( like constellations a million years away )

[halforc]

who: fjord, mollymauk, jester
what: returning home from the nameless isle

>>MOLLY.

[ Birdsong drifts along a cool breeze, the warmth of sunny rays bathing his cheeks to stir him to consciousness. The scent of flowers hits him immediately before he even opens his eyes, groggily blinking up at a fluttering green canopy overhead and a sky as blue as the seas of the Menagerie Coast. He startles into a sitting position and looks around, alarmed as he gasps to full wakefulness with a deep-set panic in his chest spurring him into action, and with a stumble Fjord gets to his feet to spin around on the spot where he takes in the sight around him with widening eyes.

The graves of the Blooming Grove surround him, peaceful as various flowers gently sway in the summer breeze. He spots the Bag of Holding nearby and snatches it up, briefly summoning the Star Razor to check he can, and then he hears her and his knees hit the grass as they buckle, a flood of affection and relief that is not his own pouring down his spine as the Wildmother welcomes him home with what feels like a mother's embrace; ferns grow with rapid speed, grasses lurch up, and the flowers nearby riotously bloom in new vines to encircle him, swirling up his bent legs so that petals and leaves brush his face, damp with happy tears.

Welcome home.

He spends a moment crying into a hand, laughing out the agony and fear of having spent over a year being held prisoner. Flowers wind through his armour, joyously greeting Melora's Paladin. It takes a few minutes to regain his bearings but when he does the minor meditative state of her reassurance melts away and he can breathe again, picking a handful of purple and red flowers with the absent-minded idea that he doesn't want to leave part of Melora behind. As he walks away from the bed of flowers and heads further into the grove, he raises his raw voice to call for his friends, swallowing down apprehension as memories mingle of battling Lucien and the other fight on the Isle, both timelines somehow existing inside his aching head. ]

Mighty Nein? Hello? Vox Machina? Aphrodite? Is anyone ... Is anyone home too?

>>JESTER.

[ The morning after he finds Molly, Fjord heads outside with a cup of someone-tea (not thinking about who he might be drinking) to take a stroll in the golden expanse of the beautiful grove. In a simple shirt and pants after discarding his armour, desperate to soak up the comfort of the Clays like a dried-out sponge tossed into the ocean at last, he wanders at his leisure and is mid-sip when he notices a slice of blue low down in the tree-line, doing a double-take. Stepping around the trees to get closer, he drops his cup with a shout and darts through the tussocks toward Jester, scooping her up into his arms (partially, she's in a willow's branches, shit) to prop her close as he checks out whether she's injured.

She's home, though. He's so relieved that he can barely keep from shaking her awake. ]

Jester! Jester, open your eyes!

Comments

[devilstongue]

[ Fjord wakes to sun and flowers, a perfect greeting for a returning Paladin. It's beautiful and perfect, everything he deserves. Molly also awakes not to far away, curled up on a mattress of soft moss and his head on one of the graves like a morbid pillow. It's a ruder awakening that Fjord's, though - because there's... there's so much.

Nearly a year and another whole life push through his confused brain. Death and life and schemes and gods and fights and death again. Hurting his friends. Killing his friends. Trapped deep inside someone else. He reaches to touch his face and feel the scar-tissue there, splitting him like his desperate consciousness had split Lucien in order to stop him for good.

At the same time, he remembers an island. He remembers friendship, love... a promise to see the world together. The tattoos on his arm that he got in Erku are weirdly faded, and the ring as well. His promises. ]

Sea...

[ He mumbles, carefully standing like a slightly wobbly drunk. ]

Fjord...?

[halforc]

[ Hearing his name leads him to a patch of the grove shadier than where he woke up, moss clinging to the trees like blankets and sinking under his boots. He spies a very familiar figure and his breath catches, taking a hurried step only to catch his enthusiasm and halt; he notices the scar on that face, uncertainty clawing up his throat as he asks, begs, so very tired, ]

... Molly?

[ That doesn't look like K-? Kingsley, that was his name. But, who fucking knows. ]

[devilstongue]

[ Molly looks at him and his expression flits between relief, happiness and anguish in one. Walking forward like he's wandering to his own execution, he stops in front of the half-orc. The tiefling carefully reaches up a hand with faded arrows on the fingers, needing to touch that familiar face. He pauses, though, uncertain. ]

I'm... I'm so sorry. For him.

