Keefe's warning does as it was intended: to get their gang to shut the hell up. It's a reminder of Forkle's lecture on ruining Wylie's rep back on the Isle, and how, yeah, these guys have the power to cart us off to the Isle of the Lost, don't be... whatever that is.
You see, the Eternalians haven't said shit about the abilities they're bound to gain, but they definitely set in. Or, at least, they set in for Keefe. It took him some three minutes in the Lost Cities to instantly start seeing the aura of emotions, and ever since then, he's learned that the closer he gets to someone, the more he can tell what they're feeling. Going by the burst he got when Dex tapped Keefe's foot with his own to pass lookout duties to him, it was most natural through touch. Now, he finds that if he focuses hard enough, he can feel their emotions through just the air.
It's for that reason exactly that he pushes his left foot out, directing it towards the royals. He needs to make it look natural, because he still doesn't know how abilities work and maybe they know, so it leaves them at an awkward, unprotected angle from the outside, but it's fine. Honestly, Keefe suspects that the greatest threat comes from inside this carriage.
And it's not an instantaneous thing, but it helps. it was obvious they had been confused before, but now the... king, he thinks, or maybe he's the queen, (the apparent biography that is 'The Life of Fallon Vacker' wasn't very clear on that) is suspicious, and Fitzy is... Horrified. Both not helpful in the slightest. It's the kind of thing that would get them booted back to the Isle. They need a distraction, and fast.
"Wait, but why is your grandfather so great?" He asks. He's careful to keep his tone flat -- he doesn't want the royals to think he's Caprise-levels of psychotic, switching it up without a second to spare, but at the same time, doesn't want to imbue his voice with that same sharpness. Clearly, it freaks them out.
"...That mean's he's my grandfather's father's father's father," Fitz says, slowly. Keefe is starting to get the impression he should have known this already. "Did they not teach you Enlightened at Exilium?"
"It's been a while since we've been Waywards," Dex pipes up conversationally. He's relaxed in every way but the unnoticable pull of his lips, but Keefe can feel the wariness coming off of him in waves.
Alden frowns. He's exuding orange confusion and concern and a hint of green fear when he says: "You're fifteen,"
Sophie nods slowly. "Yeah, and?"
"You should still be in Exilium?" Fitz tilts his tone up at the end, sounding every bit as if he were asking, but his aura was more purple-red for frantic. "The files-"
And then he cuts off, makes a face. Keefe can easily read the worry -- it's brighter than any emotion he's seen by far. Eventually, Fitz says, "Tell me everything about how Exilium is run right now."
They all look to Marella -- while she is a little bit prone to anger, she's also great at controlling it when it matters, which is often in negotiations between gangs, but this is... close enough. Still, Keefe checks her aura, and is pleased to find it a nice grey-pink for amusement. Damn, this emotion-reading thing was really coming in clutch.
"Well, the youngest Waywards are around nine years old. You graduate at about thirteen. We have one teacher who goes by Physic. She also doubles as the island medic, so sometimes class will get interrupted. She teaches all the subjects, but focuses on healing and that kind of thing,"
If by 'sometimes', Marella means 'every day, once or twice' then yeah, Exilium was only sometimes interrupted by injured Islers. Keefe is glad to have Livvy on his side now, although he does have an issue with her Swan affiliation -- she refuses to heal Neverseen members unless they're on the brink of death. This probably would have been a problem for him, except that Mum would toss him around a little before giving him to Fintain, who would either send him away or nearly kill him; the former of which needs Physic treatment and the latter is something the Neverseen pseudo-healer, Rayni (or, more accurately during her training, Glimmer) could handle.
"That's not right," Fitz says, but he says it like it's a prelude to something else. He's quiet for a moment, then says, "You should still be in Exilium. The school is supposed to teach up to eighteen-year-olds."
Sophie snorts. "Clearly, someone didn't get the memo." then she pauses, turns to Dex, and says "You don't think..."
Keefe... Isn't sure what she's talking about. He knows that if Sophie were talking to Dex, it was probably some kind of Black Swan thing -- those two had known of each other before meeting -- but beyond that, he's stumped. It was at times like these that he wished they would just tell each other everything before it becomes relevant.
Dex clearly knows what she's talking about, though, because he nods, lips in a thin line again. Keefe knows he's found the missing link even without his new magic powers.
"Jolie Ruewen was the other teacher," Dex offers, almost cringing the moment the words leave his mouth, "But she... passed away when we'd been Waywards for two years. If I'm not wrong, she taught the older kids."
"Oh," Fitz says, softly. He's tipping closer to a blue-grey, now: shock.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Alden smiles sadly, but he's glowing an odd yellow-orange that reminds Keefe of Brant and Jolie, or at least, the way they would look at each other when Brant could come visit her during Lunch, or during that short Isle-wide kids team up. It's the first emotion he hasn't been able to put words to and-- it's weird. Like, really weird. Like, Keefe might have to describe it to Dex, weird. It feels positive enough, and out of all of them, Dex is the one to understand positive emotions the best.
"We didn't know her," Marella states, matter-of-fact. "I mean, me and Keefe didn't. Sophie and Dex had definitely met her a couple times."
Keefe figures her not mentioning the time Sophie spent living with Jolie and her family for nearly two years after her not-parents kicked her out was on purpose. It's honestly a surprise that he knows about that at all -- Jolie was still with the Swans then, and that broke their dont-talk-about-the-Swans-and-Neverseen rule that they never really said. He really, really wishes they would have just told each other of their time under their respective gangs, but the truth was, they'd tried to put all that behind them. Maybe it was because they were focused on the pirates and spares and the trouble the Swans and Neverseen were causing them, rather than their connections. Maybe it was because they didn't know where to start. Maybe it was because sometimes, it was hard to remember that they haven't known each other their whole lives.
Keefe can't really pinpoint the reason, but that didn't change the fact of the matter: here, in this new land, he had to deal with the fact that they came in, stumbling blindly into the dark, without even knowing all the facts.
oh god its been a While. sorry for just dropping off on this fic lol
anyway!! so!!! Keefe is now on the edge of panic lmao. Sadly, he can't read his own emotions through anything but emotional honestly, which, why do that when there's repression? guys he's perfectly fine i promise
i kinda messed around with what technical empathy is from canon but it seemed simpler than the entire touch thing and i wanted at least one person to panic about having an ability after they made it to eternalia
next up: dex panics, sophie learns what an elevator is, and the threat of quinlin sonden's mind search looms
cya qwerts!
~nadia
extras:
Fitz: wait ur not still in school????????
Sophie: haha school is for chumps
Fitz: *heavy distresss*
keefe: ...... oh my god he's onto us
Marella: the amount of times that Livvy got random black swan members crashing into her room with fatal injuries is roughly equivalent to the amount of times I've set something on fire.
marella: so, yknow, just a few times.
Keefe: oh no the eternalians are confused, i have to get them to Not Be
keefe: *concerns them greatly instead*
Keefe: um whats this?????? a positive emotion?????? sounds fake but ok :/
Alden: aww, they've had to suffer a loss :(
marella: No One Cares About Jolie
keefe: sophie lived with jolie and her parents for two years
marela: *does not know above information*
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Alliance -- A KOTLC Descendants AU
FanfictionFor as long as the Neutral Territories have existed, the land it inhabits has been called the Isle of the Lost by it's residents. Home to the infamous rebel groups, the Black Swan and Neverseen, it's a place in shambles and ruins. There is little or...
