2070/Keeping Old Wounds Closed

Keeping Old Wounds Closed
Date of Scene:	14 November 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Glimmer pops in to check on Bow, and there is a lot of things discussed, and a lot of things that are left bottled and festered... this is fine.
Cast of Characters:	Bow, Glimmer Brightmoon

---

Bow has posed:
Having gotten the extra order of food - which he assumed were leftovers for him, because Bow had totally missed the part of the texts where Glimmer said she'd be coming by, Bow made his way back to the dorms, his hooded jacket pulled over his head to protect him from the rain as he runs back to the school campus. Once he arrived on the campus, a short trip to his dorm room, opening it with one hand, carrying the bag with the other.

His room... well, it's a little dissheveled. He's been working. A lot. The small table for eating meals on has pieces of thr Artha he had recovered, along with a half-constructed bow that he was working on. Near his computer rig was a large whiteboard with notes on the various Etherians, where they said they were from, and what could possibly be happening, with a large drawing in dry-erase in the middle of it of Etheria and it's moons. Written over it is:

'What is Etheria Doing??'

Sheets of music are strewn on the couch where his violin is. The kitchen is only tidy because he's been eating out more, which means as he goes to open the door of the fridge, he has to pull out some expired meals to place the bag in.

It's not like home. It's unkempt. Untidy. And while he could probably find anything he needed, it's just messy.

At least he stays on top of the laundry.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
And then POP! He'd know she was coming because of SUDDEN SPARKLES! And a flash of light, and magic, and then... there she was! Glimmer! In all her glory!

...

And falling about three feet with a shriek, landing on the recliner with a wild flailing! And then she lifted up a hand and... "Yo," she said, grinning up at him. "Hey, Bow. Wait... where's Adora? I thought she'd be here, too?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

then glanced around the room.

"... Bow? What... happened here?"

It was dirty. Messy. Unkept. This wasn't like Bow...

And that anxiety flooded in, once more. That fear... that...

He wasn't... her Bow. Not at all. That he wasn't from a prior time... he was from a different place altogether. She desperately tried to push that down. Maybe it was just messy. Maybe a youma attacked him at home, yeah! That'd be great!

Bow has posed:
Humming, in the kitchen, putting his food away. When suddenly.

POP! *SHRIEK* *WHUMPF*

Bow races out of the kitchen with a spatula in his hands, ready to defend himself against whatever is attacking, only for him to see Glimmer sitting there.

"What... Adora... she said she was going on patrol after we ate." he says in utter confusion, lowering the spatula.

And then his eyes follow Glimmer's around the room.

His messy, untidy room.

Cheeks that are normally light brown start turning red as minauture suns as he sets the spatula on the counter and immediately starts to move stuff around and attempts to tidy up with her right there. "I've been working on some projects and just fell behind becuase there's a lot going on!" he says defensively.

"There's the parts from the Artha. There's the whole thing with your runestone. And with a possible new runestone. And then there's my classes and studying and I dropped off the Archery team and and..."

It's worse than a youma.

"I've been really busy, Glim." he admits in a tired voice. "But I can bring you the food I just brought in if you want it. Just... just let me clear off the table first?"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon blinked a few times. "Uggggggh. Did she really go on patrol? Was my message not clear?" she asked. "Adora said she was going to bring me something to the tower, so I said I'd just come by this evening instead. Did she think I didn't want to see her, too? Why wouldn't I want to see my two best friends?"

She then teleported to besides Bow, patting him on the back. "Wow... seems like you've been busy. You're not overdoing it, are you? Not... too much to help your best friend with something, are you?" she asked, with THAT grin. And her hands together.

And then there was another flash and she had a *huge* stack of papers. Which she dropped on the table he was trying to clear off. "So, Riventon has been trying to help me with my Runestone and all, but I'll be honest. I don't entirely know if I trust him. He's kind of got some... things... about stuff, you know? And I wonder if I get my mom out of there, he might try to take the Runestone too, you know? And then I'll *so* be grounded. But he DID do a lot of 'scans' on it and gave me these to look over and... I have no idea what any of it means." It was readings and scans of the runestone... and magical stuff... a lot of them. Most of it likely didn't make sense without a lot of time to study it.

"And so I thought, wow, who better to show than the most brilliant mind in the resistance? Bow!" And she made some sparkles come off her hands with his name, before teleporting around and poking at the murder board. "Hey, what's this? I think like... Etheria is doing whatever it's doing normally, you know? Kind of hovering there. Although, I guess... with everyone's timelines and... stuff... getting mixed up, it might be a little... off? I wonder if it's in reality or if it's still trapped in a pocket dimension."

