#faetyd

THE GREEN KNIGHT  ---  NO LONGER ACCEPTING! @faetyd​ cast message:  ❝ let’s just stay here. come. let’s just stay here. ❞ from veth!

        ❝ You aren't worried? ❞  But of course, it is not so simple  ---  with the pair of them, and all the danger that's begun to chase their heels as they run with this newfound group of companions, it seems to never be.  Of course he is worried, of course he can see the little lines of a half-frown between Nott's eyebrows as she settles, as she pats the ground next to her while leaning back against a low tree-trunk.  They have spent their time together never anything short of vigilant, and even around people who have...  well, for all their strangeness not not helped them out once in awhile, it is a hard thing to drop.

THE GREEN KNIGHT  ---  ACCEPTING! @faetyd​ cast message:  ❝ you have mud on your face. ❞  from veth!

        ❝ That has...  well, been pointed out to me. ❞  Rubbing his hand under his nose, Caleb sucks in a quick breath, the exhale long as his eyes close, tension from the day gathering in the subtle ache of his spine and shoulders.  He can feel the after-effects of the unexpected argument, but perhaps he should know better than to attempt to say anything  ---  better than to try to keep by these people's side for anything other than the safety that can sometimes be found in numbers.  Maybe two of them was enough.  Maybe he was foolish.

                      HE TRIES TO RESIST THE URGE, really he does, but communications officer finds as in most cases, his body reacts before he can stop it. eiffel flinches, muscles pulling tight, instinct says to run   ( when it comes to fight or flight it has always been clear which the officer prefers. )   doug chuckles, the sound is strained and more than a little awkward.  where the hell is minkowski when he needs her ? or hell even loveless !    a hand drags itself against his face, a tell of stress. eiffel does not have a strong poker face and having the other man breathing down his neck isn’t helping !    “ w-what, hiding ? hey whatever minkowski told you about the cigarettes in the vents, she’s lying. ”   he’s covering something for sure, though it’s doubtful that he’s talking about his hidden smokes, seeing as he’d run out of those a few months prior to the si-5 takeover. 

                      THINGS TO BE KNOWN : eiffel is not, nor has he ever been a good liar. it makes him nervous, and that isn’t something he’s equipped for. not after all the lies and the whole situation with helbert, and getting chucked into space. he might be getting better at it, but on loveless’ list of people who might accidently become liabilities, doug in all probability comes in third, right after hera and alexander hilbert. 

                      EIFFEL SWALLOWS, sure he’s alright at improv but this isn’t exactly what they teach you, in fact it’s more yes and, and less painful torture and threat of death.    “ while i appreciate you trying to go all smoking-man on our asses, we really aren’t supposed to smoke onboard -  ”   think, eiffel. think. 

MISC. MEMES  ---  accepting! faetyd cast message:  “ i’ve seen parts of you no one else will ever understand. i see who you are. what you are. and i think you should stop making yourself smaller to make the world comfortable. ” - veth

        There are no words.  Countless things filter through Caleb's mind, yet how to say them escapes him  ---  words stopping before they even reach his tongue, memories withheld because he's said all he can, hasn't he?  He has bared the worst part of what he is, the worst thing he has ever done?  It may no longer be recent, may no longer have been done yesterday, but Beauregard's bargain was worth what had been driven  ---  he needed knowledge, he needs it now, still  ---  out of him, and it seems there is...  there is nothing left to say.

SEND A WORD + HEADCANON FOR A HEADCANON  ---  accepting! @faetyd​ cast message:  headcanon + companionship!

        As I have a feeling will happen with a lot of headcanons, in a word it's complicated  ---  or at least, it has been, given how fraught it has been for Caleb at different points in his life.  He felt a deep companionship and camraderie with Astrid and Eadwulf, yet that was sundered with his forceful break and captivity brought on by the Cerberus Assembly and the events of Vergessen.  It was a companionship of fellows of hometown faces that young Bren thought he could trust, and to a certain extent, Caleb feels a kinship with them even into the present  ---  there is only so much of the past one can leave behind  ---  but they are not companions in the way they once were anymore.  They are not close as that would imply, nor as trusted.

        Companionship, later, was something for advantages only, something cautious:  Nott was his way out, each of them was a help to each other, a boon along the way of getting out of petty jails and she was more clever than he could have ever expected, bright and curious and just as twitchy in a crowded city.  It was a relief to have her to trust, her to let in, even only partially, into his story  ---  and the trust between the two of them has only ever gotten stronger, only ever become something more uncategorizeable and yet steadfast and challenging and loving.

MISC. SENTENCE STARTERS  ---  no longer accepting! @faetyd​ cast message:  “ you don’t have to talk, we can just sit together. ” - from veth!

        All told, if he were to tell the day's story, it had been a grueling one.  As half-full of goodbyes as it was of plans for a disparate future, circling around one another like planets that would always go back into each others' orbit, so had it been a day that began in near-bloodshed, in the leap of faith Beauregard and Veth had taken, together, to take down the very member of the Cerberus Assembly who had once taken down so much of Caleb's own life.  Trent Ikithon, former archmage, was now moved into shackels, they were told, and the proceedings of what was yet to occur with testimony and depositions would occurr in the following days.

        For now, Caleb  ---  and a fair few of the others  ---  are smashed into Veth's house in Nicodranas, a few resting and talking amongst themselves while Caleb remained never too far from Veth's side, even at a distance, while she took in the family she had promised to return to.  It was evening now, though, the starlight and faint lanterns of the streets flickering in through the window, and Luc had been put  (somewhat half-protestingly)  to bed by Yeza, with a kiss from both of the halflings on Veth's cheeks for good measure.

        How...  how had it all begun to tumble together so quickly?  How could they ever leave each other apart, at the end of this chapter and the beginning of the new one she so deserved?

“‘less you plan on betrayin’ me or hurtin’ innocent folks, then we’ll be fine.” KV replied, voice a near growl - not because of atlas, but because of their cloak. they’d had the cloak a long while, a reminder of home, and it was starting to fray away. there’d be a tailor or something in the next town, maybe they could restore it...