Thalia Grace (wasatree) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-05-02 22:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | regina mills (evil queen), thalia grace |
WHO: Thalia Grace and Regina Mills
WHERE: Killian and Regina’s place
WHEN: May 2
WHAT: Thalia looks for Killian and finds Regina instead
RATING: PG
STATUS: log; completed
When Thalia had first contracted Killian Jones to help her look for her lost brother, it had been with clear expectations and boundaries. She'd given him a list of leads she'd collected over the years, all the information she'd found from obsessively pestering the detectives on the case, and orders to use his own ingenuity. Two years later, she still hadn't found her kid brother, but somehow she'd found a surrogate big brother. Killian was fun and supportive in a slightly shady kind of way, which worked for Thalia. She'd never been much on black and white morality. Life was messy, and people had to be the same to deal with it. Speaking of messy lives, however, hers was a pain at the moment. Between her supervillain boyfriend and her newly found uncle, Thalia needed to get away for a while and hang out with someone who would let her sulk but smack her before she wallowed. Which was why she was ringing the doorbell to her pseudo big brother’s place. “Knock knock,” she called out for good measure, because patience had never been her strong suit. “It's Thalia. Let's go for smoothies.” *** Smoothies sounded like a lovely idea, didn’t it, but the person who had greeted her at the door wasn’t who Thalia had been expecting - it was the fiance instead, who could wear a leather skirt like it was an ensemble of elegance and a blue-eyed child attached onto her hip, gnawing on a teething toy. Meara’s chompers were coming in and it was important to keep her occupied, otherwise she’d be insufferably fussy. Regina’s eyes had a glint of amusement. “I’d take the offer in his place but Killian’s out,” came her greet to Thalia - someone she knew by association, so the two weren’t strangers meeting randomly for the first time. “He and his sister had to meet a client outside of the office last minute so I’m here helping with the phonecalls. You can wait for them with me if you’d like?” Not that she was doing anything pressing. Mostly entertaining the Mini Jones in what used to be Killian’s home before the two shacked up. *** “You gonna let me make smoothies?” Thalia returned, grinning. Not that she actually knew how, but it was amusing to envision herself going nuts with the bananas and the kale in Killian’s kitchen. She wiggled her fingers at the baby as well. “Hey Meara.” Unlike other Hollywood kids her age (although that wasn't really indicative of maturity, here), Thalia was completely comfortable around babies. She had no idea where it'd come from, since gods knew neither of her parents were exactly maternal or paternal. *** “If there were actually any ingredients for a smoothie in here,” Regina chuckled, apple-red lips quirked into a smirk. Sometimes they’d bring leftovers from home here but it was mostly junk thanks to Kenzi - an impressive stock of cherry coke, cereal, and pepperjack cheezits. Definitely not smoothie material, no. Meara’s response was nothing but a rounded look of awe, her eyes taking up almost half of her face - and oh, can’t forget that string of drool dribbling down that mouth from what was a literal chew toy. These bundles of small life were such disgusting, beautiful things. The door was shut after she let her in. “Did you come around to hang out or was there something specific you needed? I could probably help with both.” *** “Gasp,” said Thalia as she stepped in. “You mean to tell me you guys aren't health nuts? You know where you're living, right?” Undeterred by the slime generation happening before her eyes, Thalia held out her arms to invite the baby into them. “I came here to angst. You know. Popular pastime of young twenty somethings.” She probably wouldn't go as deep into her ~feelings~ with Regina, whom she didn't know as well, as Killian, but she didn't mind sharing with the fiancé. It's probably be good to get another perspective anyway. *** “I am, don’t insult me,” Regina scolded, mockingly, and practically poured the baby into Thalia’s arms - there was a restless whine from Meara from being in the possession of a stranger but she was soothed with a tender shhhh. “They usually bring what I cook, but the sister enjoys her junk food.” Young people and their insane goddamn metabolism. Anyway, she sauntered to the kitchen to help herself to a beverage. “Feel free to angst and grab something to drink.This isn’t boy angst, is it? I’ve the power to turn someone into a toad and it doesn’t take much to tempt me towards that direction.” *** “Do you really?” Thalia asked with great interest as she followed the evil queen into her lair. Or kitchen, as the case may be. Meara had decided she was going to explore Thalia’s ear with her drool-covered hand, and Thalia allowed it - at least until one pudgy finger started going into her ear canal. That was when she gently took the little hand and jiggled it around to keep the baby entertained. “I don’t have anyone I want to turn into a toad. No, wait. The occasional pap that decides to get in my face could use a good toading. I usually punch them in the face, but I find that just brings more of them on.” *** The boat house wasn’t much of her lair - although she missed the hammock and the