video; un: peekaboo

[descendency]

[ the video feed flicks on to a young man's grim, steel-eyed gaze. he strikes as a man who might be more attractive were he not so severe and dour, a natural softness to his features that does not take easily to his fury. rosy lips pulled taut in displeasure, he stares out as though scrutinizing an audience he has not yet gathered, who yet remains unseen. ]

It's Gabriel.

[ he states his own name with distaste, as though he would rather be doing anything but giving his name to these circumstances and that much is the plain truth of the matter. ]

I require the statuses of Beitang Moran [ insufferable know it all ], Wei Wuxian [ insufferable busybody ], and Five [ insufferable ].

As for the rest of you, would someone like to kindly tell me where the fuck we are and what the hell we're doing here?

Comments

ur so good hello

[descendency]

Ah, and which of you geniuses thought it was a great idea to confirm his missing memories for him?

[ he's so tired of your entire family, allison. five is his favorite of you lot and look at where we are with that. ]

okay good <3

[rumorate]

[Allison is fuming, and she wishes that this were in person so she could just rumor him and get it over with but given the glibness of his answer, she thinks (hopes) that he might not have realized the full damage done.]

You do realize that you didn't just erase his memory of Vanya's presence here, in zombie land. You fucking erased her from his entire life. He didn't even know he had another sister.

[She's trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, Mingyu, but if you prove her wrong, she'll really make you tired of the Hargreeves. Hopefully Five hasn't told him about her particular power.]

[descendency]

I—

[ that actually catches mingyu off-guard and he blinks. pain lances through his temples and he grimaces, bringing a hand up to cradle his head. ]

I what? No, he—

[ he tries to remember himself. he remembers. he remembers, doesn't he?

five's twitchiness, the desperation in his eyes. the wards of the room. no, that was before. after. after what happened after? he can feel five's arm gripped in his hand, slender, thin as a branch, stronger than it should be. there's a crackle. he tastes something like blood, like meat searing, like smoke and ash. time pushes back, and he—

he doesn't remember. there's only the before, none of the after. ]

He fought me. I wasn't— I didn't get to finish. He pushed back, and I woke up here.

[ mingyu looks unsettled, an emotion he rarely lets surface but cannot bite back in this moment. he shakes his head. ]

He wasn't right. He was going to do something stupid. I was just trying to calm him down until it was less raw. It's what I would've wanted done for me.

Did the memories come back?

[rumorate]

[This is what Allison hoped for. That it was an accident rather than an intentional sundering of Vanya from Five's story. Her confrontational attitude lessens some, but she still needs information from him.]

No. Anytime he tries to remember he gets these nosebleeds.

[And then, the question of the hour:]

Can you fix it?

[descendency]

[ there's a low noise of something like frustration in the back of mingyu's throat. ]

Of course I can. The question is will he let me without killing me or literally punching me into next year? Again.

[ he mops a hand over his face, eyes squeezing shut. he can't remember the last time he felt quite so tired. ]

[rumorate]

[Mingyu is not wrong to be worried about these things but:]

I can keep him in line. Don't let him meet you without me.

[She'll rumor him if she has to but she doesn't want to have to.]