AtomicEmperor

Iron and Honey: A Love Story [FernStone & AtomicEmperor]

Home, at Another Time > Inner Sanctum > Chapel

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Deep underground, Trisha slept in that stone-walled chamber without physical disturbance for some time. Hours passed, time stretched along its course, and as the Queen's natural magic aura saturated the room, there was another presence looming below.
Like a predator, or a curious dweller of fathoms untouched, its mindful and protective nature pushed up around the room. Slowly, surely, its essence collapsed around the woman, comforting and warm.

Trisha's eyes would've opened to Leon's apartment. Only, it was missing some things. The giant television, the collapsing wall. It was open to a large dining room area that, until now, hadn't been seen by Trisha. People were sitting around it, eating and talking.

Looking closer, Trisha could recognize a face or two, though it was probably obvious who it would be… But they weren't as they are today. Lynette, a child Leon, who couldn't have been over the age of twelve. Little Mia was still in her high chair, settled next to a massive frame whose back was turned to Trisha.
It had short hair, and sat shirtless while massive hands played aeroplane to spoon the food into his toddler's mouth.

Four children were present. Leon, Elise, Mia, and another boy. Obviously it couldn't be Casey, as his little six year old face was too scrunched up and evil to be Casey's. It was instinct that really drove it home.
Not that it took long for him to arrive. Eight years old, the small boy entered the frame from the side. Rather than sit, he prostrated himself upon the floor, tightly pressing his forehead against the tile. There were no voices loud enough for Trisha to hear, but the vibrations seemed to spell everything out.

”Don't beg at my fucking table, Caseau.”
”I didn't mean it…” Casey's tiny voice barely registered. The massive frame rose from the table, and just seemed to keep going until his whole figure consumed Trisha's vision. Everything returned to darkness, until she could see two figures in the short distance of nothingness.

Approaching, it was Casey now. Her Casey, and the same figure from before. It could be none other than their famous father, the Ultra-Heavyweight champion of the world: Gravity Richoux. He was still so impossibly large, so tall, that even with Casey's own height and length, the old pro kept him pinned and at bay with jab after jab.

The two of them were boxing, physically fighting with seemingly all of their might.
”Do more, God damn you! Lazy, lazy, lazy! You have to do more, Casey!”
In a fit of rage, rather than continue the fruitless effort of trying to outjab his father, Casey raged, furiously diving for Gravity's knees. The two men toppled, and Casey scrambled up to his father's chest to press his arms down with his knees before raining elbow after elbow and fist into the flesh-covered watermelon that was the head and face.

Slowly, the body sunk into the ground until Casey was left punching dirt. A headstone replaced it, and all Casey could do was sob and wail as he held onto that headstone in total grief. His bellowing cries echoed through the dream.
Gravity stood behind him, but didn't look down at his son. He stared now, directly at Trisha, with one hand rising to point at her.

”Absolution!”

In the real world, it was just about four in the evening when the final book was passed along to Casey. It was his own to read through at his leisure, rather than a tome that needed to be transferred directly into his head.
He'd learned many secrets in those few hours, contributing now to an overall sense that he had once again jumped into something without fully considering the ramifications.

It was mostly Project Eden that disturbed him, and were it not for the emotional suppression wards forcing that little room into a state of pure logic, he probably would've had quite the problem. But now he'd practically grown in mental years, the process of intaking those tomes stretching his mental perception to the slowest kind of Hyperbolic Time Chamber he could imagine. A few hours had become weeks and months spent having things placed directly into his head by helpful spirits trapped within books.

Memories of people no longer living.

The entire thing finished with Furio officially passing the buck back to Lynette, who in turn symbolically handed the reins to her son. And just like that, they were free once more, expecting dinner for six at Port Saint. Casey waited for Lynette and Furio to take their leave with the tomes before he finally made way back down the hall. Theo had informed him that she hadn't once left.

He opened the door to see a mass of blackness crouched before Trisha, both of its ethereal hands gripping one of hers in desperate prayer.
Its mass shifted, as if it turned to see who came in before it took to rising up. It stood taller and taller, back brushed against the ceiling as it buckled to look down. Palms still pressed against the floor, and two great cyan eyes opened to stare down at Casey.

”C-a-s-eeeeeeau…”
A hand slowly reached out, and the whole scene ended. Trisha would open her eyes to an empty room, and loud knocking at the door before it slid open a crack.

“Miss Trisha? It's Norm! Casey's almost done, he asked me to check and see if you were ready to leave, and to make sure that if you didn't want a bunch of attention from the crowds outside I got you to the car before he came out. You hadn't left yet, so… I figured I'd ask?”

Trisha was incredibly disoriented. She sat up, hands clenching in the fabric of the couch beneath her. She looked down at her hands, then up at the door. Was she actually awake this time? What… what was the dream? Had the last part been a dream? Or did it actually happen… no, that didn’t make sense. Norm just said that he was almost done, which meant he wasn’t out yet. Oh, right, Norm.

“I’m not ready, so I’ll just go out with Casey,” Trisha said, managing to keep her voice steady. She didn’t particularly want the attention, but she also wasn’t dressed and had no idea what her state was like. She didn’t want to be seen by anyone like this, which meant taking a while to get ready. She’d rather go with Casey, anyway. Make sure there was still a real Casey.

That all of this hadn’t been some long dream.

“Uh, let him know that I’ll be ready by the time he’s out!”
Trisha grimaced, forcing herself to stand up. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, and after that dream… she’d only woken up feeling worse. Confused. Had she seen memories? The younger Casey seemed to be… him crying at the grave? But then the last bit. Was it… well, it was obviously his father. Had he-

He was there. The Queen’s voice echoed in her head, louder than normal. More agitated. The bees felt it too, making themselves a nuisance as Trisha tried to get dressed. He drew all over our Emotional Field while you were dreaming.

Trisha wrinkled her nose, having a difficult time with all the pheromones. It didn’t help that her own body was giving off multiple, the Queen herself leaking out in her agitation. What do you mean drawing on our Emotional Field? How does that work?
Exactly as you’d expect. He drew on it. Some can draw protective symbols, or get through an Emotional Field in this way.
Did he?
No. He just drew a fish.

Trisha snorted. Right. She was slowly managing to come out of the trance-like state she’d been in upon waking up, brain slowly becoming more functional. The Queen was unhappy and awake inside her, and she wasn’t really sure how to deal with it. So she ignored it for now, managing to pull back on her dress. She took a few moments to smooth out her skirts, before going over to the bathroom. Her makeup wasn’t… as much of a mess as she’d expected. Fixable in the time she had. So she set about doing that.
You should think about leaving. He was trying to protect you. This place is dangerous.
You think I don’t know that? It’s a cult.
Yes, but-

”I don’t want to hear it,” Trisha said out loud, gesturing with her free hand. She knew that. She’d seen the same dream the Queen had, even if she couldn’t sense the apparition - presumably that was what Casey’s father now was - that had caused it. She suddenly knew so much, but she only felt more out of her depth because of it.
She didn’t want to let it come between something that felt like an actual chance at happiness.

“Why don’t you just go back to sleep?” Trisha suggested, brandishing the makeup brush she was holding as she reapplied some contour along the side she’d slept on. The Queen grumbled inside of her, but seemed to be slowly calming down about it. With it, the pheromones in the air turned sweet and warm, a calming embrace over Trisha, the Queen herself, and the bees.
She had a lot to think about, but now wasn’t the time.
We’ll talk later. Figure it out.

She was almost ready, makeup reapplied enough for her to be happy with how she looked. She took a deep breath, put her shoes on, then looked at the door. There was a moment where she considered going out, seeing if she could still sneak out and avoid the attention, but- she’d said to Norm that she’d wait for Casey. She didn’t want to disappoint him.
So she’d wait. Trisha sat back down, bees once again crowding her, pressing against her neck in an act of clinginess that she couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed about.

It wasn’t long after she’d finished getting dressed that Casey entered the room. He wasn’t smiling, he wasn’t happy; though seeing her still brightened him, and a subtle grin curved his lips ever so slightly upward. He leaned against the doorframe, one foot lifting to sit overtop of the other. Noteworthy, his eyes shimmered that same deep blue that Elise’s sometimes did, and the hand wearing his channeler was balled into a tight, gloved fist.

”Do you have many regrets in your life, Trisha?” he asked solemnly, trying to release the tension in his posture as best he could. He’d not developed his White Lux beyond simple life-detection, or the occasional use in an otherwise orange-heavy enchantment.
It wasn’t weak, of course, so much as it was underutilized. It had to be sharp, or things like remote manipulation would never be possible. He’d simply not had the impetus to develop things further.

So reading his Mother’s spellbook, having the chance to absorb what he could based off of the reading, had left him feeling strange. Like there’d been so much he was ignorant of. It was like opening a floodgate of shit he felt like he never should’ve known.
And that had nothing to do with all the secrets that now also lived in his head. All the Temple’s dirtiest laundry. Every fiber of his being wanted to draw battle plans and rip the place they were standing in out of the ground to show all the people what was underneath.

It was Casey’s single biggest regret, and leaped into the lead very quickly: The knowledge of his position. No wonder Furio was always so on edge.

Trisha looked up when Casey spoke, tilting her head. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if she actually was still in the dream. Between such a seriously asked question and him just standing there, it didn’t feel quite real. But she couldn’t be dreaming anymore.

“Not really,” Trisha lied, standing up and approaching him. She was strangely hesitant, stopping in front of him before reaching out to take his hands in her own.
Did she have many regrets? She did. There was so much she wished she’d done, so much she wished she hadn’t. All those years she’d spent inside studying, practically cutting herself off from the world, with nothing to show for it. Her dad dying before she even had a chance to repair their relationship, if she’d wanted to. Not being able to save the two friends she’d been with when she was saved by the Coven. Ma- No. Not thinking about that.

“Just small things. Stygian Snake aside, my lifes been boring enough there’s not much I regret.” Another lie. She believed her life had been boring, sure, but there were still plenty of regrets. But she was unaware there was even the possibility Casey could tell that she was lying, and they weren’t things she wanted to get into with anyone. Her regrets were just flaws. Things she could’ve done better. Like her whole life.
“Why?”

Casey let Trisha’s hands go, only to wrap his arms tighter around her. He did the same kind of shaking she’d become familiar with, and when she could see his face again, they were runny with tears.
”I think I know mine… My biggest regret. That one day, you’re going to trust me. You’re going to trust me to the point where you’re not able to lie to me anymore… And I may have to break that trust to protect you. To keep you safe from all the things in my head… And I don’t know if you’ll forgive me.”

His aura reading, the facial recognition, the patterns, the little motions that her vocal chords made when she was unsure of what she was saying: It was instantaneous. It was painful. Casey sunk to his knees in front of Trisha, hands gripping into her dress as the hat fell from his head.
”God, fuck… What have I fucking done, Trisha… What have I fucking done?!” he cracked up from below her. Theo stood just down the hall watching. Casey’s hand rose up into a fist, his face never leaving the bottom of Trisha’s dress.

”BE GONE.”
Theo’s face became grim, and he only nodded at Trisha.
“O-of course, Sir! I’ll get the car, Your Grace!”

Trisha looked at Theo, then his disappearing back, then back down at Casey. He regretted something that hadn’t happened? But he already thought he might break her trust? For what? The Temple. She- yes, that could happen. But would her truly trusting him like that ever happen? It was something she’d never achieved with anyone. But would it really be breaking her trust if it kept her safe? She didn’t know.
“You don’t know that’ll happen. You can’t know that’ll happen.” Her voice came out hushed and hoarse, not quite sure what to say. Because she knew, somehow, that he’d learned things he didn’t want to. That he’d jumped into this without fully thinking it through. Because of the dream, she just knew.

And she felt that somehow, it might be her fault. A horrible guilt gnawing at her that she shoved down and down like she always did. It wasn’t her fault, couldn’t be.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay, Casey,” she whispered.
“We’ll get through this.”

Her hands found his face, cupping his cheeks and trying to tilt it up towards her. Then she leaned down, kissing him gently, trying to comfort him, to express feelings she didn’t have words for. Things she couldn’t say. Sorry. Her thumbs swiped at the tears on his cheeks as she kissed him.

He looked so devastated. Absolutely ripped asunder. But his eyes met hers, and the gentle glow visibly faded into dullness, just like Elise’s had when Trisha had first met her. But they still shimmered, and stared longingly into hers as he tried to find his footing.
”Trisha… I’m going to need you. You are the only person not wrapped up in all of this somehow… You’re my beacon. My light in the night. My North Star.” he muttered, doing his best to get ahold of himself as he tried to stand again. He was dizzy, and he couldn’t think without associating it back to a spell that gave him way more stimulation than he needed in the moment.

So he got hands on the door frame, pushing himself up until he was on one knee. His gaze turned to his cap, which he plucked from the ground with a whimper. Still, he could turn back and look up to see the brightest star. Her. So he had to rise himself, and to be the warrior he knew he was. To put on his bravest face again, and to lie to protect her.
”We have so much to talk about… Next time it’s quiet. I can tell now, Babe… When it’s not quiet. When the ears don’t surround us.”
Up from the knee, his hands reached for hers and held them with one, the other then moving to wipe away the moisture from his face more fully.

”They’re gonna want me to say some things to the crowd outside. You’ll stand with me?”

Trisha knew, from when Casey said she was the only person not wrapped up in this, that she couldn’t do what Elise had suggested earlier. She couldn’t lie her way deeper into the Temple. Not for the lying, but she couldn’t get deeper. Not if he didn’t want her to. One of them had to be out. She had to be.

“I’ll stand with you,” she said, squeezing his hand with both of hers. She smiled at him, like there wasn’t a turbulent mess of emotions inside her. The dream, Casey’s words… all of it. But she was good at pushing her way through things as if they didn’t affect her.
“For all of it. For this, and anything you need me to in the future- well, maybe not anything. Most things. I’ll be there. For you.”

The bees buzzed gently as she spoke, and a couple of them detached themselves from her neck to go to his shoulder. As if to confirm her words. The bees were an extension of herself, and understood her feelings far more than anyone else did. The subtle pheromones she gave out without even realising it.
“The bees too, I guess. They’re showing their support... Or maybe they just want to be higher up.”

Casey leaned against her, nodding his head gently as the bees landed on him. They were so innocent… The very concept was a bastion to his psyche. That there were things in this world without ulterior motive, or malicious intent or hidden desire. They were bees: They wanted pollen for the hive. They just happened to have a strange Queen situation. It actually brightened his smile a little bit.

”My head’s so full… I don’t understand how they expect me to go out tonight.” he spoke, taking her hands to pull her just slightly forward. His arm swung behind her back, holding her close to him by the shoulder. He rubbed gently, lovingly.
”Nobody else is in a great mood either. Well, at least Mom and Mia. It’s probably got something to do with their Lux levels. You said earlier that Elise didn’t seem like she was too bad off, right? Maybe there’s fucking hope.” he giggled to himself.

”So? What’d you get up to?” he tried to start a casual conversation, taking as much time as possible to leave. On purpose, obviously. He couldn’t see every celebrating face out there without resetting a little bit.

“Elise seemed quite… spirited, I guess? So there is some hope, it won’t be a load of unhappy people at dinner,” Trisha laughed, shrugging.
“Though that’s the dinner situation I’m most used to! That, and constant fights.”

She leaned into him, slotted in so perfectly to his side, and looked up with a smile. What did she get up to? Dreaming of his dad… but she couldn’t say that. What she’d seen was so strange and intimate. She wasn’t sure if she should’ve seen it.
“Literally nothing. I was planning to read, I even downloaded this book Rey recommended, but I just lay down and… fell asleep. Guess I was pretty tired. It did mean I didn’t have to suffer through all those hours without you.”

Casey’s hand tensed a little bit. He knew the moment she said she slept. He’d felt it. He’d wanted to run into the room, not knowing what happened until it was too late. He wished he’d caught the thing.
”Did you dream about fishes?” he asked, voice kind of casual with a hint of something behind it.

Trisha’s eyes widened slightly - not because she’d dreamt about them, but she knew that it had been drawn across her emotional field. Could he… see that? He did have white lux, it made sense.
“No, I didn’t,” Trisha laughed as if it was a ridiculous ask. It wasn’t even a lie. “That would’ve been nice, honestly. Sounds peaceful. I don’t think I dreamt, really. I certainly didn’t remember anything when I woke up.”

Casey nodded to himself. His hand in his pocket gripped his glove, and he planted a kiss to her forehead. In an instant, the full shape of her emotional field was in full highlight. It was honeycombed, thanks to the Queen within providing it.
The Ichthus had been intricately carved into the outside, and as he captured the image in his brain, he could see the very tiny print within the line. It wasn’t solid, rather words written so thinly and in such frequency that it appeared as solid lines.

It all formed the fish.
It all repeated again and again.

PEACE. INNOCENCE. ABSOLUTION.

It was a quick kiss, but Trisha would’ve felt something. Something small ripple across her Emotional Field. His head brushed against hers gently as he leaned in for a little more affection.

”It’s funny. Today was supposed to be the first day where my Faith would be my life. Now I’ve never been less sure of it.” he offered the thought to Trisha as an olive branch.

Trisha’s brow furrowed slightly at the ripple she didn’t quite recognise. But the Queen was asleep again, and she didn’t have much experience with that stuff. She could recognise Greyson’s prodding, and Reyna’s when it got strong. Maybe it was just her being sensitive?

“Really?” Trisha tilted head up, nose rubbing against his as she smiled. She didn’t really understand why he was telling her, but she was certainly glad his Faith wasn’t becoming his life. Then where was her place?
She didn’t even realise it was an olive branch, or anything close to it.
“Because of what you read? Was it that bad? All those… secrets?”

Casey simply nodded his head.
”Lots of things nobody warned me about. Things I wish I didn’t know.”
He shook his head.
”Like, y’know, some cultures… Or like, other cults, you’ll raise a dog or something. Something you love, you’ll keep it alive and get to know it and keep it healthy and love it. Why? So you can sacrifice it. To step into adulthood. To put the childish toys away. Even the Bible says shit like that. I thought I already made enough sacrifices, y’know, going to war and shit. Leading troops. Killing others in the name of international peace. Kill one murderer, you replace him, but if you kill two murderers, you’re doing the world a favor.-”

He was rambling. He knew he was. It was trauma unfurling inch by sacred inch within the folds of his mind. And it was all awful.
”-I’m fuckin’ cooked. Gotta go and fuckin’ stare at people through a screen. Figure out what they’re thinking without them saying. I gotta know everything now, y’know? Like, everything.”

Trisha’s eyes narrowed slightly, her chest clenching. She… wasn’t surprised. Shouldn’t be, at least. Furio had said about it making him paranoid. She’d seen the screens when she went into the office. The spying from Lynette. The control she had over all the Temple members.
It was horrible, and it made her skin crawl. What else was he going to sacrifice? Himself? Her? The discomfort across her body only increased.
But not enough to want out. Not enough to lose Casey, who she could already see a future with. Hope that would only hurt her but she couldn’t stop herself from having.
“Because everything and everyone could be a threat? You have to spy on people to keep them in line, and beat them up if they’re not?”

Questions she already knew the answer to, really. She frowned, leaning her face even closer to his. There was one thing she didn’t know… hadn’t been able to ask. But she found herself able to know.
“Why did you take the job?” she whispered.
“Why when you didn’t have to?”

Casey’s face turned, and he looked at her with a genuine smile. Like, the one she’d gotten used to. It was warm, it had the real feeling. He wanted so badly to give her everything he had.
”Well, the question is flawed. It assumes I didn’t have to.”
His head looked around, and he sent a ripple to feel where the next bug was. It wasn’t active, but it was always recording, and just took her fishing for one night.

So he did what he never could have before. He squeezed the bug, summoning White Lux to crimp it’s magical supply and deactivate it temporarily.
”But, I knew it’d have certain perks. And it already does. Like her little tricks… She’ll never listen to me talk without me knowing again. She handed me the fucking keys, Trisha… I’m driving the car.” he gritted his teeth. At this point Trisha would certainly be able to feel the effort as he affected his Mother’s embedded listening ward.

”All that talk about trust between her and I. Y’know, I think I get why she’s acting so melancholy. She’s worried that I’m gonna call her on all her bullshit now, and that she’s gonna have to kill me. She’s worried I’m the threat. And I fucking beat Furio… But I don’t think I’d be able to beat him, and the rest of her loyalists. Not at the same time. So I’ll play ball, Trisha. We’ll play. But, she’s not gonna walk on me. And I won’t ever let her use you to get to me. I swear to you.”

The bees buzzed in confusion, little bodies pressing close to Trisha’s shoulders. The magical fluctuations, the sheer effort, shifting the magical pheromones in the air to a degree they could all sense somewhat. They calmed down once it was done.
“I won’t let her use me either. I’m not someone that can be used. Not by her, not by anyone. I’m willing to play too so that she can’t.” She bit her lip, considering whether to bring this up now. But wasn’t it the perfect opportunity, if they weren’t being listened to? If he was already talking about it.

“It wouldn’t just be you, I don’t think. You’re not the only one who doesn’t believe in her bullshit, or whatever it is. Elise talked to me on the way here about possible… plans. I don’t know her well enough to trust her, but Leon too. He talked about getting us out, and working together for it.” It was all things she’d wanted to talk to him about, but been worried to. There was his Faith, and there was the listening. But not right now.

“But if she even thinks about killing you, I’ll kill her first.” Her tone turned cold, gaze hardening. She was deadly serious. Would it be possible? Probably not, but she didn’t care. Bees could get in places so easily.
“I’ll do it.”

Casey’s face twisted up at the mention of his siblings, and became stern when she suggested that she’d have some kind of hand in his mother’s demise. He’d never let something like that happen either, but he’d let her have her flame. Her own confidence. She’d need it just as much as he would. He needed his own Emancipation, like his sister…

”Be careful talking to them. Duplicity, Trisha. Nobody has less than two plans. That’s why we’ll make two thousand.” he spoke confidently.
But the image of the fish. The presence.
”Like, now there’s things I don’t know if they know. And I have to try and figure out if they do before I can even talk to them about it. Even then, they could hand me over to her the moment that they get caught in their little scheme. Nobody wants to be spanked, Trisha.”
The Sanctum had been cleared out, and so had the chapel as they ascended.

At least, until they got to the very top and looked out toward the door to the outside. There she was. The woman of the hour. She had a wide, glassy smile spread across her face as she tilted her head slightly. She was still dressed head to toe in that golden outfit she’d been wearing all day.
”You two look so fuckin’ cute together, Case. Trisha? How are you, Honey? You did fantastic earlier!” she spoke with warmth, and sounded like she had nothing going on besides what was in front of her.
She’d been standing by the door, looking out at the crowd. Walking forward, Lynette made her way to the edge of the stage.

”Very nice to bring him home after such a hard time. We had a few cries, didn’t we sweetheart?”
It was easy to forget Casey was a Richoux. The Smile cracked across his face, and widened until it was a warm grin at his mother. He didn’t feel her magic ebbing or flowing, but she wasn’t the master for nothing. Pure White Lux was nothing to play with.

”We did, Mumma. I was tellin’ Trisha about it, and now about how I’m just so exhausted I don’t really wanna go out and eat.” he played them off, smiling at Trisha.

”Well, y’know, we can get things started a little early. No need for you to show up early or anything, it’s… Not like it’s a party for you or anything, right?” Lynette chided, narrowing her eyes at Casey with the wide grin shrinking to a playful smirk.
”I damn well know Trisha wants to go out. Get some drinks? Have a free meal at a really nice restaurant? Get to know your boyfriend’s family more? That sounds like fun I’m sure.”

She was very clearly playing tongue-in-cheek, but was that how honesty was supposed to go? Just acknowledging the duplicity of it all and letting it roll over? Casey knew for certain, and knew that if he wanted to protect Trisha, he couldn’t automatically get defensive in her stead. He could never know whether or not she was able to fully follow the second conversation happening beneath the first.

”You guys’ve all done a pretty good job introducing yourselves, I think. But, we’ll be there. Don’t worry. Right T?” he looked down at Trisha, nodding at her with his most genuine smile.

Trisha had been wearing a fake smile directed towards Lynette the whole time, just like Casey had. While she was someone who often didn’t care about covering up her true emotions, a grumpy scowl almost perpetual on her lips in the Vanburen manor, she was well able to do it. Well practiced from time spent with her own mom.
“Of course we will,” Trisha tilted her head up towards him, smile turning more warm.

Obviously, it was the last thing she wanted to do. She wanted to go home. But there was more to it than that - layers to Lynette’s words that she couldn’t quite understand. Places she felt she shouldn’t push.
“I wouldn’t want to miss out on trying the menu at Port Saint. My sister took me to Cantina Farrow just after it opened, and it was really nice. I can’t wait to see how they differ.” She spoke as if she was just telling a fond memory with a sibling, rather than making it clear she wasn’t dependent on them at all. Of course, it was the opposite of a fond memory, as anything involving Tansy was. But it had its uses.
“I feel like I already know you all so well, as if you’ve been in my life the whole time, but I suppose can’t spend too much time together, right?”

Lynette’s smile went from that still fake plastic kind of playful grin she’d been wearing to something completely different. This was, as far as Trisha had seen, the same grin that Casey gave her when he was especially pleased.
It wasn’t fake. It wasn’t hollow. It was warm, and tender, and absolutely gushing with emotion that overflowed from the center of her. Her hands clasped together, as if she were about to faint, before her arms opened widely.

”There. It. Is! The spirit! The absolute spirit of it! The game is on! Trisha, seriously, you’ll love Port. Got really nice bar vibes, all homestyle meals, but you can definitely feel his influence. It’s obviously best when he’s in charge, but his sous chef Mario is great too.”
She threw her hands up in a little celebration.
”We’re gettin’ drunk!” she cheered, heading toward the door. ”Get ready, babes! The adoring public. Casey, you’ve got fiiiiive minutes, then they’ll pull you.”

Casey was a little stunned, but at this point all he could do was treat it like a boxing match and keep swinging. This is what life was going to be. Cheeky at the best of times. The door opened, the chapel flooded with people, and a few minutes later the two of them were whisked away to a waiting car and brought back to their home. The two of them spent the time practically wordless, letting their physical affection speak the volumes that the two of them simply couldn’t give.

Home > St. Port's

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Two empty social batteries, one entirely drained of any emergency cache left in it and the other teased by forces beyond it’s control. They were interrupted by a small crowd of Richouxs waltzing up onto their roof and knocking on the door. Still out any sort of doorbell, they simply skipped it and opted for the direct approach.
Casey, not wanting to constantly channel White Lux to know where everyone was at all times, was scared out of his mind by the rapid knocking of five people at once. Mia, Hari, Ed, Elise, and another man who looked a bit like Casey were all standing around in fine clothes of black and gold.

Casey opened the door for them, letting them flood into the house. Hari and Elise both stuck around Casey, while Mia, Ed and the fabled Junior mingled a bit more toward Trisha. All three of the girls were still looking and smelling fresh, like they’d managed to avoid any recycling factories on the way back home.
”Hey Trishaaaaaa… How’s the dress treating you dude?”
”Yeah, dude, you’re really rockin’ it. You looked good at the ceremony, standin’ and talkin’ like us.”

”Oh, gee, thank’s Mia! Thanks for introducing me, that’s great.” Junior piped up, annoyed expression oozing from between his lips. He held out a hand to Trisha.
”Trisha, my name is Maxwell. You can just call me Junior, unless you want me flattered… Then, by all means, call me whatever you want.” he said slyly, a grin forming on his face.
”Did you like your halo during the ceremony? I made those, y’know, they’re totally independent drones. Well, usually, I can give them direct input.”

He sounded utterly snide and self aggrandizing as he mentioned his mastery over balls that turned into hoops. As if he should be praised.
”Oh, Junie… Are you seriously trying to impress a girl by talking about your shiny gold balls again?” Elise prodded from across the room.

Junior’s face turned a little red.
”Hurr hurr, I’m Elise, I play with fleshy balls because the gold ones have too many moving parts.” he pushed back, making fake gagging sounds as he mimed out sucking on a pair of testicles.
”Is that really your technique, Cuz? I can show you some pointers…” Ed laughed.

Trisha gave Junior the briefest handshake she could - just like she had when meeting anyone, but just the brief touch made her uncomfortable. It was the feeling she’d got from the dream, and just how familiar the way he acted immediately was. Like so many of the men she’d dated before - full of themselves, and bragging about it to attractive women. She’d jumped on it so often without recognising the pattern but now that she was with someone else, she could see it. It only took a few sentences to see it.
“Nice to meet you, Junior,” Trisha flashed him a polite smile.
“The halos were pretty, but the way they moved was uncomfortable. It threw off my bees, so it wasn’t my favourite experience.”

Her smile turned a bit more genuine as she turned towards Mia and Ed. She was quickly getting comfortable with them which was… both nice and scary.
“Eddy’s right, awful technique, you should take her up on her offer,” Trisha laughed slightly, hand coming up to cover her mouth as she smiled. At the same time, she stepped more towards Mia and Ed, and away from Junior.
“I don’t know much about orange lux, is it really that hard?” Considering what she’d seen Casey do, it didn’t seem like it would be…

”Hard how, like the moving parts thing?” Mia asked, but Elise stepped in to comment on Trisha’s question a bit more.
”It’s only hard if you’re less oriented toward it. There’s so many different ways to Artifice that any kind of specialization is impressive. One of the hallmark of Richoux Orange magic is Automation: The idea that you can get objects to move without you paying attention to them is pretty difficult.” she offered her vast knowledge up freely.

Casey grinned.
”Like when I played air hockey with Leon at the arcade…”
Mia spun.
”Oh so fucking typical, you and Leon would go to the arcade and not invite me…” she responded, a bit of lemony tartness in her voice. Hard to tell if she was fake mad, or real mad.
Casey tossed his hands up.

”Hey, Leon only came because someone asked about him, and I think they were both satisfied with the arrangement.”
”Classic, Casey hug’s Leon’s taint and Leon gives him headpats like a good little Blind.”

Casey’s eyes went cold and dead.
”Why are you here?” he asked simply, coldly to his younger brother.
Junior grinned, stretching with his arms a bit as he spoke, pushing air out to tighten his voice up into a sarcastic joking manner.
”Just to make you sufferrrrrrr.” he giggled to himself.

Ed wasn’t particularly fond of when Casey and Junior were together, and she usually made that known by letting a more nervous part of herself come out.
”Alright, come on now… Casey, Trisha? Mom said you guys were good for dinner, so we figured we’d come and get you…”
”Yeah, we actually still technically have reservations, so… Maybe we can not start a fight?” Hari’s voice cut between everyone, a little rougher and more hoarse than Mia or Elise. She sounded a bit like Janis Joplin, especially after having done so much talking earlier in the day.

