#grimeverse

The next fuel depot came up around the corner while it was still night out, a Dahl-owned place, painted in dingy colors.  The door was open and the entryway full of silt and boot tracks, also a handful of gatcha machines.

These were considered Dahl things and only Dahl stores had them.  She was about to ask the sleeping clerk to sell her a token when Typhon winked and took out an actual coin she didn’t recognize at all.  He put this in and turned the crank and then handed her the bubble that popped out.  Leda laughed.  That woke the clerk.  

Inside was a taffy purple alicorn soldier figure, not something she would have expected from a ring machine.

She stuffed it into her pack while Typhon inspected the dusty racks of candy bars and compasses.  He found what he was looking for in a corner of cheap plastic goods, then also bought some flower for his pipe and a couple bags of snacks and since they were there, fuel.  Leda applied the last to the van while he lit up and munched and did something with his hands.  She couldn’t quite see what by the door light.

She smelled the dead coral on him as he showed her the notebook and the pen and the strator drawing tool.  

“See, this planet,” he said.  “It’s in this hole.  Once a year we go around the sun.” He drew an ellipse with the tool.  “Just like most good planets, except oh, we’re not a good planet.”

The tool drew another ellipse, out of alignment with the first.  It would take eight before they began to repeat, she saw.  That was when it hit her.  “Pandora’s in a rosette orbit!” That shouldn’t have been strictly possible.  Rosette orbits were supposed to be black hole things.  

“Well, I guess if that’s the fancy word for it.” In a couple of swipes, Typhon had finished the eight loops.  He began to retrace the first, slipping a gear this time.  “Anyway, it’s cockeyed on top of everything else.  Like the sun’s over here sometimes, but sometimes it’s over there.  But it does take years to get back to where we started, more or less.  I think it’s 88.5 Standard or some number with pi in it.” 

Leda stared.  One of the white-winged insects smelled the dead coral too.  It fluttered between them, though neither looked its way, focusing instead on one other’s strange, knowing expressions.

“So your seasons aren’t parts of your orbit,” said Leda.  

“Hey, now.  I don’t control anybody’s orbits.”

“They’re quarter turns around the rosette.”

“Apparently it depends where Elpis feels like hanging out too.  Bottom line, we got a couple more your years of winter for sure and then, well, I don’t wanna be ‘round here when spring hits.  I’ve heard stories.”

“You’re not even supposed to have spring according to Atlas!”

“Tell that to spring.”

“Eppur si muove!”

“Yes, the sea moves! You got it, Baby!”

Leda laughed again despite the sudden shudder that came up through her nerves.  The rosette orbit should have been obvious to any corporation with satellites, anybody who actually spoke to a native.  Atlas had told her a year was ten Standard.  They’d told everybody, and now there were millions of people spread here, thin and wide and knowing nothing.

She didn’t want to be on Pandora when spring came and the sleeping things in the corners of the dry reef beds woke, when this planet out of all the Six Galaxies bloomed.

She had to sit down.  It put her once again with her legs dangling out the back of the van.  Typhon was behind her and she could not gauge his expression.  

Still not sure if you like the cut of my jibe? Headcanon post.

Here for my playlists? Troy and Tyreen on Youtube.

Troy is “thoughtful”, Tyreen is “restless”.

Also, that post about why I love being gross.

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Grimeverse - So named due to the grimy atmosphere.  It’ll make you want to brush your teeth.

+ = Obvious Troyreen, so you can skip to/from it. I don't know your life. You do what you want, fam.

Nekrotafeyo 

* Sepulchre - Events leading up to, during and after the birth of the Calypso Twins.

* Spells - Troy deals with his illness alone after his mother's death.

* Spiraling To Meet Me -  Tyreen grieves for her mother in a way that makes perfect sense to her, just no one else.

* [She's Not Real]

* The Severing Sound ~in progress~ -  Tyreen discovers a map Leda left behind.  The treasure hunt is on, but the twins don’t exactly stop to wonder what they’ll be searching for.

* Sunt Lacrimae Rerum -  Tyreen and Troy still cherish some memories of their father. Why and how and what, that's complicated.

Pandora

* Eyeshine ~in progress~ -  Troy and Tyreen stuck alone together in a small ship after the events of "No Coming Back II".

* [Sehnsucht]

* Satellite + - The one, the only, the very NSFW.   Troy finds himself faced with increasingly difficult decisions about his future… and his sister's life.

* [Several Saturnine Lunchtimes At Dr. Black's] +

* Sampaguita ~in progress~ + -  The 70’s-style exploitation movie staring the Calypso Twins that you never wanted.

* [Sunset Motel] + - 

* Sweetheart ~in progress~ -  For the sake of his sister and the well-being of his followers, newly-minted God King Troy Calypso takes on a job alone.

* Seven & The Ragged Nun ~in progress~ + -  It's one thing to say you're a God King. It's another to project the gravity you need to keep getting away with it at your newfound followers.

* [Spell Your Name Out In The Sky]

* [Sometimes, In An Old Skin]

* Shrike -  Troy and Tyreen give their idea of a sermon. Things get a little strange even before the locals attempt to please their God Queen.   

* Last Night At Jawgrim's -  In which a hustler in a no-name town makes a wager with a stranger who smells rather peculiar.

* Afterthought -  They get into it once the kohl comes out.  “I need to talk to you,” Troy insists.  “I need you to listen.”

* [Saudade] +

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Borderlands Collabs

The Others of His Kind - With Leech Lord/Borderspam: In which the Saint of Finances returns to Pandora for a mandatory holiday despite knowing full well that something will go awry. And it does.

Golden Showers Bring May Flowers - With DramaticDino.  Exactly what it says on the tin.

...Stays On Promethea*. - With Gambitverse/Wat_Are_Dis  After a night of drinking and dares that resulted in kisses, Troy drags Wyn back to their hotel room... with sexy results.

~*~*~*~

Delicious Other

Holding This Spot