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rainbowfic2022-09-03 10:36 pm
echoscometorest) wrote in rainbowfic2022-09-03 10:36 pm
Aqua saturation, True Blue #16
Author: August
Title: With the Water, We'll Start Anew
Story: A currently unnamed story that I will maybe have details on later.
Colors: True Blue #16, "Thick as thieves"; Aqua saturation
Supplies and Styles: Saturation; eraser; miniature collection; graffiti (Camp Rainbowfic - Aquatics)
Word Count: 2500
Rating: Maybe PG to be safe?
Warnings: Features three people who have all survived kinds of abuse and rough situations and their aftermath, including references to prolonged captivity of a non-human sentient person and an abusive parent, but no actual in-depth abuse
Notes: *comes swinging in four years later and two days under the wire for the challenge* Hi everyone, I missed you. I have been doing a lot of reworking of original stuff lately, and I'm hoping to pick my colors back up and see if I can get back to writing around here more often with a whole host of new worlds.
Two of these characters are old characters of mine who've been retooled heavily, and I'm hoping at least one of them shows up in a proper universe fic eventually. The third belongs to a friend not on DW, who's given me permission to write him in this little AU that we've talked about, affectionately known as the seaside trio.
22. West
They get in the car and drive.
That's all the plan Eden has; that, and a rough idea which direction will lead them to the water. She doesn't know where to go after, how to keep her father from finding her. She doesn't know what other danger she might be bringing down on her head, setting Percy free.
All she knows, with a fervor she's never felt before, is that she can't sit by without doing anything for another night.
And when she sees his face change at the sight of the water, she knows she's made the right choice.
25. Divination
"What will you do?" he asks, standing on the shore in front of her. It sounds like he actually cares, and it's almost a physical pain to hear it. The last time somebody cared about her like that was…
It's been a long time, and now she'll have to watch him leave, too.
"I don't know," she says.
For the first time she can remember, there's nobody – no father – looking over her shoulder to point out her mistakes. She doesn't know what the future will be. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do next.
She feels free.
It's terrifying.
1. Flow
She didn't help him escape with the intent of staying together. They'll probably be safer if they separate anyway, and she knows it.
But the boat is there for the stealing, and when Percy suggests it, she doesn't even hesitate.
It will get her farther in a way her father's not likely to look for, she tells herself, even though he'll know that Percy will want to take to the water. It's just for now, she tells herself, knowing that she'll stay near him as long as he lets her.
But it's alright. Eden's very good at lying to herself.
6. Baptism
The moment Percy puts on the skin, he's a changed man.
She's waiting for his signal to put the boat out to sea, and in the darkness she can just see him change and disappear beneath the waves. It feels like ages that he stays under, leaving her listening to the sound of the sea lapping at the shore, suddenly alone.
And then he surfaces and barks, and even after only minutes and in another skin, she can hear the difference, the weight that's lifted from his voice. She'd never realized how lost he'd sounded before.
He sounds whole, now.
12. River
They leave the boat behind eventually, once they get to the other side, but they never leave the water behind for long. They move along coasts; they follow rivers and camp on the banks. They stay close enough to cities and towns that Eden can duck into stores and make sure they stay fed, but they always come back to it eventually.
They don't have much of a plan, or any idea where to go. But Percy seems to have a sixth sense for water, and it makes her feel less like they're wandering aimlessly, so she doesn't say anything.
14. Mist
It's easy for a selkie to travel in the water for as long as he needs. It's rougher on Eden, even once they're traveling on land. Still they push forward for weeks, moving as fast and as far as they can, until she starts to think they've gotten away with it after all.
Like an answered prayer, that's when she sees the town through the morning mist.
Her heart is in her throat when she suggests stopping for a while. Percy looks at her, and then at the sea, so close by.
"Yes," he says, and she can breathe again.
15. Source
Eden didn't take much when she left, but she took money– all of her own, and as much extra as she could manage. It hadn't felt like stealing. She had earned it with years of listening to her father dripping poison in her ear, years of doing exactly what he suggested. Percy had earned it, with every demeaning comment, with every minute her father had held on to his coat.
It's his money that she hands over to put a roof over their heads. Maybe that should make it feel tainted, but it doesn't. It feels like a fair trade.
