[Table one] [Original (Little Red Death)] [Paxton and Ramses]
Fandom: Original (Little Red Death)
Author: Mystic Blue
Pairing: Paxton and Ramses
Table/Theme: Table 1, themes 2, 23, 21, 18, 15, 3, 20, 12, 6, 11, 8, 22, 24, 17, 13
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Broken boys playing at being gods.
Disclaimer: I actually do own these guys and I'm quite proud of them. No takey my toys, please.
All relevant backstory can be found here.
#02 -Breaking bread/fast
"It is a lovely dinner," Ramses says to Aracynth, who's sitting at the banquet table to his left. Paxton is on his right, stabbing at his food, morose and ignoring the rest of them, as though twenty other gods aren't crowded around him.
"I'm so glad you came," Aracynth replies, gesturing wildly with her fork, "I hate these boring functions they won't let us skip. But what are you boys up to these days?"
"Oh, just getting by," Ramses replies, smiling because he can and wishing like hell that Paxton could join him.
#23 - Cup of coffee
The city they've been in for the past two months is called Flatwood and even though they agreed to try staying in one place for a while, Paxton is already growing restless; not because he likes the constant movement on the road, but because he's afraid of getting too close to anyone and hurting them by being what he is.
"Guess that rules out finding wives," Ramses jokes, but it falls flat and Paxton doesn't bother to humor his brother with fake laughs.
"Well, chappy, only one of us is worth anything at a time, anyway," Paxton says dejectedly and leaves the breakfast table. The next morning there's a third place setting at the table and when Paxton looks at his brother oddly, Ramses just shrugs and says, "For when we find the right girl for us both."
It becomes tradition, when they do return to traveling, that they set out a third of something - another muffin, another piece of bread, another cup of coffee - every morning until they really do find that right girl.
#21 - Proud as a peacock
They're seven days behind when they get to Rameel and he's in his favorite city in the world, but he's Grief for the next few days - he held on to Laughter much longer than he should have and he'll be paying that debt for weeks yet - and instead of sauntering into a gambling house, they're in the open market bartering with a band of wanderers to share in their music show and its profits.
The blind woman with a crow's black streak in her white hair tells Ramses to sing and he does, a lullaby he learned in Bourgen, and their astonishment and wonder is no surprise to Paxton: he's got the voice of an angel, so perfect, so pure.
Ramses shoots him a smile full of light and hope, the way he always looks when he's being praised. Paxton tries to smile back and him, but he knows he fails when his brother's smile dims and his eyes soften. Of course he's proud of his brother; prouder, even, knowing what they've lost.
#18 - Interruption
They've been in Rameel four days now and Paxton's so sick of not being able to drag himself out of bed that he yelled at Ramses this morning and now his brother's been gone all day and has all the money and he's hungry.
The finding isn't hard, but it's not where he wants to see his brother: Ramses being beaten by four street toughs, their hard-earned coin flying about and no one raising a hand to help. Paxton darts in and dives deeper, exuding an aura of unease and despair that has them all crying and clutching at their heads in moments. He pulls Ramses to him and out of there, whispers, "I'm sorry," in a cracked voice once they're a few streets over and he starts properly processing what could have just happened to the one person he loves more than any other in all the worlds.
"Don't worry about it," Ramses grins, wincing at his split lip, "I knew you'd come and get me," and Paxton can't help but think, 'But what if I hadn't?'
#15 - Walking tall
Paxton has always been good at cards: watching what's played and whose tells are showing, knowing a sour bet from a good one and steering clear. So when Pax does have a bad night and they leave almost .empty-handed, knowing that they'll be scrounging for a place to stay and something to eat, Ramses always goes first. Something about Pax's nature requires him to leave last, back straight, head held high and Ramses has never questioned it.
He also doesn't question it when Paxton crashes hard later, throwing them both off balance as Laughter and Grief are overborne by the emotions of the ones who carry them. Ramses just comforts his brother through the night and tries to set things right between them before morning.
#03 - Pin drop
“It’s an aerobatic maneuver,” the girl, whose name is Vivian, explains to him, “called the Pin Drop, where one flyer swings off the trapeze and straightens his body while the other lets go and holds his arms in an ‘O’,” she demonstrates, “and his partner slips through.”
“That’s amazing,” Paxton says with real awe. Her eyes are rich brown and her hair white-gold from the summer sun and she’s not his type, but she’s his brother’s. Ramses is probably under the bleachers right now, knees clasped to his chest, head bent over them, because there’s a little girl watching the grand spectacle who can’t remember her mommy anymore and another little boy who thinks he’s going to be hit when he gets home and another sadness and another and another. So Paxton kisses Vivian and watches the aerobats and when they do their trick, the crowd goes silent before they go wild.
#20 - Box of crackerjacks (caveat)
There's a parade going on in Emrall when they arrive, brightly decorated wagons being pulled down the streets, the townspeople waving happily to the young men and women who ride in the annual salute to The Mother.
Ramses catches a small pouch of candied popcorn and nuts from one of the groups, who are tossing them into the crowd gleefully. The carnival that follows will be a good place to perform and Ramses is looking forward to it. There's real joy in eating the candy and Ramses wishes Paxton was enjoying it as much as he is. The idea blooms and instantly he's overcome in another wave of happiness and a sly smile, carefully hiding the rest of the candied nuts so he can give them to his brother when their positions change again.
#12 - Paperweight
He feels light and drifting tonight, a feather or a leaf caught in the wind, to be blown to the nearest mud puddle and drowned. There's a beer in his hand, but he can't bring himself to drink it, knowing how much farther into depression it will carry him.
He can see his brother having a good time, singing in harmony with the waitress with the honeyed hair and black doe eyes, and Ramses will want to take her back to their room tonight and Paxton can't begrudge him that small thing.
Then Ramses breaks away from the crowd, comes over to him and bends down low, so only the two of them hear his voice, "Thank you for stopping tonight, Pax, we'll be leaving in the morning." Just like that, he's grounded, no longer blowing, but caught; his brother will always bring him back.
#06 - Pushing forty
"Y'ever think you'll get too old for this?" asks the aging barkeep at the Whatley in Bourgen one night as Ramses counts up the tips he's collected for his songs.
Ramses looks at him, suspicious, because he hadn't thought anyone would recognize them; it's been months since they've been here. Then he realizes the man isn't seeing him with any more recognition than any other musician who passes through, earning his keep.
"I may, eventually, but not today," Ramses grins at him, feels the thrum of the music still diving through him, the adoration of the crowd, the thrill that he makes them happy. But what he's working towards, more than the money and the thrill, is seeing his brother's smiling face in the crowd; that's when he'll have the courage to quit.
#11 - Police, freeze! (caveat)
The girl in his lap has a dark mop of hair that hangs in her dark eyes and as Paxton leers at her, she sets another beer in front of him and he can't help but drink it even if his head's swimming just a bit already.
Then there's a lot of noise and yelling and people getting hit over the head and dragged out of the gambling house, but Paxton holds on to his chits and his girl, even when both try really hard to get away from him.
His eyes almost cross when the local sheriff comes to stand in front of him, hands on his hips looking angry - and there's Ramses just behind him, shaking his head and looking disgusted.
He's not sure why - Ramses will tell him in the morning! - but when he says to the man, "Honest, sir, I'm not holding anything I didn't pay for," his girl slaps him and storms out, yelling obscenities. Paxton shrugs: women.
#08 - Almost too late
"Last round," the woman behind the bar calls just as Paxton strolls into his favorite tavern in Rameel. He curses softly, but sees a table full of men, all cupping dice in their hands, and heads for it.
Ramses stumbles in a few minutes later, looking unbelievably downtrodden, but is it any wonder? Pax is here making outrageous bets so they'll have enough money for the night all because a cutpurse decided they looked a likely target and held them up for more than an hour. Ramses had reduced the man to a blubbering mess and even after he took his own life, they found nothing of use in his wallet.
#22 - Sandpaper eyes
He's been up all night while his brother plays cards, so when the sun starts glinting into the tavern, Ramses rubs his eyes impatiently and hopes it rises above the line of the windows quickly. He glances at Paxton's pile of winnings - enough to get them through another two or three days, maybe more, but Pax can't stop while he's on a roll - and then at the girl who's tended bar all night long and calls to her, "Can I get something to eat?"
She nods and is by his side in a few minutes, but she doesn't leave like most people do when he's this low and he can't understand it until he sees how haunted her eyes are and that the way she's looking at him isn't friendly or seductive or hungry, but scared and lonely. She's a pretty girl with a soft face and eyes like the summer sky and she's sad even without him around, but Ramses can't help but lead her upstairs to the room they paid for last night.
