westwhere | (no subject)

Please tell him you are not making a commentary on anything more embarrassing than his overall physique, Hermione. He thought you had your eyes closed, but if you did look... He doesn't want to know.

He shoots her a glance out of the corner of his eyes, before shaking his head to clear it of those thoughts.

"My father was -- a large and impressive man," he replies. "Comparatively, I am just a Little Lion, I suppose. Although he was known in wider circles as Lo'Gosh, the Ghost Wolf. I think it's mainly just because the lion is the symbol of Stormwind. But -- no, it was the dwarves, actually. Who held me hostage."

SHE DID NOT MEAN HIS PENIS, THANK YOU.

She meant his shoulders and his beefy muscles. Outrage a la Lan Wangji is difficult to convey in this format, but - let the reader use their imagination. She sees that side glance, blushes beet red - boy these hot springs sure are hot - and absolutely stares ahead with her lips pressed together until she is no longer perceived.

And she might have told him, in the many conversations since, that her House at Hogwarts was represented by a lion, because the nickname would have honestly tickled her pink a little. Little lion - be more metaphor-for-the-Harry-Potters-in-her-life, Anduin.

"I suppose it's for the best that they didn't decide to call you the little wolf, then?" Dwarves, not ogres - she clenches her hand into a fist under the water in victory. Nailed it. Still - "But you meant it, about your biggest foe? Does she actually - is she an actual banshee?"

Edited 2023-01-08 23:24 (UTC)

[ It's a stupid wish, she knows. She's stumbled upon a dandelion walking back inside, from one of her walks (to snoop); caught it poking its head out and almost missed it. ]

Curious little thing, aren't you?

[ Her mistake is to pick it up. Immediately the thoughts are invasive - make a wish make a wish makeawish - and she sucks in a breath and blurts out: ] I wish to remember. [ And as she turns, she blows, scattering the dandelione towards the inner patio and straight into Red's face. ]

Oh my god, sorry!

( Red manages to catch the wish given in an entirely familiar voice, and she is about to turn to Hermione to say hello, to catch up, to see how she's been, to stuff- Then there's a lot of dandelion seed in her face, and she sneezes, burying her face in her elbow a second afterward. )

It's okay. ( She wrinkles her nose, brushes at her face, and then walks over to Hermione with a tiny smile that falls a second later: ) ...what do you wish to remember?

( No use pretending like she didn't hear - Red's too blunt for that anyway. )

[ She appreciates a good sneeze guarding technique when she sees it - good job there, Red.

Seing the smile falter before the question is what prompts honesty - that, and that honesty has been their bread and butter for a while now, and she trusts Red, and likes her, and if she tells her about what's been on her mind since running into Wrathion in the hot springs, she won't mind the judgement. ]

This place. I mean, not the inn, just - this world, you know? The people I met here, the friendships - I wished I'd remember them when I go home. [ She falters, hesitates, and scratches at her cheek a little, rubs the back of her neck. Facepalms.

Muffled by said palm: ] You must think that's dumb.

( Red pauses at the answer with this clenching tightness in her chest. It's been on her mind too since Fei left abruptly, since Vanessa went through the beacon. This world is temporary. All the people she cares about, all the people who care about her, it'll all be gone like that, because none of them belong here. And it's so fucked up.

She reaches up to rest a hand against Hermione's arm, giving it a gentle tug away so her hand might fall away from her face. When it does, Red shakes her head, swallowing thickly before she finds the words: )

Why would I think that's dumb? ( It's asked quietly. ) I wish the same. I wish we could remember. I wish we could choose if we wanted to stay or go or go with someone else- ( It's all impossible, but it doesn't stop her from wishing, and so she insists: ) It's not dumb.

[ The embarrassment is short lived, at least. She drops her hand easily, standing still and watching Red struggle with her words for a second, before all that comes through - not dumb, and she wishes it too. ]

Oh - [ She used to ask, before. Anyone she'd barely known well enough, she'd ask for permission before she flung her arms around them for a hug. But Red has evolved into Friend status, so she doesn't get the question.

Hermione tugs her closer and wraps the girl up in a giant hug. ]

Oh - I'm glad I'm not alone struggling with this...whole thing.

( Red is there to meet her when she tugs her in closer and wraps her arms around her. There's no pause at all as she wraps her arms around her too, tight as can be, swallowing through that stupid stone of emotion lodged in the center of her throat. Hermione is warm and good, and she gives incredible hugs. Her eyes close, and Red releases a breath. )

Yeah, pretty sure there's a few of us who are.

