[text | screened to Duck]

[insourarmor]

At your earliest convenience, we need to talk._

Comments

[poorduck]

Gee, that sounds so formal!

[insourarmor]

"Don't look at me like I'm about to deliver a lecture or something," Fakir said, waving a dismissive hand at her. "I need to talk to you about Rue, and Mytho. And you. About all of us, I guess."

[poorduck]

"Oh." said Duck. "So what do you want to know?"

[insourarmor]

"We need to come to some kind of agreement about what to do about Rue," Fakir said, taking a seat beside her. "I know Rue was different when you last saw her before coming here, but she's dangerous now."

[poorduck]

Duck sagged. "Is she?" she asked. "When we went to get Mytho he was fine. Nothing's happened to him, right? And I think she was really scared when Mytho started eating people's hearts."

[insourarmor]

"She said she'd kill me if I got in the way of her having him; isn't that proof enough to you that she's not trustworthy? This was after I said that she could still see him!"

[poorduck]

"... I guess you're right." sighed Duck. "But if she never gets to see him, then she'll just get angrier. And she's still his girlfriend."

[insourarmor]

"Well we can't just hand him over to someone who wants him to remain a doll she can play with," Fakir shot back. "And she's only his girlfriend because she clings to him like a damned lamprey and says he is."

[poorduck]

"I don't think it's like that anymore! I'm sure she doesn't want him to be the Raven Prince anymore! Not if he turns into that!" insisted Duck. Her fists balled in her lap. "And it's not like his heart shards are here, anyway."

[insourarmor]

Old anger flared up in Fakir's heart, remnants of the fierce and inflexible protectiveness that had made him lash out at Duck in the past. He swallowed it down with a deep breath. "The Raven Prince isn't what I meant. What I meant is what he was before all this, before you. And even if his heart shards aren't here, something is. That... flower thing. Whatever it was."

[poorduck]

"The rose? What does that have to do with anything?" asked Duck, puzzled.

[insourarmor]

"It was like the shards, kind of," Fakir said, leaning back and closing his eyes as if deep in thought. "He's different since it went to him."

[poorduck]

Duck's head was buzzing with questions. Truth to tell, she was afraid of where this was going. If she was from their future, what did all this mean for her? But most importantly, what did this mean for Mytho? "Then maybe whatever was making Rue meaner than usual is gone? Is it possible to have feelings without a heart? ... Wait. How is he different?" she babbled.

[insourarmor]

"He wants things," Fakir said, a minor note of annoyance in the words. "Not just to see Tutu, or to have his heart. He wants to go for walks and read different books and... it's just strange, after so many years of him having no opinions."

[poorduck]

"But... that's good, isn't it?" Duck was dumbfounded.

god fuck it LJ

[insourarmor]

"It's good, but it also means that the story or something like it is still marching along," Fakir said, his voice a weary deadpan. "And neither of us knows the ending now."