23. Winter
They've been there a month before the frost starts to settle in.
Winter has never been Eden's favorite season, and it's harsher here than she's used to. The town is beautiful, stretched out and covered in snow, like a painting. But the cold seems to cut straight through to her bones and there's never enough sun.
When Percy doesn't mind it, she curls into his side, whatever form he settles into for the day, and tries to keep herself distracted. On days he prefers to keep his distance, she stays in bed, burrowed below the blankets and dreaming of spring.
13. Sea
It feels like a gift when Eden can finally get back in the water with him instead of watching and shivering on the shore. The sun is warm on her face and shoulders, until the water's chill feels like a welcome break from the heat. Percy stays close to her, moving in slow and lazy circles, and for a little while it feels like there's nothing in the world that they have to worry about. There's just the water holding her up, like it was never a question that something would keep her afloat if she gave it a chance.
11. Phlegmatic
His tells have changed. It used to be that there was a crack when things got to their worst, a moment where she'd get him alone and his composure would break. Without being pushed to those limits, it's harder for her to tell when things are getting bad.
She keeps watching for a sign of how he's doing, after everything, and there's hardly any.
It takes a while to realize she can see it in how he swims, instead. Whether he's playing or trying to push the memories away, it suddenly becomes clear when she sees him in the water.
24. Love
It's just a day when it hits her. It's well past the year's anniversary, it's nobody's birthday and no holiday she knows of. It's just a day, and she's cooking eggs for breakfast and not at all afraid, because she really believes that she's never going to see her father again.
It hurts more than she thought it would to realize it.
Percy finds her sitting on the kitchen floor, staring at nothing, a pan of half-cooked eggs going bad on the cold stove. He takes her hands, and the tears come like they were waiting for him all along.
9. Dew
It's not yet dawn, and Eden is quiet as she makes her way through the house, determined not to wake Percy because she can't sleep.
But the living room door is open. It only takes a moment to spot him sitting outside.
"All right?" she asks, stepping out.
He glances back at her and nods, just visible in the dimness.
"Can I join you?"
He pats the ground next to him. The dew-covered grass is wet and ticklish against Eden's bare skin, but she settles in, resting her head against Percy's shoulder as they watch the sun come up together.
7. Vessel
Sometimes this town feels like a container that Eden's going to break the sides of. There are nights she dreams of a busier life, one that wasn't narrowed down to this little house and the constant waiting for a threat that might someday come.
Neither of them really fit here. But Percy has his coat and the sea, and that's all he needs. Eden doesn't know what she needs anymore, except that it includes the sight of him, smiling and content across the room, and that's here.
She'll make do with that, for now, when she feels ready to burst.
16. Sooth
Months pass, slowly at first, and then gather speed until Eden blinks and it's been three years.
"We're really staying here, aren't we?" she asks as Percy walks in. He pauses in the doorway, and then steps inside enough to close the door. He's dripping on the floor, coat neatly bundled in his arms, glasses just slightly askew on his face as he looks around the home they've made.
"I think so." He turns back to her, his face blank. "Do you want to?"
And Eden can't picture anything better waiting for them if they run again, so she nods.
2. Undine
When he first brings the girl home, Eden thinks he's found another selkie. Some kind of sea-being, anyway, dripping onto the gravel drive with her bare feet and seaweed in her hair. There's a shimmer in her eyes, a hunger there, that looks almost the same kind of strange Percy did that first day Eden saw him in her father's office.
"This is Rhette," Percy says, in his quiet voice, standing on the porch. Eden knows the way he looks when he's waiting to see how she reacts; it still makes her ache, after all this time. "She saved me."
19. Twilight
The sunset paints the light in vibrant colors. The girl sits silent in the chair next to her, hands twisting together between her knees.
"You really don't mind?" she asks, quietly.
Eden thinks about Percy's soft, certain voice when he talked about Rhette letting him free from the net. She thinks about that hungry look, and the way the girl leaned into Percy's barely-there touches like she was straining for more.
"I really don't," she says. She's not sure yet if it's a lie, but the stunned smile she gets in response feels like a step in the right direction.
