|
Flutterflutterflutter! The top of the glass cover for the pool area is open, and so, in flutters a crow. This is not particularly unusual except that this is very high up for crows to be flying around. There's a backpack, a change of clothes, and a towel sitting on one of the lounge chairs. Pre-arranged. Thought about ahead of time. Smort.
You know what Fox hasn't done yet? Changed from a bird into a person five feet above the salt-water pool and plummeted into it while no one's in it, making a giant splash, then climbed out of said salt-water pool and then clambered out of it to fling herself into the hot tub.
Well, it's official. The Firebirds have a birdbath.
It doesn't take long for someone to come investigate the ruckus, but since Mei is wearing a bikini and sunglasses when she comes in with a towel slung over her shoulder, she was probably on her way in to begin with. She comes in, stops, and pulls her glasses down to stare at Little Fox over the top of the frames. There's a smile on her lips. "You're such a dork," she calls to Fox.
Zoya is already in the pool area when all of this goes down, soaking in the hot tub. She watches the whole show with a grin on her face, because watching Fox frolic is the kind of thing that has a contagious sort of joy to it. "There was never any doubt about the dorkiness, but that's a part of why we love them!" she calls back at Mei in her faint Russian accent.
Leta wanders up towards the Rich People Rooftop Pool birdbath wearing her black swimsuit, and a sarong with little embroidered sunflowers on it, tea shades, and a sun hat. She's also carrying a very elaborate water pipe, and that ridiculously fancy lighter of hers. I guess everyone coordinated arrivals, or something? Otherwise this is sure a funny coincidence...
"I hear fun being had, and I don't like it." She sticks out her tongue at Fox as she wanders over towards the hot tub to dangle her feet in the water.
Fox doesn't own a bathing suit, because those are silly, in her opinion. What isn't silly, though, is going from being a bird to a person, and then dropping themself into Zoya's lap for greeting smooches, his arms flung around her neck. "You are correct! Both of you! I am a big dork." She sits back a bit in Zoya's lap and frames her face with her hands like she's a K-Pop star posing for Instagram, which seems to make her think of something. "Oh! Zoya, Vasha said he might get a tiny dog -- we might get a tiny dog -- and I told him that if he did that you'd end up making 'Cranky Slav With Adorable Tiny Dog' a Thing on your Instagram." She sticks her tongue out at Leta. "You like fun. Even when it doesn't involve psychedelics. Don't lie."
"I'm a dork often enough myself, so it's one of those 'takes one to know one' things. Speaking of dorks, hey Leta," she says when the Mastigos comes in next. "I didn't know you were anti-fun. I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time I'm figuring out who to invite to a party." She heads for the hot tub too, since that's what she came in to enjoy. "I guess if we're going to live like absurd rich people, a tiny dog fits the aesthetic. Vasha can carry it around in his purse." She tosses her towel onto a nearby lounge chair and then slides into the hot tub.
Zoya puts her arms around Fox's waist and pulls them into the smooch, then smiles at her when he leans back to do the K-Pop star thing. "As long as he cleans up after any messes and vacuums the hair up regularly I don't mind if he wants to have a dog here. It's a long way down for walks, though. That sounds like a major pain in the butt, but that's his choice, you know? But it does sound like a fun instagram channel idea. We'll need a lot of outfits for this dog, but we have the spare closets." She winks at Mei. "I think we're all dorks in our own way. Most mages are, aren't we? With our nerdy special interests. What are we smoking, Leta?"
Leta tips her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, and fixes Mei with a look. This might be a fairly condescending gesture, but the Mastigos's eyes are entirely crossed for comedic effect. Yep, confirmed for dork. "I've spent too much time with Vasha. Now I frown a lot, and mutter about how America is terrible." Pay no mind to the fact that she did both of those things a fair amount before. "It's just pot today," she offers the bong to Zoya alongside that fancy-ass lighter. "Vasha and I had some of my fancy cactus tea a little bit ago and it took a lot of out of me so I'm going easy."
"We're all dorks, it's true," sighs the Thyrsus, leaning in to Zoya and snuggling. "I'm gonna have to buy him a bunch of murses, then." Fox makes a face at the neologism. "Ugh, no, they're just purses." She turns her attention to Zoya thoughtfully. "I suppose I could create a small patch of grass up here, and then clean it up on a regular basis. Making shit disappear with Matter is ... you know... literally one of the things I get called in to do." Her eyes widen. "Oh! Mei! I think we should -- probably -- tell people about that thing. Just ... for general informational purposes, if it matters." Her brain sort of veers off in another direction. "Oooh, buying cute dog clothes!" Well, that's it, then.
For those what have not seen it before, there's a ring on Fox's left ring finger, which looks a bit like a coin got mooshed into a ring shape. It fits -- as all things made by Matter Adepts do -- perfectly.
"To be fair to Vasha, a lot of us Americans complain about how terrible America is all the time too." Mei leans back in the hot tub and sinks down further, then lets out a contented little moan. "The thing with the dead bodies?" she asks Fox. "You're probably right. I would like to note that I'm extremely allergic to dogs, so if we have dogs in the house I'm going to have to use magic to fix that 100% of the time. It's probably worth it, but it's something that people should be aware of. That said, anyone who has been in my apartment can probably guess how much I love dogs, and it's not like we don't have space for them here."
Mei also has on a ring that looks like it got mooshed into a coin, but it in her case it's her magical tool.
"As long as I don't have to deal with it," Zoya says with a shrug. "I absolutely refuse to clean up after people." She closes her eyes and leans her head against Little Fox. "I woke the Hallow up," she says to the others. "This morning. We got approval from the Mysterium for it, so I figured I'd get it done with so that it starts building up Tass. What's this about dead bodies?"
Leta retracts her paraphernalia, and takes a big puff before exhaling an appropriately large cloud of smoke towards the sky. She quirks a brow at the conversational turn. Rings, Hallows, Dead Bodies, oh my! "Should also probably," she pauses to offer a raspy little cough. "Tell you folks what I learned about my Destiny. Which I definitely have."
"... I mean, you could actually fix your allergy," Fox offers after a moment of thoughtful consideration, "You can ... make it so that if you had kids, even, there would be no chance of passing on your allergy. Like, that level of permanent. It's not that hard, but you have to carry the spell. Or, I could set up some sort of filter thing for the dander with Matter. I'm sorry, I honestly forgot that you were allergic to dogs because you love them so much. We were talking about whether or not we want to ever have children, and I said maybe we should start with a dog. And see how the cadre does with that, first." Their attention swerves all over the place. "Oh, that's delightful. I've been thinking about learning more about Prime, so I can help with Tass preservation." She wraps her arms a little tighter around Zoya, smooches her forehead. "We got called by a vampire that I worked with on the rats thing, Finley, and I guess there was some sort of gang problem that ended with him and a Sleepwalker -- Calamity -- getting in a fight and killing some ... uhh... I don't remember. Do you remember what gang they were, Mei? I had to clean up the bodies. I don't know if it's something that'll be a problem going forward, but... "
"Oh, yeah, your Destiny," offers Fox, and her mood doesn't sour so much as sort of fade a little.(edited)
"Maybe I should see if there's a legacy devoted to making you not allergic to dogs," Mei muses aloud to herself. Apparently this is the most important part of the conversation, but she shifts gears anyway. "That whole thing with the bodies was kind of upsetting," she admits. "It made me think about how many hours, or days, or weeks, I spent agonizing over cases that weren't ever going to be solved because someone with powers I wasn't prepared to understand came along and just erased everything I would have needed to solve a case. They were Yellow Jackets. Calamity is B+F."
"If we're going to talk about Destinies I need a lot more weed," Zoya says as she holds her hands out toward Leta, which means letting go of Little Fox, but she apologizes for it by leaning in to place a smooch on Fox's lips. "I see you have a new ring, too. Do you have a story you want to tell?"(edited)
"Haha, same." Leta finishes taking a second hit, and then passes the bong + lighter without complaint - and yes, she actually fully enunciates the 'haha' like a zoomer in a Tik Tok video. "It's nothing big. I'm just probably just going to die or something. Vasha was not specific." More smoke is blown into the sky. People'll probably start to think there's a chimney up here if Leta isn't careful.
"We don't need to do anything about the bodies, do we? I assume you hid them well enough that it won't be an issue - but I can handle it if they end up on a table in front of me." Oh, yeah. Leta investigates crimes. "Probably should talk to your friends about maybe not killing random people, though."
... and then when Zoya brings it up, Leta's eyes fall to the ring, and then she looks back up with a curious expression.
She scoots out of Zoya's lap, returning the smooch, and sprawls in the hot tub, apparently pretty content with the arrangements. It's good for people to be able to get high if they're talking about Destinies, after all. They kick their feet absently in the water and frown a little bit at Mei. "I'm sorry it upset you. I didn't even think about that." He frowns a little bit, absently rubbing a hand over the tattoo on their heart, and that's new, too. It used to be a Yaroslav coin, and was for about eleven years, but now she's had it covered over with the image of a WWII Soviet sniper aiming her rifle across the coin shape, and the background is the Ukranian flag. Replacing Yaroslav with Pavlichenko: very logical. And of course, already healed. "Well, if that's the case, I guess... we just keep an eye on Yellow Jackets and B+F, and if nothing big flares up we don't have to worry about it."
She picks her hand up out of the water, looks at the coin, and blushes. That's a bit unusual for Fox. "It was one of Vasha's coins. He shot a hole in it, and I formed it into a coin. Vasha asked me if I would... " And then Fox searches for the exact words. "'Nebulously defined long term personal, financial, romantic, and sexual commitment whose name and definition will be workshopped later' him." A wry look aside at Zoya, because if that isn't the most Acanthus proposal. "We're getting married, in some form that doesn't preclude any of our other relationships, because -- after all this time -- yeah." Without laying it out too plainly, the sort of anchoring that something like that provides is probably a good idea for both the dissociated Acanthus and the form-shifting Thyrsus.
Mei opens one eye and says, "we're all going to die. That's not much of a Destiny, is it?" She closes her eyes again, continuing not to see people committing crimes around her. "It wasn't really you or what you did that upset me, it was just the realization of the implications. If that makes sense?" She lets out a soft sigh, then smiles and opens her eyes again to look at Fox. "Congrats, then. I can't say I'm surprised."
Zoya takes the bong and the lighter and follows that up by taking a long rip. She coughs a little, because she doesn't partake very often, and then hands both things back to their owner. "I'm a little surprised not by the two of you continuing your relationship, but by the formalization of it after all this time. It makes me glad to hear it, though! Also that it doesn't mean that things have to end between us," she adds with a goofy smile.
|