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37 metals ; returning!
[ Forward dated to after the event. ]
It's been raining on and off for days, sweet downpours punctuated with bright yellow sun. Zane has grown almost accustomed to the dampness in the air, like an unwrung-cloth, sopping wet. The crops are almost done planting, and when he looks back on it, looks back on them, he realizes it's time. Something about the confluence of the gold light and the working skaa - no, not skaa, not anymore. Something about the anticipation in the air. Hopelessness turned around.
He makes his way back into the village, and once or twice there is someone bold enough to step up and brush against the spike through Zane's heart.
Steelheart.
He steps into the little hut, and he breathes out.
Now that he's alone, he's struck by nervousness. Will it be the same? He brushes drying mud off his hands.
I will miss you, I think, comes a voice in his mind. A familiar one, by now. You ask very keen questions.
Zane half-smiles. "How did you know?" he asks the empty air.
You have been ready to return for weeks, says God. I have only been waiting for you to choose it.
A slow nod. "Thank you," says Zane. "For everything."
He'll be back. He knows this. He has another home, now, if he chooses.
[ emperor ]
[ Doesn't even bother to wash first: mud-covered, he opens the Emperor's door and slips inside, looking for his lover. He pads across grass and earth and slides arms around him - from behind, if the Emperor is not looking, or just pulling him into a kiss before there is a chance to speak. ]
[ cassel, morgana, marsh, iris, vin ]
[ He searches each of them out, first, before he says anything, before he announces that he is back. He holds himself a little differently, now, and his skin is darker from the sun.
He may still have a fair amount of mud on him. ]
[ video ]
I'm… here.
[ Sun-darkened, a streak of dried mud on his face and in his hair. He brushes fingers through his hair and dislodges a little of it. ]
…Back, I mean.
It's good to be here.
[ placeholder for christmas lists ]
It's been raining on and off for days, sweet downpours punctuated with bright yellow sun. Zane has grown almost accustomed to the dampness in the air, like an unwrung-cloth, sopping wet. The crops are almost done planting, and when he looks back on it, looks back on them, he realizes it's time. Something about the confluence of the gold light and the working skaa - no, not skaa, not anymore. Something about the anticipation in the air. Hopelessness turned around.
He makes his way back into the village, and once or twice there is someone bold enough to step up and brush against the spike through Zane's heart.
Steelheart.
He steps into the little hut, and he breathes out.
Now that he's alone, he's struck by nervousness. Will it be the same? He brushes drying mud off his hands.
I will miss you, I think, comes a voice in his mind. A familiar one, by now. You ask very keen questions.
Zane half-smiles. "How did you know?" he asks the empty air.
You have been ready to return for weeks, says God. I have only been waiting for you to choose it.
A slow nod. "Thank you," says Zane. "For everything."
He'll be back. He knows this. He has another home, now, if he chooses.
[ emperor ]
[ Doesn't even bother to wash first: mud-covered, he opens the Emperor's door and slips inside, looking for his lover. He pads across grass and earth and slides arms around him - from behind, if the Emperor is not looking, or just pulling him into a kiss before there is a chance to speak. ]
[ cassel, morgana, marsh, iris, vin ]
[ He searches each of them out, first, before he says anything, before he announces that he is back. He holds himself a little differently, now, and his skin is darker from the sun.
He may still have a fair amount of mud on him. ]
[ video ]
I'm… here.
[ Sun-darkened, a streak of dried mud on his face and in his hair. He brushes fingers through his hair and dislodges a little of it. ]
…Back, I mean.
It's good to be here.
[ placeholder for christmas lists ]
spam
Thanks. I'm keeping them. Forever. [Because he's a sap, that's why.]
Did it help? [Will you have to go back?]
spam
[ Gifts accepted, and Zane feels satisfied for it. Happier. ]
It did. But I choose to be here, now. Really choose, not just choose because there's nowhere else to go. I think just choosing to face the bad things about the Barge makes them less - awful, somehow.
spam
[Although maybe not as much as Zane does. Because Cassel is content here. Maybe it's that he's so desperately afraid of home and what it represents that going back isn't an option, at least not now. He doesn't really know.]
[At least his family is back again. All of it.]
Do you feel stronger?
spam
[ Maybe he is. He doesn't feel so different - not the way the Barge changes came, like sharp jerks and pulls on him more disorienting than a steelfight. ]
...maybe more thoughtful. But I was always this strong.
spam
At least you know it, now. Right?
spam
That's what you're here for.
What happened while I was gone?