Written Wonderland

Mizu stirred briefly in her sleep but did not open her eyes or make any other indications that she was waking. The sounds of the other two muttering men made sure of that. 

The third man opened his eyes, which were suddenly a very dark reddish purple, and raised his right eyebrow very uncharacteristically. 

Cool. Excellent. Yes. This was fine. Right? Yes. This was fine. Good, even, since at the very least it gave Evan more to go on, and would make it harder for him to rationalize anything away tomorrow. He was glad this was getting burned into his brain, even if he felt uncomfortable as fuck.

The captain clenched his jaw, and swallowed to ensure that the dancing thing in his gut stayed down there.

Then, he leaned forward slightly, and grasped either side of the man's tunic, using it to yank the body a little more upright, and bring those dark purple eyes closer. His own silver-blue eyes were narrowed and seething, and he spoke up in a low angry growl.

"You and I have a problem."

The man did not appear to react as Evan pulled him closer to his face. In fact, if anything, he relaxed. The twitching, by this point, was completely gone. Instead, the dark red-purple eyes stared more deeply into Evan's, still with one eyebrow cocked. 

"Oh, do we." There was a dark but playful tone to the question that was more of a statement. Soon after the words were out of the man's mouth, he stretched his neck to bite and then quickly kiss the side of Evan's face before slipping out of his grip. His eyes closed, and it appeared that whatever had possessed him had suddenly released him, though his incoherent behavior returned as though nothing had just transpired. 

Immediately after the man laid back on the cot, a man in healer robes walked into the tent. 

"I'm here to replace Emery for the night," he told Evan. 

Well. That was unexpected. Evan stood up straight again, and absent-mindedly wiped the heel of his palm over the spot the man's teeth and lips had touched on his cheek. There was a small instinctive hint of disgust propelling the motion, but mostly his head was just swimming in... what?

Was it just trying to throw him of? Gross him out? Turn him on? Just fucking around with no goal in particular? He'd been braced for something more straightforwardly threatening or hostile, and wasn't really sure what to do with whatever the fuck a bite and a kiss on his cheek was supposed to be.

He was taken off-guard by the healer's voice, and somewhat hastily dropped his hand from his cheek and turned to face the newly-arrived man, momentarily revealing a rather more spacey expression than most had ever seen on the captain's face.

"Ah, good."

He said the words before his brain had quite caught up, and frantically pulled his expression back into a much more present-looking poker face. He let stand a slightly awkward-length pause even once his expression was under control, though, as his brain had a rather heated internal debate about what to do with the experience he'd just had. Would telling other people help them figure out what was going on, or just cause more confusion and panic?

But come on, Evan. You had to say something to the guy in front of you now, this was embarrassing.

"I'll leave you to it, then."

Seriously?
Seriously, Evan?
... Apparently yes.

Evan turned and crouched down to collect his sword, and then gave the healer a firm nod on his admittedly somewhat hasty way out.

Once outside Evan made a determined beeline for his tent, his body language strongly indicating that now was not a good time to approach him. If mingling with the troops had sounded like a chore before that little adventure, it sounded like a fucking trial now.

Safely inside his own tent, Evan set down his sword, kicked off his shoes, and plopped his butt down on his cot with a heavy sigh. At least he’d learned something going to the infirmary tent tonight, but damn, sorting through it wasn’t exactly gonna be a cakewalk. Maybe he should’ve woken Mizu to tell her what happened… but, he reasoned, she could use sleep just as much as anyone else, and it’d prolly be easier to discuss with clear heads in the morning, anyway. He really ought to try to get some amount of sleep himself, too.

Letting out another sigh, Evan rubbed at his hair for a moment, and then finally laid down on his back, his eyes landing once again on the familiar fabric of the tent above him. Gods, he’d spent a lot of nights staring at ceilings trying to shut his brain up. He supposed in that sense tonight wasn’t all that different from most.

His mind played over the things he’d seen and heard that night, trying to tease out all the possible conclusions and theories it could think of from the data that it had. Mostly focusing on what - who? - he’d exchanged words with in the infirmary tent. Oh, there was a hilariously obvious guess, which he acknowledged and set aside, determined not to fixate on it before he’d explored other possibilities. Frankly, mostly because the parts of his brain most eager to fixate on it weren’t exactly the most on-task.

