Ghosh
[char + perf: EARLIER BUSKING, HO!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Hall
[Busking, how'd it go?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )
Ghosh
It's getting dark. The air smells like dying leaves and street meat and cannabis smoke. If there isn't a playground in City Park there is now. Everything else is inconsequential because this is a panic scene and we don't have time for bullshit.
Check it: Hector hates the city and he complains every single time he has to come up here but he managed to drag himself out of Lola's bed long enough to hitchhike to the nearest light rail station and scare everyone on the train and came up here and found Tamsin wherever the hell Tamsin has been staying and they combed their hair and burnt off some Rage and then spent a good eight fucking hours in the middle of the day playing and they didn't do too shabby.
If by "didn't do too shabby" we mean "everyone who walked by them fell in love with them and they have enough money to do something ridiculous." That sounds more accurate.
So they're walking along. Hector is some degree of stoned and carrying a guitar case that doesn't belong to him.
"All I'm saying," he's saying, "is that guy was a total douchebag, and you could tell because he was wearing a fedora and a polo shirt at the same time, and if I had started a fight with him nobody would have thought I was in the wrong."
Hall
"Let's go to the museum of nature and science," Tamsin says, as if Hector hasn't impugned that cute guy with the fedora and polo shirt, again. He was cute, Tamsin thought. Cute in that scruffy hipster way, which is to say just, um, pretty cute, and anyway, what does Hector know, look at his hair, and the Fianna-girl cuts Hector a thoughtful look. "They have pretty good fries. So are you and Lola, like, finally an official thing, or what?"
Ghosh
Let's go to the museum of nature and science.
"I HAVEN'T SNUCK IN THERE IN YEARS."
That's a yes. He hooks his arm around her shoulders and veers her away from the swing-set towards which they'd previously been meandering and all talk of the adorable probably-harmless but-he-was-going-to-flirt-with-Tamsin luckily-Hector-scared-him-back-onto-his-skateboard college hipster kid.
And then she brings up Lola and he looks at her with those wide in-the-headlights eyes he gets whenever anybody brings up Lola only this time he doesn't laugh and tell her to shut up.
"Um." He clears his throat louder than necessary and puts his eyes back on the path ahead of them. Frowns a little with his eyes more than his brows, more of a squint than a frown. That's how she knows he's stalling. He's trying not to get all giggly and stupid talking about the kinswoman. "Define 'officially a thing.'"
Hall
"Oh my god, are you fucking kidding me? Hold on," she stops mid-step, freezing in place, planting her feet and digging her heels into the grass, and gives a wide-eyed look around. "Okay, this doesn't look like junior high school. Huh. But you still said 'define officially a thing.' Huuuuh." Then: she grins, a wide ear-lifting grin, and says, "So that's totally a yes, isn't it. I'm surprised her taste is so lowbrow, but well," faux-lofty.
Ghosh
He stops walking so he doesn't leave her behind. Leans a bit to the side and ends up standing in front of her. Block her from view, block her from view. Someone might come along and overhear everything.
Shit shit she's grinning and he's cleaning his teeth so he doesn't grin too but he ends up baring them anyway looking all nervous and happy and terrified all at the same time. There's the frown.
So that's totally a yes, isn't it.
"She said she's expecting me to stay in her bed when I'm not in the city and then she said she wasn't using birth control and I was like okay good only urrah use pills and Tamsin really likes having nieces and nephews anyway but she doesn't want me planting a flag and putting a moat around her so I don't know how official it is because I haven't stood up during a Cracking--" Breath. He lets it out. Speaks slower. "If an Athro comes along and wants to drag her off by her hair I'll fight him. I don't care."
Ghosh
[How about "clenching his teeth"? Stupid keyboard gnomes.]
Hall
Oh, officially like that. Tamsin hadn't even thought of it; now that she is thinking of it, the die-hard traditionalist in her thinks, it's not up to Lola, which is a direct contradiction with the friend-Tamsin, who thinks, hee hee, and it makes her sigh. Then push Hector to the side--like he was in danger of shoulder-checking her, or something. Casual touch. "So did she say that while your flag was planted and the moat was flowing, or was that a conversation for afterward?" Waggle eyebrows, waggle eyebrows, waggle eyebrows, waggle eyebro--"Anyway, cool. Good for you, dude. Use your newfound happiness to not cockblock me anymore with cute hipsters or musicians or really any nice person we meet at a gig, okay?" She pauses; then starts giggling, "I will never change a diaper."
Ghosh
Or was that a conversation for afterward?
He slings his arm back over her shoulder lighter this time because camaraderie not captaining and the guitar case thumps against his leg. For being skinny as he is Rage makes him warm. Therein must lie the appeal that draws in the ladies. That and the fact that he looks like a tortured homeless drunk artist type.
At least he smells better. Kind of fruity underneath the pot because he's been using Lola's shampoo and shower gel but there's no lingering vegetarian boy-funk like there was when he was single.
"You're disgusting."
I will never change a diaper.
Now he makes like he's going to push her away all what-good-are-you-anyway but he relinquishes at the last second. Keeps a hand on her shoulder.
"You say that now. You think I've ever changed a diaper before? Someone has to teach me. You won't even teach me?"
Cut him off now before he breaks out the puppy eyes.
