IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

[magician_king]

You know what to do.

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[magician_king]

"I want to. With something that'll let me go around between worlds a bit so I can see other people, but yeah."

Glancing quickly up at him;

"No chance you want to come hang out on a newly colonized planet full of clones?"

[credere]

"I...."

What do you even say to that.

"Maybe. Is that what you're all going to do?"

He's not sure what Shiro wants to do after she's finished with the Barge, and her thoughts will definitely influence his own decision.

[magician_king]

"Fives is part of a slave population of soldiers forced to go to war. Jedao and him are going to go free them. I'm going to go take over a planet and build a sustainable city on it while they do that- a couple of cities, actually, using veteran population and refugees from the conflict. Eventually when there's peace- or peace enough, everyone's going to retire there. But yeah- I could use some company building the perfect world."

A small, normal, everyday task.

[credere]

"That's..."

Ambitious.

"You'll find somewhere that's empty and make it so people can live there?"

[magician_king]

"Yeah. And it's a weird population- very harmed, very codependent, without natural family units you can count on- they'll have grown up in units but also experienced heavy casualties."

So, a shake of his head and a shrug.

"Will they want to cook in kitchens? In mess halls?"

[credere]

"Maybe mess halls until they find families," Credence suggests. "Until they learn how to cook, if they don't know already."

And some of them will simply never want or need to live in family units, he supposes.

"But I know what you're saying. There's a lot to think about."

[magician_king]

"Farming."

He says, and ticks off;

"Libraries, print or electronic. Communications. Work delegation. Work planning. Sanitation and medical facilities, education facilities, governance and processing centres."

Tilting his head side to side.

"It's gonna be fun- and I could honestly use someone with your raw processing power for magic and common sense and compassion."

[credere]

"I...I'll think about it," is the best he can offer. "I'll have to talk to Shiro."

He also kind of needs to confirm that they're still...a thing. That she even likes this changed version of himself.

[magician_king]

"I'd love to have her too, if you both need a place to come."

He says, with a nod.

"But I think you guys are like me. Like you should roll around."

[credere]

Credence shakes his head.

"I've been rolling around for six months. I want..."

His voice cracks a little on the realisation.

"I've never had a home."

[magician_king]

"This one's not going to be easy, not right away."

He assures him, quietly.

"Don't decide yet- let's make sure we're okay, but yeah- if we are- yeah."

[credere]

"I don't care about easy."

He wouldn't even recognise easy.

[magician_king]

He looks over and up into his eyes, wondering;

"Is that something you can even imagine wanting?"

[credere]

"...I don't know what it would feel like. To not have to...struggle, for everything, all the time."

Sometimes, like in their shared dreamscape, he thinks he can imagine what it would be like. To not feel like he's constantly pushing against an environment that wants him hurting or dead or suppressed. But in the light of day, those fantasies stop making sense, start feeling insane.

[magician_king]

"That is not what I am describing, it is going to be a gross, uphill slog for years and years of your life."

He says, with a snort.

[credere]

"Exactly," Credence says. They're talking along the same tracks here. "I'm alright with that."

'Gross, uphill slog' has characterised basically his entire life so far. What's a few years more?

[magician_king]

"I'll talk to the others. We'll make a plan."

He says, but hesitates, and then just goes out and admits;

"But we should make sure you won't resent it, you know? And me. I don't want to do this on the basis of your memory of what we were."

[credere]

"Oh."

Credence's shoulders tighten a little. Rune chirps at him reassuringly.

"I...thought we were still friends."

[magician_king]

"Of course I do. But it feels- like you're furious with me, and like I keep disappointing you?"

He goes ahead and blurts out.

[credere]

"I'm not. You don't. I don't know how to stop doing that."

This is probably one of those same situations that makes Fives suspect Credence hates him, even though he barely has an opinion beyond vague secondhand approval because Quentin likes him.

[magician_king]

"Tell me you don't wish I was gone and I'll believe you, until I ask you to say it again."

He proposes, with a slightly shaky breath.

[credere]

Credence lets himself experience the lurch of emotion in his throat, the horrible pang of guilt that he's making his friend feel like that. He does what he was long since taught to do when words aren't up to the task: he just leans forward, gently dislodging Rune, and hugs him tightly.

"I don't," he says, very quietly, into his neck.

[magician_king]

He leans over into him, and closes his eyes, cheek resting against the top of his head.

"Okay. Thank you."

Returning the hug as tight as he can.

[credere]

This would be a nice, salutary moment if Credence didn't immediately ruin it by kissing the corner of Quentin's mouth and then immediately throwing himself backwards.

"Sorry. Sorry."

[magician_king]

"Don't apologize," says Quentin, utterly flabbergasted, "just- come back here. Wait, talk to Shiro first- but then after you do- standing invitation to come back over here on a more decisive basis is an invitation that stands."

Bowled over though he may look by the development.