Fjord walks into their bedroom to find Jester missing. It’s not unusual, she’s probably in her studio. But sitting on the bed is a stuffed animal that he doesn’t recognize, a green dragonturtle with a cute face and soft looking fabric. Even more confounding is that it’s on his pillow.
Fjord curiously picks it up, feeling the incredibly soft fabric that makes it up. There’s a gasp from behind him as Jester opens the door, “You found your new friend!”
Fjord frowns, “What are you talking about?”
Jester grins and jumps on the bed, “I bought him for you today at the market with Veth.”
“Oh.” Fjord looks down at the plushie with new eyes. “Is this…because of what I told you?”
Jester nods, “Everyone should have a favorite stuffed animal, Fjord. You’re just a little older than normal when you get yours. That’s all.” She shrugs with a smile. “You have to come up with a name for him.”
Fjord smiles as he sinks down on to the edge of the bed next to her, “I’ll think on it and get back to you.”
That night, Fjord sleeps with Jester laying on his chest, an arm around her and his little dragonturtle clutched under the other arm. It’s odd, he thinks in the morning. It’s odd how much comfort a stuffed dragonturtle can bring him. Maybe that’s why he was never allowed one in the orphanage, they didn’t want anything that would give him comfort.
And then here comes Jester, giving him that very thing the day after he told her about how awful the orphanage was. He wonders what his ten year old self would think of him now, he sleeps in a house of his own under no less than three blankets with his beautiful and wonderful girlfriend and a stuffed dragon turtle.
He thinks that ten year old him would be proud that he’s found somewhere safe and somewhere he can be happy. And somewhere that he can be himself.
I think a lot about how Fjord and Jester walked into a house in Cognouza to find the floor was a tongue and they simultaneously and independently immediately thought: “Is it bouncy?”
Then, like Jester touched the tongue floor because she wanted to feel the texture, and Fjord licked a doorjamb there because he wondered what it tasted like. They were giving off the vibe that they were apparently having more fun than anyone else running around Cognouza weirdly enough.
Genuinely, just these two are perfect for each other because they’re just Like This. Their souls are made of the same stuff, and that stuff is way too weird and curious for anyone else, just sheer “you’re the only motherfucker in this town who can handle me” energy. It’s amazing, they’re insane, they’re the best, I love them.
