Fantasy Cosmical Glitch ( ellarose & starboob. )

[starboob]

It goes without saying that Juno’s face is brighter than a tomato when both Eliza and Lettie gang up on her and tease her about her softer side—the side of herself she honestly thought that she killed. The side of herself she thought she lost and would never recover. The side she had all but given up on. But she’s happier now, knowing it had only been hidden away. Thanks to a certain little faerie, that part of her has returned and she’s able to be herself around her. Her actual self. She’s not captain fucking Juno. She’s just Juno.

Or Juju, as Eliza so kindly reminds her once her girlfriend’s left, the ghost of her lips pressed against her cheek. (She’s acutely aware of the stain and she won’t be wiping it off. She wears it with pride.) She grins, looking away from the woman, a bashfulness that is fast becoming familiar overtaking her. “Ahh, well. Have you met her? Only a fool wouldn’t want to be with her.”

“She’s not your usual type.” Eliza doesn’t say this as a judgment, only as a mere observation. “I think she’s better. Better suited for you, especially. Little faerie’s got enough grit to keep up with you, eh?”

The pirate nods, smiling down at her hands then reaches to clutch her locket. “More than me. I think I’m the one who has to keep up with her, to be honest. She’s so damn smart.” She rubs the back of her neck. This action draws Eliza’s attention to the many bruises left there and, with her annoyingly smug smirk, she pokes at one, something she used to do just to annoy or tease Juno out of a mood. Juno lightly slaps her hand away, scrunching up her nose. “You haven’t changed. ‘Sides from this new company. What happened to the old gang?”

“Usual.” Died or ditched, that is to say. Eliza shrugs. Juno doesn’t press her. The older woman has long since mourned her old company, but even in Juno’s day the gang was ever changing. Back then, Eliza hadn’t been much of a leader and the women she gathered were drifters not looking for permanent company, only needing the protection of numbers. Nowadays that’s changed. “Current group has been with me for a few years now. Those twins, Nico and Mauve, have been with me the longest. Picked them up nine months after you left. They were practically dead when I found them. Couldn’t just leave them.”

Yeah, Eliza hasn’t changed one bit. Juno leans against her shoulder, listening as she talks about her kids and current company. The way they all met, the ones she almost lost. The ones she did lose and the ones she worries about. She fills the space where Juno is quiet, the bruise on her heart slowly fading the more she accepts that nothing has truly changed between them. Eliza is still her wolf mother, always there to protect her.

Juno doesn’t share much about her life on Desdemonia, still too full of shame to confront that blip in her history. Instead she tells Eliza about the things that she’s seen across the worlds—clear skies like the one on Fabel, aquatic life that can fly and a particularly chivalrous shark, a weird bug woman, game show robots, sentient motorcycles, ancient guardians and gods… But mostly, she tells her about all the things Lettie has taught her and even shows her the little cat-or-pillar she took in days or a lifetime ago. Dubiously, she tells Eliza that Wormy is supposed to grow wings and the older woman is just as skeptical of that claim.

It’s not like the old days exactly, but it’s familiar.

***​

When the company catches wind that the faerie is hanging out in the kitchen, they start to filter in as casually as they can, pretending they’re only there to check on the kitchenware or maybe lift a snack from the pantry.

The twins are the first to join Olette, hopping up onto the counter to sit, swinging their legs as they watch her search the kitchen for ingredients they’ve never even heard of. Mauve tries some small talk with Olette, asking her about her hair and eyes and how she decides on colors and if she’s ever purposely tried any gross combinations just for fun.

But Nico’s not interested in this frilly talk and launches into the actual reason they’re here with his usual tact. “Do you know how Eliza met captain fucking Juno? Can Juno really explode skulls with her mind?”

Conveniently, a nonchalant Marta walks in, pretending (poorly) to look for something. She picks up the manual egg beater Olette had set out and cranks it experimentally, her eyes shifting just slightly to the faerie, waiting for her answer. Marta doesn’t say anything, however; doesn’t reveal what she thinks of Eliza not telling them about this whole captain fucking Juno situation. Though it has to be a good sign that she hasn’t tried to start any fights.

“Nico!” Mauve elbows her twin in the ribs, shooting Olette an apologetic look. Still, behind the wordless apology, there’s curiosity. She leans in, chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. “But will you tell us? Eliza’s never mentioned Juno before.”

“She cursed her name once,” Marta mumbles, pointing the eggbeater around like a weapon, closing one eye like she can get the object to shoot. Realizing she spoke aloud, addressed the conversation, she whips around, hiding her red cheeks.

Ainsley comes in not long after that, though she doesn’t pretend to search for anything. Instead, she offers to help Olette grab items from the higher shelves using her phantom limb to reach for anything that Juno placed well out of reach. (Or maybe that was Lettie, when she had her wings.) “You know…” Ainsley muses, not at all hiding that she’s been listening from outside. “Maybe we shouldn’t pry into their lives. Eliza will tell us if she wants to. She has her reasons for keeping mum.”

“Oh, c’mon, Ains,” Nico complains, “you can’t tell me you’re not curious. Like, she got captain fucking Juno to cry. Captain fucking Juno who raised her crew rather than hire out help. She kept this whole ship running with her necromancy and she’s got that—ow!” “Nico!” “Shrike’s mark.”

“Shrike’s mark?” This comes from Marta who is now looking over Juno’s collection of kitchen knives. These, she’s obviously more familiar with. She flips them around like one would a dagger, then tosses one into the air and catches the handle in a well practiced manner. “The fuck is that?”

“You’ve never heard of the Shrike?” Ainsley asks and Mauve reminds her, “She’s not from the west end, remember?” To Marta, she says, “It’s like the north’s banshee, but not really.”

Marta looks unimpressed with that nondescript answer. “Explain.”

“The Shrike is a spirit—” Mauve starts and Nico excitedly interrupts, “And she can grant necromancers great power—” Ainsley cuts in, probably to stop Nico from being too offensive, “But only if they offer a sacrifice. If she’s satisfied with the offer, she imparts necromantic knowledge—”

“Like how to explode skulls with minds. Think she’d teach me, Olette? Could you ask her?”

 

[ellarose]

Instead of meeting the expectant gazes of the necromancers surrounding her, Lettie busies herself by going over her mental checklist of ingredients and kitchen utensils for the cupcakes. Muffin tin, the paper cups with the cute kittens on them (they have the same design as those bandaids and, no, they're not deformed rats!), mixing bowl, mixing spoon, measuring cup, knife... and in mistakenly thinking that Marta's handing her the one she flipped, she simply takes it from her and sets it with everything else she's collected thus far, offering a hum of thanks.

Marta blinks once, twice. Somewhat stunned by how casually the little faerie confiscated the knife from her.

When they bring up the crew, Lettie glances wistfully at Phillip's pink apron hanging on the pantry door. Then she remembers Marjorie chasing her and Juno out of the kitchen, affectionately calling them hooligans after they made a mess of their cake-making competition. (Which then led to the great banana bread heist after they'd been banned from stepping foot inside again.) Ah. She misses them. She doesn't want to push Juno to seek them out before she's ready... but she's eager-- hopeful-- to have them back soon.

The old Lettie would've been thrilled to have a gossip sesh about Juno. If it's all in good fun, maybe she still would enjoy that-- having the opportunity to gush over the color of her eyes or dreamy buffness of her stupidly buff arms. If they asked about literally anything else, she would've dropped everything for the chance to brag about her soft-but-badass girlfriend. But of course, they want to know all about the touchy 'don't touch or else' subjects.

Lettie knows all too well what it's like to come across people talking about her trauma-- theorizing and making a spectacle of it, even. Acting like they're entitled to every last detail because it's all over the headlines, because they all 'knew' her mother so well through her career. She senses there's no ill will on the part of Eliza's crew-- just curiosity in the simplest sense with the Shrike being... what it is to them. Still. The faerie's not going to entertain those questions for even a second. Won't smirk in a 'I know something you don't know' kind of way. She plays it cool, staying indifferent to all of the questions and giving nothing away.

"It's their story to tell." Lettie offers, expertly tearing open the packaging for the muffin cups with her nail and arranging them neatly in the tin. "If there's something you want to know, you'll have to ask them about it." While she's tempted to warn them (Nico, specifically) that it's not a subject to breach lightly, she decides not to. They're coming to her-- they already know that. Confirming it might just add unnecessary intrigue... and she knows Juno will have her ways of warning the kid off the subject if need be.

Still, Lettie can't help but snort incredulously at Nico, unable to withhold his enthusiasm about exploded skulls. He's such a... teenage boy.

"To be honest, I thought Juju was kidding about the exploding skulls thing at first." Lettie decides to indulge this part, treading lightly. (Well, technically the Juno she knew back then didn't really 'kid around'-- it had felt more like an over exaggerated threat.) "Like, she used to threaten to explode my skull all the time... but she never did." Then she tilts her head thoughtfully. She's hyperaware of the wide eyes on her now, wondering how she can be so nonchalant about this. "Then those fish bitches came along and, yep... she totally exploded that fish bi-- I mean, mermaid's skull." She leans forward and frames her face like a masterpiece with her hands, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Looking back, I think I was spared because she had a crush on me." Her face was just so pretty to look at! Of course Juno couldn't bear to ruin it.

"Instead of breaking any of my bones, she used her necromancy to mend them. I personally think that's cooler than exploding skulls." Lettie shrugs. That night changed everything between them, looking back. Knowing Juno couldn't stand to see her in so much pain and was willing to put herself at risk to try and heal her broken wing... knowing the toll it'd taken on her. It meant a lot. It took time before they got to that point, yeah... but she acknowledges the efforts she made, studying her wing and faerie anatomy to make sure she'd get it right. And through sheer force of will she did.

"What...?" Marta's squinting at her. Seeing the rest of the confused stares around her, Lettie remembers Juno mentioning that she's the one who came up with that technique. "What do you mean?"

"When I crash-landed on her ship, I broke my... my wing. She healed it for me." Lettie knows then that they'll just have to take her word for it, seeing as her wings currently aren't...

Acknowledging the memory of her wings reminds her that they're gone. (...And always will be.) Lettie notices in the moments when she can't reach things from the higher shelves in the kitchen, when she can't fly to close that distance... but she's generally able to brush it aside. Talking about it, she's come to find, is hard. Her throat gets tight, she struggles to breathe. It's excruciating. She does misses them, but it doesn't change the fact that she'd still rather have the crew-- their family-- back.

Mauve reaches across the table for Lettie's hand, offering it an understanding squeeze. Ainsley sets her own remaining hand on the faerie's shoulder. Right. On some level, these two get what she's going through right now. Mauve with her prosthetic leg, Ainsley with her phantom limb... hm.

Lettie still doesn't want to use any of their precious wishes on wings-- even if it turns out that Juno can bring the crew back herself. After everything they've been through, there's something about using those means that doesn't sit quite right with her. However, she can't help wondering if there's a way that she could make herself new wings. Sure Juno's already tried and failed countless times-- but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Maybe if they worked together instead (with the absence of sleep deprivation and stress) they'll find a way.

"So... mermaids are real, too?" Mauve asks, changing the subject.

"Ooooh." Lettie puffs her cheeks. Mauve has no idea what she just asked for. No fucking idea. "Let me tell you a thing about mermaids..."

 

[starboob]

Juno can hear Lettie ranting about those fucking fish bitches from down the hall, instantly warming her heart, melting it into a puddle and washing away the tension she hadn’t realized she had been holding. It adds urgency to her step without her realizing it, without her realizing that she’s leaving Eliza behind to make it back to her faerie’s side. (Her homeland.)

As soon as she’s at the kitchen entrance, her eyes find Lettie without even having to try, drawn to her like a comet pulled into orbit. She’s aware of the other bodies in the room, but that’s all they are to her, bodies. And they part as she crosses the kitchen, leaving a clear path for her to close the distance and wrap her arms around her star, nuzzling her nose into her cheek before she places a kiss there, then her lips. She’s oblivious to the gawking, the company clearly still coming to terms with the fact that captain fucking Juno might not be everything the rumors have said. Or isn’t anymore, at least.

Nico and Mauve’s eyes are both wide. Marta’s jaw is tight. Ainsley seems to be forming a strategy in case things get ugly. But, again, Juno doesn’t notice any of this, far too consumed by Lettie. Lettie, Lettie, Lettie.

Pulling away from her, she leaves her arm draped over her shoulder and finally acknowledges the rest of the company, meeting their astonishment with her raised her scarred brow. The look asks, ‘You have something to say?’

None of them do. None of them really know what to say, despite having so much to ask about Juno earlier. It seems no one is bold enough and Juno finds herself grateful for that. Then, when Eliza enters after her, the air clears of all tension in an instant. They might not all know each other, but Eliza is the one anchor point who they trust.

She acknowledges her company with nods, then sets her elbows on the counter, propping up her chin on her palms, looking over all the various ingredients and foreign objects. “The fuck are cupcakes?”

Whatever tension had been leftover from earlier, shatters, and everyone gathers around the counter to watch Juno in her element. She doesn’t explain anything and simply focuses on measuring, sifting, beating, and mixing all of the ingredients together. At the end, she gives everyone a spoonful of batter to try and for those who try to dip in for seconds, she cuts them off and explains in her Juno way. “No. Salmonella.”

The cupcakes are then scooped into those demonic rat paper liners—”Lette, these are gonna fuckin’ scare the kids.”—and pops them into the oven.

Juno’s inclined to suggest that she and Lettie move some of her things into Juno’s their room—really, an excuse to find some privacy to makeout—when Thad “the mood killer” Rex bursts into the kitchen. His hair and clothes are disheveled. His eyes are wide with something of a mixture between alarm and madness. He waves around two giant scorched bones and loudly announces, “Let it be known that I, Thaddeus Reximus, top of his class, and smartest in all of Skullville, have made a discovery of epic proportions!”

Before anyone can throw a spare egg at him, he lifts the scorched bones and waves them around as he would his stick (wand). He clacks them together over his head, dips them down to the floor, and, with a great strain of effort, starts to lift them back up. Ghostly chains with a greenish glow rise from the floor, a giant pair of clawed hands coming through the surface. Then, with one final effort, Thad uses his pathetic little arms to throw up the bones, summoning a goddamn fucking demon into the middle of the kitchen!

Juno steps in front of Lettie. The other necromancers ready themselves to beat this asshole again—Nico with a hand full of bones, Mauve and Ainsley holding hands to channel another spirit, and Marta’s arm is cocked back, likely full of enchanted shards. Eliza’s also pulled out her twin machetes.

“Ack! NO—” Thad puts himself between the necromancers from Desdemonia and this demon, as if that will really stop any of them from acting. Knowing this, he sweeps his arms to the side, pulling the creature out of the way. (It lumbers awkwardly and knocks into one of the cabinets, collapsing onto the ground.) “Don’t you imbeciles see that this demon's spirit is entirely docile!?”

Rather than use words to reason, he lifts the bones again, and the demon’s spirit follows. He clacks the bones together and the demon claps. Then he gets it to do a weird little jig.

After that, there’s a collective, “What the fuck?” and Thad starts explaining how he and some of the others have been toying with the demon bones from yesterday. Apparently, similar to faerie blood, resources from demons also have unique properties when manipulated with necromancy. Thad’s discovered that he can summon and control the spirits of demons. Delaney and Squid, who mainly messed with the functions of the bones, were able to produce bone shards capable of homing in on enemies. (Thaddeus conveniently fails to mention how this has partially destroyed the gym. It’s a wise move, but will have dire consequences later.)

He also speaks about the potential of fusing the demons' spirits with various weapons and asks Ainsley and Mauve whether or not they’ve ever done that before. All the necromancers give him a blank stare, the technique foreign to Desdemonia. This starts him on a whole tangent of Desdemonia’s rudimentary techniques—a statement he walks back on when Marta gives him a wedgie so killer, it actually brings tears to his eyes. Juno can’t say she feels bad for him and even laughs.

Once Thaddeus is released, there begins an entire nerd fest of necromancers experimenting with demon bones and spirits. Thad even explains some new techniques to the others—the most important being why he uses his stick (“It’s a wand!”). According to him, necromancers don’t have to bleed out everytime they cast if they use a conduit other than their own bodies. Sticks (“Wands!!”) work well for this purpose since they carry necromantic energy, “But, technically, yes. Your lucky rabbit’s foot could also work, Nico.”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie smiles fondly as she watches Juno and the other necromancers work together in their element. Even if she doesn't understand a vast majority of it (by nature of the fact that she isn't a necromancer herself) it's still fascinating to watch them comparing and contrasting their techniques, learning new shit. It's also good to know that Juno doesn't have to bleed out every time she casts, now that she can use a stick (or something else) as a conduit. She's content watching them work together for the first hour. As everyone gets invested in their casting and conversations, the faerie is the only one who remembers the cupcakes in the oven and thankfully remembers to take them out before they can burn to a crisp. (Not even the delicious, sweet smell of the cupcakes is enough to break the focus of the necromancers now that they've gotten started with demon souls. Admittedly, the sight of them unnerves Lettie a bit... for all the obvious reasons.)

"Pfft, I dunno what Juju's talking about. These aren't going to scare the kids." Lettie's fully aware that she's talking to herself as she decorates the cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles. (In her defense, Prissy's there with her.) After that, she carefully lines them in a basket to take with them to the festival. "They're cute! They're cats."

Prissy sighs with a dubious meow at her feet and Lettie frowns. (They are cats. Right? Like, they've got the triangle ears and everything!) Once that's done, there's nothing left for her to do but check on the necromancers again.

The one hour experimentation sesh turns to two, nearing three now. The faerie's fond smile tightens. Okay. Okay. Hasn't this gone on for long enough now? She has no fucking clue what's going on... and she can't help feeling kinda bored now. (And selfishly, she wants her pirate all to herself for a bit.) It'd be another thing if Lettie had something to occupy herself with in the meantime... but right now, she's got nothing to do but twiddle her thumbs and wait around until she and Juno can go on their festival date. And, y'know... maybe sneak off to some private corner of the ship for a special moment all of their own. Sure, they might've been at it all night... but they only have so much time like this before the cube whisks them off again!

Humming innocently, Lettie cycles through a few different sexy poses while she waits in the background, hoping to incidentally catch Juno's eye across the room. When even lounging and sticking her leg up fails, she flops over in defeat. (The pirate seems to always just miss her, only turning around to grin at her in the in-between stages of each pose.) Only Eliza, who seems equally confused about all the necromancy, seems to notice the faerie's efforts. Finding it comical, she suspects a couple of times that the woman's about to burst out laughing at her... but she always schools her expression when Lettie glances her way.

Fine, then. Looks like Lettie's gonna have to up the ante! She's not going to be an insufferable girlfriend who doesn't let her pirate have other friends or interests or anything like that... but today, this three hours is her limit. She wants her girlfriend back, please and thank you.

There's a sparkling pink flash as Lettie glamours herself into her favorite bikini. "Yoohoo, Juju!" She calls her across the room, hopping up and down as she waves at her. Yeah, she knows exactly what she's doing. Now every jaw is on the ground and every pair of eyes is on her. They all stop what they're doing. Thad even drops the bone he raised over his head, clonking himself in the face when it falls. "Holy shit. That fucking elf." (This is a drastically different reception than the one she received that afternoon with the mermaids... and yep. Thank stars, she's still got it.) Some of the eyes on her gravitate towards her cleavage. (Uh huh. Tits are fire too, confirming what Inez has always told her.) "I'm gonna go for a swim while I wait. Come get me when you're finished here, okay?"

Lettie winks and blows her girlfriend a kiss before sauntering out of the room.

And that's the moment the experimentation sesh ends. At least it does for Juno, anyway-- Lettie can hear footsteps rushing behind her and it doesn't take rocket science (or even turning around) to tell her that they belong to her pirate. Mission success!

"Oh. Finished already, Juju?" Lettie bats her eyes innocently up at Juno, but her smile is mischievous. (Yeah, yeah. She knew what she was doing.) She sets a finger on her abs and draws a playful circle. Damn. She might've explored every inch of skin last night, but still... damn! She'll never get over her girlfriend's abs. Or her muscles. Or her... everything. (And clearly she can't get enough of her, either, given her reaction now. Hehe.) "Should we head to the festival, then? I've already decorated the cupcakes and did a marvelous job with them, if I don't say so myself." (All right, the faerie might be exaggerating that part. They look reminiscent of the smiling demon toast breakfast she decorated that one time.) Then she hugs onto her arm, nuzzling close. "Unless... you wanna do something else first?"

 

[starboob]

It takes another hour and a half, but they eventually make it to the festival. They would have missed it altogether had Lettie not half mumbled something about it while they were resting, Juno with her head on Lettie’s tits (fire) and Lettie tracing the bumps along her spine. She would have been fine forgetting about it, lying there like that, but she remembers Calytrix, her remaining wishes, and breaking Lettie's curse. Then there's their date, perhaps the only one they'll really be able to have with the unpredictable cubes ruling over their lives. (They've been suspiciously quiet since Juno last interacted with the major asshole. She suspects their time unbothered is fast dwindling.) The cupcakes and those kids also come to mind, but it's really the first two thoughts that motivate the pirate to leave the comfort of her girlfriend's arms and endure the festival.

Juno’s never been to a festival before and doesn’t know exactly what to expect, but as the trumpets, drums, and screams echo through the valley, dread pools in her belly. ‘I should have stayed in bed.’ She has her girlfriend on one arm and the basket of hellish cupcakes hanging on the other—she definitely told Lettie that she made sprinkles look threatening. ("The fuck are these supposed to be, Lette? Looks like you were trying to summon a fuckin' nightmare.") They’re standing a few paces away from the triple archway entrance made of flowers and, as the sun begins to set, the flowers take on a faint glow. Glowing bugs also fly around them and she watches as a group of children chase after them. It’s sweet until she sees them squishing the bugs and rubbing their luminescent guts over their cheeks. ‘What the fuck?’ Even on Desdemonia, she doesn’t ever remember smearing bug guts on her cheeks. But maybe that’s because bugs were a source of nutrients if they weren’t too radioactive.

When the children notice Juno, they immediately recognize her image, despite these ones not being from Nightwood or Lockwood, and squeal with delight. “You’re here!” One little girl exclaims, running straight up to them. Her neck cranes all the way back and she almost falls over trying to take in the Fabel hero. “You’re tall.”

Awkwardly, the pirate reaches into the basket and hands (shoves) a cupcake into the girl’s hands and speeds away with Lettie. “I can’t fucking do this, Lette. Let’s just find Calytr—“

“There she is!!”

Damn. They’re coming from all sides, like they know she’s going to run if given the proper opening. All Juno can do is lift up the basket of cupcakes to protect them from getting squashed by the battalion of children running at her. One looks particularly vicious and crazed, grinning with wicked glee. His stance tells her that he’s going to pounce—it’s him or the cupcakes. Pivoting to Lettie, she hands her the basket (the children don’t seem to acknowledge her, much to Juno’s envy) then whips back in time to catch the child before he can send them both toppling over. But it’s too late. Another child gets her from the left. Two take out her legs—there’s no way this isn't a coordinated effort—and she’s going down, buried under a pile of screaming children. Some she does recognize, but most of them are complete strangers.

“Did the Guardian punch you in the neck?”

“Tell us about fighting the sun!”

“Isn’t Calytrix the prettiest faerie ever?”

“Where’d you get that scar from?”

“Look at all her muscles! I wanna be just like you when I grow up.”

Most of this all blends together in Juno’s head, unable to process the direction of all these questions and comments as she struggles to sit up. The children, perhaps satisfied that they have their hero trapped, allow her to straighten out but still insist on sitting as close as they can to the hero, leaving no room for her to escape. Two are clinging to her arms, at least three have thrown themselves on her back, while three more are trying to use her lap as a seat. At some point, flower necklaces are placed over her head and a crown made of yellow and orange flowers sits on her head. Juno allows this. “Fuck—I mean,” fuck, fuck, fuck! “Not fuck—”

The children giggle, entirely scandalized by this sacred word, and start chorusing together, “Fuck, fuck, fuck! The Fabel hero says fuck!”

Oh, goddess, smite her now.

“Please, please, please stop saying that. I–I have cupcakes! I brought cupcakes. If you stop saying ‘fuck’ I will give you a cupcake.” The children immediately shut up. Juno blinks. ‘I can… I can control the children with cupcakes?’

She waves Lettie over and has her help pass them out. As Juno predicted, they’re freaked out by them. Lettie’s decorating skills are a confirmed nightmare and that’s being nice. Apparently, her aesthetic eye does not extend to baked goods—not that Juno can say she’s any better. Especially not with her handwriting being what it is. Aside from some comments about the cupcakes looking like mutated hedgehogs or radioactive poo, the children delight over them and, while they’re distracted, Lettie and Juno make a break for it, making it onto the actual festival grounds.

While their plan had been to lay low, Juno sticks out among the crowd, the people of Fabel being closer to Lettie’s stature than her own. Each time they slip away, it’s only a matter of minutes before they’re found again. Juno tries to split the attention with Lettie, emphasizing that she would not have survived those battles without her, but this only draws a wider crowd—especially when they find out that Lettie is also a faerie. (Thankfully, none question her lack of wings.) Soon, they’re both drowning in flower necklaces and crowns and squeezing each other’s hand becomes their silent sign to slip away. But there is no place for them to escape. Each time they hide behind a vendor or tent, they're caught. (And, on one occasion, they’re caught making out.)

There’s not enough cupcakes to keep the children or the Fabelites at bay—some don't even care about the cupcakes, they just want to be around the hero. Of course, it's not all bad—for the most part they only want to thank Juno for freeing them from the Guardian. And, aside from the children, no one really presses her for gritty details. Still, the pirate shrinks away from the attention, feeling suffocated by it all—or maybe that's all the flowers around her neck. Along with flowers, the Fabelites also offer her various gifts—everything from swords to homemade cards—deepening the red color on her cheeks. Though, the redness, at this point, could be from the various drinks that are bought for her.

Eventually, a semblance of reprieve comes in the form Calytrix when she flutters down from the skies, having finished the transition from day to night. They all step back from her in awe and reverence. When she encourages the crowd to head towards the grand feast, they go. (Some of the children can be heard fighting over who will get to sit next to Juno and Lettie.)

Once they're alone, the Fabel Star looks them over with a knowing grin. "I hope you two enjoyed your night in the palace." She giggles and before either can react to that comment, she turns to Juno. "Have you thought any more of your wishes, hero?"

"I have." Juno nods, sobering up immediately. She squeezes Lettie's hand, her gaze softening over her. "I wish for Olette Lycoris Radiata's soul to be her own, for her curse to be broken once and for all, so that no one can ever have control over her." (She might have asked Lettie about her full name earlier, in preparation for this moment.) "Can you grant that, Calytrix?"

 

[ellarose]

Lettie admires the shape of her full name on Juno's lips as she says it. (She's been sneaking adoring gazes her girlfriend's way throughout the entirety of their late afternoon at the festival-- taking her in and holding onto every moment with the intent to cherish them forever. Or for as long as forever lasts, anyway. Juno blushing red beneath the hordes of children who want to be just like her when they grow up, clumsily stumbling over her own swears, and covered in flowers. She's cute. Then there's Juno, explaining the story from her perspective to the people to make sure that Lettie's name goes in the history books alongside hers. She's courageous and humble. Then there are their shared glances and hand-squeezes, the thrilling moments they stole away to be alone together. And she's mine.) Right now... right now she's asking for something that the faerie was never able to ask for herself. Something she always thought she'd have to fight for all alone, with no one there to help her. Fighting in silence all alone. Working herself to tears while those who didn't know any better bought the fake smiles, assuming her shallow and carefree. That's... what life was for her. Since losing Lina, she wasn't sure there'd ever be anyone else for her-- willing to brave the depths beyond the smiles and the glamours.

And now, against all odds, there's her. Juno.

This curse nearly tore them apart. Now, they might finally have the opportunity to tear it apart... though Lettie can't help pressing a cap over her hopes with all of her strength. (She can't let them soar too high. She can't. Because if there's a chance that this doesn't work, she'll plummet back down to earth like a faerie without her...) Instead, she reminds herself that even if it isn't possible, she's still won. Lettie has Juno, who she wouldn't trade for anything in the worlds. She's her first wish, her only wish. So even if her forever is cut short by the curse, she can't feel slighted by the universe when she's no longer alone in it.

As Calytrix glances thoughtfully between them, Lettie goes from squeezing Juno's hand to clutching her entire arm with nervous anticipation. She's shaking.

"I'll see what I can do." Calytrix muses with a serious nod. She steps towards Lettie, indicating that she's going to set her hands on her shoulders and send a surge of magic through her, just like she did before. "You'll have to let me in again. Okay? In order to break a curse, I need to know its source." When she nods her consent, she dives in and both of the faeries eyes turn gold.

Lettie's memories pulse in flashes, with the rhythm of a heartbeat, and Calytrix observes them all in a matter of seconds before resurfacing. The other faerie stares at her for a long time before pulling her in for a hug. (...Can she do it? Oh, stars. Is she hugging her because she can't?) Lettie stiffens but gradually melts against Calytrix's warmth. Their stories may be different, but to some extent she knows what she's going through.

"Olette's curse... is complicated." Calytrix begins reluctantly as she takes a step back from Lettie, glancing over at Juno. She sends three golden lines of magic shooting out from her palm and they all twist together to give them a visual. "It is actually the result of three curses, blended into one. Forged by demonic and angelic forces alike, it's quite powerful."

Lettie sighs, her shoulders drooping. She'd been scared to death of this outcome. All along, she knew from experience how difficult it was to find a proper cure for her specific curse. (And she never found it.) Before she can accept defeat...

"I can break the curse... partially." Calytrix says quickly, at last sensing the roller coaster of anxiety that Lettie's riding with every word she says. Then she shifts her attention to Juno. "For example, just as you kept a few scratches and bruises after Olette's wish to bring you back unharmed, there might be some... residual elements of this curse leftover afterwards." After that, her attention shifts back to the other faerie. "Most of the effects of your curse will dissolve, such as the homing and silencing magics." Her expression becomes grim. "But Asmodeus will still own your soul by contract. In order to free yourself of him, the contract itself needs to be destroyed. Unfortunately, even I do not possess the power to do that... it can only be broken by his magic." She looks at her knowingly. "Or the both of you, perhaps. Just as I was freed from the Guardian upon her death... if Asmodeus falls, you will be completely free of him. Since it goes against the rules to end his life with my magic..." She sighs, disappointed. Then a threatening, knife-sharp gleam flashes in Calytrix's eyes that says she would do it if she could.

Murder. Now, why didn't Lettie think of that? Well, she did contemplate it from time to time. (Or all the fucking time.) Enough that she'd almost sound like a hypocrite for calling Juno homicidal back when they met. But those fantasies were always a distant dream for a little faerie like her. She could never dare to get close enough... and her curse kept her on a tight leash that ensure she could do him no harm. Literally. But... the version of herself that survived other worlds? And a version of herself who can finally speak her truth with the silencing curse broken? (Not to mention with captain fucking Juno at her side?) They could be a force to be reckoned with.

"Knowing all of this... would you still like me to grant your wish?" Calytrix asks, looking between Juno and Lettie. She can see the regret flashing in the other faerie's eyes, understanding that she would've broken the whole curse if it was within her power to do so.

Lettie touches her throat, nodding frantically as tears well up in her eyes. It's not even a question. If she can just get her voice back... if those demons can't track her with their magic... if she drops the weight of those golden chains... it'll be enough. She'll be in a better position than she ever was before. Slowly but surely, she'll take her own life back from them. And then? And then she'll deliver the final blow herself, like a goddess of revenge. Calytrix offered them hope, a solution. Now they just have to see it through to the bitter end. They'll have to fight a little longer still, but she knows it'll be worth it. When the wish granting faerie is sure that they're both content, she nods with understanding and gets started.

"All right. Please stand back for just a moment, Captain." Calytrix advises. Lettie stands on her tip-toes, caressing Juno's cheek and kissing her softly. She squeezes her hand once before they part. Bolstering herself with a deep breath, she shyly walks towards the other faerie, stepping into the glowing circle she traced on the ground for her. Calytrix lowers her hands to the floor at Lettie's feet, a complex glyph pouring out from them. Once again, it's fascinating to watch. She doesn't even have to draw them to cast. When the other faerie raises her glowing fingertips, she draws sparkling wisps of what looks like golden lace out from Lettie's body. (If someone didn't know any better, it'd almost look like she was extracting her faerie dust.) Lettie sputters and coughs with panic as her curse reacts and attempts to fight the pull of Calytrix's magic. Her noose appears with a vengeance, giving her throat one last painful squeeze before it... it actually loosens. With a satisfying craaaack it snaps altogether. It's pulled away from her neck, floating in the air above her before exploding and showering over her in a spray of sparkling fireflies. Lettie watches with wonder as she gasps for breath. It's... gone? It's gone. It's gone. She touches her neck. All that remains is the bruise it left behind. Relief overpowers any of the pain she might have felt. It's gone!

"Good..." Lettie finds it's painful to talk... but she's talking. And her throat no longer burns hotter with the urge to punish her for it. "Good fucking riddance." At this point, she can't stop the tears falling from her eyes. She hasn't completely processed that she's no longer silenced yet-- but Calytrix's magic isn't finished with her yet. Her wrists are next-- glowing gold as the magical chains are peeled away from her and exploded in a similar matter. And lastly, the golden zeroes peel themselves off of her skin and burst as well.

The curse is broken. Nothing remains of it but the scar around her wrist... and the contract for her soul, of course, which remains on Avangeline.

While Lettie hasn't tried breaching the forbidden topics yet-- while she's uncertain if she has the courage to try it yet-- an impossible weight has just been lifted from her shoulders. Strength leaves her body at the same time that hope like she hasn't felt in years comes flooding in, overwhelming all of her senses. What was once impossible is now possible. "It's... broken?" She has to ask to confirm it as she falls on her knees, melting into a sniffling mess at Calytrix's feet. "And I'm not-- not dreaming? I'm not..." She swallows hard, a funny involuntary noise leaving her throat.

"No, this is not a dream. No longer are you shackled." Calytrix confirms, kneeling down and touching her wrists. Then she holds her shoulders to steady her-- though it isn't very long before Juno senses she can approach again and take that steadying role herself. Lettie automatically melts against her touch. (She's so familiar and she can't believe there was a time she was ever a stranger.) "No longer are you silenced."

"Thank you." Lettie sobs on repeat, incoherent with gratitude. (Even with the confirmation, even with the warmth of Juno's arms around her, she still can't be certain it's not a dream. It's surreal.) She worked for this for years, yes, but somehow... in her heart of hearts, something in her knew it'd be unattainable. And now she has her voice back. Her story is her own to tell again. Juno and Calytrix gave her that chance. "Thank you."

"I only wish I could have done more." Calytrix admits, noting the irony of this-- considering she herself is a wish granting faerie. "Speaking of which... you have one more wish to make, Juno." She stands, taking a step back as she regards them with understanding. "But I will allow the two of you a moment to yourselves before asking you to make a decision."

 

[starboob]

Juno spends the rest of the evening holding onto Lettie, not letting her go, not even once. Whether her arms are wrapped around her middle or she has one draped over her shoulder, she keeps her faerie close to her. While Lettie has not tried to test her curse, every now and again Juno feels the faerie shaking as if the realization that she’s closer than ever before to her freedom is hitting her all over again. Juno tells herself that this is why she has to keep close, to remind her that she’s got her, she’s here, and she's not letting go. But really, after the last week they've had—between confessions and near death experiences—she doesn’t want to be too far from her and doesn’t think she can really stand to be. Even taking those few steps back to watch her curses come undone, the pirate had worried what would happen while Lettie wasn’t in her arms. (It took more than Juno is willing to admit to stay firmly put when the golden noose revealed itself again, tightening around her girlfriend’s neck one final time.) It’s like she believes Lettie’s the safest she can be wrapped in her embrace—or maybe it’s that Juno feels the safest when Lettie is near her. It’s probably a mixture of the two.

Yeah, Juno is disappointed that her wish couldn’t give Lettie her life back. And even in spite of what Calytrix says, she occasionally blames herself for this, because had she had enough desire, if she truly felt it passionately enough, it would have been enough. Just like Lettie’s will to bring her back from the brink was. But she knows these thoughts are only there to help her feel in control and she knows, deep down, that the magic that holds Lettie’s soul hostage is not something so easily undone. If the power of wishes and hopes were enough to break curses like that, then maybe the citizens of Fabel could have been able to free Calytrix long ago. In these moments of frustration, she has to remind herself that what was undone is better than nothing. And she knows that it is. She knows that it’s leveled the playing field and given them an edge. Juno holds onto that.

Lettie has her voice back and those demons won’t even be able to find her when they make it back to Avangeline. They actually have a fighting chance at a future where they both can be together, for the rest of their forevers. Even though Lettie would never ask her to fight, would never hold her to her vows or promises, Juno is determined to raise hell on Avageline, for everything it’s done to her girlfriend. For all the way it’s treated its faeries as fodder. No one deserves that sort of life. Those demons will be kissing the cold steel of her blade; nothing will be left of Asmodeus or the estate. That much, Juno can promise. It’s not even a question, Juno’s fighting.

As the last of the festivities wind down—most of it all happening in a blur, though she vaguely remembers playing a game with Lettie where they tried to figure out what foods she’d like the best—Juno presses her nose to Lettie’s shoulder. “You ready to go back home?” She doesn’t even need to ask, because she knows that they’d both rather be cooped up together somewhere on their ship, but she checks anyway. When she gets the okay, they slip through the crowds, only exchanging a short goodbye with Calytrix before they return to Lady with their haul of gifts.

Lady is uncharacteristically quiet by the time they get back. Eliza’s company and Thad must all be asleep and without the skeletons around, there’s no one to throw ragers late into the night or host banned poker nights. Their bones don’t ceaselessly click through the halls as they go about their endless tasks. It had been easy to forget about her crew earlier with Eliza’s making up for the emptiness, but now that they’re all tucked away she’s surrounded by the haunting silence. Even with Lettie by her side, Lady doesn’t quite feel like home without the skeletons.

“Let’s go get our crew back,” she suggests, squeezing Lettie’s hand and pulling her towards the morgue where she had placed the bones. They enter the locked morgue, finding the crew all still in their sacks, haphazardly spread throughout the room thanks to the most recent chaos. (This is fine. They're just bones.) It’s difficult to decide who to bring back first, so Juno diplomatically grabs the sack nearest to her and lays out the bones on the floor.

Following Thad’s advice, she holds a stick (this is so dorky) over the pile and concentrates on the flow of energy from her stick (dorky, dorky, dorky) to the pile. The bones rattle in response to the jolt of magic, bouncing up and down until there’s enough momentum for the skeleton to start piecing itself together from the feet up, the skull and jaw the last pieces to pull into place. Fred immediately flips both Juno and Lettie the bird, crossing his arms over her chest as he skulks off, apparently pissed off that he was disassembled right before he was about to sweep an illegal round of poker. Juno can’t say she’s too offended. It’s fucking Fred, a perpetual thorn in her side. “Fucking Fred.”

Juno reanimates Phillip next, knowing that he's been Lettie's best friend since spending their first night together on the ship. Phillip doesn’t even wait for his skeleton to finish assembling—the second he has his arms back, he pulls Lettie in for a hug. When his jaw attaches itself to the rest of his skull, it's quivering and Juno’s positive he’d be crying if he weren’t made solely of bones.

