hadriel inbox

[survivorsguilt]

[There's a strange series of beeps, quick and loud, and then a voice that sounds like it's too far away from the phone to be properly picked up.]

--ord a message if I don't know how? ... Oh, is it- Uh, I'm Ellie. I don't know wh--

[That's all you get before another beep, this one longer.]

Comments

text;

[pocketspa]

yup
sure of it
i can bring it to wherever you are or you can come over or smth
magnus might cry on you though
but whatever dealers choice

text → action;

[survivorsguilt]

ill come over

[Don't go out of your way for her.]

its fine
already been there done that
see you in 10

[It feels weird to knock on the door of a place you busted open and trailed blood through. She does it anyway.]

action;

[pocketspa]

[He answers the door without preamble, waiting about 10 seconds beforehand to make it seem like he wasn't sitting there just waiting for the knock. He looks-- fine. He doesn't react any particular way to seeing her, other than a raise of his eyebrows as acknowledgement before he turns inside, expecting her to follow.]

'Ss in my room. Almost everybody's out so uh, shouldn't have to worry about them bugging you.

[He found reasons to make them leave. Just for a few minutes. He's probably got 15, 20 if he's lucky. But he leads her upstairs, into the twins' room. It's cluttered, piles of clothes and baubles and books, and Taako steps in the clear patches of floor like it's a practiced art as he starts rooting around for something supposedly on his 'side'. How either he or Lup tell aside from what half their beds are on is anyone's guess.]

[survivorsguilt]

[He's acting just like regular old Taako, like absolutely nothing is up or has ever been up, and if anything, that is making Ellie slightly uncomfortable. Just he just want her to pretend it never happened? She's not sure if she can do that. It makes her feel even more selfish.]

Oh. Um. Cool.

[Ellie breaks out of her own thoughts long enough to reply vaguely as she trails behind him. It surprises her when they head upstairs, and by the time they're at the twins bedroom door, she's super confused. Maybe he just stashed whatever he found in there until she came over?]

Uhhhh, Taako...?

[what are you doing]

[pocketspa]

Hang on!

[A shirt goes flying past her head, a skirt with crumpled pleats hitting the ground near her feet. Finally, he pulls out what looks like his usual traveling bag, and roots around in it for a moment before retrieving... a saltshaker. It looks like an absolutely normal saltshaker. Which he clambers back over and drops into her hands.]

There we go.

[For a second, he looks at her grinning a bit, like he's not going to explain at all. Like it's some sort of goof he's running on her. But behind it, he's scared. This is... oh, this is so vulnerable. This is so many things he doesn't want to be, especially when he's known someone such a short time, he just... gods, what is it about kids that gets him so hard?

After about two seconds, he finally speaks.]

So uh, this is called the no sodium salt shaker. You uh, you shake it on food or like, anything you want I guess? And if it lights up pink, it's poisoned. Works on all types. Honestly, I bought it like, a year ago? Totally never used it since then.

[It was just... something he could have. He had the money, why not? Fuck it. And now he doesn't need it. He has spells.

She does, though. Did. Won't make that mistake again.]

So there you go. You left it here. It's yours.

[survivorsguilt]

[She tugs a flowy scarf off her shoulder as Taako clambers back towards her, and then suddenly there's a... thing full of salt in her hands. Ellie just gapes at him as he explains what it's for, slow realisation dawning on her face.]

I didn't- you don't have to-

[Ellie wants to argue this, but she doesn't wasn't to bring everything that happened up. And Taako, she's sure, isn't feeling too swell about this either. That, more than anything else, is what helps her decide to just let this one go. Her shoulders drop, and she looks down at the salt shaker to avoid his eyes.]

Um. Thanks.

[pocketspa]

[He is horrifically, to a fault, not wanting to talk about the emotions behind this. A better person, he thinks, would empathize with her. A better person would tell her about his past, about how he knew she was poisoned before the words were said by the way the color had already left her face. How he spent the next day curled in his bed, Lup's arms tight around him, hearing nothing but the wretching of the people of Glamour Springs. He didn't have a second chance with them. But he has a second one with her.

To do what, he doesn't really know. He's not protecting her, really. Just... giving her the tools to do it herself. He remembers, back when a travelling wizard would entertain him on a caravan, the way one or two would show that look of pity, like the magic words and incantations for a bit of light in the darkness was all they had to give.

Eventually, it's gotta be him, he guesses.]

Look, not everybody gets this sort of primo magical item, y'know? If all else fails I bet somebody's into it. But y'know. Don't, uh, don't worry about it.

[survivorsguilt]

[He's lucky. Ellie won't press. Not this time.

She holds the salt shaker to her chest possessively and sticks out her tongue at his words, hoping to lighten the mood with him.]

Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm letting a rare Taako gift out of my hands. Not a chance.

So like, does the salt run out, or is this a magic refill?

[pocketspa]

[He rolls his eyes, but a grin is spreading across his face, the tension leaving his shoulders as he rests his hands on his hips.]

Uh, yeah, you got it my gal. That's some highkey good shit right there.

[Though her legitimate question does give her pause, for a moment.]

... Y'know, dude I got it from is kind of a whackjob? So, uh, who fuckin' knows. Might just never run out. If it gets low though, I can probably fabricate more. 'Ss no thing.

[survivorsguilt]

[She laughs, sharp and short like a bark, and eyes off the shaker.]

Well, I've used plenty of things made by whackjobs before. So at least that's not exactly new.

Anyway. This is super cool. I don't even care if it runs out. It's already magic and awesome.

[She tucks it inside her backpack.]

I wanna know more about this weirdo, though. Do they just have an enormous store of salt shakers?

[pocketspa]

[She likes it. That's what matters. Also, he has the opportunity to talk about more fun things.]

No, but he does have a bigass store of weird garbage. His name's Garfield. Runs the Fantasy Costco back home on the moon.

[He knows full well that was a sentence that will make literally no sense, and that is why he said it. But he also suddenly looks very sly and very smug.]

Won a sword from him once worth 60,000 gp by trading him an item I bought from his very store.