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Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 3:41 pm
“Something tells me you haven’t told me everything,” Marissa spoke into her drink.
Once again she sat in a quiet corner of one of Destiny City’s local businesses. “Quiet” in this case being a bit subjective, considering their current meeting place. The quiet corner of a bar was much less quiet than the far corner of an establishment that could claim to be a bit more tame, but the noise of the crowd and the general lack of sobriety of those around them lent some privacy to their conversation.
It was not the sort of place she particularly cared to visit with someone like Michael Gallo, but she wanted the truth and she was fairly certain Michael knew that. Luckily he could be bribed with drinks, or else he’d taken pity on her and agreed to meet her our of a modicum of generosity and was merely using the drinks as an excuse.
Marissa was certainly using them as an excuse. Besides, something told her she was going to need one.
“Do I even want to know?” she wondered.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 9:34 am
”I don’t understand what you mean?” Michael commented with a shrug, glancing around at the people enjoying themselves, taking a few moments to oogle a couple girls in heels and short skirts as they walked by. His grin faded as he looked away from them and back to Marissa, his eyebrows raising to feign innocence.
“It depends. How involved in this do you want to be?” he wondered, lifting the glass of beer to take a swig. “Did you see what they had on draft...? Or are you not a fan of beer?” he wondered, eyeing the drink she had for herself. Not that he thought there was anything wrong with liking other things... he just thought they were missing out if they didn’t even bother to try.
“And don’t start getting all pissy with me. I only found out recently, myself,” he added, switching back to their other conversation with little hesitation. “And the answer is yes, that was Chris.”
He figured she would badger him into telling her, anyway. Might as well get it over with.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 9:48 am
“I didn't come here to discuss drinks with you.”
She didn't like the evasion, or the random changes in subject, or the manner in which Michael cast his eyes around at a few of the bar's other patrons. That wasn't to say she particularly cared to be the center of his attention, but he was too loose and casual for her liking. His behavior, his posture, nearly everything about him served to make it seem as if he viewed all of this as some sort of a joke.
And maybe Marissa could understand part of that. It was a lot to take in, and some of it was sort of darkly humorous, in her opinion—tripe, quaint, almost cliche—but this part of it, when it came to family, was hardly a joking matter.
The acknowledgment that Valhalla was indeed Chris hit her like a sack of bricks.
If Chris was involved...
“Then Paris knows about the war,” she said. She did her best to conceal the anxiety that thought caused her, but a bit of it managed to work its way out in the low, clipped tone of her voice. “There's no way Chris could keep this a secret. He's a crap liar. Which means, let me guess... Peter's in on it, too. Kid gets grounded for sneaking out enough, only your mother thinks his whole story about fighting monsters is just another one of his imaginary games. Probably thinks it's sweet, doesn't she? What the hell is she feeding you all that makes you...”
She made some sort of vague twirling motion with one of her hands that was meant to encompass the war and knighthood.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:01 am
”His name is Oberon,” Michael shared, taking another sip of his drink as he watched Marissa’s reactions from across the table. He couldn’t say he didn’t expect her to be worried. If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t have asked him what was going on.
“Cute kid, really... looks like a little boyscout... sash and all,” he said, forcing another grin as he waved it off. There wasn’t much they could do now that they’d all been awakened. They all knew too much at that point. Even if they didn’t want Peter to be involved, he already was. “His power is ‘adventure’, but what it really does it just make someone a bit more reckless, at least from what I’ve seen. You know how senshi have magic, right? Apparently they have domain over certain things...”
If she didn’t know that, then she knew now. It was best that she found out one way or another, and it was probably better sooner than later.
As for Paris... he skipped that part of her concerns for now, letting her take in a little bit at a time.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:10 am
Marissa couldn't decide how she felt about the Peter issue. On the one hand he was twelve years old, and no twelve-year-old should be out fighting any sort of war; on the other hand, if both Michael and Chris were around, she figured it was a better support system for a kid to have his brothers than if he had absolutely no one at all.
In a perfect world, this sort of crap wouldn't happen.
But Marissa had long ago determined that the world was not a perfect place.
“I'll have to keep an eye out,” she said, putting the description of Peter as Oberon to memory. She wasn't sure she'd seen him yet, but now that she knew it probably wouldn't be too terribly difficult to pick him out.
She stared across at Michael carefully, examining his face to figure out whether or not there was more he wasn't telling her. A part of her wanted to blame him for the fact that she hadn't known until now; he shouldn't be keeping those sorts of secrets from her, considering her own kid was involved with one of his brothers, which meant Paris was involved in the war at least peripherally—and that was not a position she wanted Paris in at all. The closer he was, the more dangerous it was for him.
But arrogant as he was, Michael couldn't be so heartless as to not worry about his younger brothers, whether or not he felt like advertising his concerns to her, so for now she let his neglect to tell her sooner go.
“None of you plan on telling your mother?” she said instead. “I suppose it's easy to think it's make-believe coming from Peter, but you and Chris haven't said anything to her?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 11:58 am
Michael nearly snorted into his drink at Marissa’s question of them telling their mother. “Are you kidding?” he asked with half a grimace, “Mom would either freak out and move us out of the country, or would want to get involved, herself.” With his mother, there really was no telling what she would do. Sometimes she’s fine with taking the information gracefully, and other times, she freaks out.
“I don’t think Chris and Peter planned on letting the other, or myself know had I not found out, much less telling our mother,” he explained, glancing away from Marissa and at a pair of legs that walked by. “There are some real sociopaths out there, intent on hurting anyone, regardless of age. They tend to think that we personally recruit kids into the war, when in reality... the only reason they get pulled in at all is because there was no other way for them to defend themselves. At least now they’ll be able to outrun monsters better than if they were normal kids...”
Just the thought of kids his bother’s age and younger out on the streets, being attacked by monsters, youma and human alike, made him sick to his stomach, but hid the reaction by taking another drink. He couldn’t always be around to keep an eye on his brothers, but then again... they’d been just fine without him for almost eight years...
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:09 pm
Something told Marissa that rather than running, a woman like Claire Gallo would want to be involved.
Releasing a sigh, Marissa lowered her eyes to stare down into her drink again, attempting to wade though her feelings without letting Michael see too many of them. She wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that Michael, Chris, and Peter were all involved with the war with absolutely no intention of telling their mother (Peter's attempts to explain his sneaking out not withstanding). She could understand their hesitance, but looking at things from Claire's perspective...
Marissa couldn't pretend the be the most maternal of women, or anything close to the world's best mom, but she understood quite well what it was like to worry about one's kid due to things quite beyond anyone's control.
“But Paris knows...” she said.
She looked back over the course of the last year to see if she could remember Paris ever giving any indication that he knew more than she'd thought—and hoped—he did, but considering what the last year had brought them (or, rather, taken away from them), it was difficult to tell which parts of Paris's behavior were grief for his father and which parts might have been something beyond it.
“I asked you before if he was involved and you said he wasn't,” Marissa slowly began, lifting her eyes again and trying to catch Michael's gaze as he stared around the bar instead. “Is that still true?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:18 pm
Michael frowned at the woman across the table, not particularly liking how she seemed to be hoisting all the responsibility of telling her everything onto him. He was willing to share what he knew, but he didn’t like feeling as though he was being scolded, or second guessed.
“You asked if I knew he was involved, and I said I didn’t know, not that he wasn’t,” he corrected, all traces of humor gone from his expression. He hesitated for just a moment longer, as though contemplating on whether or not Marissa could even handle the information he was about to tell her. Would she go straight to Paris and make it known that he’d told her everything?
“Ganymede... that’s his name when he’s a senshi,” he finally said, watching for the fluctuations in Marissa’s expression, clearly waiting for her to jump out of her seat or something crazy like that. “He’s already an eternal... with the wings and everything. I don’t know how long he’s been involved, but both he and Chris have been doing this before even I got pulled in.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:32 pm
Did she want to jump out of her seat?
Yeah, a part of her did. She supposed that was instinct. It'd been almost ten years, but none of what she'd felt for Paris when he'd been small had changed in that time. He was her first child, and though she felt guilty admitting to it when she thought of Lilah, Paris was... there was something about him that just... it was different with him. Everything about the circumstances involving Paris and Lilah had been different. She... felt differently for them. She loved them both, of course, but it wasn't the same this time around, and Marissa was still trying to decide if that made her a bad mother or not.
