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 Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 2:14 pm
Thorne hadn't made the obligatory visit to Eve and Leila's house yet for a number of reasons. The first of many was that he wasn't sure how to broach the topic of what had happened at the ball with them, quickly followed by the irrational fear that neither of them would be interested in seeing him again. But it had been nearly a month of moping around, curled up on the bed in the warehouse with Chris, or simply trying to convince Mare that no he was not too old for marriage, and even if he wanted to get married, he had no one to ask, Thorne had worked up the courage to go.
Now he stood awkwardly at the front door of Eve and Leila's house, a blazer draped over his shoulders and a night-dark shirt with quarter sleeves that drew back and revealed the bright wash of his tattoos. He was holding one arm to his side with nervous, ticking fingers after knocking on the door, the evening around him fading quickly to dusk. In his other hand he had a woven basket full of baked goods he was both stealing from Chris and attempting not to give to Algie, on the basis that if he did, Jeremiah might come after him with a knife.
Thorne gave a sharp, popping exhale and edged from foot to foot, unsteady and more nervous by the second.
He felt strange, like he'd rewound the clock right back to the start of his time in Ashdown, uncertain of where to go, how to act, who to be.
Open the door, he thought, slightly miserable, while the fear inside of him whispered, please don't open the door.( total word count: 1197 284/113/98/118/135/62/184/160/43 )
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:16 pm
The door opened and not a second later Thorne was on the ground as if he'd been tackled by a large dog who was very happy to see him. While the household did indeed have a golden retriever in its growing menagerie, Clover wasn't the one responsible. It was Leila. She was happy to see him and had immediately gone in for the hug. While having the matter density of mahogany. It made her very heavy. She was still struggling to control this power.
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:26 pm
Thorne yelled.
It was not a particularly dignified yell. Rather the sound of a terrified teenager getting bulldozed by a quarterback in a game of football he hadn't realized he'd been playing. He went down like a sack of potatoes, no grace whatsoever, his hands swiping up to hook onto whatever he could grab before he realized -
Oh.
This was - a hug.
"Leila!" He gasped out, a startled laugh bubbling up from his throat. "I love you too and I'm glad to see you, but you're actually crushing me!"
He wiggled, grunted, and gave up in a graceless heap beneath her.
"Can I hug you properly, sitting up?" he asked, meekly.
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:32 pm
"Oh, ********!" This was honestly the first time her vacillating relationship with gravity was almost fun. "Sorry, I still have no idea how this s**t works." She freed Thorne and helped him up, somehow while hugging at the same time, because they hugged a lot okay. "Did I break anything? Come in and we'll call an ambulance if you start experiencing sharp pains or trouble breathing."
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Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:38 pm
"I don't think so," Thorne gasped, allowing himself to be helped up and shaking himself out so he could give Leila a big, squishy hug, the anxiety ebbing out of him a little bit. "I think I'm still alive thanks to you, actually," he added, looking down at her with a shy, happy smile on his face. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner."
He followed her into the house, somehow still tangled up in a half hug, and added, "You're not the only one. Um - "
How did he broach the subject that he had wings again?
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:04 pm
"Take your time," Leila said in the middle of Thorne's pause. She'd let him to the living room which boasted some nicely plush sofas. Before ducking into the kitchen to grab a couple of Pellegrinos (Thorne was practically her only friend who'd drink them with her) she added, "I know you're processing some s**t here." Eve was there in a wine-colored armchair, reading -- oddly enough -- a Walt Whitman book she hadn't touched in years. She offered Thorne a friendly wave.
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:14 pm
Thorne offered Eve a friendly wave back, smiling at her, and took the Pellegrino, glancing up at Eve as he settled on one of the sofas and leaned against her once she was there as well.
It was a familiar mom-like comfort to have Leila around, a weird pseudo-sibling-slash-mother-friend to make sure he didn't trip over his own shoe laces and die over stupid things. With a soft exhale, he pulled back and glanced over at her.
"Um," he said, articulately, "Can I show you something that you promise not to freak out over?"
This was as close to the mom, other mom, I'm a crazy dragon thing that he was going to get to saying out loud.
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:21 pm
"Thorne," replied Leila, her voice fill of faux exasperation, "my wife grows fangs and a tail once a month. I'll be fine." Eve just raised an intrigued eyebrow.
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:26 pm
"Yes well," Thorne says doggedly, "That's - " he makes this strange, flustered noise in the back of his throat and gestures.
The gesture comes in time with the guttering shadows that pull and ripple from his shoulders, spreading out into the night-dark wings that curve and glitter, the inner membrane shifting and swirling like the constant flux and pull and hum of a galaxy in creation.
