Work Text:
It is not that she had gotten sick of the company of her friends. Much the contrary. She loved her friends, in many ways, but every century or so it was nice to find an isolated bubble and be alone with her thoughts for a bit. Porrim's current bubble rebuilt her hive from a time before the game, before her server player had done a mess with the structure, turning it into a ridiculous tower that could barely sustain itself. She had met a doomed alternate of herself who died because she wasn't fast enough and was still in the hive when it collapsed on itself. Poor deary.
It sure was pleasing to see her hive back to it's original state. Beautiful, organized, symmetrical and not fallen on top of her lusus. The sunlight was also comforting. The downside of the bubbles is that everybody insisted in making it night time. They used to think they were all such grown up rebel heroes, but her friends would rarely stay up past the sunrise. Old enough to trigger the destruction of their own race, not old enough to stay up past bedtime. Back then she would feel so lonely when her nocturnal friends would go back to their recuperacoons, leaving her by herself under the sunlight, but now, after seeing each and every friend and their endless alternate selves everywhere, these rare moments of loneliness were like small islands of calmness and serenity in the middle of a sea of drama, talking, crying and sho-
"PORRIM!"
And shouting. She sighed, disappointed at how short her 'me time' was. Maybe she'll be more lucky nex-
"POOOOOOORRIIIIIIIIIM!"
That voice. That voice that somehow managed to be both sweet and irritating. Porrim probably was the only one who could remember how Meulin sounded like back when she could tell when she was talking and when she was screaming. She could remember her sweet whispering, her cute moa-
"POOOOOOOOORRIIIIIIIIM! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!"
Porrim ran to the window and looked down at her pesterer.
"I HEARD YOU ALRE- I mean, I heard you already, darling!" Porrim corrected her tone. Loud enough for Meulin to hear, but not loud enough that she couldn't tolerate the sound of her own voice. "What is it that you want?!"
Many times Porrim had offered to make her new clothes, many Meulins agreed before, but not this Meulin. The Meulin. The one who made it to the very end of the journey. She had been using the same style for centuries, maybe even a millennium, it was hard to tell. But thinking about fashion meant less time thinking about ships, and oh, there were so many ships to sail, sooooo many! And a shipper's job is never done, no no no! So many possibilities, so many scenarios, so many things to write in such a short eternity. And it was shipping that had brought Meulin to Porrim's hideout. The winds of the four quadrants guided her ships to this shores and it was time to set anchor and...and...what now?...what comes next?...
"OH NO! WRITER'S BLOCK!"
"What are you talking about, Meulin?!"
"OH...NOTHING, IT'S NOT IMPORTANT. CAN I COME IN? I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU! OOOOOOOOH, I CAN'T WAAAAAAAIT TO SEE THE SMILE ON YOUR FACE!"
Porrim sighed again and told her friend to come in. Meulin was a sweet girl, but her one track mind could get on Porrim's nerves sometimes. Others tried to make her develop other interests, but no. It always came back to her little romance stories. She couldn't go a minute without imagining her friends being dragged into more drama and snogging than what they already had. All those attempts we very forced, however. Many different things in a wide range of interests. But maybe you can't just force someone to trade one habit for another, maybe you could take their minds out of it little by little. Maybe starting with something related to it and slowly moving into something else. Mayb-
"HIIIIIIII PORRIM!". She had reached Porrim's bedroom in record time. Whatever she had written, she doubtlessly was anxious to show to the rainbow-drinker. "YOU WILL NEEEEEEEVER GUESS WHAT I HAVE TO SHOW YOU!" She started making mime again. Porrim presumed she was trying to express joy. As if her louder than usual tone wasn't already a giver.
"Let me see. You wrote more flushed romance stories.” Being in the same room as Maulin had it's pros and cons. The con was that her screaming became louder, the pro was that she didn't need to raise her own voice anymore, Meulin could read her lips from this short distance. "How am I doing so far?"
"DING DING DING DING DING! POINT FUR THE THE PRRRRETTY LADY IN THE PRRRRETTY DRESS! AND NOW FUR THE BONUS ROUND!"
"What's a bonus round?" Meulin had started using these strange expressions ever since the humans showed up. She didn't want to be culturally insensitive, but the human's influence on the mage didn't seem to be positive in any way.
"A BONUS ROUND IS...WELL...A BONUS ROUND IS A BONUS ROUND! COME ON, KEEP UP, PORRIM!" She started miming again, the rainbow drinker was somehow able to presume Meulin was trying to show disappointment. After all, a bonus round is a bonus round. How hard is it to understand that? "YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHO I WROTE THESE FICS ABOUT!". She presented to Porrim a big pile of notebooks she had captchalogued. The girl sure had been busy with her stories. "COME OOOOOOOON, GUESS GUESS GUESS!"
