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insanity6666 · 4 years ago

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Red By Danger. In The After.

SkekAl gave a long exhale, watching the smoke curl about above her before vanishing altogether. She idly gnawed on the stub of her pipe, encased in a soft metal for this very reason. A bad habit, she knew, she had been scolded by all three of her parents for it many times, and while she had rarely done it before, now that she had no one to stop her the habit had made a comeback.

She hummed an absentminded tune while she continued to weave a new basket. Always a need for baskets, it seemed, and she really was terrible with giving them away all the time. The long, curved neck of the pipe allowed her to actually see her work without having to stick it awkwardly out to the side. The bowl of the pipe glowed with embers as leaf-smoke billowed from it like a dying fire, that same smoke seeping through her teeth every time she exhaled.

It really was a perfect day to weave and smoke outdoors. Sunny, with just a hint of a cool breeze to keep things from getting too warm, and the odd cloud to give relief should the wind fail. In addition to the babe she had helped the other day, no nightmares, and no would-be-attackers trying to rid Thra of the Skeksis plague or seek revenge, she was in good spirits.

Which is why she wasn't all that surprised when she heard a twig snap not too far from her. She knew, she bloody well knew, that any good mood was bound to be ruined. It was never a slow decline, it was always a sudden thing, like the snap of a twig cutting through the silence. SkekAl didn't really bother reacting, beyond a glance in the direction of the sound. Whatever it was, she didn't really care, as long as it didn't attack her.

Still, she grabbed a hidden dagger with one of her secondary hands, just in case something did try to attack her. She was no great warrior, but she knew how to fight, and she knew how to survive. Whatever was there, she was ready.

And then Thra decided to prove her wrong, as it so loves to do, because who else should step out of the canopy's shade but SkekTif herself! The reclusive woman never left her land, as far as SkekAl was aware, and they rarely interacted beyond the odd check-up or drinking-buddy session that occured, and even those times were fairly sparse. They weren't exactly neighbours. It took nearly a week of travel to reach the scavengers house, less if one didn't bother with roads, but that's still a considerable distance.

So why was she here?

"Run out of liquor?" She asked once she recovered, giving the other skeksis a once-over. She didn't look injured, not in the way she moved or held herself, and beyond that old limp there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her. So she couldn't imagine anything beyond some extra alcohol being the reason Tif would make the effort here. Al did have her own distillery, some homebrewed grog went a long way when she needed to trade for anything she couldn't make or get herself.

"No." The taller female said, short and crisp. Al, however, noted the hesitation in her gaze, the way it flickered about before settling back on her.

"Well, you're welcome to it either way," She took a deep breath from her pipe before taking it out of her mouth so she could use it to point to the crate full of bottles, "And get me one while you're at it." And with that, stuck the pipe back in her beak and went back to weaving. While she didn't know SkekTif all that well, she probably knew her better than most, and so was well aware that trying to get her to talk was nigh impossible. Better to let the girl get around to it herself.

Tif seemingly took the hint, and after acquiring a few bottles, sat down beside her in the light of the suns and seemed to relax a little as she sunbathed and took droughts from her bottle. Al occasionally took mouthfuls of her own bottle, enjoying the mix of the mellow woodsy smoke and the sweet-tangy drink. They stayed like that for a good while.

"Want some?" Al offered her pipe, the mix was almost gone, and would only get a few more puffs, might as well share it.

"What's in it?" Tif eyed the pipe like it was something dangerous.

"Relax, nothing to get high off of, that would make for a poor weaving session." She grinned, careful not to show her too-many-teeth, as it had a propensity to unnerve others, "it's mostly for flavour and a minor mood enhancement, for calmness and all that, but it won't inhibit you in any way... unless you're a lightweight." She teased, and gestured with the pipe again. After a few more moments, her not-quite-friend took the offered pipe and took a long drag.

Or, it would have been, if she hadn't burst into a coughing fit. Al laughed as she wacked Tif's back a few times, granted that didn't actually help to clear the airways, but people thought it did so it was more symbolic than anything. Tif glared at her, which just made her laugh more.

