RP:The Hero Venturil Needs, But Not The One It Deserves

Part of the The Whisperer In Darkness Arc

Summary: Khitti finally heads home after her time in Venturil. While attempting to keep to herself, her plans are foiled by a Brand attempting his hand at accounting (it's not working). They talk about Venturil and Brand finally finds out about his former first mate, Onyx, and the undead's secrets.

The Tranquility, Cenril Wharf

Khitti finally decided to come home after being in Venturil the past few days. Who knows why she goes there anymore, considering the fact that Gabriel and all his ill-doings just up and vanished, much like Kahran had. She used that lovely teleportation spell of hers (because who the heck wants to right a flying mount in the fall when it’s raining half the time), buuuuut because she’s a -little- drunk, she managed to stumble her way right into the nearest wall. It’s a good thing she’d not broken her nose back at the inn, because that would certainly hurt a hell of a lot more than it did now. Don’t drink and teleport, people. There’s a slew of Dhavislaavian curses from the somewhat bruised redhead, but she carried on further into the ship, making her way ever so carefully to the kitchen, and making sure to avoid Dominic’s room, the situation room, and pretty much anywhere else people might be right now. Food needed to be a thing right now, even if it hurt like hell when she ate, thanks to that split lip of hers.

Brand [1 of 2] || Who in seven hells thinks it’s a good idea to set up their office in the kitchen? Brand does, at least today. Dozla’s pranked him again, filling the situation room full of some kind of large lightweight orbs she called “balloons”. They’d come spilling out in an avalanche of color the moment he’d opened the door, and still enough of them remained that he couldn’t see further than two feet into the room. So much for a productive morning -- most things will have to wait until Dozla’s cleaned up her mess.

Brand [2 of 2] || Brand’s line of sight grazes past Khitti as she enters, barely even registering her. His brain is full of numbers. Ledger balancing demands full concentration, or else he’ll have to start his calculations over from the top. “Fifty-six and twelve is sixty-eight… and then… sixty-eight divided by nothin’, carry the nothin’, that’s…” His brow furrows as he consults his fingers for the answer. Five digits raised on one hand and three on the other, and he’s forgotten what they were supposed to remind him of. He looks up from his math and sees Khitti anew. “Hey, how do I divide by zero?”

Khitti || You know, it’s just Khitti’s luck that Brand would be in here. He went on and on about math--that subject that she detests more than… well… pretty much everything in the known and unknown universe--and his woman just stared at him, somewhat wide-eyed. “Very carefully?”, she answered finally before making her way to the icebox. Did he eat all the cheesecake? Yep. He did. Sigh. Khitti would settle for some cookies instead and munched away at them as she lingered in front of the counter. Maybe, just maybe, if she stayed here long enough, he’d go away. Nevermind the fact that it looked like he set up his office in there. That was, uh, nothing. Absolutely nothing. “You can’t divide by zero. Zero is nothing. You can’t divide by nothing. There’s nothing to divide.” Her words sounded almost poetic, in between rather large bites of frosted sugar cookies.

Brand frowns and scribbles ‘nothing’ at the end of a row. “I liked your first answer better. It gave me hope. But nope, that settles it: I’m all out of cheesecake money. If you make me another this month, it’s gonna have to be pro bono.” He’s maybe her best customer -- when he actually pays like one -- but even a captain’s budget has its limits. “Tell the little sprout not to wear through so many gorram diapers so quickly. It’s eatin’ into my Ginger Snapped budget.” The twinkle in his eye says he’s not serious. Okay, maybe a little serious. But only a little.

Khitti smirked at Brand as she spun around to eye him. “Itsh shnott--”, she stopped not long after she started to speak, realizing her mouth was still quite full of cookie. There was an awkward cough, then she swallowed the food in her mouth, and continued, “It’s not his fault that he’s full of -it-, much like his father.” Poop, Brand. You’re both full of it. Khitti would eventually settle herself into a chair at the table, nearly going cross-eyed as she looked at his paperwork. “You’d save yourself more time and brain cells if you just hired an accountant to deal with all of this. And I’ve told you before you don’t have to pay me. You should see all that I give away to Meri when she’s in town and I’m actually at work.” Sometimes Khitti was not a good boss and decided to not show up at work. She wasn’t so lucky on those days that her and Dominic were in the apartment above the shop, while Brand was off doing his cargo runs and whatever else. “And maybe if you’re lucky, the kid will want to be potty trained sooner rather than later. You’d get all your money back then.”