21. Feminine
It's become habit not to touch without explicit invitation. Percy sometimes doesn't want her nearby, but he'll make it clear when he does, so Eden waits.
But Rhette doesn't say, and she doesn't come closer of her own accord. She just leans into it any time either of them brush by her, and looks wistful.
Eden starts to go out of her way to drop a hand on Rhette's shoulder, to sit close, to hug her now and again. Rhette is taller, but she's frail, and it makes her feel small with Eden's arms around her.
She never pulls away.
5. Purify
It's different with three of them in the house. There's less quiet. The space feels smaller. Days go just a little differently; routines start to change, inch by inch.
Eden expects the strangeness to become frustrating, but it never does. Instead, having someone else there becomes a comfort.
It isn't all sunshine. Rhette has her own tripwires, and there's moments for all of them where they go quiet and still. But she brings a new lightness to the house, even so, and the shared shadows lurking in her and Percy's conversations feel less heavy when they're not alone with them.
17. Rain
The rain has been steadily tapping at the roof all day.
Eden has the couch, lying across it with a book and a blanket. Percy's settled on the floor in front of her; sometimes she presses a hand to his shoulder, because he doesn't seem to mind. Rhette is curled up against the window, watching the rain come down.
It's been quiet for a long time when Percy starts to sing. It's soft but steady, and Eden feels her eyes start to close, listening more enticing than the story.
Outside, the rain starts coming down harder, but inside it's warm.
3. Nymph
"Nymphs?"
"Yes."
"Kelpies?"
"Yes."
"Gremlins?" Eden throws in, grinning. Rhette's been quizzing Percy on what creatures exist all day. They both know she's had her own experiences, but not many, it seems, and she has plenty of questions. Sometimes Eden adds genuine questions she never got around to; more often, she's entertaining herself.
Percy's lips twitch. "Something like it, actually."
"Dwarves?" Rhette asks; he shakes his head.
"Changelings?"
Percy opens his mouth, but it's Rhette's soft voice that cuts across him and answers. "Yes," she says, and when Eden looks over at her, her smile has faded. "Yes, that's real."
4. Washed away
"My brother," Eden answers, and regrets the words in an instant. The morning's been nice, cozy, and remembering is a bucket of ice water.
Percy would have seen it, but he's outside. Instead there's just Rhette, still smiling, unaware of the minefield Eden's just put herself into. "You have a brother?"
"I did," she says, and lets the silence carry the rest of the lie. He may as well be dead, for as likely as she is to see him again, to tell him she's sorry, that he was right to leave after all and she figured that out eventually.
8. Fish
Rhette, as it turns out, has no idea how to cook.
She admits this as she prods at the inedible, overcooked fish on her plate with a fork. Percy, whose standards for food are weird at best even in his two-footed form, shrugs, and takes another bite.
Eden could ask why Rhette didn't say something when she was asked to make dinner, but she sees the shadows lurking in her face, the tension in her hands that says she's preparing herself for an explosion. So she smiles instead, and stands. "Well, we have more fish. Why don't I show you?"
18. Pond/Lake
The itch to get out and go has been there for weeks when Eden finally gives in. It isn't far, and it's not all that different, trading one water for another for the day, but that's all right. It's enough to make everything in her sigh in relief, and Percy's smile is content the whole day through, and Rhette splashes and laughs like she's ten years younger.
They lean against each other by the lakeside, grazing on the basket they brought and too content to talk, and it feels like the best idea that she's had in a long time.
10. Drown
The heat feels like a physical presence. Even the water is warm, but it still feels like a relief, and Eden dives below so that she can escape the sun entirely for one lovely moment.
The summer hit like a brick this year, drowning them all in heat. Eden's been following Percy to the water almost every day, trying to escape it. She's always given him time in the water to himself, and she keeps waiting for the day he seems frustrated by her constant presence, but his smile is always just as soft when he sees her walk out.
20. Blue
There's one blanket in the house that easily covers all of them. As autumn sets in, Eden takes it out and sets it back on the couch.
It's only a couple of days before it gets unfolded, deep blue fabric surrounding them as night sets in. Rhette tucks into her side as tightly as possible, knees over Eden's; Percy stays to the couch's other side, but the back of his hand taps occasionally against hers, a reminder that they're both here.
