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Mearcstapa is waiting outside the diner for Charlie to arrive, scrolling a social media dashboard on his phone, his hair pulled out of his face by a large purple hairclip in back. He's wearing a t-shirt that reads (in)SECURITY on the front, and a standard pair of cargo pants. His nails are painted glittery silver, and there's a new ring on the ring finger of his left hand. It is very obviously hedgespun--spun from inky-dark shadow, with a dark rectangular stone that shimmers with flickers of soft rainbow light when he moves his hand to thumb at the screen of the phone.
Charlie dashes over to Mearc, hand tapping rapidly on her leg. She's still about 5 minutes early, but from the look on her face, she's three hours late. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, one of the busses I was taking didn't show up and I had to wait for the next one. I'm so sorry I'm late."
"You're fine, I haven't been waiting all that wrong. How're you today?"
Mearc's mien has changed somewhat as well; his freckles are now perfect tiny squares, little pixels of glowing light against his skin, and when they shift (as they do slightly now, going red), they look sorta like the rasterization effects in old video games. In addition, his teeth are now totally big panther fangs, but let's not pay attention to that, pay attention to the cool freckles!
Charlie blinks twice looking at Mearc. "I, um, like what you've done with your you?" She wipes some sweat from her brow (running here in the heat while wearing a jean jacket wasn't the brightest of moves) and says, "Um, did Wren or Alex tell you? We're, um, probably a triad now."
"No, neither of them told me. Congratulations. Once we get inside, I'll definitely be asking more questions about that." He holds the door for Charlie helpfully.
"Just, um, don't ask anything bad, okay?" Charlie slides in, grabbing the table nearest to the air conditioner and sits right under the vent, a blissful look on her face.
"Define 'bad' in this circumstance." He steeples his fingers, watching Charlie over the top of them. "It's really quite a vague word without context, you know."
"You know. Um. Things that would hurt? Or things that would be inappropriate in public?" She says, sinking into herself and into the padded seat. "I don't know. Sorry."
"No need to be sorry. I'm difficult sometimes when there's insufficient precision. It's a function of my brain weird, not any of yours in this case." He sounds a little sheepish about it, grabbing the menu.
"No, no, you're fine. My fault," Charlie says, looking away to look at the menu in front of her. "But, um, as long as I'm allowed to ask you to stop asking, I should be fine?"
"Good, that works." Mearc nods, looking down at the menu. "So, how'd you three end up as a triad?"
"Wren invited Alex over and, um, she's wonderful. Alex is, I mean. Wren is too! They're both great! I just, um, started to crush on her and then she brought cupcakes to the store a couple of days ago and I confessed my feelings and she felt the same and then Wren felt the same too and we just, um, kinda decided to go with it," Charlie explains, love in her words and eyes.
"Good. You know, Alex and I have known each other for...over four years now. I'm really glad to hear she's getting involved with such amazing people." He leans in, lowering his voice to a conspiratory whisper. "You ought to take her out dancing sometime. She loves to dance and doesn't get to often enough."
She nods, taking note of that. "I don't know if I'd be any good at dancing, but if it'd make her happy!" While they're still whispering, Charlie adds, "You're, um, in a triad too, right? Do you ever get jealous? I'm scared that I'm going to be jealous."
"I've been known to get a little jealous sometimes, yeah. Especially early on, when I wasn't as confident everything was going to work out. And...it took a lot longer for us to go from a V to a proper triad." He draws the 'v' shape on the table with a finger thoughtfully. "For months, it was just me and Jack each dating Lux, not together with one another."
Charlie nods with understanding. "How did you deal with the jealousy when it did happen? Since, um, it obviously didn't blow up your relationship."
"We talked about it. We had a few long, sometimes painful talks about it. We still do, regularly. Trying to express our desires, our fears, or needs with one another. Figuring out how to work around places where we clash instead of meshing, and where we need to compromise." He lets out a bit of a low laugh. "We still have talks sometimes, about serious stuff like that. The logistics of moving in together, what the future holds for us. Lux proposed to us. Four months ago, I'd have told you they were never going to settle down into something committed."
"You're getting married?" Charlie asks, beaming like someone turned on her headlights. "That's so wonderful! Gosh, are you going to have a ceremony? Can I provide the flower arrangements?"
"I don't know if we're intending to do a proper ceremony. We might make it a private oathing sort of ordeal." But Mearcstapa grins, his freckles shifting strongly to red.
"Well, I'm making you each a custom bouquet at the very least," she says, her brain buzzing with ideas. "I owe Lux one anyway. I know they like bright stuff, but what kind of flowers do you and Jack like?"
"I'm not sure what Jack's favorites are. I like...sunflowers, and marigolds. And I have a soft spot for certain baneful flowers, like oleander and foxglove that has nothing to do with how they look." He chuckles. "But if you're going on aesthetics, go look at the flowers I've spun up near the Scrivener's cottage. They're doing a lot better now that the hedgeblight's gone."
