and there's no turning back

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Water has Danta scrunching his nose playfully, but he does as Maea requests and adds a pitcher of it to the order of red wine. Said pitcher is collecting condensation as he finishes pouring his glass of rich red, offering the bottle out for Maea to do the same. "Oh I don't want to," Danta tells her quite quickly, though the way he bites at the inside of his cheek says he's probably going to anyway.

"I was an orphan in the Climb. The person who took me in kept me under a very tight thumb and on an exceedingly short leash." It's as simple an explanation as he can give without going into gory details that require a few more glasses of alcohol yet to divulge. "She was at odds with the group Astaroth used to run with. It's why we would fight so often."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

Accepting the bottle she poured a glass for herself, but kept turning the foot round and round with her fingertips. Just waiting, giving Danta all the space he wanted to talk or not. That he offered up anything at all was quite the honor.

"It's hard to imagine you two at odds with one another," Maea admitted. "Looking at you now, I'd sooner have guessed you were longstanding friends." Or close lovers. "What was the Climb like? And these factions... what were they warring about?" The only place that even resembled a dwelling in the fiery continent was the Obsidian Cathedral. Had there been cities? Houses? Perhaps the Ancients were more nomadic in nature - there was just so much she didn't know, that picturing his life was difficult.

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Taking a long, slow sip of wine as Maea absorbs the first titbits of his past he allows to slip out, Danta slumps back and into the booth. "Mm, no - that's very recent," he says regarding the butcher. "When I found him as a rock up in The Climb I almost left him there. We fought just after that, too. Lately, though, we've started to realise we were both just used by other people." He snorts.

"It was busy, chaotic. You'd probably find it primitive compared to the sorts of things people have now, but the region was thriving. Almost everything was built out of or into the stone - caverns, tunnels, living spaces, larger areas." He shrugs. "And people warred about the same things they war about now - space, resources, reputation. Whose dick is bigger, who has the most power, who is the best at what they do."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

"That would be a good reason to bury the hatchet," she agreed, resting her cheek against her small fist. "I'm impressed you even started talking though, it's far easier to just cling to grudges and never try to see the other side." Speaking from experience, she wasn't doing half as good a job of it as her friends.

"Who was on top out of your two sides?" she wondered, intrigued despite the serious and no doubt painful subject it had to be for him. "Did you have a job, or role in your faction?"

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"It is far easier," Danta agrees with a crooked grin in Maea's direction. "And a lot more fun, too. But Asta and I are the last of our time, as far as I know. It means something, to have someone who remembers all the shit time has wiped away." That has taken a while to come to terms with as well, but he and the butcher get along more often now than they fight, so he thinks it's working.

Evidently, though, not everything is worth remembering.

"Our side was, of course," he says easily enough, and likely would have regardless of the truth. "My mistress held a lot more cards in The Climb, and she didn't suffer fools." For better for worse, and Danta's nose wrinkles a little. "Something like that," he mutters. "I was brought out when there were other Ancients in particular who had overstepped just a bit too far."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

"Mhm, I get that." A troubled look passed over her face for a moment, before she chased it off with a sip of wine. "Evie and I grew up together. There's not a lot of people around who knows what that was like either."

Accepting his word for it without question, Maea wondered about the woman who had managed to keep Danta under her thumb. It didn't take a lot of imagination to get how difficult that must be, and she shuddered to even guess at what measures she could have used.
"So, like an an enforcer." Gazing her lip with her teeth, her gaze searched him for a sign of when to back off. The last thing she wanted was to open old - and perhaps far too fresh - wounds. "Was it bad?" she asked, leaving it to Danta to decide how much detail he wished to give.

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Nodding his head as if to say there you go, evidently there is something that Maea and Danta have in common, even if it's just experiencing a shitty time and only having one person with whom to share that burden. (He knows, he knows - it's niche). And he simultaneously wants to stop talking but also finds himself incapable, having the plethora of wine and rum to help with that.

"No, not really," he mutters. "More like when people release wild animals into a fighting pit." Sighing and peering into his glass suddenly only to find it mysteriously empty, Danta shifts to sit up and get himself a refill. "Horrific," he confirms, easily enough. "She kept me starved, so I'd always be on the verge of losing it. And so when I got the chance to get my teeth on something - or someone - well, it hardly mattered to me."

It was just food, at the end of the day. Doesn't matter if it wore shoes.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

Cold trickled up her spine. All too vividly she recalled the insatiable hunger just after being remade. The hollow, aching need to rip into anything that moved - it still haunted her, and that had been only once. To do that to someone over and over again - horrific was putting it mildly.

"How are you still sane?" The words slipped from her in a hoarse murmur, more heartfelt than tactful. Now she realized how poor of a comparison her own experiences must seem. While still traumatic and damaging to her, there were levels even to suffering. No doubt she seemed awfully spoiled, to be complaining about her life.

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"Who says I am?" Danta says after topping off his wine, offering her a smile and reaching out to chime his glass against her own before taking another, well-deserved sip. "Maybe the centuries in stone gave me time to reflect, I don't know." Or maybe not, given how well or poorly he copes on any given day. But hey - it's not all bad, right?

