Somebody tell me to use my depressing amount of free time to finish this fic I've been talking about for ages. I have so much in my head but only three pages written (not consecutively). This is the first page:
The news hit them both hard.
They were nowhere near Constantinople when it fell, which Nicolo lamented and Yusuf was grateful for. (“We could have helped,” Nicolo cried. “We would have failed,” Yusuf thought to himself while offering what comfort he could. “Better that our failures remain theoretical instead of having names and faces. We cannot carry all the world’s pain, it would destroy us.”) When word reached them of the great city’s ruin, they had only just begun to make their way back from a long sojourn in the East.
In the early years of their immortality, they found themselves drawn back to the Mediterranean over and over again. First because it was home for them both, and then because of a compulsion to somehow right the wrongs of their first meeting. It was as if they could have no peace until there was lasting peace in the Levant. Try as they might to expand the borders of their experience – south to Ethiopia, north to Frisia, east to Persia – they always returned sooner than they’d planned.
The women were amused by this at first, and then irritated. “Like moths to a flame,” Quynh said once, exasperated. “Like a dog returning to its vomit,” said Andromache, disgusted. At last, after nearly two centuries of what she called “the boys’ perversion,” Andromache brought the full weight of her age and authority to bear. She and Quynh were going east, farther than the men had ever been, nearly as far east as it was possible to go. And this time, Yusuf and Nicolo were coming with them. They would be away for decades, at least, and the wretched people living on that wretched sea would have to make do without an extra pair of swords.
“What good have you ever actually done here?” Andromache asked them. Harsh, perhaps, but fair – they had no answer to give her.
They set out from Constantinople – the four of them frequently met or even settled there. Between the Mediterranean Sea beloved by Nicolo and Yusuf and the Black Sea beloved by Andromache, diverse and cosmopolitan enough that Quynh went unremarked on, full to bursting with art and libraries and architectural splendors… they had all been in love with the city, and they had all been brokenhearted over its sacking by the Franks. For Yusuf and Nicolo, it was their first great lesson in the griefs of immortality; more even than the deaths of their families, it was the decline of Constantinople that showed them what it meant to outlive the world they knew. But even ruined and half-empty, they still loved it.
From Constantinople they traveled overland to Delhi, a leisurely trip with many stops and excursions on the way. When they wearied of the Sultanate, they followed the river up into the mountains to Kathmandu. Nicolo and Yusuf had never imagined that such mountains could exist, nor could they imagine why Andromache so loved climbing them. Eventually even she tired of frostbite and thin air, and they moved on again, riding the rivers to the delta and boarding a ship in Chittagong.
Yusuf and Nicolo considered themselves skilled sailors and loved being on the open water, but they had perhaps grown complacent, even a bit bored of their home sea. They were delighted by the Gulf of the Ganges, and upon landing in Serendip had to be dissuaded from booking passage on the next merchant vessel crossing the open ocean to Zanzibar. Quynh had something else in mind, so instead of heading southwest they went east: around the Malay Peninsula and up the coast to Dai Viet. “You have spent far too long haunting your first homes,” Quynh said. “It’s time to visit mine.”
i very much appreciate the way they don't do the whole "parent is naive to hauntings and just wants the kid to give the new house a try" the moment gabbie sees somethin' weird they're out
Bro.... not t be picky on humans or anything, but if there’s one that was into hard rock or metal Blitzwing would love them so much and listen to music with them all day and not do his job.
I feel better that they had Vic actually talk to Aaron about how Robert is feeling. Aaron knows it anyway deep down but he’s hurting and feels like he was right when he said everyone leaves or he’s too difficult to love, but Vic saying it shows that the show do know.
I still think it’s all part of a plan and we have to ride it out.
You are an amazing person, Please never forget that.
Thanks. Mm.. maybe?
But… so many missed opportunities…
I could have become a dentist. Probably desensitized by all the hard studying and gross practice, but financially independent.
That, or I’d have broken under the pressure. Dumping these studies may have been the right thing.
I could’ve been a freelance translator. With enough money to travel, maybe. But I’ve dumped these studies too, in favour of protests agaist Russian regime.
I could’ve been disciplined enough to finish the 3D courses. I still have the lecture videos, but I’d have to revise everything. Everything >_<
Instead of lame SAI paintings, I could be doing 3D animation. The top grade fanworks!..
Right now I’m a passport-less, not-quite-legal immigrant in Ukraine. Tied to a person who always makes a mess and proceeds to ignore it, despite my hate for dirt and cleaning alike. A lame blob of sadness waiting for the only queer-friendly therapist I know to find time for me. And my back hurts.