Casey held out his hand.
”Yep, sounds great. C’mon Trisha…”

Trisha was immediately at Casey’s side, taking the offering hand, fingers threading through his before she squeezed it comfortingly. Her eyes were also slightly cold as they moved towards Junior, narrowing.
Magical elitism. Just one of the many things that rubbed her the wrong way. But she lightened up, gaze softening as she tilted her head up towards Casey.
“Let’s go. I don’t want my promised free, fancy meal ruined, after all.”

She swung their joined hand and stepped towards the door, at the same time as using her free one to gesture everyone out of their home.
“Also, Mia,” she turned to look at the younger woman, offering her own explanation. “We went to the Arcade with my friends… one’s just a big boxing fan. Wasn’t really planned, I just never would’ve heard the end of it if I didn’t let him come along.”

It didn’t really lighten the girl’s mood. The group shuffled out of the apartment and back into the cold November evening, making their way back down to the ground floor before splitting up into a couple of cars. Elise volunteered for Junior duty, taking him in her car. It left the back seat of Casey’s free for the trio, who piled their skinny asses into the back seat before Mia pulled a bottle of whiskey from seemingly nowhere.

”Fuckin’ horseshit…” Mia mumbled under her breath, popping the top and taking a swig from the neck.
”Mimi, what the fuck…” Hari chided, moving her hand up to grab the bottle. But Mia pulled it away, leaving it in Ed’s range. She opened her mouth around the bottle head and tilted it with her jaw, forcing it to spill into her mouth and down her throat.

”Haaaaa, Baby Cow stole the nipple.” she laughed, then took another swig before Mia pulled it away from her too.
”Heyyyyy! Fuckin’ don’t!” Mia whined back.

As they started driving, Casey looked supremely annoyed. His hand reached across the center console, just to rest on Trisha’s leg. Just a little more peace and comfort.
”Mia, what’s the problem… Why’s there an open bottle of booze in my car? You want me to get arrested.”
”Oh, you mean you don’t get police immunity now, Mister Blade Man?”

Hari threw her head back in mental anguish.
”What the fuck has gotten into you these last twenty-four hours!?”

“How long is the journey?” Trisha muttered, hand covering Casey’s on her leg. She could easily feel his tension, which made her tense. She twisted around in her seat to look at the three in the back, eyes narrowing at Mia specifically in what she hoped was a stern older sister look. She didn’t know, she’d never tried it.
“If you spill that- or worse, throw up- in the car, we’re kicking you to the curb, literally.”

”Oh, cool. Glad you’re fitting in well, Trisha. I’m happy you liked the dress, now you can just kick me out of your life.”
Hari’s hands clapped together.
”Oh. My. God. Mia Renee… There’s no way.” Hari snapped, her hand lashing out and grabbing the bottle.
”How dare you act like that to her!” she continued.

”How dare I? The fucking loser Richoux?”
Casey took a long, deep sigh.
”You’re not a loser Mia!” he pleaded.
”Oh, I mean, she kind of is being a loser right now. What the fuck, Mia!?”

Ed had a stern look on her face as she lipped something in French to Hari, who shook her head.
”No, not happening.”
”I just can’t think of anything else.”
Mia’s face twisted into anger.
”Oh, yeah, great. Two idiots no waiting, lets try and be vague about getting high in the Security chief’s car. Smart.”

Casey tucked his face into his hands as they came to a stoplight.
”To answer your question, its literally right down the road. Only faster to drive because we won’t have to walk home or get a cab later.” he groaned, muffled but still trying to answer Trisha’s question.

“Oh,” was all Trisha said at first. Her expression was annoyed, hiding her confusion. Why the fuck would she want to kick Mia out of her life? Where had she said that- how would she, when she was dating Casey? Was Mia suggesting that they were going to break up? No, now she was jumping ahead.
“Then all three of them can walk?” She pointed a finger between each of them. “Cool off, bicker where we don’t have to hear it?”

Hari looked very sad immediately.
”You fuckin’ see, Mia? Stop! Just stop. Save it for now, we’ll talk about it later, Baby…”
”How fucking noble, you just don’t want to get kicked out of the car. Lazy ass… Casey, let me out!” Mia barked.

”With a fucking open bottle? No. you’re just gonna run off into some fucking pit. Trisha, please… It’s just a little while longer, we’re not kicking anyone out. Nobody’s getting fuckin’ kicked out.” Casey’s voice was stern without being loud or rude.

Ed shook her head.
”I’m gonna tell ‘em, Mia.”
Mia’s eyes went wide, and she immediately slapped the cork back into her booze before shutting her mouth. She simply pouted. But that didn’t stop Ed. She figured it was important.
”I… She’s sad. I guess yesterday, you said something like you didn’t want her as your sister, Trisha. Or something, she-”

”STOP! OH MY GOD, STOP, LET ME OOOOOOOUT!”

Trisha, just like Mia, was grumpily pouting. She’d folded her arms and gone to looking out the window, prepared to suffer through the rest of the short car journey… but her head snapped back round when Ed started talking. Had she said that? She didn’t remember saying that… oh. The joke she’d made to Elise?
“What the fuck? I didn’t mean it like that… I mean fuck, I don’t want you as my sister, but not because of you. I hate most of my sisters. I don’t have a single good memory with any of them! I’d much rather- assumed we’d be- well, y’know, friends.”

She let out a frustrated breath, hands scrunching in her dress. She hated talking about stuff like this, but she hated being misunderstood more.
“Casey’s seen how I am with someone I don’t want to be my sister. It’s very different. Family is very different for me, so… I really didn’t mean it like that.”

By the time Trisha was done explaining herself, Mia had buried her face into her dress, pulling it up over her head so that nobody could see her shame anymore. Hari tenderly held onto one of her long, dainty hands, and played with it by running her free fingers across the back, tracing the veins along Mia’s knuckles.
Ed was paying attention, however, and nodded.
”And none of us expect you to be our… Our sister. Y’know? It’s not realistic. But she wants to be close to you. Just like everyone, she does her best.”

”Lil’ Mimi… Don’t you feel silly yet, girl? Overreading into things?”Hari chided, trying to get her dear partner back out of her shell.
”Elise said ’I fuckin’ guess she’s my sister.’ And then… You just joked back… I don’t know, of course I feel stupid, but like it never feels like a joke!”

”But it is Mia… It’s all just jokes, Miss Sensitive! God, do you really think-”
No. He couldn’t. He knew too much. He knew that their Emancipation was all staged, and that they’d never been abandoned. He saw the plan, all the recordings in memory, it all flooded across him.

But they were also pulling into the parking lot of Port Saint’s. There was a big banner outside that said “Congratulations Casey!” in big gold letters on a black background. People were gathered in the parking lot from the Temple; mostly mundane Adepts or Blinds who often accompanied them.
They all wanted to taste a little greatness.

He stopped the car out front, knowing there was a valet service, turning his body to look at the girls.
”Mia Renee, if you think for one second any of us would abandon you, I think you should really consider how Junior and I treat each other first. Think about how nobody is ever actively aggressive toward you, or how everyone puts up with the fact that sometimes you guys let your hygiene slip. Nobody says anything. Because we love you, and we don’t want you hurt. Like this. So, let's put the cat back in the bag for now, and go eat dinner like adults. Come on.”

“And,” Trisha looked directly at Mia, forcing her lips to twitch back up towards a smile. “I like you better than basically all of my actual siblings, alright?”

Ed pointed at Trisha excitedly.
”See!? See!?”
Mia lifted her head, letting her dress cascade down to once more sit across her almost non-existent cleavage. Her face was still annoyed, though amazingly her makeup hadn’t faltered in spite of the tears.

Casey was already on Trisha’s side of the car, opening the door and taking her hand to help her out as he waved off his quickly mounting fan club of older women. A lot of the Temple’s Blind members were people Elise’s various healthy living clinics brought into the fold. Addicts, people looking to change their lives, often people who were convinced that God would be there for them. Their true nature was hidden under the many mundane layers, and left them so open and exposed on the face of the organization that people didn’t question what was inside.

It was the only way to make it as a Doomsday Cult: Letting people decide what their level of involvement was, and never giving them so much that they couldn’t be allowed to back out. Problems only arose when families of the disenfranchised membership began kicking stones over to look for their long lost loved ones.

So, the occasional untrained Adept, or non-kindled Potent, would find their way in, and the core would expand underneath the covered skin, and nobody would ever ask questions.

Ed helped Mia out, who helped Hari in turn. The three girls were familiar with a lot of the local members, and made it a point to chat about with them as if nothing had happened. It let Trisha and Casey escape to a small private moment.
”Mother of God, if it isn’t one thing, it's another…” Casey grunted as they shuffled into the entryway of the restaurant.

Immediately, the vibe was a cozy ocean-side cabin: the wood was warm, benches were roughly hewn logs lacquered to a shine stuffed into one another and bolted in with the most rustic looking accents. Casey took whatever coat Trisha had decided to wear, sliding it off of her like a gentleman would before hugging her from behind and kissing the top of her head.
”Thank you for not freaking out…”

“I’m used to worse,” Trisha replied half jokingly, leaning back against him. She was used to siblings who purposefully misread things, who acted hurt, who got genuinely hurt… and to herself. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t lie to herself that she’d act any different. Pretend to others, sure, but not to herself.
“At least there’s only six- counting Hari and Ed- it’s practically child’s play!”

As if she hadn’t been entirely ready to kick them all out of the car, or just get out herself. Like it didn’t just take one person to completely set her off.
“But no promises if we have to take them back later, and they’re more drunk.”

”I mean, if your performance the other night is any indicator of how you usually are when you’re drunk, I condone and encourage you to drink as much as you’d like tonight. I believe we’ve got a personal bar in the event space, so no waiting.” he smiled, opening the door into the restaurant.

The two of them were met by immediate cheers as the whole place erupted. Casey looked out and saw plenty of familiar faces, and smiled to himself as he thought of a reason why it wouldn’t be some kind of Temple banquet. He figured a few tables, maybe they’d open up the patio and put a few space heaters for the Temple parties, but…
”Woah, holy shit! I guess Andrade’s breakin’ the bank tonight huh!?” he called across the crowded establishment. Not a single person spared a laugh.

It could’ve easily been one of those creepy cult things where they were forced to laugh, but… Was it so hard to imagine that on the surface, they all recognized the same sorts of qualities that Trisha did? That, more than his chiselled features as the most stark member of the Richoux siblings, he had a certain air about him. A tender charm, in the same way a friendly dog had a magnetic quality. You wanted to smile at it and pet it.

Trisha was a bit overwhelmed, holding onto Casey’s hand like it was a lifeline. It wasn’t the amount of people - she’d attended so many banquets and galas thrown by her family, or other rich families. It was the attention. While it was on Casey most of all, she was right by his side. She really wasn’t used to it and tried her best not to feel too uncomfortable. Too worried about fucking up as she straightened her spine and smiled.
“Where’s that personal bar, then, might as well get started with that?” she looked up at Casey, talking at a normal level - mostly to him, but loud enough others could hear her.

Clarissa, hair still pinned tightly to her head in neat little rows, bounded across the restaurant as Casey was shaking babies and kissing hands- Or, the opposite.
”There they aaaaaare! Casey, Baby, I’m so glad you made it. And you, Trisha, oh my LORD you were so cute today. I was so happy to come home and see your little face lookin’ back up at us.” she said just loudly enough for them both to hear under the drone of the bustling restaurant.
”C’mon! Lets get you guys comfy, gimmie those coats! And your hat, God damn you, it’s rude to keep it on inside, c’mon now!”

She snatched the coats out of Casey’s arms and the hat off his head. As they were ushered into the function hall near the back of the facility, they were greeted by a great big table made of wood, which could easily sit at least twenty people. At the head were double seats; one with a C sign hanging on it, and one with a T. There were plates of fruits and bottles of champaign set out among the glassware, and a golden fountain in the middle that sprayed water into a basin below the top, and slowly froze the water into ice that gently fell into a bigger bottom basin.

Ultimately, the ice would melt and recirculate through the fountain, creating a constant three-tier liquid-to-solid gradient effect.
Lynette, Furio and Andrade all stood around the bar with drinks in their hands, as it flanked one side of the table where nobody in particular was meant to sit. Lynette was still dressed in that same crazy gold dress, her skin painted gold well into her ears and eyelids. She was laughing, mouth agape to show off the uncanny darkness of the flesh within.

She matched the theme color well, at least.
Seeing the two of them, she shouted incoherently, raising her arms and rushing to hug around the both of them. Amazingly, whatever gold she was painted in didn’t rub off on either of them. In fact, to the touch, it seemed like there was no paint at all… Whether or not it was magic, or just really well sealed, was still up for debate.

It didn’t take long to realize she was babbling away in French.
”Ma… Momma, please… English: I can’t follow you when you’re sloppy like this, and I damn well know Trisha doesn’t speak French.”
”I SAID… I’m so excited to HAVE YOU HERE CASEY!” she spoke loudly, laughing and leaning into Casey. ”And I’m happier that you’re here with someone you love.”

Casey blushed.
”Oh yeah, you’ve been hittin’ the Screwdriver since you got here, haven’t you?”
Lynette giggled, smiled, and threw her thumb backward toward the bar.
”I’ss Wendy. I swear. She’s… She’s a peddler!”
Casey laughed again, doing his best to redirect as best he could from what his Mom had drunkenly said.

”Jesus, yeah… I’m sure. Trisha? Babe? How about you get yourself set up at the bar with what you want, get some fruit and stuff too if you’re a little hungry. I don’t want you drinkin’ on an empty stomach; I’m just gonna make sure Lady Grace here doesn’t make a fool of our group in front of the Blinds…”

There was a moment before Trisha responded, staring at Lynette, then at Casey. It was difficult to just ignore the word love being used. But it was just a drunken mother thing, right? Not that Trisha would know with that… but it was definitely the alcohol that had Lynette saying that, Who’d assume they were there after less than a week.
“Alright, I’ll do that… I’ll not start with shots so that I’m still sober by the time you get back.” She squeezed his hand before letting go, so that he could do whatever he needed to.

She went and straight up snatched one of the plates of fruit from the table, before going to the bar. She smiled at Furio and Andrade, but didn’t say anything, just quickly ordering a light beer after some internal back and forth about whether it was even appropriate for the function. But she wanted something with less alcohol to start… It was fine. Definitely fine, she forced herself to munch on a few pieces of fruit as the bottle was quickly obtained and poured into a glass placed in front of her.
Trisha immediately took a long drink, before turning to Furio and Andrade. She couldn’t exactly just ignore them now that she had her drink.
“How’re you, Furio? All… healed?”

Furio was grinning ear to ear, lifting up his hand to show Trisha a bandage. It looked like it was fully encompassing his hand, though three fingers still jutted out from the bandage.
”Doin’ just fine, Honey. He got me just like I hoped he would, so I figured I’d keep the wound. Not like I’m gonna be workin’ as hard anymore, after all. Why not have the trophy?
Two fingers and a thumb. That was all that remained of his right hand.
”How about you, no hard feelings? I know it’s probably not… Not something that is normal, right? For your Boyfriend’s uncle to try and kill him, then hug him a couple hours later?”

Andrade couldn’t help but laugh, his black and gold chef’s jacket shimmering in the comfortable low light.
”Blunt doesn’t even begin to describe you, Fu.”
Furio also laughed and shook his head.
”What, I’m not playin’ dumb. I don’t want the girl fuckin’ hatin’ me, I don’t know how I’d have lived with myself if I seriously hurt that boy.” he frowned.
”I told you, acknowledge you made a stupid decision, and move on. Don’t you think, Trisha? It would be better to forget it happened!”

“Well, he wouldn’t have to live with himself if he’d seriously hurt him,” Trisha said, before laughing to play it off as a joke. It was hard to tell, really, and the bees blending in with her dress were so still there was no obvious aggression from them.
“You’d also know if I hated you, believe me, I can be blunt too. But yes, pretty stupid decision, let’s not dwell on it. I watched too many hot headed people fight each other to near death as a teen to be anything but bored with it.”

It had certainly felt like coven members were trying to kill each other whenever they fought. Trisha was surprised none of the many casualties had been from infighting. She ate another bit of fruit, trying to force her appetite to appear in preparation for the meal. She then raised her glass with a slight smile.
“To no hard feelings and just forgetting it happened.”

The two men looked between one another, both smiling widely as they began to giggle. Furio opened his arms.
”You’re a keeper, Trisha. C’mere.”
His arms wrapped around her slightly, body bumping the plate of fruit just out of the way. Andrade rolled his eyes, giving a sarcastic grin. When he pulled back, Andrade figured he’d take over.

”That aside, I’ve been using your honey the last few days, Trisha! You’ve got some fantastic variety in between the different batches, it’s actually been pretty fascinating to try them out. Do you want to come see what we’ve been doing?” he asked, throwing a thumb back toward the door that led directly between the kitchen and the banquet room.

“Really? I’ve never really noticed the difference, but I wasn’t trying to.” She followed his thumb, one hand automatically going to one of the bees on her bodice, stroking its little body. She could sense the slight stir of the Queen inside of her, though she wasn’t quite awake. Casey had said to set herself up at the bar, but it wouldn’t be going far, and he’d probably notice, right? She did want to see what they were doing with her honey. The bees’ honey.
“Yeah, I’d really like to see that, actually. After all that time it's been sitting around… I want to see it being used.”

Andrade’s eyes lit up. If there was one true love in his life, it was his food.
”Shit, give me this then-” he plucked the beer from her hand, turning to the bartender.
”Wendy? A toddy for our dearest guest.” he grinned and pointed to direct Trisha’s attention. Even Furio turned his head to look at what was going on. Wendy smiled and nodded, making way for a little electric kettle and a jar that Trisha would recognize immediately as her own honey. She took an old fashioned comb-shaped dipper and spun it into the jar, pulling out a glob and letting the stick sit in the shaker for a moment.
Pouring hot tea over it loosened the honey, letting it slough away and dissolve into the warmth. Nutmeg, a splash of cognac, and finally a spritz of lemon. The dipper muddled it all together before she finally pulled it out to thoroughly mix the drink, then poured into a wide mouthed cup.

It was warm in Trisha’s hand, and the perfect thing to drink on a cold November night.
”It’s a traditional Hot Toddy, but if we put it on the menu with your honey, I’d love to call it a Hot Trisha. We’ll start branding it, we can get your name on a couple other menu items involving the honey. Once people start asking who you are and why you’re attached to the product, we can push your stuff more directly. They’ll want it in their homes.” he grinned widely, encouraging her to take a sip.

Trisha was glad she had gone for a drink immediately, choking out a mixture of a laugh and a sharp breath at the name suggestion. There was absolutely no way she was agreeing to that. The word combination… Hot Trisha… well it certainly wasn’t false, but she didn’t want it to be a drink.
Before she got into that, she raised the cup to her mouth, gently blowing on it before taking a sip. Her eyebrows raised slightly. It was nice… like tea, which she always drank with a lot of honey anyway. She’d never been that fond of the flavour of cognac either, but it was balanced here by the honey.

“It’s really nice.” She took another sip, smiling.
“Really, really nice. If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t believe it’s my honey… but you definitely can’t call it that. Literally anything but that. Do you know how many family members I have in St Portwell? Well, not that it’d be a good name anyway…”
She awkwardly raised the glass to her lips for another long drink. At least give a better suggestion… but one didn’t come to mind.
“Maybe… Tee instead of Trisha. Like bee with a T. Still me, just not my actual name.”

Andrade smiled, waving his hand in the air slightly. He looked like he was trying to conjure something out of thin air.
”Tea-Bee. One syllable doesn’t work for the drink, since it’s meant to have the same ring as the normal drink. So, a Hot Toddy becomes a Hot Tea-Bee. I hate to obfuscate it so much, since it just becomes more annoying for the servers to tell a snappy story about it. A name’s usually easier…” he paused, ruminating for a moment more.
”You and your fuckin’ marketing shit… Just call it a Honeydrop and be done with it… Fuckin’ Hot Toddy, Hot Trisha, I think they’re both stupid fuckin’ names.”
”And a Honeydrop gets dropped from your memory as quick as you drink it.”
”Then are you really give the ingredients any sort of respect?”

Andrade sat stunned for a moment, and around the same time, Elise and Junior made their way in. Accompanied by the girls, who had found Gin and a few other members of Project Eden. Gin happily waved to Trisha, despite her facial expression never reading anything other than discomfort.
She did seem a little compelled to move toward Trisha, but her attending companions kept her where she was; right by Lynette and Casey.

She even clung to Lynette the way a little child does, and in turn the gilded woman patted Gin’s head and stroked her shoulders in the way one would caress and care for a pet.
”Anyway, come on…”
Andrade waved Trisha on toward the kitchen, taking strides without looking back, only to disappear behind the swinging door.

Trisha made sure to wave back to Gin, before staring after Andrade’s quickly disappearing back, swiftly finishing her drink.
“Uh, if Casey comes over and didn’t notice where I went, can you let him know?” she asked Furio. “So he doesn’t worry.”

She didn’t really wait for an answer, assuming that he would… After all, duel to the death aside, Furio had been pretty reasonable. She put down her empty glass, grimacing at the telltale warmth settling in her chest. She drank too quickly… She’d have to pace herself. It was fine. She followed where Andrade had gone as quickly as her heels would allow her, pushing through it and into the kitchen. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect. She’d hardly been in a normal kitchen.

What came next was a full breakdown of all the things humanly possible with the natural sugar known as honey. An obvious sweetening agent, the tour began with desserts and things one would typically ascribe to the syrup’s wheelhouse. There were plenty of pastries, between challah breads and cookies, crackers almost caramelised with honey throughout.
Then a talk about textures, exploring the idea that honey with moisture could only be used for so much. There were a lot of little jars being infused with different herbs and spices, and under one of the metal cabinets was a jar of fermenting mead that obviously had to be made.

”Whatever batch it was that we chose for the mead? We’re looking at almost sixteen percent alcohol. You don’t usually touch numbers like that in the mead market.”

He was clearly proud, and talked about different sauces they’d tried making with the honey before they settled on trying to mass infuse different flavors and see what came out best.
But what he was most impressed with was a trick he’d pulled from a different Chef, whom he admired and respected in the short time they worked together. She’d shown him that you could always caramelise the honey and dehydrate it like that, grinding down the candy into powder.

But the cooked honey never tasted the same; so they began to dehydrate it mechanically, using a constantly circulating ventilator to wick any bit of moisture out of the raw honey.
Pure granulated and processed honey sugar could be used in so many places that the liquid honey simply couldn’t, and he showed off a piece of steak that was dry-aging in a crust of the stuff an inch thick.

By the time he’d shown her everything, it was getting close to showtime.
”So, I mean… I know we can’t rush perfection, but I’d say we’ve got a lot that can be done and not a lot of raw product left to do it. Obviously, this experimentation has taken up a good chunk of what you had. We kept the grade three stuff out of the food, just storing it for stuff like your drink, or spreading directly.”

Trisha’s head was practically spinning with everything she’d been shown and told. She hadn’t realised there was so much food that could include honey, or so many different uses outside of that. She’d never thought to try or look into it until now. She was impressed. If it was her working with her honey… she couldn’t have done any of it.

But of course, there was the matter of honey production. If they’d already gone through a couple years stockpiling… she would definitely need more bees. Which came with its own issues she didn’t want to think about tonight.
“Well, they’ve gotten set up in their new hive and started making honey again. It’s… not something that can be sped up without numbers. It’s already faster than a normal hive, because they don’t have any brood to tend. With the amount I have in a week they’ll have made enough for…” she frowned, quickly calculating it. “Just over three jars of honey, assuming they adapt well to the new environment. When I checked yesterday they seemed to have.”

She smiled, looking down at the fairly still bees dotted all over her dress.
“I know three a week doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a lot of work for them.”
”My dear, they live and breathe, do they not? We can’t rush what must come naturally; we can only get people addicted to it now so that by the time it comes around again, it sells out instantly.” he held out his hand to shake.
”Now, go enjoy your party: I promise, we’re not going to make you eat all honey tonight. Just dessert, and it's a surprise.” he grinned.

“I couldn’t rush them even if I wanted to,” Trisha laughed, smiling brightly as she shook his hand. She was genuinely excited about it in a way she hadn’t been for a long time. Excited about something that could build her future that wasn’t a partner.
“Good, I don’t want to get sick of something I have to work with… but I’ll look forward to dessert.”

She raised her hand in a half wave before going back out the way she’d come.

”Oh, and Trisha!?” Andrade called to her, just before she managed to scramble off. ”Feel free to eat tonight… Our friends have made sure you’ve got nothing to worry about. Even if it leaves us all a bit more hungry.”

Trisha paused in the door to look back at him, smile faltering, confusion clear across her eyes. Not at what he was saying - she understood it perfectly - but she hadn’t expected it.
“Alright, I’ll eat as much as I can then… Thanks, Andrade.” She’d try her hardest to not let their effort go to waste, even if eating at a large dinner was always a challenge for her.

She turned back around and through the kitchen door, back into the function hall. She immediately looked around for Casey, hoping he wasn’t surrounded by too many people. Even if he was, she’d probably still go over to him.

At that point, he was actually sat in his big chair at the head of the table. It almost made him look little despite his own stature. As Trisha came out, he lept up to his feet and moved to her, grabbing her hands.
”Hello my baby, hello my HONEY-” he laughed aloud, smiling at her and dancing a little bit.
”How was it, how’s the food look? Furio said you guys were talkin’ about the honey?” he asked curiously. It was hard to not notice Gin very quickly sneaking up on their flank.

While most of the room was now full of people talking and chatting, they seemed to congregate mostly around Lynette at the other end of the table. Whether it was just because that’s how important she was, or if they were somehow told to give Casey some space, wasn’t clear.
The clearest thing was that Gin either didn’t care enough, or cared too much about Trisha to care about anything else. She didn’t speak, but she did hover in their direct vicinity, enough that Casey wordlessly placed a hand on her head and pulled her in to a one armed embrace while he listened to Trisha.

Trisha was in a good mood after seeing all the honey products, even if it’d been a bit exhausting, and she smiled warmly at Casey. Her eyes creased cutely and shone in a way they normally only did when it was just the two of them. She even smiled genuinely at Gin, though it didn’t have that same gooey warmness to it.
“Honestly? No idea about the food for tonight. Andrade was showing me everything they’re doing with my honey… It's a lot. I didn’t know you could do so much with honey. Not even just in sweet things… They even had this steak dry aging with honey sugar around it. Also, the mead they’re making is looking like it’ll be much more alcoholic than normal. I’m a bit concerned that some of the girls have been going out drinking without me knowing for that to happen…” She laughed.

“Oh, I tried a drink first with it, a Hot Toddy? But y’know what Andrade wanted to call it…” she trailed off, grinning playfully, voice lowering. “A Hot Trisha… can you imagine?”

Casey grinned, Gin grinned. But he caught his counterpart in his periphery and turned to face her fully. He didn’t stop smiling, but he did wait quite a bit longer than he had to before he shook her.
”What’s so funny!?” he laughed playfully.
She looked back at him, and didn’t really understand if he was mad or not, since he was still laughing. She decided she’d just keep laughing too.
”It’s a fuckin’ pun…”
In turn, Casey cracked up. His free hand lifted up to smack his own face, resting in his eyes.

”Y’know, Babe? You are a pretty hot Trisha.” he laughed again, eventually letting himself calm enough to redirect Gin’s energy off of it.
”But, yeah… I hope you guys work on it a bit more; I know how he gets about shit like that.”
And then he looked back down at the still lightly giggling Ginara.
”Now, what brings the Director of Eden to this side of the table?”

”Ooh, T-trisha mostly. Pretty good, the alarm works… I mean, for the bees. Did you know that fifteen thousand of them swarmed out at one point all in one go?”
She was dressed in something that at least wasn’t her usual lab coat and sweatpants; opting for a formally masculine suit complete with a long coat and haptic finger gloves to be able to touch her screen without actually touching her screen.

She pulled up a little application that showed some vital data about the bees in real time, holding it up for Trisha to look at.
”The Hive-House is full of sensors too, so we can see how the comb is developing between the sections.”

Trisha had to laugh along with them. It was pretty funny all around.
Still, she couldn’t resist moving to Casey’s other side, going up on her tiptoes to get as close as possible to his ear.
“Hot Trisha is a one of a kind, completely exclusive, only for you, Babe. I wouldn’t want any others to exist.”

She lowered herself back to her heels, wobbling a bit when she forgot they were higher than normal. She then leaned a bit forward to look at the application Gin was showing her, eyes narrowing in concentration as she deciphered what it was telling her. It was… impressive. All things that she could glean off her bees made much easier to access. Really, it made her redundant… no, that wasn’t the case. Without her there weren’t any bees at all.
“Swarmed out… today? Without me calling them? Do you get an alarm when any of them leave?” She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wouldn’t be able to call the bees without someone in the Temple knowing. There was a cold anxiety in her chest that she tried to ignore thinking about that. Instead, she concentrated on the data.

“Is there any way for me to get something like this?” Trisha asked as she looked at it.
“I can read their pheromones, but I need to be around enough bees who were in the hive recently. Something like this would make things much easier for me.”

Gin nodded, sliding to another screen to show Trisha the influx of bees moving out of the hive. The time: two forty-nine that morning. The wakeup call.
”White Lux sensors indicate a high-level magical current that starts the event. There's a rapid surge of apparitional Lux after that, and within five seconds the massive chunk of the hive uproots to go on the warpath. I get notifications for every little dude coming and going…”

She grinned, pushing her glasses tighter to her face with a smugness.
”I'll send you the QR code for the download later on. Do you want me to pre-make your login creds?” she asked very seriously.

Trisha grimaced when she saw when it was. This morning, of course. When she’d called all the bees in panic. It was embarrassing how that happened, the pheromones she’d given off in panic too…
“Every single one? Won’t that get annoying? I swap out the ones with me multiple times a day. Sometimes they just come over because they want to…”

Well, it wasn’t like she was the one getting the notifications. She could see its use if her life was in danger… but it was also a type of tracking. That made her uncomfortable. Something to talk with Casey about later.
“Yeah, please do. I’d just like access to the Hive sensors, really. I know when they come and go, obviously.” She was still looking at the screen, clearly impressed.
“Did you guys also make this whole application in a few days?”

”Junior and I made it in a few hours. You can skip a lot of steps when it's held together by magic; don't worry.”
Junior had a sensor of his own: Some considered it a magical power, that he could hear his name mentioned anytime, anywhere.
”Oooh, shit yeah. The bees…"

Looming over Trisha’s shoulder, Junior looked down at the application screen before looking up at his big brother and grinning.
”It’s pretty great, isn’t it? It’s like I’m always in your hands. Flattering, really.”

