VIDEO 🎸 UN: METALHEAD69

[bardbarous]

[ The world around Tuck and Billie is dark, gloomy, and full of dust. The bar they are in, Colonel Dan's, has seen better days. Tables have been overturned, something's been in here making a mess despite the magic that was imbued into the door. Guess it didn't hold. ]

So, who wants to help Billie n' me clean out our bar? That we, ah, never used.

[ Tuck does his best to make it sound like the most riveting fucking thing a person could volunteer for. ]

We'll pay you in... uh...

[ He looks down at Billie who is currently out of camera view. Hard to put both a two foot child in the same frame with a seven foot man. ]

Friendship? Oh, booze!

Either, or. Whichever turns out to be of equal or lesser value.

[ From the dark, something falls off the bar counter and breaks. Then skittering claws scuttle across the floor. ]

There's someone else in here.

... ..... So, who wants to help Billie n' me chase a mystery creature out of our bar? Ehhh? Could be fun—Oh fuuuck! It touched my leg!

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[noniad]

[Billie's unguarded smile catches Ortus underneath his ribs, infiltrating easily up into the cavity there with warmth that fizzes like one of the syrupy drinks that Gideon urged him to try. He cannot match that grin, but he is inspired to open his smile another handful of tentative degrees, relaxing into his chair by a fraction.]

Who am I to doubt such certainty?

[Of course Billie will keep to his word. Doubt dispelled, Ortus chews another contemplative mouthful of sandwich, pleased by the work accomplished so far. It only vaguely occurs to him there was, at some point, a mention of cleaning.]

I have not tried the cross ants. Are they fashioned in the shape of a cross, or the insect? Or are the ants a type of decoration?

[He learned about 'ants on a log' quite recently, and is proud to show off this piece of knowledge.]

[wapples]

[Bille sits forward on his chair, leaning his elbows on the table, as he chews on his sandwich. He's never met anyone before who wasn't familiar with soft breads or croissants, but he remembers Ortus saying he didn't spend much time above ground before coming to Trench, and that seems a pretty reasonable explanation.]

Nah, that's just the name. There's no real ants in them or anything, I promise. They're shaped like crescents and they're even softer than bread. Sometimes they even have chocolate in them.

[He swallows the bite of sandwich in his mouth and regards Ortus quietly. Croissants are serious business and everyone should be able to try them.]

I'll bring you some, and we can share them.

[noniad]

[In a perhaps unexpected kinship, Ortus appreciates that Billie seems to treat him no differently than he might treat any other adult or child either. He does not act baffled or dismayed at Ortus' ignorance, but accepts it as the sort of thing that might happen to anyone unschooled in the world.

And he offers him such a straightforward kindness as the sharing of a new, delicious foodstuff. Ortus suddenly feels as though if a zucchini beast did appear, he would face it quite resolutely (if not bravely) for the sake of this small gentleman - if only for his approval, since of the two of them, he suspects that Billie is indeed more adept with a blade.]

I would like that very much.

[Some time after the work is done, whenever they next meet. It has been a long time since Ortus knew anyone quite so short as a friend, but he thinks he has not completely lost the knack after all.

(He must speak further with the boy's fathers, of course, but at least the one of them seems boisterously friendly enough.)]