Adaine & Fabian & The Hangman ~ August 1st ~ Mordred Manor
There were many similarities between Elmville and Vallo, even if Vallo was a far more vibrant city where Fabian could easily get lost or blend in. The residential areas were slightly calmer, but even when he'd left the house at three that morning, there'd still been signs of life.
Maybe most people would have been unnerved to be woken by a loud, internal voice calling out. Master! I have arrived. I would have been here sooner but you were nowhere to be found. But instead Fabian had bolted from his bed, the response in his head. "Hangman! Where are you?"
Outside the house, ready to do your bidding, Master.
He'd dressed quickly and ran downstairs, attempting to be quiet in his rush to meet the red motorcycle parked outside, complete with skull and crossbones, just as he'd left it. He'd jumped into the seat and rode, through Vallo, through roads leading outside the city and down the coastline, not worried about getting lost because somehow the Hangman knew where they were already. Bike and rider conversed throughout the journey, with Fabian explaining all of his deeds since arriving which namely involved placing third at fight club and not going catatonic at the Moon Day party he'd attended with Adaine.
As the sun crept up they'd returned home, and he arrived back just in time to catch Adaine in the kitchen. "Adaine, I have fantastic news!" he declared, more cheerful than he typically was at this time of morning.
Mornings came easier to Adaine than it did most her age, when staying up late was the norm and the early hours were only survived by a copious amount of coffee. While she very much still was a strong supporter of the latter, her ability to be bright eyed, bushy tailed, and alert when others were on their third or fourth snooze with their alarm had nothing to do with a morning person and everything to do with the fact that elves didn't really sleep in the first place anyway.
(Sure, she did have to make sure she could trance for the necessary four hours, but that wasn't too much of an ask in the long run.)
But that was why she wasn't terribly startled at Fabian's cheer, even as she stood in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal balanced in one hand and spoon halfway to her mouth in the other. Though Adaine still took most of her dinners at the Xhorhaus, something she continued to be ever grateful to Caleb for inviting her in the first place, breakfasts were on her own and that generally meant cereal. Sidestepping toward the counter, she set the bowl down so she could give her full attention to her friend.
"Do you?" Adaine asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "What might that be?"
"You must come here," Fabian stated, and then led the way from the kitchen to the front door without checking to see that she was following. "I was awoken in the night by a familiar voice, none other than…"
He flung the door open even though looking through one of the windows in front would have sufficed.
"The Hangman!"
Adaine didn't know what to expect when Fabian led her through the house to the front door, but as soon as she saw the Hangman sitting out there, she didn't think she could have expected anything else. She had received a few gifts from home--the house that they both lived in being the largest of said gifts--and she was immediately glad that Fabian had gotten something so quickly after his arrival.
"Well! Look who it is." Adaine smiled from the motorcycle and back to Fabian. She knew that her friend and the Hangman had some sort of bond that she didn't entirely understand; then again, it wasn't as though possessed modes of transportation were all that uncommon anymore after their sophomore year adventure.
Adaine stepped a bit further outside, surveying the Hangman. "This must have come as a very good surprise."
"Oh the very best of surprises," Fabian agreed. "We'll have to go for a ride later, just for fun. When you're not at work, of course. Or I suppose when I'm not at work. Or school."
He offered no explanation for that last bit, given that he wanted to keep his friend in suspense as he'd made it clear he had no intentions of going to school now that he was here. And he wasn't, really. But it was fun to phrase it like that since he knew she'd wonder.
"In the meantime, I've been putting off asking you some questions, but I feel I can now."
He hadn't asked, because he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answers. However, now he had a means of escape with the Hangman if necessary, and he felt more emboldened.
"School?" Adaine immediately asked, eyebrow raising incredulously. The last she had checked, Fabian had been teasing her for actually attending school after arriving in Vallo--fair enough, though she couldn't have imagined anything else, especially as it had gifted her a wizard mentor and plenty of friends. She was even planning on continued education between shifts at work, after all.
That revelation aside, Adaine had been waiting for the questions to come. As soon as she had realized that Fabian was more or less a year younger than her and hadn't lived through any of their sophomore year, particularly their adventures during spring break, she knew that it would come eventually. Eventually, it seemed, was now.
Crossing her arms loosely in front of her, she cocked her head to the side. "All right, what sort of questions do you have?"
"Yes, school," Fabian replied, a glint in his eyes as a slight grin formed on his face. "I've decided to continue my education here. In fight club. I believe there is much I can learn."
And it was the sort of education that appealed to him, even if it was hardly traditional. Of course, neither was that provided at their school back home.
Which brought him to our questions. "You've lived through our sophomore year, which is still wild though far from the strangest thing you could have told me. First question," he started. "Are we all still alive?"
The look that Adaine gave Fabian in response to his actual answer when it came to school could be best described as unimpressed. As someone who valued her education as much as she did, particularly as a wizard that wanted to know how to do everything, she could not relate.
But still--whatever made her friend happiest, that was best for him. Adaine knew this, deep down.
And so, she turned her attention to Fabian's question. Several moments of their adventure revolving around the Nightmare King flashed through her mind, but the most important thing was that, in the end, she was able to truthfully say, "Yes, we're all alive and back in Elmville. We had an eventful year, particularly spring break, but we made it through." The same could not be said for the whole of everyone they knew, but Adaine had to imagine that Fabian's question was specifically regarding their closest.
Adaine's immediate response, that look was everything Fabian had been hoping for and more. After all, if he didn't occasionally tease her, she'd probably have to wonder if he'd been replaced by a pod person or something. Which honestly, given their lives at home and now here? It didn't seem impossible.
