tallyyoungblood | closed post: in the eye of the beholder

Tally's had a lot on her mind since the death and the wedding. Life, love, the fragility of those things--but, of course, she is who she is, so her mind comes back to what it always does: beauty.

As much as she'd judged that strange man for his disheveled robes, everyone else had looked gorgeous, and happier than she'd ever seen a room full of pretties look. Most notably, they'd all looked legitimately different from each other, in just about every way possible. That the effect was beautiful instead of overwhelming is a new experience for Tally.

Tally feels like she knows what Claudius might say about the wedding. He'd heap effusive praise on everyone, and tell her that of course he wanted everyone to be uniquely themselves. She thinks he understands the halo effect better than anyone else she knows here, but also, as a former pre-Rusty king, understands how to deal with a crowd of adult uglies. Galahad, though, has never been someone Tally could guess at the thoughts of. He'd clearly been too happily overwhelmed to really talk at the ceremony itself, so she goes to knock on his door a few days later.

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Tally nods, and busies herself stacking up the magazines.

It works, albeit more slowly than he'd like. The words are familiar, and as he focuses on them his ears stop ringing and his pulse slows, and the sensation of being both too hot and too cold starts to fade. He's still not back in his body, but he doesn't feel the tightness in his chest.

"I'm sorry," he tells her. "I'm all right now."

"It's okay," Tally says softly. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"I didn't mean to-- distract."

"It's fine. I mean, this stuff about Luo Binghe is kind of scary."

"I hate it," quietly. "I'm afraid for Claudius, that he won't be able to feel safe."

"Yeah," Tally says, thinking how she might feel if Dr. Cable lived here, even if she promised not to hurt Tally any more, even if Dr. Cable was dating--blech--one of her friends. She guesses everyone deserves a second chance, but maybe not from the people they've hurt already. "Well, like I said. It's good you're here to protect him, and he has lots of people who love him and will protect him too."

"Thank you," Galahad says. He's grateful to her for understanding, grateful that -- whatever his body believed was going to happen -- she didn't make light of Claudius' suffering. He wants to say more, but the words are tangled up inside his throat, unwieldy and unreachable.

"Of course. What was that you were saying, by the way? When you were panicking?"

"It's a prayer. It helps because I know it."

"Huh. I guess it's fine if your god can't hear it."

"I don't care anymore whether He does. I like patterns."

"I was worried he could track you by it, or something." Her hand goes unconsciously to her wrist.

"No," quietly. "They are only words."

"At home, they listen to what we say," she tells him. "Not, um, magically or prayerfully or whatever, but through our interface rings. Obviously they can't listen to everyone all the time, but I'm sure wardens paid extra attention to me, since I was a problem. Me and Zane, we used extra pretty-speak so they wouldn't get what we were saying." She smiles at the memory. "Half the words we said were bogus or bubbly."

"Is it strange here? Knowing that no one is listening?"

"It's better. Reminds me of living in the wild. Obviously the tradeoff is safety, but it's been okay so far. Assuming no one gets, like, really sick."

"Claudius would know what to do."

"Mmm," Tally says skeptically. "I know he's from your future, but he's from way in my past. He doesn't actually understand modern medicine. Not that he isn't totally smart for a pre-Rusty, but he just doesn't have the benefit of, like, hundreds of years of medical advancement and equipment."

Claudius is wildly advanced to Galahad, yes, and this, in addition to Galahad’s loyalty to his husband, makes him feel equally skeptical about Tally's statement. "He could learn it."

"If he went to medical school, yeah, totally."

"He wouldn't need to. He could learn by practice."

"I'm not trying to slight him, but no one could do that," Tally says. "Some things you just can't learn by yourself."

Galahad does not believe her, but he politely stops pressing the point. If she gets sick, Claudius will be the one to cure her.

Tally considers him. It's cute that he believes in Claudius that much, even though he's being a total pre-Rusty about it.

"Well," she says. "I kind of want to go show this makeup to Gideon."

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