happy birthday to you

Satisfied that there’s no longer any one after her, Wessex is able to let her guard down a fraction. She’s been busy, but the thought of Rexanna and her Ascension was never far from her mind. So when the others are asleep, when it is more natural for her to be up than for for the rest of the world, the blonde Queen cloaks up and heads off in the middle of the night towards the Ruins. It’s been a long time since she’s been there - almost a year, in fact. It’s where she met Archebold and first discovered another openly out one of her kind. Seems fitting. Sometimes she wishes the asshole would come back, but then people disappear all the time in Caido and you try to learn not to get too attached. She sent a note ahead of her, inviting the other to join her in the Ruins. For chats. WESSEX come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts unsex me here

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

She has healed for the most part since the encounter with the giant pumpkin, and she feels as though she’s close to her old self (new self?) again. She feels fine enough to venture out again and hope she doesn’t have the brilliant idea of attacking a gourd too big for her liking. But before she has a chance to simply venture with no plans in sight, she spots the note and reads it. Ah, yes, Wessex! Based off the Notice Board, a new Queen as well. But this time there’s no sinking feeling in her gut as she reads it, a summons of sorts.

Wessex is her friend in a way, and now they have a lot more in common than they once had.

She dons a dark cloak, hood pulled up as she slips from her home to reach the Ruin’s, a place she’s had many chats. But her eyes adjust better, her footsteps lighter (even with a slight limp as she continues to heal day after day, she makes note to visit the voice and feed soon). There’s a small mark on her cheek that still works on its healing as well as she slips down beneath the rocks and rubble.

As she enters, sapphire gaze scan the place before she calls out to her Queen, quietly wondering if she’s hiding in another hole in the wall. “Queen Wraith?” She says with a small smile hanging on her dark red lips, she wonders if Wessex knows she’s gone through with her Ascension yet. And if so, she knows she’ll apologize for not coming sooner.

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 No summons. A request. With what she assumes to be perilously few friends (yes, she’s seen the note on the Bakery door and rolled her eyes almost 360 degrees. But that’s another story), she wouldn’t order one of the few people on her side. One of her kind. An ally. A sister. She drops from the second floor to the first through a hole in boards with barely a sound other than the landing of her feet on the warped wood. She chuckles and rises from her crouch “Is that what they’re calling me?” A moment of consideration flashes across her face and then it breaks into a slight smile. “Not bad, considering the other options. Not entirely untrue, either.” For she was not-human, dead, and then not-human again. She is a flash in the night for some, a shock of blonde hair, pale, an image before death - ah, but that was once upon a time. Alright, if she's being honest, it wasn't that long ago. Her people know both sides of her: the killer and the caretaker, and it looks like they haven’t exactly landed on the side of her former-former life. So it goes. She will prove them all wrong. As for the younger woman, she finally takes a good look at Rex and her smile grows even wider. Genuine, even. “Welcome to a very fucked up family,” the Wraith quips, extending a hand to clasp Rex’s in solidarity. She doesn’t need to say anything, like recognizes like.

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The Queen drops from a hole in the ceiling, and where Rexanna might have once been surprised, she finds it does nothing but capture her attention in the dark halls, a smile playing on her lips in response to Wessex’s commentary. “It is. I find it fits you.” She hums, stepping closer to the blond woman with a small smile, no fangs to be seen. But she knows Wessex will notice, notice the moment she takes her hood down and she’s different. No longer warm and flushed, and when Wessex steps forward and grins to her, the Penumbra grins back. She reaches out her own hand to clasp Wessex’s with a light chuckle.

“It was… An adventure. Glad to be a part of it.” She says honestly, shifting her weight from the leg she favors. “I am glad I did it when I did. I’m still trying to heal from a giant blighted vampire gourd.” She snorts, shaking her head — dark hair bouncing around her face. “I think I broke my arm and leg, maybe my hip when it fucking hopped on me.” Her shoulders roll in a shrug. Perhaps Wessex might notice the slight change in her demeanor, no longer quiet and considerate. A backbone has been grown.

She considers the queen in front of her with a small fanged smile. “How is Queenhood?” She asks, finding it an easy question to ask, to wonder about.

