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Thalia ([info]amusing_muse) wrote in [info]nevermore_logs,
@ 2021-03-06 18:49:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:merlin, thalia

WHO Thalia and Merlin
WHEN Thursday night
WHERE Farcical Aquatic Ceremony
WHAT Catching up
WARNINGS TBA

Thalia hadn’t realised how much she’d missed open mics. Sure, they were messy and uneven, and there was always at least one dude who thought that edgy comedy was throwing around straight-up slurs, and he was usually the same one who would try and proposition Thalia after the show before informing her that she wasn’t funny. They were messy.

But it was the messiness of creation in the rough, and as much as her insides cringed in visceral sympathy with the silences that followed a failed bit, when the jokes landed she felt the laughter of the crowd lifting her up. Some would never take the stage again after tonight, some would throw themselves at it a few more times before giving it up, and some would persevere to build something out of those first few bombs, but while they shared the line-up, Thalia loved them all a little bit.

Well, except for the edgelords.

After the show – after she finished consoling a baby standup who’d had a bad gig and rejecting the inevitable edgelord (tonight’s flavour: a five-minute tirade about liberal snowflakes delivered to patchy, uneasy chuckles), Thalia made her way to the bar for a well-earned drink. As usual, she was a riot of colour in a dress printed with stylised Grecian urns. As the bartender returned with her daiquiri, Thalia glimpsed a familiar figure approaching. She grinned and raised her glass to him in a small salute. “Hey Merlin! Enjoy the show?”

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-06 10:44 am UTC (link)
Merlin hadn't watched most of it. He'd seen a thousand open mics by now, and he'd see a thousand more. He sat in his office and did paperwork instead, a small TV with a security camera feed from the bar placed nearby.

With a tired sigh, he dropped his pen and ran his hands back through his hair, and his eyes were drawn to the camera, and then he squinted his eyes and shoved back his chair. The office door slammed shut behind him.

"You little minx!" he exclaimed, as he strode through the crowd around the bar towards Thalia, with her sweet familiar face and bright smile. He clasped her shoulders and kissed her on each cheek. "You didn't tell me you were coming! I've been waiting!"

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-06 11:51 am UTC (link)
Thalia laughed delightedly. It was true, she hadn't said anything; she'd just slipped in quietly ahead of the show and waited to see how long it would take Merlin to notice. Maybe a surprise return hadn't been the wisest idea, considering how her last one had kinda backfired, throwing a half dozen unwelcome surprises back in her face. But the Farcical was still the Farcical, not quite as she'd left it – there were some new faces, some changes in decor – but the buzzing energy of the room was comfortably familiar, and the look on Merlin's face as he emerged through the crowd? Worth it, absolutely worth it.

Thalia kissed his cheek and drew back, grinning. "Thought I'd see if you were paying attention," she said. "Not that there's any getting past you."

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-06 12:00 pm UTC (link)
"Of course not." Merlin narrowed his eyes and tweaked her nose. But he was smiling, and he turned and snapped his fingers at the bar staff. "She drinks free," he called, pointing down at her. "Remember her face, you're gonna be seeing a lot more of her. Thal, how are you? Want to find a booth or talk in the office?" He really was quite glad to see her. Things had been a little quiet for him of late, since the Merry Men stopped talking to him. Wasn't his fault they couldn't take a simple prophecy in good humour.

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-06 12:56 pm UTC (link)
"I'm good!" Thalia said, no trace of last week's emotional rollercoaster entering into her smile. With the energy of the crowd's laughter still thrumming through her veins, she did feel good. "Gods, I missed this place. Why don't we grab a booth, you can tell me what's been going on."

As they peeled away from the bar, she shot the bartender a smile over her shoulder, making a mental note to leave a good tip at the end of the night. She wasn't going to knock Merlin's generosity, but a lot of the staff were new since she'd last been here and strolling in as an outsider and being straightaway marked as a VIP was gonna leave a certain impression. She'd have to work on that. Put in some time to get to know folks, the front- and back-of-house staff; find out what the local circuit was looking like these days.

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-07 02:45 am UTC (link)
Merlin nodded and jerked his head towards a booth on the edge that had the best view of the stage. This was one they had often frequented together in times past. "What have you caught up on?" he asked, sitting down, and his favourite drink appeared on the table as well, brought by the quick bartender. "There have been a few things here and there. Prophesies and dramatics."

