chatime | ✧ — peach iced tea.

[ the way i had no idea notifs were down because i don't look at plurk enough

but at the very least there isn't really anything that they can't do that gets asked of them, and in the grand scheme of things, it's easy work for them. but it's still time consuming and that is annoying.

so once they're back inside, thorns immediately kisses him. ]

Hey.

[ the way i've been passed out the entire time too

but elysium immediately swaddles thorns in his arms because that's baby… ]

Hi. I think it's time to elope again.

[ did they ever stop eloping. they literally have not even been apart for a full day and he's already like this ]

They're being really pushy considering how helpful we are.

[ it is funny because the town would genuinely be saddened if they suddenly up and left, considering how much work they do for everyone.

but they cannot handle being inconvenienced this late into their spiral. ]

It'll be their loss. No chance in hell they're finding better labourers than us.

[ he gives thorns another kiss before smooshing his face into his hair… the one thing about how hard they've been working is all the freebies they get—so while meagre, at the very least they've been able to stow away what they have made. ]

… But our situation's better than before. We have clean sets of clothes and pocket money.

[ he pauses. ]

Would we be taking the Doc with us?

If we can, I'd prefer to.

[ personal feelings aside, it would be useful to have an animal that's built for carrying things. thorns doubts they'd be able to keep it their entire journey depending on where they're going, so they may need to offload docybara at a farm somewhere eventually while traveling, but until that happens it'll be a benefit. ]

Yeah? Trying to make the wandering apothecary and his assistant vision a reality? Instead of taking our vacation, we can try building out a wagon suited for it or retrofit whatever we get our hands on.

[ they don't strictly have to stick to thorns' medicines (and poisons), but calling themselves merchants doesn't sound quite right. still, their wide skillset will inevitably lend them to an almost eclectic inventory; they can get a lot further with the barter system the more they have to offer.

this does bring up the one thing that's been weighing on him, though… ]

Uh. I do feel like I kind of have to ask. What are… y'know… the withdrawal effects if we ever run out of its stash…?

[ watches as the answer is that it's irrelevant because they will simply just never run out ]

We just won't run out.

[ he says this so confidently when there is actually no way to be sure this is the truth.

thorns needs to start being insecure about things he has no business being sure about. ]

[ he nips at thorns not in the cute kissy flirty way but annoyingly. ]

Are we going to have to wrestle a burdenbeast.

Aren't you strong?

[ so

they may. but thorns is so very confident it won't come to that even though, again, he has no way of predicting what their future supply will be. ]

[

help.

he rubs thorns' cheek like he's polishing a particularly shiny stone. this is… amore ]

But you're a lot stronger than me. Aren't you?

[ his bbbb larp ]

I am.

[ please at least hesitate a little bit before agreeing to that. however he is distracted by the cheek rubbing. ]

Do I need to take care of it for you?

[ adorable… the rubbing turns into pats. thorns his therapy urchin. ]

Not for me, but…

[ he kisses thorns' cheek. what does he mean, not for. ]

You're pretty sexy when you're in your element.

[ the element being wrestling oversized rats. okay ]

[ this is actually, objectively, an incredibly unsexy image, but thorns is not going to argue with him when he seems pleased. ]

Are you saying that just to flirt with me?

[ okay. maybe he is going to argue just a little. he does not appear to mind despite this though. ]

[

he goes back to petting as that seemed to be more distracting. fucking help. ]

No… [ yes. ] Who wouldn't think your Destreza isn't attractive? Not that they're allowed to when they aren't me.

[ pat pat. ]

[ hmm...

he leans into the pats, like one would expect a cat or dog to. this is sickening. ]

No one but you is allowed to look at me.

[ at least this is said half jokingly because thorns is aware this is literally impossible to accomplish unless he gets cage routed. ]

[ his domesticated sea urchin… explodes into hearts.

the only right wrong thing to do is to encourage this behaviour with little scritches. why. ]

Yeah. If anyone's around you should just throw that thing that makes them pass out. That'll show them not to look where they shouldn't.

[ oh so NOW he's fine with drugging.

thorns nods his head as if this is a reasonable request. ]

They won't even know what hit them.

[ the temporary memory loss will be a side effect. ]

[ drugging is fine when it involves his adversaries (everyone in the world save for their children). ]

What can't you do? Nothing. [ one last pat for the road to express how proud he is before he tugs thorns into his arms to get cozy. bed time. ] Sounds like we've got our plan of attack squared.

[ they really have not solved the issue of docybara's drug addiction but ok ]

[ thorns doesn't see it as a problem so there is nothing to solve yippee

but they can snuggle together and snooze... unless there is any reason for them to wake up..... zzzzzz ]

[ they haven't had an incident in so long this feels wrong (they nearly murdered their benefactors together)

but yes… their snoozing… their spooning… timeskips it a week. while they are nebulously finalising their elopement plans: ]

Do you want to say bye?

Not really.

[ lmao

they do need to officially give the key back though, and they need to grab docybara from the farm. ]

I'm sure that guard will finally be happy.

[ truly should not have expected anything else

the way elysium is just thinking they could sneak out in the middle of the night with docybara, leaving the key on the counter like they're doing some dramatic getaway. ]

Really? I think we were warming up to him.

[ lmao ]

But that's good. It'll be a pain when they try to convince us to stay. Then again, if we're leaving I could just reveal my Oripathy and it'll be considered donem

[ elysium's thorns-sized social battery ]

[ fucking help

thorns reaches over to pinch him. ]

We're not doing that. If there is ever the chance we have to pass by this area again, we need to keep it as a potential resting spot.

[ basically, he does not want to burn their bridge entirely in case they ever need to cross it again in the future. it's not like they had as deep of a relationship with these people like they had with rhodes, where the nuclear option was needed (and even then it's not as nuclear as it seems, since amiya and the doctor will always take them back). ]

Owwwww…

[ well. there's no denying that going nuclear eases the conscience… it is so much easier to do whatever you want when you've convinced yourself other people are terrible. but those are the mental gymnastics they've been performing to justify living in their own bubbles, mouth twisting into a frown. ]

Okay, okay. Never thought I'd see the day you'd advocate for diplomacy. You aren't wrong, but we'd better come up with at least something to tell them on our way out.

[ rubs his cheek…

hmmm. ]

… Our dream was to elope but we can't elope somewhere we've already settled down.

[ nailed it. ]

[ see, the thing that thorns does not want to actually say is that it's useful to have this place as a backup. the doctor of the town can deal with oripathy treatment, and doesn't appear to mind it, but there's no one here who actually has it. the town is small enough that thorns would expect news to travel if anyone had the illness, but if they ever needed to do a quick emergency stop for it before leaving again, thorns doesn't want to lose that option.

but elysium's oripathy is still a sensitive enough topic that he might shoot down the idea if thorns brings it up. or he might not, but he doesn't want to risk it. ]

Their opinion of us as dumb lovers is low enough that excuse can work.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject