hadriel_logs | Event Log: Kiss me Kill me

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Event Log: Kiss me Kill me

Who: All characters in the city
What: The event log for the Kiss me Kill me event!
Where: All around the city
When: Feb 17th-24th
Warnings: potential violence & abuse

Things are... a bit different on the morning of the 17th. When you wake up, your first thought is of the person or thing you love the most. That in itself isn't very strange- maybe you think about the lucky someone often. This time, however, it's accompanied by a deep-seated need to be near them. You have to find them and soon, so you can be with them- and if you can't be with them, then you'll find a new way to prove your devotion.

Maybe that new way is via kidnapping, maybe it's via poisoning the person they're spending time with, or maybe it's just a matter of you being in their personal space all the time. Whatever the case, your obsession doesn't make much sense but you lack the self awareness to see it for what it is. Hopefully someone stops you before it's too late...

Unfortunately, you may be dealing with your own crazed stalker. How are you going to shake them off so you can get back to the thing that really matters to you? Let's hope things don't get violent!

► This log covers February 17th-February 24th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If someone really put the yan in your dere, please let us know here.

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[For once, Taako had a damn good fuckin' week.

He tried to get Lup to come with them as soon as Love made the announcement they could leave, but she pushed back that she'd go with him later. It's fine-- it's not that he's ever looking for time away with her, but with Magnus back and missing so much, nostalgia was gripping at his heels for some good Tres Horny Boys action. So he made some disparaging remarks about her goopiness with Barry, scooped up the boys, and left.

Moreso than getting to spend a week on the road, blowing shit up and doing generally whatever the fuck he wanted, he's riding the wave of a bit of god magic himself. Having the orb from Hope strapped to their car for the last two days meant the road trip back was probably the best he's ever had. He knows it's fake, but fuck it-- these gods have never done anything decent for him, he's taking it. So when he hits the house, he's carrying some leftover supplies, and practically elated. He's got stories, his sister's gonna be here, and he's finally coming back home. Wonderful.

That makes it... a little worse when he crosses the threshold and some wave of something just not being right hitting him as he walks.

Taako's a particular kind of... well, particular about where he lives. Sure, he and Lup's room is a disasterpiece theater, but he's always known exactly where everything is in the chaos. It's like a perfect way of knowing when the space is his, when no one else can possibly navigate it. So he knows when something's just a little out of place in the house; small cracks in the doorframe from where things have been slammed, stuff knocked over and hastily replaced. It makes him nervous, even if he can't place why.

Still not quite off his good mood, he starts heading for the stairs, calling up them as he walks.]

Lup? Barold? Anybody home?

[Taako doesn't have to hunt through the house for very long.

Lup's waiting just as her brother climbs up to the second floor, the woman standing there in front of their shared bedroom, just pulling the door shut behind her as he comes into view. Since disappearing for their guy's trip out across this new planet they'd been dropped onto, Lup hasn't heard very much from the trio, which was all due to lousy cell signal or Lup would have touched base more frequently with her twin.

But because she hadn't, she's not as prepared for Tres Horny Boys' glorious return as she'd have liked to be. Cleaning isn't exactly her forte, but Lup would have at least made an effort to hide the new burns in their couch.]

Hey, 'Ko.

[Right away, Lup's exhaustion is all too obvious. Even without catching sight of the tiredness etched along the sharp lines of her face, Taako of all people would know immediately just from her the width of stance, the subtle droop of her ears, the hands hanging at her side. There's a few bruises healing up along Lup's arms, looking a bit worse than they actually were at this point, but the biggest change would have to be her new cropped haircut, the whole 'do unevenly cut, a wild halo of light-colored hair sticking around her head.

No matter how much her heart catches at finally seeing her twin again, Lup doesn't move to close the distance between them, her tone as casual as ever.]

How was shit? See anythin' wild? Did Mags end up eating one of those orbs or what?

[Taako does.

She turns, and he’s dropping his backpack in seconds, letting it thunk to the ground with little ceremony or fanfare. By the time she’s done with her sentence, he’s already at her, one hand on her face and another smoothing back her hair. It was a week. It was one week, nothing was— nothing had been happening in the city, why would the liches in charge they ask them to go if they were going to do something back here, it doesn’t make any fucking sense.

It’s everything he has to stop his hands from shaking as they part through her hair, fingers smoothing anything he can touch.]

What the fuck happened.

[He doesn’t have the capacity for loving conversation right now, for platitudes, when his sister is standing hurt in front of him. If Lup didn’t kill whoever fucking did this, Taako is going to. There’s not going to be enough of them to put back together. There’s already a part of his brain thinking about the way to best make it hurt.]

