Chapter Text
“It’s been a while since I’ve been here.” Charlie muses as he looks over the thrones in the room. He feels the Familiar cloak and netherite shoulder plates of his original godly form, having slightly adjusted in order to incorporate his newly acquired dragon features from entering his full divine form in a mortal body.
“I think the last time was when you died..so yeah” Condi answers, catching Charlie off guard as he looks up in a panic.
“Shit! Oh..uh hey Condi!” Charlie greets.
“Hey.” Condi responds as he walks over, “Glad you’re back.”
“Yeah…sorry for all of that.” Charlie looks down.
“Trust me I’m more mad at Bizly than you. Where is he if you don’t mind me asking?” Condi asks curiously.
“Helping the island rebuild.” Mariana responds, leaning on Charlie’s throne and taking his hand.
Condi nods, “Makes sense. Anyways I need to check on some things in my domain. Charlie, Mariana, do whatever. And Charlie you’re in charge of teaching Mariana on how to control his domain. We don’t need another chicken incident on our hands.”
Charlie’s eyes widen and he shivers, before nodding “Yeah of course! Thanks Condi!”
Condi walks through a door leaving, and Mariana looks at Charlie curiously, “Chicken incident?”
Charlie groans, “you don’t want to know. Just…don’t do any dumb changes to the universe.”
“Noted.” Mariana nods, to which Charlie smiles and patting the space on his throne next to him. Mariana grins And sits beside Charlie.
Charlie, taking his chance, leans his head on Mariana, closing his eyes to enjoy the tranquility. Charlie can feel a wing wrap around him and he gets pulled closer, Mariana leaning down kissing him lightly.
“I wish Juana was with us here right now, but she’s in the afterlife and Condi left us.” Mariana huffs.
Feeling Charlie tense up a little, Mariana gets ready to comfort his lover, but when he looks down Charlie seems to be clutching something under his cloak, a nervous but guilty look in his eyes, “Condi isn’t the only one with a key to the afterlife..” Charlie responds. He pulls at something and his arm comes out of the cloak holding a black key in his hand.
“Mi amor...” Mariana squeezes Charlie’s hand still in his own. “That means we can go whenever. This is good news!”
Charlie give a weak smile, “Yeah! But..this also brings up how I never visited Flippa when I was dead for a little bit. How I could have but I couldn’t bring myself to face her, to face Tilin, to face Grizzly.” His hands tremble a little.
“Slime..” Mariana frowns. Charlie tenses up, pulling himself away from Mariana a little.
“Slime.” A bit more firm. Mariana can see tears starting to well up in his love’s eyes.
“Charlie! Listen to me.” Mariana grabs Charlie’s shoulder, using a hand to lightly lift the God’s face to look him in the eyes, “They forgive you. They understand. They’ll understand why you never visited. They have been waiting for you for so long.”
“I have blood on my hands, I have spilled yolk, I have fucked up so much how could I show my face?” Charlie argues, tears streaming down his face.
“It was an accident was it not? Tilin and Juanaflippa. They were killed by glitches. And Grizzly still loves you like a brother, he still cares about you. He forgives you. He forgave you. He could never hate you.”
“I don’t deserve forgiveness, Mariana!” Charlie yells.
“You forgave me for Flippa, the whole island forgave you for your rage, what else is there to say? You may not feel it but you get it because you deserve it. You deserve forgiveness. You aren’t a monster, Charlie, you are a god who used to be human.”
“I don’t deserve you, I don’t deserve them.”
“You deserve the world, mi amor.”
And Charlie breaks. He slumps, body shaking, clinging desperately to Mariana.
Mariana brings him in tight, holding the broken god in his arms and wings, humming a tune. A warmth Charlie hasn’t felt in millennia.
It’s when Mariana feels a buzzing against his chest, he looks down and sees Charlie is trying to speak while face first against his chest.
“I can’t hear you, pendejo.” Mariana chuckles, to which Charlie pulls away, his face flushing green for a moment before repeating, “I think I’m ready.”
Mariana, with an arm and wing around Charlie gets up, helping Charlie, before they walk toward the doors.
Charlie takes a deep breath in, holding it, letting go.
“It’ll be fine, Charlie Slimecicle.” Charlie talks to himself, trying to calm his nerves.
“I’ll be there for you.” Mariana assures.
And Charlie quickly sticks the key in the door lock, and a flash of green magic rolls over the door, and Charlie opens it, revealing the familiar flowered landscape of the afterlife.
“Grizzly did well decorating this place.” Charlie says out loud, stepping through, keeping his hand on the door to ensure it doesn’t close.
“It’s stunning.” Mariana agrees, leaning down and picking a poppy, handing it to Charlie.
Charlie takes it, and holds it right up to his heart with a soft smile, before pocketing it right aside the poppy Grizzly gave him.
“We should probably get going. I’m sure Grizzly has sensed us by now, but the eggs haven’t and unless we want to keep this a surprise without Grizzly bringing them straight towards us we should probably find them.” Charlie comments, before taking Mariana’s hand and running off in a direction that Charlie seems to know at heart.
The landscape changes as they run. From fields of flowers to tree filled groves. All showing true beauty and sunny skies lighting up the world.
It’s when they stop, they see Grizzly sitting cross legged on the ground, making grass bracelets, showing Tilin to while Flippa makes them with practiced mastery. Charlie can’t help but notice the little 4 leaf clovers tucked between the strands.
Grizzly glances over his shoulder at them, shooting them both a wink, before getting up, stretching his wings and arms as he says “I’ll leave you four to it.” Before walking past them, placing a comforting hand on Charlie, whispering, “You were a great dad. Don’t forget that.” And moving around whispering something else in Mariana’s ear, to which causes Mariana to blush slightly.
Flippa turns around, confused, when her eyes land on her parents.
And she runs forward, jumping at the space in between them, causing them both to scramble to catch Flippa, and end up as a whole family on the ground, Flippa crying and clinging tightly to both her parents.
As they sit up, hugging Flippa close, Charlie glances over Mariana’s shoulder and sees Tilin, watching them.
Charlie gives Flippa a kiss on the head, before pulling away to greet Tilin.
“Hey Tilin, uh…been a while…”
Tilin nods, gripping the grass bracelet in their hands a little.
“I…Sorry. Because of me you never got to live out your life fully. I’ll understand if you can never forgive me for that.”
Charlie looks down, not wanting to see the egg’s expression.
It’s when he feels a light tap at his clenched closed fists that he looks up.
Tilin is Right in Front of him, smiling softly. They make a motion for him to open his hands.
Charlie does so, confused on what this means, but when he feels a grass bracelet being placed in his hands, Charlie feels his eyes water up.
“It’s not perfect, but so is life. I can understand, Tio. I forgive you.”
Tilin writes that, before grinning hopefully.
Charlie stares, before shutting his mouth which he noticed hung open in surprise. He slides the grass bracelet on, “Can I hug you?”
Tilin nods.
And Charlie brings them into a tight hug, and he feels small hands grip at his cloak slightly as he hugs the egg.
Charlie glances over to the rest of his family, to see Mariana having the grass bracelet Flippa made being slid on his wrist by Flippa. He glances past to see Grizzly watching them, leaned against a tree, a content smile on his face. When Grizzly notices Charlie noticed him, his face breaks into a grin as he walks forward, pulling the group into a big hug “It’s great to see you all together again.”
Charlie laughs, “Good to see you too Grizzly, it’s been so long.”
“You know, it’s also been a while since I called upon a spirit feast.” Grizzly muses.
Charlie’s eyes widen as he nods, the eggs and Mariana look at them both confused.
“Oh you’ll love this.” Charlie chirps.
Grizzly lets them free from the hug, before saying “Charlie I think you were actually next in line for helping me set this up so this is perfect actually.”
Charlie pauses, before groaning “Oh shit that’s right…okay fine”.
“Mariana you mind fetching all of the eggs? Charlie has some stuff he has to get busy with now.” Grizzly asks, turning to the chance god.
“Yeah I can do that. Come on kids.” Mariana nods, as he walks off with Tilin and Flippa.
They decided to do a smaller one this time. Still took a hell of a lot of energy to get the communication out though as Grizzly set up the picnic blankets.
“Oh Charlie can you summon the food now?” Grizzly asks, to which Charlie groans, and activates his magic again to create an abundance of food.
“Thanks!” Grizzly grins as he finishes setting up.
Mariana comes back after a bit, being followed by a small army of eggs.
Charlie hears a low chuckle as Mariana sits down next to him. Flippa quickly doing the same on Charlie’s other side.
“Why are you laying down on the ground like that?” Mariana asks with an amused tone.
“When you have to locate and send out an invite to every single demigod it takes a lot out of you. I’m appointing you the next helper now for the next spirit feast.” Charlie informs.
Grizzly laughs, “good I was wondering where Mariana would fit in the rounds now. Charlie can help you learn next time.”
Charlie groans at that.
“What even is spirit feast?” Flippa writes.
“It’s a celebratory event between immortals and spirits. We call them all and whoever can joins to enjoy a meal and catch up with fellow immortals. It’s fun, just exhausting.” Charlie answers.
“Fuck yeah!” Bizly yells as he runs in through a portal to the afterlife Condi made.
Condi looks around, before tapping the portal and walking over to Charlie, setting a hand on Charlie’s shoulder in understanding “At least they don’t happen that often.” Condi empathizes.
Charlie sits up, nodding. “This is a celebration, is it not? We should celebrate.”
Charlie glances over, seeing the eggs all gathering around a picnic blanket all chatting and snacking.
“Flippa don’t you wanna join your siblings?” Charlie asks.
“No I want to spend time with you.” Flippa writes.
“Alright. We’ll gladly have you with us then.” Charlie grins, as he pulls Flippa into a hug, pulling her and Mariana towards a picnic blanket of their own.
Charlie hears a whimper from behind him, and turns around to see Poppy staring at him.
“You’re family, poppy you can join.” Charli assures, to which the wolf wags her tail and sits beside Flippa, who immediately starts petting the wolf excitedly.
People start filing in, minor gods, demigods, immortals, reapers, spirits, all the sort from Condi’s portal. All being greeted by Grizzly who stands as the host at the portal.
Some come by, all as just respectful greetings, but Charlie catches the glimpse of a certain golden Demigod, as Charlie turns around to see Foolish, who was trying to sneak over to him.
“Foolish! Hey!” Charlie greets.
“Oh hey Charlie! Mariana, Juanaflippa.” Foolish greets as he gives up on his escapade and goes over to chat with them normally.
“Come sit with us!” Charlie offers, to which Foolish agrees. Charlie can feel Mariana pull closer to him and wrap a wing around him. Charlie laughs, and kisses Mariana quickly.
After that, more join them. Bad, Phil and Kristin, Bizly, Condi, and after a bit Grizzly.
All sitting on a picnic blanket, chatting, relaxed, having fun.
Everyone included each other.
It feels like home.
It feels like where he belongs.
For once, he feels the weight of the world slip off his back.
Mariana grabs his hand again.
Maybe life isn’t so bad.