Part 2:
“What are you doing?” Mantis had snuck up on Nebula curled up in her bed, flicking a triangular prism of paper back and forth. It had been approximately seventeen hours and forty-two minutes since their last conversation.
“Some stupid game,” Nebula didn't even look up, focused on aiming the paper triangle directly at the lamp across the room.
Mantis tilted her head. “If it is stupid…then why are you playing it?”
Nebula shrugged. Flicked the paper with her left hand. It crashed onto the floor without a sound. “Don't know. Don't care.”
Mantis shifted on her feet, then leaned back on her heels, then stared at the ceiling. “Can I join you?”
Nebula didn't say yes. She didn't nod. She just scooted to the head of the bed, back pressed against the wall, and patted the other side. “Get the paper. Get up. Put your hands like this. Let's get on with it already.”
Mantis copied Nebula's hand position, but Nebula had to make adjustments. For half a second, her hands touched Mantis's. Nebula's hands were surprisingly cold. Mantis couldn't help the way she stared into Nebula's eyes, her antennae glowing in the dim room.
“You're nervous.”
Nebula pulled away with more speed than a bullet shooting out of a rifle. “I didn't give you permission to read my mind, insect.”
Mantis stared at the black bedsheets. “Sorry.”
She was met with a paper triangle hitting her in the chest, then falling into the space between her hands. Nebula's expression remained untouched. “Score.”
Somewhere else on the planet, Rocket and Drax would be wondering where Nebula and Mantis had been all afternoon. They weren't going to find out.
Knowhere. 4 days after the abduction of Kevin Bacon.
“You knew.”
“What?”
“You knew the whole time, Nebula.” Mantis paused, deep in thought. Then finally, all those questions bubbled to the surface and formed one word. “How?”
Nebula was getting annoyed. “Again, knew what? I don't read minds, bug.”
“That Ego is my father.”
“Was,” Nebula corrected. Mantis flinched. Her antennae flickered a bit.
“I told you yesterday,” Mantis continued. “But I could sense…guilt. Remorse. Nervousness. You already knew.”
Nebula stiffened. “It wasn't hard to guess. Ego didn't have a single other being living on his planet. He murdered all of his previous children and their mothers, makes sense he'd spare the most useful one.”
Mantis's eyes widened for a moment. “Yes, that was why he wanted to find Peter.”
“I'm not talking about Peter, grasshopper.”
“It's Mantis.”
“Let's just say that we've got one thing in common.”
“What is that?”
Something resembling a smile twitched on Nebula's lips. “We both had total dicks for fathers.”
(aka: I crave you in silence, and if you notice, I’ll die and also be thrilled)
・❥・Letting their hand hover near yours but never quite touching. Every atom screaming: please reach back.
・❥・ Saving the last bite of something, “just in case you wanted it.” (They always do. You always remember.)
・❥・ Fixing their backpack strap, even when it’s not falling.
・❥・ Offering your umbrella wordlessly. Standing a little closer than needed.
・❥・ Sitting beside them at a group thing before your brain catches up. Like it’s instinct.
・❥・ Casually mentioning something they said weeks ago. Something small. Something they didn’t think you’d remember.
・❥・ Carrying an extra pen, just in case they forget.
・❥・ Letting them rant. Letting them ramble. Letting them be.
・❥・ Your eyes finding theirs in a crowd before your brain says, look away.
・❥・ Brushing against them “by accident” and apologizing even though it lit your whole nervous system on fire.
can’t explain why but good children’s fantasy is usually closer in essence to good adult fantasy than good YA fantasy is to good adult fantasy. the best children’s fantasy reads like the best adult fantasy, and vice versa.
Vivid bird squad
Psst. Writer. Write that idea down. Yeah, it’ll stay in your brain forever and all, but it won’t. Write it down.
I've made this post before but I'm making it again because I really really do love characters who aren't very emotional, and maybe don't even experience emotions at all, but are still artistic, curious, loving, and virtuous. or heck maybe they're not but maybe they want to be.
I love you Data from Star Trek, I love you Violet Evergarden from Violet Evergarden, I love you Widowmaker from Overwtach (even though you're evil), I love you Hollow Knight from Hollow Knight, I love you Last Unicorn from The Last Unicorn, and I love you Tin Man from Wizard of Oz, the king of this bunch.
I love you clockwork heart gang.