[PRP] It Don't Cost an Arm and a Leg (Alexis & Preacher)

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher slapped her hand against the door. She knew this was Zac's place because, well, just because. It was better not to ask questions. Out of everyone who ******** about with magic, he seemed the most knowledgeable, if ********' scatterbrained and full of random-a** guilt. She gave the door another whack.

"Open up; I know yer in there!" She didn't. Her reconnaissance tactics did not stoop to stalking (yet). Fist, meet door - again. "Oh, c'mon!" Preacher wanted to show Zac the whole mini-sigil business. Maybe she'd doodle one on his goddamn door, then.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

The door opened mid-punch, almost like whoever was behind it wanted Preacher to topple though; but it was just Alexis, rubbing sleep out of their eyes, stepping out of the way of her followthrough. (They were in one of Zac's jackets over a long, belted shirt and leggings, the skirt mermaid-printed, the monitor heavy on their ankle.) "Zac's out. Whaddya want? If it's somethin' only he can answer, dunno when he's gonna be back, but - "

Alexis shrugged. "You got me. Sorry. I could text him if ya want, though."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Alexis was met with a critical eye. They were ********' weird, and had tried to slosh water at her in that weird void junk, but beggars could not be choosers. Besides, them controlling all that water n' s**t meant magic. Preacher nodded.

"Well, I came 'ere for Zac, but you'll do. Lemme in. Wanna show ya some weird s**t I learnt."

daekie"

 

[Daekie]

"The door's open," Alexis snorted, turning around and heading towards the couch. "What, d'you think I'm gonna punch you in the face the moment you walk through the threshold, some weird territory s**t or whatever? 's not my place. Come in, sit yer a** down, we can talk magic and I can tell you what you should never ******** do in Other Ashdown."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"s**t, you're tha old what tried to water slap me for no good reason anyways," she said as she closed the door behind her. Preacher then proceeded to plop on the couch as well.

"Wait there's s**t I shouldn't do? Wassat? Also, gonna have ta compliment yer ankle candy. S'good look."

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"I," Alexis clarified, "was mid-breakdown, so I don't remember, like, anythin' after that first reset very well? But if I tried to slap you, prob'ly had a good reason for it." They pulled their legs up onto the couch, sitting on top of them, uncomfortable at the attention to their monitor. "Yeah, hey, guess what, this me was even more of a dangerous delinquent than me-me I guess??"

Their tone was abrasive. And uncomfortable, too, if you listened in. "Anyways, first things first, don't get into that Noble of the Court s**t, you'll be a voluntary slave and your life gets ********, mine made me homeless and then I bit out her throat. Deserved it, she was kind of a b***h. But we ain't here t'talk about me. What's your deal?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"No good reason," she stated again, adamantly. Preacher did no wrong. She couldn't see the ankle monitor anymore so she directed her gaze up to Alexis'. There was something so ********' unsettling about them- like it sent little danger, danger alarms skittering down her back. It was kind of cool, to be honest, spiked up her adrenaline, and she kind of liked it - but she wasn't going to tell them that.

"Yeah, I 'member bits where ya seemed unresponsive almos." She snapped her fingers. "I heard bout noble s**t, ain't you one? Do I gotta call you m'lord or some bullshit because I will not." As she spoke, she pulled out her little drawing pad and a pen, clicking it a few times. She'd show them, but the noble stuff was kind of cool.

daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis ran a bitten-short nail across one lip - it was a close enough substitute to the feeling of biting down, since that was so very unavailable now. "Yeah, 's fair, and you're not dead or in the hospital so no harm done." They wouldn't lose much sleep over it. Being an unintentional a*****e to other people was, at this point, just part of the job of being them.

"If y'call me milord or anythin' like that, I will break your ******** shins," they frowned. "Yeah. I'm a Noble of the Court of the Sorrowful One - I was tithed by Alois Scholz, m'fetch was named Rill and I killed her, m'current fetch is named Wick and I haven't checked on him since we reset the universe n' all that." Their fingers pulled tense across the back of their hands, brief little scratches of red and white marring the skin; they had scars between the meat of their fingers, where teeth had bitten in too hard, where the skin had healed but not all the way. "Whaddya wanna know about that? Dunno about any other Nobles, really, or my responsibilities -- I just did it cause I wanted to kill someone."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

The unsettling gaze, the teeth - Alexis was pretty damn weird, Preacher concluded. She had to grin at the promise to break her shin. Honestly, it just made her want to do it, so she filed it away for later torment. "Ain't Alois a creep? Or he was in tha 20s, y'know." She bounced her leg.

