#cam adventurezone

[pisswizard420]

LMFAO this doesnt have a title

Since I don’t have an AO3 I’m shoving the 1st chapter of this thing here because why not. It’s all after the cut

Warnings- you know WOnderland? That’s the warning. There’s some stuff that makes me feel a bit squirmy. (Body horror, some violence, memory loss)

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and she doesn’t come out. It’s been two months, and Davenport drinks the Voidfish Ichor because he’s thirsty and hungry and there’s no water or food. He drinks it and he remembers and it is horrible and painful, and he goes to find his crew. He goes and grabs Taako, Barry, Magnus, Merle and they start looking for Lup again. They don’t look for Lucretia. At this point, they decide, Lucretia is dead; they see no point in going to find a corpse.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and she doesn’t come out. It’s been six months and she and Cam aren’t doing well. Her body shakes, she’s been spasming since the boss fight. Her body remembers the damage done by that lich on the 90th cycle now- Wonderland exposing her to that agony again. The hosts offer a bonus round, and they choose the escape game. They both get stuck, neither willing to leave the other when they have to be so, so close. “You should’ve left, Luc.” He’s taken to calling her that, ignoring any complaints she raised. “You look like shit.”

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and she turns to Cam, “I couldn’t just leave you behind. You’d die in a second if I wasn’t here to watch your back.” He could hear the unspoken reason: they have to be close and even if they aren’t she can’t stop now, she’s committed herself to this , looking for the bell, spiting the liches, inducting him into her family. “Maybe we should rest for a bit before we go into the next room. We may not be able to heal magically, but you finally stopped bleeding from where that one got you.” He looks down and sees she’s right. “Let’s wait a bit.” She hands him some jerky she conjured into existence. He rolls his eyes at the showing off, and then he conjures them up some water.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and it’s been a decade. They have a lead on Lup’s location and Lucretia’s location. Taako and Barry go off to meet up with some Dwarf named Gundren, who’s questing in the area where Lup disappeared. Davenport takes the Starblaster with Merle and Magnus to a clearing in the Felicity Wilds. The earth is charred, and they see four liches fighting, two on two, each team with one of the relics. They hear the bell, and there’s a shield that warps around the ship suddenly- Davenport fancies he can see the soundwaves bouncing off of the shield.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and it’s been a decade. She looks at Cam, cataloging all that they’ve lost. There are patches of magic where skin should be and limbs have been replaced with enchanted constructs and he looks at her half wild. He looks at her, cataloging all that they’ve lost. She’s lost memories, and she’s thrown herself under the bus for him, giving him time to recover after the liches asked for too much (they always asked for too much, always always always asked for too much these days.) She lost her memories of home, and her family, and so much and so had he. All he remembered was Wonderland and the fact that they came looking for a bell- she once confessed the same. It was upsetting to think about.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and it’s been a decade. She looks at Cam, the only person in years that she hasn’t been pitted against. She looks at Cam, someone who she can fight with flawlessly, who there are inside jokes with, who she knows the favorite foods of, someone who is a brother to her in all but blood, her only family. She looks at Cam and she grins, and it is all wrong. Her cheeks stretch too wide and her eyes, her teeth, they all glint with strange new magic; the effect of the glinting and the unnatural movements would terrify most but not Cam, never Cam, he knows her too well for that. “I have an idea. What do you think about becoming liches?”

Cam looks at her, someone who he fights with flawlessly, who he shares inside jokes with, who he knows the favorite foods of, someone who is a sister to him in all but blood, his only family. He looks at her and he grins, and it is all wrong. His skin glows in patches, and his eyes seem to look almost through her. The effect of the glowing disjointed nature of his smile would terrify most but not Lucretia (Luc, his Luc), never Lucretia, she knows him too well for that. “Tell me more. This sounds like it could be useful.” He listens closely to her whispered words and- and- and he agrees that it would be a good idea- send two liches to beat two liches- necromancy against necromancy- complacency versus hungry determined angry. He thinks that it’s obvious who will win. He is the only one who thinks that.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, searching for a bell, and its been a decade. Lucretia and Cam (Cam and Lucretia) set up and do a ritual to become liches, and they anchor themselves with each other, emotions tied together, stabilizing each other, keeping each other sane. It goes well and quickly and Lucretia casts a shield with that staff (Where did she get that staff from? She doesn’t remember) around their bodies to protect them. After that they start wrecking shit- trading focuses in midair and toying with the energy around them. They pull at the right string of necromantic energy and Wonderland burns away around them, freeing the other inhabitants. They don’t care about that though. Cam hurls off a spell that screams out wrongwrongeldritchwrong and it knocks Lydia back. Lucretia slams them between walls of magic. The twins retaliate.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, looking for a bell, and its been a decade, and Davenport and Magnus and Merle can’t do anything except watch two sets of liches fight and fight and fight and fight and- and Taako calls Davenport on his stone of farspeech.  “So- there’s a bit of a-“ One of the liches bursts, taking another with it and Davenport can’t tell which duo won or whether or not it’s a good thing and the bell rings loud and clear and nothing happens and Taako says, “Is something going on?” The stone cuts out and the shield falls, and the two liches that survived drift over to the ship.

Lucretia leaves off into Wonderland, looking for a bell, and its been a decade. It’s been a decade and Wonderland is gone and she and Cam are free and they try and undo what the bell did and it doesn’t work, so Cam sets it down and she shields it and they drift over to the ship. In unison they touch down lightly on the deck. “Hello.” She smiles, and from the way that the gnome pales it doesn’t seem like she did a very good job. She probably didn’t- she doesn’t have lips in her lich form. “I’m Lucretia. You are?” Surprisingly enough, the gnome pales further, mouthing her name. She thinks he might know her. She feels a strange sort of disinterested curiosity. “This is Cam.” She doesn’t go into more detail; he doesn’t need more; it’s obvious who he is. She gestures at Cam, who gets less than a cursory glance. She notices that. She doesn’t like it.

Lucretia and Cam burn down Wonderland, after a decade of looking for a bell.  They burn it down, and they sit there watching a group of people looking a mix of horrified and sad and the tall tan ruffboi looks at Lucretia and puts a hand out to shake, saying, “I’m Magnus.” There’s a pause while she shakes his hand, and then he gestures to the dwarf and gnome. “These are Merle and Capnport. We knew you before that place.” His hands move around nervously at the end of his sentence. Lucretia looks at Cam, asking him, asking him something with her eyes.

Lucretia and Cam burn down Wonderland, after a decade of looking for a bell. They burn it down, and now Lucretia is looking at him wondering- just- just wondering and he nods. He vaguely remembers her mentioning them in the past. He opens his mouth to speak, to cover for her discomfort. “Why didn’t you come?” He sounds dangerous and for a moment seems to fizz with lightning and then Lucretia puts a hand on his shoulder and he zooms back into himself. “Why didn’t you come for her?” Her hand stays on his shoulder- a steady presence. A grounding presence.  

Taako and Barry go to find Lup, and Phandolin burns. Phandolin burns and they find Lup and Barry grabs the umbrella and smashes it and she flies out. She flies out and they wait for Davenport to come pick them up. Davenport comes and Lucretia-but not quite- and someone else are standing casually on the deck, each holding a relic, and neither recognizing any of them. Neither seem to recognize Taako or Lup or Barry and Taako walks over to Lucretia and opens his mouth and then in unison Lucretia and the other one say, “Don’t remember (she doesn’t remember) you sorry.”

“What the fuck, my dude.” For a moment he is shaken out of his anger, for a moment he sees the way magic seems to coat the pair, slick and oily and sliding down over their bodies. For a moment he sees two small elves, short golden hair and long golden braid. For a moment he is shaken out of his anger, and when that moment passes he shoves it to the side because he’s Taako and its no good being mad at someone if you can’t constantly rub in why you’re mad. “That’s some fucked up shit.”

“Big mood.” Lucretia-and-Cam, Cam-and-Lucretia have a habit of speaking in unison. Taako-and-Lup, Lup-and-Taako had a habit of doing that, so Taako isn’t overly weirded out by it. Lucretia grimaces a bit though and says, “Sorry. We’re trying to work on doing that a bit less often. It seems to be a bit of a thing when talking to other people.” Taako nods, jerky and stiff. He’s not really enjoying the similarities with a younger him and Lup (Lup and him) but- but- but they’re there. The similarities are there, the hungry eyes, and the standing close, and the speaking as one, and he understands. He pushes his understanding aside. He speaks.