While Phillip and Lettie have their reunion and catch up, Juno brings back her five mini-skeletons. Juno offers them her arm and they gladly crawl up to sit on her shoulders. (She bonded with these ones the most during her lonely nights in the study following everything on Avangeline.) The rest of the crew come together just as seamlessly. Some hang around the morgue to catch up with each other—as if they actually went on a vacation and weren’t just vacant shells for a week—and others leave to mill about the ship. She has a distinct feeling that when Fred leaves, he's off to organize a rematch of last week's poker tournament. She'd try to put a stop to it, but there are still more to bring back and, admittedly, she's missed their antics and the trouble they get into on their own.

Altogether, it takes under an hour for Juno to finish assembling the bulk of her crew. All who remain are Marjorie, Inez, and Abigail. She looks at these skeletons warily, unsure of whether or not they decided to crossover once their souls were released. (While she had asked Calytrix earlier if she could help bring back her crew, the faerie admitted that it was too close to raising the dead and that her magic would not be able to help. All she could offer was to strengthen Juno’s memories of the bonehead trio as a means to help bring them back to her.) She squeezes the twig in her hand as she stares at the skull with a mutated rat bandage on it. Marjorie. Her heart tightens. Raising the bones will be easy enough. It’s calling on their souls that fills the pirate with dread.

But she’s improved since the last time she attempted this and even in the last few weeks, she’s managed to push her necromantic abilities beyond what she thought capable—she's learned to bend the spirit of the earth and fire, after all.

She gives Lettie’s hand a squeeze and, though she knows she doesn’t have to, she hides her nerves behind a joke. “Marjorie’s going to shit bricks if we tell her everything that's happened. Better get ready for a lecture.”

With that, the necromancer closes her eyes and concentrates on opening herself up to the spirits, calling forth Marjorie through the recollection of their moments together. From the first moment she met Marjorie and how the first thing she ever said to Juno was, “You look like you need some rest.” How she immediately tried to send the pirate captain to bed and how Juno told her to, “Fuck off. Go to the helm. Make sure we don’t fuckin’ crash.” Then to their most recent memories, with the skeleton telling her to rest. The skeleton startling her awake from a nightmare, causing her to punch her skull off. The skeleton endlessly worrying over her captain. Some things never change.

As Juno recalls these memories, focusing on the pile in front of her, the bones give a twitch, the phalanges worming up through the pile to construct her feet followed by the legs, hips, spine, ribs, arms, and hands. The skull sets itself at the stop of the spine, the jaw snapping into place. And, finally, the glowing orbs within the eye sockets flicker, faint and growing stronger the more Juno concentrates on Marjorie. Minutes later a bony hand rests on the captain's shoulder and when she opens her eyes, Marjorie is staring up at her with her ever concerned eye glows. “Have you been getting enough rest, Captain?”

 

[ellarose]

"Juju!" Lettie gasps when Marjorie's eye-glows appear, smacking her girlfriend's arm excitedly. "You're doing it!" The faerie would be jumping up and down for joy or perhaps flinging herself directly at Marjorie's assembling skeleton to tackle her into a hug if Phillip hadn't swept her up to swing her around in a circle first. She giggles as her feet lift off the ground and it sort of feels like flying. Ooof. She's dizzy by the time he sets her back down on her feet, her eyes rolling around in her skull, and the colossal skeleton sets his hands on her shoulders to steady her. Apologetically, he signs that he got carried away and Lettie signs that it's okay, because she's excited too. After giving her skellie bestie (another) hug, she's able to process what's going on around her again. Looks like Juno and Marjorie are hugging themselves. Aw. The faerie stands back a few paces to let them have their moment... and when she decides she's given them enough time, she can't help barging in to turn the hug into a group hug. A couple of the others, including Phillip, pile in as they know what a rarity it is to receive a hug from captain fucking Juno. Fred completely misses it. But Fred isn't much of a hugger, anyway. Fucking Fred.

Naturally, there's only so much of this Juno can take before she's huffily (cutely) shooing the overly affectionate skeletons away from them. The only one she continues holding onto by the end is Lettie-- who she hasn't dared to let go of since breaking her curse. (Which... yeah, she's thankful for that. Her pirate's touch has been grounding her, serving as a constant reminder that it isn't just a dream. Shockwaves rock through her every fifteen minutes or so, reminders of everything that's happened in the last twenty-four hours.) Seeing the pair clinging onto each other like this, the faerie's fairly certain that every pair of eyebrows in the morgue would be rising if the skeletons still had eyebrows. The crew smack each other's arms the way Lettie smacked Juno's arm before, they point, and some bring their hands to their jaws in shock.

"What have I missed?" Marjorie asks what all of them must be thinking in that moment.

"...Oh. What haven't you missed?" Lettie purses her lips dramatically, drawing her magic circle and whipping her little notebook and pink puff pen out. The skeletons are starting to run around in circles, clutching their skulls. Some rush off to fetch those who have already wandered off. These implications are blowing their fucking minds. (Yes, of course she wrote notes on the last couple of days! By the end most of it turned into mushy accounts of Juno's eyes or the way it felt to be held in her stupidly buff arms--) "I have so much tea to spill, Marjorie. I had to write a list to keep track of it all."

Lettie smiles innocently at Juno, tossing the notebook away haphazardly before leaning affectionately against her arm again. A couple of the skeletons lunge for the notebook and start wrestling each other for it. Oblivious to this, the faerie traces little hearts on Juno's bicep with her fingertip. Her notes are all good things when it comes to her. (Mostly, she's just excited to gossip with her crew about her exciting new relationship and Thad's greatest blunders-- like the way he tripped right in front of freaking Ripir. Like, the skellies haven't even met Thad yet! They've seriously missed so much!) They're starting to gather a crowd, eager to hear every word of this hot new gossip. However, she knows Inez will want to be here for this. Abby too-- even if she doesn't always pay attention or understand what's happening.

"Let's try to get Inez and Abby back first." Lettie suggests. They're the ones she's worried about when it comes to Juno being able to find them. She has no idea where Inez might have gone off to... and with Abby's tendency to wander, there's no telling where she might have ended up. If anyone can do it, though, it's her girlfriend. The faerie kisses her on the cheek for luck. "I know you can do it, Juju."

The cheek kiss sends many of the skeletons over the edge. It's complete and utter chaos, especially when one of them goes as far as to rip their newly assembled skull off before throwing it across the room. Marjorie's the only one capable of gasping... and she does. Loudly.

"Are... are they okay?" Lettie whispers to Juno, finally taking notice of how weird the skellies have been acting. Her brow furrows with genuine concern. Some are trading jaws or signing frantically to each other over lost bets. "What's wrong with them?"

Deciding it's more important to have everyone together before they assess this situation, eventually Juno does manage to bring Inez and Abby back as well. Inez turns out to be the most complicated of the three. And that's on purpose. When she struts back in with her usual flair, she informs the pirate captain that she couldn't resist making a dramatic entrance by toying with the captain in a game of 'will she, won't she'. (It's her inner actress acting up, she claims.) Abby, on the other hand, ends up rushing back to them with all the eagerness of a lost puppy.

"Cap'n, I've counted forty-seven-- no, a hundred forty-- no, a thousand and forty-six clouds in the sky since we parted!" Abigail informs Juno frantically.

"That's so helpful, Abby. Let me write that down." Lettie nods, elbowing Juno and urging her to nod along with her. She's in need of some serious reassurance right now! (Especially remembering how stressed she'd been before disassembling. There's no fucking way she's going to discredit Abby's efforts-- and she'll fight anybody who does.) Except when she turns around to look for her notebook and pen, they're long gone. "Where is my..." She notices the group of skeletons, still wrestling each other for her notebook. Immediately, her hands go to her hips and her cheeks puff up. "Hey!"

Fred, who reappeared upon hearing all the new gossip, has just stolen the notebook. He raises it high over his head, savoring his victory... only for Phillip to walk over, shaking his head disappointedly as he plucks it away from him with ease.

Phillip gives Lettie her notebook back and she frowns at the sight of it, all bent up and ripped. (...Still. Despite a few pages worth of gossip taking damage-- it serves as a reminder that she doesn't have to count the days or make obsessive calculations in regards to the time she has left anymore. Those days are behind her now.) The skeletons go quiet-- some backing away from the upset faerie or lowering their heads in shame. Only Fred remains defiant. (Fucking Fred.)

"...If you guys are gonna act like this, you're not gonna get your welcome home party." Lettie huffs, tossing her notebook back into her magic circle where it'll be safe. (And, yeah, they never officially discussed a party. But the skellies love to party! It's only natural-- and there's a lot to celebrate.) Anyway, Lettie was totally gonna vouch for them, knowing she can sway a certain pirate captain just by batting her eyes these days. But now... "Now you guys are on your own. You're gonna have to convince Juno yourselves."

 

[starboob]

“Hey!” Juno shouts when she catches those fucking boneheads trading jaws—she even spots one trying to remove their goddamn tailbone! Can't they wait a full fucking day or at least do this out of her sight!? She just fucking put them all back together again and they’re already fucking it up! “The fuck did I tell you about gambling!?”

The skeletons kick at the ground, hiding their hands behind their backs, pretending they’ve done nothing wrong at all, whatsoever, to earn their captain’s ire. (She missed them.)

Their sad looks do nothing to soften her hardened glare—though it drops, briefly, when Lettie mentions a welcome home party. Mostly out of sheer surprise. As if Juno would ever condone such a thing. She hardly approved of their ragers before and it's not like she's suddenly changed her mind because of a certain faerie. Absolutely fucking not. This is not happening. For one, those boneheads never clean up after themselves; two, they waste her fucking alcohol; and three, they don't even have alcohol to waste! The space beers are long gone and it's not like Juno's made restocking that a top priority over the last week. As levelly as she can, all while avoiding direct eye contact with a certain persuasive faerie, she says, “You assholes aren’t getting a fuckin’ party—”

“A party!” Abigail exclaims, clapping her hands over her face. Apparently, she's only caught the last part of what Juno's said as she was too dazzled by the bugs banging into the ceiling light before. “How did you know it was my birthday, cap’n? Oh, you’re so smart.”

“Yeahhh,” Inez cuts in slyly, wrapping her arm around Abby’s shoulder. “That’s so kind of you, captain.”

“Certainly would boost morale.” Marjorie nods sagely and the rest of the skeletons follow, their heads making an eerie chorus of dull clicking.

"Hell fuckin' no." She momentarily lets go of Lettie to cross her arms over her chest. When Abigail starts to droop, she adds, as an explanation and hoping to soften the blow, "Because there's nothing to fucking party with."

“Oh, oh! Let me help!” Abigail jumps up and down and before Juno can say anything, she spins on one foot, reaches for the metaphoric stars, and in a singsong voice she calls, “Ohhhh, Maestrooo!”

Ordinarily, when Juno or Lettie call on that bastard, it takes the little shit a few minutes to arrive. However, when Abigail calls? The asshole is there before she even finishes her note. “Abigail? Is it really you?” They ask. (Juno is quick to elbow Lettie, wondering if she’s also seeing the cube shaped lipstick marks all over their faces?????) They whiz over to the skeleton, floating around her as if they cannot believe their cube. “Oh, it is! It is!” The cube rushes up to her cheekbone and nuzzles against it, causing Abigail to giggle. “That tickles.”

“What the fuck.” Juno exchanges a glance with Lettie, again, to make sure that she’s seeing this too.

“Maestro, Captain Juno wants to throw me a birthday party, but we’re all out of birthday supplies," she sighs. The other skellies nod solemnly, draping their hands over their chests. (It's unlikely they actually care about Abigail's birthday. They’ll just do anything to party.) “Will you help us out?”

Again, where it can take weeks to get a request through on important shit like fuel or tech for upgrades—sometimes waiting until they’re in severe need—this little shit not only blips them out of the morgue and onto the deck, but they also have kegs of alcohol ready, streamers, confetti, a floating ball of mirrors, dorky fucking party hats—the whole fucking shebang! There’s even a banner that reads: IT’S A GIRL! (Juno admittedly doesn’t understand that one.)

“I am going to throttle that—”

“Have a beer, cap’n.” Inez thrusts an overflowing cup into her chest, spilling at least half the drink over her front (and getting a little bit on Lettie since Juno refuses to let go of her). Juno grabs the skeleton’s wrist, ready to fling her back but a certain cheek puff from a certain faerie has her accepting the drink with a muttered thanks. Somehow, Inez gives off the effect that her grin is widening. “Yeah, just one drink, cap’n.”

Needless to say, it’s not just one drink. One drink becomes two, becomes three, becomes eighteen. Juno isn’t quite sure where she lost count or how this happened. She vaguely remembers trying to dip after the first beer and Lettie batting her pretty lashes and asking to stay. Something about it being the skellies’ first night back and it being a special occasion. Even Eliza, her company, and Thad all come out to join them—although, that might be because Inez takes over as DJ (she claims she was once a very famous EDM artist) and shakes Lady with her sick beats.

At some point, the Medic comes in to lecture everyone on the appropriate blood alcohol content, but seeing as the skellies have no blood to have alcohol content… that ends up being a private lecture for the few living humans on the ship who, at that point, are all sloshed. Lettie and Juno end up flipping the Medic the bird and defiantly shotgun beers in front of him to get on his nerves. It's enough that the Medic starts to flash red before he blips away, promising that they'll be sorry when their livers fail.

When the skellies determine that Juno and Lettie are drunk enough, they eagerly start signing at them to tell them everything they have missed in the last week. Juno’s version goes a little something like this, “Lette confessed first. She was angry. We made out.”

Her story is only nine words and the skellies are struggling to hold onto their skulls. Phillip runs off to go retrieve something and when he comes back, that damned scoreboard (where the fuck did they even get that!?) makes a reappearance. Fred starts doing some maths, adding several tallies to Lettie’s half and one to Juno's. Some skellies, upon seeing these new numbers, take off their hands and throw them down onto the deck in defeat. Juno is surprisingly okay with this. (It’s the alcohol.)

Unsurprisingly, some skellies start squabbling with Fred, signing frantically—too fast for Juno to catch much of it (she’s drunk)—and Fred has Inez ask, “Miss Lettie, we’d like to hear your version of events to, ah… For reasons.” She refuses to elaborate more than that.

This leads to her girlfriend happily gushing about their relationship—reprimanding Juno, again, for thinking she’d be okay without her—for over an hour. (It feels that way at least.) Juno hides her face against Lettie’s shoulder, but never stops her. She likes listening to her voice; she likes hearing her excitement when she talks about them being together. There’s never been any room to doubt her feelings on the subject, but Juno is just one (1) homo pirate. Eventually, Lettie goes off topic, starts talking about Juno’s arms (resulting in more tallies being added to her half of the board), so Juno teasingly flexes them, causing Lettie to short circuit for a full minute. (More tallies go to Lettie's side. Ribs, jaws, pinky toes are traded and re-traded.)

As the night winds down Inez plays a suspiciously slow song and Marjorie and Eliza both push Lettie and Juno onto the dance floor. It’s mortifying. It’s nice. It’s their home, their family. Juno holds Lettie close, then pulls back to cradle her face the way she always does. (Fred frantically adds some tallies to Juno's side. Inez loses a molar to Stacy's Mom.) Her smile is sleepy, drunk, and, without even thinking of their audience, she leans down to kiss Lettie—even picks her up to spin her around. (More tallies, more bone trades.)

Juno and Lettie somehow make it back to their room, although how is a mystery. She vaguely remembers stumbling through the halls together, giggling, and now all she knows is that they’ve changed into their pajamas and Juno’s curled on her side, curled around Lettie. She falls asleep hard and fast.

 

[ellarose]

Ugh. Lettie does not want to get out of bed. Doesn't want it, nope. 'Cause she's safe and warm, tucked under blankets and held in the stupidly buff arms she got all teary eyed talking about the night before. A soft rain tapping against the window mingles with the sound of Juno's heartbeat. It's peaceful. Well, peaceful if she disregards the massive fucking hangover, knocking the sides of her skull as if she got herself caught between a monkey's cymbals. Those skellies sure do know how to party. (She missed them.) It was worth it, though. Juno finally got to experience a rager! They got to dance and really dance, creating new happy memories to replace what'd happened the last time they danced... on Avangeline. Avangeline, Avangeline, Avangeline.

No, no! Nopety nope. While this fleeting moment lasts, the faerie melts against her pirate's embrace, pretending like they have nothing to do today. No responsibilities, nowhere to be. They can rest and be together like this in the most simple way. If they lived in a universe where any semblance of fairness existed, they'd get more than a single day to recover from the storm they've just survived. They'd have long since earned their forever... it would be starting now. Unfortunately, they live in a little fucking cube's universe. And that bastard calls all the shots. She's been living in it long enough now that she senses it's going to be collecting them for another mission soon. (Hopefully it's not one that involves...)

The sound of scraping chains is distant at first. Then it becomes louder than the rain, their breathing, and Juno's heart against her ear. 'It's not over yet, Olette.' A chill slips down the back of her neck, tingling over the scars on her back. 'Your chains may be broken, but you're still mine.'

Lettie shivers, queasy with dread. Juno, as if sensing that the faerie needs her, wakes with a grumble (she's got to be hungover, too) and automatically squeezes her closer. Juju. She shimmies herself around to face her girlfriend, wrapping her arms around the pirate's middle and pressing her face against her. Juno presses her chin to her head and mumbles in her tiredness to ask if she's cold. "Mhm." Is Lettie's response. It's partially true-- not a lie. And the whole truth will come out... soon. Lettie trusts Juno with it. And she wants to tell her everything. It's just that... she wants to test it first. Juno might take it hard and blame herself if the curse turned out to be too strong, if it's not actually broken, and be there to watch the hope fade from her eyes.

Lettie's scared. Fucking terrified that this is a beautiful, delusional dream world she's been living in. That she'll wake up to find herself pressed against a crystalized Juno with a sword still lodged in her chest. That she'll scream and scream until her throat is raw and aching.

"Juju..." Whatever happens, Lettie's going to be honest. "I'm not ready yet, but I do wanna talk soon. About everything." It's a start, isn't it? They've more than paid the price for avoiding those conversations. At least now Juno won't wonder if she's putting it off because of her or come to her own conclusions that she's the problem. (Because she was never the problem.) "I trust you with everything." She takes her hand and kisses it before bringing it over her own heart. They trained her to be silent. Tortured her to be silent. Of course she's reluctant. When she does finally talk, she wants to time it right. It can't be now, with them half asleep and nursing their hangovers. Nor does she want to be on edge, wondering when the cube might pop in. Like, that little asshole interrupted her just as she was asking Juno if she could stay before. Stars. Lettie doesn't even want to imagine the alternative universe they could've lived in, had Juno known that before they ever went to Avangeline.

***​

The cube does show eventually, informing them that they have exactly two hours left on Fabel before they're off on their next mission. Marjorie walks in around the same time, bringing with her a tray with her special hangover remedy and some fruit. Upset about how overworked they've been lately, the skeleton gives the cube a stern talking to... and that gives them an extra hour. They have three hours now to say their goodbyes to Fabel.

While Lettie and Juno obviously want to stay in bed, they do eventually pick themselves up and fall easily into their new routine of getting ready together. They're sluggish still, their heads still pounding from the night before (the Medic pops in briefly to say 'I told you so'-- to which the faerie and pirate duo respond by offering the cube the bird again) and despite this, it's just comfortable. Juno finishes getting ready first (surprise, surprise) and waits patiently on the bed for Lettie as she sorts out her make-up, outfit, accessories, and colors. (Throughout, they feed each other the fruit that Marjorie brought in for them.) She lets Juno brush her hair when she asks-- and she immediately finds it endearing and sweet how she tries to do it as gently as possible. It's a tangled mess after partying last night.