overall coziness, and the fact that it was very much all Killian. Fond memories here. Mermaid slaughters included. “Do restraining orders work on them?” Regina questioned, agitated for Thalia. “There’s some arcane ways to repel them.” Ones that didn’t involve a telekinetic chokehold or their hearts being ripped out, surely. Passive methods existed. Personally, in her shoes, she would eventually succumb to murder. “But, yes, the more attention you give them - with your fist - the more they’ll want to follow you around to see what else you’ll do.” What was the phrase? ‘Don’t feed the troll’? *** “Yeah but it's so much more satisfying,” Thalia muttered. It was true, she really shouldn’t feed the trolls, as they say. But if they were going to come whether she did anything or not, she might as well get something out of it for herself. “You know how hard it is to get a restraining order around here? There could be someone following me around with a gun and they still wouldn’t be able to do anything until he’s actually shot me dead. Punching is a much easier fix. Right Meara?” She used her clasped finger to make Meara make a punching motion. “That’s it. Put some weight behind it.” *** “Punching just gets you more attention, as you’ve pointed out,” Regina reminded, retrieving one of those holy cherry cokes from the fridge. Fizzy, sugary drinks weren’t exactly her thing (out of everyone in her family, her diet was possibly the most clean) but those rare ones wouldn’t cause her too much heartburn. Hopefully. “Is that the angst you wanted to discuss with Killian? Your paparazzi woes? Or is something else bothering you?” There was a client confidentiality clause often with Killian’s jobs. She didn’t always know everything, but she knew some stuff on Thalia. It wasn’t always strictly business with her. *** Which was what Thalia was wondering about. “What's he told you?” Thalia wouldn't mind if Killian had shared some details of her stupid, crazy life with his fiancé. Her life was already in the public eye; privacy wasn't something she expected. This was a special brand of crazy, though, that needed a former pirate or an evil queen to understand. *** “He’s mentioned your brother,” Regina said, trying to recall all the details but she had done her best to not be particularly nosy. “I don’t know if he’s found any leads, or if you have. And I don’t know the exact details surrounding it in general.” Long lost siblings, what a theme around here. Neal had one, so did Killian (his came knocking on his door on Thanksgiving a year and a half ago), and she had adopted the daughter of her long lost sister. If it weren’t for the dreams she wouldn’t have even realized she had a sibling. *** “No word on the brother front,” Thalia said dispiritedly, and she held Meara a little tighter to reassure herself that at least this baby wasn't being kidnapped in front of her eyes by a bunch of men in black masks and a white van. Meara wasn't happy with that, though, and she started to whine. Which was Thalia’s cue to hand her back to Regina. “Did Killian tell you I'm a demigod in my dreams?” *** Tsk, tsk. So whiny. Such was the curse of babies - Meara could only stand being in someone else’s arms as it was already, and she was very clingy towards her kin. Regina preferred it that way. “He did,” she answered, bouncing the somewhat bald-headed one against her hip for that motherly soothe. There, there, no more bouts of almost crying. Regina was also fashioning such a stylish teething necklace. That’s what her daughter occupied herself with officially, drools galore. “I know a couple of you godly folk. Hades. His daughter, Hazel. Aren’t you all supposed to be related?” *** “Aaaand that's the thing,” Thalia said with a grimace. “I just found out that my God of the Dead uncle in my dreams is my God of the Dead uncle in real life, and I…” She broke off. She wasn't used to sharing her feelings; she'd never done much of that. Really, before Luke, there had been no one who wanted to talk about her feelings except her court-ordered psychiatrist, and he wanted to be in those sessions even less than she did. “I've never had an uncle,” she finally muttered. Nope. Still not good at talking about feelings. *** Oh. Regina’s lips pursed, and she nodded in understanding. Any sudden knowledge of family you didn’t know you had was unsettling news. “Neither have I,” she said, sipping fizzy drink with the hand currently unoccupied by the chub in a romper. “But from what I’ve seen they’re there to help spoil, help, and stand in when parents aren’t actually in the picture. Does Hades know about you?” Families in the Enchanted Forest were so complex they resembled a mythological clusterfuck themselves. Minus the incest, she supposed, but the bouts of rape (example: her sister and Robin Hood, thus producing the child she called hers) still existed. How fortunate. *** Thalia snorted. Oh did he ever. “Yeah. And he wants to be in my life, which weirds me out, because like I said, I've never had an uncle.” Or any healthy father figure, really. “Plus, in my dreams he - or the less Disney version of him - killed me for existing, so there's a bit of that going on.” She gave Regina a pained smile. “Demigods, am I right?” *** “I can’t understand the hesitance, I suppose,” Regina shrugged, trying to put things in perspective. “The Hades I dreamt about completely eradicated my boyfriend from existence in the dreams when he was aiming for me, and tried to