happy birthday to you

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster Wessex laughs. “I forgot you’ve never seen where I live.” She clears her throat, sits up, and makes herself ‘presentable’ (whatever that means). Time to lay it all out for Rex: and she starts with the quintessential ‘picture this’ gesture, by spreading her hands wide in front of them as if they were watching a movie - which neither of them have heard about. “Picture this: a one room house, cleverly disguised as a something no one’s invested much in. There’s a bed, a fireplace, a locked chest, and a bunch of weapons, if you’re into that kind of thing.” She pauses. “Aaaaand…. That’s about it.” Her hands fall at her sides and the Wraith makes a sound in the back of her throat that could almost be considered a chuckle. “So when I say I don’t know much about decorating, I mean I have no taste, whatsoever.” Except functional. She likes functional. Because pretty was rarely an option, and she’s always found that in her mind, badass tops attractive any day. It’s probably why Wessex is still single.

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The Penumbra gives the Wraith a light shrug of amusement. No, she hasn’t seen where Wessex lives. But for that matter, the Queen hasn’t seen where she lives either. It’s only fair. She turns to face Wessex when she begins to show what she might like, what kind of style she has, and she folds her legs up beneath her to cross them and watch as the woman paints a picture in her mind. And well, she’s no artist like Bastien is, but she can work with that.

She puts her hands together before her, a glow begins in between her hands while she listens and hangs onto the details. She creates a couple pieces of paper, and a piece of charcoal, something to take notes on. Sapphire eyes lift back up to Wessex with a small smirk as she flattens the paper by her leg and nods. “So… I have a few ideas.” She pauses briefly, giving a smile as she looks down to her sheet and picks up the charcoal to begin taking notes. “We can do some minimal things, calm colors… but in terms of decorating, is there anything family related you might want to include? Something from those I saw around you when Ludo picked your lantern?” She suggests, eyes flitting up to look at Wessex with a dark raised brow, uncertain how the Wraith might respond to such a gentle, heartbreaking time for her.

Rexanna didn’t have any blood relatives, but here? Here she could decorate with her newfound family. And she finds she would love to.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster Family things? Wessex looks at Rex in surprise. No one asks her about her family. No one. They just assume…. Well, she doesn’t know what they assume, but she imagines it’s something along the lines of what Ronin said awhile ago: that it’s difficult to reconcile certain parts of her - the caring and the fierce - for one far eclipses the other. For all they know, she hatched from an egg. (Cue Helovia joke) Something washes over her face and her blue eyes go distant as she tries to think of what her mother and Magrethe might have liked. “Magrethe was always the one who put little homey touches in our house. She loved wildflowers.” But of course, Rex wouldn’t know who Magrethe was. “Magrethe was my little sister. The better Theskyra girl, many Naturals would say.” And even though what she says is self-deprecating, she smiles a little with it, for Wessex whole-heartedly agreed with that assessment.

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The Queen looks to her in surprise, and Rexanna’s gaze drifts up with a small smile toward her. Has nobody asked before? Or is it just another thing the Outlanders have done? Touted their own histories without even considering what the history of those here born and raised had lived. And Rexanna suddenly finds she’s very interested in what Wessex has to say. Her eyes go distant, and Rexanna averts her gaze back to the paper she’s created, giving some semblance of privacy in a way while she scribbles in fine penmanship despite using charcoal.

“I love wildflowers.” She comments quietly with a smile, until Wessex’s comment causes her eyes to lift toward her newfound sister again. At first she wants to comment on it, but thinks better of it as the small smile blossoms. “I never had any siblings.” She pauses. The only family she ever had growing up were the servants that had taken her in when she was a child. And she channels more of the thoughts of their small room into what might make something feel like home compared to Rexanna’s own taste of gaudy, vibrant things. “What was she like? Magrethe?” She asks, making notes of wildflowers and calm colors, some decorations of barren tree branches that could be both homey and classically cold enough to suit Wessex too.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster “Me too,” Wessex agrees, even if she’s wretched at compiling a decent bouquet and arranging it in an appealing manner. Is that the kind of thing Rex knows how to do? Is that something they taught her in Queen school? Ha, now that is something the Wraith could stand to take a crash course in. Not that she’s failing at being a good Queen, but some of the finesse is lost on her. Maybe in time it will be… endearing? Maybe it’s conversations like these, one at a time, that will change history’s opinion of her. “That sounds… lonely,” she says after a moment, considering what she knows about Rex now. “Did you ever want any?” Some are probably happy to not have to share the attention. Wessex wasn’t one of them. It was nice to have Magrethe to distract her parents from her elder sister’s mishaps. “She was beautiful. Happy. Kind. Very feminine, the opposite of me, I suppose. Boys were always trying to take her for a walk by the Glade.” But those are rather superficial things, Wessex thinks, and the easiest to conjure up when one is looking for catchphrases. “Safrin favored her, for a time. And she had a way with animals. Couldn’t sew or bargain at the market to save her life, but she was always nursing the abandoned babies.”

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

She nods in response, putting a little check mark next to the wildflowers she’s written down — as if an indication to say yes, put this in. And she listens further when Wessex comments that it must have been lonely, which sparks a small smile on her face. Did she ever want any siblings? Not really. But then again, you didn’t know what you were missing if you didn’t have it in the first place, right? “I grew up with the Halyven servants, until the king sprung the news onto me when I was young that I was a princess of sorts. So they were my family, just not blood related. So I never thought about it much.” She shrugs. The couple that had taken her in were unable to have their own children. So it only made sense that they could take in an orphaned child, an orphaned one day Queen, too.

The Penumbra asks of the blonde woman’s sister and listens diligently while she speaks, a smile coming across her face at the images that spark in her mind. “She sounds like she was wonderful.” She admits, unable to ask what happened, not sure that they’re close enough for those kinds of questions. So she leaves it be, scribbling some more thoughts down. “What did she do?” She asks, wondering if since she nurses abandoned babies if she were some kind of midwife, a healer of sorts, a kind soul with plenty of generosity to go around.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster "Wait, what?" the Wraith says, in slight confusion. She was left to servants, but was actually a Princess and…? Aight. And Wessex thought her three lives were kind of messy and hard to follow. Her head shakes back and forth, but there is a slight smile on it. "You are full of surprises, Rex." A slight pause. "I like it." Predictable is boring, the Queen would rather surround herself with reliable people who are filled with surprises. Never stop growing. But back to Magrethe. Wessex's hands grow restless as she talks about her sister, as she tries to channel whatever lingering grief there might be about her away from tears. "She really was. Loved me as I am… I like to think she wouldn't have minded my Ascension." No, Magrethe may have had a hard time swallowing it at first but in the end, she would have come around. Whatever they had to do to survive, they'd promised each other. Live, she had whispered to Wessex, in her last days. Live, and be happy, she'd commanded, never knowing that the sun went out for Wessex when Magrethe took her last breath. "A farmer, like my parents -" but not just a farmer. More than their mother and father, and again, strangely opposite to Wessex, the hunter and sword for hire. "But she had also apprenticed a bit to learn some animal husbandry." and with that came a look of consideration. Maybe… hmmm. Maybe something with the flora and fauna of Caido?

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The Penumbra doesn’t realize she didn’t disclose that amount of information to the queen, and she gives the woman a wry smile, deciding that she could explain the confusion of that history in the interim. “My mother was the Queen of Halyven, and my father wasn’t the King so much as the general of our soldiers… So.” She shrugs lightly. “The King had both of them beheaded a few days after I was born, gave me to one of the higher servants that couldn’t have children of their own in case the King had a use for me.” Which the King did – when he sold her off like cattle to marry the Prince of Asciend. But that was beside the point, and information already shared.

So she focuses on Wessex’s description of her sister, listening and feeling the love the Ascended woman exudes from the recollection, smiling softly when she says that she thinks she wouldn’t have minded her Ascension. But she listens further when Wessex comments that her sister was a farmer, like her parents, and Rexanna’s eyes slip up – having always pegged the Wraith as a huntress of sorts, rather than a farmer. But she had no room to judge anything, and so she nods along. Some added scribbles of fauna alongside the wildflowers. They’d be able to make the new home shine for Wessex, while still being comfortable.

“That’s amazing, actually.” She chimes, smiling before the charcoal taps against her lip as she thinks. “So we could do some calm colors, wildflowers here and there, something woodsy… Some animals maybe that your family raised we could add in. I’m sure Bastien would be willing to help design some things for it too.” She contemplates, with a tilt of her head as she looks to the Queen.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster Whoops. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say, because it wasn’t a pleasant surprise to find out this jackass of a King had Rex’s folks beheaded and then used her for his own political gain. Hopefully she can forgive Wessex for that little assumption. Back to the decorating part of this chat. The Queen nods thoughtfully, liking the ideas of calm colors and wildflowers. “Could we do a light and dark contrast? A, um… neutral top and dark green base somewhere? I think the dark green would go well against the darker wood.” And then there’s a pause as she pushes back whatever clothing she might be wearing that day to reveal a dragon coiled around her bicep. She’s never mentioned it before (becaues Astor forgot it existed until now) but it was the only thing the Voice left on her when she took the rest of her scars away. “Is this too intimidating for a… crest of sorts?”