"I'll have to go check it out, um, assuming people won't be mad at me for going to Autumn." Soon after those words leave her mouth, a bored waiter comes by and takes their order, Charlie ordering a plain burger and a sprite.
Mearc orders a bowl of the soup of the day, an order of fries and a chocolate milkshake.
"It shouldn't be too much of a problem. Feel free to visit me during office hours, if you need a good excuse to be there."
Charlie's eye twitches a little at the order, but at least there's no gravy this time. "Oh, sure! I'll come by! Do you have any other questions for me?"
"Well, I suppose I'm curious, with this developing as a triad so quickly, have you put thought into how you're going to hold space for your partners separately? What sort of things could be 'your and Wren's thing' and 'your and Alex's thing'? That's...actually really important, honestly. And a place where jealousy can crop up, too."
"I, um, no I haven't. Alex and I haven't even been on a date yet. Did I screw up already?" Charlie asks, her leg tapping getting faster.
"Naw, it's not a screwing up thing, it's just a consideration. Being a triad doesn't mean all your relationships are now one big relationship. It just means each of you also has relationships with the others, and that's really special. Like...if Jack treated me exactly like he treats Lux, that would be weird and more than a little uncomfortable. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, that makes perfect sense," Charlie says, smiling again as her tapping dies down. "I'll need to think about that."
"It doesn't even have to be something big all the time. Part of it for me is knowing my partners' preferred sweets. Jack's like me, he likes sweet and salty things--chocolate pretzels, salted caramel, stuff like that. Lux likes sour candies and fruity flavors, but also just anything sweet and intense. Or there's bedroom stuff that I'm not going to get into the details of, because it'd probably scandalize you if I did, but their preferences do run differently."
Charlie once again nods. "I'll figure something out." She pauses for a second. "Can Alex... eat food or only her, um, specialized diet?"
"If she eats something that her body doesn't recognize as food, it comes back up again. Which has, in the past, included when I've tried to offer her dinner personally." He grimaces slightly, with a flash of those big teef. "I knew a Kindred who thought that...'having us over for a meal' was something one of them could get used to, but I don't know if Alex can?"
"Is it bad that I don't want to, um, have that happen to me? It would really mess with Wren's, um, clarity. And I like my blood staying where it is." She adds the last part in a hush. Which is good because soon thereafter their food arrives.
"I don't think it's a bad thing, no. I've, ah...my experiences are not universal, nor should they be, and I'll leave it at that." His freckles again go red, but there's also a bit of a visible blue blush on his cheeks separate from that.
Charlie takes advantage of the food arriving for her to look away and ketchup up her burger, instead of just blushing at Mearc's blush. She uses a goodly amount of ketchup, before looking back up and pretending to that she isn't still a little red
Mearc, meanwhile, dips one of his fries into his milkshake. As you do. "For most of them, it would not be helpful to do that to you, so there's no reason to spend too much time considering it."
"It's funny, I didn't even believe in, um, 'people with weird diets' until recently and now I'm dating one," Charlie says, looking out the window so she doesn't have to see the evil dipping happening next to her.
"And she believes in you, I'm sure." He makes a joke of it. "Alex is pretty awesome, though. We used to end up at the same security conventions, and hang out together."
"Is she a super spy like you and Wren? Am I dating two super spies?" Charlie asks. "Golly, do you think I'll become a super spy too?"
"Superspy, no. L337 haX0r, perhaps." A pause, then a gesture at her with a (thusfar untainted) fry. "Would you want to be a superspy?"
"I'd love to be as cool as you and Wren," she says, half answering the question.
“...okay, but what does that mean in practice? Should I teach you how to pick locks or not?” He grins as he says it, but there’s a green shift to his freckles. Not a strong one, but definitely noticeable.
"Um." Charlie ponders. "I mean, um, you could? I'd feel bad doing on anything but practice locks though. I, um, I really don't know much about what you and Wren do other than that you're both really cool people and I want to be way more like you."
Mearc looks thoughtful. “Well, what we do is examine and test security for people, by acting as someone who’s malicious would. We show people where flaws in their systems are, by working our way through those systems.”
"Oh," Charlie says, trying her best to hide disappointment. She'd been imagining something far less mundane than that description lead her to believe. "That's, um, probably not for me then."
“Yeah, perhaps not. I’m less of a super spy and more of a professional burglar who doesn’t even steal...erm, at least not from those who hire me for pen testing.”
"It's still cool that that's your job! Just not for me," Charlie adds, happily biting into her overcooked hamburger. "Any more questions for me?"
“Naw. Do you have any more for me? I’m a mostly-open book.” He’s even stopped dipping, just to be nice.
"Tell me if its too invasive, but, um, why are you in autumn?" Charlie asks in between ketchup laden bites.
