incantevole!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"You know, I never thought I would say it, but I am quite looking forward to Longheat ending." Mateo's tone is conversational but breathless, such is the humidity and heat that runs rampant through the Oerwoud at this time of year. Ducking beneath a loop of sentient vines and carefully manoeuvring it out of the way so that Flora can follow, the botanist huffs out a breath that lifts one of his curls away from his forehead.

"You said that you were looking for blushberries, right?" he continues, gazing back at his little sister with a bright and dimpled smile. "Are you planning to make someone blush?" Because of course that's where his mind goes - why wouldn't it? "Oh, let me guess - is it that guy I keep seeing in the bar? George or something?"

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

Not unlike her brother, Flora's hair has started to curl around her temple and forehead as sweat beads against her skin. Despite her high ponytail or the headband she's sporting, there's a long oval of sweat down her back, and, if she's honest, accumulating in other places as well. 'No, I know.' She agrees, trying not to sound as breathlessly out of shape as she is. "If the weather could just always be like it is right at the end of Flowerbirth, that would be the best."

Glad to have Mateo with her on this adventure, and not just because the last time they'd been here they'd been assaulted and had had to call Remi for help, Flora bobs her head before her expression turns sour and horrified. "Ewwwuhh. Absolutely not." Once she might have thought George was kinda cute, but after having heard he'd taken her mother on a few dates, he'd dropped lower on her radar than Everest Hart. "He's basically dating my mom." Flora informs her counterpart with a haughty huff.

"But no, this is for a new cocktail I'm trying out." It wasn't a lie either. The Doubletake would yeet a few berries in a drink so that her conscience could remain clear.

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

Humming out a long sigh of agreement, Mateo wonders if he thinks about the cool Flowerbirth weather enough, he'll be able to manifest it. He likes to manifest lately - it makes him feel all in charge of himself. After letting Flora pass, the botanist continues to pick his way through Tanglefoot, his own curls swept up atop his head, for the little good it does. In retrospect, dressing for an Indiana Jones movie (sans hat) was a mistake today, but there's nothing he can do about it now.

"Oh," Mateo says of George, raising his eyebrows over his shoulder to Flora. "I thought that was the blond guy with the..." He pokes his fingers up to indicate horns - he'd definitely seen he and Hotaru doing some lip wrestling at the Hanged Man's grand reopening. "Blushberries would be good in a cocktail, though. Dad makes gin out of them."

And based on where they're headed, they should come across a plethora of the golden berries any moment now.

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"No, that was just a thing." The Doubletake says with all the confidence of being able to manifest that into being. Danta was gross and terrible because he'd rejected her advances, and no, Flora wasn't being petty or dramatic thank you very much.

"I think so too. Like, a cute little first date cocktail, you know?" Raising one shoulder coquettishly, Flora flutters her eyelids before immediately dropping her gaze back to the path where it seemed every bramble and branch was intentionally trying to grab her sandals. (They were). "Okay, but can you even imagine what it would be like to watch Remi and Ronin blush around one another?" After her grand opening Flora had absolutely hauled them back, rubbing their noses in the claw marks on the walls of the tavern like one might do to a puppy whose peed on the floor. That had only been under the influence of regular alcohol.

"Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..." Flora's voice suddenly turned leading, and perhaps a bit shy. "Can I ask you something? Like...like a dating thing?"

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Ah, I see," Mateo says, and where anyone else may have been a little skeptical, the botanist is very knowledgeable about things, having engaged with many of them himself. Awwing at her idea about the cocktail (and it's a good one, honestly), he helps to tease away some more sentient vines from his clothing and shoes and gently disentangles a hanging snake from around his shoulders

"They do not blush," he scoffs of his fathers - oh ye of little awareness, Mateo - and grins to Flora. "They are the epitome of shameless, you know that. But I suppose that means your cocktail would be good to test on them, right?" Leading them down a small trail to the left, it's with a victorious aha! that Mateo spots a blushberry bush nearby, gesturing for Flora to go ahead and take her pick.

"A dating thing?" he repeats, furrowing his brow. "You are the second person recently to ask me dating advice, and I am beginning to question the kind of vibe I am giving off. But you are my sister, so - of course."

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

'Oh no? Okay, next time you're up visiting them, have them pour each other some blush berry gin and you tell me if you can get through dinner without throwing up.' Flora challenges, thinking that Mateo might only survive such an encounter if only because Remi and Ronin could excuse themselves to their bedroom while their son was present instead of having to fuck against the wall of her bar. Idiots.

Reminding herself that these needed to seem like cocktail berries, Flora pretends to inspect each for colour and shape before plopping them into her basket. 'Wait, really?' Tossing her brother a look over her shoulder, the Doubletake raises an incredulous eyebrow before turning her attention back to the berries. "Okay well, I'm only asking you because I doubt you'll give me the hoNeStY is ThE BeSt PoLiCy speech."{s/ay} Then, realizing something, Flora stops what she's doing as if frozen, before slowly looking back again. "...it wasn't..Paige who asked you...was it?"

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Fine, maybe I will," Mateo says haughtily, and he thinks he's going to win this little bet he's just decided they're making, because he lived in Stormbreak with the two of them as a kid. And his young mind has seen and heard things much better left unsaid. (He's asleep, said Remi and Ronin often - and he was, before literal fuckery woke him up). Still, he hasn't (yet) seen the claw marks behind the Hanged Man, so maybe the jury should stay out on that for now.

