Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 13)

She nodded earnestly at that. Good. So he did realize she needed to come home. And soon. “Yes… I would like to be home before that happens.” I would like to be home now.

Maybe all this nonsense was just everyone’s way of forcing her to get comfortable making decisions and requests. Maybe once she could confidently communicate that she wanted to go home, Tomhas would take her home. She just had to do better.

“…please,” she finished lamely, glancing away. She didn’t think she’d survive a long night at Serpent Keep. And she wasn’t going to hold that over her father, obviously. She wasn’t going to blackmail him. But. Well. She had very little will to live at baseline these days, much less when the gods took the sun from her. And not once her father left her. Again.

There was no chance he’d be spending the entire night here. He had a territory to run. He understood how long he was away from home, even if he didn’t seem to understand how long she had been away.

She just needed to find a way to convince him to let her go home when he did.

Perhaps she’d ask someone’s advice on how to go about that. Whether to make herself perfect once more so that he’d want to be around her; or whether to be as miserable as she felt so he was concerned and brought her back anyhow. At this point, she wasn’t so sure she was above manipulating her father. He clearly couldn’t be reasoned with.

"I'll do my best," he promised. "I know you're having a hard time here. You've been very, very brave and I'm so proud of you for stirring through this." He gave her a small smile. "I'm sorry it's been so tough."

And just like that, he swallowed her with guilt once again. She glanced at him, then blushed and looked away quickly. It seemed he was even better at manipulating her than she was him. Basically calling her an asshole without actually doing so. Pointing out her flagrant entitledness.

“I… know that I’m being terribly ungrateful… I promise I don’t mean to be being this terrible.” She glanced back at him tentatively, blushing profusely. “But I do think… it’ll be better once… especially now with all the… you know.”

"You're not being ungrateful." His brow furrowed. "Gods, we're not trying to get you to thank us for all this. We know it's no fun. But I think we can get you home soon. Maybe in the next two weeks or so...but I have to figure out how to do it safely."

“Right.” She nodded quickly. That seemed like an entirely arbitrary timeline. But one she could work with. Then Raina would only be one month older before she saw her again. And she’d have a full month to put weight on herself. But no more. That was… good timing, yes. “That-that makes sense. For sure. I’m not trying to rush you — I fully understand — but… yes, that would be… nice.” She nodded again. “For sure.”

He smiled and dipped his head. "I'll see what I can do."

Ky mirrored him, still blushing though the heat in her face was ever so slowly starting to dissipate. She glanced around, letting the silence linger for a moment. “It’s nice to be out and about again. There hasn’t been much reason since Rönn left.”

(Okay so I’ve been thinking about this and honestly I’m getting a little tired of writing Ky. I feel like she’s really repetitive and going in circles about how miserable she is and I can’t think of a way to fix that without being wildly inconsistent with her characterization. What would you think about bringing in Jerica and co. to Serpent Keep rather than wait for them to go back to Caracal Keep? That’d bring in a lot of new POV and freshen this up a bit I feel like so then we’ve got more lore and such to build off of. I’m thinking I would bring in Jerica, 15, moody assassin but who has a strong moral compass anyhow. Her uncle Derik (Idk late 30s/early 40s maybe?), War Lord, and his son Rek, 19, General of the Swordsmen. Then also Jerica’s squire Kieran, I think I said I’d scale him back to 10 for this RP, just an anxious little sweetheart. And maybe also Akeno, General of the Archers. His age is a bit complicated because in canon he is also 4 years older than Jerica but they’re a couple so idk the ethics of having him be 19 since she’s 15 here (they’re 20 and 24 in canon so less problematic than 15 and 19). I could maybe scale him back to 17 and have him be training to become a General but be a lower ranking officer for now? Or we can just pretend that that isn’t a gross age gap and go with it lol.
Derik is very calm and collected and professional. Rek and Akeno are as well, but younger so more playful. And then like I mentioned Jerica is moody and lashes out in anger when she feels talked down to but deep down is just a hurt little girl that wants love so I think she’ll come around eventually. And also like I mentioned Kieran is anxious but incredibly sweet. He’ll be hiding behind Jerica most of the time and trying very, very hard to be Respectable and Dignified but he’s still a literal child and is really wholesome and big-hearted and eager to please)
(I realize I sort of lost my point in the midst of my rambling. Point is, I think it could be nice to get some fresh POV and some fresh lore in the mix and give ourselves a break from Ky’s sulking (and who knows maybe this will be a boost to get her out of her cycle of self-pity) and I think if we fudge the timeline a bit we could make it work. Like I don’t know why they would come up as far as diplomatic relations go since it’s not been long since crazy shit started happening and I’m not sure it’s feasible for them to have traveled so far so quickly. But maybe they were milling about close to the border anyway when they heard? Or we could invent a reason they were planning on going North anyway?)

