. People are people and they got too fucking greedy and ruined everything––pulled all the life they could for the planet’s veins without killing her completely, but only because they realized they were killing their home. At least, those are the stories Juno has grown up hearing whenever anyone talks about how they got to being a shithole planet.

Maybe it’s denial or maybe it’s that Juno genuinely doesn’t know what to expect, but she doesn’t feel anything when the Duchess’s ancestor mentions taking ‘the maestro’ out of the equation. Worry doesn’t exist in her until Olette mentions feeling sick. Juno looks down at her with concern written in her stormy eyes, blinking in confusion. Not one for empty words, the pirate slides her arm over the faerie’s shoulders to offer support in the only way she knows how. In the gesture, it tells the faerie that the pirate’s still got her and she’s not going anywhere. They’re in this together, not by choice, and the pirate has still chosen her. Juno has chosen her and continues to choose her.

The scenery changes around them, like flipping pages through a book, and suddenly they’re in that commodore’s office. Automatically, Juno scowls at the man. Anyone in a uniform like that reminds her of the home she lost. The home she thought she forgot and wishes she could. She snaps her eyes away from the commodore and looks at Cross-whatever’s face.

Cressida offers the commodore a reassuring, yet practiced smile. (She isn’t saying everything.) “Your support is most appreciated, commodore Huxley,” she curtsies. “I believe that the weapons and reinforcements will be necessary to get the goddess to see our position. The maestro whispers far too often in her ear and keeps us shackled to the past. I intend to free us all,” to which she looks at the faerie, glancing at the scar around her wrist. “Without Cerise, this would not be possible.”

Just as happened before the scene changes in a shutter of images that fast forward them to a dark room. In this dark room, Cressida and Cerise stand before a large throne––none of the commodore’s weapons or soldiers seem to be present but Juno suspects they may be hiding. The throne is made up of ornately carved ivory––the images in the carvings seem to reflect history and, if one looks closely enough, they would be able to spot areas where an invisible chisel seems to be carving out new scenes, scenes that are happening now. The individual who sits on the throne can be none other than the goddess. She is a giant woman whose face cannot even be seen from where they stand on the ground. She wears a simple veil like garment over her body that might be made of pieces of the night sky as there are stars that shoot across the dress and others that twinkle. From the little skin that is exposed, it looks as though she is made up of all the souls who have died on Desdemonia; their sleeping faces are pressed up against her ankles and feet. Gently and slowly they seem to move under the goddess’s skin, circulating through her.

“Hmm,” the goddess hums and even that hum sounds like thunder coming from a woman so large. Juno can see her hands lifting up to her face to prop up her chin in contemplation (or that is what she imagines, as she cannot see exactly what she’s doing). “Cressida. Cerise. I cannot imagine women as intelligent and innovative as you both have not considered the consequences of what this shall do to the worlds should this process go wrong. That said, this is not a question only for myself. Desdemonia is my dominion, yes, but to make a decision that shall meddle in the affairs of the other gods and guardians… That could easily lead us to war. The system cannot have that, you understand? That aside, there are far too many risks. For these reasons, I must deny this request. The maestro is off limits. There are other paths to achieve your goals and I encourage you to seek out those alternative solutions. I will say no more on this matter.” The goddess’s hands drop back down to the arms of the throne as she motions to rise.

“Very well, goddess,” Cressida nods and looks over to Cerise, seeming to communicate something to the faerie. “I understand as I am sure you will understand why we must go against your wishes.” With that the woman is quick to pull out a gun, previously hidden by her clothing, that she fires straight up into the air. Soon, stewards are filling the room, carrying handheld canons that spark with red lightning. (The pirate stiffens, accidentally squeezing the faerie, her faerie. Olette.) “Cerise,” she continues, turning to the faerie and holding out the cube in her palm, “lend me your magic and activate the synthesizer. It’s time for the goddess to rest.”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie tenses as her 'bad feeling' intensifies, thinking that she is going to get blown away like the tiny faerie she is amidst all of this chaos. How could she not? They brought enough manpower down into that chamber with them to contend with a goddess. (A being who exceeds even the oldest angels and demons living on Avangeline in height and magnificence. The only one she's seen that compares is...) Pure energy sparks all around them as the canons fire up, she watches Cressida offer the cube and silently pleads the other faerie with a wide-eyed stare not to go through with it... even though this has already happened and there is nothing she can do to stop it. That's right. Juno holds her tighter and suddenly she's grounded again, reminded of the fact that this is still a simulation. Nothing's going to touch her. (And even if anything tries, it probably won't get that far. Because she's safe as long as she's in the pirate's stupidly buff arms--) Too bad that thoughts of muscles can't rip her eyes away from the horrible scene unfolding in front of her now. They don't take her too far into the realm of fantasy because Cerise is reaching for Cressida's hand and a horrible sound like screeching steel rakes over her senses when they touch. Silver magic spewing diamond dust cuts through the air around them in volatile patterns like the strikes of a blade.

Cerise trembles from the effort of containing and wielding her magic. Her magic along with the cube's and Cressida's, presumably? (Lettie knows this faerie is making a huge fucking mistake... that doesn't stop her from wanting to curb stomp whoever it was that decided to keep this faerie away from her source. The way she looks right now, she seriously might turn to dust after a spell this intensive.) With a cry she pries her eyes open. They're still green. Her hair waving around in the wind still looks like honey. This faerie isn't using any glamours-- although that fact hardly matters right now. Blood streams down her cheeks as her eyes glow as bright as the magic whipping and crackling around them. (Bright like the cube. It occurs to Lettie that she doesn't have any goggles to keep her eyes safe. This is what happens when a faerie's magic mixes with tech of any sort... but maybe Cerise doesn't know that yet.) The other faerie's expression suddenly appears doubtful, despite the magic that floods her eyes and makes them appear featureless. She seems to want to back down, faltering in her stance, and Cressida holds her hand tighter so she can't.

"Your resolve falters. Do you think you will save anyone like this?" The goddess's sigh fills the underground chamber with a breeze. Her rumbling tones are perfectly poised and unalarmed, even with the canons firing towards her. Either she doesn't think this attempt is going to work or is too above it all to fear her fate. (The canons land their hits, but they do nothing. They might as well be measly little flies landing in a spider's web.) "You are lost. The both of you. Have you not yet considered the repercussions of your violence? Even if you attain it, power alone is not enough to change anything. My existence is proof of this."

"You... are mistaken." Cressida grits out through her teeth, her eyes narrowed to slits. "Power in the wrong hands does nothing. We will make use of it in a way you have not. You gods and goddesses have been far too negligent. You've grown complacent on your thrones, ignoring the prayers of those who devote their very lives to worshiping you." She grips the faerie's hand even tighter. The magic slicing around them shines even brighter yet. The glyph on display all around the Duchess's mansion is scrawled out in front of them, then, like silvery magic calligraphy. (Then one by one, other glyphs with different shapes join that one, circling around the two women and the cube in an orb made up entirely of symbols. The cube opens up and glows with glyphs as well, the way it did when Lettie first laid eyes on it.) It becomes so bright that the recording of these events starts to appear choppy and muffled.