Unfortunately even when the bulk of his mind successfully moved on - Demon? Ghost? A spell or a curse of some sort? - the parts of his brain fixating on the name he’d heard still had pretty direct access to his body. They stoked his heart thumping, echoing a distracting pounding in his ears. They danced with the thing in his gut, reminding him that sometimes, that sensation is thrilling. And, they started drawing blood downwards, aiming to fuel one of Evan’s very favorite means of blowing off steam.

And, y’know what, it was tempting. Might even help him sleep. It wasn’t like he’d form any useful conclusions tonight anyway, no matter how hard he tried to process the evening. He let out a long, slow breath, let his eyes fall shut, and also let his hand trail down over his hip, nudging aside the fabric of his pants to slip inside them.

But wait a minute. Fine. If those parts of his brain were so fucking intent on focusing on the thought of the Demon Queen, the rest of his brain would join them, and point out that the thought wasn’t fucking good. This was a goddess they were talking about here. If she was in fact real, and was in fact driving men in the camp crazy, this in fact seemed very very bad. It was one thing to enjoy the thought of a selfish & powerful creature of myth wanting to play with him, to come steal him away from all the places he’d felt trapped and stifled and alone. But this wasn’t a self-centered fantasy; this was real, and people’s lives were at stake, and this story wasn’t going to end with a round of hot sex and everything being thrilling and magically okay. Whatever this was wasn’t here just to playfully mess with people before granting them some naive notion of freedom; it was clearly here to genuinely fuck some shit up.

Those thoughts rather successfully pushed the blood in his body away from his groin, largely sending it to burn at his cheeks with embarrassment and frustration. His hand rather sheepishly withdrew from his pants, and reached up to cover his face, as though hiding his expression from the darkness around him would help.

Good job, every damn part of his brain. This was definitely a good way to spend time. Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

With an irritated grunt Evan rolled angrily onto his side, his eyes opening again to glare daggers at nothing in particular. He searched for a bit for something - anything - else to think about, and suddenly, surprisingly, landed on Xavier and his charms. Even if the charm hadn’t done shit for someone who was already taken, Evan found himself wishing he’d reclaimed it before leaving. Who knew if it’d actually do anything, but if nothing else, it’d at least give Evan’s brain something that wasn’t a shit-show to focus on.

To wit, though, he could focus without the literal damn thing. Come on now.

Evan closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, and slowly let it out. He held the image of the charm in his mind, and focused on how it had felt in his palm when he held it. He finally recognized that his jaw had been clamped for god knows how long now, and reminded it to relax. He breathed in and out again, crystallizing the image of the charm and getting other parts of his body to relax as well. The image of Xavier’s brilliant wild grin creeped in, and Evan smiled, but then gently brushed it away. Wandering too far from the horse hair and leather and bone would get him exploring too many tangents, and he’d be right back where he started. He etched out the markings that had been on the leather in his mind, and slowly started to lose himself in those lines, a peaceful darkness finally closing in around him.

---

Hoofbeats echoed into the darkness, and shortly thereafter came a fresh breeze, and sunshine warming Evan’s skin. He rode the horse across a wide open field, nothing around him but the world, all to himself and his steed.

Xavier joined him, which he was happy for. For a moment they playfully raced, the thumping of the two horses’ hoofbeats syncing with the rhythms of Evan’s breath and his heart.

Then Xavier’s horse was also his, and the boy was in front of him, nestled between Evan’s arms and leaning back against his chest, and gods it was warm. Soothing, at first, but then… something else. The two playfully tumbled down from the horse, rolling over one another and finally settling out of breath on the earth. Evan held Xavier’s face and kissed his lips, and the elation of it washed through his body.

His kiss turned to nips and to bites, and Evan engaged his muscles to hold Xavier down. The boy beneath him pushed back, at first ineffectually, but after a few tries he managed to toss Evan over, and pin him instead. Evan smiled and met Xavier’s gaze, and saw that the boy’s eyes were now a deep reddish purple, and that the warm wild grin he’d expected to see was instead a dark smirk. The brilliant blue sky over them darkened to the drab grungy fabric of Evan’s tent. Evan tried to say something, but could make no sound. And so he tried to yell, but still there was silence. That dark smirk on Xavier’s face just widened in response.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?” That smooth, deep voice enveloped Evan, and he felt himself sinking below water, still unable to speak.

