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The Freehold maintains a Stable Trod which runs from Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley down through Philadelphia to Cape May on the Jersey Shore. Each Court maintains a Hollow as well as a single old Hollow right off Independence Mall. There's a door that looks like it leads to the electric for a parking garage, and does, but if the correct knock is given - changed weekly by Winter - it opens to a homey little village in the Hedge. Small cottages, a small garden of extremely generic and tasteless Goblin Fruit which only restore glamour in their native state, and right now, a Mirrorskin lounging next to that garden, playing with their bracelet. It's the middle of the day, so it's weird for Teagan to be awake, but here they are.
Sigrun rides in astride her great white mare, spear in its holster near her stirrup, banner flapping in the wind. She dismounts before the horse comes to a stop, skidding along the cobbled ground for a few feet before taking up the reins of her horse and leading it to a post to tie up for the time being. She leaves her spear and shield resting against their usual tree and returns to her horse to fetch her water skin. She carries it on over to where Teagan is relaxing, settling down on the ground beside them with a grunt. The water is uncapped, a drink taken, and then it's offered to Teagan. "Water." Because you need to clarify when Sigrun is involved.
The door leading Ironside opens and admits Johnny, letting his presence filter into the Hollow. He shuts the door behind, thumbs hooked into his jeans pockets as he moves into the hollow. He glances at the steed, it maybe glances back, and he catches the settling, the grunt, and the offer to Teagan. "Is that a "there's shit going down and I'm buying time to not talk about it" offer, or is this a "I'm an excellent girlfriend and making sure my excellent paramour stays alive" offer?" He sinks to the ground with that inhuman, liquid grace before the pair, in companionable distance, but with enough space to buffer if needed.
The Mirrorskin watches both Sigrun ride up, and Johnny arrive, with that sort of affable, affectionate distance which is their wont in public spaces. Someone who doesn't know Teagan might think they don't give a shit, but the pair are part of the small set of individuals who can read their microexpressions, the little lift of the corners of their mouth and the tiny crinkling at the corners of their eyes.
Also, Sigrun's butt reflects in their broken eyes for a bit. There's that, too.
"Thanks, Significant," Teagan greets, taking a slug of the water before leaning to kiss the corner of her mouth. "Good patrol?" And then there's Johnny, who reflects also in Teagan's eyes quite a bit before they cross that companionable distance to deliver one of those small kisses before settling back where they were.
"That's an 'it's rude not to share' offer," Sigrun answers, putting an end to the vague nature of the offered water skin. She accepts back the water, takes another gulp, and offers it over to Vorpal before accepting her kiss from Teagan. Mwah. "Went south and east today. It's clear out past Camden. Didn't figure I'd bother going all the way out to the shore. Not without something to sell at the market, or the like. Stuck to the trod alone, obviously. Just trying to get a feel for the land before I start venturing off the path. And then, I'd rather not do that alone, in any case."
"... ah." Right, that's- a thing. A point of common courtesy that's awful easy for Vorpal to forget due to his own peculiarities on the topic. He raises a hand lightly, deflecting the offer with a smile and a simple "No, but thank you." He leans into the delivered little smooch, then glances to Sigrun a moment. "I feel like this is a terribly odd question to have to ask, but I'd rather be sure, Sigrun- would it bother you if I greeted you that way? With the cute little corner-of-the-mouth kiss, I mean. It seems to have become sort of the standard while I was away, and I'd hate to be behind the times." Which is transparently about as close as Johnny can get to admitting he likes kissing his motleymates and just realized he can't remember if Sigrun ever opted into that.
"Yes, please don't go off-trod alone. I'd really much rather get to watch if you get jumped by an entire pack of unfortunate briarwolves with subconscious desires to moonlight as "wolf tartare." Besides, as I was recently reminded, even the best defenses eventually fail under consistent testing, and my projected personal arrogance aside, I like you in one piece."
