An Age of Mysterious Memories

When I nearly bump into Boetah, Luni rouses, sounding out, “Ick! Whyyyy?” in response to feeling her own drool on her cheek. She grumbles, “Just set me down here, my hero, I guess I’m more tired than I thought. Come snuggle later though, ‘kay?”

Nodding to signal my acquiescence, I kiss Luni’s forehead before she shuffles away, blearily rubbing sleep from her eyes, and wiping her face. I wonder what that was all about. Ruefully scratching the back of my head, I turn towards a brightly smiling Boetah, who immediately wraps me up in a bear-hug. I jokingly cough and wince to indicate the tightness of his hug is a bit uncomfortable, so Boetah sets me down.

Mumbling telepathically, maybe not even truly intending for me to hear, Luni grumbles, “Better love up on me later buster. Stupid icky drool.”

I send a half frown towards Luni telepathically, but she ignores me, or perhaps doesn’t even notice it. Returning my attention to reality, I glance up at the gentle giant before me. Before I can ask, Boetah offers up, “Atter wants to help with things, but well, we’re not even halfway through conjugating her clutch. I’m only needed for a few hours here and there, so I figured I’d best get back to my duties to the Order. Love her a ton I do already, many tons, bwahaha. Though I don’t think she’s fallen in love at the same pace. She’s happy at least, and that’s what counts. Anyway, need a shield at your side against another fortress Schism?”

Oof, I’m going to have to get word out to everyone that the tides of war have turned, and we’ll be reworking our assault plans. Patting him on the shoulder, I shake my head as I respond, “Not so much to assault fortresses, at least not for a while Boetah. The bulk of Terrorzin’s forces, easily forty, maybe fifty-thousand strong or more have mustered, and are aimed at Solace. They’ll be on our doorstep in a week. I don’t want to have to Thermopolae this, but it’ll probably be one of our best options, attempting to hold Vieriss, erm, the smaller pass that leads from their current location, to the valley towards Mah’ruke.”

Boetah raises his eyebrow at the term Thermopolae, something from historical legend from Fakeworld, so I don’t blame him for not knowing it immediately. He does put together the context quickly enough though. I continue, “I uh, collapsed, I think it was Wistenzlia peak, erm, I mean, a portion of it, obviously not the entire thing. That is to say, I blew the top off the peak, and aimed the rockslide I caused down into Vieriss valley, to slow Terrorzin’s advance.”

Boetah blinks rapidly, caught off guard, stunned for only a moment before his wide smile returns to his face as he offers, “Well, if what you need is rocks blocking a valley, Shaylon and me are happy to oblige, I’m sure.”

Smirking, I loose a half laugh, little more than a partial snort as I nod to Boetah. Flashing him a genuine smile, I retort, “I’d be certain to grab the two of you at the nearest opportunity. For now, I need to find Kinzul, and rethink our approach for this war. With Terrorzin on the move, and what I’ve seen his Dragonforce do, we’re going to need to be careful.”

Boetah’s smile droops as his mouth forms an ‘oh’, mild surprise tinting his features. Not one to be dismayed though, his cheer returns as he slaps me heartily on the shoulder before claiming, “In that case, I’d best eat up, and get Atter fed, for when you need us. You know where we’ll be Schism. Make sure you don’t go off without a full-belly. Plenty of calcite and zircon these days.”

I nod and wave towards Boetah as he trundles off up the tunnels back towards the feasting hall. I don’t have the heart to remind him that I can’t really derive nutrients from eating pure minerals, rocks and gems. At least, I don’t think I can. Stroking my chin, I ponder my Can’Z’aasian digital critterkin adjacent biology. Food teleports away to some semblance of a gastric-system.

Plus, I have eaten what I thought to be hard-tack biscuits that turned out to be floured, powdered stones with Nala. Also, those stones might have been floured with dragonbonemeal. Also, the donuts I ate with Zayzi might have been made of dragonbonemeal. I’m just going to stop questioning it at this point, and continue to politely turn down actual obvious rocks when they’re offered to me as food.

I think I’m going to need to get ahold of Pawn, and have her inform people about Terrorzin. Well, no, not until I discuss the issue with Kinzul. I’d still like to check-in on her though. She had a pretty rough morning. Speaking of, I sense her emotional wavelength zooming about within my telepathic range.