Then they start the cleanup process. (...Juno spends a lot of it lecturing the skellies who are still pretending to be passed out on the floor. Many of them are spared from the inferno by stern faerie cheek puffs. But when the crew continues with their theatrics, pretending to be hungover, those cheek puffs are turned towards the skellies. "Get it together, you guys! If you want to party with the captain, you have to help with the cleanup. Those are the rules." 'The rules you just came up with.' Fred signs, unimpressed. But all it takes is a single glare from Juno to make this new rule an official ship rule. Hehe.) Eventually, the other necromancers come out to help with the cleanup as well.

...And naturally, with all the necromancers gathered in one room again, it's only a matter of time before they start nerding out over bones and all their new discoveries again. Thad shows off, acting cocky and all-knowing as usual, and it immediately turns into a competition.

Lettie kicks back and files her nails as spirits and bone constructs are raised, content to cheer Juno on with the skellie crew whenever she takes her turns... then contemplates the things she can do around Lady while the pirate's attention is otherwise occupied. It has been a while since she last checked the engine room. Some maintenance might be in order. That's when Calytrix makes a discreet visit on the sidelines of the competition, tapping her shoulder and waving. She perks up, saying she can go get Juno-- but the other faerie is quick to tell her that she just wants to talk to her for a bit. Faerie to faerie.

So while Juno's busy nerding out with the necromancers, Lettie finds herself similarly nerding out with Calytrix. And let's just say she's learning a few new tricks of her own...

***​

Everybody gathers together again to say their farewells when the cube announces a ten minute warning before their departure. Calytrix teleports some of the villagers there-- stating that they all wished to be present, but many of them are busy now on rebuilding their villages and homes. "You'll have to come back to visit again." (The teary children are there, piling on top of Juno and keeping each of her limbs occupied with a hug.) Lettie catches Eliza grinning at this from the corner of her eye and can't help grinning herself. They do have a lot in common... Lettie could see why kids would gravitate to Eliza the same way they do to Juno.

"Thank you for everything." Lettie tells Calytrix, reflecting on their talk. Reflecting on the way she cut her chains and severed her noose. Not to mention everything else. It was a game changer in every possible way.

"No, thank you. Truly." Calytrix stresses, looking from Juno to Lettie and taking her time as she makes eye contact with the both of them. "You've done so much for all of us. You've given us all hope. A second chance." She presses a golden pendant into Juno's free hand. "This is a piece of the Guardian's crown. It's wise of you, taking time to think about your final wish. If you should ever need my help again, you can call on me using this."

Lettie takes Juno's hand, squeezing. Then she smiles at her. Like this, they'll return to Avangeline stronger than ever with their new tricks and a faerie wish. They have each other. They, too, have hope. They went through hell and made it out. With Juno standing next to her, anything feels possible.

But before that, they'll have to finish their business on Desdemonia. After they've said their farewells and waved goodbye to the villagers, to Calytrix, to Fabel and everything they've done there...

they're off with a blip!

 

[starboob]

Gone are the soft lilac skies and crisp air of Fabel’s mornings, replaced with the sickly green and sulfurous smell of Desdemonia. Home. Not just to Juno, but to Eliza and her company, too. (Though Juno supposes her home is wherever Lettie is.)

A rain of heavy thud, thud, thud hits the deck of her ship as all the flesh bodies are unceremoniously dropped from the skies in typical cube fashion. Somehow, Juno doesn’t find this annoying anymore. Especially when she feels the all too familiar faerie land against her back. She smiles, then pushes herself up, expertly twisting to catch Lettie before she can fall onto the metal hull. A cacophony of groans surrounds them, though Juno hardly notices with her heartbeat hiked in her chest, realizing that this really and truly means they survived. They made it. Juno got her necromancy back and is part of this mission again. She's not going to be separated from Lettie.

Something large—like a chunk of mountain—rushes down from her peripheries, hitting the ground below with a distant thud. She hears Thad’s geeky little body scrambling to look over the ledge of the ship, lamenting about his lair and the damage his collectibles might be suffering. Juno finds it in herself to chuckle at his expense, exchanging an amused side-eye with her girlfriend.

Eliza and her company slowly peel themselves off the deck, not nearly as used to be tossed from world to world. Some stumble and stagger—Mauve entirely falls over—but they’re alert before they’re even ready for action. Typical Desdemonians.

It’s obvious just looking over the ledge that they’re back above Ripir’s Ravine and the underground tomb. The ropes and ladders won’t be long enough to climb down, but before Juno can order Marjorie to take them closer, they’re informed that the entire ravine has been warded. Juno and the other necromancers hadn’t noticed it before, but when they collectively peer over the ledge, squinting, a chorus of curses fills the air.

However, with Thad’s lair busting through and crushing some, they have a small opening. This, of course, has also drawn out some stewards—the Duchess's goons, no doubt. The stewards below don’t seem to notice Lady, meaning that Lettie’s cloaking system is still online, giving them a layer of surprise. This isn't ideal and it's not terrible, either.

“Alright,” Juno turns on her heel to face the group. “For any of you who don’t want to fuckin’ mess with the Duchess, you’re welcome to stay up here. No judgment.” She won’t drag anyone down with her, won’t force anyone to cross the Duchess and make her their enemy. Especially not knowing what the outcome might be. If Cathy wins, she doesn't—

“Piss off with that shit,” Eliza scoffs, arms crossed over her chest. “This is our home, too, and if fuckin’ off worlders think they can mess with our world, I wanna be part of the company that drives them the hell away. Even if it means going against Duchess Cassidy.” She thinks on this, then adds, “Especially if it means going against that bitch.”

With that vote of confidence, the rest of the company nods. They’ve all got a stake in this. They’ve all got a chance to fix Desdemonia. (Unlike before, it seems Eliza is willing to even let the teens help. Perhaps she's just wise enough to know if she keeps keeping them away from the action, they’ll find their way to it themselves. She can keep a better eye on them if she lets them tag along.) Thad is the only one who reluctantly agrees and when the company all hound him for tripping in front of Ripir, he squawkily claims, “That was one time!”

Juno rolls her eyes at Dorkus Maximus then has everyone do one last weapons check, making sure nothing was lost during their drop. And when she goes to check her belt— “Really, Lette?” She pulls her mouth to the side, unimpressed, and sticks out her hand for her bag of bones. It’s the only thing missing from her belt and she just knows it’s because of her fucking faerie girlfriend. (The love of her life.) Once she’s resecured the bag to her belt, the Original Asshole (QB) proves themself helpful for once and blips them the short distance through the hole made in the ward.

They arrive on top of the lair, just out of the stewards’ field of vision. Ripir doesn’t seem to be around, thankfully, but it’s the only good news they have so far. There are still the stewards to deal with. From her crouched position, she scoots closer to the ledge to get a better sense of their bearings and counts how many stewards they have to deal with. She holds up her hand. Five. Eliza’s also moved over to the ledge opposite to Juno. She holds her hand. Three.

Once Juno and Eliza have returned to the main group, Ainsley raises up her phantom limb, suggesting something that only seems to make sense to the necromancers as they’re the only ones nodding with understanding.

Ainsley creeps over to the ledge and once she’s got eyes on the stewards, her phantom arm slithers down. There’s muffled commotion below. They catch bits of “—iously?—” and “—it!—” and “—f here!—” and nothing else.

The phantom limb comes back up and she gives the all clear. “They’ll be out for the next ten minutes.”

When they make it to the ground, there are eight collapsed stewards—drooling, with their eyes rolled back. The company (and Juno) rummage through their clothes for goodies, strip them of their weapons, then tie their wrists and ankles together for good measure. Juno presents Lettie with some bombs and a few knives she pilfered. “Hope this makes up for the fact that I haven’t gotten you any flowers n’ shit.”

Ripir still isn’t anywhere to be seen or heard (or even felt). Juno doesn’t dare call it luck or good fortune, knowing her track record, but she chooses not to fret over it now. They’ll deal with that worm whenever it decides to show its creepy face.

Briefly, the pirate recalls that horrific amalgam of herself, Lettie, and Ripir from the space station. She shivers and reaches for Lettie’s hand. 'She's got me.'

At the entrance to the tunnel that leads down to the catacombs, all the necromancers stop short of entering. Marta throws a rock past the threshold. It doesn’t hit the ground. It just disintegrates. “Ah, fuck,” she curses, along with a few others. “Wards.”

Jo takes out a torch, lights it, and waves it around the entrance to get a better idea of what they’re dealing with. This confirms what they all suspected—floor to ceiling wards made of bone and blood both. (Juno privately wonders if the Duchess even spilled a drop of her own blood for this. She wonders who fucking died to protect what she believes is hers by inheritance.)

Thad wriggles through to the front of the group, taking note of the wards, then points to Juno’s demon sword—the one she won from him earlier after her construct kicked his construct’s ghostly ass. “Use the sword to break the wards,” he suggests. “I was practicing with it earlier—”

“Your little twigs could lift this?”

“Yes! Do you want my help or not? Thought so.” Thad huffs, smoothing his hair back as if that might make him appear cooler. (It doesn't. Thad's not cool.) “Anyway, while I was practicing I—hey!”

Juno tunes out the geek’s explanation—not because it’s not interesting, it is, but she’s not keen on wasting time and he doesn't need to explain necromancy or swords to her. She's Captain fucking Juno. She eats swords and necromancy for breakfast!

She points the tip of the sword down the passageway, concentrating on the trapped soul within the sword, imposing her stubborn will on the demon. The fuller starts to fill with a red-orange glow that collects at the tip in the form of a hazy orb. She swivels her wrist, flinging the orb down the passageway and one by one, the wards tremble and melt away, collecting into the demonic orb. That taken care of, she settles her nightmare goggles over her face and looks over at Lettie, then the rest of the crew. “Ready?”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie keeps close to Juno while they navigate the underground pathways. It's horribly dark, there's a spooky draft and the walls of rock seem to close in tighter around them the deeper they go. Thanks to everyone's efforts, they don't have to fight their entire way down and navigate with relative ease. However, this leaves her with more for thinking as they do... and thanks to their surroundings, her traitorous thoughts gravitate to the Reaper. Smiling that wide smile full of bone white teeth, too many teeth to be normal, salivating and waiting in his underground abyss. Hidden from the stars, moving deeper beneath the ground...

For the longest time, this darkness is what her future looked like.

'Yeesh, Letts. Have you turned into Ravan...? Or worse-- Thad? That's so broody!' Lettie's sassy inner voice interrupts the stormy one before it can get too carried away. Shaking them both off in favor of focusing, she squeezes Juno's hand. Not hard enough to startle her, just enough to remind her that she's here. It doesn't matter if she has three days or a hundred. She'll be at her side for however long she has left. (Or doing whatever she can to get back to it.) Throwing fate the bird and trying to blow it up with stolen bombs... yeah, that's totally their style. Complete and utter chaos. They're not going down without a fucking fight.

Lina screams and there's the echo of a giant jaw snapping shut. Snap, snap, snap. Lettie grips Juno's arm with alarm. Did she just-- snap, snap, snap. It's getting closer! Eyes alight with panic, she whips her head around. "I'm waiting for you, Olette." ...But all she can see are the necromancers behind them. The hair on the back of her neck stands up straight.

"D-d-did anyone else hear that?" Thad whispers fearfully, reassuring Lettie that at least he can hear it, too. None of the other necromancers seem quite as alarmed, however. They seem to know exactly what's going on.

"...S'just a Nightmare. Only one from the sound of it." Marta explains bluntly, clapping one hand over Thad's eyes while bringing a finger to his lips to shush him. "Just stay put and keep your eyes closed. We'll handle it." While she seems ready to throw down (must be the experience) she sounds mildly bothered as well. Right. They're all hearing shit they don't want to hear right now. The faerie squeezes her pirate's hand, wondering what she might be hearing.

Lettie sucks in a sharp, deep breath. It's just a Nightmare. And of course it is-- what else would it fucking be? 'You're not a newb like Thad. Get it together!' An undying urge to prove herself as more than just a little faerie boils her fears into something like fury. She's gotta be better and sharper than ever before if she's going to survive Asmodeus and the Reaper. Sure, she can't compare herself to survivors who've lived on Desdemonia their whole lives. But she has experience that's worth something. She is not the same Lettie that Juno met on their first night together.

The Reaper (Nightmare) flickers into view in front of her. Glitching, grinning that cheshire grin... but then her goggles correct the distorted vision, turning it into the purpley, fleshy creature of fog that it is. Asshole. She narrows her eyes, springing forward faster than anyone with a glitch. She stabs it repeatedly before it can move any closer to their crew. She's got this. (And she's perfectly content to pretend it's the Reaper as she tears it apart, fantasizing about growing claws and yanking their fucking teeth out. Homicidal, much? But at this point, she'd say she's entitled to some homicidal tendencies. She's a survivor, too. In her own way.) Behind her, the necromancers stare bewilderedly.

"Just gotta stab the fucking shit out of them." Lettie repeats the advise Juno gave her that first night with a wicked little grin as she steps away, flipping her hair over her shoulder with a flourish. (Yeah, 'course she remembered her advice. Even if Juno's motive might've been rooted in keeping her 'merchandise' safe back then, she still remembers how she saved her.) "Right, Juju?"

"Must've been some enemy." Nico points out with his usual tact, staring wide-eyed at her. "What did you see?" Mauve immediately elbows him in the stomach.

"...It was the Reaper." Lettie answers, hesitant and slow, to try and see if she can. The words leave her lips. The noose never appears. Her throat doesn't even tingle with the heat of a warning. Wait... She touches her neck in disbelief, her heart pounding in her chest. She just spoke the Reaper's name. And nothing happened. She just spoke the Reaper's name and nothing happened!

"Badass." Wannabe edgelord Thad nods his approval, not at all sensing how huge this is for her. They're obviously not thinking of the same Reaper, either, so she can't really blame him for not knowing... but she kinda wants to punch him in the face right now. (Gee. Juno has rubbed off on her a lot.) "I've always wanted to meet the Reaper."

"No, you don't. The Reaper's not 'badass'." Lettie says icily, glaring at him in a way that asks him to take a hint before it punches him in the face. "He's a bastard."

The faerie's cold rage doesn't encourage anyone to ask any follow-up questions on the subject. Lettie sighs out a shaky breath, softening as she takes Juno's hand again. (She won't fall apart... but she still can't believe it. She can actually speak.) For a moment, she stares meaningfully at the pirate before nodding at their path ahead.

"The Reaper won't be a problem 'till we make it to Avangeline. If we make it to Avangeline." Lettie points out. (She says it to remind herself, too.) They have to focus on their task here before getting into all of that. Lettie said she'd talk to Juno later and she will. She can do it. Now she knows she can do it. "Let's stay focused. We need to keep going."

They don't encounter any more Nightmares on their way down, making it to the once opened doorway where Juno solved the glyph puzzle from before. The goddess's tomb is sealed shut again, with broken pieces of glowing glyphs are strewn all over the faces of the rocks surrounding them. They pulse and turn in circles... and a path of once unlit candles light themselves towards it. Those definitely weren't there before. (Well. That's not spooky at all.)

The symbols shiver as the Duchess's laugh echoes towards them and Lettie bristles, squeezing Juno's hand tightly. "Cathy." She doesn't see her. Yet. The Duchess's mocking laughter just sounds... omnipotent and all-knowing. (Annoying.) The faerie stiffens, prepares herself to protect her pirate by any means necessary. She promised she's not letting that bitch lay another finger on her and she meant it.

"My, my. It seems the filthy traitor and her elf have finally arrived." Cathy says condescendingly. (Lettie's gonna strangle her.) Clouds of a thick, foggy smoke roll out from the mouth of the tunnel behind them, slowly but surely stretching towards them. Fucking knock-out gas. "...I wonder if you can solve this puzzle before time runs out and I take what's rightfully mine?"

 

[starboob]

So far, no shit bananas. Aside from the Nightmare encounter earlier—that her girlfriend totally fucking demolished (hot)—there haven’t been any hitches. ‘But is that the shit bananas?’ Things going well for them only makes the possibility of things getting horrifically worse all the more likely.

(Juno hasn’t forgotten what she saw in Gran’s eye all those years ago; herself miserable and alone, everyone who ever got close to her, gone, in some form or another. Yes, she has Lettie and, yes, Lettie won’t leave her. And what if it’s out of their hands? What if they don’t have a choice?)

The pirate clutches the faerie’s hand to remind her that she’s here. For now, she’s here. She’s here and they’re going to fight Hell itself to stay together. She has no doubt about that. They’ve already gone through Hell, proving that they’ve got the mettle. Now they’ve just got to claw their way back out. ‘We’ve got this.’ And how can they not? They’ve already confirmed that at least one of Lettie’s curses has been broken, proving they accomplished something that should have been fucking impossible. She shouldn’t be surprised. They’ve been defying fate their entire lives. Together they’re unstoppable. A fucking force to be reckoned with.

And the Duchess is going to regret trying to get in their way. (She's also going to regret calling the fucking faerie and a fucking elf.)

Juno stares firmly ahead, refusing to play along with another one of the Duchess’s mind games. Her free hand rolls into a tight fist, the other squeezes around Lettie’s. The knock-out gas creeps slowly forward and she feels the others behind her tensing, shuffling away from it. A few lift their shirts or scarfs around their noses and mouths, but Juno remains still, not giving in.

The gas doesn’t disturb her. It should and it doesn't, because if Cathy is relying on them to open the chamber to escape it, that can only mean she doesn’t have the actual means to get the tomb open, despite knowing the glyph needed to unlock the seal. (The damn banners at her estate are were emblazoned with it—there’s no way she doesn’t know how to solve the puzzle.) For as much as Juno hates the little asshole and would love to be rid of them, she’s not going to hand over the damn key.

She sucks her teeth and pulls the demon sword from the sheath on her back, driving the blade into the earth without explanation. The ground shivers like a disturbed pool of water. Behind them, a mass of earth bulges up from the ground and rolls backwards, pushing back the gasses that have already leaked into the chamber, dispersing them, and plugging the tunnel entrance to block out the rest. (Behind her, the rest of the group goes slack jawed, completely bewildered.) Juno pulls the sword from the earth, letting it rest on her shoulder. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that, bitch.”

“Oh? Well, if you insist, but you’re going to regret not coming quietly.” Cathy’s smirk is palpable in her words. She doesn’t even seem phased that Juno’s nullified her first trap and of course she’s not. She’s the fucking Duchess of the Lower West, a scheming bitch with contingencies for contingencies.

The temperature plummets in response to Juno's challenge, the candles snuffing themselves out as a ghostly windchill sweeps through the chamber and crawls down their spines. Juno stiffens, tightening her grip around her weapon, keeping it raised. The other Desdemonians are just as ready.

A large mass then slams into the barrier Juno just erected, sending soft shudders through the earth. Dust shakes from the ceiling. The stalactites shiver. Whatever is behind the wall slams into it again, a blunted crack coming through from the other side. By the third slam, some of the stalactites give way and Eliza rushes to pull the teens from under them as they fall, impaling the spots where they had been. The trio ends up flat on their stomachs, Mauve’s palms flat against the ground. The teen’s eyes widen as she senses something through the earth. “Fuck.”

Ainsley and Thad quirk their brows and hesitantly crouch to touch the ground themselves. All three of the spirit magicians exchange glances. Ainsley swallows hard, looking over at Thaddeus. “What is that?”

“N-n-no idea.” Thad trembles in the dark, turning cautiously to look back at Lettie and Juno. His mouth opens and closes, but words fail him, unable to explain anything he’s feeling. Ainsley and Mauve look between the wall, the duo, and then at each other. Confusion ripples over their brows, none of them able to form a coherent explanation.

