49th metal . video and spam

[godsays]

[ video ]

[ Zane trains the camera on a small, pale blue flower. It is exquisite, for people who care about this kind of thing. Delicate and unique. A quiet spiral of petals.

He turns the camera back to himself. ]

If anyone hurts this flower, I will hurt you back.

[ He's going to start leaving it unlocked. THIS IS A HUGE RISK.

After a moment, he remembers...

Oh, right. He's a warden. ]

...gently.

[ He will only hurt you gently. This is probably a lie. ]

Don't hurt it.

[ spam ]

[ Find Zane in the CES, with two loose rabbits, unleashed, in metal harnesses. He is climbing. He is running, faster than a human should run. He is flying. He is trying to remember freedom without killing.

Find him in the greenhouse, fussing over the flower, followed by a flock of dinosaur chickens.

If elsewhere, let me know, and we'll work something out. ]

Comments

[to_dust]

[C'rizz isn't entirely sure if he should be in the greenhouse. He's only barely just decided he should leave his room and start eating again. But the greenhouse is lovely; it's not metal and technological. So he peeks in, and then speaks despite himself. ]

Your cattle are very... fluffy. Do they not have hutches?

[godsays]

[ They cheep, and shriek, and scuffle with each other, feathers flying. ]

No.

Not anymore, I think. Otherwise they wouldn't have to be here.

[to_dust]

Easy. Stop that, you. Someone's going to have scales off.

...it was one of those things that was lost. After.

[After that thing he's trying desperately to forget about. Perhaps he'll even succeed if he works at it.]

Is anyone... building new ones?

[godsays]

Iris is busy building horses.

[ There is so much S I G H in his tone. Glances to the birds--the "birds"--fighting, and doesn't make any move to stop them whatsoever. ]

[ spam ]

[youwillgotohell]

[She goes to the greenhouse, some time after seeing this. She's been working there most of her days alongside him and the Emperor, and she still looks askance at the chicken-like animals, still ready to gather them up in a magical lasso and tie them to a tree if they so much as pluck at her dress. She never liked regular chickens, and she's certainly not sure what to make of these.

Instead, she finds Zane and his flower, reaching out to brush a finger over its petals gently.]

What is it?

[ spam ]

[godsays]

[ He watches, but not warily. Morgana wouldn't hurt it. Morgana was a friend of Ivy. And Ivy, maybe, would take some satisfaction in Zane's defensiveness over it. ]

I don't think it has a name. I found it on a mountain. God said it was the last one alive, and that I should take the seeds and the flower and bring it somewhere safe.

[ spam ]

[youwillgotohell]

God?

[She turns to glance at him, pulling her hand back for fear of its delicacy. Plants are strong, she's come to learn, but everything has their limits.]

And you thought the Barge was safe enough?

[ spam ]

[godsays]

I left some back in my world, too. It might be a meadow full by now.

[spaaam]

[heisrisen]

[Exertion is strange, though tiredness at least is familiar. Pain is strange, clusters of aching chords around bite marks and the bruises at his hips, high trills along the scratches down his back, a sore base rhythm that follows his new heartbeat. Even the subtle emotions overwhelm him now, and few of them are subtle - fascination, like the world's been washed in champagne, light and fizzing-gold, languid velvet basking pleasure, shivery blue hope, wire-thin fear, yawning want like quicksand, like a cavern, like a sinkhole opening beneath him and swallowing everything else. He wants this back, wants it to last. He can't stop touching, even though he's tired, hands playing over Zane's chest, his arms, his hair, nuzzling and twining. He wants, but he's so afraid to ask, but he wants.

He's being ridiculous - no, he corrects himself waspishly, he's being insane. Zane asked to marry him. Zane -]

Does this mean we're together again? Properly.

[Consenting to live again seemed so insufficient when he first agreed to it, and then Zane was in a coma, and then his memories are a mess of sliced up ribbons, although he remembers the proposal, the yearning and the panic and - not enough else. His voice is almost calm, out of breath and otherwise even, and the absurdity of it makes him laugh softly into the warm, damp skin of Zane's shoulder.]

[godsays]

[ Zane is still restless and moving, though the waves of relaxed warmth threaten to make him go liquid and calm. It had all occurred to him in a rush. He can't pinpoint the first thought, the moment of coherence, just the need. He runs his thumb over where the bruises will rise on Aslan's hips, and then he wriggles and slides down so he can tongue the skin, too, for good measure. His fingers drift to where Aslan is still slick and fucked-out. ]

Mm. Assassins don't know how to love.

[ He is tongue in cheek, because he isn't sure how to say I realized I could mark you now. I realized, and I didn't want to stop.

Rests his cheek on Aslan's thigh, and looks up at him. ]

Do you want to be? [ A little insecurity. ]

[heisrisen]

[He snorts at the first comment, derisive but not worried enough to fuss over it, which in his current neurology, means not worried at all. Zane doesn't mean it, whatever he means by it, and Aslan can figure out the rest later. He curls a little at the question, the knee of the leg Zane isn't pressing on bending up to bracket him a little, or else let him in better, anywhere he wants to touch, and to help him brace, as he lifts his head from the pillow, shoulders and spine arching in a little to let him meet Zane's eyes more steadily - and that movement brings another ripple of reminders, this is what pain is, this this this, like little mirrored tiles woven into how good he feels, edged, flashing when they catch the light. He savors it like sour candy.]

Desperately.

[The dryness of his tone takes away from its sincerity not at all.]

[mistconduct]

Relax, Zane, no one's gonna touch your aphrodisiac .

[godsays]

Really? Because I'd assumed you'd need help in that area.

[mistconduct]

Oh, it is on, you squirrely motherfucker.

I'm gonna get my dogs to pee on your plants.

[this_corrosion]

How the fuck do you hurt someone gently?

[godsays]

Would you like to find out?

[this_corrosion]

Don't threaten me, I didn't fucking touch your orchid.

[bodilesswarrior]

Gently. [Her smirk is entirely unconvinced.]

[godsays]

Gently.

[bodilesswarrior]

You'll need to show me that trick.

Audio - GENUINELY CURIOUS

[thisisblacksheep]

[A long, and ponderous pause.]

Not that I'm planning on doing anything to it, but why? Is it like, some kind of special, medicinal, space plant?

Audio

[godsays]

No. I just saved it from extinction once.

[patheticvillain]

Oh, you'll hurt them gently. Okay.

You could just keep it hidden.

[godsays]

You don't have faith in me?

[patheticvillain]

I don't have faith in contradictions in terms.

. . . Except when they're you.