"We've grown tired of praying without answer. We are taking this power for ourselves, goddess, and with it we will change the worlds." Cressida has clearly given her speech lots of thought. Cerise, meanwhile, seems far too focused and pained to raise her voice. (Not that Lettie things she could raise that sickly, soft voice of hers the way that Cressida does.) Still the magic also seems to be taking a toll on the Duchess look-alike. Much like the Duchess she met the other night, though, she seems to possess the same tenacity as she fights through to stand up to the goddess.

"Indeed, you will change it." The goddess muses silkily, "For the worse." She waves her hand, giving a delicate flutter of her fingers, and souls stretch out from the faces that make up her body. (It reminds Lettie of the portraits coming to life in the Duchess's home.) "You know not the forces you tamper with. If glory is what you seek, Cressida, this path will not take you there. Heed this as my final warning." Her voice steels then. That grating noise rakes through the chamber again as skeletal spirits try to smash the dome around the two women with swords and other enchanted weapons.

Cerise cries out and a storm of green dragonflies emerge through cracks of the glyph-created dome. They cover the skeletal spirits that approach them. Rather then explode like Lettie's butterflies, however, the bones these phantasmic insects land upon turn into wildflowers. Fallen flowers, petals, skulls and random bones begin to pile high around them. The goddess has an endless supply of souls, however, and Cressida joins the fight by using her own magic to turn them against the goddess. Between the faerie, the necromancer, the goddess and the cube the magic briefly knocks out the simulation, leaving them with nothing but static. Then they get snippets. Screams. The goddess crying out. Then flashes of other worlds, falling to ruin so quickly that Lettie can scarcely believe her eyes. (She clings tightly onto Juno's arm through all of it. It takes all of her self control not to hide her face against the pirate.) The unique glyphs that surrounded the duo flash in the stormy skies of various different worlds... and the one displayed all over the Duchess's mansion appears in the sky over the city they saw before. Desdemonia. Stars. The buildings crumble and collapse to ashes as a blazing light rips through the streets and--

And they flash back to the chamber to see Cressida lying on the ground. (Unconscious but still breathing.) The cube lies still in a pile of dust. Faerie dust. Cerise.

"Make sure you collect every last speck." A young man steps in, coldly commanding some figures wearing ceremonial robes. They promptly sweep the faerie dust up into a pretty little glass bottle and Lettie's gut twists with visceral disgust. Then he takes the cube into his hand and draws a glyph, which gets it to respond and spit out a map full of constellations. "...We have the coordinates. Let's go."

"What about her?" One of the hooded figures asks, nudging Cressida with their boot.

"...Just leave her. The pathways to Desdemonia were destroyed in the blast." The man smirks and carelessly tosses the cube from one hand to the other. "She'll never catch up to us."

This is when the hooded figure carrying the glass bottle trips over a bone jutting out of the ground, sending the faerie dust flying. "You idiot--!" It sparkles and sails on a gust of wind that carries it back towards a colossal skeleton, halfway buried in the very back of the underground chamber and...

The simulation snaps out at the same moment that the door to that same chamber activates and opens in front of Lettie and Juno with a low, guttural groan. Inside, Lettie can just make out the form of that same giant skeleton, still lying there even now. The goddess.

 

[starboob]

Juno doesn’t know exactly what she’s witnessing. (That’s not true. She does. Deep in her bones, she knows exactly where this story is going and she doesn’t want to see the ending. She does not want to know. She does not want to be more involved in this shitstorm than she already is.) There’s hesitation to put all of the pieces together, because she is scared to know what it will mean when she steps away from the pieces and confronts the mosaic. It doesn't look like she will have a choice in her ignorance, however. 'This can't be real. It just. Can't.'

The warmth coming from Olette’s body is the only thing she has to ground herself in, that tells her this is all real. (In that way, the faerie is like her anchor because through all of this, she has been there. Maybe as a pest and nuisance at first, but now she’s here and Juno doesn’t mind and that’s more than she can say about most people.) But she almost wishes that Olette weren't here to ground her, because now she cannot deny that this is the goddess. It had not initially occurred to her, even when Cressida addressed her as such moments ago, but it hits Juno now when the cannons fire against her and the red sparks only splatter and fizzle against her. When she hears her resigned sigh. When Juno stares at the souls that make up the goddess and at the ornate carvings on her throne. ‘This is the fucking goddess.’ The very one who Juno is convinced hates her, personally. The one who she stopped asking for help when she was thirteen. The one Gran always said was dead. (Now she realizes that Gran was right. Though she doubts the hag knew about this; more than likely, she was only being her typically unpleasant self.) The pirate stiffens as she watches the scene unfold, some part of her wondering why the goddess doesn’t do more––she’s a goddess. She could have stopped this, right?

That’s when it hits Juno that she couldn’t. Something within the goddess was unable to stop this and…

The scene breaks into fragments and screams––Juno can see Cressida looking at Cerise as her body disintegrates into ash (is it surprise or heartbreak? Both?); the souls start to break away from the goddess’s body (once slumbering, now screaming); nightmares ravishing other worlds; the seal flashing above the skies of worlds they’ve seen and others they haven’t. It all happens so quickly that Juno’s far too busy trying to puzzle everything out that she misses the hooded figures, how they collect Cerise’s remains, and decide to leave Cressida behind.

But then the simulation falls apart around them to reveal the chamber from the final scene. Juno doesn’t want to step forward, but her feet are curious and carry her forward anyway. Even if she’s not ready to see the bones of the goddess, her goddess, she does. She stands like an ant next to them. (Should she drop to her knees?) She doesn’t know what to do exactly, so she just stares at the ivory skeleton. Just like her former throne, her skeleton is decorated with engravings and more are being added, still. (Is she dead?) In addition to the etchings, flowers sprout from the cracks that are similar to the ones that were in the other faerie's hair. While Juno knows that flowers still exist on other worlds, it is still weird to them here. Desdemonia isn’t supposed to have flowers, but it is supposed to have a goddess.

Curious, the pirate tries to get closer but the closer she gets to the skeleton, the heavier the air feels around her––like a warning. The air becomes thick and cold, weighing down her lungs. Chills skitter down her spine and raise her hackles and while it’s a warning, she also feels weighted with sorrow. So much so, tears start to well in her eyes and she can hear the distant echo of someone screaming:

“Cerise––!” ​

“Cerise––!” ​

“Cerise––!” ​

The other faerie’s name echoes through the air and, after a few repetitions, Juno recognizes that it is the other Duchess who is shouting for her. (How? Is her spirit trapped her?) She sounds as though she is weeping and pleading with the goddess she killed to bring back the other faerie. The echoes of the faerie’s name continue to play in the background, sometimes louder and sometimes quieter, but it’s always there.

She rubs her eyes of the tears and stumbles away from the skeleton of her goddess (who never actually abandoned Juno or anyone on Desdemonia, she's now realizing). Honestly, the pirate does not know what to make of any of this. She doesn't even know what they're supposed to do next––she guesses that she's supposed to touch the bones, as a necromancer that's kind of her whole shtick, but does she even want to? She didn’t ask for this. Neither of them did and more than anything Juno wants her life to go back to how it was before–– an uncomplicated pirate’s life. Yet knowing what she knows now, can she really turn her back on this and return to that life? Her life is complicated now whether she likes it or not. She knows too much to go back. “Fuck.”