(I think bringing them in would be good! It'll definitely bring an interesting dynamic into the story and I expect it'll rouse conflict as well, which is something we need right now. I do still wanna see a bit of Ky since we have some issues to resolve like the ghosts and the heart box and stuff.
I do think we need to move the age gap backward to make it more acceptable.
It could be they're escorting D'Ara Wai north? She usually only uses her own tribe members as an escort but we could make it work)

(Ayyy okay cool! Yeah, for sure, I’m not going to drop Ky entirely. I do still love her and want her to be involved in this, especially given the fact that she’s related to Jer and co. and it’ll be nice to work with her to process all of that fall out. I just meant it’d be nice to have other options as well to hop between when I can’t figure out how to make Ky interesting, such as now. I think it’ll actually unlock some nice character development on her end.
Can do with the age gap correction! I actually might even make him be 16 if they are part of an escort — which I love the idea of! — rather than an independent diplomatic sort of party. It makes more sense for him to come along to be learning the ropes and such of an escort than to be representing Levin directly at such a young age. And definitely makes it less gross, given the fact that I’m scaling the girls back so dramatically. I think I will also maybe make Rek 16/17 so he’s closer to their age and have him be up and coming but not a General yet. I’d have to look at military ranks to decide where he falls.
And I love the idea of them being part of an escort! That definitely would make the timing work out best, and also I’d love to get to meet D’Ara soon! I’ve been eagerly awaiting that. Maybe the Ainsleys wanted to make diplomatic connections broadly, and decided accompanying D’Ara was a good way to do so? I’m also giddy with the idea of Jerica and D’Ara interacting, too! She’s the singular female in the military in canon because Levin is super sexist, so I think she’ll be trying to play it cool but in reality be so happy to be around other women who are badasses.
Do you wanna skip to them now? We could have them arrive/be approaching the Keep and have those initial interactions, and then once we reach a lull there we can hop back over to Ky and Tomhas in town. That’d open up further interaction potential too for when they return and have to do the introductions and feeling each other out all over again (and will be particularly beautiful to see the Ky/D’Ara interaction as well since Ky is so certain D’Ara is going to hate her but I have a gut feeling that she is wrong about that but wanna see lol) and move things along nicely. Ky be like ‘oh shit I can’t sulk anymore it’s not just family now and I don’t want to embarrass my father in front of diplomats’ and get her act together more haha)

(Hey sorry about the hiatus! I needed a bit of a break from yws while I was watching the dogs for my parents and moving into my new apartment. But I'm back for now!

If you'd like we can skip to D'Ara and Jer soon and get that established after the market visit, or we can just skip now. Whatever your preference!)

(Eyyy welcome back! No worries ^^ how is the new place? I’m moving next week and not looking forward to it at all haha (I actually have a story about the current place I live I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now tho so it’ll be nice to have moved so it’s not an internet safety issue to tell the story lol) so I get how overwhelming it all can be

I don’t have a super strong preference… I was thinking it might be refreshing to get the new POV sooner rather than later, so the arrival now and then jump back over to the market scene and finish that up — but I also can see the case for finishing this scene first before we introduce the new characters. Do you have a preference?)

(It's nice! A bit loud and kind of scary since I'm spending my first night alone. But it's cozy and I've got my things all around me.)
(And oof I'm looking forward to this story then. Good luck to you in this new place as well!)
(I think a fresh start would be nice!)

(Ahh totally valid! I had a studio apartment alone for like 5 months in 2017 but other than that have always had roommates and get spooked when they’re out of town and I’m home alone. And my new place is just me, I didn’t get roommates there. So uh. Yeah xD I shall be joining the skiddish crew soon lol hopefully yours settles soon, though! I’m sure once you get more comfortable you’ll relax ^^)
(And okay cool! New crew it is. Do you wanna set that up or would you like me to?)

(Would you mind doing it? I'm absolutely wiped out and I need to get some sleep; this is my last post for the night)
(You should probably find some roommates if you're spooked. There's gotta be someone cool out there!)