come_sailaway | [OPEN] September catch-all

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[OPEN] September catch-all

Who: Nimona and YOU!
What: Recovering and regressing (thanks to the flowers)
When: September
Where: All over the ship
Warnings: Game-typical angst; more warnings will be added if needed

(1) a feather on the air

Nimona doesn't spend much time as a human right after the big tournament. It still makes her itch. So there are a whole lotta pink animals flitting around the ship for a while -- a rat here, a bear there, a lizard sunning itself on a railing, a rabbit gnawing industriously on the nearest piece of wooden furniture. An enormous whale breaching off the starboard bow of the ship. Maybe an octopus sipping a milkshake by the pool, as it reads a library book with one tentacle and draws mustaches all over the pictures with another.

(And a horse probably thirty percent of the time. She's still gonna play that long game, even if she's pretty sure her cover got blown when she freaked out all over Edgar.)

(2) dreams are sweet until they're not

Within a week and a half, though, she's feeling okay enough to shift back to human for a while. She's got heists to commit, after all!

Well. "Heists." Going through the motions of paying for things kinda puts a damper on it. And honestly, her heart's not really into the attempt, anyway, as she sweeps an entire rack of personalized souvenir keychains into a sand bucket and slouches toward the side of the ship.

Threading her legs through the lower bar of the railing, she takes a seat, folds one arm over the top railing, and starts listlessly chucking the keychains into the ocean one by one. This isn't brooding. This is a good old-fashioned proper mope.

But hey, maybe you can get a keychain with your name on it if she doesn't empty the entire bucket first?

(3) i remember fields of flowers

And then the flowers start to sprout.

They're... actually kind of pretty? Not that Nimona would admit it, but seeing them unfold from the decks and the ceiling cheers her up a little. There's something about the tiny blue and purple ones in particular that she really likes -- enough to draw her closer one day while she's wandering around.

A little self-consciously, she leans in for a sniff.

And then, jolting back with a gasp, she vanishes in a rush of pink light that immediately darts out of view.

[Nimona's been hit by forget-me-nots! She's regressed to her earliest days of running wild in the forest, before she met any humans; she's more timid, will appear much younger if you spot her, and does not have a cynical bone in her body. Relevant (spoilery) scene from the movie is here.]

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"Oooh." She brightens, fractionally. "Good idea. Hey, you see any in there with 'Todd' on it?"

She never did get to punch him in the face, and she is so sad about it.

Nimona rummages through the bucket. As she does, she asks, "So, what, you from a place where sharks finally overthrew society and installed themselves as rulers of the world? I knew it'd happen someday."

Karkat tosses a keychain over. “HERE. THROW HIM IN THERE. OR HER. I DON’T REALLY KNOW HUMAN NAMES THAT WELL.”

He snorts at her comment. “NO, THERE WERE STILL SHARKS DOWN THERE. A LOT OF SEADWELLERS HAD THEM AS LUSI THOUGH, AND THEY’D RIDE AROUND ON THEIR BACKS LIKE SMUG TOOLS.”

Remembering that nobody knows Alternian culture around here, he adds, “FOR CLARIFICATION, MOST HUMANS ARE USED TO BEING RAISED BY OLDER HUMANS. BUT FOR TROLLS - THAT’S WHAT I AM - WE START OUT ALONE AND THEN WE UNDERGO HORRIBLE TRIALS IN THE BROODING CAVERNS. AFTER THIS, IF WE SURVIVE, WE GET TAKEN IN BY AN ANIMAL WHO TAKES ON THE TITLE OF LUSUS. A LUSUS PHYSICALLY PROTECTS THE TROLL WHILE THE TROLL GROWS. IN EXCHANGE, THE TROLL FINDS A HOME FOR THE TWO OF THEM AND HELPS THE LUSUS FIND FOOD.”

He leans back. “LUSI CAN BE ALL KINDS OF ANIMALS. MY LUSUS WAS A GIANT CRAB. WE WERE ALWAYS BICKERING AT EACH OTHER.” He sighs wistfully. He misses Crabdad.

"Heh. Sweet. Thanks," she says, accepting the keychain. "He's a guy with the most punchable face you've ever seen in your life. Still can't believe he wasn't the one who killed the queen."

She winds up and hurls the keychain overboard, imagining a tiny Todd going waaaaaaaah!!!! as he sails in a graceful arc through the air. Man, Ballister would love that if he were here.

She really misses Ballister.