"Hmmmm...Meenah? Maybe with that human girl that my dancestor is having trouble courting...you have been talking a lot about her..."
"HER NAME IS ROSE, PORRIM. YOU CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE NAME OF YOUR DANCESTOR'S FLUSHED TARGET."
"As sweet as my dancerstor is, I rather focus on my own quadrants". Maybe you should do the same, she thought, but didn't say. As irritating as Meulin could be, that was no excuse to be rude to her. Plus, behind that walking noise pollution, there was the cute, sweet and passionate girl that once filled her flushed quadrant in a way that she never had expected. She couldn't be rude to that girl. Even if her voice now made her ears seem to bleed.
"GOOD THING YOU SAID THAT, BECAUSE YOU WERE WROOOOOOOOOONG! ALL THESE ARE ABOUT YOU! YOU AND...WELL...EVERYBODY!" She held one notebook in her hands , apparently that was a special one since it put the goofiest smile in her face. The goofy smile that Porrim couldn't help but find endearing. She used to make her smile like that. "THIS ONE IS ABOUT YOU AND ROSE!" She winked as she handed it to the maid. "DON'T TELL YOUR DANCESTOR ABOUT IT, OKAY?"
This all seemed so silly. Porrim liked to fill her quadrants, not read about them. Why waste time imagining how someone else's quadrants would work when you could be out there, filling your own? ...Well...the Rose human sure looked cute. Kanaya and Porrim were related, alright. A good eye for fashion, an even better eye for matesprites. Why, if Kanaya didn't already have her sights upon Rose...maybe Porrim would have...
"'Kiss In The Light- Chapter One: We'll Glow Together'. Heh. Not the title I'd have chosen, but...hmmmm..."
"GET IT? YOU'RE A RAINBOW DRINKER AND ROSE IS A LIGHT PLAYER! YOU'LL GLOW TOGETHER! TOGETHER, YOUR FLUSHED FILLINGS FOR EACH OTHER WILL FILL PARADOX SPACE WITH THE BRIGHTEST LIGHT! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"
"Well...the premise is a good one, I'll give you that, darling." She placed the notebook on her desk and started looking at the others "Okay. You've piqued my interest, what else you got?"
"WELL...I DID THIS ONE..." She blushed as she opened a notebook with two 'Maryam' symbols on the cover, the title read 'Teach You How It's Done - A Tale of Pure Maryam Love'. Keeping a straight face, Porrim took the notebook from Meulin's hands and placed it alongside 'Kiss In The Light'.
"Not a word."
Meulin nodded and winked, giving her that goofy smile again. She showed the rest to the maid, summarizing the plots of the many stories. There were many, each with a sillier title than the last. As they got to the last one Porrim couldn't help but to feel disappointed in herself for there not being any stories about her and Meulin, there weren't any about her and Aranea either. She was so enthusiastic in writing about how others could be happy with everybody else, but she would never write about herself. About her own possible happiness.
"So. Where are the Meulin and Porrim stories?!" She said, a little louder than usual, to make sure Meulin could hear her playful tone. "Are you keeping them in a vault somewhere?"
Meulin blushed and looked away. "I...I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ANY."
"Really? That's a surprise. Given our history, I expected that you would have more than enough inspiration to..."
"IIIIIII SHOOOOOULD GET GOING, YOU PROBABLY HAVE SOME DRESSES TO MAKE, AND I'M SURE YOU'LL WANT SOME PRIVACY WHILE READING 'TEACH YOU HOW IT'S DONE', SO I'LL JUST GO NOW.” She put all her notebooks back in a pile and captchalogued them back in their place. She was right next to the door when Porrim held her by the arm, forcing her to stop.
"You know, we all may complain about how obsessed you are about this whole 'shipping' thing, but...". She let go of the mage's arm and wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging her tightly from behind. "It's very sweet the way you are always thinking of all the ways we all could be happy! But you deserve some happiness too, you know! You went through so much during our session, maybe I can..."
"PORRIM, LET ME GO!"
"You need to hear this!"
"NO! I DON'T NEED TO HEAR ANYTHING! I'VE DONE FINE WITHOUT HEARING ANYTHING FOR A LONG TIME, MARYAM!" She freed herself from the rainbow drinker’s embrace and looked at her in the eyes "MY FICS ARE MINE! I DECIDE WHAT I WRITE! I DECIDE WHAT I CREATE! AND MY FEELINGS ARE MINE TOO! I AM THE MAGE OF HEART, I DECIDE WHAT MY HEART FEELS! NOT YOU, NOT KURLOZ, NOT THE HUMANS, ONLY ME! ONLY ME, ALRIGHT?!"
That was most unexpected. it was the first time Porrim had seen Meulin like that. "I'm sorry darling, I didn't mean to..."
"I DON'T GET TO BE FLUSHED, I DON'T GET TO BE HAPPY! WHENEVER I'M FLUSHED BAD THINGS HAPPEN!"