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-07 06:21 am UTC (link)
Thalia slid into the booth opposite Merlin. She made a small face at his question, but brushed it aside with a wave of her hand. "Just family stuff. The usual dramas, you know." Clio being attacked by Lucifer and Aphrodite laying a claim on Melpomene's unborn son was several dozen notches above the usual drama, but those were not things she wanted to think about; not here, at least. "What kind of prophecies?"

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-08 09:01 am UTC (link)
Merlin chuckled. "The so-called usual dramas with your lot range from petty gossip to incest and murder," he said with a smirk. "Well for me, it was things relating to the Merry Men and the unfortunate kidnapping of half their ranks. Some of them asked for prophecies and some did not, but all of them were angry with me for telling them. Thankfully, everyone is home and in one piece again now, and the culprit is being chased across Arizona by your own Artemis. C'est la vie." He shrugged, looking across at the stage. "How do you rate tonight's lot, anyway? I wasn't thrilled."

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-08 09:38 am UTC (link)
Merlin flitted easily from the topic of kidnapping to tonight's line-up, but Thalia was left reeling in the wake of that minor bombshell.

Clio was friends with the Merry Men. Clio was dating a Merry Man. Clio, who'd clung to her so tight and and told her that things had been awful, and Thalia had known she wasn't saying everything, but there was awful and there was kidnapping-doesn't-even-rate-a-mention awful—

"Oh," she said in a small voice. And that was all she could say for a few reeling moments, before her flailing thoughts managed to catch hold of Merlin's question. "Um. I liked Mehreen. She's got something. And Tom, he's trying too hard to be Bill Burr right now, but— Sorry, did... was Clio's boyfriend...?"

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-08 09:53 am UTC (link)
Merlin looked back at Thalia and the open and stunned look on her face. "Clio's boyfriend... uhhh... tall? ginger? sort of glum face? Yeah, he was." He watched her, watching her thoughts filter through her mind. "Have you spoken to your sister, then?"

Of course she had. He could tell by her face that she had. But he liked to give people a chance to explain themselves sometimes.

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-08 10:46 am UTC (link)
Tall, ginger, sort of glum. Will Stutely had looked uneasy at first – tense, even. Thalia had thought he was just uncomfortable meeting his girlfriend's admittedly crazy family, until Clio had broken the news about their brush with Lucifer and, fuck, who wouldn't be on edge after something like that?

Thalia squirmed. "Uh... yeah. She didn't... I mean, there's been so much other drama—" (and here, drama definitely ran the gamut from petty gossip all the way up to murder) "—I guess she... never got round to mentioning it." She wondered with a spike of dread what other things her sisters might have forgotten to mention. "How bad was it?"

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-08 10:56 am UTC (link)
Merlin spread his hands and leaned back in the seat. "They were gone for most of December, and then Marian for a lot longer, before and after, poor lass. Stutely was in there the shortest amount of time, but that doesn't mean he got off lightly." He picked up his glass and rolled the ice cubes around the edges. "Maybe Clio didn't tell you because it's not her story to tell- although that doesn't usually stop her. She's big on TikTok lately. Me, I have no such qualms. Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck were in there too. And then Much lost his shit because I told him he wouldn't find them, and I was right, wasn't I? Bob found them. So there." He drank and looked a bit superior.

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-08 11:23 am UTC (link)
Thalia stared at Merlin, feeling distinctly sick. There were other questions clamouring in her chest, ranging from who kidnapped them? and why? to wait, who's Bob? But all she could manage was another weak, "...oh." The residual fizz of the crowd's energy had slipped through her grasp, leaving in its place a feeling of abject smallness. "So... this is why Much is avoiding the club?"

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-08 11:41 am UTC (link)
"Yes. Hey-" Merlin leaned forward with a slight frown. "I know it's a lot, but they're alright. And if they're not now, they will be. They all have support networks. It's not on you to get lost in other people's pain, my dear." He counted Thalia as a dear friend, and seeing her fold in on herself worried him. Had something else happened while she was away, perhaps?

"Thalia. Are you listening? These conflicts are a tale as old as they are. The Sheriff of Nottingham is ever after them, and sometimes he wins, and sometimes they do. It isn't easy, but it's written into their blood." He was watching her carefully. Holding out his hand, he whispered a word, and a bright robin redbreast appeared on his palm. The bird flapped onto the table in front of Thalia, and trilled and fluttered its feathers in a comic way, looking cheekily up at the downcast muse to give her a wink.

"Just an illusion, dear, to make you smile," he murmured.

