arboreal_priestess | MHA #6, Thursday Evening (Reply)

Verity and Liam hadn't spoken much on the way back from the docks. He'd been stationed elsewhere, just in case a different angle had afforded them more information, but hadn't come back with much beyond what Verity had noticed. It put her in a mood and Liam was polite enough to respect her need for brooding silence as they made their way back to her - their apartment.

She stomped up the stairs, taking her frustrations out on the poor, innocent banister, which had never done anything bad to anyone. None of the neighbors poked their heads out to see what the ruckus was about - it was Fandom, most people didn't bother checking on a little noise unless it was also accompanied by screaming. That just served to make Verity grumpier. Baltimore was about to be a battleground, and the rest of the building wasn't even going to notice unless the Covenant decided to firebomb her while she slept.

Somehow, that particular thought didn't do anything to help her mood. She dug her keys out of her pocket, grumbling as she jabbed them into the lock--

--and froze as the doorknob shifted under her hand. The door wasn't locked. But the door had been locked when she left the apartment after Liam's phone call. She'd locked it from the inside, and she'd left via the kitchen window, like she normally did.

With a glance at Liam, she drew her gun.

Liam	Yeah, Liam was right there with you, Verity. He'd started reaching for his own weapon as soon as Verity had paused while unlocking the door. Weapon ready, he gave her a short, sharp nod. Whoever- or whatever- was on the other side of that door, he had her back.
Verity	Verity pressed herself to the side of the door, reached over, and twisted the knob, shoving the door open in the same gesture. It banged against the wall, and she spun into the doorway, pistol in front of her in a shooter's stance.
Uncle Mike	There was a tall, neatly-groomed man standing in her hall with an automatic crossbow in his hands. It was loaded, and aimed at Verity's stomach. He raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Is that how you say hello now?" he asked.
Verity	"Uncle Mike!" Verity didn't lower her pistol, or order Liam to stand down. She was grinning, though. "What's the password?"
Liam	... Uncle Mike? That Verity had a family member he'd never heard her speak of didn't actually concern him. Nor did the fact that said family member had shown up unannounced. He wasn't sure how how he felt about the fact that the man had apparently broken in to what was now also his home. So yeah. Not lowering that weapon, just watching the exchange and letting Verity take point on this one.
Uncle Mike	Mike's eyes flicked over to Liam as well, though he kept his crossbow trained on Verity. There was no way he'd be able to take out both of them at once, so better to keep his draw where he knew he could take out one if he had to. "There is no password," he replied. "If you need a password, you're probably already dead, and that makes it a moot point. Now get in here before you scare the neighbors."
Verity	Verity beamed, clicking the safety on her pistol into place before replacing it in its holster and stepping through the open door. The mice - who had been obeying her edict never to let themselves be seen from the hall, and were consequentially plastered against the wall just inside - cheered loudly. "What are you doing here?" she asked, letting Liam in behind her to close and lock the door. She sniffed the air. "Is that pot roast?" Uncle Mike just kept looking at her, eyebrow - and crossbow - still raised. Oh, right. Before you scare the neighbors was the first half of the family passcode. "I mean, the neighbors don't scare easy," she said. "I'm pretty sure they’ve seen it all before." She was going to owe Liam such an explanation.
Liam	Yeah, she so did, and his expression said as much as he tucked his own gun away. "I'm gonna see about investing in better locks," he groused. "After you introduce me," he added, with a pointed look at Verity.
Aeslin Mice	"Hail!" chorused the mice. "Hail the High Priest of Goddammit Eat Something Already!"
Liam	"... Or they could, I guess," Liam commented, watching the mice with dry amusement, even through his annoyance.
Verity	"I mean, they're not wrong," Verity said, still beaming. She knew Liam was grumpy - couldn't blame him, really - but the heavy knot in her chest was starting to loosen a bit. Her family was here. "Liam, this is Uncle Mike, a cryptozoologist from the Chicago area who specializes in water-based cryptids. Technically no bio relation, but anyone who puts up with as much of our crap as he does should get to be an honorary relation, or at least get hazard pay." She gave her uncle a mischievous smile. "That's why he's only a High Priest, and not a God. If you want to be a God, you need to bang a Priestess, and Aunt Lea wouldn't approve."
Uncle Mike	"And speaking of, this must be the new god I've heard so much about," Mike said, holding out his hand for a shake; his crossbow set aside as soon as Verity had given then other half of the passcode. "Alex spoke highly of you and, surprisingly, so did Antimony. Pleasure. Full name Michael Gucciard, but you can call me Mike. Or Uncle Mike. I'm happy to answer to either."
Liam	"Liam Kincaid," he replied, even though Mike likely already knew as much. He took the offered hand and clasped it briefly, just long enough to be polite. He was careful, as he always was, not to let any discomfort show on his face or in his body language. To those with shaqarava, a handshake was usually a prelude to a Sharing, an intensely private gesture that implied a certain level of intimacy. This was directly at odds with the human custom of it being fairly common formal greeting. "Glad to hear I apparently pass muster."
Uncle Mike	"Well, it would take someone pretty special for Very to show him around to the family," Mike said easily. "So we're not surprised. Okay, a little surprised that Antimony agrees, but..." He just shrugged. Because Antimony.
Verity	"Okay, but Uncle Mike," Verity interrupted, "you didn't answer the two most important questions. What are you doing here and is that pot roast?"
Uncle Mike	"Your father called me and said you needed backup," he said, finally smiling a bit. "And yes, it's pot roast. I figured you'd be going largely nocturnal for the duration of the shit that's about to hit the fan, and there’s no such thing as too much readily available protein."
Verity	Verity grinned even harder. "See, I almost didn't need to get a passcode from you. The pot roast would have been effective proof of identity."
Uncle Mike	"Yes, but if you hadn't confirmed my identity, I would have shot you on general principle," said Uncle Mike, fondly. "Come over here and give me a hug, or I may shoot you anyway." Verity was happy to oblige and Mike wrapped his arms around her tiny form, letting his worry and concern for her show on his face now that she couldn't see it.
Liam	Liam's gaze met Mike's, and his expression softened just a bit at the obvious concern on the other man's face. Because in that, they were on the same page. "Now that we've established that no one's going to shoot anyone, we should get down to business."
Uncle Mike	"Yes, like agreeing your locks are terrible," Uncle Mike informed them, pleasantries apparently completed. "I picked them in under a minute. No one came out to see what I was doing. I even passed someone in the downstairs hall, and all I got was a glare and a grunt." He scowled briefly. "It's a miracle you're still alive."
Verity	"Fandom's special that way," Verity said cheerfully, pulling out of the hug. "Though whoever you passed in the hall would still be good in a fight." No, she didn't know who he passed, but she did know her neighbors. And the island's residents in general. "Where's Aunt Lea?" I asked, then paused. "Please tell me she stayed home and isn't, like, interrogating the Chesapeake Bay." As an aside to Liam, she added, "Aunt Lea's an Oceanid. You could say that Uncle Mike literally fell in love with his work." The Covenant had a history with Oceanids, which was why Verity was concerned. It wasn't a pretty history, either. Then again, the Covenant didn't have a pretty history with anyone, so far as she could tell.
Uncle Mike	"We met in Palm Beach," Mike said, with another one of those fond smiles. "She thought I had gotten a cramp and attempted to save me, ruining several days of. research in the process. It was all very romantic." Apparently, some things bred true for the family, even if they weren't actually related. "Anyway, she stayed home," he said reassuringly. "I love your family, and you know there's nothing I wouldn't do for your father, but the day I bring my wife into the path of a Covenant purge is the day the papers report on my mysterious drowning." Again, some things bred true.
Liam	"Glad to hear it," Liam said. "Not that I blame anyone for choosing not to cut and run if they were already here," he shrugged, "but that's different."
Verity	"How long are you staying?" Verity asked. "Where are you staying?"
Uncle Mike	"Here, at least for tonight," he said, in a tone that left no room for arguing.
Liam	What was with her family and just declaring themselves guests? "Where?" she asked, folding her arms. "The spare room belongs to the mice and, even so, we haven't finished moving all of Liam's stuff in there yet." Or really any of Liam's stuff. It had been a day already and it wasn't even dinnertime yet.
Liam	Not that he had all that much. Some books, a few trinkets... let's face it, a good portion of his clothes and weaponry had already taken up residence in the apartment. But still, he appreciated the sentiment. "There's a perfectly good hotel on the island," Liam pointed out.
Uncle Mike	"There's a couch," he said. "I fold." "Uncle Mike—" "Your father gave me a précis on the whole situation, Verity, including your on-again, off-again ally. But what good am I to you if I'm snug in my bed when he and his cohorts come after you? I'm not saying you two haven't taken every precaution, but this is the Covenant. We assume the worst and go from there." He seemed to realize he was lecturing and shrugged, giving them an apologetic smile. "If it were up to me, we'd be relocating to somewhere more secure. We may have to do that anyway, but I figured I'd hear your game plan before I started packing your bags for you."
Verity	With a pang, Verity realized he was right. As much as she wanted to stay in her place, they couldn't afford bringing the Covenant here. This place would be a smorgasbord for them. Too many weird critters, too many weird people. It would be a blood bath, even if they won. She gave Liam an apologetic look of her own. "You're right," she said. "We can't stay here. Not on the island."
Liam	Liam, meanwhile, was reaching a similar conclusion. The island was a nexus, and usually pretty damn hard to just stumble across, otherwise he was sure they'd see a fairly steady influx of tourists. Still, it wasn't impossible to find. And that was all they needed, for the next invasion to be a Covenant purge. "So where do we go, then?"
Verity	"I can't stay with Sarah, that'll just put her in the line of fire," Verity said, pondering. "The dragons won't have me, and I'm pretty sure Kitty would kill me herself if I tried sleeping at The Freakshow." The apartment Istas and Ryan shared was very tiny, way too small for an additional three people and she didn't trust the waheela not to eat a mouse if she got peckish. Or annoyed. Or bored.
Uncle Mike	"Don't you still dance with that goat-sucker guy?"
Verity	"You mean James?" In her alternate identity as Valerie Pryor, professional ballroom dancer, Verity was usually partnered with a very sweet, very gay chupacabra. He didn't mind that she kept guns under her tango costume, and she didn't mind that he occasionally turned into a semi-reptilian quadruped and went hunting wild horses in the Assateague Island National Seashore. Like any partnership, their association was based on mutual trust. She trusted him not to sell her out to the Covenant. He trusted her not to shoot him in the head. It worked for them. "Yeah, if I tried to hide at his place when I potentially had the Covenant of St. George on my tail, his husband would kill us both. Dennis puts up with a lot for James' sake, but there are limits." She paused. "I need to call him anyway, and tell them both to get out of town."
Uncle Mike	Mike sighed. "You've made a pretty good mess for yourself, kiddo. Isn't there anywhere you could go that the Covenant doesn’t know about?"
Verity	"Wait--maybe." Verity started toward the living room, mice dodging out of the way of her feet as she walked. "The dragons used to have a Nest in the old meatpacking district. They'd been living there for more than a century, and that means they must have managed to ride out previous purges. The place is essentially a fortress."
Uncle Mike	"Sounds great," he allowed. "But where are the dragons now?"
Liam	"In a cavern underneath the city," Liam explained. "William- their husband- can't leave the cavern we found him in, and they, understandably, didn't want to live so far apart, so they relocated to be with him."
Uncle Mike	"Great. You think they'll let you use this Nest?"
Verity	"I may have to sell a kidney to pay what they're going to ask for it, but there's a chance." Verity ran a hand through her hair, leaving it sticking up in untidy spikes. "I need to call home and give Dad an update on the situation. While I'm doing that, Liam, think you can run a trace on the plates of the car Dominic rented?"
Liam	"Not a problem," Liam said, taking out his Global and pulling up the pictures he'd snapped of the car's license plate. It was times like this, he really missed having unfettered access to worldwide law enforcement databases. Not that he didn't still have ways of accessing the information needed, it just... wasn't instantaneous.