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 Giant blighted vampire gourd? Wessex’s face says it all: half disbelief and half disgust, she tries to imagine what one might look like, and probably comes relatively close. Except for the blight part. And the hopping. Her brows knit together in a brief look of concern, but as the woman before herseems to be moving unlike one with broken limbs, she simply nods and says, “Your nanites are probably taking care of them. That’s what they’re called. I’m not sure if we’re made entirely of them or not, but they’re pretty good. You can even be healed by unicorns, if need be. That one surprised me.” Magic is magic. She doesn’t question it when it works in her favor. "Glad you're ok." Rather than stay cooped up in this old house, Wessex gestures to the opening through which she came, back out into the open air and the clear night sky. There is an unspoken question in it - do they want to walk out there? As used as she is to the underground, nothing compares to the moon and stars. She is still a woman of this world, still born and bred in this soil, still knows the constellations and their myths, spent thirty-eight years wishing on those tiny dots in the sky, begging, pleading even. Being an Ascended changes some things, but it doesn’t change that. A fact that some find very difficult to understand. She does not return the smile, turning somber on a dime. “It is… difficult. I never expected it to be easy, obviously. But…” The Queen trails off, not sure where to begin or what to say. How much is venting and how much is whining, how does she admit to feeling like everyone hates her and she’s barely done anything yet?

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The look that crosses the Queen's face is enough that Rexanna agrees entirely. It was not pleasant in the slightest, and she finds that the memory of it is enough to make her shake her head. But the next bit of information that Wessex shares, she listens to. She doesn’t know what nanites are, but deep down the Penumbra is forever grateful for them. She lifts a hand (the one that had been broken) and stretches her fingers out. “It was a few weeks ago, I couldn’t flex my hand for at least one of those weeks.” She recalls with a light snort before looking back at Wessex with a look that seems to say oh? in regards to the Unicorn healing.

“That is surprising.” She admits a bit quietly, a brow lifting as she thinks of Remi and Deimos’ unicorns, and how beneficial they could have been. At least she knows now, and she gives the Wraith a small nod of thanks for it before she gestures to the door and Rexanna’s gaze follows. She removes her hood as she steps toward it, out into the brisk night, aiming her steps to land beside Wessex’s as she asks of how her new duties are treating her.

Her head is angled toward the sky, soaking up what moonlight she can, before she turns to regard her Queen. If Wessex needs to vent, Rexanna is all ears. She thinks that if anyone could relate, it was likely her, and while she hadn’t told many her story (a story that isn’t really hers anymore as the Voice has shown her) she looks to Wessex with a soft fanged smile. “I have found there’s never a right answer with ruling.” She begins, finding it so much easier to relate and share with Wessex than she ever would have with Zariah. This was Wessex, and while her power and demeanor had frightened Rexanna once, they were family now. It feels like a standard playing field.

“Everyone gets pissed off at something, whether you can help it or not. It just depends on how many are upset, what they can do.” She trails off, and as if she needs to prove it to Wessex that she can relate, she glances over toward the blond woman. “My other world, I was a Queen. But I had been married off to the opposing Prince to tie our nations together.” She explains easily, not needing to add too many words to get the point across. “There’s nothing like trying to rule in a place you’re unwelcome.” She says a bit quietly, wondering if Wessex can relate.

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 Semi-leading an easy route through the Ruins, Wessex has a place in mind for the two of them, fear not! Taking a moment to collect her thoughts as they weave between more crumbling buildings, the Wraith listens to Rex as she begins to peel away her own layers. “That sounds like a shitty situation,” she says after a quiet moment. Like, even worse than dealing with the high-and-mighty Ronin. “Married off. I’m guessing you didn’t like him, did you?” If that’s the case, Wessex knows she’s gotten off easily. She can, technically, walk away from this whenever she wants to. If it becomes too much (but when has she ever backed down from a challenge?) she can whisk herself off into the night and never return. That’s not going to happen. But it’s always an option; a comforting, last-resort , avoiding-death option. Enough about Wessex’s feelings for the moment. They can circle back to that later. “You look hardly old enough to have been a Queen. No offense, really.” But to have had to do that kind of thing, so young? Hell, all the Outlanders are fucking children in her mind, and perhaps that’s part of the problem. She still has difficulty thinking that they’ve lived enough of a life to have any perspective on ruling or governing or whatever the fuck it is she, at thirty-nine, is trying to do.

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

She doesn’t know where it is that Wessex is guiding them, but she’s happy to let the older woman take the lead – falling into step beside her as she tells her tale (at least half way) before listening for comments from the Wraith. She reiterates the first comment Rexanna had given, and her head tilts toward the blond woman with a small half smile. “I tried to, but.. Well, truths came out and it turned out I wasn’t 100% royal. He was offended, threw me in the dungeons for a time.” She angles herself toward Wessex, pushing her dark hair back from her right collarbone to show the brand.

“Branded as his property, actually. But I managed to escape before I fell into here. I had been on the run for over six months before I just appeared here.” She gives the Wraith a smile. Something about Rexanna’s ascension has made it easier for her to tell her story, to be able to bring up and explain the world and life she’d lived before. None of it bothered her, none of it mattered anymore – as the Voice had shown her.

