#naribran

[starcunning]

17. Shy kiss - Malcolm/Jay/Vaughn go go go!

I’m not saying this is canon but I wouldn’t mind if it were. It’s probably best summed up by this meme Sars made:

I hope this is some comfort (or torment?) to those I shipwrecked.

It hadn’t been an easy sell. For most people, a road trip across America sounded like a dream summer vacation—or at least the plot of a decent movie—but, because it was her, Vaughn had taken some convincing. He hadn’t come at all at first, actually, and Jacinth had taken Malcolm to see Cape Cod and up to the Maritime Museum in Maine alone. By the time they were headed to New York City, he had repented of the idea, and she had picked him up at the airport.

Vaughn’s luggage was full of books. That had made her laugh—it really seemed far more like an Alfred thing—but eventually he explained that he had intended to spend the summer reading through the Griffin’s library in the hopes of figuring out the planeswalking that Acacia had mentioned.

That had stung a bit—echoes of the same old regret that had pricked her when Vaughn had asked why she couldn’t have broken her news while the portal to Naribran was still open—but if he had wanted to stay well clear of her, he had had that opportunity.

And given it up. Had left New Hampshire so that he could join them on this road trip. Jacinth hadn’t been entirely sure what to make of it; she had no idea what any of it meant except, perhaps, that she was selfish.

When she had mentioned it at confession—at the cathedral in Philadelpha—she had been quickly absolved. It was not a sin to desire the companionship of others, the priest told her, nor to delight in their company. When she told him she was tempted to seek a second opinion, he had laughed gently and told her that Saint Liguori directed the faithful to trust in their confessor, for to accept his judgment was to follow the direction of God.

She had left Philadelphia gladder for it, and for Vaughn’s companionship, even on long, landmarkless days where he stretched across the back seat, reading from the Griffin’s notebooks aloud. Malcolm would provide context and commentary from time to time, teaching them more about his world even as they introduced him to Earth.

It was hot in Flagstaff, though not nearly so much as one might have expected in the Arizona summertime. It was the elevation, she supposed, and the cloudless night. From Mars Hill she could look down on the city below and see only a few lamps illuminating crosswalks and service stations. Most of the rest had been extinguished around 9, when they had left the bar where they’d eaten a late dinner.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon waited. For now, there was the quiet forest of Mars Hill and the Lowell Observatory atop. Even without the aid of the telescope they had come to see in the after-hours, the night sky was brilliant overhead. Malcolm’s hand rested in her own, and they both gazed upwards. His awe was naked on his face—and more so still when the attendants had directed his view toward Pluto—discovered at this very observatory all those years before. He had asked a thousand questions, and although the astronomers seemed amused by the enthusiasm he showed, they had gamely answered each.

And now they stood in the dark night, watching the moon peek through the treetops. Vaughn was a little ways away, his gaze turned upward too, hands thrust into the pouch pocket of his maroon sweatshirt.He cleared his throat. “I’ll get the car,” he offered. “Jay?” He held out an expectant hand, waiting for her to toss him the keys.Malcolm nudged her ribs with his elbow, and she glanced over to find him smiling. She smiled back, raking a hand through her hair—grown a bit shaggy on the road, tickling at her neck now.“Actually,” she said, letting go of Malcolm’s hand, “I’ll go with you.”“You sure?” Vaughn asked.“I’m cold,” Jacinth told him, drawing abreast of him.Vaughn looked at her, shoulders bare in her tank top, and then over at Malcolm, who was little better off in a tee. His runic tattoos peeked out beneath the short sleeves. Vaughn sighed, peeling out of his sweatshirt and thrusting it at her. “Here,” he said.

Jacinth murmured her thanks, shrugging into it. It smelled like him—not just hotel soap or the splash of cologne he wore, but like him in a way that nothing else ever would, and the fabric was soft and warm against her bare arms. He watched her as she lifted the hood and let it fall, toying with the drawstrings, and there was a private war going on behind his eyes she could see only in the set of his lips—as though he was trying too hard not to smile.“I’ll meet you out front in a minute,” Malcolm said.“Come on,” Jay urged. She wanted to reach out and take him by the arm, but that seemed like a transgression.