Gin laughed at what was an innocuous comment to her.
”Oh, me too. You’re carrying us around, Trisha… And it's like you’re carrying the bees, but twice.”
But of course, Casey wasn’t about to make a point out of admonishing Junior for the current creeping. Not with Gin there; not with them all gathered to be happy. Trisha had, intentionally or not, ended up pumping his confidence a bit. Thanks to the “Hot Trisha” comment, he felt like he could at least take on the challenge without feeling like he was less than.
”Oh, so there’s nut in the code?” he asked casually.

Junior was about to answer, but Gin laughed and spoke first.
”Bees don’t do nuts, dude. Maybe there’s flowers in the code?”
”Definitely pollen… Lots of… Pollen… Speaking of sticky reproductive proteins; Casey, are you gonna get the bull balls again?”

Casey grinned.
”I know it scares you, but they’ve still got more texture than that shar pei you call a brain.”

Trisha flinched slightly as Junior just appeared over her shoulder, something she played off as stumbling in her heels with a step closer to Casey. She didn’t like the sudden appearance right behind her, and a few bees crawled out from hiding spots in the braid along the top of her head in reaction.

She tilted her head, trying to keep up with the conversation and all of the hidden shit underneath it. Sure, she was used to it when it came to certain members of her family, but it meant it wasn’t just as easy as listening and understanding.
“Oh, well, I planned to put it on my tablet rather than my phone. I only need it when I’m at home.” She didn’t particularly want to carry around a Temple created app, and the idea was even less appealing after what Junior had said. Something she decided to just ignore otherwise.

“Like you ate them, Case? Is that what he means?” Trisha tilted her head up to Casey, before laughing.
“Like Lanciao- The one time my mom took me back to the Philippines with her my cousins gave me it without telling me what it was. It’s kind of worse, though, it’s got everything. I’ll take you there one day and you can try it.” She grinned, before her gaze moved to Junior, smile getting a lot less genuine.
“It’s not bad, really. But I’m sure your brain is plenty textured - when I tried tuslob buwa, that’s pig’s brains, it had something of a texture to it.”

Junior’s face twisted into the most evil kind of grin he could give Casey. In turn, there was a shift in his own demeanor as he furrowed his brow to look at Junior.

”Don’t do it…” Casey asserted.
”It?” Junior questioned, practically rolling his shoulders with it like the Cheshire Cat.
”Whatever you thought. Don’t say it.”
”Casey…” Junior still grinned, hands slipping into the pockets of his slacks.
”Be disrespectful in your own head, or you won’t be eating here.” Casey growled. His gaze turned down slightly to Gin, who was messing about on her phone with nary a clue as to the tensions mounting.

”You’re assuming, right? Like, assuming I’m being… Disrespectful? The only thing that passed through my head is-”
”Maaaaaax…” Casey growled again.
”-is that I’m so happy the both of you are adventurous eaters! That’s all! I think it’s great that you’ll both just…-”

Casey patted Gin’s shoulder, letting her go before launching at his brother with both hands. He gripped him by the collar, one hand flicked up and smacked him across the face, and the other spun him before shoving the wiry Junior back toward the wall.
”Ough! Dude! I didn’t even say anything!”
”I. Don’t. Care. Go bother other people if you really feel like you need to be here.”
”I saw you guys talking about something I worked hard on, the least I can do is fuckin’ joke around a little bit!”

“Casey, calm down.” Trisha jumped forward, hands going up to grip his bicep. Her thumbs rubbed circles against it, and she looked around, worried that people were going to start looking over, and it would become a massive thing. She didn’t know anyone here well enough to know how that would go, but she knew when it was her own family it just made things worse. More annoying to deal with. She stopped looking around to look up at Casey pleadingly.
“Just let him go, it’s not worth it.” It was true that he hadn’t really said anything, but she wasn’t going to say that, because she got it.

”Oh, actually, I’d like another drink, why don’t we go over to the bar? Just the two of us.” She looked past Casey at Junior.
“Jokes are supposed to be funny, by the way. I get it, you’re in Tech, but learn to read the room.”

Funnily enough, nobody paid it much attention; save for Furio who was apparently glued to the bar. But he really only laughed, and as Casey turned to see him doing so, he started to laugh too. It was ridiculous, and if anyone knew, it was Furio.

”I get it, you’re in Tech? What’s that supposed to mean?” Junior asked before blowing air out from between his lips and swinging his arm as if to wipe it all away.
”Never mind, forget I asked. I’ll go hang out with people who like me: Gin, good luck keepin’ that app held together with shoestring.”

Being acclimated enough to this scenario, Gin was easily able to keep her own anxiety low by simply dissociating. She didn’t even hear Junior say anything when he left. She didn’t even really see Casey getting physical. By the time she looked up, Casey and Trisha had already moved off to the bar, and she was standing by nothing… So she found a comfortable seat near the head, where Trisha would be sitting, and planted herself down.

Casey didn’t bother looking to see if Junior left or not, and was still laughing as Furio cleared away for the two of them. He patted Casey on the shoulder as he slipped off.
”He knows just how far to push, the little fuck…” he groaned at Trisha. ”And I’m not dealing with it anymore. I swear!”

“And you shouldn’t,” Trisha said. She turned around towards Casey rather than the bar, arms slipping around him and leaning into his body.
“All that stuff people say about putting up with family is bullshit, anyway. Next time properly beat him up… I just didn’t want my appetite ruined tonight.”

She looked over at the bar, then back up at Casey, deciding to move on from that shitshow… She didn’t want to think about Junior, or the discomfort she felt just by being in his presence. There wasn’t even a reason for it.
“Hey, want to try a Hot Trisha?” she asked, trying to use a flirty tone but breaking down into laughter half way through it.

Even Wendy, the bartender, started laughing.
“Fucking Hot Trisha coming up, Your Grace!”

Casey gave a genuine smile to Trisha, quickly wrapping her around his side and cuddling her tightly.
”You’re so cool… Thanks. And thank you, Wendy… Do you have any clue about how we can fix that?”
Wendy snorted as she tried to muddle the honey into the warm tea.
“Oh, God… Nah, honestly I’m not that creative. Give me the booze, I get it. But, words? Fuck that.”

He shrugged as he finally received his drink, taking a sip and nodding.
”Why not a Queen Tea? Like Green Tea, or Queen Bee…” he offered, shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh, see? You always do that… I’m so glad you’re back for good, C-L… Lord Grace!”

“I suggested Tee instead of using my name, and Andrade started going on about marketing and it being a snappy story, so… you’re welcome to suggest that and listen to the same rant? I like it, but he’s the fussy one.” Trisha said, looking at Wendy with a smile, then back up at Casey.
“Does everyone have to call you that? Bit awkward… I’m not going to get shit for using your name, am I?”

Casey looked a bit dazed and confused at the second part of what Trisha said. His brow narrowed, and his lips turned down into a considerate frown. The young woman was probably close to the same age as them, blonde, and dressed in a black and gold uniform that matched Andrade’s. It was clearly for the event tonight, special for one night only.

As she washed away at a glass, she simply smiled.
“Well, no… We don’t have to, so you won’t have a problem. It’s… Well, we were asked to for tonight, but honestly? I think I like it. When we were kids, nobody really thought Casey was gonna do much. So, him doing this now? Pretty cool to me.”
Casey’s confusion turned into surprise. He knew that a lot of the other kids in the Coven at his age didn’t think much of him. But, hearing her say that he was welcome in his position made him happy.
”Well shit… I mean I won’t argue with that; thanks, Wendy!”

She smiled back.
“Of course… Now, should I keep ‘em comin’? Do you want another, Miss Trisha? Or something stronger?”

“I’ll just be sticking to your name, but it doesn’t mean I think you’re any less cool,” Trisha smiled, one hand moving away from hugging Casey to wave in front of her.
“Another of the beer I had earlier, please. I don’t want to drink too much before eating… and I didn’t get to finish it. Andrade stole it from me.” She pouted slightly, but wasn’t all that upset about it, obviously.

“Do you like it?” she then asked Casey, gesturing to the drink.
“Pretty nice, right? I was surprised… I think they’re using my honey in the dessert tonight too? It’s really…” she trailed off, head moving from side to side in an embarrassed motion.
“Weird. Something I helped make being used.”

Casey absolutely slurped the warm tea beverage down until there wasn’t a single drop left in the cup. It was like watching someone pour it directly into a can. His lid tilted shut, and he had a smile on his face.
”Oh, that’s fuckin’ great. Definitely not something to drink with dinner though… Vodka and tonic?”
“Mint?” she asked him, swiping everything up.
”Why not?”

He grinned back down at Trisha.
”So you said… The dessert? I wonder how, because he promised me he was making… Well… I guess there’s a bunch of ways? Are you flattered by it? Or is it weird in a bad way?” he asked Trisha directly, not so much concerned as he was curious.
Wendy handed over the beer and the V/T, and Casey nodded them off as he turned Trisha back toward the table.

“Flattered, I think,” Trisha nodded with a smile, taking a sip of the beer. Maybe not the type of drink for a fancy meal, but she’d never been fond of the drinks that did go with something like that.
“I’m just not used to it. I have a large family, so there was always someone doing something that everyone else paid attention to… Even if it wasn’t actually impressive. I didn’t really experience that.” She said it all so nonchalantly, shrugging one shoulder, as if it was just a novel new experience and that past lack of attention had never bothered her. Her voice got much, much quieter.
“Now I have something to show for it all.”

She shook her head, not sure why she’d actually given that answer rather than the various half truths she could’ve gone with. So stupid. She awkwardly tried to move the conversation on before he could actually say anything about it.
“Does everyone else have assigned seats, or is it just us?”

Casey heard what Trisha said about being lost in the crowd and internalized it. He’d felt the same thing in a smaller setting; but it was hard to ignore what sorts of feelings that conjured up in him. But he felt her redirection actively, like a ripple in his White Lux that was so ready and active now around him. It was hard for it not to talk to the reality around one, and he imagined this is how his mother and sister always knew whatever he was thinking… It wasn’t just for remote viewing.

”Just us. Kinda funny, right? My day, my event, I can’t pick my seat! ‘Cuz they want all eyes forward. Mom’ll be at the other end, and an empty seat for my…”
A little light left his eyes.
”That's… So… Fucked up…” he muttered to himself, eyes now glanced down the table toward the other large seat. Maxwell…

“So we could be sitting next to anyone. No choice? That's a bit unfair.” Trisha said, before her eyes followed his towards the other end of the table. For his dad. She could practically see that black, ghostly outline… but it wasn’t there, of course. She visibly tensed. It was fucked up. Her lips pressed together into a thin line as she remembered the dream again. She still didn’t understand it, and she hated that. She leaned more into Casey.
“Let’s make sure to die at the same time,” she whispered, so quietly it would be difficult even for Casey to hear.

“At least we get to sit together,” she continued as if she hadn’t even said anything. It was a thought that had just slipped out accidentally, and she was going to pretend it hadn’t. She should've eaten more of that fruit before she had a drink…
“I’m very good at ignoring everyone else at large dinner parties if I have to. Or just pretending to listen, the old routine of nodding and smiling. When we were younger it pissed Tansy off more than me actually getting annoyed at her.”

”I’ll leave your decision to you, of course… But I’d love it if you chose to listen. Someday, what you hear could come in handy.” Casey replied, either ignoring or not hearing Trisha’s comment about dying.
In truth, he had missed it for the echoing of a hundred voices. Inside and outside, they were talking about each and every little thing going on in their lives. He was acutely aware of things he’d never been aware of before… Like how warm the room was, or how everyone’s voices sounded just a little sharper than they should at a place like this.

And then he was still thinking about Junior, and about his Father. Max was on his mind, and he hated that particularly. But the drink was good, and Trisha was good, and he turned his head to look across that long table at his Mother. She was being spoken to, and replying, but still managed to convey some emotion in his direction. Her hand was resting on the armrest of his Father’s reserved seat, and her thumb rolled down in a particular fashion.
He knew instantly that it was knowing, and that it was purposeful. As if to tell him that Maxwell the Forth would be proud of him. As if he didn’t know, and didn’t hate every bit.

Casey didn’t let his gaze linter on his Mother long, passing her off a sullen smile before snagging an apple off the table. As he did so, wait staff were beginning to pull those fruity offerings from the table. It was clearly some sort of que, some visual notification to let the engaged party know that mingling was safe to be done at the table.
Andrade slinked out from the rear, holding up his hands and clapping to capture everyone’s attention in the room.
”Alright, get comfortable now! Get sat, come on, we’ve got food coming, first course in fifteen minutes! Understand? Get your drinks, get your seats, get your appetites ready like I know they are…”

”Hungry Temple stomachs!” Lynette shouted, raising her wine to the air and hearing the entirety of the open dining room cheer in unison for the prospect of food.
”Eat, drink, and be merry under the protection of the Lord of Blades!”
More cheers, even from the attending patrons of the private area. As people began taking their seats, it became clear as to what the night had for company. Something like a protective barrier between the more Temple-oriented individuals and the Couple of the Hour formed.

With Gin having claimed a spot early, she remained near the head closest to Trisha, and she wound up flanked by Ed. Naturally, across from her, Mia settled in closest to Casey, with Hari on her side. It was about as far as conversation would go without things getting uncomfortable, however, and beyond them were the likes of some of Project Eden’s finest, close staff, and then more of the family before ending off with Lynette.

Another cheer rose up from the dining room as Casey and Trisha sat, with Leon making it into the dining room with an incredibly gaudy, almost vampire count-like outfit on. He took his seat on the end, but not before coming to the head and leaning over Casey’s chair to plant a solid kiss atop his head.
As he pulled away, he came up with two Jewellery boxes which were handed off to Trisha and Casey.
”These are from Dear Nonnat, Casey. I asked if she could spare something to match for Trisha.”
The boxes were unmarked, and opening them revealed two pendants with massive center gemstones cut from what appeared to be some kind of crystal grown in a golden striped pattern. The fixtures were pure gold, and heavy as could be, with little black and yellow stones surrounding the centerpieces.

Casey gave his brother a wide-eyed look, then looked back at Trisha.
”Jesus, Man!? You… She…”
His gaze turned again, and locked on Trisha.
”Our Nonnat! Our Grandmother in New York, she… Is very sick, and I haven’t even thought to go visit her.”

Trisha stared at the pendants with wide eyes. She was used to opulence, but this was really on another level. It honestly looked like it would hurt her neck to wear.
“I’d look like a gold digger if I wasn't already rich…" she half joked, gesturing to the silver ring on her right hand. She honestly wasn't sure how to react. It clearly had some meaning. She just didn't know what, and she didn't understand family in that way. A gift from family for her was a poor apology for not giving her the time of day. That clearly wasn't the case here.

She turned her body towards Casey, smiling at him.
“Then we'll just have to go visit and thank her when you have time. Maybe go to a few places along the East coast? But primarily go and visit her." She then looked back down at the pendant, towards Leon, then at Casey again.
“Should we… put them on now?" Her voice lowered enough that only those close enough to her could hear. “I don't really know what they mean."

Leon laughed and shook his head, patting Trisha gently on the shoulder.
”They don’t really mean anything. Just a congratulation, and she was honestly thrilled to hear that he’s dating someone so I don’t think she was troubled by a two-for-one.”
Casey laughed aloud.
”Nonnat’s an Artificer, she makes magical artifacts. Or, used to. I assume the Casket made these.”

Leon nodded.
”Yeah, the components were a few pieces of her older works. I’m fairly certain it was the Caden collection.”
Nodding, Casey held the pendant up again, bringing it closer to Trisha’s. His had a thicker necklace and a bulkier centerpiece, while Trisha’s certainly looked a bit more fragile. The metal of the pendant was slimmer, creating the illusion that her center stone was even bigger like a wide open eye.
”She’s got this machine; it’s a recycler, basically. Dump shit into it, feed intent through magic, and it’ll spit out what you want. Like artificial intelligence-shit.”

Leon kissed his brother’s head again, patting both of them gently.
”Enjoy ‘em. And don’t worry, they’re not bugged or anything.”
Casey half grinned up at Leon, neck almost creaking.
”Oh, I’d know…”
The wolfman could only nod his head and accept his brother’s ominous statement, retreating to the bar before making way for a seat near his Mother at the other end of the table.

Casey’s attention returned to Trisha.
”We putting them away?”

“Yes, as nice as they are…" she touched the back of her neck and laughed.
“I’m not sure my neck is prepared for something so heavy. Especially if it's magical."

She closed the box hers had come in, looking towards the bag she'd brought. It was small, just enough to fit her phone and purse, so she turned to Casey and held it out to him.
“I assume you have somewhere to put them?" She was relieved it was just a gift, though a genuine one it seemed - something that still made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
“Now we have something else that matches. These outfits, the pendants… soon we'll have a whole matching collection. What should we get next? Halloween is a while away, so not costumes… watches? Earrings? Rings-" oh shit not rings, matching rings normally imply marriage, shit- “Oh, maybe matching outfits for a date?”
Saved. Perfectly played off.

”Probably start with matching outfits. Save the rings for when we’re married.”
Casey said it with such smooth casualness that it probably didn’t even sound like anything. He imagined the joke coming out like Charlie Brown’s parents’ voices.
”Hari’s purse.” Mia commented, holding out her hand across the table toward Trisha and Casey.
”We keep everything in there, and it’s always safe.”
”So fuckin’ true, like anything we need? Goes in her bag.” Ed piped up, laughing a bit as the both of them looked at Hari.

Sighing, the young woman reached down.
”What the hell am I getting?” she asked, coming up with her purse.

For when they were married… like it was a definite. Like with all of these things, it made Trisha feel conflicted. All she wanted was to be with Casey forever, but there was also that ever present fear that it would be pulled away from her when she was in too deep. Was she already in too deep? No, no, just surface level. And really, he said it like it was nothing, it wasn't even serious. But then did that mean he wasn't thinking about it seriously?
“I like the sound of matching outfits first, let's do that," she laughed lightly, also playing it off.

She then handed the pendant over to Mia, looking at Hari with a smile.
“Thanks, Hari. Some really elaborate, magical-?" She glanced at Casey for that, “pendants."
She shuffled slightly in her seat so she was closer to Casey, one leg moving towards him to press against his. She was glad with who’d ended up at their end of the table, but she still wasn't comfortable with the whole large meal scenario.
“So, I have to ask, what are the portions like here? Is it normal portions with three courses, or is it fancy restaurant eight tiny portions?"

”Not magic, Babe! Just uh… Magically made.”
”We’re doing Family style, I’m pretty sure. We’ll have a few serving dishes of whatever’s brought out, so you can take as much or as little as you want.” Mia practically spoke over Casey, slipping the two pendants to Hari.
The searingly red haired girl popped one of the boxes open, ogling at the contents before snapping it shut and tossing them gently into her purse. She gave Trisha some eye contact and a playful salute.

”Ugh, God please no…” Gin quietly protested, still mostly fixed to her phone. She was fiddling with something before swinging it around to show to Trisha.
”Yo, check it out. Sensors can lidar the fuckin’ hive… They’re building a new section, see?”

Trisha was relieved to hear that the food was a self serve style thing, probably, so she didn't have to worry about being rude when she couldn't eat a whole plate put in front of her. She could probably force herself through it but… it wouldn't be enjoyable. But she still smiled back at Hari before her attention was taken by Gin.
“Really? Huh, you're right," she leaned over to look at Gin's phone screen, looking at the grainy, laser created images of the bees. It wasn't something she normally got to see - she could sense it, but she only looked inside the hive when she was pulling out sections to collect the honey. She nudged Casey, bringing his attention to the phone.
“Look at that, babe, the girls are hard at work… We'll need to go in and give them loads of fruit later."

She reached down to gently stroke one of the bees on her bodice, and it gently buzzed before crawling on her finger.
“That’s really cool, Gin. I can keep up with them without having to call a whole swarm… which nobody wants."

Looking over, Casey’s face turned into a wide grin.
”Oh, no shit! I’ll have Andrade bag up a bunch of that fruit and we’ll give ‘em a nice feast for all their effort.” he exclaimed, looking down the table toward one of the other Project Eden members.
”Fuckin’ bees, dude! Lookin’ great, man!”
”Oooh, let’s see!” Mia went to stand, but Gin wholesale shoved herself halfway across the table.

”Ginara!?” Lynette’s stern face stared down the table at her. Pretty hard to take her seriously when she was literally golden, but it seemed to work on Gin. Sheepishly, the girl slumped back into her seat. Mia laughed, pushing up and standing to come around and look as their manners dictated.
”Oooh, wow… I… Don’t know what I’m looking at.” Mia finally admitted in a flat, almost disappointed tone.
”Like a million little lasers making a picture of a dark place.” Gin explained. Mia’s face made an o-shape before she began nodding.
”Oh, so, like… The comb, and then where they’re building?” her long fingers prodded at the screen, causing it to change to another screen which Gin gasped at.
”Oops…” Mia shrugged, spinning finally and without much ceremony to hit the bar. Long island iced tea, as tall of a glass as Wendy would give her, and she hit her seat with renewed enthusiasm.

”So, what do you think, Trisha? You’ve got pretty much everyone who's anyone in the Temple at a table with you. Shit’s like the Last Supper except you’re like a guest…” she laughed, joking just low enough that they maintained volume with the din of the table.

Trisha tilted her head, smiling even when there was some confusion in her eyes, a dull brown in the current lighting. Was she supposed to feel anything special over that? Intimidated, honoured? If anything, she just felt how she always did in any large dining situations - a constant, niggling want to flee.
“I think I could run St Portwell if I really wanted to," she joked back, also quiet enough to keep it among people at their end of the table.
“Mundane scene with my family, magical from the Temple… haha, the city’s at my fingertips."

It was a joke, of course. She'd very purposefully never gone for anything using her family name… membership of a certain, barely functioning group aside. She shrugged.
“With how I grew up I learned not to think about how important someone sitting at a table with me was. Dad always had someone round… Some of the people he married were famous, and my sister now too. But it'd be pretty exciting and new if it did turn out like the Last Supper. Haven't experienced that. There isn't any special, magical Temple table manners I need to know, are there?"

”Oh, nah. We’re such apostates, the table comes pre-blessed so we don’t even bother with saying Grace.” Hari responded, happy to give any bit of info she could.
”Carved right into the bitch.” Gin let her leg swing up under the table, kicking it and making the cups rattle from below.
”Please don’t kick the hand-carved blessing?” Mia asked, despite her tone very clearly being a commanding one.

Gin frowned, tilting her head back again.
”Stiff, stiff… Killing meeeeee-”
”Listen, we’re all stuck here. Don’t be rude, Ginara.” Mia did her best to hide how frustrated she was, but in the end it only served to make her lash out in other areas.
”Mimi…” Ed frowned, looking at Mia across the table. The response was a long sigh and hands being tossed into the air.
”Okay, sure. Just let her kick the table, but when she tries to stand on the table-”

Gin turned her head to Trisha, a frown on her face.
”Can we talk about games or something, Trisha?”
Mia scoffed, snagged her drink and took it down entirely before shoving off to get another.
”And I’m the jerk…-” her voice trailed off.

Trisha was doing her best to stay cool about everything. Her hands dropped to her lap, clenching and unclenching in her skirts, scrunching up the fabric in them. She looked from Gin, to Mia, to Gin as they went back and forth, trying not to frown about it. Just about maintaining that same, not quite genuine smile. It wasn't the company. It wasn't even the clashing, really. It was just too like all those family dinners she has to suffer through, and she was just waiting for it to turn on her. It always did.
Normally this was the point where she'd leave and lock herself in her room. Once she hit a certain age she stopped suffering through it, and later on didn't even show up in the first place. But she couldn't leave. There was nowhere to go, and it would just upset Casey.

She wasn't normally a mediator. Wasn't good at it. One hand came up from her lap just to grab her beer, and she quickly downed the whole bottle.
“Alright, we can talk about games, but Mia's right, Gin. You shouldn't kick or stand on the table… it'll disturb everyone else. It might disturb the bees." She gestured to the ones that were visible. A couple had even crawled onto the glass in front of her. Hopefully she'd put it in a way that would get through to Gin.
“I’m quite boring with games, though. I've mostly just been playing… Left for Dead Two with some friends. Really, I play whatever they want to. One is really good at them, but the other two of us who always play too… aren't. I just can't get aiming with a mouse and by the time I shoot it's too late and there's a zombie in my face. But maybe you can recommend something to me so I can branch out more?"

”Oh, dude you need something slower right? If you’re casually gaming, you don’t wanna keep up with some asshole bunnyhopping through your map. Do you like having stuff to kill and fight? Or do you think that it doesn’t matter and you could be cool like… Looking at spreadsheets or something?”
Hari had gotten up with Mia, but Ed was keyed in and listening to the conversation at hand.
”I play phone games… You guys use your computers?” she asked, looking at Gin.
”Eddy’s what you call a “whale” in the game she plays.” Gin laughed, nodding at Ed’s question.

“I definitely need something slower," Trisha laughed, managing to relax slightly now that Mia wasn't there going at Gin, thinking about what she actually liked. What did she like? Probably much slower games. She wasn't much bothered about the killing things, that was just what Sal and Cass enjoyed (even if Cass was bad at it).
“I think I'd prefer games without the stress of killing or being killed. When I play alone I normally just spin up stardew valley, honestly… relaxing stuff. I'm happy to do spreadsheets, but I don't really see what they have to do with games? Like the spreadsheets are the game, or games where you use spreadsheets to keep track of stuff?"

Trisha then looked at Ed with a smile.
“Only on the computer for me. A friend tried to get me to play some mobile game with her, but I just couldn't enjoy it…" She wasn't entirely sure what Gin meant by a whale, but it would be too embarrassing to ask, so didn't bother, just nodding as if she understood.
“I’m actually on my phone a lot less than people expect me to be… and I figured when I have a proper desktop why not use it?"

Ed nodded, a thoughtful look on her face that turned to Gin. She felt the look, and her head turned to look at Ed with a grin.
”I mean, it’s still there for you.”
Ed’s head tilted back and she groaned.
”I’m gonna be so lost though, and like, it’ll take me away from the girls…”
”Bros before hoes, Slaaaaag… Trisha’s gonna fuckin’ love when we mod the fuck out of Minecraft and go on a peaceful adventure of science and technology.”

“Oh, I never actually got to play Minecraft," Trisha's eyes lit up slightly at the prospect. The gamers in her friend group played it growing up and had grown out of it by the time they got to university - or had stranger things to take up their time, like emulating an entire new console.
“I’ll be lost too but Gin's right, that sounds pretty great. Why can't Mia and Hari play too? I'm up for it and I've got Casey to think about too."

Ed shrugged.
”The Polycule gets what the Polycule wants, y’know? I’m pretty in-demand for cuddle puddle time.”
Gin gagged. Ed laughed.
”But, they’re not really gamers like that. I’m mostly not, but… I’ve kind of always wanted to be.”

”You spend like three grand a month pulling PNG files on your phone. We all know you’re just worried you’ll get sucked into a new life that you’ll never get out of.”
Gin wasn’t stupid. Sometimes her acuity, however, managed to be surprising regardless. It was that terse, snappy kind of observation that cut through Ed’s barrier of good humor. She didn’t voice it, but Trisha would be able to see Ed’s despair as it flashed across her face.
”How do you do this every time, Gin?” Ed grunted, a slightly defeated tone in her voice.
”Do what? Cut the crap? That’s why I’m the Project Director, and why Auntie L trusts me.” she nodded along, looking back at Trisha.

”This gumbo-dumbo had me build her a legitimate gaming PC, paid for it, then never picked it up. Still hasn’t. There’s not even any crazy Junior-type Lux Board in it… It’s nice, all Japanese parts. We paid a fuckin’ mint ‘cuz of the Sanction Tax.”

Trisha narrowed her eyes, once again thrown into a situation she'd rather avoid. They weren't her problems, and as soon as she put her foot in it there was someone else to blame. But she was stuck here, for now.
“Gin… Don't-" she grimaced, waving a hand in front of her face, really struggling to not snap. She didn't want to look bad. She didn't want to set off things more, but she really couldn't just let it go…
“You can't just say shit like that. 'Cut the crap' or whatever, most people don't like it." she wouldn't like it, but she wasn't pushed enough to bring that into it. But if it had been her instead of Ed, and Gin just bluntly said some harsh truth, Trisha would've snapped. She was close to it anyway. The whole situation, the location, was getting to her. She had a short fuse at the best of times.

“But if there's already a gaming PC for you…" she turned towards Ed, forcing a slight smile.
“Maybe you could try playing with us, just a bit, when you have time?"
Then she thought of something else, furrowing her eyebrows and lowering her voice.
“That computer I was provided doesn't have a Junior-Type lux board in it, does it?"

Casey, who had been silent in his judgement in order to observe the interaction as it went, finally cleared his throat.
”Uh, no… And if it did, I’d be very upset. Now, Gin-”
The woman had her head in her hand.
”Please, don’t…”
Casey frowned, taking a slightly deeper breath.
”Just hear me out: You’re okay, and we’re okay. Alright? You know damn well what to say and what not to, and sometimes the brain just can’t stop itself. Own it, don’t cower, but recognize that it’s wrong and apologize when you do. Don’t hide, we’re not kids anymore.”

Gin looked vaguely displeased, especially having her talk about games derailed. She was still facing Trisha with most of her body, but leaned back and allower Ed to grab around her shoulders as she slowly tilted backward. It wasn’t a vocal apology, but a physical one: A kind of communication that many of the Temple Members seemed to share with one another.
Lynette was well trained in the art of listening to everything at once, and while she didn’t openly say anything, she did shoot a glance between Trisha and Casey, eyes warm and almost cat-like in their satisfied narrowing.

”I will… Thanks, Trisha. Maybe you guys can help me regulate it too…”
”Regulate my baaaaaaaalls… What are we regulating?”
”Mount up, Bitcheeeeees!”
"It was a clear black night, a clear light moon! Warren G was on the streets, try'n to consume-"
The three girls, sans Gin, began to rap in unison like they’d done it a billion times before. They had, and loved it.

There was a long moment where they were all absolutely vibing together, with Gin still in Ed’s arms as she bobbed them both side to side with the music. Mia must’ve sucked down a few drinks in the time her and Hari were at the bar, because she’d switched to something clear and was very openly starting to wobble.
And the first course hadn’t even come yet.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

& &

Mood Music

Edict & Leon & Kenshiro

---

Mentions: There's a lot, I'm being lazy. | Direct Dialogue: Too many people as usual. | Location: The House on the Hill

---

“Talk to me after this, I can help you with that.”

