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Fandom Library, Wednesday

You know, it had been a hard and confusing couple of days and Arden was just going to spend her shift reading. Sure, she had stuff she could be doing, but you know what else? She also had a book she could finish and she knew which one was going to be a priority today.

Maybe if anybody saw her, they'd assume it was some kind of class assignment. Or maybe they'd accept that sometimes, a little bit of escapism was what a girl needed. Whichever.

But she wasn't completely shirking her responsibilities! If anyone showed up, she'd be happy to help them. Though maybe people could time their visits to coincide with chapter breaks? That would be dope.

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Gray grinned at her and told her, "I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool."

"Well, it means I do a lot of stuff with air," she said, giving him a tentative smile back. "I mean, you wanna fly a kite or make sure your ultimate frisbee always goes where you what? I'm your girl. Uh, except for how I try to never use my powers and pass as a human as much as possible. But, um. It's why I loved going flying so much. And why I love being up high. It's not something I can do, but...it feels like home."

She bit her lip and said, "But please, please don't tell anybody what I am. Or that I'm anything at all. Not even your brother. Even more than not breaking the Detente, what I am? Has to be a secret."

"I can keep a secret," Gray said, "but you should know that my brothers and I have a telepathic bond. Sometimes when we're close together things seep through without us meaning for them to." Which was going to become a problem for him for reasons completely unrelated to Arden, but he wasn't letting himself think about that right now. "Speaking of, uh, I was actually really worried after Parent's Weekend because you kept insisting your world was definitely 100% mundane and I knew it for sure wasn't." On account of the extremely freaky sex Bellamy and Grim had had.

"Oh, but we can totally go flying again sometime!"

"Because fucking Grimm can't keep it in her pants," Arden groaned. "Or in...whatever form she's wearing that day." She buried her face in her hands. "But I guess...if they do find out, let them know that they can't tell anybody? Especially not Grimm." She moved her hands to peek up at him. "Um. The Detente also has a provision about Elementals. And that provision is 'kill on sight.' I'm a walking fugitive and, technically, any Othersider that figures out what I am? Is supposed to summon the Duskwatch to come and, uh. Execute me. Immediately. Like, some other things could happen - like a vampire could claim me as a blood doll for a few days, but they'd have to provide my drained body as proof to the Duskwatch within three days or be in violation of the Detente. Which, I'm pretty sure you can guess what that means."

"It was more like her sentient flames from what Bellamy said...uh. He gave her five stars if that helps?"

Okay, wait. "What is with your universe jumping straight to execution for everything? I thought angels were buttholes! And just 'cause you're a...sylph or whatever? There are angels who wanted to kill all the Nephilim because we're abominations, but you'll notice they didn't do it."

"It absolutely does not help," Arden assured him. "I'm good with never knowing that much about Grimm's sex life ever."

Their relationship was...fraught.

"But yeah. Well. All Elementals. So even if I were an undine or an oread, I'd still count. I don't know why the elves hate us so much, but they do. Maybe we're also abominations? That could kinda make sense, since I'm not sure how I am what I am anyway." She really had a poor understanding of a lot of things. "I saw a book once, in my legal guardian's library. It has illustrations of what they did to us when they caught us. I...still have nightmares about some of the pictures. And since I don't wanna live that out at all, I'm just gonna keep my head down while pretending I'm human as hard as I can."

She shrugged. What else could you do, you know?

"Okay, but does that Grimm lady know that you're this Elemental thing or not?" Gray asked, because now he was kind of confused on that point. "Because I thought she was your friend, but you said she can't know, so if she's at risk of murdering you or whatever I have to tell Bell she's not cool and he can't sleep with her again."

Hashtag priorities.

"Also, I'm sorry. That really sucks and I totally get why you moved to space."

At least somebody understood her priorities, Cal. And also, Lydia.

"She knows," Arden said. "She helped raise me. But she can't know that I'm telling people what I am. Or else she'll get really mad and point out that I'm risking her life, too, and maybe even will tell Callista where I am, because if I'm being dumb enough to tell people stuff that can get folks killed, I probably shouldn't be allowed out without supervision. You know?"