It's almost too hot for it, the nights still warmer than not, but Eden wouldn't move for the world.
Title: With the Water, We'll Start Anew
Story: A currently unnamed story that I will maybe have details on later.
Colors: True Blue #16, "Thick as thieves"; Aqua saturation
Supplies and Styles: Saturation; eraser; miniature collection; graffiti (Camp Rainbowfic - Aquatics)
Word Count: 2500
Rating: Maybe PG to be safe?
Warnings: Features three people who have all survived kinds of abuse and rough situations and their aftermath, including references to prolonged captivity of a non-human sentient person and an abusive parent, but no actual in-depth abuse
Notes: *comes swinging in four years later and two days under the wire for the challenge* Hi everyone, I missed you. I have been doing a lot of reworking of original stuff lately, and I'm hoping to pick my colors back up and see if I can get back to writing around here more often with a whole host of new worlds.
Two of these characters are old characters of mine who've been retooled heavily, and I'm hoping at least one of them shows up in a proper universe fic eventually. The third belongs to a friend not on DW, who's given me permission to write him in this little AU that we've talked about, affectionately known as the seaside trio.
22. West
They get in the car and drive.
That's all the plan Eden has; that, and a rough idea which direction will lead them to the water. She doesn't know where to go after, how to keep her father from finding her. She doesn't know what other danger she might be bringing down on her head, setting Percy free.
All she knows, with a fervor she's never felt before, is that she can't sit by without doing anything for another night.
And when she sees his face change at the sight of the water, she knows she's made the right choice.
25. Divination
"What will you do?" he asks, standing on the shore in front of her. It sounds like he actually cares, and it's almost a physical pain to hear it. The last time somebody cared about her like that was…
It's been a long time, and now she'll have to watch him leave, too.
"I don't know," she says.
For the first time she can remember, there's nobody – no father – looking over her shoulder to point out her mistakes. She doesn't know what the future will be. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do next.
She feels free.
It's terrifying.
1. Flow
She didn't help him escape with the intent of staying together. They'll probably be safer if they separate anyway, and she knows it.
But the boat is there for the stealing, and when Percy suggests it, she doesn't even hesitate.
It will get her farther in a way her father's not likely to look for, she tells herself, even though he'll know that Percy will want to take to the water. It's just for now, she tells herself, knowing that she'll stay near him as long as he lets her.
But it's alright. Eden's very good at lying to herself.
6. Baptism
The moment Percy puts on the skin, he's a changed man.
She's waiting for his signal to put the boat out to sea, and in the darkness she can just see him change and disappear beneath the waves. It feels like ages that he stays under, leaving her listening to the sound of the sea lapping at the shore, suddenly alone.
And then he surfaces and barks, and even after only minutes and in another skin, she can hear the difference, the weight that's lifted from his voice. She'd never realized how lost he'd sounded before.
He sounds whole, now.
12. River
They leave the boat behind eventually, once they get to the other side, but they never leave the water behind for long. They move along coasts; they follow rivers and camp on the banks. They stay close enough to cities and towns that Eden can duck into stores and make sure they stay fed, but they always come back to it eventually.
They don't have much of a plan, or any idea where to go. But Percy seems to have a sixth sense for water, and it makes her feel less like they're wandering aimlessly, so she doesn't say anything.
14. Mist
It's easy for a selkie to travel in the water for as long as he needs. It's rougher on Eden, even once they're traveling on land. Still they push forward for weeks, moving as fast and as far as they can, until she starts to think they've gotten away with it after all.
Like an answered prayer, that's when she sees the town through the morning mist.
Her heart is in her throat when she suggests stopping for a while. Percy looks at her, and then at the sea, so close by.
"Yes," he says, and she can breathe again.
15. Source
Eden didn't take much when she left, but she took money– all of her own, and as much extra as she could manage. It hadn't felt like stealing. She had earned it with years of listening to her father dripping poison in her ear, years of doing exactly what he suggested. Percy had earned it, with every demeaning comment, with every minute her father had held on to his coat.
It's his money that she hands over to put a roof over their heads. Maybe that should make it feel tainted, but it doesn't. It feels like a fair trade.
23. Winter
They've been there a month before the frost starts to settle in.
