Illustration commission for the incomparable NotusLethe, from the fic The Silver Gleam of Trees. If you are an RQG fan, or even if you’re not, you should read it–it’s a breathtaking His Dark Materials crossover, featuring Ernest the magpie as Oscar’s daemon. This was an absolute joy to work on and I’m so happy with the end result!
art style challenge featuring the only character i ever draw! this was super fun so if anyone has suggestions for other styles they’d like to see please shoot me an ask with the style + the character!
Here is my piece for The Ones Who Got Away fan project! To nobody’s surprise, I did a portrait of my boy.
[ID: A digital bust portrait of Oscar Wilde as he appears in episode 25 of Rusty Quill Gaming. The portrait is in a gold decorative frame topped with a golden dragon on a dark blue marbled background. Green carnations wrap around the frame on the top right side of the image, and a sparkling quill in a gradient of green, blue, and purple sits beneath the frame on the bottom left. Wilde himself is depicted inside the frame from the chest up. He is a white man with shoulder-length dark brown hair, gray eyes, and a prominent nose. He wears a red suit over a peacock-patterned waistcoat and white collared shirt. The shirt is tied at the neck with a purple cravat and a gold pin with an inset multicolored jewel. Wilde looks to his right, smirking slightly.]
shows up with art one last time for the finale with an RQG rainbow. i have no idea how they’re gonna wrap everything up in an hour but im sure they’ll find a way
[image description] 8 Digital illustrations of the player characters from rusty quill gaming plus Wilde. Each one is drawn in a colour of the rainbow. Hamid is drawn in red and is flying with a blast of fire and electricity. Cel is Orange, and is running to the side with a bomb in their hand - and smoke trailing off their coat and jacket. Bertie is yellow - and is looking down at Brutor who is sitting on his cape with a disgruntled expression. Grizzop is green and is loading his bow. The symbol of Artemus is behind him. . Sasha is blue, and is stepping forwards with her face obscured by her jacket collar and her fire and ice daggers in each hand. they have a bright blue and red circle surround them. Zolf is purple. he has his glave in one hand and in the other he has a glowing ball. Behind him there are ten glowing spears. Azu is pink, and is holding her axe over her shoulder in one hand with the other on her hip. Wilde is drawing in full colour with a white background, and is wearing the robes of the thespian. He is holding both his arms out, with an illusion of a glittery rainbow and the words “Wilde’s fine - stop asking” between them. [end ID]
part 4 of my rqg-end-party-doodle-dump! some very slightly fancier doodles and wips from- mostly from this year, i think, actually? hope you like them!
to a line erased, to friends coming together, to my favorite campaign in the whole world. THANK YOU!
i just needed to complete the set i made last year with a piece for the ending, regardless of how long it took. and what it took were a bunch of sketches, a handful of different proposals, and weeks of work spread out through months. i love the end result and how different this one is from the rest -turns out i’ve learned a lot and was much more certain about how i wanted to go about this one in comparison to the others, what with opting for a composition where no one in the party was at the center, with going just ham with the outfits, with taking my time with every detail and not skimping on the background, etc. i do think it’s very sweet how wanting to avoid anyone being a central character here was something i realized very early on that i wanted to work with, and, meanwhile, in all previous three pieces it just happened naturally… i like to think it speaks of how the campaign and the team worked. i love them so much. i’m so happy i got to draw wilde and skraak like this, seeing the full party in this style and scene is just so so great. i wanted something epic and i think it worked, this went through a lot of tweaks and i’m very glad the final piece is so nice. i just love rqg so much.
here’s some close-ups of the characters and patterns!