Xavier’s hand reached below the water, and into Evan’s gut - a sensation that was at once deeply uncomfortable, and also exciting beyond words. Evan’s breath escaped him, and for a moment he panicked and gasped, expecting to drown but instead breathing comfortably. In fact, breathing down here felt good. It wasn’t the warm fresh air from before, but instead a refreshing smooth chill, sending a shiver down his spine and reminding him that he was alive.

Evan reached out for Xavier, wanting to pull him down into the water with him, so that he could breathe this in too and know what it was like. But his arms found themselves simply hugging air to his chest, his eyes blinking open to the sight of his sword on the floor beside him, and a trickle of light glinting off of it from the crack between the flaps of his tent.

Evan sat up and rubbed at his hair, breathing deeply to try to shake off the feelings from the dream. His heart pounded in his ears, some mixture of worry and excitement holding strong in his chest. A part of him wanted to go find Xavier and make sure he was okay, but another part of him didn’t particularly want to navigate interacting with the boy just now, at least not until blood stopped flushing his cheeks about the thought. Hooooo boy. This certainly wasn't the first time Evan’d had dreams of making out with subordinates - or superiors, for that matter - but he knew he’d already been blurring lines with Xavier more than most... it was just so damn easy to do.

But, that was an issue to deal with later.

In all likelihood, Xavier was just fine, else Evan expected he’d have awoken to yet another goddamn scream in the night. Of higher priority was probably going and checking in with Mizu, and figuring out how the fuck to explain to her what she’d slept through in the infirmary tent last night.

With a weary groan Evan pushed himself to his feet and got properly dressed, and then headed out to find his commander.

((OOC: Of note, while Evan is certainly heading out with a goal, Emily has no particular preferences on who Evan actually runs into first.))

Mizu woke at sunrise in the infirmary tent with some frustration. Her body ached from falling asleep in her loosely attached armor, but it wasn't the first time she had woken up with that particular sensation. Her sleep was dreamless, and she was grateful for this. The still-murmuring men on the cots were an excellent reminder of that. 

She gathered herself, nodded to the healer, and receded to her own tent to get properly ready. She passed many drawn faces on the way but engaged with none of them. They needed some organization and something to look forward to. This effort was going to dissolve completely otherwise. The troops needed some good news. Hopefully the agreement with the Shel'ti would resolve that, although that put more weight on the negotiation than Mizu was comfortable with. 

After cleaning herself up, washing her face in the bowl of cold water, and refastening both her armor and her bun, she fetched one of the runner boys to gather all her knight captains. It was time to determine what they would be willing to give up to gain the allegiance of the state across the border. Mizu didn't feel comfortable making the decision alone, although she would have, had it come to that. 

Elaine appeared first, her armor shiny with care and attention. Her tent was only a few away from Mizu's and something about the woman's heavy presence gave Mizu an unusual comfort. Several of the older male captains arrived next and gave Mizu the light bow in respect for the old ways of addressing a woman in power. Mizu did not mind this; she accepted but did not, by any means, expect or resent it the way other women did. 

Mizu made sure to wait until all 12 captains assembled before beginning the discussion. 

((OOC: I imagine that Evan runs into the runner boy at some point while he's heading to the tent, although however he gets there doesn't super matter. Also, feel free to fill in any others of your characters who might want to be part of the knight captain group and begin some discussion there if you feel so inclined. Otherwise, Mizu will just start into her speech when he arrives. Also, Xavier x Evan dream was hawwwwwwwwwwt. <3 )) 

((OOC: Glad you liked it! ^_^ It was definitely not what I was expecting when I started that post lol but I was rather pleased with where it went <3 ))

Evan was just about to the infirmary tent when a runner boy got his attention. He admittedly gave the poor boy a glare that was completely unwarranted, mostly just coming from Evan's own frustration that he'd missed his chance to speak to Mizu in private for a while. Then again, maybe telling the other captains about it would also be good? Evan wasn't so sure though. Saying "By the way, we have to consider supernatural possibilities" was kiiiind of a delicate matter, although now that he was thinking on it, he could see both pros and cons to raising it with the whole group rather than just Mizu... Uhck, these were the sorts of considerations Evan rather disliked about his current station, even if there were other things he appreciated. Handling delicate matters just wasn't his forte, although he was, slowly, getting better at it.

