deercountry | September/October Catch-All

[Vyng has been blind for nearly two months. Two months of seeing through the eyes of animals, and Billie can recognize the problems with it. What if at some point, there isn't an animal around for Vyng to see through? Trench is potentially a dangerous place, and not being able to see through your own eyes could become a problem. It's especially easy to see how it could become problematic after they were attacked by that mob.

Two months is two months too long as far as he's concerned, especially since it's not even Vyng's fault. Mariana is not even a little justified in her choice of targets. It's not like he was the one who attacked her.

May we become better than we are, Pyrrha had said when she sprouted her flower from the ground in the shade of the cherry blossom tree on the farm. He's been reflecting on that a lot lately. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of people in Trench these days trying to do better.

Maybe he can even help move one of them along on that path a little himself.

It's not hard to track down the man who called himself God, among a bunch of other titles on the network that he didn't really pay that much attention to, and the house is spooky enough from the outside with its skeletal batcats that it's easily recognizable as a necromancer's residence.

The tiny child who argued with John on the network bangs on the door, and when it's answered, he reaches up to grab onto the man's hand without a word, and turns to try to march him out into the street.]

Come on! You're coming with me.

[ God blinks down at the kid, eyebrows rising in slow astonishment. The boy is familiar, yeah, but their contact had been wholly on the network. He is realizing, nearly impressed and not a little despairing: holy shit, he's that little?

And, behind that, with pure fascination: what the fuck is he?

By the time he's done finding something to say about it, Billie has marched him into the street. God accepts his fate; he lets the skeletons close the doors behind him, and lets the only-maybe-a-kid pull him along on this march down the cobblestone streets of Gaze. ]

Easy, easy. [ He doesn't pull away. ] You've got me, I'm captured. Where are we headed?

[It doesn't even really occur to Billie that this guy could just stop letting himself be led along by the hand if he chose to and there wouldn't be a whole lot he could do about it except for maybe try to convince him he needs to fulfill the offer he had made on the network and help Vyng.]

You said you'd fix my dad's eyes, remember?

[It's said as though he had been expected to turn up at some point to do so, even though Billie had turned him down, and never mentioned where they lived. In reality, it's a last resort because after a couple months of Vyng not being able to see, the boy has had enough and this is the only solution he can come up with.]

I'm tired of him having to use animals and stuff to be able to see to get around. It's weird.

[ He does remember. He doesn't remember any attempt to follow up on that, so he thinks he's in the clear, here, but God's getting kidnapped by a six-year-old with the soul that doesn't match even slightly. He just gives up and lets it happen. ]

Like seeing-eye dogs? Seeing-eye deer? Give me an idea, here, I want to know what kind of menagerie I'm going up against.

[This is going way easier than Billie ever expected to, which is probably good, since he made a magical pinky swear to Pyrrha that he wouldn't threaten the necromancer. This isn't a threat, though, this is just being particularly insistent. He really didn't have a plan if God chose to resist.]

Like... anything. We've got a farm, so there's chickens, and horses, and stuff, but he can see through any animal as long as they let him do it. But it's not the same as having your own eyes.

Cows? [ This John murmurs sotto voice, like a private joke. ] We'll hope for no cows.

[ Still: he lets the kid lead him by the hand through the city, for all that Billie has to reach up and John has to reach down to make it work. ]

[Listen, Shiro's having a perfectly normal day. Go volunteer with the kids, work on transcribing some more Deerington Lore. Pack up and head home to a perfectly normal Trench evening. As normal as Trench really gets, but you understand.]

[He doesn't expect to round a corner and see a tiny child towing along someone he hasn't seen in ages. He has to stop. Really, who wouldn't stop?]

Hey, Billie. [In the tone of someone who just saw someone walk into the room with an ostrich in one hand and a smoothie in the other.] Running errands?

[He's about to ask what the problem with cows is exactly when they're interrupted by Shiro.

The cows probably don't matter. Everyone is afraid of something.

Billie gives Shiro a wave as though leading God through the streets of Trench towards the farm is the most normal thing he's done with his entire day.]

We're going to fix Vyng's eyes.

[It's said with fierce determination. Definitely just a normal day.]

[ Well, this can in no way go wrong. When in doubt, commit to the bit: John raises a hand in a matching wave. He still has to crane over so that Billie can tow him along. ]

Pretty standard for necromantic errands.

[Shiro, really, was fairly sure this would just be a weird little anecdote. You know, something to talk about later. But Billie's explanation derails that train of thought. Immediately.]

[Like you can almost hear a record skip in his head. He goes from hesitantly interested to concerned in a heartbeat, looking between them both.]

Vyng's eyes? [... he was kind of a Beast for the whole Ocean Incident okay.] What happened to his eyes?

[Billie points over his shoulder at his abductee with the thumb of his free hand.]

This guy picked a fight with Mariana in July. Vyng helped with some ritual to calm her down afterwards, but she blinded him over it anyway. So now he's going to fix it.

[ It's like a slow-motion trainwreck; his smile has gone strained. ]

Very necromantic errands.

[All humor and bemusement drains out of Shiro in an instant. He's lifted his gaze from Billie to the other man in the street, and can only stare at him. Picked a fight? With one of the Patrons? And...]

You're telling me... [He starts, slowly, his voice far too calm for what he's feeling right now.] This guy. Decided it would be a great idea to fight one of the Pthumerians.

And Vyng had to clean up his mess.

[Though he's speaking to Billie, Shiro does not look away from Jon. Not for a moment.]

Is that about right...?

[Billie is absolutely oblivious to the problems he is causing. After all, Shiro sounds absolutely calm and normal about all of this, so it's fine.]

Yeah! And then Mariana blinded him, so we're going to fix it. He can, like, see through animal eyes, but it's not the same.

[He glances back at the necromancer with a little shrug.]

I still don't know why you ever thought fighting the ocean was a good idea.

The biggest one. [ John adds this like it's helpful, because if this is going to explode, it can at least be funny when it goes up. ] To be fair: I can now admit that stabbing the ocean was not a good idea.

[Shiro is not a Coldblood. He's not any sort of special blood that could actually affect the temperature of this street. But the air seems to cool by several degrees. He is, in most situations, in most times, a patient, steady man. He would, nine times out of ten, prefer to talk this situation through. To understand the whys of someone's actions, no matter the outcome.]

[This is, apparently the tenth time.]

[Rationality has flown the coop. All he hears is Yes, I hurt your dear friend and I am incredibly blase about it. All he sees is a man casually walking down the street while someone Shiro deeply cares for is blinded for this man's colossal error.]

[His fist swings before Shiro thinks too much more about it. The metal one. The one saved for the monsters of Trench.]

[And it's aimed squarely at the necromancer's jaw.]

[ He expected, you know, maybe a little bit of shouting. Some comically loud distress. He did not expect the guy to shoot forward and punch him in the face.

He also, if anyone's keeping score, did not expect the metal hand.

Shiro connects with an unpleasant crack, and God goes flying. He goes right down on his ass on the cobblestone streets, which is insult to injury; it leaves him blinking up at Shiro in bewilderment and not a little incredulity, a hand to his jaw.

All he manages is, inelegantly: ] Ow.

[To be fair, no one expects Shiro of all people to do the talking with his fists.]

[He takes a deliberate step, himself between Billie and the man on the ground. Just in case. It doesn't feel good, heck, it barely feels better. But at least there's something. At least Vyng isn't the only one who got hurt. That should make it feel okay. Right?]

[But on the other hand (har har), he is so damned tired of everyone he cares about being screwed over by this place, by the other people - ]

If you are ever involved in hurting one of mine again, I'm not going to hold back.

[After all, he hadn't turned on the glow, had he? His voice is still icy calm, barely restrained. It only warms a fraction when he addresses Billie again:]

Do you need help escorting him?

[Billie isn't entirely sure what he expected Shiro to do with the unpleasant truth they had both just dumped on him, but violence sure wasn't it.

