#a smart is like throwing a pebble at a bird. the bird (me) may or may not be hurt but has a decent survival chance imo

[incandescent-irrigation]

#if youre driving a car in which you can kill me which is most cars

i think every car is probably capable of killing a pedestrian, however i'm enamored by the idea that you have low-intensity superpowers & would destroy a Smart that runs into you

if a smart hit me i would break a clavicle or maybe a rib, so what im saying is it's a sliding scale from "no injury defo death" to "no death no injury" with Really small grey scale of "will defo not die and defo get injured".

the "no injury no death" is mostly comprised of this bad boy and its equivalents

i could eat this for breakfast. this bitch can store 32 clowns if you remove the chairs and the engine. its made of fucking aluminum to me. if there were four of me we could lift it up and then immediately go to the emergency room with displaced discs.

[8bittheatrics]

Oh boy more FF9 AU, featuring post-end scenes where everyone should be happy but whoops, these kids have issues and are also still teenagers or in their *very* early twenties and have not had time to adjust to anything

AKA Where in the World is Sorey Fabool Alexandros the First, AKA Let Mikleo Say Fuck. Actually the latter has been established as a good summary of the entire AU. Plus all these post-end scenes I’ve been playing with for months are why it’s taking forever to get a real chapter out. I just felt like sharing this one because I’m having feelings about the boys again. You know, like every day.

Sorey's sitting by the eidolon wall when a dagger suddenly sinks into the ground at his side, dangerously close to his hand.

"What the fuck, Sorey!?"

He's in so much trouble.

"SIR TRIBAL, THAT IS NO WAY TO GREET ROYALTY."

"...Phoenix? What? ...Sorey. Answers. Now."

"I feel like if I answer incorrectly I'm gonna get a dagger to the throat."

"That might not be entirely wrong."

"HIS HIGHNESS HAS BEEN FEELING CLAUSTROPHOBIC AT THE CASTLE LATELY. ALSO IT MAY BE MY FAULT."

Mikleo runs his hands through his hair, burying his face in them and letting out a long, rough sigh that turns into a groan halfway through.

"You told no one you were leaving."

"You weren't around to tell."

"You didn't tell Alisha you were leaving."

"Well..."

"What the fuck, Sorey."

"It's not like she told me when she was leaving back when we all met."

"I know you're not this petty, Sorey. Explain."

"..."

Phoenix climbs up Sorey and stands on his shoulder, the tiniest barrier between him and Mikleo.

"Perhaps, Sir Tribal, it would be better to plan to stay tonight. Go visit the other normin. Let his highness be for now."

With another sigh, Mikleo shrugs, arms hanging limply in the air.

"Fine. Whatever. I'll...go fish with Difens and Bienfu or something."

***

"How long has Sorey been here, Bienfu?"

"Two days! He showed up right after Phoenix decided to finally show his fancy godly mug around here again. 'I'm an eidolon,' he says. Psh. We all knew him as a normin first, so he's on the same level as the rest of us."

"Didn't ask for any of that information, but thanks."

"Anytime!"

"Also, don't try to put oglops in the stew this time."

"Oh, come on! Oglops taste great when seasoned right!"

"No oglops."

***

Twilight sets in, the setting sun giving a ghostly illumination to the incense smoke rising from the low pedestal encircled by the wall. It's only proper to pay respect while he's here, Sorey figures, and there's something comforting in the way it curls into the sky. Phoenix dozes quietly in his hood, just like before. It's odd, him being physically present again, but not at all unwelcome. Sorey would be lying if he said he wouldn't have jumped on the opportunity to leave the castle regardless. Phoenix's vanished presence was just the perfect excuse for it. A few echoed words in his head from the eidolon about coming home, and suddenly it felt like there was a void in him, not quite yet all too similar to when he lost all his eidolons.

