Getting Settled

"Getting Settled" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Stonegit cracked a narrow door to a dark building open, and then stepped inside, motioning for his family to follow him. The safe house was an expertly placed one, as it was located within a town that was small enough to be overlooked, but large enough to hide in. On top of that, it was built, and colored in such a way and in such a place that it would be easily overlooked by those passing by. 
Stonegit lit some candles. The house had also been outfitted with hiding places, extra hidden exists, and room for defensive placements. “I can get this place warded later on.” He said lowly. “But for now we should be safe for the night.”
@battleofthegroundeddungeon  
@moe-lazyeye
Jonas was the first to step inside, peering into the location with a critical eye. He didn’t say anything, but appeared to be carefully calculating how safe of a location this was.
Egil was herded inside by several high pitched voices, two dark haired girls giggling without a care in the world. Egil looked stressed, but moreso because of the giggling than their dire situation.
“Alright, cool, great, we’re here,” he muttered, in not-at-all-a-completely-dismissing manner toward Stonegit. “This will do nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’ve seen more security in taverns.”
“I’ll get into that with you later.” Stonegit said, this time with a little more bite to his words. He had been doing his best to be patient, and understanding of Egil’s stress, all night despite everything that had happened. But now he felt like a man at the tail end of a very long caravan ride. Nevertheless, he took a breath, his words returning to their, generally, passive tone. “Let’s get everyone settled in for the night, and then I can talk a little more freely.”
Egil muttered something unpleasant under his breath. He turned around, as though to find someone else to complain to, and found two women behind him. His mother and his wife were just stepping inside.
Mera was helping Avara, the latter of whom appeared rather worn from the journey, and sat down with a belabored moan. Traveling that far into her pregnancy had taken a lot out of her. Egil appeared to want to say something to either Mera or Avara, but upon seeing both women’s worn expressions, apparently decided it’d be better to shut up and fume silently.
“Alright, let’s get settled,” he sighed. 
His daughters were already running throughout the room. “Girls, find a bedroom you can sleep in. And sleep. Please. Please. Please.” He sounded less like an authority figure and more like a helpless, desperate victim.
Everyone in the family began settling down as best they could. Egil, accustomed to the size of the castle, began to worry about these smaller quarters. He wasn’t used to spending this much time with his daughters, he’d already been in several fights with Avara on the road, and his mom could be unpleasantly headstrong. It seemed like they were preparing for a very uncomfortable stay.
At least I agreed to only stay here a week, he thought to himself, already preparing for his escape. 
Neither of his kids seemed ready to sleep until Mera snapped at them to lie down and get rest. Then, deciding this was good enough, he stepped back to Stonegit, waiting to hear what the man had to say about this safe house. 
Stonegit was rubbing his hands together anxiously as he gazed at the family in front of him. He felt a bead of sweat trace itself out of his hairline.
I can’t tell them! He suddenly thought in a momentary panic, and his eyes locked on Mera. She knows, Blunt knows, Haddock…Haddock knew…I don’t think-I don’t-! Stonegit swallowed dryly, his mind slowing enough to think a little more clearly. 
Jonas, Signy, Sindri…Mera…they all understand or would understand with little explanation…but Egil… Stonegit’s eyes lowered, and then he motioned for Egil to come talk with him in private in a side room. “Alright…over here.”
Egil followed him over. He didn’t seem to notice Stonegit’s anxiousness; he was too busy brooding in his own concerns. He leaned against the wall, ran both his hands through his hair, and said, “Alright. What’s the deal?”
Stonegit wanted to see how little he could tell Egil before the man was willing to give this a reasonable chance. Part of it was because he didn’t want to burden him with more stress. The other part was simply not wanting him to know for personal reasons. He huffed once. “So…I’ll mostly be able to explain things based on questions you have, but for starters, I want to affirm that the lack of guards and armaments is strategic. This Rhenco guy does not fear either of those two things, so our security has to come, mostly, in the form of being hidden, above conventional protection. 
Egil rolled his eyes. “Look, Stonegit. I’m not gonna play Twenty Questions. I’ll leave if I have to go through that much effort to learn anything. Just tell me everything. And you can start by telling me how covert guards couldn’t be a thing.”
Yep…he’s Haddock’s alright…
Stonegit rubbed the back of his head as he felt a knot form in his stomach. “Okay…okay…thing is…” he paused, his eyes un-focusing for a moment as if he were reliving a memory, and then he slowly sank down into a seat. He folded his hands, and canted his eyes downward so he wasn’t looking at him. Maybe some of this had to start…with finding out what Egil already knew.
“You would have been young…” he began. “Early April…maybe late March…1045. Not to drag this out, but I need to start somewhere…do you remember anything about that day?”
“Okay, like, that’s so cryptic that I’m gonna need more info than that. How can I say if I remember ‘that day’ if you don’t tell me anything about what ‘that day’ is?”
Egil frowned and began shuffling his feet, already done with this conversation. Or, maybe he was uncomfortable, sensing something about Stonegit’s disposition. If he wanted to run from an emotional conversation, he certainly looked it.
“Look. Unless this has something to do with Rhenco or whatever his name is, I don’t need some twenty year history. Or whatever this shit is.”
