ralliesprotests | Ainmhian IC Inbox

What, the dog's bollocks? It's a compliment, innit. Like the bee's knees.

I.

Do bees even have knees?

[Rowan she is not sober enough for this omg.]

[Just be glad they haven't gotten to the cockney rhyming slang yet.]

You know, I never asked. But they must do, right? Everything has knees. Except for fish.

There's not a lot of time to study the knees of bees when you are the commander and forever at war or risk of famine.

I cannot say I would know. Though I imagine skaikru would have...

It ain't something they covered at school neither. Unless they did and I just weren't paying attention that day.

Who's Skaikru?

It means sky people in Trigedasleng, my native speech. They call themselves Arkers or Arkadian's because the ship they lived on in space and have now turned into a village was called the Ark.

I am from Trikru, or Trigedakru. The woods clan.

Clarke is a sky person...

Oh! Clarke was your-- [And then they fumble. Girlfriend? Partner? The person that Lexa died for? The last one's at least true, but wow, how about we don't aim for morose drunk.] She was the lady you loved, right?

And they'd have looked at the bees 'cos they fly too?

Yes. I love... loved her.

No, because on the Ark before they had to return to the ground they had time for schools, and knowledge from the world before the fire. Their people escaped much of the problems my people faced. We only teach children to survive. They had time to teach them to live. Not just to be warriors and hunters and to kill.

Natblidas and Flamkeepas are the only ones who learn much outside of that on the ground. Because we must. And the flame taught me the things that Titus and Anya could not after I ascended.

Nothing about bees, though.

There is no time for childhood when you are born like me. Little time for love, either. Which is why what happened happened... Clarke, but also Costia before her. At least Clarke lived.

[Rowan's fingers go back to slowly working through her hair, softly soothing. As much as they're fascinated by her world and curious to hear more about it, every snippet they find out about seems to be worse than the last.

And they do try to resist. Really they do. But Costia - they haven't heard that name before. Or if they have, they'd forgotten.]

I don't think you mentioned Costia before? [They struggle against their curiosity for a moment longer, but it wins out.] What happened to her?

She died. [Lexa says, quite bluntly and with a tone that is just a bit too calm about it.]

We were... young and stupid and I thought I could change the whole world. We were probably fourteen or so when we met... One day when we were fifteen or so she went off on a ride and she never came home.

Most of her never came home.

Queen Nia, the ruler of Azgeda - the Ice nation - sent her head to me in a box. To my bed. Where we had been together only days before. Because she was mine they tortured her, thinking I had divulged my secret plans. They tortured her, cut off her head and made sure I knew it was them.

And to forge a peace I still had to let them into my coalition. To bring them to heel.

We were so young...

Edited 2020-10-22 19:38 (UTC)

[Rowan tenses against her, and then instinctively pulls her in closer, hugging her tight. It's too much to bear, thinking of anyone losing a lover like that. And they were both so young as well, it's simply too cruel.]

I'm sorry, Lexa. I'm so sorry. [They don't have words for that, all they can do is curl around her and wish they had some way of taking away all of the awful things that she's had to go through.]

Titus taught me that love was weakness. I thought I would die, when I saw her like that. But he taught me and I shut the feelings off.

And then Clarke fell out of the sky and crashed into my land and... everything changed again.

I hope she taught you that love ain't a weakness. 'Cos it ain't, you know that, right? It hurts sometimes, more than we can bear, but it can make you stronger than anything else too.

Oh, she did.

After I left her to die, turned her into a monster, was generally entirely undeserving of love even if it was the right thing for my people.

I dream about her. Every night. About leaving her at mount weather alone.

About comforting her as I died.

About the hundreds of nights we might have had if the world was kinder instead of the single afternoon we got.

That's why I try, here, you know. Not because I've been told too, but because you never know when someone is going... and I'm so tired of being left in the dark. Even if I deserve it.

[Again, acting on instinct, Rowan leans in and kisses her forehead, holding her close.] You deserve to be happy, to have a good life. Fuck, if anyone deserves it, it's you, after everything you've been through. If I could snap my fingers and make everything right for you, I would.

[She lets herself be kissed, lets herself curl closer and return the embrace.]

Many would argue the opposite. The things I did for my people are not the foolish, thoughtless mistakes of youth. I did them with the full knowledge of the blood on my hands. And I would do most of it again.

I am not a soft, sweet thing, Rowan.

[Rowan's quiet for a good moment or so, their fingers still slowly winding through her hair. Finding the right words has never been an issue to them, it's always finding the right angle to come from. How can they craft what they want to say in a way that she'll understand the best? And that's harder than it is back home in this place, without their gift, and without the shared history and mythology that they so often tap into.]

I know you ain't, Lexa. You were a leader in a time of war - a strong leader. You've made choices I never could.

But the fact is, that you ain't never had the choice in the first place. You was never asked if you wanted this life. You keep saying, if you wasn't Commander, things could have been different, you could have lived happy with the woman you loved. That's what I wish for you. That you'd had that choice, between that life and the one you had; not now, after living your life and the loves in it, but before there was anything to influence the decision. And I know it can't happen, 'cos we can't change our history, but I hope you can have a taste of it here at least.

I would have never met her if I wasn't me. She stormed my tent after she killed three hundred of my men, after she'd met my mentor, Anya, who convinced her I could be reasoned with. After I camped my army outside her gates because one of her friends had wiped out a village while looking for her.

If I was just Leksa I would have never met her. She wouldn't have looked at me twice.

We had hoped there would be a point in the future where we could just... be.

Nothing here is the same as her. Even when it is close it is just as forbidden. It simply must be endured until the fey get sick of me and send me back to whatever is left of me in the flame. Dreaming of her.

That's what I mean, I wouldn't ask you to make that choice now. Not when you have all of that behind you.

But I still think you deserve happiness. Whatever kind you can find here. And you can't change my mind on that.

Ren's wrong, of course. [Lexa says softly.] About liking women.

But no matter what you say, and if I ought to have smacked her for behaving as she did or not, it might be fairer on her to keep away from me. It is not fair to anyone that I cannot stop loving Clarke.

If Ren deserves you after what she did is a question to be asked, and if you're ready or want to love again is another, but fairness don't come into the equation, not right now at least. Let's see if Ren can learn the error of her ways, first, and if you still want a relationship with her, and then that might be something to ask.

[Rowan strokes Lexa's hair gently, curling around her protectively. They wish they could free Lexa from such melancholy thoughts, but they seem to keep leading her down the wrong path. It doesn't help that they know that theoretically some people can only love one person at once, but that's not their experience of the world.] Maybe things will seem clearer with some sleep and less booze?

Not usually. [Lexa says while letting herself snuggle against Rowan and rest there.] Rested and sober there is no one better at controlling themselves to how they are supposed to be, not how they might want to be.

Ain't that the truth. But it does make it easier to think clear. [They continue to stroke her hair, gentle and soothing. Maybe they can lull her into sleep this way.]

I think just fine. That's the problem. I've always been more mature than my age. [She says softly. There was never any choice.] I always saw the path ahead as clear as if I was already on it.

[Rowan sighs softly, continuing to stroke her hair. Another sign of how quickly she had to grow up.] Yeah, well, drink too much and you'll wander off the path. And that's when you gotta call the big bad wolf to come help you figure out what name to shout. [They chuckle, playfully nosing into her. Clearly they are the biggest and baddest of wolves. But hopefully the self-deprecating humour will shift her line of thinking towards something more positive.]

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