Fae Courts Hounds & Horns

[Curcurbita]

"Hmmm, asking the right questions, the key to all good communication."
Slowly and carefully Curcurbita raised his gnarled and shrivelled hand.
"Lightly roasted pumpkin. Sometimes I can smell candle wax too but it comes and goes."
He chimed in helpfully before pounding back another drink and listening to the pair bicker.
This seemed like a conversation they had been having for a while, maybe years.
What that must be like. Perhaps forgetfulness was a blessing at times.
He waited and reached for another drink, gesturing to the Selkie behind the bar to keep them coming.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

"I want my goblin back. I want to burn this ridiculous dress. I want to ask this Pumpkin if it can only smell Pumpkin. I want..." she took a deep, shuddering breath and then downed the shot, wincing at the burn.

"I want. For once. To not feel like I'm just some... second thought to you."

His frown deepened. Saang had honestly never thought before that she felt so ... neglected? Prior to relieving her of her shackles she'd done whatever she could to avoid him and, frankly, he thought she didn't particularly care to be in his company. He'd been her handler for her entire life so he really couldn't blame her but he felt ashamed for not realizing it all sooner. Saang had promised not to pry into her inner emotions, after all, and she wasn't exactly forthcoming on things.

The pumpkin's answer got a small smile out of him though. Helped break through the morose nature of whatever this conversation was. Saang chanced moving a bit closer to her, risking the chance of kelpie volatility.

"He'll be back soon enough. Smelling like soap and a few shades lighter, no doubt, but he'll survive to insult another day. As for the dress..." he tipped his eyes down to give it a look of consideration. Seryn would be furious to hear of such a fate but, frankly, Seryn was not well in-touch with reality. She had no idea how cruel the world could really be, and that was partially his doing. He offered her a smile that was definitely not without that spark of mischief.

"We can make that happen."

Another little scoot closer. A slightly lower voice, "I'm sorry you feel that way. I thought you didn't like spending time with me."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe stared at the pumpkin unblinking after his answer. Now she only had more! She opened her mouth to ask the next one pressing for release when Saang cut back in. She turned her head slowly back to him and the idiocy was enough to cut through the pumpkin related questions whirring in her mind. She didn't know where to start so she merely stared at him. Stared and stared and stared until they no doubt began to wonder if she had completely zoned out of the conversation. Then, in typical Kelpie fashion, it all exploded at once.

"Do you not understand how horrible a bath is for a Red Cap?! That's like having your eye carved out with a blunt spoon. In fact, the spoon is probably preferrable! And it's not about burning the dress, it's what the stupid dress represents, why I even wore it in the first place for you and now I feel likeanidiotbecauseitdidnttakeyourfocusoffyoursisterslikeIhopedandIlooksostupidinit---"

She sucked in a deep breath, took another shot, and crushed the acorn cup beneath her palm when she smashed it back onto the counter.

"I DIDN'T LIKE WHAT YOU FORCED ME TO DO, YOU IDIOT! It had nothing to do with you," Ianthe stared at him exasperated. Then, before Saang could open his mouth she looked back at the Pumpkin.

"Do you have to replace your head when it goes mouldy?"

 

[Curcurbita]

Curcurbita blinked.
"Ehh, I don't really get mouldy. I'm just sorta like this."
He gestured to his bulbous head with his hand.
"The curse keeps me... intact. Eternal punishment and all that. You know how it is."
He got the impression that this Kelpie actually might before he addressed Saang.
"I'm sorry, you forced this person to serve you? That sounds rather rude and who is washing Red Caps? Are they not sickened by it? Seem to remember hearing that somewhere... or did I forget it somewhen?"
The drink was kicking in, his head felt all tingly.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

He stared back, sensing the incoming explosion like a fire giant sensed the impending eruption of a volcano. His brows rose in expectation and he leaned into the ice of the words that suddenly blasted from her mouth like a raging winter gale.

Ah, the tempestuous kelpie tantrum. Saang adored these moments with all of his cavalry, but Ianthe's had always been particularly ripe. Words as sharp and dangerous as her fangs had cut through enemy and ally alike and he'd both been on the receiving end and the observant of her verbal victims more times than he could recall. But this ... might have been the first time the winds of furor had been spiced by drink.

He stared. And stared. His ears were ringing. His cheeks stung with the chill of her breath. When she finished and looked away, his face slowly shifted to a bright enthusiasm. Now they were finally getting somewhere.

What cold fire.

What unbridled fury!

A couple hundred years of misunderstandings begun to unravel.

Who'd have thought all it took was a few shots to loosen that tongue?

When was the last time he'd ever seen her drink?

"I'm sorry, you forced this person to serve you? That sounds rather rude"

Guilty as charged. Saang lifted his hands to respond with a silent shrugging gesture. There was no escaping the nature of the life he'd lead in the Night Court and to speak openly on the efforts he was making to rectify a lifetime of rudeness was not wise. Also he was fairly certain anything he said would set her off again, so he kept his mouth shut and made a twirl of his pointer finger to the barkeep to keep the drinks coming.

If it meant more clarification, he'd keep her drinking all night.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe nodded sagely as though what the Pumpkin had said made total sense. It would have been a real pain in the arse for whoever had cursed him if they had to keep replacing his head every few weeks. Made sense to spell it. Fae were, if nothing else, pragmatic.

"The Erlking," she said glumly in response to the query of 'who' would have the courage to try and bath a Red Cap. "They might fall apart in the bath. I'm pretty sure some of that grime is holding them together," they'd been in enough scraps the little goblin had had various injuries. Ianthe had patched them up as best as possible each time but it was very hard to see through the layers of muck. Maybe her aimless prodding and stitches had just pushed the grime deeper into Wrongtoes very flesh.

She finished another drink, barely paying attention to where they were coming from now.

 

[Curcurbita]

"How dreadful *hic*, that poor creature. I must say though, I am one who has been punished but even I could not bare to witness such *hic* a sight. One wonders what offence could have invited such a response?"
He pounded back another drink and then another. By now his large head bobbed slowly as if dangling weakly from his neck.
"You know, if I could have ideas *hic* I'd try to have one about how all this is run. It *hic* doesn't seem fair to me. Nope, not fair at all."
His gangly arms beat about the air gesturing wildly and threatening to slap the heads of the taller bar patrons.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

Saang watched the pair of them, amusedly smiling away with his chin once more propped in a hand. The drinks kept coming.

 

[Ianthe]

"My crime was just being born. At least Wrongtoe earnt his punishment, that's much more fun," Ianthe muttered. Maybe if she had done something terrible she could have understood the Iron Bridle. What little she knew of her kinds history didn't seem enough to condemn them to servitude forever.

Ianthe shook herself as the melancholy mood settled on her for a brief moment.

"In the Night Court they'd do far worse than turn your head into a Pumpkin. They'd probably keep you awake whilst they ate at it every day, then grow it back and start again the next day."

 

[Curcurbita]

Curcurbita's head bobbed as if he knew what that would be like. He didn't but solidarity was nice all the same.
"Yes, that's truly awful. At least it wouldn't be boring though hee *hic* hee."
Slowly he picked up another drink and thought on Ianthe's words.
"But for all I know that was exactly what they did to me *hic*, for a time at least. No memory you see. Wait *hic* have I told you that before?"
With a shrug he tipped the drink back and laughed the grim laugh of the condemned.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe considered the Pumpkin's drunken words like they were pearls of wisdom.

"I think I would like to forget."

The Kelpie had done a lot of things over the centuries in the name of the Old King and the Crowned Prince. A lot of it she had enjoyed. Killing her siblings for example, as numerous as they were, was something she considered a sport. When she could best one of them it proved it was she that was superior. But, there were some things in that long history she hadn't enjoyed doing. Things she would have said no to if she had had the choice.

Ianthe took a long drink.

"At least then I could be... me."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Still quiet, still listening, still not partaking in any further drink.

