deercountry | 08 . family drama

[ Gideon Nav is here to eat a lasagna.

And garlic bread. And cocoa. And deserts -- more than one, if possible. Secondary to this very urgent culinary mission is making sure that Paul (and to a lesser extent, Harrow, for once) keep their cool throughout the meal.

Gideon arrives in high spirits, amicable and friendly to anyone who approaches her. During any discussion of a "fern," Gideon simply zones out. Plants are kind of boring, honestly. They're like, really fancy molds, right?

During the dinner, however, it feels like Gideon is the one who's going to lose her cool. The feeling comes on slowly, and it's only when everyone is nearly done with their meal that Gideon realizes what it is.

Gideon does not ask for seconds on her lasagna. She does not finish her desert. Instead, she hungrily stares at Ruby Rose and her weird green grandfather, as if the large meal she's just eaten was nowhere near filling.

Things are going to be different here, someone kept telling her, and Gideon hadn't understood what he meant, until now. Now, she sees different, and she hates it. She wants it so, so badly. She thinks she might need a carry-out container. ]

Edited 2022-04-25 20:00 (UTC)

[Faith, likewise, tends to react to these big family dinners with something nearing discomfort. She prefers to eat with Tara up in their room. She doesn't want to leave her to her own devices while everyone else is down here being... something resembling what a family is probably supposed to look like.

She's been told by a few people she trusts to ask for what she wants. She still doesn't. How could she ask for something she doesn't trust is real?

She glances over at Gideon and her strange date, ignoring any malice she might sense off the date (She's used to it), she decides she's had enough and she's decided she's merciful enough to spare Gideon as well.]

Yo, wanna come check out the garden?

[ Faith is a hero. Faith swoops in with an offer that Gideon will be grateful for, forever after. Silently, Gideon thinks thank you, followed by I owe you one. She tries to not give any of that away, though, instead opting for a slight nod. ]

Yeah, sure. That sounds cool.

[ Plants aren't actually that cool, but whatever. Gideon wastes no time getting the fuck out of there, and once she's confident she and Faith are out of earshot of the dinner, she asks: ]

Is it always like that, down there? [ Like that is not said especially positively, and Gideon follows up with a slight grimace. ]

[Plants aren't cool at all especially because one apparently ate Oscar's hand and now everyone's mad about it, but it's a decent cover up. She gives Gideon a glance at that and huffs a humourless laugh.]

First time? [Buffy's house was like this. Buffy, Dawn, Joyce. A happy family with squabbling sisters and a loving mother. Faith went home to her empty motel room confused and more lonely than she began every time.] Yeah. More or less. I try to avoid the big family dinners.

It's weird to be on the outside. I don't, uh, actually live here. [There's an undercurrent to her tone that implies she has no idea what it's like to be on the inside too.]

[ Gideon grimly nods in agreement, relieved to not feel like an outsider for the first time all night. Family dinner is not a phrase she's confident she could even string together, and the concept itself makes Gideon feel...weird. She's not sure what else to call it. Empty, maybe? Or missing something. ]

Yeah. I can see why.

[ That last bit makes Gideon's eyebrows raise. ]

You don't? Then why are you here? [ Not said in the way that implies Gideon doesn't want Faith to be here -- she's glad she is. More like: why put yourself through this if you don't have to? ]

Well, for the month I do. They were worried about it being just as bad as the Octobers of the dream, and I didn't want to put my roommate in danger so I figured this place could use the extra fighters if it really was as bad.

[Faith would have been fine. Faith would have thrived in an apocalypse, she's the one that monsters have nightmares about, she's the biggest monster on the block. But obviously... Tara wouldn't. So they're here. At Willow's house.]

I'm friends with Ruby, Ange and Willow, but not... y'know. Inner circle or anything. Ozpin and I don't really get along. [Something something chased him out of his house with a crossbow and then hunted him halfway across Trench.]

[ Gideon nods, all sympathy. Whatever reason Faith has for disliking Ozpin, well, Gideon assumes it must be a good one. (It's so much easier to think of him as a creep than anything else. It's a hell of a lot further from wanting.) ]

Yeah, Ruby's cool. [ Gideon palms a leaf on one of the plants. They're all unfamiliar, as if this place is determined to say: you are not one of us. ]

Being inner circle's overrated, anyway. Probably means just more stupid dinners. [ Gideon makes a face, as if that fools anyone. ] On the Ninth, it meant you had to read shitty books and do extra prayer, which, ew, no thanks.

[Faith doesn't challenge her on it, though she knows there's a loneliness beneath it. She feels it too. Part of her even wants it from Gideon's own house, another place that seems to accept anyone, another place she's not been invited into. It's colder. But she's always preferred the cold.

The warm love and affection that these people can just express like it's free, like they don't want something from one another, it makes her want to hurl. It makes her want to run.

It's much easier to deal with when she knows she's being used.]

You know, I don't think I know much about your world. You and uh, Doctor Bones, the necromancer guy you live with, you're from the same world, right?