His antlers swirl into place on his forehead, glowing blue and night sky stars. He runs a self-conscious finger against them and the colors shift and stir like paint in water, a finger trilling a current through them.
His ears are pointed, the fawn spots decorating his cheeks. He looks positively fae-like, inhuman, something out of a storybook.
"I mean, you know," Thorne says, sounding uncharacteristically meek, "Tada."
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 6:32 pm
Well. Damn. This was weird, and honestly a little disconcerting, but... also cool? Eve was hot as hell whenever she shapeshifted, so Leila could only figure the effect Thorne could have on men who'd earned his affections. That thought was enough to get her cracking a smile after a moment or two of understandable shock. "Hey, not bad!" Eve offered Thorne a knowing smile from behind her book. "You might want to be careful about doing that too often," she advised. "Otherwise you're bound to run out of shirts."
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 8:02 pm
"Thank you," Thorne said, flustered. "I didn't think - you would - I didn't know that anyone would be alright with it." He fluttered his wings in an involuntary gesture to reaffirm his anxiety.
To Eve, he smiled. "I'll try," he said mildly, "I've lost enough of them as it is. And Chris finds it absolutely hilarious, until I fall on him."
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 8:30 pm
Thorne was a big adorable nerd and Leila cherished him in all his dimply bashfulness. "I think most of us won't mind that sometimes you look like you swallowed a planetarium, you big baby," she assured playfully, and gave him a pat on the shoulder for good measure. "But anyway, I'm glad you stopped by, because we have news--" She was looking at Eve with puppy dog eyes to rival the looks Clover could give during her break times. With a dramatic shrug and a shake of her head, Eve replied, "You don't have to beg, pet. Tell whoever you like." Smiling broadly, with fists excitedly clenched up under her chin, Leila stepped closer to her friend looking for all the world like she was about to announce they were having a baby. " We're getting chickens."
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 9:36 pm
Thorne gave a whuffling laugh and smiled, bashful. It was unlike him to be so jittery, but tonight was an unusual state of affairs. Letting your pseudo-moms know you were a strange dragon creature wasn't exactly easy, after all. "I know, I know," he says, doleful, "It's just - I've met some who think magic is the devils goddamn right hand and I - I glow. Leila, I glow and fall into shadows like puddles."
But he perks suddenly at the mention of news, turning his head to Eve with a curious expression on his face. He thinks for a second - a child? - and then it's even better because it's -
"Ah," Thorne says, "Ahh!" And it's a sound of excitement, a boyish sort of happiness in his voice and he hugs Leila like she is getting a baby, because he's just relieved by everything the world has given him tonight.
"That's so exciting," he tells her, grinning as he leans back. "Are you hatching them? Can I - can I meet them when you do? How many are you planning on?" cibarium take this big gay nerd and put him2 sleep its past his bedtime
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 2:51 pm
At the mention of falling into shadows like puddles, Eve perked up even more, intrigued enough now that she elected to set her book aside. "I wish I could do that," she mused, her voice a low purr of playful envy. "Teach me? Then maybe I could teach you to walk up walls." Not like Thorne would need it if the wings worked. The werefox had discovered her new ability quite soon after they'd returned from the fairy ball: much to her own amusement and Leila's deep worry, she could traverse walls with the same ease she could floors. Her world was now a big Escher painting to explore. It also had helped a lot getting some of the house's furnishing in place, admittedly. Holiday decorations were going to be so easy. "The plan right now is to get a half dozen hatching eggs and see what happens," Leila explained, still beaming like a sunrise. Of course they were getting babies. It was essential to get to raise them herself, or at least she thought so. "You'll welcome to come by and watch them anytime! I wouldn't bait and switch you on that, and we'll probably need more help with them than we're expecting anyway."
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 4:44 pm
Thorne laughed, looking over at Eve, eyes lighting up.
"Yeah," he said, "They're - mischievous. I can use them to scry when I put my mind to it, but if that's not the case, I just get lost until they got bored and spit me back out." He shook his head, the downy tufts of hair that had grown in over the side-shave touching his newly lengthened ears. "I wouldn't mind learning how to walk up walls though. I need to make Coalsmoke as haunted looking as possible before Halloween anyways."
He nodded at Leila, wings fluttering in a pleased, happy motion.
"I'll be around," he said, "I want to see them all, especially as tiny chicks. And you can call anytime for help. I'll be out of town for a week or two with Chris, but after that - " He laughed. "Well, you know me. I'll always be there, when not being held up by some otherbeing entity."
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