They lay down and he holds her and she cries and tells him about the sickness that, years ago, killed the rest of her village and how lonely she is and he just pets her hair and holds her and understands that sometimes Grief is comfort in the cold light of yet another day.
#24 - Drop in the ocean
"Are you nuts?" Ramses asks, appalled.
"Free her how?" Paxton asks, incredulous.
The world is turning upside down and they're being asked to help upend it by pulling the imprisoned Daughter out of her cell. It's revolutionary, but not necessarily in a good way.
The Lost Child's smile is not reassuring, "I have a plan, and this is only the beginning."
#17 - Years of erosion
The first time Ramses meets Snow, she's an old woman curled in a rocking chair, crying piteously, and he doubts she even notices the brothers. And he doubts their plan, because the Lost Child says Snow can help them hold the empathies, but he can see the deep lines like riverbeds carved in the elderly woman's face and hear the way she's babbling and making almost no sense. He still puts his arms around her - he and Paxton both do - when D'arseigh asks them to, and she feels like so many brittle sticks inside a thin flesh wrapping.
The second time Ramses meets Snow, she's a young girl, maybe five or six, and she laughs at the two of them and draws them into the hug this time and says, "I remember you, you were warm and smelled like apples." Her face is smooth and unlined, her eyes wide and clear, and Ramses can feel her drawing them into her, sharing their burden, and just like that she's swept away their hearts.
#13 - White room/yellow hand print
There's a house on a little roadway out in the middle of nowhere that's perfect for the three of them, so they take it for their own.
Ramses claims the bedroom with the most morning sun, Paxton steals the room in the back that gets almost no sun and they both let their little Snow have the room on the other side of the house, the one that's full of light all day long. They're painting the rooms when Paxton walks into Snow's bright, white room and finds the little girl holding her hand up to the light streaming in one of the windows; upon further inspection, it's covered in yellow paint from the kitchen.
"What's that," he asks, not expecting her quick reply of, "It's a little piece of another place that I'll put in here," and she points at a corner of the wall that's got different colored handprints scattered all over it, the colors of all the rooms they've painted so far.
There's still travel to be done, there always will be, but they're putting their mark on this place; this place is home.
Author: Mystic Blue
Pairing: Paxton and Ramses
Table/Theme: Table 1, themes 2, 23, 21, 18, 15, 3, 20, 12, 6, 11, 8, 22, 24, 17, 13
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Broken boys playing at being gods.
Disclaimer: I actually do own these guys and I'm quite proud of them. No takey my toys, please.
All relevant backstory can be found here.
#02 -Breaking bread/fast
"It is a lovely dinner," Ramses says to Aracynth, who's sitting at the banquet table to his left. Paxton is on his right, stabbing at his food, morose and ignoring the rest of them, as though twenty other gods aren't crowded around him.
"I'm so glad you came," Aracynth replies, gesturing wildly with her fork, "I hate these boring functions they won't let us skip. But what are you boys up to these days?"
"Oh, just getting by," Ramses replies, smiling because he can and wishing like hell that Paxton could join him.
#23 - Cup of coffee
The city they've been in for the past two months is called Flatwood and even though they agreed to try staying in one place for a while, Paxton is already growing restless; not because he likes the constant movement on the road, but because he's afraid of getting too close to anyone and hurting them by being what he is.
"Guess that rules out finding wives," Ramses jokes, but it falls flat and Paxton doesn't bother to humor his brother with fake laughs.
"Well, chappy, only one of us is worth anything at a time, anyway," Paxton says dejectedly and leaves the breakfast table. The next morning there's a third place setting at the table and when Paxton looks at his brother oddly, Ramses just shrugs and says, "For when we find the right girl for us both."
It becomes tradition, when they do return to traveling, that they set out a third of something - another muffin, another piece of bread, another cup of coffee - every morning until they really do find that right girl.
#21 - Proud as a peacock
They're seven days behind when they get to Rameel and he's in his favorite city in the world, but he's Grief for the next few days - he held on to Laughter much longer than he should have and he'll be paying that debt for weeks yet - and instead of sauntering into a gambling house, they're in the open market bartering with a band of wanderers to share in their music show and its profits.
The blind woman with a crow's black streak in her white hair tells Ramses to sing and he does, a lullaby he learned in Bourgen, and their astonishment and wonder is no surprise to Paxton: he's got the voice of an angel, so perfect, so pure.