When it was Vaughn’s turn to drive, sometimes it was Jacinth in the back seat, stretched out and dead to the world. Acacia came and went as she pleased, but wherever she was, Jay could reach out and speak to her. It was kind of nice to have a faerie godmother, if a bit surreal, and since Wyoming, she had relied on her guidance more and more.

“So,” Vaughn said. “Where to next?”“The Grand Canyon tomorrow,” she said. “After that, I guess I was thinking Vegas? We have about a month left of summer before we should get back east.”“Don’t they card you in Vegas?” Vaughn wondered. “My roommate was going to go sophomore year, but they wouldn’t let him play. Be a problem for Malcolm.”Jacinth flinched. “Maybe not, then.”“Well,” Vaughn said, “unless you think we could pass him off as Alfred.”She laughed, and it echoed off the stone path underfoot. “Sure,” she said, “just some light identity theft. It should be fine.” She sighed. “Honestly, I haven’t figured out what to do about that. Sooner or later it’s going to be a problem.”Vaughn shrugged.

Soon they passed the rotunda and were headed back toward the visitors’ center. The parking lot waited just beyond, and that hardly seemed an appropriate place. “Hey,” Jacinth said, stopping short.Vaughn stopped too, turning back to look at her. “Yeah?” he said.“I’m glad you’re here.”He gave her a funny sort of look. “I’m glad I came, too, in the end.” It wasn’t an unalloyed happiness.She took a deep breath. Mars Hill was covered with pine trees, and she could smell them on the night air. “Do you still like me?”He seemed dumbfounded by the question. “Of course I still like you. You’re still a good person,” he was quick to say.Jay laughed, nervously, and felt her smile dimple her cheeks. “No, not … this is awkward,” she said after a moment. “I don’t think there’s a way around that. Just … since Yellowstone, Malcolm and I have been talking. I think he brought it up back in Chicago, but … Anyway, so, the thing is …”“Jacinth,” he said, in that firm, grounding way that he always had when her thoughts ran away with her in Naribran.“Are you still in love with me?” she asked instead.Vaughn looked pained, and then turned his face up toward the heavens, as though the Milky Way contained the truth of the matter in its smear of stars. It was a long moment before he said, “Yeah.”“That’s what I thought,” she said. She reached out to take his hand, but he tugged it away.“Things with Malcolm not working out?” he wondered. There was no bitterness in his tone that she could detect.“Things with Malcolm are fine,” she said, feeling her cheeks grow hot. “It’s just …”“Just what,” he said.

Jacinth sighed, trying to tuck her hair back behind her ears. It didn’t work—how often had she forgotten she didn’t have long hair in this body? “I never felt nothing for you,” she said. “I just wasn’t in love with you. I didn’t really have time to figure that out before you died, and I couldn’t really figure it out after. But now you’re alive, and you’re here. It’s still really confusing, but I’ve started to figure some things out.”He regarded her warily. She knew that look—had worn it a few times herself, guarding against hope in the assumption that would protect against disappointment later.“Do you remember,” she said, “when we were negotiating with the Nordics and Volkepf was explaining how things worked in their band?”Vaughn’s brow furrowed. “Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d want to. Wait, are you trying to set me up with Malcolm?”Jacinth laughed. “No,” she told him. Then she cleared her throat and said, “This isn’t about you two, uh, sharing honor or whatever their euphemism was. It’s more about the part where I said that in my homeland, men couldn’t marry men, and he said that where I came from sounded really … not oppressive, that wasn’t the word, but what he meant was that people should be free to just be whoever they are and pursue who they like?”Vaughn nodded, but he didn’t relax. “Where are you going with this, Jacinth?”

She glanced skyward a moment, then turned her gaze on Vaughn once more. “I wanted to walk back with you because I wanted to ask you a question.”“So this is just, what?” he teased. “Opening arguments?”“Sort of,” she admitted. “Malcolm knows about my feelings, and he supports them, so I wanted to ask …”He waited. There was no impatience in his body language.“We’re not breaking up,” Jacinth hastened to add. “Malcolm and I, we’re still going to be together, but if that’s alright, I wanted to ask: would it be alright if I kissed you?”

Vaughn looked at her a long moment, dumbstruck. She couldn’t help but feel exposed—not to the night air, but to him. His examination of her and her feelings; his judgment. It was only a moment or two, but it felt like a thousand stars rose and died overhead in that instant. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah.”

