Young Writers Society

Estella Fay always hated silences like this. They felt suffocating, like the quiet rested right on top of her chest and kept pressing down. She kicked a stray stone. “So. Tell us more about your plant covered city. That sounds beautiful, really. We have a lot of trees in and around London, but it doesn’t sound like anything compared to your city. What kind of plants are they? Did you purposely use them to build your city or did it just sort of happen? Oh, and what about-“

“Ms. Taylor.” Being around Estella Fay really wasn’t good for Heliodor Everett’s health. Not only was a treasonous criminal, operating out of the crime capital of all of England, but she was painfully comfortable with that fact. And herself. She could fly without fear that she was going to get shot down from the sky. She could learn all of the things that being an alis used to mean before they were torn down.

She could allow herself to enjoy being an alis, to love her wings and her glowing eyes.

Estella Fay stopped in the middle of her sentence, falling silent in an instance.

"Hey," Jo said to Heliodor Everett when Estella Fay fell silent. She got that Heliodor Everett had been through some rough things before, but she understood how disheartening it was to be cut off like that. Out of Kyle and Jo, Jo was the most like Estella Fay. They were used to rambling, and knew the pain of being cut off before they could finish their train of thought.

They looked over at Estella Fay, happy to keep the conversation going.

"It's funny Heliodor Everett mentioned a Ms. Taylor," Jo said, switching gears, "because our plants are actually indirectly because of a Mx. Taylor. At least, I think that's Chatterbox's human name?"

Kyle nodded.

"It is," he confirmed. Because of course he'd know that. He saw Chatterbox more than Jo saw them. Jo probably would have died if they saw Chatterbox as much as he did.

"Chatterbox won the favor of Cybele, the person who made mutantkind," Jo continued. "And she ended up making Mutopia for us, plant houses and places included. I guess it just came more naturally to her?"

Estella Fay gasped, her eyes blowing wide. It wasn’t very common that people took the time to answer all of her questions. And even if Jo had only answered one, it was better than she was used to. “Oh! What does mix mean in front of someone’s name? I’ve never heard that before. And is Cybele some sort of deity? Did Taylor befriend some sort of god?” She bounced on her toes. “Wow, I’m sorry. There’s just so many things to ask! I thought London was a lot to understand but this is something else entirely.”

Her wings fluttered, lifting her just an inch off the ground before she suddenly dropped back down. She was excited and things like that always happened when she was excited.

Heliodor Everett, meanwhile, just withdrew. He thought Jo and Kyle would appreciate his interruption. People liked alis to be like lawn decor, seen and never heard. But it seems like Jo and Kyle wanted to hear Estella Fay. Everything he had said at this point was making them upset with him. His heart was pounding so fast that he was sure Jo and Kyle could hear it, like a pack of wolves hunting a deer. But he didn’t know what to do. Everything he was doing was what people wanted from him back home. And now it’s suddenly not enough.

He silently slowed his pace, putting himself at the back of the group. Jo and Kyle were distracted. They favored Estella Fay. They were looking at her. No one was paying attention to him. Now would be the perfect time to bolt before he ended up broken in another basement.

"That's okay," Jo reassured Estella Fay, a grin on their lips. They liked talking, too, so they really didn't have a problem with answering all of Estella Fay's questions. "Mx. means that someone doesn't identify as male or female. I use it, sometimes, but it depends on my mood. Cybele's kind of like a deity, but."

She shrugged.

"No one formally calls worships her," they said. "I'd probably want to do it if I met her, but she's more like...an alien being, I think? I don't really know the Cybele lore. But Chatterbox did befriend Cybele. They're kind of like her chosen one, I guess? Same thing with Marvellous."

Kyle looked over at Heliodor Everett. Noticing that he had started falling behind the others, Kyle slowed his pace as well so he was walking next to him instead of in front of him.

Estella Fay nodded along, taking all of the information almost greedily. “Wow. Okay. Then I have a lot of Mx friends. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to hear that same worlds have a word like that. There’s not a lot of language that suits them, unfortunately.” She hummed. “And alien? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that term. What does it mean?”

Heliodor Everett felt slightly sick. Why did Kyle notice him? Why was he watching him like that? He just didn’t want to upset them, that’s all. And now Kyle looked like he was about to grab him and drag him along. Heliodor Everett was trained to avoid this. By his father, by his wife. Keep your head down, your neck bowed. Know who to please, who to scorn, and who to always listen to. Don’t react to insults, only scolding. Be an alis that isn’t worth killing, and you won’t be killed.

