#truthfully i have stopped caring about Benedict and the woman he's sleeping with for the season

[thirstyvolleyballhoe]

if they queer bait Benedict again I'm gonna be so fucking mad

[shielddrake]

Rebel of Sky City Ch. 3

The Founder’s breakfast table was unusually quiet as she ate her meal with her daughter.   It was the morning of the Spring Festival, which would be celebrated for the next three days.  Isa was sure she understood the reason her daughter was so silent.  The previous night, she had once again insisted that Jesse remain in the palace and not partake in the celebration.  She kept picking at her food, barely eating, and looked out the windows at the clouds in the sky wit her palm to her chin.

 Isa herself was in a down mood as well.  It was obvious that attending the Spring Festival meant a lot to Jesse, and year after year she refused to let her daughter anywhere near the citizens.  Isa herself didn’t have the time to partake in the celebration either, preferring to spend the time collecting more resources for the petitions that would come in once the festival was over.  The citizens were too occupied to make petitions during this time, so Isa wanted to get ahead of schedule as much as she could.

 Isa watched as the younger woman let out sigh after sigh, her disappointment permeating the air like a fog.

 She will understand one day, Isa thought, taking a drink of her water.  Perhaps when she has children of her own.

 With that thought giving her comfort, Isa pushed back her chair to stand.  Jesse startled, clearly having been shocked out of her daydreaming.

 “Whoa!”

 “My apologies, Jesse,” her mother said.  “I just wanted to remind you that I will be in the basement gathering resources today, so you probably won’t see me until after dinner.”

 “Okay.”  Jesse glanced down at her plate for a moment before returning her eyes to her mother’s.  “Any chance at all I could come down with you?  It’s been ages since I’ve seen Benedict.”

 “Not today, dear,” she replied with a shake of her head.  “I’ll be fighting some monsters and I don’t want you getting hurt. Perhaps next time.”

 Jesse let out another sigh. “You used to train me to fight those monsters.  I’ll have to get resources from their drops one day too.  Wouldn’t it be good for me to get in some practice?”

 “You’re right, but that day is not today,” Isa declared with finality.  She watched as Jesse deflated again.  “I’m sure there’s plenty you can occupy yourself with today.  Maybe you would like to read that new book about Endermen? The one by Soren?”

 “It’s not really a new book, Mother,” Jesse said.  At least her tone was a little lighter.  “I’ve read it five times now.”

 “Oh, I see.”  Now Isa felt like kicking herself.  Of course Jesse had read that book many times already. She had probably read the entire library half a dozen times over by now.  “I’ll have to see about getting you a new book.”

 “That’s okay.”  Jesse got up from her own chair and started grabbing a few apples and carrots and piling them into her arms.  “I think I’ll spend the day reviewing.  I’d like to not be disturbed, if that’s all right?”

 This last statement was directed towards Reginald, who simply nodded and saluted at the request.

 “Reviewing?” Isa’s brow furrowed.  “But you just had an exam a few days ago.”

 Jesse simply shrugged and kept her eyes on the food.  “Yeah, but I want to make sure I’ve got them all down.”

 Isa stared at her, but couldn’t find a reason to doubt her.  All she could think to do was smile at her daughter.

 “You’ve always been determined,” she said with a small grin.  “You’ll be a fine leader someday.”

 “Will I be called The Founder when you step down?” Jesse wondered all of a sudden.  “I didn’t exactly found Sky City.”

 This managed to elicit a small giggle from the older woman.  “Truthfully, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

 Isa turned to head for the secret doorway that lead down to the basement that was Benedict’s home, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.  She instantly spun around and came face-to-face with her child’s bright green eyes.

 “Be careful down there,” she said.  “I’m in no hurry to be the new Founder…or whatever I’ll be called.”

 Isa’s smile widened and she gave Jesse a small hug.  “I will. Take care, dear.”

 Jesse watched as her mother left the dining room.  Still carrying the food in her arms, she exited the room herself and quickly made her way through the shining iron hallways and up to her own tower.

 Her mother had insisted that Jesse’s room be located in an inconspicuous spot.  It wasn’t a tower or an offshoot of another room.  Instead, it was simply at the end of a hallway west of the throne room.  The room itself was a large rectangle, large enough to be considered opulent but small enough to not be too excessive.  Her bed was a few blocks to the right of the door, but positioned to be centered in the room.  On either side were nightstands with small cloths covering them, one of which also had a dried up, practically dead plant.  