I didn't leave my room when the beacon was activated back in Serthica. It's okay to want to remember, y'know? Kinda fucked up this whole place is just incinerated from our heads as if it never happened.

[ It's nice, really. To have someone to hug. It's not because she draws comparisons, it's not because she's found herself a surogate or replacement, but between the red hair and the can do attitude, Red reminds her of Ginny so much sometimes it makes something in Hermione ache.

Mostly, though, there's something oddly small and sad about Red, something that Hermione wants to protect. So that hug will last as long as it needs to last.

It lasts all the way through when the beacon was activated back in Serthica, and her mouth going dry and numb. ] They got that working?

[ Was she asleep when that happened? Was she helping the orphans underground? Was she just pretending it wasn't real because she's fond of both her friends and of the danger? ]

It is - it is messed up. Um. [She presses her lips together, and hooks her chin on Red's shoulder, and mutters quietly:] Fucked up.

... A curious compliment. He doesn't think anyone has ever complimented his teeth before? Still, Wrathion glances around warily to make sure nobody has appeared to overhear this -- either the part about Anduin being royalty or the part about his dragon form.

"... Thank you," he manages, faintly bewildered. Is this a common compliment? Do people compliment teeth regularly? "You have excellent hygiene yourself."

Is that a good return compliment? It somehow doesn't feel like one.

"Something we have in common, along with a strong will and a fondness for research."

Stubbornness and obsessiveness.

She lets out a laugh at that unexpected compliment from him, and he doesn't have to blink-and-miss it, she's preening a little. Of course she does, her teeth are excellent now. She hasn't flossed in a year but they're doing great still.

"I take it you have no idea what a dentist is?"

Could this be something new for Wrathion to learn? Isn't that one of the favourite things of people like them, with a fondness for research?

"We have dentists in azeroth," he assures her. "Although I must confess, I have never attended one."

He simply does not have a dental plan, and he isn't particular sure how you go about finding one who is trained in dragon teeth. Presumably he'd have to attend in his visage, if he did. Is that even worthwhile? He's not really sure. He's never had a tooth-based-affliction before.

She gasps at that. "You do?!" Nevermind that he's never been to one, those teeth must be magical, moving on, she's stunned. "You know, when I said this at school the more traditional wizards and witches looked at me as if I'd grown a second head! So Azeroth clearly wins points."

They don't... have dentists? Isn't it a common sort of thing?

"What a peculiar school," he offers. "They dealt with their ailments some other way?"

Magic, perhaps, since they were all mages by the sound of it? Wrathion may not be exposed to all the fine details of the world at large, but it sounds like he has reached the low bar of 'better than the people at Hermione's school'. He'll take that victory.

Anduin is maybe a little bit sorry for having embarrassed her, but also. Well, he is the one who is naked here, so maybe he's a tiny bit amused here as well. Sorry, Hermione, he is only human.

As for the rest of it... His expression sharpens, somewhat.

"As I understand it, she had been, at one point." He turns to glance aside at Hermione, wondering how much he should say. How much she really cares to know. "Her name is Sylvanas Windrunner, and she is the leader of the Forsaken. The undead. Years ago, when I was only a boy, there was... A terrible evil that befell the land, at the direction of one of the Alliance's leaders. He unleashed a plague, a scourge upon us. Many died. Many were raised again, to do his bidding. Some, like Sylvanas, and her people, were able to retain a fraction of themselves after the fact."

She rolls her eyes at this. "There's a potion and a spell for everything," she says dryly, with the hypocresy of someone who did shorten her front teeth via magic in her fourth year. She can still remember her mother's unconvinced Hermione... when she'd seen the result in the summer.

"A lot of the more...base needs of being alive and human are glossed over there. There are no dentists in the magic school, and they rarely give us tea for breakfast, instead flooding us with neverending pumpkin juice." At the memory, a shudder.

"...oh..." slips out, quietly, after a moment. There's always an undead evil overlord, isn't there? But hearing the fuller story, she can't help but turn slightly to offer a small, wry smile.

"This place must feel like just another Tuesday for you, huh?"

Anduin shifts slightly, folding his arms across his chest, as though to keep himself warm. The water is plenty warm already though, it's really more a gesture of self-consciousness and habit than anything.

