fandomtownies | Monday: Covent Garden Flowers

Okay so for the record Steven was still an asshole for signing Marc up for that class. There was nothing about it that had any benefit, Marc hadn't paid any attention whatsoever except for his brief conversation with what's-her-face the teacher, and Marc definitely hadn't bothered paying attention to the other students.

Except for how he sorta kinda had. Which was annoying, especially when one of the students had slipped a detail into her introduction which Marc had a hard time sitting with.

Which was why, when Marc spotted a familiar face through the window of the flower shop, he stepped inside.

Okay he walked past the flower shop determined not to step inside, then stopped a few doors down, cursed himself and Steven just on the principle of the thing, then turned back and then he went inside. Same thing, really.

Nell quickly tucked her book away when the door opened and smiled up at whoever had come in. "Hi," she said automatically. "How can I help you'un?"

Oh! This was the rather intense man from her class who'd wanted a lecture on bodily autonomy. Which she remembered because she had to go look it up after class. Then she'd wondered who in the class he might have wanted to hear about it, since he'd certainly behaved as if they were there.

He had quite a presence about him and made her immediately aware that she was alone in the store. While Fandom was, barring the strange events, relatively safe, men - especially strange intense men - still made her a bit uneasy.

"I remember you'un from class," she said. "I'm afraid I don't quite remember your name though."

Yeah, Marc was keenly aware there was a creep factor here on several levels. He'd love to diffuse it but he honestly didn't know how. This was normally the kind of thing Steven would be great at, except if Marc's nagging suspicion was right this was exactly the kind of thing Marc kept Steven away from.

"Marc Spector," he said, since he could at least do that. "Marc's fine. Sorry I didn't catch yours either."

Or he did and hadn't bothered to remember it. Don't take it personally, Nell, he didn't bother remembering the names of gods either.

In Nell's non-Fandom experience men often didn't bother remembering women's names so she would have been more surprised - and perhaps more concerned - if he had. Besides it had just been one class and a rather odd one at that.

"I'm Nell Ingram," she said. "It's nice to see you'un again." She didn't exactly mean that,, but it was polite. She hesitated over his name. He'd said Marc was fine, but she was rather more inclined to call him Mr. Spector and keep that distance. Still, she didn't want to insult him, so best just leave his name off entirely.

"How can I help you?" There. That was pleasant and as she was still smiling, even if it was the slightest bit strained, that should satisfy hospitality.

Marc wasn't good at the finer details of relating to people. Or, for that matter, the details that most people would consider the bare minimum. In general the faster people figured out that they didn't want him around the better, especially for their sake. But there was still that nagging suspicion he was having a hard time ignoring so there they were.

If he didn't know how to do friendly he could at least do non-threatening. It was the opposite of being threatening on purpose, after all, and that one he was good at. So he relaxed his posture, kept his hands open and where Nell could see them, and showed no signs of wanting to come any closer than the few feet away he was already standing.

Now all he had to do was say something. If it was any other circumstance he would have woke Steven up to ask for help. But keeping Steven away from things like this was literally Marc's greatest priority. So instead Marc was left asking himself What Would Steven Do?

Oh right. Be honest. Damn it.

"If you mean that you'd be one of a rare few," Marc said. "Most people prefer not seeing me again. That's why I was in that class. A... person close to me thought it'd be funny to make me take lessons in being nicer to people."

Such an odd man, Nell thought.

"It's mostly a politeness," she said, tilting her head to look up at him more directly. "Specially since you came into my place of business. That said, I don't not like you." Yet.

She was mostly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was clearly doing his best to look not threatening, something the church men would never bother to do, so that got him points.

"M'not exactly sure how I ended up in the class myself," she admitted. "Kinda suspect it's the moose playing games again."

So now they'd established why they were in the class, she knew why she was here, but why on earth was he here?

He did not look like a man interested in flowers. Benefit of the doubt. Benefit of the doubt.

She could always throw a cactus at him if she had to.

Okay that was nowhere near where Marc thought the conversation would be going. Granted given the surprisingly frequent amount of times animals or animal like beings had factored into his life maybe he should have predicted it.

Still, he had to ask: "Moose?"

"In the office? Sometimes assigns people to random classes?" He must be relatively new to Fandom. Then again, he wasn't exactly a high school student. "It happens more than you might think."

Yes, it might sound odd, but then what didn't in Fandom?

Might as well get down to it.

"Did you want some flowers...?"

A moose working in an office wasn't the weirdest thing Marc had ever heard so sure, why not?

Back on topic. Unfortunately. "No, not here for flowers. Look, I'm just gonna come out with it. Did I hear you right on Friday? You're married?"

Nell blinked at him. Well, that hadn't been what she'd been thinking.

"Yes. For the last six and a half years now. Though, I been stuck here for the last four, so m'not quite sure how that counts."

She knew how most people here felt about that, and heaven knew she couldn't argue with them, but facts were facts. The really dry sense of humor she had wanted to add, 'so if you'un is looking for a date you're outta luck', but she was wise enough to keep that just in her head.

Oh that math was so much worse than he'd been guessing. Also so much for the vague hope she'd meant a high school sweetheart.

He would've appreciated her dry sense of humor but since she didn't say that part out loud he went with "But you're like what? Twelve?"

