[log] yikes all around [closed]

[bloodbiter]

Characters: Adelina and Cassel
Location: House 126
Date: 195
Summary: Post labyrinth shenanigans!
Warnings: Possible description/discussion of injury, but there shouldn't be anything more!

[When she wakes up from that awful scene, it's with a gasp despite herself. It was... Was it an illusion, a memory of someone else? Either way, calm down, calm down. She has other things to attend to, so she doesn't let herself focus on whatever it was she just saw quite yet.

Instead, she's automatically pushing herself off the mattress, looking around to see where she is now - it's where she remembers. She pushes her hair out of her face, giving herself a quick once over to make sure everything is in order, before she stands to look around for her companion.]

Cassel?

Comments

[theurgy]

[Cassel comes to with the strange, disquieting feeling of having just woken up from a nightmare, except whatever he just saw felt very, very real. Adelina says his name and he blinks, pushing himself up instinctively only for the sharp, stabbing pain in his palms to stop him short and make him hiss.]

I'm awake. You okay?

[bloodbiter]

I'm fine.

[She says immediately, crossing the distance between them with a look of concern on her face.]

May I see your hands?

[theurgy]

[Cassel glances down, frowning at the holes in his gloves. Well, that's good evidence to say it wasn't just a dream or a hallucination. It's still incredibly weird to take his gloves off in front of a girl he barely knows, but he does it, although he makes a face as he does.]

[bloodbiter]

[Seeing it again, her look of concern only grows. She almost reaches out to take one of his wrists carefully so she can examine the injury more closely, but remembers at the last second and holds back.]

There's no blood, but... Do you think we should wrap it nonetheless?

[theurgy]

[He's secretly relieved that she doesn't touch him, and he glances up again at her suggestion.]

I guess so, but I don't have anything to wrap them with.

[bloodbiter]

[She stays silent for a moment, thinking, before she reaches for her backpack (the one she had before entering the labyrinth, naturally), fishing inside until she pulls out the box cutter she found in the post office several days ago.

She pulls off her coat for just a moment, reaching for one of the sleeves of her dress as she speaks.]

Is it very painful?

[theurgy]

I've had worse.

[He realizes she's reaching for her sleeve and shakes his head, jerking his hands back.]

Don't tear up your dress.

[bloodbiter]

[She does pause and look up at him, but it's more in confusion than anything else.]

It's thin enough that it's not providing any benefit, not when I have the coat. It'll be easier to move without the sleeves, besides.

[theurgy]

Okay, okay.

[He holds his hands out again.]

We seriously need to find you some better clothes.

[bloodbiter]

Hopefully we'll find some for both of us soon.

[Carefully, she draws the box cutter along the sleeves, cutting out a few narrow strips she can wrap around his hands... But she hesitates before she actually reaches forward to put them on.]

Is it alright? I'll be quick.

[theurgy]

It's fine. Go ahead.

[Awkward as hell, but he's not going to fumble around trying to wrap his own hands when it hurts to move them and there's no way he could get the fabric tight enough, anyway. He still goes very, very still when she starts, though.]

[bloodbiter]

[To her credit, she does try to make it fast - she wraps the strips around his hands carefully and pulls them tight, tying them as soon as she can manage.]

There.

[Now, with that out of the way...]

Did you have a strange vision before waking up?

[theurgy]

Thanks.

[He flexs his hands experimentally, then starts to pull his gloves back on.]

Yeah, I did, about Winter and Andromeda. What about you?

196

[bloodbiter]

[Despite a valiant effort at not listening in on his conversation... Well, they are traveling in close physical proximity. It's hard not to notice that he seems to be in a particularly sour mood after all that, too. Part of her wonders if she should just let him deal with it in his own way. but - it cannot hurt to ask him, at least.]

Are you alright?

[theurgy]

I'm fine.

[He's super not fine. He's pissed about Lila—not at Lila, he lies to himself—and he's angry that Adelina overheard all of that, not that it was her fault. It makes him feel vulnerable, exposed, and he hates it. And there was a part of him that liked the fact that Adelina didn't know anything about his life before coming here. It was nice to pretend he was a good person and not just faking.]

You heard most of it.

[bloodbiter]

No, I didn't, but it's obvious that you're upset.

[It's a lie, but it comes naturally and easily.]

Did the two of you know each other in your home?

[theurgy]

[He knows she's lying, but he lets it go. Strangely, it feels like that puts them on more even footing.]

Yeah. She used to be my best friend.

[Which is not at all adequate for the weirdness of their relationship, but.]

[bloodbiter]

You had a falling out, then.

[It's not phrased as a question; it's obvious enough by the past tense, and he can supply the details if he chooses.]

[theurgy]

[Cassel smiles, but it's much more hard-edged and bitter than it should be.]

You could say that.

[He thinks "my family ruined her life" is more accurate. He's quiet for a moment.]

She's right. I'm not conning you, Adelina, but I'm not a good person.

[He was hoping saying it would make him feel better, but it doesn't.]

[bloodbiter]

[She's almost expecting him to go on, so she pauses before responding. When she does, it's simple.]

I do hope you're planning on giving me more information than that.

[theurgy]

[Cassel scrubs his hands over his face. Everyone knows this at home, so he's not sure why it's so hard to say to Adelina.]

My family is full of con artists and criminals. We've had ties to one of the big U.S. crime families for... decades. Close ties.

[bloodbiter]

[She looks at him for a moment as though he's a puzzle she's trying to decipher. After a pause, while she tries to decide the best way to move forward...]

You and your family, or just your family?

[To her, it's the most important distinction.]

[theurgy]

All of us. I don't work for them, but that doesn't make a difference.

[bloodbiter]

[An inhale, and a frown.]

Of course it makes a difference. If you know it's wrong, you don't have to repeat it.

[theurgy]

[His mouth twists.]

It's not that simple.