#ALSO IF I WERE MORE AWAKE ID LOVE MEL MOMENTS. I LOVE THEM

[basilpaste]

my brain is trying to shift to melodie mode. me kicking it back. sidequests for osisa? how does he take the daydreaming one...?

oh. oh thats a fun question.

i am stealing from a concept you brought up once for osis because i think its fun. wherein isa seems to have a better understanding of the country than the average person? anyways.

isa is. perceptive. incredibly so! perhaps not as perceptive as m'dame odile, but he still thinks hes pretty smart!

so. so.

when the daydreaming one in dormont keeps flipping between having a sister and not. with all the dots hes connected about the country the world forgot. he asks about it.

and... the world.....

corrects.

she doesnt remember her own sister. isabeau thinks about his own siblings. he knows them all. he counts them up, names them all. names them all. he names all of them - right?

he. um. he has some theories to talk about with elle.

... he doesnt really talk to that person much anymore.

on a more lighthearted note!!! he reads all of the cursing of chateau castle!!! and he really likes it! to the point he kinda forgets to report back to the book loving one for a bit, heh.

and isa and the stylish one are friends. mira fan number one (they share). hes used to people thinking hes a little scary sometimes because hes so big. pals!!!!!

[melody-hall]

nothing left to say | closed | au

Melody searched around for her keys, she was getting ready to go out grocery shopping. Her diet couldn���t consist of alcohol, cigarettes and the occasional diner food, that wasn’t healthy, even she knew it and besides, since things were starting to fall into place with Barrel she wanted to treat him to a pumpkin pie. Her phone started to ring, she had been hoping for so long that it would make a sound that now that it did, she just stared at it in disbelief. She snapped out of her trance and picked it up. Dashy, the caller ID read. She pressed the screen to answer the call as fast as she could. “Mel?” he asked, he sounded concerned and reluctant at the same time. Her heart dropped, something must have happened “It’s me. Did- Did something happen?” she asked, feeling herself getting even more anxious by the second. “Yes” he answered “No” he quickly corrected himself. “Nothing bad happened. Jack´s great, he’s still sleeping” Melody let out a sigh of relief “I just haven’t been able to call you”. Melody hummed in agreement “Yeah… I noticed that. I just thought you were still mad at me. So, I thought it was best not to bother” she explained why she didn’t contact him either. “No, no” he rushed to say “Nothing like that. It’s that son of yours”. Melody frowned “What do you mean? Has he been giving you too much work?”. Dash let out a laugh “No he’s great! It’s just-” Dash laughed again. “What?” she asked confused. “It’s just that he switched all my contacts number around and I’ve been trying to find your number for days”. It took a while for Melody to understand what he meant “Wait…” as the pieces in her brain connected, she let out a laugh. “You’re telling me, Jack pranked you?” she laughed again. Melody could hear Dash laughing, not as loud as she was, “Yes, he really is your kid, no test required”. After she was done laughing, a smile continued plastered on her face. “He had my phone on the car ride here. I thought he was playing some games to entertain himself. But when I sent a text to the number that I thought it was yours, I realized how wrong I was” Dash explained her sons masterplan. Melody shook her head “What was the name that he put on my number?” she had to ask. If her son was anything like her, or him, he would put her number down as something completely unsuspicious. “Domino’s pizza” Dash answered. Bingo, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Melody laughed again, he was already following their footsteps.

