Come As You Are // Open Post

[therealbrianna]

P.Y.T. [ Pretty Young Thing ]

(Taken during THAT mission that we do not speak of.)

Comments

[therealbrianna]

SENT: 05:33 PM
Great! :) we can meet at the fab treehouse, if you want!

[thetalavega]

SENT: 5:34 PM
Omg yes. So much y e s.

See you in a bit! :))

[therealbrianna]

SENT: 05:35 PM
Heee. :3 see you!!

[thetalavega]

[And there's no response to that, because there isn't a need. An hour later, Brianna might hear it: her mother answering the door, the exclamation of surprise and happiness at seeing who it is. A little after that, footsteps in the garden.]

Hi, Bri! Coming right up~

[...Which actually means that she is literally jumping up to the doorway of the treehouse. Yep. Changeling, bitch!]

[therealbrianna]

[ And she immediately springs onto her feet when she hears Tala's voice.

Squee-ing and rushing over to give her bestie a biiig hug, and a beso on both cheeks. ]

So good to see you! Help yourself to refreshments in the fridge!

[thetalavega]

[Hee.]

Well, don't mind if I do~

[And she's acting pretty normally as she's trotting over and fishing out some canned tea. It's almost as if she isn't about to do something pretty serious, and she's certainly not giving any indicator that she will to Brianna just yet.]

Want me to fetch anything for you?

[therealbrianna]

[ Actually... ]

Just a bottle of water, please!

[thetalavega]

Mmkay~

[And fishing out that bottle, then walking over to hand it over as she's plopping down right in front of you. Fishing around in her bag now, for her cigarettes.]

We can smoke in here, right?

[Because they're both going to need it.

[therealbrianna]

[ Nodding earnestly. ]

Thanks! And yeah, of course we can!

[thetalavega]

Great.

[Lighting up then, and taking her time with that first drag. It's suddenly hard to word this, but she's fucking Tala Vega. This needs to be done.]

Just have to be honest with you, Bri: I'm kind of here on serious business.

[therealbrianna]

[ The look on her face is confused. ]

Oh? Am I in trouble? [ Immediate thought that pops in her head. ]

[thetalavega]

No, not at all! I just think that now that we're both pretty sure about you being Daddy's daughter, it's time that you learn a little more about him.

[She's still smiling, but the look in her eyes has gone uncharacteristically quiet.]

[therealbrianna]

[ Even more confused. ]

Like... what? His favorite color?

[thetalavega]

[Chuckles.]

No. More like, you should know about his past. Every single life he's ever lived.

[therealbrianna]

Ooohhhhhhh....

[ Right. She does forget about that. She's so accustomed to the Hikaru now that she forgets about the past ones, that he had lived through so many years. ]

Yeah I guess that's okay, right? I mean these are things I would wanna know too.

[thetalavega]

It's more than okay, I think. It's necessary.

[Setting her can of tea aside in order to bring out her tablet.]

I'm going to send something over to you. It's his dossier from Themis.

[therealbrianna]

[ Stalling a bit. ]

He won't mind, will he?

[thetalavega]

No. I got his permission for this, actually.

[Keeping her gaze on her tablet as she's skimming through the dossier and making some last minute checks.]

Daddy always has a hard time talking about stuff like this. It's not that he wants to hide things from the people who matter to him. It's just... it's just hard.

[therealbrianna]

[ She gets the seriousness now. She leans in, kind of peering at Tala's tablet. She knows she's gonna get a copy anyway but curious. ]

Guess I'll find out pretty soon, huh?

[ Damnit daddy, you didn't warn me at all! ]

[thetalavega]

Yeah.

[Smiling just a little.]

Okay, sent. I can stay with you if you want to read through it. Hell, we can read it together... I kind of do that a lot.

[therealbrianna]

[ Looking at her tablet then looking at Tala with eyes that expect the worst. ]

Is that okay? I might have questions too.

[thetalavega]

[Nods. It is a rarity, really, seeing Tala this serious.]

I made sure that I had time to do this. Besides... you might just need the company.

[therealbrianna]

[ She nods and checks her tablet, opening the file. ]

Well, here goes nothing. [ Already preparing for the worst? But Brianna has no idea what to expect, really. ]

[thetalavega]

[She's giving Brianna one last smile before she's leaning back and looking down at her own copy.

It's a good thing that she brought a lot of cigarettes.]

[therealbrianna]

[ She cycles between states of confusion, sadness, anger and bitterness. Generally, she's stressed as fuck. While she knows a bit about Hikaru, enough to know what not to talk about, she admits that she does know only about half of what his life really is like.

In this reading though, she's realizing that she barely even knows half of it; more like just 1/32th. This makes her feel bad.

She occasionally bites her lower lip, clears her throat when she's on the verge of tearing up, wipes away at the tears that do manage to get past and smokes a stick.

By the time she's done, she's silently staring at her tablet. ]