When: Late afternoon/early evening.
Where: Julia's magical woods.
Status: In progress
Rating: Probably some disturbing stuff. Because Deadlights. Also they both have some rough trauma.
Julia had figured it was only a matter of time before Richie came to her.
He had come around, of course. Mostly to drink her alcohol and hang out with Eliot or Fen. Not for what he had actually needed. And she knew. Of course she knew. It came part and parcel with the whole godhood thing. Knowing things. Knowing what people needed. And boy did Richie need the kind of help that she could give. That stuff in his head was bad news. But she wasn't in the habit of forcing her help on people. Well, maybe a little with Caleb, but only because he was oh so bad at asking for the things he needed. And even there, she had only softened his grief and his guilt. Maybe it more bearable. The rest had come from him.
With Richie, she was content to wait until he came to her.
It was better that way. He needed to be ready to deal with this. To face the monsters in his head and what came after. She knew all too well what came of gods playing around in the lives of mortals. She wasn't going to interfere where she wasn't wanted. She wouldn't be like the gods she'd known before. Like Our Lady Underground with her callous meddling. Like Ember and Umber with their selfishness. Like Reynard.
The trees shook. Just for a moment.
She stood by the lake, snow in her hair as she looked over the frozen water. It didn't snow in Night Vale, but it snowed in her little patch of woods. Because she thought it should and so it did. Life tended to conform like that. At least in the place that was hers. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a smile settling on her lips as she spoke without turning around.
"I wondered how long it would be before you came to me."