Saang's smile faded.

Had those things she regretted been done at his behest? He was not her only handler and he was not entirely privy to what other handlers required of the cavalry units. Some were terribly cruel, he knew, but most all of them treated the kelpies as dispensable.

He'd always thought of them as another sort of family. He'd raised many of them in a way - trained them to fight, to master their fears. Thought he'd been far fairer to them than any others, as such he'd never been cruel. He had no need to be.

Was impressing his company upon Ianthe now that she was free bad? Should he simply let her live her life without his presence as a constant reminder of the things she'd done that disallowed her to be herself now?

Sobering thoughts. Sullen musings. Not at all how he wanted to spend this evening that was supposed to have been for merriment and frivolity and forgetting those dark things.

 

[Curcurbita]

It was a sad and small confession. The type that toppled mountains.
"Would, that we could all be who we truly are... Identity *hic* is all we may have and, even *hic* when it is taken. We do so miss ourselves don't we?"
Curcurbita was drunk. Stinking drunk and full of his own meaningless sadness.
"But perhaps you're right, to forget may be a blessing. Look at me, *hic* unburdened by even my most heinous of crimes and yet, a constant reminder of what has been *hic* forgotten. Hee hee."
He stared at the Kelpie and then at the man who had grown so silent.
How he disliked silence and those he deemed too afraid to speak.
"If I could take the horrors from your mind I would my friend but alas I am not such a one as to do this."
He slammed another drink back and slumped forward.
"For now *hic* the tap please. Three of the biggest pitches of the hardest cider please and *hic* no fancy stuff either I want the real gut-rot!"
The pitchers were delivered, heavy and bubbling.
"Slainte!"
He cried in the old tongue as he lifted his mighty glass of reddish gold.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Ianthe]

"Well this is blood depressing," she muttered though perked up when she saw the approaching pitchers. Drinking seemed like it helped with forgetting - maybe that was why the Pumpkin had actually forgotten who he was - and she wanted to forget every part of this night. Especially the brief moment she had actually gotten to dance with Saang and the emotions it had churned up in her cold and frozen heart.

"Let's play a game instead!" she pulled the large jug towards her, shots forgotten. She had had a cup of cider once before and hadn't cared for it. Amazing how liquor could make you forget all such limitations. "I suppose you can join in," she glanced to Saang with a heavy amount of judging side-eye. He hadn't left, she supposed, but staying once would not erase the memory of the other hundred times he had left her for his sisters.

"Truth or dare?"

 

[Saang Lusce]

"Truth."

 

[Curcurbita]

Curcurbita thought. It was almost too easy to think of a good question.
"Do you honestly think you *hic* deserve her love?"
His wide face grinned wickedly as he gestured his hand to Ianthe. He did not know these Fae but he knew what this was and nothing was more frustrating for someone who could not make new memories than watching folk beat about the bush.
Typically he would not ask, it wasn't his business, but the game was made to encourage uncomfortable activity. He wasn't going to soft ball it.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

"No, I do not," Saang replied without hesitation, "that she speaks to me at all is beyond anything I deserve." His eyes leveled with Ianthe, baring no fear of his truths. He wasn't the one afraid to speak them.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe stared at both men as though they were insane. Why had the pumpkin asked such a pointless question? Love was not a feeling those of the Night Court had the luxury of feeling. Love wasn't.... wasn't what she wanted. What he wanted. Was it?

Her head turned slowly to Saang then and turned the blank look to him. Why was he answering like this was normal!?

Ianthe then turned her gaze to the bucket of alcohol.

"Dare," she proclaimed before sticking her head in the bucket.

 

[Curcurbita]

"Huh, you want us to tell you what to do? That's some mixed messaging!"
Curcurbita said, slamming his palm against the counter with manic glee.
"Nope, get out of there."
He yanked her out of the pitcher of cider by her shoulder.
"You can drown in gut-rot when the game is over!"
Taking the end of his cloak he dabbed at the countertop and looked expectantly at Saang, whom he did not know.
"Well? Command her."

