[PRP] Ketchup (Jeremiah/Rabbit)

[azuredreams]

"I've not met him on the other side, only here." Jeremiah was choosing his words carefully, fingers curling around the drink brought out by the server and taking a sip. "Nor am I certain it is my place to discuss why it is not good for him to be here but I leave it at do not speak about it. There are those that might react very poorly to find out he is here."

... because he knew why but it was personal business, not only for Ezra but for two of his close friends. The ties were deep for him on both sides. He studied Rabbit quietly for another quiet beat. "... most likely he chose you because he saw something good in you, Rabbit. Something that he could cultivate, give purpose to and see become more. You know he strives for all of his children to do well."

Jeremiah thought briefly of Alois but it was fleeting.

"It isn't as if I haven't disobeyed him more than once. I did so the first time we ever met and it cost me then. When I did so as a tithe? It cost me far more." Jeremiah rolled his shoulders, a hand smoothing unconsciously along his thigh seconds after he completed the roll. "... or that I did not likewise benefit from his guidance. Nobody," he offered very quietly, "is as put together as they appear to be."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

It happened over the course of a couple of seconds. Rabbit swallowed, wondered why his throat was so dry, and brought his glass to his lips like he hadn't been avoiding it at all, taking a decadent gulp when compared to Jeremiah's proper sip. He smiled as he set it down again, small and resigned.

"I guess so." He doubted he would ever be more than subpar, a follower and a coward, but it was nice to be considered worthy of validation at the very least. "I won't spread it around that he's here. I don't want him to be disturbed." The secrecy and concern sparked questions, but he knew they wouldn't be answered today. Instead, he changed the subject, or rather moved it to the side a little.

"Temperance should be ready to help soon, I think. We're training and kind of just... waiting." There had been a firm date for Rabbit's confrontation with Mynn. If there was some way to pencil in his tithe's own deadly showdown, he had no idea how to do so.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It is not so much disturbed as it could actively put him and those close to him in danger." Jeremiah truly would have told Rabbit if he could, if he thought it appropriate, but it simply was one of those things.

Of course- if he learned Ezra's last name, perhaps he would put two and two together and then they could speak of it. "Not everyone would be happy he's gained a body once more."

While it was still awkward, sometimes, to think about Ezra - this young man - as Father, he did. It was just so very weird. Just as it was weird that he was with siblings despite being an only child. A look flickered across his face at the mention of Temperance.

"Keep her safe-" he started, then stopped. A breath was dragged in, a drink taken as if something was caught in his throat. "There will be changes to more than just the Court but those newly acquainted with their powers may be the most vulnerable."

Another drink because he still felt like his throat was working against him somehow. "What has you waiting?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit looked ever so vaguely confused, like he smelled something interesting far away and was trying to determine what it was while still participating in the current conversation. 'Those close to him.' Like family? He couldn't picture Ezra with a family, at least not one that the man hadn't created. Rabbit's expression grew more certain and he nodded. He wouldn't say a word. Who would he tell anyway? Besides Shiloh, since he'd kind of already done that.

"She's more than safe right now with no one coming for her. Is there a way to, I don't know, call the fetch back? I kind of thought they came when they wanted. Like, when they'd decided they didn't want to live unless they could do it here. I assumed hers just hadn't gotten there yet."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's expression was schooled at the moment, shoulders rolling as he straightened up.

"You could likely call for the fetch," Jeremiah replied, "as it is, for the moment, working for you." He fell quiet again, thoughts turning over.

"I found mine, though I don't think it intended me to do so, while it was visiting. It had returned to speak to Ezra about a Court affair." As fetches still showed loyalty even if they were in a bid for their freedom.

"The other option, of course, is to bring the fetch back yourself. If you think it has gone on too long and Temperance is ready."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I guess I could," he said, examining the table again as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. "I'll ask Temp what she'd like." Rabbit chuckled. "I'm not tithe-whipped or anything. I mean, if this goes on for more than another few weeks I'll just put my foot down and go get the fetch like you say, but... I like to have her opinion. I don't want this to be any worse than it's going to be."

He was specifically recalling a handful of jolly texts he'd received from one Lyndon Tambone, old friend and acquaintance of Vic Doyle, just after he'd returned from Court. He'd never worked up the courage to find out what that had been about. Now that things had changed, he was more than content to leave it in the possible past. But that didn't mean he didn't think about what Mynn might have done.