Her chin trembles as reality sets in––as she realizes, fully, just what the cube has trapped her (and Olette) in––and she bites through her cheek before she can cry, but that doesn’t hide that her entire body is shaking. “I didn’t fucking want this,” she mutters, searching around for Olette because she is literally the only other person in the worlds who could possibly understand how she’s feeling. “I don’t want to fucking do this, Olette. I’m not a hero and that fucking box thinks we can… I dunno, fuckin’ fix this? The goddess couldn’t even fucking stop this and she’s a fucking goddess and look where that got her. Look what happened to Cer… Cera?” And there’s no telling what became of the other Duchess––Juno only knows that she lived long enough to understand her companion died. (Juno doesn't even want to think about something like that happening to Olette. For reasons. Reasons she won't be investigating further.) “This shit is fucked. I am not a hero. I don't care about that crap––but I think that bastard made us the heros, Olette. Us." A band of thieves. A real motley crew. But when she looks back at the skeleton of the goddess, adorned in flowers that remind her of Olette, and listens for the other duchess’s bargaining… When she remembers those others worlds––the good and the bad––when she thinks about that candy planet and how it seemed fine until it was clear it wasn’t… "I wish I could fucking unknow this.” The implication is clear: the pirate doesn't think she can go back to how it was. She's resigned herself to this fate. Still, she looks at her companion and, almost pleadingly, says, “If you want out, Olette, tell me. Tell me and I won’t touch those fucking bones and we can just fucking leave.” 'Say you want to leave.' "We can figure out how to get you home," even if the thought makes the pirate sad, "and just go our separate ways."

 

[ellarose]

Lettie stays behind as Juno steps forward to approach the titanic skeleton in the back of the chamber. She wraps her arms around herself when none are there to hold her, digging her fingernails into her skin to remind herself she's still there. Pieces of the history they were shown fall through her mind like a rain of glass shards-- and she's not sure which one to reach for first. They're all sharp, liable to cut right through her. The tragedy of it all weighs her down, it holds her back. Desdemonia crumbling to ashes in time with Cerise's body. (And so many other worlds, too. How many were they shown in just a span of seconds?) The fall of a goddess, Juno's goddess, who met her fate with graceful poise. Maybe this is part of the reason why she allows Juno to approach first, why she doesn't immediately follow behind her. It only seems respectful to allow her the space she needs to cope with... all of it. (But how are they supposed to 'cope' with all of it? Stars, there's no 'coping' when the devastation is this catastrophic.) It settles in her chest like a ticking bomb that the cube revealed all of this to them for a reason. A necromancer and a faerie, hand in hand. There's no denying it, is there? It's not a fucking coincidence.

"Juno..." Lettie muses with concern, her voice barely audible as the pirate begins to speak. (Juno is trembling. The faerie feels an almost magnetic pull in her heart to go to her, maybe to settle a hand on her shoulder to try and soothe her. But instead she stands firmly where she is, rooted there with fear. It makes sense why the pirate is trembling. It makes sense why the faerie is afraid. With everything they've just witnessed... there's nothing left for them to confront but the cold, cold evidence of the tragedy that just unfolded before their eyes. The implications of their presence. It has nothing about the way they're feeling about each other. Of course not. The cube has forced them into this position. There is an understanding that comes with that, of course, but... the way Lettie wants to stand beside Juno now is-- it's nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. It's like seeking the warmth of another body in the freezing cold. Like the way Juno felt pressed up against her on that ice world.) 'I didn't fucking want this.' (Neither did she.) 'I am not a hero.' (Neither is she.) Lettie realizes she's agreeing with what most of what Juno has to say. And yet there's also something unspoken in what the words she says versus what they actually mean. Because despite all of their differences, neither of them are the sort to back down. They'd probably have gotten themselves killed by now if they weren't. Because Juno grew up in an apocalyptic world like Desdemonia and Lettie is just a little faerie who has been marked. She opens her mouth to speak and then closes it again silently when the pirate continues on, in a heart-rending tone of voice she has never heard from her before. We can figure out how to get you home and just go our separate ways.

Maybe it's the concept of that or the sentiment lying just beneath... whatever it is, it chokes Lettie up and she can't bring herself to respond straightaway. (Every time she risked her life for the cube, it was risking her life for the chance to go home. Now she isn't even sure if she wants to go home again. There's a place for her on the Lady Vengeance. She's... never had 'a place' like that before. A place. A... home. An actual home.) Ah, shit. Shit. This is all too much. Of course her emotions are all over the place. But one thing is crystal clear to her. She can't just go back home after she's seen this. Rather than say anything at all, the faerie draws a glyph and solemnly focuses her energy on changing her outfit into a mourning dress that pays direct homage to the goddess's night-sky dress. Her eyes turn white in exchange for this effort but she can't bring herself to give a damn about that right now. In Lettie's own language, this isn't a shallow 'fashion statement', but her own personal way of saying she can't forget.

They're the first to come upon this scene, aren't they? Outside of those bastards from Avangeline, that is. (A younger Deimos, perhaps. And he purposefully withheld this piece of history from their world. Swept it all under the rug despite the corp's whole shtick about 'innovation' and 'progress'. She knows too much now... but at the same time, she also realizes that she doesn't know nearly enough.) Besides all of that, it's clear that no one has properly mourned them. Outside of Cressida. The one who lived. The one who had to carry it all in the aftermath. (Is that what Juno is worried about? Briefly she remembers the pile of bones, the banter between a younger Juno and her friend over the speaker, the way she'd freeze up hearing his name... no. She's not supposed to know this. She shouldn't know this.)

Cressida wasn't a villain, was she? No... Lettie doesn't think so. It's like the goddess said. She was lost. Same with Cerise. Cerise, a faerie who strove to make things better so that her own generation wouldn't have to suffer. She didn't change anything, sure, but she tried.

Lettie slowly walks towards the skeleton, still contemplatively quiet, and kneels down beside her giant hand to examine the flowers growing there.

Hyssops and forget-me-nots. Lettie can't erase this from her mind now that she's seen it. The flowers grow defiantly through the cracks of ivory, without any encouragement from the sun or rainfall. Immortal and unseen by all. Except for them. (The flowers a faerie's soul leaves behind tell a story. 'Don't forget my sacrifice' reads as clearly as words on a page. Cerise, despite her frailty and declining health, possessed a strong spirit. To this day, the flowers in this chamber are kept alive by her defiant energy. She can feel it.) Lettie can't erase this from her mind. And she won't. Wouldn't fucking dare. Cerise is yet another faerie who has died in secret. A faerie who existed and was a part of history, however horrible it might have been. Funny that she was never named in any of her books, hm? Yeah, no. It's not fucking funny. It's not funny at all. Resentment and rage climbs almost as high in her as grief does. And those bastards tried to erase her.

"Do you know anything about the language of flowers?" Lettie asks softly. (She hesitates to touch the petals. The moment she does, she'll see Cerise's warmest memories. The ones that are poignant enough to stay behind. That's what happened to her back when she ran through the Star Grove. It's full of faerie dust. Full of echoes of a time long past.) In a way she already knows Juno won't know the language of flowers, with the way that she reacts to the trees and plants when they explore forests, so she continues her explanation without waiting for an answer. "A faerie's dust has magical properties that grows flowers like these. You can tell a lot about who a faerie was based on the flowers they leave behind. To honor our dead, it's considered respectful to scatter their remains over their favorite place." (...Even if many of them do not have that luxury.) "But Cerise... pieces of her are right here, lost to time along with the goddess. These flowers ask me not to forget her. So I won't." She's not sure why she's telling Juno all of this. What would the pirate care about faeries and their traditions, anyway?

