agentlelog | [open] try hard to do your best. the magpie will have his way

Who: Mollymauk and YOU
When: Early in the month.
Where: Various
What: Open influence catch-all. (Sharing is Caring, Visual Disturbances, Ore's a Plenty)
Warnings: Will update and label as they come in, but for right now none.

𝐢. 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠

[Molly sides with the oppressed and the people who aren't privileged, so the idea that his actions are tipping the scales irritates him. Of course, he's going to do something about it. The thing he's not anticipating is that the landens are emboldened and still looking to lash out, especially when pressed by a Stranger that they believed supported them. What Molly had gone into expecting to be a nice conversation has turned ugly as he bolts behind a cart while a landen shopkeeper pelts him with rotten food.

"HERE. SHARE THIS!"

Right. So this is going to require a different kind of tactic, especially now that it's become something of a scene.

𝐢𝐢. 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

[Taking jobs outside of the city becomes something that Molly leaps onto without the slightest thought. Playing bodyguard isn't all that difficult, and while Lady Abigail works her magic, he's taken up a watch alongside his partner from a safe distance.]

Is it awful to take bets on what the coming danger is this time? I'm hoping for something unifying.

𝐢𝐢𝐢. 𝐨𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲

[Despite being irritated at the Guilds and the landens... Again, Molly wants to get out of the city and stretch his legs and work out some frustration free of the oppressive class wars. With Caleb here now, taking anyone else seems stupid and dangerous, but he didn't really get the choice. The second he agreed, the shopkeeper paired him off with someone else who was interested, regardless of whether or not they knew each other.

So that's fun.

Luckily, for all that Molly is ostentatious and fabulous, he's extremely well-traveled and knows what he's doing, which is fairly impressive and may save the mission some grief. As he and his partner get within a hundred feet of a campsite not far from the mountains themselves, with a campfire that's still smoldering slightly, Molly puts a hand up.]

Is it just me or does that seem a little bit like a trap?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't try to make sense of it. You'll only spoil it. The point is I'm here, I'm alive, and... Well. I'm still deciding on the rest of it.

[Molly's instantly distracted by the Jewel that Caleb produces, which is good because... He really really doesn't want to linger on the specifics.] Oh that's lovely. Matches your eyes. [Wait. That came out wrong. Moving on.] ...You know, I hear the darker ones are more powerful. That one's... kind of lighter.

[Yeah, go from a compliment to something that's practically an insult. Killing it.]

[True to form, Caleb looks surprised - more surprised? - when Molly says the Jewel matches his eyes and then uncomfortable about it. But that doesn't last long since he goes back to frowning as Molly moves on.

He knows the Jewel is somehow connected to magic, that it...stores it...but in a strange way. None of it makes much sense.]

I don't really understand what they're supposed to do...I know it was just...in my room when I woke up.

What do you mean, the darker ones are more powerful?

It's a... Magic... thing. I only know some of the details, but the darker the Jewel, the more powerful you are, so if someone has a lighter Jewel than yours, you can smash them into a bloody pulp in a fight. Or at the very least intimidate them.

[Molly isn't preening that his Jewel is clearly darker than Caleb's at any rate. Caleb has him beat on knowing practical uses for magic, while Molly is just a finesse weapon cutting at threads without considering what made them.] There's also a lot of politics involved in it, but I stay out of that. I'm just trying to keep things going smoothly here so I don't waste my afterlife in another war.

[That's not a lot to go on, and Caleb is faintly disappointed because he'd...rather talk to Molly than a stranger. But...it probably is best to learn from the native people anyway.

Anyway, all of that is subsumed by Molly bringing up 'his afterlife'. Caleb's face falls and he looks away, his fingers curling into a fist around his Jewel before he shoves it back into his pocket.]

We...we failed you, Mollymauk. I'm sorry.

[His voice, his face, they're both weighed down by the guilt of it. It's been...some time since the funeral, since the death, but it all comes rushing back. They should have had a better plan, they should have been able to keep him alive.]

[Molly, who speaks of death as if it were an inconvenience, and Fayura only offered him a tiny a recompense for it, blinks at Caleb for a few moments before sighing and giving him a gentle whap on the leg with his tail.]

Don't. You'll spoil everything. No one failed me. I took a gamble and it didn't come up in my favor. It could have happened to any of us, but I'd rather it happened to me. I didn't have any regrets, and I still don't.

[At Molly's gentle rebuke, Caleb smiles sadly and faintly. His face is kept turned away for the time being.]

Alright then.

[It isn't. And he's never going to forget or feel less awful about what happened to Molly. Even if it was, as the tiefling says, a gamble. A turn of fate. But Caleb is more than used to keeping his guilt to himself and it doesn't really matter to continue to hold this bit of it tight as well.

After a few moments, he glances back up at Molly.]

We took care of them. The Iron Shepards. And rescued the others.

[There's just a little bit of fire in his voice, as he talks about killing the Shepards.]

Of course you did. [Molly seems less shocked or even excited by this than he should be, like he expected it all along. If anything, he's relieved. It means Fayura kept her word, and even if she had nothing to do with it, what he asked of her still got done.]

Y'know, that's what I asked the Queen for when I heard her calling. That's all I fucking wanted. I feel like I can breathe easy now.

Then....I'm glad.

[Caleb reaches out, now, resting a hand on Molly's arm.]

You have been missed, though. And it is...very good to see you again.

[Without hesitation, Molly places his other hand over Caleb's, finding touch where he can to reassure himself of Caleb's presence.] You lot better have missed me. I was the best of you arseholes. [It's a joke- he would be shocked to the point of requiring smelling salts if he knew even one of them thought that. He breezes past it, going straight into vulnerability.] I'm so glad you're here. Gods, I just got a group I could rely on after the circus and then this shit. It's just been me for months. I've got people, but not people. [Not the Nein. Not his new family.]

[Well, he's definitely not going to find Caleb agreeing with him on that point. He absolutely understands why Beau and Nott seem to think so now but that's not coming from a place of rationality for either of them.

Caleb has missed Molly....but he's also fairly certain the best of them is Jester. No offense, Molly. Which is to say he doesn't actually address that other than to cock his head to the side just a little and...verbally ignore it otherwise.

He'll address the vulnerability, though. Perhaps with a little of his own.]

I...am glad to see you for that reason too. To be here but...also to have you here.

[Of course, he'd prefer Nott, but....Molly is not bad either.]

To have a familiar face.

[Yeah, Molly's going back in for another hug and a cheek-kiss, pulling back quickly before Caleb can start squirming.] Absolutely. Now. How's about we skip out on the decorating while no one's looking and get a drink, and you can fill me in on all the things I've missed.

[He's not sure if it'll make him feel bad or not, but what does it matter? He wants to see what his friends have gotten up to.]

[open] try hard to do your best. the magpie will have his way

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