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 Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 7:03 pm
Yvoire came to check on the storms again. Ganymede hadn’t asked him to, but Yvoire was worried and wanted to make sure nothing had happened to his Wonder since his last visit. Fortunately, the castle seemed to be in good shape—not completely mended, but less a heap of rubble than it used to be.
The aura across the bridge caught his attention, as it always seemed to when they were there at the same time.
Anger wasn’t always enough to keep Yvoire away.
He crossed the bridge slowly, like he wanted to give Reims time to make his own escape—or to give himself time to listen to the second thoughts trying to take root in his head. Yvoire gazed up at the cathedral as it loomed closer and tried to imagine what it had been like to traverse the bridge before. Did Ellis ever approach it with such a gnawing sense of dread, knowing what sort of scene might be waiting for him below?
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 7:36 pm
He wasn’t trying to run away or escape this time. Evan knew where he was. Julian knew where he was. He just wanted to spend some time at his wonder and try to understand what was going on. He felt weird trying to talk to the Code, especially after it summoned his friends for him that one time (well, the Cornerstone piece on the Moon did) and it was also weird knowing that he’d found this piece down where a lot of people had probably been murdered.
That didn’t stop him from visiting. He was working hard, cleaning up what he could, flipping through pages of books that seemed more and more reasonably written. Sometimes it felt like he could understand what they said, even though he knew he must have been making things up in his head.
He felt Yvoire’s aura when he showed up at his Wonder across the river, of course. It always gave him a sudden wave of anxiety and a little bit of hope. But also dread. And also made him nervous.
Not knowing what to expect, Reims drew in a deep breath and pushed the books aside as he tried to organize the ones that had been strewn about.
He’d already discarded most of his extra pieces of clothing so all that was left was his dark pants and white shirt, which he’d rolled the sleeves up to his elbows.
He pushed the door open to lean against the frame, watching curiously as Yvoire approached, although he cast an apprehensive glance towards the purple storms in the distance.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 7:46 pm
Yvoire came to a stop a few steps away from the door. He looked at Reims, from the red in his hair to the rolled up sleeves of his shirt, and he tried to feel that pervasive sense of resentment that had kept him away before now. It was there, still, deep down beneath a mess of other feelings Yvoire didn’t have names for, but summoning it back up suddenly seemed exhausting.
“Can I come in?” he asked, even if he didn’t think Reims would turn him away.
Without the cape around Reims’ shoulders, it was easier to ward off the images of an older man who’d once worn the same one. Reims looked more like Riker this way than he did with all his layers in place. In nothing but trousers and a shirt, it was almost like being at school, seeing Riker in the halls between classes, how he’d take off his jacket outside on warm days.
Here on Ganymede the weather was cooling. Reims must have been hard at work. Yvoire almost felt guilty for disturbing him, but he couldn’t make himself turn around and leave, even if that might have been easier.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:00 pm
Reims doubted that the guilt would ever fade. Not when Yvoire always seemed like he was seconds away from sneering at him. He deserved it, of course. He knew he’d ******** up and he knew he hurt Yvoire. He wished he hadn’t, but he couldn’t erase the past.
“Of course,” he said quietly and stepped to the side to allow Yvoire to enter the cathedral. The leaves on the trees outside had started changing colors, and part of him looked forward to seeing everything shifting with the seasons.
Another part was just reminded how quickly things could change.
“You holding up okay? I mean, with everything going on,” he gestured vaguely around him. “This is making it really difficult to study for finals.”
It was stupid, casual talk. It meant nothing. Yvoire probably didn’t even care that Reims was filling the silence with nonsense.
Still, he resisted the urge to apologize. For not knowing what to say. For what he did. For not knowing how to fix things. Maybe it wouldn’t matter, if the world was going to end.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:18 pm
“Yeah, I…”
He didn’t know what to say. Yvoire stepped into the cathedral and fell silent, even though he’d meant to answer. What answer made sense? He wasn’t okay. He was terrified of what was coming and angry that it was coming at all. He didn’t know what to do about Dad, if he should tell him and bring him somewhere safe. If there was anywhere safe. He went to school, but it seemed like a waste. He got through his work, but his efforts were half-hearted; the paper he was supposed to submit for Ms. Tyndall was an embarrassment compared to his usual standards. He’d signed up for next year’s classes without knowing if he’d be able to put Mr. Gallo’s engineering class to good use. He kept studying for exams he didn’t even know if he’d be able to take.
And through it all he kept catching sight of Riker—in the hallway between classes, across the room in history, two tables away in the cafeteria, by the track during gym—gone for a week or so but back again now, subdued in that way he’d been so often recently.
“I wanted—” Yvoire stopped again and swallowed the words down. He didn’t know what he wanted, except for everything to make sense and the universe to be fair for once. “Last time… I didn’t thank you for—”
For carrying him up the stairs, for taking him away from the beautiful but awful garden below, and the memories that had begun to creep out of the shadows.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:25 pm
As Yvoire spoke -- as he started and then stopped, clearly searching for the words to say, Reims could feel his ears burn red. He had a feeling that Yvoire wanted to thank him for the last time they were there, when he’d visited with Ganymede. When they’d gone down to the strange grove of trees and plants below the building.
