Mighty is the Onesie and Also the Song

Tamsin

Early one morning, just after dawn, Tamsin's voice reaches Hector via the fog-wrapped tendils of their spiritual connection, Echoes of the Lost [Laughing Battle] [Hector] (jerkface), are you awake? Be awake be awake be awake be awake be awake be awake (Thomas I swiped some Scotch from the) HECTOR HECTOR HECTOR.

And if that bears no fruit, she calls his phone, and either way the end result is,

I wanna go hiking come with me I have a song idea can we meet at that rock that looks like a giant's asscrack with a deer coming out've it?

Hector

I'M AWAKE SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I'M GOING TO PICK UP THOMAS AND BEAT YOU WITH HIM

Early enough and the moon still not quite so fat that he's just starting to consider going to bed Hector who can stay up until dawn with the best of them who will this time next year if he's lucky and still alive not be out partying quite so much. And he is lucky and he will probably still be alive this time next year. He just doesn't have any idea how much things are going to change. Only that they're going to change awful fucking soon.

Tamsin's capacity to annoy the shit out of him hasn't changed yet though so he meets her at the rock that looks like a troll's face. He's smoking a joint when she finally rolls up.

Tamsin

[Dex Crafts +1 diff 'coz hard]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )

Tamsin

Tamsin hasn't been coming by as much as has been her wont since, uh, since they had that talk about the baby being born. When she wants to hassle her favourite alpha, usually she just obnoxiouses him into something.

Today when she comes into sight she looks sleepy, far more sleepy than she sounded in his head or over the phone or both, and her still-kept-short hair is kinking up into a curl-wave thing that is either left-over from the night before or what happens when it's left untended. It's cold so she's dressed for the cold. Her hands are in her pockets and she's got a big bag which she tosses at Hector's head, watch it sail! Gloriously! Or maybe not gloriously!

And she says, "Hi Hector. I made your spawn a thing. And I made you a thing, too."

[Dex + Crafts +1 diff + wp because LOL it must be so.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Hector

If anyone has found out about what happened in Houston they haven't done Hector the courtesy of calling or stopping by the Homestead to tell him about it. Call it one of the few honorable things Spark Gap has done recently. It was Tamsin's tale to bring back with her and he did nothing to take it from her. For all she can tell Hector has no idea she drove all the way down there just to try and kick his ass.

Time has been flying past for him anyway. He's losing track of it. The decreased frequency of Tamsin's visits makes sense at least. Both he and Lola are in nesting mode. That's no fun for anyone.

Despite the pot Hector still has the effortless reflexes of a jungle cat. The hand not holding onto the joint comes up to grab hold of the bag and wrestle it in close to his chest so he can peer at it.

"You had to wake me up for that?" he asks. Sits down against the butt-rock to tear into the bag. "You're such a dick. What is it?"

Tamsin

"Wow," Tamsin says, all hurt. Injured. Wounded-eyed, sad-eyed. Tamsin scruffs her hair, and she is still sleepy-seeming, but her sleepiness is not the sleepy of after-a-long-night, it's the sleepy of woke up way too early and now doesn't want to go back to bed. "Wow, jesus fuck. I didn't realize that you didn't want me fucking around, Ghosh. That my presence at dawn this morning in the cold is not a welcome one." Woe-begone, a sigh, a deep, deep, from the soles to the mouth exhale of a sigh, "Not even offering me a fucking hug. Christ. I thought you liked hugging dicks you hug your own often enough," okay, not the best burn, but she rolls with it.

The bag includes one! Beautifully knitted baby blanket in pretty colours that are all fluffy and green and Gaia-approved and it is soft soft soft.

And then

it includes ONE

what is that? Another blanket? Fuck no, it's a Hector-sized knit onesy with a butt-flap and everything to match the wolf hat she already gave Lola. It's got little wolf ears on the hood.

Hector

"Tugging dicks," he says before the baby blanket makes its appearance. "I tug my own oft--"

And it isn't her woundedness that makes his gaze soften. That has him dropping the roach into the dirt so both of his hands are free and looking like he's got to swallow real hard so he can keep from succumbing to heartburn.

"Holy shit." Other than the sling Anthony gave them before Lola was even showing or the crib Tamsin already tried to destroy because she's a fucking brat this is the first baby-sized thing he's touched. His ring-laden fingers are gentle with the thing. "It's so small..."

Okay that's enough of that. He frowns as the other thing in the bag starts to crawl out as he tugs the baby blanket all the way out and when he unfurls the other thing he barks out a laugh.

"What the hell is this?"

Tamsin

"Try it on!" Tamsin says, clasping her hands, letting her eyes go all big and imploring.

Hector

"No!"

His voice is stained with laughter as he says it. The baby blanket goes back into the bag so that he can stand up quick and approach her.

"Okay--wait, I'll try it on, but you have to do up the ass-flap. Come here."

Oh shit. He's either going to hug her or beat her with the onesie.

Tamsin

"I'll come over and do up the ass-flap once it's on!" Tamsin says, warily, without moving.