He glances to Teagan. Frequently. Keeping tabs.
"I would prefer that you not do that alone," Teagan agrees with Sigrun, leaning back on one of their hands, watching the other two after taking that refreshing slug of 'water stored in the skin of a dead animal.' Which actually is refreshing when you've been in a Hollow most of the last couple of days.
They stay quiet, listening to the interplay between Sigrun and Johnny, and smiling just a little bit when he asks questions about standards of behavior and all the like.
"I don't mind a good kiss under most circumstances," Sigrun assures Vorpal with an easy smile. "Generally, if I'm not actively involved in some other task, or an important conversation, a kiss of greeting is a welcome thing. And if not immediately so, then after those important conversations or tasks are concluded, smooches are encouraged." She takes another swig of her water and sets the skin aside, relaxing back onto her elbows and stretching out her legs in the manner of someone who's thighs and calves are screaming from being in the saddle all day.
Vorpal nods sagely as Teagan confirms that maybe dont wander dangerous wilds alone. The little smile on the Mirrorskin's face leaves Johnny grinning openly. Then Sig moves to laying out when smooches are appropriate and when not, and he nods with the serious sense of a student studying for a final.
"Noted. I kind of feel I missed the boat on that, though, so in lieu, if I may?" Vorpal's shadows shift across the small distance betwixt, creeping below Sigrun- and delivering a slow, thorough rubdown of her thighs and calves, aiming to alleviate some of that saddle sore ache. It cant fix everything- rubbing dont cure torn fibers, after all- but hopefully, it will help.
"Only Johnny can get away with groping people in public like that," mock-whines the Mirrorskin who does, in fact, often get away with groping people in public like that. "Oh for a sentient shadow-mass to follow me around and do my handsy bidding." The Mountebank lounges backward semi-dramatically, as if collapsing onto their fainting couch. It lasts but a moment, and then they sit up.
The door opens again and in walks Arthur, looking behind him cautiously as he closes the door. He's dressed a little nicer than normal in black slacks, a button up and a vest with redpatterning. A backpack slung over one shoulder throws off the look however.
He takes a few steps inside and halts to take a deep breath.
Sigrun flops out onto her back when Vorpal begins to massage her legs. The groans she starts making would sound utterly inappropriate for a public venue were the circumstances not related to knotted muscle and relieving pain. "Oh, fuck. Like I'm going to complain? Frigg is a new friend of mine. And I'm still getting used to her. I can't believe I'm so out of practice on horseback, it's a downright shame." She tugs her helmet off and tosses it aside in the grass, loosening her hood a bit in the process. "We need to get Downtime set back up. I miss that steam bath something fierce." When a new arrival is heard, she pushes back up onto an elbow to see who it is, offering Arthur a wave.
"Bollocks," remarks Vorpal idly, "You get to feel it when you grope someone in secret," he teases Teagan playfully. "Whereas I am a philanthropist. Look at me philanthrope all over the place. It is a wonder how much I am not getting out of this." Which is absolute bullshit, because Sigrun's making enough noise to slap "MA" onto the cover of a video game. Besides, he looks downright delighted with himself, the smug bastard. He knows he's doing a good job. "And I'd never use my powers for naughtiness."
Yeah-huh, okay.
"I'll help work on that when we get back," Vorpal promises, looking towards Arthur as he arrives, lifting a hand to wave him over. "Steam bath is just like a sauna, yes?"
"We finished switching it out from any Miami setups last night. Me and Glitch. I was having, like, a really bad day." Which Sigrun knows, at least about the really bad day, because Teagan doesn't keep secrets from their motley. "So like... it's done." They're lounging next to one of the beds of flavorless goblin fruits. "Though we didn't fix the steam bath, but like, we can do that tonight."
They tip their chin up toward Arthur when he arrives, smirking sidelong at Johnny's protestations of innocence and philanthropy. "Suuuure, Johnny. What's up, Arthur?"
Sweeping a blackened hand over his coifed locks, the smith moves over to join the motley curiously. "Hello everyone." He says with a careful smile. "Are you guys doing ok?"
"Better now that I'm getting a leg massage," Sigrun answers Arthur with a strain to her voice. Anyone expecting her to be witty or exceptionally conversational for the time being are going to be sorely disappointed. She flops once more onto her back and lets her hands fold up over the leather breastplate she's wearing. She is quite simply letting herself be pampered, and enjoying that pampering very much. "I just got back from patrol, and Vorpal is being a saint. Everything good with you?"
He nods his understanding until she turns the question back on him. His lips twist in consideration as he thinks.
"... I think... So? I guess I have a few things on my mind about some stuff. But my body is fine!"
"Saint Johnathan, the Handsy, canonized in the 87th year of Our Birds," Vorpal confirms, keeping the shadows crawling over her legs and easing her discomfort. ((Pose around, busy @ work))
The Mirrorskin leans back on their hands, watching the interplay between the others, which is their rite and custom. They do like that very much, the whole 'chilling and people-watching' thing. "Pffft," they laugh at Johnny's commentary about him being a saint, and then their attention turns to Arthur. "What's on your mind?"
"If you can cop a feel through cured briarwolf hide and sheet steel, you're welcome to try," Sigrun notes of the joking about her massage. "Brigandine armor doesn't lend itself well to heavy petting. More like heavy combat." She knocks her knuckles against her leather breastplate, which sounds oddly metallic and hollow in the wake of it. "Penny for your thoughts, Arthur," Sigrun encourages in the wake of Teagan's question.
Johnny straightens in surprise at the sound of metal under the leather. That's a little surprising, but then, he isn't an armorsmith. "H-uh. Cool," he murrs, notably impressed and now curious, though he doesn't go for a physical examination. Teagan and Sig have already engaged Arthur on his thoughts, so he twists to face Arthur and drop back to lie on the ground with his head propped up on crossed arms behind his head, legs crossed at the ankles. He pays attention.
Rapt attention.
... suspicious attention.
"Well... I've been trying to go out more often lately and not just be a uh... What's that word? Hiki-...haki... No hikiomori! An uh.... Shut in and stuff. So i've kind of maybe made some mortal friends. But like.. I've never had friends before so this is all really new and so I thought friends were supposed to be trusted and be able to share secrets. But then i have this real big secret they can never know about... But they have secrets too and theyre starting to tell me and it turns out that secret is that they know about uh... Well supernatural stuff." He says all in basically one big breath, making it clear it's been on the forefront of his mind, bursting to get out.
A slow, deep breath in and a long, weary breath out. Teagan turns their head to look at Sigrun and Johnny, and then asks Sigrun, "Do you have anything other than water?"
Sigrun's eyes grow wide for a moment. It's well timed with Arthur's admission, though it ends with a thoroughly inappropriate burst of laughter that has nothing at all to do with what Arthur's saying. She clears her throat apologetically and props herself back up onto her elbows to speak to Arthur more directly. "Humans are curious creatures, and many of them are capable of mystical feats all their own. And all of them are capable of paying attention and writing information down. It sounds like you don't need advice, though, so much as an ear to talk your own ideas through. Come. Have a seat." Sigrun kicks up from the ground, gets her boots under her center of gravity, and pops to her feet to head back over to her horse, fishing through the saddle bags until she finds some bottles of mead. One is underhanded over Teagan's way, one is kept for herself, the third she waggles at Arthur in invitation. Vorpal is left out of the offer, since he never says yes anyway.
Vorpal DOES never say yes, but he does grin widely at nothing at all when Sigrun explodes into brief inappropriate laughter. Whatever just happened, he looks entirely too smug to have nothing to do with it. And Arthur starts talking and Johnny... just... rolls up onto his feet. It's- not... technically something the human body is designed to do, that fluid shift, but then he's on his feet and following Sigrun to check to see if there's another bottle in there he can "steal."
