hadriel_logs | [open] this is not black & white

Who: Ellie & you!
What: The gal is back after a month long stint as Sleeping Beauty.
Where: Starting in her apt, then all around.
When: 26th
Warnings: A miserable, miserable bbit

[It's been a long time, Hadriel.

When Ellie wakes, it's to a dry mouth and aching head. It doesn't feel like she's been sleeping- or mediating, or what the fuck ever- for a month. It feels like she's been running a non-stop mental marathon. For a long, hard couple of hours she just sits there, groaning and holding her head in the room she shares with Jade. Shared? Ellie doesn't know for sure. She only knows that she didn't see the other girl for awhile before she went under. Connor and Matt are definitely gone, she knows that much. But considering how quiet the apartment is, and how things look exactly the same as they did when she went to sleep...

It's fine. Definitely. What the fuck is the difference, at this point? One more person in a long list. (She kicks the wall and blames the tears in her eyes on the dull pain in her foot.)

She supposes she should thank the gods for the fact that she can already get up and walk around, but incredibly, she's not in the most grateful mood. Hands clenched tightly around the straps of her backpack and eyes red, Ellie wanders the city like a ghost.

Welcome home, or something.]

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[Around the same time Ellie wakes up from her trance, Magnus stumbles his way back into Hadriel. He's covered in scratches, some that look like they may scar, but he visits the clinic and the second they say some shit about "bed rest" he nopes out and sets out about finding out what he missed. He could just ask Taako or Merle -- or Lup, he reminds himself, who has taken up residence in their bachelor pad, which made it less of a bachelor pad in name but also it remains a place where Merle still always fucking leaves used mugs lying around -- but it looks like they're out somewhere, so he just starts wandering. Maybe he'll run into someone.

It's just that... a lot of the people he made connections with while he was here seemed to disappear all at once. He tries to think of who he should keep an eye out for, but each name that comes to mind also comes with a sudden, heavy reminder that he may never see these people again.

Until he sees Ellie, pale and exhausted, looking like how he feels, though he's a bit more covered in bandages. Ellie, who apparently isn't actually gone at all, but must have just temporarily left like Taako and Merle did. He jogs over to her, noting the redness around her eyes but opting to ignore it.]

ANGEL KNIVES!!!

[He yells the nickname the same way he always does, a running joke he'll never let get old.]

Holy shit! I thought you were gone, like, forever ago! Or it feels like forever ago. I've had a buckwild few weeks, let me tell you. I missed everything that happened here. When'd you get back?

[Boy, does Ellie ever know the feeling. One of the reasons she can't bring herself to wander anywhere specific is that she's terribly afraid of nobody being there. That said, the unmistakable sound of Magnus' voice, combined with the nickname that literally nobody else in the city calls her, sends a wave of relief through Ellie. Of all people, she's glad Magnus is still here. He's sturdy. Solid. There's something comforting in both the fact that she feels like she could punch him in the arm and he wouldn't even flinch, and that she knows he wouldn't consider for a second swinging back.

Despite how achingly tired she feels, Ellie rallies a weak shout in return.]

THE HAMMER!

[Ellie feels her eyes water as she takes him in, notices the scratches; the bandages. It's not nearly the first time she's felt suddenly incredibly emotional since coming back, and she's certain, now, that the gods are to blame. This is what she gets for helping out, apparently. She wants to hug him. It's painfully embarrassing.]

Yeah, uh... I kind of. Didn't leave. I've been asleep the whole time. Giving the gods mojo, I guess.

[Shrug.]

Wait, does that mean you left?

Oh man.

[When he just wasn't seeing her around anywhere, he assumed the worst. It was around the same time other people were disappearing, so he just thought... Man, is he so glad to be wrong right now.]

I was so fucking worried about you. I'm really glad you're here.

[The fact she was helping out the gods is like, giving him pause, but he's too glad she's here to be too worried about that right now.]

I didn't like... leave leave? I kinda got lost in the caves for a while. Not the best place to be, obviously. I'm back now, though! Kind of embarrassing. Usually I can tell where the fuck I'm going, but like, not recently, apparently.

[I was so fucking worried about you. No pretense. No gruff pats on the shoulder or talking around it, and they haven't even known each other that long. How does Magnus make it easy? How does he just-

She sniffs, gross and wet, and tilts her head back.]

I'm- yeah, I'm glad you're here too.

[Ellie quickly follows this up with a punch to his arm. What are feelings.]

And not trapped in the fucking caves, what the hell dude? Next time, how about you just, like, don't wander in there?

Ow!

[He overly exaggerates how hard the punch hits, and makes a big show of being super injured.]

Come on, you can see I'm already beat up, you don't gotta hit me at your full strength, Angel! You gotta hold back a little with me!

[But he breaks out into a grin, dropping the pretense.]

Yeah, you know me. Magnus rushes in and all. I didn't exactly go in there with a plan and, well, you can see how that turned out. I learned my lesson, anyway: bring chalk next time.

[That gets her, and she laughs like Magnus is the funniest idiot alive.]

I did hold back! I used my fists, not my feet! Angel Knives can kick a man's head clean off his shoulders!

[She shakes her head at him, the perfect example of fond exasperation.]

'Magnus rushes in', huh? What is that, a catchphrase?

Anyway, chalk's a good idea. Better than using breadcrumbs. You ever hear of Hansel and Gretel? Nurse told me that story once.

[He just laughs at that.]

Yeah, you could say that. I'm kinda known for rushing in. I didn't exactly run into any candy witches, though. I feel like that would've been preferable.

Uuuuugh now you've just got me wondering what kinda weird shit we've never seen in those caves. Maybe there is a candy witch. And we'll just never know.

[open] this is not black & white

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