Hector

If she's not going to move he's just going to have to hold the onesie in one hand while he throws his arms around her bear-hug style. She could break out of it if she really wanted to. She's gotten stronger since they scooped her up in Wisconsin or wherever the hell it was.

"Thank you," he says. He's so stoned his voice sounds melted. He readjusts the lock of his arms across her shoulder blades. "You're the best. I love you so much. When the fuck did you learn how to knit?"

Tamsin

Tamsin's shoulders go up up up like she's not used to being hugged by Hector, which is ridiculous, and probably she is just throwing in little physical manipulation darts, because Tamsin is secretly evil. She crinkles her nose at the pot smell which is not a smell she likes, but is better than the vomit and creeping dysentry smell of some of the bar bathrooms she's been spending time in lately. Hugs him, too. "Uh, like, in Girl Scouts, fucking duh? Just wasn't really like, um, you know, convenient to do when we were like, roaming around all the fucking time and shit. Helps me kinda think about songs though. So put it on!"

Determined, really. Perhaps tooooooo determined.

Hector

"Fuck you."

He's still hugging her. She can pull that ew-no-get-off-me posture all she wants but he's known her long enough that he isn't going to fall for it. If she wants to act like an asshole she can go find her fedora-wearing scraggly-white-boy-goatee-wearing accordion-playing hipster friend who Hector has not yet driven off.

Ignore the fact that he promised her he'd stop driving off her droves of human admirer boys. Bitch lies all the time. He's never going to be able to compete with her if he doesn't lie here and there either.

"It's not time for the royal rumpus to begin."

With that he releases her.

Tamsin

"What! You said!" Tamsin kicks Hector in the shin, although she seems pleased by the reference, fey-thing giving him a crescent moon sliver of a smile that makes her cheeks brighten up. She still kicks him in the shin, though. Or tries to. "Fucking it is the rumpusiest of times, ass-hair snorter."

Tamsin

[Boom]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 7) ( success x 1 )

Hector

[you bitch]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

Hector

[beating you with the onesie +1 because no melee]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 9) ( success x 1 )

Hector

[damage -1 because it's a fucking onesie]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 4) ( fail )

Tamsin

[LOLing too hard to defend self? Dex + Ath + 2 diff because LOL]

Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5) ( fail )

Hector

Tamsin kicks Hector in the shin.

Hector starts to whip the shit out of her with the onesie.

Tamsin puts up her hands to shield her face and instead of deftly swatting it aside the legs of the thing get tangled around her forearms and tug it out of his hands so the torso of the onesie ends up wrapping around her face.

She can't see shit but she can hear Hector laughing his ass off.

Tamsin

Tamsin glowers. He can't see the glower but surely he can feel it. She has gone very stiff and very still and says in tones of utmost offense, "Get. this. offa me! I don't want my face to be where your ass is gonna fucking be all assing around you stupid fuckass." Wah, wah, help, help, Tamsin tries to untangle herself but just winds up choking on knitting, wahhhhhh, flaiiiiiiil, choke-spit, "One of the ears! Aagh," cough, coughcoughcoughcoughcoughcoughcough.

Hector

Okay Hector stop rolling around in the dirt and help her holy shit you're the worst alpha ever. She can hear him with his impervious werewolf lungs coughing from the force of his laughter now trying to constrain it and owing with the stitch in his side where his first battle scar lives.

"How did you even--hold STILL."

Down she goes. He checks her onto the ground and sits on top of her so he can untangle the onesie from her face.

"Did you Awaken this thing? It turned against you so fast..."

Tamsin

hold STI--

Tamsin shrieks when Hector checks her onto the ground. "OW, fuck," she says, coughs, wheezes, and then flattens herself grumpily, which is really the only way one should ever flatten oneself unless one is on top of a moving train and having some sort of epic battle with a villain and you've just looked and seen the ceiling of a tunnel coming straight your way but the villain hasn't seen it and that isn't a grumpy flattening of oneself that is a smart flattening of oneself, Tamsin right now, Tamsin right now is grumpy. "Ow," she says again, small.

"Awaken it?" - uh oh. An idea. That's definitely the sound of an idea being had. "Why would I do that?"

It would be hilarious...

... she grins. Then frowns.

"Not very respectful."

Hector

"That's why I thought it might've turned against you." He laughs that dorky laugh he used to laugh all the time before he got so grief-stricken and Harano-bound that he didn't laugh much anymore. Once she's extricated he rises to his feet and holds out the hand not holding the onesie to help her up. "You should've seen your face. ... I guess I couldn't see your face either. You were like--"

He puts his hands up in front of his face with the onesie purposefully wrapped around one forearm like a gauntlet the legs and arms of it dangling and looses a quiet but high-pitched wail meant to imitate his packsister.

"Classic," he says as he lowers his arms again.

Tamsin

"I'm going to kick you in the nuts," Tamsin tells him, which probably means she isn't really going to do it.

Hector

Hector crosses his arms over his crotch so the onesie forms an ineffective shield against an incoming attack. Not until he's sure she isn't actually going to kick him anywhere in the general crotch region does he ask:

"So this song... that was a ploy, wasn't it?"

