> Nepeta and Gamzee: Ship all the things

[bestestfurrend]

[When the recording starts the picture is moving along in a rather strange, jerky motion, up to a door that gets headbutted open by the feathery head that's holding the starfish in its mouth, revealing...

...what seems to be the low-lit interior of something more akin to a cave than a room, littered with messy piles of soft scraps and plushies and yarn and even the occasional teapot.

A monstrous shadow looms on the wall, a fearsome looking four-horned creature.]

You're the best, Gamzee! I'd nefur have been able to reach to use all that extra wall if you weren't here, nope nope nope!

[And with a squawk the chocobo drops the SFC, sending it cartwheeling until it points at the origins of that shadow, a messier-than-usual kitty troll perched on a clown troll's shoulders, various hues of paint staining her hands and clothes and even her cheeks, still dripping a bright red from an outstretched paintbrush that had been adding the finishing touches to a heart high up on:]



Oh, Pounce! Hi Pounce! I'm really glad that Gamzee brought you to visi...POUNCE WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?! OH NOOOOO...

[She attempts to leap at the wall to block it from view; this doesn't go well when instead it just makes both trolls topple over in a tangle of limbs.]

My wallllllll! [click!]


((ooc: image by our amazing Gamzee-mun!))

Comments

[o8liter8]

No. I'd still be just as stuck up there, right? Yeah, nothing I like more than sniffing every corner of my cage.

[aim_exorable]

Come here. Please?

[He holds his hand out to her.]

[o8liter8]

[ It's a very difficult thing he's asking of her, when he just tried to tie her down. But she looks at his hand and tells herself it's till Chiron. Still the kid who carried her around the woods and made her breakfast and fussed fussed fussed over her.

It's a hard thing to believe. He's changed so much. But, hesitantly, she scoots in a bit closer, and closer, her eyes watching him closely for any sudden moves. ]

[aim_exorable]

[You should know better than that, Mindfang. This is still the same troll who was able to sit for hours and hours in the forest, just watching animals pass him by and plants grow and wither. He knows how to be very very still and quiet, and that's what he does right now.]

[o8liter8]

[ Slowly, painfully slowly, she relaxes enough to move in close. ]

...Say something, already, you're freaking me out.

[aim_exorable]

I'm waiting for you.

[There, four words. Good enough, yes?]

[o8liter8]

Waiting for me to do what? I'm right in front of your nose.

[ Leans in, peering up into his eyes. ]

[aim_exorable]

Take my hand.

[Another exasperated sigh. Why are you so difficult, Mindfang?]

[o8liter8]

[ She regards it warily, not sure she should. What if he's just setting her at ease to take her down, what if he's lying, what if what if what if-

She gently rests her palm on his. ]

[aim_exorable]

[Slowly, he lets his fingers curl over hers.]

Less ghosts on the island. Less people now, as well, and this planet's sun doesn't burn.

It'll be an interesting experience, if nothing else.

[o8liter8]

Oh? What, you promising me a sightseeing tour now?

Forget it. You wouldn't even bother with breakfast. Nowhere's going to be particularly better than here anyway.

[aim_exorable]

I'm not taking you on a tour.

[So much explanation. You could fall down all this explanation.]

[o8liter8]

Fine. Whatever. Don't care.

[ who wanted to go with you anyway!!! certainly not this spidertroll, nope. ]

[aim_exorable]

Apathy is generally an indication of agreement, so good.

[He has you by the hand, remember, Mindfang?]

[Also, now swinging you up into his arms, bridal style. If trolls knew what brides were.]

[o8liter8]

WHAT THE FUCK?!

[ skdfalksdjfdjs flails!! ]

[aim_exorable]

[Casually deals with the flailing to his face!]

Please stop that. Or at least remove my glasses and throw them in the nearest trash bin you see while your hands are there.

[o8liter8]

[ oh she is just going to glower at you, Darkleer. and pulverize those glasses in her fist. WHAT A DICK!!! ]

I never consented to this! I'm not going anywhere with you.

[aim_exorable]

You said you didn't c-

[His words are broken by a hiss, just like his glasses are broken by Mindfang's fist. The sharp splinters of plastic dig into the skin against his cheekbone, right beneath his eyes. Blue blood slowly begins to leak down his face from the wound.]

[Darkleer just keeps walking.]

Please don't do that.

[o8liter8]

[ Just. Seethes in his arms, folding hers across her chest. ]

Fine. Fine! I'll humor you and then you can get back to your more important things.

[aim_exorable]

Thank you.

[And away they go! Darkleer carefully avoids all of the traps like someone who is used to going through various danger-filled areas on a daily basis. When they finally arrive outside, Darkleer mentions quietly, under his breath-]

I don't have anything important today to focus on but you.

[And your traumatized descendent, but ssh.]

[o8liter8]

Liar.

[ There's always something more important than her. His robots, his Archeradicators, now the people here.

When did she get so terrified to lose him? When did she start resenting that he would want to build a life without her? When did she start giving a fuck, and why?

But if there's one thing this whole mess proves, it's that she was right. No one's worth it, no one can be trusted. ]

[aim_exorable]

If that is what you want to believe...

[Then he's not sure what he can say to change her mind. In all honesty, he's not even sure what changed her mind enough for her to come back for him. What made her care again? Did she honestly care at all? Or did she just want someone under her thumb, someone who had a life debt to her and was actually bound to it? And his skills would be of use to her, they would, but... ]

[He wishes he knew what she was thinking.]

[But for now, he just continues walking, knowing all the small streets and side alleys that take him to the elevator. It's only when the doors lose does he carefully place Mindfang down. The blood on his face has dried, a brittle trail of blue.]

[o8liter8]

[ She doesn't like seeing the blood on his face. It bothers her, feels wrong to see him hurt. It bothers her even more that it's her fault he was bleeding at all. Why can't he just not exist, why does he have to make things so confusing and difficult?

It particularly sucks that, as an adult, she's slowly becoming aware that she keeps trying to reach out to him and sabotaging her own efforts. It feels awful. She doesn't like feeling that way, and a little bitterly blames him for making her feel like that too. Just one more inadequacy in a parade of them from Mindfang. Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. She'd wanted something impressive-sounding, something he'd hear and respect, see she'd made something of herself. She did make something of herself!

So why does she feel like a big pile of nothing? ]

Dumping me at the top and heading back, I take it?

[aim_exorable]

[Attack after attack after attack. Even when he's kind to her. Any sane troll by Alternian standards would have left her long ago. He should leave her to her own devices, let her do what she wants to do because isn't that what she wants anyway?]

I do not recall saying that.

[But he doesn't. He just answers her back, quiet. He wishes he could sincerely blame her for being the thing which is dragging down the few times in his time in Vatheon where he's almost... content, but he can't. Because she's just as lost as anyone.]

[o8liter8]

Thought you weren't going to be showing me what's up there.

[ She says it quietly too, subdued now, not looking at him. She doesn't know how to deal with this anymore. He's always been able to strip away her layers like cheap paint just by sitting there and weathering her rages and waiting, and she's on the verge of the terrifying concept of him seeing right through her again like he used to, and she doesn't know what to do about it. ]