When Pawn approaches me telepathically to notify me, “I tried courting Leeza today,” I’m a bit surprised, but proud for her.

Prompting her to go on, I ask, “Oh? Cool, right? How’d that go?”

The poor dear bemoans, “Horribly! Ugh, she’s just, she’s an awful person, but I still want to smooch her stupid face so bad. Why do I want this so bad Schism?”

Oof, I can certainly sympathize. I mean, not specifically about Leezahna, though I can see the aesthetic desire, as Leeza has crafted a very lovely young woman’s human form for herself, and is quite stylish in her taste of apparel. Erm, yeah, let’s really, really, really not go down any road in which we start trying to compliment Leeza in our head to find reasons for Pawn to be attracted to her. I really don’t want to accidentally convince myself to find her attractive in a way that I’d desire to pursue her romantically.

Apologizing, I offer up, “Sorry Pawn sweetie, I’m not fully sure. I mean, at the surface level, you’re just attracted to her because of her appearance, and maybe it’s the first time you’re letting yourself notice attractions to appearances. Essentially I guess she’s maybe your first crush, in this orientation at least. Does that sound about right? Or were you asking more rhetorically?”

The so-so gesture that Pawn’s telepathic wavelength sends back to me is about what I expected. Before I can ask, Pawn continues, “It’s, it’s not like she’s super evil or a total bee-to-the-eye-to-the-tee see aych, or whatever. Although, maybe kind of on that last one. She’s so stuck up, and, it’s like, you can *tell* she’s trying her hardest not to be, and still calling you things like gutter trash while talking to you. Like, my tummy was sick while talking to her. Not just ‘cause of the butterflies, but those too I guess. Ugh, how can you both want to punch someone in the face, and kiss it!? It’s not fair. Schiz-uuuuummmmm, help me figure this out. Please? Pwease?”

Erk. Furrowing my brow, I grump, “Please don’t do the babytalk Pawn, now that we know. Firstly, you don’t have to, because I want to help you anyway, secondly, it’s just super duper awkward. I’m sorry that your crush had to be Leezahna. I get it, I do. What about Ixey though? You said you were thinking about the two of them—.”

There’s a sudden frantic reply, “Schism! Ssshhhhhhh! Are your walls up? Don’t let her know! I—. I don’t want to try to date Sun’s girlfriend behind his back, and, and—. I just. I’m nervous. She’s been more popular than ever with the fun crowd, and, glp—. I, I haven’t told her that I think she’s pretty, or, or anything. I don’t want her to know yet. Please, please please please promise me you won’t tell her?”

Rolling my eyes halfway while wearing a perhaps unintentionally smug grin at the familiarity with that particular request, I respond, “You’ve got it Pawn, no problem. Look Miraina, I absolutely love and adore you, and hate to see you going through a rough patch, but about Ixey specifically—. Sun? Lil? He’s poly, like me and Te and Lu. He’d be *happy* if he knew that Ixey was happy spending time with someone, especially if during times when he couldn’t be there with her. Plus, I mean, despite him—. Eh, I’ll let you two talk that one out. Trust me, Lil would be on board if you talked to Ixey and she was interested.”

Pawn’s pout across our telepathic wavelength strikes like a dagger to my chest before she pleads, “Then, um, could you maybe please like, formally introduce us? Please? Please please? And, and maybe tell her that I like her? If, um, so that—. I, I couldn’t face her if she’d make fun of me, or be upset with me. Ixeyla’s so cool, and—.”

Chuckling and rolling my eyes, I add, “And hot, and all the things. Yes, I know. Lil says the same. You’ve got it Pawn. Look, as soon as I find her wavelength around, and you’re nearby wavelength-wise, I’ll introduce the two of you, and suggest you at least hang out for a little bit to talk things through. You’re a wonderful young woman Pawn, try not to focus too hard on any possible rejections that may have happened, or may happen in the future. Trust me when I say there are plenty of people in Mount Solace, when they realize you’re looking for love, that would be absolutely thrilled to be courted by you.”

