⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: Any time before the start of the event.
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Once you've submitted your AU summary, you can use this post to do some CLOSED THREADING to play out some character interactions that happened before the event start. This means that memory regains will not be in play yet. Open top levels are not allowed - these threads are intended to sort out closed interactions between planned backstory connections, during the week leading up to the actual event start.
Warnings: Could be anything.

PORTLAND, AS YOU KNEW IT↴ The shift went unseen and unfelt. One moment you were one person, and the next, another. This before all that, though, in the new life that you remember living here in Portland. No memories of your true self have arisen yet, and at the time this was the only life you knew. Did these events truly happen at all? Or do they only exist in memory?

Comments

[starseedling]

He starts better Miu, his stare becoming somewhat vacant as dozens of memories come to the front of his mind at Ginko's words. He doesn't completely know how long he was in there, but he knows that it must have been years. He had no sense of time, besides day and night, and he had never managed to keep track of how they passed. Things had been too scattered, after what she'd done to him shortly after his arrival.

"Were you... her..." He pauses, remembering asking Rita the same question. Was Ginko also her child? Does that mean they were related? He's not sure. "She... She was supposed to be my mom."

The betrayal there is obvious. He had expected a lot thing of her that simply hadn't been true, up to including any expectation of love or compassion. She had been gentle, even affectionate at times, but... that only made everything surrounding it worse. Her kindness was harder to bear than he cruelty, because it forced him to know how they could both exist at the same time.

He scoops Miu into his arms, then, holding her carefully. It's clear that he needs to hold onto something, desperate for physical comfort.

[dontpokethat]

Miu sure doesn't seem to object to the attention, and readily plants her weird little hands against his arm. Ginko turns to face Steven more fully, surprise passing over his face.

"...Your mom?" That... is unexpected, actually. "What do you mean, supposed to be?"

[starseedling]

"She's my mom," he says again, his tears starting fresh as he stares down at his feet. "She... She and my dad... I thought she would..."

He closes his eyes with a sob, still mechanically holding Miu regardless.

"All she did was hurt me. She took me away from Dad, and she did all these things... I was so dumb. She doesn't love me. She never did."

[dontpokethat]

"You weren't being dumb."

The answer comes pretty readily - not scolding, but insistent. "There's nothing stupid about expecting your mother to love you. ...I'm sorry she hurt you. You didn't deserve that."

And, well... he might as well address the other question here. "I'm not actually related to her, myself - I don't know if she wanted me because of my parents, or if I was just unlucky."

[starseedling]

He's known so little about how things usually worked before all of this happened - his dad had been sparing with frightening information about changelings, and he's still not sure why. His mother had always seemed like a distant figure - too busy and powerful for normal stuff - but the cruelty involved was never mentioned. Maybe he just didn't want Steven to think badly of her. Maybe his dad really thought she was okay.

He wonders what his dad is doing now, without him.

"I didn't know it was like this," he says quietly, his voice still breaking with hurt. "I didn't... think that this was what being fae meant."

It's worse knowing that the Queen captured people who weren't even connected to her, too. It just seems to cruel. No one could really deserve this, could they?

[dontpokethat]

...It's at times like this that Ginko wishes he were just a little better at talking to people. There must be something more he can say to help, but... whatever it is, he can't think of it.

Dammit.

"...Well. In any case, you should be safe from her now. There are places you can go where she won't find you." He looks Steven over with a concerned frown. "...Are you ready to go? If you're not, we can wait here a little longer."

They should probably get going before too much longer, just to be safe. But they can probably afford to wait a little more.

[starseedling]

Steven glances outside of the car one more time, trying to convince himself that this will be okay. It's difficult, but... why would Ginko give him the option, be so patient, if he was going to try to hurt him? Steven swallows and nods.

"We can go," he says, his eyes watery in the nighttime city lights. "I don't want to be here anymore."

[dontpokethat]

Ginko nods; he gets up to go close the door on Steven's side, then walks back around to get back in the driver's seat, sitting in it properly this time.

He pulls out of the parking space and starts toward Axel's store.

[small_reservations]

Axel's outside, smoking something of dubious origins when Ginko pulls up. He smiles, relaxed and gentle, at his old friend, but when he spots a small frame in the passenger seat the look becomes a little confused and concerned. Regardless, he waves, and gestures to the alley next to his store, moving out of the way.

Currently, he's wearing a glamour, not a particularly heavy one but one that's hard to see through nonetheless. He's got a talent for them; even one he puts on just to come out and smoke is at least halfway decent. However, when he exhales, there're sparks in the smoke.

i'm gonna drop this in here then quix can go

[dontpokethat]

Ginko waves back to Axel and gives a small nod of acknowledgement before he parks. He steps out of the car and goes to open the door on Steven's side.

"Axel is an old friend of mine; we escaped together. I never would have been able to get away if it weren't for him. You can trust him."

Granted, he doesn't particularly expect the boy to be ready to totally trust anyone just yet, especially not changelings. But he hopes that the fact that Axel is another escapee, rather than still being under the Rose Queen's control, might help.