#rus is technically already dead here/a ghost

[tamthingdraws]

in a little private rp campaign game i recently got to indulge in being extra mean to my own ocs, rus and wren going directly into the meat grinder

[chrysalispen]

Prompt #27 - Palaver

aight y’all i got asked for nero/wol wedding fic and since it fit today’s prompt, here’s the whole thing

ask and ye shall receive, etc etc

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“I can’t believe you’re actually letting me go through with this,” Nero said yet again, resuming his agitated back-and-forth pace about the cathedral vestibule. He’d worried his cufflinks undone for the third time in the last half-bell, and he still hadn’t managed to get his cravat fastened. “You’re supposed to save me from my matrimonial fate, and here you are consigning me to it instead.”

“You did this to yourself. Hold still.” It took him a few tries but Cid was finally able to intercept the other man’s circuit over the ancient stones of the church long enough to grasp him by his wrists. “And stop fidgeting with your cuffs, this is the last time I’m fixing them for you.”

“This is all your fault, you know.”

“…How is this my fault?”

“Well, I don’t bloody know, but clearly it’s your fault, Garlond. Otherwise that makes it my fault, and I don’t like that.”

Cid almost laughed, but the wild shine in those eyes told him that would be extremely unwise. He hadn’t seen the other engineer this anxious since he was a young boy; Nero was such a tightly controlled man under most circumstances that it could be difficult to tell what was actually running through his mind, but in this instant the stress had worn down his emotional defenses, and the poor man was perilously close to panic.

So, he decided to pick a fight with him.

“You gave her a ring, bent the knee, the whole nine yalms. What did you expect her to do, turn you down?”

“Yes! No. I… don’t know.” His fingers twitched, obviously wanting to go right back into his hair or to his cuffs, but Cid slapped them away and kept working at the fabric. “The Warrior of Light has any number of admirers and assorted hangers-on, you know that.”

“So she does. And you’ll notice she isn’t marrying any of them.”

“And if something goes wrong? If she decides this isn’t really what she wants?” At his exasperated sigh, Nero snapped, “It could happen and you know it.”

“What could happen?”

“She could simply leave me at the altar, for one.” Cid did laugh, then. Nero shot him a withering glare the likes of which he hadn’t seen since their Academy years, and he noted with satisfaction that the other man had mostly stopped fidgeting with his cufflinks.

“Tell me you aren’t actually being serious, Nero. This woman has seen you at your absolute sodding worst. You were her enemy once. You tried to kill us-”

“Point of order, I was not trying to kill her. Or you.” A pause, then the ghost of a smirk. “Perhaps I might have liked to singe your short hairs a bit. The notion of hauling your arrogant carcass about the castrum in one of those claws like a scruffed kitten was half the appeal of deploying them in the first place.”

Cid rolled his eyes.

“Thank you for making my point for me. As you’ve so helpfully demonstrated, Aurelia knows what a pillock you are. She’s seen it for herself.”

“I am not a pillock.”

“Yes, you are, Nero. And she knows it and she still said yes. That has to be worth something.”

“…I suppose,” the engineer groused.

“She’s not going to leave you standing in the vestibule,” Cid grunted, pulling the silk tie around the taller man’s neck as taut as he could manage without choking him, then arranging the knot. “She’s just running a bit late, that’s all. It happens- don’t you dare touch those cuffs.”

Nero scowled, but his hands dropped back down to his sides.

After a few moments spent in silence as Cid examined his work on the cravat with a critical eye, he finally said: “I’m happy for you. You know that, right?”

“Don’t get sentimental. I’m barely keeping my breakfast down as it is.”

“Shut up, you great lout, I’m talking.” He busied himself pinning the Nymeia lily back in its place on Nero’s lapel; it had fallen askew with all the pacing. “We’ve known each other since we were boys and in all this time, I never thought you’d take interest in anything that wasn’t related to magitek. But you weren’t happy in the Empire any more than I was, and lest you think otherwise I know full well that was why you didn’t warn anyone I’d planned to defect. I never understood why you stayed.”

“You know very well why I stayed.”

“Aye, I do now, for all the good it ever did you. You’re happier as a defector than you ever were as a tribunus. Not the least of those reasons being you finally found someone willing to put up with you, and out of all of the women in Eorzea – hells, Hydaelyn – of course it had to be the Warrior of Light. I’ll give you this, you never did do anything by half-measures.”

Nero hesitated, then offered him a rueful, lopsided smile.

“On that much, I suppose we are in agreement.”

Cid reared backwards, clutching his chest in mock surprise. “Hells below, did we actually reach consensus on something? Does this mean marriage might actually turn you agreeable for the nonce?”

“Agreeable? You think a walk down the aisle with the woman I love means I shall march in lockstep with you, Garlond? And risk destroying the fundamental underpinnings of our relationship? Perish the thought.”

Nero’s smile had stretched into that toothy, idiotic grin he normally hated, the one the man used when he was getting ready to tease. But this once, just this once, Cid Garlond grinned back at the cocksure git that passed for his best friend in the world.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Oh, she’s here!” someone gasped out in the foyer. “And the Count’s with her! Places!”

There was the sound of hurried whispers and the patter of feet, and the rustling sound of silk, followed by the deep creak of the doors opening on their ancient hinges.

“I’m going to be ill,” Nero muttered, and further inspection revealed that he was shaking from head to toe. Somehow, Cid marveled, he was actually vibrating in place, as though he were an idling combustion engine.

With a short laugh, he took the man by the elbow and held him fast–both to keep him from making good on his threat, and from bolting for the door like a spooked animal. 

“Just mind you don’t ruin your bride’s dress if you are,” he said, “because she’s coming into the foyer as we speak.”

Cid just so happened to be looking right at his friend’s face as aforementioned bride entered the cathedral with Edmont de Fortemps as her escort. He was glad in retrospect that he did, for he was rewarded with the quite remarkable view of watching a man fall in love all over again, in real time.

It was in his eyes, he thought. Despite being rather passionate by nature, Nero was not outwardly expressive when he did not care to be - lessons, Cid assumed, he’d learned during his wheat-counting days. But those frosty eyes had turned bright and soft and warm, like the spring sky at midday. He had stopped shaking, and the tension in his slender frame had all but disappeared.

All he appeared to see in that moment was the Warrior of Light–who was herself, admittedly, quite a vision. Jandelaine had overseen her preparations personally, being a good friend of hers, and the eccentric aesthetician had outdone himself this time in every sense of the word. He had arranged her hair in a long spill of golden curls over one shoulder, interwoven with orange blossoms and forget-me-nots secured into myriad small braids throughout her coiffure. Combined with the lavish, lace-trimmed dress she wore, it was a sight to knock the breath from the lungs.

The old Count was murmuring something to her, something that made her smile, laugh softly, and kiss him on the cheek with the sort of familiar fondness reserved for parental figures–that was right, he remembered; in the eyes of Ishgardian law she was technically a Fortemps, though he was fair certain that the man’s fatherly affection for her was in no wise any sort of mummery.

Edmont dropped his arm from hers and stepped back, leaning on his walking stick. She approached the two men on slightly slowed, hesitant footsteps. Her eyes were fixed on Nero, and they were very blue and very wide.

After a moment, she smiled her usual smile- albeit with perhaps a touch of shyness- and Cid heard an exhalation at his side.

“See?” he said. He released his death grip on Nero’s arm. “You’ll be fine. Now go see to her. If you need me then give a shout, but I don’t think you will.”

Almost instantly, it seemed, it was just the two of them, the sound of retreating footsteps, and a closing door. Music played from the hall beyond, muffled and ponderous, and they regarded each other in a sort of awed and awkward silence.

Then Aurelia grinned from ear to ear and started to snicker in a decidedly unladylike fashion.

“Gods,” she blurted. “I feel ridiculous. Look at me. I look like a window advertisement for lampshades sold to bored Ul'dahn housewives.”

“You didn’t have to say yes when I asked, you know.”

“Of course I did. I couldn’t very well turn you down after you were half-dead from panic just trying to ask at all. As it was, you almost immediately started trying to talk me out of it.”

Nero glared at her. “I was nowhere near that bad.”

“Oh yes you were. You were being very reasonable about it all, too, coming up with a half dozen perfectly good reasons why I’d be stark raving mad to even consider accepting your proposal.” The edges of her smile softened. “But anyroad, we’re here now.”

