VELVETEEN vs. Uncomfortable Resolutions #4
“Part of me was tempted,” said Polychrome. “Things were so easy when I was here, when this was everything I wanted. I didn’t have to make decisions, I didn’t have to worry about making mistakes. I just did what I was told, and everything was fine.”
“If you could somehow recreate my original dimension long enough to open a doorway there, I would be tempted,” said Victory Anna.
“Your world is still a jarring experience. Everything is wrong, from the timeline to the faith. I miss the mysteries of Epona, and knowing the people around me understood what I was talking about when I invoked them. I would be hard-pressed not to grab your hand and drag you through the passage with me.”
“I can understand that,” said Polychrome.
“But I am a woman of science, and I understand far better than I desire that my original world is lost forever. This is my home now, here, with you, and I adore you.”
“I love you too,” said Polychrome carefully. “But what are you trying to say?”
“I am fond of the home we’ve made in Portland. I’ve even learned to be fond of Velveteen, much as her presence clashes with my memories of her. She is a ridiculous creature, and I’m not sure how she ever survived without us. But were you to call me back here, I would follow you.”
“Really?”
“My rainbow-hued beloved, I would follow you to the ends of this world, as I followed you to the ends of my last one,” said Victory Anna. “If you wanted to stay here, you would have me by your side.”
“If you’re sure,” said Polychrome.
“I’m sure,” Victory Anna affirmed, and kissed her, and everything was simple, for a while.
* * *
Like Velveteen before him, Tag was lying on his too-hard bed, eyes on the ceiling, trying to figure out why he’d allowed himself to be isolated from his team and his girlfriend, when there was a knock on his temporary door. Rolling out of the bed, he moved to answer it.
Velma stepped inside immediately, pushing past him to storm across the room and sit down on the edge of the bed.
“Vel?” Tag closed the door and turned toward her, pausing as he took in her pajamas and general state of dishabille. It wasn’t until he reached her face, and the lack of mask, that he reached up and removed his own mask, blinking at her. “Babe? You okay?”
“Aaron just came to my room and tried to convince me to come back.”
“To the team? Or to him?”
“Both. He seemed genuinely surprised when I refused his generous offers.”
“Really?”
“Really-really.” She smiled at him, lopsided, strained, and genuinely loving.
“Too bad for him,” said Tag, and moved to sit beside her. She leaned into him, and after that, neither of them cared much about how uncomfortable the beds were.
* * *
“I’m sorry, what do you mean, you made it all go away?” asked Velveteen, folding her arms as she glared at the American Dream. “There was a Black Ops team on my front lawn. That sort of thing doesn’t just go away.”
“It does when you Christmas Carol the crap out of the people paying the lobbyists to push their legislature through,” said the American Dream.
“I roped the Princess and Night Shift in, and we had a lovely evening convincing rich assholes of the error of their ways. Not the most subtle approach, maybe, but they’ve pulled their support, and they’ve pulled their funding, and if I’m not wrong, they’ll be pulling their lobbyists as soon as they finish convincing the people they’d been pushing their ideas on to drop the whole thing. ”
“We don’t have a government, we have a badly designed game show,” muttered Tag.
“The American Dream was never about government,” said the American Dream cheerfully.
“It was about a good life and a fair deal. It gets corrupted sometimes, and American exceptionalism has a nasty tendency to get bundled in, but the real dream was just safety and freedom, and it was never offered equally to everyone, even though it should have been. I try to be as balanced as I can, when the choice is up to me.”
“And right now, you’re choosing to make this whole thing just…go away?” Velveteen looked at her dubiously. “Forgive me if that sounds too good to be true.”
“You gave us the company,” said the American Dream. “You made it so we could make our own futures, and not just dance to Supermodel’s tune. That’s worth a lot. You gave us our freedom. That’s worth everything. So this is really the least I can do.”
“Accept the kindness, and let us go home,” said Victory Anna. “I tire of this sterile monument to the mediocre.”
“Uh, fuck you, too,” said the American Dream.
“I always knew you wouldn’t stay,” said Uncertainty. “But it was important that you be given the opportunity to make the choice for yourself. Again.”
“Why?” asked Velveteen.
In answer, he only smiled and walked away, leaving them to walk to Dotty Gale and take her hands entirely on their own, Velveteen holding her left, Tag her right, and then Victory Anna and Polychrome joining hands with them, closing the circle.
Dotty clicked her heels together, and the little group was gone.
After all the trouble they hadn’t asked for, Velveteen and her friends were going back where they belonged.