Abby grunts. That's good. And to be fair, she's still pretty new, finding her feet. She remembers having no real solid opinion of Thedas for months after she first got here, and she understands missing home. "I get it," she says, "I left a friend back home, and I really miss him. He'd love it here."
And because she can't help but be nosy she immediately asks, "Yeah? What people?" and passes the joint.
Clarisse takes the joint and sucks smoke into her lungs. She holds it there as long as she can, finally exhales in a rush. Her thoughts are slow and rolling in her head, and she doesn't feel in control of what's about to come out of her mouth.
"My dad, mostly," she admits. She doesn't offer an explanation. It's bad enough she's even said as much as she has.
"What's your friend like?" she asks. If Abby can start talking about something and change the subject five seconds later, so can Clarisse.
No, back up! She wants to know about the dad comment and she also wants to talk about Lev so bad. She has a little fight with herself and gives in immediately.
"He's- I met him 'cuz he saved my life after I got caught up in the wrong territory back home. These death cult freaks knocked me out and strung me up and tried to disembowel me," hate it when that happens, "but he cut me down. We had to fight our way out of the woods through all these infected. In the dark. And the rain. It was crazy, I'm kinda still can't believe we made it."
This is not about what Lev is like. It's just the meet cute, but work with her here. She feels chatty.
"Death cult freaks..." Clarisse echoes her slowly, bemused. She's interested in this death cult that strings people up and disembowels them—like, the fuck? Why?
But whatever, that's clearly not the important part of Abby's story.
"Sounds badass. Your friend, I mean." Not the... cult thing. "Go on."
"He is." Having slumped in place, Clarisse's head is now at hip level rather than thigh level. Abby can feel her braid pressing against her neck, squished between that and the headboard, but she can't be bothered putting an arm back to fish it out so it lives there now.
"He's incredible with a bow and arrow, I've never seen anybody better." Yes, she has been on missions with Ellie. Several. "And he's got a really dry sense of humour. He was raised in that same cult so he doesn't really... get a lot of stuff? One time I told him to head for the apartment complex and he said-"
She snickers. Hang on. Hoo boy. "He said. 'Really? I find it quite simple.'" WHEEZE
It takes a few seconds for Clarisse to get the joke. When it clicks, and she realizes that's it, she snorts. It's not quite a real laugh, but then, once she gets going, she has to fight to stop.
"He sounds like a dork." She gives Abby's leg a little pat pat. "But you're a dork, so I get why you'd be friends."
"You're so funny." She's not offended though, not in the slightest. She can tell Clarisse isn't being mean, she's joking around, she's teasing. Feels kinda good.
"My best friend is my ex. Chris," Clarisse admits. "We broke up but..." At least he's still alive? The bar is so low. Anyway. "He's really funny and patient and he picks locks as a hobby. I could call him about whatever and he'd always listen to me."
Normally she wouldn't gush about him like that, but the smoke's making it easy to talk without thinking too hard about whether what she's saying is too revealing. It's making honesty seem painless.
Abby wrinkles her nose. It's not at what Clarisse is saying specifically, just the idea of it... being best friends with your ex? How does that work. Her and Owen had such an awkward friendship after breaking up, it was so much easier to avoid him, or see him in some kind of group setting.
Realising that Clarisse is maybe more mature than she is... it's kind of devastating.
"Yeah," she says. "Somebody told me- their theory is that another version of me came here through the rift, and there's still an Abby back home carrying on, doing her thing."
It's so weird to her. She still gets jealous of that other Abby sometimes which is even weirder, and she's not sure she can say that to Clarisse.
Another version of herself, still living life back home. Clarisse sort of wishes Abby hadn't mentioned it. Now it'll be something she wonders about—whether it's true, and if it is, who's living the better life.
"I kind of hate that," she admits, and lifts her head. "It's weird to think about."
"Same." She has no idea she just unsettled Clarisse, she's busy reaching to pluck the joint out of her hand again so she can help finish off the end of it, "I kinda hope it did happen like that though." Cuz then she didn't leave Lev all alone against her will. Small comfort, really.