Sometimes some people do deserve punches in the face, but he's already gotten his revenge here, and now they are working on a solution.

The boy moves between the pair in an effort to quell any further fighting before it has a chance to really get out of hand.]

It's okay now - he's gonna help! He already said he would.

[He casts a glance back at the necromancer with a critical eye.]

Right?

[ John splays his hands in front of him, a startled Easy, easy. ]

Look, I'm off the warpath. We can all be friends.

[ He picks himself up with exaggerated care, pops his jaw with a hand, rolls his nose around like he's setting something right. All this accomplished is leaving a smudge of dirt on his face. He glances to Billie, all the same. ]

I'm already under heavy guard. [ That being Billie, and obviously a joke. ] But I am going to help... healing the blind, that's right in my wheelhouse.

[We can all be friends - it's an effort not to scoff.]

No. We can't.

[And no, he won't. He is extremely tempted to offer to go with them, but honestly, if he spends more time in this guy's presence right now, he's just going to get more irritated. Billie seems to believe him. But Billie is also... a tiny child. Literally tiny.]

Billie, if something goes wrong, let people know, all right?

[Again, the coldness in his tone fades when he addresses the kid. No reason to be angry with Billie, after all.]

[Billie grins as the joke sails right over his head. That's right. He can totally overpower this guy who tried to stab the ocean if he decides this is no longer a fun game. No chance at all of anything going at all wrong here.

Still, he looks to Shiro with a serious nod.]

Don't worry! I got this. I'll make sure he fixes Vyng, and I'll tell you when it's done too, okay?

[If he's disturbed at all by the sounds coming from the necromancer as he pops his jaw and sets his nose right again, it doesn't show. Instead, he just extends his hand back out again.]

Come on. We got eyes to fix.

[Billie is cautious as he leads the way onto the grounds of the farm. He's already let his captive get punched in the face, the least he can do is try to protect him from the cow they're temporarily housing. A cow seems like a weird fear to have, unless you're made of grass or wheat; Rosie doesn't seem to have much interest in anything beyond food, really, but he supposes everyone is afraid of something.

He guides the way up the path to the house, past the greenhouse near the Guardian tree where Pyrrha's flower grows, and past the chicken coop where the hens free range wearing their little knitted hats to protect them from the cool autumn weather.

No sign of the cow, at least.

He pushes the front door to the house open and heads inside, where they are both promptly accosted by the young sable colored sheltie Billie had stolen from the beach a year ago. She isn't a puppy, but still young and untrained enough that she jumps all over them both, barking to draw attention to the fact that someone has just come in the door.

Billie just laughs and tries to push her away from him as he calls out.]

Vyng! Vyng, we're home!

[ He can't say it's a surprise, but it is disappointing: here's one more burned bridge. They keep popping up just when he thinks he's finished touring them all. John, who can't ever pass up an opportunity, raises a hand in a wave goodbye. Shiro looks like he might hit him again.

But he takes the kid's hand, in the end, and lets himself be led on through Trench. They probably could've done this by Lamp transit, but there is something so painfully charming about trying to keep up with Billie's scurrying walk.

This is how Vyng gets Billie on his doorstep with a black-eyed lich-king holding his hand. ]

[ He is honestly disappointed that the cow isn't in sight: he could have done a whole bit, for an audience of precisely no one who understood it. This is standard.

But then everything else ceases to matter, because there is a dog. ]

Hello there. [ John Gaius, the Necrolord Prime, the King Undying, murderer of ten billion and destroyer of worlds, drops delightedly to a crouch so that he can pet the sheltie. He will let her wriggle into his lap; he will be hard-pressed not to let her knock him down. ] Oh, are you a good girl? You're a good girl. Yeah, right— go on and shed on all the black— I'm honored. Good girl.

[ This is, apparently, the fearsome company Billie has brought over. ]

September/October Catch-All

For John (and Shiro)

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Trenchwood Farm (Closed to Vyng, and John)

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