Verity	"So much easier than asking Artie to do it," Verity said, pressing a kiss to his cheek in appreciation. With the mice swarming around her feet and periodically cheering for no good reason that she could see, Verity made her way into the kitchen. It was time to bring the rest of the family up to speed. And when that was done, she could start packing, she guessed. Funny how that hadn't been how she'd thought it was going to happen when she and Liam had talked about moving yesterday morning. After a long and not particularly helpful talk with her parents, Verity had to make one last arrangement before she could think about actually leaving the island. There was no way they could move the mice at all without their permission. Leaving the living room, Verity turned and walked down the hall to the spare room. The mice who had been in the living room followed her, cheering again as she opened the door. Most of the spare room closet was taken up by a modified Barbie Dream House. All the windows had been punched out and replaced by wooden scaffolding, which twisted around and around the house like a ribbon around a maypole. The pink paint was entirely gone, covered by a thick coat of gunmetal gray nail polish. The mice had done that part themselves. All Verity had provided was the heavy lifting. She knelt, putting herself on a level with the top windows of the Pantheistic Cryptid Mouse Dream House. "I request audience with the Head Priest," she said. "I don't have any cheese, or cake, but there's pot roast in the kitchen, and we'll share."
Aeslin Head Priest	For once, there was no cheering. Instead, the mice sat silently, and more tiny rodent faces appeared in the other windows, all of them waiting to see what was going to happen next. Finally, a white-whiskered mouse with a squirrel's skull atop his head stepped laboriously out onto the scaffold in front of that top window. "Your audience is granted," he squeaked, in a voice that used to be sonorous - by mouse standards, anyway - and now barely carried past the lintel of the closet. "What do you require, O Arboreal Priestess?"
Verity	Aeslin mice live a long time by normal rodent standards, but their lives are short by human standards. Verity remembered when this Head Priest was young and vital, and full of potentially blasphemous ideals. She'd grown up, and he'd grown old. There would be a new Head Priest soon. That knowledge made her deeply sad. "The Covenant of St. George is here," she said.
Aeslin Head Priest	He nodded. "I know. The Acolyte of Questionable Motivations is one of theirs, at least in body, if not in heart or mind. You are here to tell me that we must leave this pleasant home and move to somewhere new, that we might survive to carry the gospel to another generation."
Verity	Verity decided not to think about that too hard, especially since she'd never heard a human called an acolyte before and had no idea what that meant. "Something like that," she said. "Can the colony pack up and be ready by tonight? We want to move as soon as possible. It's not safe here anymore."
Aeslin Head Priest	"If I tell them we must go, they will be ready," he said. He reached out one grizzled paw, clearly beckoning. Verity held her hand out to him, and he placed his paw gently on the tip of her index finger. "Do not trouble yourself with us, Priestess. We exist only to serve."
Verity	"You do a damn good job," she said, feeling near tears. "Get them ready. I'll leave the pot roast outside the closet, so you can provision yourselves for the trip."
Aeslin Head Priest	"So shall it be," he said, and pulled his paw away. Verity withdrew her hand and stood, recognizing a dismissal when she saw one. The rest of the mice ran into the closet before she could close the door, swarming up the scaffolding as they fought to get into the best position to hear the coming sermon.
Verity	He was already beginning to speak when Verity shut the closet door and turned away. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but from the cheers of the other mice, it was something stirring and inspirational, at least to them. She shook her head and walked back to the bedroom, putting her arms immediately around Liam and her head on his chest. "We're going to get them all killed," she said softly. "I don't know where they get that much faith in us."
Liam	Liam pulled her close, one hand stroking her hair. "Because your family's always seen them through all sorts of danger before," he pointed out. "And they remember all of it. They know what they're getting in to, Verity, and they choose to stay anyway."
Verity	"Sometimes...sometimes I really don't understand why," Verity said, looking up into Liam's warm eyes. "Why someone would choose to stay when they didn't have to. When they have an out, when they can walk away and say, 'this isn't my fight.' When they could be safer, happier somewhere else." She was no longer talking about the mice.
Liam	Walking away had never been an option for Liam; not when it was his world at stake, and not now when it was Verity's. "Safe and happy doesn't mean much when there's too many others who don't have that luxury," he said.
Verity	Verity reached for his face, dragging it down to hers to kiss him deeply. "I love you," she said fervently. "So much." And his answer was so much of the reason why. "Come on. Let's go see a dragon about an apartment."