Luna

Leon's spine crawled thinking about what sort of demons the Mafia kept in their collective closet. Edict mirrored the strain, still trying to stay tuned into the ongoing verbal chaos. He couldn't think of anything in particular that House of Cards was capable of producing; after all, Void Heart was gone. What could be more unruly or aggressive than what the Temple wanted Layla to deal with? The vampire dolls seemed pretty spot-on from what he'd seen in Layla's mind, and as his gaze slightly turned to see Leon's reaction, he found a bit of despair in those eyes.
"Well... I'd still love to vet things, y'know? I'm not here to tell you how to live, but we're all responsible for your safety and your chance to learn, Layla."

Edict tried not to grin to himself. He was amazed the girl hadn't been hooked on the food yet. Maybe they were afraid of feeding the siblings?

”You can if you want to. I don’t mind. I’ll take on the responsibility for all the other 8th members I don’t believe should.”

Luca

Ken was an immovable object at the best of times. Edict had heard Luca's small plea to Ken's consciousness and wasn't shocked when he heard the response.
"I simply refuse to believe this. My only reasoning is that you clearly never could've been aligned with that wretched Cunt and her pet lizard: Your heart is too big, and you act in compassion even toward your greatest enemies. I will not let your small voice burn out into the night as you try to save those who would harbor Evil." Ken's conviction rumbled through his chest as he stared dead at Luca. Of course tears welled in his eyes, his passions almost always getting the best of him in these darkest of days.
"Kenshiro... Come on, my friend, we're all Adepts here. We should try to preserve a little life, right?"
"I'm not interested in your Cult's Supremacist rhetoric. Honor yourself like you did at the Festival, and save your morality."

Leon grimaced, and Ken's attention was taken up by Drake making an entrance.
"There's a man who knows the blade! D-"

”... Why is she here?”

Drake

Lynette Dominguez as well, and Edict couldn't ignore someone tall, dark and beautiful. She threw him off keeping track of Drake's brewing conflict with Luna; a problem exacerbated by the arrival of Love on her heels. Britney and Linqian? Aryin too, but at this point he had a hard time not giving himself up. With Tayla around, it was only going to be harder as he did his best to keep surface level thoughts from echoing into her ears.

"You know you look damn cute with that sword Brit? We were-"

”We know how to move forward, how to find Kari’s notes.”

Jack

"I mean, yeah. I may've mentioned something kind of silly, but it ain't a big deal." Edict did his best to bury the bait idea since it seemed like nobody seemed to go for it. He had faith, at least in Britney, that her "target" status was questionable at best. She was a strong Adept, one of the most well-versed in her school of magic that he knew.
Jack continued on about the entities related to the dreams, and wound up getting Edict, Ken and Leon's attention for different reasons. Ken's mind turned to a joke that he kept internalized, having listened to Kari talk about Britney so harshly sometimes. He couldn't help but relate the scant images of Sunshine to Britney, and hearing that they had Green Lux... A thought that Edict shared for a very different reason. He was worried that someone would try to point out the very same observation, creating a near-miss of thought that may've caused more sparks than necessary if they impacted.

Leon was mostly concerned about the whole of it. The association, the Chalice being involved somehow, the feeling like he almost knew who Sunshine was despite never knowing the woman. It wasn't canny, and he didn't want to dwell on that face longer than he had to. Lelou Faim's energy rippled through him as he began to pass inward toward his mind's eye. Stormy arriving was a welcome distraction, and Leon began to move away from Layla hoping that his desire for involvement in her plans had been made clear. Jack continued on about his and Kenshiro's plan to recover the Brass Needle, continuing to cringe as he thought about what a burden it must be to fear the Apparition. Maybe in Luca's case, one was right to be fearful. But, he couldn't help thinking about his own prisoner. His Betrothed.
Oh, Leon... You know just how to wake me up...
He gritted his teeth, throwing back his head in slight frustration.

”Don't dock my pay for being late, alright?

Linqian

"Man, what do I look like, some kind of animal?"
As he said this, Edict brushed a hand against Linqian and induced a quick Recollection to bring her up to speed. Not without getting a look at some nasty bruising and serious teeth indentations across her skin.
"Jesus, Linqian, were you fuckin' a bull mastiff or something?" he whispered.
The bull mastiff in question began to blush as Leon did his best not to stare and wave at Aryin and Linqian. It had been a great time, after all. It was the perfect distraction to keep Edict from defending Luna from herself as she had her personal problems with Drake spilled out into open taunting.

But Lynn had remained quiet in wait. Waiting to drop a bombshell of information, and a request for a mission that many never would've accepted.
There was a slight burst of energy that washed away from Kenshiro, drawing attention through sheer force of will. The Wayfinders... Hatanaka...
"Oh, yes! Yes, absolutely, let's stage a suicide mission into the Multiverse's maximum security prison for some other -"
Stopping himself, Ken's face became stone cold and frozen as he did his best to keep his opinions to himself.
"Yoko... Is not a good woman. Even if we find her, she will not want to help us."

Leon's hand raised. The voice in his head, present now that she'd been prodded enough by his own thoughts, had him by the shorts as he struggled to not offer himself up...
THE PIT THE PIT THE PIT THE PIT THE PIT THE-

”The Pit redirects any teleportation back into it. Meaning it's going to be next to impossible to get out.”

Britney

”Aaron’s right. That just ain’t an option. I mean… Just, how the fuck are you even getting there?”

Amara

"We don't teleport out of it... We open a hole, we have someone keep it safe, do what we have to do, and then leave through the door we came through. The Temple would offer its services if that meant extending an olive branch to us, and I'd be happy to coordinate it. Especially if... One of the Blessed Pale Adepts says they saw me in a vision... I'm compelled to answer that call."
Leon's voice was loud and clear as he offered himself positively for the Pit plan, having absolutely nothing to do with the ravenous, frothing desire of his Prisoner to have an excuse to unleash herself. He wasn't sure what would happen if he loaded himself up enough to give Lelou the time without having a Leash Keeper... One of the few times he missed Daisy...

And then a familiar face that Leon never imagined he'd see again. Lelou quickly scanned through his memories of the old days, and found the tall, dark and handsome man as one of Leon's earliest male partners... He felt compulsion to speak his name into reality, standing in a spot that he could begin to step forward toward that face burned into ancient memories.
"Mon Dieu, Bé!? Bé!?"
Leon stepped forward, arms almost opening up into a hug before being rudely interrupted by the sludgy shadow monster bursting through the door. He'd smelled something strange, heard some loud popping, but attributed all these things to the neighborhood they were in. Now it was clear that there was a fight. His ears perked up, and as people began to rush around in an attempt to help the transformed Clancy, Leon switched gears to defense mode. He'd not be shot by another canister, and quickly took Bé by the shoulders to purposefully move him away from the danger, and out of his direct path before he made for the door.

Ken was instantly locked in alongside him, though made for closer company like Drake and Jack. Without hesitation, he drew one of the swords from his hip and flipped it into a reverse hold. Positioning himself between the crowd and the thing that had burst in, he was quick to assume the worst.
"Have Greenwood betrayed us!?"
The only thing running through Edict's mind as he slipped off the barstool and pulled the pistol from his waist belt holster was about how he could've swore that he'd shot that thing the other day at Kari's house... So, why was it back?

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Estylwen Oh I'm rapt with anticipation as to where this is going. We'll hit the collab board again to talk about it more once the meeting's done!

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

& &

Mood Music

Edict & Leon & Kenshiro

---

Mentions: Britney Williams, Lila Blackwood | Direct Dialogue: Layla Hyacinthus/@Estylwen, Anya Baksh/@FernStone, Sully Mcpherson & Sloane Farris/@Atrophy, Jack Hawthorne/@Blizz, The Gathered Coven | Location: The House on the Hill

---

Leon remained fixed on Layla, their participation in the meeting cursory with the attention it was being given. He listened to Layla's plan, and as it unfurled, he only felt more nervous about it. There was no way Lynette was just going to let her go about her business about the Temple without making herself a useful host.

“I can still be useful…”

Layla

"Well... Then you must be planning on taking another Charge, right? Another Apparition in place of them before Him? Because... Part of your training is...-" Leon gripped the bridge of his nose in frustration. "-The whole point, really was you having rowdy uncontrolled spirits! You're learning, we're trying to improve your control, right!? So that when... When you do, and please don't say his name around these people-" he whispered. "-but when you do, you'll be ready! Right? So, you... You need to consider that! You should consider that." he finished, not wanting to sound like some sort of taskmaster or pusher forcing this on her.

He had enough regrets about getting his friends involved with his family. Frankly, he had been hoping that Layla said yes, and that she would be done with all this magic. She needed therapy, real human therapy; not a Leech replacing the Vampires. And then Sully squirted her in the mouth. As much as he wanted to be the grouchy wolf, it was... It was Sully! He'd been disappointed in the guy a few times, but never so mad that he could have anything for him but genuine love and affection. A bit of the healing liquid spilled across his hair as well, making it grow just a little uneven.
"Oh, Sully! Bro, is one of those filled with JD? Jesus, watch where you're squirtin' your loads Brother, we're tryn'a have a private thing for a second." he chided playfully.

Edict was a bit distracted by the interaction, mostly by Sully. The always and ever hopeless gorilla. It was only endearing to a certain point, quickly becoming overbearing after a few minutes. But Sloane was with him, and he couldn't help but stir the pot a little bit.
"Oh, my fellow thief! Glad to see that dour expression is still stuck to your face after getting bug-zapped outside a Dairy Queen." he grinned, long since having gotten a drink for himself.

”If anyone has a chance of translating those notes, would it not be you? Your closeness to Kari puts you in an advantageous position, does it not? We can recover the notes and translate them ourselves.”

Jack

As Edict joked around, Ken scoffed at Jack's assumption that he had any clue about what was going on in that text. Even if there was Gamanese in it, he wasn't going to have the wearwithall to associate his own vague knowledge of the language with the beginning of a cypher.
"I'm a Soldier and a Farmer, Jack. I'm not some code-man or a Shiro user like Kari is. I wouldn't be able to help at all."

Edict took in the different suggestions, listening to what everyone had to say before a grin finally washed over his face.
"Alright, hear me out. I'm game for suggestions from anyone else, but... I think we should do what we do best! I think, maybe in this situation, being a group of disorganized dissenters can help us! The proposition is Absolute Chaos: If 8th told Schmidt that we're looking for the notes and didn't find 'em... Then we should make it look like it broke us! That this is the last meeting, and that everyone's just gonna separate and do their own things. So they think we're disorganized and that we don't have our shit together. All we need to do as a group is buckle down and agree on a plan to break their ankles!" he said, mimicking a basketball fakeout with the glass in his hand.

"We go underground as we can, and start pulling strings like how Adora said: Doin' shit like trying to get the good brains out of 8th and onto our side. If they see a little group, maybe headed by Luca or something, maybe they'd be more willing to go for it. Or, at worst, we can have different cells working different angles. And then rather than doing in-person meetings, we do them while we're sleeping. Anya coordinates." he rose his eyebrows.

"And I hate to say it, but we ask people like Brit or Lila to... Act as bait a little bit. Not now, but when we know we've got helping hands. In the mean time, we'll have other people working the Schmidt side, trying to get what we want before 8th Street thinks we're organized enough to pull this off."

Ken pointed a finger into the air, waggling it around.
"I refuse to be a part of plans involving the cooperation of 8th Street members. They all smell of Emily; even if their ideologies no longer align, they did at one point! Someone must be responsible!"

Iron and Honey: A Love Story [FernStone & AtomicEmperor]

---

Act One-Six

---

Evening rolled into night, and eventually the lights dimmed for sleep. Knowing how full the coming day would be, both Casey and Trisha resolved to head to sleep early. Of course, Casey was ready to catch a nap whenever he could, but going to bed was a bit different. It always felt like a gamble, trying to figure out which nightmare would come next.
Not much of a gamble if every option is a loss, but Trisha had proven to be a wonderful sleeping aid. He thought about it over that Saturday, and came to the obviously logical conclusion that her mere presence was enough to keep him feeling safe.

After all, you always had a Battle Buddy. Solo agents didn’t exist in the structure of the Military; only the Reserve… A joke, frankly. A BB was more than a friend. Mutual bodyguards, brothers and sisters in arms, there for the highs and the lows, and always at your back. He felt like he could trust Trisha, even if she seemed to get flighty. That fact didn’t scream any red flags at him, only implying that she’d need some extra motivation to stay strong.
For now, she was the second body in the hole. Casey held her like an oversized teddy bear, both arms tucked around her stomach and holding her tightly to him. It was another dark, dreamless night. Three o’clock in the morning. Three oh-one… Two…

The buzzer telling them that someone was downstairs waiting to be let in began it’s honking symphony, filling their house with the sounds of Europe all over again. Air raid sirens. The bases.
Without thinking, Casey’s arms automatically tightened around Trisha, squeezing the air out of her as his bellowing voice hollered in her ear.

”FUCK, FUCK, FUUUUUUUUUUCK!”

Conscious only of the weight in his arms, he scooped Trisha and the bedding at the same time, stood, and absolutely crashed through the thin wood bannisters surrounding their bed.

His back hit the wall, and he slid ass first down the stairs up to their room before diving across the hall into their den. At this point, he’d cradled Trisha so tightly in the blankets that she was probably safe, but also finding it difficult to breathe. It was only when the buzzing stopped and they were left in silence that Casey’s panicked body let Trisha loose enough that she’d be able to squirm away.
”Je-J-Jesus… Jesus fucking Christ!” he practically wept, the darkness of the house only now settling in around him as the adrenaline pumped through his heart and brain.

Trisha was panicking. She was woken abruptly by the buzzer, and not given a chance to ignore it when she was simultaneously suffocated and assaulted by yelling right in her ear. She didn’t know what was going on. More sounds, something breaking, but she couldn’t see anything through the blankets. She could hardly breath, anything she might’ve said muffled by the duvet and her need to use every moment to try suck in a breath. It was dark, she was moving, and she felt trapped.

Danger? Danger- fight, flight? Fight. As Trisha managed to squirm out of Casey’s arms, rolling onto her hands and knees on the couch, eyes wide with her own panic. The blankets were thrown away and from them came an overwhelming, harsh banana smell that filled the room. Trisha absolutely bombarded the area with her alarm pheromones. It wasn’t on purpose, it was her own instant fear response, just like a bee that had been attacked and then trapped. But she recognised Casey as safe, even struggling to think, chest heaving up and down with each breath. It wasn’t the flight pheromones that came out this time, instead this type would make anyone who could smell them in the radius much more aggressive. Attack, defend, it didn’t matter - just a surge of adrenaline and need to fight, a dampening of fear. They were strong enough to get through emotional fields (if a bit dampened), even if any paranormal would know they were being hit by them.

But they were in a small space. Trisha couldn’t spread them out fully, and they rebound on her. She shifted to a crouch, arms wrapping around herself, backing away until she was in the corner of the couch. Eyes, still filled with panic, darting about, as if ready to attack anyone that came near. There were no thoughts of comforting Casey, no thoughts on what had happened, only panic and assumptions they were under attack and had to fight something.

In the time it took Trisha to scramble out and get toward the back of the couch, the furious buzzer started up again, drowning any errant thoughts out. Casey felt the whole washing sensation of Trisha’s fight response pheromones as it rattled straight through his emotional field and drove him into a frenzy.
At least he could hear exactly where the buzzing was coming from, and his hand slid under the couch. In the darkness, Trisha would really only be able to see Casey’s massive silhouette as he stepped into the hallway.

And he left her there. A few seconds later, there was a trio of bangs and crashes, followed by the sound of shearing metal and Casey giving another great shout of panic.
”Casey!? Casey, what the fuck!?”
Clarissa’s voice echoed through the house.
”A-auntie!? What!? What’s the fucking problem, why, who… Was that you fucking buzzing us!?”

”No shit! I was try’na not intrude, but then you’re up here shootin’ guns!? What the fuck is going on!?”
Casey seethed, and since Clarissa didn’t know the strong smell was directly correlating to her escalating anger and annoyance, the two of them would only get more heated as they were allowed to argue.
”I’ll tell you what’s going on, you people are fucking nuts! Absolutely demented! What, did Furio put you up to this!? You guys think its funny to install a fucking doorbell that sounds like a raid horn and then give it to the guy who used to have to dodge bomb blasts!? You think it’s fucking funny!?”

It wasn’t difficult to hear the shouting, the aggressive words slamming into her head even though they weren’t directed at her. The intruder was someone they knew, calm down- but she kept bombarding herself with her own pheromones, an everlasting cycle that she couldn’t break free of even as she desperately tried to calm down.

A gentle thud against the window had her head snapping towards it - then another, loads of tiny bodies trying to get in where there was no opening. The bees she called at the same
time, unable to get in the house. Thankfully. But she could sense them, their panic clashing with her own, her aggression turning back to fear and the need to flee to them. The heavy smell in the air reduced just slightly. Trisha jumped up, running across the couch and landing lightly on the floor. The bees, she wasn’t safe without the bees, they need to know she was safe-

Trisha didn’t say anything to either Casey or Clarissa, absolutely single minded in her panic, fleeing out of their den and making straight for the door. It opened and closed just as quickly.
And with the walls separating them, the pheromones reduced, lightly lingering before there weren’t enough to get through emotional fields anymore.

Now phones were ringing, and through the glass outside, Trisha would be able to see Casey and Clarissa pointing and yelling until Clarissa’s hand swept upward and delivered a hard backhand well over her head into Casey’s cheek. They were silent now, and stared at one another for a long moment before Clarissa finally relented.
Her arms and body surged forward, wrapping into him as she buried her face in his chest. Of course, now that they weren’t being blasted by aggression, the whole conflict collapsed into apologies and regret. Things Casey didn’t have time for, especially since Trisha had…

There was a person-shaped mass of bees outside. Casey shook his head, patting Clarissa and seeming to direct her; to which she responded by opening a portal and climbing through. It was now that Trisha would be able to see the pistol in Casey’s hand, and he set it down on the side table closest to him before stepping up to the window and knocking. He wasn’t sure if the bees would sting him if he went outside, so better to play it safe.
”Trisha!? Are you okay Babe!?” he shouted, the glass muffling his voice slightly.
”Do you want me to come out? Or can you come in?”

His phone was ringing again, except it was upstairs. Trisha’s was too…

Trisha had crouched next to the main room window, absolutely covered in bees. There wasn’t enough room for them all to be on her so they doubled up, constantly moving and swapping so each could check that she was alright. She was calming down, waking up, taking deep breaths of the cold, fresh night air. The constricting of her chest finally started to lessen.
“I’m fine,” she said softly, barely audible through the glass. But it was difficult for her to talk with the bees and the panic. But the pheromones she’d let out subconsciously were lessening as she purposefully used them on the bees. Telling them she was safe, and it was fine, combatting the fight ones with calming ones on all of them. Eventually the bees got the message, loud and angry buzzing that nearly drowned out what little she said getting quieter. The process was slow, taking minutes for them to calm down enough to not want to attack anything that came near her.

She stood back up, shaking slightly, and shook one arm. As if that was all it took, the outer layers of bees flew off her. They didn’t go back in the hive but instead up to the canopy outside - close enough to easily be called, but not following her into the house when she came back in. There were still enough bees crawling all over her to cover half of her body. As if that wasn’t the case, she shot right for Casey, practically crashing into him and wrapping her arms around him. The bees moved to her back and messy hair, some starting to crawl onto Casey.

None of them stung him.
“Sorry,” Trisha whispered, hiding her face against him. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t know what it was.”

Casey didn’t immediately hug Trisha, but he did move very close to her before getting on his knees in front of her. His arms wrapped around her legs, and he pulled her close.
”I’m so fucking sorry… I’m so sorry, Trisha, I… The… The buzzer! Ask Cass or Sal, they’ll tell you those fucking sirens… They make you react, like you’re always fucking worthless when they go off. You know you can’t stop the bombs, and they just fucking…”

He felt the bees crawling around his bare shoulders and back. He looked up at her.
”Are you okay…? I didn’t hurt you, did I, your arms and head and everything, I didn’t… Hit you off anything?!”

“I’m fine,” Trisha shook her head, even though now that she was calming down she could feel a slight, aching pain in her left knee and elbow - clearly less protected by the blankets. She hadn’t even realised they’d hit anything, and why bother him with it? It wasn’t so bad.
“I just… I thought we were under attack… I couldn’t tell what was happening, so reactively, I… well you felt it.”

She bit her lip, curling forward over him.
“You didn’t hurt me, I- if you had it would’ve been different. You would’ve wanted to run. I’m okay, I’m really okay, it’s all okay.”

Standing, he accepted that she was alright enough to not turn and leave. But it didn’t look like the reality made him feel any better about the situation.
”As far as I was concerned, we fucking were under attack. When I sleep with you, its all dark. So I thought at first I was dreaming, and it was one of the bad dreams, but then I broke the fucking bannisters getting out of our room and it fucking…”

Shifting, he showed Trisha a thick piece of treated wood lodged in his arm.
”It really fucking hurts, and now I feel like a fucking idiot and a jerk because I need to-”
Phones were ringing again.
”God fucking dammit!”

He stormed off, heading back up the stairs to answer his phone, which Trisha would be able to hear from above.
”Yeah? What?- No, Gin! Call it off, please, we’re fine.- No, someone just rang the fucking doorbell and it scared the shit out of me is all.- Yeah… She’s okay too. The bees are all just idling right now, waiting for action that’s not coming.”
A couple moments passed, and he came back down before starting toward the bathroom.
”So, apparently when my Mom said early, she meant this kind of early… I won’t apologize again, but you get the message…” he casually commented to Trisha before grabbing ahold of the wood chunk and absolutely ripping it out of his arm.
He moaned in pain, whimpering as he made for a bottle of isopropyl and gauze rolls.

Trisha’s question about him leaving didn’t make it past her lips, lost as she could only watch him pull the wood out of his arm. Her eyes widened, hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. The bees, confused, continued to crawl all over her. She’d seen all sorts of horrible wounds before, ten years ago - had many herself. Everyone did. But certain kinds still made her feel sick to the stomach.

But it was in his arm. How was he supposed to wrap it properly himself?
“L- Let me help.” She managed to move, slipping past him to grab the gauze rolls before he could, gesturing to the isopropyl. She put on a brave face, hands trembling slightly. It wasn’t that bad right? She’d seen worse.
“I can’t do that, don’t know how much to use, but- but I can wrap it. We didn’t have enough healers against the Snake so… we had to do this, sometimes for ourselves, or others. I know how to. I think. It’s been a while. Better than you doing it one handed.”

”Of course, let a bunch of people learn whatever magic they want, they’ll make a stink bomb before they learn how to stitch flesh.”
He soaked a bunch of the gauze wrap in the alcohol, practically stuffing it into the wound and grimacing every step of the way. After a moment of doing so, he held his arm up with the other hand still holding the wound with the alcohol soaked cloth.
”Okay… Go ahead. Just connect it to the stuff thats already in there and wrap it up tight. Doesn’t matter how much you use.” he said with a grunt, moving his hand to let her get an angle without the packing falling out.

As she did, he would give back tiny winces and sighs.
”I fucking… I knew that doorbell was gonna be trouble. I shot the speakers, so now I’ve gotta fuckin’ replace ‘em.” he sadly admitted.

“Oh,” was all Trisha said as she concentrated on wrapping his wound. Once she’d connected it to the stuff already in it, having to force herself to look, it wasn’t so hard. She wrapped it as tightly as she felt was safe to, lips pursed together. It was difficult to stop herself from trying to do it perfectly - there wasn’t the time or need. She used a fair amount of the wrap once she was done, his wound tightly and neatly - if overly - wrapped up.
“There- and that means you can replace it with a more normal sounding one.” Now that she was done, she jumped back to actually responding to what he’d said.

She dropped her hand to lower down his arm, gently rubbing it.
“You… probably wouldn’t have shot it if I didn’t pheromone blast you… Will replacing it be a hassle?”

”Nah.” Casey replied very simply. He inspected the wrap in the mirror, pushed against the wound one last time, wincing and groaning, then kissed Trisha on the top of her head.
”Great job, Babydoll. You’d have made a good field medic.”

His bare arm wrapped around her in a comforting hug, being sure to miss the buzzing feeling of the bees still clinging to her.
”Now, I mean it’ll probably be hard, but like go ahead and get back to sleep if you can. I’ll go shower and get dressed downstairs like I did the other day, and you can just chill and try to relax until later when they come to get you.” he said, now looking down into her eyes.

Trisha looked back at him, frowning for a while, before she nodded. She knew there was very little chance of her getting back to sleep, especially if he was leaving. Generally, if she didn’t wake up properly it was quite easy for her to keep snoozing through minor disturbances. But when she was properly awake? Much harder to get to sleep a second time, especially after something like this.
“Mhm, I’ll try, if the bees let me,” she replied softly, bees now just sitting on her rather than constantly moving about. Most had congregated on her shoulders and chest, and in her hair. She turned and leaned up to lightly kiss him.

“I won’t keep you… Good luck, uh, with the ceremony. I’ll see you after.” She was clearly very reluctant to let him go, but forced through it, stepping away from him and out of the bathroom. She didn’t go much further, however - planning to watch him all the way to the door before she went back up to their bed.

Once Casey was out of the house and out of sight, Trisha traipsed back upstairs via the den to grab the blankets and take them with her. There was a slight hope of falling back asleep that was gone within half an hour of lying with her eyes closed, blankets pulled tight around her with her face buried into the pillow that smelt the most like Casey. It wasn’t really a good enough replacement.

But still, time ticked forward slowly. She spent a few hours in bed, trying to sleep and then just watching mindless videos on her phone. She wasn’t quite fully relaxed but she wasn’t in panic mode anymore, the bees waiting outside and some of the ones with her returning to their hive for the rest of the night. Eventually, her own alarm went off at 7:30am, and she actually rolled back out of bed.

Four hours should give her enough time to get ready. Their outfits from yesterday told her how important and possibly extravagant this ceremony was, and that meant she had to put all of her efforts into it. A proper shower was had, her hair meticulously blow dried into neat waves. She grabbed a hair band to push it out of her face before starting on makeup.

Normally she opted for more simple styles, unless going to a club where she wanted to impress or a fancy gala where she had to fit in. This matched the latter more. Still only a light coating of foundation, some contour, light blush. But where she really put the effort in was her eye makeup. Bright, metallic gold eyeshadow was painted across her inner eyelid, and the inner corner of her eye. It lightly blended into a dark brown then black, extending out past her eyelids in a smoky look she rarely went for. Light flicks of eyeliner, barely visible in the black eyeshadow, were added. Then gold flecks were dashed across her cheeks and nose - interspersed with her own natural freckles, like matching golden ones. Last were her lips, with a darker brown lipstick than normal, smoothly moving into a brighter, more reddish tone towards the centre.

After makeup, it was just her hair to sort. It was pulled back into a french braid that started at the top of her head and ended at her nape, tied off into a ponytail allowing the rest of her hair to fall down her back in long, gentle waves. By the time she was done it was nearing eleven. She pulled on some actual clothes to go down to the office to get her dress, nodding and smiling to Norm when he offered his greetings and congratulations, before quickly escaping back upstairs.

Getting the dress on while trying not to ruin everything else that had been so perfectly done was a struggle, but a struggle she succeeded in. She still couldn’t quite get the zip all the way up the back herself, but it fit much better. A simple, gold chain necklace with a circular charm with an engraved ‘T’ was slipped underneath it - the honeycomb shaped earrings Cass had gotten her put in her front lobe piercing, the other two swapped to simple gold studs. A couple of relatively simple, gold rings were slipped onto her fingers along with the one she’d been gifting - the silver and multi coloured gem standing out amongst the rest. She opted for no bracelets.

By the time she was completely ready and back down in the main living space, it was eleven thirty on the dot… So hopefully she wouldn’t have to wait around long.

It was a few more minutes before a woman arrived, dressed in one of the most elaborate religious garbs that someone could walk around in without falling over. Her hair was pulled up into a cone-like structure, which was fully covered by a long shawl and a gold lace that fell down the front of her face.
It was way taller than the space between one’s head and the roof of a car… One could only beg the question: How’d she get there?

Elise peered into the glass of the house from outside, knocking on the window to get Trisha’s attention. The cloth draped in heaps atop her shoulders made it hard to tell that she was shrugging, and the sleeves on her hands kept them from being seen as they were thrown up in frustration.
She poked her hidden finger, like she was smashing a doorbell, then threw her hands up again as Trisha made her way outside.
”Doorbell broken?” she asked, her voice sounding calm and collected despite her previous physical actions.

Trisha had jumped slightly, almost imperceptibly, when Elise knocked on the window - even though she was expecting someone. She bent down to pick up her handbag - simple and plain black to not draw attention to it - and slipped her phone inside where there was already a small tablet and notebook. She'd considered bringing her laptop to try and get some work done but… she didn't want to deal with the hassle of carrying it around the rest of the evening, or risk leaving it somewhere a Temple member could tamper with it.

“Yeah, it broke this morning - must've been from overuse," Trisha said with a polite smile as she locked the door behind her, key slipped in her bag. With how information went around the Temple, Elise probably already knew what had happened in the early hours of the morning - but she wasn't going to be the one to throw her boyfriend under the bus. After all, it hadn't been their fault.

It was chilly outside, and Trisha shivered slightly as the cold, November air hit her bare arms. She hadn't bothered with a coat - figuring she'd be inside that it wouldn't be much of a problem. The bees she had with her moved from their various positions to her arms, forming pulsating, bee arm warmers. She'd decided to bring about a hundred with her, with plenty of places for them to hide in her hair, skirts and just blending in with the dress design.

“I take it… is it going well?" Trisha asked, as she began to make her way towards the door off the roof. Even wearing heels as she was (which she'd still opted for in the end), boosting her up a good few inches, she was nowhere near Elise's height. The difference only seemed more extreme with the cone of hair making Elise seem even taller. Trisha supposed it was something she'd have to get used to.
“How much longer does the ceremony go on for?" she grasped for some kind of conversation, finding the idea of silence with someone she barely knew uncomfortable, but also having nothing to really talk about. She tilted her head up towards Elise, still smiling politely. Concealer combined with the bright gold eyeshadow was enough to combat and cover the dark bags underneath her eyes, thankfully, and she had enough practice that the tiredness her gaze had held was slowly being pushed away now that she wasn't alone.
“Since it started at 3am…"

Elise took stock of Trisha's questions as they headed toward the bottom of the building and out the side door into the parking lot. There was a car and a driver, a situation Trisha may have been used to at some point. With the rear of the vehicle ending up fairly intimate, and the partition toward the driver’s side completely sealed, Elise felt free to discuss matters as casually as possible.

”Most of our ceremonies are totally narrative. I mean, like, super pointless pageantry shit that we could skip. Stuff from the old days when our little Cult was a noble union of Knights and Soldiers of the Realm.”
Elise, getting into the car, was able to show off that her hair cone compressed. Pushing up against the car's roof, it pressed up into itself and left a mostly flat mound of hair sitting in a tight circle.

