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[curseshit]

Drag the grooms out of their hiding places and get partying! Everyone is at the inn already!

BACHELOR PARTY!!!

[ mission: midnight drinking post. oh and the curse... ]

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[sawedoff]

What? Yeah, of course.

[looks at her like she's the most bizarre? it's knee-jerk to say, because she's questioning basically his entire existence here. but he humors her, stops to think about a specific example so that he can say "see?" and they can laugh and she'll realize she just hasn't slept enough. but when he tries, it's like she said. you can remember the word you want, what it means, maybe even the first letter, but god help you you can't remember the actual word]

[drops hand away and slows to a stop, looking down with serious thinky faceing]

No I really don't.

[recurred]

[there we go. sorry for crushing your little happy gay priest bubble. watches him process, slightly concerned herself that she might come up empty with him. shakes head a little.]

So, I'm not crazy here, aren't I?

[sawedoff]

Not unless I'm a whackjob too.

[which. might be the case. because everything seems 10x more suspicious now. since when is he such a paranoid bastard? watches an apple tree that they stopped next to and kind of tilts his head, narrows eyes. for a second he could have sworn it wasn't an apple tree. and the house behind it was different, more familiar. like it was before the fire]

[what fire. jesus christ.]

--I don't think I'm even religious.

[welp. or gay. or a dad? has he ever even talked to his daughter before yesterday. HIS WORLD]

[recurred]

[follows his gaze up then to him wondering what he sees. reaches over and plucks an apple off the tree and weighs it in her hand.]

That's not surprising anyone. [sry not sry]

[briefly remembers standing in an orchard with the duke, mossy boots, an orchard with a golden apple and his pissy face]

[sawedoff]

[excuse you. he was a good priest. :(]

Have you talked to anyone else about this?

[making the same pissy face at apple. it's reflexive. get that shit away from me.]

[recurred]

Ernest and John Smith.

[ looks back up at the tree. the leaves. remembering a leaf in a book somewhere, the book she saw in the joy's pawn shop]

Something is really wrong, but I think I know where to start now.

[sawedoff]

[nods like the formulation of a plan for something they have no idea is a good idea. like this shit is run of the mill.]

Hey.

[reaches out to touch her arm, which would be normal for a priest trying to comfort someone but he's neither and it feels like he's done it before. natural.]

Just be careful, okay?

[two crazies running around town kicking shit up. who knows what's going on anymore. watch yoself.]

[recurred]

[looks at his hand then to him and smiles a little. this is familiar too, a nice familiar.]

Roger that. [that feels like the right thing to say, even if really it doesn't make any sense between them at the moment.]

[she stops to place a hand over his and give it a squeeze before departing.]

I'll come find you. [for what? tinhatting party. who knows lets just roll with it.]

[sawedoff]

[digs an eyebrow in, confused, but it gets a smile despite himself. it's kind of like it was with sergei, like they've had this conversation before or he remembers bits and pieces, but it doesn't fit with anything he remembers here and it's wigging him out]

Right. Yeah. Don't leave me hangin.