"...I can't go home, Juno. I think I accepted that a long time ago. This is my life now. Our lives. We've been living it for months now, even if we didn't know it before." Lettie steels herself. To be honest, she's not sure if she even wants to go home anymore. (Somehow the admission is one burden off her shoulders. There's agency in this, agency like she hasn't felt in years, rejecting her world and what it has in store for her. Whether or not she can actually escape her fate by avoiding her world... she's not sure. But this is bigger than just her.) It's more than she bargained for, sure, but... if it has to be a necromancer and a faerie, then she's the only faerie around who can do this. Figuring out how to get her home, finding another faerie suited to the task... all of that will take time that they-- that the other worlds-- may not have. (She might be running on borrowed time as it is. Maybe... maybe she can actually do something to change things, like Cerise tried to. Hah. Yeah, sure. As if! ...Unless.) "I'm not a hero, either. But there's no way I can go back now that--"

The pile of rock standing between them and that shadow creep from before begins to rattle ominously, drawing Lettie's attention. One of those long claws breaks through one of the gaps, writhing around and struggling to create a hole to climb through. "Shit." The faerie snaps back up to her feet. She's exhausted quite a bit of her magic already and Juno is still recovering. The pirate does not need to be pushing herself right now. Handling this bastard and the cube's expectations all at once is going to be... ugh. (What does that creature know, anyway? What does it even want with the cube? Knowing the power that the cube holds inside makes that looming threat more severe than ever before.) "Cubey, get us out of here!" She snaps at the thing now that she knows it can hear and speak to her. "We'll come back later, okay?"

"Now." The cube insists. "It has to be now."

Fuck. Lettie's brow furrows with concern as she looks from the cube, to the goddess's skeleton, and then finally to Juno. (There's a lot going on right now. It makes perfect sense why her heart feels like it's in a vise.) "Go. Do it." She swallows down the lump in her throat and nods her consent. She's made up her mind. There's no going back now. "If this is what you want to do, then do it." Because what the pirate wants matters, too. They're on Desdemonia. They might find someone else who wants to take this on. (Even if she can't imagine doing this with anyone but the pirate.) She moves towards the shaking rocks, bracing herself for a fight. "I'll cover for you."

 

[starboob]

Juno stops when Olette says her name––she nearly misses it because it’s said so softly. Though it’s hard for her to miss. Olette almost never says her name––she mostly insists on calling her Juju and Juno’s never wanted to risk correcting her and making the situation worse. The pirate can’t believe that she’s hearing it at all and decides that she must have made that up––or maybe something’s messing with her head, because this place is for sure haunted. Yeah, there’s no way she said her name. (But if she had, it would have been the first time in a while she’s heard a person say it––and not just any person, but someone who actually knows her.)

For once the pirate doesn’t judge the faerie’s decision to use her fashion magic. She doesn’t understand what Olette is trying to communicate or what this gesture means for her, but she doesn’t believe the faerie is doing this for shallow reasons. That wouldn’t be like her. Plus, it turned her eyes white and, lately, Juno’s been getting the idea that she might not like it when her eyes are white like that. (She’s been noticing that the faerie is always trying to turn away or hide her face when they pale like that.) To be honest, the pirate hasn’t always liked them either. They remind her too much of Gran. (Her eyes had been milky white, eaten away by some disease. But before they entirely rotted she had sought some shoddy necromancers to heal her; the attempts nearly killed her and did nothing to save her eyesight, but the magic the necromancers used fused with her dying eyes and left her with foresight––a rare necromantic ability that allows the user to see the future. Just look into her eyes. Juno did once and all she saw was desolation and misery. Those eyes never reflected hope. Olette’s are different though––they’re gentler. That’s why she doesn’t mind anymore.)

When she’s finally joined her in the tomb, Juno looks back at the skeleton and the flowers that adorn it. She doesn’t know the language of flowers. For most of her life flowers have just been images on ancient trash. Things that children draw in the dirt and have no concept of what they actually are (or how truly beautiful they are or even that they have a funny smell). Juno doesn’t feel defensive or embarrassed that this is something she doesn’t know and maybe it’s because Olette is asking the question. (Olette’s smart, of course she knows this stuff. She also grew up around real flowers.)

She doesn’t understand what Olette is saying. Not on a deep level, but she does understand that this is personal and it is important to her. As it is for Juno. They’re in this. They’re doing this. (She wouldn’t do this with anyone else at this point. Long ago, she might have imagined something like this happening with James. They always used to dream of better lives for themselves and maybe making it better for others––they used fantasize about leaving Gran, going off to Arcacia, enlisting with the stewards, challenging skywards, and making everything better. They’d be just like the heroes they made up. That never happened for obvious reasons and she gave up on their dreams when it became too painful to think of them. But maybe this chance with the cube… maybe she can do something right by his memory.)

Juno flexes her hands and looks warily at the bones of the goddess, adorned with the memory of… Cerise (she’s pretty sure––it sounds right if she imagines the name in Olette’s voice). She stretches out her hand to touch the bones of her goddess, but the sound of rocks collapsing steals her attention and has her spinning around to assess the threat. “Shit,” she whispers, echoing the faerie’s sentiment at the same moment. While it’s unlike Juno to run from a fight, she knows her limit is nearer than it would be ordinarily and she isn’t sure that she can clobber the shadowy figure and siphon information from the goddess’s bones. She finds herself agreeing with the faerie’s plea that they need to get out of here, because that thing is reaching through the gaps in the rocks and trying to pull itself through and it’s going to be a waste for them to stay and fight. Except the cube thinks otherwise and since the cube is their fucking overlord now, Juno just rolls her eyes and puts her fists up, perfectly ready for another round with this spineless bastard.

“Go. Do it.”

The necromancer blinks, confused, and somehow believing that maybe Olette isn’t addressing her. ‘She’s going to fight?’ Yes, Juno knows that she can handle herself––she’s seen it a few times now––but the idea that she’s going to fight and Juno isn’t going to right beside her is an unsettling one. Juno doesn’t let other people defend her. She prefers to not leave her life in someone else’s hands. “Olette, I––”

“I’ll cover for you.”

There it is again. The implication that she’s going to take care of Juno and, again, the pirate wants to resist and doesn’t have a choice. She has to trust her. Pushing away her emotions on the matter, she tightens her jaw and nods, turning back to face the colossal skeleton. (In the background she can hear the shadowy figure knock down the rock barrier. She can hear its smile when it greets the faerie with, “Hello, Onus. So we meet again.” There's a sound of a loud blast and she isn't sure whether it's Olette or the shadow, but it encourages her to be quick.)

Each second is the difference between them living another day or ending up just like Cerise and that other Duchess, so she is careful to make sure that each second counts. That doesn’t change that her hand trembles as it reaches for the fibula. That doesn’t change that soul magic isn’t her strength––she’s not like the living Duchess who can summon all of her ancestors at once without breaking a sweat. (There’s a reason Juno’s crew don’t have souls––save for the three who talk and even they are a reflection of the necromancer’s skill.) But perhaps she’ll have better luck with the goddess’s bones? (Fat chance, she guesses.)

Her palm touches the cold ivory and the necromancer doesn’t even need to do anything before the divine energy is surging through her arm.