"Anyway -- you had a giant crab for a dad, kinda?" She quirks a half-smile. "That's pretty cool. Bet if it was big enough it could snip the shark dads in half and make all those jerks have to swim on their own."

“OH, WHICH QUEEN?” he asks very casually.

“EH, HE WAS A LAND CRAB, SO WE DIDN’T REALLY GET IN THAT MANY FIGHTS WITH MARINE LUSI. HE WAS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING COOL THOUGH. I WOULDN’T HAVE CHANGED HIM FOR ANYTHING, EVEN IF I COMPLAINED ALL THE TIME. I’M PRETTY SURE HE KNEW.”

There’s a sadness to his eyes, as if he is speaking of a parent who passed away some time ago.

"Queen... ugh, what was her name." Nimona scrunches up her face. "I dunno, I can't remember. They all kinda blend together after a while."

Hooking both arms over the top railing, she glances over. This is... a little awkward. She's so bad at this, and it's still weird being in a place where she actually feels bad because she's bad at it. She bets Ballister would be all knightly and kind and reassuring right now, or something. Nimona's not built like that.

Well, she pretended to be Ambrosius once and did so good she fooled the Director. Maybe she can try pretending to be Ballister. (Only, like, with less ripping up teddy bears and yelling about how babies are ugly this time.)

"I bet he did," she says, quietly. "If he was as cool as you said. Sorry he's not around anymore."

“EH, IT’S OLD NEWS AT THIS POINT,” he shrugs. “I TEND TO RAMBLE ABOUT MY PROBLEMS BECAUSE SILENCE IS THE ETERNAL BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. I HONESTLY DON’T EXPECT ANYONE TO ACTUALLY SAY ANYTHING OF RELEVANCE AFTERWARDS.”

He nods to her. “ENOUGH ABOUT ME THOUGH. WHAT ABOUT YOU? ANYTHING SPECIFIC THAT MAKES YOU WANNA HURL KEYCHAINS INTO THE OCEAN, OR IS IT JUST THE GENERAL AMBIANCE OF SHIT THAT IS THE SERENA FUCKING ETERNA?”

Nimona makes a noncommittal noise. "I dunno," she says; it's way less admitting any kind of ignorance about her own feelings, and way more a deflection to buy some time. Maybe she'll think of something cool to say in the next five seconds and successfully pretend she's not moping!

...Nope, doesn't seem likely.

She scoops up a fistful of keychains and gives them a good fling into the water. "Kinda both, I guess? I thought this place was great when I first got here. It's the best place I've ever been in my life. And then when that big tournament happened..."

She trails off. Idly, she swings her dangling feet back and forth.

“OH YEAH, I HEARD ABOUT THAT AND DECIDED TO ABSOLUTELY NOT ATTEND THE NO-HOLDS-BARRED MURDER ORGY FREE-FOR-ALL. THERE WAS GOING TO BE ENTIRELY TOO MUCH BLOOD, AND WE ALREADY DIE ENOUGH ON HERE AS IS,” Karkat cringes, imagining what the tournament must have looked like.

Nimona huffs a breath that's trying to be a laugh, but falls short by a bit. "Yeah, I wasn't worried about that part," she says. "It's fun to knock heads, and it usually takes a whole lot to kill me. But -- "

The words keep sticking in her throat every time she tries to say them.

"They -- did something to me there. So I couldn't fight back like usual. I didn't figure it out until the joust started."

“OH. SHIT.” His eyes widen. “WHAT HAPPENED?”

It's still wild to realize what she's about to say, and that she's gonna say it so casually. Not everything about being on the ship sucks, Nimona grudgingly admits.

"I'm a shapeshifter," she says. "I can do a lot of stuff like -- " She jerks a thumb over her shoulder; from her back, two broad leathery wings sprout, give a little flap, then fold over and vanish in on themselves. "But over there..."

It's only through a concerted effort that her voice doesn't tremble, from either fear or rage. (Or both.)

"I was stuck. I couldn't shift. Whatever I was when I went through the door, that's what I'd be the whole time."

Karkat watches with mild curiosity but honestly isn’t particularly freaked out by Nimona’s changing form. He once saw a girl fuse a deceased doppelgänger of herself with a radioactive dog. After a while, most weird shit loses its shock value.

He shudders. “THAT FUCKING SUCKS. I GUARANTEE YOU, IF I HAD AN ABILITY LIKE THAT, I WOULD PROBABLY BE IN THE MIDST OF GROWING A THIRD MIDDLE FINGER OUT OF MY FOREHEAD TO FLIP SOMEONE OFF, OR SOMETHING EQUALLY STUPID AND ANTAGONISTIC, AND SUDDENLY GET STUCK LIKE THAT.”

