strangetrip | [GP] Shoot that poison arrow

[GP] Shoot that poison arrow

None of the guests noticed when the spiky-haired man-child in jeans and purple t-shirt, wrists wrapped in cheap leather and metal bracelets, arrived at the Madonna Inn a few hours before midnight on February 13. That, in itself, wasn't all that surprising. Eros, otherwise known as Danny Valentine, had millennia of experience doing his job without being spotted.

What was surprising was that the dude at the front desk did see him. Tall and Nondescript waved him over and then gave him a room number 'in case you wanted to rest'. But Danny didn't.

Want to, or rest. He spent the time before the clock struck midnight polishing his love gun. Not like that. He'd find a girl to spend his nameday with. He always did. No, this little beauty was made by Hephaestus himself. It shot love darts that disappeared on contact.

At midnight, kitted out with more love darts than there were people in this pink and gold monstrosity, Danny left his room and shot the first person he saw--and didn't wait to see what would happen.

No point getting a slow start. He had a lot of work to do.

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"I don't need to see it, it's gone right up my nose," she replied absently, not looking around for the moment. Hormones, pheromones, all the 'mones. Not that Angua objected, necessarily. Certainly, 'in public' wasn't the most common place for humans, but... well, she couldn't throw stones. She'd spent most of her first sixteen years of life treating clothing as something 'for company', and wolves tended not to be shy anyway.

Still, for some reason once the scents had hit her nose she'd had to fight off an immediate urge to Change and/or stay in her room until it went away. It was an irrational urge, based in nothing she could remember, which was how she'd ended up sort-of-patrolling instead. (That would teach her instincts to go off for no reason.) "It's most likely magic. Or some god or other, so you might want to hold off on thanking them." At that point she turned to offer Vax a smile, just to show she wasn't exactly worried yet, things could be worse yet somehow. And then... blinked as something twinged on her knee of all places, shook her head slightly, blinked again. Had he always been so attractive? So... "Come here."

Her reasoning made good sense to him, and he'd taken in a breath to tell her so before her observations became a command. But she sounded sort of strange, and he had to wonder if she'd just picked up on something he hadn't. Was there, for example, an owlbear just over his shoulder? A quick glance back said: no, or at least not that.

It was more intuition than logic that held him back from simply obliging her and crossing the short distance to her. Was she... Looking at him differently? "...Angua? What is it?"

Oh, fine, if he wouldn't come to her, she'd go to him. It wasn't a particularly irritated thought, though there was a flicker of this isn't how it's supposed to go (barely a flicker and easily ignored in the face of something she wanted more) as she moved closer, several hairs faster than she could have done if she'd been as human as she looked. Females ran, males pursued, but did it matter, really, when the end was the same?

No. And before (hopefully before) the half-elf could worry about a werewolf attack, she'd slid her arms about his neck and pulled him into a kiss as hungry as the ones he'd been asking her about.

"Wh- Hold-" He should've been able to side-step, if he'd been paying closer attention to her and not all else around them, or if she was your run of the mill lusty barmaid. Neither of which held here.

She's going to eat me alive, the not wholly unpleasant thought flickered through his head, after the stunned stupor of several moments passed. His mouth felt slightly bruised where he had to force his neck back (damn but she was stronger than she looked!), his lips moist and humming where he fought for a breath. His hands found her forearms, trying to pull her off from around him firmly but carefully. "What's got into you?!"

When the kiss broke, so did the spell, after a fashion - if all it had wanted was a kiss, it might have been more low-key about it! Once that irritation (along with a strong hit of shame and guilt from nowhere she knew) processed, she all but jumped back a foot or so. Which complied and exceeded Vax's effort to detangle her, so at least they were on that same page.

It had been... nice, despite all, and she wasn't exactly embarrassed, but she still blushed and looked away. "Magic, definitely, or a god. I think we have to assume at least some of this," and she waved a hand vaguely, "isn't exactly choice. And I'm sorry."

It certainly said something that she looked as confused as he felt, as she broke away. If it was some sort of magical compulsion, that would go a long way towards explaining... All of this.

"It was-" He first hastened to reassure her, lips still humming, heart still thumping. He felt he'd been jumped in the best sense of the word, and his senses were all that heady brainstem jumble of fight/flight reconciling. But Vax stopped and forced himself to calm down, thinking how important it was to choose his words carefully. "You are lovely," he looked to try and find her averted eyes with his, though he was careful not to touch her. "But I hadn't got any sense that you'd been interested. If this is what's happening to everyone..."

"It's complicated, for me." Too complicated to explain, anyway, especially since large parts of the complication seemed to be coming from that godsdamned hole in her memory. But Vax had seemed to her more like Cheery than anything - a friend who understood the outside from a same-but-different angle. Having him abruptly slotted elsewhere in her personal view of the world....

Well. To be sorted later, one way or another. This time she both met his eyes and managed the smile she'd intended earlier. "Don't worry, I know very well I'm pretty. And yes, if this is happening to everyone... at least it seems to have a short duration." With her, at least, which could be due to her usual rapid recovery, but Angua opted not to mention that.

"If you want to talk about the ways in which it's complicated, that was a real icebreaker," Vax offered sincerely. He liked her well enough already, her prettiness notwithstanding. But he wouldn't go prying in where he wasn't wanted.

Well, not in this case.

Angua laughed, even though it wasn't exactly funny, then shrugged. If Vax was going to be a friend - and clearly, he was - as well as if this sort of thing went on....

He already knew what she was. Further confessions were unlikely to hurt anything. "What do you call wolves who live with people?"

Galdric. But no, that would take a too much explaining for too little return.

He shrugged a shoulder at her. Having traveled with Trinket and Kiki in her many animal forms probably wasn't going to apply to what it was Angua had on her mind. "Whatever they'll answer to?"

"You're too used to animals as people." That had been Carrot's problem too, and while far better than other problems it did have blind spots. "Dogs, Vax. Wolves who live with people are called dogs. So anything that's both wolf and human is at least a little bit dog. I..." She frowned slightly. "Either I feel very little beyond friendship for my partner, or I attach like a dog. By all rights, I should be hanging by the window watching for my... well, he's an ex now if only by separation, but Carrot, but I'm not. I'm almost sure now that I am hanging by the window, but not for him. I don't know why in either case. So you see, complicated."

If not for the immediate awkwardness, he would've been tempted to give her a little hug for solidarity.

"I've only ever been the one boring shape," Vax offered instead, after turning it over in his head for a moment. He considered the wings an add-on. "And never a wolf. But that does sound awfully confusing, feeling that you've got a bond and not being able to point a finger at why."

It didn't actually dawn on him until after he'd said all that, but he thought he might know some of how she felt after all - not the confusion, but the bond part anyway. "I've got a sister," he tried to explain. "But she's more than that. She's my twin. She was my whole world, for a very long time, and we've never been apart for more than a day or two." He didn't need to tell her that Vex hadn't come through to this place with him. "I feel like all I do is hang by that window," he added more softly.

"I'm sorry she's not here for you." How much worse would separation be when you knew exactly what you were missing and waiting for? Quite a bit, certainly. It was a point of commonality that hurt even while it comforted. A little. "I've two brothers and a late sister - all from the same litter, so nearly like your twins thing. But I've not spoken to either of my brothers in, oh... ten years, maybe?" Since Andrei had run away to be a sheepdog, and she'd run away from Wolfgang and the rest of the pack. "If we ever have a choice for whose siblings show up and whose don't, your sister may be entirely certain of my vote."

"You're very generous in that," Vax replied with the sketch of a smile. This separation would be easier - not better, never that, but certainly easier - had he not been so very close to Vex'ahlia.

"We've so many other things that need answers here. It might be that we'll find out what's on the other side of your window while we're at it."

"Anything's possible," she conceded with a little shrug. "But I rather doubt it. Every time I've left a place before, none of it followed me. There's no real reason to expect this place to be any different. Far better to hope that sooner or later I learn to walk away from it."

"That's a little sad," he noted, though he didn't make it sound like a rebuttal. They'd all left things behind. If you let yourself yearn for all of them, you were like to go mad before you got half of what you wanted.

"Yes, well." Angua waved a hand vaguely. It was sad, that was just the truth of things, and it sounded to her like Vax wasn't actually arguing. "I manage well enough most days when magic or a god isn't making me throw myself at new friends, that's something."

"It's one way to meet people," he said lightly enough. Vax was a little touched that she called him a friend, having not had a great deal of those over the years. But still, he'd be perfectly content if that was the only sexy surprise he had today.

"No complaints about the quality, it's just that a man likes a little romance, some dinner and a night out at the theatre perhaps. I'm not a piece of meat here for your every tawdry desire." Now he was definitely teasing.

She had to laugh, genuine and amused. "Oh, how remiss of me! Should I need to inflict further tawdry desire on you I'll do my best to adhere to the checklist."

"That first tawdry desire I'll let you have for free," he offered graciously, his own smile spreading warm for the brightness of her laugh. "Special discount, hot blondes only."

"Oh, good, I detest being in debt. Very generous of you." She could conceivably have made a remark about free samples being how one drew in customers, but that seemed more than a little crass. Another time, if it came up, perhaps.

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[GP] Shoot that poison arrow

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