Hey! For your spotify wrapped ask! 14, 20, 37.
Oooh hey! Triple threat! Let's go 14: Cuff It by Beyonce Jane knows this battle is in the bag, it's been a rough, wild fight with plenty of capable adversaries, a combat worthy of the trouble, but it's abundantly clear that between her, the Reliquary's fleet and Zephrinus Pact himself, they've grade A fucked up the Tellestrian rogue ships. Merciless pirate types, very fashionable, equally ruthless- it's been a ball and Jane wants to wrap this up, head back to the Reliquary and drink to their success of putting another horrible group of people completely out of commission. Another myth about Zephrinus Pact, no doubt-- the Tellestrians have been trouble all across the galaxy and they have a habit of leaving one or two people alive to pass on how absolutely horrifying they were in battle. Unfortunately for them, Zephrinus doesn't have those kinds of aspirations and (usually) takes no prisoners.
She has to wonder if Zephrinus is having as much fun with this as she is. He loves a good fight, is intrigued by an opponent that doesn't tuck tail and run at the mention of him, but he's so fucking old, and he's fought so many fights... is he having fun? Can he get drunk? That's a whole other matter- she wants to get drunk, and she wants to get drunk with him, but can he even get drunk when he's... whatever he is? She'll have to tell him when they get back that she'd like to get drunk and if while she's drunk she climbs him like a tree it's all consensual on her end. Get in a high stakes space battle, get drunk, get laid-- it's the perfect course of events as far as she's concerned, and she's going to tell him as much before he has a chance to tell her he's got to do debriefs or that she should rest or anything else. Knowing him he'll probably join her for drinking, let her get blasted, have a laugh at her flirting, make her drink water and put her lovingly to bed, some how without being a buzz kill about it. A buzzkill-less buzzkiller. They have to do something fun, it's a regular every day thing to crush evildoers for Zephrinus, but for Jane this is... fun. It's fun and she wants to enjoy it with him. Maybe she can just be frank and tell him that he has to act like this is a new thing for him, to conjure the ancient times where he decided to do this of all things and discovered how good it is to be a cosmic force of good. That, or to simply be capable of drunkeness so they can be drunk and silly and victorious together. It's a question for the histories, another thing she'll know about Zephrinus Pact that no one else knows, can the cosmic war lord get fucked up? Once they're done with this delightful conquest, she fully intends to find out.
20: Creature by Half-Alive The ghostlands this time of year are very loud, full of stories and memories and spirits eager to convene with the living. Femi doesn't know why this season brings on such restlessness, but it's tradition to go and hear the stories now, when the overlapping dead are making so much brilliant noise, calling to be heard. Her gift is to hear the tragedies of the dead, to know their unfulfilled dreams, their losses, their unending woes... but this will be the last season she takes that task. She is going to Reigward soon, to have this power altered, to make her talent into something new.
She has brought much comfort to the dead, has wept with them, has taken their stories and memorized them by heart, but soon, she will serve to soothe the living. She will train to be a doctor and if the promises made by the witches in Reigward are true, she will be able to pull apart the hurt of the body the way she has spent all of her youth pulling at the hurt of the spirit. It is a gift that has great value, she knows that- she has been made with not just the ability to attract sad stories to her, but to offer a profound, lasting comfort once they're told. Spirits that give onto her their stories can for many years be quelled from their grief, once they've given it over to her... she wants to do that for the living too. She will make her glorious gift into something new and do as much good as she can with it in her life.
The dead will still come to her, but she can handle all of it, she can take it in and make peace of it. She only has to serve the dead alone this last season and she will make it her best season. She will take up all the grief she can and unravel it and then she will serve her truest calling, the calling truest to her own soul. To help the living as she has the dead and recreate herself fearlessly into what she knows she was meant to be.
37: Never Gonna Let It (But It's Completely Different) by Lubalin Kalmin will get this damned boulder up to the summit, to the cathedral where he's promised the ancient king he'd land his stone and spirit. He's built so much muscle under this task, but he's still struggling, still exhausted and occasionally quietly doubtful that he can succeed. What happens then, if he fails? It feels like he's been doing this for so long that it's the only way for him to become King himself, to become worthy of taking hold of his own dreams and never letting go. The old King had promised him the key to his future if he can manage this, if he can be strong enough, persistent enough, if he doesn't give up on himself. He often comes down from the mountain side uncertain, but he wakes each day and returns to the boulder with high spirits.
He is meant to be King, to make Erato his Queen, to usher in another golden era for the Kingdom of Black. The old King doesn't care that he's young and struggling, that sometimes he's pathetic about it, huffing and whining and straining against the bulk of the boulder inch by inch. He's said he see the potential in him to make a king worthy of greatness. This is the way, this is the best way, and knowing that he puts himself against the work with all he can muster. He has his doubts, but he won't ever allow them to stop him. His dreams are too important to stop now. The cathedral seems so far away every day, but when it's done he will be a man, strong, capable, wielding all he needs to become King and rule with an endless love for the kingdom. He just has to keep going. Keep coming back. Keep pushing. If he can just do that, he can't lose and he won't. He simply can't. He will be King.