This was not something she could just throw herself into, so she reached for him, cradling his face in her hands. She could feel the day’s growth of stubble against her palms, and she smiled. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, and Jacinth leaned in, tipping her head to one side.

His lips were warm and soft against her own, and although this was not a deep kiss she lingered over it, breathing in the scent of his skin, and the warmth of him; the safety she had always felt in his presence.

When she drew back, she couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she said.“Yeah,” Vaughn said, smiling. “Me too.”

[starcunning]

Dream Team icons!

My D&D group has been playing together for ten years officially, so in celebration one of the other members of the group, Mike, commissioned me to make art that reflects the tropes and archetypes they’ve portrayed over the years.

@mystictheurge​: Mike often plays support casters of various types. The ewer is a general callback to the healing archetype, and the flowering brambles were specifically in reference to Fiannalore, one of his characters. His archetype has the nicest hair because he tends toward a glamorous, pretty type of character.

@pink-is-the-only-choice​: Codi is all over the map with her character types, so I tried to make specific visual callbacks with elements rather than try to amalgamate such physically distinctive types. The flame detail on the cloak is inspired by her sorcerer Keffle, and the cowboy-bandanna paisleys on her bracers call back to Rada and her ever-present head rag. The spear was her fighter Lee’s preferred weapon, and the fuchsia accent color is because ... pink was the only choice.

@lordcaliginous​: Marius plays a variety of classes, but they are marked out by their tactical minds and noble bearing or bloodline. Marius varies his characters’ gender presentation more than some other players, so I gave his archetype a more androgynous look. The epaulets and flourished detailing reflect that nobility, and the chains were a specific callback to Karin and the strictures of her station--not to mention her bound ancestor. The hair was definitely inspired by Lena and Karin’s fabulous hair, too.

@mcsars​: Sars loves to play grizzled warriors. I think basically all of his PCs that I’ve met are of that mold, so I got to play around with the details a lot. I really love the intensity of his expression.

@starcunning​: Star--uh, I--only have one main-game character so far, a bard named Marin. My archetype has their hair, and was given a lute in a nod to that too. But we’ve had a recurring series of one shots where I play Miyumi, a super-genius mage, and just wrapped on the Naribran game we’ve been playing the last couple of months where I played Jacinth, a fae-pact warlock. The thorns refer to this sort of self-flagellating tendency my characters have, and the leaflike patterns on the clothes hew closer to Jacinth’s fae powers. It’s teal because ... I like teal the best.

@tamsynspeaks​: Stella loves to play archers and often plays elves, or characters taken with elves. Thus her choice of weaponry and the decision to give her elfin ears were obvious. The character that most breaks the mold was Grace, a member of a space cult fixated on an entity called the Erix, whose eye watches the universe. Thus the celestial imagery generally, and the all-seeing-eye motif in specific.

It’s been a privilege getting to play with these guys for the last year and change, and a joy to work on this series.

[starcunning]

We wrapped on our Naribran game last night, which we’ve been playing for the last three months while our usual game was on hiatus so the DM could move to Europe. Despite its comparative brevity, I got surprisingly invested in my character, Jacinth, and @vestaloflight drew her for me as a Christmas present.

It will probably surprise no one to know that I have another commission of Jay in the works, because that’s just who I am, I guess. Look forward to that.

Thanks to @mcsars for engineering this fun little romp, and the rest of the Dream Team for making it the experience it was. Sorry I sunk your favorite ship.

[starcunning]

@wolffyluna​ had an open tag for this, so why not.

Shipping: I am an inveterate shipper. It is my creative raison d’etre. I used to feel some level of shame about this, but I like to tell love stories and I’ve made my peace with that. They don’t always look how you’d expect them to look.

Lipstick or chapstick: Chapstick for sure. I feel like I look doofy in lipstick.

Last Song: “Genesis 30:3,″ which, had it not been released four years too late (2009), would most likely be on a Jacinth playlist. (I only want to put songs on her playlist that she could have had on the iPod she had when she went to Naribran and the road trip after. There’s some stiff competition on The Life of the World to Come, though.)

Last Movie: I was super sure I’d get to say Knives Out, but then I remembered I’d seen the new Star Wars, so I guess that kinda sums up my TROS opinions.

Reading: The Duchess War by Courtney Milan, very specifically as a fuck-you to the RWA.

I’m tagging: I too will leave an open tag.