Page 29 of Do You Ship It
January is as much a blur as December: I end up taking on extra shifts at work; school feels more hectic than ever; and now I’m not avoiding the girls or trying to keep my friendship with Anissa so secret, I make more time to see them all. Anissa even joins us for a few Thursday morning trips to Costa before class; it’s awkward at first, with Nikita being guarded, Daphne working too hard to carry the conversation, and Anissa being overwhelmed and shy – but she and Chloe bond quickly, and she has the same dry sense of humour as Nikita, a fact which seems to surprise them both. They’re not all instant-besties, but nobody expected that. It’s kind of nice to see them all opening up a bit, though – and feel like I’m doing the same thing.
It’s nice to feel like after all the years I spent taking Jake’s lead when it came to friendships, I can finally return the favour for someone else.
Jake is still quiet over text, even if I do get a couple of actual replies every so often, but at least the Discord chat is non-stop. Things still feel off-kilter because we aren’t hanging out in person (though he is spending time with Anissa), and because I haven’t seen Max since our kiss, but it doesn’t make me spiral and panic the way it did before.
Maybe Jake had a point about me tagging along: I do feel more independent these days. And I feel happier, too. This must be how Max feels all the time, I think. Wholly, unashamedly himself.
The true weirdness isn’t in me mentioning some fanart I’m working on to the girls, or Anissa boldly swapping seats in history to come and sit by me and Nikita, but at home – which is actually good , for once.
The forced friendliness between my parents has worn away into something a bit more comfortable. Dad still comes by, but it’s usually – as I now know – when Mum is on a date with her new boyfriend Jeremy. I even go visit Dad’s new flat. We pick out paint for my new bedroom there, and I notice there’s an easel set up in the living room, and a box of shiny new acrylic paints.
‘Working on something?’ I ask him.
‘Not yet … I’m a bit out of practice. I’ve signed up for an evening class, though. You inspired me to try and get back into it, and actually your mum encouraged me, too.’
‘She did? Seriously?’
Dad puts an arm around my shoulders. ‘And here we thought we did such a good job of shielding you from our problems. I know things have been tough, kiddo, but it’s going to get better for all of us from here on out, I promise.’
Then one morning, when I’m pouring cereal before school and Mum is waiting for the bagel in the toaster to pop, she says, ‘Jeremy and I have been talking, and I wondered if you might like to meet him, soon. Maybe he could come over for dinner one night? Or we could go out for lunch somewhere.’
She says it totally offhandedly, like she’s asked me to pass the butter out of the fridge, but I can feel the tension radiating off her.
I think about it for a minute. My brain can’t quite wrap around the idea of Mum with someone who’s not Dad, but equally, the idea of them as a couple has been so toxic the last few years, this might be a breath of fresh air. And I guess it’s nice that she’s found someone?
I remember my chat with @runicrascal when he mentioned his dad being upset about the reality of an empty nest after he goes off to uni, and decide this will be a good thing for Mum. For Dad, too, who’s apparently not dating anyone right now but is ‘open to the idea if he meets the right person’, proving that my ‘soppy romantic’ trait isn’t something I only inherited from Mum.
‘Yeah,’ I say, and the nervous lines in Mum’s face relax away into a tentative smile. ‘I’d like that.’
Also file under things I’d like: to finally, FINALLY, get through season four of OWAR. Now the chat with Jake (via Discord, at least) is well and truly back to normal, and as February slides in with sleet and pale skies and long nights and a bit more time to myself, I spend a few evenings settling in to watch it properly. I have to try not to hurl my laptop at the wall or scream when Lady di Silver and the Moonwalker cross paths again and have the best sexual chemistry and tension I’ve ever seen on screen, or when Daxys, now a palace guard again, comes across Roach being interrogated in the dungeons about the rebellious Rascals.
Jake obviously receives my every thought and reaction about the show via Discord. I wait for him to suggest a proper watch-party again, so we can sit down and share the experience together, but he never does, and I’m not quite brave enough to ask him. I still have a lot of making up to do, and I don’t want to fracture the friendship we’ve rebuilt too soon. Especially with him being so meh over text. It’s hard to know where the line is now, and I can’t risk it.
Plus, those watch-parties might involve Max, and … I’m not sure how I feel about that. Beyond the flicker of something akin to the warm and fuzzies that I try not to think too hard about.
One boy drama at a time, please.
Saturday night rolls around and I’m up to the finale of the show. It’s pretty much caught up to the books at this point, and from what I’ve gleaned in Discord threads, this episode is another ‘doozy’.
Still, I’m in no way braced for what unfolds.
At last, the main cast has assembled. Daxys broke Roach out of the dungeons and they stumbled across the Moonwalker; Téiglin has banded together with Rogdan and the Rascals, along with a couple of his fellow forest-creatures from the Gilded Glade; Lady di Silver and Devon have been travelling with a trio of goblins and a blind, aged blacksmith dwarf who forged the Eldritch King’s crown. Everyone has met up and joined forces, shared theories and legends and answers, put their magick together, and now they’ve found where the Eldritch King’s hideout at last.
I can’t help but hold my breath, laptop balanced on my stomach and phone poised, half-forgotten, in my hands. Wasn’t the whole point of this convoluted plot to find the Eldritch King so he can be restored to his throne and save the realm? What more story can there possibly be after this, to warrant at least another season and what’s rumoured to be three more books? There’s only seven minutes left. Maybe they’ll end it on a cliffhanger of everyone walking into this hidden cavern in the woods, but won’t actually find him yet?
