003 ☆ Voice ☆ Both Courts

[parallels]

Clara Oswald here.

So...

[There's a lengthy pause as if she really doesn't want to be doing this post but feels compelled to for some reason. Or perhaps she just has no idea how to start.]

So this is Draubwurld's chance to play advice columnist. About-

[There's another painful silence. Or space for a long suffering sigh.]

Relationships.

[Another pause and then suddenly she bursts into speech, going to quickly that it's a little frightening that someone's mouth can move that fast.]

I'm mean I can't be the only one, can I? Had someone back home and then ended up here. Or back here, technically, for me. And now you've got to figure out what's to be done about it. Can't stand around the station hoping your mobile will finally, someday, send them a text message back. The one that you meant to reply to before you showed up here.

If we're trapped here for years and age slowly, it's not quite going to work to just pop back in when the war is over. "Hey, sorry, got kidnapped by fairies 65 years ago, sorry about that, yeah I'd love to go to the cinema like you said in your text". And all the while, they've wondering why you went missing all those years ago.

[And there it is, the sigh.]

Do you just... remain loyal even if it means they might have forgotten you when you return? Or moved on? Or do you call it a wash and start thinking of this place as a new life.

Either way, feels like a bit of losing game, no matter what you do. Suppose that's part of war. But war doesn't usually last centuries. For humans like me, anyway.

[Then she realizes something she probably should have said way back from the start.]

Sorry. For the too much information. And the personal questions. And personal answers if-and-or-when they are given.

Thanks.

Comments

[parallels]

Getting him not to gloat is like trying to stop the clouds from raining. They'll do it whether you like it or not.

[HER LIFE.]

...Right. But. What if it it's their own fault that the truth is going to make them miserable and I'm doing them a favor from stopping them from thinking about it?

That sounds nice, doesn't it?

[cinnamoned]

Ah. I suppose. Some people are just like that.

[But that question gives her pause at least. Considering. She can certainly understand the need and desire to keep others happy. She's just often found if one even attempts to lie it never turns out good.]

It does. I don't know, there is probably more to this. Which I get, not telling everything to a complete stranger. I just find lying doesn't tend to work out. Even if you are trying to protect someone.

[parallels]

That's how it always goes in stories, doesn't it?

[But it's worked well for her so far, so the temptation to continue strongly outweighs the moral part of her urging her to stop.]

Suppose I'll have to deal with the consequences. Thank you for your help.

[cinnamoned]

In the stories. My daughter keeps trying to tell me real life doesn't always have the happy endings.

[Emma being much, much more the realist with her life having been brought up an orphan in the Land Without Magic. Snow is used to things just working out somehow, given her life in the Enchanted Forest.]

Of course. It's your choice. I just hope either way things don't get too much worse at least.

[parallels]

No. It doesn't. Though, I'd take a magic fairy wand if you've got one to lend to fix this mess.

[Not that she believes that sort of thing could ever work without a catch. Still, it would be tempting.]

Me either. At least being here is... I don't have to keep trying to make the two of them happy with me.

[cinnamoned]

Fresh out of wands. Magic on the other hand, the only one I know of would be Regina. But she is in the other Court and there's....always some sort of price in exchange.

[Magic always comes with a price. At least, back home it does. Here it seems to be different. They have yet to really ask her for anything in exchange for her new mount, after all. She bites her lip before giving a nod.]

I understand. Even with the war....certain things here are simpler and better in other ways than home. For some of us, at least.

[parallels]

Right. That's how most of those tales go, isn't it? There's nothing really free. It's always an illusion.

[She may not know the difference between magic here or magic there but she does know that most things are never easy.]

It's mad to think that way, isn't it?

[cinnamoned]

Exactly. As Rumplestitskin puts it - 'magic always comes with a price'. I'd be surprised if he hadn't made deals with most everyone he met in some way.

[There's a shrug at that.]

Well...perhaps it might seem mad. But depending on what some were dealing with back home, it could be better, preferred to stay here in comparison. I hear they can bring people from varying points in time, so in that case perhaps it might be possible to bring back someone that was dead back home. For them, this would be it. As hard to imagine as that might be for some of us.