The dig site looked, well, about how Orym would picture an archaeological dig. A normal one, that hadn't been co-opted for someone’s diabolical arcane construction project. Within the expanse of sand were what looked like the remnants of a village. Old, ancient crumbling buildings. Reminded him of the elven ruins they'd come across near Heartmoor, or the twisted ones near the underground portal on Ruidus. Maybe dating as far back as the Schism, if not older. Maybe he could stay here a few days, check the place out a little further. Ash was right; this shit was pretty damned interesting.
And what a weird twist of fate that his path had brought him here alongside Ashton's. He'd found a way to meet up with most of the members of Bells Hells more than once in the intervening years, but Ashton appeared to be surprisingly skilled at laying low. Or maybe not so surprising; he was easily the most recognizable of their colorful crew, as they'd stood in front of most of the varied leadership of Exandria; of course he'd put that much more effort into staying hidden in the aftermath.
"Hey, Ashton, who's your friend?" called a red-haired dwarven woman.
"Ostrith, this is Orym. Old friend of mine, spotted him up there on the road. Just passing through, apparently." Ashton sighed, and Orym gave a shrug.
"Kinda sounds like you have a death wish," Ostrith responded. "Wait a minute, is this..."
Ashton shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I hope you guys saved some extra dinner; I'd hate for him to think you're inhospitable."
She gave him the finger before turning and ducking back into a tent.
"So what was she asking about? You been talking about me?" Orym smirked.
"Beats talking about myself. That's a fucking mess and a half." Orym started to protest but Ashton ruffled his hair playfully and he figured they were just messing with him. Mostly.
Ashton led him into the tent that Ostrith had entered and motioned for him to take a seat at the table inside, lined with fresh stew and bread and dried fruit. Travel food, mostly, but better than Orym had had since the last town he'd been in. "Now this is Caitlin, Istar, Hindam, Lena, Yata, Brekto, and Lynira," Ashton introduced. "And y’all, this is Orym, buddy of mine from a while back. I was hoping we could find him a spare bunk for the night.
"Not your bunk, then?" Istar, the tiefling, spoke up with a waggle of their eyebrows.
"You're a dick, you know that?" Ashton responded before leaning close to Orym. "Look, these chucklefucks have been out in the middle of nowhere too long, reading too much into everything. Just play along, it's easier than arguing with 'em."
It felt off at first; Ashton wasn't the type of person to avoid confrontation. On the other hand, they'd played the peacemaker among Bells Hells as often as Orym had, and much as Ashton had bragged about being their own boss, they would still have to work with these people for a while. So he followed Ashton's lead, looking at him softly, making ambiguously affectionate gestures; if Ashton didn't want to ruffle any feathers then Orym didn't see a reason to.
As they finished their meal and began to clear the table, though, Orym was sure there was more of a story here and was becoming desperately curious as to what it was. But before he could pull Ashton aside for a quick round of What the Fuck Is up with That, Yata, one of the orcs, nudged them in the shoulder. "So that's the one who got away, eh?"
Orym was out of earshot, but he had no problem reading Yata's lips, and though he tried to keep his expression neutral as Ashton turned toward him, his reaction must have been clear as day. Ashton's head sparked, not quite a full rage but definitely responding to something, and the sand at his feet began to churn up around him. "Fucking... fuck OFF!"
And they stomped off into the desert without meeting Orym's eyes again.
It was almost dinnertime when Ashton noticed the figure approaching, silhouetted against the lowering sun. The scent of warming stew tickled his nostrils and his stomach rumbled, but they were paying him to protect the camp. Fuck. "Hey, I gotta check something out," they called over their shoulder. "Y'all better fucking save me some dinner!"
Turned out the traveler wasn't quite as far out as Ashton had thought, just smaller than he expected. And familiar, too, once they were close enough to make out features and not just a shadow. Five years. Five fucking years and this guy turned up at a random fucking dig site in the middle of the desert. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Ash?" Orym blinked. "Uh... I could say the same to you."
"I'm working. Protection for a dig site. All that shit with the solstice suddenly got folks real fucking interested in whatever else is buried out here. So basically, I'm getting paid to be here; I'm not the one hiking across the desert alone in broad daylight. That's a fucking death sentence."
Orym shrugged. "I stick to the road, and I put up a tent and lay low when the sun gets too high. I don't exactly want to be out and about in the dark when there's barely any moon, so I gotta get a few miles in while the sun's out. But I’ve just been doing some traveling, off and on. Wanted to see more of the world now that things have settled down." He shifted his pack, shifted his feet. "So are we just gonna stand here and talk, or do you have a camp or something where we can hang out?"