The goddess wants to be heard––she’s been waiting for someone to find her. She pushes her grief and remorse through Juno’s heart, forcing tears to spring in her eyes. The weight almost brings the necromancer to her knees, but she’s always been stubborn and she clings tighter to the goddess’s bone, leaning against her skeleton to hold herself up. Winds pick up around Juno and spread further out until the entire chamber feels as though it’s in a windstorm. (The flowers remain peaceful and undisturbed.) Visions flash through her mind, disappearing quicker than lightning and yet somehow she doesn’t miss any details; perhaps because the lot of them show the same thing on different worlds––falling gods, corrupted hearts, and nightmares ravishing worlds and traveling to new ones like a virus. None of this is necessarily new to Juno. Not until the goddess shows what happened to her when everything from the simulation turned into fragments. The goddess gets weaker with each second that Cerise and the other Duchess channel their magic, but she is a goddess and even in a weakened state she is clearly powerful, because when the complicated glyph appears over Desdemonia the goddess casts her hand into the air. Souls split from the tips of her fingers and gather into the air, forming five additional glyphs that, once activated, form a green-tinted bubble around the planet.

The glyphs are bright, like miniature stars in the sky while Desdemonia crumbles, and she can see the goddess trying to throw more glyphs into the sky, but she fails. She falls and so does Desdemonia, but the bubble around the planet seems to be protecting it from the worst of the spell. Before the goddess releases Juno, her mind is filled three more glyphs the goddess tried to trace before she fell. Then the goddess whispers, “Collect the glyphs from the hearts. Resurrect the worlds.”

Juno’s vision flashes white and then the goddess releases her. She stumbles backwards, falling over as exhaustion catches up with. Her entire body is screaming, but she's not really concerned about that. (Though she should be. Her eyes and ears are bleeding and that’s never good, but at least she hasn’t passed the fuck out like she had when she healed Olette’s wing. Since she's still awake, she assumes she's fine.) ‘Olette.’ The pirate turns on her side, trying to push herself up to find her companion. She falls a few times before she's able to stagger to her feet and, in true Juno fashion, raises her fist. (There's still a fight, right?) "Olette?"

 

[ellarose]

This is it. Lettie doesn't have time to investigate the way her chest tightens when Juno wordlessly leaves it to her with a nod. (I can't let her down now.) Technically she's in a position now where she can't let the worlds down either... but she's not ready to conceptualize that part of their mission yet. On a strictly personal level, it's infinitely more important to her that she proves herself to the pirate captain. She listens to her retreating footsteps and waits until she's certain the pirate is where she needs to be before raising her hands in the air, summoning an x-shaped, chain-like barrier of butterflies behind her specifically to keep everything in the tomb behind her safe. Some of them are designed to explode, as per usual, and some are set to trigger illusions. (Damn. Had she not already spent a decent portion of her magic earlier, she might've gone as far to create a whole wall of them... but she'll have to make do with what she's got left. She needs to conserve energy in order to stand a chance against this bastard creepazoid.) With that in mind, Lettie also surrenders the glamour keeping a hint of pink in her hair just as the rock wall blasts down, whipping her now white ponytail back in the howling wind it creates. The faerie holds an arm up to protect her face when she realizes there are shards of dark energy riding on this gust, slicing cuts all along her arms and legs.

"Hello, Onus. So we meet again." The shadow creature's voice, arrogantly uttering that horrible insult of a name as if it thinks that alone will be enough to deliver the final blow. Lettie doesn't have a witty retort. She hardly has time to lower her arm from her face before a blast of dark energy is sent barreling towards her. Quickly, she draws a glyph into the dirt with the toe of her boot and stomps on it. The white of her hair and eyes take on a faint, ghostly glow in the darkness as she whips her hand open with a graceful flourish, scattering a row of phantasmic daggers with butterfly wings for hilts in front of her. With another wave of her hand they turn horizontally, blades pointed towards the blast. One by one she sends them flying forward, their light dimming and chipping away at the attack until it whittles down to nothing but a thin line of dying smoke right in front of her. "A cute trick. But don't you think--"

The faerie rolls her eyes as the creep attempts to monologue at her, revealing the extra dagger she summoned behind her back with a wicked little smirk that says 'surprise, bitch'. She sends it flying at the shadow bastard and hits the intended mark, landing in their arm. (Their arm, which already seems to be wounded? She makes a silent note of this. For some reason it nags at her that this detail is important... but there's no time for puzzling through anything when the creature is howling and clambering towards her in a rage.) Fluttering her wings, she takes flight and glitches herself around the shadow creature, flying in dizzying circles around it to keep it from approaching her magical gate and Juno behind it. The thing tries to reach its claws out for her to no avail-- she's too fast for it. They retract their claws with a huff, frustrated with all the failed attempts to nab her. When Lettie thinks that they're going to give up on this endeavor, their shadowy body becomes as droopy as the yolk of an egg before eight more claws take shape and emerge around their monstrous form like some hideous rendition of a spider. They rattle ominously before all of the claws raise in unison and snap down like a trap. One successfully coils around her waist and slams her down to the ground, knocking the wind out of her. Fuck! She struggles, pushing herself up on her elbows as she tries to pry herself out... but the claw is intent on crushing her like a bug.

"You play dirty for a faerie." A second claw presses down on the side of her head, busting her lip and pressing her flat. Lettie shivers as the creature's voice crawls down her spine like a thousand tiny insect legs. The shadow creature forcibly flips her around so she's lying on her back instead, leaning forward to get a look at her face. It swipes a claw over her bloodied lip and licks it off to get a taste. Just like before. Creep. "Your mischievous little tricks aren't going to be enough to face the storm that's coming your way. You know that, right? You're never going to be enough, Onus. Just like you weren't enough for your own--"

Stop it, stop it, stop it! A voice that sounds a lot like a lost, teenage Lettie rings through her mind in protest. Blinking hard against the sting in her eyes, the adult Lettie knows better. The child in Lettie that's still hurting and the older Lettie who knows better both exist inside of her at the same time, pulling at her heartstrings in a tug-of-war. (Just because they say you're not enough doesn't make it true. A whispering voice echoes in her mind. Cerise?) Right. She can't let it get to her. This asshole is using what it learned about her in that nightmare world to get into her head, get under her skin.

"...your own mother. What makes you think that you'll be able to handle the relic?" The shadow creature smiles, revealing rows of sharp teeth. "You and I both know you'll be of better use to everyone when you're dead, faerie. Well. At the very least you'll make a delicious snack." For a split second, so quickly that Lettie knows she's got to be hallucinating, the creature looks exactly like the reaper as it stretches its mouth wide open, breathing hot air over her. (Distantly Lettie hears the chains in her mind, the screams.) Her heart gallops in her chest, her breathing becomes hollow. In a flash, she recalls the last time she was in a similar position. Her first night on Lady, when she froze up in fright and Juno had to... Juno. (Juno saved her back then. Juno saved her earlier as well, when the creature appeared behind her. It can't happen again if she's ever going to prove herself to her. 'You've got to be tough as nails, Olette.') A burst of adrenaline rockets through her as the gaping mouth approaches and she glitches herself out of the creature's hold just before they can snap her up in their jaws.