This better not be the part where you tell me, uh, I’ve actually been gone for like a hundred years or some shit, right? That’s not the goof that’s goin’ down?

[How did she ever think she was going to get out of this playing cool and aloof?

Taako's on her in an instant, before Lup can even throw up the walls to distance herself from the one person she's always vowed to be most honest with. But he's right there before she can do anything, his familiar smell enveloping her, his hands, littered with old scars she knew the shape of by heart, brushing through her hair, a warm palm pressing desperately into her cheek.

And going from a full week without her heart, a week of anger and hurt and betrayal, to suddenly having him here again is too much.

Lup's chest heaves and she struggles to breathe, like she's giving it her all to hold this rush of too powerful emotions back, but then she's flinging her arms around Taako and pressing her face to his chest, gasping for air. It takes no time at all for his shirt to feel wet beneath her tears while she clings to him. It's only by virtue of their bond and how well they can read each other that Taako can make out the words she sobs against him.]

Barry left.

[As soon as she lets him, he's all in, arms wrapped around her and a hand on the back of her head to hold her in. He tilts his head down to rest his head on top of hers, mouth and nose resting in her hair, free hand rubbing little circles in her back. Whatever revenge he wants to take, whatever hurt he wants to bring, it can wait until Lup can rest. His sister comes first, before anyone else in this world, even-- and especially-- whoever hurt her. Fuck them.

The words take him by surprise, though he doesn't show it, standing steady and strong.]

Like, from the city? 'Mm sure we can find him, babe.

[Something in him is still churning in worry and fear for not understanding it all, but he's desperate to catch up. For all the shit he gave Lup for leaving him, this is sure a hell of a way to turn it back around. Maybe that's karma. But he doesn't want to think that he was somehow responsible for her pain, that something he did caused this. Could have prevented it, maybe, but if this is his fault in any way he won't be able to handle it.

Instead, he just holds her a little tighter, trying to chase away the thought. He's got her. He's here, under his beating heart and the rise and fall of his chest. Just hold on, he thinks. Hold on.]

[It’s the safest Lup’s felt since Taako first left.

She hates this, hates how difficult it is to hold back her own emotions, how now that she’s let herself press into her brother’s embrace and give up a touch of her control, the tears just won’t stop falling, her skinny shoulders trembling at the effort. But if there’s ever anyone she’d let herself fall to pieces in front of, it’s Taako.

Well, in the past it's always been both Taako and Barry, but now…]

No, he— [His hands against her feel heavy, like Taako’s presence demands to be comforting, a warm pressure easing the painful ache in her chest. Lup relaxes as best as she can against him, but finally tips her chin up, so she isn’t left mumbling into his ruined shirt.]

He left the house. We got into a huge fight. He just— [Her breath hitches as if she can still feel the man's fingers tightening in her hair, Barry’s hateful words echoing in her ears.] It was awful. I’ve never seen him so, so mad.

[Barry had never been like the two of them. He never leaned into his anger the way the twins had through the years to survive. Seeing him explode like that, all of it directed at her, had been a nightmare.]

[He looks towards her when she speaks, lips parting just slightly. It feels, all of a sudden, like she knocked the wind out of him just with words. It's one thing for someone to have hurt her that he doesn't care about. It's another thing for it to have even been someone he knows, whose relationship he would've undoubtedly ruined immediately. But Barry's... Barry's family. Barry's one of the ones who matters, and there's getting to be less and less of those these days. Sure, they've fought here before (Lucretia's arrival comes to mind), but not like...

He blinks at her, mind reeling. He remembers not trusting Barry, over a hundred years ago, but he's never imagined he'd do this. He doesn't ever remember being afraid of him. But Lup looks like she is, like she could be, like he missed the shakeup of the century and he's entirely displaced.

He wants to tighten his hand on her, to be angry, but she doesn't need that right now, not when she was just obviously in his arms and he did something horrible with it. So he forces himself to keep steady, even if he feels too rigid, even if he feels like he's not quite in his body at all.]

Lulu, I...

[He lets a few fingers brush through her hair.]

Whatever he did, you didn't fucking deserve it, alright? Did those liches pull something? Did-- what happened, Lup?

[Why didn't he find the time to call why didn't he find some magic to get back to her why didn't he know, how the fuck didn't he know.]

[She shudders as Taako's fingers brush gently through her hair. Everything's still so sore from earlier, her scalp tender beneath his touch. Chopping everything off hadn't quite given Lup the relief she'd hoped it would.]

