'cause I'll know what to wear

flora

Flora's laugh snaps back quick and bright. "Oh right," she shoots at him, grin sharp as it hooks sideways, "as if you need any more."

But then the world is screaming and her brother is falling.

Flora drags her hands from her eyes, blinking hard through the afterimage, and that’s when she sees the botanist sliding, stuttering down the slick path like something skipping frames, wrong and too fast all at once. "Mateo!" She’s moving before the echo lands, boots hitting the incline and catching just enough to keep her upright as she chases after him, balance adjusting instinctively as the ground tries to take her with it. It’s messy, quick, but controlled enough that she doesn’t go down, even as the violet haze thickens and swallows him whole.

The ground levels out sharply, and she stumbles into it with a breath knocked half out of her before spotting him. "Mateo—" She drops beside him, fingers already catching the brim of his bucket hat and pushing it back so she can see his face, her other hand pressing lightly at his cheek as she leans in, eyes scanning fast and sharp. "I STG if you're dead and I have to call the dads down here to bring you back, they're going to kill us both."

We need love, But all we want is danger
We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"I would like a refund on these shoes." If Flora had any doubt about Mateo still being alive then that ought to dispel it, the botanist groaning as his sister pushes back his hat enough that he can squint up at her. There's a nasty scrape on his cheek and matching injuries on his palms, but other than that and a fuckton of bruises he won't feel until tomorrow, he's in one piece. "That is one way to get down here quickly, I suppose. I do not think I will find any plants now, though."

He doesn't seem to care at least, not when the alternative is potentially sliding to his death - and worse, having to tell their parents about it. Groaning and levering himself into a sitting position, he flashes a quick but bright smile up at Flora before gesturing around the strange and suddenly much more organised space they find themselves within. "Where the fuck are we now?" he wonders. "This is like a funhouse but every room is less fun than the last."

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

flora

Flora’s gaze drops immediately to her brother's boots, her nose wrinkling and the look she lifts back to him is all sharp, affectionate accusation, her eyes widening just enough to sell it. "What did I tell you," she says, dragging the words out with theatrical emphasis as she tilts her head at him, curls shifting damply against her cheek.

Her hand stays at his arm as he sits up, though she leans back a fraction once he’s upright, giving him just enough space to exist without hovering before her attention shifts, the expression on her face flattening into something more uncertain, less amused, her shoulders lifting in a small, dismissive shrug. "Nooooo idea," she admits, her gaze flicking from one strange detail to the next without settling anywhere for long, like if she doesn’t look too closely it won’t become her problem. "I just remember dad saying there was, like...a broken egg thing at the centre? But nothing about this." Infact Remi had said nothing about a broken egg and had told her about this, not that Flora had been listening.

We need love, But all we want is danger
We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"A broken... egg thing?" It all starts to sound increasingly unlikely as Flora keeps explaining, Mateo grateful for her warmth beside him (hovering or otherwise) and considering leaning back on his free hand before remembering the scrapes on his palm. "This looks like the sort of reception room you would have before you go into Mort's realm, but somehow even worse," he decides, wrinkling his nose at the pulsing, eldritch symbols and the pods set back into the walls.

"Gods, do you think this is where the Family..." Were born hesitates on his lips, because he doesn't like the sound of that one bit, but he gestures to a few of the broken pods as if Flora might be able to put two and two together from it. "I wonder if that broken egg was supposed to be their god, or something. Remember how some people had those dreams about it?" It feels like a lifetime ago now, and yet intimately familiar in this strange and foreign space.

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

flora

Flora nods at once, solemn in a way that’s just a touch too deliberate to be entirely serious. "That’s what he said," she confirms, despite Remi having said no such thing.

Reaching out, Flora puts her palm lightly against his cheek, the gold on her finger catching faintly in the strange light as the cut smooths beneath her touch. She watches it for a second longer than necessary, then pulls back with a small wrinkle of her nose, shaking her head. "Having died," she adds, almost offhand, "I can tell you it wasn’t anything like this."

Her brows lift as her gaze drops to his hands, and she holds one of hers out expectantly, wiggling her fingers just once. "Yeah, probably?" she says, a slight shrug rolling through her shoulders at the thought of it all, her attention drifting briefly toward the broken pods without fully committing to looking at them. The mention of dreams barely earns more than a flicker of recognition before it’s gone again, dismissed as quickly as it came. "If anything," she goes on, releasing his hand once she’s done, "I’m more surprised they didn’t, like...take this with them when they left."

We need love, But all we want is danger
We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

Mateo frowns at Flora but doesn't outright call her bluff on what Remi had apparently said about Starfall and the Great Broken Egg Thing. Especially not as her fingers skim the graze on his cheek and he feels the immediate relief of her healing ring at work. Sighing out all the tension that had been locked in his shoulders, he shoots her a dimpled smile that's all soft gratitude for her plethora of skills. "No? No divine waiting room? No Ludo dressed as a receptionist to check you in?"

That sounds boring, he might have added were he not distracted by offering his torn up hands for his sister to heal instead, using the opportunity to have a proper look around at the antechamber walls. "Maybe they do not need things like this until they are actually... you know, in a new place?" he suggests. The broken pods don't bother him nearly as much as the ones that are empty but still pristine, Mateo suddenly realising how many more Family members they might have had to contend with.

"I think I preferred the creepy cavern," he admits. "But come on - we should at least see the weird egg for ourselves before we get out of here, right?"

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm

flora

Flora huffs a quiet laugh at that. "No," she says, her mouth quirking as she shakes her head, "it was mostly excruciating pain, cold and darkness, then boom gold and a bunch of trees." Her shoulders lift in an easy shrug, her death old news now. "Obviously I didn’t linger long enough to get the full experience, but.."

Flora doesn’t bother giving the room more than a passing look, not yet, not while she’s still focused on smoothing the last of the damage from Mateo's hands, her thumb brushing once across his palm before she lets him go. "Maybe," she agrees absently, though it’s clear she’s not particularly invested in the theory, her gaze flicking only briefly toward the pods before returning to him as he speaks.

The sigh comes easily as she pushes to her feet, reaching down to help haul him up. "Yeah," she relents, though it comes with a theatrical groan that rolls right after, her head tipping back slightly as if the inconvenience of it all is the true tragedy here. "Gods, I should’ve brought the camera Dad made for me. We could’ve taken a selfie in front of the egg."

We need love, But all we want is danger
We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Oh, well that sounds even worse than a waiting room. Not by much, though." It's been long enough since Flora's untimely demise and Mateo's embarrassing spiral about it for him to be able to crack jokes, he thinks, and as the Doubletake reaches out to help him back to his feet, he accepts it gratefully. "Hopefully next time you can do without the excruciating pain, at least," he adds, waiting until he's back upright before leaning in to smooch her cheek. "Grazie," he trills - for the healing, naturally.

Turning towards the door at the end of the antechamber, Mateo groans his typical theatrics to learn that there will be no egg-selfies to take home as a memento for all of this. "I think I have my sketchpad," he says, gesturing to the bag of holding, "so maybe if there is enough light I can get a quick idea of the egg, and I will paint us in afterwards." It's better than nothing, he supposes - and maybe he'll add in some other very cool things that weren't there at the same time. 

"Alright, weird purple egg nest. Let's do it."

~FIN

I roam the city in a shopping cart
a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm