a very matcha goodbye ...
Say there's no future For us as a pair
And though I may know I don't care
--
@among-the-lostboys
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@among-the-lostboys
a very matcha goodbye ...
Say there's no future For us as a pair
And though I may know I don't care
--
@among-the-lostboys
To Be Continued (The Darlings}
The Darlings say goodbye.
Set: August 16
@the-dashing-darling @among-the-lostboys @lost-girl-at-sea @darling-lost-boy
Prior Reading:
The Next Adventure (Jane, Danny & Wendy} Truly all the goodbye threads
i’m going to start screaming and crying and maybe even kicking
“I want to return return return return repeated the parrot in the room where her owner left her alone to repeat: return return return…”
— Dunya Mikhail, ‘A Voice’, The War Works Hard (trans. Elizabeth Winslow)
declan + smiling/laughing around jordan
"I often look for books that are like medicine, that fit my situation and my thoughts, and I read them over and over again until the pages are tattered, underlining everything, and still the book will have something to give me. Books never tire of me. And in time they present a solution, quietly waiting until I am fully healed. That’s one of the nicest things about books."
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Baek Sehee
as long as you're mine ~ matcha
in which john and ting-ting say goodbye...
[contains: light smut, sadness, martyr complexes]
read here!
@among-the-lostboys
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
John reached forward and clasped Wendy's hands again.
"Of course it is. Of course. Wendy, this is not the end."
It might feel like that in so many ways, but John was a scholar of narrative form and he knew otherwise. This story was not over. It was beginning again in so many ways, for all of them. Michael would have to help support Alice. John would support Michael. And all the while, in the background, John would be doing what he did best. He would be reading, and looking for the hidden meaning, a secret back door that would let them all come home.
He believed there was a way, even if he couldn't find it now. Just give him time. He'd find it.
"We'll meet again. We'll-- find another way. Maybe not this year. Maybe not next. But we'll write to each other, and we'll never give up, and we will see each other again."
Wendy closed her eyes at his words. She could see their future so clearly, as if fate always had a plan. That this is where they were always supposed to end up.
Time meant nothing when you were aiming for a future. They would be together again. One way or another.
A few years from now.
They would be. The story of the Darlings was always circular, they would intersect again.
So she looked at John with that same determination.
"One day. In the distant or not so distant future. We will be."
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
Wendy nodded, she knew that. She knew how dangerous it would be with the unrest. With lands fighting to claim what fraction of power it could. She was sure Nimble would be doing that, after all hadn't this been part of his plan too. Why he had made them play that game.
Wendy couldn't go back.
She couldn't visit.
"I know. But I need to know that's in our future." The lives of the fae were much longer so maybe it wouldn't be claimed in their life time but- Wendy would hope.
John reached forward and clasped Wendy's hands again.
"Of course it is. Of course. Wendy, this is not the end."
It might feel like that in so many ways, but John was a scholar of narrative form and he knew otherwise. This story was not over. It was beginning again in so many ways, for all of them. Michael would have to help support Alice. John would support Michael. And all the while, in the background, John would be doing what he did best. He would be reading, and looking for the hidden meaning, a secret back door that would let them all come home.
He believed there was a way, even if he couldn't find it now. Just give him time. He'd find it.
"We'll meet again. We'll-- find another way. Maybe not this year. Maybe not next. But we'll write to each other, and we'll never give up, and we will see each other again."
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
Never, Never.
Wendy couldn't lose them forever again. Not when she had so little time. Didn't they deserve that. To be together, to see each other.
Taking a deep breath at John's determination she nodded. She didn't want them to lose contact with this world. It was so easy to when you were in Elfhame. And really she didn't want to go back.
"If I do- you two must let me visit. I will write you two all the letters of this world, pictures and stories but I need to see you two."
Visiting Elfhame was no easy task. Especially without Thistle there to help guide them.
But then again-- they were the Darlings. Their lives had always been a little impossible, touched by some kind of invisible, enchanted hand. And whether they liked it or not, Wendy had been touched by that hand when she was just a girl. She'd grown up in that world-- sometimes, he thought of his sister as half-fae herself. More fae than human. He regretted that. But it was part of her.
So John nodded. "Of course. When you can-- but-- we'll have to be careful, at first," he said. "There's going to be a lot of unrest, Wendy. It won't be safe to come until the High Court is... claimed. You know that, right?"
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
Wendy blinked at his brother, she didn't want to, but that didn't mean she felt like she could abandon them. Maybe they would be able to leave. They could move around like she had never been able to.
But to send them off.
It felt worse then being trapped there.
"And leave you two there? That feels selfish. We've barely had any time all together. I can't just never see you two again."
"Not never. Never, never," John said-- and finally his lip twitched into something close to a smile, even if the word play was not enough to erase this. Not even close.
