if we just stay together it'll be alright

[whattaprick]

Who: Lambert & Peridot and dead weight
Where: The Carnival
When: After Elysium.
What: An inglorious homecoming.

All things considered, everything in Elysium went a lot better for Lambert than his last encounter with True Fae, but he doesn't feel much better for it. He knows that they've only deferred their biggest problems for now -- if nothing else, the experience was a painful highlight of exactly how persistent the Ringmaster's enemies are, and they've still got their lost workers to recover -- but he can, at least, take care of one.

After everything, their return is almost anticlimactic: turn one corner, and then another, and then the Carnival entrance is there, where it was lost to shadows before. When they step through to the Carnival, and nothing follows them, Lambert isn't going to bother hiding the way his shoulders sag in relief. Rather than heading to the medical tent, though, where the Doctor might or might not be ...

"Can you bring him to my trailer?" he asks, turning to the dragon beside him. He doesn't expect her to answer him with a full mouth, but he imagines if she's tired of playing pack horse already, she'll make it known. "If not, I'll carry him the rest of the way."

Comments

[atouts]

Look, Childermass is groggy and uncertain what else has happened while he's been out and kind of sore, like someone's punched through his back all the way to his chest. He doesn't have to cut anyone any slack, thanks, though he will drop questioning it once Peridot answers.

"You just never know what he puts in those," he mutters, a little lamely, but after that, he makes the effort to sit up properly. There's minimal grumbling, minimal wincing. Overall, he seems fine. He hopes that's true. Then he'll reach out and take the potion from her, giving it a closer look.

"Ah. This is from the caravan."

Well, at least that means it isn't 85% alcohol. Fine, fine, he'll open the bottle and drink it.

[periphrasing]

While he's doing that, Peridot stands there awkwardly for a moment before she thinks to give him some space and goes to take a seat in the empty chair. There's something inherently sort of uncomfortable about the present situation; she has no lingering beef with Childermass (despite any arguments they may have had in the past), but standing around in a private, one-on-one setting like this while he's in a relatively vulnerable state feels more personal than she's accustomed to getting with a guy who takes great pains to be as closed-off as possible.

"So... That whole situation could have gone better," she says after a moment. She pauses a moment, then adds: "Uh. How are you feeling?"

[atouts]

He won't even down a full half of the potion before capping it again, handing it back for Peridot to put away somewhere a little more stable than a bed. It is pretty strange, isn't it? Though for his part, he... just won't treat it any differently. If she's here, Lambert asked her to be. That's good enough.

"Sore but that's all," he replies wearily, "And no, I doubt it could have. Although Jasper could have at least held back..."

After that, though, he pauses, looking around the trailer once more to no avail.

"Did Lambert already go back out there?"

[periphrasing]

"Jasper's an impulsive idiot," Peridot growls, ears flattening, and she certainly has more to say on that topic, but. More to the point: "He left a few hours ago. Took a team to go look for the Scribe and the Curator," she confirms, scowling lightly. "I would have gone with him but... Apparently you and I are both on the Count's hit list."

[atouts]

It wouldn't help to point out only she is. He, on the other hand, is a horrible bargaining chip, though that isn't any better. Still, Childermass grimaces at the thought, as he's like to do any time he has to think about the Count.

"As would I, but we both know that isn't happening. I think... I may remain on carnival grounds for the rest of this stop."

If only to give everyone else a tiny fraction of peace of mind. Anyway, he moves on from that topic (the Count is always a bad one) and onto one that is, naturally, another thing he doesn't see anywhere in the trailer. No Nightrider and no--

"Where did he put my shirt?"

[periphrasing]

Ah. Yes. That.

Without breaking eye contact, Peridot wordlessly points a claw in the direction of the wastebasket in the corner.

Sorry mate, that shirt is toast.

[atouts]

And Childermass looks where she's pointing, at the wastebasket, and frowns at it as though it's offended him somehow. He then looks down, reaching up to touch the bandages plastered over... over what? It's not as if anything feels very wound-like.

So, yeah, he's peeking under those. This only makes him frown even more.

"He wrecked my shirt for this?"

Unimpressed, clearly. Also throwing the sheets back and getting out of the bed altogether.

[periphrasing]

She gets up because he does, assuming some sort of action is about to take place that she should be on her toes for. "Um-- He seemed pretty urgent to make sure you were alright," Peridot tries to explain. "ThoughI suppose his motivations for that makes much more sense now..."

[atouts]

The action happens to be... Childermass setting the potion bottle aside and prying open one of Lambert's dresser drawers. Since Lambert divested him of a shirt, Lambert will be losing a shirt himself. It means pawing through a number of really awful t-shirts, pulling them up, shaking his head at them, and moving on to the next drawer.

"He could have just looked under it," he grumbles onward, though what else Peridot says gives him pause. He'll stop messing up the drawers (even more, assuming Lambert doesn't do things like 'fold laundry') and look back at her.

"His motivations. Which motivations would those be?"

He can guess but he's not going to confirm first.

[periphrasing]

Aw crap. She said that last part out loud, didn't she.

"Well-- You knoooowww," she says slowly, tapping her claws together and glancing away uncomfortably. "He told me how... Important, you are to him! Um."

Lambert probably doesn't care if Childermass knows that she knows, right? Gah. She should have checked with him before he left...

[atouts]

It would be easy to get mad over that and, for a second or two, it looks like Childermass might actually go that way, with how his brow furrows, but it's not as if he can undo her knowing. Her or Rita or Yuya or Cole, it's all too late for that. That means he only sighs and goes back to searching for a replacement shirt.

He'll find it, one of the looser, long-sleeved varieties closer to what he'd been wearing before. It's also obnoxiously a red color but he'll just have to live with that.

"He would... I shouldn't be surprised that he would tell you," Childermass will just sigh and resign himself to this fact, then get on with pulling the shirt on, having to fuss with the sleeves as they get snagged on talons and an abundance of feathers sticking out of his arms.

[periphrasing]

Well. At least she didn't tell him verbatim what Lambert told her. Then he'd really be mad.

"...You shouldn't?" she asks, crossing her arms, curious. "I'm not going to tell anyone," she also insists to Childermass's turned back, deeply concerned now that she fucked up somehow. "I mean... I guessed. He just confirmed it. And I get it, wanting to keep things more private-- Amethyst doesn't really like me talking openly about... Us. Either."

[atouts]

"Seems to me that he trusts you," Childermass points out, which means, he supposes, he'll just have to do the same. He does pause in rolling sleeves up past stupid harpy arms to raise an eyebrow at Peridot, though. "Amethyst? Not Lapis?"

Normally, it wouldn't be any of his business, but if Peridot gets to know about his relationship, he wouldn't mind equal amounts of blackmail material.

[periphrasing]

Peridot's eyes narrow a bit. "Did Lambert tell you about the shirt thing?" she growls suspiciously. That's the only thing she can think of that she and Lapis have ever done that could possibly have given Childermass that impression, right? That traitor. And they had just been bonding over how great boobs were, too.

She forges ahead without really waiting for an answer. "Lapis... isn't really interested in that sort of thing," she explains, glancing away uncomfortably.

[atouts]

"He did," Childermass is more than happy to throw Lambert under the bus for that one. Mild, mild vengeance. Anyway, he finishes rolling sleeves up and, upon noting the way Peridot looks away, will only say, "She doesn't seem interested in much of anything at all if that's any comfort."

Well, apart from snide commentary. Blue gem sure has a lot of that (while floating around uselessly, but Childermass is, admittedly, biased).

[periphrasing]

"...It's really not," Peridot replies flatly. After a brief pause, she sighs. "Lapis has interests, she's just... she's had a hard life, you know? And she has her own issues to deal with. The last thing she needs is more complicated feelings mucking everything up and creating more drama."

[atouts]

The temptation to say 'so like everyone else' is high but Childermass senses discord that way. Ultimately, it's not really his business, is it? Beyond swapping relationship statuses, apparently, which Lambert saw fit to do for him.

So, he shrugs.

"As you say," which is the most neutral thing he can offer in return, closing the dresser drawer and crossing back over to sit on the edge of the bed. "Did Lambert take my belt?"

Yeah, he noticed that, too, but decided to get a shirt on first.

[periphrasing]

Peridot nods. "He figured it would be useful to take back out into the library." She tilts her head slightly, considering. "Where did you get iron from, anyway? I was under the impression that the substance was banned in the carnival."

[atouts]

See, where he had seemed less annoyed over Lambert telling Peridot about the relationship, that he went on to include the entire 'iron' part of things is what does the trick. He scowls, face drawn in a short-lived look of irritation.

"It is," Childermass can clear that part up right away. As for the rest? There's no point in trying to hide anything about the origin of the knives. "The Ringmaster gave them to me in case of an emergency. It was how I forced the Blue Rose's vines to retreat on the moon."

Or in the moon. Whatever.

"Though I imagine now that Lambert has them, they're about to become common knowledge..."

Whoops the mega thread ate my life srry

[periphrasing]

"Maybe he didn't know they were supposed to be a secret?" Peridot offers lamely, looking uncomfortable. "I don't know. Considering how many fae are apparently running around out in the athenaeum, it's probably a good idea for him to take it. Even if using it is against the rules," she says, adding that last bit at a grumble.

[atouts]

"I think I'd rather they carry on ignoring Lambert, actually," Childermass disagrees. His lips purse into a thin line and he looks towards the trailer door. It's hard to disguise to worry written on his face, or more like he won't bother to, now that Peridot knows anyway.

"If iron can make them notice you, it'll make them notice him."

[periphrasing]

"I'm sure he'd only use it if it was an extremely dire situation," Peridot tries to reassure him with confidence, very probably giving Lambert far too much credit.

[atouts]

Childermass, however, won't.

"He'll use it the very moment it becomes convenient to," Childermass grumbles. Awfully judgemental for someone who supposedly likes the guy, but that tends to come with knowing him fairly well or, at least, enough to worry that he's right.