“The name’s Taako.” He tries not to be a little unnerved by the lack of recognition in her eyes. He does, of course, succeed at that because he’s Taako mother-fucking [insert last name here] and it takes a little bit more than not being recognized at all from someone you spent one hundred years on a ship with to unnerve him. It takes a lot more than that (okay, so he wouldn’t admit it to anyone except maybe Lup, but it does unnerve him. It does scare him. It does make him uncomfortable- and where is Lup when you need your other half, your moral compass? And he looks at Lucretia and Lucretia stole Lup from him and look at her with all of them stolen from her, all of the crew, her home, her family, one hundred and twenty years gone, and how is he supposed to respond to that? Vindication? Anger? Anything would be better than this dull sense of empathy, this dull understanding that he doesn’t want to have.)

“Lucretia. Nice to meet you, again I suppose.” Her expression is bland. It is the polite disinterest when meeting a distant relative. He hates it. It makes him uncomfortable, especially because when he first saw Magnus, and Merle, and Davenport before he got inoculated he looked at them like that. Barry (his brother in law! The guy who married his sister!) looked at him like that. He really, really doesn’t like it.

“Cam,” says the tall half elf standing closely next to Lucretia. He looks at Taako like Taako is a threat (Which ‘cha boy is, natch, but still, it kind of stings.) “So, you knew Lucretia.” The tone is conversational- how about that weather- but the eyes are not- they’re more how about I kill you. Lucretia elbows Cam in the gut, and Cam and says nothing. Taako gets elbowed in the gut with an image of Lup doing the same to him, and then it hits him again. There’s a tiny hint of the closeness of a younger him and Lup, and of course there is. Of course there is, because look at the two of them and doesn’t it just ache with sick familiarity. Don’t they just reek of it, and each moment it hits him he hates it. He hates that everything about Lucretia and this stranger screams out in familiar wrongness. Its like the dark mirror version of him and Lup except one of them is an amnesiac traitor and the other is her amnesiac codependent lackey. He hates it so much, so much, so much.

Cam doesn’t know how he feels about these strangers, these ones that claim they know Lucretia. He doesn’t know how to feel about how in the two hours since they met both in and out of their bodies they’ve given Lucretia weird looks and him none at all- like he doesn’t exist or matter at all. He also doesn’t know how to feel about the elven wizard standing in front of them, looking at them with a strange expression on his face. Then the elf speaks, and Cam makes up his mind.

“Yeah,” the elf says. “How much have they told the both of you?” He puts an emphasis on both. Cam thinks he likes this elf.

“Nothing,” he replies.

Taako (the elf earned being called by his name rather than simply being “the elf”) tilts his head and begins, “Did they give you any of the ichor?”

“No.”

“Then this might be a bit hard to explain to you. Lucretia is around 130 years old.”

“What?” “What?”

“She died around” static “times, but she” static. “There’s a vore cloud. There’s also a memory voring” static “There was a plan to” static static static “but Lucretia didn’t agree with it so she” static static static “then she went into Wonderland, leaving the Captain alone, and he inoculated himself accidentally. He thought she was dead, so he didn’t go looking for her. He started looking for” static static static static static “Then a decade passed before he decided to go and find her body.” A beat. “We were angry.” He turns to Lucretia. “I’m sorry we didn’t force the issue.”

Lucretia stares at the elf (not Taako anymore) “I- thank you for telling me the truth. I’m sorry, for what I did to you. That was unfair to you.” The elf nods. He looks vaguely distressed, vaguely angry. He says nothing. He turns to Cam.

“How much did you understand?”

“Not much. It was mostly static.”

“I have a sister.” Pause “Lucretia.” Pause. “Stole” pause static static static.

“I didn’t get some of that.” Taako, Cam thinks he understands a bit now.

“We’ll have to get you inoculated.” Taako does a heel turn and starts walking off. “Have the two of you eaten?”