You Got Hurt by a Pumpkin?!

"Mmm. They hated the art shows my students would make. What is this? Art by the poor for the stupid?" Bastien shook his head, wrinkling his nose and opening his mouth as if to get rid of a bad taste. "Terrible. The one blessed thing about this place is the lack of established systems like the one that allow those men to be the way they were. We must not allow them to rise." The dip into seriousness was not planned but clearly meant, Bastien clenching his fist and frowning at the wall as if it showed him some symbol of hierarchy. Of course, Bastien had seen the brand in the time since Rexanna's Ascension; he had not commented upon it when she had slipped into bed beside him nor any of the mornings after, not when there were far more important things to do like kiss her or simply marvel at where he was. But in this moment with her hair moving and the laughter of before falling into quiet...it was hard not to have his eyes linger on the spot. He would still not ask; some scars were not meant to be told unless offered. Listening, he nodded and leaned down to get a towel for her, held it in his hands as he waited for her to finish washing. "And Halyven was the site of the most harrowing times, I imagine? How do you think The Voice knew of it?" Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

She wrinkles her nose at the same time that he does, when he reenacts the nobles and how they responded to such things, and she shakes her head slowly as she continues to wash, listening to the vehemence in his voice and the praise he gives to the place despite having fallen into it. Her eyes lift to look upon him with a soft smile and a nod of agreement. She doesn’t need to add more to it, he had perfectly summed it up.

But she can’t stop thinking about what the Voice had known about her, and a part of her wishes that Bastien had already known so she wouldn’t have to repeat it. Yet she knows he doesn’t know the details, doesn’t know the harrowing bits so beautifully described like he had done to paint the picture for her. The time she had told him of her own past had been rushed and pushed through, rough and awkward with the curse in effect until it simply fell away.

She sighs lightly, looking back down into the water to finish running it through her hair, her dark tresses mixing and melding with the greys and black of the fluid mixed with blight, while he grabs a towel and waits. “She must have been able to get into my memories.” She says quietly, thoughtfully. “Halyven was the most destructive, yes… But not the most harrowing.” She frowns when she closes her eyes to run more water through and a small amount of soap, lathering it to clean.

“I was in Asciend with Cal when they found out I wasn’t the King’s daughter.” She begins, picturing the day. “He and I had been trying to have an heir for a few months, but it was standoffish from his point. It was a job and not a life choice. He didn’t trust me still. And when he had captured a guard that had been there when I was born, he learned the truth and was… very angry, but he kept it secret from his father.” She pauses to rinse her hair before her eyes open and settle on Bastien’s face.

“I was a month pregnant when he found out. But he thought I was lying when I told him, like I was trying to pretend I was to prevent punishment.” Her face wrinkles up slightly with the memory before she reaches for him for his help to stand and grab the towel. “He branded me in our chambers. C for his name and for the crown.” There’s a hint of anger within it when she says it, but she passes it quickly. “But then his father found out and I was thrown in Asciend’s dungeon for months, very little food, if any at all, and tortured week after week.” She doesn’t go into the details here, keeping them for herself and herself only.

“But the whole time I had been planning a way to get out, to survive it somehow and take my child and make a better life. But they kept everything randomized and I couldn’t find a pattern, couldn’t get out. And eventually… well, I had a son.” She frowns, looking away from him then as she wrings out her hair. “He was small, born too early I think without enough of me to help. But gods, Bastien, he was beautiful...” Trailing off, there’s a slight smile on her face as she recalls the beautiful boy. But the problem with it all is that he couldn’t breathe, and it was perhaps the most dreadful, terrible feeling in her life. “And the guards, Cal, all of Asciend thought I had murdered him in some form of revenge.”

