What do you want?

“Just said they’re not boring when they’re from you, when it’s like a royal decree then I’ll simply call it boring then.” Charlie giggled before, bouncing on his heels. “Well, of course but the best ones are the ones sprinkled with a little sugar, and a lot of love. But if you’ve got any recipes that you’d like me to try out send them my way, but only you are allowed to be my taste tester.”

“As long as you don’t poison me, I’ll be happy to test anything you come up with.” He had full faith in his friend’s current ability to bake, thanks to Charlie’s aunt, but Tristan couldn’t help but tease the other. “Speaking of testing, think you can show me how to use this thing?” He continued, nodding once more towards the phone.

    POISON. crimson scoffed, leaning back in his seat and mimiced elias’ eyerolle. death didn’t belong on the isle, ironically. death was a welcome and rewarding release from this hell. ursula could poison them all she wanted. the dead would just return. perhaps that was her goal.  ❝ The scope, ❞ he laughed again, the isle is pretty simple – SIMPLE AND EMPTY – which limits the ability to scpe.  ❝ Are we not nobility ? ❞ he questioned, ❝ It’s beneath us to scope things out like petty thieves. We have henchmen for that. ❞   

Gritted teeth, half hidden by a mockery of a smile, Elias had to tamp down the frustration at the dismissal of his plans from the younger. Wouldn’t do to set off a chain reaction of anger from misplaced pride. “The scope.” He echoed, a confirmation in itself. “Rule from an isolated tower and you’ll never see the enemy weakening your base with those ‘petty thieves’ until it falls. Besides, do you really trust your henchman to not fuck up on intelligent matters?” He himself wouldn’t trust them further than he could throw them, but they were handy in harsher moments under Hart’s command. 

“I’ll let you know once we get them. From being eaten by my dad? Pretty long actually, since he’d probably play with them for a very long time.” the boy grinned, even though any thoughts about his father made him highly uncomfortable. he hated the demon, and wanted nothing to do with the slavic devil mountain demon. “You think someone’s going to try and cause trouble with us? Who would be that stupid knowing we’d probably break them in half and them take their clothes so they have to parade around the isle with their dirty ass hanging out.”

He’d have to file the idea away for when he was feeling particularly vengeful then. No use giving the demon more of a chance to harm what was Elias’. “When isn’t someone trying to cause trouble on this fucking Island?” Hell, that morning Elias had gotten caught up in at least two moments of ‘trouble’ as Kai liked to call it. Their efforts were hardly harsh or diabolical enough to cause much hesitation from those that wished to harm them, despite what Malachi may believe. Still, Elias was a bit proud that the other had enough faith in him to be a little naive in that matter.

a light hop in her step as she approached, the signature witch mask she typically donned being removed from her face so she could get a clearer view of the one she’d soon be able to call a victim. she allowed a playful smirk to dance on her lips. “Heard you were buying me lunch today.” obviously with no facts to back this up other than, a; Shock had no money on her at this current moment and, b; she was dying for something to eat. 

She’d honestly approached the first person she laid her eyes on and this boy was the unlucky one she’d seen the soonest. 

“And where’d you hear that?” He asked, cautiously shifting himself further from her, gaze never leaving the witch as he did so. It paid to be cautious around unknowns, because who knew what the barest of movement could set off? Eyes wildly darting around, Elias mentally cursed himself for absently wandering into a corner as the only escape was past Shock. A rueful smirk settled on his face. “I’m not exactly rolling in cash over here.”

Barrel was laughing, probably very manically at this point and really that was far too normal for anyone to find odd. Too normal for Barrel to do that every now and then, and what was he laughing at? The sound the apple made as is smacked onto some guys head. Barrel had started throwing a basket of apples he stole for a solid good hour now. 

Every once in a while he would just hit one that sent him into stitched and he would have to wait till he could breathe again before he started his childish torment again. This time when he finally got himself together, realized he had some company on the roof he was perched on. He smirked and got up offering an apple. “You wanna give it a go? It’s a barrel of laughs.” And then there Barrel in hysterics again.

A startled yelp, the thudding of fruit against the ground and a faint cackling drew Elias’ attention to the fairly tame scene ahead of him. Not even daring to hide his amused smirk at the bystander’s misfortune, Elias cast his gaze around for the perpetrator, coming up empty handed until his eyes were drawn to the rooftops. 

Dragging himself to the top of the ramshackle building, he stood on the other end of the roof, simply watching as the other would throw, laugh and repeat. Each connection seeming to bring never ending mirth to him. The break in routine and acknowledgment thrown his way forced him to stand straighter, eyes never leaving the cackling boy. “So I can tell. It going to cost me anything? Or you offering a turn out of the goodness of your heart?”

audrey, oblivious to any kind of discomfort she may have caused when her hair hit against him, simply blinked towards the male, eyes drawing in and paying close attention to his expression and how it changed. “Oh!” finally, the realization sunk in and the princess was understanding his confusion. 

“how brave of you, I couldn’t imagine ever being without my phone,” as if to prove her point she was pulling up the hundreds of selfies she had of herself. “what would I ever do if I couldn’t take pictures of myself  — however, some do play games on theirs, so I do understand the confusion.”

“Yea... Brave.” Though, he couldn’t exactly see how that was the case. But then again, he didn’t know enough about having a phone to be able to understand Audrey’s woes. He had to take her word for it, if nothing else. Still, her words abated a minor amount of his confusion he had towards the function of phones. Pictures, games and calls. Seemed simple enough.

Shifting a little closer to look at the pictures she had pulled up on her phone, Tristan couldn’t help but smile a little bit at some of them. Some looked like she had clearly taken repeats of herself in the same pose, but they were nice. They looked fun. “You seem to care a lot for pictures.”

“Or,” she huffed, her gaze turning to meet where the males were looking, a wash of relief filling her as she noticed that Mal was no longer there. Or, simply she was paranoid and any flash of purple was instantly put down to being Mal. “She’s better at hiding than you are giving her credit for.” 

“and anyway;” Evie continued. “she can’t find me here.”

While he agreed- he had made one too many mistakes to think he was perfect at catching those who didn’t want to be seen- he hardly was going to admit so to the other. Never allow others to see your weaknesses and whatnot. So he scoffed and refused to deign her with a reply on the matter.

“Sure, until she pokes her head through the curtain over there.” He refuted, nodding towards the very same curtain she had passed to get in here. 

“Who is this ‘she’ anyway?” 

the flash of purple hair had left the bluenette in a state of worry and panic, ( how someone could hold a grudge for this long was beyond her ), but; Evie, not wanting to get caught breaking her banishment she had found the first place that looked like it would be enough to hide her. 

her heart racing, as she tried to convince herself this wasn’t a terrible idea, she had only wanted to get some new fabrics. 

a small squeak passing her painted red lips as her gaze whipped around until it was set on the stranger, hand falling onto her chest to calm down her ragged breath. “I’m hiding.”

He shifted to his feet, idly stretching as he did so, gazing down at the blue girl. Glancing past her for hide or hair of someone looking at the girl in an odd fashion, all he got was the normal rabble from what he could see. Still, could mean her pursuer was good at covering their presence. 

“Not doing a very good job of it, are you?” Brow raised, his attention once more fell back upon her and how very in the open she was to him. 

Twirling so that she was facing him, hair whipping around in her spin; no doubt hitting against him as she went until her eyes narrowed into slits was set upon Tristan. “It’s a phone,” spoke the princess; in a tone that could’ve only been described as duh. 

waving her mobile between her fingers, pink painted nails tapping against her blue case. “have you never seen one.”

Jerking a bit as the girl’s hair hit his face, Tristan blew out sharply, hoping no hair of hers had gotten into his mouth. Recovering from what probably was a charade of foolishness, he looked up to meet the girl’s eyes, his own expression morphing into a sheepish one.

“Ah, right. They’re not exactly... common in Camelot. Though I was debating on it being between a phone and a game thing?” He ducked his head, embarrassment creeping up on him. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, thanks to me you’ve gotten quite a few reminders of how harsh it is here on the isle,” he sighed remembering how the man had been his shield more times than he could count. “You think I won’t feed them to my dad if they try to hurt you?” he smiled. “Well it’s good to be bad then, but it’s not like what we do is exactly evil, making sure the kids are alright.” he giggled, rolling his eyes at the other boy. “You aren’t gonna eat it? Come on I wanna see you eat it.”

“Now that would be a sight to see. How long do you think it would take for them to recover from something like that?” Elias asked, morbid curiosity enveloping him. If it got rid of a few of their more prominent annoyances, it might be a good idea to look into for the future. That is, if they can get close enough to Kai’s father without their own lives being threatened as well. Shaking his head, he cast a glare towards one particular lowlife that seemed to be eyeing them up as they walked nearer. “Later. I’ve got things to do I’d rather not have to do on a full stomach.” 

“Doesn’t matter if it’s the same or not, I’ll love it regardless, and it’ll let me know that you’re okay.” Charlie beamed a this best friend, not really minding how boring that might’ve sounded because if it made Tristan happy then that was all that mattered. “You could never be boring to me, Tristan. You’re like the sugar to my baked goods, without you there’s no point to them at all.”