A sigh. "Chris sounds cool," she admits. "I'm shit at picking locks, I hope I can meet him some day."
Clarisse doesn't understand why that would be, when Abby's told her before how much she hated living in her home world. But she doesn't want to argue about it, not stoned, especially not when neither of them actually know the truth about this theory anyway. She just shrugs and lets Abby smoke the last of the joint.
"Children of Hermes are good at that sort of thing. God of thieves and all." She's no good at lock picking, either. Too impatient for it.
"Yeah?" The last of the joint is smoked. Abby stares at the end, rolling it between her fingers. She says, "Tell me what the rest of the children of the gods are good at, and I'll decide who I think my godly parent would be."
It'd probably just be Ares because of the strength thing, but she wants to hear all of the options available to her first.
Clarisse snorts. She's not used to having people around who'd have the balls to ask a question like this (or who'd need to have someone tell them the information in the first place), but... okay.
Mentally, she's thinking about the cabin numbers back home. She skips right over 1-3, Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon, because no offense but that's another level of weird shit she doesn't want to get into.
"Okay. Demeter. Her kids can control plants. They... tend to be good cooks?" For some reason? Grain? Clarisse doesn't know. "Ares, the best, of course. His kids are strong and know how to use all different weapons, and we can also summon the losing side of any war to do our bidding.
Athena's also war, but her kids tend to be better strategists. They're brain children, so they're smart, and they tend to good at architecture and weaving and stuff like that.
Apollo's kids are great archers and they're good at music and healing. Sometimes not all together, but definitely at least one out of three." Artemis is an eternal maiden, so skipping her. "Hephaestus's kids are great forgers. They make all kinds of crazy machinery. And Aphrodite... her kids can change their physical features, and sometimes even charm people with their voices. And they can speak fluent French, 'cause it's the language of love." She rolls her eyes. "Hermes kids can lockpick, obviously, but they're also great at stealing shit and they tend to be pretty fast runners. Annnd Dionysus, his kids can also control plants, but only the ones that grow on vines? Grapes and stuff."
Hades and the minor gods are getting shafted here, because again, Clarisse isn't going to bring them up. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Abby listens dutifully at first, but then her mind wanders off after Clarisse describes what Ares' kids can do (what she can do) because she's thinking about what it would be like how to use any weapon the moment you pick it up... that would be so useful. Especially back home, imagine- she could be good at archery. And swords. Knives. Polearms. Ooh, what about a halberd or a javelin- oops shit, Clarisse is still talking.
She catches the tail end of- something about the language of love. Boring. Must be Aphrodite. Once Clarisse has finished her spiel she nods sagely, as if she's thinking very seriously about this.
Her result: "I guess I'd just be an Ares kid. Like you." It makes the most sense. "But if I was a Hermes kid that would round out my skill set."
Clarisse snorts. She has a suspicion that Abby stopped listening halfway through, but that's the most Ares cabin thing she could've done, so it tracks. Though, personally, Clarisse would stick her in the Athena cabin. Seems more her thing.
"You don't get to round out your skill set. That's the point. You'd be too OP and it would freak the gods out and they'd blast you to ashes. Or turn you into a shrub." Nobody wants to worry about their kid growing up to be powerful enough to turn on them!
Abby mouths 'OP?' at the ceiling, not understanding, but the idea of being turned into a shrub tickles her so much she has to laugh for a while at that. She completely forgets to ask what Clarisse means in the end.
Clarisse blows air out of her cheeks, trying to think of the right way to put this.
"They have all this power over everybody, and once you have enough of that, you get scared someone's going to take it away from you somehow. That's the only thing you have to worry about anymore, basically. Losing control."
She's thought about this before, a lot. Especially during the years when Luke was trying to do exactly that, and overthrow the gods. That must have scared them shitless, knowing their kids could be a real threat to them.
