PeculiarChangeling
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Dungeons and Diapers - Chapter 8.5
🕑 Added 2021-06-02 17:57:58 +0000 UTCI wrote this as a special bit of bonus content, sort of an after credits scene. It takes place roughly in the middle of Chapter 8, but away from Sandra's POV.
“... I know we can count on you. Good night, Sandra!” Quinn shut the tavern room’s door, the forced smile slipping off his face as he turned towards Tarja. “We should tell her.”
“No,” Tarja said, shaking her head, her knees wobbling as she crouched to remove her boots. “She has enough to worry about as it is, and we aren’t even certain- Damn this knot.” Her fingers shaking, she was having trouble unlacing the boot.
Quinn knelt, helping her without comment. It wasn’t a complicated knot, and his deft, calloused fingers were able to pull it free without the slightest trouble.
It wasn’t the knot, it was Tarja.
“We know,” Quinn said, bluntly, moving to the other boot. “You’ve never had nerves like this. Your grace is… Going away.”
Tarja pushed his hand away. “No. I’m not- I can do it.” She seized the string, pulling and tugging, fingers trembling so badly that Quinn thought that nerves might be adding to the curse, even if it wasn’t the sole cause of her loss in coordination.
He stayed, crouched next to her, for a full minute. When she finally gave up, he removed the laces and pulled away her other boot without comment, then began undoing the buttons on her blouse. “Trust Sandra. She’ll understand.”
While it was clear that Tarja didn’t want his help, she didn’t tell him to stop, either. She waited for him to get all the buttons, then shrugged out of the shirt, revealing the snug, blue onesie she had on underneath.
Seven stars decorated the front, and though they seemed magical in origin, Tarja hadn’t yet been able to decipher their nature. All she knew was that, though the onesie’s button snaps could be undone, she couldn’t take it off.
And, since it appeared on her body in the cave, she’d been losing her fine motor function, and the draining wasn’t stopping.
Quinn looked down at her. “Do you need help with the snaps?”
Tarja blushed. If he didn’t take them off for her, she’d end up peeing on herself when she tried to use the chamber pot. She nodded, stiffly, and Quinn undid them for her.
She hadn’t yet gotten used to peeing with her new…
“Gods dammit,” she said, feeling her eyes get wet. She tried to wipe away the tears, but Quinn had already seen.
“Tarja,” he said, his rough voice as soft as he could make it. “It’s alright. We’ll find a counterspell.”
“When?”
“As soon as-”
“You saw what the Wizard can do,” Tarja cut him off. “We lack the skill, the resources, to counterspell that before…”
She trailed off. Quinn put his hands on her shoulders. “Before what?”
Tarja’s voice was barely audible, not even a whisper. “Before he takes the rest of me.”
“Oh, Tarja…” Quinn shook his head. “He hasn’t taken you.”
“Hasn’t he? My body,” she said, her voice cracking. “My grace, the things I’ve spent my lifetime improving - He’s just twisted me up, leaving me something else. Every time I think of facing him, I fear what he’ll take next, at what point I’ll become someone else, someone I can’t recognize.”
“You are Tarja,” Quinn said, taking her hands. He could completely cover both her hands with his, and he felt how they shook. “You, are Tarja. The strongest woman I know. Not because of how well you can shoot an arrow at a monster, but because of who you are. He can’t take that.”
The words felt clumsy. He couldn’t give speeches like Sandra, but he could support his friend.
“If you can’t button your shirt, I’ll do it for you,” Quinn said. “If you can’t run, I will carry you. I don’t love you for the arrangement of your bones and your blood. It’s who you are, Tarja, and-”
She was staring up at him, her eyes wide. Her hands balled into nervous fists inside his soft grasp, and she asked, “What did you say?”
Quinn blinked, running back his words in his head. Oh. I said-
Tarja pulled her hands towards herself, gently dragging Quinn forward, and she leaned in for an awkward, slightly misaligned kiss. Quinn was so surprised, he didn’t react once they parted, his face frozen with half-puckered lips.
“I love you too,” she said. “But you can’t promise we’ll get out of this without being changed.”
“Of course we won’t,” Quinn said. “But if we change, we’ll do it together, and the person we become- the people we become- Persons? I…”
“I get it,” Tarja said. “We’ll make it together.”
Quinn nodded. “I promise.”
