The Lantern Festival (7) : Scientists have been hard at work trying to understand the strange, glowing qualities of the luminescent caterpillars found in the caves by the reservoir. The caterpillars still shrivel up if they are taken out of the caves but their glowing secretions have been processed into an organic paste that can withstand the outside world. The city is selling paper lanterns infused with various seeds. The glow paste is full of minerals to support healthy plant growth without risking damage to the environment; all lantern purchases come with a small packet of activating power that will heat the paste up enough to mimic the effects of a candle without the concerns of flammability. When the glow paste loses its heat, the lantern will return to the Earth and upon the first rain (or any contact with water) the paper will dissolve and the seeds may begin to grow. All proceeds from the lanterns are put right back into the community to support local conservation and environmental protection efforts.
Paper lanterns glowed brilliantly as they drifted across the sky in droves. On previous evenings, Eles had seen a smattering here or there, but finally, someone had the sense to purchase a ton of them and light them all off at once. They obliterated the stars, of course, but the orange blaze looked impeccably aesthetic against a gloaming backdrop. And since the summer oft cooked concrete to a pleasant heat even late into the night, Eles liked to sit by the pool with a glass of wine and watch the slow procession.
Until his phone went off and the bright screen blared up at him. The text was from Christie, who graciously put herself into his contacts list for him, and her message asked if he thought about their chat. Then something about if he was going to dye his hair, but the remainder was cut off by ellipses. And he still hadn't figured out how to access them.
The text was reminder enough, though. Eles didn't know anybody who outclassed Malory in vanity, so he was a likely choice for how he'd change his hair color. Granted, he'd not seen Malory's hair change from black, but maybe he got it dyed in the past or something.
Taking up his wine glass but leaving the phone, Eles rose and started back indoors. Best to catch Malory before he ran off to some disappointing party to drain everyone in a stupor. Not that he thought the boy would be all that broken up about discussing something that probably took less work. Eles then drifted between rooms and halls, poking his head around to spot the tragically handsome boy.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:54 pm
It was nearly a game of hide and seek, as Malory was in a state of reading while walking from room to room to balcony to squatting in the atrium, gently gnawing at the edge of his thumb. Conveniently for Eles, there was a trail of sorts in the form of thin scripts, stapled together and placed on whatever surface was nearby once he’d finished with one and went straight to the next. Senior year was coming, and with it, the final stages he’d take in student shows.
Hair in a messy bun and clothes looking a little dusty for some reason, Malory looked up at Eles with an expression that was both not particularly present and yet still sharper than was usual. There was a pause and then he asked, brightening, “Have you eaten yet?”
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:54 pm
It occurred to him that he could call for Malory. Yell his name enough times and he might get an answer. Theoretically, everyone else should have left. But what if one hadn't? What if someone who was looking for a fat bonus that year had decided to put in the extra credit and scrub the stove or something? Then they might hear him. Thus did that idea die: poorly considered and quickly dismissed.
But it wasn't a complete loss. He'd happened upon a disheveled-looking boy after about a third of his wine vanished, which was good news. He had a Look about him, however; Eles would've asked if he was on drugs if Malory hadn't ambushed him with a question outright.
A question that received an impassive stare. Then he shook his head.
You look like you crawled out of a hole, he signed before he took another swig of wine from the fluted glass. After locating a preposterously oversized chair that was heaped with a couple afghans, he plopped down in it and nearly disappeared. What are you reading?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:55 pm
“They’re scripts from some of the writers at school; I have to pick a few small productions to join in the fall.” And follow the ones he couldn’t in hopes of getting to watch their troubles and triumphs from the much more comfortable sidelines. Hopefully Sparrow would come back from whatever sabbatical zey had taken and his own troubles would be one less for it.
Straightening up from where he’d been crouched, Malory gave a long stretch before offering a bullshit, “Sometimes one has to crawl through any number of holes for their art.” Fingers paging through the remaining papers he paused after a moment, looking down with clear confusion. Hadn’t there been more?
Malory looked at the all too comfortable boy in the chair and hoped getting out of that bundle would struggle to get out of it, maybe to the point of tipping over. How much wine on such an empty stomach? Malory glanced at the glass with a smile but didn’t linger on the thought. “Let’s go out. There’s a new place that opened in Avery heights and apparently everything they serve is blue.”
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:56 pm
Nodding sagely while swirling his glass of wine, Eles signed a glib response. Doubtless. Crawled through that hole a few times for my art..
He shifted then, lying sideways on the chair with his legs over one arm and his back against the other. But he must've gotten too well-adjusted, because Malory was already trying to pry him from his plush perch and get him to leave the house. Neither of them looked particularly dressed to be seen anywhere.
Blue drinks sounded exciting though. Would they turn his tongue blue? Would they taste blue? And what would blue taste like? How many could he have before his lips went numb?
Fine, if you need a break from reading that s**t. With a severely put-upon huff, Eles started to drain his wine glass. The heat of it spilled down his throat and bloomed in his gut; pleasant, if a waste of perfectly palatable wine. Help me get out of this chair. It's like ******** quicksand.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:58 pm
Eyeing the back of the chair, Malory considered the mechanics of simply tipping the other out of the chair and whether or not the boy would suffocate under the weight of however many blankets fell on top of him. He placed the remaining stack of scripts on a side table, then plucked the glass out of Eles’s hand, eyes it for a moment before sliding his tongue over the rim for the last few drops, then set that aside as well.
Gazing at the too comfortable boy in the too comfortable chair like the world’s worst math problem, he again considered just tipping Eles out. But finally, after a stupidly long deliberation, bent over the chair, placing his hands at each side of the other boy’s waist for a too comfortable grip. And then paused again, Atlas preparing to bear the burden of the world. He didn’t have to lift him out. Rolling Eles out was also helping, right?