"If anyone's playing dirty here it's you. You fucking creep." Lettie rasps, fighting to catch her breath. (Her hair's a mess, her dress is torn. She wipes the blood from her lip with the back of her hand.) "...Sounds to me like you're insecure because you're about to get your ass beat by a tiny little faerie." Dizzily, she waves her hand and sends more butterflies towards the creature. Deciding not to pull any punches, she smothers the shadow creature's wounded arm in them and... BOOM! (It's hard to tell if the ringing in her ears is the explosion or a symptom of expending so much of her magic.) The creature screeches out and when the smoke clears... all that remains is the exploded remains of the claw she blasted off. No body, though. (Where the fuck did they go?)

Panting, Lettie falls forward onto her hands and knees. Her lungs burn and the air she breathes in cuts her throat like daggers. The butterfly chain behind her glitches before disappearing entirely. Surveying the chamber carefully for any signs of the creature, she eventually comes to the conclusion that the bastard made a strategic retreat around the same time that she hears her name behind her. 'Olette?'

Juno. The faerie quickly touches her fingertips to her lower lip, checking to see if she's still bleeding. Ugh. Yeah. Then she checks her ponytail to find that most of it has fallen limp and loose. She doesn't even need a mirror to see that she's a bloody mess with creepy white hair and eyes. Her dress has also become an amalgam of the one she created and one of Juno's stolen nightshirts. With a sigh, she surrenders the dress so that glamour fades away as well. (Lettie just doesn't have the energy to keep up with it anymore. It's not like she has to look sexy for Juno or anything. Pffft. Pffft.) She, uh, just hates feeling like a mess in general. That's all it is! Either way, there are more important things to worry about right now. Deep down, she knows these grievances about her appearance are just a buffer to soften... everything. All of it. Shakily, the faerie pushes herself onto her feet and at least takes pride in the fact that she can approach the pirate without stumbling over her own two feet. She raises an eyebrow at Juno's raised fists and then frowns when she notices the way the pirate is bleeding.

"...Geez." Lettie huffs weakly, her cheeks puffing with annoyance. (It barely hides her concern. Juno is bleeding. And it's hard not to feel responsible for it... the pirate's exhaustion recently has all been on account of healing her broken wing.) Since the faerie can't get mad with Juno for pushing herself this time around, she turns her frustration on the cube instead. "Are you happy now, cubey? We're supposed to follow Marjorie's rules until Juju feels better!" She crosses her arms over her chest. In Juno's night shirt, the sleeves are so long that they swallow up her hands entirely. (Ah, fuck. She must look ridiculous!) Lettie chances a glance at Juno... but she has trouble looking her in the eye. She wants to make sure she's all right, but there's also a part of her that wants to disappear until she has the means to glamour herself up again. She is curious about how it went, what the pirate might have seen... but most importantly, "Are you okay, Juno?"

 

[starboob]

Juno blinks. Her stormy eyes pan around the room searching for their foe (or perhaps foes), but all she sees is the dust settling around her. There are no explosions, no sounds of fists meeting faces, or even banter between opponents. She missed the entire fucking fight. Her brows knit together, something akin to disappointment and guilt mix in her stomach and settle there. (She left the faerie to fend for herself. After she told her that she got her, she totally abandoned her.) While relief does come when she finally sees Olette, a spot of brightness against all the haunting darkness, her guilt only multiples when she observes the faerie’s state. She looks absolutely fucking wrecked––she’s covered in cuts, her clothes are in tatters, her lip is bleeding, her hair and eyes are drained of their colors––and it’s all Juno’s fucking fault. (Well, okay, no. It really isn’t her fault, she knows that. Of the two of them, she is the one who had to channel the goddess––just like how earlier Olette was the one who had to fly over the wards and glyphs to scope out the rest of this buried labyrinth.) She can’t help taking the blame. She is the fighter. She is the defender. That is what she is used to and those are the roles she knows well.

But then it also occurs to her that Olette defended her. Successfully. It doesn’t matter her state now, because she fucking succeeded. She totally handled that. That realization is powerful enough to stun the pirate into the next century and it even takes her a second to remember herself. Or maybe that’s just because the faerie has definitely just said her name and she’s just as shocked as before. It sounds weird. (Does she like how it sounds?) It feels weird–– like she’s being exposed, but she also supposes she doesn’t mind it so much when it's with the faerie, because, well, like it or not, the faerie has caught glimpses of her worst moments. (Likewise, she knows that she has seen hers, though she keeps that to herself at all times.)

It takes her a second to take this all in and recover her usual gait, and Olette talking to the cube about Marjorie’s rules helps. Immediately she rolls her eyes and straightens up her stance, shoving her fists into her pockets. “You’re fuckin’ weird.” It’s not said judgmentally and that is surprising coming from the pirate; it’s probably even more shocking that it comes out sounding borderline affectionate.

Shrugging off the awkwardness she felt hearing her name a few seconds ago, she clears her throat, wipes the blood tears from her cheeks, and matter of factly claims, “Yeah, ‘m fine. Necromancy can be hard on the body is all. This is normal.” Mostly.

Then, after taking another glance at Olette and her clothes, she shrugs off her coat, “Here.” Looking at the tatters of what appears to be an oversized shirt, Juno puts together that what she thinks is ‘fashion magic’ is more like an illusion than anything else. She’s not changing the clothes themselves, just how they look. And, while the pirate has been aware that Olette does not have a million clothes onboard, she never considered that she’d just been wearing the same thing with a different guise. ‘Gotta get her more clothes.’ “Uh, battleworn is a good look on you,” she blurts out, albeit awkwardly because they don’t do compliments and this admission immediately causes the pirate to blush. She hurriedly looks away so the faerie can’t see her face, but in the privacy of her mind she continues to picture how fucking hot she looks and that only makes her face redder. There’s just something undeniably attractive about a woman who can kick fucking ass. (It's even hotter when they can kick Juno's ass, but she'll be dead before she ever admits that.)

“You make sure the bastard came out lookin’ worse, eh?” But she doesn’t need Olette to confirm that. She already knows the answer–– obviously she made sure that the bastard came out looking worse. She’s Olette and she’s one powerful fucking faerie. "Oh, and how'd your wings work? I didn't really get to see much, but they do work just the same, yeah?"

She then starts to head back towards the tunnel that they came through, but before they can even make it a few steps, the cube flashes three times and then they’re pulled through what feels like a fucking straw and spit out on Lady. (Juno isn’t sure whether or not she’s disappointed or relieved that they don’t end up stacked on top of each other this time.) They’re below deck, in one of the hallways that splits between what has unofficially become the border between Olette’s and Juno’s side of the ship. Rather than stalk off to her room and ditch Olette as she might normally, she pulls the faerie towards the study. “C’mon––I gotta tell you what I saw while it’s still fresh,” and, also, the pirate doesn’t want to rest. (Naturally.) This excuse is as good as any too, because it’s true that her memory of the glyphs might degrade if she waits until after she’s rested and for the fate of the worlds it’s important she recall every detail that she is able.