[She scrunches up her nose though.]

I do know what that's like. Went to a religious school. Being inner circle means having absolutely no personality, just joining this faceless masses and praying to some fucker who's not even listening. I used to cuss him out in my head. It was funny.

[ Gideon quirks half a smile, more rueful than it is amused. The Ninth isn't a school, but Faith does get it. Gideon has cussed out Harrow and the nuns and the Tomb plenty, and not just in her head.

Doctor Bones doesn't sit right, though, after everything Gideon knows. And saying that they're from the same world is a bit of an understatement. ]

Yeah. Doctor Bones isn't his name there, though. [ Obviously. ] We call him our Kindly Emperor, or God, if you wanna cut to the chase.

So I guess I've cussed him out, but mostly, I cussed out the fucked-up corpse buried in the center of my home planet.

[ Gideon shrugs, trying to make something fucked up seem a little more normal, a little less of a big deal. ]

So I guess things are better here than the Ninth, even if the dinners are weird as shit. [ a pause, and then, quieter: ] Hope it's better for you, too.

[She promptly stops walking because what the fuck???

There's a lot to unpack here, like, a whole lot. She doesn't exclaim her shock to the world, she doesn't even really react all that much, she just stops and stares in shock, processing the information presented.

Kindly Emperor? God?

And now she's stuck on a sneering voice in the back of her head saying "What did you expect, you naive idiot?"

It makes sense, really. God. She's been calling God "Doctor Bones."

She keeps walking.]

Guess that explains why he doesn't give out his name, huh.

[She's processing it. She shakes her head, just the slightest bit disbelieving. But she believes, for better or worse. As if only having just now processed it, she cracks a half hearted smile at the well wishes.]

I was in prison and it was still better than that place. Or maybe I just felt less powerless. [She shrugs, like that's not a depressing thing to say.]

What about... y'know, your house? Is it...? [Better? A family? Kindly?

Does God hate her as much as they told her he did?]

[ Gideon stops when Faith stops, and follows when she keeps moving. What else can Gideon do? The Sixth might be better at this kind of honesty, but it's still new to Gideon. The Ninth is a house filled with secrets, and right now, Gideon acutely understands why. ]

Yeah. It's, uh. John. His name.

[ Another secret, another betrayal. He's God. He's just some guy. He's too much for Gideon to comprehend, sometimes, and so she doesn't.

Worse than prison is a bleak assessment, and Gideon winces, unsure of what to say. She doesn't say anything, for a moment. For once, she's thinking.

Gideon thinks about training with Paul at dawn, about eating his bad-but-getting-better food, about doing her part to keep his hair as messy as possible. She thinks about Kaworu, floating off the roof in increasingly stupider ways, about the lizard they are raising together, about puns and piggyback rides.

She thinks about Harrow, because Gideon is always thinking about Harrow, about the fragile peace that the two of them share, about the little divot above her lip, about how Gideon gets to see her first thing when she wakes up and last thing before she goes to sleep. About the question she wants to ask, so, so badly, and the fear that's settled deep in her heart over the answer being no.

And then there's God, and he's the odd one out, the only person Gideon does her best not to think about. Kaworu and Paul and even Harrow will love him, will call him Teacher, and she won't, and maybe that's the only thing that stands between their house and kindly. ]

Yeah. [ Gideon breathes, at last ] Yeah, I think -- I think it could be.

[ she offers Faith something that would be a smile, if it weren't so fucking bitter. ]

Except that I'm the one who keeps fucking it up, you know?

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[Grandfather might be a little bit of a strong word to call Ozpin. What made their relations and relationship a thing was a long and sort of awkward story. He was still her former teacher and ally in a fight they probably couldn't win first and foremost, but family was slowly creeping it's way up the list. She doesn't notice the looks she's getting from Gideon at first, she's too busy chatting with Ange and stuffing her own face.

Eventually she does get the feeling something is up and she kind of looks the other girls way. They had fought together once or twice and she had spent a bit of time with Gideon at Paul's party. But she didn't quite understand what this was coming from.

Eventually she'll speak up.]

Hey. You uh-

Want to play some Mario Cart?

[ Gideon blinks, as if shocked, or stunned out of whatever weird shit she was pulling. Ruby asks a question that's she's not quite sure how to parse -- something about a game, maybe? If you play it?

She doesn't want to seem weird, though. Or weirder than she already is. So after a moment's hesitation, she manages to respond with: ] -- Oh. Uh. Yeah. Sure?

[ very smooth. nice work, griddle. ]

What's Mario Cart?

[ The table is cleared, the dishes shuffled away and their guests waved off to socialize. Paul has already been swept off somewhere by Oscar, and Ozpin is peripherally aware of their conversation as a distant thrum of secondhand emotion. He does not try to pry. Instead, he thinks he might, however briefly, extricate his companion from Ruby's rather high-energy clutches. ]

Miss Nav? [ She isn't his student, but the formality is polite habit. ] Would you care for a cup of cocoa? We do have tea, if you prefer.