Hall
"Uh, no? Why the hell would I know? I'm an only child. Don't be such a sexist jerk. Sam can teach you!" Tamsin says, her girl-crush on the Glasswalker Kinfolk still in full-flower, that typewriter-bird one of her most treasured possessions at the moment. She doesn't have very many possessions, but she'd treasure it anyway. Hector keeps his arm slung over her shoulder, pretends like he's going to push her away; the Fianna meditatively allows the man-handling with the air of one who's decided not to bother.
"I think we should do something for Fog." Yes, let's move away from dangerous babytalk.
Ghosh
"Ooh, yeah, Sam's a mom now." The arm sneaks back around her shoulder. The sight of her with some tall gawky long-haired freak's arm slung over her will definitely bring all the cute hipster boys to the yard. "That's so nice of you, letting me borrow your girlfriend."
Moving on, moving on.
"Lay it on me, Stag Girl, I'm all ears. What should we do?"
Hall
Tamsin punches Hector in the ribs, as a matter of course. Not hard. They're right there! But it's a punctuation to 'letting me borrow your girlfriend,' and coupled with the lick of a simmer-simmer-simmer glance, "I hope you have girls eventually, jerk. And they're hot. And you're alive to see how hot and purebred they are. And you walk in on one during the first make-out session, and never forget it for as long as the mountain casts a shadow and grass grows in spite of the occasional dark." Solemnly pronounced curse, except she giggles at the end anyway, gleeful. Maybe it's more of a snicker.
Daydreams.
Daydreams.
What should we do?
And here's solemnity that isn't leavened by anything else. "I don't know. But Charlotte told me a story about this thing she's doing for the river, cleaning it out, because it saved her life - and I thought maybe we can do something for the water around the city, too. On the other side, anyway, because you know how Fog likes that. Fog is hard to give things to. I wish I were a seer."
Ghosh
And this time he doesn't dodge her. He gives her the satisfaction of her tiny Fianna fist thudding against his manly Uktena ribcage and he recoils away from her like that hurt more than anything has ever hurt before and says "OW" and there's her space back. Arm off her shoulder. Rub rub rub.
Just the thought of having girls plural makes him wince. Theatrics. He lives in a childless world right now and can't even fathom fatherhood let alone having a horny teenage daughter. His father had two of them at once plus a maniac youngest son. No wonder he was so angry all the time.
She doesn't know but Charlotte.
"Fog likes secrets," he says. "She doesn't care if things are dirty or not dirty. Water holds grudges, man. Water will harp on about something someone did seven eons ago. Fog... I mean yeah Fog and Water are related but Fog won't talk about something someone did seven seconds ago, never mind seven eons."
A beat.
"What're you doing hanging out with Silver Fangs, anyway?"
Hall
"Pft," Tamsin says, to 'water holds grudges.' "Stone holds grudges. Water's nice. But," nudge, "You got any ideas? I want us to do something that helps the city become nicer. Better. Something that's not just ... you know, holding the line."
He says: what're you doing hanging out with Silver Fangs, anyway?
And Tamsin bites the inside of her lip, then purses it like a lemon-sucker and squints along her nose at him, says, "Talking about water. She's gonna let me see her n' Erich's tiny house, which is apparently in the mountains."
Up ahead, the museum: sitting squat. The last hour before it closes. That's enough time to get fries from the cafeteria, maybe see a mummy or two, marvel at the creepy Russian folk-statues or that exhibit on stars.
Ghosh
Most of the time when Hector scowls he scowls because he's screwing around but now he's scowling and Tamsin doesn't have to dig too deep to figure out why because he can't lie worth a damn. That's why he moves around so much when he is screwing around. Harder to hit a moving target.
He's scowling now because he's jealous she's hanging out with another not-even-a-real-pack and talking about seeing their mountain house and ugh. Silver Fangs. Then she nudges him. It passes. At least Tamsin is trying to fix things instead of slapping a bandage over each new sprung leak.
"I know what would make the city nicer," he says. His annoyance dragging its feet on its way out of his tone. "Tactical nukes. Just level it."
Hall
Tamsin SIGHS at Hector. SIGHS, SIGHILY, with MIGHTY SIGHINGS, she SIGHS like she has admittedly sighed before, but it is BACK OF HAND TO FOREHEAD, FULL-BODY, ABOUT-TO-FAINT-FROM-LETHARGY SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH drama queen melodramatic Sarah Burnhardt siiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhiiigh the kind that gets parents going: young lady, yammer yammer yammer yammer, and something about tonsils.
At the end, she says, "Heeeeeector, noooo, for reeeeal."
Ghosh
"Waaaaaaah!" he says.
That's the end of that conversation for now. They either have to walk in like normal people and pay for their fries like normal people and wander around the museum like normal people just ignore the guitar and the Rage or they have to sneak in because their totem spirit lets them sneak and Hector likes sneaking around because it reminds him of getting into trouble with Glen and Maria but Glen and Maria are dead now and their pack is decidedly bereft of tricksters and here's Tamsin asking him what they should do to appease Fog and and and.
Hand around arm. Steering.
"Tabling this discussion. The comic book exhibit is calling to me and I will die right here if we don't have fries in our faces in the next ten minutes."
Hall
[and fade! I think! Because anything she says will be the opposite of tabling! in post-form! *grin*]
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