He tilts his head at her, meeting her smile with one of his own.

"I... Can't exactly call it a holiday, all things considered," Anduin replies. "But -- no one is expecting me to have all of the answers, nor do we have any guards hiding in the bushes, watching or listening into our conversation, so."

He shrugs. "It's hard to compare."

( Red smiles affectionately against Hermione's shoulder. She can only imagine how focused she was on her own projects that she didn't even notice or realize the beacon had gone up. ...or maybe she just wanted to be distracted so she didn't have to make that choice.

To go through, to stay.

So she could stay. ) Yeah. Emilia went back then returned in like a few seconds so. ( She does love the way 'fucked up' sounds in Hermione's accent, in her tone, and for a moment, it at least distracts her from the ache rattling around in his rib cage. ) I love it when you say fuck.

( A pause, and she pulls back slow to look at Hermione's face, lingering before: ) ...you didn't know the beacon was back up?

[ It may have been a little bit of column a and a little of column b, in all honesty, but Hermione doesn't want to linger on it for too long - or at all.

She manages a sheepish smile when Red pulls back to look at her, mostly because of that whole I love it when you say fuck ordeal. Is her accent that thick, or is Red aware that she was, up until recently, the well-mannered part of a trio? ]

Ah...yes. I should probably stop brewing in confined spaces, I think it muddles the senses.

[ Such a lie feels bad on her tongue, and Hermione sighs. ] Alright, that's an utter lie, I've very good brewing manners - I must've deliberately just...ignored it. What if the choice is leave and not get to say goodbye? I couldn't, Red...

Little bit of a jump between 'basic needs', 'no dentists' and 'only pumpkin juice'. It makes Wrathion wonder what else counts as a basic need that is overlooked and solved with only potions and spells.

"I see," he murmurs, frowning in thought. "If they do not learn these things, do they not... find themselves at a disadvantage?"

Or is it something they simply... never have a requirement for?

"Stains are always stubborn."

He does the folding so carefully and patiently that it's a little amazing, in contrast, how terrible a job he does.

He sets the monstrosity he calls folding to the side and takes another shirt to fold it with the same level of careful incompetence.

It was good that she clarified as he would otherwise have been left to guess. Though maybe ultimately it didn't matter since as far as he's concerned, using one's entire name is the norm. Except, perhaps, to save him the potential embarrassment.

"I'm Chu Wanning...my surname is Chu." He adds the second part because it seemed the right way to do it since she had clarified. But it also sort of felt weird. There is no Chu clan he had come from or even really a Chu family. He was, as far as he was aware, an orphan. "I had never known anyone to have their given name come first before coming to this place."

Her nose scrunch says everything about the idea of scrubbing floors until her knuckles are bloody. There are more useful ways to bloody her knuckles, and she can help with chores in other ways. Like abandoning firewood for a cute girl.

"You just need to prank them back."

Not that Vi would know how to prank a ghost. She avoids them as much as she can, though not because she's afraid of getting thrown outside.

...yeah, I thought it was strange you'd be so completely unaware of something so big. You're incredibly smart.

( It's not like it would just totally be out of her radar unless she refused to see it, but she gets wanting to deliberately ignore it, to not let oneself actually face it at all. Her throat locks, and she breathes out. )

I think it happens pretty quick. So yeah, the beacon's activated, people line up, and then they're just... gone.

You'd have to say your goodbyes before you went. ( Her hand rests over Hermione's, squeezing it tight as if the thought alone is- She doesn't let herself linger on it. Can't. )

She is going to not nitpick at the folding of laundry today, because it would be rude, and because they barely know each other. Were they friends, or rather was this Harry or Ron, she'd be rolling her eyes and saying something like give me those, but alas. Chu Wanning is safe.

"It's how it's done where I come from," she murmurs, and shrugs. "Although just because it's like that there does not mean it's the only way or the right way. I've been trying to...learn."

She keeps asking Sizhui if calling him Sizhui is too forward, but he keeps fairly quiet on that front. The diplomat.

"So do you prefer I use your whole name? Chu Wanning?" A pause. "You don't need to use my surname, given name is enough."

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gee i wonder how we'll wreck each other emotionally this time

i have no idea what you mean >>"

this is gonna be just pure (tm) and fluff (tm) - no sad feels!

sobs ;o; - yes, a big ole marshmallow

who's a soft lil hellhound? yes you are

lmaooo the softest hellhound

best girl (tm)

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