[ID: a digital, full-color illustration for the endgame of erasing the line. it is drawn with medium-thin lines and is heavily stylized, in a way that all figures are broken down into sharp, strong-shaped segments with bold colors and filled in with intricate patterns. the characters’ poses and features are accordingly angular, and it’s made so everyone’s faces are turned into sharp profiles from the camera. the scene is of the lolomg standing battle-ready on the roof of the houses of parliament, with big ben behind them. on the frontmost layer is a low, triangle-shaped rooftop over with the party stands, three to one side and three to the other. behind them is another layer of walls and roofs from the building, with big ben at the center, and the furthermost layer corresponds to the sky. the scene is put together so nobody in the team stands at the center, and that space is instead occupied by the clock tower standing tall in the near background. the roofs are blue with a checkered pattern, the walls a faded yellow, and the windows dark. there are cracks, stains and blue bushes with small flowers all across the visible building, which is symmetrical and made from two mirrored halves. to our left, from bottom to top, are skraak, wilde, and azu, all facing left. in the same manner, to our right are zolf, cel, and hamid, all facing right. skraak is standing closer to the leftmost edge of the roof, with wilde a little further up behind him, and a twelve-foot tall azu behind them both. on the other side, zolf is closest to the triangular rooftop with his glaive upright just at the tip of it. behind him but closer to the right border is cel, and flying just behind and a little above them, is hamid. to start on the left half, skraak is half-crouched menacingly with an angry snarl on his face. his figure is the only one made up mostly of curves, so from the tip of his snout to his knee he his curled over like a sideways U. his tail follows that direction further and curls a little towards the bottom, with a sharp, curved blade attached to the side end of it, looking a bit like half of an axe. only his frontmost arm is visible, holding the dagger of stalking with the blade back and curving upwards, his elbow high up. his left leg is taking a step forward while the right balances him out from behind. he’s colored bright red and has patches of lighter and darker scales in his legs, tail, arms and face. he has a tight, short-sleeved, black upper-body armor that ends when it reaches the belts by his waist. the armor has a streak of silver scales across his chest and a section of red spiral patterns going down his abdomen. he has gray gloves and light-brown bracers around the wrist and bicep, along with matching shin-guards. he has a long snout, many fangs, narrowed yellow eyes and two sets of yellow horns, the first shorter than the next. his neck frill begins above his eye like a furrowed eyebrow and extends back, ending below his jaw in a scaly patch. the webs of it are yellow and every other one has a mosaic-like scale pattern. his striped horns, the spikes along his tail and his claws are also yellow. behind him, wilde is also giving a step forward with his left leg and the right bends behind him. he’s pale, tall and skinny, and his stance is such that his back is towards us, with his right arm bent and the hand obscured by his hip, and his left arm is held up just above his head with the sparkle of a spell around his outstretched index finger. unlike skraak, he merely has narrowed, focused eyes and a slight frown. he has eyebags that look like running eyeliner, in short vertical streaks running down. his hair is long and brown, falling behind him, and it has two broad streaks of white down the side, with spiral patterns all throughout them. his robes of the resplendent thespian have a first layer of deep red long sleeves with silver frilly ends; then poofy, pink short sleeves, and then a glimmering two-tailed coat, the ends of which whip towards our left. the short sleeves have alternating rows of a slim, white curling pattern over pale pink, and of pale pink flowers over hot pink. the body of the coat has stripes of yellow, lilac and purple, and wherever they meet there are dark magenta lines with small white diamond shapes on them. there are tiny sparkles on the stripes of color. we can see the inside of the two tails and they’re red as the long sleeves, alternating between vertical rows of red spirals and flowery, swirling yellow patterns. he has poofy, short magenta shorts with stripes of purple and lines of pale pink. he has white leggings and ankle-high red boots, high heeled and with white spats. towering above him is azu, who yells angrily to our left, holding her right hand high as if she was ordering whatever is coming off-screen to stop. her left hand is holding her great axe steady across her shoulders, so her outstretched arm follows in the direction of the handle of it. she stands with her body facing towards the center of the illustration, left leg bent near the cusp of the roof, supporting her weight as she leans in on it, leaving her right leg outstretched and following on the leaning. her broad form is clad in a glimmering pink breastplate, with a big, sparkling pink heart in the center, surrounded by pale pink and silver feathers in the manner of short wings. the edges of the layered breastplate have thin swirling designs each following on the borders of it, and when the breastplate ends below her ribs, there is another two layers of feathers by the side, and below them comes a tasset colored in pale yellow, with patterns of swirls and leaves on it. there are two layers of shoulder pauldrons, with the topmost one sharing that same yellow color scheme and patterns, and the one below it following in the pink of the breastplate. the shirt underneath her armor has wide, poofy short-sleeves that resemble wilde’s, pale pink with thin-lined chains of lowercase, cursive “e” shapes. her skin is dark brown, her shaved hair is darker and covered in spiral patterns. she has a small cut on her visible eyebrow, the same running dark lines as wilde under her eye, and from this side we can see her non-broken tusk where she indignantly opens her mouth. her lower lip is painted hot pink, like her nails. she has arm-guards with spiral patterns in pinks and purples, followed by fingerless pink armor on her hands. her great axe is a wide, hot pink blade with thin, white curling patterns across the edges of it. from beneath her amor comes a long, two-layered pink battle skirt that whips in the wind towards the leftmost border of the drawing, the tips of it disappearing off-screen. the first layer is a warmer pink, the one below it is a colder purple. both layers alternate between one plait being just color, and the next being covered in spiral and floral patterns. visible on her supporting leg are pale yellow pants, and knee-high dark pink greaves. they have three hearts along the middle, a marble-patterned spike-like cover by the knee, and then a layer beneath covers the boots with the same pink and purple patterns from the arm guards. with her in the back, her lower half is slightly obscured in a blue haze; skraak reaches up to about the knee of her right leg, and wilde is just below the heart on her breastplate. moving onto the right half, near the center is zolf. he’s down on one knee, left leg down and right leg up, body facing towards our left while his head turns right. his right hand is holding his flaming glaive upright, and on the left he’s holding one side of a pair of headphones to the ear we can’t see. these connect to babbage, whom he’s carrying on a backpack or case made of metal and glass. the brain floats in a green, bubbly liquid. zolf’s mouth is obscured by his single-plait beard and his mustache, so only his stern look is visible. his eyes are green and have the same dark lines running down the lower eyelid. his hair is short, white and pointy. there are spirals and concentric circles down the braid of his beard. the mantle of faith is light gray, with an embroidered yellow border and matching four-point stars across a darker stripe just above the edge of the cape. it drags down behind him and the inside of it folds in such a way that every other stripe has a design of golden suns with beaming rays, and the remaining ones are a paler yellow with floating laurels on them. his breatsplate is a light brown-gray, with a laurel pattern on the edges, and two more layers of armor running below it. the second curves with his belly and ends by his midriff; it has a sun design at the center, like the ones in the cape, right below a central dip in the breastplate, and then come rows of laurels and stripes. the last layer is a tasset covering the sides of his thighs, like azu’s, but his are simple and rounded and have the same beaming sun at their center. he’s wearing a chainmail and plain brown elbow-length gloves with arm guards, which have gray and gold curved stripes. his trousers are plain dark gray and his boots of levitation are white, high-heeled, and go up to his shins. they have gold embroidery in the form of little swirls by the tip and along the side, and both the heels and upper fold of the shoes are deep blue. his glaive reaches just below the clock face, the fire of it white, orange and yellow, with multiple spiral and striped designs on it. more to the center of the right half is cel. they’re starting to fly, just a feet or two above the roof, mid transformation, with an emptied potion on their right hand and a handful of bombs in the other. they have sprouted just one wing, still half closed and beginning to stretch to our right, while their right leg and left arm have turned into something clawed and fuzzy, brown-orange and with dotted lines and alternating tones in a pattern reminiscent of a sweater. their wing is also orange and appears fuzzy at the edges, bat-like with a black claw where it bends and dark red and brown, spotted sections on the webs. their head and body are facing to the right of the illustration, snarling at something off-camera with angry narrowed eyes and a mouthful of big fangs. they have the same dark marks under their eyes, pale skin, their nose has gone crooked from the transformation, and we can see their burnt ear. their hair is a gray blond, wild and vertical, slightly swept back. they have their green-lensed