[open]

[lumelume]

WHO: Mado and you
WHAT: where are my beloved cousins??
WHEN: whatever month this is
WHERE: the Gallows
NOTES: he's here

There's a strange man in the Gallows courtyard, a man nobody has seen before. He looks shabby, dressed in a long yellow surcoat that has seen much better days, but his face is lit with a plaintive grin as his melodic, Antivan-accented voice rings out:

"Averesk? I'm looking for Kostos, or Nikos Averesk! Have you seen them?"

It's not even entirely clear how he got here, because nobody saw him enter or leave the ferry, and this is not a person who escapes notice easily. Maybe he's a ghost. Maybe he's been living under the island this entire time.

"You there, please! I'm looking for my cousins!"

Comments

[lumelume]

Mado barely hesitates before he's upside down, walking on his hands with a truly uncanny fluency. He rests on one to flourish the other in a mock, mirror-image bow, then, without putting his other hand back down, easily half-cartwheels back onto his feet.

"Thank you for stopping, ladies and gentlemen, to witness the talents and mysteries of the great Volpinello!" he crows, speaking not only to the twins, but to any other shady types who may be passing.
"What's this behind your ear, Signore? A silver you've left tucked into your hat?"
He produces such a coin, clear as day, from a bewildered drunkard whose face indicates he's about to think he's just been robbed. Prepared for this reaction, Mado beams.
"Worry not, Signore, for I shall return it, if you'll only give me your hand!"

When the man does so, he receives a firm shake with the hand holding the silver; and when he draws his own back, it now contains a walnut.
Luckily for everyone, he's too drunk to do anything but stare at it.

[exequy]

“Maker,” Kostos says at the hand walking, and then at the rest he says nothing at all, only hopes that the slight resemblance between them is invisible to anyone passing by who doesn’t know to look for it.

Into the silence following the production of the walnut, he says, “Uncle Manetto.”

That’s his prediction, based on hazy 20-plus-year-old memories about which of their relatives was the most ridiculous.

[exsecutus]

Nikos has leaned up against the wall of the tavern, unwilling to trust himself to remain upright. He grunts at Kostos' guess, first.

"Only has daughters," he counters, after a second of observation. The drunk man is now gawping at Mado, and then at the walnut, and then at Mado again, utterly perplexed by this development. "Could be his wife's fault. She's stubborn enough. Frustrated, he strays... gets himself a half-wit."

And before Mado can do too much more, he shoves away from the wall and goes to grab him by the elbow.

"All right, we believe you. Let him keep that walnut, don't grab it. What do you want us to do with you?"

[lumelume]

Although surprised by the abruptness with which Nikos stills him, Mado isn't upset by it, instead seeming to spring right back to the same pleasant attentiveness as before.

"Do with me?" he asks blithely, "I just wanted to meet you, cousin. Both of you!"

[exequy]

Kostos spreads his arms at his sides, equal parts helplessness and an at your service sort of gesture, while the drunk man begins trying to crack the walnut on the wall beyond Mado.

"You've met us. I am sure it was everything you dreamed it would be. Now what?"

[exsecutus]

"We're terrible," Nikos adds to that recommendation. "Fucking arseholes. Kostos is the worst of the two of us. Do you want an introduction to one of the men who might be your father? We can guess. Invite him here. See what happens. Otherwise we--"

He gestures to himself and Kostos, very large and exaggerated.

"--are with Riftwatch. And busy. And there is only so much space."

Not true. The Gallows is a Maker-damned vault of space. Mado could have his own wing. Please, let him go back to Antiva.

[lumelume]

For the first time, the smile diminishes. Surely-- surely they have more to talk about?

"Well I want," he stammers, with an edge of urgency, "...well what I want is to know you!" Looking between them, his pleading eyes bear a striking resemblance to a dog begging for scraps.

[exequy]

A dog, Kostos might give scraps. He likes dogs, and dogs generally can’t help themselves. Even when they’re idiots, he can’t hold it against them.

So if he decides not to hold anything against Mado, it won’t be a compliment.

“What is the process for that,” he says, and it sure would be nice if someone were here to be on Mado’s side and point out that the twins are the worst and wanting to get to know your relatives is actually completely reasonable, but they aren’t—“exactly?”

[exsecutus]

Nikos--who does not like dogs, but does have a grudging sympathy for hopeless cases, and so is coming at this from the other angle, in a way--should maybe be content to let Kostos do the talking. He's said pretty much all that there is to say.

But they've been vying for the last word since before they could talk, so--

"We're shit at being known. Allergies."

[lumelume]

It has never been this difficult for Mado to endear himself to anyone, with the exception, of course, of the elf side of his family. It's a familiar feeling of rejection, but somehow less personal-- they barely know each other, after all-- and therefore, hope can be maintained.

