reverie overflow.

[vecna]

i still haven't put something less stupid here

Comments

[vecna]

[ :) ]

Good. Otherwise, you'll start to make me feel like my father.

[velluminous]

Oh... Leery of aging, are we?

[vecna]

[He laughs.]

No. Just leery of the comparison.

[velluminous]

[ handshake emoji ]

Ha! Mammon. What pair we make.

[vecna]

[parental problems!]

Nothing better to bond over, I say.

[He finds himself wishing he could tell her more, just the sort of pain he put his father through, but instead decides on-]

Even if my particular issues have been resolved, and the fire is still burning beneath yours.

[velluminous]

[ not quite at the monologuing stage, huh, henry? ]

You pick your words so precisely.

[vecna]

[Perhaps he’s not sure their social link rank is there.]

How do you mean?

[velluminous]

You are simply very good at what you choose to say. It seems effortless. You never stumble.

[vecna]

[He’ll take that as a compliment.]

Also something that takes practice, that’s all. It helps that I worked with children for a number of years; you get into the habit of knowing what you want to say before you say it. No one’s going to listen to an orderly who sounds like he’s bumbling through it all.

[velluminous]

[ once again the oddity of that occupation strikes her. there are elements to how he talks that absolutely indicate it, though--that conscious choice of words, and many of his phrasings. his tone, when he isn't snapping at her. the even measure, his pitch. ]

How long did you say you worked with them?

[vecna]

Oh...

[His eyes glance up at the ceiling, as though trying to calculate the years. Twenty is how long he was there for. How long until Dr. Brenner gave up on him, decided that he could not control him, and made him work, instead?]

I'd say close to fifteen years, probably.

[velluminous]

[ just what kind of study lasts fifteen years? ]

Mammon. Not insignificant.

[vecna]

[The kind where you can't leave.]

It was important work. Important to them, at least.

Do you want to know a secret?

[velluminous]

[ of course she does.]

Mm.

[vecna]

[Naturally. Secrets appeal to her the same way they do to him.]

I couldn’t have left even if I wanted to.

[velluminous]

...How so.

[vecna]

I told you that it was government research, didn't I? The kind that none of the administration wanted getting out. "Magic", as you call it, is not normal in my world. Those children, and myself, were secrets that were never allowed to take one step out of that laboratory.

[velluminous]

[ was. were.

takes a deeper sip of this crappy beer]

And so...

[vecna]

[Was. Were.]

And so that gives you a little more context. I'm much more sheltered than I look. Living in the same place, with the same routine, day in and day out -- it isn't like I had a chance to accrue a lot of life experiences.

[Thus why he wouldn't know what wine is which. Why her city felt impossibly grand, with its fantastical locations. Why he was jealous of it, just a little.]

[velluminous]

[ it sounds so stifling. she would go mad. ]

Well. Here you are now.

[vecna]

[Go mad, contain one's anger until it reached culminated in violence that was long overdue, same difference.]

Not much better, save for the company.

No offense to the children, of course.

[velluminous]

But they are children.

[ unspoken: and I am so much more interesting and accomplished and intelligent than children ]

[vecna]

Talented children.

[The kids weren't that bad, save for the bullies.]

[velluminous]

I am not arguing for my merits against children.

[vecna]

[Jokingly:] Something tells me you would.