She happened to look something like a small battery slotting into the back of a remote, the spring compressed in the compartment as it held the mechanics firmly in place.
”But this one that Casey's doing really takes the fucking cake. Like, it's a historical one, so they're jumping from battlefield to battlefield of old sucking up some kind of knowledge.

She did look a bit sad at that last part as the vehicle began to move in earnest.
”It's in bad taste for him, I feel like… Obviously, some of these fields are the exact same fields he was serving in a year ago. When I was permitted to take my leave in order to prepare for the home ceremony, he looked… Not good. But that doesn't mean the rituals aren't going well. I'm pretty sure he's absorbed a couple of the books already.”

She leaned her head back, taking a deep breath while the frown sat on her face.
”It's funny that he went to war where he did… A lot of the ritual kind of assumes, you know, that you as an individual have been to war? And, it assumes you're European, because that's where our traditions come from, so it literally tells you to fucking just ‘Go to where the Noble Warrior first shed blood, go to where the Noble Warrior first lost men.’ Et cetera. But, yeah, pretty emotional for him considering how raw those feelings are. But, that parts over, just about. Uhhh… I guess if you wanted, it would be really nice if you could receive him? It's not pervy or anything: It's meant to be his heroic return, where his waiting maiden receives him from war and brings him back into his Noble House.”

Elise's slim frown peeled into a grin.
”No pressure, obviously, but if you don't do it, it ends up being Lena's job by default. Again, totally no pressure. At all. Definitely not asking you to so that we can tell her to fuck off together…”

Trisha frowned too when she heard exactly what Casey was having to go through. It sounded horrible… especially after this morning, when he'd already been set off by the doorbell. They'd both been set off. If she was ever forced to jump from supernatural battlefield to supernatural battlefield… Well, she didn't want to think about it. Didn't have to to understand how awful it would all be for him. And to have to see Lena at the end of all of it… of course her feelings towards that weren't entirely selfless. Just the mention of Lena made her feel tense.
“I assume I don't have to take any vows if you're suggesting I do it?" Trisha asked, fiddling with the ring she'd received and trying not to bite her lips like she normally would.

“It wouldn't be fair if he has to go through all of that just to deal with Lena at the end. That'll be like going from one trauma to another," she said very matter of factly, moving to tapping her fingers on her knees. Pretending the whole thing was something she could comfortably do… it was, again, for him. How bad could it be? It would be worse if Lena did it. She'd only feel worse, waiting and knowing that was happening. She turned her head towards Elise rather than facing forward, smiling.
“I’ll do it… For Casey, after he's had to relive all that, it'll be nice for it to be me. And maybe a little bit because it'll be really nice to tell Lena to fuck off."

She laughed at that, able to picture how pissed off Lena would be about it. As if she could ever be anything to Casey… but Trisha didn't want to risk her even having a part in a ceremony like this. There were all those what ifs- when something like this was so important to him, if Tansy had been right about her just being the first woman he'd found after the war… and the trauma of reliving it pushed him to someone else. She wanted to be the one there, even if it meant participating in a ceremony for a cult she wanted minimal part in.
“What do I actually have to do?"

Elise enthusiastically clapped her hands together and pumped a fist into the air. It smashed off the car's roof, and she immediately regretted her outward enthusiasm as she gripped her hand in pain.
”Fffff-ouch… Damn long fucking arms…”

It took her a few moments to pass over the pain, having to subtly reset the knuckle she dislocated on impact. She grunted again slightly, whimpered, and took a deep breath.
”Fuck… Sorry! No oaths, no nothing. Back in the day, women weren't allowed to join the Order, so a ritual like this was meant to include people who didn't know the secrets. The Knight's immediate family, you know, the wife, kids, mother, mistress, indentured servants. He's wearing armor, so you'll basically present him with his clothes, say a couple of words from a script, kiss him, and then send him back to finish the ceremony inside our Sanctum. That's pretty easy, right? Not a lot of dedication required.”

“... so if I don’t do it, Lena would kiss him?” Of course that was what Trisha’s mind ended up fixating on - rather than the past sexism, or how they kept up an antiquated part of the ceremony after allowing women to join… and be in charge. She didn’t really care about all of that. What she cared about was making sure Lena didn’t get anywhere near her boyfriend in any way - especially with her lips. If she wasn’t sure about doing it before she certainly was now.
“If that’s really all there is to it, it does sound easy. I can do all of that. I’ll definitely do it.”

She raised one hand to her mouth, discreetly nibbling on her knuckles as she thought a bit more about it. Why would it go to Lena by default? She didn’t fit into immediate family in the slightest… how did that work? Because his mom wanted her to be? If Elise hadn’t asked, would she have only found out about it after it happened.
“Why would it be Lena’s job by default, rather than one of Casey’s actual family members? She doesn’t fit into any of those categories…” Not that Trisha did either, but girlfriend was slightly closer. Definitely.

Elise laughed aloud at the idea of Casey kissing Lena.
”She'd act as a Page. Much different relationship, way more like a squire, no kissing involved. Truthfully, she and Casey aren't so different; they got along well when they were younger. But I think she never really liked him because he wasn't magical. When he came back with magic the first time, Mom tried to encourage her to get with him. It just… I think it ruined things between them. Like putting two strange animals in a cage and telling them to get along, right?”

Her face returned to solemnity, a hint of regret eating away at her.
”But that's Momma's style. Most things, she just tries to use a hammer to fix it. Sometimes, she'll get the finer tools out, but only after she breaks something… Obviously, she says it's God's Will. But you don't grow up in our household without seeing what's behind the veil occasionally.” she shrugged.

Trisha pressed her lips together as they pulled into a thin line, gaze moving down to her feet. It didn’t surprise her that Lynette tried to ‘fix’ things in that way. She’d already seen a little of it with Casey… but she was surprised that Lena and Casey had gotten along before. Casey hadn’t mentioned that. Did that mean without his mother’s intervention, they might’ve… No, that wasn’t the case. Wouldn’t be, at least. Casey had her now.
“It’s a pretty transparent veil to an outsider,” Trisha shrugged one shoulder, looking back up from her feet.
“But I think it’s just how mothers are. I can count the number of my siblings with moms that ‘delicately’ fixed things on one hand. Yours just has magic and religion to back her up.”

Her hands twisted together in her lap, pushing back the thoughts of her own mom. Had she even tried to fix anything? At first, perhaps. It had always been a hard push. Don’t think about it.
“Either way, what’s ruined is ruined, and Casey’s got someone better now. I’m not fickle enough to only care about his magic.” Faux confidence about being better, always the way for her to go when accidentally going into topics she didn’t want to discuss. Did it make her a bad person that she was glad things were ruined between Casey and Lena? Probaby, but she couldn’t bring herself to care too much.

Elise lingered on the first part of Trisha’s statement… About the thinness of the veil. She wished that was true, as she’d have a lot less people to talk to and interview during her working hours.
”Enemies see no veil, only their blinding hate. Skeptics see no veil, only their burning denial. Typically magical people stop being skeptical, so… I guess you just never lost that feeling, huh? Since, I mean, I know you’re not an enemy…”

“My scepticism of magic? I’m not sceptical of magic… only of those who think it makes them any better than those without it. Magic is just another… talent, or inheritance. Like some of us are born rich, some are born to magical lineage, some acquire it. It doesn’t make anyone-” Trisha cut herself off before she got further, not wanting to start talking negatively about a religion she honestly knew very little about - and was dating into.
“You can place it under being a sceptic if you want to. I’m realistic. Magical people are still people. I didn’t change when a ghost attached herself to me.”

Elise laughed again, smiling at Trisha with a gentle grin.
”Hey, you just aren’t religious. I get it. Some people can see God standing in front of them and still slight it; we have the free will to do so. But, usually, when people get exposed to the fact that there’s another side to our reality, it gets pretty easy to convince people that God never left. That he’s here, with us, just like he was two thousand years ago. Except this time, God chose a Matron. Yadda yadda, we get fresh new blood. Ten percent of them dedicate themselves, then ninety percent live their lives more or less as normal, confident that they’re throwing their lot in with the Messiah. Make sense?”

Trisha bit down on her lip again to hold back what would be a pretty ugly laugh, just nodding at first. Of course it made sense. They took in people who discovered a new world and were confused about their place in it. Vulnerable people who were easily convinced.
“Of course it makes sense. But it requires people to believe in God in the first place, doesn’t it? Just discovering magic doesn’t tend to… make everyone have some religious awakening. For some it's the opposite.”
Certainly when discovering magic lead to things such as the Stygian Snake. She was sure her covenmates who awakened because of it wouldn’t view it in that light at all.

“But you’re right, I’m not religious, unlikely to ever be - no matter how much that all makes sense.” She shrugged.
“I can understand without believing… and I plan to.”

There was a long silence before Elise’s hand swept upward toward the partition. She pushed against it, making sure it was closed tightly. Her other hand gripped onto Mondo, and a White Lux spell washed over the car to check for bugs. Thankfully, they were alone.
”Would you… Lie?” she asked, her face curling into a devious expression. ”I mean, like, about… Taking oaths and other things? Wait, did… Did Leon talk to you?”

“He did,” Trisha narrowed her eyes, glancing around the car before looking back to Elise. She assumed that if Elise was talking like this, Lynette wasn’t listening in… At least she hoped that had some way to figure that out.
“He told me about the food, and some other things… But I would lie about that. To Lynette and the Temple, that is. I’m not sure I could lie to Casey if it would involve that. Maybe. It would be more difficult.”

She could hide things from him, and she possibly could lie to him, but it would make things difficult if it came out.
“But is it possible to lie about planning to take oaths without actually taking them? Wouldn’t I just be pushed to take them as quickly as possible?”

”Yes, but… Well, there’s a bit of a lapse. Thing is, we know Mom’s not actually God. Well, I mean, she fuckin’ could be, but she’s still a human. Like you said. She makes mistakes, she’s not always suited, and… We can’t trust her. Especially not with her current plans. But, now Casey’ll have Divine Authority. That means he can master your Ceremonies, and they can be done privately between the two of you as per her agreement to not… Y’know, spy on you. She’s taking it seriously, and… I think if she knew you were Pacted, you’d have a good chance of just wholesale replacing Lena as a Crone. Which means you’d be with Hari, Clarissa and I a lot more… And we’re all on board for changes.”

Elise’s hands were intertwining, and she was now very openly holding the teddy in her arms as it’s lifeless eyes and head slowly turned to observe Trisha. It looked more like a comfort tick than spellcasting.
”Like… Modernization. Realizing our paradise here on Earth, rather than ruining what’s been built… I don’t want to be some fucking doomsday cultist. And I don’t think God would want that either, if it really did give us the free will to make our own way. She… Takes that. Often. It’s only recently that we’ve been able to start taking control back from her in areas she’s no longer interested in.”

Trisha frowned. It was a lot to think about. A lot to agree on right there too. But she was surprised to hear all of this from Elise when she… hardly knew her. Leon made a bit of sense, they’d fought together years ago. So Trisha was sceptical of it too. Worried about going in deeper accidentally.
“So, assuming Casey agreed, I’d actually be able to ‘fake’ taking the oaths… But would there not be even more intervention and spying if I joined some kind of inner circle?”

She reached up to tap one of the bees on her shoulders, gently stroking it.
“I’m not necessarily against it. I don’t believe in God or paradise at all, but if there’s a way for you to attain that without… well, ruining what’s here, obviously that’s better. And I’ve been around for less than a week and… the spying thing, the lack of freedom you all have- Casey has- is obvious. I don’t like it, and I do want to help. But I’d have to think about it. It’s a lot, suddenly. And I’m not sure if I could agree without talking to Casey about it first…”

”Of course, that makes sense. As far as faking them… Some of the oaths, you can’t really ‘fake’. There are magical binders and things, rituals that involve multiple people. But we can easily fudge them by involving the right people. It’s all complex, but we haven’t brought it up to him yet. So, maybe tonight if he’s feeling okay. If not, soon. And when it comes, we’ll all be there for him. Because I think he’ll take it hard.”
She nodded her head as she spoke, and slowly but surely her hand crept out toward Trisha, a hopeful position for a handshake.
”I… I really respect you. Thank you for considering at the very least.”

Trisha looked at Elise’s hand for a moment, before reaching out to shake it lightly.
“Probably not tonight, I also need time to prepare… but just considering it isn’t much. I’ll, uh, need your support if I see it through.”

”You’ll have the support of all of us…”

---

Temple Main Grounds > Chapel > Inner Sanctum

---

The rest of the ride was spent mostly with Elise giving Trisha some much needed instruction. Going over the essentials that they may have missed yesterday, giving specifics, and a few more reassurances that this particular part of the ceremony was nothing but a very convenient usage of a loophole. General lack of updating policy, it was exactly the kind of thing Elise meant when she didn’t approve of her Mother’s working of the cult.
Of course, she wasn’t going to tell Trisha that they had the chance to ride the chaos together toward power over people and resources. Why show the hand so early?

But as they arrived, there was practically a fair going on in the Temple’s various quad grounds and gathering areas. There were quite a few magical constructs as well, perhaps Apparitions given physical forms by their various artisans. They played with the children, and there seemed to be some smaller rides set up carnival style along with banners and other decorations.
A full blown celebration for those who lived their daily lives as part of the tightly knit community that made up the core of the Temple’s followers. There wasn’t a single Blind person there, and even the air felt thicker with magic as Trisha and Elise were let out of the car in front of the Chapel that centered it all.

Trisha could look into the short distance and see some of the otherworldly animals that Casey had pointed out when they both made their first trip here together. The metal-boned elk, the giant shimmering moths, and plenty of other strange looking things which were being fed, patted and rode by children, looked on by adults who all dressed in black and gold, just like Trisha… Only, there were no real bee patterns. In that sense, she was certainly unique among them.

Elise stretched her long limbs as she stepped from the car, but couldn’t go more than a few moments without some sort of attention. Some ladies immediately approached her, but she openly redirected them thanks to her duties without a hint of shame or empathy. It was as close as one could get to saying “Get bent” without being rude.

”So busy, Girls! Main event stuff, y’know? You keep enjoying, I’ll be here all week so…-”
Some laughter, casual goodbyes, and the followers took the hint that someone important had important things to do. She got close to Trisha.
”Whadd’ya think, huh? I mean, I know everyone dressed the same is kinda weird, but like, it’s still got good vibes, doesn’t it?”

Trisha looked around with slightly wide eyes, though she tried to play off the awe and interest she felt towards what was going on. The open use of magic was part of it, but it was… kind of like a fair. At least, what she’d heard about things like that. It wasn’t something Trisha had experienced - the community or the fun as a child. Though, the almost identical outfits they all wore did a good job at reminding her this was a cult.
“It’s definitely not like anything I’ve ever seen,” Trisha replied quietly, half gesturing towards the various strange creatures.
“It’s like a petting zoo but for… paranormal animals. I didn’t expect them to be so docile. You’re right, aside from the clothes, it’s nice.”

Elise smiled warmly, shrugging her shoulders about them being docile.
”Most animals are pretty good when they’re well fed by people they see every day. None of them can exist here without our express help, so… Project Eden, you know? Most of these people work for the Project specifically. They’re adherents of the faith, and they’re invested in doing what they can to see it come true.”

She swept her hand upward toward the chapel.
”Come on! Before we’re swamped by annoying people.”

Heading up into the warmth of the chapel, the pews and rows were being set up by more members, led by a familiar face with her clipboard in hand. Alena Zöller, Lynette’s doppelganger sans twenty years of age. About her were two massive hands, and a pair of floating eyeballs above her.
The hands themselves tapped impatiently, like they were poised atop an oversized desk in judgement, their armored appearance and metallic clicking gave them a menacing look. One even slipped up slightly, hooking under one of the pews and tugging it just a little more in line with its row.

One eye focused on the motion, but the other focused on the newcomers. As Elise held onto Mondo, she squeezed a little bit in disgust. Her face turned to Trisha, and she cleared her throat.
”Geeze… I didn’t smell sauerkraut from outside, so why’s it stink so bad in here?” she grinned evilly.

Trisha laughed, holding a hand up to her mouth and nose both to cover any ugly expression that might come with it and go along with what Elise was saying.
“That’s a little mean, isn’t it? Some people just can’t cover up how they smell.”

She then turned to Lena, not even bothering with a smile.
“I won’t pretend it's nice to see you again Lena - have you been relegated to manual labour? That seems fitting.”

There was no real love lost. Lena let a wad of spit roll up in her mouth before spitting it at Trisha’s feet.
”Oh, woops. Let that one slip, didn’t I? Gosh, someone come clean this fucking mess up for me?”
One of the other acolytes in the room immediately rushed in, sliding to hands and knees and using their own robes to wipe the spit up off the holy floor. Lena grinned.

”Yeah, Trasha, serious manual labor going on right now. Definitely not trying to create a nice comfortable environment for His Grace to enjoy being showered in affection by his people.”
Her grinning face turned to utter disgust as it shifted to Elise.
”You’re pathetic, Elise. You spend how many years up North, or away from the main Convent, then come here and think you’re just going to nuzzle back into Cronehood? I’ll chop your hands off before I see you in my fucking seat.”

Elise laughed aloud and in Lena’s face.
”That’s absolutely rich coming from Hitler’s favorite niece. Y’know, Casey’s probably in a field right now talking about bashing some German soldier in the head with a stick grenade. Does that make you feel any kind of way?”

”I am an American, God DAMN you… God, I wish I could stuff your face in your own shit and make you understand how it feels to be treated like that.” she growled aggressively, the giant metal clicking hands slowly but surely balling into two spikey fists.

“Aw, does it hurt when people think you’re from somewhere else, what a hard life you have, people suggesting you’re German,” Trisha rolled her eyes, unbothered by the open aggression coming from the other side. Of course, she understood there had been a war - one that had touched the European mainland much more than them. But if Lena wasn’t a raging bitch it wouldn’t even be a problem for her.
“Maybe if you stopped acting like a Nazi, people wouldn’t treat you like one- oh, but then you wouldn’t be able to feel superior, right? Because you don’t have anything else going for you.”

Elise let her fist move out to Trisha for a bump.
”So true, you took her last chance.”
”Last chance? Last chance!? How about we talk about last chances? I mean, y’know it makes a bit more sense for you both to cling to a strong boat, since you’re equally pathetic in the arts of magic. But, I mean, all you can really do is cling to other peoples’ tits, huh? Like babies at the breast, sucking away at whatever you can get?”

Her face turned to Trisha again.
”I can’t even say that for you… You don’t give a shit about power. You’re only here to save your own miserable life, cowering in fear because your silly Coven can’t find one asshole with a knife. Fucking shame.”

Elise shook her head.
”Hey, Trisha, don’t we have, like, a really important ceremony to get to? Why are we chatting with this cockroach?” she said with a great deal of sarcasm in her tone.

Trisha bit down on her lip to stop herself from getting heated at Lena - from letting her words get to her. As if it was just to save her life. If she wanted to save her life, she would’ve found someone with strong magic months ago. She’d spent so long alone expecting the knife to get her next.
“Oh, right, it’s hard not to get distracted by something so annoying… just makes me want to squash it.” She shrugged, narrowing her eyes at Lena, managing a fake smile.
“I have to go receive my boyfriend as part of his very important ceremony. We should get going- you just keep arranging the chairs to make things comfortable for him afterwards.”

Lena bristled, one of the giant hands slapping down on an open piece of floor like it was frustrated.
”Why don’t you make like half of St. Portwell and go receive your Father’s cock.” She barked.
”Or are you too good for a little Necrophilia?”

Elise stopped, looked rather shocked even for the situation, and turned to Trisha as if to ask what should be done in retaliation.

There was a loud buzzing as the bees with Trisha crawled out from their hiding spots, coating her chest and shoulders. They didn’t move from her - but their little bodies vibrated, and their wings fluttered, ready to strike given the command. Trisha’s lips twisted down into a scowl, gaze turning cold and filled with something close to hatred.
“You fucking bitch,” was all Trisha was able to grit out, mind going blank with anger, any more intelligent insults out of reach. After that morning and the lack of sleep she was incredibly touchy. She twisted her head around towards Elise, lips awkwardly forming the words, ‘cover your nose.’

She didn’t know if the message got across - and she didn’t even stop to think about it before she blasted the nearby vicinity with fear pheromones so strong they’d get through emotional fields and make anyone close enough to her that smelt them (namely Lena) panic and get the overwhelming urge to flee.

Lena stood for an uncannily long time in the mire of fear. Her grin left, sure, along with her energy and snark. But she didn’t let her eyes, or the eyes of her guardian spirit, leave Trisha Vanburen until it became overwhelming. At which point, Lena threw her clipboard up into the air as her hands twisted into her hair. With a blood curdling scream, like the banshee had been defeated for now, she stormed off into one of the back rooms.

Elise had plugged up, and seeing the results, she laughed with her nose still plugged. With one hand still holding Mondo, Elise let her aura spell ripple through the room to follow the pheromone trail’s magical signature along the air. It was massive, like a plume of spores or a dust cloud rolling through the open space.
”Impressive, nice job Trisha. Let’s get out of here before she comes back.”

Down the stairs behind the pulpit, down a second flight, and they stood among a great stone reception room covered in banners and statues, other symbols of their faith. Elise was happy that there was a few more minutes before they’d be moving into the Sanctum. It was time enough to catch their breath and recover from lingering frustrations.
”Alright, you did really good. I mean, none of that was good: I’m gonna get in trouble later, but I’ll take it on the nose. But, you did great. Now, did you think about what you wanted to say to receive Casey?”

In the car they had discussed what was expected, and what the original script was. Elise’s only suggestion was to keep it formal, but she expressed that it could wait until a moment like this so long as Trisha was able to hold the memory of what she was supposed to say.

“I thought about it, but…” Trisha trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck with a grimace. She hated admitting something that could be viewed as a flaw. That she did, in a way. If she was smarter she could figure out how to word it perfectly.
“I don’t know how to say it… Well, you said it should be formal. I don’t know how to do it like that, I wasn’t raised in… this.” She gestured to their surroundings.

Elise nodded enthusiastically.
”I don’t think that’s a problem at all. If you don’t want to talk like a crazy person, you really don’t have to. But, if you want to give it a shot? You can tell me what you want to say. I’ll translate into nutjob for you.” she grinned, moving off to one side of the stone room and opening a cabinet to pull Casey’s bagged suit from.

Trisha couldn’t help but laugh at that, tension in her shoulder releasing just slightly.
“It sounds pretty boring in plain speech… Alright. Something like ‘Welcome back from… uh, war, I guess. Let me help you rest and recover…’” She threw up on hand in half frustration, before it came back down to clasp with the other one.
“Pretty crap, isn’t it? This really isn’t my speciality.” What was?

Elise giggled, nodding her head and smiling as Trisha got uncomfortable about letting things go. At this point, she’d been around Elise’s aura enough that the White Lux user’s main ability had time to gestate. She could see the small twitching muscles in the girl’s face, associating them with different levels of discomfort and frustration.
”I don’t think it’s crap… It sounds just like what the usual script would be, but we can tighten it up. How about ‘I welcome you to peace, and in me, seek solace.’?”

Trisha nodded, fingers tangled together and rubbing the back of her hands. It was so simple, but it sounded much nicer than how she’d put it.
“I like that. It’s short, so I can remember it easily and… it’s not too embarrassing, most importantly.” She laughed away her discomfort, smiling.
“Not quite the full blown crazy talk. I’ll use it- thanks for the help.”

It was worth noting that, consciously, Elise had not once tried to be anything other than what appeared to be genuine. Not even the practiced Richoux family smile had shone across her face like some shield against reality.
”It’s no problem, Trisha. I told you, I respect you. Everything you and the other Sycamore went through. From what Leon tells us, it was hellish. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a hero too. So, I’m happy to have you here doing this.”

Trisha’s smile wavered slightly, but she saved it before her discomfort became obvious - through non magical, purely visual means. She definitely didn’t see herself as anything close to a hero. She hadn’t even done that much against the Stygian Snake - the victory had been down to many other members.
“It was. Hellish, that is,” she shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t a big deal - that there was no trauma there. And there really wasn’t. It had been ten years. She was over it.
“It was a… group effort. Start calling all of the Sycamore members heroes and it’ll go to their heads. Thankfully, I’m grounded, but- I’m glad to be here too. Definitely better than Lena doing it.”

”Ten thousand percent.”
There was a chime that echoed around them, and Elise quickly moved to a spot in front of the door closed tightly before them.
”Alright, come on! Remember your lines: They’ll que you when it’s your time to speak.”

She waved her hand to stand next to her.
”I’ll have to walk behind you, but you’ll feel some notches in the floor with your shoes indicating where you should stop.”

”All rise in the presence of Grace, Holy be the name and countenance of Princess of the Outer Wilds, the Ever-Visage, Second of Her Grace, Elise Nouvillette Erden Richoux. Silent Brothers and Sisters, presenting the Consort of The Blade. Recognize, Hero of the Stygian War, Sister of Sycamore, Patricia Malaya Mendoza-Vanburen, and kneel.”

As the long winded introduction sounded out from a formless voice which seemed to speak from right next to one despite filling the Inner Sanctum with dulcet tones. As the doors opened, the black and gold robes filling the small underground chamber were illuminated by flames, casting shadows that blocked their hooded faces from view completely. The further Trisha and Elise walked, the more the crowds on either side of the room rotated, until they were lost behind Trisha’s back.

Then the noise and clatter of two dozen people shuffling and kneeling gave way to eerie silence. A familiar face stood up at the podium, her expression serious and almost dour. Hari, her red hair peeking out from just under her hood, resisted the urge to flash a psychic apology to Trisha for having to introduce her like that.
Casey had already steamed and fumed about that being the introduction, because he felt it was everything Trisha wouldn’t want to be recognized for, but some things weren’t flexible.

”Your Grace-” Hari continued, speaking directly to Elise. ”You bear the garb of the Lord of Blades, with the intention of ushering the Return.”
Elise nodded, her tall figure standing heads over Trisha as she spoke loudly in return.
”Crone Matron, I intend to Recall our Noble Lord.”

”And with you, the Lord’s trusted confidant, who among us stands both outside and in?”
”Who is ready to accept and Receive the Grace of that Noble Lord, recalled to us from battle.”

Hari smashed both of her hands upon the podium.
”Then, by the Grace of Divinity, may God carry this heroic Lord from his tragedy and deliver him into the arms of comfort, that he may experience the greatest of our Holiest Lord’s concession: Love! Come home, Caseau Dumont L’del Hunter-Richoux! With God’s Grace and Guidance, to those who love you, come home!”

As she slammed her hands down on the podium a second time, the sound of ripping, tearing metal sounded as the telltale purple of Clarissa’s portal ripped a hole in reality open. Several figures stepped out of this hole, including Leon and Mia who were both draped in strangely patterned cloth, despite otherwise being bare naked. Then, Lynette herself, draped in gold with several dozen metal spheres orbiting her, and some sort of crazy halo contraption that seemed to infinitely fold in on itself danced just above her head.

She seemed to usher forth Furio, who was dressed entirely in black and gold plated armor that looked fresh from a tenth century battlefield. He was very clearly wounded at some point, his face pale and a massive gash having ripped open the metal armored shell. Clarissa herself immerged, her usually ball of golden hair tucked into tight cornrows that cascaded down her back and gave one an idea of just how dense her hair really was. She didn’t wear a hood, rather a similar halo-like crown piece wobbled over her head as if she were an angel.

Then, he finally came. His face was covered in bruises, one eye swollen shut almost entirely. His armor had been punctured and ripped open half a dozen times in different places, mostly around the gauntlets and shoulder area, though a massive hole had at one point been made in his gut. One arm was tucked against his chest, and he’d hooked it onto a piece of metal that was sticking out like a makeshift sling.
His free arm pulled his helmet from his head, and as he stepped to the fore of the group, magical light seemed to surround him as the dozens of metal spheres orbiting Lynette began to take their places around him instead. One unfurled itself, and it too became a halo of great size.

He tucked his helmet into the crook of his bad arm, and as he did so, his gaze slowly but surely turned to face Trisha. With only one eye working, he still thought she was the most beautiful thing in the room, and he smiled a broken smile at her, so happy that she was the first real thing he got to see.

Trisha had been having a hard time keeping her expression as neutral as possible - starting with the introduction that used not only her full first name, but included her middle one and mother’s surname that weren’t just easily available. Then there was the use of the word love, the near naked Richoux siblings- she should have seen it all coming in a ceremony like this. But it still shocked her, lips pressed firmly together to prevent any other reaction.

But when she saw Casey, she couldn’t hold it, lips parting and eyes widening. Her gaze was filled with primarily concern. He was so badly hurt. When Elise had said they were going through battlefields she’d assumed they were just… observing, rather than participating. It took a lot to not say anything, worrying it would ruin the Ceremony - and who knew what would happen then. She forced a smile in return to his - because how could she not, when he was managing to smile - though the worry was still clear in her eyes. One hand subtly raised in a half wave, and a bee crawled onto her cheek. It wiggled at him. If he was able to sense pheromones, he’d know it was checking if he was alright, like he was an injured member of the hives.
Of course, he couldn’t sense them. Trisha had to respond for him, glancing down at the bee as she did, then back up at him with a more bemused smile.

”Congregation, prostrate thine self before God, Almighty. She whose Grace radiates.”
Those kneeling many wholly spun their bodies toward the front, toward Lynette, and buried their faces into the floor. Noses and foreheads pressed against the cold stone.

”And before Her Grace go We.”

Hari too prostrated herself before Lynette, before an orb took to the girl’s head and unfurled into a halo. She stood again, slowly and purposefully, and spoke once more.
”And with such Grace, we are all crowned in light and knowledge. Present thyself, Lord of Blades, to your people. Bare your scars as proof of thine trials.”

Casey stepped forward, and without hands, his armor began to peel away from his body. Section by section it came away to expose wounds of combat. For the first time, he spoke.
”Hell seeketh I, and through struggle, Salvation. I am risen. I am your Lord, whose Blade shall hang across our mantle as a symbol of peace, or hang across the neck of our enemies who know not of God’s ancient wrath. Let my wounds mark me, that all beneath my Blade recognize that I am that Ancient Wrath.”

”And before His Blade go We.”

And just like his siblings, he was bare. Stripped of all shame, as was part of their creed, he bore no covering. Lynette stepped forward, silently staring first at the crowd, then at her son’s face. She looked proud.

”Your people accept. You have exceeded the expectations of our Order, Lord of Blades. May you reign long and bask in glory.”
Then her face turned toward Trisha again.
”Before us, your life awaits. I ask, do you recognize the Witch before you, and regard her as your Consort?”

Casey, trying his best not to blush, looked down at Trisha.
”Dearest Trisha, I recognize you as my Consort.”
Lynette smiled, and a sphere slowly hovered down to Trisha before also unfurling into a levitating halo. Trisha would be able to feel the subtle vibration of the machine holding itself up by strange means against her head.

”Then, Chosen Consort: Receive thy Lord, that he may be healed from his trials and refreshed to continue his duties. Accept his uniform, and receive him before Me.” she directed, a hand rising up to prompt Elise into turning, holding out the bag with his clothes in it, and bowing directly before Trisha.
”What say you?”

Trisha cleared her throat, a bit thrown off by the distressed pheromones her bees were bombarding her with over the strange vibrations coming from some unknown object (to them). But she managed to ignore it, turning to take the bag from Elise into her arms, before turning back to Casey and looking up at him.
“Casey, I welcome you to peace, and in me, seek solace.” She spoke evenly and calmly, smiling at him, momentarily quenching the anxiety rising in her gut.

A tear fell from Casey’s good eye.
”I accept your reception, Dearest Trisha, in the Eyes of God.”
Lynette clapped her hands together once, and light flooded the chamber.

”Then by my Will, I deign your ascension as legitimate! Be of yourself, and reap the rewards of war!”

The collective group, still prostrated before the stage, began to hum a loud tune, and as they did, Mia and Leon both divested themselves of the cloths that covered them, draping each over Casey to stand bare among the attendants. Casey took a single stride off the stage, stride looking good despite the damage, and claimed the bag from Trisha.
He smiled with the love of ages behind it, and as he shifted the bag to one hand, he grunted. But, he couldn’t deny the urge to wrap the unwounded one into one of her hands, and finally she was being led away as the latin chanting got louder and louder.

A chamber at the side of the room opened up, and as Casey tugged Trisha into it, and it closed behind them. Silence, only Casey’s shuffling feet and Trisha’s shoes tapping off of the rock in the otherwise totally dark place. His breath was a little rattled, but soon there was a crack of light ahead, and Casey pushed the door open to reveal some kind of… Dressing room?
Or, what would’ve been some kind of dressing room, maybe a lounge, but a place that was comfortable and quiet none-the-less, with a table that had all sorts of food and fruit and letters and notes stacked up high. A banner hung across the ceiling that read “Congratulations Casey”, and there was a bathroom with a shower big enough for a giant to use.

But Casey nearly collapsed in the middle of the floor, grunting in pain.
”Do you have… Any idea how… Happy I am to see you…” he panted, having dropped the bag with his suit. The wounded arm that tried to hold it was spasming wildly, wounded muscle looking as if it were trying to wriggle from his skin.

Trisha’s breathing hitched and she reached out for Casey’s uninjured arm, as if she could somehow support someone of his size from properly collapsing. Her eyes quickly darted around the room, biting her lip.
“I’m- I’m happy to see you too, but are there any… healing potions in here? Or that healing cake? There was all that stuff about me healing you, but I haven’t suddenly developed healing magic…”

He shook his head, trying to keep her from panicking.
”Yeah, the cake, exactly. The fridge, check, it needs to stay chilled.” he said, pointing toward a little fridge in the corner of the room.

“Okay, you just stay here- not that you can go anywhere, one moment.” She let go of him, scurrying over to the fridge with surprising speed considering the heels she was wearing. But she was practised enough they weren’t that much more difficult to walk in than normal shoes, ignoring the pain that would eventually come with them. She shifted her long skirts to be able to squat down in front of the fridge, easily finding the cake she’d had when they first met. She pulled it out and hurried right back over to him.

“Here you go.” She held out the cake to him, brow furrowed in worry. She wasn’t going to be able to get rid of the anxiety she was feeling until he was healed. That was definitely the cause.
“When Elise told me what you were doing I didn’t realise you’d come out so hurt.”

”Oh, Babe, this shit was not scheduled.”
He shook his head, taking the little plate with the cake on it and absolutely stuffing it into his face with ravenous hunger. He tilted his head back as the magical custard fell down his throat.
Saliva enzymes were already breaking it down, and he could feel the broken and damaged teeth in his jaw already pushing out the old remnants for fresh new teeth. As it went further and further, there were audible twisting and snapping sounds beneath Casey’s painful moans. For a long while, he was practically limp on his knees, buckled in pain.

But as the swelling left his eye, and the feeling came back into his arm, he started to calm down and loosen up before finally collapsing entirely with a comforting sigh.
”Thank fuck… You’re the only reason I didn’t pass out…” he admitted, voice weak but stable again. ”Can you… Open the clothes and get me some underwear… Unless you don’t mind me being naked.”

“I’m enjoying the sights,” Trisha managed to joke, letting out a sigh of relief that he seemed healed… even if he was lying on the floor. There was still an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, but she ignored it for now. She made for the clothes bag, opening it and rummaging about carefully.
“I don’t mind, but it doesn’t seem fair for it to just be you, and I’m not stripping outside of the house.”

She came back over to him with the requested underwear, crouching down in front of him, and holding it out with a smile.
“You don’t need help getting dressed, do you? I can do it, but it’ll be less sexy than you’d expect.”

Casey laughed standing up slowly. He didn’t do much about the cloth falling from his body to expose him again.
”Y’know? After the day I’ve had, Trisha? I may just have the guts to ask you for some…” he slyly commented, looking at her without shame.

But still, he managed to slide on some covering, stretching his newly healed limbs. Trisha could watch his eyes and see the blood that had filled the swollen one still inching out of his sclera.
”That Uncle of mine, Babe… Seriously. That wasn’t expected at all, of all the times to challenge me to a duel. Of course I understand why, but I really wasn’t looking to fight today, and it would’ve been really fucking dumb if he killed me.” he complained, as if the vague hint of he and Furio having an all-out magical brawl was some sort of normal happenstance.

“So, if I ever want to move past kissing, I have to get Furio to challenge you to a duel?” Trisha smiled, trying to go along with the flow of the magical fight being… normal. It really wasn’t normal. Well, it had been when she’d been part of the coven, but that was more teenagers with too much power using it to beat each other up.
“It’s a good thing he didn’t kill you, it would’ve really ruined my day to become an attempted murderer- well, maybe I would’ve succeeded.”

Trisha stepped closer to him, carefully hugging him, tilting her head to look up at him. She’d honestly wanted to touch him since they’d come into this room. But there was that worry it would move further in a location she honestly wasn’t comfortable with doing much of anything in… Well, the risk wasn’t entirely negated. But she didn’t know how Lynette’s spying worked, so she didn’t entirely trust she wasn’t doing it. Anywhere in the Temple was a bit uncomfortable for her.
Still, she leaned up to lightly kiss him.
“Did you win the duel, then?”

He didn’t seem to be bothered by the same apprehension, pulling Trisha especially close to grab her in ways he didn’t usually.
”It was supposed to be to the death, Babe. Or, that’s how he made it sound when he issued the challenge. So, I wouldn’t be here if I lost.”
His hands tugged at her dress slightly, almost nervously.

”The entire time, I was thinking about why the fuck he wanted to do it now, when he could’ve done it any other time. Why now that I have you in my life? But, I think… Because he knew I had something waiting for me, Trisha. I won, but only because of you. So, thank you… For making my day bright, and for giving me something that I want to fight for… And no matter how fast or slow we take this relationship, just understand. You saved me.”

Casey leaned down for the kiss, no longer hesitating. He didn’t want to lose a second of the Paradise he’d found on Earth.

Trisha leaned up to meet Casey, parting her lips and pushing aside her apprehensions to lose herself in the feeling.

An hour or so later, they’d ended up on the couch in the room. It was a bit tight, nowhere near the nice size the one they had at home was - though Trisha didn’t particularly mind that she ended up having to lie on top of Casey. She rested her chin on her hands, which rested on his chest, and smiled sweetly at him. It wasn’t quite love in her gaze, but it was certainly strong like, happiness and contentment.
“How much longer do we have alone?” she asked softly, before moving one finger to vaguely gesture towards her hair. It was freely cascading down her back and onto him, completely pulled out of the style she’d had it in before.

“I wouldn’t have bothered putting so much effort into how I looked if I knew we’d have all of this time,” she grumbled good naturedly, still smiling.
“Not- not that I’m unhappy about it.”

Casey took a deep breath, satisfied with the way things had been playing out. The day was one of triumph, and as he held Trisha in his arms, he sighed outward in bliss. Too bad her question stunk. He didn’t want to think about having any less time with her. He just wanted to bask in victory… He could understand why this was the ritual for a warrior.
”Ooof, I mean… I lost track of time. Not sure how I could know with all of this going on, y’know?”

A noiseless giggle escaped from his chest, and he tilted his head up toward the clock on the wall.
”Twenty-five minutes. Not that you have to get dressed or anything right now. You’re all done until we go out later.” he smiled back at her.
”Andrade’s hosting us at the Port Saint around six, so we’ll have another hour or so after that. Did you uh… Want to go home, or something? I can arrange for you to get back, have someone stick around so we know you’re not getting hunted on me?” he asked her sincerely.

“So I can just laze around while you do… whatever you have to do?” Trisha asked, glad to hear there was no rush for her. She’d need to redo her hair and a lot of her makeup… thankfully she’d brought stuff with her, just in case. Good foresight… not that she’d expected anything like this. She was so happy that the extra effort she’d have to go through to look nice again didn’t even matter.
“Like… going home instead of Port Saint? I was planning to stick around. There’s not really much point in going back to an empty house, is there? I’m used to long days and dinner parties. I got through most of those alone, too… I’d rather stay with you, if that’s possible. Where it’s possible.”

Casey nodded.
”I mostly just meant until we were done here. Of course I want you by my side while we’re out, but I figured maybe you would just want to go home and like, game or something in the meanwhile. I’ll be here reading books essentially, interviewing with certain members, there’s another chanting session I think where we lick Mom’s feet. Not… Not literally.” he made a grimacing face, sticking out his tongue.

As he grimaced, his body shifted, and he managed to rotate Trisha onto her back on the couch. His hair draped over her now, and he planted one last kiss on her lips before standing fully. Still in his underwear, he knew he had to get dressed. A shower would’ve been nice, but getting the uniform to regulation was a twenty minute procedure.
”But, otherwise, you’re free to roam about the Temple grounds as you see fit. Did you see all the stuff they did outside? I mean, I assume so, I told Mum to have them do it in my honor since that’s the kind of thing I’d want to be known for. I uh, want people to feel comfortable around me, y’know? That they can trust I’ll keep ‘em safe. So, what’s better than fun?”

As they spoke, he began the process of suiting up starting with unbuttoned, unbelted pants. Perfect for tucking clothing into.

“Oh yeah, I saw on my way in - it was like a magical fair, with all of the creatures letting people pet them and ride them… very cool. It’s fun like you are.” She propped herself up into a half sitting position with her elbows, looking around before she found where she’d dumped her bag.
“I brought my tablet with me with a few books downloaded, since I expected to just be… sitting around the whole time. I don’t really see the point in going home to just do the same thing but… well, I’m happy to do it anywhere, so long as I don’t have to risk bumping into certain Temple members again.”

She moved again, turning around to properly sit with her back against the couch, legs crossed. She held a hand up to her mouth to cover a yawn.
“But I kind of mentally prepared to spend most of the day out… Well, it’s already been pretty different from what I expected. In a good way.”

”Oh yeah?” Casey asked in reply, slowly buttoning up his shirt after having laced up his shimmering black shoes. His socks had honeycomb patterns on them; a little flourish of Mia’s design that matched with his tie he had hanging around his neck.
”Elise was good to you? She didn’t give you any shit?” he asked sincerely.

“She was. She gave me the opposite of shit, really, she was very helpful. What I said during that ceremony would've sounded a lot worse without her help. We just talked about some stuff and… yeah, she was good to me." As she spoke, Trisha stood up, stretching her arms up above her head. She wasn't particularly bothered about her own state of undress - before her dress had even come off she'd asked about the possibility of Lynette spying, and been told that she was expressly forbidden from looking into this room. So it really was just them. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her body, really, but there were the scars she preferred to not show. In a way she was lucky - while there were smaller, pale ones dotted about in visible places, they could only be seen if someone was close enough. The obvious ones were in places she could easily hide - the raised one just below her chest, another less harsh but obvious cut wound at the very base of her spine. A nasty bite wound scar on her left hip, and scars from scratches on her upper thighs. All things she could've gotten removed magically or with expensive surgery but had… chosen not to for reasons she couldn't quite explain.

She padded over to her bag, picking it up and taking it back to the couch with her, going back to the same cross legged sitting position. She rummaged through it and pulled out a small comb. Her gaze went back to Casey as she started to languidly brush out her hair. It was nice to see all the little details of his outfit she'd missed when he first got into it - all the places it matched hers.
“We didn't get Temple married or anything during the Ceremony, did we?" she asked very casually, as if it was just a small thing she'd thought of rather than finally voicing the anxiety that had come back to scratch at her chest now that she was given a moment to think. It was that fear of getting trapped in something she couldn't escape… but also the fear of getting into something too deep, getting too much hope, only to have it pulled out from under her.
“Just that's what Consort normally means… I assume it's because it's an old ceremony?"

Casey couldn't help admiring the aesthetically pleasing sight before him. Though, he was brought away from it as the concept of her concern creeped into it. He wasn't actually sure about the answer to her question, but rather than feel embarrassed, he decided to redouble his efforts in keeping her safe and as insulated as possible.
”Honestly, if that's how you want to take it we can be… But, I'm certain that's the last thing you want. It'd pretty well go against us taking things slow, right?”

Slow… It seemed like a joke to him now that they lived together. Now that this happened. It wasn't a joke like haha, so much as it was the kind of joke two people didn't laugh at. The one that was so old and so well trodden that its usage had become ironic and sarcastic. But, if there was something he knew she was really committed to taking things slow with, it was The Temple.

”But, honestly, I don't care if it did or not. There wasn't any magic, no binding contract, no matching brands or anything. I'm pretty sure the consort word is used pretty loosely these days.”

Trisha let out a slight sigh of relief, anxiety lessening. As much as there was a certain security from something like that, the fears were more overwhelming. How could marriage, of any form, be anything but scary when she’d only seen ones that failed?
“Mhm, it’d be very much not taking things slow… I like where things are. We’ll get there when we want to. I’m just not ready for that jump from girlfriend to wife.”

Her tone turned lightly joking at the end. She knew it was ridiculous to worry about slowness when she’d moved in with him in only a few days. But there were certain things she could do quickly, certain ones she couldn’t. Moving in? Fine, there was an escape. Marriage and strong feelings? It would only hurt more if she lost them.
“But it’s fine if there’s none of that stuff- which isn’t like a normal marriage, by the way. Magic and branding normally… isn’t involved.”

She waved a hand in front of her, deciding to move on from that, because she didn’t particularly want to linger on the topic.
“Oh, if you’re reading books and interviewing members here, does that mean I’ll have to leave? Because I haven’t… taken any vows.” She put down her hair brush and started to braid her hair, from the top of her head, pulling in more strands all the way down to the back. “Will people be coming in right away? Because then I do need to get dressed.”

Casey vaguely pointed back out into the Inner Sanctum behind the door.
”Out there, my love. In the same hallway, there's another door with a more intimate space that Mother, Furio and I will be inside. Supposedly my Dad's magical essence is really strong in there, so it's supposed to be like he's there too.” he said, a slight frown crossing his face.

Not that he registered what he said, or what he called her. It came out of his head and his mouth so naturally that he was more caught by the thought of his missing father than he was by the L word leaving his mouth.

Still totally unconscious of it, he adjusted his coat and rubbed his service award patch to straighten all the commendations out. The actual medals clinked together gently. As he donned the hat finally, it was clear that his outfit was complete. Even the inner part of the hat's rim matched Trisha's honeycombs.

”I was thinking about changing the office animal from the Heron to the Bee. Do you feel like that would put too much more of a highlight on you? Or, would you be flattered?”

Trisha didn’t respond at first. She’d frozen midway through braiding, arms up and hands behind her head as she just stared at him. My love. The two words echoed in her head over and over again, the rest of what he was saying registered but not processed. It… it didn’t mean he loved her already. Right, right, it was just a term of affection that happened to contain the word love. It was just a cute little name.

Would it be so bad if he did? Yes, because if it had happened so fast, he could stop loving her just as quickly. It couldn’t be real.
“Oh, uh, sorry- I was distracted by how handsome you look,” Trisha forcefully snapped out of it, blushing - though more from what he’d called her than what she’d said. He did look very attractive, of course but… that wasn’t where her mind had been. She decided not to bring it up. Put it to the back of her mind, don’t react, concentrate on the good things…

“I think… I’d be flattered?” Trisha said, finishing off her hair by tying the braid at the nape of her neck. She pulled the ponytail over her shoulder, playing with the loose waves. It was another thing she was conflicted on. She would be flattered by it, but it would also bring more attention to her, like Casey had said. Temple attention. She wasn’t sure she wanted it… but if she ended up going through with Elise’s plan, she’d get it anyway. She didn’t know quite what it entailed, but anytime Casey thought about it, he’d think about her, too.
“I’d be flattered. It’s not like changing the animal will suddenly have people coming to me, right? And the bees deserve it.”

She held up a hand, one of the bees that had been relaxing in various places of the room flying over to land on her palm. She smiled.
"I’m glad that you think about them so much." The bee moved away and she stretched out her hands, gesturing for him to come over to her now that he was done getting dressed.

Casey couldn’t help but laugh and smile as he slowly bent his torso. His hands came around her beautiful face, gently holding her and kissing her lips before he sat next to her. The hands automatically listed toward hers, taking them and looking into her eyes.
”They’re a part of you, right? Of course I want to include them in my thoughts.”

He reached for one still listing on top of her head and slid a finger under its little legs to get it up onto his hand. As he brought it down, the little thing flitted about before nestling into his palm. He could feel it’s little stinger, but didn’t feel nervous about it.

”Almost time… I think I heard the door slide open down the hall.”

Trisha smiled as Casey held the bee, feeling its happy little pheromones wash over her. She wasn’t sure why they liked him, beyond the fact she was constantly bathing him in her own pheromones… but they’d been more wary of Reyna, and it had been the same thing. Sometimes she just couldn’t entirely understand them.
“I don’t really want you to go, but I guess I’ll survive,” Trisha sighed, shifting onto her knees so she had enough height to easily lean in for another kiss. She then gestured to the bee in his palm.
“You can take her with you, if you want. She’ll be good, I promise, and she doesn’t understand the human language.”

Casey held her close, a finger rubbing her fuzzy little body as he stared like a kid. He didn’t respond at first.
”Uh… I… Definitely can’t. I want to, but as stupid as it sounds, she’s a bee without oath. She’s just plain not allowed.”
He kept rubbing the little bee until it willingly fell on its side. Just like any animal, he supposed. But their time at that point really was over. The door that they’d entered the room through slid open, and rather than fully come into the room, a voice spoke from outside.

”Boss? It’s time.”

Furio’s voice. Casey tensed slightly, causing the bee to jolt up and take flight. A stray thought about that bee’s personal trust passed through his head as he stood.
”Don’t miss me too much. Go check out the carnival thing, I… Maybe Gin or someone’ll be there, you won’t be so alone. If you want… If not, I’ll come get you when we’re done.” he smiled tenderly, his finger brushing under her chin.

“No promises,” Trisha smiled softly up at him, legs pulled up against her chest reactively from the door opening… even though no one had come in. She wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to do but checking out the festival was probably the better option… maybe. He was right, she wouldn't be so alone. If she didn’t enjoy it she could just find somewhere to hide away.
“If I do go out, do I just go back down the corridor? Because it’s all… magic…”

”You got it; there’ll be a couple of Sentries posted outside the room we’re in. Friendly faces, so if you need any help just ask and they’ll get you back upstairs; it’s uh, Norm and Theo. So, yeah.” he stuck his thumb up, smiled, then waved.
”Miss you already.”

”And don’t be afraid to come back down either, Trisha, you’re allowed to. Just try and be quiet when you get back into the Sanctum, ‘cuz people are still meditating while they wait for an audience. You did great by the way, sweetie, that was real nice what you said. Reminded me of Clarissa.” Furio commented kindly from outside in hopes that she’d feel a bit more at ease with his input.

“Ah, well, thank you. It wasn’t really much… Just what I’d say to Casey if he came back from anything tough, made fancier.” Trisha replied somewhat awkwardly - after all, it had been Elise who’d worded it for her. She couldn’t really take the credit. But… It was nice to hear that it reminded him of Clarissa, in that those two were still together. Of course what was said in this ceremony probably had very little weight in that, but it was another thing to hold onto.
“And don’t worry, I wasn’t planning to draw any attention to myself when I go out… or come back in. The bees will be quiet too.”

Then she glanced back at Casey.
“I’ll see you later, make sure you don’t learn so much you stop thinking about me, alright?”

”No chance.”
Casey was still looking at her as he backed toward the door and turned. The two men exchanged some pleasantries, and they ended up hugging before walking down the hall and ultimately disappearing from Trisha’s hearable range. It’d be several more hours before Casey was free again.

With Casey gone, Trisha was left alone again. It wasn’t so bad this time. He was just down the corridor, he would be back, they’d spent a really nice hour and a half together. She should at least check out the festival since he’d suggested it and organised it. It wouldn’t be so fun without him, but it could be. Maybe.

Trisha just about managed to drag herself off the sofa to pull back on her underwear, but the dress was another challenge. And with a bit of the stress lifted, in a place that at least wasn't watched, she suddenly felt very tired. Well, there wasn’t any rush. She could take her time getting ready again.

With that in mind, Trisha sat back down on the couch. Then lay down on her side, bees meandering over to her and landing all over her. It didn’t take long for the exhaustion from barely sleeping to take her, her bees contented pheromones washing over her as she fell asleep.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

& &

Mood Music

Edict & Leon & Kenshiro

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Mentions: Pink and Violet, Lynette Hunter-Richoux | Direct Dialogue: Layla Hyacinthus/@Estylwen, Anya Baksh/@FernStone, The Gathered Coven | Location: The House on the Hill

---

The crowd bayed for proof. Edict could only grin at Luna, getting just a bit closer to toss his arm over her shoulder in a comforting way.
"Yeah, I mean it's great that you all want proof that she's not lying and stuff, but... Won't it suck when you have to let me in to get it?" his eyes narrowed, teeth bared in the most smug look he could give. He waited long enough to feel the aggressive reactions bubbling before he gave way. "Fuckin' joking! Jokinggggg, God. Stiff motherfuckers: Alright! Everyone interested in proof, raise your hand. I'll beam what I saw, it'll hit your Emotional Field, you'll see shit like a picture show. The informants in question seem to be... Agent assets. Currently working with 8th Street, but I... Have reason to believe they're involved with a lot more than just them. I also have reason to believe that one of these two people who were probed are responsible for the hallucinatory haze we were all caught in at Kari's house."

He waited a moment for those who consented to gather before speaking again.
"While rummaging through their heads, I felt the same sort of lingering sensation as I felt with the mist. Hence, reason to believe, rather than solid proof. Now-" he commented, slipping on his sunglasses. "-it's show and tell time."
Those who had openly consented to the non-intrusive display were bombarded by the same images that he'd ripped directly from the girls' memories. Lots of meetings with 8th Street, Blake Schmidt being handed over the notes. The shock and awe of Kari's anti-magical translatory coding, which even Edict had to admit was a masterpiece of clever tricks that he'd probably need another dozen years to decode himself without a key.

Leon hadn't raised his hand. He didn't much care about what was going on, in so much as he cared about the Temple business that needed immediate tending to. So, he didn't put his hand up, and hoped that Edict wouldn't just blast him anyway as he was trying to talk to someone.

“I uh, I refused Britney once... So I wanted this sealing done by Sycamore, and not the Temple... if that's alright?”

Layla

He had no clue, obviously. Every part of him said no, that it wasn't alright... But at the same time, he thought about the mounting strangeness; the tension, the fact that Lena was the Aberrant who was supposed to be in charge of Layla's tending and training, the situation with Casey and Trisha. He thought about what his job was, and then about Alizee. Finally he frowned.

"You're... Gonna end it then? No more magic for Layla? I mean... You're not so far into your oaths that you can't back out, as far as I'm concerned. If it's become too much for you, and you think you can't go on, then... I'm sure it's best for everyone then. So Void Heart stays sealed too, and we can all move on." Leon's hand still held Layla's dainty fingers, frowning. "But, this will be a sad thing for Her Grace to hear. I believe she would expect me to try changing your mind: But, I don't think it's right to keep you... Not when you're so hurt, Layla. So, I'll take it for you. Her sadness, her anguish. Don't worry, okay? I only ask that I be with you when you're sealed, so I can know for certain that you're kept safe."

The vision ended, and Edict pulled his glasses from his head so that nobody would get nervous about him going any further. He'd given them inextricable proof of Luna's words, and the only thing he could do now was gear up to defend his own powers from the scrutiny of others. It was assumed that at least someone would call bullshit, or that he simply doctored up the images as he pleased. But this was a power he didn't have when they were teens, neither the vision sharing or the ability to twist and transform memories within his mind. So, it was the hope that there'd be nobody who would bother making the connection...
The Bad Guy with good intent - The sad clown.
"So, with that, I say we start applying pressure where we can. Maybe we can get some legitimate assets involved with this Schmidt character? I'd say someone like Anya is the perfect choice; get into the guy's head, convince him you're the one who can solve his problem? Keeps us out of 8th Street's radar too; maybe they'll just forget like angry T-rexes." he laughed.

Ken had put his hand up, and had absolutely recognized the validity of the claims in the images featuring Kari's many notebooks. It was easy to see, as she'd even added little bits of the language of the Ambphibioids of Gama to her vast sprawling cyphers. His mind reeled in a mixture of confusion and rage.
"Why, so someone else can get their hands on her notes to sell for profit? I know the ways of your bōryokudan; you'll not convince me of your good intentions without assurances on your life that those notes will remain confidential and out of your reach!"

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

&

Mood Music

Edict & Leon

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Mentions: Britney Williams, Linqian Han | Direct Dialogue: Layla Hyacinthus, Adora Phoenix-Prescott, The Gathered Coven | Location: Edict's Car > The House on the Hill

---

Edict never loved waiting around at the Temple. So, he was glad when Leon had him come out to their apartment building by the Port, pulling up outside and rattling off a quick text to Britney; a silly meme about a show they'd started watching together in the little spare time they had together. It was mostly to see if she'd ping him back with a response in a decent amount of time. He could trust they were safe if she kept responding, and he didn't exactly care how annoying it was. Leon was another story. Edict had set up the meeting on Sunday after quietly attending a particular ceremony for the Temple as a courtesy, and as he waited around longer and longer in his running car, he watched the precious time they had to talk business dying away as the Sycamore meeting at the abandoned club got closer and closer.
He felt it was important for both of them to show up, even if showing up together looked bad. Last time, of course, it ended bad too. The church raid. There was no way they were going through that again, even though he didn't really have any solid plan to prevent it. It was more of a prayer, or some kind of manifestation energy, than any reality he could create by himself.

Leon, having already woken up late, immerged from the apartment building with just about enough driving time to make it to the club on time if red lights proved kind. Edict could see the telltale signs of Leon's abstraction working overtime to heal his ass, not least of which was the half shredded clothing he was wearing. The giant man dropped a duffle bag on the street, pointing at Edict to acknowledge that he was waiting before he finished the work of destroying his clothes by ripping the scraps off. In record time, he was refreshed in a massive pair of blue jeans, black boots, a white shirt and his leather bomber jacket.
Edict made a mental note that Leon looked like someone pulled him out of some greaser movie from the old days. He just needed his hair slicked with a bit of product, but having it tied in a tight pony tail pulled every single hair on that wooly man's head back to the tie. He didn't casually bring the bag back into the building, so much as he unpleasantly hurled it back into the lobby before making for the car.

Leon opened the door and looked down into the cab of the sports car with a sarcastic look on his face.
"You're joking, right Devola?"
Edict knew what he meant immediately, and he lifted himself over the console to grab the bar beneath the passenger seat. He tried sliding the seat back further, only to hear it slam against the back of the cab.
"Oh, come on. You're joking with ME Leon. Bunch those fucking tree trunks up, bend your giraffe-like neck, and get in the car. Before I make myself regret asking what you decided to fuck that ruined your morning."
"You mean fuck with, right?" Leon asked in reply, compressing himself as best he could to get into the car in front of him. As he finally adjusted and managed to close the door, he looked directly at Edict. "R-right?"

The spare moments were spent discussing what'd come to pass since the last meeting, including the small amount of work he did with Luna. The topic managed to shift to their shared experiences having sex with Linqian, which made Edict feel strangely cagey and... Certainly not jealous. He definitely wouldn't ask her about it later... But the red lights were merciful, and after twenty minutes of city driving, Edict pulled into the designated meetup to see a bunch of other cars already there. He knew Britney was there at least. The two men quietly made for the entrance, and came in right around the time Adora was SHOUTING.

Leon's bulky frame blocked the little bit of light that otherwise would've come through the door as they entered. Quickly, Edict put two and two together, and came up with Luna jumping the gun like usual. She probably didn't wait for him to spill the beans, and now Adora was asking for concrete info to confirm the circumstance. He spoke up loudly, trying to interject into the mayhem before the chance escaped.

”... Do we have any concrete information? Anything to confirm what you're saying other than 'trust me, bro'...?”

Adora

"Woah, woah! Fiiiirst off, my client pleads the fifth, whatever the hell we missed. But, if it's what I think it is, I have proof, taken directly from a head privy to the information firsthand. And I'm happy to disclose anything, so long as you guys are gonna give me a fair shot at explaining."

Meanwhile, Leon had harbored a secret objective: One given to him by his younger brother, who was now privy to the Temple's vast surveillance network in real time. He almost instantly locked in on Layla, moving to where she'd been sat before crouching in front of her.
"Jesus Christ, Layla cher... Look at you... Again? What'd you and Lena talk about before? That you're supposed to head to the chapel, or to the Aberrant Dorm where people can help you!"
Leon didn't raise his voice, on the contrary toning it down as much as possible so that Layla wouldn't think it was some kind of admonishment.
"Her Grace is worried sick about you, Love..." he cooed at her, reaching a large and calloused hand out to her in an offer of comfort. "How'd you even get here?"

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Mood Music

Kenshiro

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Mentions: Jack Hawthorne, Kari Wilson | Direct Dialogue: Luna Inoue/@Estylwen, The Meeting Attendants | Location: The House on the Hill

---

A door opened and closed somewhere in the dark behind Jack. It was messy clattering, and then Kenshiro immerged from the hole just in time to hear people talking about Kari's notes. Mostly he was trying to keep up with Jack, who just plain moved faster than him. However, things were already spiraling into the blame game again. Him piping up wasn't going to do anyone any good, so rather than make a big stink, Ken chose to hone in on the situation at hand. He knew Inoue by her unique look, hard to forget the girl who dressed like a gangster with the face of a geisha.

