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Fox is texted an address in a quiet neighborhood in Richmond. Nothing fancy, but not an area where you're likely to see a ton of crime commonly. The three story house is connected to another, and was once in... a rather poor state, but the outside has been given a fresh coat of paint, windows replaced, and some patches mended. But the bones are still the same: https://www.homes.com/property/6046-w-oxford-st-philadelphia-pa-19151/id-400025364828/
Hanging out front, of course, is a progress pride flag.
flutter, flutter flutter
The thing that differentiates this crow from other corvids is that the back of the crow is solid white, and that white loops around the jay's wings; the strange markings don't look that different from a backpack hanging on the crow's back. The soft sound of wings becomes that crow resting on the front windowsill and pecking at the window. Crows have lots of things, but thumbs aren't on that list.
Lux had been waiting for a knock, but.... honestly... they're not very surprised when they spot the crow in the windsil. They smirk, moving to unlock and open the window to let the bird in. "Sure hope you're Fox..."
The living room has been furnished and lived in enough to have that settled, homey feel. None of the furniture matches, but they're comfy looking with pops of color and pattern in the form of pillows and throw blankets. The walls haven't been painted in crazy colors--as much as Lux may have wished they were--but one wall does have pride colors painted in swirly designs.
Flutter flutter stretch!
When the Life magic undoes itself, the crow which spreads its wings and begins a delicate little swoop into the room unfolds from the center in a blur of living origami, going from mid-sized black bird to small black-haired woman, barefoot with backpack, in a tank top that reads UKRAINE ORIGINAL across the chest and ratty cut-off shorts. Fox flings her arms around Lux's neck in effusive greeting. "Lux! I love you! Look at your house! It's so good." A noisy cheek-smooch follows.
Lux grins, then shakes their head after her change. "I'll never get used to seeing you do that..."
Their arms wrap around him to lift up and twirl while squeezing around her waist. "Love you too, baby! Thank you!" They kiss her cheek in return, then pull back with a proud, beaming smile. "You haven't even seen it all yet. How are you? Good? Happy? Looking cute, as ever."
"You shouldn't! It's literally magic. Let's never get used to magic." And then Fox gekkers happily when he's lifted up and spun around. "Especially me. When someone like me gets used to magic, things get dangerous." Their feet are set down on the ground and Fox squeezes once more before letting go. "I am -- " she pauses. "I am very stressed out, actually, and some big things have happened, but I am me, you know? I'll keep smiling as long as I'm living. And being cute, apparently." The Orphan scampers over toward the painted wall. "This is your work?"
"It is. I painted pretty much everything in the house. Well--Kitten and Jack helped with the solid walls and stuff, but I did the details." Lux frowns, looking her over with concern. "Stressed? About what?"
Sometimes, Jack comes home from a long day of shop work and heads directly for the shower, forgoing even a snack and socialization in the attempt to Get This Fucking Sawdust Out Of My Hair.
And sometimes, that shower turns into a shower and a nap.
Which is why there's the sound of one (1) Jack plodding down the stairs, and he appears in the doorway of the living room, shirtless and in a pair of bright blue pj pants with yellow rubber ducks on them. His hair is a mess, like he fell asleep on it wet, and he's still rubbing his face. He blinks when he realizes that there's company, a blush (pink to Fox, smudgy and scribbly to Lux) blooms across his face.
"Fuck - you did say Fox was coming over, didn't you..."
The look that takes over Fox's face when Lux asks what he's stressed about it one of those 'tip your head back a little, look at the ceiling, take in a breath while your jaw drops a little bit' moments when someone's very obviously thinking oh God where to start?
"OH LOOK JACK IS HERE. HI JACK!" Fox, you're not subtle at all. Like, you could not be less subtle if you actively tried. Who is deflecting from talking about her feelings by eyeing Jack and then giving Lux a very obvious 'hey look whose boyfriend is hot' side look?
Well it couldn't possibly be Fox because Fox is sly. And subtle. Yeah. That's the ticket.
Lux looks to the stairs and grins at the sight of scribbly, PJed Jack. "I did. Have a good nap, sleepyhead?"
Then they glance back to Fox, a brow arching as they eye her.
"Mmhm." Jack nods, and yawns. "This a private conversation? I can fuck off, getting a little hungry, anyway...?"
