(no subject)

[lady_moon]

Snow white sand.

Jasper ocean.

Violet-night sky with two moons hanging in it.

Mare and Mons bound off as much as Mons can toward the castle while Moon turns to the sentient she just snatched.

She... smiles at him.

Comments

[lady_moon]

Choice dishes up a plate of food for himself as the bowls and plates are passed. "When young Draco visited, we ate more of his sort of fare. This is Skill doing something in honour of your company," he explains.

Skill, who looks like everyone's perfect, matronly mother, sits next to Fortune and smiles happily at Miniver. "You're too thin. You need to eat plenty. There's also dessert, so keep room for that."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

Miniver blushes a bit and nods to Skill as he takes some food. He takes a little bit of everything, but favors the macaroni and cheese, and the ham. He nibbles and pecks at things, but they do get eaten, and appreciated.

[lady_moon]

He seems to be quickly forgotten.

Well, not forgotten, but his presence isn't focused on.

"Coira is chomping at the bit again," Skill says to Moon. "She's unhappy that Ruin's happy."

"She's unhappy no matter what," Sorrow replies before sipping her iced tea. "Coira is hellbent on making sure Papa is as miserable as she is. She doesn't appreciate anything."

Choice clears his throat and shakes his head. "Fortune, have you spoken with Charity of late?"

Fortune swallows his mouth full, takes a swig of beer, and shakes his head. "No, she's off with Victory and Journey, doing some sort of work with that world that's mostly water? Some sort of war's supposed to happen and they're needed."

"Ah, yes. War on a water world; it's always an interesting thing to witness," Choice agrees.

Moon shakes her head. "Treading water isn't as much fun as it sounds."

Welcome to supper with the tarot, Miniver Cheevy.

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

Miniver listens. He's really glad to be essentially ignored -- he wouldn't know what to say if any of the cards DID try to talk to him. The food is good, the beer is good, the company is as good as company can be for such a shy, introverted person as Miniver is; but at the same time, as time passes, he cannot help but feel a small, gnawing loneliness deep inside him. It is a comfortable kidnapping, but the fact remains that it is, when all is said and done, a kidnapping. These are people he does not know, in a place he has never been, and there is no way out.

His distracts himself from these thoughts by collecting bits of things he thinks D'Artagnan might like to eat, tucking them into a napkin to take upstairs later.

[three_of_swords]

Sorrow leans over, not touching Miniver but still very close, and says softly, "Sometimes extreme measures are necessary for certain sentients. And when we enact those extreme measures, other sentients take the full force of the pain involved rather than the one sentient we focus on."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

Miniver jumps a bit in surprise at being spoken to.

"...What?" he asks her, not having really understood that one.

[three_of_swords]

She giggles quietly while everyone else continues to chatter on about odds and ends of family business.

"The focus is Draco," she tries to explain. "But it's you who bears the burden. He isn't taken from you, from all he knows, it's you. Sometimes, it happens like that."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

"Oh." He pauses, poking at some stray noodles on his plate. "I don't mind. I'd suffer much worse for him."

[three_of_swords]

"That's the sad thing," Sorrow murmurs. "A tragedy, because he wouldn't for you."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

He puts his hands in his lap, and doesn't look at her.

"I don't believe you."

[three_of_swords]

"I didn't think you would."

Skill begins to clear the table while Moon hurries into the kitchen to help bring out dessert. Fortune pours glasses of sweet, pale wine to go with the berry torte Skill's prepared.

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

Miniver watches, quiet and pensive, murmuring a thanks to Skill for the wine and everything else, watching Moon, watching Fortune, watching everyone but Sorrow.

[lady_moon]

Moon dishes out a plate of the torte for Miniver, smiling.

"Just wait until breakfast. You might leave here with an extra thirty pounds on you," she teases.

Across from Miniver, Fortune sips his wine and watches the poet. He doesn't even try and hide the curious interest.

Sorrow just sits silently beside Miniver, picking at her dessert.

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

He tries to laugh at Moon, but it's a little hollow.

He just nibbles at the torte. It's wonderful. Almost beyond belief. It's like a sort of dream, being here. And yet...

...it's bright, and huge, and loud, and there are so many strange faces, powerful beings, not even human. They pretend humanity, but they are all shards of humanity too sharp and bright.

He wants to run away from them all for a while. He's much better meeting people one at a time.

[three_of_swords]

Sorrow stands up and smiles at her family.

"I think Miniver's bird would like his supper. I'll take our guest up now and find something for Dart to sleep in."

The gathered group wishes Miniver a good night, but they're quickly swept up in a heated debate over when the tarot can actively become an aspect in a child's life.

Sorrow nods at Miniver, indicating he can flee with her and find a respite in his room until breakfast.

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

He takes the opportunity without hesitating, taking with him the little package of bits of things he's saved for D'Artagnan.

"I'm sorry I'm not a very good guest," he says to her when they are out of earshot of the other cards. "Even a kidnapped one."

[three_of_swords]

She pauses in the main hall at a table and picks up a leather sachel Moon found for D'Artagnan, and then she starts up the stairs.

"You're an ideal guest, actually. Quiet. We don't bring many humans here. To the castle."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

"So you're not in the habit of abducting folk from their respective end-of-universes?" he asks, half joking, because he's a bit nervous still as he follows her.

[three_of_swords]

"No," she says with a chuckle. "So far, anything that involved anyone from Milliways pretty much took place there. Except for Mary Anne becoming a card. That had to happen here."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

"Oh..."

He'll ask about that one later. Right now, he wants to feed his bird. He practically leads Sorrow back to it, more or less remembering the way.

Dart flies to greet him when he comes in. Miniver catches him in his hand and pets and kisses his beak. "Hungry, little one? Yeah okay. I brought your dinner." He looks over at Sorrow. "Um, want to stay, or something?"

[three_of_swords]

She lingers in the doorway.

"Whatever you'd like."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

He shrugs, figuring she'll do what she likes, and goes to sit on the bed. He opens the napkin of saved morsels on his lap and feeds them bit by bit to the teenybird perched on his hand, all the while murmuring to him, very much a mother bird.

[three_of_swords]

Sorrow smiles and nods her head.

"If you need anything, I'm a floor down, the door closest to the landing there. Moon's a floor up, and you can tell it's her room because her door is bright blue with pink flowers. Never understood it, but... Fortune, Choice, and Skill all have first floor rooms."

[cheevy.livejournal.com]

Long, long pause as he feeds the bird.

"Fortune's nice," he notes finally.

[three_of_swords]

"He is. He was once human. A plantation owner in Louisiana."

Sorrow watches him.

"Which actually makes him the youngest of us after Mary Anne."