Her gaze flits back toward the Queen with a smile at the next comment, a soft snort leaving her. “I was pretty young, actually. Got married when I was eighteen. Became queen when I was twenty. Fled my country when I was twenty-one.” She recalls, head tilting up a bit to look at the moon as she thinks. “That was… Five years ago now. Been awhile.” She shrugs her shoulders and looks back to Wessex with a soft smile.

“But you’re a Natural, right? What do you make of all of it now?” She asks, curious as to what she thinks of the ability to live within a bubble for so many years before having it burst and still being unable to explore the world outside, seemingly unchanged while everything within writhed and collided.

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 So much at so young, Wessex thinks, and then about the impulses she had to learn to curb as a teenager and how she did so much dumb, life-threatening shit - trying to show off or picking fights and not dealing with any of her agression and anger issues. Her eyebrows raise a bit. “Wow.” A sly side-eye towards the baby Ascended. “No wonder you came to the dark side,” she says with a jest and a light chuckle. Best to make light of a shitty past. They come to a place where the fallen debris makes a bit of a natural ledge at about head height. It’s overgrown with moss (not that they can feel the discomfort of sitting on cold stone) and she hoists herself up, then leans back against the slab behind her. “Now?” Glancing up to the moon, the Wraith drinks in the sight and unconsciously purses her lips in thought. “I’m frustrated. With all this freedom, I just want to get out and explore the world. Our wildest dreams have come true and we’re still fucking stuck here.” The fangs come out, bared, defying the forces that keep them - and their Lady - penned in. “The Voice said she would give us the stars and fuck me, I would take it in a heartbeat. For Her. For us.”

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

Wessex doesn’t comment much on the lengthy explanation Rexanna gives, and she finds it’s easier that way. Less questions, less recollections, less… Well, everything. Though it doesn’t bother her as much to talk about it now as it did before, the Voice having fully made her change, made her leave the past in the past and keep it kept there. There’s little good she can do with a head still stuck in the past. And she glances toward the older Ascended as she chuckles and jests, and the Penumbra offers her a fanged smile in response. “One foot always in the dark.” She replies, jesting too.

Soon enough, however, they’re at what appears to be a ledge, and she watches as Wessex hoists herself up and sits to enjoy the moonlight – and Rexanna follows, because she’s never quite dared enough to do something so simple yet slightly dangerous before. Though, compared to being squashed by a pumpkin, a fall from this height likely wouldn’t do much to her after all. She follows the Queen, pulling herself up to sit beside her and let her sapphire gaze linger on the moon and stars above, before she glances over toward Wessex as her question is answered.

It’s a feeling she understands, so deeply to her core, that she can’t help but resonate with it further as the words leave her lips. Rexanna pulls her legs up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, head tilting toward the moon and the stars as well. “I want that too.” She replies quietly, shooting a small glance toward Wessex. “Obviously not as much as you do, but I’ve never been one to remain in a cage. And now that the door is open, the room beyond far too small and still closed off, it’s traded one for another. As for the Voice, she’s the only one that’s ever really… Felt like she’s listened? I came to her with the tools Bastien had given me, and she helped me see the way. It’s the best decision I’ve made, I think.” She acknowledges before offering her unlikely sister a smile.

“So to the stars we go. We’ll get out there, whatever it takes. For her and for us.” She replies with a nod to her head and looks back toward the moon. After a few moments she sighs contently (despite not needing to breathe) and rocks back on her hips slightly. “You know, I loved the sun so much when I was abandoned. But I never quite realized how beautiful the moon and all the stars are in comparison. At least you can look at the moon without blinding yourself.” She snorts, wondering what the stars looked like out in the beyond, past the storms that swelled to the sides of the Greatwood. If they’d be the same or different.

And her thought drifts back toward Deimos and his comment about portals. And perhaps she could see the Aurora again, nestled in the comfort of mountain tops and winter’s bites.

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 “Mine too.” There is a moment of consideration, put in there for emphasis or perhaps just comedic effect. “Then again, the options have only ever been Ascension or death.” Another pause. “Twice.” And now, she finally chuckles, because a - only one other person can say they’ve been reborn, and that was by another’s sacrifice, not a genuine remaking, and b - it’s never really been a choice. It’s the survivalist in her. It did turn out to be the best decision she’s ever made, because here she is, a Queen, and physically more powerful than she’s ever been. “How could I begin to repay her for an extra two lives?” She shrugs, borderline happy to say the phrase she’s come to use so often to describe her feelings about her Lady. It doesn’t feel like she’s indebted at all. It doesn’t feel like the Goddess makes her do anything, or expects anything remarkable out of her. It’s all Wessex’s doing; a broken need for approval and genuine addiction to power. Her mind needs to be engaged, to have problems to solve and problems to fix. Everything the Ascended has asked for (almost) has been granted. Following Rex’s gaze up, the Wraith lets silence fall, thinking about the sun and the moon and the differences between themselves and the daywalkers. “You know you can still feel residual warmth in the summer. And I’ve heard that when you’re older, you can withstand being in its light more. I feel stronger in the day than I did a year ago.” So there is hope. It just may be a ways away. A wicked little smile flashes across her face, along with a memory. “I miss sunbathing naked. To tease the boys - the looks on their faces? Priceless. But I do not miss sunburns.”