"You could have warned me!" Tif shoved an elbow into her side, which made her go from laughing to coughing, but it didn't stop the mirth. She held her abused side, and just continued to grin at the woman.

"Like you warned me about that bottle'a port?" She returned, and got a disbelieving look.

"That was trines ago! Don't tell me you're still on about that?" This time Tif shoved her shoulder, but it was less forceful than it could have been, so Al figured the other skeksis wasn't that upset.

"I spent an hour throwing up in a push because of that. But no, I'm over it now."

"'Cause you got ye vengeance?"

"Basically, yes."

"Yer terrible."

"Yes, I know."

Tif rolled her eyes and grumbled, but kept the pipe and took another -more careful- breath of leaf smoke. Well, she called it leaf smoke, but a lot of it wasn't actually made from leaves. Roots and bark, herbs and even flowers, different blends for different effects and purposes. As she watched her guest slowly exhale, smoke billowing around her face before the breeze caught it. She gave a proper sigh, and handed it back. Al checked the bowl, found it mostly ash, and so smothered it with a claw before tapping it against the bench she had set up for days like this, and set it aside.

"You work with gelfling, right?" Tif asked, and Al suddenly found it very hard to focus on her weaving, on the warm sun and gentle breeze. With a careful, deliberate inhale, she looked to Tif. But the female wasn't looking at her, instead looking out into the trees. It was a very small clearing, only a few metres, but enough for sun and wind, spacious enough to not feel crowded or smothered, but enclosed enough to not feel exposed.

"Hardly. I help them, when I can. Sometimes there's trade, but usually... well, you know." She shrugged, straightening her spine and leaning back until it touched the suns-warmed stone of the rock face the bench was set against.

"So you know what they need?" That question was an odd one, and only sparked several more in Al's mind. Tif was a recluse at the best of times, and lived in an area most folk don't even know about, it was isolated in a way her little abode wasn't. Out of the way, yes, but people could still find it if they needed to. Tif's home wasn't like that, it was chosen because it was so hard to find and get to.

Tif's eyes turned to her, and Al realised she hadn't answered. "Medically... yes. But, this isn't about that, not really." She knew she shouldn't push, and she wasn't really, but she needed to know what this was about. Her curiosity sprang to life, and she was hard pressed to keep it in check. Dad said her curiosity was a gift, important and to be nurtured, papa said it could be dangerous, and father had warned her against letting her curiosity get the best of her. Two of three warned her the dangers of it, and yet it was the one she often listened to. She wonders if dad would think that now, talking to the daughter of the Hunt and the Sea.

"Aye." Tif sighed, taking off her hat to run a hand through her feathers. "Observant as always. Damn it all. How do you deal with it? Deal with them?" She spat the words, like getting them out faster would help somehow. Judging by the look of regret on her face, Al would guess it didn't help much.

'Well...' was all Al could think for a moment, before she put her considerable intellect to task and gathered all the clues and evidence and strung it all together in a way that made sense. Tif never asked for help, at least not from her, and wouldn't come all this way unless she had no choice. It was about gelfling, but none lived anywhere near Tif's territory. Unless...

"Gelfling have finally reached your corner of the world, have they?" That got her a growl, which was fair, probably shouldn't have said it so flippantly. Still, she found it a little funny that the great and mighty SkekTif, daughter of SkekMal the Hunter and SkekSa the Mariner, is so put out of shape by a gaggle of gelfling.

...

Oh Thra she needs a smoke.

With a sigh, she put her project down and stood. She gestured for Tif to remain seated when she started to stand, and with a final 'wait' gesture she went back into her little abode. A large enough, comfortable cave and some short dead-end tunnels that she's turned into a home. She grabbed some of her special blend, turned away, had second thoughts and turned back to grab some more, a spare pipe, and a few different blends as well. She grabbed a bowl of honeyed nuts she kept in the larder, and some of the good grog she kept around for... well, occasions like this, apparently.

When she left, she expected the Scavenger to have left or at least moved. But no, there she was, still sitting on the bench. With a happy noise, she placed the food and drinks down between them as she sat in her previous spot, and practically shoved the spare pipe into Tif's hands.

