CASSIE LUANNA
Witch
Posts: 186
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Oct 28, 2024 17:35:29 GMT
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Post by CASSIE LUANNA on Feb 7, 2022 20:46:10 GMT
 ━ climb that goddamn mountain ━
She’d gathered everything for the ritual, including Nicky for witchy guidance, and the casket Kace’s ‘friend’ seemed to leave behind. Couldn’t stomach it, maybe. Could she? She’d been chatting with dead folks all her life, but putting them back in their bodies? That was a lot different. She’d already warned Kace at least three times that she might not be able to do it. Cassie just really hoped she could, and she wondered if hope was enough.
Carrying a little bag with her, Cassie moved from Nicky’s car to the front door, silent for once. If she started lacking confidence, then nothing would happen at all, and she was determined. She didn’t want anybody else to get their hopes up, but that wouldn’t stop Cassie from putting expectations on herself. She had to do this right.
She rapped twice on the wooden door before it opened, almost like he’d been waiting just on the other side. Kit, she guessed. Tall, eyes like Kace’s, except his hair was dark━the sadness on his face, though, couldn’t be misplaced. It made him look exactly like his brother, and Cassie gave him an awkward, sad smile in return.
“You’re Cassie?” He almost looked surprised, and Cassie couldn’t figure out why. She didn’t see herself as a little kid (nobody treated her that way) and couldn’t put herself in this man’s shoes. Kit, with all his life experience, definitely saw her as a baby. Especially since she looked about the same age as his niece, and it felt like a handful of days since he’d been changing her diapers (with an oxygen mask on, of course).
“The one and only.” Cassie joked lamely, both arms wrapped around her dark bag, clutching the stuff to her torso. She nodded back over her shoulder towards her companion, “And that’s Nicky.” She didn’t want to ask if he was ready because, well, who would be? Cassie didn’t even think she was.
He backed up to let them in, and Cassie spotted Kace just a few feet away. She beamed a little brighter at him, jiggling her shoulders (and in turn, the bag and her arms) in place of a wave. “Hey!” She chimed. “Where are we gonna do it? Living room? I need space, but a table would be helpful.” Her sudden brightness dimmed just as quickly as it came, a little uncomfortable with her next question. But… Kace was dead, right? So he couldn’t be that sensitive about it. “Um… is the━is your… here, right?”
KACE CLARKE | lets get this party startedddd |
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KACE CLARKE
Werewolf
untriggered
Posts: 99
Age:
30
Occupation:
Owner of the Diner
Status:
Single
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 29, 2024 20:38:09 GMT
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Post by KACE CLARKE on Feb 12, 2022 20:14:58 GMT
Arms crossed tight over his narrow chest, cigarette clutched in pursed lips, Kace paced another circuit of the living room. If he’d been half as substantial as the – nope, he wasn’t fucking picturing what was left in that damn box – if any of this got beyond the veil the air in the room would’ve been turning blue with the smoke pouring from him. Hope had been hot enough in his chest that he’d needed something to battle that burn. How the hell were you meant to avoid tying yourself in in knots of it when a teenaged witch told you that she could practically snap her fingers and bring you back from the dead – if it worked.
In this same living room, with Frank hovering a room away, he’d tried to pass some of the hope on to Kit without risking shattering his brother. The cracks had shot through Kit the moment the blade had been in his chest and reality had snapped back in, bone deep, widening every damn day. For almost a year he’d moped around this town and watched them slowly widening as Kit had shoved his fingers into them, wanting to pay some sort of price for his crime that the courts hadn’t slammed down on him. Frank and that fiery chick might not have wanted to see it – not when they were trying to ignore their own damage – but Kace was pretty damn sure that this not working would be the final hammer blow. Kit would break and maybe he would too.
Nerves not anger boiled through him for now, a flutter in his chest – palpitations that weren’t gonna kill him – rising up at another drag on the cigarette. How long would he have if Cassie couldn’t jam him back in his body? Hours, days, a month? Control had to slip then and he’d turn like they’d warned him he would. Kace huffed out a tight breath, ducking his head as he tried to quell the tremor in his fingers. If he felt it he’d beg. It would be better to move on and cut Kit lose to maybe try and pull the shattered pieces of himself together than stay and rage and destroy everything around him.
