lance alvarez (powpowpow) wrote in valloic, @ 2023-03-27 10:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, god of war: atreus, ~plot: future vallo, ₴ inactive: lance alvarez |
2033 log
Lance whistled low as he approached on his chocobo where the trees would clear out, a decent heads up to the inhabitants as he came in. Well practiced by now, and despite knowing there were still a hell of a lot of steps from today to maybe the end of all of this he couldn't help but feel a little excited at the prospect that it might not be needed in a few weeks. Maybe.
There was a smile as he heard the answering whistle back and he didn't even get a chance to hit where the trees cleared out before Yrsa dropped from them below, a few feet in front of him.
Like everything else, Lance was well versed in the impatient glint in Yrsa's eyes as she stood still and started in on the phrases they'd worked out before he'd left.
"Looks like sunken rain tonight," Yrsa offered, expression expectant.
"The Strawberry Moon sends its regards," Lance offered and then grinned as Yrsa ran at him. "These are getting weirder and weirder," he said with a laugh as Yrsa all but jumped at him and wrapped his arms tight around her, returning the hug.
"I still say we should have called it the fart moon," Yrsa replied back with a laugh of her own, hugging him tight.
"You and the fart jokes," Lance answered with a fond laugh. "Missed you, Mija," was added after a moment though, a little more serious.
"Missed you too, Dad."
Lance pulled back after a moment and raised a brow, exaggerated, as he put his hand on Yrsa's head and moved it across to see where she was against him now in terms of height. "You got taller," he said.
Yrsa rolled her eyes. "You say that every time, it's only been two weeks, I can't be that much taller."
Lance shook his head and remembered, making a show of it. "Nope, definitely taller," and laughed as he got a drawn out daaaaaaaaaaaaad in return.
They started into the clearing, Yrsa's arm around her dad and Lance had one resting on her shoulders, he took a moment to drop a kiss to the top of her head. "Tell me what you've been up to…"
It wasn't the longest walk, but enough for Yrsa to get a couple stories in before the gardens and the house came into view. Lance dropped down as Monty jaunted over, slower in his old age now. "Good boy, you been keeping watch? Yes, yes you have, haven't you," Lance rattled off as he gave the dog some pets and love.
"We weren't expecting you until tomorrow," came Freya's voice above him.
Lance stood and accepted the offered hug. "Managed to sneak away a little early, have some news for Atreus" he answered and then smiled in a tight line as they pulled back and Freya's hand on his chin turned his face to eye the bruising against his right cheek and eye. "It's fine," he assured her.
There was a small frown and Freya let go of his face. "Get Atreus to put something on that?" she requested and Lance nodded. "Good." She ruffled his hair and gave him a smile before turning to Yrsa. "Come on, Yrsa, let's let your fathers talk for a little."
Lance took the quick hug from Yrsa before she wandered off with Freya and then started into the house, Monty at his heels.
He found Atreus in the kitchen, wiping down the counters and Lance realized he must have just missed lunch. He leaned against the door frame and just watched for a moment. But it wasn't too long before the need to make some dumb comment pulled at him. "Oh yeah, babe, you show that counter who's boss," he said, tone amused.
“Fuck.” The countertop didn’t stand a chance, as he managed to unseat the whole thing with one pull of his hand. It was Lance’s fault, for surprising him when he had a hand braced, but-- shit, Atreus didn’t care. He hadn’t seen Lance in two weeks, and he was early enough to pull a surprised look from Atreus.
Hence the cleaning. Half because Atreus was easy and he and Yrsa had a tendency to get a little carried away with art as soon as Angrboda made new paints, but also because dinner had a tendency to be a chaotic affair. “The counter had it coming,” With a rare grin, he abandoned his sponge and went straight for Lance’s arms. He wrapped a firm arm around Lance and dragged him in for a long kiss, long enough to make up for the lack of kissing in the last two weeks.
Atreus pulled away to take in the bruise on Lance’s face. His touch turned gentle as he brushed a finger along the dark edges. “Is this where you tell me I should see the other guy? I need to make a fresh poultice.”
He was about to say something about the countertop but then Atreus was there and well, kissing was way better. Especially when it had been too long since he'd been able to do this. His hands fisted in the front of Atreus' shirt, attempting to pull him in even closer if possible, easily falling into a desperate edge to the kiss - trying to make up for lost time, grounding himself back into that feeling of home after too long away.
He huffed a little noise of protest as they broke apart, a wrinkle of his nose as Atreus zeroed in on the bruising on his face. "You should see the other guy," he offered with a sly smile. "It looks worse than it feels," he added after, and it really did. At least now, a few days after the fact.
