Silverah
He drives up to the Shore House to check on the collection, now that it’s reappeared. He doesn’t think too hard about where it might have been, wandering within the bounds of the cage (or without? That seems a distinct possibility). The world around him feels different, the birds singing with a renegotiated contract.
Even his car feels different under his hands, and he’s driven the same one for years.
Liam’s key turns easily in the lock, and the door swings inward on its hinges. The air inside is tinged with gunpowder and the chill of outer space, and Liam toes off his shoes and leaves them on the stand by the door. The house looks no worse for its sojourns - there is not a knicknack out of place, not a dent in the carpet.
He closes the door behind him, turns, and drapes his coat and scarf over the coat rack beside it. There’s another already hanging up - an unfamiliar wool peacoat in royal purple.
Liam narrows his eyes at it, and steps into the parlor. Before him, Ascension is seated neatly on the couch, her legs tucked up under her, a pair of oxfords kicked off beneath. She is reading a book.
Her hair is slicked back. She is dressed far neater than he’s ever known her to and-
And the change in the air makes sense.
Liam feels sick.
“What,” he says. “What did they do to you?”
Even his car feels different under his hands, and he’s driven the same one for years.
Liam’s key turns easily in the lock, and the door swings inward on its hinges. The air inside is tinged with gunpowder and the chill of outer space, and Liam toes off his shoes and leaves them on the stand by the door. The house looks no worse for its sojourns - there is not a knicknack out of place, not a dent in the carpet.
He closes the door behind him, turns, and drapes his coat and scarf over the coat rack beside it. There’s another already hanging up - an unfamiliar wool peacoat in royal purple.
Liam narrows his eyes at it, and steps into the parlor. Before him, Ascension is seated neatly on the couch, her legs tucked up under her, a pair of oxfords kicked off beneath. She is reading a book.
Her hair is slicked back. She is dressed far neater than he’s ever known her to and-
And the change in the air makes sense.
Liam feels sick.
“What,” he says. “What did they do to you?”
Shibrogane
Sunny turns a page in her book. She’s always avoided the lower levels of the house, didn’t quite feel like she belonged there, but: here she is, slimmer in the face and the chest and the hips, dressed like she lives there. She looks up--her eyes are still purple, flecked with something else--and then back down. “Hi,” she says. “Papa.”
She turns another page. Her hair is inky black like Renard’s.
“What did who do to me? I feel fine.”
She turns another page. Her hair is inky black like Renard’s.
“What did who do to me? I feel fine.”
Silverah
Liam’s stomach curdles. He doesn’t want to alarm her any more than he might have already, but he can see the green in her eyes and he can see Renard in her - his raven hair, his long lines. She had Liam’s eyes when she was born, but they’ve been gone for centuries.
He doesn’t know what it means for them to be coming back. And that scares him.
Also, she’s never called him “Papa.” What the ********.
“The… never mind,” he says, settling his teeth together uneasily.
Those morons who ******** with the cage, he thinks. And maybe it’s a good thing, but right now - right now it’s messing with his daughter’s free will, and he doesn’t like that at all.
He doesn’t know what it means for them to be coming back. And that scares him.
Also, she’s never called him “Papa.” What the ********.
“The… never mind,” he says, settling his teeth together uneasily.
Those morons who ******** with the cage, he thinks. And maybe it’s a good thing, but right now - right now it’s messing with his daughter’s free will, and he doesn’t like that at all.
Shibrogane
Sunny sets her book aside. Clearly there is something going on here that she doesn’t understand, and this appears to be discomfiting to her. Despite her lack of knowledge as to her own changing appearance and memory, she moves the same way. “You’re mad at me?” Not like she’s cared before. Not like she hadn’t gloried in people being afraid of her. Her green-flecked eyes widen a little. “You’re scared for me.”
Silverah
Christ, thinks Liam - the look she’s giving him is like he’s just given her a particularly nasty birthday card. Like she cares about his opinion, like a normal daughter might want her father’s approval… but they’ve never been anything close to normal. “Sorry, I,” he begins, and then stops, mulling over the thought some more. She’s already discerned that something has him spooked.
“This is a nice outfit,” he says instead. “Is it new?”
“This is a nice outfit,” he says instead. “Is it new?”
Shibrogane
Sunny doesn’t seem to be fooled. She has a hoodie on under her blazer: it’s the same purple as her old ratty thing, but newer, lacking the stains and the grunge. “No,” she says. Her socks have a repeating pattern of birds and triangles and little winged keys. Before, one would have been forgiven for assuming she had no idea what socks were. “You should sit down,” she says.
Silverah
Liam nods, feeling discombobulated, and takes a seat beside her. He gives her book a cursory glance as he moves it out of the way - Principles of Conjuring, vol. 1., a magical textbook he recognizes from before the cage. It’s rather elementary. By his estimation, Sunny should be far past that.
“I was just coming by to check on some things with the art collection,” he says, trying to make conversation with this new and unusual version of his daughter. What does she think her relationship is to him? How much of his life does she believe herself involved with? And why… why are his memories unaffected?
“I was just coming by to check on some things with the art collection,” he says, trying to make conversation with this new and unusual version of his daughter. What does she think her relationship is to him? How much of his life does she believe herself involved with? And why… why are his memories unaffected?
Shibrogane
Sunny’s face has different planes, now that the roundness has been bled out of her. She looks less childlike, more like her fathers: Liam’s deep-set eyes, flecks of his pale green in purple irises that’re almost Renard’s blue. Genetics doesn’t work that way, but Sunny wasn’t born in the normal manner. Her DNA does what it wants--if she even has any--and what it wants is to be unsettlingly androgynous, more like Renard than before.
She leans her shoulder against his, rucks her feet up to the edge of the couch cushions. “I had a terrible dream,” she says.
