[closed]

[catpiper]

Who: Lup, Ren, Taako
What: Family talk and other shenans
When: Backdated to 12/20-post memory share event
Where: Elf camp
Warnings: N/A-will add as needed

The reality of the situation doesn't hit her, not fully, until she wakes the next morning. Dreams had a weird bubble of protection around them that made her actions feel meaningless-she could sit by a monster, play soccer with a dog, talk about flowers and friends and family without having to worry about what it meant the next day.

And so when she stirs awake, she's almost grateful to be the first one that appears to be up. It gives her a chance to ignore Taako's well intentioned comment about not worrying about breakfast because, no, she can do that for them. That's something within her raccoon abilities-no problem. It'll be fine. Maybe on her hunt, she'll find some pretty treasures they can hold onto. Because she isn't sure how to express gratitude to her new aunt and uncle any other way.

But she should wait, she thinks, if only because Taako had said he would feel better if they were both there when he woke up. A comment that still makes her think she must have misheard him. Both. She stares at his face, waiting to see if his eyes crack open, and then turns to Lup, checking out her new aunt's face in turn. No dice.It's hard to tiptoe around the tent without hitting any arms or legs, but gosh she's doing her best. She even makes up for any accidental toetaps by pulling any blankets went askew in the night over their bodies. There, elf beans. It's nice and cozy now. 

Comments

[hellawrath]

Tackling her brother into submission, there's a small panicky voice in her mind, scrabbling at the edges like a mouse in the walls, like, this is too much, too close, a visceral sense of danger, of wanting to get away, and it's off and wrong but she knows this voice, now. That's, nope, she refuses to get hung up about literally any of that right now, Chara, they're-- waking up in their own bed somewhere, separate people with their separate lives again, and that's good, for now. Lup buries her face deeper in Taako's hair, drinks in his comfortably heavy weight on her, his laughter, the best sound in the world dissolving her anxieties. All this stuff she couldn't reach in the umbrella, she's got it all back and bad memories can kiss her ass.

The sudden blanket prison is a bit much though and she lets up on her assault on Taako just enough so he can maybe get them some air for breathing. It's a valiant effort to increase their coziness but Ren maybe needs to learn some moderation here? The attached instructions almost don't even register as odd, hiding and breakfast, two of Ren's most high-ranking interests, that tracks, except-- Right. That's happening now, is it. She meets Taako's look of totally understandable shock with something vaguely sympathetic, is that what she looked like the first time she heard her new title? Probably. Welcome to the club, bro.

"Ren kinda, she uh, saw our Auntie?" Lup blows hair out of her face and sort of shrugs, as much as is even possible in this current twin tangle, looking almost sheepish. This isn't on her, except it kind of is? And it's not a bad thing, really the opposite actually, but it is a lot to take in. "She figured out aunts teach you how to cook and, and play with you and smile at you a lot." Recalling all that, the memory and Ren's wild associations that are kind of indisputable when you think about it, Lup can't help but smile for real at Taako while she waits for him to get it. She knows he will, he knows what it means to have an aunt, or uncle. "Aunts and uncles, they're-- we're warm."

Sticking a hand out from the mess for Ren to hold onto instead of running off on unpredictable breakfast business, she adds helpfully, "Also, aunts and uncles help with breakfast? That's another thing they do."

[catpiper]

Moderation is for scrubs and shoe fish water is a delicacy in some parts of the universe, don't be a food snob. Thankfully the offered hand summons her like dog hearing its owner's whistle and all attempts to suffocate and/or poison her new family is temporarily forgotten. Lup's taking care of everything right now? She doesn't even have to explain where this nice, new word came from and while she expected to have to supplement her own meaning, Lup's kind enough to use her language. They're warm. He's warm. Ergo, he's an uncle now. Congratulations. This is what happens when you steal a kid in the woods-it escalates.

"Okay. We'll play together. I can hold cumin for you." There's a tension building in her body though. Because while Lup had explained it, said it was okay, said it didn't matter even if she made her sad one day, Taako hadn't been privy to any of that. It's definitely a verbal contract he hadn't signed yet and she watches him with the expression of a person waiting to hear bad news. There's sinking feeling forming in gut as she tries to decipher what that laughter means and tries to take it at face value. Laughter's good. Learning a new word made him happy, maybe, so-

All she can really do is hold Lup's hand with her own and watch the expression on his face, to see if it twists into something negative. Upset. Unhappy. "It's a scary and good word. That's what I learned. Saying that kind of thing is supposed to make your heart feel good, but it's okay if it doesn't. You can say 'it hurts' and I won't say it again."

Which is the nice little out she offers from this situation. It had been a source of contention for her in Lup's memory anyway, saying this, because she knows it's going to backfire. That they're going to be upset with her one day-mad that she ever thought it was okay to say these special words that give her comfort. Nice words, meant just for them, since they've become such a intrinsic part of her life she doesn't want to let go of.

[ohshitsweetflips]

Well, that's certainly more of a choice than he's ever been given about the concept of 'family' before. There's not even like, an apocalypse involved or anything. It's kind of amazing, really, the care Ren takes about such things. Amazi-tragic, let's say. Granted, she approaches the concept a little differently than the vast majority of people, for reasons that are outside her control and that he still barely has any grasp on. But it's to her credit, probably, that she has these considerations at all. To her credit but still bad, maybe? She probably shouldn't have any inkling that someone might feel unsure in their kinship to her, he thinks. It would almost certainly be easier for her if she didn't. Emotional math sure is hard. They don't teach this shit at fantasy NASA.

But that is a dilemma for never, how being gracefully skilled at that kind of emotional equation is both good and not-good, and what that means for him, a stupid elf who should probably at least try to handle this with a tenth of the un-looked-for aplomb Ren would. It's not like there's a real decision here anyway, even if the stakes have gotten weirdly high? He didn't, at any point, think this through, so what else is new. He's just a little surprised, is all.

So he scoffs at her hedging, theatrical but deliberately sincere. "Of course you can say it, to me, your uncle and favorite celebrity." The confidence is only a little belied by a brief, panicked flutter of his ears. He's only yelling internally, it's fine. He doesn't really know what to do with the concept of hurt in this context, but he thinks he understands scary. You can't lose something you don't have, that's just common sense. Ren has elves now, ergo, she's fundamentally in danger. But they're pretty hard to get rid of, like historically speaking, and he mentally cracks his knuckles, determined to keep at it. He beams at her, no less sunny for the premeditation of it. "It's chill. Doesn't hurt a bit."

That said, he sits up purposefully, freeing himself and undoing most of Ren's hard work. Not being an unseemly mound of elves and blankets, that's the official step two for making breakfast, because that's...let's be real, that's gonna be his contribution to the reassurance here, Lup's got a handle on the hand-holding, literally, leaving him with his tried and true strategies: food, and saying some dumb words, and giving people space. Look, they're both emotionally adroit in their own ways, okay. "You learned a lot for someone not even awake yet. Maybe we should all just take the day off."