goggles on their forehead. they’re holding their right arm up, bending at the elbow so the empty potion bottle is pointing downwards, held by a hand in an elbow-length dark blue glove. their other arm passes over their chest and holds the three bombs in a dark-clawed hand just to the right of the potion. they’re a little hunched over in their flight, making their anger seem more feral, and their long, lanky leg curves downwards next to their other, transforming limb. their long, plain brown coat whips to the right behind them, like a fan, and the inside of it is filled with gray swirls. their shirt is visible where their coat is open by their chest, and it has small spirals filled in with light green and orange. there are two bandoliers crossed over their chest. just above them, by the height where the blade of zolf’s glaive begins, is hamid. he has taken off flying and is holding the rod of maximize with both hands, the head of it pointing back, diagonally downwards, along with his cape and wings. he’s flying diagonally upwards towards the right, looking on with a determined look on his face. his eyes are narrowed and bitter, brow furrowed low with the same dark lines. he has sharp eyeliner and bright red eyeshadow. his mouth is sternly closed but two fangs are poking out. he has stubble on his chin and his dark brown hair is slicked back, but there are sharp strands poking out in curved ends as they follow the direction of his scalp. he’s wearing a black button-up with rolled up sleeves, the sleeves of many garments up to his elbows. his skin is dark brown but there are a myriad of orange and yellow scales down the side of his face, just above his eyes, and on his nose. his arms are completely covered in them as well. his cravat is white and his waistcoat is dark red, with a yellow border and a grid-like design of diamonds and X shapes on it. his trousers are plain black, the shape of them going all the way down to his pointy dress shoes, and he isn’t wearing a suit jacket. like cel, he’s facing fully towards the right, flying with his left leg up and the right matching the direction of his speed, just like his cape as it trails behind him. the upper part of the cape is a dark magenta, with golden ends and spiral designs on the lower portion of it. the front of it reaches midway down his chest, and the back of it is long and it fans out in segments covered with concentric half-circles in lighter and darker purples. his left hand holds the lower end of the staff up, the shaft of it in line with his forearm and the whole of his right arm, holding the rod back. the shaft is black, and the head is gold, spiky and symetric, the shapes of it floating around one another and with one big red crystal in the center. following in the rod’s shaft, the shapes are like a spiky U containing the cristal, followed by a sort of wide M, with crescent shapes on either side of it. his one visible, draconic wing splays to the left behind him, and it’s a dark orange in color, sporting the same mosaic-like scales in the webs as those in his arms and on skraak’s frill. lastly, above in the center, guivres’ wings spread from behind the tip of big ben. they’re a glimmering gold, with blue vine-like patterns across most of the structure of them, and with a shinning mosaic of gold and blue scales on the webs. there are sharp spikes on the ends and bends of it. just above them, the sun shines down menacingly in an orange-blue dust-ridden sky, and blue petals storm around the party as if they were coming from her, unseen behind the tower half covered in blue, blooming bushes. end ID]
[ID: A digital drawing of Hamid Saleh Haroun Al-Tahan and Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming cuddling on a couch. Hamid is asleep and curled into Oscars side, his tail tucked between his legs. Oscar is reading a book in his left hand while is right curls around Hamid.
Hamid is a Egyptian Halfling with short curly brown hair and brassy scales,he is wearing a purple shirt and tan pajama pants. Wilde is a tall white Irish man with white hair, cut in a bob, and blue eyes. He is wearing silver globe earrings,a blue rolled up long sleeve button up, and gray slacks. /End ID]
[ID: A digital drawing of Hamid Saleh Haroun Al-Tahan and Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming. Hamid is flying and taking a bag from Oscar, who is carrying five of them; He looks delighted at the help. The background is a solid gray blue.
Hamid is a Egyptian Halfling with short curly brown hair and brassy scales, he is wearing a green suit with a puffy beige shirt and brown high heels with gold accents. His wings are the same color as his scales. Wilde is a tall white man with white hair, cut in a bob, and blue eyes. He is wearing silver globe earrings that match his nails. He is wearing a blue rolled up long sleeve button up with a cravat and dark pants. He is carrying brown heavy backs in both of his arms. /End ID]
[ID: A digital drawing of Hamid Saleh Haroun Al-Tahan and Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming. Hamid is flying and taking a bag from Oscar, who is carrying five of them; He looks delighted at the help. The background is a solid gray blue.
Hamid is a Egyptian Halfling with short curly brown hair and brassy scales, he is wearing a green suit with a puffy beige shirt and brown high heels with gold accents. His wings are the same color as his scales. Wilde is a tall white man with white hair, cut in a bob, and blue eyes. He is wearing silver globe earrings that match his nails. He is wearing a blue rolled up long sleeve button up with a cravat and dark pants. He is carrying brown heavy backs in both of his arms. /End ID]
i strained my back a lil bit and its uncomfortable to draw for too long so you get a lil hascar snuggles <3 look forward to seeing me finish it tomorrow
[ID: A digital sketch of Hamid Saleh Haroun Al-Tahan and Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming cuddling on a couch. Hamid is asleep and curled into Oscars side, his tail tucked between his legs. Oscar is reading a book in his left hand while is right curls around Hamid. /End ID]
It’s Sunday - time for more art for Il Re di Ladri, a Rusty Quill Gaming fanfic by @franzis-frantic-thoughts, with art by @evieebun125 and myself, made as part of the Fiction Podcast Big Bang 2022 by @podcastbigbang!
[ID: A full colour digital drawing of a scene at the docks in front of the MacGuffingham estate, from Il Re di Ladri, a fanfiction of the Rusty Quill Gaming podcast. The scene is set at night under a full moon in a slightly cloudy sky. Wilde is in the foreground, looking back at the shore over the edge of a small boat that’s sailing away. He’s a white human with shoulder-length brown hair and a light fur coat. He’s holding one hand up, surrounded by purple illusion magic. A fiery bullet, almost looking like a comet, is being shot at him from the coast by Vesseek, a short green goblin in a half crouch, looking over their gun. A walking stick lies abandoned next to them. A few feet away stands Grizzop, a taller grey goblin with a bow in one hand and a quiver over his shoulder. He has red eyes and a toothy smile that reflect the light as he points towards Wilde. At the dock in front of them a small sailboat is moored. A black and brown dog is running up the dock, while another one stands at the edge of the dock, barking at Wilde’s boat. The gates to the MacGuffingham estate are open, next to the estate’s walls is a small grove. End ID] (Thank you so much to @guinevere01 for the image description!)
[ID: digital painting of zolf smith and oscar wilde from rusty quill gaming, a profile view in warm-toned greyscale with stark rim light seen from the shoulders up. zolf is a stocky white dwarf with short white hair, a braided beard, and a scar on his right temple, wearing a shirt with rolled up sleeves. wilde is a thin white human man with chin-length wavy white hair wearing a thick dark coat. zolf is pulling him in by the back of his neck to rest wilde’s forehead against his own, without looking into his eyes. his face is somber. wilde looks at him with wide eyes in an expression somewhere between curiosity and worry. end ID]
sketchbook doodle before bed made me catch An Emotion and stay up way too late to paint it. you know how it is
APRIL 2021 EDIT: fixed a few things that were bothering me
timelapse under the cut:
I would like to thank csp for capturing this absolute mess of an art process
[image ID, a coloured digital sketch of grizzop for rusty quill gaming. He is a grey goblin with red eyes and big floppy ears with small piercings on each of them. he is standing in a combat ready pose and grinning, holding his bow in front of him and pulling out an arrow from his quiver. the arrow’s feathers are the colours of the aromantic pride flag. grizzop is wearing a breastplate armor with a greed fabric underneath, and bandages wrapped around his arms and legs. his boots are black and almost knee high. he has leather bracers and black fingerless gloves. on his head is a striped green bandana. His wooden bow is simple and has fabrics wrapped around it. one is wrapped tightly and has the aro pride flag colours in mismatched orders, and the other is an asexual flag, blowing in the wind. the bow has two moons at the tips where the string connects. end ID]
I’m so happy to see him do magic, no matter the reason
[image ID- A digital drawing of Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming. He is a white man with long white hair floating behind him and is wearing a blue coat with brown fur lining. He has a golden glow surrounding him, and subtle glowing musical notes coming from the direction of his mouth. His expression is stern and angry. The background is of a blurry forest with thick trees and glowing blue plants. on the top and bottom are black bars, like a screenshot from a movie. on the right bottom is a signature saying “Hila Shats 2021”]
Wilde could hardly believe it. It was years in the making, between the world falling apart, magic disappearing, and their various coping methods thereafter. But now, there they were, he and Zolf, in front of their new house. They weren’t staying in Wilde’s apartment anymore, no – this was theirs, together.
The crew of the Venga had helped build it. There was no way Wilde and Zolf could build a whole house on their own, and, once Cel learned about a construction project, there was no way to keep them from lending a hand and taking over. The kitchen counters had levers to adjust the height, depending on whether Wilde or Zolf wanted to use them, there was a lift to the attic, and Cel installed a strange cannon-like device that would fire a blanket at someone if they stayed stationary in the living room too long, since both Wilde and Zolf had a penchant for staying up late with their work and falling asleep there.
And now, it was done. Their furniture was in place, the walls had been painted, and the front door was open, waiting for them.
“Ready?” Wilde asked.
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t already been inside while building it, but this was different. This was their first proper entrance to the life they’d thought was out of reach for so long.
“Ready,” Zolf replied. “Come here.”
Wilde stepped closer, not entirely sure what Zolf had planned. The curiosity didn’t last long, however, as Zolf immediately scooped him up into his lap, and then began to wheel his way down the front walk and through the door.
Once they were inside, however, Wilde didn’t abandon his position, and Zolf made no effort to remove him. Instead, Wilde shifted so that he sat sideways in Zolf’s lap and was able to look him in the eye.
“I’m pretty sure that carrying someone over the threshold is something married couples do,” Wilde said, a smirk on his lips.
“Oh, I thought it was just when a couple moved into a new house together.”
“I mean, I’m sure it works like that too.”
Before Wilde could say anything more, Zolf casually added, “Well, when we get married, it’ll be your turn to carry me over the threshold. Then we’re even.”
Wilde’s coy expression faded in an instant as his jaw dropped. Some days he scarcely believed that Zolf had come back to him at all, and that he was still there, still with him after so much time had passed. They still had their bad days, of course, and occasionally Zolf needed significant periods of time to himself, but he never disappeared so drastically anymore. And he always came home.
It had been Wilde’s idea to get a house together in the first place, and part of him still feared that he pushed Zolf too hard with that, even though it had been a vague suggestion at best until Zolf started drawing out shaky designs. He wanted Zolf to always feel welcome, and they needed a place that belonged to both of them, not just to Wilde, if that were to be the case.
But he never considered marriage. Last time he thought about it was when he was a boy, before he started working constant overtime for the Meritocrats, before the world went to pieces, before they had to try and put those pieces back together one by one. He was happy just to have Zolf in his life, someone that would hold him tight when the nightmares came back and who cooked him meals that were seasoned with devotion.
Marriage, though…
Wilde knew when Zolf was teasing, could recognize the glint in his eye and the faintest rise at the corner of his lips, but this was a sincere comment, said without hidden humor or prodding.
“You alright?” Zolf questioned, shaking Wilde from his thoughts.
“Yes!” He answered, a little too readily. “Sorry, I just…” He didn’t want to press this issue, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. “‘When we get married’?”
Zolf hesitated. “Is that… bad?”
With a wide smile, Wilde breathed, “Not at all. I didn’t expect it, though, I guess.”
“Yeah, it’s not really something we’ve ever talked about. I don’t know. It doesn’t have to mean anything. I just… I’m finally thinking about my future, believing that I’ll have a future. And when I think about it, you’re always there. It’s taken me a lot longer than it probably should have to realize it and allow myself to realize it, but… I want to stay with you. And not for a couple of months, but as long as you’ll have me. And if one day, you would want me as your husband, then… Yeah, I want that too.”
Wilde couldn’t manage any words. All he could do was bridge the little space between them and wrap his arms around Zolf’s shoulders. He breathed him in and held him tight, so overwhelmed in the best kind of way.
“I would really like that,” he murmured as he drew back from the embrace, meeting Zolf’s nervous gaze and forcing him to look at him.
“It’s not like we have to do anything now,” Zolf added. “We still have things to unpack.”
Wilde chuckled. “Always the pragmatist.” After a pause, he continued, “You’re right though. We should get settled here first, and then maybe we can talk about marriage again later?”
“Yeah.” Despite himself, Zolf smiled, a contagious sight to Wilde.
“Besides, you know I have to put on an extravagant proposal. A simple chat simply won’t do,” he teased, and Zolf let out a laugh.
“Of course you do. Now, get off my lap before you crush what’s left of my legs, you insufferable…”
He couldn’t finish his joking retort. Wilde removed himself from Zolf’s lap, but Zolf stopped him soon after by gently grabbing his hand. Instead of more teasing, he spoke again with sincerity.