keep us all trapped in the Underworld while he made eyes at my sister.” Her knee-jerk reaction to the man had been to be a little cross with him, but to let that stick would be hypocritical of her - she was no angel, and what had once been a halo had been split in half and shaped into horns when she took on the role of Evil Queen. People had the right to feel cautious towards her too. She’d ruined many lives and killed even more. Cursed an entire population for almost three decades, made her son feel like he was going insane... In the dreams she was on a better path, but she knew what it was like to have people jump the gun about her here. “I can tell you he’s not trying to kill anyone here, however? Fatherhood’s a good look on him. It keeps him rooted.” *** “He was a father in my dreams too,” Thalia pointed out. Without the baby to keep her busy, Thalia's demigod restlessness came to the fore again, and she started to pace. “I always tell my girlfriends, if they bring a guy to meet their friends and everyone tells them the guy is bad news, then no matter how nice and sweet he seems, he probably is bad news. Here we have Hades as a murdering jerk in everyone's dreams. How can I be sure he doesn't have the bodies of his ex wives in a warehouse somewhere?” *** “But born a man, not a god,” Regina reminded. That lifespan of eternity and almost boundless power would make anyone think they could do whatever - but she wasn’t familiar with Thalia’s dreams. Hades seem to exist on a good span of different ones, though, with less than savory reputations. “That very same thing could be said of me, too, from those who’ve dreamt about any version of me. Evil Queen of Snow White’s tale, remember? Killian and I have done our fair share of damage, trust me.” They had even partnered up as villains, wasn’t that something. But the lives they led here were different - and had them grow in a less maniacal direction than their fairytale selves. It didn’t necessarily make them goody-goodies with rainbows shooting out of their rectums but they did their best to not be awful people. Especially with a little person they were responsible for. “And for being complete murderers in our dreams, we turned out alright here.” *** “True,” Thalia allowed. She didn't know Regina as well as she didn't Killian, but he was not the sort of man to hang around bad news. And then there was Luke. “I mean, my boyfriend is a world-destroying villain in our dreams so I guess you gotta take these things with a grain of salt.” She was quiet for a moment as she considered this. “You went to his swag ranch, right? Did you know him before that? Hades, I mean.” *** “I met him when he joined the network, about a year or so ago?” Regina contemplated, tongue in cheek - hm, sounded about right. “I wasn’t the happiest to see him. I’d just dreamt about him killing the man I loved, and I treated him with some mistrust but I was able to push past it and tried getting to know him. We’re friends. And we know his daughter well.” It was a matter of being able to draw the line between lives that couldn’t be controlled. Unless he lost his absolute shit here, then she had no qualms. *** “You’re a better person than me,” Thalia muttered, running her hand through her short, spiky hair. It used to be much longer, before the dreams. “In my dreams, it’s the children of Hades who hold a grudge - but I’m finding that I can hang onto things too.” Then again, being killed on somebody’s orders could really put a damper on future relationship-building. *** “There’s always a part of us that does,” Regina scoffed, understanding that all too well herself. “But you know how it goes - it’s another chance for all of us, and we’ve seen versions of ourselves make mistakes we’d rather not repeat here. It’s always best to judge someone’s actions here and hold them accountable for that instead. Considering we’ve absolutely no control of what happened and what will happen in some other world. Life. Whatever you think it may be.” They all got fucked in some way for those decisions as it was. Cruel and cosmic karma. *** That gave Thalia some food for thought, and she kept pacing as she mulled it over. “Yeah,” she said finally, coming to a stop. She still didn’t trust Hades in her gut, and it might take a long time before she did - if ever - but that didn’t meant she shouldn’t at least give him some sort of chance. He’d done nothing here except be a total diva on set (although she only knew that from tabloids, and she was walking proof that they weren’t exactly the most trustworthy source) and not screw over Luke when he tried to break into his place. After all, she’d had Regina’s apple tarts and she was still awake and alive. She eyed the dark-haired woman. “Killian knows how awesome you are, right?” *** Hah. How flattering. Her lips, ruby red, curled into an amused smile as she bounced the baby on her hip, keeping her satisfied and amused to prevent the fussy waterworks. “I’d imagine that is why he proposed to me.” Aside from their sex life, but she highly doubted Thalia was interested in those vulgar details. Good thing she had a little more class than that, anyway. “Let’s take a seat while we wait if you don’t mind - she’s getting heavy, and gods know how long he and his sister will take.” *** “Yeah, I’m good with that,” Thalia said. Otherwise, she’d end up pacing more anyway. She moved to the counter to help pick up a few things, and together they went to the living room. |