Once they’re in the study, she pulls out a scrap of parchment and reaches for one of the inkwells. “The goddess died back there,” she starts, drawing out the glyph from the first entrance––the one that hung from the ceiling in the Duchess’s estate. The same one that flashed across the worlds and damned them all. “This glyph took her down––her and the other gods. She couldn’t stop Cerise and, uh… the other one,” she explains, “but she did try to salvage Desdemonia and I think she might have tried to protect the other worlds too, as much she could. Before the glyph fully activated on Desdemonia, she formed five others around the main one,” she points to the complicated glyph from the initial spell. Then she grabs a full piece of parchment and tears it into eight pieces and starts drawing out the first five glyphs the goddess managed to cast. They’re just as complex as the first one and Juno’s almost positive she’s missing details (the goddess really should not have trusted her shoddy memory with this). She puts the scraps of the paper around the first drawing, in the same order she remembers (and that may or may not be correct). ”These ones, I think, are what protected Desdemonia from falling to complete ruin like, uh, that simulation planet. Remember, once we got out it looked all dead and haunted? Pretty sure that’s what Desdemonia is supposed to be.”

“Anyway, the spell took the goddess out before she could cast these last three glyphs.” She scribbles them out, but doesn’t place them with the current formation, because she doesn't know where they're supposed to go. (Honestly, seeing all these glyphs and associating them with her planet is strange. She never knew that their magic might have come from glyphs at one point or another.) “But she said something to me about them… something like we have to find the glyphs? And uh…” she scratches the top of her head and crinkles one eye as she tries to remember the instructions. “Something about resurrection hearts." (Oh, goddess. Juno's terrible memory is going to doom everyone.)

 

[ellarose]

“Cubey can hear us... and talk. I know you heard it, too.” Lettie raises her blasé defense with a shrug. Maybe it’s something about the pirate’s delivery, but she's not inclined to argue with her usual level of sass. (Or it could be that along with being quote, 'fucking weird', unquote, she’s also fucking tired. Her bloody lower lip throbs like it has a tiny heartbeat and her wing is achy and sore after flying circles around that shadow bastard.) Then she squints bemusedly at the (now stubbornly silent) cube. “You could back me up, you know.” The cube does not back her up, however. It just aloofly hovers in the air as if to mock her-- classic cube-- and she rolls her eyes at it. (This is who she's supposedly supposed to save the worlds with. A stupidly buff pirate with a penchant for punching people in the face and an unpredictable asshole of a cube. What is her life right now?) Stars. She’s hit that point where she’s pretty she could convince herself that she just hallucinated the entirety of the past hour or so. The cube freaking talking to them. The buried bones of the history they just excavated. Altogether the events are like something out of a fever dream. Or a nightmare. The faerie shivers remembering the sight all of those destroyed worlds. (Including Desdemonia. Juno's home, which was once bustling, full of tech and that mystifying means of world travel unlike anything the faerie has ever seen before.) The chill that creeps under her skin runs deeper yet when Juno mentions necromancy’s effects on the body. With thoughts of death hovering around her mind, this information doesn't exactly console her. It's because the pirate's technically the only one she's got... duh! Of course she can't lose her.

...Ah. What in the worlds have they gotten themselves into? It's near impossible to conceptualize all at once and Lettie knows she is only one faerie in the grand scheme of things. It's only realistic to acknowledge this information. There is a reason faeries don't often make history. (And if they do they're buried and forgotten. Like Cerise.) Juno is a necromancer on a legendary scale and a certifiable badass-- not to mention those arms-- and even she is continually pushed to her limits. (...If not to the pirate's personal limits, which have to be when she physically blacks the fuck out from sheer exhaustion, then at least pushed to the point that she's crying tears of blood.) What kind of toll will this mission take on them? What kind of path are they headed down? Her resolve earlier wasn't a lie... and she's no stranger to pressure. But she's still processing. If she keeps thinking about this she's liable to psyche herself out. (It's always nice to distract herself by experimenting with her glamours... but she can't do that right now. And even thinking about how she looks right now is...)

Lettie realizes her shivering must be more noticeable than she thought, because now Juno is lending her her coat. She blinks up at her in bewilderment before shyly lowering her gaze to her feet. "Oh. Thanks." ('Oh. Thanks?' Way to sound like a fucking nerd!) The warmth from where the fabric touches her shoulders has a peculiar way of spreading up to her cheeks. Um. (...But why would the she care if the faerie is cold or not?) Then again, this isn’t the first time that Juno has offered up her coat like this. There was that time she'd given it to her to cover up while meeting Carpet, that time she mysteriously had her coat after their drunken night out (...does that one even count?) and the time she'd done it presumably for their girlfriend shtick. It's a surprisingly chivalrous habit when she really thinks about it. (Juno also called her a lady earlier. Like... what!? Yeah. It'd seriously be too easy to convince herself that she hallucinated everything that happened since they were dropped into the tunnel. In her experience the only lady who ever gets that treatment from Juno is the Lady Vengeance.)

Lettie draws the ends of the coat together until it’s snug around her shoulders. Ah, geez. At the very least the coat helps to hide the catastrophe her outfit (or lack thereof) has become. She’s never felt more exposed than she is right now… and that’s saying something since Juno has already seen her in her underwear. (This is exponentially different, though. She felt sexy and confident in her underwear.) But like this? Being caught without her glamours had a way of revealing more than any amount of skin can. With her hair and eyes like spooky blank canvases that beg to be painted with color, the scrappy rag of a shirt she’s wearing and…

Battleworn is a good look on you.

Battleworn is a good look on you. A good look on you. Lettie blinks dumbly, doing a double take to gauge whether or not Juno is being sarcastic. Ha. That wasn't a compliment just now. It can't have been. (No... but she knows what it sounds like when Juno is insulting her. This is one subject she's especially well-versed in, because she has been on the receiving end of nearly every brand of insult in the pirate's arsenal.) Her heart pumps to life in a way it hasn't in... in she doesn't even know how long. It doesn't compute in her head. This is the last possible moment she'd ever expect to hear that she looks good from anyone, let alone the pirate. "Well, of course. I can make anything look good." She tries and fails to sound like her usual self. Oof. Where did her confidence go? "Um. And yeah, they're good." Thanks to you. She gives her flattened wings a little flutter from underneath the coat.

They're transported back to Lady before anything else can be said. Upon looking up the definition of 'discombobulated', a picture of the faerie in this moment would probably be discovered beneath it. Especially when Juno grabs her hand without any preamble to guide her into the ship's study. (There's a part of her that immediately wants to turn the other way to freshen up, but... right. The mission. The goddess.) Except it's hard to focus on anything else when the pirate touches her after calling her a lady and telling her that battleworn is a good look on her. Dazedly, Lettie finds herself observing Juno's face as she draws the glyphs, following the line of the scar on her face down to the focused little frown on her lips. (Her lips...) It's when the pirate is tearing the paper into eight pieces that she finally snaps out of it, angling her attention down to the collection of glyphs. Get it together, Letts! The mission. The super important, worlds changing mission.

"Right... and we were blamed for causing that even though we'd never been there before. I wonder if that means that Cerise and Cressida did something to that world before coming to Desdemonia? Seems like travel across the worlds was readily available to them back then." Lettie muses. (That information still blows her mind, by the way.) She remembers what that voice said about not trusting the 'colorful one' or some shit like that. "So there must be something about this collection of glyphs that can protect a world from total ruin." If all of the glyphs had been cast, would Desdemonia would still resemble the place they saw in that vision?