Heliodor Everett, for the first time in a long time, was starting to doubt if he was one of those alis. What a way to die, not as a traitor, but as someone who seems to be too rigid for these three.

"Aliens are like..." Jo faltered, trying to figure out the best way to describe them. It seemed easy, but Jo guessed it might not make as much sense to Estella Fay if she hadn't ever heard of them before. "They're entities from another world. Technically we would count as aliens here, if this turns out it's not Earth."

Jo looked around.

"It looks like Earth," she added.

Kyle, meanwhile, just quietly kept walking alongside Heliodor Everett. Kyle could tell he was uneasy, but didn't know what to do with that knowledge. He wasn't good at comforting people. He only really knew how to do it with Jo because they had traveled together for so long. He had learned what helped her and what didn't out of necessity and through practice.

"Are...are you okay?" Kyle awkwardly asked while Jo and Estella Fay chatted up ahead, seemingly oblivious.

Estella Fay nodded. “Oh! We have people like that in London. They’re called Ukayans. But people rarely want to befriend them. It’s… it’s not great, what England’s done to them.” She fell silent again, looking at the floor.

Heliodor Everett nodded. “Of course, sir.” He fell back into the neutrality. When in doubt, don’t feel anything. Contentment is exploitable, anger is punishable, sadness is weakness, and happiness… happiness is impossible. He bowed his head to Kyle, putting all of his cards on the table. Something would have to convince Kyle not to hurt him. “Don’t worry about me, sir.”

Jo frowned.

"That's horrible," they said. "I...I don't think most humans know about Cybele or like her, but I think most mutants like her."

She faltered.

"Or at least they have a healthy amount of fear towards her," they admitted. "Because she's like...the representation of Earth itself. It's a little hard not to be intimidated by that and her creepy vision forest."

Kyle, meanwhile, froze when Heliodor Everett called him sir twice. Heliodor Everett was older than he was. It just felt wrong being treated that way. Kyle couldn't ever remember being called sir before.

He thought about the bruises that littered Heliodor Everett's arms, and how he had only pulled back after Jo berated very briefly berated him for interrupting Estella Fay.

"You don't...need to be afraid," Kyle awkwardly said, not remotely sure how to go about handling this kind of situation. It wasn't like he had learned about it in school or on Mutopia, though he was sure he could learn about it from someone on Mutopia if he wanted. Their president was a therapist, after all. "No one's going to hurt you here."

"What's wrong?" Jo asked, finally tuning in. She stopped and turned to see Kyle and Heliodor Everett.

Kyle gave a tiny nod of his head down to his arms. He wasn't sure if Jo would get the cue, but they thankfully seemed to. She fell silent and awkwardly stood there, too, just as unsure of what they should do next.

Estella Fay turned to Heliodor Everett, her face softening. “Heliodor Everett? You okay?”

Heliodor Everett stood there, trying to make himself as small as possible. Alis are naturally taller than humans, it’s intimidating. While a humans stands tall, back straight, alis let their posture shrivel, shoulders drooping.

“As I previously stated to Sir Kyle, I have no troubles other than our present predicament and I find everything to be fine.” He smoothed his vowels, letting his voice turn a little more posh, a little softer. Submissive, his father would call it. An, “I’ll do everything you say” voice. The lords especially loved that one. He couldn’t smile at the three of them, but he could bow his head again. “So please, no need to let me weight down your minds. I’m sure you have much more pressing issues to ponder on.”

"But you're part of our team," Jo said, even though Heliodor Everett had been talking to Kyle at first. "And teammates care about each other."

"We're a team?" Kyle asked, bewildered. Teams, he thought, were things like the Cute Mutants and the special ops team he wasn't supposed to know about.

"Well, we're all working together here," Jo said. "So it feels like a team, doesn't it?"

Kyle faltered. He guessed she was right.

Estella Fay nodded. “We are certainly a team. Doing very important team things.”

Heliodor Everett swallowed. They were not relenting. Why weren’t they moving on? “Well, my apologies for attempting to force your thinking, I was simply stating that I am not something worth worrying about. So please, really, there is truly no need. Unless, of course, you find my behavior unsatisfactory. If so, I do apologize and please tell me how to rectify that.”

