text; | @poison

[writtendestiny]

[A few conversations have led her to mulling more on this than she would do normally. Maybe it's the lack of having to fight for her life constantly, or certain questions she's been asked, but...]

Is there a way to find out if you're a clone? Does it matter if you are?

Does it mean you're worth less?

Comments

[writtendestiny]

You'd be alright... [She tells him, but the way she searches for his hand and laces her fingers through his doesn't lend much weight to her words.]

I never really had the time to think about it before. About any of it. Someone in Hadriel told me I might have something called 'PTSD'.

[itsnotaonesie]

[That's fair, he doesn't believe it for a second anyway, but he is happy to let her take his hand.]

Post-traumatic stress disorder. To be perfectly honest, after everything you've told me, I'd be way more surprised if you didn't have it.

[writtendestiny]

[She hums quietly in agreement. If everything she'd gone through to reach her role at home wasn't enough already, then everything that had happened since surely was.]

I haven't even told you half of it.

[itsnotaonesie]

[He doesn't quite look surprised, but knowing that she's suffered even more than she's already let on is just... it makes him feel helpless. He hadn't been around when those things had happened, but it still makes him worry. What if something else happens to her and he can't protect her? Her life is fucking bananas, man.]

You can tell me more, if you want to. But only if you want to.

[writtendestiny]

[Poison nods. There's nothing in her life that she hides, only things she doesn't mention because they never come up. It's not easy to slip most of the things she's been through into conversation - it has to be deliberate.

She picks something to start with. One of the least terrifying things.]

Have you heard of kelpies?

[itsnotaonesie]

[He's relieved that she seems comfortable enough with him to open up about her life, even if it's just something small at first.]

Kelpies? Nah, that's not ringing any bells.

[writtendestiny]

They're Phaeries. They live in water, and look like beautiful men and women... until they're not. Until they catch you.

[And then you drown, is the implication of that little tale, but she's not implying that it ever happened to her.]

One of the first people I met after I left the village was a man called Lamprey. He'd been caught by a kelpie, a long time ago, when he tried to draw it out of the water with riddles. He got one wrong. [Even after so long, she can still feel his rotted hand on her wrist.]

It pulled him in, drowned him, but Phaerie rivers aren't like normal rivers, so he didn't die. [Poison trails off distantly, looking out in front of them both.] He wanted to kill me. I think he very much wanted to kill me.

[itsnotaonesie]

[This kind of sounds like some fairy tale weirdness, drawing spooky pharies out of the water with riddles and shit and the rivers that drown you but don't kill you. It's not the weirdest thing Peter's ever heard, though.]

Holy shit, why would he want to do that?

[writtendestiny]

[And it's not even the scariest part of it all!]

I wanted an answer to a question, but I had to answer his riddle, first. He didn't like how flippant I was about it, but I don't think it was really me he was angry at...

[No, he just needed to lash out at someone, anyone, and a young girl sobbing with fright made far too easy a target.]

I got his riddle right, so he had to help me. If I hadn't... I don't think I would have made it any further than Shieldtown.

[itsnotaonesie]

That straight up sounds like some D&D stuff.

[She has no idea what D&D is Peter come on.] That's really freaky, Poison. I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

[writtendestiny]

[She has absolutely no idea what D&D is, but maybe she will ask about it later.]

Don't be. I chose to go and speak to him. [Though, in fairness, she did not know at the time that he'd been cursed like that.]

The Bone Witch was worse. She nearly did kill me after all.

[itsnotaonesie]

[he is so gonna figure out how to DM a D&D campaign here.

and just because she wanted to go talk to this dude doesn't mean he has to be okay with her almost getting murdered by him GOSH.]

Bone Witch, like literally a witch made of bones?

[writtendestiny]

[Poison stares at him for a moment, her expression full of incredulity, then she laughs.]

No! No, not-- Oh, Peter.

[Not everything where she comes from is that literal, honest.]

She's called the Bone Witch because she kills everyone who tries to pass through her house.

[itsnotaonesie]

Wh-- Why pass through her house, then!? Just cut through her yard!!

[THIS IS ALL SO BAFFLING your world is weird, Poison. Super weird.]

[writtendestiny]

Because there's a portal to the Phaerie Realms in her house. I needed to get there.

[Obviously.]

[itsnotaonesie]

[Well okay then, Peter has no argument for that.]

Well. I guess if I had a portal to the Phaerie Realms, I'd keep it in my house, too.

[writtendestiny]

It isn't the only one, but it was the closest one and the only one I knew about.

[She hums thoughtfully, and she wonders if Lamprey sent her that way to allow the Bone Witch to fulfil the desire to end her life that he hadn't been able to see through himself.

It seemed that from the moment she'd left Gull, someone or something or other had been out to get her.]

She nearly got me, but a girl called Peppercorn rescued me.

[itsnotaonesie]

[It sucks being the target of murderers and psychopaths, huh? Not exactly the best thing to have in common, but at least they have it.....??]

That sounds familiar, have you mentioned her before? It's either that or we were talking about peppercorns while we were cooking once.

[writtendestiny]

I'm sure I've mentioned her. She's my best friend.

[And, in truth, the only friend she'd ever had of her own age before she'd been pulled out of her home and began this peculiar journey. Poison leans her shoulder against Peter's arm and sighs.]

I miss her. I think, out of everyone, I miss her the most.

[itsnotaonesie]

Oh, yeah! Yeah, you have.

[all this missing friends talk kind of makes Peter realize just how long it's been since he's seen his best friend. And it also reminds him that he has no idea if he's even alive after the Thanos thing. Not a great time, but he's here for Poison right now. Still, he nuzzles in closer.]

You said she rescued you? She must be a total badass.

[writtendestiny]

[She snickers quietly and shakes her head.]

Oh, no... she isn't. She was terrified, and so was I, but she couldn't just leave me there to be eaten by that witch.

[Poison closes her eyes for a moment, then sighs.]

But then I couldn't leave her behind, so I brought her with me.

[itsnotaonesie]

[I mean he can't help but chuckle when Poison says that Peppercorn was not, in fact, a badass. God she's so brutally honest sometimes, but that's part of what he loves about her.]

You know, part of being a badass means doing something despite being terrified. So to me, it sounds like you were both badasses.

[writtendestiny]

[She smiles slightly and for once, she doesn't argue. Looking back on it now, the two of them had been brave... but it hadn't felt like it at the time.]

It's probably one of the most frightening things I've ever done.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter can totally relate, at least. He's done so many terrifying things and he'd been scared the whole time. You never feel brave in the moment when it comes to stuff like that.]

Jesus, I bet. Your world sounds like it's just full of weird, scary stuff.

[writtendestiny]

It is... but I've never really thought about it.

[She huffs a sigh out and leans into him again, her eyes dipping half closed.]

We lived all the time knowing that children could just be taken away in the night, or maybe you'd catch swamplung and die... or maybe a goatfish would take your hand, or your leg. I always found the idea that I might just... fade into obscurity and never achieve anything to be far more frightening than anything else.