SALTBURNT | inbox.

[breeding]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

USERNAME
HOMELANDER

text 💥 audio 💥 video
 

Comments

[provoke]

You met her at the name day dinner. She is a gentle disposition, with a heartbeat that skitters with no warning. She does not enjoy being touched. If she is held against her will, her pulse may not be so different from its usual pace.

She doesn't see as we see.

[ if he knew about neurodivergence, perhaps he might describe her as touch-averse, perhaps on the spectrum, definitely someone with social anxiety and troubles with masking. but he doesn't, and so aemond can only describe her by the qualities he has words for.

she stayed long enough to spend a name day with her. as though she herself was his gift. the thought hurts more than aemond can bear. ]

Please. If you can tell me either way what happened to her.

[breeding]

[ Please. A significant word — a significant vulnerability — for people like them. ]

give me an hour, and i'll get back to you.

[ Even as he's typing the words out, he knows that an hour is an ambitious marker considering the fact that even the slightest exertion of his powers requires effort, but— it's important to Aemond. And that makes it important to Homelander.

At the very least, the corpses that had made themselves known in his vision when he'd tried to use it during werewolf are no more — so he searches in spurts, more methodical in this than he'd been even when searching for Maeve. (He's less familiar with Helaena, after all; it'll be harder for him to immediately recognize her even if she is still here.)

An hour later: ]

i'm sorry.

[ Perhaps a message better delivered in person, but he thinks Aemond would rather know sooner than wait for him to come to his quarters. ]

i think she's gone, same way maeve is.

[provoke]

[ gone. gone and away, back to the den of wolves and snakes and spiders they call home. there is no fairness in every world, is there?

aemond tenses his jaw until he feels the pain of it crawling up along his temples. he will not lash out; it is unbecoming of a prince.

(can't he drive a knife into something soft, instead? why should he be deprived?) ]

Thank you for searching for her, all the same.

I hesitate to more from you, Homelander. But if you would not mind it, would you see to my mother?

My brother will need me, as she does.

[breeding]

[ For whatever it's worth, Homelander understands the feeling, has been struggling with it (albeit in a slightly different tenor) since Maeve's disappearance. ]

of course. you can ask me for anything.

we'll talk later.

[ Not a question, but a promise. ]

🎀

[provoke]

I'll see you soon, Homelander. Be well, and be safe.