catchall; gideon

[toyska]

I want you to know that on my journey to find a shitpost I learned what "pumpkin pounder" means

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[toyska]

[It cannot be helped]

He dug a few pits, he electrocuted a few things... I have no idea what he got up to indoors, but I'm sure it was more of the same. Uriel and I were trying to make ice sculptures, but it didn't go as well as we'd hoped.

[Sometimes confidence week makes you break things]

[cavaliered]

Zagreus told me he and Lavi made a squeaky punching bag because they were thinking of me.

[she says this like she's kind of amazed by it? like wow. they thought of her at all? people think about things that might make her laugh? huh. sounds fake.]

Why didn't it?

[toyska]

That sounds like them. I think Lavi brought over the skeletons, too. [Lavi tried so hard while a bunch of evil gremlins ran around sabotaging everything. Gideon's relatable, though.]

We kept breaking them... I think it was whatever was affecting us all that week. Uriel was very sure that her flaming sword would help her carve the ice.

[cavaliered]

[snort.]

I mean. It would. For a second.

[toyska]

Exactly. [He looks amused, because it really was funny.

Though, that said--]

Are you guys still staying in the same place? It might be better to get some rooms at one of the hotels, at least for the people who can't fly.

[cavaliered]

[she's so disgruntled about not being able to fly, i hope you know this]

I've been staying in the dorms, yeah, but that's a good point. [...] Can you fly?

[toyska]

[She's gonna be even more disgruntled because he nods

Though he does add--] Not as easily as some of the others can. It takes more energy for me, but I can get around quickly if I need to. I usually don't do it--my cabin's just an island away anyway.

[cavaliered]

[GRUMPY FACE.]

Your cabin?

[toyska]

[


Grins at her]

Do you want to see?

[cavaliered]

[-- well, she grins too, then.]

Sure. Is that where all your weapons went?

[toyska]

[She will find out shortly!!

By which I mean he puts a hand on her shoulder, says "hang on," scoops her up, and then does this. Just without the yellow seal thingies.

If she doesn't, like, panic and flail or punch him or anything else, he will nyoom them off back to snowy island like this--straight over the lava and everything. If she does do those things then she can just fall and get a concussion I guess that's fine too]

[cavaliered]

[okay well listen it's a LITTLE startling, so she does flail a bit at first, but she's not unused to magic-like things, so she catches her balance and clings a bit, looking like she's been absolutely bamboozled.

ALL OF YOU HAVE COOL POWERS. LET HER HAVE SOME.

regardless, she will not get a concussion... this time.]

[toyska]

[THIS TIME.......

But he will deposit her outside of a cabin! It looks... basically the same as the other cabins on this mountain, except like. Properly repaired and more-or-less livable. It's still cold as fuck up here but Childe doesn't seem too bothered as he dusts his hands off. He does, however, look a little tired from the effort.]

That's how it works for me. Though, that's harder with two people than I thought it would be.

[cavaliered]

You really are a water guy.

[like she didn't believe him or something ig]

You got an actual place out here? The hell.

[toyska]

[HELP He looks like he wants to protest, but then he thinks better of it because he knows it would just be an invitation to make fun of his sink death again]

Kind of. I didn't pay for it or anything, but I fixed it up. The resort's not that far away, so it's easy to head down there and cook. [He gestures! He will lead the way inside; indoors, it looks pretty much like what you'd expect of a cabin--a little mishmashed in style, but fortified against the cold and very tidy. As expected, there's a collection of his weapons, though not as many as before. The no-murder panda blanket is on the bed.]

[cavaliered]

[ohhh... it's so cozy. maybe it's stupid, but this is all she wants, something just like this. a little place to call her own. she lived in a cell for eighteen years and then what amounts to the worst air bnb ever for a few weeks, this is an upgrade.

gideon pokes across the room, and immediately goes to snoop through his weapons because of course she does.]

I can't believe you took all these with you. [also if we do memshare a hole opening up in here is so funny]

[toyska]

[A hole should definitely open up in the floor yes

Before that happens, though--]

I didn't! I mean, I took some with me when I went out, of course, but I didn't expect to wake up with the rest. I figured you and Lu Bixing could make use of them if I didn't make it, since I knew I'd get my abilities back on the other side.

[cavaliered]

You did? [blinks at him.] Did someone tell you that was the case?

[she steals a sword and swings it a few times.]

[toyska]

Mm. Lavi sent me a message shortly after he died.