Bow has posed:
"This sounds like something someone I know would do when they tell Catra to meet her someplace, but it's just Adora and it was a trap to get them alone for a bit." Who would ever come up with that kind of scheme, Bow has to wonder. "We worked together when Walpurgisnacht attacked, she may still be wanting to rest. It was a long night." he admits as she starts helping him tidy up. "Careful, I had some of those in order!" he calls after her, momentarily chagrined, before it goes away.

"Clearly, you've been eavesdropping. Adora has this whole idea of raiding the tower, finding Riverton's office, destroying a wall and yeeting the Moonstone in the direction of the school. I didn't have the heart to tell her exactly how many things were wrong with that idea, because I think it was her way of saying she's worried about you."

Wait, that isn't his stack of papers.

Glimmer brought him more papers.

For the moment, everything else he was doing is set to the side as Glimmer lays out her problems. Becuase, as a Bow - any Bow really - would do for Glimmer. She has a problem. All stop to see what he can do to help her. Pushing aside the bow and some of the Artha bits, he gets the stack to set on the table.

"Bag, middle. Top shelf. Eat. It's still warm. I told her to order the meal white." But of course, Adora snuck in a spicy dish. Bow doesn't know that yet.

"Let me look these over. I know it's going to take some time. You don't have to stay, if you don't want." he offers her an out. She may not want to be anywhere near him at the moment after all? He doesn't know. She's hard to read. But he's not actively trying to chase her off. "But I'd be happy if you stayed."

And then she's gesturing to the murder board, and Bow sets aside the first sheets of paper to scrub a hand over his face. "I don't think Etheria is in Despondos anymore." he admits to her. "Think about where each of us are from. Half of us are from before Despondos. Half after. Etheria is taking the aggregate. And..."

"...how do you think the Spirit Ember arrived here?" Bow lets out a little breath. "I want to straighten it all out. Get us all on the same page. It probably won't be at Catra and Adora's wedding. Or the day I lost you when you were taken from Etheria. Why is Etheria sending runestones here in the first place? I mean... the planet's magic. We always knew that. That's how you're all magic. What if it's looking for help?" He's not magic himself. He's borrowing it.

And the day he realizes otherwise? We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a shrug. "Yeah, but it's Adora, you'd... oh. Right. Errr. It... was... I mean, that's different," Glimmer said sheepishly. Riiiight. She had... kind of ambushed him... and all...

"Eavesdropping? On who? Adora texted me," she said, holding up her phone. "And I know how to use this now, ha! You're not the ONLY one with a weird high tech cube of power! I can watch the videos!" And she pushed the app anddddd...

Bow's voice started. As one of the videos of his she'd been watching auto played. She squeaked, quickly fiddling with it and closing it. "Ah... ha ha... no idea how that got there. Weird... tech stuff... you know? Err... and yeah. Um. Wow. Yes. This is why I didn't want Adora to *know* they had my Runestone. We can't move it. At all. It is literally hovering like two feet in the air and you can't move it in any direction, up, down, left, right, it goes nowhere. It's... like it's locked there, or something. Apparently Riventon did something weird because they needed the office and so it was easier to just move the doorway itself, so it went to a different room, than to move the Runestone. The magic there is weird."

"But I'm fine, really. I have everything under control. You wanna hear a funny thing?" Glimmer asked, before teleporting towards the fridge, pulling it open and yanking out the food. "Ohhhh, nice, it is still warm. Walled purged the night, right? Apparently it got the Moonstone all freaked out. It was flickering and glowing and it took me forever to calm it down, I thought it was going to take out the tower. Apparently there was some other thing in the tower that Riventon was messing with, some youma were yelling at him about it, no idea what."

She walked around, gathering a fork and just, already, making a bit of a mess as she went.

Teleporting to sit by him, she pulled open one of the containers and sniffed it, chuckling. "Yeah... I mean... if it's from after we saved the world? Then like... the planet's magic has all been released. Double Trouble, Scorpia and I are all from then. But you're from... before that. Adora and Catra are... sooooo not. Oh, wanna hear something funny?"

She took a bite of the food. "So, Riventon asked if there was a way to make Catra ha-- GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Aaaaaaand the food was spicy, tears welling up in her eyes. "Ahhh ahhhh ahhh burns it burns burns burns water is there water or milk do you have milk?!" she asked, flailing about!

She'd come back to the spirit ember. Namely... her opinions on it. For now? FIRE! ON HER TONGUE!

