I will always believe

"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.