He shifted his hands to wrap around Atreus. "But before you make me smelly," he said and then dragged Atreus back in for another kiss. Lance knew that things were about to get crazy, more than usual at least. And there was an urge there to just take a moment while he could, before even a handful of stolen minutes in their kitchen might become a big ask.
His forehead fell to Atreus' as he broke off the kiss. "Missed you," was said quietly and then he let go his grip on Atreus.
"Okay - now you can make my face stink," he said and reached to pull off the rifle looped over his back to set on the table for now. "I got some stuff to fill you in on too," he added. The sword and holster from his back was next, and he took a seat so Atreus could do his thing on his face.
Atreus wasn’t entirely sure he believed the looks worse than it feels business, but Lance did a good job distracting him from that. “I missed you too.” Lance got most of his softness, to the same degree as Yrsa and Freya, the part of Atreus he locked away when they were dealing with the rest of the world these days. It was difficult being away from Lance for longer periods, but he got it, and it was important.
They all had their role to play that kept things moving forward, for even something of a chance to have a better future for all of them.
He was glad they had a don’t beat around the bush policy for actual bad news, and Lance was calm enough that Atreus’ anxiety didn’t spike. Yet. He just went through the motions with picking out herbs from the nearby potted plants sitting in windows, and brought down the heavy mortar and pestle. The bruise paste was probably used more frequently than anything else in their little apothecary. It really did stink as he mashed it up with his nose wrinkled. “Did they figure things out at the Outpost?”
Lance's gaze followed Atreus as he worked on getting the poultice together, his expression soft as he did. The last decade had been hard as hell but sometimes it was easy to just, let it go a little, in these moments. To focus on that even after all these years watching Atreus still made him feel warm and sappy. That even with all the awfulness there was a feeling still of stability here, of home in the darkness.
Optimism had been something he'd tried to cling to all these years. Sometimes it was successful and in his darker moments it was a complete failure. But it lingered now, burned bright as he thought back to the plans that would be in motion in only a few days.
He nodded at the question. "Yeah, everything's pretty set?" Barring any complications that Lance were sure to come up in the execution. It was an ambitious undertaking, but they all knew it was down to the wire. Either they succeeded, or nothing was left. They would do everything to make it the first.
"The uh - the list of people Caleb and Essek are bringing back is finalized," he added, tone even. "Kratos is on it," he added, eyes on Atreus. He knew damn well how hard that loss had been - and whatever they did now, it was only temporary. Maybe that was harder than nothing at all.
Oh.
Well that made sense. In a lot of ways. Atreus had pretty much expected it, right? Time travel was even something he was familiar with, from a sideways perspective. Theoretically going back to fix the future was an idea that made sense even to him. And why wouldn’t they pick someone who had killed Zeus to face off against Interitus?
But that same someone had also faced Interitus and been blipped out of existence (or just back home, as the optimistic ones liked to hope) for his trouble.
Atreus tried not to let his face betray the conflict of emotions but failed as he frowned into the pestle. “I fucking hope so. It’d be dumb if he wasn’t.” His words felt the opposite of the frown on his face, but he wasn’t lying. Just worried.
“What’s uh-” He hated asking this question, but it was on the forefront of his mind. “What’s going to stop Interitus from just doing it again? Poof, gone?” He wasn’t sure he could handle losing Kratos for a second time, not like that.
It was a valid question and Lance hated that he didn't have a definitive answer. At the end of the day, really, they were all working on a hope and a prayer.
He stood and moved over to Atreus, slipping a hand around his arm and nuzzling his forehead into his shoulder. He wished he could give a different answer. That there was some absolute guarantee that bringing Kratos to the future wouldn't end with them losing him again. Lance knew how hard that had been on Atreus, how even now he hadn't recovered. That he never would really. And even if they got through the preparations without anyone being taken, even if they won, it would be temporary. It had to be. And that killed Lance a little, knowing they were asking Atreus to have his father and then have to say goodbye at the end of it all.
"It's a risk," he admitted. "We don't really have a hard and fast answer for that," he paused. "We know what Pigny told us which gives us hope no one we bring will be snapped before we get to the end, we know that Interitus should hopefully be distracted enough to not notice what we're doing."
He turned his head so he could press his lips lightly to Atreus' shoulder. "I wish I had something more concrete for you."