He looks at her. “PLEASE TELL ME WHATEVER FORM YOU WERE IN WASN’T PAINFUL AT LEAST. YOU DIDN’T LIKE GET CAUGHT MID-FORM OR SOMETHING? THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE SORT OF SHIT THAT WOULD HAPPEN HERE.”

"Quadruple birds," gasps Nimona, some of the cloud lifted away by sheer awe. "Aw, man, why didn't I think of that?!"

She grabs hold of the railing and dramatically flops backward, as far as she can go without releasing her grip.

"Ugh, it would've been so good. Totally worth another headache going through the metal detector and back." She sighs. "But -- yeah, no, I didn't get stuck as anything weird. Just human at first. Then I figured out if I came back on the ship, I could shapeshift to whatever I wanted and just go back to the arena, so I was a rhinoceros the rest of the time."

She makes a face.

"Still got killed a bunch 'cause I couldn't move my organs around, though. It sucked."

“I MEAN, YOU COULD LITERALLY DO IT RIGHT NOW,” he points out.

“IF I HAD THAT POWER, I’D PROBABLY USE IT EXCLUSIVELY FOR OBSCENE GESTURES AND VARIOUS GROTESQUE IMAGERY TO TRY TO CONVEY THE ESSENCE OF MY GENERALLY BEING A MASSIVE SACK OF SHIT AT ALL TIMES.”

“I’M GUESSING YOU WEREN’T USED TO GETTING STABBED AND IT ACTUALLY MATTERING?” he asks.

"Yeah," says Nimona. "Like, I got my head cut off once and just regrew a new body off my neck. No big."

She hauls herself forward, lets go of the railing, and lifts both middle fingers to the ocean just as dramatically. A second middle finger pops up on each hand at a jaunty angle.

"Hey! HEY, OCEAN!" she hollers. "FUCK YOU!"

(Somewhere, Ballister twitches without quite knowing why.)

“LISTEN, ANYTHING’S BETTER THAN REVIVAL BY CORPSE-SMOOCHING,” he shudders.

Karkat snorts at the additional middle fingers. “I’M GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP YOU AROUND, FOR WHEN A SIMPLE ‘FUCK YOU’ ISN’T ENOUGH. SOMETIMES THE SITUATION CALLS FOR MORE EXTENSIVE MEASURES OF INDICATING FOR SOMEONE TO SHIT THEMSELVES AND DIE.”

"Hah! Deal," she says. The extra middle fingers schloop back into her hand, and she offers a fist for bumping, even as she wrinkles her nose a little. "Corpse-smooching like, what, those fairytales about someone getting woken up with true love's kiss?"

Gross.

“YES, EXACTLY LIKE THAT. WE WERE TRAPPED IN A GAME THAT WAS A HUGE FAN OF THROWING CLICHE LITTLE REFERENCES TO VARIOUS MYTHS AND LEGENDS AND MAKING US ACT THEM OUT.”

He leaves out the part where one of his closest friends lay dead in front of him and he forced himself to kiss her cold, blood-stained lips (only for it not to even matter because she was undead). He does not enjoy revisiting that memory.

Emphatic: "Ew."

That requires a few more keychains thrown overboard for extra emphasis!

"If it's gonna make you kiss a dead body at least it could be original about it. Do it because the zombie's surprisingly handsome and you wanna smooch it, not because of some legend, gross. Legends suck anyway. None of those old stories actually tell the truth about stuff."

“YEAH NO SUCH LUCK,” Karkat shivers. “THE ONLY TIME I HAD TO DO IT, IT WAS A GOOD FRIEND WHO I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT THINK OF IN THAT WAY, AND SHE’S ONLY INTERESTED IN GIRLS, SO IT WAS JUST GENERALLY NOT SOMETHING THAT EITHER OF US WAS HAPPY ABOUT.”

Curling his arms around his knees, he adds, “NEVER REALLY TALKED ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS WITH ANYONE. I THINK THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IT’S EVER COME UP.”

He snorts at the comment about legends. “YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN. THERE WERE TONS OF LEGENDS AROUND MY ANCESTOR WHO WAS SUPPOSEDLY THIS ENLIGHTENED PROPHET WHO WAS TRYING TO SAVE TROLLKIND. I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT IT WAS ENTIRELY BULLSHIT. I WORE HIS SYMBOL BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS METAPHORICAL. ALSO BECAUSE I NEEDED SOME KIND OF SYMBOL TO GO OUT IN PUBLIC, YOU DON’T JUST GO OUT WEARING NOTHING, THERE’S RULES TO OBEY.”

“ANYWAY, SWEEPS LATER, I ACTUALLY GOT THE CHANCE TO MEET THE GUY. TURNS OUT HE WAS THE BIGGEST SELF-RIGHTEOUS TOOL I’VE EVER MET, WHOSE HOBBIES INCLUDED FONDLING HIS OWN BULGE EVERY TIME HE HEARD THE SOUND OF HIS OWN VOICE. AND THAT’S COMING FROM ME, SO YOU KNOW IT’S BAD.”

"Bleagh," says Nimona, the height of eloquence. "One of those guys. Love it when jerks like that turn into their own hype men and a hundred years later you're stuck with everybody going 'oooh, weren't they so great, oooh, they were the smartest bestest person who ever lived and they always woke up with perfect hair.' And you're over here shouting, 'actually, no, they sucked,' but nobody listens."

She huffs out a breath. The noise can't quite decide if it wants to be a sigh or a laugh.

"The stories I could tell about Gloreth. Jeez." She grabs another keychain -- sadly, if Gloreth were here, she'd be walking away from that wall of personalized souvenirs empty-handed -- and chucks it over to join the others. "She's the one who founded the Kingdom, and everybody worships her. Kinda literally."

“OKAY YEAH SHE SOUNDS LIKE A PIECE OF WORK FOR SURE,” he nods. “LAY IT ON ME, I WANT ALL THE DRAMA.”

For a second, she considers joking her way into a topic change. It's the same uneasy flicker of are you really about to say this? whenever she tells people she's a shapeshifter. Stronger, though. Like the flicker has become a strobe, pulsing and squeezing around her heart.

She never even told Ballister about Gloreth.

(For good reason, maybe. He's still a knight. His boyfriend is Gloreth's great-great-lotsa-greats-grandkid. But when Ballister literally stared into the depths of her heart and didn't back away, yet she still kept this little part of herself a secret -- )

"There's this big myth," she says, a little quieter, "about how Gloreth defended the Kingdom." She picks up a keychain, but this time, instead of dropping it into the water, she turns it over in her hands. "How this huge, terrible monster stormed through, laying waste to everything in its path, and she rose up with sword in hand to drive it away. 'Go back to the shadows from whence you came.'"

It takes so, so much effort not to let her voice crack. She rubs her thumb over the keychain's nameplate.

"You know what that monster was?" She turns to look at Karkat, eyes bright. "A kid. A little kid who just wanted a friend. And until someone else called that kid a monster, Gloreth wasn't afraid of them."

Karkat may be stubborn and rash, but he’s not an idiot. He can tell pretty quickly that Nimona is talking about herself, but he also knows that, if she wanted him to know the kid was her, she wouldn’t be speaking about it in such a roundabout way. He can respect that. He’s been there before.

He can tell the conversation has gotten a bit more serious than the gossip fest he was anticipating, so his tone gets just a bit softer.

“SO I’M GUESSING THIS GLORETH LADY THEN PROCEEDED TO HYPE UP HOW THREATENING THE SITUATION WAS AND HOW MUCH OF A DANGER THIS KID WAS TO SOCIETY. AND YOU’RE JUST STANDING THERE WATCHING THIS SHIT GO DOWN AND KNOWING FULL WELL THAT SHE’S A MASSIVE HYPOCRITE.”

“SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE A DEFENDER OF THE PEOPLE BUT SHE COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO DEFEND ONE LITTLE WIGGLER WHO JUST LOOKED A BIT DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHERS. AND SHE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE GLOBES TO HAVE THAT BE HER ORIGINAL OPINION ON THE MATTER. SHE JUST HEARD FROM SOMEONE ELSE, OH THIS ONE’S NOT RIGHT, AND WENT, GEE I GUESS IF YOU SAY SO.”

She chokes out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, pretty much," she agrees.

And Gloreth hyped it up so much there's still a wall around the Kingdom a thousand years later.

There's probably no point pretending she's talking about another monster; a touch embarrassed, she wipes her eyes and lets out a little ugh of frustration. It's punctuated by a brief, wry smile, there and gone, as she hooks her arms back over the railing.

"I never talked about that with anybody else, either," she confesses. "Man, it's like Deep Dark Secret Hours over here."

[OPEN] September catch-all

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