"To put it bluntly, you don't really need to deal with them. They rarely visit or even manage to find me here, and even then they're eager to leave as soon as they have what they need." She started as she cleaned out her pipe and added a blend into it, this one woodsy and warm and light, with just a touch of sweetness and something floral. It also took ages to burn through, even when smoking hard. Tif copied her when she pointed out the same blend from before, which she seemed to like- or least trust more than her other blends. Which was fair.

"But they're so damn curious, and I keep running into them, and then they try to follow me!" She grabbed her still-open bottle and down the rest of it. She threw it at a tree, and it shattered against the bark, startling a flock of birds out of the trees.

"Nice. Thanks for that." At the look Tif gave her, Al shook her head and lit a match. Once she gave a few careful puffs, and sure the blend wouldn't go out, she handed the matches to the aggravated skeksis. She stopped being afraid of her fellows long ago, even the ones that could kill her so easily.

"Look," She tried again, "You can try asking nicely, explain that you don't like being followed, and that it's very rude- gelfling still seem to care about that. You can talk to whoever's in charge about it. You can throw them into a bush if you need to get the point across," Al ignored the look she got for that comment, but it was true. It was remarkably effective in keeping undesirables away from her home. "There's no gelfling handbook, though I'm sure dad made one at some point. It probably feels like so much because, except for your beau, you've been on your own for so long. When was the last time you were around so many people for any great length of time?" She asked, adding that last bit because the last time she was around people, it was when she was cursing out SkekSo on his deathbed.

"Hmmm... I- hey!" Tif turned slugged her arm, indignant. "Mikono is not my beau!" She snarled, and Al laughed even as she leaned away to avoid another strike.

"I didn't say anything about Mikono," She said, rubbing her arm and no doubt grinning like a loon. Her grin widened to a delighted smile as she watched Tif come to the realisation that she had made a terrible, terrible mistake, and the mortification and embarrassment she expressed only lasted for a moment before she turned away. But oh, it was glorious. Before anymore retribution could be, rightfully, bestowed, Al carried on.

"Seriously though, when was the last time?" She asked, careful to word her question. She didn't want to bring back memories of the court if she could avoid it. Al handed her fellow blue skeksis another bottle after a moment of deliberation, the woman probably needed it.

Tif fell silent at that, staring at the bottle, turning it around in her hands. Occasionally taking a drag from her pipe, which she largely left sitting at her side, and staring at nothing. Lost in her thoughts. Al didn't try to bring her out of it or pry any answer from her. Thra knows, if she had been asked that question herself...

She lifted an arm and settled it against the rockface. At just the perfect height, the rock jutted inward in such a way that allowed one to rest their arms along it like the back of a couch or sofa, and able to lean one's head back to rest at a comfortable angle. Truly, this was the perfect spot to put the bench. She stretched out her legs before crossing them, letting her other arm lay comfortably in her lap, only moving to either snack on the honeyed nuts, take a drink, or fiddle with her pipe a bit. If introspection was the way to go with Tif, then she was happy to just sit and give her company. If she wanted to talk, or needed to, she would be here.

Honestly, she's amazed Tif had talked as much as she had. This was the longest conversation they've had sober, and talks when one was injured or sick didn't count, because those weren't really conversations- just an exchange of details and information necessary for the situation. This, however, was a large turn. Not only talking, but seeking her out for it, and the subject.

Tif didn't talk about this, not about feelings, unless she was blackout drunk and in a particularly foul mood. Which usually meant that a fight was inevitable. Al was able to hold her own by virtue of not being nearly as drunk as her compatriot, but even completely shit-faced, Tif was a dangerous opponent. And when she was feeling mean... Al had a scar to show just how mean Tif could be when she was feeling like it.

Plus, she had her urskeks to talk to. If she was going to talk to anyone, Al fully expected it to be him. Yet she hadn't. Or maybe she had? It's entirely possible that Mikono simply didn't know how to address this? Tif was full Skeksis, like her, so it made sense that she would turn to someone more like her for this. There were things Mikono, being half Urru, simply wouldn't understand when it came to Tif. Things that Al understood all too well.