But Adaine confirmed what Fabian had guessed, that not much had changed their sophomore year and they'd been through more of the same, which is why he'd held off on asking questions. Her answer was a relief, and he relaxed almost visibly at the response.
"And you? Are you alright?" he asked. Because freshman year had taken a toll on all of them, he couldn't imagine anything had changed the next year. But it seemed pointless to inquire about his mental state without the experience or memories to back it up. "I mean, you've been here for sometime but… you're my friend."
There was a brief hesitation from Adaine as she considered how best to answer that. She was okay, she was fairly certain. There were days where she felt particularly low, but she'd created a bit of a support system in Vallo that made those days easier to take on. It didn't make everything that happened better, but it certainly made them easier to bear.
"I'm okay," she decided, smiling in a reassuring way. "I wasn't so much when I first got here, but Caleb sort of took me under his wing and made sure that I ate, then I started to make friends, both in school and just among the Outlanders and-- " She paused here, giving Fabian a serious look, "they could never replace any of you, but they're all very good people and helped me get through the time I was here without you and the others."
The biggest bump, she knew, was getting Mordred Manor and having to walk its halls and not hear the constant chaos that came with living with so many. She glanced back at the house at the thought and, when she looked back to Fabian, said, "So, yes--I am all right."
"There are some very good people here," Fabian agreed, having met quite a few himself already in just a few weeks. "But don't worry, I know I'm irreplaceable," he assured her with his trademark confidence, mostly to lighten the mood and somewhat poking fun at himself. He could do that with his friends, even if they had seen him at times where that self-confidence was somewhat lacking. And he certainly trusted Adaine.
"So next question… your sister?"
He'd been hard at work training to go and find Aelwyn and bring her home, and frankly it was astonishing that he had waited this long to find out if he'd been successful. But maybe that was an example of his self-confidence lacking, uncertain how he'd handle being told he had failed.
Not to mention that the relationship between sisters had been a bit dicey, to say the least.
Adaine probably should have predicted that question--it was too bad her oracle and Divination abilities didn't always extend to conversations with friends. She had thought of Aelwyn a great deal since she arrived in Vallo. They had seemed to be moving in a good direction back home and it pained her to have left it there, not knowing how their sisterly relationship might have changed and evolved when given the opportunity to do so.
"My sister," Adaine repeated, the words coming out on a sigh. "We found her. We were able to save her, even." And then Aelwyn left again, but Adaine hadn't been the only one to be manipulated--if anything, she thought that Aelwyn had almost gotten the more difficult deal when it came to their parents. Adaine had met her friends, who had helped her and given her a support system to pull away and find herself. It had taken Aelwyn more time.
"I miss her, strangely enough." The admission came with a shoulder shrug. "But it helps knowing she's in a better spot back home than she had been."
"Did I get to make out with her?" Fabian asked, not at all hesitating to get to the point. "As a result of my heroic deeds?" He paused, "I don't know if you realized this, but I sort of have a thing for her."
It was obvious, the way Adaine's mind had to physically recalibrate at the line of questioning and then, because there was nothing else to do, she sighed heavily. "I don't know and--ugh, I really don't want to." Adaine's nose scrunched up. "In fact, if you ever do, you can keep that to yourself."
Not that she had anything against kissing, of course--at least, she didn't think so? It was complicated. Sexuality was a messy thing. Adaine was just happy to be out of the loop on that one.
"It was kind of a complicated situation," Adaine continued, waving a hand. "We saved her and she was in a bad place mentally, then she went off to help my parents be the bad guys. She saw reason in the end, but it was a bit busy, all told."
That answer was unhelpful, but Fabian noted that something twisted inside of him at the idea of Aelwyn being in a bad place after everything she'd been through that he knew of. "Well, I'm happy that she came to see reason. I hope that she's alright now." For as exaggerated as he could be, there was sincerity in his voice. He may have originally met Adaine's sister unknowingly when she made out with him unexpectedly, but his desire to bring her home was apparently about more than that.
He sighed. "It is weird, that you know more than me and are now so much older than I am. Even so, I'm glad to be here with you. And the Hangman. Which awaits us whenever you are free to go for a ride."
"It is weird." There was no disagreeing. Adaine had thought about her friends showing up all of the time, but had never actually considered that they might be in different points in their lives when they did. It was a silly thing to have not considered, given that it seemed to happen all of the time in Vallo. While there was a chance that Fabian might wake up with the memories from home that Adaine had, Vallo could be just as fickle with that.
"I'm just glad that you're here at all, though," Adaine continued, then quickly added, "and the Hangman." She paused, mentally going through her calendar for the day. "Maybe we could go for a ride this afternoon, once I'm off from work?"
"Fantastic. That should give me time to nap after work this morning." Fabian was quite certain that his early morning adventures would soon catch up to him. "I can skip one day of fight club training."
He turned to go back inside but then considered Adaine for a moment. "Frankly, this entire place is bizarre, but I can see how that has its own appeal." After all, he'd quickly found fight club, and a job, and had benefited from the good will people afforded him because of her.
"It's even better now that I have my motorcycle," he added with a grin, now heading inside to have breakfast.
Unable to help herself, Adaine matched Fabian's grin with one of her own. For as glad as she was that he was here, she was just as happy to see that he had settled into life in Vallo as well as he had. If he was anything like her, Vallo would never be the same as their home--but it could still be home.
Turning, she gave one more look to the motorcycle. "Good to have you here, Hangman," Adaine said--feeling only marginally silly for talking to a motorcycle, sentient or not--and then followed Fabian inside to join him in breakfast.