He looks off to one side with much innocence. "Nope! We're good. There's not much in the world that I tell Lux that they couldn't tell you. But I could order food." Fox can always eat. It takes a lot of calories being a crow. And this innocent.
"No, babe, you're fine. I--think, anyway." When Fox confirms, Lux grins and nods. "We could order something. Or we can cook up something real quick. I've been perfecting my rainbow pancakes."
"Maybe with the two of us keeping you focused they won't burn..." Jack gives Lux a warm smile and pads over to the couch, dropping down next to them with a groan.
"We can order something, that's fine...how've you been, Fox?"
Slinging their backpack off of their back, he pads barefoot across the floor and flings himself into a chair, dropping his backpack next to herself and then digging through the front pocket for her phone. "If you wanna cook, let's cook -- otherwise I can treat us. The pelmeni truck is on GrubHub now." A flash of his vulpine teeth. "I've been -- you know -- what's the acronym? SNAFU? How've you been?"
"Ooh. Won't turn down pelmeni. Sounds good to me." Lux sits down as well, lounging back. They look back at Fox with a frown. Nope, not off the hook. "What's been going on?"
"Just a little short of FUBAR, yeah?" Jack gives Fox a sympathetic wince. "Pelmeni's good with me. You wanna talk about whatever's particularly fucked up in your life...?"
They start tapping at his screen, putting together an order. Another flash of one of her sharp-toothed smiles and Fox presses her lips together thereafter. Tap tap tap. "Uhhh... " Fox puffs out a breath, drops their phone on their lap, rubs their hands over their hair. "The people who are trying to kill us ... have a new gambit. And ... they almost killed one of our Elders. And... I don't even know where to start. Wherever I start, it's a lot."
Lux frowns deeper, brows knitting with worry. "Kill you?" Lux shifts, trying not to immediately go into WHOS HURTING MY FOX mode. "That's... awful, I'm so sorry. We don't mind listening to a lot, though. If... you want to talk about it. Need to? Maybe we can help?"
Jack sits forward, clear concern on his face. "That sounds horrendously stressful, holy shit...happy to listen, yeah. Seriously."
Double-checking that she actually submitted the order (she did), Fox folds both of her grubby hands around her phone, and smiles sort of distantly. "Yeah, so. Someone's always trying to kill us. The Seers of the Throne. Basically they're like... the magical one percent. Magical fascists. And... " He knuckles one eye wearily. "They found a way to get to ... the heart of everything that we are. They attacked us, and they almost killed one of the Elders of my Order. And... that was after I went to Mercury, and before we rescued the human soul in an android body." A weak little smile, there.
"What sorta pretentious ass name is Seers of the Throne?" Lux scoffs, eyes narrowed. "Ugh, magical fascists? Fuck that shit." Then Fox continues and, well, that's a lot. "...Bwa. You went to Mercury? ...The planet Mercury?"
"..." Jack just kinda blinks, processing, as Fox explains the absolutely wack shit that Mages can get up to. 'Magical fascists' makes him grimace, and he lets out a breath as Fox finishes talking.
And gestures to Lux when they speak, seconding the question about going to Mercury.
That, at least, makes Fox laugh. "They're super pretentious. We found out the Shadow Name of one of the ones who put together Mark -- the android guy -- is Sophist. Which is like... basically the hoity-toity specialist teachers of Ancient Greece." Fox's eyes roll so hard, and then they sort of walk back a bit. "Oh! Um. I went to... the idea of Mercury. We traveled in the Astral. Starting out in our dreams, and then -- traveling out on the Astral Plane."
Lux squints. "....Huuuh... That... sounds really fucking trippy. What was it like? Wait--that can wait. You rescued an android...?"
"...Wild," is all that Jack can really think of to say. "Jesus, that is pretentious...and they think of themselves as teachers? Gross." Jack scoffs.
"Oh, you have no idea. I thought maybe my name was pretentious, but... " Deep breath in, slow breath out. "Yeah. So it's really not quite right to call him an android. Mark is -- he's an actual person who died in the 50s, that they took his soul and put it into -- basically a full-body prosthetic. Like if you've seen Star Trek Discovery, they had a character like that. But they're ... they're making a lot of them. And the point is like... the way they're making them... my magic doesn't work on them very well."