 Her desk was on the other side of the room and perpendicular to her bed.   To the right of that was a wardrobe containing all the gowns and other clothing her mother had gifted her.  Across from the doorway was a large window, allowing her a view of some of the other smaller floating islands in the distance, although if she stuck her head out and looked to the right, Jesse could see a few of the taller buildings of Sky City itself.

 I’m tired of that being the only part of the city I ever see. Jesse’s inner tone was nearly a growl.

 Jesse walked into her room, dumped the pile of food on her desk, and quickly returned to the door to lock it.  She paused, looking around her room with steel in her eyes.

 She turned her attention to the nightstand with the dried plant on top.  Isa had given it as a gift to Jesse, supposedly as something to occupy her daughter when she busy with her Founder duties, but all that really happened was the poor plant went horribly thirsty for water.  It didn’t take long before it was nothing but a pile of sticks.

 Jesse moved the plant off the table and yanked the tablecloth to the side, exposing a crafting table underneath.

 Good thing Mother had never found out I swapped out my table for this, she thought proudly.

 Next, Jesse flattened herself on the floor so she could dig through her secret stash she kept under her bed.   Okay, so it wasn’t a “stash” per se.  At the moment it only consisted of a large pile of sticks.  Thirty-five to be exact.  It had taken Jesse a few weeks to sneak a few extra from her lessons with Ivor before she had enough to make the ladders she wanted.  She had even calculated how many iron blocks it was from her window to the ground at the bottom, so she could make sure she had enough sticks to craft enough ladders.  She was half sure Ivor had been aware of her smuggling, but whether he was or not, he never mentioned it.

 Sometimes I feel like a criminal, she thought as she put the sticks in the correct places, followed by a ladder popping into existence seconds afterwards.  I’m even thinking in terms of “smuggling.”

 After she was finished crafting enough ladders, Jesse quickly changed out of her dress and into a casual t-shirt and overalls.  It was her mother’s least favorite outfit, and one of the few that Reginald had given Jesse as a gift after she complained how she was constantly tripping over her dresses.  Jesse loved it.

 She looked out her window to the bottom of the palace.  There was a small outcropping of dirt that went beyond the palace walls, which went along the entire perimeter of the palace, which would allow someone to walk along the edge of the huge construction and to the city itself.  Jesse just had to get down there.

 It probably never occurred to Mother that someone could craft ladders to get up and down these walls, she thought.  What with her controlling access to sticks and all.

 Jesse placed the first ladder, letting it stick to the side of the iron block just beneath her window. She took one last glance at the bottom, took a deep breath at the height, and climbed out the window to make her descent.  She placed a new ladder after the first one ran out, and kept going down, down, down.

 She felt like she didn’t breathe until her feet hit the solid ground at the bottom of the ladder.

 “I hate heights.”

 Pressing her back against the palace walls, she slowly scampered around the building to the front, not quite to the palace entrance, but close enough to get to the where the guard barracks was located.  She knew the roof of that building was slanted, and she would be able to sneak across on one side without anyone on the ground seeing her.  The only chance of someone seeing her was if someone spotted her from one of the windows on the upper floors of the palace, but she would have to take that chance.

 Getting to the barracks’ roof wasn’t difficult, considering it was actually a bit lower in elevation than the palace.  Jesse made sure she crawled across it slowly; the last thing she wanted was for someone to investigate the suspicious sound of footsteps coming from the ceiling.  It took a few minutes, but she managed it in no time.

 She was just about to climb down the other side when—

 “Where is Harry?” Shoot!  It was Reginald!  Jesse ducked her head down, although she knew he wouldn’t see her up on the roof.  “He was supposed to relieve Ron twenty minutes ago.”

 “He overslept, Captain,” another voice said, one that Jesse didn’t recognize.  “He said he would be ready in five and head straight to his post.”

 Reginald let out a sigh. “I will need to have a talk with him. This is the fourth time this has happened.  Ron has been guarding the garden since last night.  If he doesn’t get some sleep, he’ll pass out.”

 Jesse held her breath as footsteps carried the voices away.  Once she was sure they were out of earshot, she finally released it slowly through her teeth.

 Too close.  Way too close.

 With a hop and a tumble, Jesse dropped drown from the barracks’ roof and into the nearby alley. Thankfully it was empty, and the lack of doors and windows in the area told her that people probably didn’t regularly come down this way.  She brushed the dirt off the knees of her overalls and slowly made her way down the alley.

 “Wow.  I made it,” she whispered.  “I actually freaking made it!”

 Jesse made her way through the back alleys, having no idea where she was going but just euphoric from the adrenaline of her escape, until she came to an path that lead to an more open area…

 And her entire world exploded.

 Sure, Jesse had seen Sky City from the distance of the palace many times, but it was so different seeing it up close.  The various shapes and sizes of the buildings were only matched by the variety of the precious ores and blocks used to build them.  They got taller as she reached the center of the town, where the communal garden was located and that she had only seen from a distance.  She could make out the different crops being grown, although she made sure she didn’t get too close.  The last thing she needed was for a guard to realize she had snuck out.  The egg motifs that had been mere dots before she could now see were some of the most elaborate tapestries and statues she had ever seen.

 But what really shocked her was the people.  Tall people, short people, thin people, fat people, old and young, and everything in between.  Everyone was obviously excited about the Spring Festival, and Jesse heard them go on about how they were going to eat special food (which was not usually available and saved for special occasions such as this) or the games they were going to play. She recognized the booths she saw being built in the days prior, and crowds were running around with such commotion that Jesse thought her ears were going to start bleeding.

 Other than the guards, the only people Jesse really interacted with were Isa and Ivor.  So, to see so many people in one place was more than a little overwhelming.

 “I can’t believe I’m actually here!”  She cried, her heart beating faster than she ever thought it could.  Her eyes kept jumping from one booth to another.  “What should I do first?”

 While glancing around at the festival, her eyes quickly fell upon the palace, and she froze.  The domed building was built almost entirely out of gold and iron blocks, which Jesse already knew, but it was entirely different to see it in the sunshine from the outside.  The glittering gold made the numerous eggs look speckled.  The towers pointed further to the sky, with wires connecting them to the dome itself, and banners hung from each for the festival.  Looking at all the windows, Jesse could see that all of them were dark, although she was sure the lights were on inside.

 No wonder nobody’s ever seen me, she thought.  Mother probably designed them that way.

 Jesse was so preoccupied with the sight of her gilded cage that she didn’t notice she had begun to back up into another person.  She let out a rather undignified “oomph” and the two of them went crashing to the ground. Jesse shook her head and slipped around to see whom she had run into.

 “I’m so, so sorry!”  She said, her voice running a mile a minute. “I wasn’t watching where I was going. Are you okay?”

 The young woman with dark skin and a pair of goggles on her head gave her a small smile.  “I’m fine.  Don’t worry about it.”

 Jesse held out a hand to help the other to her feet, which was taken with a gentle grip.  She was so distracted by this that she didn’t even notice it when the girl patted her shoulder and walked away.

 I touched another person!  Another person who’s not a guard or my mother!  

 She continued to look around the Spring Festival, taking in all the people, the voices, the noise, the smells, the games, everything!  It was all so overwhelming!  People were playing games, talking with each other, eating food… Jesse felt like she could hyperventilate at any moment.

 “What do I do first?!” She repeated, barely able to keep her eyes on any one thing.  “I don’t even know where to start!”

 Luckily for Jesse, the answer was provided for her.  As she arrived closer to the center of the festival, the sudden sound of a guitar flew through the air.  This was quickly followed by drums, a piano, and a saxophone.  The instruments merged together into a wonderful jazz song that made Jesse’s feet tap, and she followed the sound to its origin.  A band had started playing in the middle of the town square, and many of the Sky City inhabitants gathered around to cheer the musicians on.  Jesse swiftly joined them, carefully pushing her way to the front to see them.  She stared at them, her mouth dropped open in awe.

 “Never heard music this close before,” she whispered.  “It’s so much louder down here than in the palace.”

 The musicians played on, and Jesse found herself swaying to the saxophone and tapping her feet to the drums.  She let the music completely take over her body, and she soon was dancing like there was no tomorrow…and in a way, for her, there wasn’t.  Not like this.  Who knew if or when she would be able to enjoy music like this again?

 Jesse was so excited she barely even noticed when some of the surrounding people began to dance along with her.  The band saw this and played with renewed energy, which in turn just made more and more attendees join in the dance.  Jesse spun around in twirls, and a couple children took her hands to spin with her. Adults quickly joined in, and everyone was spinning and dancing, making Jesse dizzy.

 I never want this day to end, and it’s only just started!  The young woman thought as she closed her eyes and let the music take her away.