Despite her continuing to pout across our telepathic wavelength, I try to send only supportive smiles in return to Pawn. Miraina continues to zoom about, taking care of whatever duties she’s picked up while I ponder how to help her. I do feel a bit bad because I haven’t had the chance to ask how she’s feeling since the beating she took this morning, and I know my walls were down for at least the first part of that. During the period that I had my walls down, someone who doesn’t always listen in on my inner narrative was nearby. I send a glance telepathically towards Ixeyla, wondering how much she heard at the start.

The awkward rubbing-the-back-of-her-head emotional wavelength that Ixey sends my way, pretty much spells out that she at least heard up until the point that Pawn requested that I put my wall up towards her. I flush with a bit of embarrassment myself, feeling like I accidentally betrayed Miraina in advance. Ixey seeks me out in meatspace, her lanky limbs carrying her swiftly about Solace until she stands before me. She waves her gangly-digited hand in greeting, and I flash her a smile in return.

Unsure exactly how to start, I figure I’ll try to take care of Miraina’s request with at least some subtlety, “Hey Ixey. So you might have heard that Pawn’s having uh, girl-troubles as it were. Is that the term? Anyway, she only recently realized how she felt, y’know, so it’s a scary time for her, plus she sort of outed herself as an adult runt, when she’d been letting most people believe she was a child. I don’t know if the runt status is going to make it even harder for her social and romantic life, but, well, I guess that’s neither here nor there. Um, you know that Lil and Lu, and me and Lu, and all the rest of us have our big weird web of romances, right? Like, like you’re okay with the fact that Lil’s first love is Luni, and they’re still together, yeah?”

Nodding, Ixeyla raises an eyebrow before answering, “Yeah, duh, of course. My prince is a studmuffin. I’m not going to step on his toes about that. What’re you getting at—? Oh. So Pawn really likes me? Like, really really like likes me? I mean, I’m not sure what to say. I guess I’m flattered. I was kinda—. I sort of kind of have a little extra room in my heart, if that makes sense. My prince is everything that I need, and more, y’know? I guess Lil can’t be around all the time though, what with the war and all, and you and your team having more adventures and problems to deal with even when we’re done. So, so there is some extra room, but only that tiny bit of extra room in my heart. Like the attic or something. I uh—. I was kinda getting used to the idea of, well—.”

When Ixeyla eyes me up and down, I’m a bit confused, when she drapes her arms over my shoulders, I’m more confused. She leans in close so that she can take her speech down to a whisper, “So your goofy nerdy weirdness has been kinda growing on me, because of how much Lil loves you and talks about you now that he can actually open his mouth around me. I mean, whenever my tongue isn’t in it. Erm, sorry. I uh. I don’t have room for much more than Lil though. At most, maybe one person. Pawn is really awesome, and I’ve known her, well, for almost a couple of decades, so I’m not really surprised she’s actually an adult runt. What about you though?”

Before I can respond, she conjectures, “I was kind of thinking that if you and I were maybe a bit tighter, that Zayzi might get better faster, maybe they’d I dunno, get jealous, and start feeling something, anything, and I’d be like, ‘okay, hey, you can totally call dibs on Schism, they’re really nice,’ or, or something. Fudge if I know what I was really thinking. Just kinda sorta felt like we were sorta maybe going in that direction, where we might, y’know.”

Ixey pauses a beat, and takes a breath before continuing, explaining, “It wasn’t like a super direct desire or anything, just felt kinda natural that it might maybe go that way. What with you liking my sibling and being so good for them, and being kind of a sweetie and sort of awesome and badass, and having me make friends with Princess and just, lots of stuff.”

My heart’s racing and hammering in my chest suddenly. I can’t say that I’m unexcited by the idea of romancing or kissing Ixey, but Zayzi seemed to indicate the no kissing rule applied to their sister as well. Ixeyla’s hinting that we’re not quite there, not yet, but that I’m growing on her. Hell, not even hinting, she’s outright stating it. She is however making it clear how she feels in a sort of plain numbers sense. For at least the time being, maybe forever, she’s got a hard limit of two people that she can share her love with, at most.

Does that mean that she’ll want to ditch our friendship entirely, or just stop it from moving in the direction she thought it was going? I don’t like the idea of returning to Ixey being hostile towards me, because I really do enjoy the direction our friendship had grown recently.