But in any case, first thing was first.

With a gruff but well-meaning thanks to the runner boy, Evan dismissed him and headed on over to Mizu's tent, trying to reel in his bad mood before he got there. He was only marginally successful, as even the way he sharply opened the tent flap to step inside betrayed that his patience this morning was on the shorter end. Then again, that was often how he was in the mornings, and it didn't necessarily mean that interacting with him would go poorly. Mainly the trick was not taking steely glares or curt replies personally.

Evan went and stood quietly near one of his compatriots he trusted more than some of the others to not take offence at his mood, and waited with crossed arms for things to get started.

((OOC: I seem to not currently feel called to bring anyone particular in on this, although I certainly have plenty of folks I could bring in. Hmmm, I think I'll go share some other thoughts about it in Plotting as it might spur a side conversation.))

Mizu stood behind the map table and raised her head in a sharp gesture that very quickly silenced the group of captains. She waited until the tent was silent before saying anything. 

"Obviously, we had another man fall ill last night," Mizu said with unshakable features. The group continued to be silent, and Mizu continued. "Has anyone seen anything like this before? Does anyone have any information about why this continues to happen?" 

While most eyes were on Mizu when she began, several of the captains looked down and avoided eye contact at this question. 

One of the older men spoke up, saying, "I heard some of my men saying they had heard stories of men turning mad overnight. They talk of the dark fae goddess and the Demon Queen." The man saw Mizu stiffen and narrow her eyes in response to the superstitious comment, so he added, "Now, I'm not sure I believe them, but I think we do have to consider this from all angles. I mean, if it had just been one or two, it could have been the food or really anything, but now that there's three... The king does have a sorcerer on hand, Mizu." 

Mizu tensed her shoulders imperceptibly at the man's fear, which she felt from across the table. 

"The forces inside the castle are being distracted," Mizu said in an effort to clear the thought from the captains' minds. "I'm inclined to believe these dreams attacks, if genuine attacks they are, come from another source." 

Mizu wasn't sure if it would help or hurt morale for them to consider the possibility that it was not the king attacking them, that they could be fighting on two fronts, but Mizu did not believe in babying her captains. She wanted to be honest with them; otherwise, how would they make educated decisions?

"Will Xavier's charms actually work?" Another man asked. 

"The most important thing right now is to give the troops some peace of mind," Mizu said, which everyone seemed to understand as a "probably not, but we're going to use them anyway." She felt this knowledge fall heavily on some of the captains, so she elaborated, "but I have commanded that everyone have one my nightfall. I understand that Xavier is going to need more bone, so I'll be sending out a hunting party." 

"Perhaps some of the Shel'ti know what we are up against," Elaine said. Mizu nodded, happy to be directed nearer to the gathering's actual purpose. 

"We'll be sending a negotiation party to the Shel'ti capital tomorrow. The queen has agreed to grant us a council as of yesterday afternoon," Mizu said. "We need to decide which of us will go. I would like three captains and a small retinue of 10 men to accompany me." 

((OOC: Evan could really decide to stay or go without changing the plot too much. I will say that there will probably be more chances for dramatic irony if he does not go to the negotiation, and that will also probably make Evan and Dehaljadrun's interactions begin sooner, but he could go with Mizu. He could also decide he wants to go now and change his mind over the course of the day because some shit is going to happen. Also, I did want to move the conversation a fair bit, but if there are any moments where Evan would have preferred to speak up, I can totally tweak this or break it into pieces in some way. I was imagining the captains are talking rather fast because their nerves are high.))

Evan was quieter this meeting than most. Often his grumpy moods manifested in tossing in unhelpful snide remarks, but this morning he seemed... thoughtful, in a way he didn't normally. He was clearly very attentive of the captain who mentioned his men discussing the Demon Queen. Other troops discussing her could make it more likely that the man from last night had just had Dehaljadrun on his mind before going crazy... or, it could mean that the other troops were picking up on something relevant. Maybe he should talk to the men who were thinking about her, ask if their suspicions were coming from anything other than stories? Maybe he should even do that before talking to Mizu, so he'd have more to bring to her when they spoke? But would sitting on what he'd witnessed last night for that long be wise?