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

Her stare was met with a complacent gaze slightly colored by amusement at her growing inebriation and apparent confusion. Feelings, such a novel and foreign concept to his dear kelpies.

Well, at least, those of more benign nature anyway.

And into the bucket she went, only to as quickly be yanked back out. Saang pursed his lips, thumbing the rim of his current glass of sparkling cider, "No. That's not something I do anymore."

 

[Curcurbita]

Curcurbita's face grew dark at Saang's answer.
The light in his head flickered wildly throwing shadows of orange light onto the man's face, the bartop and reflected off the coloured glass of the drinks.
"That's not how the game is played friend. It's your turn, now command her or I will!"
His thin snaked around Ianthe to tap the uncomfortably tall and wide pitcher of cider in front of Saang.
"Play or lose!"
A kind of obsession had taken him, the same compulsion that forced his to offer surplus reverence for the kings of the courts now bade him play the game and enforce its rules until its end.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Saang Lusce]

Goodness, when had his other sisters arrived? Was that Sybil under that pumpkin?

The Duannan heaved a heavy sigh. Well, he supposed in the spirit of the game a dare wasn't quite the same as a command. She could refuse a dare and simply drown herself in cider if she liked - which was perhaps exactly what she wanted to do, but he knew Ianthe didn't like to lose.

"Yes, yes, alright. I..." he looked around, pondering something silly, "dare you..." something that wouldn't cause a scene or further trouble. A rather impossible task, truly. Ianthe could make trouble out of tissues.

His gaze landed on the dance floor where a cwn female with a feathery frock and hat that put his own feathered ensemble to shame was chatting animatedly with a group of other Sluagh, "To take a feather from that cwn's hat without her noticing."

 

[Ianthe]

Wow, pumpkins could be mean. It was kind of nice watching Saang get commanded for once though. Ianthe watched the two from over the rim of her bucket, innocently silent as they battled it out. When Saang finally conceded and cast his eyes about she sat up a little straighter. Yes, doing was far more better than talking truths. Her eyes lit up with feral glee at the idea of stalking over there and punching the fae square in the face before retrieving her feather... until Saang had to ruin it.

She gave an exasperated sigh.

"Fine!" she threw up her hands and went to stand. The whole glade suddenly tilted to the side, or was she tilting to the side? The kelpie stumbled but found her bearings like she would on a ship. "I'm fine," she said to herself and took another more confident step forward. The blasted dress nearly killed her again and with a huff she ended up giving herself another large rip up the side. Finally with both legs free to move she made her way across the dancefloor.

Before she could reach the cwn she slid into another group, pretending to politely listen whilst watching the feathered damsel. She slid from that group to another, and then another. She made as if to go on to yet another group passing just behind the cwn where she stumbled into her. The cwn gave a start of surprise and the two women grabbed at each other in an effort to keep themselves upright.

"I'm so sorry!" Ianthe said in dismay. "I think... I think I have let one too many fae buy me a drink tonight," she gave what she hoped was a shaky smile.

"Not to worry dear, no harm done," the cwn smiled and readjusted her hat. Ianthe thanked her and went on her way. She did a wide loop of the dancefloor before returning to the bar, feather in her hair.

"Easy," she flashed a razor sharp grin. "Pumpkin, you're up. Truth or Dare."

 

[Curcurbita]

"Expertly done, Hee *hic* Ohhhhh!"
Curcurbita leaned way back from the bar holding onto the edge by his fingers.
"What need have I to prove my mettle? My very appearance is proof of my ability to do what others daren't but on the other hand what truth can I offer but the now? I have no memories. *hic* heh, it better be truth then I suppose. No point in causing trouble. They might replace my head with a radish!"
He did wonder what they'd ask and what answer he'd provide. This was a good game.

Ianthe
Saang Lusce

 

[Ianthe]

"What vegetable would you rather have as a head?" Ianthe blurted the question which had formed after the first words they had exchanged.

Ianthe thought she would rather like a swede. They were hardier than pumpkins.