[se]we used to be mad love

EDREI

There were people who could let bygones be bygones. There were people who, under pressure, became diamonds. And then there were the Launceleyns, who famously stewed, and stewed, and stewed, until all that was left was an unrecognizable mess of blackened and burnt charcoal.

Or at least that's how it was for Edy.

Standing outside of Theskyra house, the Rapacious paced back and forth. Wearing an inappropriate black leather bodysuit and thigh-high boots, she snarled silent snippets of argument to herself as she worked up the courage to bang on the cellar door. When she finally did, Edy took a few large steps back, glaring at the knob and willing it to turn. Hopefully, Wessex would open it in a flourish such that all the balloons filled with the piss of various barnyard animals would fall and splat right on her stupid head.

"Go fuck yourself."
"Fuck me yourself, you coward."

WESSEX

Go
deep throat
a cactus

Gathering up the last of her stuff to move it to her new room in the Barracks, an unexpected knock makes the Wraith pause.

Technically, it’s not her house anymore. And not her responsibility to answer visitors. And who the fuck knocks on the cellar door instead of the main one? It makes her pause. Putting her shit down, Wessex sneaks over to the door and tries to listen for a clue - but it’s as silent as the grave. So, she does the next best thing and tries to surprise whomever’s out there by shifting into her Ford Explorer-sized bird (yes, let’s handwave the size of the cellar).

Moving into position, bird!Wessex’s beak raps sharply on the door from below, breaking easily through the lock and sending some of the balloons on to her shiny metal beak and head. Even her diluted sense of smell can’t mask the acrid, ammonia stench and she shakes her head, maybe sending a bit of the excess flying as it rolls off her.

The fuck?!

EDREI

The fuck is absolutely correct.

Edy had been hoping that the Wraith would slam the door open and strut out wearing a towel and one of those swimming-caps. Maybe with a razor in her hand and some suds on her ass for good measure. ("But Edy, Ascended don't—" shut the fuck up, this is her fantasy). She'd even have settled for her coming out in some oversized sweater and leggings looking cottage-core chic. What she got was some shiny bit of metal busting through the door and spoiling her hard work.

"Ay! That's Wessex's house!" She croaks angrily, not minding the flecks of piss or the puddle developing in front of the door. "Get the fuck outta there, you!" Of course the information Edy was working off of was very old (the board description said W lived in the cellar), and even though she was pissed off at her former friend, that didn't mean she'd let some shiny cocksucker ransack the place and ruin her perfectly age-appropriate prank.

"Go fuck yourself."
"Fuck me yourself, you coward."

WESSEX

Go
deep throat
a cactus

Wessex hadn’t yet realized who was out there, who it was that set the trap, until Edy’s indignant croak echoes down to her. At which point, she just has to break through the rest of the cellar door to confirm it, sending chips of wood everywhere. Huh. That broke way too easily, perhaps it hadn’t been maintained as well as -

Get outta there, you! Earns an equal screech in response, one large, black eye focusing on the Rapacious before it suddenly retracts out of sight. Did it work? Did the smell of cow and sheep piss and the surprise of getting caught drive it way or just into hiding?

She may never know, because “Edy!?Why?! precedes the General’s leather-butch-babe clad torso as she pops up like a bewildered blonde tulip in a too-warm Deepfrost. Gesturing to the piss puddle forming, the bits of balloon left on the steps, and the porta-potty smell in the air, Wessex appears so baffled at the unique turn of events, she doesn’t even know what to say.

EDREI

It goes from metal and eyeballs big enough to fit into a soup bowl, to Wessex appearing like some suddenly sprouted mushroom after a spring rain. Scrunching her face dramatically, the Rapacious tilts her head, assessing the scene with a general expression of shitshitfucknowwhat?. "Oh." Edy hums eloquently, thinking the creature either was Wessex, or was some weird furry-fuck session (was it a furry still, if it was metal?). Either way, her plan had worked. So...why didn't it feel like it had?

"That's...that was..." The Rapacious tries, searching for her footing now that things had gone tits up. "...for not saying sorry for killing me." She adds, raising her chin indignantly and then offering the Wraith her middle finger as an afterthought.

"Go fuck yourself."
"Fuck me yourself, you coward."

WESSEX

Go
deep throat
a cactus

Silence, other than the dripping of piss from various edges and corners.

Wessex’s brow furrows, still trying to wrap her head around what’s been done and what’s just been said. “Remember that note I wrote? I said it there and I was going to again, in the maze, but -” shaking her head, she crosses her arm and looks at the sky, perhaps trying to find answers under the gutters of her former house. Maybe the stonemasons wrote secrets there, just for her, just for this moment.

“And I should have. I should have.” A single top fang pokes at her bottom lip a bit as she worries over the next bit. “But I go on the offensive when attacked.”

Another pause, if Edy doesn’t bite her head off or storm off or get pissed off. And even if she does, Wessex will say it to her back, so at least she will have said it aloud. “I am sorry.”

EDREI

Puffing out her cheeks like an indignant child, Edy just huffs dramatically with her middle finger still raised. She wants to argue and throw everything back in Wessex's face, but its been long enough now that the sting has healed into an ugly scar. Scratching at the skin doesn't provide any satisfaction at all.

'.....k.' The thing was, when you were killed, even accidentally, there's nothing really to say about it. Hallmark has stayed out of that market for a reason because the words just aren't there. So it is that despite covering Wessex in a modest amount of piss and finally hearing the words she'd been longing for, Edy just stands unsatisfied. It feels a bit like when you rush an orgasm and then you sort of...miss it. You got what you wanted, but nothing about it feels the way you thought.

"So...what was that shiny thing?" The Rapacious asks, dropping her hand.

"Go fuck yourself."
"Fuck me yourself, you coward."

WESSEX

That leaves both of them unsatisfied - Edrei for her own reasons, unarticulated this time - and Wessex because she has to accept that while they may be ‘okay’ now, her feelings about Edy will never return to what they once were. Somewhere deep inside, where she keeps those stifled and smothered bits of emotion, she’s still mourning that loss. So there’s a long stretch of awkward silence from the Wraith as she just nods and lets it be what it is, until the Rapacious speaks again.

Looking to her right, expecting to see something shiny, it takes Wessex a hot second to remember what had just happened. “The bird?” she asks, turning back to Edy. “That was me, it’s a mech shift. Want to see?”

Except she doesn’t wait for Edy to say yes, taking the steps two at a time out of the cellar and giving herself enough room for the various pieces-parts of her to slide and roll and grow into the Escalade-sized metal bird.

the resistance
never backing down

EDREI

Edy might have run into Wessex's arms then, pressed her face against the bony juts of her collarbones and sniffled her grief despite having no tears to cry. She might have said she was sorry, and could they please have sex, or go and punch something really hard? Instead, the Rapacious trails silently behind, cowed and feeling unmoored as she ever had with Zariah.

Wessex's shift is impressive of course, but large as it is, it doesn't cover the hole the younger woman feels instead. "Whoa." She murmurs, trying and failing to sound appropriately amazed.

"I'm...well, I'm gonna go. Cause this is weird and everything sucks, so.." Really, what else was there to say? Sometimes you couldn't get back the things you lost.

'Bye Wessex.'

~FIN

"Go fuck yourself."
"Fuck me yourself, you coward."