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

Bastien waited patiently for Rexanna to begin, knowing that she likely needed time. Time to remember, to think of the right phrasing and yes, he was sure, to edit the story for him. They all did it, didn't they? Even in the story he had just told he had taken out some boring details, simplified parts that would be difficult to explain without historical and political context that he had once taken for granted. "I believe she sees all of us, mind and body." He mentioned as she spoke of The Voice seeing memories. The moment he had Ascended, the colours and lights he had seen as his body was changing...Bastien had never felt anything affect so much of him at once. Sometimes he felt like he was still in that moment, seeing a stretched out future that would snap back any time. Listening to the story, he 'tsk'-ed and shook his head hearing that having a child had been a job. Of course, he knew that was the case for many nobles, and even among the poor there were often children had for the functional reasons of workload and survival than for love. Still, the idea was not one he could find peace with. Was a child not meant to be the ultimate sign of love, of intimacy? To trust someone so to bring new life into the world with them? It was nothing he had considered until Rexanna for just those reasons. But there was more to the story, so he did not say anything for the moment. Of course, like all of Rexanna's stories, this one ended horribly (it was how she had become so strong, he knew, but it still hurt as if a wound anew when he heard it from her lips) and he sympathetically reached out to touch her shoulder. "I am sure he was beautiful, cara. Any son from such a mother would be. As for this man..." He said the word as if it did not fit, as if something more akin to monster would be suitable. "He and all his court were fools if they thought that. To know you and to still think you capable of such things is the mark of an idiot, I think." As always he spoke confidentally and assuredly, but now there was an extra note of assertion fueled by anger. "If only I could go back and make sure each of those who wronged you knew how much you deserved only the best." Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

Her story had never been one of roses and happiness, but in all reality, whose was? She wasn’t as good of a story teller as Bastien was, to be able to explain and show her experiences in the painterly, artistic way that he could – but the tone of her voice, the shift in the words she used, it was her own way of painting it. In a way that was a bit less visual but still enough of an emotion to cause the understanding without the vividness of the imagery to accompany it.

But like always, Bastien was one of the best listeners she knew – quiet and calm, collected, listening until she paused long enough for him to interject. And when he does, he reaches out to touch her gently and she dries herself off in the process before she leans forward to rest her head on his shoulder when he speaks with confidence and venom, one that she wished to see if only to prove to them that she was worth something to someone, more than anything.

She can’t help the slight smile that reaches the corners of her lips at his admission, and she nods slowly in agreement. “That is not all, unfortunately.” She tells him before she pulls away to look into his face, to let his gaze and presence fill her with warmth where her memories left her haunted and cold. “A week or two, I can’t remember, after that – they took me out in a cage, put me in a wagon of sorts, and took me to Halyven with their armies.” She contemplates, pausing as she remembers it.

“They placed me at the top of the hill to watch while they took my city. I was surrounded by guards and cannons, trapped and concealed like an animal in a cage watching their home burn.” She frowns at this, gaze narrowing slightly as she looks away from him, her good arm lifting to show him just how big the cage had been – quite small in comparison – before she gnaws on her lip gently. “But a cannon had a misfire, and it shot into the guards and hit the carriage just enough to create an opening. And through the flames I ran like hell. I remained on the run for many months.” She finally looks back to him with a smile.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

It seemed Rexanna was never done telling him of the horrors of her old world. Had anyone else been telling him the stories, he would have wondered if they were false - it seemed almost too much suffering, or perhaps more than he wanted to imagine her going through. But he trusted Rexanna as he had trusted no one else before, and instead of disbelief all he felt was a deep sorrow. Though the one light in all these stories, the one scrap of hope, was that through it all she persevered. "A daring escape. Do you know how proud I am of you, that you overcame all of these things?" He hoped fervently the answer was yes. "What happened, after you were on the run? Presumably it somehow came to an end?" Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

He tells her that he’s proud of her, and she nods despite it all – even if for a time she had resented it, had thought perhaps it would have been better for her to disappear with the rest of her people, to take a stand against the conquerors. But she didn’t, and she had regretted it for a while before she had met Frey and they had seen through her, had seen that she would rather become the self-sacrificial lamb to right her wrongs rather than to continue on with her life.

And they had shown her how unnecessary it had been. She had taken it to heart, understanding and changing herself to better herself – and she had. She had Bastien now, so many friends and people she cared about. And she was better because of them all. And for the first time she finds herself feeling proud too.

But Bastien asks her what happened after, and she calculates how long it had been quietly to herself before she looks to him with a soft smile. “Well, they almost got me multiple times, but the time I thought they really were – my husband was just about to take the door down to the room I was in – I stepped over a threshold and fell here outside the Rathskeller.” She wrinkles her nose with a small one armed shrug.