He was not happy at all, but at the same time, a path had started to clear now. A path for himself and a path for Michael and a path for Wendy. This path would let him protect both his siblings, and pay back all the love and care they'd given him his entire life-- Wendy's sacrifice, Michael's devotion.
He reached forward and grasped Wendy's hand. He squeezed it. "Wendy, we will meet again. But what is the point of all three of us being there? You already gave yourself for Michael once. He won't want you to do it again. We can write letters." It was a meager proposal, but then again-- "You can write us stories about this world and keep us connected to it that way. You were always so wonderful at telling us stories."
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
Wendy wished she could solve this for John, for Michael, but they had been doing that for decades now. Taking control of the situation, forcing it into one direction or another.
Her hand fell from John's head to his cheek as if she could stop any tears from falling.
"So we can go with him. I know Elfhame, I know the Fenlands." She would go, despite the fact she would hate every moment of it. She spent too much of her life in that world.
John reached up and he grasped his sister's hand in his own.
That couldn't happen either.
Not Wendy, at least. She had spent an entire life here. To return now when she was finally and truly free for the first time-- it would be more tragic and unfair than Michael's fate. Michael he knew would agree with him too.
"Wendy, you can't. You've just escaped," he murmured to her, mouth twisting in a frown. "You don't have to come back here. I-- I can help Michael."
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
Wendy reached out, resting her hand on John's head. There were things that could potentially be done. Figure out a way to get divorced. Abandon the Fenlands.
But- That would just invite the Fae again and again to this world.
It would leave the Fenlands vulnerable and just because the Queen was dead two lands were taken over, the Darlings here would be in a worse position here.
Wendy wasn't sure what to do.
"I don't know John. I don't know. All we can do is keep marching forward."
John knew, but it was too hard to accept.
He could not imagine his brilliant baby brother here-- trapped in a world of swamps and moss and drizzly mornings. His golden brother belonged in open, blue skies. His flat in Monaco. His place in Maranello. He should be worshipped, not as a king or a prince regent, but as a champion and an athlete. Applauded every weekend -- praised on Twitter and Instagram.
The Fenlands were so far from the life he'd coveted for his brother. (Nevermind that Michael hadn't exactly asked for it.)
Finally, John let his hands drop and he looked at Wendy, his eyes watery and each line on his face carved deep. "If there's no way...he can't be here alone, Wendy. I can't just leave him here. I can't. I can't-- after everything." I still feel like this is all my fault.
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Wendy had said as much to Thistle as he died. She hadn't contradicted them since they lay dying but it didn't feel like freedom, it didn't feel like this was the way.
It felt like everything was worse.
Sighing Wendy lifted her cup though she didn't take a drink. "It wasn't but it's where we are. And Michael will have to stay." Was that their fate. One of them always here.
John closed his eyes, pressing both his palms over his face.
This was exactly what he did not want to hear.
He did not need to hear it. He was a boy who had spent his life obsessed with fairy tales, and so he knew how they worked. During his time in the library, John had poured over tales of succession and the laws of the throne. And so he knew what Thistle's passing had done. But he couldn't accept it, not after everything, not after that lifetime he spent making sure this very thing didn't happen.
But the fairytales had told him the end before the beginning. Michael had been marked. Michael had been born with a fate.
Fate always got what it wanted.
"There has to be another way," John said, voice croaking.
As the dust settles {John & Wendy}
The battle was won.
But there was so much lost.
Thistle's life.
Michael's future.
The price once again was much higher then she wished they needed to pay. Thistle has said she was free and Wendy didn't correct them, but she didn't feel quite free.
The battle still hung on all of them, a weight none of them could shake off. Even in new clothes, even in new light, even with a steaming cup of tea in front of them.
"What is brewing in your mind?"
@among-the-lostboys
This was not a victory.
Maybe it was the best of the worst. But even this was not a silver lining. How could they call it anything close? Elfhame was in chaos - Thistle was dead - and Michael would not be able to leave.
If he left, he would have to come back.
The reality of it made John so sick to his stomach his brain shut down. For a while after the battle he said nothing at all. Even now, sitting here with Wendy, he struggled to even look his sister in the face. What was brewing in his mind? Nothing. There was nothing left.
And so he sat there, the silence stretching until...
"This...wasn't supposed to happen."
Blankets on the Beach || Matcha
Return to Neverland [The Darlings + Thistle + Alice]
In which, after a series of psychological attacks on their loved ones, the Darlings, along with Thistle and Alice, formulate a plan...[takes place: early June]
@go-askalice, @my-lost-darling, @among-the-lostboys, @the-dashing-darling, @lost-girl-at-sea, @darling-lost-boy
[tw -- discussion of death/battle/war]
prior reading:
A Very Unhappy Unbirthday Dreams Come True Follow the White Rabbit Off to Never-Wonderland Down the Rabbit Hole… Marriage is What Brings Us Together Today Skunk, Fox, Raccoon
... ... ...
[link here]