"Resurrection hearts..." Lettie's not sure if she can place that phrase with anything she studied back on Avangeline. However-- "I mean, we've dealt with hearts on other worlds before. Those... oozy black hearts? But we didn't resurrect those." Nope. They did just the opposite. They destroyed them. Oops? "Something was seriously wrong with those hearts, though. I'm not sure what else we could've done for them." She tilts her head. "Come to think of it, the effects of the magic on those worlds were similar to those nightmares we dealt with the first night I spent on Lady." In the aftermath of their stint on that creepy nightmare world, she'd come to the conclusion that that must've been how Juno figured out the trick to getting out of there. "If it's somehow connected, it might be worth our time to study those nightmare creatures while we're still on Desdemonia..." Which could be risky, but it might be worth it to see what makes them tick. Then the faerie shakes her head and looks pointedly at the pirate. "When you're feeling better, that is. You need to rest before we do anything else."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Ms. Olette!" Marjorie nods as she saunters into the study with a little box and kit in her hands. She props them up on the table between the faerie and the pirate and then looks between the two of them, making a 'tsking' sound as she fully registers the state they're both in. "The Maestro is pleased with your work today and they want the both of you to rest for now. It seems they have very big plans and asked me to see to it that you're both adequately prepared."

Lettie grabs the little box on the table to get a better look at it. They're bandaids with prints of cartoon kittens wearing cute little bows. She raises a brow.

"Isn't the Maestro so sweet? They provided these charming supplies for you!" Marjorie flaps her hand and chuckles. "I'd love to stick around and play nurse, but the Maestro has been keeping the crew very busy." (Busy with what?) "You two can tend to each other, can't you?"

There is something unquestionably suggestive about the way the skeleton says that line. Lettie can barely even open her mouth to speak a word in reply before Marjorie merrily retreats from the study and leaves them both to their own devices again. The faerie looks from the box of bandaids to the pirate and gulps.

 

[starboob]

On some level (all of them), it hasn’t hit Juno that she’s more or less committed to salvaging what’s left of the worlds. The magnitude of it all, at least, hasn’t reached her. (Is she ready to know that she, along with Olette, are carrying the weight of the worlds on their shoulders? No.) Even as she stares at the eight new glyphs and tries to make sense of them; even as she plays back what she recalls of the goddess’s message, she has not yet realized the sheer scale of the cube’s mission. She doesn’t yet realize just how far reaching Cerise and the other Duchess’s spell stretched. To her, it’s only about putting one foot in front of the other and trudging along. As it always has been when it comes to survival.

The pirate has her chin perched on her fist and, while she is deeply focused on their brainstorming session, every now and again she’ll chance a glance at the faerie and then look away before anything is suspect. (She looks so damn good in Juno’s jacket––the clash between her white eyes and hair and Juno’s black coat makes her seem like a real badass. That is not to say that Olette is not a badass when she’s in pink, because she can make anything look good, it’s just that this look has Juno seeing the faerie in a slightly different light. Like, yeah, she’s always thought that Olette is hot, because she has working eyes, but this look on top of the knowledge that she defended her ass back there just really has the pirate thinking of her differently. Somehow. She’s not quite sure and she’s too tired to really think about it any deeper.) She’s kind of hard to look at for too long, to be honest. Even if Juno could get away with staring for longer, she doesn’t think that she would because the faerie is almost too pretty.

… And super fucking smart. (Yeah, Juno is never going to be able to keep up with her.) She’s connecting dots faster than Juno can actually remember them and where one part of her feels useless, she’s also just sort of grateful she doesn’t have to puzzle this all out herself. (And that’s a rare admission for the pirate. Must be her exhaustion talking.) “Oh shit, that’s right,” she says in response to Olette bringing up the fact that they had been blamed for that disaster. Though that wouldn’t even be the first time they’ve been blamed for something they didn’t fucking do, now that Juno is thinking back to their early days. “You know that, uh, octopus thing? The one that came out of the sky––I know you fucking saw it. I saw you fucking tap out,” she says, none too bitter. “It also said something similar. Like it either told me to stay dead or to leave what’s dead to rest? Either way, it spoke like it knew me and it wasn’t fucking pleased. Ugh, I’m pretty sure I have weird scars on my back because of its stupid suckers.” Juno shudders thinking about all those tentacles and how slimy they were.

“Uh, anyway,” moving on from talking about her weird fucking scars in front of the pretty fucking faerie, “Have you ever seen glyphs like this before?” The pirate honestly hadn’t known about glyphs or other styles of magic until a few months ago when Olette crashed into her life. Wards aren’t nearly as complex as these geometric looking patterns and she’s not even sure if she even drew them correctly. “How do glyphs work?”

Then Olette suggests they study a fucking revenant and Juno looks at her like she’s insane. “Are you fucking insane?” she asks, sounding more scared than judgmental. (This says a lot coming from a pirate who punches sharks in the face.) There’s a reason that life expectancy on the ground is so fucking short; most people who grow up down there don’t live to see thirty unless they get their ass to a city or get themselves in the sky like Juno has. Olette may be smart, but she’s not Desdemonia street smart (not that the pirate can fault her for this). “No. Absolutely fucking not––those things are fucking dangerous and they will eat you alive. We almost didn’t make it through that fucking…” She doesn’t finish her sentence and just gives the faerie a very pointed look, bringing up that nightmare planet without bringing up that nightmare planet. “If we could fi––”

At that moment Marjorie saunters in with her supplies and orders them to rest because the master or whatever said so. As fucking if. They still have so much ground to cover and it’s not like resting will actually fucking help or do Juno any good. (She believes this with her entire chest.) But before she can even protest, Marjorie says something about them ‘tending to each other’ and Juno has to pretend that she isn’t blushing at the suggestion. Instead of saying anything, she just grabs the box of… ‘Bandaids’ from Olette. She immediately notes their very specific aesthetic and, remembering that the faerie is covered in cuts, she declares, “These are for you.”

She sets out the rest of the supplies––rubbing alcohol, some sort of ointment, gauze, ice packs, etc.––and points to the desk for Olette to sit on. (She might have had her sit on a chair, but everyone knows where the singular chair is located on this pirate ship and it's in the faerie's room.) Obviously, Juno doesn’t need medical attention, she’s doing just fine. Never mind the cut on her forehead, the blood on her shirt (it’s probably not hers), or her aching ribs and arms from absorbing punches. This is totally fine. She’s about to start cleaning the faerie’s cuts when——

“Uh–– oh, shit,” she steps away from Olette and tilts her head back before her nose starts dripping blood all over her front. Maybe if she just pinches her nose and acts casual, Olette won’t notice? ‘No, she’s too smart for that.’ The pirate clears her throat awkwardly and feels around for one of the rags and a couple cotton balls, then sinks to the floor to lie down to keep her head tilted back. (Being on her back immediately reminds her of when that energy blast hit her chest and threw her into the wall. She doesn’t even want to look down her shirt to see what that blast might have done to her. The last one healed just fine on its own, but it did look gnarly. Left a gross scar too.) “I swear, I’m fine.” Though even if she weren’t, it’s not like she would ever admit to it. “I don’t need to rest. I just need to eat and I’ll be good. Besides, there’s still a lot shit to go over and I can’t fucking sleep thinking about what we just saw––like, Desdemonia used to not be such a shithole? And the Duchess’s great great grandma and Cerise nearly destroyed everything? They killed fucking gods, Olette. How can I rest with that shit on my mind? Plus, now I have to fucking watch your ass to make sure you don’t try to study a nightmare revenant by yourself.”