the stork drops, the snake swallows | Glowfic Constellation

secondchance

That is actually the first time you've said that, Kib remarks.

Oh, sorry, should I have chosen a stunning vista at Mingling for the occasion? Or return to the site of our first date - but I actually haven't taken you on a single one -

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It might have been nice if you'd said it under circumstances where I could kiss you for saying it.

Well. You've said no such thing to me so can pick a kissable occasion to do so.

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Good idea, that. See you later.

And Kib goes back to his husband.

And after that production it's probably not worth chancing it and anyway they had a lovely time in Kib's world so the Elves sleep alone, and wake early, and busy themselves ferrying things for the portals.

secondchance

Aydanci and Kib breakfast together in the basement room and then Kib ferries Aydanci some reading material and ventures out. Does he need to talk to any Valar? (Does Aydanci need to talk to any Valar? He doesn't really want to go wandering about unnecessarily; people stare at him and he was disconcerted by the mindreading incident.) Do people have more intrusive personal questions so that Kib can practice the virtue of not being scathing at them?

The Valar are inclined to summon them both but if Aydanci is unwell they can speak to Kib. People stare in the street but don't ask any intrusive personal questions.

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Aydanci could be reasonably described as "not well", yes.

The Valar would like Kib to start at the beginning, please.

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"Forty-two years ago there appeared a human female baby who was found and brought to a creche in the city of Lapis which named her Alymbel Mahri. When she was seventeen she met a boy called Aydanci Evaret and they fell in love and two years later they got married - in the human fashion without any forensically accessible soul marks - and were deliriously happy with each other, sharing projects and a house and fixing each other breakfast and all, until Aly caught a horrible disease and died of it. Shortly thereafter a stork brought a human male baby to a creche in Wrebb, where he was named Akibel Mowar. A couple of years ago I began having unusual dreams in which Aly appeared as a recurring 'character'. They were more coherent and mundane than regular dreams, and after I woke up from them they wouldn't fade like regular dreams, but sort of slide back as though they'd happened before I appeared - during the times they appeared to be set. I knew that Lapis was a real place and that Harthanic, Aly's second language, was a real language, but I never visited the place or met a Harthanic speaker to suggest that my dream information was anything other than fabricated. The dreams came more and more frequently and in greater quantity until they completely displaced standard dreams and I had hours of Aly's life every night; while it was sort of conceptually disconcerting to inhabit the perspective of a girl her personality was otherwise identical to mine.

"I noticed Aly had to have been real when I encountered a real book in Harthanic and its alphabet and grammar were familiar to me. Since we had the same personality and I was inheriting her memories it seemed reasonable to adopt her identity as continuous with mine. Later, I dreamed about Aydanci who had been all but omitted from previous dreams, and was able to find him at home in Lapis based on memory alone. I told him I was Aly reincarnated; it turned out that even her pet magpie answers to me like I'm her, apparently servants' identification of servantmakers is not interrupted by reincarnation. He verified my identity to his satisfaction and was very relieved that his spouse was not permanently lost to him after all; he'd never really recovered from my death."

There is a moment's stunned pause.

"This is very irregular," someone says at that point. "But we concur in your assessment that you and Aydanci are in fact married."

secondchance

"I hoped you'd say that," Kib says.

"Marriage is a bond before Eru and cannot be broken. You and Aydanci will be married for all of time."

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That is not how humans fucking work you fools, Kib does not say. He just nods.

"We counsel you not to raise children. They might be confused by the situation."

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"That's not a human behavior anyway," Kib says. "We did at one time consider co-teaching apprentices but nothing like the childrearing Elves do."

"You have our blessing for a happy and joyous marriage."

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"Thank you."

This causes quite a stir in Tirion.

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Which Kib will deal with because poor Aydanci does not need this crap and this is the Worst Paradise that Kib went and decided to live in. Anybody have something to say, huh?

Is Kib actually a girl. That is the explanation that makes the most sense of the whole situation.

secondchance

Well, Aly was a girl. Kib is a boy. Sometimes this confuses him too but that is definitely what's going on. Fortunately ~his wonderful husband~ has the convenient feature of being interested in people by personality rather than shape! He would probably have taken Kib back even if Kib were a genderless mushroom being of some kind! His husband is so great.

A lot of people volunteer the opinion that they'd take their spouses back if they died and were reembodied as the opposite gender. Other people volunteer the opinion that they wouldn't do that. The tone here is getting to be more of confusion than actual hostility.

secondchance