InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Brian Kinney <3 Justin Taylor"

Marian (sweetspring) wrote in nevermore_logs,
@ 2021-04-16 19:51:00

Entry tags:

maid marian, qebhet

WHO Marian & Qebhet (with some Art, and maybe some Stutely and Robin if they're around)
WHEN Friday afternoon
WHERE The Sly Fox
WHAT Welcome to my home, please submit to a polygraph and fingerprinting.
WARNINGS tba,

Slowly slowly slowly, Marian was trying to get back into a life that wasn't built around the Sheriff. She found herself angry at the lack of progress, at the walls she kept coming up against, at the ways he was still controlling her even though he was gone. (Guy had been quiet for a long time, and that made Marian anxious as well. Her entire existence had been spent with Guy, the Sheriff and Price John all sniffing around, and the only variables being which one would be the most obsessed at that moment and what form any obsession would take: would she be facing a cartoonish buffoon vying for her affections, or would she be facing a man who would send her to be tortured by demons until she broke? Depending on the decade, depending on the stories and the culture, all possibilities laid themselves out before her.)

But she'd gotten back into her gaming, replaying old games and feeling herself sink back into the familiar moves of a particularly challenging boss fight. Guy and the Sheriff, they were unpredictable, but in video games (no matter how hard) you could read your opponent. When this boss raised his hammer over his right shoulder, then there was about to be an area of attack and you needed to move back. When this boss sheathed his glowing sword he was doing a power up and you had a few open seconds to make your own attack or heal. Her real enemies had no such tells: they appeared from the shadows and they rarely fought fair.

What Marian really wanted right now was a job, but instead she was stuck in the horrible limbo of unemployment. Marian had never been very good at being idle, at not having some sort of purpose and reason to get up every day. She needed to be doing something: in Sherwood that had often been taking care of the camp and being everyone's mother, and in the modern world it came in the form of a career she could be proud of. She'd only just managed to drag herself out of the depressing 'lying on the couch all day using her breasts as a Cheeto shelf' period before the Sheriff had kidnapped her, and now she was back even further than Step One.

Which was why she'd invited Qebhet over, to avoid the lying on the couch all day and to try and remember what it was like to be a person, especially to someone who had reached out when they didn't need to. She and Qebhet had only met the once, and she'd never expected to even make an impression on the goddess. And yet the scarab was warm and real in her pocket.

When the text came through to say that Qebhet had arrived, Marian made her way downstairs. Spotting Art at the bar, Marian said, "she's here, be nice." But she also held up the sleep mask she'd brought down to show him - it was close enough to a blindfold but wouldn't catch in any of Qebhet's hair going on or coming off.

She unlocked the door open and smiled at the goddess on the other side. "Hi," she said and then showed her the blindfold. "Thank you for doing this." That part she said a little more quietly, not meant for Art's ears so much.

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coolwaters
2021-04-16 09:48 am UTC (link)

Qebhet was no stranger to unusual requests. Last year, she'd been involved with the funeral of a gentleman who had specified in writing his wish to be buried astride his beloved motorcycle. Occasionally a family would ask for the body to be divided up and cremated piece by piece, each body part having been promised to a particular relative. Different families had different etiquette when entering the home, different customs that had to be observed, different sensitivities to be minded.

Admittedly, she had never been asked to be blindfolded before, but if it was a little odd, it didn't seem especially unreasonable, given all the Merry Men had been through. Kidnapping, torture and worse: a person might be justifiably anxious about letting others into their home after such an ordeal. And when Marian had apologetically suggested waiting until she felt up to leaving the house— well. Qebhet knew something of being trapped by paralysing fear of the world outside one's door. Marian was reaching out, inviting her into the Merry Men's secret hideout, and a blindfold seemed like a very minor inconvenience in exchange.

"It's no trouble," she said, returning Marian's smile warmly. She took the sleeping mask, handing Marian the six pack of beer she'd brought in exchange, and slipped the elastic over her head, dutifully adjusting the mask so that she was completed blindfolded. "Oh— and my phone, too," she remembered and dug it out of her pocket.

Arthur had by this point followed Marian to the back door, and he slipped past her to wave a hand in front of an oblivious Qebhet's face, testing her reaction, which was only to bump his arm as she passed the phone over. "Oops, sorry! I've done this in the wrong order, haven't I?"

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sweetspring
2021-04-16 10:11 am UTC (link)

"We have ways of making it work," Marian promised, taking her hand gently and passing it to Art. "Would you like to put that in the box, Art?" she tried not to fall instantly into the tone of Mother, but it was certainly there. Marian felt like the most useful thing she had taught Art since getting back - at least in the sense of making him feel less caught out - was that you could turn almost anything into a faraday cage with enough layers of tinfoil. She'd only given him the rolls she had as long as he promised not to start making tinfoil hats, as those were useless.

Once her hands were free, Marian slowly looped her arm with Qebhet's. "I'll lead you upstairs," she said, bringing her slowly into the pub. "The floor is flat here, I'll tell you when we get to the first step." This felt weirdly familiar, like being back in the forest almost.

At the steps she moved slowly, guiding Qebhet with her voice and at the top she let go of her so that she could close the apartment door. (The apartment above the pub was nothing special, but it was tidy enough to be seen by company.) "You can take that off now," she said, running a hand through her hair. "Thank you for doing that."

	sweetspring 2021-04-19 11:16 am UTC (link)
	"Even immortal," Marian said, after taking a drink from her beer, "that's a length of time I can't even imagine. My earliest stories are from the end of the sixteenth century. That's only four hundred years." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	coolwaters 2021-04-23 11:21 am UTC (link)
	The corner of Qebhet's mouth curled upward. "Variety is a healthy thing," she agreed. The words were entirely diplomatic, but her eyes were warm with humour. Her expression softened as she added, "I can see they love you a great deal." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sweetspring 2021-04-23 11:26 am UTC (link)
	"They do," Marian agreed, with a great deal of affection, unable to ever fully explain to anyone how deeply she felt for all of the Merry Men, how built into her DNA it was to protect and nurture them. "I try to look after them and keep them out of trouble, though I don't always succeed. " (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	coolwaters 2021-04-23 12:10 pm UTC (link)
	"Another occupational hazard of being a hero?" Qebhet suggested with a smile. Trouble and conflict always seemed to follow the heroes of stories. She supposed nobody wanted to read about heroes who stayed home and did crosswords. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)