TRP: Gavi and Mishka (Orc Mask)

**COYOTE**

 [Setting: Day 262. Mishka comes to antagonize Gavi.]

Mishka was dying. None of his loved ones would stay in the
same place. Hansel was off who knew where, Theo wouldn’t stop scrambling up and
down things, Joan was killing herself looking after the wounded, and Goro was
on a witch hunt for the poor son of a bitch who accidentally gave information
to the enemy. All Mishka wanted to do was lock them safely in a room with no
windows and only one door and then stay there guarding the door until the
danger had passed. It was perfectly fucking reasonable to want that. How was he
supposed to guard them all if they all insisted on being in different places?

He found Gavi tending to the wounded orcs prisoners. There
were three of them who were trapped inside the wall after Immanuel retreated.

“Ah,” Mishka said. “Still helping the enemy, eh? Can’t
fucking pick a side?”

**ABBY**

Gavi grit her teeth, focusing on tying the bandage around
Hezekiah's arm. It was deep. Without a spell to help, it wouldn't heal right.
He'd be left with limited use in that arm.

She tried to forget about how a few days ago, she could have
provided that healing. "I have picked a fucking side," she said
flatly, squeezing Hezekiah's shoulder in an attempt of reassurance. Tamar was
out of water, Gavi grabbed the glass and went to re-fill it. "I've picked
the side of my kind," she said coldly, brushing by Mishka.

**COYOTE**

 “Right, right. Because you lot are more important, than,
say, the meaningless lives of humans and elves, right?”

Mishka probably had other things to do, but he was in an
ugly mood. Wanted to hurt something. Felt like this racist bigot was an easy
target.

**ABBY**

Gavi clenched her jaw, setting the glass down carefully.
Wouldn't do to break it. Turned to the blond elf and leaned in, got in his
face. "Yep," she said, staring him down challengingly. "Now you
gonna leave me alone to do it or do I gotta make you?"

**COYOTE**

 “Cute. What are you gonna do, break my fingers? Oh wait, I’m
not a defenseless cleric half your size. Too bad.”

**ABBY**

"Nah." Gavi smirked. "You're shorter."

**COYOTE**

 Mishka cracked a grin against his will. “Oh hey, watch.” He
took the mask off his face with a flourish, then spun it around and put it back
on. He made himself look like an orc this time, still delicate, still pretty,
with tusks and gray skin and thick black hair. “Now I’m an orc. That means
y’love me and shit now, right?”

**ABBY**

Gavi scowled. He was making fun of her. "That ain't how
this works and you fucking know it," she snapped. Why was she letting this
guy bait her anyway? Gavi grabbed Tamar's water and stomped back to her
bedside, setting it down where she could reach it when she woke back up.
"You're good at fucking off right? Why don't you go do that while you're
still in one piece."

**COYOTE**

 Mishka tried to walk like an orc, all hunched over and
swaggering. “Oh? That’s not how it works? How’s it work, then, pray tell?”

**ABBY**

Gavi hissed through her teeth. At this rate she was going to
end up yelling and that'd disturb her patients. "You wanna talk? Let's go
outside," she said lowly. Without waiting for Mishka to respond, she got
up and exited the room, shutting the door behind her. If it was in Mishka's
face? So much the better.

**COYOTE**

 Mishka scoffed and followed her. He kept the mask on.

**ABBY**

As soon as Mishka exited the room, Gavi grabbed for him,
intending to slam him back against the wall.

**COYOTE**

 The moment she rested her hand on him, Mishka cracked away,
reappearing ten feet back.

“Golly, it’s hard to intimidate people when you can’t pin
them down and break their fingers,” Mishka said, examining his nails. “Whoops,
looks like you forgot I wasn’t Goro again.”

**ABBY**

Fucker hadn't even fucked off properly. Now Gavi was getting
real riled. "You take that face off," she said lowly, taking a few
steps towards Mishka. "You don't have a right to it."

**COYOTE**

 “Oh, I probably should’ve told you earlier. I’m actually an
orc. It’s the elf face that isn’t real. Can’t you tell?”

**ABBY**

"Oh I can tell. I can tell by that pitiful, weak soul
hiding behind that false face of yours." Gavi took a few more steps
towards Mishka. "Now take it off before I rip it off."

**COYOTE**

 Mishka spread his arms and made a c’mere motion with his
hands.

**ABBY**

After the days Gavi's had, a good fight sounded like just
the thing. She grinned fiercely, reaching for her axe-- and then stopped.

She'd been working fuckin' hard at maintaining an uneasy
friendship with Hansel. And this was exactly the sort of thing he'd be real
pissed about. So she retreated, took her hand off her axe. "Listen,"
she said, jabbing her finger at Mishka. "Me and your husband's been trying
to get along lately. And I know this ain't something he'd appreciate. So I'll
give you one chance. Fuck. Off. And we can both go on like nothing
happened."

**COYOTE**

 Mishka frowned delicately. He narrowed his eyes, tilted his
head, and didn’t say anything.

He kind’ve wanted to fight. Be pretty satisfying to punch
Gavi.

On the other hand: intriguing.

**ABBY**

Yeah. Good enough. Gavi turned on her heel to go back
inside. No doubt she'd find something else she could do to tend to them.

**COYOTE**

 Mishka stared at her, flabbergasted, for a full five seconds
before chasing after her. “Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Motherfucker. I wasn’t done
talking t’you.”

**ABBY**

"Oh too bad, I've been fucking done talking to you
before you even opened your mouth."

**COYOTE**

 “Well maybe you ought to fucking listen to people more.”

**ABBY**

"Or maybe you should shut yours more often." At
this rate Gavi was gonna give in to the urge to punch Mishka. So she stepped
back into the orcish infirmary, and shut the door in Mishka's face. Get a
fucking clue, fuckhead.

**COYOTE**

 Mishka stared at the door in speechless rage.

“Well,” he said. “Well.” He sputtered a moment, then shouted
through the door, “Just because that’s true doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”

He spun on his heel and marched away.

**ABBY**

[END]

Title: Orc Mask

Summary: Mishka antagonizes Gavi while she tends to the orc
prisoners. Gavi threatens him and then shuts a door in his face. Mishka is
offended. For once, Gavi did not punch anyone!