He blinks at the question, and sips at his milkshake before answering, “I used to be in Winter, when I first arrived in Chicago. But...I have an obsession with the ideas of security and safety. What it means to feel safe, when you know you aren’t actually safe. What it means to keep what you care about as safe as possible. My path is one of reminding people where the flaws in their security are, right? And sometimes that means scaring them, making them realize what inaction might lead to, what apathy can cause. And sometimes? It means getting people to understand when a risk might actually be worth it, where a cost-benefit analysis nets out in the end.”
Charlie takes note of all of that mentally. "Thank you for telling me all of this. And for um. Not dipping your fries when I'm looking. It makes my skin crawl."
“Why are you in Winter?” His question is asked gently.
"I, um, I'm not really sure? I just joined when I first came here and I never left. I guess its where I belong because I run away from my problems, but..." she vaguely indicates her incredibly weak mantle.
“Hm. It might be worth giving the other courts some deeper thought. I mean, at the very least, it could be good to keep an open mind about what it is that you actually want to do or be.”
"If I could be anything," Charlie says, after a second of thought, "I'd want to be a hero. Be the kind of person who is brave and bold and able to do what it takes to help people. I want to be brave and not, um," she gestures at herself, "this."
Mearc chuckles, his freckles twinkling over to red slowly. "I've seen you be bold before. With me and Jack and Lux and Gallowglass, in another diner. You were pretty brave when you thought the Gallowglass needed protecting from Lux and Jack, honestly. It was, honestly, kind of amazing to watch, to see you stand up for someone else. I'm never going to forget how you looked, right then."
Charlie goes very red. "Gosh, that was so dumb of me. I'm sorry for causing that to happen." She takes another bite of meat. Before asking, in a small squeak, "You mean it?"
"I mean it. I think you'd be great at helping people, defending them. I think most of what's holding you back is your own fear of not being good enough. Which is a big fear, yeah?"
She nods sadly, "Yeah, exactly. I'm... not good enough to be what I want to be and I don't know if I ever will be."
"Are you using that as a reason not to try? Just because you're not good enough now doesn't mean you have to always not be good enough, Charlie." He seems to be looking directly at her; it's hard to tell, his eyes have no pupils or even eyeshine to show movement, like two dark holes leading into an endless inky black abyss.
"Where do I even start?" Charlie asks, declining to answer that question. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with her though knows that the answer was a resounding yes.
"At the beginning, I'd expect. You could ask someone who knows something about fighting to teach you. Just a little. Just to start."
"I, um, I do know how to fight. I'm not great, but I know how to use my size and weight and speed in my favor." She then downplays it using terms that she'd know because she has brawl 3 but that her player doesn't know.
"...Sounds like you're better than I'd be in a fight. You really think that's not 'good enough' at all? I'm only really good with throwing knives." Mearc sounds genuinely impressed.
"I mean compared to people like Sturm, I'm mediocre at best," Charlie says, reacting to the compliment like a cat to a cucumber.
"Okay, but why're you comparing yourself to Sturm? I thought the point is that you want to be the kind of person who's brave and bold and able to help people. That doesn't mean you have to become a coffee-guzzling old grump like her. Be the best Charlie Miller ever, because that's something you can be."
"I'm, um, huh. You think I could be good enough? To be in the same league as people like Sturm or the Hunters of the Longest Day? Be someone they'd call on?"
"I think you could be. But you'll never know, unless you try. Unless you start. You know, I told Sigrun about you. She was asking me about hobs in the area, and who's good at dealing with them, and who might be able to help reach out to the Kraklin and other hob groups we're not allied with any more. And yours was the very first name on my lips."
Charlie beams at that. "Um, Izzy and Lumi told me that I had to be proud of that so, um, thank you."
"You're welcome. It really is impressive. I remember seeing you and Wren at the Market--you looked like you were completely in your element. I like seeing you like that, honestly."
"Markets are easy. When you know what everyone around you is doing and why they're doing it, everything is so much easier to handle," Charlie says, smiling nervously.
"...protocols. That makes sense, you understand the rules of the markets, what protocols they operate under. No less impressive, though, I think." He smiles.
"If you ever want to be just as good, I could try my best to teach you, um, etiquette?"
"Perhaps. Though I'm not sure I've got the time for that right away. I've been given some work from my court's Crown that will be taking up time."
"Oh, gosh! Only do it when you have the time, please!" Charlie says, returning to her burger to finish it off. "And if there's anything I can do to help, I'll do my best."
"No, though let Wren know I might need her help on this one. It's a doozy." Mearc grins, schluuuuurping down the last of his milkshake.
"I'll let her know." Charlie nods. "Top secret stuff or things people can generally know about?"
"Secret, not top secret, not something I'm talking about here, because it may not all be strictly legal, strictly speaking. In theory."
"Keep her safe if she does come, please? Sometimes I think she does risky things because she doesn't feel like she ought to ask for help even if she needs to."
"I'll try, Charlie. I'll try to get her not to be reckless on this one."
"Thank you." Charlie says warmly. "I was really worried about her, back when, um, the stuff was happening with Robin."
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