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

There’s a slight shrug on Rexanna’s end at Wessex’s response to her foot in the dark comment, and she distinctly recalls the idea of the Ascended woman having perished, only to walk in on that very same meeting. A small smile quirks up the corner of her lips at the memory, but remembering it all the same. She had died, and here she was. It gave Rexanna something akin to hope, deep and buried within her chest. She holds onto it tightly.

Wessex then mentions the idea of repayment for her two lives she’d been given, and the Penumbra glances to the older Ascended woman with a wry smile. “We help.” She comments, agreeing and nodding her head as if to emphasis the point. From what she’s seen of the Voice (all of two times really) it’s been protective and somewhat cautious. From when she projected from Lucas to prevent them from being imprisoned, to her own Ascension. When they weren’t sure if it would work or not.

But it did, and she was so incredibly grateful.

They both begin to stare at the moon, and Rexanna lets the silence welcome her before her friend (new sister?) speaks. Another tidbit of information that gives her hope. “I was thinking of trying to find a parasol somewhere, just to have in case I feel antsy.” She replies with a huff of laughter. “But that’s great. I can’t wait.” She replies a bit offhandedly before looking over at Wessex as she gives a memory from her time before her Ascension.

She snorts, a grin forming on her face. “Oh I bet. I’ve never actually done that.” She admits with another soft chuckle. “The most fun I had was Frey’s curse for me, ironically.” A small half assed answer, but she smirks at the response. “I couldn’t not flirt. That was certainly something when trying to have a serious conversation about the Spire or whatever else we had going on.” She pauses. “I had helped Deimos with chopping wood before Longnight and the innuendos were endless.” Her laugh grows louder then.

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 Wessex laughs. And I mean, actually full on laughs. Not many people here have heard that sound before; but the idea of the big, stoic man facing an innuendo-laden Rex is genuinely amusing. She can imagine it either going right over his head or him turning as red as a tomato. They’ve only ever been fellow warriors, immediately trustworthy as fighting kin on the same side, but that is probably the extent of their relationship. It can’t be anything more. Not now. Amalia - No, no thoughts like that. Not right now. “So you’ve been a Queen before. Imprisoned. Escaped. What else have you done, oh mysterious Rexanna?” Wessex finds that she actually wants to know more about this woman, saying perhaps to herself, that it’s for the future, for when she might need help. But the truth is that she doesn’t want to stop talking and she doesn’t want to go back to wherever she’s going to rest for the day, and this - this non-innuendo laden connection is something she hasn’t had for awhile. She’s been a teacher, an adversary, a fuck buddy, and a sister (of sorts). But a friend? Well, ask anyone. The Wraith doesn’t really have friends.

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

The sound of Wessex’s full bodied laugh eases Rexanna even further, and she settles in beside her Queen, friend, sister of a sort, and laughs with. It was certainly something, the innuendoes flying over his head. But gods she had adored Deimos for that little bit, having a true conversation with him despite the words that had left her lips. It’s like they weren’t even there, it had made it easier.

The question Wessex poises to her, she raises a brow as she looks toward her with an amused smile. “Well, really that’s kind of it.” She snorts, rolling her shoulders in a small shrug. “But… There is this weird thing that happened when I arrived here. I have memories of a different version of me – an older version that has lived a different long life.” Her brows furrow slightly before one raises as she regards Wessex.

“I knew Deimos in that other life – he holds the memories too.” She pauses thoughtfully. “I worked for him as a Thief for a time before I left to have a million children.” She almost rolls her eyes at the amount, far too many than she could ever begin to try and handle. A part of her grows saddened by it, by the ability of the Ascended to never bear children, but she had given it up knowingly while Ascending. And she doesn’t regret it, even if it makes her reminisce a small amount.

“But what about you? I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be here and suddenly have so many people show up that don’t know anything about this place?” She looks out over the land and gestures with her hand. “I still know hardly anything about it, if I’m being honest.” She says slightly, gaze slipping over toward Wessex, wondering if she’ll share her stories too.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!