Chapter Text
An RC car barreled forwards as a dinosaur chased after it, Trixey was always bored until a new night guard came around they let everyone roam free at night, as long as they didnt fight (which was annoying at first). Octavius laughed as he drifted around another corner “would you stop that, you lunatic!? You’re going to end up crashing for a second time!” Jedediah yelled, holding onto the handlebar for dear life. Octavius rolled his eyes and noticed Trixey trotting away happily, must have finally worn her out. Oct rolled to a stop under the desk and put the car in park, leaning back with a dramatic wave of his hands, no longer on the wheel “happy now, Prince?” Jedediah scoffed and leaned back as well, with a hard sigh
Octavius picked at the seams of his gloves, the thrill of a drive and the movement of the wheel had always distracted him long enough, until they stopped, it reminded him all too well of being in a train car, or in a room you couldnt get out of, trying your damnedest to breathe, he also didnt like how he couldnt wear his stetson, the fringes on it always covered his face well, he didnt like how exposed he felt without it. “I never noticed that scar on you” Jedediah admitted, looking at the cowboy’s arm, Octavius starred at him and tugged his sleeve down more “maybe cause it aint none of your damn business” he gritted out, Jedediah sighed, looking pensively out the window.
The silence was suffocating, he really did need to be nicer to the general if they were gonna be friends now. “...bull accident” the general turned his head back with a questioning look “i said bull accident, happened out in my real life, i was trackin some other outlaw down in the ol’ sand ocean and just so happen that some bison smugglers set camp there, they didnt do a great job ‘n there i was in the middle of a stampede” Octavius pulled his sleeve up, the scar ran from his forearm all the way up “ends a little ways down my shoulder, its also where i got this one” he says, pointing at the scar near his eye “ended up almost skinning me alive, blinded me too, well half-blinded, i survived…barely” Jedediah reached out and traced over the scar on his arm “you survived that ?” Octavius huffed a laugh “‘course i did”
Jedediah pulled back, undoing the clasps of his chestplate to further move it while he pulled his tunic down, a scar ran down, ending in a way you can only know they had been stabbed “i died at the end of a battle, i had sent my troops ahead when i was ambushed by some people, not the people we were battling, i couldnt help but feel i deserved it, i did best i could ruling but even then some decisions were out of my hands, or forced by pressure, i dont regret much, but i wished i had talked to those people to see if there was something i did or could have done, or if it was done by pure hatred” the general shrugged, not as impressive as you, i suppose, since you survived to tell the tale”
“Technically you did too, two thousand years later, sure, but we’re alive, arent we?” Jedediah nodded “in a sense, yes” Octavius nodded too, he felt conflicted on telling Jedediah how he died too, he hadnt told that to anyone before, not that many of the people in his diorama think of him other than a leader, of course. “If you dont mind, may i ask you something?” oh dear gods, of course “depends on what it is, kemosabe” Octavius joked, not looking at him but instead looking at the steering wheel “why did you fight with me in the first place?” great, the second worst question he could have asked. “I….dont actually know, there was just somethin’ ‘bout ya, with your marble floorin’ and your wine and stupid lookin’ armor, the way you were so confident ‘bout your emperor title, it didnt sit well with me i guess” Octavius sighed, rambling on “i grew up fast, i guess. I grew up mean, and there ‘round a thousand things i wish i aint seen, i dont got nothin’ flashy like yall, fancy, city folk, i didnt do good with city folk, still dont”
“I didnt die a great death like you, Jedediah, im just a sick son of a bitch and thats all i’ll ever be, past, present, or future” the general hummed “why’d you fight?” the general looked over “pardon?” Octavius shrugged “why’d you fight? Theres gotta be a reason” Jedediah sighed, tugging at the hem of his tunic “its what i knew, its what the rest wanted, so i followed, only realized i didnt want it when i was too deep in to back out” Octavius nodded, it was a good enough reason. The cowboy fished out a flask from an inside pocket of his jacket, unscrewing it to take a hefty swig, his eyes darted to the ones looking at him “you want some?” he offered, holding the flask out. Jedediah shrugged but took it anyway, Octavius laughed at his hesitancy “it aint gonna kill ya” Jedediah took a drink of his own, coughing a bit at the burn going down “what is this?” he asked
“Whiskey, of course” the cowboy said, taking it back, not thinking twice before putting his lips on the spout where Jedediah’s were just a moment ago. Closing his eyes with a content smile at the comforting taste “how do you drink that stuff without coughing?” the general asked, Octavius looked down at his flask “you get used to it, besides, did enough coughin’ in my real life fer the both of us” Jedediah didnt question what it meant, Octavius was grateful. Taking another drink Octavius laughed at a random thought “you think somewhere out in the world, theres a universe where you’re the cowboy and im the general?” Jedediah chuckled “maybe, do you think we would still fight in that universe?”
“Yeah, probably, but we made up, didnt we?” the cowboy didnt quite know if he wanted the answer to that question or not, but it was too late to take it back. “Im guessing yes, as this is the first conversation we’ve had in years without insulting the other” Octavius smirked “i can still do that, prince” Jedediah rolled his eyes, but the cowboy could spot the small smile he had, he felt his heart skip a beat, he beat on his chest, trying to see if he could just punch it down, it worked so far, anyway. “Can you see with your right eye?” Octavius looked at him with a hum, processing it “good enough yeah, near my death day it gets a bit harder but i guess not actually bein’ who i was comes with perks, like not bein’ half blind” Jedediah nodded, “i had actually become half-deaf in my life, something or other about a complication with an ear infection i believe, the doctors of Rome werent necessarily all that…technology advanced”
“Our doctors werent all there either, its impressive how yall got by with what yall had though, but then again, most of yall actually went to schools” the nagging disdain for doctors gnawed at Octavius’s stomach, the boiling rage at the stupidity and incompetence of the doctors that had “tried” to treat him. One of the doctors actually prescribed him to keep drinking, saying it would burn away the illness, clearly he had a screw loose. “I dont think half our doctors knew what the hell they were talkin’ ‘bout” Jedediah noticed the shift in his tone, the bitter anger that couldnt have come from anything other than first-hand experience “did you…not get along with doctors?” he asked
Octavius laughed cruelly “more like the doctors didnt get along with me , couldnt be too much trouble for them, they woulda kicked me out if i did, i only knew what i had when i had a foot in the grave already, gave those bastards a fortune, too, next thing i knew was a lady tellin’ me they ran off somewhere and that i was a lunger, funny, aint it?” Octavius stared ahead, mostly at nothing particular, just the distance “only smoked a few times in the 20 somethin’ years i had been alive, and still i was a lunger” Jedediah looked at the cowboy with sympathy “what is that? A lunger?” he asked “word for people coughin’ their lungs up, people with tuberculosis, ‘least thats whats she told me” the general cringed “im so sorry, that sounds awful”
The cowboy nodded “was, but hey, died, now i dont got it no more, death sure is a hell of a drug” the general sighed “i guess it is” the alcohol hadnt gotten him drunk, hell no, he would need much more than this, but he could feel his flushed face and the buzzing in his veins “y’know what? You aint so bad, general” Jedediah smiled “thank you, i find your company quite enjoyable as well”
Octavius was gonna need more whiskey