“We’re planning on coming back tomorrow, is that okay?” Dash asked. Melody looked around the apartment, besides a tidying up, she was ready for them “Yeah. I miss you two so much”. Dash hummed in agreement “Good” a short pause “So how’s everything…” he trailed off, knowing Mel would understand him. She sighed “We’re working on it. We’re trying to…” she searched for the right words “… to figure everything out. It’s a lot. It’s ten years. Ten years and a kid” she said. Dash sighed “I know”. Melody rubbed her forehead with her free hand “But we’re trying, we talked, he spent the night the other day” if it was a thing, Mel could hear him raise his eyebrows “We’re trying not to rush things. Actions speak louder than words” she sighed. “And about Jack?” Dash asked, it was a fair question, but Mel didn’t have a sure answer for it. “I’m trying… baby steps” she scoffed at the irony of her words “I blurted everything out the first time and that was a mistake” Melody paced around the room. “Understatement of the year” Dash quipped. “Yeah. I know” she sighed “So, now I’m trying to take things slow. Not rush into thing. Seemed to have worked the first time” she muttered thinking how long it took for the both of them to finally admit they had feelings for each other and how long it took them to make their relationship official. Dash let out a small laugh “That’s good, Mel. Well, I’m going to take him fishing to day and he should be waking up soon, so I should get going”. Melody missed them so much she almost started crying, again “Yeah, thank you for helping me with him”.

“Anything for my godson”.

“He’s not-“ Mel stopped herself from correcting him. If everything had gone right, he would have been one of the godparents. Dash and Tink. She was sure about that. “Have a safe trip back. I need my two boys” she said finally grabbing her keys. “See you tomorrow, starfish” Dash said before ending the call.

Melody spent her time leading up to their arrival cleaning up and cooking to make sure that they’d feel welcomed. She was eager to see them, she missed them so much. And she did admit that it was a good decision to take Jack out of this environment as Mel figured everything out, she missed him terribly and being alone made her feel worst. Melody was watching tv, waiting for them when the apartment door opened, before she could even say a word, she caught sight of Dash carrying Jack. “He fell asleep on the car. Didn’t have the heart to wake him up” he whispered. Melody nodded, with a smile on her face. Very carefully, Dash tried to pull Jack from his arms and pass him to Melody. He was getting too big to be carried around, but he was still her baby and she knew she wouldn’t have much time left before he was a teenager full of angst who didn’t want to be smothered by his mother – like she once was. Jack stirred awake from being passed to Mel, he opened one eye, still struggling with sleep “Mom” he simply said before hugging her tightly and resting his head on her shoulder “I missed you, pumpkin” she whispered to him as she carried him to her bedroom, she felt him nodding in her shoulder as a way to say he missed her too. Melody sat there at the edge of the bed, stroking his curls as he drifted back to sleep again. After a while, of simply sitting there watching him sleep, she carefully slipped out of the room back to the living room where Dash was sitting, waiting for her with two mugs of hot chocolate. “Thanks, Dashy but-” he raised a hand to stop her “Non-negotiable” she slumped on the couch next to him. Dash turned his body towards her, he stayed silent for a moment as if deciding on what to say “You know… When’s he’s quiet and thoughtful, he’s him. 100%. No denying” Mel smiled gently at him “but when he sees something that isn’t right or starts talking about something he loves. He’s you, Mel.” Melody looked down at her lap, feeling a bit overwhelmed by what he was saying “He’s got your passion, fierceness and, unfortunately, your impulsiveness. Punch first, ask second. But there’s also something he has in common with you two” Melody frowned at him, curious about what he meant “He’s mischievous. Like you two. You can see a little sparkle in his eyes when he’s scheming something. And as we found out, he’s a good prankster” She couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh at that. She knew too well what he meant. Dash gave her a little pat on the knee “We’re watching The Princess Bride” Mel scrunched up her nose “Again?” she had endured many nights of the princess bride and recently, one failed attempt at watching it. Dash shrugged “I love happy endings”. I hope there’s one in this story, Mel thought. They sat in silence watching the movie, but Melody could see Dash glancing back at her occasionally. “What?” she asked him, taking a sip from her hot chocolate. “Maybe you two are like movie” he said, shrugging. Melody raised an eyebrow at him, not understanding his point. He turned to her “You see, it’s like this. You left, right?” Melody nodded at him, trying to follow his train of thought “So you’re like Westley”. She placed her now empty mug back on the table and turned to him “If I’m Westley, then Barrel would be Buttercup” she couldn’t help but giggle at the image in her head - Barrel instead of his curls with long blonde hair. “And which one are you?” Mel asked. Dash sat up straight, cleared his throat and looked at her “My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” he performed the iconic line from the movie, striking a dramatic pose in the last sentence and mimicking the accent, like he had rehearsed this a thousand times, and this was his time to shine.

The day after they arrived, Mel had decided, she was going to sit Jack down and talk to him. Try her best to explain to him what was happening and she knew the best place to have this conversation. Melody caught him alone in the living room, watching cartoons. Mel sat next to him “Hey, what if we went to the beach?” His eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically “Good! Go put on your shoes and we’ll go right away, pumpkin” she didn’t even need to finish her sentence before he was darting off to her room to get ready. Melody grabbed all the items she needed, including some polaroid’s that she had kept aside to show him, when the time came, perhaps the time was today. He came back running “Ready!” he said before dutifully zipping up his jacket. Melody drove them to the beach, as soon as she parked her car Jack took off running not even closing the car door on his side “Ja-“ she tried to say but he was already too far away, she sighed walking over to the passenger side of the car and closing it. Jack went running straight to the sand, still with his shoes on, too eager to see the waves “Careful!” Melody yelled out, he looked back at her and for a moment it struck her how much they looked alike. She knew it, since the moment he was born but occasionally, she still felt like the wind knocked out of her by how truly similar they were. Mel picked a spot in the sand and sat there, keeping a close eye on him and trying to make sense her thoughts, about how she should address this to him. He came back to her after a few minutes, sitting beside her, Mel reached over and wrapped one arm around him, rubbing his arm, trying to keep him warm. “I wanted to talk to you about something” Mel finally said after a few moments in silence, he looked up at her with a frown “What?” he started fiddling with some seashells he picked up by the shore. “You remember what I always told you about your father?” Mel asked cautiously, he nodded “That you were far away when you found out about me” she nodded at his answer, confirming it. “Yeah. But I feel like its time for me to tell you a little bit about him. What do you think?” he shrugged, continuing to play around with the shells, trying to see which ones fit together. “Well, we met in school. It wasn’t a good school. It was a boarding school” he looked up at her, surprised, she had never told him this part “I was there because my mother sent me for bad behavior. But, anyway… We met there, started talking more and more until we realized we had feelings for each other” he scrunched his nose at her, Mel laughed at it “Okay, I get it. Anyway, we liked it each other, a lot. And, after a long time, we started dating-“

“Is this getting somewhere?” Jack interrupted. Mel nodded at him “Yeah, we dated for a long time. We loved each other every much. But we got into trouble. A big trouble. We got arrested. And it was my fault” he frowned at that “How?”

“Well…” she started, not sure how to explain that a silly feud with a former teacher made her commit a felony “We broke into a store to teach someone a lesson”. He looked so surprised at that statement that his eyebrows were so far up, that his curls covered them “So… I felt bad for dragging him into this that I decided to leave” Mel explained the best she could “And when I found out I was having you I was already too far away”. He nodded and stayed silent for a moment before looking up at her “Why are you telling me this now?”. Melody let out a deep breath “Well… he lives here. I used to live here. He still lives here. And well…” she searched for the words “We’re trying to work things out and…”. He suddenly got up “So you lied to me?” he accused her, Mel shook her head “No, no, no” she tried to say “You knew all this time! I had a dad and you kept him from me” she could only sit there and shake her head furiously. She could see in his face that he was angry at her “No! You did. I could’ve had a dad and you kept that from me!” Mel didn’t even get a chance to say a word before he was already running away towards the city “Fuck” she let out trying to get up as fast as possible before running up to catch up with him, Why did he get my running away tendencies, she thought. Melody ran after him, managing to catch up quickly enough before he disappeared into the streets. “No! Stop!” She managed to grab him by the arm, but he twisted his body to not look at her and that sight broke her heart, her own son refusing to even glance at her “I didn’t lie to you” Mel said to him. “You omitted it from me. It’s the same thing!” Even though he was with his face turned from her she knew he was crying. Mel’s heart dropped “I’m sorry pump-“ she couldn’t even finish the words before he interrupted her “No! No! Don’t call me that!” he yelled at her yanking his arm from her hold. He didn’t run away from her, but he continued with his back turned to her and she could see his shoulders shaking “Okay, let’s go home” she said, defeated. They spent the whole journey back silently, him looking out the window, not even glancing at her once. As soon as she parked in front of her building he got out, slamming the door shut with such strength that even made Mel flinch. Before she even left the car he had already rushed his way into the building. When Mel arrived at the apartment she was greeted with a bewildered looking Dash, she let out a sigh before breaking down in tears “I don’t know what to do” she sobbed covering her face with her hands, she felt Dash’s arms around her in an instant, gently rubbing her back. Melody sobbed into his shoulder, after a while Dash pulled away to look at her “What happened?” he asked softly. Mel rubbed the tears away with her palm “I tried to talk to him about Barrel and he…” another sob escaped her “… he said I lied to him. But I didn’t. I didn’t lie to him. I didn’t lie” Mel repeated more to herself, starting to doubt her own truth. “I didn’t lie to him, Dash” she said in between sobs, Dash hugged her again, gently stroking her hair.

