✨ INBOX: hotel caelum

[icyspicy]

𝖜𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗 🐙✨

summer

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ABOUT ME

Hello! This is very delightful, though I have no idea what I'm doing!

NOTE

Confused by the username? Good.

Message @summer

code | art

BIRTHDAY DIRECTORY QR CODE

NAME: Winter BIRTHDAY: December 21st FAV CAKE FLAVOR: Black Forest WHAT THEY WANT MOST FOR THEIR BIRTHDAY: To have a good time.

Comments

shields sumina's innocent eyes... also action, after the espresso post

[airdnd]

[ knock knock, is Winter home? there's a peachy pink lady floating outside of his door. ]

DON'T LOOK SUMINA

[icyspicy]

[ The door opens! Thanks to Winter's mage hand. Come on in. Winter himself is not too far into the room, lounging on a couch. ]

I had a feeling I was about to become quite popular.

[airdnd]

[ As she passes through the threshold into his space and drifts back down to regular gravity with very much a practiced ease, she'll presumably let the mage hand close the door behind her so she can take a few steps in, fold her arms, and then just give him That Look. That one, that he has definitely seen her level at others at the inn before. Not that she thinks it'll work on him, but... Come on, bro!! Really!!!! ]

Winter...

[icyspicy]

[ Oh no, not That Look. ]

Are you about to tell me that you're not mad, just disappointed?

[airdnd]

...No, I'm tired. I was really looking forward to that espresso this morning...

And admittedly, confused as to why you two would conspire to do such a thing.

[icyspicy]

Too much coffee is bad for you, Sumina.

And we did it in part because Gojo asked, and in part to see if we could.

[airdnd]

[ . . . ]

Why am I not surprised that he was involved in this, too?

[icyspicy]

Because he, like me, is a charming scamp?

[airdnd]

Oh, you're both scamps, alright...

[ No comment on the charming! Editors, don't smash cut to Sumina calling Winter charming at the spa. She reaches up to rub at her eye... ]

It's like I never left home.

[icyspicy]

It's a little different. For one, this isn't your responsibility in any way.

[airdnd]

Yet I stand affected by it, nonetheless.

[ Sigh. ]

Well? Did you at least enjoy yourself, putting your professional skills to use here?

[icyspicy]

[ Oh he just laughs. ]

I had a bit of fun, yes, though between you and me, if this were a job I'd done in a... professional capacity, Kaira would have my head over how slipshod it was.

[airdnd]

Hah. She surely would...

[ she looks thoughtful for a moment. ]

Miss Amelia mentioned something about... tentacles?

[icyspicy]

Evard's Black Tentacles, if you're familiar with the spell. At least that's what Odette ran afoul of — though I promise I didn't hurt her. Just slowed her down a bit.

[ And she repaid him with a serving tray to the back of the skull. The arm on that woman... ]

Amelia was referring to something a bit... different. I suppose I've never told you much about my patron, have I?

[airdnd]

I can't say I'm terribly familiar with the spell, but... well. Easy enough to parse, from its name.

[ She shakes her head. ]

But no, you've not told me much about your patron. I wished not to pry, given our arrangements at home. I know it can be a... sensitive topic, for some warlocks.

[icyspicy]

[ He pats the seat next to him on the couch, inviting her to come sit. ]

Come join me. I think it's high time you knew, anyway.

[airdnd]

Mm, if you're sure, Winter.

[ She pads along and sits next to him, though in that time, she finally does casts her gaze around at his suite. ]

...You were right, our rooms really are quite opposite of one another.

[icyspicy]

[ He breathes out a sound of amusement, following her gaze around the room. ]

I told you.

[ But anyone just looking at the two of them could probably discern that much. In nay case, once she's settled: ]

If I might start by asking, how familiar are you with things that live out among the stars? I imagine your family has experience with such things.

[airdnd]

[ a solar dragon is out there on a first-name basis with her, but, ]

Ah. Your imagination doesn't betray you. We came from the starry seas before anywhere else, after all— [ wait. correcting herself: ] Well, technically, the Feywild before that, but that history is even older.

[ though it is where the 'Heartleaf' surname came from. ]

Anyhow... I am a bit familiar, yes.

[icyspicy]

[ I can't believe you're holding out on him. ]

Then, if you would picture an octopus the size of a planet, but instead of flesh, carve it from the void of space itself and all its myriad stars, you would have my patron.

[airdnd]

[ ...The description itself is not so unbelievable, expressly for the reason that Sumina had just provided. The Astral Sea is full of a great many things, being the realm of wildspace and the myriad stars and worlds that it holds, the veil that connects the inner and outer planes, and a graveyard for gods. It's easy to imagine such a planet-sized octopus made of stars, even if she herself doesn't know of any, specifically.

What isn't so easy to imagine, however... ]

And... How exactly did you come into contact with such an entity...?

[ She has a hypothesis or two of course, both related to his career, but for all she knows, he could have had a close encounter of the third kind as a child or something. ]

[icyspicy]

[ Her instincts aren't wrong to lead her toward his work. Usually he wouldn't even reveal this much, but Sumina is a good friend, a fine ally, and trusted client. Her rapport with the Blues has earned her this much, to say nothing of her rapport with Winter personally. ]

Luck, mostly. They were being held captive in a relic in a strange old temple I visited on a job. I'd been injured, and they reached out to me and said if I freed them, they would save my life.

[airdnd]

[ He doesn't say so in a definitive manner, but it isn't difficult to fill in the gaps, of course - namely for the fact that it means Winter had been very much in a life-threatening situation. One most dire, as well, when forging a binding contract with a powerful being was his only option for survival.

Despite her best efforts to seem unaffected as she might have being told this at her place of work, Sumina finds herself crestfallen at the realization; her gaze wanders, ultimately settling on the painting of a tentacled creature on the wall. It's no surprise that her guests would be faced with impossible odds, and life-threatening situations. In fact, the inn was made for such people. Yet to know this about Winter in particular doesn't seem to settle right with her, when he had so easily become one of her favorite regulars. ]

I... I see. I must admit that I'd always wondered about your patron, or how you came to be a warlock, but...

[icyspicy]

[ As he watches her expression fall, it occurs to him that he's heard many such stories in the inn's tavern. Many more times he's seen groups of adventurers stumble into the inn with their numbers less than they had been when they left. Sumina is always there to lend an ear, of course. It's part of her job and she takes it quite seriously.

But gods above, that must wear on her. ]

It's all right. Sincerely. [ He tucks his hand beneath her chin, lifting her gaze to meet his own. His smile small, but genuine. ] As you can see I'm very much alive and well. And I have no regrets over my pact or my patron.

[airdnd]

[ ...It does. Perhaps more than she's willing to ever admit. After all, it's not as if she's the one out there fighting eldritch abominations and setting off dangerous traps and such.

Winter reaches out and gently redirects her gaze towards him, her eyelids fluttering wide at the touch, the gentleness of the gesture and his smile both stirring an aching feeling in her chest, but she swallows thickly - as if that would push that feeling down, too. ]

Then... What of your relationship with your patron, Winter?

[ She knows that can be a bit of a spectrum; she's met warlocks before with quite the tempestuous dynamic with their patrons, but Winter has never given her that kind of impression before. Still, she wants to hear it from him, to be certain of it. ]