And then something occurs to him and he barks laughter, sniggering and giggling at what seems like nothing at all, until he turns to the others and thumbs at Arthur. "Sorry, just- REALLY amused that HE thought to come talk to my motley about this, and I didn't."
The tone makes it clear that Johnny is making fun of himself, not Arthur.
Artie looks confused and a little taken aback by the all the laughter over his problem. Was he being a little kid about this? Well.... He supposed he was. After all, who had never had friends before?
But then she invites him to sit so he drags his feet over and takes a seat. "He shakes his head to the offered bottle. "No thank you. I like a clearer head most of the time," he explains.
As he shifts to become comfortable, he shifts the backpack around and wraps his arms around it, propping his head atop it. "Am...I being silly?"
"You're not being silly," Teagan answers. "It's a really serious issue, and a really serious problem. You're asking people who have very strong opinions about the subject, too. We're not necessarily gonna agree." The Mirrorskin takes the bottle of mead that Sigrun brings over and blows her a kiss for her trouble.
"The thing is, like, in this sense, you kinda gotta treat it like... " They look for a way to put this into words. "They may know stuff, but it's on you to keep them out of our world. Seriously. Because we can't protect them in the way that we can protect each other, and a lot of the ways we can protect each other revolve around being part of a Freehold, and swearing Oaths to each other -- which they can't do."
Johnny's burst of laughter, and his statement, get him a wry look aside. "You think, maybe?" There's affection there, but a wry tone threads itself through, too.
"Sorry, that laughter wasn't about you. Vorpal grabbed my boob." Sigrun doesn't explain HOW he managed that, but she seems fully sincere in her explanation. Vorpal will find several more bottles of mead in her bags, because it's Sigrun and she's rarely without the Good Stuff. She pops the bottle in her hands open and returns to her seat in the grass near the garden, tilting her bottle back for a sip. "That's true. Huntsmen enjoy torturing us before they make their move for us. They'd be happy to pick off your friends and leave you to deal with their fetches. With the Kindly Ones, there's never a really good answer. Because ignorance won't keep them safe, not really. No more than being one animal in a herd protects the animal. But knowing too much, being too close to us, that opens them up to all sorts of calamity. And they're stubborn. Humans, I mean. If you tell them 'I am constantly hunted by creatures you can't truly kill, only delay, or annoy' they'll assure you there has to be a way. There's always a way. Especially Americans. But there isn't a way. Our only real defense is remaining hidden. All my blades and shields and spears and axes, all of my training? It can't keep anyone safe. It can only remove what's actively trying to harm them, and that's not the same thing. At all."
Vorpal lets himself smirk as Sig outs his little ploy, and snags a bottle for himself before drifting back over. For an Autumn, who are notoriously vocal about arcane matters, Vorpal remains conspicuously silent on the matter. He sips his mead, settles back beside his motley, and listens to the others speak. Teagan's wry comment got a similar nod from Johnny himself. His self-aimed humor was pretty sardonic, after all.
Teagan's answer is succinct, and Sigrun's details it in greater... detail. He doesn't seem to have much to add.
"But... Is it really fair or possible? I mean there are things they could do for at least a little protection. Not knowing anything is how a lot of us got into... Got taken... In the first place. Shouldn't it be part of what we do to protect others from what happened to us?" He posits.
"And even more... It isn't fair. To lump every human as the same. These ones... They're... They're different. They arent just mindlessly afraid of whats out there. Theyre cautious and curious. They want to know more and to to like... Protect themselves and we could be helping. Or at least I could be. The Freehold doesn't have to be involved but..." He looks down and drops his voice. "Why can't I have friends?"
"Tell you what," and here Teagan takes a long swig of their mead, "You go pose those questions to the Winter Queen and you ask her what she thinks of your statements that the Freehold doesn't have to be involved with your efforts to 'educate' mortals, especially your 'special friend' mortals, who are clearly different in every way from all the other humans, and you go and you equate 'having friends' with 'telling humans more about our world,' and you come back to us and let us know how that flies."