I don't know. [But really, looking back everything seems so obvious now, that the rage that had rooted so deeply into her thoughts was fabricated. Completely fake. That the two of them had been baited into everything, undeniably tricked into such anger against each other.

That thought almost makes it worse. If it had been their own emotions running wild, at least they could make amends and put this behind them. Hadn't Lup gone off the deep end in the past? She'd never been the easiest woman to be with, not with her trust issues and her inability to deal with real, heavy emotions. But how do the pair of them come back from knowing they'd both had their minds filled with such awful, fake thoughts and they'd still believed it all fully, not even questioning why they were thinking it in the first place? How could Lup have ever thought Barry should be holed up with her instead of following his science ambitions in the lab? How could he ever think she'd not only cheat on him but lie about it too?

And how could those shitty gods whisper so much hate into his head that Barry'd get so violent with her, leaving bruises up her arms and a migraine that just won't quit.

This time Lup shudders for entirely different reasons.

Taako is tense all over, but Lup stays there with him, pressed into his body like it's the only comfort she's felt in the last week. She can't let him go, not yet.]

Those fuckin' liches just... I never even realized until it was over they were manipulating us. It just felt so real. Barry... He'd never... I know he'd never hurt me on purpose. But...

[He doesn't know what to do here. This ache burns in his chest, especially with Magnus having disappeared, back all of those months where even she didn't tread with him here. Back to the fake Julia, the fake Lup that screamed static through his ears and into his head that he now can hear clearly, desperate cries of I'm your sister and him being taken completely unawares.

He blamed Magnus a lot, then, for falling for their influence, for being willing to die for Julia. But if he had remembered her... could he have possibly killed Lup? Even for his own survival, even when he knew he'd just be back in a few days?

The thought of it makes him sick. He holds her tighter instead.]

I know. I know.

[He whispers it, like it's something only for them, having her pressed close and soft and safe.]

Doesn't change that it happened. Even if you didn't mean it. I-- I know, Lup.

[He can't bear to tell her about the incident with herself, with this- he doesn't want to take away from what happened to her, from all that pain, and make it about himself. She needs room to breathe. He understands that.]

'Ss happened to me before too. They're dangerous. They're dangerous and fucking terrible and I'm not going to let them touch you ever again, okay?

[It's a softness that Lup knows is reserved for her and her alone. Taako's always saved this side of himself just for the two of them. Something about that grounds her to him, keeps the woman from just continuing to drift away on this pain forever.

Even over half a year in this place and Lup still hasn't heard mention of the event that had brought Julia into Hadriel, the trauma all three of her dearest friends had gone through with that, or the ghost of herself that had haunted Taako until he'd been forced to remove her completely. She'll have to ask details about his experience later, when she can tear herself away from her own pain to focus elsewhere. Another day.

Nothing is fixed. Barry's still gone, hiding away from her, and for the first time that she can remember, Lup doesn't think she can chase after him. Not yet, at least, not when his sharp words are still ringing in her ears, not when the mere thought of him leaves her skinny frame trembling. But Taako's here, her heart, wrapping her up and promising that he'll never let this happen again. They both know the words are fake, it's just something that's so out of their control in this place, but her twin's reassurance comes across so confident that Lup believes in him anyway.

Taako will keep her safe. He'll protect her just as he always has.]

Okay, Taako. [Lup lets her eyes close as she leans against him, focusing on each breath she takes, presses closing enough to feel his heartbeat.] Just stay with me for a bit, okay?

[Every part of him is one part perfectly poised and one part relaxed, a kind of statement only she ever brings out of him. On one hand, he’s so painfully aware of where she lands on him, where he can rest his hands without hitting her bruises, how he keeps his breathing perfectly measured so she can feel the reassurance of a careful and steady heartbeat. On the other, he would never let someone this close if it wasn’t for her. This comfort, the letting down of all of his walls, goes to no one else. He has her. She has him. And he will block the world, he will remove any problem between the two of them.

He wants, if she was more stable, to hunt Barry’s ass down this fucking second, but it’ll have to wait until she sleeps. He’ll pull a mislead and get every side of this story— or so he’s trying to limit himself. Lup might be hurt, but she wouldn’t be happy to hear Taako ripped off Barry’s dick and brings it back in a box or something. He still wants to, though. It’s fine. It’ll fix itself.

He quells his rage, just for her. She doesn’t need it now. She needs him, not the person his rage makes him.]

I’m not leaving.

[It’s simple, quick, and true. He reaches up, brushes a little hair out of her eyes.]