Ramses shoots him a smile full of light and hope, the way he always looks when he's being praised. Paxton tries to smile back and him, but he knows he fails when his brother's smile dims and his eyes soften. Of course he's proud of his brother; prouder, even, knowing what they've lost.
#18 - Interruption
They've been in Rameel four days now and Paxton's so sick of not being able to drag himself out of bed that he yelled at Ramses this morning and now his brother's been gone all day and has all the money and he's hungry.
The finding isn't hard, but it's not where he wants to see his brother: Ramses being beaten by four street toughs, their hard-earned coin flying about and no one raising a hand to help. Paxton darts in and dives deeper, exuding an aura of unease and despair that has them all crying and clutching at their heads in moments. He pulls Ramses to him and out of there, whispers, "I'm sorry," in a cracked voice once they're a few streets over and he starts properly processing what could have just happened to the one person he loves more than any other in all the worlds.
"Don't worry about it," Ramses grins, wincing at his split lip, "I knew you'd come and get me," and Paxton can't help but think, 'But what if I hadn't?'
#15 - Walking tall
Paxton has always been good at cards: watching what's played and whose tells are showing, knowing a sour bet from a good one and steering clear. So when Pax does have a bad night and they leave almost .empty-handed, knowing that they'll be scrounging for a place to stay and something to eat, Ramses always goes first. Something about Pax's nature requires him to leave last, back straight, head held high and Ramses has never questioned it.
He also doesn't question it when Paxton crashes hard later, throwing them both off balance as Laughter and Grief are overborne by the emotions of the ones who carry them. Ramses just comforts his brother through the night and tries to set things right between them before morning.
#03 - Pin drop
“It’s an aerobatic maneuver,” the girl, whose name is Vivian, explains to him, “called the Pin Drop, where one flyer swings off the trapeze and straightens his body while the other lets go and holds his arms in an ‘O’,” she demonstrates, “and his partner slips through.”
“That’s amazing,” Paxton says with real awe. Her eyes are rich brown and her hair white-gold from the summer sun and she’s not his type, but she’s his brother’s. Ramses is probably under the bleachers right now, knees clasped to his chest, head bent over them, because there’s a little girl watching the grand spectacle who can’t remember her mommy anymore and another little boy who thinks he’s going to be hit when he gets home and another sadness and another and another. So Paxton kisses Vivian and watches the aerobats and when they do their trick, the crowd goes silent before they go wild.
#20 - Box of crackerjacks (caveat)
There's a parade going on in Emrall when they arrive, brightly decorated wagons being pulled down the streets, the townspeople waving happily to the young men and women who ride in the annual salute to The Mother.
Ramses catches a small pouch of candied popcorn and nuts from one of the groups, who are tossing them into the crowd gleefully. The carnival that follows will be a good place to perform and Ramses is looking forward to it. There's real joy in eating the candy and Ramses wishes Paxton was enjoying it as much as he is. The idea blooms and instantly he's overcome in another wave of happiness and a sly smile, carefully hiding the rest of the candied nuts so he can give them to his brother when their positions change again.
#12 - Paperweight
He feels light and drifting tonight, a feather or a leaf caught in the wind, to be blown to the nearest mud puddle and drowned. There's a beer in his hand, but he can't bring himself to drink it, knowing how much farther into depression it will carry him.
He can see his brother having a good time, singing in harmony with the waitress with the honeyed hair and black doe eyes, and Ramses will want to take her back to their room tonight and Paxton can't begrudge him that small thing.
Then Ramses breaks away from the crowd, comes over to him and bends down low, so only the two of them hear his voice, "Thank you for stopping tonight, Pax, we'll be leaving in the morning." Just like that, he's grounded, no longer blowing, but caught; his brother will always bring him back.
#06 - Pushing forty
"Y'ever think you'll get too old for this?" asks the aging barkeep at the Whatley in Bourgen one night as Ramses counts up the tips he's collected for his songs.
Ramses looks at him, suspicious, because he hadn't thought anyone would recognize them; it's been months since they've been here. Then he realizes the man isn't seeing him with any more recognition than any other musician who passes through, earning his keep.
"I may, eventually, but not today," Ramses grins at him, feels the thrum of the music still diving through him, the adoration of the crowd, the thrill that he makes them happy. But what he's working towards, more than the money and the thrill, is seeing his brother's smiling face in the crowd; that's when he'll have the courage to quit.