Sigrun takes a gentler tack than Teagan, though she doesn't seem to disagree precisely. "If they already know we exist, and little tidbits about the Fae, then I would personally ensure the knowledge they have is accurate. But that's about it, personally. I believe you when you say they are careful. And I believe you when you say they they want to know how to protect themselves. But we can barely protect ourselves from Huntsmen. And our usual advice when Huntsmen are mentioned is to run the hell away. Right? Apart from 'don't make idle promises' and 'don't follow strange people to secondary locations', what more is there to say, really?" Sigrun looks to Vorpal for a moment, then back to Arthur. The question seems a genuine one, not rhetorical. Is there more to suggest than that? "Iron doesn't even stop these things. They're like the Terminator and an abusive ex all rolled up into one. Tireless. Heedless of danger. Utterly obsessed with their mission. If they're between it and you, they won't be for long."
Ash fades in from Winter only knows where, snagging his customary goblin fruit as he walks past one. He grabs a chair near a more Winter themed cottage, and leans back in it. He cocks an eyebrow (impressive for someone with a broken mirror for a face) as Sigrun speaks, then asks, "Soz, what're we talking about? Mortals who're in the know? How many Huntsman kills we have?"
"But... That would be pointless. Winter's position has always been hide and stay hidden and never tell anyone anything." He retorts with a furrowed brow.
He turns his slightly pouty face towards Sigrun as she talks though. "...I... I don't know. Not every problem is a Huntsman though and if they don't know how to spot one, how would they know to run until it's too late? And even still... That's not what I'm worried about first. I just don't want to have to hide who or what I am from my friends. If they want to delve deeper... Then I could tell them no but... But.. As it is, they can't even see my face!" He seems... On the verge of tears perhaps?
"Look."
Vorpal's tone is... not exactly sullen. Just kind of flat. "I understand where you're coming from. I- believe me, man, I do. But at the end of the day, it's exactly as you say. They can't see your face. And if they could, there's no guarantee they'd like it."
Vorpal fixes Arthur with a sallow look. "Breaking down the Mask Affects People. Mortals can't look on us and just be like "oh that's fine." They can't. That doesn't mean they can't accept who you are, and to be completely fucking serious for a second, that is way more important. Take it from someone who has been so occluded behind their own Story that it was hard for our people to see past to the Person behind it. You can have friends. But if they can't be your friends without access to your secrets, they're not trying to be your friends, that's something else. Privacy is a thing. They don't have a right to your secrets, much less anyone else's, and they are safer without them."
"No is always an acceptable answer. That's as applicable to secrets as sex."
Teagan just stares at Arthur for a moment, their metallic-black face going bright silver. "They should never see your face unless they have to for a fucking Bargain. Holy shit what the fuck." And then the Mirrorskin's face goes black again, and they take a few steps away, turning their back to the conversation.
"I look at it this way. I have friends that don't know I'm a heathen with an altar to Freyja and Skadi in my living room. I have friends that don't know I was in a band. I have friends that don't know I'm poly. Friends that don't know I'm pansexual. I have friends that don't know I do HEMA and stage combat for a living. And I have friends that don't know I'm a Valkyrie that escaped from Valhalla. Some of them are secrets I want to keep, some of them are secrets I have to keep, but they're all secrets. And I'm not being a jerk for not telling every person I spend my time with every little thing about me. And neither are you, if that's the route you choose. I have human friends. I have a lot of human friends, and professional relationships. And I don't think twice about being circumspect about my nature with them." Sigrun tilts back her mead and asides to Ash, "Trying to help him with some trouble with his human friends."
Ash takes an annoyed bite out of the fruit when Arthur mention face. "And who says your Mask isn't your real face? What's underneath the Mask is just a cruel joke, not who you are."