Tell you what. You want me to fix your hair up? Or I could, uh…

[He kind of gestures in a circular motion at his face.]

Y’know, gotten pretty good at that perma-illusion stuff. If you want.

[A little, ugly part of him, is unhappy they match even less, but he stuffs it down. If it bothers him so much, he’ll cut his own damn hair. Fuck it.]

[Even this deep into her own pain, Lup knows how difficult this is for Taako, knows how tightly he's keeping his own anger under control for her sake. It was never their first instinct, especially hers, to ever quell her fury, but after an entire week failed at fighting off this absolutely uncontrollable rage, she just wants to wallow neck-deep in literally any other emotion, even if it's sorrow.

It means everything to Lup that her brother lets her.

This time, Taako touches her hair, gently brushes it from her face, and Lup doesn't flinch. She's wrapped up in him, knows she's safe.]

Could you? [she responds to the first offer, leaning just barely into his touch.] It looks like shit. Gren tried to help but-- [her nose wrinkles, but even with her heart aching and tears still in her eyes, the woman's mouth quirks up just a touch.] Not my brightest moment. He was pretty chill, though. Let me kick it at his place.

[At first Lup doesn't quite catch why her brother is gesturing at his face, identical to her own, until he speaks again. Even though she's seen him without his illusion on, she forgets sometimes. The small smile her mouth had tugged into presses back into a line.] Maybe later. I think I wanna rock this out for awhile. See where it takes me. [And more casually added, though it's the kind of admission she'd only ever give to Taako:]

I like lookin' in the mirror and seein' it gone.

[This is the sort of gentleness they only show to each other- quiet spaces carved out just for them, a vulnerability they can’t trust others with. And in some respect, Taako’s bitter that the part of him too scarred to trust feels so right. Look what happens when you let other people in! But he doesn’t want to believe this is fully Barry’s fault.

He shoves it away. Who gives a shit about anyone else right now. This is about Lup. That’s all he gives a shit about right now. So he gives a snort of laughter for her, breaks up the monotony.]

You went to Gren? I bet he can’t even cut his own pubes, jeez. Yeah, lemme fix you up.

[Not that Taako really wants to stop hugging her right now, but. This stops them from falling into each other, from never pulling each other out.]

C’mon, I—

[Wait. Idea.]

Hey. Did I ever show you the pocket spa?

[Taako doesn't even have to bring himself to pull away from her after that. At his first mention of Gren's pubes, Lup's already shoving her twin off of her, laughing wetly before she's scrubbing at her face with her hands, stuck somewhere between laughing and crying. The hurt in her heart doesn't feel survivable, like it's just continuously pressing down and suffocating her. This is the kind of heartbreak that she's never let herself feel, the reason for keeping the rest of the world at bay.

But she knows that with Taako here, she'll be fine. Somehow. One day.]

You're so fuckin' nasty. I have the grossest brother.

[Whether it's intentional or not, that distraction manages to drag Lup out of her own grief, at least for the moment, the slightest touch of interest smoothing across her face.] Not really. I remember-- [Barry getting hidden away in it? Yeah, no.] ...I just remember you mentionin' it. From, y'know, inside the umbrella.

[The display gets Lup another moment of access to that thing she gets to see so rarely- a real, actual smile. For a moment, his guard is down, a break of laughter in both of their facades, and all that glitters in his eyes towards her is adoration, is love.

They’re going to make it. But soon enough, his grin widens, and he pushes her back towards their room.]

Well c’mon! ‘Ss a pocket dimension, so no need to even leave the house. Get you the full experience. Only makes cucumber sandwiches, which can kkkinda bite if that’s not what’s up, but hey, cucumber.

[This is the only reason Taako and co still look half decent after a week out on the road. It so helps when you have a magical portable bath.]

C’mon. We’ll get ya the full blowout experience. Check it.

[Taako gives her a look that Lup knows well, that sears into her skin, that fills her heart with impossible warmth, the look in her own eyes a reflection right back at him. If anyone can heal her broken heart, can fill up the empty pieces of her that Barry took with him, it's her twin.

She doesn't need anyone else.

Taako pushes and Lup goes easily, smiling even if it doesn't quite reach her eyes, letting her brother shove her along playfully back into their room. Now that food's been brought up, there's no ignoring her hunger. The last twenty-four hours have been filled with drinking and tears, not much else. She could probably go wild on a cucumber. sandwich.]

Lemme at those sweet cukes, my guy.

[Her happiness (and her hair) is all in his hands.]

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Event Log: Kiss me Kill me

nesting this here since we planned it LOL, the 24th

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