"And if they don't? We take Blake by storm, you and your alliances, and we beat him until he tells us the exact location of those notes."

Luna

"Inoue-San... Why don't we skip the light work, huh?" he asked in Japanese, barely understandable to a modern tongue before swapping back to English for the wider group. "There's absolutely no way we should be conceding ground at this point. Give no quarter: If they've got Kari's things, that means they're open enemies. If they're open enemies, I think we should lop their metaphorical heads off now, and reclaim what we want before they have any more time to mount a counter. Its bad enough that 8th Street has a chance of giving away that we know her notes are gone, we don't need them also knowing that we found out who has them."

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@AtomicEmperor Slight property damage on Temple grounds... Layla will help pay for it.

@Estylwen

Hahaha Lynette left the property damage. She thinks it looks nice with plants crawling through the holes. They keep buckets in the chapel LMAO

Iron and Honey: A Love Story [FernStone & AtomicEmperor]

---

Act One-Five

It was dark.

Trisha didn't know where she was, not exactly. St Portwell, a forest. She couldn't sense the bees. Shadows moved all around her, forming vague human shapes, with sharp claws that chased after her. Inhuman whispers echoed in her ears.

You're all alone. You deserve to be. Why would anyone stay? You're a failure. Everyone will abandon you. No one loves you. It's all a lie.

She couldn't escape the words even when she tried to run in the endless forest. Shadows turned into monsters that came after her, and she had no bees to stop them.

You just hurt everyone.

The trees were painted blood red. Suddenly, it wasn't just the shadows. There were bodies of people she didn't recognise. She'd known them, but forgotten them, maybe. She didn't know. They were torn apart. But it wasn't her fault. Was it?

It's your fault that they leave you. You'll always be abandoned. You deserve to be alone.

The shadows surrounded her, blocking off any escape. She could already feel the pain of their claws, phantom agony across her chest.

Alone ^{Alone Alone Alone Alone}

Shadowed talons sliced through her stomach-

Trisha woke suddenly, one hand going to her stomach. Her chest heaved up and down, heart racing and sweat covering her. Her head pounded, nausea threatening to bring up everything she'd drank the night before. It was light, just. She didn't feel any weight against her, nothing holding her- he was gone, he was gone, he was gone-

Her head snapped to the side, breathing calming down slightly when she saw that Casey was still there, asleep. She was the one that was at the edge of the bed… she must have rolled away while she was dreaming. It only helped calm her panic slightly. She was safe, she was definitely safe… it was so hard to believe. The dream was so vivid. It wasn't often that she dreamt like this. Maybe it was getting worse because of the danger, the return of the coven… or maybe it was just the alcohol. At least she hadn’t called the bees in her sleep.

While the dream was vivid, what had happened last night was not. Her memories were fuzzy. She remembered drinking a lot with her friends, and Casey coming to get her… snippets of conversations. Refusing to let him go, saying some things she wouldn't otherwise… she didn't think he'd reacted badly? But she couldn't remember. It was a blur. Had they resolved things? She wasn't entirely sure, which didn't help the constant, cold flutter in her chest.

She wanted to cuddle up to him, but she felt uncomfortable, like something was scratching her skin. Glancing down, she realised she was still wearing the dress from yesterday. It stuck to her, all sweaty and gross. She didn't want to hug him like this… she'd get changed first. He wouldn't disappear if she looked away for a moment, right?

Trisha carefully rolled the last bit off the bed, trying not to disturb Casey. She didn't want to wake him when he'd actually slept in… at least, it couldn't be 5am. It was too light. She winced as her head swam, temples pounding. But it wasn't a long journey to the wardrobe. The shorts she'd worn the night before were dumped in front of it, so she pulled them on under the skirt. She frowned as it rubbed uncomfortably against her sweaty skin, just another horrible sensation pressing against her.

Casey was still asleep, hopefully… she pulled off her dress, starting to rummage through the wardrobe in just her bra and shorts. What she was actually looking for was one of his t-shirts among all of her clothes… but she couldn't even remember if he'd actually put anything in there. Maybe… hopefully. Her head hurt too much to think, so she just kept looking. The longer she did the more panicked she felt that she'd turn around and he'd be gone, but- but she'd set her mind to it. Find a t-shirt, go back. Her whole body trembled, but it was definitely the hangover. It'd be fine.

Oddly, Casey found himself wrapped up and held tightly by the darkness of sleep. It was rare to have a night that he didn't wake up panicked, and rarer still that he wasn't sweating from his heart pounding in his chest.
It seemed to be proximity to Trisha, though the other dreamless sleep the night they met saw him still waking up at a normal time. His unconscious brain didn't bother trying to make sense of it.

But the brain cleared itself up. It always did, sometimes in spectacular fashion, and as Casey stirred vaguely to consciousness, he felt that both of his arms were available for free movement. He wasn't trapped under her, he wasn't pinned, he didn't feel her weight.
His hand shot across the bed, fingers sliding over the silky duvet on top of the bed. She wasn't there. Why? His hand kept shuffling about, assuming she’d simply found her way to some magical position that kept her just out of his reach.

But as he gave one last pass of his arm to feel nothingness, his eyes snapped fully open. As he pushed his body up toward an upright position, he found anxiety swallowing him as her name left his lips.
”Trisha!?” Casey called out, not even looking.

As she was actually still close, it'd be incredibly easy to hear the panic and anxiety in his voice. Of course he was scared of her being hurt, but he was just as afraid of her leaving. One argument, and in the middle of the night, she just up and leaves?
He'd sat up just right to keep Trisha out of his line of sight, despite them sharing the same little room. Not on purpose of course; it's the pure panic of knowing that someone was next to you in the foxhole and now they're not there…

He didn't serve in the Pacific, and he thanked God for that. But the Special Services experienced its fair share of horror. He often wondered which actually ended up worse, but the convergent trauma was well documented. The psychological horror of falling asleep because you're exhausted, only to wake up and find your buddy's boot as the last reminder of them? It stuck.

”Trisha!?”
He spun his head, and finally their eyes were able to lock as his foolish panic faded away.

Trisha was still fruitlessly searching for some clothes that weren't hers in the wardrobe when Casey woke up. She jumped, dropping the sweater she'd picked up. The sudden shout had her head pounding, immediate response dying on her lips. His obvious panic set off her own again, heart rate speeding up and breathing quickening. She spun around, ignoring the nausea that came with her sudden movement.
“I was just getting changed," Trisha said softly with an attempted smile, voice slightly hoarse from the hangover. She felt the need to explain. She hadn't left, he hadn't left, they were both still there.

She didn't bother going back to looking, closing the small gap between her and the bed to crawl back onto it. In no time she was right beside him, climbing into his lap and pressing her face into his chest. Her body was still trembling, the lingering effects of her nightmare intertwining with the sick feeling in her gut and the worry his panic had set off. But… but that was good, right? It meant he didn't want her to leave. She didn't remember how much they'd resolved of the fight last night, but it meant he wanted her here.
“I meant to be quick," she said in a small voice, shaky limbs curling up against him. She didn't really care if he was bothered by how little clothes she was wearing - she had a bra on, he could wrap them in a blanket, it didn't really matter. The scar… well she didn't care about that either if he ended up seeing. She'd just needed to hug him. “But none of your clothes are in there. I was just looking for a t-shirt, but it's all mine. I wanted something of yours."

Wordlessly, Casey began shuffling and tugging until his sweater and shirt came off. It was the same collared shirt he'd worn the entire day previous, and he figured it wouldn't really work.
”G-girls… like guy sweaters.”
He pulled the shirt out of the sweater and clumsily begin trying to pull it over Trisha's head and shoulders.
”J-just… wake me up next time instead. I thought you ran away from me.”

Doing his best, he figured the sweater would be enough to keep her there next to him forever. His arms got tighter around her, and as the haze of sleepiness returned, he found his fingers slowly but surely scratching her back in the same spot. It was a gentle thing, supposed to be comforting as his eyes closed back down. He wasn't even sure if she actually put the sweater on.

For whatever reason, he didn't feel entirely functional. Like it was a dream he was trapped in and couldn't get away from.
”We're real…? You and me? No dreaming?” he struggled to ask her.

Trisha managed to half wriggle into the sweater, getting her arms and head through so that it was at least over her. She didn't bother detaching herself enough from Casey to let it fall down past the upper half of her body, pressing as close as was physically possible.
.“I wouldn't run away from you," Trisha mumbled - because that wasn't what she'd done yesterday. That had been different. He'd shut her out first… she started getting a bit tense just thinking about it, though having him right there, holding her close. The constant, light movement of his fingers against her back meant there was no way to think this wasn't real. He hadn't left.

“Yeah, we're real," Trisha said. She wriggled one arm out of the hold he had on her, hand moving to his bicep to pinch it. Unlike him, she was wide awake after the nightmare and getting up.
“See, if you can feel that it's real. Definitely not a dream. I'm here, you're here, we're both here, together."

It was as much a mantra for herself as it was for him. She was still worried he'd just disappear, somehow, even though she knew this wasn't a dream. She wouldn't dream of anything so nice. The few dreams she had were always nightmares.
“I can keep pinching you if it'll help you believe it? Or to wake you up more… well, you can go back to sleep if you want, I'll just be here."

Casey cleared his throat as he clung to Trisha.
”You’re not… Gonna sleep?”
Sniffling, he pushed up on the bed and sat up straight before starting to rub his eyes a bit more. Thoughts after blackout sleeping like that usually came at a slow trickle so long as the panic subsided, and he was thankful it had.

But now she was going to raw dog the day? He flicked his hand to look at his watch, finding the time closer to eight in the morning than he ever thought he’d see.
”Oh, Jesus… I’m amazed Furio hasn’t come up to buzz us and see where the fuck I am.”
Despite work now being on his mind, he knew he was “free” for another couple of days. They hadn’t trusted him with the Manuals yet, and he hadn’t had some Pink Luxer in his mind handing him over any important secrets. Furio wouldn’t bother; but he would be giving Casey a hard time about not being more serious when he finally did show up.

So he shook the responsibility off in favor of cuddling his girlfriend. His. Girlfriend. Still, after the tremendous amount of shit she’d given him and the cold response he’d initially given her, she was here. Arms held her tightly, keeping her as close as he possibly could while she was there with him.
And now she was wearing his sweater, which made her like a little loofa-blanket that he could pick up slightly and rub himself on like a cat. Before long, he slid the hood over her head and was rubbing his cheek against the fabric.
”Do you remember what I said last night?” he asked very casually, as if it meant absolutely nothing.

With the hood pulled up it was more difficult for Trisha to see Casey's face, just to try figure out what he might've said last night from his expression. Her brow furrowed as she tried to pick through her incredibly fuzzy memory, hand wriggling up to play with a long strand of hair that had escaped from the sweater entrapment. She'd clung to him… he hadn't pushed her away. He told her he missed her. They'd talked when they got home but… she didn't remember the details. She wasn't sure what she'd said either. Something about trying harder? She pursed her lips, head just hurting the harder she thought.

“Unless it was that you missed me, I don't…" she shook her head slightly, which felt more like rubbing back against Casey's cheek than anything else.
“Was it something I should remember? I was really drunk… we're not still fighting, are we?" The last bit was said in an incredibly tiny voice, barely a whisper. She really hoped that they'd resolved it last night.

As she was asking questions, Casey’s smile slowly crept across his face. By the time she was done, he was shaking from the giggling. Pulling the hood far enough away from her face, he looked down to make sure she could see him smiling.
”Nah… We’re not fighting, and there’s nothing you need to remember. You were just being really sweet, and so was I. We were both just tired, I think…”

If she was being serious, then she didn’t remember he said the L word. His arms tightened around her a little bit, and he rubbed her arms to give her a bit more friction warmth.
”But, I’m pretty sure you’re going back to see them again today, so… I guess, if you’re gonna get that drunk again tonight, just let me know first? So I know if I have to go get you. I couldn’t ask someone else from the Temple to do it, that’d be embarrassing.”
His face got a little closer to hers, and he rubbed his nose against hers with smiling eyes. He loved her: Now it was his secret to keep until she said she felt the same. Could he? He didn’t know, but Casey wanted to try and make sure she was convinced of it by then.

Trisha wasn't entirely convinced that there was nothing she needed to remember - had she really just been sweet? She hadn't said something she normally wouldn't? But it was difficult to dwell on those worries when they were so close like this. She obviously hadn't said anything bad. If she had, would he still be here?

“I could just get a taxi- but I'm not drinking anything today. Even if we go to a bar, I'll just drink soda or something." She tilted her head forward to press her forehead against his with a little smile, trying to ignore what felt like spiders crawling inside her chest at the thought of going to see her friends without him today. Not that she was worried about seeing them, it was the being away from him. She couldn't just shake the anxiety yesterday had brought up, and the situation that had led to her drinking so much in the first place.
“I didn't plan to drink that much, it just happened… I regret it, I feel awful."

The more she woke up the less her hangover actually felt all that bad. Sure, if she smelled too strong food she'd probably throw up, but the headache was lessening. That didn't mean she wasn't going to milk it. Trap him for as long as she could.
“I don't even know if I can get out of bed for a while… My head hurts so much. Not for another few hours, at least… I neeeeeed some cuddling time to feel better.”

His hand bumped against her shoulder, rubbing her gently again as he kissed her on the forehead.
”You neeeeeeeed some cuddling time? Like deeply?” he giggled.
Posture shifted again, and he held himself upright while letting her go again.
”Then you koala yourself around me. Get nice and comfy… I’m here with you.” he urged her in a gentle voice, patting himself.

Casey swung his head equally urging her to cling to him as tightly and awkwardly as she wanted. It was necessary, he figured, after everything that had been said. He was happy she really didn’t remember, since it was all private feelings he could hold onto. Things he could know for certain weren’t even hers. Just for him.
Special feelings.

It wasn’t good to urge her to drink, probably… He could only hope that she’d be so open later on without the same influence. For now, he just wanted her to feel good about him feeling good.
”And I’m only doing this because you’re really fucking awesome and pretty and cool and… Y’know, if you weren’t, I’d… Still really enjoy my time that I get to spend with you. What the Hell am I saying?” he started giggling, holding his arm out and waiting for her acceptance.

Trisha turned around to properly face him, arms going under his as she burrowed herself against his chest. Her legs also wrapped around him so that, while she was still sitting in his lap, she was completely clinging to him. He’d have to work really hard to detach her, she really was like a human sized koala.
It made her feel secure holding onto him like this.
“If I wasn’t so cool I probably wouldn’t be here like this,” Trisha responded with a slight giggle of her own, tilting her head up to smile at him. She didn’t really believe it all. She knew that she was pretty, the one thing she truly accepted, but the rest? Well… she wasn’t going to argue if he genuinely thought so. “Only super cool people move in with their boyfriends this early.”

If she didn’t live with him, and hadn’t been brought back home by him, she’d probably still be upset and ignoring him. She definitely would’ve been in a much worse mood if she’d woken up at the place her friend’s were renting.
“I’ll hold you to that if I become less cool and awesome and pretty,” she said, resting her head back down against him. Maybe she could… try open up a bit. Just a little bit. It wasn’t about anything deep.
“This morning I actually woke up from… a nightmare, I guess? About the apparitions I had to fight, before. I’d rolled away so I thought you weren’t there but then I saw you and… it didn’t seem so bad.”

Casey was holding her tightly, and thankfully his face was pushed past her own so that she couldn’t see his eyes dim.
Of course she’d have the same nightmares, idiot… Tell her.
”Y’know I feel the same about you? Like, I almost always have them… But spending the nights with you, they’ve… Not been bad. Like, last night I didn’t dream at all.”

As he held her, he gripped the fabric of the sweater gently, bunching it up and letting it go in little crinkles.
”I mean like… I know those kinds of dreams. And, you make them seem not so bad too. Or like even if they are bad, you’re there to comfort me.”
He was somewhat satisfied by what he managed to get out, and shifted slightly to push his forehead against hers.

He didn’t want her to think it was creepy, but it was important to get the eye contact in. His Father had always pressed that one should maintain eye contact when expressing things like sincerity, because they were the windows into the soul. There wasn’t any real magic there, it was just… Maybe it was magic.
”I mean that.”

It wasn’t that difficult for Trisha to meet his eyes, and to try to believe the genuineness in them. That would be hard to fake. Of course he had dreams like that - worse, probably - but that he felt the same as her? She had to believe it here. He meant it, and it helped quiet down those annoying little voices in the back of her mind for a moment.
“I don’t have mine every night.” She decided not to tell him that she hadn’t had them in years, not until recently. It was the circumstances - Father Wolf, the reminders, meeting coven members again. What if he thought last nights was because of him, somehow?

“I… I’m really glad you feel the same,” she continued softly, fingers pressing into his back and lightly running up and down. If she made his dreams better, then he’d want to keep sleeping beside her.
“That means we’ll have to keep sharing a bed, forever and ever. It hasn’t been the same with other people for me… not really. Though the last person I shared with was Cass, and she kept kicking me in her sleep-” she smiled, eyes so close to his gently curving. It really did feel better. Like, even if the nightmares continued it would be fine.
“We’re like each other’s… good sleep charm or something.”

”We are… So lets keep it that way, okay? Next time you’re mad at me, or something happens… We’re going to talk about it. And we’re going to make sure that even if we can’t resolve it, it’s understood that we’ll end up in bed together at the end of it.”
He took a deep breath. At least he had her right now, and she couldn’t escape the tender moment. He only hoped that she’d understand that the feeling wasn’t malicious. He only wanted to hear her say she’d try again while she was sober. It was, after all, what he remembered most.

”Or, at least don’t run away. For now. With things being so not safe, I… Can’t say it isn’t a little tense knowing that anything could happen. If our info’s good, and lone people are being targeted,- God, there’s just too much shit, Trisha. I don’t ever want to lose you like that.”

Trisha bit her lip and glanced away, unable to keep up the eye contact while she thought it through. She didn’t like talking when she was upset. She didn’t like talking about things that set her off at all. Because the surface reason always came across as petty and stupid, and the deeper, real reason wasn’t something she was comfortable with sharing. The reaction to that would only be worse. Everytime she started opening herself up she got shut right back down.
But she couldn’t say that right now.

“Alright, I’ll try,” Trisha said eventually, looking back at him again. She would, when it came to not running away. Even if she was still mad at him, and still didn’t want to talk to him, she’d try to stay here. Where would she go when her friends weren’t around? Anywhere else, like her sister’s place, would just be more empty. She’d sleep just as well alone as she would next to someone she was still upset with.

“But I didn’t run away, you-” she stopped herself, taking a long, slow breath. She didn’t want to ruin the moment. It was difficult to stop herself getting a bit grumpy about it again, especially when she didn’t remember resolving anything, but she was too comfortable hugging him. Being with him. She didn’t want to stop that.
“I’ll go into the Greenhouse next time. Then I’ll still be here, but it’s my space… I…” she trailed off again, struggling. It wasn’t like last night when she was drunk - though even then, it’d been apparent she still struggled.

“I don’t want to die because I’m alone.” Though she’d been alone for so long, why hadn’t Father Wolf killed her before? He probably just hadn’t gotten around to her.
“I don’t- I don’t want to get mad either. I’ll try not to. I won’t run away, and I’ll sleep here anyway.”
There was nothing about talking about it. She couldn’t lie like that. She didn’t want to make a promise she knew she couldn’t keep, as opposed to one she could at least try to. If he hadn’t shut the door yesterday, she probably wouldn’t have left like that. She might still be ignoring him but… she wouldn’t have left.

He was, if leery, satisfied by her reaction. He wasn’t about to get upset this early in the morning, so whatever she felt like she had to say, he was going to let her without giving any kind of pushback. Frankly, Casey was just happy to have Trisha still safe and in his arms after something stupid. Something that was, ultimately, his fault.
”And, I apologized to you last night. But, if you don’t remember, I want you to hear me say it now. I’m sorry for pushing you away. At first, I didn’t really consider that you maybe just wanted some private time… And by the time I did, I threw it in your face like I was a child. It was wrong of me, and I’ll try my absolute best to not… Like… Well,-”

He thought back to the sorts of things he had said before. Even moments ago… Authoritative; like she was his. It wasn’t a road he wanted to go down. He didn’t even really know where it was coming from… But that seemed to him to be the more embarrassing element in it.
Leon acted like that… Before. Like he was-

”-I don’t know, admonish you like I’m you’re fuckin’ Dad or something. I’m not here to teach you how I think you should be, or make you fit into a mold you don’t wanna be in. So, me getting mad at you and like, trying to project myself on you… I should just go along with you, and learn how to accept things like that. Right? If I… Have feelings for you. Like I’m sure I do.”
At least he managed to scoot past the L word again.

“I accept the apology, now I’m sober.” Even though she was the one that had started it, really, and ignored him. She hadn’t really pushed him away. She’d waited at the end of the corridor. She’d even sort of been talking about it. But it would be easiest if he went along with her every time. Then things could keep going smoothly. Things always fell apart when she snapped and people got sick of it… but maybe then he wouldn’t?
”My dad was never present enough to be like that, anyway.” She laughed slightly at that, as if it was a joke - it felt like it. Her dad’s lack of presence in her life wasn’t something she was touchy about as her mom. Everyone knew what a shit father James Vanburen had been, except a select few of his favourite children.

“I really don’t like people trying to make me into something so… yeah, it’ll be better if you just accept it. For both of us. But I can take you getting angry at me, or shouting at me, or admonishing me. I’ll argue back, I’ll get more mad, just... don’t leave first. I-” she bit her lip, unable to take it back. The actual vulnerability, the peek into what really scared her more than anything. If he tried to project onto her, she could resist it. But if he was out of her sight, she couldn’t do anything.
“I’d rather, if you can’t accept it, you get mad instead of leaving. If you like me, don’t walk away first.”

Patience necessary, inquire within.
She was fixated on it alright. Drunk, and now sober. He was happy to hear her bringing it up, and while it maybe wasn’t the greatest thing to deal with, he was sure he could.
”I won’t, Trisha… And I didn’t mean to do that, so… If you don’t need some kind of personal space to sort your shit out, then I won’t worry about it. ‘Cuz, y’know… I’m used to shit like that at least. Being in a barrack with a bunch of other dudes? We just kind of sit and take care of shit. ‘Cuz you’ve gotta be ready for anything. Can’t let things get in the way.”

He was good about blinking at least; hadn’t given her the two thousand yard stare yet. Yet.

He didn’t mean to do that? Then why did he? No, no, this was good, if he wasn’t going to do it again.
“Don’t worry about it, because If I need the space, I’ll leave.” Reading between the lines, her actions were louder than her words.
“Not our place, to another room- or the Greenhouse. But I’m also used to dealing with it around people. Because of all the siblings.” That wasn’t strictly true. When she was younger she’d always lock herself in her room. But it was different when it came to her partner, or even friends. She glanced around as she spoke, obviously uncomfortable with talking about it at all, forcing herself through it. Impressive progress, really.
“I prefer sitting in the same room not talking.”

Casey made a soft eeeyuck sound.
”We can’t share such a close proximity and not talk about it unless you’re gonna like… Cuddle me or something. No way can I sit on pins and needles in the same room. I mean, I’m sure it’ll all work out and we’ll find some way to make things right for one another. So we’ll have to… Just wait and see what happens? And then hash it out again when the time comes.”

He nuzzled her nose again, rubbing Trisha’s shoulders and back as he took a deep breath.
”My sweet Koala Bee.” he giggled.

Trisha just about managed to not frown at that, lips twitching a little bit, managing to even out back towards an almost smile when the topic was mostly moved on from. Not having to keep talking about it was more of a relief than the future problems when they did fight again.
“Maybe the time won’t even come,” she said softly, even though she knew it would. She was the one that had gotten irritated by small things building up before, and she would again. But she wasn’t going to think about that right now.

“But now you’re in big trouble, because when the Koala Bee latches we never let go.” Trisha smiled again, finally properly meeting his gaze again. She relaxed more, rubbing her nose back against his. Then she tilted her head slightly and leaned in to peck his lips with a very light kiss.
“We’re cute but clingy and fussy,” she laughed lightly. “But you already seem to be getting used to that.”

---

Some hours later, Casey had time to himself once again. At least this was scheduled, and nobody was in a bad mood as they left except… He giggled to himself thinking about Leon bringing Cass outside to meet with Trisha and their other friends who came to pick them up. She’s had the expression of annoyance toward Cass, and that little upturned nose with the leering eyes made him smile.
He thought Trisha was tremendously cute when she was upset…

Casey’s headphones once again blocked out the loudness of the indoor range. It was his zen place, his favorite spot to be around home now topped only by Trisha’s direct location. Since she wasn’t there, it was a clear winner with no contest.
When he first got downstairs, Furio was quick to let him know that tomorrow, Sunday, he’d be officiated into his position and office. It’s when he’d have the knowledge and the lores passed down to him, and it was meant to be an occasion of celebration.

So, Casey was expecting guests. Furio had ceremoniously given him the day to himself again, but only one party really knew what was in store. He fired off a salvo of handgun shots, watching the different patterns that they split and fragmented into as the magical detonation forcibly blasted the slugs into miniature shotgun spreads.
The ammo enchantment was coming along nicely. He liked what he saw, especially in the consistency of the blast pattern which seemed to be more or less identical between each shot. As such, it rewarded precision marksmanship, and he hoped that it would translate similarly into ammunition with better penetration capabilities.

But there was a body behind him. It didn’t reach out or stop him from what he was doing, but he could feel eyes. Not to mention the way the sound was echoing changed completely, muffling and tightening it more like there was a barrier. He flicked the safety, dumped the mag out of the well, then cleared the chamber before laying the empty firearm down.
Turning and pulling his headphones off, it was someone he wasn’t expecting.
”Oh, shit… Mumma?”

He probably should’ve expected her. If the ceremony was tomorrow, it was only natural she’d want to speak with him… But at the same time, he didn’t expect her here. Not actively. She was wearing a black dress; simple, without frill or ornament. She didn’t wear a coat or carry any kind of purse ever, so Lynette Richoux was singular in focus.
”Is that any way to greet your mother, Casaeu?” she grinned, holding up her arms for an embrace.

Casey accepted it, moving and hugging under his mother’s arms as hers wrapped around his back.
”How’s my Late Bloomer? You’re all settled in, I take it?”

Nodding, he took his Mother tenderly by the hand. Usually he wasn’t so reverent, but they were supposed to have an agreement. So, he figured he’d play his part.
”Yep… It’s great up there. But, I get how Furio and Clarissa were getting claustrophobic.”
Lynette giggled to herself, a serene smile painted across her face like comforting sunlight.

”And our favorite newcomer?” she asked with an expectant tone. ”Did you both settle the problem you came to me with?”

Again, Casey nodded, but this time he felt the hair on his neck stand up. He had made the mistake of trying to get her involved, at least to comfort him or something, but… She’d practically shunned involvement. All she really did was blame him without context, them tell him to make it right.

”Fixed. No sweat.”
Lynette’s hand reached up and pinched Casey by the cheek playfully.
”Good boy. I’m proud of you navigating your first test of tender care… She’s damaged, Casey, just like you are. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more moments like that. So, always try and think about how you would feel, my Bubba. Now, c’mon. Toys away, lets go upstairs. I have a gift for her, and we need to discuss plans and necessary ritual expectations for tomorrow… And Eli’s here, so-”

Casey grimaced slightly.
”Oh, well I mean… She’s not here?” he said, in reference to Trisha.
”That’s perfectly fine, my sweet boy. We ain’t got anywhere to be!”

Lynette’s hand reached out, taking the shoulder of Casey’s shirt and lifting it, tugging it toward her as if she was going to pull her giant of a son along where she wanted him to go. Like a cat caught in the neck grip of its mother, he too practically went limp, finding himself being dragged up to his rooftop home by his mother.
As they exited the armory, Elise and Mia were both waiting and talking, laden with bags that most likely had freshly pressed clothing in them. When they saw Casey was caught in the dreaded grip, they both gave him a frown of knowing, meekly following behind to leave the hallway quiet once more.

---

The Harbor> Back Home

---

Across town, Trisha had taken her friends on a nice (if cold) meander across the harbour before going into Coastal Harbour mall. It lent itself more to her, Reyna and Nadiyah - but Sal had his gaming time yesterday, and Cass had her fun all night. Thankfully she didn’t go on about it too much. If anything, it made things easier, because she was too tired to complain about being dragged from shop to shop.

After shopping was done - with Nadiyah having bought multiple bags of items - the four from out of town wanted to go get some food. Trisha really didn’t want to get food. Just the thought of getting food made her feel a bit queasy.

”There’s a Red Lobster in St Portwell, right? Let’s go there for tea!” Cass grinned as they walked out of the mall, making their way towards Reyna’s car at the other side of the parking lot. Suffering through the shopping seemed to have had the opposite effect on her that it did others - she’d bounced right back to full energy. Somehow.
"Absolutely not," Nadiyah was the first to say, rolling her eyes. "I don’t understand your obsession with Red Lobster. We’re by the coast. We can go to a nice seafood restaurant."
”Red Lobster’s good and cheap! I’m fuckin’ skint, alright!”
"You wouldn’t be if you hadn’t bought all those new computer parts. I told you not to."

Trisha walked at the back of the group, rubbing her forehead with a small frown. She had a small bag slung over her shoulder - nothing she’d bought, but little household trinkets her friend’s had all pitched in to get her as a ‘housewarming’ gift. It was nice, but she was tired.
She could probably eat a little bit, but sitting in a restaurant surrounded by all sorts of food smells? She was still too hungover for that.
"You want me to take you home first?" Reyna asked quietly, slowing down to walk beside Trisha.
“I didn’t say I wanted to go home?” Trisha looked up at Reyna, head tilted in confusion. She did, but she also… didn’t? She knew that if she went back she probably wouldn’t see them again for a while, but she also just really wanted to go cuddle up with Casey on their massive couch.
"It’s written all across your aura," Reyna laughed. "And your face. You had a lot to drink last night, I don’t want you throwing up over our meal."

After some thought, Trisha nodded. Maybe she could see them later, or tomorrow before they left. She’d only get annoyed if she went out to eat and started to feel more sick.
“... yeah, you’re right,” she said eventually, with a smile.

They’d reached Reyna’s car, bags stuffed in the trunk and all five piling in. Cass and Nadiyah continued to bicker over where they were going to eat, over Trisha who’d been forced into the middle seat thanks to being the ‘smallest’, with Sal occasionally interjecting. By the time they reached the apartment block it had been decided they wouldn’t go to Red Lobster, but that they’d try to find a reasonably priced seafood place. All parties were reasonably satisfied in time to say their goodbyes.