After a few moments just hugging her, Dash pulled back slightly “You should talk to him” Mel opened her mouth to object, to say that he doesn’t want to talk to her, but Dash gave her a look that made her shut her mouth “I know I only spent a couple of days with him, and he’s your son. But I know you. And you should- you have to talk to him now” Melody nodded, rubbing the tears away and taking in a deep breath to prepare herself. “Oh! One more thing” Dash said, searching on the back pocket of his jeans, he pulled out her seashell locket that she threw in a fit of anger. He placed it on her palm, and she squeezed it tight, feeling the tear surfacing up again. Mel knocked on her bedroom door, creaking as she opened it. He was sitting in the ground, fiddling with the seashells and in that moment, she truly understood what Dash said about him being a mix of the two of them. She quietly sat beside him. “Talk to me. Say what’s on your mind. Anything” she pleaded softly, she wanted to understand his side, she knew it was also difficult for him to hear this news. “I could’ve had a father. And kids wouldn’t had made fun of me” he muttered, still refusing to look at her. Melody was taken aback “Wait. They made fun of you? Why didn’t you tell me?” he had never told her anything about that, the teachers never mentioned anything at the meetings, for her it wasn’t an issue, he had a good father figure in Roger even if it was for a short time “It doesn’t matter now” he muttered “Yes it does. I could’ve-“ Jack interrupted her “It doesn’t matter. You lied to me! I didn’t have to be the weird kid who doesn’t have a dad. The one that on Father’s Day has to write a card to his mom. But you kept that from me and you lied!” He finally looked back at her and she could see anger in his eyes but most importantly, sadness. Mel could only remember how Barrel looked at her that way too. “I didn’t…” she tried to say “Hiding something from someone is lying too!” his voice rose a little bit, he slouched. A few tears spilled and she rushed to dry them “You’re right” Mel simply said. She pulled him to her lap, he didn’t offer resistance, she just hugged him, resting her head on his hair “I’m sorry, baby” Melody placed a kiss in the top of his head, tightening her embrace “I’m so sorry”. They stayed in that position for a while “Do you want to ask me anything?” she offered. He stayed quiet for a while “Why did you leave?”

“I thought I was going the right thing”

“Were you?”

“No” she answered honestly. They continued silent for a while, until he pulled back slightly to look at her. She could see that he had been crying, she rubbed his tears away with her thumb “Why didn’t you come back until now?” he asked her. Melody sighed “I felt like it was too late” it was the truth, she should’ve come back sooner, but she felt like it was already too late and her friends didn’t want her around anymore. He nodded “Was it?” Jack asked her, trying to make sense of everything. “No” she replied, knowing how insane everything sounded, but that was her reality now. He nodded, she was unsure if he truly understood or if he was simply dropping the matter, but he fell back into her embrace and hugged her back. She knew that there was still a lot to discuss, and this matter wouldn’t be easily resolved but, in that moment, she just wanted to hug her son.