He shrugged, because what else could he do?
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” he said quietly, not quite looking at Yvoire, but also not ignoring him, either.
“You seemed pretty freaked out, though.”
And acting strange. Like he was seeing things that weren’t there. Reims wasn’t sure why Yvoire had decided to stay close to him then, or if it was just because he was convenient, or if there was something more to it.
“What was all that about?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:35 pm
Yvoire wanted to talk about it. Then he didn’t want to talk about it. What if talking about it made it real? What if giving voice to it meant it’d actually happened?
Maybe that was a stupid thought. It had happened. Wasn’t that how memories worked? At some point long ago, Ellis had been in the grove while a girl lied chained to the stone slab, screaming for him to save her until she went abruptly silent. He’d sat in a stiff chair with a heavy, overwarm cape around his shoulders, while a man who looked everything and nothing like Reims held a crown in his hands.
“I heard things,” he said, because it was easier than admitting to what he’d seen in the grove. “Someone screaming.”
He looked at the floor and saw scattered colors from the light through the windows. He looked at Reims and saw red eyes where he knew there’d once been blue.
“I think I saw who you were,” he continued. Talking about the man was easier. Even down below, the man who’d worn Reims’ cape had made Ellis feel a modicum of safety.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:43 pm
It was a sobering thought -- that Yvoire had heard screaming while there at his Wonder. Reims knew what must have happened down in that grove, but he’d been lucky to not experience much.
Or maybe he just managed to block it out.
Knowing that Yvoire saw who he must have been was… weird.
“I don’t know anything about who I was,” he admitted, and it seemed even weirder to talk about himself like he used to exist. He knew there were things like past lives and reincarnations and even ghosts of ancestors. But he hadn’t seen any ghost. And he was pretty sure the blips of thoughts he had were memories of his own.
“I guess that means we were friends in the past or something. I mean, I guess that would make sense with Yvoire being across the river.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:55 am
“I don’t know either,” Yvoire said. “I don’t even know his name, but…”
There were flashes—brief glimpses of a life from long ago. He remembered gazing out one of the window’s in Ellis’ room, the burst of delight that followed as he watched a man in a dark suit stroll across the bridge. He remembered sitting at a table draped in white cloth in a room where sunlight glittered through walls of glass, sipping tea from delicate cups while the man sat across from him. He remembered walking outside in the warm springtime air, how the toe of his shoe caught against the raised edge of a loose cobble, only for a strong arm to catch him before he could take an embarrassing tumble.
Watch your step.
Yvoire remembered tending flowers in the Sanctuary side by side; the man’s shirtsleeves had been rolled up like Reims’ were now, and the Code Piece there had swirled and glowed sedately, as familiar as an old friend. He remembered sitting impatiently beside a black clad figure in one of the wooden pews as an even older man droned on and on about Ganymede and Jupiter and the gift of rain; Ellis had been much younger then, his legs too short for his feet to touch the ground.
“He made Ellis feel safe,” Yvoire continued. Teal eyes caught red; he gazed at Reims sadly. “The way you made me feel safe.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 10:42 am
Reims met Yvoire’s gaze with sadness of his own. He sucked in a quiet breath and held it as he stood frozen in the open hall of the cathedral.
He felt worn down and defeated. It was as though every chance Yvoire had, it was to remind Reims that he’d screwed up. That he could never fix what happened. And yet, Yvoire kept approaching him. He was the one making the journeys over the bridge. He was also the one who’d been hurt.
Maybe Reims deserved it -- to be constantly reminded that he could have done better. That it was his fault for everything and there was nothing that could change that.
His ears burned and red crept onto his cheeks as he wilted under Yvoire’s gaze.
The way you made me feel safe.
Until Yvoire’s trust in him had been broken indefinitely.
“What do you want from me?” he finally asked, his voice low and thick with emotion. He’d been trying to make it up to Yvoire, but nothing ever seemed to be enough. And that was fine. Reims knew it wasn’t Yvoire’s obligation to forgive him.
But when was Reims allowed to accept that nothing could be changed and he should just move on with his life? That trying to make up for what he did wouldn’t make a difference?
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:03 pm
“I wanted to thank you,” Yvoire said—a little quiet, a little helpless. “And I wanted to talk. Because you’re the only one who—”
He stopped. He swallowed down the nervous lump that threatened to rise into his throat.
Reims was the only one who could understand. This cathedral was his Wonder. Even if he didn’t remember any of the things Yvoire did—and Yvoire remembered so little—the things Yvoire said might at least make sense. They were intrinsically linked whether they liked it or not. It was everything Yvoire had wanted before: to have a connection, to be able to learn and explore together, so he wouldn’t have to discover who he was on his own.
“Ganymede knows about the past but she didn’t know anything about the grove,” Yvoire reminded him, voice strained like it took everything to keep speaking. “But I… I heard what I heard, and we both know—Maybe not why, but we know what it was used for, and if Ganymede has no idea about any of it then you’re the only one I can—”
Yvoire stopped again. He took a breath to control his breathing, which threatened to grow erratic.
“You know about me,” he continued when he didn’t feel so unsteady. “You know about Daddy, and the blood magic. There’s more—I know there is—and I need you to help me understand it.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:25 pm
Reims was a little taken aback by Yvoire wanting to thank him. For what? He didn’t do anything he thought was worth being thanked for. For carrying him up the stairs? Any decent person would do that. Certainly he wouldn’t want to thank him for making fun of him and making him feel like he couldn’t trust him when the truth of his identity came out.
But then Yvoire continued, and Reims felt the tension leave him somewhat.
Ah, that made sense, then. Yvoire wanted access to Reims to understand his memories and his past life. Somehow, that didn’t make Reims any happier, but he supposed he should be grateful if this was the penance that would make up for the heartache he’d caused.
“So… you want to explore the cathedral and hope to get more memories? Be my guest,” he shrugged, because if that was what Yvoire wanted, then he wouldn’t stop him.
“I don’t have any answers. I don’t have any memories of who I was. Nothing significant at least.” Not screaming or blood or any of that. Not yet at least. He couldn’t say he was looking forward to it.
“... you do know we’re not them, right? The people we were in the past?” He wondered if that was why he felt strange about the way Yvoire had been looking at him recently. Was it because he no longer saw him, but a memory of the previous Reims?
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:50 pm
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Yvoire insisted. He almost snapped it but managed to hold back at the last second. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”
He knew none of this was any easier on Reims than it was on him—worse, probably, in certain ways, because Reims didn’t have a loving family to fall back on. He knew Reims was hurting, too, that he regretted what he’d done as Riker and wanted to make amends, and Yvoire’s stubbornness and resentment was a constant reminder of it. Maybe Reims had grown frustrated. Maybe he thought Yvoire was being unfair. Maybe flippancy was what Yvoire deserved for holding onto his anger for so long.
“I’ve told you things I’ve never told anyone else. I don’t want to tell anyone else, so you’re the only person who’ll ever understand any of it without me having to say anything. I can be angry and still—These things aren’t—”
Yvoire fisted his hands. He took another breath and willed his eyes to remain dry. They stung at the corners—a searing pain he could have tolerated if it actually did anything to center him.
“I can be angry and hurt and still want what we had,” Yvoire pressed on. The more heated he became, the more he was able to speak freely. “Before. Not a thousand years ago. Before you told me who you are. I can be pissed off at you and feel like I need you at the same time. Obviously I know we’re not Ellis and whoever you were, but one day you might remember. You and I will know things no one else does, and I don’t want to be so angry at you that we can’t talk about it.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:02 pm
Reims wanted what they had before. He wanted the friendship of someone he could talk to and laugh with. Someone who trusted him enough to kiss his cheek or hold his hand. Someone who trusted him to catch them as they jumped across an unsteady, broken bridge that had since reformed. He wanted the connection they’d once had.
Before he’d ruined things.
Yvoire could want all of those things, too. But that didn’t change the fact that he was still Riker. It didn’t change the fact that he’d teased him and made fun of him, for no reason other than to look cool for people who didn’t care about him.
But Yvoire was still angry and hurt and pissed at him. And all Reims could do was accept it and hope nothing he did or said would make things worse.
Awkwardly, Reims rubbed at his arm. He didn’t know what else to do with his hands. He felt like he was preparing himself to be hit or yelled at. Maybe it would be better if he was.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, as if Yvoire probably wasn’t already exhausted by the apologies. “What can I do?”
He mourned the loss of their friendship. He hated the way Yvoire looked at him, sometimes. Deserved, of course, but still painful. And now, Yvoire was saying he wanted to talk to him about things no one else would understand. If that was the extent of their friendship, at least it was better than Yvoire wanting nothing to do with him.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:24 pm
“I don’t know,” Yvoire said again. “You don’t have to do anything except… talk. That’s all I wanted. Because I’m afraid of what I saw up here and the things I heard down below, and I don’t want to have to explain any of it to anyone else.”
Ganymede would try to reassure him, or she’d say cryptic things that ultimately did him no good, determined as she was that he should discover the past through his memories, as she had. Their other friends… They’d help where they could, but Yvoire didn’t think he could tell them about the blood and the screaming and all the other awful things he thought might have happened here. Not until he understood it. He didn’t want to share his fears with them and end up worrying them. He didn’t want to confess things that made him feel ashamed. Even if he had nothing to do with what had happened in the past, it was still a burden he would have to bear. It’d meant something then. There was no telling if it might mean something now.
“There’s more Ganymede doesn’t know. About us. About me.” Yvoire took a heavy breath. He swallowed again to loosen a throat gone tight with emotion. “When she was talking about coronations, I saw—I was sitting in a chair. Ellis was, I mean, but it felt like I was. Like I could see through his eyes. There were other people. A woman, and the man who wore your cape. He was holding a crown. He was going to—”
Yvoire clamped his mouth shut. He shook his head. It seemed so stupid. It’d happened so long ago, to people who no longer existed, but the fear was fresh and real.
“This is her moon, but it’s my blood unlocking doors and breaking magic seals,” he said.
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