hadriel | text

[oh no. hes cute.]

i dunno
not to go all 'ive been married for 65 years' on you or anything
but
seems like shits gonna get out eventually no matter how you try to hide it
might be better to just like
throw it out now
before he kinda just stumbles on it
depends on how srs you wanna be

[Maybe it's hypocritical of one of the Taaco twins to tell someone else to open up in their relationship, but turning into a giant troll thing seems pretty chill compared to their issues. Just go for it!]

yeah i guess

but i mean if your squeeze fuckin came up to you and was like

hey guess what the guy you thought you were fuckin doesnt really exist and im a big ugly fuckin monster

merry fuckin christmas

are you gonna be stickin around

like im the worlds biggest fuckin catfish or whatever

ok so
how does that shit even work btw
you some kinda shapeshifter?
or is it just way advanced illusion magic
like
how??

also yeah ok it would be p fucking weird if barry showed up outta nowhere
looking like something mags had dragged inside on the bottom of his shoe
but id be more freaked out at him keeping it from me for so long
the monster part is kinda whatever
were already fucking around with the whole interspecies thing so who cares

its a glamour

i dont fuckin know how it works, i aint a witch

but if you couldnt pass for human you had to have one or your ass got shipped off to the farm. it aint an illusion, its like. a real body? so maybe its like a shapeshiftin spell in a box? i dont fuckin know how the fuck should i know

its

[The ellipses are back with a vengeance. It's another few minutes.]

i didnt tell him at the start because it didnt fuckin matter. he didnt like me we were just blowin off steam or whatever and i figured he was gonna get bored of me soon anyway

i mean lets be fuckin real be probably will anyway

but i dont know shit changed somewhere

and now its a thing and were way past the point where i probably shouldve brought this shit up and i thought if i just never brought it up it would stop bein a problem

Edited 2018-01-01 22:37 (UTC)

well thats super fucked up
just like humans to think they run the whole damn show

[she's def gonna give it some thought though, and probably poke him a bit next time she sees him in public. This glamour thing sounds interesting.]

babe i hate to be the one to break this to you
but you clearly got it bad
B A D
man up and tell your beau
wades a chill guy hes not gonna give a fuck
if being an ugly ass giant monster is like the worst baggage youve got
hes just gonna be relieved

mundies dont know we exist and would probably try to kill us if they did

it fuckin sucks and glamours are expensive but the fuck am i supposed to do about it

[A lot of things about Fabletown suck, okay. He doesn't like it but he's kind of stuck with it. It's actually pretty weird being able to like, talk to someone who's outside of it about it, because they keep up the masquerade pretty hardcore.]

i dont got fuckin nothin bad

[Honestly, he's not even convincing himself.]

and maybe like interspecies shit aint a big deal to you but its real fuckin easy for you to say when you got the same basic shape as a human. you dont look like somethin a fuckin nightmare shit out. you dont gotta change everything about your entire goddamn body just to have people not want to fuckin murder you or to like

~~kiss your boyfr~~ ~~have someone love y~~ ~~jesus fucking christ i should just be fuckin alone forever god fucking dammit~~

fuck it

it aint as fuckin simple as just walkin in and sayin hey guess what wade im a fuckin monster and carryin on situation normal

hes gonna have questions that i dont got good answers to and im gonna have to like have the lifespan talk with him

fuck the fucking lifespan talk fuck fuck fuck

you caspered your ass out of having to do that one, i dont got that option

scratch ALL OF THIS SHIT how am i supposed to have any kind of fuckin talk with him when i cant fuckin HEAR HIM

[what the fuck did lup get herself into]

extra fucked up then
fuck that place

[wherever he was from before. it sure makes hadriel sound like a walk in the park]

jeez chill
ok maybe i dont know shit about what youve going through
or whatever the fuck is going on with wade

[that is 100% as close to a 'sorry' as he is going to get]

alright alright
so maybe hold off on the convo till you can hear again
hope'll heal up and come back to full power eventually
gives you plenty of time to figure out what you wanna do about all of this shit
figure out just what you wanna say or not say

also fyi we were together for thirty years before caspering our asses
so i fucking get it thanks
lifespan convos bite

i dont know how to chill i have zero fuckin chill okay

god fuck its just

hes got like sixty more years if im lucky? and thats nothin. ive forgot more time than hes gonna get in his whole fuckin life

jesus this is why were not supposed to mess with mundies

what do you

what did you say?

gren.
get off my ass for two seconds

[its a bit much for Lup, but his wave of worry is wigging her out.]

you want to drink?? im thinking its five o clock somewhere and cha girls ready to get hammered

[Look he can't deal with his own feelings either, Lup.]

god fuck yes

lets get shitfaced

meet me down at the fuckin bar

be there in 20

[yes thank god, lets continue this conversation after she's had a few]

[Hopefully Lup understands that 'meet me at the bar' means 'go inside because I'm going to be at least two drinks ahead of you', because that's what Gren's doing. He's already at the bar, already starting on drink #3.]

[Join him, Lup. Just, like... try not to sneak up on him, he can't hear you coming anymore.]

[Sweetie, she is queen of the 'meet me at the bar', alright? The only reason she doesn't arrive before him is the fact she has to dig through the twins' shared closet to find something cute to wear out.

Naturally, Lup arrives five minutes after her promised twenty, plopping without any fanfare into the bar stool next to him. And because she's a gem, she'll just be reaching over to swipe whatever drink is sitting in front of him, claiming it for herself.]

Sup, monster man.

[He startles a little when Lup comes into his peripheral vision-- he's relied on his hearing way too much over the years, and now almost anything that comes up from behind him or not in his line of sight catches him by surprise. She's able to swipe his drink from him with ease, and hopefully she likes whiskey because that's all he's got in there.]

[His mouth twists in an annoyed expression and he waves down the bartender for another one.]

You were raised by fuckin' wolves, weren't you?

[There's kind of an odd quality in his voice, like when people talk when they have a stuffy nose or allergies or something. Or when you're deaf as a goddamn post.]

[The elf takes a generous swig of the drink without even questioning what it is, which leaves Lup sputtering a little at the strength of the burn the whiskey leaves in her throat. Her body is still a little too new. Lup's got a lot of drinking to catch up on before she's as pro as she was before.]

Nope. That's our trade secret. We weren't raised by anyone but ourselves.

[Honestly, wolves probably would have been better.]

[Gren snorts at how poorly Lup handles the whiskey; what, a little too spicy for you, sparklemotion? Need it watered down? Maybe mixed with some soda or something?]

[His new drink comes and he rolls the glass between his palms a few times. Reading lips is hard, but it's a little easier in person than over a video feed.]

Explains a fuckin' lot. [He takes a swig.] You and your brother are a fuckin' tag team.

[It's in the way they work around each other. He'd seen it back when they were helping out with that date with Wade-- like they always knew where the other one was going to be without having to say it. So familiar that it's second nature.]

[Not that she'd ever admit it, but yeah, Lup definitely does. Water that shit down, she's still breaking in this body.

Gren seems to relax now that she's settled--not that the guy ever looks relaxed, but Lup just has a feeling--and Lup follows his lead, throwing an elbow down onto the bar before resting her head in her palm, watching him. Talking about her brother is infinitely easier than hopping into the conversation they'd been struggling through earlier. She'll eagerly take this opening.]

That's twins for you. Family couldn't handle the heat so we said fuck it and ran off into the world on our own. Been together ever since. [minus a few weird years in an umbrella, but anyway]

Was just the two of us for a good hundred years or so.

[Gren had never really considered what it would be like to have a sibling-- he's got that whole last-of-his-kind thing going on-- but maybe it wouldn't be so bad. He'd been thrown out into the world less willingly than the twins, and he remembers that it was... big and confusing and lonely.]

[Still is, really. He's just gotten used to navigating it.]

That's a long time to be on your own.

[Gren eyes her sidelong.]

What was your hustle?

[Because there's no way that a couple of elf kids were making it in the big bad world without hustling the shit out of somebody.]

[Ain't that the truth. The world isn't as confusing and lonely since they found their family, but that doesn't fix everything. Though Lup can't imagine what going through life without anyone at all would be like. She's not sure she'd be half the woman she was today without Taako.

His question leaves her laughing though. Of course Gren would understand.]

Better question to ask is what wasn't. We did a bit of everything. [Her fingers curl around her glass, fingernails tapping idly there while she answers.] When we were bite-sized, it was a lot of conning folks into taking us in and robbing 'em blind. Learned real quick that one big-eyed elf kid was perfect bait for widows or old couples, but two was always asking too much. So we got real good at being one person. One of us conned, the other hid, switching it up as needed. Ran that pretty well until we were teens. [Which was apparently the cutoff age for kindness in strangers.]

After that, we moved into gambling. Pool and cards for the most part. We traveled a lot, tried to keep from ending up in the same city twice in case anyone recognized us. Spent a lot of time in traveling caravans, learning from the worst of the worst. But once we had better control of our magic, everything became hella easier.

Edited 2018-01-13 08:48 (UTC)

You do what you gotta to fuckin' survive.

[He gets it. God, does he get it-- he's been there before, drifting from place to place and trying to keep his head afloat however he could. And being way too old to try to solicit the kindness of old widows, he had to mostly stick to gambling cons and those kinds of things. He's better at pool than cards, but either one could get him decent cash if he had the right mark.]

Been there and fuckin' done that, I guess. Except for the magic shit and scammin' little old ladies. Guess I was never fuckin' cute enough to pull off the sad orphan thing.

[Lucrative if you can, though. So more power to Lup for making it work, and with two of them.]

So, what changed? Kind of a big switch, goin' from conning to being a fuckin' skeleton ghost with your boytoy.

[He knows what changed for him-- he was forced to stay in one city. Makes it harder to hustle when you can't just up and go to another town to get away from your reputation. He'd had to be more careful about his marks, get more out of each one. Get a real job or two to fill in the gaps. Slowly get bled dry by that city and the witches and the Business Office's rules.]

[Her head is tipped downwards towards her glass, but Lup watches Gren out of the corner of her eye. 'Been there, done that', huh? Looks like Gren has more in common with the twins than Lup than just having a stupid long lifespan.]

Yeah well, these faces are a gift.

[The question comes and, for once, Lup doesn't feel the need to just brush it off with a joke or some other type of redirection. For the other crew members of the Starblaster, they hadn't seemed to have much issue in talking about their voyage and the long journey they'd all been on. But Lup and Taako have always kept things close to the chest. Outside of a few vague mentions here and there, she hasn't said anything to anyone about their century-long mission.

But with a little strong booze and surprisingly easy company, she finds she doesn't mind loosening her tongue a little.]

We grew up, saved up enough to go to school, graduated uni at the top of the class. [she grins] Which was the best 'fuck you' to the world ever. Buuut then our whole planet got vored and shit kinda went crazy.

[There's something about Lup's general demeanor that makes Gren... that feels familiar to him. Add in the backdrop of a bar and it's almost like being home again, back in the Bronx at the Trip Trap. Except this place is maybe a little nicer than the Trip Trap, and Lup only sometimes reminds him of Holly. It's in the way she looks at him, that thoughtful look like he's made of glass and she can see right through him, and maybe it's for the best that he can't hear her, too. It's been over two years since he'd seen Holly, and there's a whole lot of aching things that get mixed up in his chest when he thinks on that.

But then our --ole pla--t got ---- and shit kind- went crazy.

It's easier to lip-read when somebody's right in the room with him, but there's still some things that just don't... translate. Words that look the same when they're said but sound different, or sounds that are only made in the back of the throat or middle of the mouth. And then there's just shit that he's pretty sure he's read right but what the fuck is a vore? How does it happen to a planet? Or possibly plant, but planet makes more sense in context? Maybe?]

It got what the fuck?

[Gren's forehead furrows, confusion written all over his face.]

Did you fuckin' say vore?

[This isn't exactly the conversation Lup expected to be having when she insisted they meet for drinks, but here they are, discussing vored planets instead of relationships troubles.

It would be so easy to just blame her loose tongue on the drink in front of her, but both of them know she isn't anywhere near tipsy yet. This is just because Gren is surprisingly easy to talk to for being a grumpy old troll. Maybe it's just because he speaks his mind without pause, no matter what he's thinking. Lup prefers that so much more than the faked politeness she usually seems to find around Hadriel.

The elf is just taking another swig from her stolen glass when Gren finally gets his question out. She freezes mid-drink and has to quickly swallow down the burning liquid before she's sputtering out a laugh, slamming her fist down hard against the bar counter.]

Holy shit! I wish you could see your dumb face right now. Fuck.

[Lup doesn't really do anything in halves, so it takes another moment or two for her laughter to die down, before she's left giggling and wiping away a few errant tears from her eyes, grinning. Considering the subject, she seems surprisingly fine.] Got it in one, kemosabe. This other plane descended on our planet and gobbled it the fuck up. One second it was there and then poof. Gonezo.

[Okay, and now she's like half dying of laughter on the bar top, so that means he's either right or hilariously wrong. Turns out that he's right, it's just his face that's hilarious, and said face drops into a dry, deadpan expression. Wow, Lup. Wow. He takes a quick slug of his drink, because whiskey is his one true friend right now.]

[When she finally, like, gets a hold of herself again and explains-- despite the fact that there's no way in fucking hell he's going to be able to lipread kemosabe and gonezo right-- he gets the jist of the story. Kind of a shitty story? It doesn't sit real well with him. Hits a little close to home, maybe.]

[The Homelands got swallowed up, too. Granted, by an Empire and not literally vored by a plane of existence, but still. Gonezo.]

You don't seem all that broken up about it. What, was it a shitty planet? Got tired of it and wanted to fuckin' bail?

[Lup's still grinning when she answers, giving the last bit of whiskey in her glass a gentle swish. Her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.]

No one in that fucking place cared about us. We never had a home or a family or any of that crap. Our parents noped out of there before we were old enough to understand, then our other relatives just passed us along each other like they were regifting the worst gifts from under the Candlenights bush. [She throws back her head to finish off her drink, sliding the glass across the bar for a refill. She feels warm from the booze, but her heart's heavy from the topic.]

Taako was always everything for me and vice versa. As long as we had each other, the whole planet could just go fuck off. It wasn't ever our home. We just needed each other.

[He was her home. A home that has grown to extend to quite a few others now, but Taako's always been the foundation of the structure.]

Anyway, home planet got eaten, we flew off to find us a new planet to call our own and just guess who comes calling there too?

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