"Darling, that's not tru-" Porrim's hive melted. behind the walls of her hive there was the forest where Meulin lived. The trees were burning to the ground and lususes ran for their lives as meteors fell from the sky.
"WE WERE HAPPY! WE WERE JUST FINE! AND JUST WHEN WE STARTED TO BE HAPPY TOGETHER, MEENAH FOUND THAT GAME! YOU HAD TO BE THE SERVER PLAYER OF LITTLE MISS SERKET, YOU HAD TO GET ALL CHUMMY WITH HER AND GET FLUSHED FUR HER!"
A cold sweat ran down Porrim's spine. She wanted to apologize, but she couldn't find the words. The forest melted to give way to Kurloz's hive. He and Meulin were sleeping comfortably in in his recuperaccon when he let out that awful noise. That awful, long, loud noise.
"KURLOZ AND I WERE JUST FINE. AND THEN HE JUST HAD TO START WITH THAT NEW RELIGION OF HIS, HE JUST HAD TO SCREAM LIKE THAT, RIGHT AFTER WE STARTED BEING HAPPY TOGETHER!"
Kurloz's hive shattered, revealing an angry mob. Kankri's alternian self screamed in agony as the hot irons burned his flesh. "EVEN AFTER THE SCRATCH, WHEN KANRKI AND I WERE FINALLY BECOMING HAPPY TOGETHER, HE WAS MURDERED! HE WAS HUMILIATED AND BROKEN AND MURDERED!"
The angry mob and Kankri's adult self turned to dust and were scattered by the wind, leaving Porrim and Meulin floating in a dark void. Porrim began to glow, dispersing the darkness around them. She floated closer to Meulin, who was sobbing quietly, curled up in a ball. She hugged the mage and ran her fingers though her messy hair. "There, there. Come on now, none of this was you fault."
"BUT I NEVER...I never got to be happy with someone else for long...something always gets in the way...does Paradox Space hate me?"
"Come on now. How could it hate someone with such a prrrrretty face like yours?"
Meulin smiled as Porrim dried her tears. Suddenly they weren't floating anymore, but lying down on grass. The place seemed familiar. Yes, it was Meulin's forest again. It was calm, no fires, no running lususes, no meteors. Only the sound of a small waterfall that ended on a small lake and the bright starts in the sky. Porrim was wearing a different dress now. The dress she was wearing on that night. The night when they first got together. There were bite marks on Porrim's left shoulder, some drops of jade blood on her skin.
"For such a cute girl, you were surprisingly rough that night", Porrim smiled. She got on top of Meulin and kissed her gently. "I don't want to dictate what your heart feels, your feelings are yours and yours alone. What I want is to fulfill your hearts desires. Take me back and I'll fulfill your hearts every need. Let me make it right this time. If your heart rejects me, it will be okay. But...if there is still room for me...please, let me in. There is no apocalypse, no great honk, no angry mob, nothing in the way of your happiness now". She looked at Meulin with sadness, but also longing. "Let's try to make it work this time. What do you say?"
"...THAT SOUNDS PURRRRRFECT!" Meulin rolled with Porrim on the grass, getting on top of her. "...BUT...WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS AGAIN?"
"No matter what happens. You are my heart, and I'll fill all the empty space of yours."
"I'LL HOLD YOU TO THAT. NOW, I'M PRRRRETTY SURE THIS MEOWMORY WENT LIKE THIS..." She began ripping Porrim's dress, kissing her passionately before biting down on her right shoulder.
"Ouch...heh...so rough..."
"So this is where all the screaming was coming from," Aranea jumped, covering her mouth to not scream. Meenah had appeared out of nowhere and had whispered in her ear. "So, spying on Maryam, eh? Are you jellyfish?"
Aranea was hiding behind a tree, watching Porrim and Meulin reenact their first time together. She blushed and pushed Meenah away. "Jealous? Me? Oh please".
"Then water are you doing here, Marquise Talkfang?"
"Whale, if you fish to know..."
"Hehehehe..." No matter how many times Aranea did it, whenever she made fish puns it filled Meenah with glee.
"I was...worried, that the screaming would lead Lord English to this place...but with my investigation I've concluded that he won't be coming in this direction and the noise isn't loud enough to attract him here."
"Oh, give it just a few more seconds and all Paradox Space will hear these two"
"let's go Meenah...please"
"Okay, okay. I don't wanna watch them getting it on anemonemore anyways".
As Arenea left the bubble with Meenah she felt herself step on something that wasn't grass. She looked down and saw a notebook. She picked it up and opened it. "'Teach You How It's Done - A Tale Of Pure Maryam Love'..." She looked around, placed the notebook against her chest and left the bubble.
"Hey, water is that?"
"Shut up and kelp walking".