There wasn't time to explain. To go about every duty and policy so everything could be covered while he was away. Part of him, knowingly far less logical but nonetheless loud, feels like it would've been deemed unimportant, anyway. Something that could wait for another patrol or frivolous request from well-off people who don't need it to be taken care of first. He's just...started to feel trapped again, despite the improvements. It's hard to accept. At least here, he feels free.

A hand drops onto his shoulder and he starts, turning to see Mikleo--much calmer now--giving him a cocked smile.

"Dinner's ready. You hungry?"

Sorey nods, and Mikleo bends to grasp his hand and pull him up and away from the wall.

Even after a couple years to adjust to his faded memories, faceless and blurred like a ruined painting, Sorey still sees fire.

***

"So," Mikleo begins, ladling stew inside a bowl and passing it to Sorey, "talk to me."

"Okay." Sorey spoons out some stew, ready to shove it in his mouth when he hesitates, pulls it away slightly, and blows on it. Then he shoves it in.

"Talk to me about why you left."

"...Nnnnnnnah."

"It's just me. You know you can talk to me. I even put the daggers away."

"Yeaaaah, you still threw one at me earlier, sooo..."

"Because you scared the hell out of me!"

"I could've lost a finger!"

"Hey, I knew where I was throwing it. I have good aim."

"Still."

"You're changing the subject."

"Mmm..."

Sorey averts his eyes, opting to eat quietly. Mikleo doesn't press, and dinner is filled with the sounds of skittering, chattering normin.

His bowl is soon empty and the normin have picked the pot clean, so Sorey opts to find something very interesting to stare at on the weathered table in lieu of talking to anyone.

"Hey."

He looks up as Mikleo moves around the table to grab his bowl.

"I love you."

Mikleo pats his shoulder softly, and Sorey watches as he moves to the kitchen.

"I love you, too," Sorey calls out. Phoenix maneuvers out of Sorey's hood and leaps onto the table with a flourish. Sorey smiles and pokes at one of Phoenix's extended paws, chuckling as Phoenix swats his finger away.

"I missed having you around."

"I never left you, highness."

"Yeah, I know. But being able to see you without summoning you is nice."

"Admittedly, I do prefer my physical form. Now, shall we help with the dishes? Sir Tribal did come all this way for you, after all."

Sorey sighs.

"Yeah. I guess I should."

He briefly considers trying to slip by and hide in the storage room, but the normin would probably rat him out.

He should be happy. He's supposed to be. Everything went back to normal, then got even better than normal when Mikleo and Rose returned, and he should, by all means, be happy. He's just...not. But he should be happy, and the feeling that he's being incredibly ungrateful is overwhelming.

"So."

Sorey tenses.

"Did Bienfu make you eat any oglops? He tried to put some in the stew, too, but I said no. And might have threatened to cook his hat."

Sorey relaxes somewhat with a short chuckle.

"Nah, no oglops. He went to go catch some once, but Grimoirh glared at him until he stopped. We just grilled up some fish the last couple nights."

"That's good. I don't think I'd be able to kiss you anymore if you ate an oglop."

"Isn't that a little extreme?"

"Oglops are nothing to joke about."

Much to Sorey's dismay, Mikleo grabs at the end of his cloak to dry his hands, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Sorey yanks it out of his hands with a pout.

"Not a towel."

"I'll be sure to use your shirt next time, then."

"Use your own!"

Mikleo snickers before grabbing Sorey's hand, pulling him down to the small dock overlooking the river. He sits, tossing a few stray pebbles into the waterfall as he waits for Sorey to get comfortable beside him. A small contest develops wordlessly as they try to see who can toss a pebble to the top of the waterfall. Until, of course, one strays from its arc and hits Bienfu. There's no more pebble throwing after that.

Craning his neck to look at the stars, Mikleo sighs.

"Alright. I listened to Phoenix and left you alone for a bit. Time for you to talk to me. Why did I just spend days in a panic trying to locate you across the globe?"

"The daggers are still put away, right?"