[ Who the fuck is Miss Nav? It takes Gideon a moment to realize oh, shit, the weird green professor is talking to her, and she turns around a bit too quickly once she's realized she's the dumbest person in the universe. ]

Oh, uh, sure? I'll take the hot chocolate stuff. [ hopefully that's what cocoa is. Gideon is, like, ninety-nine percent sure, but it's that one percent that's kind of stressing her out. ] Thanks.

[ this is a very weird offer to make to a total stranger, so she adds: ]

What's...up?

[ nice. very smooth. ]

[ An unhelpful habit, then; he resolves to simply Gideon. His answering smile is mild and fond, reassuring. ]

Nothing of note. It's become uncommon that we find ourselves entertaining new company... I was rather hoping you'd indulge an old man in conversation.

[ He turns away, towards the kitchen, his head tipped in invitation. ]

[ Old man strikes Gideon as not an entirely accurate way to describe this person. The nuns and cloisterites are old, compared to them, this guy practically has boyish charm.

(There's also the option that he's old in the way a Lyctor is old, but Lyctors don't host functional, warm dinner parties. They only host cold, distant, sexy ones.) ]

I mean, you're not even that old, but sure. Guess you just have a killer diet and workout routine.

[ What's his secret?? Gideon follows, looking forward to the hot chocolate more than the conversation. ]

[ He chuckles in the way of a man enjoying a private joke, and does not answer. He simply leads them into the kitchen, instead.

It is very little like the Bone House kitchen. There is a similar prevalence of vast marble countertops and grand stately windows for the breakfast nook, but here the space is cluttered with color and life. There are ferns dramatically overgrowing their pots by the window; someone's pothos has overtaken much of a wall; mixing bowls and cookware have been left out, in clashing shades of 1950's chipped enamel, with a jumble of notes like RUBY'S EXTRA AWESOME COOKIE SURPRISE and Please don't eat this. There are four cookbooks in sight, in various states of tattered disrepair. Someone's left a dogeared novel by the science-fantasy microwave. There are Dust shell casings, hopefully empty, by the fridge.

Ozpin waves her to a kitchen chair and goes clattering around for a pot and a pint of milk. Distantly, Ruby is chattering at Ange; Willow carries a conversation in tones of gentle exasperation; the ceiling creaks as Qrow walks upstairs. ]

We are glad to have you, you know. Many of us here were residents of the dream that came before this place. I suppose it has been an easier adjustment for us than for most, but one does get rather set in one's ways.

[ Gideon takes a seat, as instructed, her gaze fully trained on whatever the Please don't eat this note is attached to. Like, what if she ate it? What would happen? Doesn't this house know that a surefire way to get someone to eat something is to tell them not to?

Thinking about anything else -- about the bustle, or the voices, or the way that this place seems full in a way that hers doesn't, is too alienating. Best to focus on silly notes. ]

Honestly, Trench wasn't much of an adjustment for me, either.

[ Small talk is still something that's new for Gideon, but she's gotten a little better at it over the months. Better than Harrow, at least, which is saying absolutely nothing. But still. ]

I came from... well, you wouldn't know the place, so let's just call it the Spooky Empire. Full of molded-over catacombs and ghosts and necromancers and shit. This place is like the comics, compared to the Ninth.

[ They have fried dough here and everything!! ]

Anyway it's, uh. Cool to be here. [ manners, Gideon! ] Your garlic bread was good.

[ Genuinely everything she has just said— Spooky Empire, catacombs, necromancers— strikes him as concerning, particularly given the company Willow had admitted to keeping. He opts not to pursue it. ]

Well, I certainly appreciate the compliment. I don't often have reason to cook for company. [ It is only with Oscar's influence that he cooks so regularly at all. Regardless, he sets the milk to simmer and turns to her, interest piqued. ]

Adventure comics, I suppose? I've become something of a collector for literature from our assorted worlds.

[ Other, more ghostly and illiterate goths might not want to broach this subject with this strange, weirdly kind man. He's got some strong teacher vibes, which are deeply incompatible with anything Gideon would consider horny.

However: Gideon has never really been one to read a room. ]

Yeah, sometimes. But mostly porn.

[ She says, matter-of-factly. This is a normal thing to say as a guest in someone's house. ]

You want some? It's not exactly smart-person stuff, but there are some pretty decent articles every once in a while. Like, tips to care for your sword on a budget, and stuff like that.

[ His face crumples in real time. ]

[ What's left is an expression of strained politeness and a marked uncertainty as to whether or not she is joking. Is sword a euphemism? Why do indecent comics contain advice on weapons maintenance? Who is this marketed for?

(He should not explore that last thought too closely; the entire Rose-Branwen family does come to mind.)

Why does she think it would appeal to him? ]

I— no, I think I will keep to my... preferred genres. Thank you.

[ This is an interaction that is going normally. ]

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08 . family drama

gideon nav | ota

during the dinner

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2/3 i lied

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During the dinner.

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after dinner

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nsfw topics

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