“So we are,” he said.

There wasn’t much left to say that hadn’t already been said, and Nero wasn’t entirely sure he could find the words to say even if that weren’t the case. He could feel the anxiety creeping up on him again by ilms, running its invisible fingers up his spine. 

She must have noticed; he saw her expression darken a bit with her concern.

“Are you all right? You don’t look well.”

He began to say of course I’ll be all right, let’s just get on with it, but what came out instead was:

“Seven hells, all this godsdamned palaver for two rings and five minutes of vows. Are you quite sure you’d not rather elope?”

“Right,” Aurelia snorted. “We can run away to Dravania and get married by the moogles. Though I’m not sure ‘now you may kiss the bride, kupo!’ is terribly binding in the eyes of the law.”

“And I don’t know that goblins actually have marriage traditions of any sort, so I suppose that settles it. Bugger.” He ran a thoughtful hand over his currently clean-shaven jaw.

“I suppose we’d best–oh, Nero, wait!” She reached into his pockets, heedless of his sudden flush. “Your gloves.”

“…I’d hoped you might forget about those.”

“No, you have to wear them, at least for the first bit. Here, hold out your hands, I’ll put them on.”

Biting back a sigh, he obediently held out his left hand.

She bent over his forearm, one of her slim healer’s hands bracing his wrist delicately in one hand as she slid the kidskin over his fingers, smoothing it out with the deft and gentle touch of a woman well accustomed to such trivial luxuries, and it struck the engineer then just how strangely intimate the act was. Such a simple thing, the act of putting a glove on his bare hand, but something he knew no one else would have done in quite the same way.

Once she’d fastened the little pearl-button closure to fit the glove properly, Aurelia lifted his hand, and placed a small kiss to the smooth skin of his inner wrist, where the base of his palm met leather. Intimate, indeed. He swallowed, hearing the sound of it click in his ears.

“Hand me the other one?” he asked.

She did. Hastily he slipped the remaining glove onto his other hand, hoping she wouldn’t notice how much she’d flustered him.

“You know,” she murmured, her grin edging into something almost wicked, “that kiss would have had the ton all aflutter and speculating, back home.”

“Would it?”

“Mm. Absolutely scandalous in polite society, as it happens.”

“Us? Polite society? And here I thought we were just a couple of especially dodgy imperial defectors borrowing Saint Reymanaud’s on a lark.”

Aurelia’s soft laugh echoed against the stones beneath their feet. 

“I think that Halone, on the wild off chance she might actually exist beyond the fond hopes of the masses, would be willing to forgive a couple of godless heretics just this once given their history of service to Ishgard,” she said. “So, Scaeva- are you ready for us to go make an utter spectacle of ourselves in front of the assembled leadership of an entire continent?”

Beneath the finery and the fuss and bother of the event, he could still catch that lavender scent about her, and her smile was the same smile it had always been–the smile he especially loved to see when he knew it was meant just for him. Bit by bit the not-so-secret fears he’d harbored that she might renounce him publicly at the altar, or simply not show at all, dwindled to nothing.

For all his outward self-assurance, Nero knew he wasn’t really worthy of her: not just as the Warrior of Light, but as the very mortal woman she was. He was painfully aware of that fact, had always been aware of it. But that said, neither was anyone else he could have named. As Garlond had said, she had her choice and she’d chosen him, and that had to count for something.

Besides which, he loved her. And maybe that was a place to start.

With that thought squarely in mind, he held out his hand, and let her clasp it in her smaller one.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said aloud. “Shall we?”

She nodded, still smiling.

“On my count,” she said. “One, two-”

And beneath the Fury’s watchful gaze, Nero Scaeva and Aurelia Laskaris stepped across the threshold together, hand in trembling hand.

[ashwinkumar1989]

This is Part 2 of my account of my train journey by 11042 Chennai Mumbai express on Nov 25 – sorry to keep you waiting; was busy with work over the last few days! Here is Part 1 if you haven’t read it yet! https://ashwinkumar1989.online/2017/12/03/a-return-journey-to-remember-part-1/  As always, please refer to the legend right at the bottom for all Technical terms (again, I haven’t covered all!) and Station codes! On the RU bypass line for freights coming from Gudur, a freight with twin maroon brown WAG5s was waiting for clearance. As we picked up speed, the scenery got even wilder than in the AJJ-RU section; as we were surrounded by forests and mountains (as always) in the distant right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewn1UuKcCGw&t=148s There was a board indicating the Ghat section with MPS of 60 kmph for passengers before Ballapele. The highway gave us company on the right, and it had a checkpost as well. A tanker train crossed us led by LGD WAG9 31154. Have a look at the stunning vistas on offer!

Incidentay, I have kept this as my laptop wallpaper background! 😉 There was a dirty nalla before we passed a forest with a lot of goats and sheep led by a shepherd. The approach to Koduru was very scenic

The loopline speed here was 30 kmph. Then we crossed two dry rivers as well as a WAG9 hauled BOXN rake. There was a plateau on the distant right, as well as a huge apparently rainfed pond on our immediate right.

12163 DR MS ‘Super’ express crossed us with a WAG7 at Pullampet. We were rocking along at a good pace, and overtook some many lorries on the highway. There was a pond which reflected a rock inside it as well as the surrounding mountains on the distant right!

The contrasting nature of the Rayalaseema landscape continued though, as we crossed two more dry rivers! The freight action continued as well, as we crossed a BOXN rake with twin WAG5s before Razampeta, where there was an Electronic In-Motion Weigh Bridge (Whatever that means? :O) on the UP line platform. We then crossed 56012 HX – AJJ passenger led by AJJ WAM4 21320 at Hastavaramu. There was a lake with crystal clear water near the mountains. Then we crossed the dry (except for a few patches of stagnant water) Chaiyyeru river on a bridge which had a PSR of 50 kmph.

At Nandalur, an AutoLinx Car Carrier freight hauled by a blue ED WAG7 stopped on the mainline. As we departed, we overtook a BCNA rake led by twin ED WAG7s 27496 and 27494. There was a beautiful lake with a lot of grass growing inside it, followed by a TSR of 30 kmph.

There was another lake with a lot of thorns before Ontimitta.

There was a line going to the right after Bhakrapet, followed by yet another TSR of 30 kmph and a dry river. We had an unscheduled halt of 3 mins at Kanamalopalle, which is yet another scenic station.

Here a flatbed freight with Iron Coils crossed us led by twin ED WAG7s (leading 27768). Meanwhile, in the Western bio-toilet; the flush leaked out water whenever I used it, and someone had thrown a paper packet in the commode! Yuck. A lot of people got in during our 3-min halt at Kadapa, after which there was yet another dry river with a few stagnant patches of water. The freight action rolled on as another BCNA rake crossed us with a WAG9. I dozed off for a while. When I woke up, we were leaving Yerraguntla (18 03, 29 mins late) ; and it was already dark. 57273 UBL TPTY passenger (which was running more than 2 hours late) entered led by GY WDP4D 40204 and a dead blue-white WDM3D behind. The line to Nandyal branched off to our right There were huge mounds of stone waste as well as pits, before we crawled through Kalamalla; where I spotted twin Ajni WAG7s (leading 27184) in Tigerface livery.

There was a factory in the distant right. Our coach was fairly crowded now. The never-ending freight action continued, as we crossed a BOXN rake hauled by twin Ajni WAG7s. From MAS to GTL, 11041/42 has a similar halt pattern as that of the supercrawler 11027/28 CSMT – MAS Mail. Our next halt was at Muddanaru, where again quite a few people got in. Funnily, there was a big board which spelt the station as “Muddanur”! 😛 At the next station Kondapuram, we had a longish halt of 9 mins for watering. Here, a freight hauled by an EMD skipped the station at MPS; sounding the LT horn (similar to that of an electric) continuously followed by a short burst of the HT horn. As we exited the station, there were two big water-tanks on the right; followed by a sub-station and a factory, as well as a highway on the right. This was followed by yet another bridge on a dry river with a TSR.