“Ah, right, well boring updates it is. At least hearing about your days will make up for my lackluster updates.” Tristan agreed, guilt easing into background noise in the face of his friend’s excitement. It definitely would be nice to talk more than just once every blue moon.  “...You do know there are baked goods that don’t rely on sugar, right?”

Kai sighed, before taking the bar and splitting it in half. “Here, since you won’t take the full bar you’ll take half that way we both eat something. Deal? I’m not about to let you not eat, you don’t always have to protect me, Elias. I’m not the same little boy you met all those years ago.” The boy mused before slightly bumping into him. “You’re right crushes are useless, and sometimes you just can’t help but like someone, not just cause you like them for shallow shit, but it’s just the way it is. Not that I would anything about that, but I have heard other kids talking about it. Barely? Give yourself a little more credit, we do good around here.”

Swiping the half a bar, Elias shoved it in his pocket with the intention of sneaking it back to the other later. No matter how stubborn the other was, he could be even more stubborn when he wanted to. Still, he nodded, playing along. “Deal. And I know. But I’m not about to ignore when someone tries to hurt you or the others.” After all, he’d played shield this long, more scars wouldn’t do much than add to the collection. “Not sure others would take kindly to ‘doing good’.”

“It’s no problem.” Charlie grinned, not really ever worried about giving Tristan things, they’re best friends so to him this was all normal, and needed nothing in return. “It really would, and well I can always call you and tell you about my days, and I’d love to know about yours and hear you talk about how your day with merly was.”

“Be prepared to hear a lot of the same updates: ‘Spent the day stocking his shelves’, or ‘Had another of his books fall on my head’.” Tristan lied, ever present guilt already seeping its way back into his mind at the words. But it’s not like he could do much about it anyway without fear of rejection from the other. So, he stamped the feeling down and kept smiling. “Just a lot of boring things.”

“Damn, what did a poor goblin ever do to you.” Kai laughed before shaking his head at his…Elias. “Come on, just take it, I already ate anyway, it’ll go to waste.” he lied, he hadn’t eaten that day, but he didn’t really care for that. “Still, you can’t blame people for having a crush on you Eli, all the VK’s are not as worse as they could be thanks to the things you do for them. I mean of course you’ve got help from your best guy.”

Waving him off once again, Elias ignored the gnawing feeling in his stomach at the thought of food. He could scrounge something up later. “Good, have second helpings. You need it more than I do.” It was a generous refusal, one Elias would never make to anyone other than one under his care, and one he wasn’t going to back down for. God knows the last time Kai had eaten decently. “I barely do anything- hardly enough to warrant something as useless as a crush. Besides, didn’t you know? The Isle doesn’t do crushes.”

     ROTTED FISHSTICKS. common occurrence. the isle is rotten. food. buildings. people. a rotted prison.  ❝ For a sea witch, one would think she could at least cook seafood, ❞ he sighs, tosses the greasy stick onto the plate: he rolled his eyes for good measure. he looks to his left – to the COMPANION – and grimaces.  ❝ Why did we come here again ? ❞ he questions.  

Toying with his own rotted food, he rolled it idly across the cracked plate as a chuckle escaped him. “Now wouldn’t that be nice. She’d probably sooner poison us all than cook decently.” Who knows, that was probably the witch’s goal in all of this. Grimacing, Elias moved to wipe his now oily fingers off onto his pants. “To get a scope of things, of course.”

“Please as if these fickle and shallow idiots haven’t ever looked past shit like that just for a pretty face, and well you’ve got that down.” kai teased before looking at Elias for a little bit too long and catching himself in the act, trying to hide his blush. “Nothing major.” he shrugged. “Just hungry and I took care of that quickly, I had some left over from some snacks I whipped up, and gave it to him. The rest I got is for you, if you want it.”

“Well then, I’d sooner eat a goblin than entertain their advances, if it were to come to that.” Elias told Kai bluntly, not even bothering to hide the disgust from his voice at the idea of certain Islanders approaching him for that. Looking over to asses the smaller figure of his... of Kai, Elias shook his head, waving off the offer. “Keep it for yourself, I’m fine for the time being.”

“Yes, and please don’t be silly it’s my pleasure. Besides you’re my best friend who else would I give it to, and I’ve already talked to my mom about it and she agreed to it. She loves you, you know, especially since I talk to her about you all the time.” Charlie mused as he nodded. “We’ll just make sure this one doesn’t die, or maybe we can find a loophole away from the dead zone? Honestly I’ll take anything as long as it helps us talk more.”

“Ah... Well thanks.” He really didn’t know what to say. Sure, gifts seemed to be a normal thing coming from his friend, but they still left him flustered and wanting to return the favor in some way. “I’d like that. Would save us a lot of time and keep us from having to send letters back and forth whenever we want to talk.”