[Which is part of the reason he was okay with risking it--since he didn't believe Satan's offer anyway, dying and regaining his abilities didn't seem like a bad option. But he doesn't say that, because right as she swings the sword again, a hole opens up and drops them through the floor.]

--Again?!

[cavaliered]

[what's it like to have powers to regain... the one game i don't play a wizard

she doesn't get to say anything to this because the floor opens up! gideon yelps, clattering to the ground, and then:]

Oh, what the fuck. This was the worst one.

[toyska]

[YOUR WIZARDS

Childe is about to agree, though--but then the memory begins to play, and he falls silent.

Hm. Awkward.]

[cavaliered]

[oh. huh.

gideon pauses, taking all that in.]

That was you and your family? [and like. more than that, but she starts there.]

[toyska]

[It wasn't as though he enjoyed the last memory--Skirk's violent training methods, her intolerance for anything but persistence and success. But that was something that he's willing to discuss, at the end of the day. He may not talk much about his time in the abyss, but ultimately, it helped him get stronger. Skirk taught him to survive, and how to get home. He has no problem acknowledging that.

This, though. This is personal--something he would never discuss on his own. Or, at the very least, something he would frame in a very different way. For his own sake, perhaps, as much as anyone else's.

So soon after that, too? Maybe he should take this as some kind of a sign.]

...Yeah. [It takes him a minute to answer, and when he does, his voice is just a little too even.] That was when I joined the Fatui.

[For a given definition of "join."]

[cavaliered]

[she's - not hesitant, gideon's not a hesitant person. cautious, though, sure. cautious not to set him off, to push too hard. not because she's afraid of him, because she categorically is not, but because she cares about not upsetting him.

this is one of those things you play very close to your chest. she knows. so when his voice is too even, she looks away from him to give him a little space.]

You got enlisted, is what happened. [she says, popping her knuckles. i forget if i mentioned this at any point but she does, in fact, have all ten fingers again despite having eight not that long ago.] I know what Cohort shit looks like.

[and without any sort of judgement or anything:] You were a violent kid?

[toyska]

[His shoulders rise, just barely; hesitation, though he appreciates that she won't see it. Normally, it would be second nature to deflect, to brush off everything that played across the screen with a light tone and playful words. It would be an obvious redirect, but it would get the point across--a refusal to discuss, in any depth or detail, what was shown.

But... he'd told her all this already, all those weeks ago. Restless kids get up to no good and I had an adventure of my own and I probably would've killed someone. And beyond that, he remembers the chime of his phone on the other side, the sound of distinct unhappiness, and words he's never heard from anyone besides his siblings.

Besides... for all that taking care of others comes naturally to him, Childe doesn't know what to do with trust. Not the kind Teucer has for him, and certainly not the kind he's been given here, from people like her or Lavi. All he can do is present a better version of himself than exists in reality. It's a façade that's impossible to keep up forever, but it's all he knows. He was raised on hero's tales, after all.

Childe doesn't like lying. He hates manipulation, even if he does it when he has to. He knows she'll get it if he lies or deflects--the way she's turned away tells him that much. But it would mean he doesn't trust her with vulnerability, which isn't fair. And worse, it would mean he's not strong enough to take ownership of this memory, which is not the sort of person he wants to be.

He sighs. If this place won't let him keep his secrets, then he might as well share them with the people who matter.]

...Not at first. But the abyss... things are different there. ["Warriors don't say 'I can't.'"] That's where I learned to fight, and once I got out, I couldn't imagine living the way I used to. [He lifts one shoulder in a half-shrug.] Our village--it's so quiet. Nobody there could keep up with me. But even if I tried to stay out of trouble, it had a way of finding me. It was obvious to all of us that I didn't belong there anymore.

[He's quiet for a moment, then adds--] I chose to stay in the Fatui, though. I was happier there than I was at home, and now I can--well, could--take care of them much more than I ever could before. I don't regret it.

[And maybe he fixates a little too hard on that aspect of it; maybe he downplays the fact that there was no return for him, not really. There is no bright, happy path for someone with violence in their blood. But he clearly isn't lying, or forcing the words out--to him, it's completely true. The Fatui gave him purpose. The Tsaritsa honed him into a weapon, and he trusts her to wield him. She, along with Skirk, taught him how to wield himself, which was exactly what that young boy with the dead eyes needed.

But. Y'know. She knows how much he loves his family; it's not a stretch to guess what being left behind must've felt like, even if it wasn't a surprise.]