Kace plucked the cigarette free, tossed the stub of it aside to disappear before it even reached the carpet. The floorboards upstairs creaked faintly, drawing his eyes up. Frank had left them alone for this, once he’d helped shoulder the gift Gage had left behind when he’d disappeared back out of town, but it sounded like he was up there doing the same. Twin circuits driven by nerves.
Blue eyes dropped back down to Kit, teeth raking at his lower lip. He wanted to offer up some sort of reassurance but he’d poured all of that out when they’d talked it through and he wasn’t sure he had anything left. How could he force a promise out of his mouth that he didn’t entirely trust himself?
Shit.
The crunch of a car pulling up outside the house was enough to have him starting like he’d been electrocuted. Another flutter in his chest. Kace lifted his hand, curved fingers like a protective cage over his heart in case it burst free. He was gonna fucking need it because Cassie was gonna do this. ”Let her in, let’s do this.” His voice was tight, his muscles stiffening as Kit opened the door and Cassie’s mentor, walked in with her. An English guy so buttoned up he looked like a damn pallbearer. Just what they needed.
Kace swallowed hard, tilted his head in apology for Kit’s idiocy. You’re Cassie?” Like some other chick would’ve turned up at the door with a bag of magic stuff that was gonna drag him back through the veil. ”Hey,” he managed roughly as the Englishman dipped his head in greeting to Kit.
”Hi,” Nicky murmured. ”I’m just here for support. She’s gonna be doin’ all the heavy liftin’ ‘ere.”
Lifting. Kace let out a weary chuckle and it sounded strangled even to him. Nicky didn’t even glance at him at the sound. Not like Cassie then, he couldn’t see him even now. He fumbled in his pocket for his cigarettes, fingers going tight around them as he tried for a smile for her. Reassurance for the witch bringing him back. It felt nuts. ”I’m on the … the … uh … living room floor. There’s a coffee table in there … Kit can drag something else in if you need it.” He’d refused to look at that mahogany box as he’d paced. Gilt handles, polish still on the damn thing – it had almost been a wonder that Kamilla hadn’t had the entire thing gold plated, all the better to make a show of the funeral of her baby boy.
Kace took a step back, the nerves starting to claw their way up into his chest. He tried not to let it show, not when Kit and Cassie were gonna be looking right at him for this. ”Try not to bring me back lookin’ like that, huh?” he managed tightly as he backed up towards his coffin – still he couldn’t turn to look at what had become of who he was. He lifted his chin towards Kit as he said it, the humour tight. ”I always was the prettier one. I wanna keep it that way if we can.” If, still a pretty big fucking concept. Kace flinched, eyes shutting as Nicky walked past him to take a look at the thing.
”There’s room to set up in ‘ere.” he called back. ”We’ll all fit in. You ready?” Kace turned slowly, felt his insubstantial stomach lurch as the Englishman dropped to his knee beside the coffin to run his fingers along the side as if he was gonna flip it open and reveal the nightmare to all of them.
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CASSIE LUANNA
Witch
Posts: 186
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Oct 28, 2024 17:35:29 GMT
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Post by CASSIE LUANNA on Mar 7, 2022 16:14:18 GMT
━ climb that goddamn mountain ━
“Okay. Thanks.” Cassie gave Kace a shy smile, lingering by his side until he was ready to show them the way. Also, she was really not looking forward to hanging out with a coffin.
‘... I always was the prettier one.’
Though Cassie’s laugh was airy, as if she’d been holding her breath for ages, it still felt good. A little stress or tension release or something━even if Kace didn’t seem to wholly enjoy it himself. “I’ll do my best.” Her intention was supposed to be another addition to his joke, said with a big grin, but the seriousness of it made her suddenly go rigid. What if her best wasn’t good enough? What if…
“Even now you’re talking shit.” Kit seemed to do the same━an awkward laugh to make everything a little less painful. It reminded her, though, that there were certain precautions to take━everything had to be done by the book if they wanted any chance of this working out.
She nearly addressed Kit again before deciding it was better to stick with Kace━more respectful or something like that; like they didn’t forget him even at his own (hopeful) revival. “Um, can he see you right now? ‘Cause if you can, like… stop doing that. I need you to reserve all your energy for this.” Finally, she glanced over her shoulder at Kit, who gave a firm nod, now void of all the humour she’d seen only moments ago. Did she do that?
Nicky went first, leading the pack despite his previous words about simply being her right-hand man. But she was grateful for it, and he was still technically supporting her. “C’mon,” She meant it to Kace more than Kit, but he followed like a shadow as she moved toward the coffin. Pressing the backpack a little tighter to her chest, Cassie gulped and wondered if it was as loud to everyone else as it was to her.
Lowering to both knees beside Nicky, she pointed to the spot directly in front of her mentor, just an inch or so away. “Um, Kace, I need you there with your back to the coffin, facing us. And Kit, beside me, please.” Dropping the bag down in front of her, Cassie didn’t look up as Kit followed instructions, beginning to form the rest of the half-circle that closed at the coffin’s edge and around Kace. She started pulling out her supplies once they were settled, which included a bunch of white candles, then a coloured one for each of the elements, plus a fifth.
“Okay, Nicky and Kit, take my hands and put your others on the coffin. Kace, make sure you’re still within the circle.” Making a sweeping motion in the air, all of the white candles lit up in the middle of the circle, each on their own little dishes. Within the larger ring of candles was a smaller one, containing only the coloured candles. “Now, everybody close your eyes.” Following her own instructions, Cassie took a deep breath and took both hands at her sides. “Imagine a white light coming down and blanketing the circle, pushing out any darkness. Kit, when I go through the elements, I want you to charge Kace with each of them. Like… imagine whatever colour you associate it with filling his body completely, and focus on any memories that come up involving both of you. Kace, I want you to do the same, but make sure to stay focused on yourself.”
Slowly, Cassie began invoking each element. The dark green candle burst to life as soon as she called on Earth, asking for strength and stability. Water, her element, came next with its deep blue colour, and she could almost feel it washing over her skin━she asked it to cleanse their circle and their path to completion. Fire, a red candle, to burn away impurities and impassion their concentration. Air, a lighter blue, almost white candle, to bring clarity of the mind for a successful ritual. Finally, Cassie called for spirit.
“Ancestors,” Her voice was somewhat meek like she was afraid to ask━and she was. Instead of pressing on, she took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and continued in a confident voice. She wasn’t the juvenile, shy girl who’d been cursed to spend months in the body of someone else━she’d survived, and Kace would, too. “Ancestors. I call on you to help me guide this spirit back to his body. I understand it defies the law of nature, that he isn’t one of us, but I believe his soul is pure and deserves another chance. He was taken prematurely━due to an accident,” She squeezed Kit’s hand and was pleased, almost invigorated, when he squeezed back. She was doing this. “I was sacrificed to strengthen the coven’s ties to you, Ancestors, and I’m asking for that strength to complete this ritual and return my friend to this plane. I have faith in the Ancestors who embolden my magic.” Opening one eye, she peeked at the plum-coloured candle, and beamed as soon as she saw it was brightly lit. A little tingle went through her entire body, making the hairs on her arms stand as she felt the spirits come to aid her.
Cassie began reciting the incantation in Latin with another deep breath, focusing so hard her head started to hurt. She was determined, especially now with the Ancestors on her side, to bring Kace back to life. Ignoring the trickle of blood seeping from her nose and tickling her upper lip, Cassie fought harder, slowly becoming louder until she was nearly shouting the spell.
Eventually, seemingly at the climax, she felt a sudden wash of relaxation. It was draining, like all the energy had been pulled from her body, forcing a quiet stillness over the room. She had just enough energy to peel her eyes open, and only then did Cassie realize she was panting━but she didn’t see Kace’s ghost sitting in front of them anymore.
KACE CLARKE | no notes. |
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KACE CLARKE
Werewolf
untriggered
Posts: 99
Age:
30
Occupation:
Owner of the Diner
Status:
Single
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 29, 2024 20:38:09 GMT
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Post by KACE CLARKE on Mar 28, 2022 19:19:37 GMT
There wasn’t any breaking the ice over coming back from the dead. This situation was frozen through, Arctic levels of ice resisting all the jokes he could possibly toss around it. Maybe Cassie getting him back into his body and him not fricking haunting his brother would be like the Clarke version of global warming but with like everything else that was a question for later. They didn’t know if she could pull off the spell. They didn’t know if he’d just pop back into his body and everything would be hunky dory like it was with Frank’s brother. He didn’t know if he was still be shot through with the scars of his big brother murdering him forever after this. All those ifs were piled up on his chest and the only way Kace had to try and relieve the pressure of them enough to not implode was to joke.
Cassie laughed at least. Kace felt that pressure release slightly as she did. His hand came up, pressing over the flutter of a heart that should’ve been still and grinding down on what felt like solid flesh and bone to him. He swallowed hard, that tension still balled up like a sock in his throat, cottony and tasting worse than the damn cigarettes. ”It’s appreciated,” Kace promised hoarsely, his grin shaky. Narrow shoulders clad in worn black cotton – it felt a little mournful at least – shrugged, that grin turned on Kit for a moment before it died away. ”Says the great ape.” He’d have called Kit delusional but it was way too fucking soon for that and it looked like everybody in the room, including Nicky, knew it.
Out of the corner of his eye he watched the man, ramrod straight and twice as grim in that dark suit, looking at him. Kace’s smile was well gone as he glanced at Kit and nodded, almost in time with his brother. She wanted him powered down, like a lightbulb. Maybe it was easier to handle – to replace him if he wasn’t all juiced up. The ‘I’ll see you on the flip side’ stuck in his throat as Cassie hustled him along.
The Englishman looked up at their parade when they walked in. Eyes pale as the ice he’d been imagining ticking between Cassie and Kit, skipping over him. They must’ve looked like the pallbearers, ready to scoop the coffin up and carry him off to his not-so-happy-ever-after-life. He’d missed his own funeral, hadn’t been able to stomach sitting there and watching the husk left of him lowered into the ground with Kandace sobbing in an Oscar worthy performance of a loving mother.
Kace looked up at the ceiling, arms crossing over his chest. One hand came up, teeth working at his thumbnail. Nicky half rose, holding his hand over strategic points on the coffin. He muttered words in a language that was barely understandable to anything or anyone but there were clicks, the fastenings that held the coffin shut clicking unlocked.
Staring at the ceiling Kace tried to will his heart to slow. He couldn’t see the coffin the way he was turned around, didn’t want to. Each click left him flinching, the small sounds of his resurrection grating at his nerves until he was ready to jump out of his opaque skin. If this wasn’t it, he wasn’t sure he could take all this again, like failure would untie everything that was holding him together.
Nicky stood at Cassie’s other side. He eyed the brother past her, nodding like that was gonna give him some confidence. His palm was dry as his hand closed around Cassie’s. The other landed lightly on top of the coffin, over where the head would be. ”You take everythin’ you need with this,” he told Cassie, no room for argument in his voice. This was gonna take more power than he had on his own. A circle of three humming with combined power. Slowly he drew in a breath and at the point of holding it closed his eyes. The instructions rolled through him the same as when their dad was training him and Darce. Lessons learned in slow, measured tones.
A strained laugh rolled out of Kace as he squeezed his eyes tight shut. This was the sort of hoodoo bullshit they would’ve laughed at back in Cali. New age shit with about as much power as his little finger but somehow when Cassie said it, he had to believe it. His body filling with the sort of light he definitely wasn’t about to fucking step into, memories held caged in Kit’s head – God, he hoped it was the happy shit, not those final moments when blood had bubbled out of that wound in his chest. ”Don’t screw this up man, please.” The breathless whisper tailed off, thankfully not ending in a whimper as Cassie began to talk.
Behind his closed lids he tried to hold on to the water in California, the two of them out there on boards for the first time. Salt on his skin, the whoop of joy as they’d swooped in towards the shore on it. Nights on the beach, the light of the fire giving everything a golden glow. Kit walking in through the door of Bodhi’s, not quite the brother he remembered, but solid still as he’d dragged him into a back thumping hug. His brother was back. Tears pricked behind his eyes, the lids twitching as there was a snap of power closing around him.
The breathlessness grew as Cassie called on the ancestors. He wanted to open his eyes, to look around like they might’ve been standing there. Pruney old faces staring at him shrewdly like they could balance up his existence with a single look. Had he been good enough to deserve this? Was there any weight about to land around his neck like a fucking anvil. Please, please, please. That silent mantra kicked into a higher pace as Cassie switched from English to what he thought was Latin, the archaic words filling the air. Louder and louder until Kace’s hands were coming up to cover his ears. Like he’d somehow popped through to the centre of a tornado, it stopped.
It was immediately apparent that something had happened. A wave slipping through the room as slick and cool as silk. Nicky blinked his eyes open, feeling a languorous weight in him, like something had been drawn from him. He squeezed Cassie’s hand, peeling his other from the top of the coffin to pull a hankie from his pocket and offered it up. ”You’re bleeding. Get her a chair…” The order went out to Kit as he lifted his chin. This sort of thing drained you. Without the two of them it would’ve been like every ounce of power pouring out of the girl.
When he’d been eighteen he’d been sucked down in a rip tide off Maverick’s, where Bodhi would die a handful of years later. One minute he’d been on the board, the next he was under the waves, like a hand had reached up and dragged him down in an instant. There was a calm that came with the sensation this time but it was no less fucking terrifying to go from standing there with his eyes closed, that faint orange glow of light behind his lids to absolute darkness. A cold kiss of silk against the back of his neck, the starched feel of a collar up around his throat – tight, too tight – wooden walls thudding against his hands as he tried to push it all away. Kace hollered, his voice raw, his fists hammer blows as he rained them against the lid of the coffin, looking for an escape. ”Out, out! Please! Oh, God!” Worse, it was so much worse than he could’ve imagined, as though he hadn’t been resurrected, just pulled down into some twisted hell finally.
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CASSIE LUANNA
Witch
Posts: 186
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Oct 28, 2024 17:35:29 GMT
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Post by CASSIE LUANNA on Apr 11, 2022 14:29:54 GMT
━ climb that goddamn mountain ━
A warm rush ran over her. Nicky started to move, to speak, but Cassie said a quick, “Don’t move. I have to close the circle.” While it wasn’t extremely dire with a spell like this, they were still messing with the veil that separated the living from the Other Side, and she’d had enough bad experiences with ghosts for one lifetime. Tugging on Nicky and Kit’s hands to get them to sit back down, she quickly went backwards through the elements. Thanking the ancestors and each aspect of nature before letting them go with a long, slow breath, finally peeling her eyes back open.
Kit allowed the crackles of energy to shower him and then fade away before he stood again, grabbing a stool from the kitchen to bring to Cassie. She took Nicky’s handkerchief and pressed it to her nose, standing slowly, carefully, with a hand on Kit’s arm. He guided her back until she could relax into the seat, and Cassie, as if it was the most mundane thing in the world, made an upwards motion with her hand as soon as she heard Kace’s screaming. The coffin’s lid burst open like something out of an old, cheesy horror movie, though she really, really hoped Kace wouldn’t look like a zombie.
The smell from before suddenly vanished, too, though it’d been washed away as soon as she called air. Thankfully, it wasn’t back━Cassie took that as a good sign.
She watched as Kit moved to the edge, and though he looked like he was hyperventilating, he kept going, movements direct and sure. He reached down, touching Kace’s arm experimentally before helping (practically lifting) him out of the coffin and wrapping him in a secure hug. Cassie smiled, blue eyes welling up with tears at the reunion. She wished she had siblings.
Turning her smile to Nicky, she wiped the rest of the blood away and considered handing it back, but instead paused and balled it up in her palm. She’d wash it and get it back to him.
Slowly rising, Cassie took a few small steps closer. She felt tired, like she could fall asleep at any moment, but she wanted to see Kace. “Hi,” She said softly, one hand holding Nicky’s arm for support, though her eyes were trained on Kace. “Welcome back.” Cassie giggled, staring tiredly at the boys. One day Kit might release him from the bear hug, but Cassie figured it wouldn’t be today, and so she waited patiently. “How… do you feel?” As if she knew the symptoms of a resurrection gone wrong.