#11 - Police, freeze! (caveat)
The girl in his lap has a dark mop of hair that hangs in her dark eyes and as Paxton leers at her, she sets another beer in front of him and he can't help but drink it even if his head's swimming just a bit already.
Then there's a lot of noise and yelling and people getting hit over the head and dragged out of the gambling house, but Paxton holds on to his chits and his girl, even when both try really hard to get away from him.
His eyes almost cross when the local sheriff comes to stand in front of him, hands on his hips looking angry - and there's Ramses just behind him, shaking his head and looking disgusted.
He's not sure why - Ramses will tell him in the morning! - but when he says to the man, "Honest, sir, I'm not holding anything I didn't pay for," his girl slaps him and storms out, yelling obscenities. Paxton shrugs: women.
#08 - Almost too late
"Last round," the woman behind the bar calls just as Paxton strolls into his favorite tavern in Rameel. He curses softly, but sees a table full of men, all cupping dice in their hands, and heads for it.
Ramses stumbles in a few minutes later, looking unbelievably downtrodden, but is it any wonder? Pax is here making outrageous bets so they'll have enough money for the night all because a cutpurse decided they looked a likely target and held them up for more than an hour. Ramses had reduced the man to a blubbering mess and even after he took his own life, they found nothing of use in his wallet.
#22 - Sandpaper eyes
He's been up all night while his brother plays cards, so when the sun starts glinting into the tavern, Ramses rubs his eyes impatiently and hopes it rises above the line of the windows quickly. He glances at Paxton's pile of winnings - enough to get them through another two or three days, maybe more, but Pax can't stop while he's on a roll - and then at the girl who's tended bar all night long and calls to her, "Can I get something to eat?"
She nods and is by his side in a few minutes, but she doesn't leave like most people do when he's this low and he can't understand it until he sees how haunted her eyes are and that the way she's looking at him isn't friendly or seductive or hungry, but scared and lonely. She's a pretty girl with a soft face and eyes like the summer sky and she's sad even without him around, but Ramses can't help but lead her upstairs to the room they paid for last night.
They lay down and he holds her and she cries and tells him about the sickness that, years ago, killed the rest of her village and how lonely she is and he just pets her hair and holds her and understands that sometimes Grief is comfort in the cold light of yet another day.
#24 - Drop in the ocean
"Are you nuts?" Ramses asks, appalled.
"Free her how?" Paxton asks, incredulous.
The world is turning upside down and they're being asked to help upend it by pulling the imprisoned Daughter out of her cell. It's revolutionary, but not necessarily in a good way.
The Lost Child's smile is not reassuring, "I have a plan, and this is only the beginning."
#17 - Years of erosion
The first time Ramses meets Snow, she's an old woman curled in a rocking chair, crying piteously, and he doubts she even notices the brothers. And he doubts their plan, because the Lost Child says Snow can help them hold the empathies, but he can see the deep lines like riverbeds carved in the elderly woman's face and hear the way she's babbling and making almost no sense. He still puts his arms around her - he and Paxton both do - when D'arseigh asks them to, and she feels like so many brittle sticks inside a thin flesh wrapping.
The second time Ramses meets Snow, she's a young girl, maybe five or six, and she laughs at the two of them and draws them into the hug this time and says, "I remember you, you were warm and smelled like apples." Her face is smooth and unlined, her eyes wide and clear, and Ramses can feel her drawing them into her, sharing their burden, and just like that she's swept away their hearts.
#13 - White room/yellow hand print
There's a house on a little roadway out in the middle of nowhere that's perfect for the three of them, so they take it for their own.
Ramses claims the bedroom with the most morning sun, Paxton steals the room in the back that gets almost no sun and they both let their little Snow have the room on the other side of the house, the one that's full of light all day long. They're painting the rooms when Paxton walks into Snow's bright, white room and finds the little girl holding her hand up to the light streaming in one of the windows; upon further inspection, it's covered in yellow paint from the kitchen.
"What's that," he asks, not expecting her quick reply of, "It's a little piece of another place that I'll put in here," and she points at a corner of the wall that's got different colored handprints scattered all over it, the colors of all the rooms they've painted so far.
There's still travel to be done, there always will be, but they're putting their mark on this place; this place is home.