Trying to fight my frown, I gnaw on my bottom lip before simply asking, “If I can sort of help set things up between you and Pawn, and you two hit it off, does that mean my friendship with you is back to square one? Are you going to threaten me every other time you see me again? With like, visceral tones?”

While furrowing my brow, I half frown as I imagine things going back to that first meeting. Before I can stew, I add, “I do like you Ixey, a lot, and, well, I can see where you’re coming from, that we might have been, maybe are going, that way. It felt nice to be just kind of no-pressure friends, and close without needing to worry about romance, because I sort of figured your heart was already filled with Lil. Y’know? He’s great.”

When Ixey begins to get moony-eyed while agreeing with me about Lil, I have to fight my smirk. It takes her a moment to snap back to her senses as heat rises to her face before she can answer, “I uh, I dunno. I guess maybe I could lay off a little bit. I mean, even now I’d still toss you to the storm if you hurt Zayzi, y’know? But I get how the threat doesn’t feel the same now that we’re friends. You’ve given us, me, a lot. I don’t want to seem ungrateful. You uh, well, heck, lemme try somethin’, yeah?”

Raising an eyebrow, I await Ixey’s attempt, or explanation, as she stands back, and checks me out up and down from top to bottom repeatedly. When her fingers start poking and prodding my face, and lips, and opening my mouth, for her to inspect my tongue up close, I’m more than a tad perplexed. She furrows her brow while looking at it. She almost pouts after a bit of staring at it and seemingly finding whatever she’s contemplating to be dissatisfying.

Thankfully, Ixey explains, “There’s no notch.”

Or, I guess that was an explanation. Probably. Oh I think I—, she continues, “No fork, no fun way to tongue wrestle. You’d be crap at kissing with no notch to line up with mine. I was going to try it out, maybe, just once, but like, I can’t even bother. You can’t. Even if you can shapeshift or whatever, this is always going to be your default, so if I like, surprise you for smoochin’, it’s gonna be that weird stubby round thing.”

Ixeyla averts her gaze before mumbling, “Awe heck. I mean, even if I have to pick Pawn up to smooch her, she’s at least got a good fork, a really pretty one I’ve seen plenty when she laughs or delivers messages."

Huffing, Ixeyla stares at me with seeming disdain, or some other unpleasant emotion before finishing, “Well crap Schism pal. I was kinda almost looking forward to it, but you’re a big disappointment. I’m teasing, I’m kidding. Still disappointed though. Your goofy dorkiness is kind of fun to be around. I guess us isn’t ever really going to get off the ground after all.”

My right index finger can’t decide whether to point or curl, but, through a mouthful of overly-long digits, I ask, “Iff vaff va caffe, ca I haff vy fafe ack?” attempting to ask, “If that’s the case, can I have my face back?”

Rubbing the back of her head ruefully, Ixeyla’s laughter as she removes her fingers from my mouth and face is still fairly charming. And that’s despite her having insulted me a few times In the last few moments. Her feminine, cracked, reedy voice is in that unique zone, where it’s not annoying, but it’s super unique.

I am more than a little tempted to prove I can be a good kisser, because with someone like Ixey, and her sporty competitiveness, that was basically a challenge. I’ve got enough complications though, and I’d been attempting to set up Ixey and Pawn anyway. I’d rather not worm my way into the one little spot Ixey has available for sharing some extra affection with anyone other than Lil, at Pawn’s expense.

Flashing a subdued half-smile at Ixey, I agree, “Yeah, I guess any sort of *us* isn’t really going anywhere. Maybe Pawn will strike your fancy though, y’know? You’re both really cool, attractive young ladies. I dunno. That’s up to you and her to decide and all that. I hope that we still stay decent friends, but if you don’t have time or space for that with me, no hard feelings. You and Lil seem really happy with each other, and I’m happy about that.”

Fighting a grin, I add, “I think Pawn’s probably been listening in on me for nearly this whole conversation, so, likely, if you say the word, she’d show up and you two could talk things out.”

Though blushing and scratching the back of her head, Ixey nods, and Pawn sends waves of gratitude and cheek-smooching telepathically my way rapidly stating, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.”

Trying not to smirk, I simply nod towards Ixey as Pawn shows up. Good luck Miraina.