"That's a.... reason, a'right. Why dicha not jus' go into rainy bullshit land and off someone over there? I don't think ya can get caught." Not that she advocated murder, of course not. Preacher was a women of the law now. "I know there's nobles n' weres n' wargs and s**t but ********, I dunno why." Preacher supposed that, in the end, it didn't really matter.

"You remember how a sigil works, yeah?"

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"The one from here's mid-twenties, but he's exactly as much of a ******** creep," Alexis grimaced. "Might've taught me respect n' manners, but if I never see him again it'll be too soon." They pressed a hand below their sternum, pressing at some phantom pain Preacher couldn't see, fingers spread wide.

"You seen the ******** who's on fire? Goes around doing whatever he wants, 'cause he's on fire? I want t'kill him, n -- I couldn't have back then." They sighed. "Iunno. Maybe I could, now." Their wrist was half-exposed, at this angle, and there was the glimpse of scars around it that looked unsettlingly like the shadow of a grasp. "But as far as sigils go -- kinda? Like I said, I was pretty out of it for most of that."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"********' get in line!" She laughed. "I got a debt to pay ta him, y'know. Man with a** on fire - was told I prob couldn't jus punch 'im, so we'll see." The words about Alois were filed away and she cemented his place on her s**t list. Preacher wanted to be nosy and ask about the mark on Alexis' wrist, but decided it was probably best left un-broached.

She pulled a bit of paper out of her notebook and began sketching a sigil. Not their sigil, the one in the void, but something small and simple. When she was satisfied, she flipped out a butterfly knife and nicked her thumb. Pressing the bloodied tip to the paper she thought. Unyielding, whole, unbreaking, magic. For a few moments, it looked as though she'd gone into a trance, eyes half open.

Then, Preacher looked up and handed the paper to Alexis. "Try'n tear it."

daekie

+1 untearable sheet of paper. so useful

 

[Daekie]

"We can cooperate t'murder him," Alexis hummed tunelessly, their voice a firm note. "Murder always goes better with a friend." But when Preacher pulled out the paper and started sketching, they were still and silent, poised tension in their shoulders as they tried to gaze over to the sigil-in-progress. It was elegant, in a terrible kind of way.

It didn't tear under their hands, even when they twisted as far as their wrists would go, and Alexis inhaled harsh. "Alright, that's pretty cool, you got me there. What else can y'do it on -- is it just makin' things untearable, or can you do other stuff too?" They did look impressed, but it was hard for Alexis to look particularly impressed in the first place, really; their face lent itself more to spite than admiration.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher didn't think of so much as cooperations as a ********' killsteal, so she kept her mouth shut. Mostly because, at that point, she was fully immersed in creating the mini-sigil.

Afterwards, she watched Alexis closely. "I dunno it's just that.... sigils make sense, y'know. N' iffin I can make it make sense, I can make it happen. Like tha symbols gotta make sense, n' how I put 'em in's gotta make sense, and what I think about and..." Preacher trailed off and shrugged. "I haven't tried a whole lotta s**t yet. Magic's kinda weird n' different now. Not sure if I like it. What's changed for ya?"

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"M'magic's still the same," Alexis shrugged. "Far as I can tell, though, this me just developed it? Didn't get it after goin' to Ashdown - just woke up with it one day and didn't take awful well to it. So I guess they were even more of a shitty criminal, and considerin' Mercer won't show me my record, that's the best of a guess I'm gonna get."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Huh, wonder what ya did for him not to show ya. If you really want, you can go 'bove his head and order ya records from the gov. It don't include expunged bits, but includes tha rest." She shrugged. Legally, or at least in the legality she grew up with, everyone one person had a damn right to see their own records. Preacher's were all expunged or sealed up or something, so she probably couldn't see them and that was fine with her. She wasn't sure she'd wanna know if this world's her had ******** up more than she did.

She swung her legs idly. "D'you wanna know?"

daekie