Re: The Woods: Pesha/Tandy
There were a lot of different sources, different origins of pride, and for Billy it’d been that he just wasn’t accustomed to wanting for anything. He’d known his privilege, for sure. How fortunate he was to not have to worry about food on the table or having to save up to buy the comics he wanted. He’d known all that long before he’d ended up in Repose, it wasn’t like he just took it as fact without appreciation. But even so, it was an adjustment. And while he wasn’t that much better at asking for help directly, he’d figured out how to accept it when it was offered instead of being stubborn for the sake of his ego.
Part of it was the realization that he didn’t have much reason for said ego. It wasn’t like he’d been providing for himself and fallen on hard times – he’d never had to pay a bill in his life before he ran away. So, yeah, there was a culture shock, and the perspective that went along with it. But he'd had to start from the ground up, and that hadn't come without help.
Billy let out a short, bright laugh at the question that caught him off-guard, because he sort of had learned it out of the book. Or at least, re-learned, used it to get his magic back when he’d lost it. (Not lost, Newt had said something about seeing it before: people whose magic became inaccessible to them after a trauma. But it was hard not to think of it as a loss, temporary though it’d ended up being.)
“No, I was born with it. No Maybelline here,” he shook his head, warm brown meeting Tandy’s blue. “Runs in the family, and I mostly learned it from my grandmother. Although I did recently find a book that she wrote, and it’s taught me even more. We didn’t get much time together.” A flicker of pain on his face at that, but he was turning back to the stove to check on the contents of the pot. They were cooking down nicely, congealing into a smooth paste that was off-white in colour and smelled like spring rain.
“It helped me with this one, actually -- the book. It’s a kind of glamour, which I wasn't the best at before.” Before what, he left off. Before the Capital, before the people who had taken him.