Stonegit was still in his position for a moment. “Alright Egil…Alright…” he stood up and walked over to him with his arms crossed. His breaths shallow, he looked up to meet his eyes. “On that day, Orskaf Donz branded your father with the mark of the slave, while trying to forcefully contract us to Odin. Now…Donz and I had bad history that essentially was the cause of everything going downhill that day, but I know you already knew that. But what no one knew is that Donz wasn’t the only person who pointedly targeted out your father…and myself that day.”
There was a small tremor in Stonegit’s arm from where he attempted to suppress his shaking fingers by clasping them under his arms pits. 
“That’s what Rhenco has to do with this. He targeted your father. He knew what Donz was going to do and he came along for the ride as one of the guards, and Egil he-…” Stonegit’s pressed his lips together, and then very, slowly, reached out and gripped Egil’s shirt in a fist. He allowed himself to break eye contact with him, his voice lowering. “Well…he hurt me pretty badly…” he gave an odd crane of his neck. “And that’s why he came back. And that’s why he is so pissed off right now because just earlier when he showed up at my door I pretended like I barely knew who he was.”  
It was pretty clear Egil didn’t know how to respond. So that’s what he did: not respond. He shrugged, clearly uncomfortable, and glanced downward. “Mkay then,” he mumbled. 
Stonegit took both his arms gently. “This Rhenco issue is…its complicated, and deeply personal. To get at me, he will come after this family. I wish I wasn’t the reason behind him being here, I really do. But we’re finding his weaknesses with each passing day, so the best means to combat him, for us at least, is to not allow ourselves to be used to his advantage.”
He reached over to tip Egil’s head up so he was looking at him. He paused as he starred into his eyes, and then shook his head with a smile. “Gods…you are so damn frustrating, but don’t think for a second that I don’t love you right to my grave.” He pressed his lips together. “I’ll get us out of this mess…just give me time…”
Egil was frowning, looking slightly weirded out. Given as he was already leaning against a wall, he didn’t move away, but he did appear to be holding himself stiffer.
Eventually he tried to pull up the left side of his face into a lopsided grin. That failed. His cheeks twitched several times futilely. Then he said, “Great then, I still don’t think you answered the one question I had.”
Stonegit paused, rolled an eye, and then hung his head with a huffed laugh. “Of course I didn’t.” He patted his shoulder twice before pacing away. “You’ll have to forgive me for that, apparently I do that often.” 
He gave Egil the physical space the man appeared to want, and leaned both hands on the seat he had once sat it. He rolled an eye again as he recollected Egil’s former question, prior to him trying to tell him ‘everything.’ He pointed a finger with an inquisitive look. “Covert guards?” 
“Okay, okay, fine, you count as a guard. Fine. Duh. But you’re one person, and I don’t see why we couldn’ta had people on the lookout. Or do y’expect me to fend off any fucker myself if they sneak inside? How’s this safe?”
“Egil I was making sure I had the right question.” Stonegit said calmly. “I wasn’t accusing you of overlooking me.” He drummed his fingers. “Hidden watches of appropriately informed guards is a good idea. I’ll get on that.”
“As for safety, this house is not perfectly safe. It truly isn’t. But it is safer than staying in the castle. He is an expert an sneaking into large homes and castles. And he will target the families of guards to force said guards to reveal our location out of sheer desperation to protect their loved ones. That’s why here is safer than there.”
“To help make things safer, I’ll be getting wards in place to alert us of intruders, turn them away from here, slow them down or entrap them, and even injure them if things get bad enough. I’ll make sure everyone here has something that can burn Rhenco, since fire is a big weakness of his, and, as you said, I’ll add secret watches to the plan.”
“Surprised Jonas hasn’t hounded you to the ends of the earth about that already,” Egil said with a smirk. Then, he pointed behind him, where the high pitched shrieks of two girls could be heard from behind the wall. They appeared to be shouting about a spider. “And we’ve got a second alarm system in place.”
“And one fierce enough to fight the wildest beasts of the earth.” Stonegit added to Egil’s comment.
He patted the back of the chair again, sensing that Egil had perhaps tired of this talk, at least more so than what would be worth pushing. “I appreciated this.” He sighed. “Thank you.”
“Yeah uh,” Egil scratched the back of his head. “I did… I did… too. I mean I didn’t, but um. Ahhh… I appreciate what you want to do. That you care about things. Me. Uh, family. Yeah that. I know you’re just looking out for us.”
The words might have come out jumbled and confused. Hopefully Stonegit understood the sentiment.
Stonegit understood the sentiment completely. He had a lot of years under his belt learning how to communicate with Haddocks. It was never perfect, and always had its rough spots, but it was enough for moments like this.
Stonegit knew Egil wasn’t good at communication. But where a younger version of himself would have insisted on getting something back during talks like this, these days he opted just to make sure that Egil always heard certain things. Whether he knew what to with them or not.
“I’m proud of you.” He affirmed gently, his body language open, as if Egil were free to choose to stay or leave the room and subsequent conversation as he liked.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Egil said. He had turned his back to walk away and was waving his hand in acknowledgement. But his words weren’t entirely dismissive. No. There was a certain sincerity behind the flippant phrase.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Stonegit Brotchurn Elmiss
Category:Egil Ander Haddock