[PRP] To: Temperance / From: The Vaughns

[Smerdle]

Rabbit generally wasn't one for introspection. There had been plenty of times when he had examined his life rather critically under Ezra's care, and he'd certainly had a lot to occupy his mind lately, but when he wasn't in the middle of an abduction or coping with an alternate reality, he tended to push that sort of seriousness aside. He wanted things to be easy, especially around the holidays. Christmas was for drinking, not thinking, and while he was doing just fine on the first front, he was also neck deep in what-ifs and itching to act on them.

He had been so close to giving Temperance what she wanted in the void, but he had expected his feelings on the matter to go back to negative once that whole mess was all over. They had yet to take that turn. It was a strange day for it, but surely it wouldn't hurt to ask if she still felt as she had the last time they had spoken. She might even think his change of heart was a nice gift. If she was home. He hoped she wasn't home.

Rabbit waited until all the presents were unwrapped and dinner had been consumed before venturing out alone in the cold, walking across town to the address next to her name in his phone. Because he was one of the things they had vowed to keep safe, the sirens followed at a distance.

It was simple enough to figure out which apartment was hers once he arrived, even though he had never been here before. His hand shook slightly as he rang the bell, and he shoved both of them into the pockets of his coat as he took a step away from the door.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Christmas day. Or evening, she thought as she glanced at the clock. Temperance had spent her birthday with her parents (coincidentally Christmas Eve), and was now back in her studio apartment. She supposed she could have found someone to spend it with, but considering everything that had happened, perhaps it was best to have a day alone, for thought. She'd run away from thinking for so long that it seemed so odd to actually sit down and take a day dedicated to it. Temperance wasn't very good at it. In fact, she'd spent most of the day playing video games.

Now, the night ad fallen and those with families had usually acquiesced into a food-induced stupor. She sat on the edge of her bed, notebook in lap, and tried to make sense of things. Some things were, of course, the same - she could not have imagined an alternate future where she was not a nurse, and this world did right by that as well. But her course work was slightly altered to include classes on the dangers of magic. She was doodling the sigil when the door bell cut into her thoughts.

Frowning, Temperance tucked her shawl around her shoulder (just like a little old lady, she thought wryly), and peered through the peephole. Gasping, she fumbled the chain and lock open before flinging the door wide.

"R-rabbit! What are you doing here?" Temperance gestured for them to come in, if they wanted, and tried not to stare at the sirens.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He hadn't noticed the kids as they ghosted up behind him, but even in his distraction he picked up on Temp's divided attention and turned to them now.

"You followed me?"

They didn't answer. Or rather, Neverain started to, raising his hand just high enough to expose part of his feathered forearm as the sleeve of his cloak drooped toward his elbow. Sy nudged her brother's back, silently pushing him past Temperance and into her apartment. Rabbit watched them go, then looked back at Temp, lowering his voice from surprised incredulity to reluctantly secretive.

"I came to ask you something important. It was supposed to be serious and alone, but..." His hand emerged from his pocket long enough to gesture sharply after the squeeps before following them inside.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Well, you kind of come as a set." She said teasingly, then paused. "They've gotten so big. Did you give them names?" It had seemed like an age ago when she'd held one of them in her hands. Temperance patted Nev's head as he moved into the apartment. Then she followed them.

"If it's, um, something that needs to be private, you can come 'round whenever." For some reason, Temperance felt a vague fondness for him even since the fairy ball. It was kind of odd, but she didn't poke at it. "But if not..." She leaned against the wall, careful not to crinkle one of her Dishonored posters. "What's up?"

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He hadn't considered that he was... well... not stuck with them exactly, just grouped permanently. He had never pictured his name being said in the same breath as another, not even when he'd briefly wanted it to be, but he supposed it always had been anyway. Rabbit and Olivia. And now, RabbitNevSyOroh.

"Yeah, I did name them eventually. And I said I'd tell you, didn't I? Sorry. I thought it'd upset you, just calling out of the blue after I'd..." Rabbit inhaled and exhaled in not-quite-a-sigh, then moved behind each siren as they were introduced, pulling their hoods away from their feathered heads as he did so. "Nev and Sy. They did grow, a lot, but only while I... we were away. They were still little balls of peeping fluff when I left, and now..."

"We can talk," said Sy.

"And I can almost fly!"

"Can't. He just looks prettier while he's falling."

Neverain ignored his sister, dark, curious eyes still on Temp. "It's very nice to meet you again, Lady Temperance."

"Spoiler alert."

Rabbit really did sigh then, such an extended display of exasperation that it almost made him cough. "Since it seems like they already know, somehow, I'll just spit it out." But even after saying so, he couldn't find the words to just ask. So, he said, "You remember what we were talking about that day with the banana bread and the... glowing?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I wasn't angry with you, Rabbit." More like angry at the world, like some angst-ridden teenager. She grimaced.

"Well, Nev, Sy, why don't you guys show me later? I'd love to see." She was a little taken aback by the addition of 'lady', but let it slide. Perhaps Rabbit had taught them this manner of address for some reason. Or Nev was a little weirdo. - both were okay. She glanced over at Rabbit.

