Raleigh, North Carolina
Sep. 2nd, 2023 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afraid_of_marshmallowsEight Months Before Fandom:
Arden had nearly thrown the flier away. It'd looked like one of those things people shoved in your mailbox, a glossy menu from some new restaurant, or maybe a request from a politician for her vote and money. But it wasn't either of those things. It was a flier for a university, one all the way from Maryland, and somehow it had ended up in the mailbox of her home. Or, well. In the mailbox in the house she lived in with her foster mother. Those were two very different things.
Even after realizing what it was, Arden still nearly threw it away. What was she going to do? Go to college? In Maryland? Callista would never let her go, especially not somewhere so far away. It wouldn't be safe, she'd say; she would no longer be under her protection. Which was true, as far as it went, but Arden had stopped being so naïve as to believe that was the only reason Callista didn't want her out of her clutches. She was useful. She was in debt after a decade of living under Callista's roof, eating her food, learning from her, enjoying all that protection. For as long as both those things were true, her foster mother would never let her go.
She crumpled the flier in one hand and made to toss it in the trash. But then, paused. Uncrumpled it. Stared at it again. Arden couldn't say why she wasn't just dropping it. It made no sense to keep it; it was just going to be a taunt of all the things she could never have. But...she couldn't make her fingers let it go.
"Arden!" Callista's peremptory voice called from the workroom. "Get in here. It's time for you to practice your shielding."
"Coming!" she called. And instead of tossing it, she folded the flier up and tucked it away in her pocket.
Six Months Before Fandom:
Arden sat on her bed in the small room she'd been given when Callista had collected her from the foster home, staring down at the GED test prep booklet in frustration. She didn't even know why she was doing this. Applying for college? In Maryland? It was a pipedream at best, especially since she'd been homeschooled almost her entire life. No diploma, no grade transcript, no glowing letters of recommendation from teachers, no extracurriculars or jobs she could list. Best she could do was a GED and a sincere entrance essay. The bare minimum. And Arden knew better than to assume the bare minimum got you a damn thing in this world.
But still. Here she was, studying for an exam she was taking in just three weeks. She'd at least been able to convince Callista that a GED was important to have since she couldn't live openly as an Othersider, so she didn't have to hide her studying.
It was still a pipe dream. Still absolute foolishness to even consider. How would she get there? How would she pay for it? Hell, why would they even accept her?
All good questions she had no good answers to. But those were later questions. Right now, the only questions that mattered were about the Stamp Act and its role in America's War for Independence.
Two Months Before Fandom:
Arden held the letter in her hand, hardly breathing. She read it and then read it again, because there was no way it could possibly say what she thought it said.
Dear Ms. Finch,
Congratulations! This letter signifies your acceptance to Fandom University...
She'd gotten in. Somehow, someone in their admissions department had read her letter and seen her GED score and her SAT scores and all the other goddamn tests she'd had to take and had decided that those made her a good fit for the Fandom U student body. She had no idea who this mysterious person was, but if she ever found out, she was going to hug them until her arms hurt.
But that wasn't all.
Your expected financial contribution is $0.
Maybe it was because she was a foster kid? Callista had never formally adopted her, so the system probably still had her listed as a foster. Well, she wasn't going to argue with that. Not if it got her free tuition.
Please use the enclosed return envelope to confirm your attendance for September classes as the Class of 2027.
She had no idea how she was going to make this work. She somehow had to make it from North Carolina to Baltimore, both without Callista knowing her plan or making it easy to track her. While carrying all her worldly possessions with her. A daunting prospect. A possibly impossible one.
She didn't care.
With a smile at the postal worker behind the desk, Arden borrowed a pen and hastily scrawled out her acceptance of their acceptance. And while she was at it, canceled her P.O. Box at the end of the month. She wouldn't need it anymore, now that she'd heard back.
Two months. And then she'd be free.
Four Days Before Fandom:
It was before dawn when Arden woke up, silencing the cheap Tracphone she'd bought the day before. She couldn't possibly have taken the phone Callista had given her; too easy to track and also, it was Callista's. She could take nothing that had not been given to her as a gift, clearly-stated and freely offered, or that she had not bought for herself. To do otherwise could allow Callista to name her a thief. Nope, she was going to make a clean break and that meant leaving pretty much anything she had ever known behind.
She wouldn't miss it.
She crept downstairs and out of the house, carefully evading all of Callista's wards and traps, most of them focused on keeping people out, not in, thankfully. And then she walked the half-mile down the road to the gas station where she ordered a cab to take her to the bus station. Her plan was simple. Buy four bus tickets to various places around the country. Choose one at random. Take it to three stops before the end, get out, buy four more tickets. Do this twice more before finally taking one that would bring her to BWI, where there was a plane ticket in her name bound for New York. An expensive plan, but worth it.
It had to be enough, it just had to.
Even so, she didn't breathe easy until the Greyhound bus was crossing the border into Tennessee. "I did it," she whispered, a little giddy. "I did it! Happy birthday to me."
[NFI, NFB]
Arden had nearly thrown the flier away. It'd looked like one of those things people shoved in your mailbox, a glossy menu from some new restaurant, or maybe a request from a politician for her vote and money. But it wasn't either of those things. It was a flier for a university, one all the way from Maryland, and somehow it had ended up in the mailbox of her home. Or, well. In the mailbox in the house she lived in with her foster mother. Those were two very different things.
Even after realizing what it was, Arden still nearly threw it away. What was she going to do? Go to college? In Maryland? Callista would never let her go, especially not somewhere so far away. It wouldn't be safe, she'd say; she would no longer be under her protection. Which was true, as far as it went, but Arden had stopped being so naïve as to believe that was the only reason Callista didn't want her out of her clutches. She was useful. She was in debt after a decade of living under Callista's roof, eating her food, learning from her, enjoying all that protection. For as long as both those things were true, her foster mother would never let her go.
She crumpled the flier in one hand and made to toss it in the trash. But then, paused. Uncrumpled it. Stared at it again. Arden couldn't say why she wasn't just dropping it. It made no sense to keep it; it was just going to be a taunt of all the things she could never have. But...she couldn't make her fingers let it go.
"Arden!" Callista's peremptory voice called from the workroom. "Get in here. It's time for you to practice your shielding."
"Coming!" she called. And instead of tossing it, she folded the flier up and tucked it away in her pocket.
Six Months Before Fandom:
Arden sat on her bed in the small room she'd been given when Callista had collected her from the foster home, staring down at the GED test prep booklet in frustration. She didn't even know why she was doing this. Applying for college? In Maryland? It was a pipedream at best, especially since she'd been homeschooled almost her entire life. No diploma, no grade transcript, no glowing letters of recommendation from teachers, no extracurriculars or jobs she could list. Best she could do was a GED and a sincere entrance essay. The bare minimum. And Arden knew better than to assume the bare minimum got you a damn thing in this world.
But still. Here she was, studying for an exam she was taking in just three weeks. She'd at least been able to convince Callista that a GED was important to have since she couldn't live openly as an Othersider, so she didn't have to hide her studying.
It was still a pipe dream. Still absolute foolishness to even consider. How would she get there? How would she pay for it? Hell, why would they even accept her?
All good questions she had no good answers to. But those were later questions. Right now, the only questions that mattered were about the Stamp Act and its role in America's War for Independence.
Two Months Before Fandom:
Arden held the letter in her hand, hardly breathing. She read it and then read it again, because there was no way it could possibly say what she thought it said.
Dear Ms. Finch,
Congratulations! This letter signifies your acceptance to Fandom University...
She'd gotten in. Somehow, someone in their admissions department had read her letter and seen her GED score and her SAT scores and all the other goddamn tests she'd had to take and had decided that those made her a good fit for the Fandom U student body. She had no idea who this mysterious person was, but if she ever found out, she was going to hug them until her arms hurt.
But that wasn't all.
Your expected financial contribution is $0.
Maybe it was because she was a foster kid? Callista had never formally adopted her, so the system probably still had her listed as a foster. Well, she wasn't going to argue with that. Not if it got her free tuition.
Please use the enclosed return envelope to confirm your attendance for September classes as the Class of 2027.
She had no idea how she was going to make this work. She somehow had to make it from North Carolina to Baltimore, both without Callista knowing her plan or making it easy to track her. While carrying all her worldly possessions with her. A daunting prospect. A possibly impossible one.
She didn't care.
With a smile at the postal worker behind the desk, Arden borrowed a pen and hastily scrawled out her acceptance of their acceptance. And while she was at it, canceled her P.O. Box at the end of the month. She wouldn't need it anymore, now that she'd heard back.
Two months. And then she'd be free.
Four Days Before Fandom:
It was before dawn when Arden woke up, silencing the cheap Tracphone she'd bought the day before. She couldn't possibly have taken the phone Callista had given her; too easy to track and also, it was Callista's. She could take nothing that had not been given to her as a gift, clearly-stated and freely offered, or that she had not bought for herself. To do otherwise could allow Callista to name her a thief. Nope, she was going to make a clean break and that meant leaving pretty much anything she had ever known behind.
She wouldn't miss it.
She crept downstairs and out of the house, carefully evading all of Callista's wards and traps, most of them focused on keeping people out, not in, thankfully. And then she walked the half-mile down the road to the gas station where she ordered a cab to take her to the bus station. Her plan was simple. Buy four bus tickets to various places around the country. Choose one at random. Take it to three stops before the end, get out, buy four more tickets. Do this twice more before finally taking one that would bring her to BWI, where there was a plane ticket in her name bound for New York. An expensive plan, but worth it.
It had to be enough, it just had to.
Even so, she didn't breathe easy until the Greyhound bus was crossing the border into Tennessee. "I did it," she whispered, a little giddy. "I did it! Happy birthday to me."
[NFI, NFB]
Eight Months and One Day Before Fandom
Date: 2023-09-03 03:56 am (UTC)"Well, it's a good thing she won't then, isn't it, cousin?" Duke said in a deep rumble. "And, if she were to, for some inexplicable reason, I would be very put out."
"Perhaps," Grimm said airily. And then, more sharply, "Why are you going through such trouble anyway? It's entirely possible this will come to nothing."
"It might not," Duke agreed. "Either way, we'll find just what our darling little Arden is made of, won't we? That's what all of this is about. Testing her mettle. Seeing what she can do outside of the Arbiter's control. And influence."
"So sentimental." Grimm rolled her sapphire eyes.
"Hardly," Duke replied. "You stress test your tools before you use them. Otherwise they're inclined to break. As well you know, cousin."
Grimm pouted at that, but didn't argue. "And when Callista does find out? You know she will. And if she does, it's the bottle for you."
"Same thing I just told you," he said smoothly. "The only thing I'll change is the wording of who Arden belongs to. She'll come around."
"Mmm. This scheme will take years to play out - and longer to pay out."
"So? What are a few years to us?" He watched as his hired human tucked a flier for the school into the mailbox, red eyes glowing with satisfaction. "We've been waiting for this since she was born."
"And when it's over, Ninlil will be avenged?" Grimm asked, her usual sultry tone replaced by bloodthirsty satisfaction.
Duke laughed, rich and dark. "My dear cousin, that will only be the beginning."