Then there was suddenly a huge jerk as we apparently hit an object on the track (a stone, according to my co-passengers)! This was one of the rare times I had actually felt scared during a train journey, especially given the spate of derailments we have had in the last 1 year or so! Anyway, this sensation of fear would not last long; especially with a train fanatic like me! We passed a few more factories with fire burning in the chimneys of two such factories.  There was another unscheduled halt at Challavaripalle for less than a minute before we pulled into Tadipatri at 19 24, half an hour late. 12708 NZM TPTY AP Sampark Kranti express with 5 AC coaches entered nearly 3 hours late behind an EMD. I had dinner from the pantry, which comprised 3 chapatis with paneer mutter. It was quite tasty.

Meanwhile, we were losing time; and the ride was not very smooth – there was a lot of lateral movement. We had yet another unscheduled halt – this time for as long as 16 mins, at Rayalacheruvu. Another family got in here. Then there was a halt of 3 mins on the mainline at Jakkalacheruvu which is a ghost station. The light from an excavator nearby shone on a family camping and having dinner on a mat – this is the beauty of train journeys, especially in non AC! You get to see so much of the countryside and its wonderful people, and these sights are even more scenic in the night! Anyway, coming back to the journey; I had thought these unscheduled halts would be the last in store for us that day – I was emphatically wrong. We were again halted at Gooty cabin (with the BPCL factory in the right), and this time for a monumental 40 mins or so!

A rather crowded 18464 SBC BBS Prashanti express was standing adjacent to us. It honked (HT electric horn, probably WAP1/4) and departed ahead of us. Then 17212 YPR MTM Kondaveedu express overtook us led by GY WDP4D 40150 honking continuously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBtchfI0Xf0 Then 16570 KCG YPR tri-weekly express crossed us led by KJM WDG3A 13285 honking and chugging hard, as we finally departed! We limped into Gooty at 21 14, 1 hr 46 mins late. Here there was diesel freight action in the form of a BCNA rake led by GY WDG3A 13100, and a flatbed rake with Iron coils led by twin GY WDM3Ds 11351 and 11321. Again, there was more agony for us; in the form of an overtake by the shining rake of newly converted LHB superfast 12793 TPTY NZB Rayalaseema express led by LGD WAP4 22643 – believe it or not, both the HT and LT horns of this beast  (as the train departed) were of the pure P7 variety! :O

Apparently to compensate (the railfan in me) for the long wait, the station was full of ALCO honking and chugging, and EMD whining sounds! We finally departed at 21 48, 2 hrs 18 mins late! There was another flatbed rake led by GY WDM3D 11342 and the Indian Oil factory on the right. We crossed two bridges over dry rivers (yet again!) . It was time for me to lie down on my LB. We were already running way behind schedule, and would lose more time during the next long halt at GTL – for our WAP1 would be replaced with a diesel; which would take us all the way to Mumbai! Of course, 11042 has huge slack later in the journey from Yadgir to Wadi – 2 hrs 5 mins for a distance of 38 km! Anyway, to find out how well we make use of this slack, you will have to wait for Part 3! Happy reading till then!

Technical Terms

MPS – Maximum Permissible Speed

PSR – Permanent Speed Restriction

TSR – Temporary Speed Restriction

LT – Low Tone

HT – High Tone

EMD – Electro Motive Diesel (and a modern class of diesel engines)

ALCO – American Locomotive Company (and a class of diesel engines of the 1960s)

LHB – Linke-Hoffman-Busch (German company whose technology is used to produce modern coaches – mostly seen in Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos)

Station Codes

RU – Renigunta

AJJ – Arakkonam

LGD – Lallaguda

DR – Dadar (Central)

MS – Chennai Egmore

HX – Kadapa

ED – Erode

UBL – Hubli

TPTY – Tirupati

GY – Gooty

CSMT – Mumbai Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (Mumbai CST with the ‘Maharaj’ in it! 😛 )

MAS – Chennai Central

NZM – Hazrat Nizamuddin

SBC – Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Bengaluru (or just Bangalore City 😛 )

BBS – Bhubaneswar

YPR – Yeshwantpur

MTM – Machilipatnam

KCG – Kacheguda

KJM – Krishnarajapuram (KR Puram)

NZB – Nizamabad

LGD – Lallaguda

GTL – Guntakal

A Return Journey To Remember – Part 2 This is Part 2 of my account of my train journey by 11042 Chennai Mumbai express…