Al took a deep breath, and started blowing smoke rings into the air, one smaller than the other. Once she had managed to get a few out there, she took another short puff and blew a thin spear of smoke through the centre ring. Her own form of archery, eat your heart out, UrVa. She snickered a little to herself at the thought, ridiculous as it was.

"My mother." The sound startled her a little, and when she looked over, Tif was still staring blankly. But now it was into the trees, towards the ocean that was so far away.

"Pardon?" She asked, old manners rising up. She had been taught, had it drilled into her (and slightly beaten into her) to use etiquette as a shield as much as a sword. Whenever she was surprised or blindsided or surprised, she fell back on good manners.

"The last time I had been around good company, was with the Gelfling. With my mother." Oh. Oh. Oh Thra. Al rubbed at her face, smoothing her hand over her head to ruffle at her feathers and finally resting on the side of her neck. She looked to the older Skeksis, and felt the weight of their parents' sins anew. No doubt an old scar had just been ripped open, as fresh and painful as the day it happened. Maybe it had never even healed enough to scar, instead scabbed, or maybe she just covered it and let it fester. Ignoring it, because ignoring it hurt less than facing it and dealing with it, facing the truth and accepting it. Sure, the pain flared up, sometimes it paralyzed you, or sent you spiraling, but after a while you can cover it up again. Maybe drain it a little. And then go right back to ignoring it.

"Well." Thra, how does she handle this? What is she to say? "What was it like? The Gelfling." She didn't dare ask about SkekSa, not now and probably not ever. She had never asked about her parents, except maybe when blind drunk, but those times were few and far between.

"It was... nice. They were friendly, helpful, and snuck me treats. They helped teach me how to swim, I..." She huffed out a laugh, "One time I pretended to be a sea monster, they all played along, and by the time mother came back I had 'killed' the entire crew." Tif was smiling, a soft and happy and wistful smile. Al had never seen her smile like that, and felt a new kind of grief over what could have been and never would be. A happy life, one without this guilt and grief and pain. Al wanted to rail against Thra, against the way things turned, she wanted to scream that it wasn't fair. But of course it wasn't. It wasn't fair to anyone. And could she really say that? Her of all people?

Neither of them could.

"Maybe you could return that kindness, maybe you could have something like that again. Something new." The words fell out before she could think it through, and she knew she had made a mistake.

Tif's entire countenance changed, and she stood, fury etched in every line.

"What? You mean make friends with them? The people our parents slaughtered!? Just ignore everything they-"

"I didn't say that!" Al cut in, she didn't stand up but she straightened. "But how are you to make amends if you never start! Never try!"

"Amends?" Tif laughed, a horrid, cruel noise. "You really think there is any mending that can undo what was done? We're monsters! We're better off being left alone!"

Now, SkekAl stood. She was not as tall as SkekTif, but her height was not so lacking she couldn't look the other skeksis in the eye and snarl, "I know! No penance will ever be enough, there is no changing the past. Nothing we do can make up for what our parents did, but we don't have to be them. We don't have to fall like they did! They destroyed everything, tore it all down and had others build a mockery of order and defiled nature, defiled Thra! But we can do better. We can help, not hurt, we can help them build, we can follow their lead, we can do better!"

Tif snarled and hissed, stepping forward threateningly. But Al was no Mikono, who would back off, and certainly no Gelfling that would back down in fear. Al shoved and snarled right back, not caring if they got in a fight. She would lose, she knew, but she wouldn't let Tif cow her.

“Oh don’t act so righteous.” Tif sneered, her strange eyes -red and something else she can’t identify- flashing. “You do this to ease your own guilt. You were complacent in the acts of the others, you tended to the Emperor himself- don’t lie, I know you did! You let them burn villages and drain hundreds, possibly thousands, of innocent gelfling. You may not have had any essence yourself, but don’t you dare act like some martyred saint! It’s not about penance or doing good, it’s about clearing your own conscience!”