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-08 12:54 pm UTC (link)
The bird was perfectly lifelike, from the play of light on its feathers to the sweet, warbling birdsong. Merlin's illusions were never anything less. Even knowing it was a phantasm, Thalia still found herself reaching out a hand, one finger extended.

She didn't know the Merry Men personally, but she knew the shape of their stories through a dozen generations of folk song and pantomime. Merlin was right: the Sheriff always hunted them, and they always won in the end, even if he got them on the ropes for a while. That was their story, they'd lived it a long time, and they had each other, same as she had her sisters.

But when she thought of Clio and Will— how utterly ground down they'd both looked that day, the deep shadows under their eyes, and what else was causing those shadows that she still hadn't heard about...? Then, she could feel the horror of it snatching at her.

The little robin hopped closer and let forth a trilling note, an almost human expression of indignation blazing in its features, as though objecting to being ignored. Thalia bit down on her lip, took a slow breath, and finally managed a tenuous smile. "Sorry," she said, to both Merlin and the bird. "It's been kinda... I've been out of the loop in a big way."

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-08 11:00 pm UTC (link)
Merlin inclined his head to her. "We are very old, you and I. It is easy to drop off the map for a decade, and come back to find everything changed. You weren't even gone that long. I know you worry, but you know the best remedy for being down in the dumps." The bird did a little dance on the table, peeping happily, and then did a most ridiculous pratfall somersault, and tiny yellow birds spun around its dizzy head. "Make 'em laugh!"

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-09 03:54 am UTC (link)
Thalia couldn't help herself; the little bird's tumbling pratfall split her halfhearted smile open and a giggle escaped at the dizzied halo of circling birdies. "I've heard it's the best medicine," she agreed, her voice a little steadier. It couldn't cure everything, but it helped. Maybe it could help her sisters. "Tell me some good news?" she suggested, a little bit hopeful, a little bit pleading. "It hasn't all been doom prophecies and bad guys."

There was a bright side, she reminded herself. Melpomene was having a baby! Clio was in love! Erato was in a slump right now, but there was no way she'd stay single for long in New York and a good romance always cheered her up. Urania... well, you never really knew with Urania, but she... seemed happy about the Mars rover?

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-09 11:05 pm UTC (link)
"Not all bad," Merlin said, thinking back over immortal-specific activities. "Getting Marian back was good. The club has been doing well, we've been getting a few bigger names lately. My improv classes are still so much fun. Oh! I'm getting my books back! This demon bitch stole three of my favourite texts some time ago, but I happened to catch her and I'm making her get them back." He smiled in a sharklike way. "I am very much looking forward to seeing my babies returned to me."

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-10 08:43 am UTC (link)
Thalia's posture gradually relaxed as Merlin spoke. Here was proof: it wasn't all doom and gloom. The bad guys had run amok for a while, but they weren't winning: the Sheriff of Nottingham had been stopped, Merlin's thief had been caught, and life was still rolling along. She couldn't help but grin back at his last bit of news. Thalia knew how much Merlin's library was a part of him; he loved books even more than Clio did, which was saying something. "That's great news!" she said. "Everything's coming up Merlin, huh?"

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[info]empiresanderas
2021-03-11 03:49 am UTC (link)
"It is now! I just need you to help convince the Merry Men to come back to me and all will be well." He nodded to her, feeling just a little bit pleased with himself for cheering her up. The little bird on the table flew upwards in a spiral, and then popped like a tiny firework and disappeared.

"Oh, I do have a message to pass along, actually. Tell Melpomene to make sure the baby capsule in Ares' car is installed correctly. It'll save time in the long run." He sipped his drink and looked out across the club. Things were definitely going to get better with Thalia back on board.

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[info]amusing_muse
2021-03-13 07:37 am UTC (link)
Thalia's eyebrows climbed skyward, but she nodded; she'd learned not to doubt Merlin's predictions, no matter how strange or specific. "That's a mental image. I'll let her know, thanks."

She sipped her drink, considering the other task he'd put in front of her. Merlin had said before that Much had been out of sorts with him, but this... thiiiis was stickier. It wasn't Merlin's fault that Fate had dealt a shitty hand – well, okay, he could probably stand to work on his bedside manner, but it wasn't his fault. But she could hardly blame the Merry Men for being skittish about coming back.

Oh – Thalia thoughts lighted on an earlier conversation with Clio and her partner – though maybe not all of them? "Clio and Will said they're gonna come by the club sometime. They might even bring Michael, you know, angel Michael?"

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