"Yep."

Sorey peers around, suspicious, until Mikleo knocks him lightly on top of his head.

"They're on the bookshelf."

"If you say so..."

"I know so. I put them there. Now why'd you run off?"

"It really did mostly have to do with Phoenix."

"Mostly?"

"I'd heard his voice a few days ago, and then suddenly he was gone. It was...kinda like when my eidolons got extracted, but it was just him specifically. Like there was a void. He said he was coming home, so I had to come check. Sure enough, he was here, back as a normin."

Hands still linked, Mikleo threads their fingers together, brows furrowed in concern.

"Okay, I get that, but why wouldn't you tell someone? Alisha would've understood, especially if it felt like that. And what did you mean by 'mostly'?"

"I mean, it was my reason for going, but..."

"But...?"

Sorey bites his lip, and Mikleo immediately brings his other hand up, thumb pushing down softly beneath Sorey's lip to ease it out of his teeth.

"Come on, Sorey. This is what I'm here for."

"You're here for lots of reasons."

"And one of them is helping you stop bottling things in. Talk to me already."

"It's stupid."

"It's not the first time you've told me that and it certainly won't be the last."

"But if it actually is stupid and you think differently of me after?"

"That's not gonna happen. Besides, I've witnessed you doing plenty of stupid things already and I'm still here. I don't think anything can top pitching us backward off a cliff into the ocean to escape a horde of angry land birds, anyway."

"Hey, I had a couple contingency plans ready."

"Sure. Now stop changing the subject and tell me your stupid thing."

Sorey's eyes dart around for a subject to change it to, but it seems all the normin have scattered. Traitors.

"You didn't bring me over here to push me into the river, did you?"

"I might if you keep this up. Do you actually believe me when I tell you I love you or am I doing something really wrong here?"

Sorey frantically waves a placating hand. "No, no! It's just! I'm. Just." He sighs. "It's...so stupid."

"You keep saying that, but I can't tell you if you're right or not until I know what 'it' is."

"I know, just. Lemme think."

Maybe he could just pitch himself down the waterfall here. That's one way to get out of this conversation. But no, that's the real stupid thing here. Leviathan wouldn't be happy having to fish him out with a wave, and Mikleo would probably try to follow.

"You look like you're thinking about running. And that's why I'm still holding your hand."

Damn Mikleo for being smart.

"Don't run. I don't want you to feel like you have to run. I'm not here to judge. Or to kill you. Alisha might; she did say she was going to. I won't, though."

"That's...not very reassuring."

"It's what I've got. Come on now. Ramble at me. Deep breath and go."

Sorey takes a deep breath and goes.

"Everything's back to normal at home and that should be great, you and Rose are home and the town is finally back in order and Alisha is doing amazing and I've got more than I could have imagined and everything is better but I still feel like I'm trapped there in the castle like now I'm tied to my royal duties and things outside Alexandria just don't matter anymore which is why I thought everyone would brush off Phoenix being gone as something that could be taken care of after the next patrol or royal court approval or whatever mundane thing the nobles want reviewed that day and that bothers me but I know it's irrational and I know I should be happy with everything but I'm not and I feel awful for feeling that way. I'm. I'm not happy, Mikleo. I'm not. I'm awful for it, but I'm just not."

Mikleo stares, and Sorey once again considers the pros and cons of tossing himself off the dock. But the grip on his hand tightens, and Mikleo stands and pulls him up and away (unfortunately) from the dock. Silent, he leads Sorey up the stairs and out of the small cottage.

"What," Sorey starts, hesitant. "What are you doing?"

"Kidnapping you. Right now. The Red Rose is closer, but we can take your ship if it's less obvious. Alisha just sent me to get you, she didn't give me a time limit."

Sorey's eyes widen.

"Where are we going?"

"Anywhere."

Phoenix salutes from his perch on the broken fountain as they pass, and Sorey smiles.