There was no judgement in his voice. An inability to correctly pinpoint just how young she was beyond being at least half his age, sure. But any judgement about Nell specifically was nowhere near his tone or demeanor. He knew better.

She laughed. She couldn't help but laugh. "Heavens no! God's Cloud of Glory church is twisted and wrong, but even they wouldn't stoop that low, though I 'preciate the compliment. John and Leah married me when I was twelve."

It's all right, Marc. She was a pretty tiny thing and the long hair and skirts made her look even younger.

Yeah her getting married at twelve was not making it hugely better. Though her clearly not liking the group that put her in that situation (a name Marc was committing to memory) was a good sign. Also on the plus side, "So you're 18 now? Legal adult."

"I am," she agreed, "and if I was back home, John agreed to marry me legal when I was old enough."

She shook her head. "They took me in, saved me when they married me, and I never go to uphold all of my part of the bargain. Left John all alone not knowing what happened to me."

Yeah, Marc wasn't going to be losing any sleep over how John was doing. Or Leah for that matter.

He wanted to ask what Nell's part of the bargain was - he could guess but it wasn't good to assume. But he also knew he would've told a stranger to go fuck themselves sideways if there'd been a version of this conversation in his life 20 years ago. So he again went with the What Would Steven Do? option of honesty.

"I left at 18," he told her. "Joined the Marines. That's how I got out."

Well, Leah was dead, so that's how she was doing. Died just before Nell got swept up in a portal and ended up here. Before she had to do her wifely duties since they'd agreed to wait till she was fifteen. But since he hadn't said anything about it, all was left unsaid.

"Where did you leave from?" Nell asked. "A cult masquerading as a church like me?" The age didn't phase her. Boys and girls were considered adults long before then in the church. But the leaving... That interested her.

Nell's opinions of the group that put her in that position increased Marc's respect for her. Not that he'd disrespected her before, but he knew the effort it must've taken her to realize at least some of the truth of her situation.

Not that that meant he was going to give her his entire life story. But he could drop some details as a sign he wasn't some random asshole prying into her history. "Not a cult. But home was... not great. Not the same as yours with the marriage and everything but I needed to - " escape was the accurate word but he instead went with " - leave. When I heard you say you were married I thought maybe you'd know what that felt like."

She heard the unspoken 'escape' and nodded. "My home... Till I turned twelve and the Colonel wanted me to wife? It was good. For me. But not for the women, not all of 'em."

Nell took a deep breath. "After? It got scary sometimes. In bad ways. So I don't maybe know 'zactly what it was like for you, but I've got some idea. And I'm sorry to hear that."

Marc nodded, silently confirming she was reading between the lines correctly, and that he didn't mind her doing so. "I'm sorry too. Nobody should ever have anything in common with me. But you're here and they're not. How does that make you still married? Was twelve years old actually legal in your world?"

"I was married in the church. Stood up with them and said my vows right and proper," Nell said. "The government doesn't hold with it, which is why he was going to marry me in the government way when I turned eighteen. But married is married whether he's here or not."

She was quiet for a moment. "M'not saying getting married that young is right, 'cause it's not, but they saved me - from the Colonel, from my family that was going to marry me off to that old pedophile, from maybe being burned at the stake. And they said I wouldn't have to do my wifely duties till I was properly of age at fifteen. I took care of Leah till she died and then... He got left all alone, not even knowing I was okay."

"If I ever find my way back I'll still be married."

Marc had some opinions about a grown man telling a child that waiting until she was 15 for "wifely duties" was him doing something nice for her. But that could wait.

The additional sad thing was that the mention of being burned at the stake wasn't even throwing him. It wasn't much different from what Ammit's followers had done after all. So instead Marc focused on asking, "Do you want to go back?"

That... was a really hard question. How to explain all of those convoluted feelings?

"Yes and no," she said finally. "I don't want to go back and be married and harassed by the church men. I wish I could stay here and be free of all that and somehow just have not ever been married and still be safe." Nell felt guilty even thinking that, much less saying it, but it was the truth. "But then I'd never see my mama or my mawmaw or my sisters again, couldn't offer them a safe place to run to if they'uns needed it."

And the biggest thing...

"I'd never see my woods again. I can almost feel Soulwood from here. I got some of the dirt from it in a mystery package arrived here a little after I arrived and it helps me stay connected, but a part of my heart will always be there. I wish I could bring it here somehow."

"I get that," Marc said. "Having people you want to protect. I really do."

Something about the way she spoke about her woods and having dirt from it made it sound like she wasn't talking in metaphors. "You can feel it from here? Is that like a superpower thing?"

She shrugged a little uncertainly. "Mostly I can feel it. A little distantly. And the land here I think I've sort of connected to SOulwood a little somehow. But I wouldn't call it a superpower."

Nell hesitated, then decided to go for it. "But this..." She reached for one of the plants she'd potted and dug her fingers into the soil, focusing her thoughts on what she wanted the plant to do. It began to grow and then quickly burst into beautiful magenta blossoms. "...is pretty cool."

"That is pretty cool," Marc said, because hey it was. And since they were comparing notes and it was going to lead into the other reason why he'd wanted to talk to her, he said, "I don't have anything when I'm like this - " he gestured at himself to indicate the way he currently looked " - but when I'm on the job I've got speed, strength, healing. Sometimes flight."

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Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)

Re: Cw: child marriage (and references to child abuse)