The Little Things You Give Away {Open}

PETER

It had been some time since Peters had gone to the shrine, only to be met with silence. Long enough for the little bit of calm he’d clawed out of everything to be ruined. He had no idea what to do anymore, what he even wanted to do. Listen to Edrei, he supposed, but beyond that? He was lost.

The days were becoming more difficult to fill, there was only so much training one could do, at least alone, but he hadn’t improved enough to ask for a partner again. Not yet. Instead, he’d been trying to fill the time with little tasks. Whatever came to mind really. Most days, this has involved Adam, but today he was alone, wandering around the oasis and watching the water. Trying to not think of the shrine.

Peter wondered if he’d done something wrong. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew other people had been answered, he’d think it was some kind of trick. And... he had had proper offerings the second time, things meaningful to him, from another world. Maybe they were just rocks, but they were rocks he thought were interesting. Pretty, in the right hands, to the right eyes.

The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to look at his offering, of it was still there. Peter didn’t hold out hope, of course, but he couldn’t stop himself from going towards the shrine. He was just going to look. No harm in it.

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 One of them. Another Launceleyn. She’s spent enough time around the Manor lately to have their smells perpetually stuck up her nose, but from her observations, she can’t understand the appeal of this one to the family. He doesn’t look like them, and it doesn’t seem like he’s blood related. So what’s the deal? Wessex doesn’t want to think that she’s following him, but for lack of a better phrase… she’s following him. Probably not close enough to be noticed, but you never know. It isn’t long after he arrives in the Glade that the new Queen shows up. What a coincidence! Stopping in the shade of the trees, she lets her hood down and watches him for a moment, if he hasn’t seen her by now. She does her best to remain non-threatening even going so far as to casually lean against one of the trees, though a smile that might best help her cause is somewhat… missing entirely. “Hello. Peter, right?”

PETER

A shift in the shadows catches Peters eyes, his steps pushing as he focuses on the shape, person, emerging from the shadows. He watches her watch him, his face blank but his mind working furiously to place her face, asses the threat of her. Around the manor? In passing, like most who came through, but somewhere else too, with Adam maybe? A name didn’t come with the memories, leaving him at a loss when she called out to him. Wessex, maybe, but he’s not confident enough to try it.

”Peter, y-yes.” He confirmed somewhat hesitantly, closing some of the distance between them. He means to stand just out of arms reach, but something in the back of his mind keeps him further away. She doesn’t look completely comfortable in her casual lean, her stern face making him feel he’s being judged, and found wanting.

Peter shifted, clearing his throat softly. ”Did you... o-or Edrei um... need me? Or something?”

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 Of course he doesn’t recognize her. They’ve barely interacted before. That’s ok, Wessex doesn’t expect him to be comfortable in this interaction - not really - it’s just laying the foundation for something. Something she might need him for. Or might not. Clasping her hands behind her back, she straightens and waits for him to come closer, and when he stops, simply lets that be the set distance between them. “Oh, no. Not at all.” A casually dismissive gesture. “I just wanted to say hi. Maybe learn a little bit about you. Edy’s family is kinda-sorta my family now,” (a massive exaggeration but she’ll take that risk and call it ‘catching loyalty feelings’ if anyone calls her on it). “- since I don’t have any. And also to see if you have any concerns about our rule.” She fixes him with a curious, but light gaze, clearly waiting for an answer to any part of what she just said. And she is willing to be patient for the things she wants. Very patient.

PETER

Wessex's words are met with a suspicious furrow of Peter's brows, his head cocking to the side. He isn't certain how to trust someone who is kinda-sorta trying to claim kinship, especially when he himself still feels... well, like a kinda-sorta member of the family himself. Peter shifts his weight on his feet and tucks his arms behind his back, taking a moment to consider. He is pinned in place by her gaze, and wants to squirm away, but knows the only way out is to answer.

"I can... I will tell you what you want to know, um... about me." He isn't going to offer anything up, but it's an invitation for her to ask, and a promise that he will be truthful. "I didn't... I mean, uh, y-you didn't... who are you?" It's all Peter can do to not wince at his awkward phrasing, but he'd like to make sure of the name in his mind.

Blue eyes wander up to look Wessex over, Peter considering his next words carefully. "Concerns are... no, I don't have any. I will serve the queen, and... and m-my family, and who I am told to. No questions. No concerns."

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 “I’m Wessex,” she says almost gently, as if she were talking to scared animal. “One of the new rulers and a good friend of Edy’s.” Another exaggeration, perhaps, but they have spent a decent amount of time fucking each other, so - they’re like, decent fuck buddies, and buddy is a synoonym for friend, ERGO - well, you get the picture. She wrinkles her face a little bit at his immediate, belly-up submission. What in the world has happened to this guy? Maybe she needs to try a different tactic. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. I just wanted to officially meet you.”

PETER

"A good friend..." Peter repeated the description like he didn't quite believe it, his head cocking to the side as he reassessed Wessex. That, combined with the face she'd made at his response, set him off balance. Normally, people in power were content with his submission, and he was most comfortable serving, so it worked out. But if she wanted something else, then... he was lost really.

Shifting his weight from foot to foot, Peter considered his words again. "You... you know I'm not... not really important, right? I... I was adopted, and..." He shrugged, not sure what else to say. If she was trying to angle for some kind of alliance, or power, she was looking at the wrong person.

Peter was willing to talk, felt almost obliged to, if only to try to save some face. Face that he wasn't sure he'd lost in the first place, but that didn't really matter. "Did you... come to pray, or...?" A hand gestured behind him, loosely towards the shrine as he asked what he hoped was an innocuous enough question. The start to something.

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 She shrugs as he flat out states that he’s not important. And to Zariah that may have been true, he may have been no more than a tool and a pawn, but he doesn’t have to stay in such a position. “So? Everyone’s shit still stinks the same way.” Names? They mean very little to a woman who’s grown up with little societal structure. Power? She’s killed. Been threatened. Strength and importance is what one makes of it. She chuckles. “Except for mine. I don’t shit anymore.” And as an Ascended, that means she doesn’t pray at this shrine. In fact, Wessex hs very vivid memories of being almost burned alive in the Glade. Her head shakes, almost sadly, but not quite. “And these Gods aren’t mine. But if I’ve interrupted something, let me know.” If he wanted to pray, she certainly wouldn’t stand in his way. Live and let live. At least for now.

PETER

Shifting his weight from foot to foot, Peter considered Wessex’s words. It was a touch of reality for someone who’d put so much of his self worth into the hands of others, though only time would tell if the realization was a good or bad thing. At the moment though, he just cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, not sure how to take the addition in along with everything else.

The subject of Gods was at least a little easier to talk about. ”No. I tried... I tried before, but... nothing answers.” He shrugged lightly. It didn’t bother him. He had never gone into prayers expecting anything, he had been ignored by any higher power in his own world, and he was a stranger to the powers here.

”I was... I actually um, left something... something important here last time. Last time I tried. I was... gonna take it back.” Maybe he shouldn’t admit it to Wessex, but he wasn’t going to lie. There really wasn’t any point.

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 nods. She can see the wariness in Peter, the way he takes in the information but doesn’t know what to do with it. And she wonders if it’s because she’s an authority figure, but not his authority figure. Had Zariah brainwashed him enough to think that only she speaks the truth? For all her work on eliminating the term Abandoned, it did nothing to change the fact that they were, and would likely remain, unfavored by the Gods. “Do you have magic?” she asks and a slight tilt of her head, again wondering how he didn’t know these things. “If you do, you will rarely get an answer. If ever. The Gods don’t like magic-users. That’s why they’re called Abandoned.” She looks towards the shrine. “You can check. I’m not sure it’ll be there still. What was it?”

PETER

As difficult as Peter is finding it to read Wessex, he is finding it blessedly easy to talk to her. At least compared to anyone else he tries to speak with at length. Perhaps it’s the fact that he now has a rank to place to her, or the straight forward way she conducts herself, but he doesn’t feel like there will be any surprises.

The retort of ’Of course I have magic’ is cut off before it can escape his lips, which pull into a tight line. It’s clear that he’s surprised by the revelation, his disappointment made obvious in the way his shoulders slump. A quiet voice in his head whispered that he knew this, had heard it back when he’d first arrived, but who could remember so long ago when the present was so distracting?

”It was... a rock.” Peter shrugged, then, as if he’d been waiting for her permission to move, took a step towards the shrine, his body not quite turning fully away from Wessex. ”Not just a... a normal one, it was from... it’s from where I’m from. And it glows.” It seems as if he’s realizing how poor a job he’s doing explaining it with every word, his voice growing softer. And It’s not as if he can even show her what he means, the stone vanished from where he had placed it on the shrine.

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 nods slowly, refraining from making a face. She can kind of understand. They have stones that glow in Deepfrost, but she’s going to assume that the stones from his world are different, somehow. “I can see how something from home would be very important to you.” A world he’s all but lost, now, except to memories and dreams. Hearing what she’s heard from the other Outlanders, about this land or that land, Wessex is fairly sure she wouldn’t do well in their homes - she’d be woefully behind, tech wise, or even more of a barbarian, or useless, even. Being useless would probably be the worst. “So… you gave it as an offering to a God, yeah? Are you sure you want to... take it back?”

PETER

”No, it’s... it’s not from... home.” Peter corrects her, repeating the word home like he’d never heard it before. ”Just... just where I came from.” They’re not the same thing at all, as far as he’s concerned, though it clearly makes him a little uncomfortable to be asserting that view to her. But it’s a point he wants understood.

Peter shifted his weight back and forth, looking up at Wessex with some hesitation. He doesn’t want to question her again, not right on the heels of doing it, but... ”If.. if it’s still there, then... they don’t want it. It’s... it goes back to the...” His finger moves in a circle as he struggles to find the word, or at least a similar one. ”...the bottom people?” It’s not quite right, but hopefully close enough to convey the idea.

”Do you... should I leave it?”

Distance, distance keeps you safe
And I don't wanna scare you away

You're laughing cause it's funny
How you're fooling everybody but me

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 Ok, so… from where he used to live, but not from home. Wessex thinks she understands, but without actually knowing Peter and his past, she can’t say that she understands the specifics. Her home has always been Caido. Maybe not the Hallowed Grounds, exactly (how can a place that has always been little more than a prison be called home?) but this world, and everything they have yet to discover. “To the person who offered it? I don’t see why not.” She shrugs. What could he do, make the Gods dislike him even more? (Spoiler alert: the answer is yes, they can always dislike you more). “But I think that’s something you’ll have to brave by yourself. I have to get back.” She looks around and finds that she’s spent too much time here as it is. And while it’s been nice - strangely easy - encounter, there is a job she has to gte back to. “Good luck, Peter. It was nice to meet you.” [Fin, if that’s ok? I need to move on with threads x.x ]