tal charossa (negativespace) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-11-13 08:38:00 |
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Csorwe (rhymes with ‘doorway’, as she was fond of saying) stood behind him. She looked much like she had the last time he’d seen her - short but powerfully built, her back laden with swords and spears and knives and who knew what else (Tal favored knives - easier to hide, but then again, if you had Csorwe’s biceps, why bother?). The orc woman’s light green skin was flushed and healthy, and her eyes appeared bright, pleased to see him, which was a total lie because when had they been happy to see one another? Certainly not now. The lurch in his stomach was his breakfast, not delight at seeing his on-again, off-again enemy/sister/rival/ally that had seen him at his best and worst back home.
“They don’t let hooligans like you, here,” Tal greeted her, crossing his arms over his chest. “Didn’t you read the sign? Fuck off forever.”
“Eat shit, you brassy little git,” Csorwe responded pleasantly, and now that he was paying attention, he saw that she was transparent. That was new.
“Did you fucking die or something after I saved your life?” He asked, aghast. “You were supposed to be riding off into the sunset forever with that creepy little necromancer girlfriend.”
“I didn’t die,” Csorwe retorted, giving him a rude gesture. “This is just what I’m like here, because I’m supposed to impart wisdom or whatever to you. And her name is Shuthmili, asshole.”
Tal waved his hand, as if he hadn’t known that. “Well, thank you for not bunging up my hard work of helping you escape from prison, rescue your girlfriend, escape the Tribunal—“
“You didn’t do all that,” Csorwe objected, and it was only then that he noticed that half the shoppers in the stores were looking at him oddly and giving him a wide berth.
“Csorwe,” he asked, “am I the only one who can see you?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“And so it just looks like I’m talking to myself like a complete lunatic?”
“Yeah.”
He sighed, feeling a headache coming on. “This’ll be great for my dating life.”
Csorwe shrugged. “I thought you were going to pledge yourself as chaste to make up for your mountain of lust-influenced bad decisions.”
“Kindly fuck off right now,” Tal answered pleasantly. “And I’ll have you know I’ve been very good.”
Csorwe walked over to the display he’d been tidying, her axes clanging, and tried to sniff one of the bottles of lotion. “Mmm… that’s nice. Was it that pretty human woman who owns this store?”
“Sort of,” replied Tal, not really wanting to get into the Rose family dynamics. “She’s nice. Don’t flirt with her. She doesn’t need that in her life. Why are you here? You said you had a message?” A sudden, terrible thought occurred to him. “Sethennai didn’t send you, did he?” The vision of his Old-God-come-Ex-Boyfriend had a tendency to haunt him.
But Csorwe just snorted. “No. I think I’d lead with that. ‘Remember all those pledges we made to be better people and to critically think once in a while? Well, sod those; I went back to being a mercenary.’”
He had to admit that between the two of them, he was far more likely to cave. Being your own person was hard. “Well. That still doesn’t answer the question.”
“I don’t really have a message,” Csorwe admitted. “I just wanted to see you.”
Tal raised his eyebrow, suspicious. They had lived together as rivals under Sethennai’s roof for over ten years. At best, they were dimly polite to one another. He didn’t want to think about the worst. He wasn’t that person any longer.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Csorwe sighed. “Look, just think of me like… a check-in. A ghostly visitation from someone who wants to make sure that you’re not on Team Evil again because you fancy some wizard with a massive c-—“
“I get the picture,” Tal interrupted icily. Another shopper scooted around him uneasily. “And I’m fine, thank you very much. No evil cock-hopping here.”
“Good,” Csorwe said, and then completely blew his mind when she said: “You were worth ten of him, anyway.”
“O-obviously,” Tal stumbled, because that was the sort of thing he said and pretended to believe it, but didn’t actually believe it. Sethennai had done a number on him, but then again, groomed as he had been as a sullen, awkward eighteen year old, the mess had been the point.
Csorwe flickered slightly, and she stood there awkwardly, waiting for something.
“You weren’t as terrible as I thought you were all the time, either,” he finally produced, and he meant it - the realization that he and Csorwe had been at odds like they had because of Sethennai’s manipulations had hurt. Tal had never gotten along with his actual siblings, and here was one in spirit that he had belittled and hurt over the years.
Csorwe smiled then, her missing tusk more obvious when she did so. “Hey,” she said, “I wanna sniff some more of these goodies before I go. You cool with that?”
“I hope you like spiced gourds,” Tal answered, and he led her to the samples he thought she might like.