Bow has posed:
There's a small smirk from Bow. "Different how?" he asks, before his attention returns to the phone. "I know you have a phone. You used to send me messages and stuff." And then it stopped. And he was about to say more when the video starts and he hears himself. Eyes are widened, cheeks are red, and he mutters, "You used to leave comments on things." he shrugs his shoulders.

He's blaming himself for that, really.

"So it reacted to the attack? I wonder why it didn't react to the arrival of the spirit ember. Wait, did it react? I didn't get a chance to ask you, because... because..." He was so hung up on the fact that she wasn't talking to him, he's assumed that she doesn't think he's her Bow and is just giving her space. Which is the Bow thing to do. "So the moonstone is in the same place, he just moved offices?" he asked.

"And I had to tell her. She's confused on why you're with Obsidian. She's not the same Adora that was here before..." he reaches up and rubs at his jaw in a memory. "...she did something with the sword, and it reset her memories. I'm hoping that maybe I can find a way to do that again with all of us to get us all in one united timeline."

And then she's teleported next to him again. And she's warm. And she smells nice. And their arms are bumped together. And it's just like old times. And it feels really nice. He sets down the top sheet of paper on Riverton's readings and mention all of that last statement, when Glimmer takes that spicy food and she turns redder than he is.

"What, what, what happened?!" he asks in confusion as Glimmer reacts to the heat. "Oh! Milk! One moment!" He pushes up from his seat, running into the kitchen, where he roots around in the fridge, pushing a couple of items out of the way and comes back with a container of milk that he offers to her. No glass. She can slug it straight from the container like he does, right?

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon chugged it like a sailor, pouring it over and getting a little on her top, but mostly? Just slugs it back. Girl could win a drinking contest like that. She pulled it back after a moment and gasped, breathing heavily. "I-it's good. Hot, but good. Surprising, though. Wow.

"Right, where was I? Oh... uhhh... well, my ambushing you. IT was... different. It was for your own good. W-wait. Y-you knew those... those comments were mine?" she asked, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. "O-oh. Uhhhh... s-sorry. I uhhhh... I just, you know, right? I thought, errr, I didn't want to be weird, I-I just watch them once in a while. You know? T-that's all. Not like I, ummmm, have it on all the time o-or anything. Too busy for that, ha ha ha ha..." Glimmer mumbled, poking her fingers together.

"And... I don't know. It just reacted to that because there was... so much magic. That giant... thing. I don't know. It was... terrible. It felt *wrong*. I've fought a witch, once. But that? It was *weird*. It felt... vile. It kind of... ugh. I hated it. And I know she's a new Adora. I tried... explaining it. But she doesn't always get it... I doubt she still does."

"... IT feels so weird to be arguing FOR Catra with Adora. And... I'll be honest. I really doubt Adora will listen to me right now, anyway. When she got back from the portal, she didn't listen to me at all. She just..." Then she urked. "But... yeah. I guess I shouldn't have done what I did, sorry, you know me, rushing in, not thinking... eh heh... I really... should have been more careful. I..."

She trailed off, looking at the food. Then back to the milk. Then around the room.

"... When you saved me... you were so... you were so happy to have saved me. But you were also... so mad at me... I know... a lot has happened since then. But I've never seen you that mad at me. We worked it out, but... I'm from after that talk. You're from before it. Do you... are you... still mad at me? For the mistakes I made?" Glimmer finally asked.

She took another bite of the curry, hming a little. Not so bad when not catching her by surprise with burning mouth fire.

Bow has posed:
"ClimmerSparkleDazzle." Bow says, gviving Glimmer a sideye as she's chugging the milk. "Who else was I supposed to think it is? You even have sparkles for your icon!" That pointed out with a mall chuckle of amusement, but as she goes deeper, his own embarassment shows. "I-I mean, i-it isn't like I don't think y-you're just stuck in the tower all day and may want to see things from my point of view..." he murmurs, glancing at the papers. Suddenly so much more interesting than trying to meet Glimmer's eyes. "You know. Explore. Like we used to."

"It did. I was far away from it, and I still felt uneasy. It wasn't so bad because She-Ra is there... but I'd rather had been defending you and the moonstone with her." he manages, another one of those nebulous shrugs of his. "She'll figure it out in time. Adora, that is. She has a lot to work out. School. Catra. Things. She doesn't have to be She-Ra, protector of Etheria here. And I think it messes with her. It messes with all of us. We're not on the edge of a war all the time. Are things bad at times? Yeah. But I'd take a youma popping up over a battalion of Horde tanks anyday." Then she mentions rushing in without thinking. And for one moment - his hand covers hers and gives it a squeeze.

"Stop stealing my schtick." he mutters to her. "Okay, fine, I usually always have a plan... but... you know, things don't go to plan. And things happen, and your plan gets you in trouble, and people don't understand that and it leads to things and and..." he trails off, trying to find something else to focus on, releasing Glimmer's hand to take the paper.

He draws in a deep breath. "You scared me." he admits finally. "I saved you?" he asks, blinking his eyes a few times.

He sets the paper back down. "When I thought I lost you, Glim... I was devastated. Heartbroken. I lost my best friend. I lost my Queen.... I lost..." A lot more.

"I... I should have been faster. I should have done something different. I blamed myself for a long time, Glimmer."

"I can never be mad at you for the mistakes that are made, though. If you think that... you're wrong. We... we all make mistakes. I know I've made my fair share of them since arriving here." He lets out a slow breath. "You're my best friend. I couldn't never stay mad. Not for long." But he still doesn't know what that Talk was.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon grinned, a small, dreamy kind of grin. One elbow resting on the table, arm up, resting her chin on it. "Yeah... sigh... I want to do that once we rescue my mom. Just... explore. You, me, Adora... I guess Catra if she can pull the claws out of her ears... like old times... no war, though."

"Well... you, Adora, Entrapta... Catra... Her 'one good thing' she called it. Annoying cat, ugh. And she really just thought we'd leave her with Horde Prime after that... And... I know. It doesn't help that the last thing I did... was everything you told me not to do..."

"... Not that you didn't ignore me first, though. Go against my orders, run off and... but that's not important now, is it? We're here. That was there and... there's nothing we can do about it."

She then blinked a few times. "... You... could never be mad at me?" she asked softly.

'This is all my fault, Horde Prime only found Etheria because--'

'Because YOU activated the Heart of Etheria,' Bow had said, cutting her off. He'd been so angry at her, then. Worried about her... then mad...

"... What was it like, after I disappeared? What... happened? What... do you remember... about... after my mom... disappeared, the war?"

Bow has posed:
Old wounds. Very old wounds. They're about to get ripped open. And Bow is applying pressure. Keeping them closed. He's lying. Glimmer maybe can tell. Maybe not. He was furious about the Heart of Etheria. Not just that she did it - but because she did it against his suggestion.

And damn near got herself killed in the process. And was who knows where... until now.

He wants to yell at her about it. To let it out.

But she's not his Glimmer.

At least, that's what he assumes. She's from the future where everything is fine. He's not. He's still in the thick of a war, and trying to come to terms that Glimmer is right her and all the things he wants to say. That he should say?

Are all knotted in his stomach and refusing to come out. So... he keeps playing it off. "Don't forget Scorpia." he adds, changing the subject, going back to a past statement to avoid answering the current question. "I mean... you... you..." No. Don't do it. It's right, right now. She's here. She's safe. If he says the wrong thing. He'll fuck it all up.

He's done it once already.

"Speaking of Scropia... you a had just teleported away with her. I remember running through the Fright Zone - on foot, praying I would reach you in time. I remember that Hordak was about to kill you. I remember firing an arrow at him. And him leaving with you and Catra."

"I remember Adora. Powerless. Trying to lead what was left. She was worn out. She was defeated. I vowed to find you."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon just silently ate the food, bit by bit. Keeping her focus down. On the food. Focusing on it and the words.

"... It was a tough time. In your world, right now? I'd... if everything is the same? I'm with Horde Prime. If everything is the same... He's on the way."

"... But it does get better. It all... gets so much better. You, Entrapta and Adora all come together. You fix Mara's ship. You come to save me. You... are so mad, heh. I've never seen you so mad. I... can't blame you. I made a mess of everything... but..."

"We save Catra. She-ra comes back, under her power. We return home. Catra gets Melog, starts to open up. We find out what Horde Prime is doing. We fight. We all... fight..."

"Catra and Adora... face the end together. Save us all. We join what's left of the rebellion, buy them time. I... fight my father. You finish what Entrapta started, buy... more time... And Adora releases the magic. Horde Prime is gone. You and me... Adora, Catra... Entrapta... Hordak, too. That. That was weird. Heh. I must have punched him so many times on instince. We're... we go across the universe and... work to dismantle Horde Prime's empire. Bring magic back to the universe..."

"... You said before... that... you were scared I was... going to replace *you* with Adora. That *I* convinced *you* that... we could trust Adora..."

"... I didn't want to give her the sword. You had to convince me that we could trust her. You supported her. Because... so... why did you say that?" Glimmer asked. "Are you not... are you..."

And then... Glimmer just laughed, shaking her head and slapping her cheeks. "Uggggh, can you believe it? Here I am with my best friend and I'm worried about nothing, nothing at all! So, Bow, how is school? How does it feel to be a, how does Adora put it, a skull-lar?" she asked, forcing a smile up at him.

Bow has posed:
That's why I'm scared of returning, Glimmer. Because I'm going to lose you all over again.. Those words don't escape Bow's lips. Turned away, shoved down. Hidden with the look at a sheet of paper, a nameless report of items he can barely comprehend, but Glimmer asked him to look it over.

So he will learn. For her. Because she asked.

She tells him. As she sits there. She tells him what happened. Reveals the future to him. That they did rescue her. That they won. That Catra and Adora save them all. And they save the universe. That Catra and Adora were going to marry.

And that he is her advisor. And knight. And... that's it.

Then it swings all the way back to something he said on day one. He sits there for a moment, before setting the sheet of paper back on the pile.

"I brought Light Hope into this world... I did know. I knew what it was capable of, because I had just seen it. But in that time... I don't know how it happened. That chip. It scrambled my memories. It messed up what I knew and didn't know. It made me think Light Hope was an ally. It made me think I needed to claim the sword and bring it back."

He closes his eyes and lets out a sigh as he reaches up to rub his neck at where the chip was. "When we first met, when I introduced myself as Bow, you said it was because I bowed to you, because you were the Princess." he says quietly. "That is my first memory of you. Not the only. Not the fondnest. But the first of many, many. You have made me laugh, grit my teeth, angry at times... but I don't know what I can do to prove that. I'm sorry."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon sighed and pushed the food away, not finishing it. But, believe it or not? She... looked relieved. "I... see. Yeah. I guess... that makes sense. Funny thing is?"

"... Light Hope... she... was deactivated. When Adora broke the sword? She was turned off..."

"Then Horde Prime and his chips came. The two... never met. So... whatever did this? Is screwing all kinds of things up. But... we'll fix it. We'll... we're the best friend squad. We'll fix it. All of us. I know."

Then she teleported... in front of him, hugging him. "We *will* fix this. We'll get everyone's memories fixed. We'll get back home. Somehow, we'll even get *Catra* to get over herself. I know we will."

She then let go, pulling back. "And I've kept my word, even. I haven't used any dark energy, right? Just like you told me. See? I can do what I'm told. And... there are some cool people there. There's this other kid, Norie, she's... okay, kind of weird. But cute. And there's Keaka, I... have no idea what her deal is. There's other people, like home. A wolfkin. Sometimes... it almost feels like a silly game, you know?"

She then teleported away onto the chair, sitting on it sideways and leaning back. But we'll figure it out. Save my mom, get it all fixed. Then everything will be right again. We're almost there. I'm sure you'll figure out what all those readings are like and find a way to get the stone to move. Oh, uhhh... and obviously... don't tell anyone I gave you those. Or let anyone see them. I... realllllllllly am probably not supposed to show them to others. Riventon probably thinks I asked for them for just me and sadly, well, aside from magic, I can't really get all of this stuff. Heh."

"... I should... go now. Though. Thanks, ummm... you can have the rest. I'm... not really that hungry. But... when... all this is over? Before we go home? I... would like to go exploring again. Just... just like old times..." She teleported across the room, her back to him, looking at his Etheria board.

She didn't want him to see her cry.

"The best friend squad, on a whole new world. It'll be fun. Just the two of us..." And then, well... she disappeared.

Leaving him behind. Again.

Bow has posed:
"I don't have answers, Glimmer. I wish I did. It seems every time we talk about it... I have more questions than answers."

Which is why he's trying so hard to figure out what Adora did. She fixed her memories. What if she could fix his?

And in the midsts of that thought, she hugs him. And his heart stops as he hugs her back. Tightly. Not wanting to let go. Even as she promises they'll get it fixed.

And then she pulls away. And tells her about others, and her promise.

"I met Norie. She nearly killed me when I ruined her corn experiment with Swiftwind. That was before you arrived." he admits to her. "Yeah. Maybe." A silly game? One played with real hearts and emotions.

"I'll look these over and get back to you as soon as I can." he promises, as she goes further. And further away. Just like last time.

"It's a date." he says, voice pitched quietly so she can't hear him.

And then she was gone.

And his heart sunk further.