SkekAl reared back, feeling as though she had been slapped. Tif wasn’t exactly wrong, but that was only part of it. She didn’t know. Didn’t know-

“It’s- That’s-” Words failed her as her rage grew, faster than it had ever before. She had always been easy to annoy, irritate, but she didn’t rise in anger often. It was a slow thing, and something she could always control. Her parents had always praised her for it. She remembered, and she desperately tried to cling to that control, even as it slipped through her fingers and she burned.

SkekTif huffed, “I knew it. You can’t even deny-”

“I let the Emperor die!”

Silence filled the clearing, Al breathing like she had run to the silver sea. She blinked rapidly, her vision returning from the red haze. SkekTif’s head was turned to the side, she had a bruise swelling under the patch of ruffled feathers, Al felt her knuckles throb and a dawning realisation washed through her like cold water.

Al took a deep breath and retreated a few steps. Holding her fist to her chest and glared at the taller female, biting back her tongue until she could actually use her words.

“I let the Emperor die. I knew how to save him, and instead let him crumble to dust. I shared a drink with dad and papa, while father sang a victory song, we were hidden away in the lab so no one would hear. They didn’t know, they just thought it was time and luck. They didn’t know I had the answers, and I said nothing, did nothing. I let the Emperor die.” She spat the word with all the venom and spite she could muster, which was enough to make even SkekTif take pause.

“SkekAl-” With a sharp gesture, SkekAl cut Tif off.

“You’ve asked for my words. I’ve given them. Take them and do what you will with them. Leave.” She turned from her guest, bending to pick up her pipe and clean it, making sure the embers hadn’t caught the grass or anything else.

“No, wait, Al-”

“Leave!” She screamed, whirling violently to glare at the other skeksis, who flinched back at the motion. Quickly, Al turned away, ashamed and satisfied and furious and scared and she didn’t even know. She refused to look at Tif, lest she see the tears in her eyes -“Skeksis do not show weakness”- and stormed into her home. She slammed the sliding door shut, and didn’t bother to lock it. Tif was many things -Insensitive, judgmental, cruel- but she would not invade her home at the clear dismissal.

Once she was sure Tif was long gone, she let out a long breath that choked itself into a sob at the end. Fury filled her as the sound, and she threw her pipe at the wall, the harsh ‘crack!’ as it broke against the wall was good, but not enough. There was too much anger, too much fear, too much sorrow, too much, toomuch, toomuchtoomuch-!

She screamed as she swiped at one of her tables, glass and clay and wood and metal scattered and shattered in the wake of her rage, she slammed her fists on the flimsy table and it snapped, she grabbed one piece and threw it, something -many somethings- broke and shattered. Her blurred vision tinted red, and she didn’t stop it, all the emotions and thoughts and- dear Thra she’s sorry, she’s sorry she’s so, so sorry she should have been there she could have saved him she could have saved daddy he would be gone but still alive- what if she had saved SkekSo what if she had done something or nothing what if whatifwhATIFWHAT-

When SkekAl finally came to, she was standing in the ruins of her home. Her actions. Her life. Her throat hurt and her hands hurt and everything hurt. She was bleeding, she knew, probably some broken bones, maybe even some torn muscles by the feel of things. She felt better. And infinitely worse.

SkekAl dropped to her knees, and to no one but herself, showed weakness.

Authors Note:

Massive thanks to @darkskek for all their help and letting me rant at them. Tif gets a bit more than a cameo with this one! I think I’ll officially call this series of random scenes and one-shots Red By Danger. I like it. I might throw in some more cameo’s, but largely I’ll properly start working on this as it’s own thing. Of course, whenever I post something will be entirely random. But, eh, such is life. Hope y’all enjoyed the read!

#The Dark Crystal #The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance #SkekAl #SkekTif #SkekSo #only mentioned though #SkekAl the Doctor #SkekTif the Scavanger #Tif #Al #Angst #Like hold on folks this goes from 0 to 100 real fast #Red By Danger #I have no idea how to do the 'read more below' thing #I am so sorry #But if I have to suffer you have to suffer #So enjoy!

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