Tamsin

Tamsin giggles, and then hauls herself up. "A pl... Oh! Um, no, of course not. I've been having these dreams lately, right? I think I mentioned this a while ago, well, earlier in the month, anyway, they've been giving me some good song material, they're like... I don't know, they feel very strange, and anyway, I thought maybe you could -oh! One of them is the one that um I asked that Sora chick to maybe do some drumming for? But anyway, I just... Like, um you know."

Hector

"Earlier in the month? The month's only a week old!"

Good job trying to get anything past him, Tammers. He knows exactly what fucking day it is. He wouldn't be able to effectively fret over Lola and the baby if he couldn't imagine what the odds of losing both of them would be if she were to do something stupid like falling down a slope or getting into a fight in the parking lot.

Tamsin

"What?" Tamsin looks at Hector blankly. Then, "Oh! Last month, whatever. Jesus fucking Christ, Hector, when did you become such a ... Person who ... fucking like, is all rar rar rar oh em gee ... It's not MORNING, it's AFTERNOON, you're one of those people right now, dude. Fuck that noise. But okay, you know right? You wanna help with the song? I mean, or help more... Augh, I don't know, it fucking sucks."

Hector

When did he become one of those people.

For so long as the rant lasts Hector stands with his elbows in against his sides and his palms held up towards the sky onesie dangling from one hand and his face a restrained IDUNNO and when she says to fuck that noise he drops his arms. Slings the onesie over a shoulder and comes forward to throw an arm around her side-hug style and turn her towards the west where they can see rock formations risen up.

"If you ever say your song sucks again," he says. "Any song. I don't care which one." He points. "But if you ever say that again I'm going to take you up to the top of the canyon where we let the rockface take our dead and I'm going to throw you off of it."

With that he releases her. Winds up to hit her with the onesie again but doesn't let the attack fly yet.

"What's the sonnnnnnnng?"

Tamsin

Doesn't dodge the side-hug, doesn't poke him in the ribs, doesn't make a comment on how gross he is, because she is caught between how she gets when she is a perfectionist and something else a little darker. Missing people. Missing Hector and he's right fucking there.

"You said you'd put it on," Tamsin says, when he winds up to hit her with the onesie again. Her voice is melancholy, "It took me forever to make."

"Um, the song... okay, eh. The song's... Um, hey, let's go through the mirror and I'll sing it to you. I'm sick of this place. It's so..."

Tamsin kicks at the dirt. Clod dirt. Doesn't speak. Never spoke. Barren, peeling away from the spirit, disconnecting even out here, sterilizing, not the real world, not the real world, which is just past the mirror.

Hector

[how fast can i boogie through the umbra without something shiny]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Hector

"Fuuuuuuuck," he says in a voice purposefully gravelly like to show how annoying she is. Grating his skin down to the nerves, Tamsin. The nerves.

But he did say he'd put it on. Maybe. He can't remember.

Whatever. Hector sets the onesie down on the rock and strips his shirt over his head. If they were on a television show about supernatural monsters fighting other supernatural monsters the shot would be lit to make the young man look particularly ripped. He doesn't need lighting. He's not a gangling ignorant little eighteen-year-old Cliath anymore.

He goes behind the rock so Tamsin doesn't get a glimpse of what Gaia gave him when he drops his jeans. She wants to go through the mirror and sing the song to him. The request stops him from stripping down to his skin.

"I can't wear the Max suit in the Umbra, Tamsin," he says. "It's not dedicated." HUGE SIGH. "Okay fine let's go."

He steps across the Gauntlet just as easy as he would have stepped out from behind the curtain into center stage. Holds the passage open for his packmate. That's what she gets for being too chummy with Glass Walkers, man. Her spirit is lazy.

Tamsin

"Are you being modest?" Tamsin asks, once he goes behind a rock. Her voice is so amused you could soak a piece of bread in it; it's maple syrup amused. But before that particular line of teasing goes anywhere, Hector's sighing about the Max suit and the Umbra and Tamsin's saying, "I can dedicate it for -- "

and then he's showing off. Uktena. Uktena and their fucking twisty spirity connections. Tamsin folds her arms over her chest and lowers her head like she's going to say something, but instead the Fianna-girl, Stag-daughter creature fey-thing slips through in Hector's wake like a thief like a thing stealing from one world to the other under somebody else's power; it's nice to drift along in a wake.

"'Hector Ghosh, his biceps rippling in the moonlight, effortlessly smooth like butter pulled apart the world and like alllll strong manly men, the strongest and manliest for HE it was who tamed the wild darkness of his hair, HE it was who'd died and returned, HE it was who'd peered into the abyss, all so he could look at his pack-sister, a very nice girl, and say after he'd like, totally shown off,"

she pitches her voice low. "'I'm not modest. I just didn't want to blind your innocent eyes, like happened last time. Ask Coyote.'"

She takes on a more reasonable sounding voice. "And the very nice girl said, ''Oh Hector, but Coyote - '"

And Hector should probably stop her at some point.

Tamsin

[Perf + PB + Char.]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Hector

[HALPING]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )