MHA #6, Late Saturday Morning

[arboreal_priestess]

As a rule, Prices didn't RSVP to things. All that did was let your enemies know where you were going to be at any given day or time. So when an invitation for a weekend on the island showed up in Oregon (and not sent by Verity), there had been no indication that it had been received, never mind decided upon.

And, just because they were paranoid safety-conscious, they'd skipped the first day of festivities, figuring anyone keeping tabs on them would note their absence and decide they weren't going to show up.

But, let's be real. No true cryptozoologist would pass up visiting an island with gremlins, alots, and teal deer in it, especially an island right next to what might be the only surviving male dragon in the world. That, added to the possibility of annoying their sister and/or cousin? Made Parents' Weekend an event not to be missed.

"I'm telling you," Antimony complained quietly as they walked down the hallway, "it's not yet noon. Verity's not even gonna be awake yet."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure she will be," Sarah said, biting back a grin. "She's got the mice, remember?"

"And I'm telling you, I don't trust that smile," Alex said before knocking briskly on the door of Number Six.

[Specifically for one, but open!]

Comments

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

"It's okay," Sarah said to Liam in a stage whisper. "He's just mad he's not the only god in the house anymore."

To the mice, she was just an Empty One and that was a species designation. She was from the Baker line and the mice only worshipped the Prices.

[firstofitskind]

"I can see why that might make him a little upset," Liam replied back. "Sarah, do you eat eggs? There's plenty of ketchup." And ketchup and eggs wasn't even a totally disgusting combination, by human standards.

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

Alex rolled his eyes at her.

"Yup!" Sarah said brightly. "Do you have tobasco sauce? Or steak sauce, that works, too."

[firstofitskind]

... Okay, steak sauce on eggs was maybe a little weird. Tobasco was... passable.

"I think so," Liam said with a nod.

"You sure you don't want any?" he checked with Antimony. "You've had a long trip, after all."

"At the very least," he added, turning towards the kitchen, "I'm making more coffee. You're still on, what, your second cup?" he asked Verity.

[precise_priestess]

"You're doing the cooking, right?" Antimony checked. "Okay, yeah, but I get to check the expiration dates on every ingredient."

She gave him another once over.

"Who's better?" she asked. "Honey Badger or Balor?"

Context? She don't need no stinkin' context.

[firstofitskind]

Which was too bad, because Liam was hopelessly lost. Contextually, anyway. In the kitchen, though, he was moving around with the confidence of someone who knew where everything was kept.

"... Uh," was all he managed, shooting a pleading look in Verity's direction that clearly said 'explain, please?'

[precise_priestess]

"Ugh, never mind," Antimony said, pulling a face as she consigned Liam to the world of the hopelessly uncool. "Forget it."

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

*Say Honey Badger,* Sarah said to him, keeping up a verbal conversation with Alex and Verity at the same time. *Even if he is vastly over-hyped these days. But Balor has the personality of the world's douchiest houseplant, even when he's possessed by the Firebird Force.*

Beat.

*It's a comic thing. I listen to Antimony and Artie talk about this stuff all the time.*

[firstofitskind]

"Honey Badger," Liam repeated dutifully. "Even if he is vastly over-hyped these days. But Balor has the personality of the world's, ah, douchiest houseplant, even when he's possessed by the Firebird Force."

He didn't know if Antimony would buy it, especially after that hesitation, but he appreciated Sarah's help all the same. Unrepentant troll though she was, it was nice to know he had someone on his side.

[precise_priestess]

Yeah, Antimony was already making faces at her cousin. "Hey, no cheating!"

[arboreal_priestess]

"Then no grilling," Verity said, sticking her tongue out at her baby sister. "And no being a dick to Liam when he's literally making you something to eat."

[precise_priestess]

"I just wanted to see if you'd finally managed to date someone interesting," Antimony said, making a face.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Then ask him to tell you something interesting about himself and see what he says," Verity told her, grabbing her half-drunk coffee off the table, pressing a kiss to Liam's cheek, and heading back into the living room to continue catching up with Alex.

[firstofitskind]

Heck, Liam could even offer something interesting about himself!

"The cop thing is pretty recent," he said, grabbing a block of cheese, carton of eggs, and a bell pepper from the fridge. "Before that, I was a bodyguard. For an alien."

[precise_priestess]

Antimony looked at him, surprised, and then kicked a chair over to the stove, so she could sit.

"Go on." It was more an order than a suggestion.

[firstofitskind]

Liam grinned as he got to work chopping up the ingredients for the omelette. "I'm sure Verity's told you a little bit about how there are people here from all different sorts of realities?" he checked.

[precise_priestess]

"Yeah yeah, your basic multi-dimensional nexus," Antimony said with a nod. "Probably on the vertical axis from ours on the honeycomb, rather than the horizontal."

"Are we talking multi-dimensional mechanics?" Alex asked from the other room.

"Yeah but we're not talking about reptile ones, so you don't care," Antimony called back. "Just keep gossiping with Verity and ignore us."

You know, as per usual.

[firstofitskind]

"Right." That was not the way Liam had learned about multiple realities, but getting in to a discussion of how different realities viewed alternate dimensions was a talk for another time.

"Well, in mine, aliens came to Earth about ten years ago. I stopped an assassin from killing one of them, and got offered a job as a result." A heavily edited version of events, but essentially the truth.

[precise_priestess]

"So why are you here acting as Sheriff Podunk, instead of off protecting aliens?" Antimony asked. "Are you also susceptible to the lure of dance enough to leave your real profession behind?"

"I heard that!"

"I meant you too!"

[firstofitskind]

"No more aliens to protect," Liam said, his tone clipped. "And I'm not much of a dancer, but I'm learning." Verity's other profession was obviously a point of contention as far as the youngest Price was concerned. Interesting.

[precise_priestess]

Damn near everything about Verity was a point of contention as far as the youngest Price was concerned. Their relationship was pretty...fraught.

"What happened to the aliens?" Antimony asked. "The common cold really that lethal to them?"

[firstofitskind]

"They hit an evolutionary dead end," Liam replied.

Oh look.

Things that needed chopping.

You go attack that bell pepper, Liam, before it attacks you.

[precise_priestess]

"Wow, okay, you're not sublimating any kind of aggression into that knifework or anything," Antimony noted.

This was your reminder than of the Price siblings, Verity was the dumb one.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, but Verity clearly had the upper hand on Antimony, at least, when it came to knowing when to stop needling. That was definitely something.

"It wasn't a particularly enjoyable time of my life," was all Liam offered. Given that it had ended with him dying on top of the whole failure-to-save-everyone thing.

[precise_priestess]

Whole papers could be written about Antimony's psychological profile and most of them would start with the phrase 'acting out.'

"So then what were the aliens like?" she asked. "Or is that why you didn't like your job? Are you some kind of weird alien hater?"

The rest would probably say something like 'likes poking people's buttons.'