"At least no one else from around that time woke up," he adds, settling back in his seat once again. "Especially not my mistress. Still, if you told me I'd end up running this place when I woke up crawling around The Climb, I'd have laughed you out of the Dusklight." If nothing else, he can at least be proud of what he's managed to achieve by pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

A crystalline note shimmered into the air and lingered as Danta drank to his sanity ir lack thereof. Maea joined him, draining her glass in a deep draught. Only the shake of her hand made her reach for the pitcher instead of the bottle; the water was cool and eased the tightness in her throat, if not the chest.

"Well you're doing an excellent job of it," she told him fiercely, a growing streak of strange protectiveness taking over once the shock began to wear off. The drink loosened her tongue, spilling sentiments the probably wouldn't give voice to otherwise. "Even if anyone would wake, I'd like to see them try to do anything to you - they'd wish they never woke up."

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Tipping Maea a wink as she drains her wine - he's still drinking, so he can't verbally attagirl - Danta sets down his glass and relaxes, content to let the reds and golds of the Dusklight start to shimmer pleasantly around him. "Well that is very sweet of you to say," he tells her with a catlike smile, because right now in the bustle of the bar and with company and drinks, there really doesn't seem to be anything to worry about in the world.

"Oh, that they would," he agrees darkly, and not just because of Maea's implication - presumably because Danta would not be the only person looking for a fight if any of his old ghosts came back to haunt him. "In the meantime, though, every day is a day I'm not doing that, so everything else seems very easy." He hasn't meant to make a full loop of the conversation, but there it is, the crux of Danta's carefree chaos.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

"It's not sweet, it's true," she insisted. "At least you're the first leader I've ever given a damn about. And that's not just because you gave me a job." She was still here even after he took it back, that said everything, didn't it?

Mellowing somewhat as his easy going presence rubbed off on her, Maea slumped back down in her seat. The problem was, there were other forces more immediately troublesome than old mistresses and Ancient factions.
"What do we do about the Family, then?" she wondered, mostly rhetorically - not really expecting him to have an answer. "I told Asta that I would play along with anything as long as there was a plan. I get it, you know? Dying in a pointless skirmish won't be useful to anyone. I just... I don't know any other way to fight than head on." Rolling her head around until a pearly white horn caught against the wall, Maea regarded Danta. "Do you?"

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Raising his eyebrows at that as if surprised at the candour in Maea's voice, Danta nonetheless gives her a gentle nod as if in acceptance of her words, even if he's not entirely sure he believes them himself. "Being a leader is as foreign a concept as someone giving a damn, so I appreciate it," he says, running a fingertip around his empty wine glass.

His cold eyes do sharpen a fraction as she mentions The Family again, though, and whilst Danta is no longer sober enough to give as frank or calculated an answer as he would have an hour before, he nonetheless replies easily enough. "It's the only way I do know how to fight," he croons, tilting his head as if to watch the light shine through the red still tinting the glass before him.

"For now, we keep our eyes and ears sharp, and we focus on making this place as safe as we can. We aren't demigods or heroes, so information is our power. We keep tabs on what they're doing - The Family and those opposing them both - and when it looks like we might be able to strike and win, that's exactly what we do." Unless something changes, of course. Or unless The Family no longer appear to be the threat the world thinks they are. What does Danta know?

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Maea

I feel it in the wind, my dear
The sun is gonna reappear

Watching him closely, the surprised reaction had her own expression softening into a look of understanding. "Mhm. I wouldn't lie to a friend, so. At least you know I believe it." It was probably strange the same way the idea of herself as the host of a ball had been strange, the way having friends and being appreciated for herself was strange and difficult to fathom. A piece of clothing so new it did not yet fit comfortably, shoes not yet softened to fit the foot within - or some other such synonym, Maea's head swam a bit and didn't make much sense in up-close scrutiny.

Melting out across the table with her hands almost making it over to Danta's end, the petite woman sighed anxiously. It sounded so dangerous. The kind of sly, quick-witted kind of scheming she really wasn't any good at, that required smiling to people you didn't like and making promises you didn't intend to keep, and drowning yourself in mud and blood that might never completely wash out again.
"I'm scared," she admitted quietly. "Not of the fighting, but the... the enduring. How bad will it get? At this rate the Wilds will be overrun in two years, if even that. Hunting will get difficult. Travel might be impossible. Do we have food enough to feed everyone inside the ward if all the farmers and sailors and merchants come flooding in for protection? All those people cooped up in too small a space with emotions running high... But the worst part is that if it goes on too long, they will start getting used to it. And before anyone knows it, they'll have fallen in line with whatever becomes the safest and easiest. And that's where it would all begin to rot..."

The table smelled of wine and detergent, cool and solid beneath her chin. Yet it didn't ground her nearly enough to chase away the dark visions her imagination painted up, spun out of worries and painful personal experience. The cage she feared was not some physical bars blocking her from going wherever she wanted, but a mental one; the deep, listless resignation that convinced her that leaving would be impossible, and that even trying would be pointless.

Good days are gonna come along
Hold on, hold on!