assorted non-canon and AU threads

[aesculapian]

who wants delicious post-forest terribleness

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[shutsdown]

[He doesn't respond for a while. It's not like they can't move him even with his height, but he's very much a dead weight for a good thirty minutes after they unearth him.

Finally, though, he does regain some kind of consciousness. But true to his old training he doesn't move, doesn't groan, doesn't even open his eyes. Just... listens, to try to get a feeling for the situation.]

[miraculess]

[ there aren't any voices (their conversation, if it can be called that, is entirely internal.) there are the familiar sounds of the forest; the rippling of the river, faint bird calls, rustling and the occasional snap as whoever is carrying him (princess style, of course) steps on a twig. they're breathing roughly, the sound catching occasionally, and they're holding him to their chest (...her chest) just a hair shy of too tightly.

...the smell of them is familiar. as is the very, very faint mechanical whir as she shifts her grip. ]

[shutsdown]

[It's enough to draw a reaction from him, enough to make him feel secure enough to do so. His voice is raspy from disuse, really more of a croak, but his eyes open too.]

Lilith...?

[miraculess]

[ the angle means he's got a clear view of how different she looks; the stitches missing from her face, even the scar faded to the point he could only pick it out because he knows it was there. her hair is longer, too, just brushing her collarbones. also visible is the way her expression flickers from relief to guilt to uncertain anxiety.

of course, all of that is quite literally overshadowed by the gigantic snake skull hooked over her head, the rows of fangs framing her cheekbones and jaw. ]

...You woke up.

[shutsdown]

[fuzzily noting the differences...... and the skull.]

You're...

How long?

[miraculess]

[ no immediate hostile reaction is good; whatever consciousness the spill could be said to have was usually not fond of arbiters. they relax a bit ]

About a year and a half... I think. I've lost track a few times.

[shutsdown]

Aah...

[gingerly lifts his arm, hooking two fingers in Snake's skull's jaw]

And this?

[miraculess]

[ oh, hell.

after a moment's hesitation Lilith ducks her head enough so that he doesn't have to reach far. touching the bone results in a fuzzy tingle, the sensation somewhere between the beginning of pins and needles and static build up.

the skull's jaw drops easily enough, but it's got the same slight feeling of resistance as someone letting their arm be tugged on. ]

...she's like the Horned God. Her old host was— was killed, so I offered to take her temporarily since we were on good terms. We got along well like that, though, so...

[shutsdown]

[he just... rests his hand there, letting the feeling build, not tugging so much as resting his hand there.]

...

So you're an arbiter now.

[that feels dangerous, doesn't it]

[miraculess]

[ looking him in the eye, steadily ]

No.

I just bear one, which is arguably worse.

[shutsdown]

Why?

[miraculess]

They don't really have a choice in what they do. I did.

[ looking away again, though, taking a second to force her hackles back down ]

...and I'm possibly being overdramatic about it.

[shutsdown]

[looks away too, around them.]

...Why did you wake me?

[miraculess]

... I missed you.

[shutsdown]

...After more than a year?

[things move so fast here]

[miraculess]

You left a mark, Lethe. It's one of the few things I still have.

[shutsdown]

A... mark?

[HE'S BEEN ASLEEP SO LONG AND WHAT IS THIS]

[miraculess]

[ i'm sorry you're waking up to too many feelings: the lilith story, lethe

she. starts going a little pink, significantly less patchily than she used to ]

...I didn't mean that entirely literally, but. ...there's a scar on my shin from where you cut it; I've had most of the others healed, but I kept that one. I—

...I can count the number of people I wanted near my stitches on one hand, even after more than a year. I didn't want to forget.

[shutsdown]

That's-

Lilith?

[???!??!??!??!?!????!??!

this should make him happy and on some level it does but he can't. feelings. right now.]

[miraculess]

[ looks like she desperately wishes she could hide her face. ...hide her face more ]

I'm sorry if it was selfish, but I couldn't leave you there.

[shutsdown]

...I'm just. Tired. It's fine, Lilith.

[miraculess]

[ shifts him slightly, agitated and trying not to cling to him more than she already is ]

... all right.

[shutsdown]

[...tucks his face against her shoulder. hiding, a bit.]

[miraculess]

[ ...doesn't say anything after that, turning her attention back to picking her way through the woods. letting him hide.

at least until she breaks through into a clearing of some sort and inhales abruptly, startled. that... sure is a cute little house completely out of nowhere. ]

[shutsdown]

[the sharp intake of breath spooks him, and as his head snaps up he's already fighting to lunge from her arms]