The 5 Seablings AU

Chapter 10- Everyone Has Trauma, It Came Free With Your F-cking Empire

*digs this story out of its grave*

Sorry... um. I have no good excuse for why this hasn't been updated since January. I'm gonna do my best to get this back to at least one chapter every month (still painfully slow ;-;) but if I get overwhelmed by school then maybe not...  Still, I'm gonna do my best.

UM SO CHAPTER TIME

warnings: not good parenting, random unnecessary lore, something that probably counts as torture but its in a dream, every single character being so awkward

 "Joel! Hi! I wasn't expecting to see you here- who am I kidding, I came here to talk to you- but whatever, hello!"

"Oh, uh, hello, Lizzie!" If he was being honest, Joel was surprised that Lizzie had sought him out on the beach of Mezalea. Their last conversation had gone... not so well. After Lizzie had dove into the ocean out of embarrassment, (or something, Joel really had no clue) Joel had waited for nearly half an hour, but she hadn't come back. So, what was going on now?

"Is it true that you wear gloves all the time?"

Joel's brain completely bluescreened. "Uh... what?"

Lizzie handed Joel a magic newspaper scroll, and pointed to the start of an article. "It's gossipy, but sorta reputable? But like maybe not?"

Whenever King Joel of Mezalea goes out into public, he has a different, fabulous outfit. But all his outfits have one of the same accessories- gloves. Why? Maybe he has powers that are kept in check by the gloves, like a protagonist out of a play for children. Or maybe-

Joel gave up on reading it halfway through the first paragraph, and handed the scroll back to Lizzie. "Well, that's... interesting."

Lizzie's face fell. "Sorry- I should've just ignored it, it was really dumb to come here, about a dumb gossip column no less-"

"No, it's fine. At least it was an excuse to chat a little, right?"

"Y-yeah, it is nice to talk, especially with you." Lizzie's face flushed, and she backed up towards the ocean. "Uhm, I think the- a fish just called me. Yes. That's what- that is why I am leaving now." Lizzie dove into the ocean. Again. As she swam away, Joel could barely hear her squeak, "I can't believe I said that out loud!"

Well. That conversation went somehow even worse than the previous one. Joel sat down, rubbing his face with his- indeed, gloved- hands. How was he supposed to figure out why Lizzie forgot everything and turned into a human if they couldn't even carry a conversation without her turning around and jumping into the water?

And... the thing about the gloves was a valid question. Joel didn't exactly remember when he started wearing gloves constantly, but he was at least somewhat sure why. He took off one glove, looking at the burn scars on his hand. Joel didn't remember how he got them. He'd probably started wearing the gloves to cover the scars up. He did know when it was, it was during the years when he was supposed to be away at boarding school. His memories blanked out, though, right around the time he left for said boarding school, and the very next thing he was sure actually happened was six years later, on his way home, coming to Mezalea on a ship from the north, three years late. He had memories of the school, but they couldn't have matched reality- it was more like what his imagination would've made up about the school, and there was no reason that he would have had to travel over the ocean to get back from the school, since it was in a landlocked empire and to the southeast of Mezalea. He wished he knew what had gone on during those missing years, and why he had false memories, but he doubted he'd ever find out. It was on his way home from that time, though, that he'd first met Lizzie when the ship crashed.