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Tweak says, "Rubetown next right, ON FIRE"

eadwulf grieve (eadwulf) wrote in valloic,
@ 2021-10-26 18:03:00

Entry tags:

!: action/thread/log, critical role: caleb widogast, ~plot: timeslip, ₴ inactive: eadwulf grieve

Caleb & Eadwulf

Sunday 24, afternoon | The Enchanted Nook | Low

Books & spoilers & conversations.

⚠ TBA

Bookshops were not and never had been Eadwulf's favorite terrain. He couldn't imagine a future in which they became that, either, but was now forced to acknowledge that such a thing was possible. Maybe the way he got there began with this: standing outside one in the waning sunshine, after a full shift at the Looking Glass, trying to muster the courage to go in.

You're being stupid, he chastised himself. If Vex were there, she'd roll her eyes. If Astrid was -- but no, there his thoughts skidded to a furious halt as the memory of one overlapped his recent meeting with the other. Eadwulf shook his head and made to stride across the street.

Quick reflexes and sheer dumb luck were all that kept him from being splattered all over the asphalt. A speeding vehicle honked as it missed him by a hair's breadth. Eadwulf felt the caress of the noisy machine's exhaust as it drove past, then the cold, cleansing realization of how close he'd come to a pitiful accident borne out of carelessness.

Stupid didn't begin to cover it.

The second time he ventured across the street, he made sure to look both ways, glowering all the while. He didn't stop even once he reached the threshold and stepped inside, his arrival greeted by a jaunty bell chime. Hard part done. Sort of. There was always the chance that he'd run into Bren before his task was complete and not one of his employees.

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bendreality
2021-10-30 05:26 am UTC (link)

Caleb huffed out a laugh, and shook his head. "Astrid herself would reach through time and space to choke me if I answered for her." Astrid being anywhere was always a good indicator that they would be dragged along if they liked it or not as she certainly had a way of making them do as she liked.

"Some things you have to experience for yourself." Any potential arrivals, good and bad as they had been over the years, romances and surprise children, forgiveness-- All of it was on the table, and all of it was something the pair of them needed to work out at their appropriate ages. "I know very well that just telling you how things work does not make it so. It might have the opposite effect. I'm not here to change the future for either of us."

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eadwulf
2021-10-30 05:56 am UTC (link)

Then why come back, Eadwulf wondered. Only that wasn't right, was it? For Bren, this wasn't back; it was forward in time. One more link in the long chain that was his life in Vallo.

And Eadwulf would get nothing more out of him. As tempting as it was to fantasize about bringing to bear all those interrogation techniques he had learned at Trent's knee, he knew full well he would not. Even if he attempted them, Bren was stronger now than he had ever been. He would not be persuaded to say more than he cared to.

"How much do I owe you for the books?" Eadwulf asked, resigning himself to ignorance and dissatisfaction. (And the other thing, too, the one with feathers from that book of poems he had found in the Looking Glass, forgotten by some patron.)

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(a third time is the charm)

bendreality
2021-10-30 02:51 pm UTC (link)

Caleb could tell that this was as far as he would get for now, and also knew that was probably for the better. He had confidence they would come to better terms eventually, but that was something this Caleb had experienced already - to take that away from himself felt unfair.

He snagged the books from Eadwulf and made his way to the nearby register to ring up the purchases with an ease of a man who had done this a million times over the years. Then, with an eyebrow raise and nod towards a bowl on the counter that contained a large number of lollipops. In Zemnian, he snarked, "Nehmen Sie einen Lutscher, es könnte Ihrer Stimmung helfen, an etwas zu lutschen."

Not the most professional moment of his life, but Caleb couldn't bring himself to feel bad about it.

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eadwulf
2021-10-31 04:14 am UTC (link)

Eadwulf nearly fumbled his change. It wasn't that he didn't hear Zemnian spoken much anymore - whenever he was around Bren, the words just came - but rarely was it at him. And never to tease.

He finished paying for the books and took up the bundle, glowering all the while. "You're hilarious, old man," he replied in the common tongue. It wasn't until he was out in the street, the bell chiming his exit, that his lips tugged into a rare and unlikely smile.

Then he recalled that Bren's friends had a knack for espionage, too, and smoothed his expression accordingly. The walk back to the Jasmine Dragon was uneventful, but there was a lightness to Eadwulf's step that had not been there before.

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