Oh. Abby's laughter fades off into little gasps and a sore tummy, and then she shuts up entirely. Cuz that's not funny.
"Shit."
She thinks for a moment, then says, "It- the leader of my group back home was like that. Scared of losing control. He was under the control of the military when everything went to shit right at the start, and then he broke away from them to make his own group." She's jiggling her leg restlessly right next to Clarisse, thinking, "In the end it was exactly like the military? We just ended up doing the same shit as them. For land."
Well, it's not funny, but something about it strikes Clarisse as amusing. She's thinking about the ancient Greeks at war thousands of years ago, and Abby's group at war in 20-whatever. All that time passing, but everybody still fighting over the same dumb shit. There's a kind of humor in that.
Also, the way Abby's jiggling her leg has Clarisse's head feeling like it's pressed against one of those massage chairs they have at malls back home. She smiles.
"People never change. Is that when you met your friend, when you were with that group?"
Abby has to admit that she's right. Keeps jiggling her leg though. Talking about this shit- it's not hard, she can do it, it's whatever- always makes her nervous. Peeling back layers, exposing what's beneath: it's fucked up. Hope you like it!
"Yeah. Did I say we were fighting each other? His group and my group, I mean." She probably implied it, with the whole they tried to hang me spiel. God, it's like she's got word vomit, it keeps coming up. "After he saved me, we started our own group, and nobody liked that. At all."
Clarisse's tone is hard to read—not judgmental, not impressed. She's a little jealous, actually. Of Abby's ability to decide she didn't like something, was tired of it, and... let go.
"Uh huh." She's staring at the ceiling. "And now I'm here."
On a side again... feeling weird about it sometimes, but mostly enjoying the experience. Mostly missing Lev. The conversation has come around in a neat little circle, she thinks. Her stomach rumbles, and she sighs, says, "And I'm hungry." A terrible fate.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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And because she can't help but be nosy she immediately asks, "Yeah? What people?" and passes the joint.
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"My dad, mostly," she admits. She doesn't offer an explanation. It's bad enough she's even said as much as she has.
"What's your friend like?" she asks. If Abby can start talking about something and change the subject five seconds later, so can Clarisse.
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"He's- I met him 'cuz he saved my life after I got caught up in the wrong territory back home. These death cult freaks knocked me out and strung me up and tried to disembowel me," hate it when that happens, "but he cut me down. We had to fight our way out of the woods through all these infected. In the dark. And the rain. It was crazy, I'm kinda still can't believe we made it."
This is not about what Lev is like. It's just the meet cute, but work with her here. She feels chatty.
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But whatever, that's clearly not the important part of Abby's story.
"Sounds badass. Your friend, I mean." Not the... cult thing. "Go on."
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"He's incredible with a bow and arrow, I've never seen anybody better." Yes, she has been on missions with Ellie. Several. "And he's got a really dry sense of humour. He was raised in that same cult so he doesn't really... get a lot of stuff? One time I told him to head for the apartment complex and he said-"
She snickers. Hang on. Hoo boy. "He said. 'Really? I find it quite simple.'" WHEEZE
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"He sounds like a dork." She gives Abby's leg a little pat pat. "But you're a dork, so I get why you'd be friends."
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"What about your friends?"
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Normally she wouldn't gush about him like that, but the smoke's making it easy to talk without thinking too hard about whether what she's saying is too revealing. It's making honesty seem painless.
"I really miss him."
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Realising that Clarisse is maybe more mature than she is... it's kind of devastating.
"Yeah," she says. "Somebody told me- their theory is that another version of me came here through the rift, and there's still an Abby back home carrying on, doing her thing."
It's so weird to her. She still gets jealous of that other Abby sometimes which is even weirder, and she's not sure she can say that to Clarisse.
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Another version of herself, still living life back home. Clarisse sort of wishes Abby hadn't mentioned it. Now it'll be something she wonders about—whether it's true, and if it is, who's living the better life.
"I kind of hate that," she admits, and lifts her head. "It's weird to think about."