Winter has never been Eden's favorite season, and it's harsher here than she's used to. The town is beautiful, stretched out and covered in snow, like a painting. But the cold seems to cut straight through to her bones and there's never enough sun.
When Percy doesn't mind it, she curls into his side, whatever form he settles into for the day, and tries to keep herself distracted. On days he prefers to keep his distance, she stays in bed, burrowed below the blankets and dreaming of spring.
13. Sea
It feels like a gift when Eden can finally get back in the water with him instead of watching and shivering on the shore. The sun is warm on her face and shoulders, until the water's chill feels like a welcome break from the heat. Percy stays close to her, moving in slow and lazy circles, and for a little while it feels like there's nothing in the world that they have to worry about. There's just the water holding her up, like it was never a question that something would keep her afloat if she gave it a chance.
11. Phlegmatic
His tells have changed. It used to be that there was a crack when things got to their worst, a moment where she'd get him alone and his composure would break. Without being pushed to those limits, it's harder for her to tell when things are getting bad.
She keeps watching for a sign of how he's doing, after everything, and there's hardly any.
It takes a while to realize she can see it in how he swims, instead. Whether he's playing or trying to push the memories away, it suddenly becomes clear when she sees him in the water.
24. Love
It's just a day when it hits her. It's well past the year's anniversary, it's nobody's birthday and no holiday she knows of. It's just a day, and she's cooking eggs for breakfast and not at all afraid, because she really believes that she's never going to see her father again.
It hurts more than she thought it would to realize it.
Percy finds her sitting on the kitchen floor, staring at nothing, a pan of half-cooked eggs going bad on the cold stove. He takes her hands, and the tears come like they were waiting for him all along.
9. Dew
It's not yet dawn, and Eden is quiet as she makes her way through the house, determined not to wake Percy because she can't sleep.
But the living room door is open. It only takes a moment to spot him sitting outside.
"All right?" she asks, stepping out.
He glances back at her and nods, just visible in the dimness.
"Can I join you?"
He pats the ground next to him. The dew-covered grass is wet and ticklish against Eden's bare skin, but she settles in, resting her head against Percy's shoulder as they watch the sun come up together.
7. Vessel
Sometimes this town feels like a container that Eden's going to break the sides of. There are nights she dreams of a busier life, one that wasn't narrowed down to this little house and the constant waiting for a threat that might someday come.
Neither of them really fit here. But Percy has his coat and the sea, and that's all he needs. Eden doesn't know what she needs anymore, except that it includes the sight of him, smiling and content across the room, and that's here.
She'll make do with that, for now, when she feels ready to burst.
16. Sooth
Months pass, slowly at first, and then gather speed until Eden blinks and it's been three years.
"We're really staying here, aren't we?" she asks as Percy walks in. He pauses in the doorway, and then steps inside enough to close the door. He's dripping on the floor, coat neatly bundled in his arms, glasses just slightly askew on his face as he looks around the home they've made.
"I think so." He turns back to her, his face blank. "Do you want to?"
And Eden can't picture anything better waiting for them if they run again, so she nods.
2. Undine
When he first brings the girl home, Eden thinks he's found another selkie. Some kind of sea-being, anyway, dripping onto the gravel drive with her bare feet and seaweed in her hair. There's a shimmer in her eyes, a hunger there, that looks almost the same kind of strange Percy did that first day Eden saw him in her father's office.
"This is Rhette," Percy says, in his quiet voice, standing on the porch. Eden knows the way he looks when he's waiting to see how she reacts; it still makes her ache, after all this time. "She saved me."
19. Twilight
The sunset paints the light in vibrant colors. The girl sits silent in the chair next to her, hands twisting together between her knees.
"You really don't mind?" she asks, quietly.
Eden thinks about Percy's soft, certain voice when he talked about Rhette letting him free from the net. She thinks about that hungry look, and the way the girl leaned into Percy's barely-there touches like she was straining for more.
"I really don't," she says. She's not sure yet if it's a lie, but the stunned smile she gets in response feels like a step in the right direction.
21. Feminine
It's become habit not to touch without explicit invitation. Percy sometimes doesn't want her nearby, but he'll make it clear when he does, so Eden waits.