"I wholeheartedly disagree," Vorpal murmurs. "And trying to pretend that your Mask, who you Were, is the real you, is outright madness. It's denial. You don't have to like what was done to you but you need to accept it happened. This is who we are. The Mask is a lie reality creates. Arthur isn't wrong wanting his friends to know the real him and not the lie, but it doesn't hinge on who they see when they look at him."
"Well, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. Because I refuse to be this," here he gestures to his face, "What that asshole made me. I am me, not a botched science experiment."
Artie stares at the back of Teagan's head when they turn, his golden eyes luminous as the forge fire of his veins spreads into his sclera.
They then drift to Sigrud... And Ash... Then Jack. And finally it dawned on him. "There isn't a right answer..." He whispers to himself. "No one knows what we should be doing. Everybody just picks their path and hopes for the best, don't you? That's why there are so many courts. So many ways to get by."
"Just because we disagree on whether or not these are our 'real' faces doesn't mean you just get to cherrypick what's right to do with regards to humans, because that's the one place where preeeetty much all the Courts agree; we just disagree on our approaches," Teagan answers, turning back toward Arthur, their mouth fixed into a flat line. "If you go around telling them shit, showing them your face when you have no goddamned reason to, then you are the one responsible when shit happens to them."
"Look. I'm real sorry that these are your first friends and you feel like you wanna show them all your stuff, but maybe you need to work on making some friends who you can share that shit with, rather than trying to drag all your mortal friends into a world that is going to chew up their souls and spit them out in fucking pieces."
It's at this time that a tiny little red panda woman comes tottering in, her gait made a little awkward because her limbs are a little too short for the size of her body. June has a big smile on her face, and is wearing a knee-length skirt, a denim jacket over a "BEE :bee: KIND" t-shirt, and combat boots. The smile fades fairly quickly when she picks up on some of the atmosphere in the room, and she glances back and forth between her motley mates as she wanders over.
Vorpal nods at Ash. "Agree to disagree, indeed," he offers, tone perhaps still a touch flat. He doesn't look excited about what Teagan says, but he does nod. The impression is that it's a bitter pill he's still swallowing, but he agrees with what Teagan's said. He brightens a touch to see June entering, waving her over to where he sits nursing a bottle of Sigrun's mead. Teagan's there, too, and Sig, but they're a bit more forward in the conversation. If she doesn't drift into someone else's side or lap first, he snags at her lightly to bring her closer, trying out one of the motley's patented corner kisses before freeing her to settle where she likes, be that with him or elsewise.
"Brother," Sigrun begins with a glance aside to Ash, "I could write a book about refusing to be what that asshole made of me. But that doesn't erase the fact that I was made to be what I am, all the same. I just choose to be more than that. Better than what he wanted me to be. Yeah. He made me a glow in the dark sex doll. But I made myself free, and I do with my freedom what I will." Sigrun tilts back her bottle of mead with that pronouncement, ending with a wipe of her wrist across her lips. "Teagan has the right of it. No amount of us warning you about what to do is going to keep you from doing what you want to do. But you're going to be responsible for what comes of them knowing. And no amount of good intentions is going to save you or them from the fallout of that decision, whatever it may be. That's part of being free, too. Up until we escaped all the terrible shit we did, we did with no real say in the matter. We could pin our horrors on our keepers and wash our hands and our consciences clean. That ended the second you stepped into the hedge to freedom. You need to sit with that, I think. And really think about what it means to be responsible for yourself again."
Arthur frowns a bit. "I've always chosen to be better than what He made me. I am different now but I accept what I am. I can't change it and I don't want to. But... It hurts when people lie to you doesn't it? So why should I choose to lie to the people who I'm supposed to trust? This is why it's just better to sit in a house and never talk to people." He folds his arms tightly around his backpack at this point.
"Not all lies hurt. Some lies protect people. Trick is figuring out which lies do which." Ash shrugs and takes another bite of goblin fruit.