Oh, whups, conversation had moved on. From what Evan's brain had managed to sort of parse in the background while he thought, though, he honestly didn't feel like he'd missed much. Something about the dreams likely not being from the king's forces, which meshed with Evan's intuition, and something about Xavier's charms, which Evan was pretty sure he was on the same page as Mizu about as well.

"I'd like to be by your side, Commander." The ever-stoic Blake spoke up for the first time this meeting, snapping Evan more fully back to attention.

Truth told his instinct was that basically any time Blake actually said anything, it was sure to be something he disagreed with, but he supposed this comment was fairly benign. He wasn't sure Blake would be much better at negotiating than he would (and that bar was pretty low), but it wasn't surprising that she'd want to go with Mizu regardless. The urge to roll his eyes at Blake's continued commitment to her melodramatic overprotective loyal dog routine was strong, but Evan managed to keep his expression flat.

It helped that he didn't feel very invested in who would go, as he had less than zero interest himself. While Blake's worst-case scenario was basically just remaining silent while looking eternally grumpy, Evan was never not in some amount of danger of putting his foot in his mouth, and he'd just as soon not expose anyone to that risk.

Besides, it was great if folks learned something from the Shel'ti that could help, and obviously the results of the negotiation would be vital to their long-term goals, but the shit that was actually going down right now was here in camp, and Evan preferred dealing with things on the ground.

((OOC: As it happens, Evan would've preferred not to go even before you said all those other things, so that seems perfect lol. I am indifferent about whether or not Blake goes; Evan's assessments that she wouldn't be much of an asset as a negotiator (but also wouldn't be much of a liability, either, whereas Evan really might be) are correct*. If Blake does go it's cool if you'd like to use that as an excuse to play through things happening with the Shel'ti alongside whatever Evan gets up to, or it's also cool if you wanna just leave that a mysterious off-screen thing that Blake knows about but Emily only learns about as needed. Also totally fine if Blake doesn't go; she won't throw a fuss if that's Mizu's decision on the matter.

* Evan's assessment that Blake is a melodramatic overprotective loyal dog is... up for debate. If nothing else, Blake is probably too stoic to be accurately described as melodramatic, but Evan would assert it's not her affect he's talking about. And I really should stop there before I let them fully get into meta-in-character arguments here xD))

Mizu nodded curtly at Blake's comment and selected two men to go in the negotiation party the following day. The group of them would leave before dawn and should be back by nightfall. The retinue of 10 men would come from the three captains' troops. Mizu looked at the captains who would remain and determined that Elaine should hold the camp until their return. 

Though it felt as though the army was hanging a lot of hope on the meeting with the Shel'ti, it was good to have a more detailed plan of approach now, at the very least. They continued into the territory of what they would be willing to offer the Shel'ti for their help, should the rebellion succeed, which unsurprisingly included some of the territory they now camped in and the army support King Uranel never offered. 

Prepared to close up the meeting, Mizu took a breath but was interrupted by the runner boy come back into the tent. 

"Sorry to barge in," the boy said, "but there's a woman here who demands to speak with you. I told her you were in a strategy meeting, but she won't wait." Mizu puzzled for a moment on who this woman could possibly be and considered that she could be a trap of some kind. 

"Have you made sure that she is unarmed?" Mizu asked, hardly moving her lips. 

"She's... she's a very old woman, surely she..." the boy stuttered. 

"Make sure she is unarmed and then she may enter," Mizu stated with a commanding tone. She simultaneously gave the captains the hand signal, middle finger and thumb touching on the right hand, for them to keep their weapons close. 

The woman who entered the large strategy tent walked with strain, though her posture was excellent. Her gray hair fell down her back in great, wild cascades, and her forest green clothing, something between a dress and a many-pocketed quilt, bulged as though she had attempted to carry the forest with her in those pockets. Though her age was obvious, her face was strangely smooth, the wrinkles having avoided the area to a degree incongruous with other markers of age. 

"I hear that your men are having some trouble in the night, and no surprises there with you on the doorstep of an angry god," she said in a croaked voice with the slightest smirk so that only the most perceptible would recognize it. Mizu looked at her with a more hardened gaze but did not speak. "I can help you with your problem," the crone added.