"...I just think that would be really hypocritical of her, considering," Gray said, "you know." He gestured vaguely to encompass the extremely nonhuman sex Grimm had had with his brother who she had just met.

To be fair: Bellamy.

"Grimm isn't exactly not hypocritical," Arden sighed. "But also, to her way of thinking, she told a little secret. Djinn are just kinda like that, especially if they can get information out of it. Like, Duke gives random people his real name so they can summon him for stuff and he can either learn stuff or mess with them, depending on his mood. Djinn are..." She shrugged. "Yeah, just like that. And they're always scrupulously sure to never make it seem like anyone else exists but them. Me talking about what I am? Big secret, and the kind that hints at a wholeass society just by virtue of being the kind of secret it is. Her risk is calculated, mine's stupid."

"But it's not like you asked to be born," Gray protested. "Any more than I did, with all the bullshit that comes with that."

"When has that ever stopped anybody?" Arden asked quietly. "Doesn't change what we are, and, with Othersiders, doesn't change what the law is."

"But it's a stupid-ass law. Especially if you don't even know why. Like, at least we Nephilim know why the angels hate us. And it even kind of makes sense! But even they're like, 'Well, they didn't ask to exist so it's not like we can genocide them about it.' They're just buttholes."

Well, Uriel had done a little more than that, but Gray didn't know that part yet.

"Elves are a predator species," Arden said with a shrug. "Just dressed up in fancy clothes and bureaucracy. Maybe they picked us once humans were deemed too dangerous to hunt. That's what the Duskwatch is. The Otherside's paramilitary policing organization. They're supposed to be for all of us - well, everybody but me - but they're mostly marshmallows anyway."

Okay, now she'd lost him again. "Then what are you so worried about if they're a bunch of marshmallows?"

Possibly they were using that word really differently.

Suuuuuuuper differently!

"Oh! Sorry, yeah. Um, all of us supernaturals have different scents that people can pick up on, from our magic. Vampires smell like iron and ashes. Djinn smell like lemon zest. Elves smell like toasted marshmallows and herbs. It's why I don't like the smell of marshmallows. Gives me panic attacks. So people call elves 'marshmallows,' mostly to be derogatory."

Edited 2024-07-10 21:09 (UTC)

"Oh! We don't have anything like that." He gasped. "Does that mean you can't have s'mores?!" A tragedy.

The way she recoiled at the very word probably answered his question for him.

"Professor Amicitia was really great and didn't have marshmallows at all in his camping class. Professor Atreides, too. I just...can't. Different from how I can't with birds, but still can't."

"I'm so sorry." She was missing out on so much gooey goodness. "You can't eat birds either? Are birds scary too? Should I stop saying birds?"

Okay, Arden had to laugh a little bit. "No, no. I mean, I can't eat birds, I would definitely puke, but that's because - remember how I said the sky feels like home? Well, sylphs, like, vibe with birds so hard that we can't eat them. It's like eating people." She gave a shudder. "Still, I'm pretty sure I get the better end of things? Oreads - earth Elementals - supposedly weren't able eat anything with hooves. No pork. And undines couldn't have fish. And dea...huh. I don't know what they wouldn't be able to eat."

"Huh," Gray said. "That blows. I mean, I can eat birds, and I have feathers." He thought about it. "I can eat people, too, sort of." Not dirty.

Yeah, Arden's mind hadn't gone to dirty, it was still stuck on, "Sort of?!"

If you ask her, sort of eating people was way weirder than not being able to eat birds.

"The Nephilim drink blood," Gray told her. "It's, uh. It's the sign of the damned. We don't have to, like vampires or fallen angels, we just...can. Like a bonus thing."

Bonus damned.

"Is there a reason why you would?" Arden asked, relaxing once Gray explained that was like vampiric. That just happened sometimes.

"Yeah?" Gray said, ruffling at his hair again. "A lot, really. We like it. It tastes good to us. There's like a strength boost. It, uh, can be really...intimate. There are some magic rituals it's necessary for. And it makes alcohol work for us. That or ambrosia, or we can't get drunk, unless it's straight absinthe for some reason." He gave her a wry grin. "The club we go to back home is run by a vampire, so obviously that part's not an issue."

Fandom Library, Wednesday

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