KACE CLARKE | short and sweet?!  |
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KACE CLARKE
Werewolf
untriggered
Posts: 99
Age:
30
Occupation:
Owner of the Diner
Status:
Single
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 29, 2024 20:38:09 GMT
|
Post by KACE CLARKE on May 8, 2022 16:51:32 GMT
Each candle that had gone down had cranked his anxiety. Kace stared up at the ceiling, trying not to flinch as every piece of this little ceremony was locked down in place with almost an audible click. It must have sounded like that when they’d put him in his coffin the first time. The whine of the screwdriver bolting those locks down – like he’d somehow try and come clawing up out of it, a horror film of the sort of shitty B-movie proportions Kamilla would’ve loved. The warning Cassie gave the British dude had him flinching again, like even taking that fake breath was gonna screw this up somehow.
There was a snap in the air as Cassie completed her circle, the power a pressure around him that had left him wanting to bolt. The power had only grown as she’d worked her way through the spell, building like the tornados they’d had rip through home from time to time. He couldn’t have actually breathed even if he wanted to but as it grew there was a weight on him, a pressure that felt like it could crush him. It didn’t, maybe couldn’t have, but at the last Kace almost felt himself pop out of existence.
In the dark the pressure was gone, the calm returning for that brief moment as he’d gone under, but the fear wasn’t done yet. It clung thick in the air that he dragged in now. Each breath seemed to make it worse, his heart – was it actually beating again? – thundered in his chest. If it had gone wrong had he ended up hell? Alone in the dark forever was a fucking torment and that was what hell was meant to be, wasn’t it? Kace roared, hands a thunderous drum on the lid. The locks had clicked before, Nicky had taken care of those like he was just gonna be able to do a Vincent Price and push it open to get out.
It wasn’t a pop this time. One second the kid was there, the next it was flying up as he’d pictured. Light flooded in, highlighting the silk lining before he was trying to lever himself up out of the cushy interior. It was just like Kamilla to pick the plushest, most ridiculous fucking coffin to put her kid in the ground. A shadow fell on him and Kace grabbed the hand touching his arm, letting Kit lever him up out of there. He fell into his brother, arms wrapped him in a way he couldn’t have done if this shit hadn’t worked. Kace’s lips pinched closed, tears blurring his eyes as he thumped his hand against Kit’s broad back. ”Phew, you’re still the ugly one,” Kace managed through gritted teeth before he let out a strained, watery laugh. ”It’s so fucking good to see you though.” He pulled back face enough to pat his hand against Kit’s cheek, still marvelling that he could touch him.
Nicky was still hovering like a funeral director but there was something softer in the way he hovered at Cassie’s side, looking like he was ready to catch her if she fell. ”Slowly, the both of you. I don’t wanna be pickin’ anybody up off the floor,” he said lightly.
There was a smile on his face as she leaned on him though. Kace did the same with Kit, one had still clinging to his brother’s sleeve for support as he turned to her. Kit was loosening his grip but he held a hand out to Cassie like he was gonna drag her into it. ”Hey,” he croaked. ”I’ve got so much to thank you for.” The laugh that rolled out of him had those first tears breaking down his face. ”Tired. Seems pretty fuckin’ crazy considerin’ I’ve been sittin’ around on my ass. God….” He drew in a breath, let it out on a laugh as he gripped Cassie’s hand to pull her in. ”Thank you,” he breathed as he held her close for a moment. Nicky hovered on the edges but in the end he was the one breaking the quiet pall.
Kace looked at him past the circle of people still gripping him hard, another weary laugh rolling out of him as the guy spoke in that ridiculous accent. ”I think this calls for a drink.”
His hand patting at Cassie’s back, Kace straightened up a little to look up at Kit through that screen of tears. ”The grown ups at least. What’ve you got around here to celebrate with?” There wasn’t gonna be a deep enough barrel to drown all of this out but, hell, now he was back they could try at least.
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