Jo and Kyle glanced at each other.

"You don't need to fix anything," Jo quickly said. She paused. Maybe he did? Fixing wasn't the wrong word, but he was trying to avoid bringing up how he actually felt. And he didn't need to worry about them hurting him, either. "We were just worried. Maybe it doesn't sound concerning to you because it's like...a survival thing, I guess? But to Estella Fay, Kyle and I, it really is worrying hearing you say something like that."

Kyle decided to join in again, too. "Jo wasn't mad at you earlier. She just was upset that Estella Fay was cut off before she could finish speaking."

Jo nodded in agreement.

"I've been cut off before," Jo said, "when I'm in the middle of a ramble, and it always makes me feel lousy afterwards."

Heliodor Everett let the neutrality consume them. The more they want emotion, the more they’ll use it against you. “My apologies to Ms Taylor. I truly didn’t mean to offend, I just assumed you…” He fell silent. They liked Estella Fay. His assumption would be offense to them. He bowed his head again. “I had an incorrect assumption that has now been updated to match your actual current views. It shall not happen again.” His voice was entirely monotone now. That was usually the voice that made pressing lords walk away because it wasn’t fun anymore. It was no fun to poke and prod at something that didn’t react.

He gently rested his arms behind his face, snaking a hand down to squeeze a bruise. It was a reminder of what could happen if he ruined this. He had to stay sharp.

Estella Fay sighed. She knew what it was like to be so afraid of someone hurting you. She picked at a loose thread on her gloves. Truly, she could be exactly like Heliodor Everett if she was ever any good at following instructions.
She gently approached. “Yes, you did hurt me. I don’t like being interrupted, as much as I’m used to it.”

Heliodor Everett swallowed and took a step back, but Estella Fay knew how this played out. She knew how to persist. She kept approaching. “But I forgive you. Because that’s what you deserve, and that’s all.”

Jo nodded in agreement, grateful that Estella Fay knew how to handle this situation more than she did. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and make things worse.

But...

Jo got where Estella Fay was coming from with her response, but they just felt so unsatisfied with it. The forgiveness was important. Jo very much agreed. But everything just felt so formal, and this wasn't a formal thing.

"Maybe team was the wrong word earlier," Jo said, musing to themself. Kyle shot her a confused look. "Like we are a team, but not in a formal kind of way? I just didn't want to say friends—I thought it would be too soon."

She glanced at Kyle.

"You called me your friend within the first day of knowing me," Kyle pointed out.

Huh. That was a good point.

"So we're friends, then," Jo said, turning back to Heliodor Everett and Estella Fay. They unfolded their arms. "Not in an ominous, business or work partners way, but in a genuine I want to spend time with you kind of way. And friends can upset each other, sometimes, but won't hurt each other because they're upset."

They pointed at Kyle.

"Kyle gets done with me all the time," Jo confided, as if it wasn't obvious to anyone who interacted with the two of them. "And Kyle hasn't ever hurt me."

(Jo, who still remembered the one she thought she lost him for good, decided not to include that one memory when talking about how he hadn't hurt her before. He had hurt her then, even though it was completely out of his control.)

They took in a deep breath of air.

"So," Jo said, catching their breath, "even if I was upset that you cut Estella Fay off, I wasn't going to harm you. I just wanted to let you know I didn't think that was cool. And because we're friends, I'm worried about you, too."

Heliodor Everett Lee didn’t know how to respond to that. Plenty of Lords had called him a friend, but it was usually from across the debate table with a sharp wink and a curled fist and an unspoken threat. We’re friends because you’re my pawn. You do what I say and I’ll be nice.

And he had learned how to play along. He bowed his head and agreed. Kept his face blank, his words smooth, his demeanor stupid. He pretended not to notice the threats, the way that if he ended up dead outside the debate room, nobody would bat an eyelash. No one would be alerted. He would evaporate off of the face of the Earth, not even a stray feather or hair left behind.

But Jo seemed to truly believe they were friends. Like, true friendship between human lords were they complain about this or that over a glass of scotch and shake hands and plan dinners. But that was impossible. Friends were on equal footing. Friends touched each other and listened to each other. Heliodor Everett had no friends. He never had. He never will. Because his only worth was how obedient and docile and harmless he was. And friends weren’t that.

He swallowed. “While I may understand why you believe that-“ That was a lie. He didn’t. He couldn’t. “-I am below friendship.”