“What?” Juno demands, barely masking her worry. “What the fuck is it?”

A high-pitched scream answers her, coming through the wall. The noise is sharp, cutting through the air and their ears like a knife. It has enough force that the barrier begins to crumble. Juno claps her hands over her ears, crushing her skull to quiet the shrill note. It brings her down to her knees and she’s not the only one. Eliza, Delaney, Marta, and the rest all fall, too, hands over their ears and eyes squeezed shut as if concentration can defend against the wail.

The scream comes to an abrupt stop, but the echoes still bang around the chamber walls. Before anyone can so much as rise to stand, the wall explodes with one final slam. Pieces of rock fly outwards, cutting into the crew. Some who were nearer are entirely blasted backwards, falling into others and sending them down like dominoes.

A thing steps forward through the dust, shaking the ground with each step, but with dust so thick in the air, the only thing they can make out is a hulking silhouette at the mouth of the tunnel. Juno’s goggles frantically scan the mass, parsing out information.

‘Nightmare fuel.’

‘Faerie blood.’

‘Stupidly buff muscles.’

The read outs are all rushed with no cohesive data. Question marks scroll across the visor, the goggles at a complete loss, unable to identify whatever the hell this thing is. (But Juno has a feeling she knows.) She reaches to tug at the collar of her shirt, pulling it up.

Seven green eyes blink open through the settling dust, becoming the only source of light. Juno takes an instinctive step back just as the monster takes another step forward into the clearing. A mountain of bruised, naked muscle stands before them. It has a long mouth lining from its nose to its abdomen, but this isn’t the beast from the space station—or not the exact same version. While deep gashes cover its face and column sized neck, like it’s been in a fight with a large cat (or a fucking faerie), its clearly been raised and enhanced. Its eyes have been haphazardly fixed (or new ones have replaced the ones Lettie cut out) and some float out of the sockets, held up by the rectus.

The zipper-like mouth chatters, breaking the shock of stillness in the air. Then it splits open, releasing another scream that blasts the company backwards. The naked muscle fibers peel off from its unnatural body, wriggling through the air as if stretching and testing this new feature before they launch towards Mauve, Marta, and Ezra, catching the women in midair, then slamming their bodies across the chamber.

Juno’s attention is snapped before she can rush over to help them. More muscle fibers peel from its body and reach out to grab more of the crew. One set aims for Lettie and Juno pivots, arcing her sword down to cut through the fibers. The second her blade makes contact with the beast, the fuller begins to glow, drinking in the pink-purple gunk. Her sword shivers with satisfaction and even tries to drink in the muscle fibers. The beast hisses, yanking itself free from Juno’s hungry sword, all seven eyes now focused on her.

At the same time, necromantic constructs are raised—bone, flesh, and spirit alike, some of the necromancers even teaming up to create creatures as garish as the one before them. This splits the monster’s attention, pulling three of the eyes to assess the constructs and four to focus on Juno.

It hesitates, but not long enough for anyone to take advantage. With a wet rip, the mouth tears open, splitting the beast in two at the seam. The sharp pointed teeth shift and reform to make up halves of skeletons. Muscle fibers then grow over the bones to reinforce each beast, leaving them with two mountains of muscle to combat against. The only saving grace seems to that these monsters don’t have split mouths, but that’s about as good as it gets.

“You don’t have to die here, Juno. Surrender yourself and the relic and I will let your little band of thieves go—even that miserable elf. But damn them if that’s your wish.” The Duchess’s voice, somehow, comes through perfectly clear, like she’s whispering directly into everyone’s ears.

Surprising everyone, including himself, Thad sends his six-armed construct to answer for them. It runs on all eight of its limbs and tackles one of the beasts. The other constructs soon follow, burying the first. Juno’s not able to see what happens next as the second beast glitches forward, catching her before she can brace, knocking her sword from her hand, and pinning her into a wall.

 

[ellarose]

"Juno!" Lettie cries out before she can stop herself, watching as the ugly monstrosity comes at them unnervingly fast before pinning Juno down. (No. No, no, no. It comes back to her in flashes. Juno, with the sword lodged in her chest. Juno, crystalized. Unmoving. Practically dead.) Snap out of it, snap the fuck out of it! She glares through the memories, willing herself to focus, and clenches her fists as if that might stop them from trembling too violently with nerves. Her goggles are fritzing out as they unsuccessfully try to suss out what the hell she's looking at right now.

Ugh! As the resident little faerie, she has a serious bone to pick with anything that gets to be that large and that fast. It should be one or the other, okay!? This freak was created in a lab. It's not natural. But it's got to have a weakness, despite what her goggles are telling her. Hoping that her girlfriend is shielding her handsome face instead of blocking with it, she lunges for Juno's dropped sword before anyone else can steal it. She picked up on the monster's reaction earlier, the way it ate away hungrily at it's flesh. That's as close to a weakness as it gets, huh.

'Shit.' Juno makes this look easy. This sword is friggin' heavy and Lettie does not have stupidly buff arms to wield it with. Like, she is the resident little faerie here! She doesn't have awe-inspiring muscle, nor can she summon constructs with them. 'C'mon, girl. If Thad could lift it, you can too!'

Yeeeeah, Lettie isn't fully convinced that Thad wasn't cheating somehow. Now's not the time to wonder how he pulled it off, however. Juno needs her! She teeters like a newborn deer, totally unbalanced, but she doesn't let herself hesitate for a second. She bolsters herself in spite of this, charging towards the monster towering over Juno. Praying to the stars above that love, dumb luck and maybe pure adrenaline will power her through this one. The sword screeches and sparks as the blade drags against the rocky earth. Ooof.

"Get... get the fuck off of her!" She has to scream with the sheer effort it takes for her to heave the sword up and then forward, slamming it inelegantly into the monster's back. (The gashes in her stomach haven't completely healed yet and remind her that they're still there when she moves like this.) Her blow doesn't pierce through the monster's flesh and would probably make any practiced swordswoman cringe. It lands more like a whack... like she's just smacking it. She smacks it again. And again. Ooooh, this is getting pretty embarrassing. "Get off! Now!" Lettie's definitely not as hot as Juno was wielding it earlier. Aaaaah. Baseball bats and knives are more her forte, okay?! Some people might say that baseball bats and knives combined would be the equivalent of a sword... and to that the faerie would say 'fuck you!' They're not the same!

The Duchess laughs haughtily at the faerie's attempts, perhaps feeling nostalgic-- like she's spectating in her fucked up arena again. But she's not laughing for long when the blade itself deals massive damage. As Lettie draws on her connection to Juno, sending their energy through the sword the way she once did with their insect army, the flesh where the blade touched sizzles, ripples and shreds into ribbons that get sucked up into the sword. Rapidly, it reveals flashes of dirty bone underneath. Oh. Good! But also, ew. Gross, gross, gross!

The monstrosity hisses and snarls, whipping around as it's attention shifts from Juno to Lettie. This swift movement yanks the sword out of Lettie's hands and throws her backward, knocking the wind out of her as she hits the ground with a sickening smack. Panic surges through her as a spiderweb of cracks splits over the lenses of her goggles and paragraphs of nonsensical data scroll in front of her before blinking out entirely.

No. Lettie's ears ring and she only manages to push herself halfway up, looking bewilderedly for Juno in the chaos before the bastard throws itself on top of her and screams in her face. The piercing noise has the same dizzying effect as before, the force of it pushing her back down, and thick ropes of saliva hit her cheeks. A shudder rolls over her entire body. Yuck. Vom. Her goggles are torn off and tossed aside, as if it's trying to get a better look at her face.

The creature takes a long, unnerving whiff of her. All of it's eyes stare at her hungrily, sensing that she's the one responsible for tearing one of it's many iterations apart. This information also seems to reach it's other half, which glitches free from the other necromancer's constructs and comes barreling towards them, preparing to block anyone who might try and come in to help her.

The first monster's bones crack and pop as it grows even larger in size. To the point that it has to hunch over a bit so it's head doesn't burst through the top of the tunnel. It grows extra arms, taking on qualities of Thad's constructs and those the other necromancers have come up with since (glamours, maybe?) and screams again. It turns itself around in a circle to throw everyone who approaches backward with the force of it.

Without her goggles there to block out the illusions, the shape of the second monster on top of Lettie shifts forms. Lina with claws. Juno with claws. ('You made those fucking goggles, Letts. You know it's not real.') Whenever Lettie tries to glitch away, the monster glitches as well-- and the effect keeps her pinned there. Fuck. It tauntingly drags a claw down towards her right eye, poised to pluck it out. Her breath hitches with panic and she twists her head to the side, straining to avoid it. She can't seem to move far enough away. A cut is drawn over her brow, moving down towards her eyelid...

"You could have had everything you ever could have wanted had you stayed by my side. And you've gone and thrown it all away for an insignificant little bug. Look at her. That bimbo's useless without her wings." The Duchess feels the need to narrate, sounding simultaneously bored and delighted by this turn of events. "I hope it was worth it, Juno. Now she's going to die and you have no one but yourself to blame." She laughs. It sounds a touch unhinged. "You fucked it all up the moment you turned your back on me! Tell me, how does it feel?"

Useless. Everyone loves throwing that word at her, don't they? But Juno's love is stronger. Useless doesn't hit her the same way it used to.

'The stars are your source, are they not?' Calytrix's voice echoes in Lettie's head. The faerie morphs her own hands into claws and uses them to pry the monster's claws off of her, forcibly stopping it from taking her eye. Her white eyes burn into a dazzling all-seeing gold, the tips of her claws aglow with it as well. 'Olette, I think I unlocked something within you when I sought out your wish. Tell me. What did you see?'

Threads that only Lettie can see stretch out from her claws, touching upon different points of the monster's body. Time slows to a crawl around them as flashes of possibilities unravel before her-- showing her outcomes of every sort of attack she could unleash on this thing. Most of them are dead ends... but it does indeed have a weakness. And when she finds what she's looking for, she doesn't hesitate. She slashes her claws upward and into the monster's chest at the specific point, digging inside to tear it's heart out. Blood sprays all over her... although it's gross, she can't help smiling, showing off a hint of fang.

The monster on top of the faerie falls to the side, limp and bloody. Everything is quiet for a beat before the other half howls, as if their severed connection has dealt some damage to it as well. However, it's not nearly enough to take the gargantuan beast down.

"I dunno, Catty. Sounds to me like you're jealous." Lettie taunts with a little smirk, climbing back up to her feet. Looking back, she totally caught how the Duchess had her cleavage on display the night they met and acted extra touchy-feely with Juno. Stars, she probably saw it before they saw it themselves. (...Just like the skeleton crew.) It's so obvious now that she feels threatened by her. "At least I can fight my own battles." She uses the back of her hand to rub blood off her face, punctuating the statement with a dramatic hair flip for effect. (She might be covered in blood right now... but she likes to think it makes her hotter.) "You're off hiding somewhere like a coward! ...Like, you're so scared of us that you had to commission these special abominations to face us for you. It's so fucking funny." The faerie tilts her head, searching around for Juno. She didn't get the chance to check on her before... 'Please, please be okay.' She has to meet her eye, communicate the next phase of the plan. They've got to lure the Duchess out and take her down. "It's obvious why she she left you. You don't have the moxie to keep up with Captain fucking Juno."

 

[starboob]

She does. Lettie does look hotter coated in the blood of their enemies, proving she’s got the moxie to keep up with Captain fucking Juno. The pirate’s face lights with pride, though her features fall a second later as a coughing fit takes over. A spray of blood spurts out of her mouth as she wheezes, leaning against the wall she had been thrust into and Eliza, who rushed to her side the second Juno was released from the monster’s grip. (Juno doesn’t know what happened exactly, having blacked out for a few minutes, but when she came to, Eliza was in front of her, patting her cheeks and snapping to get her attention. “C’mon, kid. That was nothing. You’ve got this. C’mon, c’mon.” By the time Juno came back around, Lettie was tearing through that overgrown pustule.)

Her right eye is swollen shut and she knows her nose is broken, because she remembers Eliza resetting it. (She wants to say she hadn’t actively been blocking with her face, but it might have taken her a minute to remember to raise her arms.) At some point, she must’ve lost her goggles, because she can see them crushed and sparking a few paces away from her. Flames try to breathe up from her belly upon seeing this, knowing how hard her genius little faerie worked on them, but her anger is dull, hidden behind a wall of throbs that push against screaming nerves and threaten like they want to break skin. (This at least confirms she really is alive.) Each breath comes in like she’s inhaling rocks and moving reminds her that while nothing looks twisted or gnarled, that her bones might have fractured. Some feel like chunks of broken glass under her skin.

She sucks in a breath and tries to straighten herself out—she’s got this—but ends up slumping into Eliza’s shoulder. She can feel the older woman’s concern all over her; she doesn’t even want to think about Lettie’s after what she’s already put her through. She’s fucking got this. “Take it easy, kid. We’ll—”

“No.” Juno pushes her palm against her shoulder, righting herself, even if she’s standing on wobbly limbs. Her sword is back in her hand, likely placed there by Eliza, and she tightens her fist around the hilt, feeling the surge of energy from the demon spirit trapped within, the demon spirit that’s just been fed monster meat. “I’ve got this.”

“Juno—”

Juno clasps both fists around the hilt, holding the blade in front of her with the point on the ground. She looks up at Lettie and winks. 'I'm okay.' The sword glows bright red-orange and that glow spirals up the necromancer’s arms, spreading over the rest of her body. Where the glow touches damage, her bones shift, cracking back into place where they had fractured or, at worst, broken. She lets out a muffled cry as they repair and once they’ve all settled, it’s clear she hasn’t lost a drop of new blood. (Dork casting might actually be useful and this demon sword certainly doesn't hurt.) The necromancer straightens, finally, on her own, her eyes trained on the second monstrosity still pawing at its own chest. Her gaze then flits over to the others who are, once again, staring at Captain fucking Juno with gaping fish mouths. She jerks her chin towards the second beast and they blankly nod, sending constructs over to dismantle the second beast now that it’s down and now that they know it has a weak point.

The Duchess, wherever she is, has remained silent, hasn’t bothered to reply to Lettie’s taunts or even react to Juno’s use of necromancy. Juno takes the opportunity to close the distance between herself and her girlfriend, claiming Lettie’s red smeared lips for herself. “I’m not leaving you. Ever. Your tits are too good.” She jokes, like that’s the only reason. “You are too good. I’ll always come back to you.”

While the second monstrosity is being ripped apart, Juno turns her focus from being gay to being gay and strategic. “Lette, we can’t let Cathy re-raise those mutants—we have more of a right to them than she does since it’s our fuckin' blood they used.” She grabs her faerie’s hand and gives her a squeeze, pulling gently on their stream but not enough to actually take. Just enough to hint. “Let’s fuck ‘em up, starlight.”

With matching wicked grins, they spread out to stand over a corpse each, motioning for the other crew members to step away from the carnage. Juno holds her sword over the pile and opens their stream from her end so that Lettie can glimpse what she’s seeing. Hovering just above the corpses is a purplish cloud, strikingly similar to the Nightmare mass Lettie destroyed earlier. The necromancer sends a signal to the faerie to concentrate their efforts on that mass, to pull it back down to the bodies in order to raise the monstrosities just as they had their demon bug army. The monster meat twitches in response to their combined magic, limbs jerking up like they’re attached to marionette strings. One creature’s eyes flicker from green to blue while the other’s take on a pink glow.

Just as they get their new demonic constructs under their control, stewards and their undead start to file in like ants from the mouth of the tunnel. Last to arrive is none other than the Duchess herself, unbothered. Unphased. Her sharp eyes cut into the duo, staring straight past the monstrosities as if the masses are no more than two unimpressive puppies. Maybe they are nothing to someone as resourced as her. All it takes is a gesture and Cathy has her stewards dispatched to take care of the hulks and more yet to occupy the rest of the crew, leaving the duo to face the Duchess on their own.

“I am going to turn both of your corpses into decorations,” Cathy sneers, drawing an elegant rapier from her belt. “But first, I am going to make you,” —here, she addresses Juno— “watch as I turn that insufferable little harlot into fucking mince.”

After that, all Juno sees in front of her is flaming red, taking offense to the barbs thrown at her fucking girlfriend. Her nostrils flare. Unhesitatingly, she charges her opponent. The Duchess smirks and flicks her fingers out, raising a spirit ward. Juno stops, pivots, and cuts through the ward with her demonic sword, visibly surprising the other woman—though she recovers, pulls her mask back together, and changes strategy. In the next moment their blades clash—Juno’s longsword to Cassidy’s rapier. Despite the difference in size, Cassidy is able to weave more effectively and has further reach. It’s clear neither woman is without practice, though Juno has a level of experience Cassidy lacks, shown in the way she’s able to improvise each time it seems the other has pushed her into a corner.

Juno chances a half-second glance over to Lettie, making sure she's still okay, and in that half-second, Cassidy thrusts her blade. Juno barely catches the movement, jerking her shoulder back at the last second, and the edge still slices into her shoulder. She hisses sharply, taking a few steps back to recover, but Cassidy is unrelenting. And now that she's landed a blow, she's even more determined than before, stirring up revenants from the ground as she moves in on the pirate. One catches Juno's ankle as it rises up, knocking her off balance. Then more rise up to pin her in place while the Duchess sets her sights on the fucking faerie, who she wants to turn to mince. "Where are you, you fucking minx?"

 

[ellarose]

Lettie breathes in deeply, bracing herself. The sensation she got when she first raised their insect army hits her all over again when they recruit the monsters over to their side. The messy, choppy remnants of whatever those abominations were feeling in their last moments flickers through her chest. She wouldn't have realized such creatures were capable of it. There's rage there, too. Rage the faerie can understand at being used and controlled from their very conception. (Rage aimed at her specifically, too.) 'We'll put you to rest after the fight.' She thinks, hoping to reassure them. No one's gonna want those freaks hanging around on Lady, anyway. Just looking at them is a cruel reminder of...

Now's not the time to think about it. Juno and Cathy's swords are locked in combat, each sound of their blades colliding scraping against the faerie's worried heart. (It's not a matter of whether or not she believes Juno can win. Of course she believes in her! She's Captain fucking Juno. It's just... blades are fucking sharp. And she doesn't like seeing them so close to her girlfriend. Especially when Cathy's the one she's fighting. It's as simple as that.) Cathy's got the refined technique of someone who was taught while Juno's got the grit and power of a survivor. For that reason, Lettie trusts that Juno can rise above her. She knows she would have... were it a fight involving only their swords and their instincts.

'I've gotta help her.' Lettie thinks, chewing frantically at the inside of her cheek. Yeah, 'cause she totally proved how amazing she is with swords earlier. Fuck.

Cathy lands a blow and the flashes haunt Lettie's mind again. Juno with the sword in her chest. Lying still on the floor, looking dead, so dead-- the faerie has to shake her head to cast them aside and see what's really going on in front of her. Juno's being pinned down by those bastard revenants, but she's still struggling. Still fighting. (That's my pirate.) Then she turns her attention towards Cathy when she taunts her, seeing the blood on her rapier. Juno's blood. The faerie sees red.

"Over here, bitch." That's when Lettie shifts, making a decision. 'Fuck the sword.'

Cassidy smirks when she sets her sights on Lettie, preparing her stance as she sends a predatory glance over her tiny, weaponless faerie opponent. There's that saying, right? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight? Yeah, well. No one's ever come up with a saying for being empty-handed at a sword fight... probably because only a dumbass would show up to a sword fight empty handed. Cathy's probably thinking she's pretty foolish right now, huh? Hehe.

"Oh noooo." Lettie twists a lock of hair around her finger and bats her eyes as she puts on her cutest (most irritating) voice. "A toothpick! What am I going to do?"

"I'm going to enjoy this. Thoroughly." Cassidy, seeming perfectly unaffected, lunges forward and Lettie glitches backward before the tip of the rapier can reach her.

"Uh oh, you missed!" Lettie grins and sticks her tongue out. Cathy strikes again and the faerie responds with another glitch, this time moving further out of her reach. Forcing the Duchess to give chase. Purposefully pinching every nerve. "Oopsie. Missed again!" The cycle continues, with Cathy swinging her blade forward and Lettie spiriting herself away just in time. "Oh, Cathy. You're soooo slow. I dunno if you can keep up with me." She says pityingly. When the Duchess takes a moment to catch her breath, she languidly stretches her hands over her head and mimes a yawn. The mischief is feeding her. (The bitch started it, trying to evoke Juno's rage with those digs at her. It's fine time that she returns the favor.) "Weren't you gonna turn me into fucking mince?"

The Duchess masks it well, but Lettie can see rage twitching in her eyes and the corners of her lips. Wanting nothing more than to slice the faerie in two, she continues her assault forward. She's starting to look like someone who's struggling to strike a particularly fast fly with a swatter as the faerie continues to glitch around... up until she has her cornered against a pillar of rock. Or so it seems.

Cassidy lunges forward without missing a beat, her eyes alight as she sees her opportunity and takes it. The rapier pierces the faerie right through her chest. Her eyes go blank and her body slinks. But instead of bleeding or turning to dust, 'Lettie' simply vanishes. In her place, a single butterfly lands on the rapier, harmlessly fluttering its wings. The Duchess's victorious satisfaction morphs into confusion. Um. What? Did the faerie just change into a bug, or--?

"Up here, sweetie." The real Lettie speaks. The Duchess's gaze pans upward, realizing that the faerie is sitting above her-- atop the pillar of rock. Filing her nails. (She is the fucking faerie, after all.) She hasn't been draining her energy with those glitches at all-- that was all her will'o wisp. She flicks her file down to the ground... it would have comically hit Cathy square in the forehead had she not stepped aside at just the right moment. Lettie throws her fist open and three butterflies flicker out of her palm like a magical flame.

Cassidy glares up at her butterfly-wielding opponent. Before she can open her mouth to throw a taunt back at her, the bomberflies fly forward and latch onto her rapier. One on the tip, one at the middle, and one on the hilt. The Duchess scoffs, waving her blade as if that'll be enough to brush them off. (It isn't.) Though she does an admirable job seeming all cool and disaffected, she starts to shake it harder and harder in attempt to get rid of them. But the bomberflies cling onto it as if it has the sweet, sweet nectar they're craving and won't let go. Cathy will have to let go first.

The butterflies burn gold and begin to sizzle, warning the Duchess of the explosion to come, and she has to toss it aside before it explodes with a satisfying BOOM! A few stalactites shiver above Cassidy's head and she curses under her breath before diving to avoid them. (One of her stewards notices and sweeps in, catching the one that almost crushes her ankle.)

While the Duchess is otherwise occupied, Lettie frantically searches below for Juno. Once she sees her, she blows a kiss and then recklessly throws herself off of the pillar with a "Catch, babe!"

 

[starboob]

Juno struggles under the weight of the revenants—they punch up from the ground faster than she can scrabble away and dog pile on top of her, pinning her down. She grits her teeth underneath the dead weight, oxygen involuntarily slipping from her lungs.
One revenant makes the mistake of touching her sword, recoiling with a broken screech as a few fingers flake away to ash. Taking note, Juno raises the sword, batting more away, and freeing her other arm. But as soon as she’s free another lurches forward from her blindspot and chomps into her wrist, tearing into the flesh and thrashing their head with such force that she has to release the sword. Another kicks it away.

Tears spring to her eyes, a scream tearing through her throat as the revenant grinds through her arm, refusing to let go no matter how hard she smashes into its skull. And, even with her free arm, the rest of the pack are working fast to pin her back down, not giving her time to even think about exploding its skull. (Yeah, if fucking only she could explode skulls with her mind, but it takes more than just the simple mental effort.)

The revenant on her wrist flies backwards suddenly, a knife now stuck between its eyes. It doesn’t have a butterfly handle, so she knows it’s not from Lettie, but that’s all she can gather as she leverages the advantage. She keeps her arms moving, working to pool the blood from her wrist into her palm. Once she has a sufficient wad, she wards it, then flicks it at the undead. The blood morphs to needle-like spikes that pierce the bastards, instantly bursting them to ash.

The necromancer, the Desdemonian doesn’t stop moving. She waves the ash off of her, collecting it around her arms, swirling it around her feet to protect herself. She searches around for Lettie and first sees the glitching one backed against the pillar. Worry spikes through her, until she catches her actual girlfriend sitting on top of the rock pillar with her nail file. ‘Classic.’ Confident that her girlfriend has a handle on the Duchess, for now, she surveys the rest of the battle—Thaddeus is knocked out (unsurprising), several stewards and their undead are scattered over the floor, and a few of Eliza’s company are fairly battered but still holding up. One enemy construct does have the teens cornered and she’s quick to lend aid, throwing the ash around it like a lasso and pulling it down to the ground for the rest of the company to handle. She would have done more, but an explosion sounds off behind her and pulls her attention. When she turns, her girlfriend is flinging herself off from the pillar, calling for her. Naturally.

“Lette!” Juno’s eyes bug out as she races to her girlfriend, who could not look more satisfied with herself. She drops to her hip, sliding forward to catch the fucking faerie before she can hit the ground. (She’ll never let her fall.) Her arms instinctively tighten around her when she hits her chest, comforted by the familiarity of her. When she pulls back to look at her, her expression is a mixture of amusement and disbelief. “What if I hadn’t been able to catch you, bug?” She barely notices herself return to that nickname and doesn’t have a moment to get apologetic. Of course, it doesn’t come out as annoyance. It’s full of affection. (Even spoken in her softest voice.) “You could have gotten hurt.”

“How fucking precious,” the Duchess sneers, swaying unsteadily on her feet as she rises, one hand on the steward who rushed to her and the other clasped around Juno’s fucking sword. Cassidy shoves the steward away from her, her cinnamon hair disheveled, falling around her face, looking nothing like the immaculate Duchess. She regards the sword with a smirk, looking between it and Juno, recognition and realization gnarling her features into something wicked. With both hands, she circles the sword over her head. The fuller fills with that hot-iron glow as energy is drawn to it—Juno assumes she’s pulling on whatever spirits are lingering around the tomb until the stewards all drop dead, their undead following. Swishing the blade around, a brilliant blue circle explodes outwards, blasting themselves, their crew, and their undead into the chamber walls.
Juno hits the rock pillar with a sickening crack, her head slamming backwards into it. Her brain hits her skull like a paddle ball, knocking her vision out for a few seconds. (A minute?) Her head lolls forward, chin hitting her chest. She vaguely recognizes Lettie still in her arms, though is too overwhelmed to do anything with that information. She presses her eyes shut, squeezing them tight, and when she opens them again, three Duchesses are spinning around each other. All three of them grin, locking onto the duo.

‘Fuck.’ Bracing her hand against the pillar, she pushes herself up, taking Lettie with her. Cassidy is faster and slashes the sword outwards, sending another arc of spirits towards them, knocking them back into the pillar. The crew tries to step in, Eliza and Delaney both lurching forward to tackle her from behind, but Cassidy, somehow sensing this, whips around and flips her wrist up. A spirit wall bursts up from the ground creating an impassable divide between them.

With a pleased smirk, Cassidy turns back to Juno and Lettie. “You should have just opened the tomb. I would have let at least one of you live. Nominally.” She stares hungrily at Juno when she says this, looking so much like that vampiric nightmare version of herself that Juno’s bite mark scar prickles. But it’s not enough to get in her head. Lettie had her back then when she didn’t even really know her and she’s got her now. She gives her a squeeze before loosening her grip.

“You’re so fuckin’ sure of yourself,” Juno grunts, stepping into a wide stance with her fists raised. (She must be taking a page from Lettie’s playbook if she’s bringing fists to a sword fight.) “But you aren’t shit, Cassandra. Never have been. Never will be and you’re going to die the fuckin’ shit stain leech that you are.”

Cassidy looks like she’s going to split the world in two, but before she has the chance, Juno opens her fists and two bomberflies fly out, each carrying an enchanted bone shard. (Yeah, she’s totally copying her genius girlfriend.) Juno grins.

Cassidy swings at the bomberfly-death-traps, but it’s too late. They explode and, upon exploding, the bone shards activate, creating a tangle of spikes that separates the duo from the Duchess. The explosion and subsequent death trap shards don’t even bother with Lettie or Juno, leaving them with a small clearing.

“We have to get that sword back. I shoulda fuckin’ grabbed it.” She mutters the last part to herself, rubbing the back of her neck, embarrassed about the amateur error. (Even if she has a perfect excuse, she should have been more careful.) In the background, she can hear the Duchess moving and can feel the bone constructs crumbling. “Fuck, okay… Sword or not, we—we totally got this.” They’ll have to hit her hard and fast. Easy. “I’m gonna drop the constructs. It’s going to get dark.”

Juno doesn’t take any questions. The constructs crumbles to ash, hurricaning around them. With one last hand squeeze, Juno bolts forward.

She rounds on Cassidy, hitting her hard and fast, tackling her to the ground. The pirate grabs her dominant wrist and crushes it, breaking the joint with force and necromancy both. The Duchess howls out, a shrill, high-pitched noise. Juno knocks her across the jaw then grabs her head, but she’s too slow. Cassidy, reinforcing her good hand with gathered spirits, rams the spirit fist into Juno’s stomach, hurling the pirate off of her. With another swirl of her wrist, before Juno recovers, she turns it into a slithery tendril and wraps it around her, binding her arms to the side. Juno is pulled forward, positioned in front of Cassidy like a shield. “Open the tomb, elf, or I’ll fucking crush her.”

 

[ellarose]

Lettie's going to punch her. She's seriously going to punch her. Maybe knock a couple teeth out for good measure. (...She can't punch her. At least not while the Duchess has Juno's life in her hands.) Rage freezes to chills that tingle down her spine. Her thoughts are replaced with memories. The faerie's fists tighten at her side before she releases them and deflates. Fuck. The images flash through her mind again. The sword, the crystal limbs and glazed over storm cloud eyes. 'Get it together. Get it together. Breathe.' Then there are chains, Lina as she's dangled over the Reaper's pit. 'Stop. Make it stop.' Lina melts away and it's her reality, where Juno is in the Duchess's clutches instead. 'Not again.' Lettie's lower lip wobbles with a cry she refuses to release. She bites down on it to keep it in place, drawing blood, and stares at the ground. She doesn't want to look at the smug look on Cathy's face. Doesn't want to admit defeat. A mockery of her own promises ring in her ears. 'I won't let her hurt you.'

Jinxed them again. Lettie's unlucky star strikes again. She really is a disaster magnet--

The faerie's panning gaze pauses as it falls over the goggles on the ground. They're not hers. They're the ones she made especially for Juno, hoping to prove herself useful enough to keep around. Smashed. All that work, lying there on the ground like discarded garbage. There's a really sad metaphor she could come up with using that imagery. Especially when she considers her life as a whole. Instead it sparks an idea.

'You look like a fuckin' bug, bug.' Lettie remembers Juno pulling her goggles back and then releasing to smack her in the face with them. (She added it to the revenge tally she used to keep and everything.) But that's besides the point. They were in this very tunnel when that happened. She had her goggles on her. The Duchess and her henchmen must've noticed after they hit them with that knockout gas. Heh. Had Juno not used that nickname earlier, she might not have considered it before.

It's different this time. Lettie's not chained down, hasn't been deprived of her source. Not helpless to do anything but watch like she was when she lost Lina. And as she used to tell Juno, not every problem can be solved with a face punch. (And as much as she might enjoy punching the Duchess's smug face (stars know she deserves it) giving into that temptation isn't going to do them any favors right now.) It'd be one thing if she were strong enough to knock the bitch out in one punch, but... she's not inclined to take her chances there. Not with Juno's life on the line. It's not over yet. It won't be over as long as they have something the Duchess wants.

And Lettie happens to know a thing or two about bamboozling her way out of situations like these, where it seems like she's been backed into a corner.

"...It's not that simple. I can't do it by myself." Lettie says, lifting her gaze. She keeps it trained on Juno, searching her eyes for signals. Studying the tendril and hoping that Cathy isn't hurting her too badly. "There are three conditions we need to meet in order to open the tomb."

"Conditions?" Cassidy asks impassively, giving no inclination of whether she believes her or not. "Elaborate. Quickly."

"We need to be together for this to work." Lettie says, nodding at Juno, and then clasps her hands together. "We have to, like, hold hands and stuff."

"Please. Don't fuck with me you little insect." Cassidy snaps, openly unimpressed. Then she uses her spirit tendril to squeeze Juno tighter as a warning.

"I mean it! We were paired up for a reason. You'll need both of us intact if you want in that tomb." Lettie cuts in, gritting her teeth. Her heart flutters frantically, like a butterfly caught in a net. 'Juju. Hang in there.' "That's not all, either. I need my goggles. And thanks to you and your overkill minions, both our pairs have been destroyed."

Cassidy pauses, considering this. Watching Lettie carefully, no doubt anticipating more tricks. But she had to have picked up on a detail that the faerie herself picked up on. She did have a functioning pair of goggles when they were picked up the first time. It lends at least some credibility to her story.

"No one is capable of getting in that tomb right now. And if you kill Juno, you're never getting in there." Lettie promises. (She'd go as far as to say that she'd blow this whole place up, even if she had to go down with Cathy, if she does kill Juno. But... no. She wouldn't endanger the lives of Eliza and the company like that. That's why she can't just open the tomb, either. Desdemonia's fate is in their hands. Everyone's futures.) "So if it's really that important to you, you'll let her go."

"Ah, yes. So I should simply let her go and trust that you'll both do as I say?" Cassidy rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Who do you think you're speaking to?" She pauses, glaring daggers. "Don't answer that." Her calculating blue eyes flick from Juno, to Lettie, to the locked opening of the tomb. "And where would we procure a pair of these goggles? Your home world, I presume? We could arrange that... but are you sure you wish to return?" She smirks, looking the faerie up and down as if she knows everything. "I learned of your crimes when I purchased your wings from our good friend Angelus." Her words echo in Lettie's head and she has to tamp down on the urge to punch her again. "Naturally, I've had to start a new collection since you blew the last one up."

'Fuck you' is what Lettie wants to say. But instead... "I can fix up one of the broken pairs. I'll need time, though. And supplies."

"Is that so?" Cassidy titters, no doubt taking satisfaction in the way she's gotten under Lettie's skin. She starts to search the battlefield for the goggles she's referring to, gears working in her mind as she plans ahead with the faerie's conditions in mind. "If that's how it is, we can arrange--"

Lettie doesn't waste a second once the Duchess averts her gaze. She glitches across the field as many times as it takes to ensure she's faster than Cathy's instincts, faster than a bolt of lightning, tackling Juno and glitching her free of the spirit tendril's hold. She purposefully sets their trajectory towards the sword she neglected to grab earlier, to increase their chances of taking it back. (She'd have lifted it herself on the way, but... uh, it's probably better if Juno gets it. It'd have weighed her down!) They collapse in a heap, with Lettie on top of Juno, winded and breathless.

Despite this turn of events, the Duchess seems to be taking it rather well as she signs to one of her stewards, who then help her secure a gas mask on her face. (She had started to say something about arrangements when--) Then that means... 'Shit.' The faerie covers her nose and mouth. Thick clouds of knock-out gas come rolling in towards them-- this time clearly purposed to knock them out instantly instead of simply raising the stakes for them to open the tomb. She's gonna capture them and find some (even more) fucked up way to force them if they don't...

"Juju..." Lettie blinks once. Twice. She tries to peer down at her, to get a good look at her face, but she can feel her consciousness slipping. "You... okay?"

 

[starboob]

The last thing Juno remembers is reassuring Lettie that she’s fine. Everything goes black after that. When she next stirs, her body aches with more bruises and injuries than she remembers incurring. She tries to curl herself into a protective ball, but her arms refuse to move, stuck behind her back. She jerks and jostles them, but they're bound. Metal cuffs clamp tightly, too tightly, around her wrists. This is also when she notices a tight band around her head that covers her eyes and a gag stuffed into her mouth. Concerning as this is, her first thought is, ‘Lettie.’

She struggles on her side, trying to worm her way upright, trying to break out of the cuffs and only manages to cut dents into her skin, the metal unyielding. Her grunts are muted against the gag that’s fastened in such a way that she can’t spit it out. Panic surges through her, unable to see or call out for her girlfriend. She continues wrestling with her bonds even if it agitates whatever injuries she’s sustained since her collapse. (It feels like someone took a crowbar to her abdomen.) Each movement aches against the new injuries. ‘Lettie, please be okay.’

Though their stream still exists between them, Juno barely notices it, so consumed with her worry for Lettie and the state she might be in. The only thought that exists in her mind is the thought that she has to find her and confirm that she's okay. That is her top priority. Her only priority. And as frazzled as she is, it just doesn’t occur to her to use their stream to communicate.

Even if the thought occurred to her, heels click-clack against the stone surface. She tilts her head towards the noise.

“First Terra and now this little insect.” Cassidy scoffs, pressing the toe of her shoe against Lettie’s cheek. (If Juno could see this, she’d easily try to tear her in two.) “Is it the grounder in you that draws you to broken things?” She forces the faerie onto her back, now pressing her sharp stiletto into her sternum. “Had you stuck with me, I could have made you into something.” She rolls her eyes, curling her lip. “No matter. You’ll have plenty of time to be together once I am finished with you both.”

Cassidy snaps her fingers and the goggles they’re both wearing glitch out before the visors clear. They’re still at the tomb’s entrance. The Duchess is flanked by her stewards, their undead, and a few geeks in lab coats. The geeks have their noses pressed against translucent holopads that show biometric readouts of both the faerie and the pirate.

However, all that is shoved to the side when Juno notices the Duchess stepping on her girlfriend. Once more, she thrashes against her bonds, inadvertently sending waves through the earth. Ever composed, Cassidy doesn’t seem bothered. (The geeks are tapping frantically against their pads as Juno’s readout starts flashing.)

“Aht, aht, aht. You need to calm down.” She smirks, the edge of her lips sharp like an axe. “Unless you also want to be the death of your friends." Cassidy gestures with her chin towards the side wall where Eliza and her company are all similarly bound and gagged. Stewards stand behind them, swords and bone contraptions at their necks. The message is clear: comply or they die.

Juno is doubtful that anyone, aside from the Duchess and her lackeys, are going to survive this—not that she would even consider risking Eliza and the company. ‘Fuck. No.’ A slow horror runs down the pirate’s spine, realization dropping the tension in her shoulder. Her hands already feel warm and sticky with their blood. ‘I shouldn’t have let them come.’

Satisfied the message has settled, the Duchess's smirk widens. “As I thought. Now…” she takes her foot off Lettie’s chest and shoves her shoulder, forcing her onto her side. (Juno‘s blood heats, the veins in her neck bulging while her nostrils flare.) “You are going to unlock the goddess’s tomb. Try to escape, try to thwart me in anyway, and those friends of yours will meet a torturous end. Well, save for those young ones,” she muses. “The commodore has special plans for them should anything happen to me.” Her grin twists into something gnarled and wicked. Juno doesn’t have to guess what will happen to those kids if they fuck up. (The dark pits flash through her mind, a chill prickling over her scar.) “Nod when you’ve understood.”

“Lettie...” Juno’s eyes shift to lock onto Lettie’s through the goggles, finally grabbing onto their stream and using it to communicate with her and her alone. “We can’t let anything happen to those kids.” Obviously, she wants to protect Eliza and the company, but she knows they’d all prioritize the kids over themselves. (Even that short angry one.) “And we also can’t let any of these fucks get the cube or into that fuckin’ tomb.”