Brand sighs and pushes the ledger away from him. “Onyx used to help with this. And Dozla’s great at most things, but she’s even worse with numbers than I am.” A pause. He’s not sure he wants to admit the thought that comes next, but… “Getting an accountant feels like accepting that they’re not comin’ back.” Even this small emotional display makes him uncomfortable. He clears his throat and tries to change the subject. “So what’s new in Venturil, eh?”

Khitti frowned as Brand mentions Onyx, to which she took to fiddling with that necklace of hers, the one that both Onyx and Facilier disappeared into. The thought was enough to sober her up entirely, a remembrance of the fact that she still hadn’t told Brand about what went down in the Shadow Plane between Onyx and Meri. “So, don’t then,” she said eventually, muttering an apology along with it to make up for the awkward turn of the conversation. “And, nothing really. Except the fact that since Gabriel’s up and disappeared for no good reason, the people there are paranoid as hell and taking it out on me.” Khitti motioned to her busted up bottom lip and the bit of bruising around her the rest of her face, mostly around her nose. “Meri managed to show up and helped put a stop to it, though.” She paused in her thoughts momentarily, then shrugged, “I’ll probably still go back out there every so often regardless of the fact that they’re not too keen on me lately. I can’t really send Ulah or anyone else from the guild out there right now, not with all of the Vakmathras chaos going on in Larket and sending refugees to the guild’s doorstep. That and those witch-hunters too if they’re still around.”

Brand looks her over with some concern. “Do you want Lennier to take a look at you? And, you sure you don’t want one of my crew to accompany you out there? That’s a frakked up thing to do to someone who’s just tryin’ to help.” There’s no surprise in his tone, though. No good deed goes unpunished, or so the saying goes.

Khitti just shook her head and mustered a faint smile to show that she was actually alright, “No, it’s fine. Nose isn’t broken and my lip’ll heal. Been through worse anyway, you know that.” Though, pretty much all of that was when she was undead, but whatever. “Also, no to your crew. I don’t need anyone else going over there and possibly getting hurt. It’s my fault it’s happening anyway and I’m sure they’ll calm down over there eventually. Besides, we were both drunk, heh. Otherwise, it might not have escalated as much as it did.” Khitti shrugged.

Brand folds his arms and frowns. “You may be the hero they need, but it sounds like you’re not the hero they deserve. Don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm, yeah?” He’s just full of the catchy sayings today. Probably because he’s been reading again in his downtime. Shh. Don’t tell. “Already brought you back from the dead once. Not super keen on the idea of doing it again.” To balance out his admonishing tone, he gives her a brief kiss.

“You make me sound like some sort of dark knight that’s doomed to forever fight evil and never get any thanks for it,” Khitti said after she accepted his kiss and returned it. “Okay, so I guess that’s exactly what it sounds like.” This is the part where she’d tell him to shut up, but she didn’t--she certainly had that look about her though like she wanted to. “Besides! I get thanked sometimes.” Pause. “At the shop… when I’m handing over food.” The wind’s taken out of her sails a bit, Khitti’s next words somewhat monotone as realization hit her, “And… when someone asks me for directions.” Another pause. “THE POINT IS, BRAND, is that I get thanked. It’s just, you know, in normal everyday stuff instead of in everything else.” Yep. Good talk, Khitti. Gooood talk.

“Well sure, everyone wants to be nice when you’re giving them food.” Brand tapped a finger to his chin. “I’m guessin’ you don’t want to just poison the ones who are awful to you the rest of the time? If you got caught, that… probably wouldn’t help matters. Still. Just sayin’. It’s an option.” A beat. Brand broke into a grin. “Or, I could go with you once or twice and give people The Onyx Glare, as needed. I think I can pull it off. Or something close to it, anyway.”

Khitti thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “Nah. I don’t think you’re grumpy enough for that anymore. Maybe Brand from two years ago, but…” She poked at his side, “You’ve gone soft, kid. I think it might be my fault.” It is. “It’s probably best I just don’t go back there for a while, to be honest.” Khitti shrugged at the whole situation, then frowned a little as she thought about Onyx. “Speaking of Onyx…” She paused a moment, awkwardly scratching the back of her head as she eyed the table, “We… uh… need to talk.” The frown worsened quite a bit. Those crimson brows of hers furrowed in that way they always did when she was dreading about talking about things she didn’t want to talk about. “Meri told me awhile back, about what happened when she was in the Shadow Plane.” Khitti really should not have kept the whole thing from Brand for this long, but… she hadn’t really taken things well when Meri told her in the first place.