”TRIISSHHHHAAA I’m gonna miss you!” Cass immediately pulled Trisha into an inescapable, tight hug while rubbing their cheeks together. Trisha leaned away from her with a half assed grumble.
“You’re just going to miss my boyfriend’s brother.”
”Hey, no way! It ain’t like that! Bros before hoes! You’re the one I looovvvveeee.” Cass sang the last word with a wide grin.
“Gross,” Trisha made a face, but she properly hugged Cass back.

"Hey, let the rest of us in there," Sal laughed. Cass reluctantly let go and Sal went in for a hug, once again lifting Trisha off the ground and squeezing her tight.
"I’ll catch you online, so work on your fps skills… and say bye to your boyfriend from me!"
“Fuck off,” Trisha rolled her eyes good naturedly.

Nadiyah was thankfully more reasonable, a light hug and whispered comment about how annoying the other two were. Trisha laughed.
"Call me if he ever annoys you. We can bitch about it together."

Reyna was last, hugging Trisha with a warm smile. It lingered a bit, Reyna patting Trisha’s back before pulling back.
"I’ll try and visit more often, since I’m so close. You should also come to Portland sometime. Bring Casey as well. I hope it works. He seems nice."
”Awww shit, he got the most difficult seal of approval to get!” Cass grinned from the side.

“... yeah, that’d be nice,” Trisha smiled, ignoring Cass. She wasn’t so sure about visiting - Casey would get busy soon, and she didn’t want to travel alone, but it would be nice if Reyna came around more often. Maybe with a bit more warning next time.
“Well, bye… Maybe I’ll see you all in the morning.”

They all laughed, clearly not believing that, and Trisha just shrugged. With a last wave she backed away towards the lobby. She wasn’t one to linger on goodbyes - they always sucked, because as soon as someone was out of her sight the worries started to creep in. But it was better to get it over with.
Inside the elevator she leaned against one of the walls with a yawn. The small group of bees she’d brought with her crawled out of her coat and onto her neck, buzzing softly. The shaking of the lift near the top still made her jump a little bit, bees scattering. But it wasn’t as bad anymore. The bees all came back to her shoulder as she quickly made her way along the corridor and up onto the roof.

She really couldn’t wait to get back and just relax for the rest of the evening. Maybe she’d have a nap, or they could watch a movie. It would be nice.
“Casey, I’m home-” Trisha froze just one step through the door. With the place being so small it was impossible to not notice the guests immediately. Her wide eyes went to Casey, then to Mia, then the woman she didn’t recognise - his other sister, judging by her looks - before stopping on Lynette.

She forced a smile.
“Hello. Casey didn’t tell me we had guests. I would’ve come back earlier if I’d known.” That was a well told lie, of course. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have come home until much later.

”Oh my God heyyyyyyyy!”
Classically, Mia jumped at the first hello. She seemed perky and clean today, dressed in some fairly comfortable clothing as she’d probably been downstairs. Her hair was tied up and mostly hidden away under the hat that she always wore, and she tore from where she was to embrace the much shorter Trisha.

She had to bend her knees slightly to get deeply into it. But she smelled nice, like lilac and vanilla; and when her head pulled away she was grinning ear to ear. Mia, like Reyna, was decent enough at reading auras through her Mother’s preferred method, and could always sense the tension coming from Trisha’s eyes whenever she was hugged.
It wasn’t great knowing you weren’t wanted in such a way, but she knew she couldn’t hold it against Trisha. Only work to better the relationship. So, she hoped that the consistency would be good.

Mia moved to give Trisha a better look: A better look at Casey, who was standing with different fabrics draped across his otherwise scarcely clothed body. Lynette was, until Trisha entered, fussing about with a string of ties draped across her arm trying to match one with another fabric she was holding.
At the other side of Casey, Elise Richoux stood staring with cold blue eyes that shimmered in a way the others didn’t. She was holding tightly to a teddy bear who seemed to be dressed with some bandages and other medical dressings.

Eerily, its face also stared at Trisha with beady little black eyes that somehow conveyed intelligence within. When Trisha’s gaze would inevitably meet hers, the expression instantly shifted to one of comfort and kindness. She looked very much like her mother and sister, and with all three of them now looking at Trisha from different distances, it was impossible to not see it…
The Smile.

”I’m real sorry, Babe… I honestly didn’t know what time you’d be back or when they’d be done, so I just kind of winged it. Next time I’ll let you know…”
And there he was like a beam of sunshine among a painted facade. His tender grin was the same one he’d given to her that morning, and the same one that he’d given her last night when he picked her up.
The Smile was trained expression. Casey’s face was full of love, as if he were in the middle of a joke he wasn’t aware of.

”I’m super glad you made it though… Mom and Elise wanted to finalize the measurements on your dress for tomorrow… It’s my Ascension Ceremony, Babe! And we’ve gotta match… But I told them you would maybe get pissed off, so I’m expecting to hear your honest thoughts when you see what they picked.”
Not that it probably wouldn’t have been obvious instantly to Trisha as to what the theme was by looking at the cloth colors already draped over Casey…

Gold and black. It was honestly a coincidence that the colors for the office somehow made the resemblance of the Bee, but it was probably some strange twist of fate in the end.
”Mhm! Oh, but please, Elise! Introduce yourself sweetheart!”
Elise had been staring daggers at Trisha despite the automatically adjusting smile. The look didn’t change as she piped up…

Except, the shimmering in her eyes died away. Somehow the smile lost a little bit of the fake porcelain nature. She softened. Placing the bear down, she stepped across the room to hold her hand out. Dressed mostly in black, she looked like an office woman working for Hot Topic’s corporate branch. Even the tattoos on her fingers spelled out things like “goth” and “blood”.
”Right. I’m Elise, Casey’s big sister. I guess Mia’s too”.
”You fucking guess?”

Casey and Lynette both laughed, and Elise smiled. The women hoped singularly that it would somewhat break the tension for Trisha.

It was a lot, as it always was with Casey’s family… in just the few days Trisha had been around them. Mia’s hug was less unexpected but still uncomfortable, even if she was slowly adjusting. The fake smile they all wore didn’t bother her. She was used to something like that among certain siblings of hers. It was easy enough to return it with one of her own, softening more genuinely when she looked at Casey.
“You’re making me out to be fussy in front of your family, Case, I’m not that bad,” she laughed lightly, before stepping enough into the house for the door to shut behind her. The likely bee motif that would come with her dress didn’t bother her - because to her clothes weren’t for herself, they were to present an image to others.

But she had no idea what on earth an Ascension Ceremony was. Something Temple, something important. It didn’t really matter. She put it to the back of her mind and reached out to shake Elise’s hand lightly.
At least it wasn’t another hug.
“Nice to meet you, Elise. I’m Trisha… but I’m sure you already know.” It was all polite, with a pleasant smile. She glanced over at Mia. “I have siblings I don’t want to claim either.”

She took off her coat to shake off the urge to run, trying to push away the discomfort. She didn’t like coming home to people unexpectedly in her space, but she could tolerate it. She was used to it. Her clothes were more casual than yesterday's - dark green, wide legged corduroy pants with a light, knit white top tucked into them. She hung up her coat before turning back to the four, gesturing to Casey, with all the fabrics and lack of dress.
“I’m not going to have to do that, am I?”

There was a momentary exchange of glances between Lynette and Mia that were ultimately subtle. Elise laughed openly, catching it and shifting the tension.
She moved around behind Casey and pulled the bag with Trisha’s pre-emptive dress inside off to hand to her.
”Uhh… No. No need to be so undressed; we just weren’t really sure what we were doing for him yet, so he’s getting more attention. Mia actually-”
”-Fucking designed the dress…” Mia finished in a fairly despondent and distant tone. Very far from where she’d started. ”It was supposed to be cute, but, whatever, it’s not-”

Casey, ever vigilant but not so observant, cleared his throat.
”Mimi?” he questioned, looking at his younger sister. She didn’t respond, taking a deep breath.

”It won’t be a problem to change the design one way or another, Trisha. You’re not fussy if everyone throws something like bees in your face all the time and you don’t want it themed like that. It’s fine. Just, go put it on please, so that we can get your measurements and make sure everything’s good so we can leave you and Casey alone.”

Trisha took the bag, compliments towards Mia for designing a dress in the first place dying on her lips before they could get out. She genuinely thought so. Sure, her older sister was also in fashion design, but Sabrina was able to magically create any clothes. That was cheating. Perhaps Mia had used magic too, but she didn’t know. But Mia’s sudden glumness stopped her from saying so. She didn’t know what had caused it - was it her? Did it matter if it was? She wasn’t sure.
“Alright, I’ll go try it on. I really don’t have a problem with the bee theming, it’s not like many people… know about the magical bees. I even have earrings now to match.”

It took a lot for Trisha not to get a bit snappy in response to how Mia was talking, grounding herself by looking at Casey, and thinking about how she didn’t want to look bad in front of him. She smiled and went past them all, jogging up the stairs to their loft bedroom with a trail of bees following behind her. Once up there, alone, she was able to relax for a moment. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Then she pulled out the dress, gently unfurling it and holding it out in front of her.

It really was beautiful.

Black, with perfectly embroidered, golden honeycombs across it. There was delicate beading on the bodice, a few beaded bees among the honeycomb. Trisha had seen, and worn, a lot of nice dresses - for galas she was dragged to, all the formal occasions a rich child and teenager was forced to attend. But she’d never actually had something made specifically for her. Either it was made to match her family, or just something incredibly expensive that fit without much thought put into it. She actually… really liked it.
And she wasn’t sure how happy she was about that.

Putting it on was a bit more of an ordeal. The skirts were longer than she normally wore, with multiple layers and gathered at the bottom before poofing out even more. It was difficult to find which one was the inner skirt, with so many underneath the outer, slightly sheer, layer. Eventually she managed to wriggle into it, arms straight above her head to get in through the much tighter bodice. Then… there was a zip at the back she just couldn’t do up the whole way herself. Getting the bees to do it was possible, but would be an ordeal. She’d just have to ask for help.

The fit wasn’t bad. It was a bit oversized, both around her waist and with the skirts going past her feet. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wore heels, but it was obvious they hadn’t estimated her shorter stature quite right. It meant that she had to hold them up as she made her way back down, a lot slower than she’d gone up.
“I can’t quite get the zip at the back done up,” she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs, still holding up the skirts so they didn’t trail on the floor. The bees had settled on the bodice, practically blending in. It was a casual entry and she gave Mia a slight smile before her gaze turned to Casey.
“You were wrong about me getting pissed, I like it. It’s… really nice, actually. I might need quite high heels to not trip on it… though I guess that can be adjusted?”

The mood had somewhat shifted between the time Trisha left and came back. As she mentioned she liked it, everyone cheered in unison. Casey, throwing off the different fabrics that were draped around him, curled his arms toward the sky in excitement.
”Thank God!”
”See!? You’re nervous about nothing, Mimi! All the fuss!”
”It was written, my baby girl… Now apologize to yourself…”
Mia’s hands clasped together and she mouthed something to herself before smiling brightly at Trisha.

”I’m sorry, Trisha… I’m just like, nervous about it. I literally made a suit for Casey that matches, and it’s totally done, and then he said you may not like it and I… I was just thinking the worst, and… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, like, give you attitude.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Trisha waved a hand, awkwardly laughing. It had bothered her, but at the same time she recognised that she shouldn’t make a big deal about it. Couldn’t. She was the same. Getting upset over something reasonable like perceived failure, that was.
“I’m used to being given outfits that fit my family rather than me. I love my bees, so I like things themed after them.” At least, things like this. She wouldn’t go for anything too cutesy, in public at least.

“Do I get to see Casey in his, then, or do I have to wait till tomorrow?” She smiled over at him, before looking back at Mia, gesturing at her back.
“Could you help with the zip, Mia? I’d ask Casey but…” she laughed, smiling teasingly at him. It wasn’t exactly difficult, but with the calluses and larger fingers, he’d pos

She slapped her forehead and moved behind Trisha to zip her up fully. From there, she began to mess about with the length to get an idea about how much had to come off. Casey naturally looked toward Lynette with an expectant grin and hopeful eyes.
”Well of course, we want to see him too!”

Elise laughed.
”Some of our seats have colors associated with them; it’s traditional. Furio wears very little of it these days, but Gold represents Casey’s position. Our general ceremonial garments are usually black; so, black and gold in the pattern of something like this is… Only natural. We’ll all match, save for Mama.”
While she spoke, Casey was starting to unzip the outfit, grinning and nodding as he started to get dressed.

From what was already visible on the table, it looked to be a very militaristic-style uniform. Maybe to be like his own service uniform, it even had his medals and service award bars already attached to it alongside his rank. The brimming of the hat, the cuffs, the inner lining of the jacket, every little bit of it was the same as Trisha’s dress. Repurposed, refined, and identical to her own.
”I get to wear my favorite color…” Lynette beamed, moving to a box that they were keeping by the bags.
”Now, Trisha… Jewelry? I’m sure you have some of your own, darling, so if you had any specifics please feel free to wear them, but… We will need you to wear a ring. Don’t worry, there’s no magic or anything, it won’t bite. It’s just very old, and its symbolic of your… Our… Recent commitment to one another spiritually.”

Bringing the box to Trisha, she opened it fully. There were different bands, different colors and jewels, and even some platinum necklace bands in case one didn’t want to wear it on their finger.
”The choice doesn’t necessarily matter, since there’s not any sort of reading we’re trying to do for you. But, I’ll say, each ring has a very old story, and usually we… Like to gleam certain portents from which ring you pick… I can tell you, or I can spare you. Since, we wouldn’t want you feeling any more pushed than you already may.” Lynette offered.

Trisha’s gaze moved from what she could see of Casey’s outfit, the way it matched her own tugging her lips up into a genuine smile, to the box of rings. The smile fell, lips pulling into a thin line as she stared at them. She didn’t remember agreeing to any kind of spiritual commitment… whatever that meant. She wasn’t committing anything to them. Hers was to Casey but… his was also to them.
So she couldn’t just refuse.

The thought of picking a ring that would cause them to try and ‘gleam’ things didn’t sit well with her. It was just another way to put labels on her without knowing her. But if they were going to do that anyway, she would want to know.
“Picking a ring doesn’t bind me to anything, does it?” she asked, glancing up beyond the box to Casey. “It’s just for the ceremony? I just want to know what I’m agreeing to when I take one.”

The four of them turned to one another in small bursts. Casey really cut it though.
”No, Babe, don’t worry about it. Ma? Momma? Please, I understand it’s important to you, but it’d be really important to me if we can just skip that. Us. Don’t ruin…-”
Lynette huffed, tilting her head back and grabbing the bridge of her nose with her free hand.
”Fine, fine. To answer your question, Trisha, so you don’t get the wrong idea: No. There’s nothing magical or enchanted about it, no binding, no oaths. It’s just… We know these people’s stories so intimately, it… Means something, to us, about which you’re drawn to. Which you pick. Like that… Fucking… Blasphemous book by that no good lady from England about the wizard schools…”

Elise laughed through her nose again, shaking her head.
”I’m certain she means the wands.” she did her best to explain.

Blasphemous book from England… like the wands… Trisha held a hand up to her mouth to smother the intense laughter she couldn’t hold back. It was just too funny. There was just something disconcertingly entertaining about Lynette bringing up Harry Potter of all things. Calling it blasphemy… haha. Bad writing, sure, but blasphemy?
Not that Trisha had actually read the books. It wasn’t on the approved reading list her mom made her stick to.

“So it’s another way to judge what I’m like from something I choose, rather than actually making the effort to actually get to know me?” Trisha said, rather bluntly. She couldn’t help it. Maybe it was because she was brought up differently, mundanely. She truly didn’t believe that her picking out a ring that she thought would suit her correlated in any way to her as a person, no matter what the story was behind it.

“I actually don’t mind if that’s all it is, but I’m not doing it if Casey wants to skip it.” She’d been watching him pretty much the whole time. If he genuinely wanted to skip it, she was more than happy with that. But she could also choose one. Whatever came out of it didn’t affect her, and if it coloured their views of her? Well, they were probably already coloured from all the information they’d gathered anyway.
“But I’m fine to do it. I already know which I’d choose.”

Lynette looked toward Casey who, midway through fixing his shirt into his pants and belt to show off the dark black versus bright gold radiating from beneath the collar. He frowned back, then shook his head and looked at Trisha.
”I’ll… do… something special. For you. If you genuinely don’t care, they’re just… Like, they’re saints’ rings. Certain people who are close to me are supposed to wear them to keep us protected. You don’t need to wear one, because there’ll be plenty of people. But, yeah. You kind of nailed it. Only, this one… I don’t think it’s ever been malicious as far as I’m aware.” he weakly informed Trisha.

”And that’s really all this was supposed to be! I said, I’d spare her the meaning, because… W-well, just like she said! She already saw one that spoke to her, and if we don’t make anything about it, then… I… It’d make me feel so much better, Trisha-”
Lynette’s hand crept nervously toward her own face, near clawing at her chin in anxious motion as she turned her face to Trisha again.
”-if your energy toward him is as strong as I hope it is, then spiritually, the representative will be with us. Y-you kids… Call it vibes. Right?”

“...Right. I understand.” Trisha bit on her lip to stop another fit of laughter over something that was clearly serious. She didn’t get the whole spiritual thing, or any of that. It being compared to vibes? Didn’t make it any clearer. But if it wasn’t magic, it couldn’t track her, and was only meant to be some positive spiritual energy check and protective charm… she could handle that. It was just like when her mom used to make her wear a necklace with the cross on it.
Before she chose one she pointed at Casey with a smile. “I’ll hold you to doing something special for me.”

She then looked back down at the box, kind of thankful for the excuse to look away - Casey already looked unfairly attractive. Her finger moved down to point to one of the rings. It was silver, different from her usual golden jewellery, with a spiral design across the band and a gem that seemed to shift from green to blue to purple. It was the gem she was more drawn to, and the fact it was a bit more delicate than the others.
“That’s the one I choose… Uh, can I just take it, or is there some ceremony to that?”

Lynette looked down at the ring, looked back up at Trisha, and smiled widely.
”Yes! Well, yes, take it for now, but… No, no ceremony or anything. Would you rather put it on a chain? It may not fit your finger well, I believe the woman who wore it was even smaller than you.”

“I am average height,” Trisha said offhandedly, picking up the ring. She held it up to look at the actual size, then compared it to her fingers. She had quite slender hands, but it wouldn’t fit on her index or middle finger… obviously the left ring finger was out. She carefully slipped it onto her right ring finger. It was a bit of a tight fit, but once it was on it fit quite snuggly. While she hadn’t bothered with any today, she was used to wearing rings, so it didn’t particularly bother her.
“This is fine, I prefer rings over too many things around my neck anyway,” she held her right hand up to show that it fit with a slight smile.

“I’m not sure if it goes with all of the gold in our outfits.” She dropped her hand back to her side, wriggling her fingers. It didn’t feel any different from a normal ring. Probably not magic. If it was, the ghost sleeping inside of her would eventually sense it, anyway.
“But it suits me enough that I don’t mind wearing it, if it really is meant to protect us.” Not that she believed that, but it was one thing she could go along with, after confirming that there really wasn’t anything more to it. It was just wearing a ring.

Lynette bowed her head in near reverence.
”Thank you, Trisha. Seriously. It means a lot, and he… Probably won’t tell you, but I know it means a great deal to Casey. He’s…-” she turned her head back to look at her son, who was beginning to blush.
”He’s always been a diligent disciple; and regardless of anything, I know he holds a special place for these seemingly foolish little things we fuss over.”

Casey took a deep breath and nodded.
”Literally, anything you want. Don’t even worry about asking or anything, it’s gonna be so fine.” he refused to confirm his mother’s chiding, causing her to smile.
Mia rose back up, looking at Trisha’s hand.
”Oh, hey… Mal does have a cool story. Like, I try to tell people all the time, even if you take all the faith and worship out, a lot of the stories that are anecdotal are still generally cool. They read like fantasy books.”

She waved her hand forward toward her Mother, who opened the box again and smiled. Mia’s hand instantly reached for a pop-corn colored nodule of amber fixed into an egg shape that topped a rounded frame. She slid it on immediately, and held hers up to Trisha’s. They didn’t do anything besides look old, ornate and pretty.
”Also, see how your dress feels now. I pinned it up a little bit to where I think you’ll like it better. Unless you want to wear heels, but I sure as fuck don’t suggest it.”

Trisha nodded, keeping in the back of her mind to think about what she wanted from Casey… and she would think about it. Though, she had a feeling he’d do something special for her if she ever asked even without something like this.
“I’ll be honest I’ve… not read many fantasy books. They became less interesting when I discovered magic. But I imagine a story that someone with magic finds cool is probably actually interesting.”

She smiled, and twisted her hips around a few times to sway the skirts before taking a few steps to make sure she wasn’t going to trip over it. It was still going to be a bit annoying if she had to walk up any stairs, but that was just the nature of longer dresses.
“That feels much better, no more risk of me falling over in the middle of things- but is it that long? Longer than an unnecessarily boring ceremony and party that lasted for almost twelve hours? Because I’ve survived that in heels before.”
”Oh, you’ll be fine darling. You’re not even going to be participating in the actual ceremony, so you’ll be nice and comfortable while we’re… Passing everything along. The ceremony will be quite a while, but… We do want your supportive energy in the building still, just… Sparing you from the oaths necessary and the madness that can occur within the sanctum.”

Casey was fixing his coat up now, shiny black shoes reflecting the overhead light back upward.
”Which may suck; I would understand you like… Bringing stuff. Like your laptop, or a book or something. But, after that I’m pretty sure we’re going to Andrade’s? And that’ll be really good.”

Trisha was actually quite relieved she wasn’t going to have to participate in the actual ceremony. She’d suffered through her fair share of church sermons that had her wanting to rip her hair out, and there hadn’t been any… madness involved in that. She didn’t think her being in the building for some kind of supportive energy was necessary at all, because it was an energy she rarely brought anywhere, but that was fine. She’d do that for him.
“Don’t worry, I’m used to entertaining myself. I’ll just download some books onto my phone so I don’t even need to worry about bringing anything along. I can suffer through any amount of waiting around if there’s nice food waiting at the end of it.”

Though, she wasn’t sure if food at Andrade’s restaurant counted under what Leon had told her not to eat. She couldn’t exactly ask. And really, it wasn’t about the food. She probably wouldn’t be able to stomach much if they were in a large group. It was about making sure Casey knew she could handle it all.
Once he was done fixing up his coat she stepped towards him, reaching out to take one of his hands in both of her own. She tilted her head back to look up at him with a warm smile, a slight blush tinting her cheeks darker.
“You look really… good in that,” she said softly, both wanting to tell him but feeling embarrassed about his family being around. She glanced down at her own dress, then the matching fabric on his suit. “And it matches really nicely. It’s impossible to miss, so everyone will know we’re together.”
As if that wasn’t always obvious anyway…

Casey gave Trisha a wide grin, knowing how frustrating and annoying dealing with this probably was for her. Of course it meant a great deal to him as well, which he was more than happy to express; just not here. Not in front of everyone like this.
”I think you look incredible.”
His thumbs rubbed against her hands, and the ring she now wore. He also appreciated who it was and where it came from, so seeing the old thing on her finger gave him a great deal of pride.

”And I’m glad everyone will be able to see us as a pair. An item.”
”Ooooh, this is great. You both look fantastic, I can’t believe it…” Lynette interjected, now very close with both hands clasped together at her chest.
”And all that fussing, when she loved it, Caseau… Shame. I hope you consider better next time something like this comes up. Now, does it fit!?”

Casey nodded wordlessly.
”Then I’d say our jobs are done. Casey, we expect you bright and early; Trisha, you’ll be getting picked up around eleven thirty, probably by Furio and Clarissa. I hope you understand, we’ll just need him a little early.”

Trisha turned her head towards Lynette, unable to hide the coldness in her eyes when she not so subtly shamed Casey for making a fuss. Trisha would rather he did, and be wrong, when it came to her and things with the Temple. He'd been wrong this time, but what about the next? What about when it was something more important?
But she managed to cover it back up with a more neutral smile that grew warmer again when she looked back up at Casey.
“That’s fine, I'm not so clingy that I need to be with him all the time… I appreciate the extra sleep."

She squeezed Casey's hands, fingers gently scratching them, before letting go.
“I’ll go take this off so you can get it adjusted." She didn't wait for any confirmation that was needed, because she assumed Mia hadn't used magical pins that magically shortened it. She went back up to the loft. Thankfully, taking it off was much faster than putting it on, and she came back down in the clothes she'd been wearing before, dress carefully folding back in its original bag.

“Here you go," Trisha held it out with a smile, while slotting in against Casey's side and taking his hand again. She was still wearing the ring. She looked up at him, and then at the other three.
“I guess I'll see you tomorrow. It was nice to meet you, Elise, and thank you for the dress and the ring." A not so subtle queue for them to leave, but Trisha didn't feel particularly rude in giving it when Lynette had already implied they would be on their way.

Casey was, once more, stripped down to his boxers as Elise and Mia were slowly and carefully re-packaging the articles of clothing. Lynette was folding the other sample scraps, getting everything that was loose back into the tote she’d brought up.
”Of course, Trisha. It’s nice meeting you too, and hopefully we can get more time together; we can talk about stuff.”
”Ooooh, we’re upgrading to stuff?” Lynette cooed, eyes opening wide and brows rising up her forehead.

It was pretty difficult to tell when she was speaking, as she mostly kept her mouth tight, but Lynette deigned to open in a wide enough expression of shock that Trisha would’ve caught a good look… At what? As Lynette’s mouth gaped, smile crawling an extra inch up her face than it should’ve, the shadows within continued unnaturally across coal black flesh that made up her gums and throat.
The whole inside was dark.

”Hey, I won’t pretend to know what she’s into… But I’m flexible. It’s my job- NOT THAT talking to you is a job, of course. I like making friends, it just happens I get to do it as a job. But, I promise, no recruitment shit, I’ve been…” Elise paused, almost trapped by her understanding of her Mother’s previous orders.
”Well, obviously I had to make sure we didn’t have any more uncomfortable mix-ups, right? I hope that’s alright, Trisha…” Lynette did her best to back her daughter up, being sure to keep the promise on their end.

Trisha's hand holding Casey's tightened, and she flinched slightly. She bit down on her lip to dampen a more extreme reaction to the unnaturalness of Lynette's smile and whatever was inside. It was creepy, and the strangeness of the shadows set off fears that had recently been brought to the surface after years of dormancy.
“Ah," was all Trisha said at first as she processed what was being said to her, far more slowly than she'd like. She kept up a smile, forcing her gaze away from Lynette and towards Elise.

“I’m glad you're making sure there won't be anymore mixups. I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunities to spend time together in the future, Elise, seeing as I plan to be with Casey for a long time… We can talk about stuff. I'll have decided by then exactly what that is." She laughed, trying to make it appear as a joke, going along with everything. Did she want to spend time with Elise if her job, reading between the lines, was recruitment? Not particularly. As with all things she could do it for Casey. It was better to get to know all of his family members, in some way.
“Of course it's alright. I'm not as difficult as everyone seems to think I am." A half lie, of course. Normally she wasn't willing to put effort in for people she didn't want to, but when it came to someone she did? The people around that person? She could and would.

”Oh, no… You’re absolutely not difficult, Love. We’re well aware that… Well, we’re the weird ones. Which means making adjustments sometimes, for people who have reasonable expectations. Elise… Helped me understand that!”
Beads of sweat began to curl from around Lynette’s hairline. It probably wasn’t the temperature inside, as it wasn’t overly hot…

”It takes different perspectives! Sometimes we get wrapped up into our own little world out here. Of course, that’s the goal! But, right, later later alligators! Come on, Ladies, lets go bring these back down and get them fixed. Casey? We’ll leave both of these in your office when they’re ready! So you have them for the morning!” Elise took up the bag with Casey’s suit, and each of them gave Casey a smooch on the cheek as they funnelled out.

Save for Mia, who frowned and turned her gaze downward.
”Hey, Mimi? You alright?” he asked aloud, a frown forming on his face.
She didn’t turn, simply waving him off with her free hand before the door closed.
It was just the two of them again; quiet, and Casey stood without a shirt or pants. The scars and tattoos all across his body on full display, including a fairly nasty looking scar that looked as if it carved out a section of his chest when it happened on the same side as his heart.

His brow furrowed, and he took a deep breath, looking at Trisha before it turned back upward into a grin.
”Well… I’ve got you back at least!” he turned, his arms opening wide. ”What do you think? Sexy, huh? Like the surface of the moon is sexy?” he laughed, referring to some of the distinct crater mark burns and old wounds dotting his abs and chest.

“Mmm, very, I might jump you if you aren't careful," Trisha smiled, visibly relaxing now that everyone else had left. She meant the first half genuinely, the second half mostly as a joke - she had no problem with scars or tattoos, they were all part of him, and she found him attractive.
“And it means we match just a little bit more, which is very sexy."

She giggled, pulling up her knit top - at first it looked like she was about to take it off, but she stopped just before her bra was visible. On her upper abdomen was a dark, thick and raised scar that stood out against her light brown skin. It curved around almost the entire front, and onto her right side. It being seen by him didn't bother her - most partners would see it on the first night, the few that asked about it got a lie about teenage accidents (Reyna aside). It just seemed right to show, though. She smiled and dropped her top.
“Sexy too, right?" She laughed, finally stepping close to him. Her arms reached up to wrap around his neck loosely and she smiled up at him.

His hands gripped around her waist, sliding up under the cloth. His thumb gently stroked part of where the scar was on her stomach, and he leaned down slightly to kiss her.
”It is sexy. Maybe not where it came from, but that’s usually how these things go.”
He grinned, holding Trisha tightly.
”I’m really glad you liked that fuckin’ dress…”

Trisha smiled warmly up at him, pressed closely against him as she let out another laugh.
“Did you think I was going to throw a fit about it like all the rich girls in movies? Demanding it needs to be perfect and shit?" she teased, reaching up to poke his cheek playfully.
“I don't… have a problem with many clothes. But I've never really had something made specifically for me like that. As kids we all had to match, or it would be whatever Tansy wanted us to wear, or what Sabrina made because she works in fashion. This was a first, and it looked good, so of course I like it."

She pulled her hand away from his cheek and turned it to show the ring as well.
“Things like this too, I don't mind. As long as it doesn't come with magical spying or Temple commitments, it's fine."

”It’s just the bee thing… I didn’t want you getting the wrong idea, I don’t know. I’m paranoid over nothing I guess. Maybe I’m nervous about tomorrow.”
Casey shook his head, looking down at himself.
”But, y’know, it’s not a problem right? So, we can just goof off for the rest of the night…”

“We better be able to, I need the break," Trisha laughed. She leaned up to kiss Casey quickly, before smiling softly at him. “Let’s go cuddle somewhere comfier…"