"Yes... I asked you some things and... yeah. Is the glowing under control now?" It seemed like it was. Clearly, Temperance was not making the right connection - she felt a little dense right now, anyway, like fruit cake left out a little too long.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Yeah, the glowing's fine. I can do it whenever I want and there're wings and..." He unconsciously brushed the subject away with a soft swipe of his hand. He wasn't here for himself. Or maybe he was, but he was only barely aware of it.

"I want to offer you what you asked. I've thought about it and I'm not against it anymore." He had thought about it a ton, everything from how he might effectively train her to somehow be better than she was, to how he would cope if her fetch killed her and it was all his fault, but he had never contemplated this moment. What he would do if she said no. It wasn't like he had one of those strobe light memory erasers from Men In Black that could make her forget the things he said. And this was kind of a big deal. If she refused, was he obligated to take her anyway? Would Neverain and Sywyly help? Little kidnappers. Sirens' first Christmas. Maybe that was why they had come.

"But we have to go now. You can't tell anyone or bring... much. I mean, I guess you could bring some things if you wanted."

The sirens leaned forward slightly, like plants stretching toward the sun, only in this case, the sun was delicious court drama.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance startled, the move as uncoordinated as a stumbling giraffe. "Just to... jut to be clear, you're offering to take me as-" She swallowed and noticed her hands were trembling. "-as your tithe?" Sonny had sai she was powerful now, but power was subjective and she needed to feel it in her own hands, to be enough to save, to protect. While she hoped this new world would have less deaths, less meaningless pain, she knew better. No one could change the core of anything. Pain was a staple.

Before she could reply, even though every tendon in her strained to do so, she had to ask: "What made you, um, change your mind?"

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"You." He didn't hesitate to respond, having considered more than logistics and lessons in coming to this conclusion. "You're smart, and I think it makes you strong in a lot of ways you don't see, but if you think you need this..." shackle "...to save people, then I want to help." There was a part of him too, a quiet, grasping blip in his subconscious, that longed to steal a bit of that strength for himself, to own just the tiniest piece of her glory. If he was the one to crown her, to give her that power, everything that she accomplished would forever be his as well.

"And I also think of you as a... friend." He felt a twinge of embarrassed idiocy in admitting that. She was, what, twenty years old? Tall? Blond? Good at slicing people up? Those were not the traits of people who voluntarily spoke to him more than once. "I'd be a pretty shitty one if I left you hanging. I just... needed some time, I guess. This is kind of a big deal."

Rabbit pulled a cigarette from his pocket, then remembering that this was someone else's house, he tucked it behind his ear.

"So, yeah. Come be my tithe. It'll be fun." He snorted, but the smile that went with it was chased away by nerves as soon as it appeared.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance felt the tips of her ears turn just a little red. It was odd, to be on the receiving end of so many compliments and her first inclination was, of course, to dismiss them all. Instead, she shot a pointed look at the cigarette. "Even a noble's lungs can give out, Rabbit Vaughn." But she wouldn't poke him more about it... for now.

"I think," she expelled a large whoosh of air. "I think you're a friend, too, and out of anyone... I'd be glad if it were you." Rabbit was definitely a choice closer to home than any of the other nobles. (She avoided, for now, thinking about how none of the other nobles had even wanted her.) She ran her fingers nervously through her hair and looked around at her apartment. Someone else would be her, someone else might screw everything up, someone else... ********, this had to be worth it.

She smiled at him, a little shaky with nerves. It was now or never, and Temperance thought briefly on the people she couldn't tell, the ones who would never know. She'd just have to be quick. "I'm in."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Can they?" He plucked the cigarette off of its perch, gave it a comically skeptical look, and hid it out of sight. No use having a disagreement first thing. "I'd like to see them try."

Rabbit was a little giddy now, though he held it at bay admirably. He wanted to throw open Temp's window and shout into the night, but that would only leave her neighbors with questions. Now was not the time to start rumors, not when there was a fetch on the way. Instead, he stood in place, waiting. He had wondered what would happen next, only minorly comforted by Oroh's insistence that everything would work out, and now that the moment of truth had arrived, it was all that he had feared. Without the power to see thin spots in the veil or walk through to the otherworld at will, he'd likely just doomed them to an interlude as entertaining and productive as waiting for a bus.

"Okay, so..."

"Benben. Here."

Sy stood beside him, hand outstretched, and she laced her fingers with his when he took it. Neverain offered the same to Temperance, his smile small but warm.

"We can take you to the court."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She wrinkled her nose at Rabbit. Temperance would most certainly nag him about cigarettes later, although she obviously could not force him to quit. Then she looked down at little Nev. The sirens could taken them? She stuffed her feet into her sneakers and took his hand.

"Time to go, I guess." She offered up a shaky smile, feeling as thought she would collapse from nerves. The warmth of Nev;s hand was comforting, at least. This was it, this was the big step, this was... everything.

smerdle

idk fin maybe?