Welp, Teagan is distracted. This always happens when June arrives. "JuneyJune!" They take a few rapid steps to pick up the tiny redhead, spin her around, and kiss her on the corner of her mouth. Spin! It's June. "The key is in fact knowing which lies will save people and which ones will hurt them. You're standing here saying 'oh lies are always bad' to people whose faces are lies. Come on, dude." June gets set back down again, and they scoot her over a little so that she's sandwiched between Johnny and themself.
Johnny shifts to help settle June in between them, beaming quietly at the sheer delight Teagan shows off- and at having the cutest little furball on the planet snugged in. "Plus, like. There's way to hide things without lies. Could always just say "I don't want to talk about it" or "I can't discuss it." Friends respect boundaries, man."
June's waddling walk takes her over to Vorpal, and when she gives him a hug it's with her eyes closed and a ridiculously adorable expression of contented delight on her face. This gives her a few moments to figure out what people are talking about too. Then she's spun around by Teagan, and she giggles in delight and returns hugs and kisses. When she gets squished in between Teagan and Vorpal, she looks like this is just perfect. "Hi Sigrun," she says with a beaming smile. "Look how lucky I am!" Then she looks at Ash and Arthur. "I'm June," she introduces.
Ash nods to June. "I'm Ash Thursday, most of the time."
He pouts for a long moment... Until...
"Boundaries? You... You can just. Make lines where you don't talk about stuff?" His voice is curious, like the concept hadn't occurred to him before.
"So... I could tell them a little and then say no more?" He asks hopefully before he sees June.
"Uhm. Hi again. We met... At the Jazz place. You wore a dress. With Teagan. Where Michelle sings."
"It's not a lie if you simply never talk about it. It's not a lie if you say 'I don't want to talk about that. Ever. Please don't ask about it again.' I am the worst liar on the planet, and I manage." Sigrun takes another nip from her mead and hops back up to her feet, queueing up to greet June in proper Junegreeting fashion. She'll wait her turn. "You're SUPER lucky," Sigrun assures June before stepping forward to offer the little beast a stooped over hug and a smooch to the other corner of her mouth. There we go. Now all is right with the world. She steps back a bit to answer Arthur, "Yep. Boundaries are totally a Thing. And they're a great way to judge if someone is worth trusting. In that people who don't respect your boundaries aren't worth investing time and energy into. Boundaries are healthy, and people who don't respect them? Are not."
The Mirrorskin has a June and a Sigrun and a Vorpal and they have had this argument several times this week, sometimes with people that matter an awful lot, and so they're very happy to just loop an arm around June and let Sigrun give their opinons. "It's true, Sigrun really sucks at lying."
"Oooooh right!" June says when Arthur reminds her of where they met before. "Sorry, I have the worst memory sometimes. I'm lucky that I remember who I am, sometimes." She returns hugs and kisses from Sigrun too, and then looks at Arthur again. "I'm terrible at setting boundaries sometimes. I'm the kind of person who will give and give of myself until there's nothing left, if left to my own devices. Fortunately, I have people around me who can help me realize where my lines are, and then call me out when I let people cross them. Or cross them myself." She laughs then and adds, "I'm as bad as Sigrun at lying, but I'm still close with my family, so I've had to become good at finding other ways not to talk about things."
He blinks at the little redhead. "Other people... Help with your boundaries." He seems intrigued by the idea if still a little confused.
He then glances at Ash. "And it's ok to hide things if... It helps them." The wizened begins to piece together this intricate webbing.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Arthur? But. How long were you gone for. Do we need to get you into some remedial life coaching courses or something? I'm not asking to be mean, here, I just want to be sure you're getting the help you actually need and we're not all taking it for granted that you know to brush your teeth and shower and stuff." Sigrun's shift in topic has her squinting at Arthur in obvious maternal concern. Mead Mom rears her head once more to force Sigrun into fussing over everyone in her sensory range.