“And that is where I think my timeline shifted.” She explains, eyes growing serious as she recalls the shift between coming here and the other life she had lived in Helovia and the Rift and the like. It’s the only explanation, and she grows a bit somber as she looks down to the ring on her finger before she looks back up at him through her lashes. “Because from there is where I had fallen into Helovia, too. And lived my life there, and somehow it’s combined and warped and shifted into here too.” She pauses, seeing if he’s following what she’s saying.

“I told you Deimos was here, too. And I told you of the twins that I had?” She clears her throat briefly. “Kiada is here. And it’s so strange, because I can remember being her mother and all the mistakes and stupid things I had done, and when I saw her she looks as though she’s only five years younger than me.” She shakes her head, biting her lower lip slightly. Wondering how he’ll take the news.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

"Really? What fortuitous timing. It is like Caido is a guardian angel." For him, arriving in Caido had been incidental, almost, something that snatched him away from his life in his sleep; he had not considered the use of portalling away as an escape. Had it been by design, he wondered, or just some kind of wonderful coincidence? The talk of timelines was honestly a little confusing. If Rex did not fully understand how it had happened, he was sure he wouldn't either, but it was not time to ask for clarification; he could tell she was trying to say something important. For a moment he didn't comphrehend, staring blankly. Then, suddenly, the words snapped into place in his head and he leaned back with wide eyes, blowing out surprised air. "I see...does...she know you are her mother?" Bastien wasn't sure why that was the first question to come to mind, but there were so many to ask it was as good a starting point as any. "...And...the other twin..?" It had not yet struck him he was about to become a step-father, or that he would have to meet his to-be wife's daughter. For the moment he was stuck on understanding the whole thing to begin with. Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

She nods, thankful every day that it had worked out that way. She wasn’t sure if Caido knew just how important it had been to her, and she had no way to thank them for it – other than being a child of the land she now found herself in, and she gazes up at him as she explains, wondering deep down if there’s a way to thank, to ask why the timelines and lives she had lived had melded into one the minute she stepped across that threshold.

But it gives him pause, leaning back with wide eyes and a puff of air in his surprise. She doesn’t blame him, she was just as surprised when she found out – when she had looked upon the girl with the Luxere passing through by the Notice Board. Bastien had likely seen her before, had no idea, was just as unaware as she had been. And how much less complicated that had been.

Her head ducks at the first question, moving her arm with her good arm before she manages to sit on the edge of the tub – eyes focusing on him after a moment. “Yes.” She breathes, shaking her head slightly. “It wasn’t as hard to explain to her as it is to most people…” She admits with a turn of her head. “I had been a horrible mother, and she resents me for it, even if it wasn’t this version of me to have done it.” She finds a frown reaching her face before she, too, puffs out a small sigh.

“Kianzo is still missing. And I think Kiada may have adopted Deimos as a father figure…” She trails off before her gaze slips toward Bastien and she reaches out lightly with now clean fingertips. “You needn’t worry about her calling you father, she had enough venom on her tongue to call me mother.” She tries to lighten the mood with a small smile before she shakes her head and finds her gaze landing on her fingers on his arm. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

As Rexanna moved up to sit on the edge Bastien braced his arms, holding them out around her incase she slipped - but as she made it successfully he instead picked up the towel again and draped it around her shoulders. "It is hard to imagine you being a horrible mother, Rexanna. But...perhaps, what you can do from now is show her you are better. That you are a woman now any child would be proud to call their parent." "Kianzo...tell me, is there something that draws you to a kia- sound?" He asked, a light smile on his face. It occured to him that if they did have a baby through the miracles of the Voice, he had no ideas on names. He'd never considered children seriously enough to get that far before. Immediately his mind was flooded with names of composers, painters...he wondered what Rexanna would think of an Italian name. But it was not the time to suggest that, not when she looked so sad and small in the moment. "Cara, you told me when it was right to. After all, this does not affect me too much. I am not needed to care for the child or as it sounds, to have a close relationship to her. Just being your fiance...it does not entitle me to your every thought or secret." He stood and reached out a hand to help her up. "If two people get so close they become one, they are just back to being lonely again, no?" Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

He helps brace her while she sits before settling for wrapping a towel around her while she explains, and she pauses to listen as he tells her he finds it hard to believe she’d be a terrible mother. Perhaps not in this life, but certainly in that other world. Still, she gives him an appreciative smile. “I was too worried about keeping Kiada’s father happy, and apparently it was having a million children.” She explains with a wry smile. “Didn’t stop him though, I think Kiada has a very extended family.” She tries to shrug it off, even if a part of it hurt to say.

At least with Bastien, she was enough.

She nods to him despite it, soaking in the words. “Thank you.” It’s quiet when she says it, but she feels it with every ounce of herself. But he questions the twins names and she finds another smile gracing her face. “I am awful with names, so I went with their father’s language. Kianzo means the beginning. and Kiada means orderly, schematic, by the book.” She says, even if neither of those translations were correct for their personalities. She wrinkles her nose slightly. “My name is….” She hums thoughtfully; thinking of the term of those lost texts they had based her language around. “Latin…? It didn’t come from my world.” She tries to shrug again, eyes falling onto him once more.

But she grows somber, sorrowful for having not told him sooner despite everything that had happened. And she puffs out a bit of relieved air at his explanation, taking his hand and standing, pulling the towel tight along her pale, scarred, broken body. “I don’t think she much wants anything to do with us, if I’m being honest. I’m sure Deimos will drag her to our wedding anyway.” She says with a small snort and small fanged smile.

Yet, she agrees with him, and that’s why she adores him so much. He allows her to be herself and she allows him to be himself. They weren’t changing each other by simply being together, and it was a breath of fresh air she didn’t know how badly she needed it. And she spends the next moment looking into his face, into his eyes, reaching up with her good arm to brush her fingers along his jawline as she leans against him. “I love you Bastien.”

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!

"...Hm." Bastien could only shake his head. If only he had the powers of The Voice, who could pluck people from wherever she liked to bring them to her. He could have brought her over sooner, before so many people had hurt her - though, would she be Rexanna, then? So strong and resilient? That was really what he admired about her. That she had been so beaten down but instead of becoming brittle and angry she had become quietly reinforced, retained her gentleness. He nodded to the babie's names, though he was a little surprised Kiada's name didn't mean the end. Though...he supposed that might be an odd meaning to give a newborn baby. For Rexanna's name though, he could help. "Oh, I can tell you that. It is a latin name meaning 'royal grace', cara. Quite fitting, really." That she knew of Latin raised some interesting questions about the connectedness of all the words, that he had not considered before. "Then lets hope she does not dramatically object, even though it would make a wonderful story." He smiled, gently holding her arm when she'd stood, still a little nervous she would tip over. But she came closer, traced her fingers on his jaw, he was already smiling but when he heard her speak his eyes crinkled as he leaned in to pull her gently to his chest. "I love you too, Rexanna. With more than I knew my heart held." Bastien held her there for a moment, then stepped back, keeping his hand on her forearm. "Would you like to go to bed, now? You must be tired, what with all your...pumpkin fighting." Bastien Start by admitting from cradle to tomb Isn't that long a stay Life is a cabaret, old chum It's only a cabaret, old chum

REXANNA

i was born with a knife in one hand

He tells her what her name means in Latin and there’s a bit of surprise that crosses her face at his own translation, the ability of him to know the language too is something she finds surprising yet endearing. “Yes, it does.” She says after a moment, a smile along her face. She had known, when they had brought her to learn the life of the nobles, a language only they could truly translate. But it was wonderful that he knew it too, wondering just how connected languages could be traversed from world to world.

Though of course they had claimed it was the word of the gods. Perhaps it had been people like them, displaced, wonderful, miraculous people.

But he claims that he hopes she will not object, and Rexanna finds it within her to imagine the Harpy doing nothing but snidely quiet remarks from her seat. Still, she nods, a smile tracing her face that grows wider when he reiterates those beautiful words. “Mmm.” She hums, leaning into him more as he wraps his arms around her just enough.

Yet, the temptation of bed is far more tempting, and she bobs her head in agreement, allowing him to help her there — to rest, recharge, fix herself.

and a wound in the other

Coding base by Sky!