Juno nods slowly. “We need to stall.”

Cassidy snaps her fingers, misinterpreting the pirate’s gesture. The cufflinks that bind their wrists behind their backs whirr then click. The manacles stay on their wrists, but whatever magical or magnetic force that had held them in place drops, allowing their arms to fall to their sides. Their freedom is only measured in seconds. The manacles whirr again and snap their wrists in front of them this time. But like this, Juno can push herself up and doesn’t hesitate to shuffle towards Lettie. The Duchess allows this, most likely remembering what Lettie said earlier about them needing to hold hands.

However, she never said anything about them needing to cradle each other’s faces as Juno is doing now, wiping a smattering of blood from her girlfriend’s lips. (A quiet rage bubbles up in her stomach. She’s going to fucking throttle the Duchess.) The blood glows just faintly in her palm. Not enough for Cathy to notice, but enough that Lettie should be able to. “How elaborate can you make your illusions?”

Testing the Duchess’s threats isn’t wise, but they’re Captain fucking Juno and the fucking faerie. They have to try and if there's one person in the worlds who's as brazen as she, it's Lettie. (She's got the moxie to keep up with her, after all.) Impossible as this seems, she won't let anything happen to Eliza and her company—especially not those kids. She won't damn all of Desdemonia or the rest of the worlds either.

“We have to make her think we’re opening the tomb.” She kisses Lettie’s forehead then drops her hands to grab onto hers. “If you can make a cube, I can fake the glyph.” After that? Well, here's to hoping they can move faster than an archer's arrow.

 

[ellarose]

Lettie's not sure if she's ever going to get up again... and this isn't the dramatics talking. It's the truth. Lying there motionless, her pitiful whimpers are too quiet to be heard. The bruise blooming on her chest is probably a deep red-violet by now. Blood dribbles over her lip. Come on. She urges herself to move and her body refuses to obey her commands. Her fingers twitch, slowly clawing into the earth as she hisses from the strain of it all. The ghost of the Duchess's stiletto is still pressing down oppressively into her ribcage, pinning her down like she's a butterfly in a display case. Little does Cathy know that if she reduces her to faerie dust, her wings will go with her and she'll have thrown her fucking money away. Bitch-slapped with one last 'fuck you' from beyond the grave. It sounds funny, sure. But it's not. She's only just started painting pictures of the future in her mind and now the Duchess is tearing them to pieces. The only solace she could grasp in those moments was that as long the Duchess was taking her power trip out on her, she was leaving Juno the hell alone.

Did I fuck it all up? Violent tremors roll through her once she can gasp for breath and she can't tell if it's her or if the earth's still shaking beneath Juno's rage. Once it frightened her, back when she worried if it'd burn her to dust... now it's comforting. Soft and blanket-warm. Anguish melts to understanding when Lettie looks Juno in the eyes and she nods back. The fight in Juno reignites the fight in her. Protect the kids. Eliza and her company. Themselves. And Thad, too. (Yeah, she won't leave that dork behind.) Pick the pieces up, put them back together again.

Although Lettie struggles to get up to meet Juno halfway, her girlfriend has them covered when she manages to close the distance. And she watches and wonders for the thousandth time how she always manages to pick herself up and fight through this kind of pain. Every single time they're backed into a corner, she pushes herself past her limits to haul them out of it. She admires her girlfriend silently as she brushes the blood from her lip, softening when she softens. Beneath the muscle, beneath the grit, she's just as soft as anyone else. Hurts just as much. It's breathtaking how she fights, how she survives... but it breaks her heart that she's this way because that's been her only option. All her fucking life. The fire in Lettie burns brighter with everything she wants for Juno. They need more nights like the one they spent dancing, stumbling and giggling all the way back to their room. This is about fighting for their survival.

Lettie's eyes flash, seeing her blood shine like rubies on Juno's finger, and tries not to smirk conspiratorially. They've bested the Duchess twice before. They can do it a third and final time.

"How elaborate can I make my illusions? Juju, shouldn't you know who you're talking to by now?" Lettie's tone is light and teasing, but she presses her lips into a grim line to prevent herself from grinning like she usually would. She'd also punctuate a statement like this with a well-timed hair flip, but she's not about to tip everyone off. They've got to hide their cards and can't let them scatter. "I am nothing if not elaborate. I got this." Then, more serious this time, she brushes a rouge strand of hair behind Juno's ear and adds, "We got this."

Lettie takes a second to consider their surroundings, their circumstances, how much magic she has left to spare. Runs all those elements through calculations in her head.

"I can make a cube. I can even make it look like the tomb's opening." Lettie confirms, preparing herself to reach for the sinister fae magics she's only reached for in their last fight with the Duchess. But she can't sing her own praises without opening up about the risks. She pivots her attention towards the Duchess, knowing she's got to be getting impatient at this point. "But it's gonna take a hell of a lot of focus on my part to maintain it. Once I get started, it's gonna demand all of my attention."

Here goes. Lettie spits her gag out, resisting the urge to aim at the Duchess's stilettos. (They're so five years ago.) Her sharp teeth cut through it easily when she gritted them in pain. "...I'll need my hands if I'm gonna summon the relic." She doesn't even recognize her own voice, it's so parched and weak. The faerie flicks her gaze to Eliza, scanning over her company and the kids before landing on Cathy. "I know the stakes. I don't want anyone to get hurt." Her eyes shine with tears that drive her point home. (It's not all that hard to fake them. It's gonna take a miracle for them to get out of this one.) "I'm not gonna do anything stupid. You... you've won."

Lettie flinches to make herself appear even smaller, trying to sound defeated enough to skyrocket the Duchess's already inflated ego.

Cassidy stares at her, scrutinizing her like a writhing insect under a microscope. After a suspenseful pause that feels like forever, she scoffs and snaps her fingers. The magnetic force dropping their arms to their sides again. Still, the manacles never fall from their wrists. Figures. Lettie suspects they're going to activate again the second the Duchess decides they've done everything they needed to do.

Automatically, Lettie reaches for Juno's hand with one of hers while using the other to draw the glyph for her magic circle. With her hand hidden inside of the small pocket dimension, she manages to glamour a bomberfly into a cube as she pretends to rummage around for what she's searching for. (It's the same trick she pulled on that bastard entity. A classic.) Her reading pings and sparks up on the nerds tablets and she quickly pins that down as her first order of business. She creates a couple of gossamer butterflies, sending them discreetly over her shoulder. They fall over the screens to fuck with their readings, keep them from noticing anything out of the ordinary. Even though she's only just gotten started, Lettie's already feeling it sapping away at her. But she persists. If she fucks this up, everyone's blood is on her hands.

Before the Duchess can become too suspicious, Lettie reveals 'the relic' and her magic circle disappears. It's enough to captivate Cathy's full attention. She gazes at it with the same hunger she once looked at the wings on her back, practically salivating. The faerie holds her breath, but Cathy never seems to sense that anything is amiss with this cube. With her attention so firmly set on it, the faerie steals a fleeting glance at Juno.

"I almost made it with the weird lipstick stains. The little bastard." Lettie admits cheekily, hoping to lighten the mood before their big stunt. She knows Juno's got to be feeling the pressure, too-- probably even more so. She only just welcomed Eliza back into her life. This can't be the end. Eliza deserves better than to go down as a hostage in this bitch's sick game. "I'm gonna turn it into that keyboard display, make it look like last time. You've got the glyph?" When Juno confirms that she does, she squeezes her hand. "I love you."

The faerie closes her eyes, brow furrowing with concentration as she relies on her memories to reconstruct the scene. The cube floating, it's faces flashing before spitting out that holographic keyboard. She puts half of her energy into focusing on keeping those details fine and sharp, knowing that the Duchess is watching all of this with rapt attention. The other half she spends instructing her will o wisps to be ready. Juno's working on her side, she can feel it, drawing a glyph with her blood-- an illusionist in her own right. It's almost funny. Like, they used to go on heists. And now they're protecting a tomb from a greedy ass Duchess.

Focus. It's all or nothing. Time to open this tomb. First, she creates a haunting wind, whooshing out from the opening entrance. Like an artist, she remembers all the subtle details. Blowing everyone's hair back, brushing their faces with it. The Duchess is eager to venture inside. They need to come up with something quick to keep her from approaching the door. Especially considering it really remains locked before her. (She'll lose her temper quick if she walks into that closed door. Then there's no telling what could happen next. Lettie just imagines blood spraying. A sword in Juno's chest and... No.) The fear compels her to create something that everyone will fear. Something big and powerful enough to freeze even the Duchess in her tracks.

An electric energy sizzles between her and Juno's hands now that her blood has been used. She channels it in towards the tomb, reaching within for inspiration and...

A mournful wail comes in with the wind. Lettie's magic-- or maybe hers and Juno's combined-- causes the rocky ground to rumble beneath their feet. Something's coming. Something big. And before long, it shows. A ginormous skeleton made up of as many souls as there are stars in the sky, wearing a dazzling gown appears in the mouth of their illusionary tomb, obstructing it entirely. All of the eyes in the tunnel go wide except for Lettie's, which remain firmly closed to maintain her focus. They've raised a fake goddess. And she's angry as hell.

Lettie will deconstruct the whole universe, she'll break heaven and hell in two if it means securing their future. Her eyes leak blood, but she presses on through the pain and fuels her illusion even further. Any blood she sheds they can use. Subtly, her lips move as she instructs her goddess to talk.

"Cressida." The 'goddess' says, her voice ethereal and booming, reminiscent of many voices overlapped. One by one, souls (will o wisps branching off of will o wisps) peel from the goddess's form and hunt individual stewards. Becoming the things of their worst nightmares, compelling some of them to drop their captives in fright. Some even go down on their knees willingly, swearing fealty at the goddess's feet. Lettie's so focused now she can't check to see who's been freed and who hasn't been. "You fool. Why have you returned?"

 

[starboob]

Bile starts to crawl up the back of Juno’s throat as another ache rolls out from her abdomen. Color starts to drain from her lips, sweat builds over her brow, and she refuses to budge, because there is no other option. She can’t afford to give up. That has never been her luxury and it sure as hell isn’t now. And the thing is? The Duchess fucked up when she backed them into a corner like this, because now they’ve got nothing to lose. Now they’ve got no choice but to run her through the ground. She swallows against everything trying to bring her to her knees—the bile, the despair, the pain, all of it. They’ve got this. (They’ve got to. Otherwise Juno’s corpse will be bleeding over a pile of dust and those kids won’t ever see the light of day again.) “I love you too, babe. I’ll see you on the other side.” She squeezes Lettie’s hand and adds, “Code word is shit bananas, alright?”

Though despite the confidence in her words and the solidness of Lettie’s hand in hers, Juno’s trembles. She tenses, trying to quiet it, but the possibility that she will be a bleeding corpse over a pile of ash is a possibility. (An inevitability.) The Duchess isn’t one to make empty threats—Juno knows this all too well—and with their friends (and Thad) at her mercy, she can’t help the nightmare scenarios from sprouting in her head. She tries to banish them, lest she lose her nerve, yet she knows they don’t have another choice. And she trusts Lettie. Lettie won’t leave her holding onto a fistful of dust if she can help it.

With a sharp breath, she focuses on drawing out the layers of the glyph as they had appeared before. Then she takes the illusory keyboard and manipulates it, timing it so that her actions result in the pieces of the glyph moving. She hesitates as she moves and turns the last piece into place, looking warily over to Lettie, then their companions, but it’s all for show. For the Duchess’s benefit, though she doubts Cathy is thinking of much as her dreams (and everyone else’s nightmares) are seemingly about to be realized. Juno moves the last piece into place, giving the glyph an extra climatic glow.

A trickle of blood slides down her temple, her body straining as she uses her necromancy without her sword. She can feel it gnawing at her insides and knows she’s still got plenty more to give—perhaps more than she should give, but they’re out of options. Just as Lettie is determined to secure their future so is Juno. This is fine. (It has to be.)

As the tomb “opens,” with all the theatrics as the last time, Juno involuntarily takes a step back, forgetting that this is entirely her girlfriend’s doing. Her jaw drops, eyes widening. It’s instinct when she drops to her knees and bows her head. She can’t even pretend that she’s playing a role anymore, Lettie’s got her fooled.

And she's got the Duchess fooled too. Cassidy takes a daring step forward, not caring or not noticing as some of the captives are released. She does not bow, kneel, or show reverence outside of the obvious awe sparking in her eyes. “Goddess,” she whispers in half disbelief. “So you do still live despite the rumors?”

This question forces Juno to recall what she knows—that she goddess is dead; that she saw her corpse beyond the actual entrance weeks or years ago. However, she doesn’t get up just yet. Instead, she focuses on their stream and sends lines to Lettie through it.

“I am the final rest, the last mother whose bosom my children sleep on,” the goddess retorts. “I am the goddess and I cannot be destroyed in any way that matters.” Juno instructs Lettie to take a pause here then has her add, “You have not answered my question, Cressida. Why have you returned!?” Juno complements the wail by sending shakes through the chamber, cracks splintering around the frame of the tomb’s entrance.

The Duchess does not budge more than she has to and even takes the time to dust off her skirts before answering. Her gaze meets the hollowed one of the goddess. “To fulfill the final wishes of my ancestor, goddess. Should you not know that? Or are you not as omniscient as the legends say?” Cassidy scoffs. The stewards who have sworn fealty look up with confusion knit expressions, some even appear scandalized. “This world and all the rest need no goddesses or guardians to protect magic. Cressida, the ancestor for whom you mistake me for, proved that you lot are nothing without your vast stores of magic.” Even with all her defiance and self-assurance, Juno catches a nearly imperceptible tremor in her words. Though perhaps that is more so because Juno has discreetly lit the Major’s lighter and channels the flame into the cracks she created, making it seem as though the goddess is summoning fires from the bellies of the earth as her rage rises. Some of her own blood drips into the flames, turning it unnaturally red. Heat flashes through the chamber as these red flames start to melt the rock to magma.

Still, Cassidy refuses to back down. Not when she's this close to her goal. Despite the chill sweeping down her spine, she holds herself as the queen—not duchess—that she believes she is. She snaps her fingers. Nothing happens. When she turns towards her lackeys she finds half fending against revenants and the other half with their heads pressed to the floor in supplication to the goddess. She barely registers that the captives are no longer in their places. Not until she feels something large breathing frost down her back.

Slowly, she turns to face the being and finds herself toe to toe with a six-armed, stupidly buff construct. “For fuck’s sake.” She reaches for her demon sword and only pulls it halfway out of its sheath before a phantom limb wraps around her arm and tosses her to the far side of the chamber. Her shoulder hits the wall with a disturbing crunch, the sword clattering to the ground.

Ainsley then reaches for the Duchess’s ankle, but the Duchess, surprisingly quick, tears into her palm with her teeth and sends a warded blood scythe to sever the phantom limb. The arm peels away like tree bark, leaving the spirit magician with just a stump at her shoulder. Whatever Cassidy did, it seems to prevent Ainsley from summoning the arm again so she ducks behind Thad’s construct as the other woman rises, blood orbs now orbiting around her like electrons in an atom.

The company all stand with their fists and constructs raised—all save for Mauve and Nico, who're trying to work the manacles wrapped around the faerie's and the pirate's wrists. Cassidy notes this and while she sends half her blood wards towards the company to occupy them, the other half are aimed straight for the teenagers—!!

 

[ellarose]

"If what you say is true, impertinent child, then you scarcely know of a world with my magic. It has been locked within this miserable tomb ever since your ancestor cursed me. She damned this world and countless others with her foolishness. The remnants of my magic that linger are all that keeps Desdemonia alive. Without it, it will succumb to the nightmares and fall." The 'goddess' retaliates, rage flaring under Lettie's skin as she resonates with the goddess's sacrifice. The Duchess thinks she's still alive and seeks out to kill her, thinking Cressida hadn't finished what she set out to do. Perhaps to become a legend. For glory. To prove some misguided point. Perhaps to find treasures unknown and become an all-powerful tyrant like the so-called Guardian on Fabel. But in all actuality, she's a spoiled brat who's only lives and breathes right now because the goddess sacrificed herself to keep this world and others from falling off the map altogether. Another sacrifice gone unseen and unnoticed... and those who benefit from it intend to trample all over her.

"This path shall bring about the end of times. And you..." Only vaguely aware of the danger speeding towards them as Nico curses under his breath, Lettie has the goddess beckon the stewards swearing fealty. "Will you be pawns in this spoiled child's game, spitting on my name? Or will you lend your services to those who mean to break my curse once and for all?" The goddess gestures a hand towards Lettie, Juno, and the teens. "Choose wisely."

It's enough. (Thank stars it's enough.) At least five stewards who once had their weapons turned on Eliza and her company sweep protectively in front of them instead, pivoting their weapons on the Duchess. One of them even goes as far as to throttle the nerd with the tablet that controls their manacles-- and once it's secured, they unfasten and fall from their wrists. They're free. Hell yeah!

"This is..." The Duchess's shoulders heave as she pants for breath, standing there and watching wild-eyed as her great big plans fall around her like dominoes. Her stewards turn on her with ease. Lettie suspects if she treated them even half as cruelly as she treated Juno, many may have been waiting with bated breath for the opportunity to change sides. How many backs did she scale to make it this far? How many did she degrade and treat as pets? The faerie's skin crawls as she recalls the memories she witnessed-- the ones that weren't meant for her eyes, but that she saw anyway. Juno, her sweet, strong and brave Juno, collapsed at the Duchess's feet and gripping her skirt. Begging not to live like a hunted dog. Fuck her. Seriously, fuck her straight to the inferno.

"This is wrong!" Looks like karma's finally coming for Cathy now. She can't attain the status of a queen-- let alone a goddess-- without acting like one first. Loyalty is the only currency. And it's earned, not forced or bought with gold. Her cheeks are a bright, frazzled red. Her hair's all out of place. Teetering on the edge of a full-blown conniption, seconds away from stomping her stilettoed feet like a kid who isn't getting precisely what she wants delivered to her on a silver platter. Weakened from her injuries, losing her backup, she's officially been backed into a corner. "This is..."

...But Lettie doesn't let herself relax yet. Who knows what plans she might have as a last resort? They all know better than to underestimate her as their opponent for even a second. When the faerie loosens her grip on the illusions, the stewards may see it all as a lie, take offense and turn on them again. That will accomplish nothing-- it'll bring them back to square one. Fighting, fighting, fighting to the bloody end until one side finally wins. While her eyes are still closed, she can hear the sounds of the battle ensuing. Screams. Sword against sword, bone against bone. The few stewards still standing by Cathy defending her, fighting against those that betrayed them. It won't end unless something is done. Something meaningful.

She's been using the goddess to try and tell as much of her story as she can... and that's exactly what she needs to do right now, isn't it? Just as she shared her own story with Juno, she'll find a way to share the goddess's now. It'd be her honor to bring the goddess's voice to the surface after she's been silenced underground. And the truth could change minds for real. Lettie and Juno weren't exactly the hero types themselves when they entered this tomb for the first time... but they left it different people after they saw what happened with their own eyes.

The people of Desdemonia cherish their goddess, who cherishes them in return. She loved them and sacrificed herself for them. The people deserve to know what she did. They all deserve to know that she didn't abandon them. The goddess deserves it, too.