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A sigh. "Chris sounds cool," she admits. "I'm shit at picking locks, I hope I can meet him some day."
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"Children of Hermes are good at that sort of thing. God of thieves and all." She's no good at lock picking, either. Too impatient for it.
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It'd probably just be Ares because of the strength thing, but she wants to hear all of the options available to her first.
sorry there are so many gods, abby,
Mentally, she's thinking about the cabin numbers back home. She skips right over 1-3, Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon, because no offense but that's another level of weird shit she doesn't want to get into.
"Okay. Demeter. Her kids can control plants. They... tend to be good cooks?" For some reason? Grain? Clarisse doesn't know. "Ares, the best, of course. His kids are strong and know how to use all different weapons, and we can also summon the losing side of any war to do our bidding.
Athena's also war, but her kids tend to be better strategists. They're brain children, so they're smart, and they tend to good at architecture and weaving and stuff like that.
Apollo's kids are great archers and they're good at music and healing. Sometimes not all together, but definitely at least one out of three." Artemis is an eternal maiden, so skipping her. "Hephaestus's kids are great forgers. They make all kinds of crazy machinery. And Aphrodite... her kids can change their physical features, and sometimes even charm people with their voices. And they can speak fluent French, 'cause it's the language of love." She rolls her eyes. "Hermes kids can lockpick, obviously, but they're also great at stealing shit and they tend to be pretty fast runners. Annnd Dionysus, his kids can also control plants, but only the ones that grow on vines? Grapes and stuff."
Hades and the minor gods are getting shafted here, because again, Clarisse isn't going to bring them up. Ain't nobody got time for that.
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She catches the tail end of- something about the language of love. Boring. Must be Aphrodite. Once Clarisse has finished her spiel she nods sagely, as if she's thinking very seriously about this.
Her result: "I guess I'd just be an Ares kid. Like you." It makes the most sense. "But if I was a Hermes kid that would round out my skill set."
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"You don't get to round out your skill set. That's the point. You'd be too OP and it would freak the gods out and they'd blast you to ashes. Or turn you into a shrub." Nobody wants to worry about their kid growing up to be powerful enough to turn on them!
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"Does that happen often?"
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"Uh, I wouldn't say it's common? But it's happened. More likely they'd just kill you."
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"They were the one who made you, so shouldn't they be the one taking responsibility? Not the kids fault for being- tricked out, or whatever."
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Clarisse blows air out of her cheeks, trying to think of the right way to put this.
"They have all this power over everybody, and once you have enough of that, you get scared someone's going to take it away from you somehow. That's the only thing you have to worry about anymore, basically. Losing control."
She's thought about this before, a lot. Especially during the years when Luke was trying to do exactly that, and overthrow the gods. That must have scared them shitless, knowing their kids could be a real threat to them.
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"Shit."
She thinks for a moment, then says, "It- the leader of my group back home was like that. Scared of losing control. He was under the control of the military when everything went to shit right at the start, and then he broke away from them to make his own group." She's jiggling her leg restlessly right next to Clarisse, thinking, "In the end it was exactly like the military? We just ended up doing the same shit as them. For land."
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Also, the way Abby's jiggling her leg has Clarisse's head feeling like it's pressed against one of those massage chairs they have at malls back home. She smiles.
"People never change. Is that when you met your friend, when you were with that group?"
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"Yeah. Did I say we were fighting each other? His group and my group, I mean." She probably implied it, with the whole they tried to hang me spiel. God, it's like she's got word vomit, it keeps coming up. "After he saved me, we started our own group, and nobody liked that. At all."
Why is she sniggering it's not funny
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Clarisse's tone is hard to read—not judgmental, not impressed. She's a little jealous, actually. Of Abby's ability to decide she didn't like something, was tired of it, and... let go.
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On a side again... feeling weird about it sometimes, but mostly enjoying the experience. Mostly missing Lev. The conversation has come around in a neat little circle, she thinks. Her stomach rumbles, and she sighs, says, "And I'm hungry." A terrible fate.
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