She leans her shoulder against his, rucks her feet up to the edge of the couch cushions. “I had a terrible dream,” she says.
Silverah
Liam freezes for a moment at her touch - so casual. So familial. He’d wanted her to be like this, for them to have the kind of relationship that parents and children are supposed to, the kind of relationship he’d thrown away when she was born and he didn’t fight hard enough. She was the pearl. Renard had mistaken her for the irritant.
Trauma made people do things they shouldn’t, he thinks, and sets a hand carefully on the top of her head.
“What was it about?” he asks.
Trauma made people do things they shouldn’t, he thinks, and sets a hand carefully on the top of her head.
“What was it about?” he asks.
Shibrogane
Sunny goes down easy, her temple bumping against Liam’s shoulder. “Papa?” Her once-wild hair lists tamely over her shoulder. She had noticed him tense.
She says, “I was all alone,” small and bemused. “There were people all around me and they couldn't hear me or see me and I was alone…”
She says, “I was all alone,” small and bemused. “There were people all around me and they couldn't hear me or see me and I was alone…”
Silverah
“Nothing…” says Liam, but he’s thinking that it’s so ******** weird for her to be calling him that. He forces himself to relax, the tension melting out of his shoulders, and runs his hand over her hair. “I’m fine. Just had a case of the shivers.”
“That sounds like an awful dream,” he adds, reflecting on her hair - she’s never let him do this before. It doesn’t seem right. “Tell me more about it?”
“That sounds like an awful dream,” he adds, reflecting on her hair - she’s never let him do this before. It doesn’t seem right. “Tell me more about it?”
Shibrogane
Sunny accepts this. She doesn't move away, responds easily to his prompting. “I was looking for someone to help me but I was alone and they couldn't hear me and I hurt them to make them see,” she says, and she closes her eyes, and she says, “I think something happened to me in the dream. And I woke up in my bed.”
Silverah
It might not have been a dream, realizes Liam, a bit darkly - but he’s not sure how to segue into that. What’s exceedingly clear, however, is that something was done to Sunny, and that his original question must stand. The cage has been tampered with. Reality has been changed. Sunny has been changed. He wants to know how.
“And you felt normal?” he asks, moving his hand down to rub little circles between her shoulder blades - an unfamiliar kind of intimacy. “When you woke up?”
“And you felt normal?” he asks, moving his hand down to rub little circles between her shoulder blades - an unfamiliar kind of intimacy. “When you woke up?”
Shibrogane
She nods, melting like a cat given just the right scratches in just the right place. Sunny has never been this comfortable around her father before--has never acknowledged him as her father, either. “It was like being back there,” she says. “Where I went during the war. But it wasn’t scary, it was… quiet, like a Sunday morning in the rain.”
Sunny sighs. “It was nice.”
Sunny sighs. “It was nice.”
Silverah
She means the asylum, thinks Liam, and feels a stone in his stomach. He’d been powerless to stop that - half a world away, drafted into a war with a foregone conclusion, caught up in the current of history and unable to break free. But she doesn’t seem bitter about that now - maybe for the first time since it happened, she seems at peace. So he’s not going to apologize.
It’s not enough information for him to determine if that was when she changed. “Was that… was that this morning?” he asks. This morning, he woke up, and the lamp on his bedside had been replaced by with a magical globe the likes of which he hadn’t seen since before the cage slammed shut. This morning, Renard was sitting on his bedside and... Everything was different.
“It might not have just been a dream,” he says quietly, fingers curling gently around her shoulder.
It’s not enough information for him to determine if that was when she changed. “Was that… was that this morning?” he asks. This morning, he woke up, and the lamp on his bedside had been replaced by with a magical globe the likes of which he hadn’t seen since before the cage slammed shut. This morning, Renard was sitting on his bedside and... Everything was different.
“It might not have just been a dream,” he says quietly, fingers curling gently around her shoulder.
Shibrogane
“Okay, Papa,” Sunny says patiently. She seems quite content to rest there with her head on his shoulder. “I love you.”
There's no sign she is picking up what he’s putting down. Just quiet, and her measured breathing. “It's okay now. I woke up and you're here and the bad dream doesn't matter anymore.” She tips her head up. Kisses his cheek. As normal as anything.
There's no sign she is picking up what he’s putting down. Just quiet, and her measured breathing. “It's okay now. I woke up and you're here and the bad dream doesn't matter anymore.” She tips her head up. Kisses his cheek. As normal as anything.
Silverah
He can't do it. He can't shatter her inner peace like this. Liam exhales, a little bit shaky, and he resolves to figure this out on his own, to figure out what happened to Sunny - what happened to the world - on his own, before he goes and inceptions her, tells her that her mind is not her own. “Right,” he says.
It's nice like this, sitting together like they’re a normal family. He wonders what she remembers about him. If she thinks they’ve always been this close. If he read her bedtime stories when she was little.
He wishes he could remember what she does - but that would be the coward’s way out. The burden of proof rests on his shoulders.
“I love you too, Sunny,” he says. He’s always wanted to.
It's nice like this, sitting together like they’re a normal family. He wonders what she remembers about him. If she thinks they’ve always been this close. If he read her bedtime stories when she was little.
He wishes he could remember what she does - but that would be the coward’s way out. The burden of proof rests on his shoulders.
“I love you too, Sunny,” he says. He’s always wanted to.
Shibrogane
She gives him a hug and then takes her book back up, settles it over her knees and opens it up to one of the trickier chapters. “Love you, Papa,” she repeats. It’s as eloquent a dismissal as he’s going to get, it seems.
Silverah
“I’ll check on you again before I head out,” Liam says, getting up from the couch. He still needs to check the paintings, after all - but he has bigger things on his mind now than just the art collection.