Eldritch

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that sounds amazing <333

i also feel like ky is going to become infinitely more confused when she finds out gabriel and quinn aren't actually siblings, which could have been the one thing that really explained their dynamic gotta love some good old found family!

Gabriel could certainly agree with that, though he very much wasn't thinking about that comment in the context of laundry mats.

"Laundry mats are the worst," Quinn agreed. "I hate having to wait for the clothes to finish cycling through everything."

“Yeah, it’s annoying,” Pratik agreed. He smirked and joked, “Never know if I should buy drugs or start selling them to all the crackheads.”

Quinn shifted her backpack's weight a little. She hadn't exactly been thinking of that. She just wasn't good at waiting for long periods of time without something to do.

"You use them a lot, then?" Gabriel guessed.

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omg I completely missed the notification on this one lol I just came here like 'huh that's weird Mage hasn't responded yet, usually she's so quick' and came to give this a nudge and realized that it was me, I'm the nudge-needer lol

"Drugs?" Pratik asked, knowing fully well that Gabriel was really asking about laundromats. But sometimes intentionally misunderstanding someone was fun. Such as now.

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i was wondering when you'd reply alkdadfglad i should have nudged you but my brain was too fried too apparently >>

i'm also loving how chaotic both gabriel and pratik are being rn. poor ky and quinn. >>

"No," Gabriel said, with a grin that clearly said to Quinn he got what Pratik was doing. "Laundromats."

Quinn, admittedly, hadn't figured it out until she had seen Gabriel smiling like that, but she didn't mind. She was just happy that Gabriel seemed to be having fun talking with Pratik. Even though he was far older than she was, he really didn't have that many friends.

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haha yes poor girls — and yeah at this point I have no excuse BUT look at me, replying within minutes this time lol my insomnia is unstoppable

Also we are to a scene in mine and grands duo that bizarrely also has Ky and Pratik in this exact moment and omg the vibes are so different xD

“Ohhh, right.” Pratik smirked, glad this dude had a sense of humor. That made it easier. Pratik didn’t mind being the comedic relief all the time, but it was nice when he got help. “Yeah, unfortunately. I travel a lot. Though I’ve recently discovered there are these laundry services in most bigger towns where you just drop off your skank and they clean and dry and fold em and give ‘em back smelling all fresh. Easily worth a few extra dollars to save my time.”

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i hope you were able to fall asleep by now <333

and oh my god that's wild afglkadfgadfg

"Those are the best," Gabriel agreed. "I only found out about them a few months ago."

That was mainly because he hadn't actually needed to wash his clothes before then. He could just magic himself up another outfit. Quinn was the one who insisted he wash his clothes. She thought it was disgusting that he was technically wearing the same outfit all the time, even though he had insisted that he was wearing different ones when he changed his appearance.

Either way, Quinn had won that argument, and Gabriel had bought himself some outfits to change into every so often.

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Thanks! I have not xD

And yeah actually a good glimpse into this train wreck is actually the last post lol Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 9)

Gaius is Ky’s brand new adopted uncle. The two of them both desperately want to get along with one another and yet are just wildly incompatible xD he has no capacity whatsoever to understand how to interact with teenagers and is being all testy with her for not understanding things that are totally reasonable for her to not understand.

And Pratik is Gaius’s employee and is like oh god pls no pls stop being an idiot you’re hurting her feelings haha

Just very different energy going on haha

“Revolutionary,” Pratik agreed with a grin, then turned towards Ky. “What about you?”

Ky was completely and utterly miserable. Cold. Wet. Afraid. Annoyed. And not at all in the mood for small talk. “What about me?”

“Do you use laundromats and or drugs?”

“Sometimes,” she said dryly. Not really, though. Laundry was Yeona’s job. Ky didn’t have to worry about it. She was the one to clean up all of Aleth’s messes. At least the ones he left around the house. Ky cleaned up his political messes — and Yeona cleaned up the mess Aleth made of Ky if she screwed up. But they didn’t need to know that. And apparently they thought it was appropriate to be making jokes.

Pratik laughed. Ky did not at all give off the drug vibe. Not even pot. Not even once.

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So Ky and Jerica are actually sisters in canon but neither of them know it, and in my and grands duo we have decided Jerica is gonna get Ky plastered for the first time and it’s going to be absolutely ADORABLE to watch Ky get all giggly and cuddly with Jerica

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Oh, wow! I love how that duo is letting Ky and Jerica bond <333 And I'm absolutely obsessed with the idea of them being sisters.

Quinn glanced over at Ky, sensing how little she was interested in the conversation. Quinn also wasn't too involved in it, but she was alright with listening along for now.

Still, she didn't like how miserable Ky looked right now. If only there was something they could do to make things better...

She glanced around the woods. It was cold, and wet, and dark, but Quinn couldn't see any other ghosts. She shifted her backpack, imagining the spell book that was currently sitting inside of it.

"Maybe we could set up a camp now?" she asked, glancing over at Gabriel and Pratik to see what they thought. "I could start a fire."

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I’m glad you approve! Lol it’s super, super cute ngl
Ky: *gets treated poorly and just takes it*
Jerica: absolutely not! People will either treat you with respect or they can fite you
Ky: I don’t wanna fight anyone!
Jer: okay, fine, people will respect you or they can fite me

Pratik glanced around. They were probably far away enough now. “Sure. That sounds good.”

Ky glanced around too and ducked her head as well. She didn’t want to do this. But it had to happen eventually. May as well get to enjoy a fire for a bit.

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Aw! That's exactly what I would expect from them. 🥺

"We should have a tent in our pack," Gabriel said. "It might take a bit to set it up, but-"

He stopped when he saw Quinn shaking her head. For a moment, he thought they might have somehow forgotten it. Then he realized that she was just denying that it would take awhile. If she was objecting to that, she had probably prepared a spell to set it up faster. Even more importantly, she was thinking of showing some of her magic.

"Are you sure?" he mouthed. It wasn't exactly subtle, but he wanted to check without drawing too much attention to what he was asking about. She gave the smallest of nods, then slipped the backpack off and placed it at her feet.

Pratik caught the exchange and turned towards them with a little smirk. "Got a speedy tent-setter-upper huh?"

"Something like that," Gabriel said to Pratik. He turned back to Quinn. "You can do this, Q."

Quinn nodded again. She reached into the backpack and dug around until she pulled out the bag containing their tent. By all accounts, it shouldn't have been able to fit inside of her backpack. It was far longer, and would have taken up most of the backpack even if it hadn't been.

"I can use magic," Quinn said, with her tent bag and backpack serving as proof. She stared at where her book was currently sitting in her backpack for a moment, only to decide she didn't really need it to cast the spell. She unzipped the tent bag and emptied out on the ground.

She took a deep breath and focused. A warm, comforting feeling spread throughout her. When it had spread to every inch of her, Quinn cast her spell.

Please set yourself up, she said. It was always good to be polite when she was casting her spells.

The air all around the group grew warm and heavy, and then the tent set itself up all on its own. It was a big tent that could easily fit all four of them.

Ky tensed and backed away, eyes wide. What the--?

Pratik calmly watched. That was interesting. He'd never felt any type of magic change the climate like this. "What's the source?"

Gabriel's suspicions were confirmed by how calmly Pratik reacted compared to Ky. Pratik had experience with magic. Whether he was a hunter or just someone in tune with the supernatural, it was hard to say for sure.

"Me," Quinn said. "I, uh, guess? I'm not really sure..."