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

Rexanna doesn’t particularly care who knows about her past or not, not since her Ascension. Not since Zariah isn’t around anymore to possibly feel threatened by her and what she was once. But she had given it all up, all of her ties to Halyven, witnessed by the Voice herself. This is her home now, and she prefers the solitude of being able to do what she wants to whenever she wants to.

Her head lifts to look at Wessex as she asks her question, a smile cascading over her face at the suggestion before she scribbles it down. “Sounds perfect to me.” She nods, before Wessex is rolling up her sleeve and poises yet another question to her, and she drifts toward the Ascended woman, scooting closer to inspect the tattoo of sorts.

Sapphire eyes drift up to meet Wessex’s face as her smile shifts to something akin to a smirk. “Crests, at least where I’m from, are supposed to be intimidating in a way.” She offers with a light shrug, scribbling a small sketch of it down and inspecting her not very well drawn scribbles. But ah, thank the gods she’s marrying an artist. “I’ll see if Bastien can make it into a bigger design that I can sew into a flag of sorts for you, if you’d like?”

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster Something makes her hesitate. “I’m not sure I’m a flag kind of person. It isn’t just my house, you know, but a place to hold official business.” It doesn’t feel right to commandeer the place (even though she lives there) as something decked out to honor her family, when her family has come from nothing. Literally subsistence farmers and a random hunter / artisan thrown in every other generation or so. And though she can hear her future acquaintances telling her she must act like a Queen, dress like a Queen, and live in a place beffiting a Queen, The Wraith is ever defiant. Their ways are not Caido’s ways. She is a Queen whose wiped diarrhea off the asses of some of her subjects, she’s mucked out stalls and stolen cooling cookies from the Devas bakery. The only difference between Wessex and most of the people here is that she has ambition and forged the right relationships. She wants the job, but that doesn’t make her or her family any better than the Plummers or the Wordsworths. “Maybe something smaller. Intimidating is fine, but I don’t want it to be the center of focus.”

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

Wessex mentions she’s not exactly a flag person, and Rexanna nods to that. It makes sense – some people are, some people aren’t. Rexanna herself? Definitely a flag type of person. But then again, she loves anything overdone and gaudy, brilliant, bright, and vibrant. It was her more than it was Wessex, so something subtle would have to do. And she marks it down on the paper just in case she forgets that small tidbit. “Got it.” She says, flashing the Ascended Queen a fanged smile.

Still, she listens as Wessex explains what she thinks will work best, to better succeed her vision of it, and Rexanna nods along – soaking it up and making sure she can help out the best she can. After all, it beats battling giant pumpkins and almost dying any day. “Could fade it into something, or add it as a little trinket that’s around – small enough to not be noticed at first but the trend would remain?” She says, thinking of things like official paperwork or things of that nature. They’ll make it work. She has faith in that.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

WESSEX after all is said and done you're just a carnivore let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster “What about a wood carving? Something decorative, but also not… necessarily pretty?” Looking down at her skin, she can now easily imagine the subtle intricacies that an etching or carving, or whatever you call it, might add to the design of the House. She shrugs. They’ll make it work. Wessex looks up at the moon again and notices how much lower it is in the sky. The light is returning - and it seems like they’ve managed to talk the whole night away. To be honst, the Queen is a little surprised. But it’s a good surprised. Like they’ve managed to get somewhere in their relationship. And Wessex, well she could use all the friends she could get. “Should we call it a night?” the Wraith asks, looking over the edge of their stone seat and jumping down. As much as she would love to stay and keep chatting, there is the occasional thing she has to do. {think we could end it in 2 more posts? So we get to #43?}

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

“A wood carving would be great, actually.” She says with a light smile, jotting it down. Now that she has all the notes she needs, she can focus on other things. But her mind always continues to shift back toward the décor of the place, of what they can make of it. How she can help this queen, with far better results than the forced help of the last monarchy. And she’ll gladly do it.

But soon enough, the Wraith slips from the stone seat and jumps down, and Rexanna doesn’t plan on being left behind. Instead, she follows the Queen, hopping down easily, though the distance is a bit longer for her than it was for Wessex, but she doesn’t mind. Instead, she folds the paper and sticks it into a pocket before brushing the dust and dirt from the stone seat off her clothes. “I’ll come see you when I have things ready.” She says, giving Wessex a bright smile before she nears the queen and aims to touch the woman’s shoulder gently. “And thank you for welcoming me to this little family.”

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!