"So it'll be really hard for us to stop them when the Seers send them to kill us and destroy our home. Basically." She pushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "And I think we didn't rescue him. I think they lured us in and ... planted Mark. Trojan-horse style."
Lux looks horrified, glancing sideways towards Jack, then back to Fox with wide-eyes. "That's... that's awful..." They swallow. "So--you're dealing with him, right? Putting him somewhere safe for you all?"
Jack opens and closes his mouth a few times, looking disgusted at what the Seers are doing. "That...got no fucking words...are you all keeping as safe as you can be? Sounds like...yeah, him being around isn't good for anyone."
"It's so much worse than I'm telling you. Just ... it's so much worse." The look on Fox's face then is sort of -- exhausted. "Yeah, we are. As best we can. We're trying to work on a solution for him, but the thing is... " A brief grimace of something like actual pain flashes across her face. "He's ... a person? That they did this to? He's ... alive? I can't -- we can't -- abandon him? Or send him back into slavery and being turned into a fucking weapon?"
Lux falls quiet for a long moment, glancing aside. "...Yeah. I--we get that more than most would, Fox. But... just... please be as careful as possible." Lux slides out of their seat and moves over to wrap Fox up into a tight embrace. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Yeah. It's...it's cruel, them doing that to him." Jack reaches over to squeeze Fox's shoulder. "I don't know how we can help, but...I mean our place is open, if you need."
She claps her hand over her mouth when Lux says that they get it more than most would, and Fox's green-gold eyes suddenly brim over. "Oh, I didn't think -- that was selfish of me, I just-- " then Lux is hugging them, and the Thyrsus doesn't say anything and hiccups hard, curling up small against the Darkling as if she's fox-shaped and not person-shaped at the moment.
"No, no... Shh, it's okay." Lux holds her close, starting to pet over her dark hair. "I wasn't fussing. Just... it's... an experience we can understand. And I understand why you want to give him a safe place to live. Just... you have to keep it safe. But I trust you will. You're so strong and smart, Fox. You can do this. You can do anything."
When Fox starts to hiccup, Jack sinks down next to her, wrapping his arms around her to make a Fox sandwich with Lux. "It's exactly what Lux said. Not selfish at all, wanting to protect him. And...yeah. I know you'll figure it out, how to keep everyone safe. We're always here for this, too. If you need to get away, to vent, just to...hang out. Any of that."
Fox is one of those people that carefully tucks everything that might bother someone else down, until -- well. This. The hug undoes him, entirely, and what was one hiccup and a hard hitch of breath with Lux hugging her turns into a full-on vulpine meltdown when she's in the middle of a hug. Balm dying in front of her on the floor, the memory of the Tree exploding that she carries from Leta's memories, when what Leta needed was for Fox to not melt down but to take care of Leta's breakdown, the stark realization that the Seers turned a human being into a weapon to destroy her home, the death of five pigeons at her behest, the moment that she saw -- really saw -- that the Seers had stripped the nerve system out of a living human being and Perfected it?
It all just tears out of Fox in a sudden burst of full-body animal sobs. It's too much, and it's been too much.
Lux gives Jack a grateful but strained look when he joins in the Fox hug sandwich. They continue to hold her, their mantle flaring--more visible to Jack, but Fox might catch a brief flicker of colored light that could be explained away as a trick of the light. A cold chill that makes his tears tingle against her cheeks as if they were flecks of snow landing on her face rather than her own tears. Lux presses their lips to her temple, rocking and rubbing her back, not rushing or saying anything--just letting her get out all the sobs, letting it overflow out now that the dam had broken.
Jack raises his eyebrows just slightly when Lux's mantle flares, but it's really not the time for him to say anything - and it's not as if he can really blame the other Darkling. He finds Fox's hand to squeeze it, resting his forehead on her shoulder, quietly murmuring that yes, it's okay to cry. Let it all out, you're safe here, we've got you...his other hand squeezes Lux's arm, like he's reassuring them that they're in this together.
The one thing that can always be said about Fox is that whatever they feel? She feels. And so it's probably not surprising that when Fox actually starts crying, she cries until she can't breathe. Curled up into a tiny ball between the Darkling pair, the Thyrsus sobs until she's all cried out, hiccuping violently until her breaths even again, arms hugged tight against her chest like she's instinctively protecting her soft underbelly. It's a mixture of human and vulpine, as is everything the Orphan does, but eventually, it winds down to silence, her head resting against Lux's face, breaths slowly steadying. "Balm -- " hiccup. "-- Balm fell on the floor, and I -- I could have -- defended the Tree or I could have -- let her d--" Hiccup.
Lux waits for Fox to cry himself out, because sometimes feelings need to be felt and embraced rather than just wiped away. But once the tears stop and Fox is left to hiccuping, Lux presses their cheek to her temple and starts to hum softly. It's a soft tune that sounds... oddly hypnotic. Jack hears the oddly electronic, autotuney tone to it, while Fox just hears a soft voice that sounds a bit too perfect... but it's soothing, as the song draws her sorrow to the surface then melts it away like sunshine on fresh frost. It leaves her feeling tired, a deeper tired than the bone deep way having a good cry can. But what's left in its place is a sense of purpose and inspiration. (Enchanting Performance, have an Inspired.)
Lux kisses their temple again and smooths hair back from her forehead. "You did what you could, Fox. I know that. You know that too, don't you?" they murmur softly. "Whatever happened... you fought hard, and it took so much out of you, but you did it and Balm didn't die, right? Mistakes may have been made, but not any failures."
"Sounds like you had to make some really hard choices - and no time to think about it. No one's gonna blame you for making those choices - so you shouldn't either. Easier said than done, I know..." Jack murmurs in Fox's ear, once Lux has finished their song. He kisses their shoulder and squeezes her hand, and stays close, not disentangling from the sandwich until Fox seems like they want to. "Happy to remind you of it whenever you need."
That song drains a little from Fox, but replaces it with inspiration, quite literally, and the Thyrsus just sort of melts into Lux -- pun entirely intended. His grubby fingers squeeze Jack's, and she just sort of... lets herself be taken care of. Which isn't easy, for Fox. Always the caregiver. "No. Balm is all right. I healed her," Fox sniffles. "And Leta came and turned back time, and ... the Tree didn't get blown up. I just..." Another shuddering breath, and they turn his face toward Jack, and the murmuring in her ear. A brief flush across her face, and a small smile. "I made the best choices I could. You're right. It's just -- so much. There's -- everything bearing down on us."
"Thank you. Both. I didn't -- I just missed you, I didn't mean -- "
Lux nods slowly, still looking at her with concern. "It sounds like a lot. Too much. But things have a way of being too much, and things are hard, but then we find... moments of peace and happiness and for a while, things are okay. Things will be okay. This will pass. And until then, that's why you have friends who love you so, so fucking much." They brush tears from her cheeks. "I love you, Fox. And I missed you too."
"You don't have to apologize." Jack kisses his cheek. "You needed this, time to not be okay. God knows we know how that is." He flashes a grin at Lux there. "Things will be okay, and it sounds like you helped make sure they were okay, in the end. Even if there's still a hell of a lot of work to do."
"So much work to do," Fox snuffles quietly, in agreement with Jack, and reaches a hand to pet Lux's cheek, and then Jack's, each in turn, the same way that people ruffle the fur on her cheek when he's in fox form. "I admit that it was -- kind of a wakeup call for me, in a lot of ways. The biggest being that... " Her forehead wrinkles up, then, as she thinks her way through her next words. "The place I started -- the Order I started -- when I was first Awakened. You didn't -- you had to prove that you were worth the attention of the people higher than you. And ... where I am now... it's the opposite. Elders are there to be learned from. And I've been -- really shy? -- with Balm and the other Elders. Not -- spending time with them."
"And I almost lost her, so. I can't do that anymore. And I can't -- miss my friends, because." A small shrug, there. "I love you. Both of you."
"Then you learned a lesson, which means it wasn't a completely negative experience, right?" Lux bites their lower lip briefly, still fussing over her hair and cheeks idly. "But I wish I could have been there, somehow, to help lighten the load. I'm sorry I haven't been checking in. I should have."
"Even if the best time to start something was ages ago, the second best time's right now, yeah?" Another kiss on his cheek, and Jack ruffles her hair gently. "Love you too - glad you're here. Letting us take care of you for a bit. You obviously needed it - carrying all this."
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