"Fuck! Yeah, just on the other side of that dune." Ashton jerked a thumb over his shoulder, then turned and started walking. Fuck. They would have made up some bullshit the other night if they'd known Orym was gonna just drop in out of fucking nowhere. What all had he said, anyway? Hopefully little enough to maintain deniability, but Ashton knew themself well enough to know that was unlikely. Still, if he was lucky, they wouldn't bring anything up unless Ashton did first.
"Why this work, exactly?" Orym asked as they began their walk back to camp. "I'd have figured you'd had enough of bodyguard gigs."
Ashton shrugged. "I'm good at it. It beats professional criminal. It beats going back to a kitchen, working for someone else. I pick my gigs, and I'm free to walk if I need to."
"And why this gig? Archaeology?"
"Look, if we hadn't had too much other shit to do at the time I could have spent ages in that library in Whitestone. Hells, when I first got to Jrusar I spent most of my free time wandering outside that fucking Conservatory, thinking about what it must be like inside. In a different life, I might have... I would have ended up in a place like that. I like to read. I like to fucking learn things. And after all the shit we've done, or maybe because of it, face it, this is the closest I'm gonna get to any of that."
Orym's hand slipped into theirs, and Ashton didn't pull away, and the last five-ish years might have been nothing between them. "I mean, you don't have to be young to educate yourself; we both know plenty of people who I'm sure would put in a good word. One that would carry weight."
"Yeah, but I'm not fucking made for a formal education. Could've been, but that's not where I ended up. But I can come out here with people who know their shit, who don't fucking talk down to me as long as I show them I can keep up, and it's the kind of shit I wish we could have been doing, y'know, if we didn't have to deal with the fucking world ending, or whatever." He shrugged. "What about you, though? Figured you'd be staying in Zephrah. Or with Dorian's folks."
"Maybe I felt the same, a little. About seeing the world without all the baggage. Man,” he smiled. “Crazy that we stumbled across each other."
"Well, ah..." Ashton rubbed their neck. "Glad we're getting a chance to catch up."
I haven’t posted here in a hot minute but fuck meta. This will be my new landing pad for cosplay for the time being if TT goes down. Here are a few photos of my latest cosplay, husk. How do we feel about tutorials over here?
Ok ok ok... I know this is just me being an Ashrym stan, BUT
Orym saying he only likes guys. Then immediately adding ‘and it’s more than that. It’s complicated.’ I can’t stop thinking about that! Like... is it because he finds himself liking a certain punk rock barbarian who isn’t a guy????
And then soon after looking at Ashton (while they were discussing who should be driving) and saying ‘you’d look... (insert very long pause while Orym just STARES at Ashton) bad ass.’ Did you mean hot???? Huh Orym???
Who else is absolutely loving The Mandalorian????? Although I gotta admit, I'm dying to see some of the new bad ass female characters teased in the promo photos. Any future mando cosplays for next year? 🤣🤣🤣 . Photo: @mig_photography_world . #reycosplay #starwarscosplay #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B5VmkIYDScG/?igshid=azjgb88vskq8
If you've been following my stories here on IG, then you know I started Rococo Christmas Belle! I have less than a month to throw this cosplay together, but I'm so excited for it! The skirt is coming together gorgeously, and I can't wait to start patterning the bodice! I did use a pattern for the pocket hoop and skirt, McCalls 2096, with some very minor alterations. Who else is still making their Holiday Matsuri cosplay?! #cosplaywip #wipwednesday #bellecosplay #disneycosplay #disneyprincess #rococobellecosplay #rocococosplay #holidaymatsuri2019 #holidaymatsuri #holmat #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #seamstress #cosplayseamstress https://www.instagram.com/p/B5GIt_bDNnC/?igshid=1q3i6r17xs0ur
How about another Harley Monroe? I love this version of Harley. It's super comfortable, and every time I wear it, someone always comes up to me to talk about it. I'm not a terribly creative person, so that makes me so proud 🥰 What's a creative cosplay concept you've pulled together? #harleyquinncosplay #harleyquinncosplayer #harleycosplayer #harleymonroe #dccosplay #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #seamstress #cosplayseamstress https://www.instagram.com/p/B5D4LfuDvK9/?igshid=cdeglfz0zg6e