For the time being she remained rooted in the spot. Her hands tightened around her drink and her frown deepened. She tensed for a moment before forcing herself to at least look casual and relaxed, whether or not she truly felt that way.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
It was the best apology she could issue at the moment, when her brain was too busy spinning around in circles, trying to figure out when and where and how on her own.
An Eternal. Just how long had Paris been involved? Over a year, obviously. Probably more than a year and a half. When had Michael come back to the States and become... this? She couldn't quite remember. Before she'd returned to Destiny City, definitely; before Henry died; maybe around the time Paris and Chris started dating.
Two years. That was the best guess she could make. Two years, and she hadn't ever even had a clue until now.
“What does he look like?” she asked. “Aside from the wings...”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:43 pm
He raised an eyebrow when she asked what he looked like, wondering if she really wanted to know, but figured there was no point in asking. She would want to know regardless, despite the cosmos’s sick sense of humor.
“Well, he looks like a burlesque dancer,” he said bluntly, not really sure how else to explain it. “Red and black and white. Tiny black top hat with a red bow. Long red train... ruffly black hotpants... It makes him look really washed out. I’m sure he’s gotten all the stripper and slut jokes in the book, just as Chris and I have gotten the ones about Thor and Hiccup. Cute, really, when it comes from someone else powered up. They should know no one has a choice in what they wear. It just goes to show how young and immature so many of them really are.”
Was he a little bitter? Probably, but he wasn’t entirely sure about what. All he knew was that life was unfair and they shouldn’t have to deal with this, especially children.
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 12:53 pm
Marissa raised her drink for another sip as Michael began his explanation, but wished she hadn't when she choked one it and spilled some all down her front.
“Hotpants?” she wheezed.
It shouldn't be that surprising, considering... well, considering how Paris often chose to dress, but Marissa couldn't pretend that was a look she was too fond of him sporting while he was out fighting monsters and evildoers. Certainly there had to be more practical attire. Or, you know, at least something that might offer a little more protection.
Grabbing for a few napkins, Marissa made a show of cleaning up her mess while she continued to process the information.
And, of course, she had to decide what she wanted to do with it.
Find him, definitely. With Michael's description it wouldn't be too hard. In fact, Marissa thought she might have even already had a brief glimpse of Paris as... Ganymede. Ganymede? Of all the... well, Michael was right, it wasn't exactly a choice. But she had to have seen him before, even if just out of the corner of her eye. There'd been an Eternal at the last training session she'd attended. Well, more than one Eternal, but she knew there'd been one in white, black, and red, standing quite close to Valhalla, if she recalled correctly.
Of course. Funny how things made so much sense when all the pieces started falling into place. Michael'd called him Babydoll...
“You won't tell him?” she asked. She had no idea what she wanted to do now that she knew, but she was at least certain that she didn't want Paris to know. “About me, that is. I have enough trouble with him as it is. If he knows, he's just going to pull away even more.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:08 pm
Michael stared at her as she made her request, wondering just how poorly she thought of him to have to ask that. He knew he wasn’t the easiest guy to be around sometimes, especially with his personality clashed with hers, but he didn’t think he’d been so bad that he was untrustworthy with such secrets.
Then again, he had told Marissa about Chris and Peter and Paris’s identities... but that was different... she was Paris’s mother and while he knew Chris would probably be upset that he’d told anyone, it wasn’t as though Chris didn’t have a reputation for showing everyone his identities, anyway.
“You have my word,” he promised, quiet and barely audible above the noise in the bar. He took another sip of his drink before lowering it as though he’d just remembered something. “I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, anyway. He’s got a nasty attack. Dusts youma almost immediately. Just something to think about,” he added, before signaling their waitress to come back over and refill their drinks.
He and Marissa might not have that great of a relationship, but at least they could relate to what was going on around them. Being knights wasn’t easy, nor was the responsibility of knowing those you cared about were involved as well. But they would get through it, one way or another.
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