Ahahah, true enough! Kiiiinda hard to stay on the look-out for trouble when someone's loudly complaining about the poison ivy you let him touch, am I right?
[ Is...Vyng talking from personal experience? Maybe. ]
[Whatever quip he had in response goes dead in his throat at that last bit. Vyng will find, Qrow is rather, ah, sensitive to comments about luck. He notably flinches, something shuttering in his expression as he looks off to the side.]
I guess. [He rolls a shoulder, vaguely.] Someone else would've probably done it if they'd seen him first.
[ Vyng notices the shift in Qrow's demeanor. But he barely registers what he just said, much less why it might hit a nerve. Because he was more concerned with the feeling behind it.
A sincere sentiment, in other words — clumsily packaged inside a careless, offhanded phrase. ]
You're selling yourself short, buddy. If I had to pick a guide, it'd totally be you. Hands down. Wouldn't even think twice about it.
[ because you're family, that's why, and yang has to have some outlet for being crazy out of her head with worry. ]
Yeah, you weren't. But you were the one went up an unexplored mountain on little to no information to save their butts although you know Ruby is a trained Huntress. So yeah. I'm asking about you.
[ yang was spared seeing ruby's ghost, but in the aftermath of ruby's death it's the silence of the house that eats away at her, the stillness of the dead of the night that makes her dread what would happen if she were ever taken away again.
how it would break yang, again. ]
Maybe they didn't have Auras and they all of them might not be the best at it. But they can fight.
[ a pause in the messages for a minute or two as she thinks of the best way to say this. ]
pretty sure worrying about you girls comes with the territory i'm fine
[He's...not fine. He isn't, but he has nothing more to say about it than he did when Amara suggested people come together to talk about these things. He still thinks it was reasonable to have gone searching for them, even if they hadn't needed his and Clover's help, in the end.]
Yeah? I'd have thought someone like you would have more options.
[Not quite snapped back, but flat and blunt. Defensive. He's been wearing thin for months, since Ruby died. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the self-loathing. And Vyng? Qrow hasn't known the man long, but he's friendly and outgoing and easy to talk to. He heard about Qrow's Semblance and the conversation moved on like it was nothing. He won't deny his own skills, but he can't imagine someone like that wouldn't have some significantly less cursed choices.
Ones that are suited to leadership and don't tend to work alone, too.]
[Admittedly, there's a point there. She probably wouldn't risk poisoning herself if Qrow saved it to use on her. On the other hand:]
maybe you expect for us to need it first this time the odds'd be in your favor or maybe it's a dud meant to fake us out at a critical moment but fine, i'll ask the kid leave it the same place as the grape basket, i guess
[ A flat tone creeps into Vyng's voice too. Partly because he doesn't exactly appreciate being called one — but the majority of it comes from feeling like he missed a step in this weird dance they've got going on: Stay away. Let's be friends. Not too close, now. One two three, one two three...
But people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. And to be honest, Vyng would rather figure out where the misstep happened to begin with. Because he clearly did something wrong. ]
We could both go crazy with the 'what ifs' yeah. I'm just going to say I trust you to do whatever it takes to keep Ruby safe. We can leave it at that, and I'll leave the bottle where the grapes were. I'll drop it off around sunset tonight, and be in touch.
you trust me to do whatever it takes, huh because that worked out so fucking well last time what are YOU doing that's not passing the goddamn buck? stop making me responsible for your sanity and stay away from my family
Well, since you asked. Besides giving you a random antidote that Sodder gave me. I'm giving a second to Emerald, who is with me regularly. She gets a tranquilizer dart just in case since that was there too. I've got a full supply of that incense shit for next month, should cover my apartment. That Eddie brat was clear that it works. I'm keeping an eye out for the slightest hint of things affecting the mind and avoiding it like the plague. I'm prepared to turn myself into FEAR if I have to.
Just so we're clear? I don't plan to leave this to you. I'm giving you the antidote as a sign of trust, Qrow.
[He gets a text message on the 2nd of October in addition that says "Do Not Drink The Blood. It's driving Michael Loopy." But that can be handwaved. ^.~]
oh you're *prepared* to turn yourself in, are you and when will that be? after you've hurt her or someone else again? do it while you still have control this time i'm still working on believing you didn't mean to kill her the first time, but i was serious about one chance only if you ever manage to lay a hand on my family again, i will hunt you down and kill you so you forget you ever had a grudge against us as long as we're making ourselves fucking clear
That IS the game plan, yes. Turn myself in while still sane if there's a solid reason to suspect a problem. Possibly dose myself with the antidote beforehand to ensure I can't use illusions to get out for as long as it lasts. And while I know that you feel a need to remind me, I will state for the record that I'm well aware what's at stake here.
I don't WANT to kill your niece again. I don't want to hurt her or so much as touch her. So yes, you're absolutely clear, and I assume you and the whole damned family, friends and about a tenth of the sleeper population will come after my ass if it happens again. Trust me, Qrow, that is one thing I'm absolutely crystal clear on, and I have no issues with that fact, because that's exactly how I expect you to feel right now.
So, anyway? Antidote. On your porch. Call me if you need me.
and just how the hell are you going to be able to tell there's reason for that we checked in nearly every damn day in july and you still didn't notice you were slipping until it was too late feel free to correct me on that and i can retract having ever given you a chance in the first place
[He doesn't believe that's the case, not really. The peaks of his bitterness make him wonder if the insanity was a lie outright, but she hasn't come after them in the last couple months. The death symptoms would've long passed by now.
Qrow's just not so so ready believe she'd go out of her way to avoid it happening again.]
[He's definitely forgotten about the plurality thing already, whoops. He scoffs, faintly.]
You must have noticed the difference in our personalities by now.
[The irony being ... they're perhaps more alike than Qrow realizes. But that little dance of theirs keeps him from knowing much about Vyng below the surface....and he's deeply, intimately aware of his own flaws. He's had decades to stew in them, the last several months of which have been painfully sober.]
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