Even as I think it, the cast spill into what can only be described as a sort of throne room, sketching bows and dropping to one knee before a throne made of white birch with roots tangling into the ground and branches weaving high. The pale, wizened man upon it seems like he could be made of the same bark; the make-up department have really knocked that look out of the park.
‘ O king ,’ says the Moonwalker, and Lady di Silver cuts him a look, irritated he beat her to the punch. ‘ Long have we searched for you, and finally destiny has led us all here, to restore you to your rightful place .’
Téiglin whispers to Rogdan, ‘ He’s even older than you are. I didn’t think that was possible .’ It earns a few snickers from the Rascals, and a long-suffering but fond eyeroll from the grizzled man with his broken glasses.
Lady di Silver pitches in, ‘ The realm is dying, my liege, and a new age is upon us – one of bloodshed and anarchy – if we do not stop it. You are the only one who can save us all .’
There are similar weighty comments from some of the other characters, and the Eldritch King’s pale, milky eyes sweep over them all. He finally opens his mouth, and I wait for the inevitable of course I will help , or whatever, but instead all that comes out is a bone-chilling laugh that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. His eyes turn black, his mouth gapes open too widely, and the flesh seems to rot from his skin, the birch-tree throne creaking and snapping around him.
@mythicwitch
WHAT
@mythicwitch
WHAT DID I JUST WATCH
@mythicwitch
WHAT DID I JUST WITNESS
@mythicwitch
THEY SPENT FOUR SEASONS TRACKING THIS GUY DOWN JUST FOR HIM TO BE A TRAP???? WJAT
@mythicwitch
ASJSDKFJFK
@mythicwitch
HE JUST TURNS INTO MOTHS? THE CAVERN COLLAPSED? HE TOOK LADY DI SILVER?!??? IS ROGDAN DEAD? WHHAT IS THIWS
@runicrascal
And thus the newbie becomes a full convert
@mythicwitch
I don’t like it, take it back, this show has ruined my life
@runicrascal
Brilliant, isn’t it?
@mythicwitch
I am actually genuinely literally shaking. That was incredible
@mythicwitch
Wait so is the Eldritch King even real???
@mythicwitch
Ohmigod Devon and the Moonwalker are going to have to team up to save my gal Lady di Silver aren’t they aren’t they yesss
@runicrascal
Haha bet you’re already writing the fanfic for it! And that IS the question. We still don’t know for sure. Is he a rumour planted by someone? Is he a myth? Is he actually real and just somewhere else? Is it less a person and more a title/fate and, like, Roach will end up being crowned the Eldritch King and saving the realm?
@runicrascal
Lmk when you’re ready to hear ALL my thoughts on *that* theory. I have many
@mythicwitch
I am in shock. Wtaf. I’m just staring at myself in the laptop screen wondering what to do until the next season airs in September. Is this fandom life?? How do you cope? I am NOT OKAY
@runicrascal
I think you’ve achieved full fangirl level status. Congrats/condolences
@mythicwitch
So tell me more about this Roach is the Eldritch King theory, I am ready to SPIRAL
@runicrascal
How long you got? (I mean that, I could talk about this for hours, and it’s already pretty late)
@mythicwitch
How long have I got?
@mythicwitch
Until the end
@runicrascal
OWAR Discord #324
Private chat with @silversmithhh
@mythicwitch
OMG just finished that fic you sent last week! The one where Lady di Silver’s a vampire, Devon is her familiar and the Moonwalker is a vampire hunter – what a rollercoaster! Can’t say the amount of angst and plot twists didn’t absolutely DESTROY me though, I’m still a wreck from the s4 finale
@silversmithhh
Looooool sorry about that! (Which is to say, not sorry in the slightest hehehe)
@mythicwitch
I was talking to Anissa (@ladyanissadishipper) the other day btw, and I know you’re at Cardiff uni, so we’re not far at all – we thought maybe it’d be fun to meet up for coffee or something? If you wanted? @fauningforhim might be around too, we could maybe make a bit of a thing of it?
@silversmithhh
Are you kidding? I’d love that! Would be fab to meet you guys irl! Fauning’s a gem, you’ll love her
@silversmithhh
It’s been WAY too long since we’ve had a meet-up, we tried organizing last summer but things just got in the way and we never got round to sorting something out again lol
@silversmithhh
Have you met any of the rest of the group yet?
@mythicwitch
Just @runicrascal …
@silversmithhh
Fear not, my friend. Consider me your big sister in fandom, your fairy godmother of nerdiness
General
@silversmithhh
MEET-UP ALERT! Who’s down next Sunday (Valentine’s weekend) for a hangout in Cardiff? Coffee and cake and a conversation sans screen? 2pm, location TBD
@fauningforhim
Oooh, yes please! Sunday afternoon’s perfect, the kids are at a party so I can put hubby on duty for pick up/drop off!
@wizeguy
I am ALWAYS down for cake.
@sirmoonypants
I might be able to make it! Will let you all know asap
@thesebootsweremadeformoonwalking
I should be free! Maybe if there’s enough of us we could look at booking a room in one of the board-game cafes? There’s a place one of my mates uses for D&D nights
@ladyanissadishipper
YES PLEASE I WOULD LOVE THAT
@ladyanissadishipper
I NEED SOMEONE TO PLAY CATAN WITH
@ladyanissadishipper
My parents are absolutely rubbish at it lol, it’s boring always winning!
@wizeguy
Bloody love Catan. I’m in!
@runicrascal
Sunday 2pm, sounds like a plan. See you all there!