"I'm gonna to tell the goddess's story." Lettie gives Juno's hand two squeezes in advance. "And it's gonna be elaborate as hell." And... it might be the last thing she ever does. This is going to take a lot out of her, but it needs to be done. Changing the worlds was never going to be easy. They need to do this for the kids and the rest of the company. Desdemonia and their mission. The goddess. (...And Thad.) Her eyelids twitch as the dark tunnel shifts all around them. Golden sunlight blasts through. The faerie rebuilds the old, thriving Desdemonia brick by brick to show them all a glimpse of what it used to be. "This was Desdemonia." The sounds of the fighting all around them quiets, a hush falling over the temple. Everyone stops to gawk and stare at it in awe. The bustling city streets. The airships, the technology. It appears as though they've been transported to a new world altogether. "Cressida wanted more... and the result of her quest for power is the world you all know now. Shall I show you all what happened?"

Lettie pushes it further. Her bloody eyes glow behind her goggles, projecting the memories that she and Juno were shown. Cressida. Cerise. The goddess. While she can't recreate it all word for word, she remembers most of it. She vowed not to forget and she didn't.

Meanwhile, Cassidy manages to tears her eyes away from the scenes swimming all around her when she takes notice of Juno and Lettie from the corner of her eye. The blood dripping down the faerie's cheeks. The way she's rigid and intense with concentration. Her piercing blue eyes narrow as she puts two and two together. "...You." Fully prepared to take advantage of their distraction and make a last ditch effort to put a stop to all of this, the duchess charges right for her!

 

[starboob]

As impressive as this illusion is, Juno has not taken her eyes off of Lettie. Thick red streaks stain the faerie’s cheeks, slipping past the rim of the goggles. Droplets pool at her chin and fall. Juno’s lip quivers. In pulses and flashes, she’s brought back to that techno-world. She’s brought back to that moment where Lettie’s hand glitched through hers. She’s brought back to that moment where two squeezes should have been three. Where Lettie looked so dead. (She looked so dead.) She’s stuck. Frozen. Nothing in her body works as those memories wrap around her and pull her into the past. The teenagers are just bodies to her. The manacles falling are just dull thuds against the earth. Nothing in the world exists except for Lettie and she isn’t sure for how much longer she’s going to exist. She keeps seeing her limp bloody eyed body on the cold metal floor.

The flashback dulls reality. Fighting has broken out all around her—stewards against stewards, the company against stewards, the Duchess against them all—but she can’t bring herself to pry her attention away from Lettie. She’s a powerful little faerie with more grit in her than most would suspect, but she’s got the same stubbornly good heart as Juno and while she might not intend to leave her holding onto a pile of ash, what if she doesn’t realize when enough is enough? Juno’s toed that line more times than she can count and she knows Lettie will too if it means getting those kids, Eliza, the company a better future on Desdemonia, but she doesn’t want that to come at the cost of her girlfriend. She doesn’t want to hold another faerie’s hand—she doesn’t want to discover the faerie equivalent of fucking Thad.

Juno trusts Lettie, she does, but her stomach and heart are plummeting through the ground watching her girlfriend push herself to her limits. Watching as more of her blood falls. Selfishly, she wants to beg her to stop. But she won’t. This mission has always been bigger than just the two of them. It’s been bigger than the two of them since they started giving a shit about what happens to the worlds.

As old Desdemonia comes to life around them and visions of Cerise and Cressida fill the chamber, the fighting stops, both sides entirely mesmerized by what they’re witnessing. The Desdemonians (and Thad) stare wonderingly at the scene, their heads tilted up as they spin around to take it all in, eyes so wide like they need to see everything all at once. Eliza struggles to believe this could even be Desdemonia, but Cressida’s striking resemblance to Cassidy at least convinces her they’re seeing somewhere related. A hand falls to her chest as an ancient grief, one that’s been breathed into every generation since the Calamity, takes hold. For a moment, she forgets that she’s with her company. That she’s at the goddess’s tomb. That she’s in the middle of a battlefield. All of that is suspended as she watches past play in real time.

However, peace doesn’t last. Something moves at the corner of her vision and all instinct kicks in. She steps back, narrowly avoiding a spear to the throat. (Apparently, the Duchess’s stewards are either not convinced by the illusion or they fear the Duchess’s rage more than the truth.) The steward comes at her again with a jab and she knocks the weapon away with her machete. Before they can recalibrate, she swings at them, they block with the shaft, she kicks them backwards and they fall on their ass. She crushes their chest with her knee and punches them hard across the jaw, knocking them out cold.

When she looks up to track her company, Delaney is just catching a spear with her shoulder and Marta reacts by creating two bone constructs that restrain and punch the lights out of the steward responsible. Leona, Ainsley, and Thad are also working together against a group of stewards—though that trio seems to be bumping against their limits. She pivots to help them and stops, distracted by Olette and Juno. It’s not the duo who distracts her, but the mad woman rushing towards them and—

Her heart stops and she hears someone (herself?) yelling, “Noo!”

It happens before Juno can stop it. Blood sprays across her face, enough to shock her out of her trance. She startles with a half step back, blinking as she snaps back to reality.

A few feet away, the Duchess has her arm fanned out and the edge of her blade is dripping with blood. Juno's first instinct is to check Lettie and when she confirms that she hasn’t been hit, she follows Cassidy’s eyes to the ground where Mauve has fallen, bleeding and still breathing. Her heart freezes. Her blood freezes.

From the corner of her eye she catches Nico barreling forward and it’s seems like a miracle that she’s able move enough to shove the kid back before he earns himself a spot right next to his sister. Eliza shouts something from across the chamber, but she can’t make out the words; she isn’t sure whether she’s talking to her or Nico. (She isn’t sure if she’s cursing her name for not watching those kids.) Everything comes to her through a thick fog as she stares between the teenager and the Duchess. Her veins blister beneath her skin, melting away the shock. Her features darken with rage.

Cassidy’s expression is as smug as ever, swiping her tongue over her lower lip as she eyes the duo like a predator. She twirls the demon sword with her wrist, readying for another attack. “Still trying to be the hero, Juno?”

“I’m not a hero," she seethes, stepping around Lettie and over Mauve, "I just do what’s fuckin’ right.” Her hands, already slick with faerie blood, clasp together and a glimmering red blade rises from her fists.

Cassidy rushes Juno, swinging her sword in a downward arc. Juno raises her blade to meet the attack and when the blades clash, they don’t clang, they hiss. And rather than spewing sparks, flowers spring off from Juno’s blade. Parrying the attack, Juno creates some space between herself and the Duchess, careful to avoid her longer reach. She keeps her blade raised high and close to her head, making sure to protect her face. The Duchess thrusts forward. Juno steps back and knocks the sword to the side, then pivots to bring her sword up before Cassidy can recalibrate her weapon. She steps back, but not quick enough. Juno’s blade slices into her ribcage. She hisses. Juno smirks and takes another step back.

The pair circle each other like two starved predators going after the same corpse. The Duchess’s breathing is fast and heavy, Juno can see her straining against a shoulder injury and decides to thrust towards the weak spot. Cassidy steps to the side and dodges. Juno moves away before she can take a jab at the pirate. She goes for her thigh, Juno blocks, locks the blades together, and attempts to thrust the demon blade from her hand, but only manages to throw her off kilter. The pirate takes the advantage and comes down hard and fast on the Duchess, no longer holding back. Each strike is enough to send powerful reverberation through Cassidy’s arms and she can see her straining against the force.

At a certain point, Juno manages to slice into her arm while Cassidy adds a cut to her cheek and another to her neck. Fatigue is starting to catch up with them both, but Juno has the advantage as someone who has fought with less and she does not slow or relent. Desperate, the Duchess tries to sling spirits at her, but Juno raises the earth to block against the spirit scythes. Then, with a stomp, she shakes the entire chamber and throws the Duchess off her feet. With another stomp, the earth wraps around her ankles and wrists. Her blue eyes widen as the pirate stands over her. “J-Juno—”

Juno steps on her chest, crushing her sentence before she can finish, then hocks a wad of spit in her face. “Shut the fuck up. You don’t get to beg for mercy, least of all mine.” She kneels down on the other woman’s chest, ignoring her struggles. She grabs Cassidy’s head, holding it firmly between her palms. “I imagine you know what I’m about to do? It was your fuckin’ favorite thing to watch.” She takes one last look into those cruel blue eyes then jams her thumbs into them.

The Duchess of the Lower West goes out with her skull and brains splattered across the chamber before the goddess’s tomb.

 

[ellarose]

It's when Cerise turns to dust in Cressida's hands that reality starts to come back to her piece by piece. This is what happens when you push yourself too far. But Lettie has to push herself a little further. Enough to show them all the goddess's sacrifice, to illustrate the point she's been trying to make. She saved their world and countless others with the last dregs of her magic. Lettie knows what it is to bleed for her world in silence, to be drained of everything she has so it can thrive. I might be a little faerie, but I got this.

Sweat beads at Lettie's brow, her breathing growing more ragged the longer she keeps this up. The conclusion of the fight is projected, a dead goddess and faerie, an unconscious Cressida. And then the hooded bastards from Avangeline show with their little vial handy to collect the faerie dust left behind... this part is irrelevant.

Once the truth is finally revealed, Lettie releases her hold over everything. The glamours laced over the tablet screens disappear, now flashing violently with spiking signals from the faerie and pirate duo. The false goddess falls bone by bone and soul by soul. The universe made up of memories shatters. Everything she built deconstructs in a hurricane of glowing butterflies that shimmer and blink out, leaving only the darkness of the tunnel behind. This is the result of everything they just witnessed, the reality they're living in now.

And reality's often been one bitch of a sucker-punch in Lettie's experience. There's fresh blood speckled on her face and clothes. Her hands are both empty. Flowers petals and red droplets float in front of her in slow motion. She doesn't seek validation for her efforts in the expressions of those around her. The only person she's searching for now that she's resurfaced is-- "Juno? Juno!? Where did you go?" Panic hits hard and fast and she's left swaying unsteadily on her feet in the aftermath. Ripping off her goggles, squinting desperately through tears of blood, she makes out the hazy silhouette of her pirate ahead. What's happening? Her heart is nearly crushed, seized in a vise-tight grip of worry when blood and brains spray out violently from where her girlfriend is. From where she's standing, she can't tell what's happening. All she sees is red, red, red.

"Juno..." Lettie hardly has the voice to scream with, her frame trembling like the world is coming to an end. Because Juno is her home. She's her whole fucking world. And if she wasn't present when she really needed her there, if Juno is-- Juno is-- the wave of emotional turmoil wipes out all that remains of her strength. The faerie reaches out, wanting nothing more than to feel the pirate's hand in hers. She only makes it half a step forward before she falls sideways, her temple striking hard against the rock underfoot. Darkness catches up with her before she can make it to her pirate's side.

Taking a cue from the hooded figures in the scene that played out just moments before, two of the nerds creep towards Lettie with their vials ready, perhaps interested in collecting more samples of her blood for future projects. (...Or worse.) However, enough of the company are gathered around Mauve that Eliza is near enough to notice this just in time. She pauses midway through saying something to a distraught Nico, swiveling and punching one of the nerds in the face hard enough to knock out a couple of teeth. The death glare that follows persuades his companion to run away as fast as his scrawny legs can carry him.

The atmosphere in the temple is heavy. The Duchess is dead, the remaining stewards lost without their leader and her cause. The goddess's story has been told. (Now they know everything. They know she's dead, too.) Some of the stewards decide to run sooner rather than later, seeing how Juno did away with the Duchess and, cowards that they are, don't want to be next. Some linger with blank expressions on their faces, still trying to process the enormity of everything they just witnessed. The company is similarly stunned and misty eyed, tending to each other and coping with the loss of Leona, who was struck while protecting Thad and Ainsley.

"I-- If I hadn't... they would've..." Mauve rasps she fades in and out, shivering in Ezra's lap. "She protected us before. From that shifter thing. I had to..."

"Don't speak. Save your strength." Ezra shushes her softly, peeling back the fabric of her shirt to get a better look at the bleeding wound on her abdomen. Not wanting to worry the kid, she tries not to hiss through her teeth in sympathy. Instead she tears a scrap of fabric from her shirt to wrap around it for the time being. "I know."

"Shit." Eliza says under her breath, running a hand through her hair. She takes count of everyone, ensuring that those who need to be looked after are being looked after. Ainsley has her arm around a trembling Thad. They sit at Lettie's side now. Ezra's tending to Mauve. Marta and Delaney have got their eyes on Nico, ensuring that he doesn't run off to do anything stupid on his sister's behalf. Eliza gives him a look that says she intends to finish her talk with him later. The rest of the women gather where Leona rests, some hovering between the groups to see where someone is needed. Among them all, there's one remaining person she has to check up on.

Inhaling a deep breath, Eliza approaches Juno from behind. She takes a moment to stare at the remains of the Duchess strewn all around, scarcely believing her own eyes. "...Kid. You okay?" She sets a hand on her shoulder. Maybe to get her attention, maybe to offer her some semblance of comfort. While she doesn't know the full extent of the history between Juno and the Duchess of the Lower West, she knows there was history. "I don't know what comes next, but we need to--"

The cube appears before them, interrupting her.

"Marjorie's rules." It declares solemnly before blipping them out of the tunnel in a beam of light.

***​

Thanks to Ezra's efforts and swift treatment from the medic, Mauve's recovery goes smoothly. The only real 'complaint' she's made since being admitted to the infirmary is that her roommate (Lettie) sometimes talks in her sleep. Naturally. (The teen's cheeks turn pink whenever she thinks about it. Mostly because the comments made were along the lines of "You look damn good in that shirt, Juju." and "What if you took it off though?") While she doesn't tell anyone these specific details, perhaps to spare the faerie of dying from embarrassment when she wakes, Lettie is eventually moved into Juno's room. (...Their room.)

"I could move to a different room, if it's easier." Mauve had offered. It'd been two days and Lettie hadn't woken up yet.

"Nah. Captain Juno's used to it by now." Inez insisted with a hand flip when they made the call to move her. She was clearly eager to make these arrangements-- the skeletons behind her already preparing their scoreboards.

"Let's hope this persuades her to get some rest." Marjorie sighed. Their memories of helping Lettie through her recovery after losing her wings were still fresh. Juno, hiding away in her study... the both of them coping with the aftermath, struggling and avoiding each other. It was a rough time for all of them.

"...Miss Lettie will fret about her tits again if she wakes up in the infirmary." Inez joked and Marjorie elbowed her in the ribs.

***​

"Juju... the goose. The goose. It has the flamethrower." When the goose sets Lettie's dream on fire, she wakes up with a start. It's four hours after she'd been moved now, nearly midnight. Her immediate response is to jerk with panic when she opens her eyes and sees nothing... but she comes to find after a moment that it's because they've been bandaged over. Oh. Gently, she tugs them off and blinks, finding even the dimmest of lights are harsh when they're in this sensitive state. Memories return to her in flashes and she... half expects to find herself mounted up on the Duchess's wall. But since she's safely tucked in bed... Juno. The blood. There was so much blood. "Juno?" She whips her head around, searching the room for a trace of her. Please, be here. Please.

 

[starboob]

In the aftermath of everything, nothing changes. Unlike the other battles she’s fought with Lettie, relief isn’t even there to comfort her in the end. Neither is satisfaction. Blood and brain has sprayed over Juno—her face, her arms, her clothes—and the headless corpse is beneath her as proof of what she’s done, but the victory isn’t sweet. (Why isn’t it sweet?) It isn’t bitter. It isn’t remorseful either. When she pushes off the corpse and shakes her arms of the excess gore, when she goes to wipe her face, when she steps away, all she feels is indifference.

And maybe that’s all that the Duchess deserves. And maybe that's okay.

It's only after she's walking away that her exhaustion catches up to her all at once, everything she had been holding, crumbles. She would have fallen over had Eliza not been there to catch her. (Juno doesn’t even have it in herself to feel guilty for abandoning one her kids back there.) The older woman asks her something, but Juno’s attention is on the company, the remaining stewards, sifting through them to find her Lettie.

She doesn’t get the chance to ask about her before the little asshole is interrupting. Though she can’t say that she minds if Marjorie’s rules means—blip!

***​

The days following pass in a blur with no discernible beginning or end. Juno spends nearly every second by Lettie’s side, waiting patiently for her to wake and refusing to leave. (After Lettie lost her wings, all she wanted was for Juno to be there and she never showed. She won’t hurt her like that again.) Aside from when she showers, she remains faithful to the faerie’s side. Even when Marjorie insists that she sleep in a proper bed and not upright in the chair, the pirate refuses.

She takes Lettie’s hand through the rails on the side of the bed, stroking her thumb over her knuckles, watching the steady rise and fall of her breath. She’s alive. According to the Medic, she will be fine, she just overexerted herself. (They also exasperatedly comment that Lettie is picking up Juno’s worst traits. Juno flips the cube off.)

While she waits for her girlfriend to recover, her and Mauve pass the time by playing various card games popular on Desdemonia. Nico and Eliza join in on occasion, but it’s mostly the teenager and the pirate to entertain themselves. The rest of the company is still recovering from their own injuries and grieving the loss of Leona. One of the evenings, they hold a vigil for their fallen comrade. Though they would have waited for Lettie to recover, the dead just don’t stay dead on Desdemonia and the body needed to be burned. Juno does leave Lettie’s side to attend—even if she hadn’t known Leona that well, she feels it’s important to honor the woman’s sacrifice and knows that Lettie would have wanted to go, too. So she attends for both of them and leaves a mini-skellie with her girlfriend to explain should she wake up. That turns out to be unnecessary as she’s still deep in her slumber by the time Juno returns with Mauve.

Sometime after that it’s decided that Lettie is well enough to be moved into their bedroom. She’s almost positive that the idea is Marjorie’s, a not so subtle ploy to get Juno back into a proper bed. Though the pirate can’t say that she minds. While she has been sleeping, the bags under her eyes and knotted ropes in her neck indicate that it’s been less than restful.

Juno would have carried Lettie to bed herself, but her abdomen and back resemble gnarly galaxies and the Medic has all but banned her from doing anything too strenuous. (They gave her an embarrassing and over-detailed talk about what counted as strenuous.) Once her faerie is placed into the bed, it takes no coaxing from Marjorie or anyone for her to slide in right next to her, scooping Lettie under her arm.

She neither remembers drifting off to sleep nor rolling away from Lettie, but when she stirs to the sound of her name and the threat of long necked chickens with flamethrowers, her arms are empty and cold. Blearily, she turns then shifts so that she’s fully facing Lettie. Her voice is quiet and thick with sleep when she talks. “Over here.” Unhesitatingly, she pulls the tiny faerie into her arms and presses her nose to the top of Lettie’s head. “Sorry about that, bug. Didn’t mean to let you go.” A terrible girlfriend crime, she knows.

The tired pirates starts to doze back off, but then her eyes snap open and she jerks back, examining the little faerie in her arms—the little faerie who is awake. She struggles against her injuries to sit up, moving as gingerly as possibly until her back is against the headboard. “You’re—you’re really awake?” She has to rub her eyes to make sure they aren’t playing tricks on her, but she’s really there. Her girlfriend. With her bandaged hands—the Medic ran out of mutant rats and has since replaced them with adolescent anthropomorphic turtles—she cups her face and strokes her thumbs over her freckles. “You alright? Should I call the Medic?” Then she presses her forehead to her girlfriend’s. “You scared me back there, Lette.”

She shifts a bit so that Lettie can take a better look at her features, knowing that if she isn’t already worrying about Juno’s injuries that she will be soon. She has a couple of turtle bandages on her cheek, then another on her neck, but most of her injuries are under her Lettie and the Skellies shirt, covering those muscles her girlfriend loves so much. “I… shit.” She mutters, remembering some of those last moments with the Duchess where Lettie had been trying to reach her. “I worried you again, didn’t I?” She kisses Lettie’s cheeks, then her lips. “I would have told you what I was up to, but I hadn’t wanted to distract you. You were really pushing yourself back there. I didn’t want to risk it.” She pauses for a moment, taking in her girlfriend with her storm cloud eyes. "Fuck. You're okay. You're really fuckin' okay."