“Thank you, Wilde. For being there for me.”
“Always.”
“I want to be there for you. I haven’t always been, but I want to be better.”
Wilde bent down so that he could press a kiss to Zolf’s knuckles.
“We’re both still working on it,” he replied. “We both still have our bad days. You wheel off, I throw myself into my work. But what matters is that we sort it out together, yeah?”
Zolf smiled and gave Wilde’s hand a squeeze. “Yeah. Together.”
The morning after the reunion, Zolf wheeled himself out of his room in the back of the inn next to The Soggy Captain, attempting to open and close the door as quietly as possible. He knew it was early. Not like he’d been having much luck sleeping since, well, everything started, and even before then. He wanted to get some time to himself and roll around the city a bit before the ominous looking rain clouds decided to drench them.
However, he rolled out of his room and immediately saw Wilde, stepping out of his own room a few doors down the hall.
“Oh, good morning, Zolf,” he said with a smile. A sincere smile, though his eyes betrayed the myriad of emotions fluctuating beneath the surface.
“Yeah, ‘morning. Didn’t realize you were staying here.”
“Well, I figured it was best to find a room close by in case the festivities got bit toofestive.”
Zolf nodded. “Fair.” He paused for a moment, during which time he and Wilde could only look over the other, really taking them in for the first time in years.
“We didn’t get to talk too much last night,” Zolf continued, looking at his lap. “And there’s a lot I want to say. You know I’m not good with words, but-”
“It’s okay, Zolf.”
“No, it’s not, I left. Leaving is all I seem to be good at.”
Wilde moved toward him, hand outstretched as if to comfort him, but he stopped a few steps short. He still held out his hand, as if unsure of what to do.
“The short version is: I’m sorry,” Zolf said. He made sure to meet Wilde’s gaze this time, even as tears began to roll down his cheeks. “The long version is-”
“We don’t have to do that now if you don’t want,” Wilde interjected. “We’ll have time for that later. I forgive you. And, like I said, the door is always open for you.”
“I don’t want you to have to wait for me.”
“I don’t know how much choice either of us have in that.”
Zolf looked over Wilde again, grateful at least that the man seemed to be taking better care of himself now. And this was without Zolf making use of his kitchen and crafting him a variety of meals.
“There is one thing for right now. Can I… We didn’t… Can I hug you?” Zolf felt so small as he asked that, and he hated the way his voice quivered with the question.
Wilde smiled wide, his own tears starting to fall. He knelt down next to Zolf’s chair and pulled him into a tight embrace. Zolf hugged him back, burying his face in Wilde’s neck and letting the tears fall freely.
After what could only barely begin to make up for the embraces they missed in their years apart, they separated, though Wilde still remained on his knees as he wiped Zolf’s tear-stained cheeks.
“It really is good to see you again,” Zolf whispered, holding onto Wilde’s arm as if it was the only thing keeping him from being rolled away and never coming back.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
Before they could say anything more, a loud “Hello!” erupted from the main area of the inn, followed quickly by a scream and the hasty movement of some furniture.
“You don’t think… is Einstein staying here too?” Zolf asked.
Wilde shook his head. “How long do you think he was hiding in thatcupboard?”
“Do you think he slept there?”
With a faint chuckle, Wilde stood. “Shall we go see what he’s done now?”
“Yeah, let’s go. And, Wilde?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you. For everything. You’re… You’re better than I deserve.”
“I don’t care about ‘deserve.’ I want you around, I want you in my life. And that’s more than good enough for me.”
Wilde sees Guivres break free from Apophis’ grasp, sees her fly toward the tower, sees her ascend so that Zolf and Babbage are directly in front of her.
No one can survive fire breath at that close range, not even Zolf, who thinks himself both invulnerable and expendable all at once.
He sees Zolf stare down Guivres, recognizing the resolve in his gaze even from so far away, and he knows that this is the end.
In an instant, he flies upwards. In the seconds before fire consumes them, he hovers next to Zolf and puts his hands on his shoulders.
“We’ve got this.”
Wilde has been dead before. It was peaceful in its way, with no one pestering him for another job to do, no persona to play or airs to put on. But it was lonely.
And as the fire consumes them in burning light, at least Wilde takes solace that this time he won’t be alone.