The dreaded words: ‘we need to talk.’ If she hadn’t already mentioned it had something to do with Onyx, Brand would be flinching right now, expecting some sort of ‘relationship’ talk. Maybe he still should -- since when was there anything new to say about Onyx? Brand sat up a little straighter, giving Khitti his full attention.

It took Khitti a second before she could finally start. “So…” There was another moment of hesitation, “That dream I was having before I died… and then you were having the whole time I was dead… and even afterwards--that, uh… that actually happened. A lot. Maybe, like, around five thousand years worth? Or, however long it was that Onyx had said they’d been alive.” She’d go through and explain what Onyx had showed Meri. The super mysterious lady and the little kid. The sacrifice that the woman had made of her kid and the not-so-happy times. “So… you see… Onyx. Was. My kid.” God, she’ll never get used to saying that, ever. “Not me-me. But… me from another place, sort of like our visions of us married and whatnot.” She stopped, gauged his reaction a bit, and hoped to whatever gods were listening that she was spelling this out enough for him--neither Meri nor Lionel understood a word of what she was saying. “I think, since Onyx was undead, that they were alive enough to maybe learn chronomancy? And they used that to stop lich-me from happening.” Crimson brows furrowed as she fiddled with that silver lapis lazuli necklace--even after all these months, and especially after she figured out who Onyx was, she really couldn’t stop wearing it, “Onyx always talked about putting me on the right path. Said I was always making mistakes. The path wasn’t whether I was good or evil, like I’d thought--the path was the one where Facilier doesn’t take me away to the Shadow Plane. And it would explain why they knew the Tranquility so well and why they could see the flaws in all my plans every step of the way.” Khitti frowned and sighed heavily, “I think the only path--the right path--was one where Onyx wasn’t here anymore…” This obviously made Khitti quite sad. Onyx may not have been -her- kid, but they still were in a way, and she felt responsible for everything they’d been through.

Brand scratched at his head and frowned. “That’s… a hell of a lot to take in, peach. You really think it’s tied to those dreams and everything? I mean, I guess there’s no reason it couldn’t be other than the whole thing being uncanny levels of interconnected. Sounds more like the plot of a mystery novel than something that happens in real life.” He’d actually read enough of those by now to have some idea of what he was talking about.

Khitti shrugged and eyed the table in front of her, “Considering the fact that that Khitti was the one to kill them, it fits with their hatred towards me--well, besides any normal frustrations I likely caused them here.” There was probably a lot, to be sure. “I don’t really blame them for being moody all the time though, if this -is- true. With Facilier as their father and lich-me as their mother? I’d be pretty irritated all the time too. And I would certainly binge eat truffles like there was no tomorrow.” She rubbed her eyes a bit and sighed and pushed herself up out of her chair, taking a step or two away from the table. “And I’m well aware as to how much that is to take in. I have not stopped thinking about it once since Meri told me and I have not stopped wearing this necklace--the one Onyx gave us and disappeared into--since they left. Neither Meri nor Lionel really understand it at all though--not like you would since they didn’t have those dreams and visions--and I’ve had way too much time to consider all aspects of why Onyx did what they did all the time. But... I still can’t find a way to bring them back…”

“Maybe there isn’t one. I don’t know the first thing about time magic, though. And if you’re right, Onyx certainly kept a tight lid on how they did what they did. There’s a ton of stuff in boxes just lying around on the cargo deck that was left behind in their room. If you want help sorting through… I dunno. It seems like a longshot, but it’s the only possible solution I could think of. And if there’s nothing in there to bring them back, well… I’d assume they didn’t want to be called back from wherever it is they ended up. Five thousand years is a long time to live, after all.”

Brand’s woman took a step over behind him and his chair, and gave him a kiss on the back on the head, “Yeah, I might go through there. It won’t hurt, I guess. I’m kind of surprised it didn’t just disappear into nothingness when Onyx did.” Khitti sighed, “Five thousand years might be a long time, but they did a lot to help us--way more than any person probably ever has--and they deserved a family that the other me didn’t give them. I would’ve tried to do that before they left, if they would’ve just told me...” This thought prompted a frown and a brief bout of silence before Khitti finally spoke up again, “I’ll be in bed. I think the whiskey’s going to hit me harder than that guy did here pretty soon.” And if Brand had nothing more to say, she’d wander off towards their room, struggling to fight between a surge of guilt and the ever-growing headache both the fight and the alcohol had caused.