I will always believe

the-smallest-star asked: The little skull would crackle to life, Opal on the other end, "Alastor? I need to speak to you. I've been doing some digging, into Trip's history with Gillian. It's not so 'one drunken night' as we've been told. It's not pleasant. And I'm not sure what to do with this information."

Of course. Alastor rolls his eyes as he leans against the chair in his radio tower, snapping his fingers to summon a glass of whiskey from the bar.

He felt this coming when this entire thing reared its ugly head. After living with it for months, however, he decided to ignore it rather than pursue it. Gritt had no interest in seeing Trip as his father, so Alastor let it go.

... Until now, when it's suddenly people are banging down his door to demand why he isn't tripping over himself to defend a man he's spoken to twice.

There wasn't really an easy way to say it. In a way, it felt like an invasion of privacy, revealing something painful. But if the twins found out, then it was better they didn't go into it blind.

"He didn't lie when he said Gillian introduced herself at Lori. But he left out the extent of what happened. She courted him for at least a month, some of the circus remember she was very sweet and gentle." Opal explained, rubbing her temple, "one night they went to a bar, it was the last time they saw 'Lori'. There are rumours he was slipped something, and he woke up violently ill in a hotel with no memory of how he got there."

Her fingers drummed on the desk, lips pressed into a thin line, "I asked Gizmo to see what he can dig up, but it may take some time... given how long ago it would of been." And technology was a bit more dated 24 years ago. "If that's the case, there is a small chance Trip lied about the alcoholic tendencies to save Patch and Gritt from learning they were the result of... well...."

Trip didn't know the boys well, he wouldn't know how they'd take it if that was what happened. "If it turns out to be true, I'm not sure what to do with this information. How Patch and Gritt will feel, especially if they find out I knew and didn't say anything."

"Think of your own luck. Do you think yours has been especially good?"

Vine could tell that Gritt and Trip were shockingly similar. Results of a bad parent making it worse for them, and suffering the consequences of that parent's decision. At least Gritt's mother had been handily put out of the way. Trip still dealt with his father's neglectful attitude towards his son...and he was much older.

"I suppose the good thing is that there is no pressure to like or dislike. You have spent your lives diverged, and perhaps at this time, too much has happened to ever allow them to intertwine again." She wrote away, taking a drink of her wine. A defeated hero, wallowing in doubt, cast down when he least expected it. "Choose or don't choose. Neither is wrong."

Similar? Gritt wasn't sure if he should be offended. He didn't bat the hand away, his tail giving a small flick. "... I feel like... he's not telling me the whole truth." Gritt said slowly, uncertainty in his voice, "about him and mom. He's vague, but detailed about other stuff. Drunks don't have selective memory...."

Vine's hand stilled where she was writing.

She'd imagined Gritt would ask eventually. The hired spies had been intermingling on occasion, seeing him talk to his biological father. But the pause was brief, and she continued writing.

"Once you asked." She said plainly. "Which is, now so to speak. I knew you'd develop an understanding on your own and simply needed my confirmation -"

She looked over her shoulder.

"Do you dislike him?"

She knew what the twins endured while they grew up... and to think there was a parent who would of given a shit, who didn't find out about them until now. It burned.

"He's either a dumb drunk who slept with mom and couldn't find her and had bad luck, or a really good liar who never wanted anything to do with us until we were worth money. Either way, Alastor doesn't think much of him, and Opal's not sure."

That sentence alone said something.

@the-smallest-star

Alastor choked on his coffee he was drinking. He didn't make that test easy.....did he?

The sound of screams filled the air next and a jaw ripping someone apart and then heavy footsteps running away.

"TRY THAT AGAIN AND IT'LL BE YOUR COCK I'M BITING OFF!!!" The sinner screamed towards the anon and turned back to Trip, all viciousness gone in a blink of an eye, even with the blood dripping from his maw.