riverviewlogs | (closed) back at it again at fantasy krispy kreme

(Lucretia is sitting at her desk at home, a half-empty cup of tea mid-way to her mouth when the white loops of thread appear one at a time about her wrists; she drops the pen she's been holding in her other hand. She can't feel them but they are undoubtedly there, even give a little in response to her touch when she lowers her cup to poke at them. There are six in total, three on each wrist: two on her left and one on her right fade out before the white threads can quite touch the ground, and yet Lucretia feels a faint tug upon them like something on the end is pulling. The three remaining are longer, even trail off down the side of her chair, snaking out underneath of her door. Of these three, one looks a little worse for wear, and Lucretia curls her finger curiously around it, giving it a gentle tug. It's worn almost through in places, but gives a resolute tug back in return, strong, like a heartbeat.

And then the alarm set about her apartment goes off in her brain.

This would usually be standard fare for Lucretia, but this time it's different, because she knows who it is immediately. She'd know Taako's signature anywhere. Her first helpless thought is: wait, how does he know where I live?, as if Lup wouldn't have told him, as if that's at all important. Her frozen-in-place posture must betray the extent of her stress because Junior seems to notice and nudges against the glass of its aquarium, humming to get her attention.

Lucretia reaches out and places her palm flat on the glass, and the voidfish makes two tight, neat little circles in the water in reply that fail to make her smile. Eventually, she lets her hand drop; but Junior follows as she stands, pushing the glass back from the top of the aquarium and swimming into the air to follow along behind her, hovering curiously about the white threads trailing down from her wrist.

She knows he's almost there when she stops beside her front door. Lucretia isn't sure what she's going to say: only that she can't bear to fight with him again. Hopefully, it isn't going to come to that, no matter what Taako throws at her this time.)

[There's no knock on the door, just Taako laying his hand flat against the wood. Lucretia is right on the other side, he's not sure how he knows, just that he does.]

I'm sorry, Luce.

[Not for being angry at her, but for the things he said in anger, especially what he said about Lup. It was unfair and cruel and he is both those things in equal measure, but he tries not to be that way around the people he loves.]

(Lucretia sighs, her shoulders slumping as she presses her forehead against the frame. Some how this is the closest she's physically been to him ever since she opened the canister just before the start of the month, even though there is a literal door between them.)

It's okay.

(It's not, really. And she isn't just thinking about Lup (a remark that unfortunately hasn't blunted over time). She's mostly thinking of how she hurt him, how she lost control and reached out and hurt him like it was nothing, how she left him bleeding on the ground for his sister to find him. There are a lot of things that Lucretia is privately ashamed of, but these two things rate pretty fucking high on the list.)

I... Taako, I don't even know where to begin. I'm so sorry. (For everything.)

[He's silent at her it's okay, and silent for a stretch longer after her apology.]

That's not okay.

[Right now, there's no anger in him, not like there was the last time he saw her, but that doesn't make anything okay. He doesn't think it'll be okay for a very long time, maybe never, but this isn't anything new for them. Usually it's not quite so personal or painful, but they've lived with hurts before.]

You wanna let me in, bubbale, or are we gonna make our own fucking Lifetime movie over here?

(Why does she ever try to say things that aren't true around somebody who knows her this well? Will she ever learn. She opens her eyes, and stares at the wood for a moment, making her sarcastic faces now so she can get it out of her system before she opens the door.)

No, I was thinking that we could do this Negotiator style. (She is fantasy Samuel L. Jackson; Taako, the gunman on the other side.

She opens the door to let him in, and to her surprise, one of the slack threads on her wrist straightens, and pulls taut where Taako stands. He has his own little cluster of threads looped around his chest: white, also, and then an extra two: one white, one red. Lucretia blinks.)

What exactly are these things anyway?

[A small part of him laughs, even as he steps back once he hears the door opening, not wanting to go tumbling through her doorway.

That would be embarrassing.]

You're telling me you don't know?

[The smartest of all of them, and she can't spot a bond when she sees one?]

I figured that they're bonds, but how did they get here? I thought that you said you had no idea if the Starblaster even made it through the portal.

(That and they're so small, so delicate. Little wisps of the real things.)

Oh. [That makes more sense.] That one's on me, I used a potion.

[The expression on his face is a little contrite, but clearly not all that apologetic.]

Parlour magic, is it?

(She gets a little disdainful look on her face, and pings the taut little bond between them with a finger. So theirs is the frayed one, huh. Figures.

Coming up and over her shoulder, Junior hums a few notes and floats down between the pair of them to examine the strings, curling a single tendril out in curiousity.)

Edited 2017-09-05 12:26 (UTC)

[Taako doesn't shy away at the stupid fish but he does tense, watching Junior as it gets closer. Junior was a tool that Lucretia used, but it's hard not to feel anxious around the creature that ruined his life.]

Something like that. A lot of it's probably bullshit for most people, but we're the one bunch of assholes with actual fucking bonds, probably just picked up on it.

(Lucretia, who didn't realise it had got out of its tank at all, cups a hand carefully about it and shoos it gently back inside; she uses this moment to allow Taako into her apartment properly, instead of making him stand there in the doorway.)

Can I get you anything?

(He's never seen her place before. She abruptly wishes it were tidier; but then, it wouldn't be as true to brand. There are dishes in the sink, and books pretty much everywhere there's space for a book to be: on the table, on her armchair, on the couch and windowsill. The potted plant Lup had brought her as a house-warming gift is by the bookshelf, and on the far wall is her finished landscape of the river, framed appropriately, which Lucretia thinks is only a very little bit conceited of her to have hung up.)

Edited (words fff) 2017-09-05 13:44 (UTC)

[It's strange, to come into a space that's so definitively Lucretia but so unfamiliar at the same time. It's the way he feels when he thinks of the time they spent in the Director's office before they could remember her; they spent a century tangled up in each others' space and they never had to deal with one of them going somewhere new.

But even if the walls and floor are strange, the contents are still all Luce.]

What's your wine sitch like?

[It might not solve their problems, but it'll help.]

Not as extensive as yours.

(But then, could anybody's ever be? Still, she has a bottle of white in the fridge that she retrieves, using mage hand to collect two wine glasses from a cabinet in the kitchen. She pours him glass (nearly to the brim, the way he likes it), and hands it over. Wine always helps.)

[First of all: rude.

Second of all: thx]

Surprised Lup didn't bring you some for a housewarming gift.

[There's a little bit of bitterness there, but not as much as there could be and it's not delivered in an attempt to start a fight, he's just... still figuring this out.

Taako takes a sip of his wine, and nods towards the voidfish.]

That Fisher or Junior?

(Yeah she can tell. She jerks her thumb over at the pot plant.)

She brought me that, and a casserole. It was a surprisingly reasonable gift.

(It's hard to resist the urge to just slam an entire glass to be honest, just to take the edge off of this fucking conversation. Lucretia forces herself to sip.)

Junior. (It's been nice having it around, actually. She's been telling it a lot of stories.)

[So that's where his casserole dish went.]

Does it... Can it do its thing?

[It's not that he doesn't trust Lucretia, even after everything she's done he believes she wouldn't make the same mistake twice, but Junior is basically a kid with a lot of power, and that's worrying, especially with all the different kind of magic in this place.]

(she's trying to return it but doesn't want to give it back empty and also sucks at cooking so don't hold ya breath)

No, it can't.

(Of course she'd done a few quick test the day the voidfish had arrived out of the portal, for her own peace of mind. If it possibly got into the wrong hands...)

It cancels memories only temporarily; the time varies, but never lasts any longer than a day.

[The tension visibly eases from Taako's posture, and he finally gets a little closer to Junior, offering his outstretched hand.

He was never close to Fisher, like Magnus and Lucretia were, but he was still fond of the weird thing, and Junior is its kid, so. He can be nice.]

Better hope we're not here for too long, you'll have to get a bigger place.

[What with how big a voidfish can get.

Small talk is weird.]

If it gets much, much bigger, I'll probably just... let it go.

(It already feels a bit cruel to keep it in the apartment. She's worried that if she takes it outside it will leave and not come back; it's a curious wee thing. Even now it's doing loop-de-loops around Taako's hand and wrist, humming a song.)

Once I know it can look after itself, I mean.

[Does he... should he pet it?? He isn't really sure what to do so he just leaves his hand there for it to inspect.

Don't steal his rings, Junior.]

I don't think it learned like, how to be a voidfish. It didn't seem to know how to project shit until Fisher did it.

[Maybe there's an accusation in there; the reason it couldn't learn anything is because Lucretia took it away from its parent.]

(Maybe she's tired of Taako starting shit so maybe she just ignores that in favour of watching Taako try to interact with the voidfish. Eventually, it settles over his outstretched palm and curls a single tendril neatly around his thumb.)

Well, it's not going to have much luck here. I don't know how to be a voidfish, and as far as I know this place doesn't have any information on them either. I was thinking of asking if people would like to give it things to try; art, music, that kind of thing.

[it's squishy :c

But once it's settled he gently brings his arm back in to sort of - cradle it against his chest.]

I'm just saying, like, I dunno if letting it out is a good idea.

[Not that he cares!!! about the stupid thing, but it would feel mean to leave it to its own devices.]

Asking around isn't half bad. There's gotta be some assholes here who are good at stuff, or you can just get Magnus to keep making ducks.

[God there were..... so many ducks.......]

I know. I'm not planning on it– it'll probably just get lost.

(The expression Taako is making right now is so priceless.)

Oh– ducks, of course... (She forgot about that. So many little details.) I'll have to commission him.

(It reminds her of the duck he had made for her the day she had fed the journal to Fisher. The very same one she had, two years later, given up in Wonderland after a bad spin of the wheel.)

Edited (code bbpbptpt) 2017-09-07 02:20 (UTC)

Everyone's gonna be on edge about memory shit, too. After all that weirdness.

[He doesn't know if anyone would hurt Junior, but better to be safe than sorry.]

You know you'd just have to ask. He, uh, he drank the ichor? I dunno if he told you or if he's taking some time or what.

Of course.

(Sorry Junior, looks like you're under house arrest for a good while until she figures out what exactly to do with this.)

Yes, he told me! He's actually– uh, coming around this weekend to talk.

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just pretend shes smart please

ilu

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hey i still hate this

too bad