"I'm... um... optimistic."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I don't assume that you are but I do assume that you likely handle things differently than Father." Jeremiah let out a breath as he said the last word, eyes closing a moment and opening as he moved his hand to take another sip of his drink.

It was a slip he preferred did not happen. Not because he hated it but because of the problems it caused when he did slip around Algernon. Algernon who would never understand just how his husband had been changed by his time in Ezra's household. His fingers smoothed along his thigh a moment later, rubbing it briefly before he realized that too and stopped.

"It's better to have the fetch come when she is at her strongest, if you wish for her to succeed," he finally said a quiet moment later.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Yes."

Rabbit watched Jeremiah silently, more curious about the other man's subtle distress than concerned by it. It happened to all of them, it seemed. Like Jeremiah had said, nobody was as put together as they appeared to be.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." He drank again, less frantically than before. "We have to believe we'll all be fine."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

It was part of who he was to notice things. The expressions on other people's faces, to be able to read and adapt accordingly. Jeremiah was a detective, he lived by seeing all the details that people often looked over.

"Agreed but convincing others of the same in the face of what we are dealing with? That can be a small battle in itself." Jeremiah was far too used to having to verbally duel with people about just why it was best to not give up. To believe things would be fine even if they were dark.

Things were, as they said, often darkest before the dawn. The problem was they had no idea how dark things were going to go.

"You have seen Ezra," a statement, "but have you seen July and September?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He nodded in agreement with Jeremiah's agreement, a circle of positivity that ended very abruptly.

Rabbit hadn't been as close with July, but September had been the instrument of his humiliation and torture more often than not. He loved her deeply and wished her only the best. A wave of apprehension passed through him, but his voice was steady when he spoke.

"I haven't. Did something happen to them?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No, nothing has happened. In Ezra's absence they are maintaining his household." There was a difference there: July and September were Jeremiah's roommates and keepers. By the end of his stay, which he knew had to have been at least six months, they were each sister as much as Ezra had become Father.

No, his conditioning - his torture - had been in other fine ways that had seen his mind subtlety shift another direction. Never mind the one that had handed out his punishment for disobedience had been Ezra directly. He still remembered, quite clearly, the feeling of his entire body being consumed with fire.

"I thought you may wish to know that. You are quite capable of visiting them within his domain in the Court."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Oh. Okay. Good." He relaxed, his back bowing forward again. "I thought..." He shook his head. It didn't matter what he had thought. Nothing had happened. Well, besides everything. But nothing had happened to July and September specifically. "I'd like to visit someday." They had only been doing what Father told them to, after all.

"I never did understand what they were doing there, why..." No, it wasn't just why they had stayed, it was why they had been the way they were. How they had been so strong and capable of so much. But he hadn't understood magic when he had arrived in Ezra's demesne. He hadn't realized just how simple some things were.

"I still don't get where they came from. How they were able to stay so long just... helping." Rabbit was thinking out loud, not really expecting an answer as he tilted his glass from side to side.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Sometimes I do wonder about them, if there is more to them than what we see," Jeremiah's voice was quiet. "For the same reasons but they remain at his side, ever faithful and loving of Ezra." As any that were part of his house, truly. Ezra cared and loved for each of his children in the ways he knew best.

"They maintain it well in his absence." His lips twitched, just a little bit. "I suppose that is one other thing that improved: my dancing. Not that I was not good but one had to be something to keep up with either of them."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit smiled again, though this one took him by surprise.

"Yeah, dancing! I didn't get any better, really. It helped with other things, coordination and stuff, but one-on-one twirlywhatever always made me feel like I was in some spotlight being watched." Alois had been better at it, but that was kind of Rabbit's default mindset. Alois is better. It was why he grown to enjoy watching his brother be punished.

"Maybe I can introduce them to the kids. They could use more stuff like that. You guys too. You and Algernon. I keep meaning to leave them with you, but I don't have a lot to do that I don't like having them there for. But... soon. Maybe I can take a trip back home for a few days."

azuredreamz

 

[azuredreams]

"It was part of my life growing up. Going to functions, dancing, entertaining guests ..." Jeremiah shook his head. "I had thought, in coming here when I was younger, I would not fall into those trappings. Little did I know."

There was wry amusement there before he was smiling a bit more himself. "Alg and myself would not mind, I don't think September or July would either. Teaching them things would be nice." He paused. "Admittedly, that is one thing I miss about Zac being older and not at home. Not able to share as much of the things I've experienced and learned."

Zac was an adult, his own person, and had a life to lead.

Smerdle