Like his sister, Mateo also inspects the berries before deciding which to take back with him in his own basket. For the botanist, of course, he's checking the health of the stems and leaves as well as everything else - though he stops himself from tasting a few given the sudden swerve in the subject matter. "Mmm? Oh, no - it was Koa." He raises his eyebrows at her. "Why, is Paige having dating trouble as well?"

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"Good!" Flora trills back, and should Mateo echo this back to her? Well, she'll just keep on going, such is her role as the younger sibling.

Flora's nose crinkles all the more to hear that it was Koa, but the relief that softens her cheeks is more than obvious even as she's turning back to the berries. "Uh..I mean.." She might soon, Flora thinks to herself with an inward shiver of guilt. "So..she asked me..." Gods, it felt so stupid to be saying this. To even be worried about it, much less asking Mateo about it. Still, now that she'd brought it up, Flora feels forced to continue.

"She asked me on a date which is totally fine, but then immediately wanted to be like..official." With flushed cheeks that had nothing to do with the golden berries in her hands, Flora glances over her shoulder at her brother, gnawing at the inside of her cheek. "But saying it's not you, it's me is such bullshit, and I just..." Well, she wanted to fuck other people, is what.

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

Resisting the urge to do just that, Mateo instead focuses on his blush berries and even manages to find a small sapling that he might be able to uproot and take home with him. As Flora continues, he's kneeling in the dirt to do just that, sweat glistening on his brow. "Oh shit, I see." He winces on his sister's behalf, freeing the sapling and placing it carefully into his basket before straightening up to look at her, swiping his forearm across his face.

"I mean, have you gone on the date with her yet?" he asks. "Because once feelings are involved, I always find it is better not to do anything like that. It is not fair on the other person, you know?" Spoken with the wisdom of someone who has it's not you, it's me'd a good number of people, clearly Mateo shares none of Flora's inhibitions.

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

Waiting with her breath held for her druggie brother to solve all of her problems, Flora now reaches for fistfuls of berries, caring not at all for any imperfections that they might have. "No..not yet. I mean..I do like her, it isn't that.." Trailing off, Flora flicks a spider off of her leg as it tried to use her as a means of hitching a ride in her basket.

"I mean.." Rubbing at her forehead with the back of her arm to try and remove what feels like an ocean of sweat from dripping into her eyes, Flora sighs and continues. "..so far we've just..gotten high and fooled around, which has been great." Giving her basket a little shake to try and see how many berries she actually had, Flora leans back onto her heels.

"I just don't think I'm ready for commitment? But...I don't know if I'm just being stupid about it."

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"I do not think you are being stupid," Mateo says honestly, sitting back on his heels as well and offering his little sister a dimpled smile. "It is okay not to be ready for that sort of thing. If Paige does like you in that way, she will understand. You will be more miserable doing something you are not sure about." Rolling his shoulders in an easy shrug, the boy gets back to his feet and seems content with his blushberries and other samples.

"Besides, Paige kissed me at your grand opening, so I am not convinced that she is ready for commitment either." Wow, their family really is messy with who they lock lips with, aren't they? Seeming relatively unbothered, at least, Mateo reaches back for his bag of holding and opens it so he might put the entire basket inside.

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

Almost ready to make a joke about doing things and being miserable for it (here's looking at you, Koa), Mateo's words knock the wind right out of her sails such that Flora's mouth is fully agape as she looks at him. "WH-" She wants to know, getting to her feet and nearly knocking her entire bounty of berries out of her basket. (Say that 5 times fast).

"Like, kissed you, or like kissed you kissed you?" Flora wants to know, rounding on Mateo even as her mind tried to reel her back in. It wasn't Mateo's fault, especially since he hadn't known about she and Paige, but Paige was the one who proposed all of this right before the opening.

Ce que le fuck?!

Mateo

Champagne, cocaine, gasoline
and most things in between

"Whoa, whoa - I was just telling you to make you feel better!" Leaving his bag of holding on the ground, Mateo raises his hands placatingly, as if suddenly Flora is one of those people he's just been talking about. There are no bedrooms to escape or alleyways to hide down here, though. And what's more, it's his sister.

"I kissed her, if you want to be specific," he explains. "We were dancing and she mentioned that she always thought I would be her first kiss. So... yeah." It's not as though he'd done it out of the blue, is what he means. There had definitely been flirting and lead up. "I am sorry, sorellina. I did not know."

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

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

Staring at her brother, eyes narrowed and one hand planted on her hip, Flora scrutinizes Mateo's face for signs of deception and finds nothing at all. Well, nothing other than his perfect skin, and if she wasn't already so riled up, she'd have paused to ask him if he'd found a new moisturizer.

"Oh." It's one of those hateful situations in which you find yourself still fuming even though everything has been explained away, such that Flora can't quite unclench her teeth. Exhaling her enough to have her lips wrrppppping against one another, Flora lets her head loll dramatically backwards as she groans loudly into the canopy. "Buhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay well, that's me off the hook then." She decides, unsure if she was upset or relieved.

"Okay, I hate to do this but...you know, seeing as.." Vaguely Flora flaps her hand in the air between them to indicate what had just transpired. "Maybe we should talk about our lists so that there's no more overlap."