[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 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."

[exequy]

It's almost too much.

"You are sure no one put you up to this?" he asks Mado. "No one is paying you to have us on?"

[exsecutus]

"Athessa, maybe?"

He doesn't actually think it's her. Then again, she was a key part of this phase of fucking with them. Why not an earlier phase, too?

No, probably not.

"The basics. We both hate hugs. We both hate each other. People will try to fuck with you, us included, and if someone is paying you to fuck with us, we'll break your fingers so badly you can't do coin tricks anymore. Good?"

[lumelume]

For the first time, Mado looks like he's had the fear of the Maker struck into him. Break his fingers? Who would do such a thing??

"Good," he answers quickly, albeit woundedly, already beginning to look at his cousins a bit differently. Not so much that he won't obviously continue to love them with all his heart, but... already this is a very different situation from the one he'd imagined.

"No one put me up to it. I swear on my mother's grave." He grins earnestly.