But Rhette doesn't say, and she doesn't come closer of her own accord. She just leans into it any time either of them brush by her, and looks wistful.
Eden starts to go out of her way to drop a hand on Rhette's shoulder, to sit close, to hug her now and again. Rhette is taller, but she's frail, and it makes her feel small with Eden's arms around her.
She never pulls away.
5. Purify
It's different with three of them in the house. There's less quiet. The space feels smaller. Days go just a little differently; routines start to change, inch by inch.
Eden expects the strangeness to become frustrating, but it never does. Instead, having someone else there becomes a comfort.
It isn't all sunshine. Rhette has her own tripwires, and there's moments for all of them where they go quiet and still. But she brings a new lightness to the house, even so, and the shared shadows lurking in her and Percy's conversations feel less heavy when they're not alone with them.
17. Rain
The rain has been steadily tapping at the roof all day.
Eden has the couch, lying across it with a book and a blanket. Percy's settled on the floor in front of her; sometimes she presses a hand to his shoulder, because he doesn't seem to mind. Rhette is curled up against the window, watching the rain come down.
It's been quiet for a long time when Percy starts to sing. It's soft but steady, and Eden feels her eyes start to close, listening more enticing than the story.
Outside, the rain starts coming down harder, but inside it's warm.
3. Nymph
"Nymphs?"
"Yes."
"Kelpies?"
"Yes."
"Gremlins?" Eden throws in, grinning. Rhette's been quizzing Percy on what creatures exist all day. They both know she's had her own experiences, but not many, it seems, and she has plenty of questions. Sometimes Eden adds genuine questions she never got around to; more often, she's entertaining herself.
Percy's lips twitch. "Something like it, actually."
"Dwarves?" Rhette asks; he shakes his head.
"Changelings?"
Percy opens his mouth, but it's Rhette's soft voice that cuts across him and answers. "Yes," she says, and when Eden looks over at her, her smile has faded. "Yes, that's real."
4. Washed away
"My brother," Eden answers, and regrets the words in an instant. The morning's been nice, cozy, and remembering is a bucket of ice water.
Percy would have seen it, but he's outside. Instead there's just Rhette, still smiling, unaware of the minefield Eden's just put herself into. "You have a brother?"
"I did," she says, and lets the silence carry the rest of the lie. He may as well be dead, for as likely as she is to see him again, to tell him she's sorry, that he was right to leave after all and she figured that out eventually.
8. Fish
Rhette, as it turns out, has no idea how to cook.
She admits this as she prods at the inedible, overcooked fish on her plate with a fork. Percy, whose standards for food are weird at best even in his two-footed form, shrugs, and takes another bite.
Eden could ask why Rhette didn't say something when she was asked to make dinner, but she sees the shadows lurking in her face, the tension in her hands that says she's preparing herself for an explosion. So she smiles instead, and stands. "Well, we have more fish. Why don't I show you?"
18. Pond/Lake
The itch to get out and go has been there for weeks when Eden finally gives in. It isn't far, and it's not all that different, trading one water for another for the day, but that's all right. It's enough to make everything in her sigh in relief, and Percy's smile is content the whole day through, and Rhette splashes and laughs like she's ten years younger.
They lean against each other by the lakeside, grazing on the basket they brought and too content to talk, and it feels like the best idea that she's had in a long time.
10. Drown
The heat feels like a physical presence. Even the water is warm, but it still feels like a relief, and Eden dives below so that she can escape the sun entirely for one lovely moment.
The summer hit like a brick this year, drowning them all in heat. Eden's been following Percy to the water almost every day, trying to escape it. She's always given him time in the water to himself, and she keeps waiting for the day he seems frustrated by her constant presence, but his smile is always just as soft when he sees her walk out.
20. Blue
There's one blanket in the house that easily covers all of them. As autumn sets in, Eden takes it out and sets it back on the couch.
It's only a couple of days before it gets unfolded, deep blue fabric surrounding them as night sets in. Rhette tucks into her side as tightly as possible, knees over Eden's; Percy stays to the couch's other side, but the back of his hand taps occasionally against hers, a reminder that they're both here.
It's almost too hot for it, the nights still warmer than not, but Eden wouldn't move for the world.