"You know," he persists, "eating together, drinking, spending time in the evenings-- you're very busy of course, but I promise, I can be invisible until you want me there!" The cuffs of his yellow sleeves are bunched up in his anxious hands.

[exequy]

Invisible until they want him there seems like a big thing to promise, considering it’s already not true. But it might at least be interesting to see what that means in practice. Maybe it will mean Mado disappears forever.

(I’m so sorry. I love him.)

Kostos doesn’t say any of that. He only looks at Nikos, sullen but resigned.

[exsecutus]

Nikos looks back at Kostos. He holds the look for a moment, deadpan, then bugs his eyes at his brother. What.

"You're the oldest, fuckface." But he switches to Nevarran in the next breath-- "We have to put up with him or he's going to be a fucking disaster. At least until we can write and get someone to take him away. I'm not having dinner with him."

[lumelume]

As they confer, Mado simply continues to smile hopefully between them, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.

[exequy]

"I'm not having dinner with either of you," Kostos says, "last scion."

Who's a fuckface now.

But he looks Mado over, from his hopeful smile to his bouncing feet, and fine. Whatever. Fine.

"We can't house you. Only people who work for Riftwatch can stay in the fortress." You know, probably, and he isn't about to go ask the scoutmaster how she feels about people letting their previously-unknown half-Dalish bastard cousins have sleepovers. "And if you are arrested for vagrancy we will not come for you."

[exsecutus]

Nikos shoots Kostos a look so vile it could strip paint. He entertains a brief fantasy of pushing a coin through his brother's eyeball. Surely Mado has one he could spare. And then he could turn it into a walnut and make it appear out of nowhere again. What a trick.

He sets the fantasy aside, with some reluctance.

"We're saying we will tolerate you."

In case that was unclear.

[lumelume]

Mado listens, and he nods, and gives the pronounced impression that he is holding his breath. When Nikos finally gives the verdict, the immediate exhale of relief signals that this was in fact the case, and is the only warning Nikos gets before Mado launches at him in a bone-cracking embrace.

"Oh thank you, thank you! You won't regret it!" he exclaims into his cousin's shirt.
He knows Kostos' stance on hugs, but Athessa assured him Nikos very much enjoys them.

[exequy]

Mado’s approach makes Kostos take a step back—from him, from Nikos—and then he folds his arms behind his back and watches, looking very nearly pleasant.

[exsecutus]

"Fuck," Nikos says, strangled. The hug has his arms mostly pinned to his sides, but he manages to do a slapping kind of pat on Mado like someone savagely trying to puff dust off of their clothes. "I'm regretting it. I'm fucking regretting--"

He can see Kostos over Mado's shoulder. What if he punched his mouth off? Just right off of his face. It would be so satisfying. Mado will need to stop squeezing him with his body first, but then--

"--everything. From birth. Get off." Slapping turns to shoving, as much as Nikos can shove from a straightjacketed hug. "Off."

[lumelume]

It's not too hard to extract oneself from Mado once the attempt is begun, and he releases Nikos with a giant, idiotic grin.

"Don't regret a thing, cousin! It'll be worth it, you'll see!" He holds his hands out theatrically, almost as though threatening to hug him again, though he doesn't.

[exequy]

Kostos hums, an ambiguously skeptical sound. But at least he's not saying I doubt it or impossible outright—because Mado has already earned his keep (or his lack of keep; his right to exist around them; whatever) a little bit by making Nikos endure being hugged.

[exsecutus]

If Nikos could fold in on himself and collapse away from the threat of a second hug, without indicating a retreat or showing a hint of weakness, he would do it. Scratching compulsively at his arm, he stands his ground, scowls, and lets that be his barrier to a follow-up from Mado.

"Him next," he says, jerking his head at Kostos. He can feel that stupid almost smile on his brother's face. Like the wrinkle of a current across a pond, as a snake slides into the water.

[lumelume]

Glancing from Nikos to Kostos, Mado shakes his head with a smile.
"Oh, no, he already told me I can't," he cheerfully exclaims, "but you're the one who loves hugs. That's what Athessa said."
He trusts her implicitly.

[exequy]

Kostos doesn't say anything. But he does—somehow, miraculously, despite everything, despite the appearance of a bizarre semi-cousin (or liar) from Antiva—smirk.

This might suddenly be the best day he's had all year.

[exsecutus]

Nikos shoots a daggered glare at Kostos, without bothering to disguise it. Clearly this isn't really Mado's fault, and Nikos will remember this. That doesn't mean he's reversed his position on Mado or anything, but still.

"They fucked with you," he says, flatly, "because I hate them too. You need to learn to read people."

[lumelume]

Being fucked with isn't ideal, but this isn't the first time it's happened; there's something else with which Mado takes issue first.

"You hate them? But Athessa is so kind, and Kostos is your brother."