Now I'm gonna reap what I sow

[dreadinquisitor]

WHO: Maxwell Trevean and Gavin Ashara; Gavin Ashara and Pel Ashara
WHAT: Maxwell and Gavin crush awkwardly, Gavin's ex-fiance wanders in. Dun dun duuuun.
WHEN: Forward dated slightly to just before the Mire signups.
WHERE: Battlements
NOTES: All the sadz. Maybe some language? Will updated if needed.

Walking the battlements, Maxwell was on patrol. Watching the dark night sky and the cold, moonlit horizon for rippling wings or marching shadows. In reality the only he'd seen were shining stars and the occasional animal - foxes and rabbits, kiting across the ground.

Humming to himself, a old Marcher battle hymn, he leaned against the stone and chased a familiar constellation with his eyes.

Comments

[slipshot]

Whatever he'd been about to finish his sentence with, it was lost - the kick winded him completely, his side flaring up with pain as he curled up onto his knees on the floor of the barn. Creators, but that hurt - he blinked back the tears that had leapt to the corners of his eyes just out of sheer pain, and sucked in a breath.

"--Okay," he managed to get out, wheezing, as he stumbled upright, his ears low. "Alright. I get it, Merrick, I fucked up."

[dalishious]

"That's not enough!"

He backs off physically, but there are things that need to be said-- or in Merrick's case, snarled.

"Saying that you fucked up isn't enough. You have to fix it. And you haven't fixed anything, if after all this time she's still hurting so damn much!" His voice breaks at the end, his emotions raw and bare as always.

[slipshot]

"I don't know how to fix it," Gavin said, his voice so much quieter than Merrick's that it was almost like he hadn't spoken at all. He wasn't getting kicked, or punched, so this was progress.

"I tried, I went after her, but I--" He looked miserable, and nervous, flinching every time Merrick's ears so much as twitched. "Every time I open my mouth, I make things worse--"

[dalishious]

Merrick had been fourteen when it had happened. He hadn't quite yet grasped the intricacies of love and commitment and heartbreak, though he'd been intimately acquainted with sorrow-- so when he'd seen Pel crumbled and crying, the woman he'd chosen as a friend, sister and mother all at once, all he'd wanted was to know why.

She'd been gentle when explaining it, not mentioning Gavin by name, but word traveled fast in their little clan. Since then Merrick had grown up with an inexplicable hatred for Gavin that he hadn't understood until he got older. Now, it was worse than it had ever been.

"Figure it out," he snapped, disgusted. "Stop making her cry."

[slipshot]

He didn't say, that Merrick didn't understand. Because of course he didn't, but that didn't make a difference to the fact that he was right. Whatever excuses he made, whatever reasoning, he kept bringing misery with him. His eyes glazed slightly, his thoughts going somewhere else entirely.

"I don't know that I can," He finally said quietly. "But I'll try."

[dalishious]

"Trying isn't good enough," Merrick replies, though his voice is much quieter now. It's a growl low in his throat, far softer than before, but somehow far more deadly.

[slipshot]

He can hear it - like the distant rumble before a storm - knowing that the soft tone was no way indicative of a softening of Merrick's anger itself.

"What else can I do? I'm no mage, Merrick, I can't just magic everything away and make it better, somehow. If a punch or two was enough to suddenly right all the wrongs then everything would have been fine a long time ago."

[arlathvhen]

"What is going on--Merrick, what are you doing?"

Her voice was already reproachful, before she had a chance to get any kind of idea what had happened between the two of them. It was obvious that something had, though. Gavin curled up on the dirt floor, a bright redness on his face that would soften into a dark bruise soon, and Merrick looking that dangerous kind of quiet.

Feeling very much like a mother who had found two children quarreling, both Dalish got Looks as she came over, folding up the paper in her hand. A letter from Sorrel would have to wait until after this. First, she went to Gavin, gentle fingers touching his face, making sure nothing is broken, then offering a hand up, before going to Merrick. The important thing was to try to diffuse that anger, and Beleth reached up to Merrick's hair, though she moved slowly, hesitating before touching.

Not out of fear, because Beleth knew that Merrick would never hurt her. Just giving him enough time to protest or stop her, if he didn't want it.

"What are you two arguing about this time?"

[dalishious]

Hitting Gavin had released much of Merrick's anger, so it had slowed to a dull seethe inside his chest, burning quietly. He was still looking at Gavin as if he were a disgusting insect, his fists tightly balled at his sides.

When Beleth arrived it was like cool rain cascading through his ribcage, and the flames there struggled to keep burning while it fell. His shoulder fell just slightly.

His voice was no less venomous when he spoke. "Same thing as always," he said softly. "That he's a sorry excuse for an elf."

[slipshot]

Gavin instantly felt incredibly grateful - because he could hear the tone change in Merrick's voice. Carefully he picked himself back up. Merrick would be mad if he told Beleth that there was nothing wrong, that nothing had happened, so he resisted the urge to brush her off in order to avoid having to talk about it any further. Even if this would have been a good time to slip away.

"I upset Pel," he murmured quietly.

[arlathvhen]

She wonders what it would be like, if she lived in a world where either of these answers were a surprise. It would be a great deal more pleasant, she supposes. As it stands, she can't bring herself to feel shocked that Merrick would accuse Gavin of being a poor excuse for an elf, nor that Gavin had done this by upsetting Pel. She's a little surprised that something happened that would upset Pel enough that even Gavin would pick up on it--What did he even do?

Whatever it was, she doubted that discussing it in depth would calm matters down. She tried to think of what her mother would do in these cases--This thing was what Pel was better at.

Of course, Pel was better at everything.

She slips her hand to brush against Merrick's hand, letting him know that she was there, that she wasn't trying to side against him. Then she turns to Gavin. "Do you know why what you did upset her? Do you know what you can do in the future to avoid it happening again?" Her tone is calm, controlled. Think to the future--that's what her mother would do. That will keep them from focusing on the past.