[ Lucien. Hell, even that asshole Kingsley. ]

I... do you remember? The island? Or was that just my mind trying to keep together?

[halforc]

[ It's so unnerving to watch the way Molly walks over, ensnared in the same emotional exhaustion but lucid in the way Fjord recognises, not using the same voice for a different man. Not Lucien. Not Kingsley.

Before that hand can drop Fjord cups it, bringing Molly's palm to his lips for a kiss. Soft and patient as he looks at him for signs of the person he remembers building a house and home with; a family, ramshackle from all over Exandria. With no small amount of tightness in his own voice, he lets out a shaky sigh to try and keep it together in front of Molly who looks (unsurprisingly, if Fjord's new memories of the flesh city are accurate) completely wrecked on the inside and out. Literally, judging by that scar. ]

I remember, love. I remember.

[devilstongue]

[ Those red eyes widen when Fjord takes his hand like that, the brush of those lips drawing a smile as the half-orc reassures him it was real. He knows. He remembers and they're home. They're finally home.

Finally allowed to start all those dreams they had talked about.

Letting go of that breath he was holding, Molly throws himself into Fjord's arms and kisses him with a mix of joy and desperation. ]

[halforc]

[ Molly is caught and kissed back with an elation born of relief, unending gratefulness to be back in the Wildmother's domain. As if sensing her Paladin's shaky nerves, the red and purple flowers blossom around their feet and lay against Molly's ankles. Fjord leans back to trace the new scar, frowning a touch as he recalls the trauma Lucien inflicted on himself and how Kingsley barked his way out from that mess, a broken mirror of what he should have been.

Molly is alright. Neither he or Fjord are crazy, either. ]

I told you we'd get home.

[ The flowers he still holds are tucked behind a horn, a sentimental anchor to pin Molly in place just as he is. ]

[devilstongue]

[ I told you we'd get home.

That draws a laugh out of Molly, on the slight side of hysterical after all the emotions and mental rollercoasters. They're here, though. In some beautiful garden with flowers that bloom at their feet.

He leans against the touch, smiling as he's given a little bouquet by his horn... and if he's crying, he doesn't even care. ]

You keep your promises, Captain Tealeaf.

[halforc]

[ Laughing with him, Fjord rests their foreheads together and slides a hand up to cup Molly's cheek purely for the joy of feeling his cheek and tears beneath a brushing thumb. Captain Tealeaf. So many memories, some new and others ... no, all of them are new. His head feels like a melon squeezed too hard but the joy overrides the migraine. ]

This is where Caduceus lives, it's his family home. We're safe here.

[ It's important to softly underline that to begin with, it affords Molly some certainty in an unfamiliar setting. Fjord bumps a nose with his own. ]

Are you okay?

[devilstongue]

I like it. It's... calm.

[ He needs that right now. Stillness, to let his mind catch up. There's so much and it's almost all trauma. Only their happiness on the Nameless Island shines through that. ]

I'm definitely not.

[ Molly then admits, before sighing and placing a kiss against the half-orc's broad nose ridge. ]

...but I will be.

[halforc]

You'll be alright.

[ He wraps an arm around Molly's side and nods back the way he came to the temple-home a glade or two down. ]

Let's get you something to eat, then you can rest. I'll stay with you.

[devilstongue]

[ He leans against Fjord at the touch, drawn to him like a flower to the sun. He breathes a sigh, trying to hold himself together, and then nods. ]

Food sounds good. I missed a decent Exandrian meal.

[ Not that he isn't going to miss things like iced coffee and bubbly drinks, but some rye bread and ale sounds amazing. ]

I can't believe we're back... and still remember.

[halforc]

I think I was fighting a giant, or ... something. Then we were talking in a group and I can't remember anything else.

[ He steers them through the wood, hand rubbing Molly's side. Fjord frowns a little, focusing more on his island memories. ]

We made a home ...

[devilstongue]

Something about a god? And zombies... or was that the floating city?

[ Molly rubs his temples with a groan. ] This is like having a hangover without the fun the day before. [ He mutters, but then his face blooms into a smile again. ]

A home... yeah. All of us, together. Like a family.

[leetle]

[She's having this strangest dream. An island in the middle of nothing, a place without a name...a place where she loves her friends and they love her, where things are hard and scary but she's so surrounded by people who care about her that it's not so bad sometimes.

Then she's rocking, like she's on the sea. Are they sailing? Through the warm haze of sleep, she hears her name. A familiar voice, and warm arms encircling her. Slowly, Jester blinks her eyes open, Fjord's face swimming into view as they focus, and she grins up at him.]

....Hi, Fjord. Am... [Her gaze travels all around them, her brain takes in their surroundings.] Am I in a tree?

[halforc]

You are really in a tree. Can you sit up? Is your head okay? Are you going to barf?

[ All very valid questions, he thinks, helping support her. Her bag dangles nearby, adding to the impression Jester fell into her current position. Which is ... weird. ]

[leetle]

Um—I think I’m fine! [Jester wiggles her limbs experimentally, making sure she can feel everything. Her tail swings back and forth, too.]

Definitely not going to barf. Catch me! [She lets herself go boneless, sliding out of the tree’s branches and into Fjord’s arms, regardless of whether he’s ready for her.]

Fjord, I had the weirdest dream…and then I heart Artie laughing in my ear, right before you woke me up…

[halforc]

[ He catches her purely because his attention is fully on Jester and prepared for her to hop free, scooping her into his arms as he twirls her safely to the ground. His arms remain draped around her and he brushes leaves out of her hair. ]

Artagan, really? I wonder if he had anything to do with ...

[ The island. But, surely he couldn't have. ]

Hmm. [ He hitches up a smile for her, pulling her in for a hug. ] I'm glad you're home, I was getting worried. You're the third to make it back.

[leetle]

[Jester happily presses into Fjord’s embrace, but there’s something niggling at the back of her brain. Her dream...the words make it back strike a chord in her, and Jester’s eyes open wide, urgency in her tone now.]

Fjord...the island. Do...do you remember any of that? [The Augur, the nameless isle, all of the people she met there...Could it have been more than a dream?]

[halforc]

I do, [ he nods to the temple-home a glade away, ] so does Molly.

[ His hands run up and down her arms as he looks at her, wondering how to navigate two world's worth of memories and emotions. It was all very well making plans on the island, he had no idea he was going to live his life here too and have simultaneous experiences. It's jarring and confusing, but as he slides his hands into Jesters he doesn't want to lose anyone as a result of it all. ]

... I'm remembering more each day.

[leetle]

Molly?

[Her voice gets high and wobbly and she very nearly bursts into tears, leaning in to press her face into Fjord’s chest. Molly’s here; they had been so worried about what would happen to him. If he could even come back with them. She inhales deeply and lets it out, slow and shaky.]

It’s over. We’re safe...right? Has anyone else come back?

[halforc]

It's him, no one else. He's okay.

[ He bears the scar bisecting his body but otherwise Molly is coping. Better than Kingsley did, anyway. Molly is at least half as less an asshole as whatever part of his personality formed that coping mechanism of a jackass.

Fjord holds onto Jester, giving her a squeeze. ]

So far it's me, him, and now you. No one else has arrived yet but I assume we'll trickle back home the same way we were kidnapped in the first place. Caleb should show up any day now ... it's probably best to stay in the grove until we hear from someone arriving elsewhere, it's safe here.

You'll be the tiniest person in the Clays' house, they'll love you.

[leetle]

[She doesn’t pull away for a long moment, letting Fjord’s shirt soak up the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She’s feeling a lot of emotions right now; bittersweet relief, worry, grief for the time they’d lost, grief for the time they had on that island. Things won’t be the same here, there’s no way they can be, but that’s something to unpack for another time. For now...

She pulls back and looks up at Fjord’s handsome face, sniffling, and gives him a smile.]

Is that where we are? The Blooming Grove? It’s so beautiful...

[halforc]

[ He lets her cry out all the emotions as best she can, brushing tears away with a thumb when she looks up. ]

Mmhm. I've been Communing with Melora, she's happy we're back and suggested ... well, hinted we should stay put a while.

[ Waiting to catch her eye, he softens his voice to coax out the truth. ]

What do you need to feel okay for now?

[leetle]

That's good. Let's do that. [She smiles, swallowing thickly, grateful for Fjord's presence and his willingness to just be with her for a minute.]

Um...a really tight hug. [A pause.] Maybe a snack.

[halforc]

I can provide both of those things.

[ He wraps her up in a hug and chins her hair, right between her horns where he can nuzzle in and inhale her scent. Flowers and sugar. Fjord sighs, running a hand up and down Jester's back, keeping her close to soak up her company as much as she is his. ]