Atreus bit his tongue and let himself just breathe into Lance’s hold. He needed a minute to process all of it, to figure out what was going on in his head, to wrap around it. This entire time, he’d just held onto the hope and knowledge that Kratos was at home. Happy. Healthy. Alive. They’d been through so much that he deserved that, if nothing else.
It was better than him dying, there was no doubt about that. Atreus and Lance had both lost so many friends, everyone still here in Vallo had. It had been a tough seven years, with very few bright spots - the ones remaining had been of their own making, quiet moments that they clung to.
“Well. He’s killed more gods than anybody else in this world, if we need anybody on our side, it’s him.” The fact that they were still remaining here was a testament in itself to the survival of humanity, but having Kratos on their side all this time would have been-- better. Not just for Atreus, who missed him like he had been missing a limb.
In a brief moment of quiet grief, he rested his hand on Lance’s arm and closed his eyes. “This is going to be rough.”
It really wasn't fair. But then nothing about anything their lives had become had been. Sometimes Lance could shove that away, find happiness in moments between the tragedies. But it was a loud roar in moments like these. It wasn't fair.
"I'm pretty convinced even if he wasn't on the list, if he got even a hint of what Caleb and Essek were grabbing people for he'd muscle his way in too," Lance said with a soft hint of amusement, even if the conversation was heavy.
"It'll be hard," he agreed and shifted so he could hug Atreus properly. "I know how much you miss him, how much it's gonna suck that this is only temporary. But it'll still be time? Even if things are gonna be crazy." A beat. "And me and Yrsa, we'll be there on the other side of it, we got you, and hopefully there'll be better days to look forward to when all is said and done." Because that was it wasn't it. Either in the end of this they had a better future, or everything was gone and it wouldn't matter either way.
“You’re probably right,” Atreus agreed with a small smile. No one told Kratos “no”, or if they did, they learned not to very quickly. He didn’t want to think yet about this just being a temporary solution, that seeing his father would just be a fleeting blink of the eye in their timeline.
What he wanted to hope for was the idea that after Interitus was defeated, his own father would be back. That whatever blipped him away, would blip him back.
It was a shadow of a hope, one he had pushed away years before in an effort to not dwell, but it came back with a fierce return. Atreus sucked in a breath before wrapping his arms fully around Lance and pressing his lips to the side of Lance’s head. “This’ll be worth it if it works. Are we heading to the outpost to meet them?” They had a little time before the convergence, Atreus knew that, but Lance had the inside knowledge of what was expected of everyone. “Any other big surprises I should know about?”
Lance was more than content to take the physical affection, let it recharge all those parts of himself that got drained with time away from Atreus and their family. And god knows he'd need to be at his best for the coming days. The darker thought, the one he tried not to follow too much, was that this was it. Either they won, or they were gone. All of them, across every world. And fuck if that thought didn't terrify him, didn't bring up all those memories of watching Honverva try to achieve the exact same thing. The part of him that never managed to get put back together from that wondered if they'd feel it this time. If they failed, would they feel the universe being ripped out of existence. Would their last moments be the same all consuming grief and sheer hopelessness that he had felt that day with Honerva.
He hoped not.
He hugged Atreus just a little tighter, forcing himself back into the moment at hand. To a better vision of the future. Still hard of course, rebuilding would be, but with hope. With brighter days. And maybe Atreus would be onto something and the father he'd lost would be returned. He hoped so.
"There better not be any surprises," Lance answered, a huff with the words - half amused and half anxious. "We've spent too much time nailing this plan down to the second it feels like," he added. But he knew in the grand scheme that didn't mean much. There were still so many variables.
He leaned back a little so he could look up at Atreus. "We'll head back in a day or two," he said. They were asking everyone willing and capable to head to the Outpost, one last stand. "But I wanted to have at least a day? Just us?" The just in case unsaid. But they had time, brief, but still there. To spend as their little family in the woods, pretend like the world was better than it was. Even for a few hours.
“Alright, good.” He’d accept surprises with the same level of chaos as he accepted everything else, but a little warning was nice. Especially nice as neither him nor Angrboda had been able to tap into their visions in a long time, so flying blind was something he was still getting used to.
Atreus wiped his thumb over Lance’s jawline, under where the bruise had formed. “I’ll happily take a day. Yrsa’s mastered some origami she’s going to show you, and we have some fresh vegetables picked today.” it was going to be chill, and quiet, and they could enjoy each other for a little while before the real world slinked back in.
He stole a quick kiss before leveling a more serious look on his partner. “But first, sit your ass back down because you’ve distracted me from the shit-smelling paste long enough.”