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:58 pm
Now that was a show he could watch. Eles placed a knuckle to his lips, half-obscuring his smile about it. He waited, and waited, and waited, finally gesturing with both hands in a what gives of impatient proportions. There were better things to stare at, he knew (like all the damn mirrors in the room).
But — what was this???
Ask and ye shall receive, he thought pleasantly, until his center of gravity was pushed aside and he tumbled into a pair of legs and onto the floor in a heap. With a dejected sigh, he reached up blindly and signed with one hand.
You owe me a cigarette for that.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:59 pm
Reaching down to pull the other up, Malory nodded. Poison on demand, as much a commitment as he’d ever made to anyone outside the Mirror. “Have you tried cloves?” A different aesthetic, a different taste.
Leaning close, he began to straighten up Eles’s clothes as if they were about to step into a formal dinner event. “They smell like spices and people will most definitely think you’re trying to act much too cool.” Clearly not a downside in Malory’s estimation.
His hands moved to Eles’s hair, fingers deftly carding and arranging it into a more strategic disorder.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:59 pm
Eles shook his head, more emphatically when Malory was trying to fuss with his hair. Sounds like something you'd have.
Eles sat up. His head hadn't started swimming yet; there was definitely room in him for more that night. Reaching out, he caught one of the boy's hands to likewise catch his attention.
Before I get too shitfaced and forget, had something to ask you. Know anything about dying hair? Eles regarded him hopefully, but Malory had a penchant for being unpredictable.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:59 pm
“Of course I do. Well, my hair is reserved for professionals.” And only when he felt a role really called for it. “But I used to do it for the other boys at Hillworth,” Malory sighed, a little nostalgic for those furtive little exploits to be bold and brave, all while facing a system built to bring them into a single, homogenized line.
Turning his captured hand, he held Eles’s palm up and looked down at it, as if trying to glance at this boy's next little exploit. “Are you thinking of dyeing yours? Did somebody inspire a change?”
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:00 pm
You were at Hillworth? Isn't that the ******** school? Eles squinted at Malory as if looking for a lie. Then again, Malory was a ******** after a fashion; perhaps it shouldn't have surprised him. Goth boy with a rocky start to life, needing straightened out before he slipped into habits from which he couldn't return. If that were the case, Eles was quite confident they failed.
Or Malory was uncommonly good at failing upward.
Writing off the loss of his hand, Eles continued with the other one. Was told I should dye it blonde, he explained. Then, after a moment's consideration, realized Malory was going to expect a why and maybe a who, given that spark of interest that spawned in his eyes. Troublesome boy.
Looking off, he tried to scrounge a passable reason on the spot. To fight the rumors. You know, that you're keeping your half-brother as a sex slave or something.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:00 pm
"Yes, and I love a good ******** up," Malory smiled brightly. "I'd been in private schools across Europe for most of life. I wanted something more interesting."
Blonde? The surprise was clear, but he didn't argue against it, just lifted the captured hand to his lips. "That's my favourite rumor by far, you know. The dye job will just mean I'm trying to hide the whole sordid affair while unwilling to give it up."
Was it too early to start designing Christmas cards of the two of them, from the Medraut family?
"Have you bought the bleach and dyes yet?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:00 pm
Private schools across Europe. Poor, tortured thing. How miserable that must've been, sipping melanges from a storybook view at a historic cafe, with hours to spare allotted for lunch, and boys galore who could bike him around, feed him peeled grapes by the lake or take him down Venice's rivers in a ******** gondola. But perhaps none of that felt interesting when it was the baseline — wasn't it human to want something other? Even at the expense of what one had?
For a boy who loved comfort, he didn't want it all the time. He kept reaching out to find that event horizon, be it by the Dark Star or drowning in a reservoir where no one would notice them until they were long past the point of saving. No, that was chasing discomfort. Courting fear.
Eles could but sigh for the gesture, even if it could have come with a touch of sarcasm. It was such a simple thing, Eles knew. This one liked hunting heartstrings; it bought him bandwidth for his halfassed treacheries.
How flattering for you. He shifted closer, half-sitting on a foot, with a hand braced on the floor. He spoke against the boy's cheek, breath catching on the shell of his ear. "But what if that's your parents' shame? Unable or unwilling to tell their wayward boy to give up his sins. And what if he doubles down — gets very public about it? "He faked a pearl-clutched gasp, smiling a little for it. "What scandal."
Straightening up, his disappointment began to take hold. "I asked you because I don't know how to dye hair. Of course I haven't bought them yet."
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:01 pm
What has there to do but grip the boy by the waist once more and this time properly sweep him onto his feet. “They’d simply fight over the most appropriate period for basing an incest themed wedding off of.” Which was only a little joking. “And then they’d be torn to tatters when I insisted on Vegas.”
Malory pulled out his phone and began using it with a certain dramatic emphasis, asking, “When do you want to dye it? I can have it delivered.” Along with all sorts of other items, to give the driver a good story and better tip.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:01 pm
Eles couldn't begin to guess how to respond to that revelation. Too far outside the realm of expectation to comprehend there. "Good that we're not getting married," he tried.
Though, it explained some of the house's oddities. And all those portraits of Malory. And a lot of the outfits packed away in the closet.
Back on his feet with a touch of unnecessary help, Eles looked from Malory to the phone in his hand back to the boy with mild to moderate levels of confusion. He guessed this was like when Malory summoned a driver out of the ******** ether when Eles needed a ride to an urgent care. Obnoxious superpower, but whatever.
"Tomorrow, then," he decided while he watched the screen. "Since we're going out tonight."