Arm curled around June, Teagan raises an eyebrow at Sigrun's question. It's a good one, and now Mead Mom is going full Mead Mom, so they let her do so without Mirrorskinterference.
Arthur looks at Sigrun for a long moment before panning to look at everyone else assembled, one by one.
"Do... Do I have to think about it?" He finally asks. "It... Was a long time." By the time he stops talking he isn't looking at anyone anymore.
June suddenly looks a bit concerned too, but doesn't say so at first, giving Arthur a chance to respond. When she does speak it's to say, "you don't have to do anything, at least in this context. We're just wanting to make sure that if you need help, you get it. There's nothing wrong with needing help, either! All of us do at one time or another, with one thing or another."
Johnny looks briefly tempted to offer himself as a counterexample to needing help.
It doesnt last long.
"You don't have to think about it. Or talk about it, if you don't want to. But you're behaving like you lack some very basic life skills, and if this is indicative of the other areas of your life, you need help. I'd like to put you in touch with folx over in the Spring Court. They're much better equipped to help you rebuild your life than I am, but with that said, your behavior tonight has me concerned. If I set up an appointment for you, would you go and talk to one of the Spring courtiers?" Sigrun swishes the last of her mead around in the bottle, then knocks the last of it back, capping up the bottle for future reuse.
When Johnny looks like he's briefly tempted to speak up, Teagan's eyebrow goes up, as if to say 'I love you but bitch don't even make me roll out the entire scrolling list of times you have needed our help.'
Now he's back to frowning. What do they mean he didn't know how to life skill? He was doing fine wasn't he? He had money and a house and he was his own boss. What else was he supposed to be doing that he wasn't? He was supposed to be helping other people, not the other way around.
"Go see 'em about what? I don't want my old life anymore. It's- it's not mine anymore."
"About getting some fucking life skills for building your new life with," Teagan interjects with a certain flare of their Mantle.
"Like setting boundaries," June adds. Then she nudges Teagan. "I want to go get a cheesesteak."
"You were surprised to discover you can set boundaries, Arthur. Which is a life skill pretty much every adult has learned well before the age of majority. I'm trying to put you in touch with people prepared to help you learn other holes in your knowledge so that you can succeed in your new life." Sigrun doesn't loiter, though. She heads back to her horse and stuffs her empty bottle into her saddle bag and heads over to collect her shield from where it's resting next to the tree, carrying it back to tether onto her saddle bags for now. Then she returns for her spear and leans onto it while waiting for his response.
He glares at Teagan for half a second as if he was about a hair from sticking his tongue out at them but he refrains.
Then he looks at the others some more and realizes they aren't accusing him of anything or trying to hurt his feelings so his visage softens.
Maybe they were just trying to be friends too.
"... Ok fine."
"Great." Sigrun hefts her spear up and carries it over to her horse. Once she's untied the reins from the hitching post, she uses the spear as a crutch and steps into a stirrup before swinging herself up into the saddle. She passes her spear over to her right hand, settles it into its holster, and unfastens her shield from where its fitted on her saddle bags. Once it's on her left arm, she steers her horse about with her knees and calls down to Arthur, "I'll hit up the Spring court and come back to you with a referral to those willing to help you out. For now, I have to get Frigg back to Downtime and get some rest. I'm ranging north at sun up." She gives her mare a poke with her heels and starts to canter out of the quad towards the trod.
"Yeah, let's go get some cheesesteaks," Teagan agrees, absently scratching their cheek. "We'll see you at Downtime, Significant. Love you. Travel safely." They blow the Fairest a kiss and then pick June up, slinging her over their shoulder and carrying her away like a sack of potatoes. A very cute, furry sack of potatoes.
June gets hauled off like a fuzzy, flailing sack of taters, waving her arms and legs around like she's pretending to try to get away, and giggling. "Byeeeee!" she calls to everyone else.
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