#going to be thinking about Caleb and Molly and Essek and the astrological imagery associated with them

[captainkingsley]

shadowidomauk but a Cyrano au ( except nobody dies and they end up as a poly trio instead because I control the narrative )

Molly and Essek both are in love with Caleb. Caleb spends most of his time focusing on his schooling. Essek is afraid Caleb will reject him and so he never says anything to him, meanwhile Molly catches Caleb's eye while he's performing one of his circus acts and Caleb attempts to pursue him.

The problem is that Caleb communicates mainly via letters, and Molly's... Not great at reading. Or writing flowery words. So he goes to Essek, and they hatch a plan that Molly will just spill all his feelings and Essek will write them, and they collaborate on the letters from 'Molly'. Essek definitely puts his own feelings in there, as well — which makes the letters that much more enticing to Caleb.

Molly eventually finds out about that, but rather than getting upset, he takes a long look at his situation with Essek and realizes that somewhere along the way, he's accidently fallen for him, too. It doesn't help that he's been hearing Caleb's affection read out loud by Essek, and oh no, he's in way too deep, now. And Essek realizes too that hearing Molly continually pour his heart out has made him experience some conflicting things.

Eventually, they come clean to Caleb, who...

Knew the whole time. Because he's Caleb, he's smart, he's able to pick apart which parts of the letters were from Molly, and which were from Essek. And his own letters, in turn, were worded just the right way to weave words of affection for both of them.

Molly's parts of the letters talk about how incredibly smart Caleb is, about how he does things Molly only wishes he could do — he hadn't had much schooling, see, and magic fascinates him. Essek, meanwhile, emphasizes Caleb's knack for understanding any concept, and how he wants to hear his theories and ideas about how the universe works. Sometimes the two perspectives show up in one letter, but neither would notice while writing together because they both felt it. There's also the mutual attraction that gets distracting, too.

And then they realize the wording of Caleb's letters, after he reads his newest, unsent one — how he compliments Mollymauk on his curiosity and his love of life, his desire to just feel alive. And Essek's intelligence, his way with words and the magic he's able to weave. How he talks about Essek's fascination with the stars alongside Molly's love of the moon, and they realize that all the star and moon metaphors scattered throughout the letters were about both of them.

See, Caleb's the sun to Molly and Essek's moon and stars, and they work perfectly alongside each other— so it's only fitting that the three of them wind up together like this.