It's #wipwednesday and I wanted to share my current project and a lesson learned. While working on my pocket hoops, I wasn't thrilled with how the ribbon was looking. I was using my standard presser foot. So I switched to my teflon foot. World of difference. The sewing was much smoother, making it easier to maintain a straight seam. And the smooth gliding didn't pull the fabric causing the bunching you see in the photo. Sometimes when something isn't working, I take a break and think about the project. What can I do differently to make things go more smoothly? Then, I try again. What cosplay problem have you fixed with something simple, like my presser foot switch? You never know who you might be helping by talking about it! #cosplaywip #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #seamstress #cosplayseamstress https://www.instagram.com/p/B40D_VzDnMN/?igshid=114axcc20pahi
First photo of my Harley Monroe! I squeed sooooo hard when I saw Harley in Marylin's classic pink dress in the BoP trailer so I had to do a reshoot/restyle of my pinup Harley to match. My late grandpa used to call me Marylin all the time so I've always had a bit of an obsession with her, especially since he passed. On an unrelated note, today's Disney+ day! What are you watching?????!!! I'm watching Tangled because I've never seen the whole thing! So excited to fix that. #harleyquinncosplay #harleyquinncosplayer #harleycosplay #harleycosplayer #dccosplay #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #harleymonroe #pinupharleycosplay #pinupcosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B4xheuXj1Uh/?igshid=1ujemk8w9nmi8
Catch me at @fffcomics as Harley Monroe! I'm a cosplay guest and photographer so come see me! Before all the color falls out of my hair 😭😭😭😭😭 Melbourne Florida! #harleyquinncosplay #harleyquinncosplayer #harleycosplayer #harleymonroe #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #cosplayandcomics https://www.instagram.com/p/B4pvJFnD8Uj/?igshid=q88yx50dkex6
I'm at @fffcomics for cosplay and comics day! Come meet Harley Monroe and get your photo taken! Hope to see you! 🥰🥰😘😘 Cosplay contest at 2. #harleyquinncosplay #harleyquinncosplayer #pinupharleycosplay #dccosplay #harleymonroe #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #cosplayandcomics https://www.instagram.com/p/B4prE3gDJNF/?igshid=b9qjcfd3xcvo
We're supposed to be dressing like this now, right? . . . Grainy texture is on purpose, ig didn't mess up my image. 😋 . #bladerunnercosplay #priscosplay #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #closetcosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B4f-pBEDvI6/?igshid=cvp1c6hwkejr
We're supposed to be dressing like this now, right? . . . Grainy texture is on purpose, ig didn't mess up my image. 😋 . #bladerunnercosplay #priscosplay #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #closetcosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B4f-pBEDvI6/?igshid=cvp1c6hwkejr
Final #FallforCostume post! Days 30 and 31, 'beginnings' and 'endings'. 30: every cosplay begins with a toile... at least it does now. I didn't used to, but as I've grown as a seamstress, I've learned how important a toile is. It may seem redundant, but I promise you, it makes all the difference. 31: and every cosplay ends up fitting gorgeously because of said toile. I want sure what to do for ending, because I'm not finished sewing, I don't have a cosplay the fits the ending theme. So I chose this. And it's also my last cosplay finished, so I guess that also fits. I had a lot of fun with this prompt. Posting everyday was a bit hard, so if i do another prompt, I'll absolutely combine days and only post a few times a week. If you come across a prompt you'd like me to do, let me know! Note back to our regularly scheduled cosplay. 🤣 #redthreaded #villagebellecosplay #bellecosplay #disneycosplay #disneyprincess #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay #curvycosplay #seamstress #cosplayseamstress #halloween #halloweencostume https://www.instagram.com/p/B4SdN_BDT7_/?igshid=1lpo9xqe0vudk
Next batch of #FallforCostume is 27, 28, and 29! 27 is 'purple' and I had to choose my @jessicanigri inspired espeon Gijinka cosplay! The top was patterned by me, as were the ears. The bottom was from a belly dancing costume pattern. I loooooved this cosplay because purple is my favorite color and I was head to toe purple. It was amazing. Unfortunately, this cosplay is retired. 28 is 'romantic' and I think this shot of my Anastasia is quite romantic. This skirt weighs a ton because of all the beading! I'm actually considering redoing this cosplay. Perhaps moving it up ahead of mollymauk, and making it a competition piece for megacon. What do you think? Finally, 29 is 'spooky' and honestly Samara is definitely the scariest think I've ever cosplayed. I made nothing on this cosplay. I thrifted a cheap nightgown and painted it, and happened to have the wig from an arda sale. It was an accidental cosplay. But it was a lot of fun.... I'm not usually scary! #redthreaded #espeoncosplay #espeongijinka #pokemoncosplay #pokemongijinka #Anastasiacosplay #samaracosplay #theringcosplay #scarycosplay #halloween #halloweencostume #floridacosplay #plussizecosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B4NZFStDSMb/?igshid=kv8k6sdt1sra
