A Traveling Carnival Currently Set Up Somewhere In Virginia, Wednesday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

The other day, Liam had offhandedly mentioned to Verity that he'd tried funnel cake, and been unimpressed with it. He had not been prepared for the outraged grumbling that had followed that pronouncement. Or the vaguely ominous declaration that this needed to be 'fixed'.

Come Wednesday afternoon, she'd told him that they had a portal booked to the mainland and to bring cash. Actual physical cash, not just a credit card. Curious, he'd pressed her for details, but all she'd say was just "You'll see when we get there."

'There' was apparently a traveling carnival, complete with rides, midway games... and, of course, food stands.

"Is this the one you threatened to ground Hayley from for the summer?" he asked, curious.

[ooc: for the wife!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

“I thought we were here so you could win me a friend for the jackalope,” Liam countered, nodding towards the midway games.

[arboreal_priestess]

"We can be here for two things," Verity decided. "Now eat your funnel cake before it cools."

She was already getting out her phone to take some pictures of his face.

[firstofitskind]

Liam eyed her phone a little suspiciously, and then just shook his head and sighed.

“Fine, but I really don’t see what the big deal is,” he grumbled as he took a bite.

“...Oh.”

[arboreal_priestess]

Even the shutter noise from her phone's camera sounded smug.

[firstofitskind]

“That is better,” he conceded. And took another bite, yes.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Told ya," Verity said, setting her phone down so she could devour hers. "I don't know what you actually had on the boardwalk, but it wasn't funnel cake."

[firstofitskind]

“Not like I knew any better,” Liam pointed out with a bit of a smile, still working on his.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Which is why I took it upon myself as your wife to instruct you in proper funnel cakes," Verity told him, sounding prim. "I couldn't allow the father of my future children to labor on in such ignorance any longer."

Would you look at that? Not even a stutter when mentioning that whole 'future children' thing.

[firstofitskind]

“No, no, of course not,” Liam beamed back at her over the last few bites of his own funnel cake. “What if those future children,” and don’t think he didn’t notice that lack of stutter there, Verity, “ended up with the wrong idea about funnel cakes?”

[arboreal_priestess]

"I would know it was your fault and have to take appropriate correctional steps," Verity declared. "So it's much better to fix this now, before there are innocent minds that could be molded wrong."

[firstofitskind]

“Indeed,” Liam nodded, using his thumb to swipe a bit of sugar from the corner of Verity’s mouth. “Especially since...” he trailed off, expression- well, ‘sobering’ wasn’t quite the right word, but there was a change nonetheless.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Especially since?" Verity prompted, brows contracting together at this change.

[firstofitskind]

"Well. Who knows when one of those 'innocent minds' might be around to stay?" Liam said softly.

Adoption in and of itself wasn't all that unusual a process of becoming a parent. But he was pretty sure that searching for a specific child in particular was.

[arboreal_priestess]

Happened more often than he might think, especially in the cryptid world. "Any news?" Verity asked, sounding more hopeful than even she'd expected.

[firstofitskind]

"Nothing yet," Liam shook his head. "A medical DNA search is probably our best bet, but even that relies on a few factors- one, that he's had a DNA sample taken at some point, and two, that Street's got something to run it against."

The first wasn't that much of an issue- chances were, if William had been to a doctor's office or a hospital at some point in his young life, they'd have a DNA profile. It was the second thing that provided the real stumbling block. Using Sandoval's DNA would raise too many red flags, even with the man long-dead, and using Liam's...

Well, Street was an excellent hacker, but she wasn't a geneticist. Constructing a DNA profile that removed the Kimera markers and left the human ones was a bit beyond her scope.

"If we're going to use mine, there's certain things that have to be filtered out first."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hmm. I wonder if Alex knows anything about that," Verity said. "Or knows someone who does. Though that may involve telling the family things."

Which they were going to have to do anyway. And which also might help with the whole 'fully trusting' thing.

[firstofitskind]

Liam did actually have Dr. Curzon on it; it was just that resequencing a triple-helix into a double-helix that looked like it belonged to, you know, a functional human being and not a horrible mess of this-shouldn't-exist was a delicate process that took time.

Verity did have a point about the telling family things part, though.

"Maybe it's time I did that, anyway."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity gave him a small smile. "I wouldn't argue against it," she said. "They know you're hiding something, they're just not sure what. Artie's told me that most of the money is on you being ex-Covenant, with the rest across verious forms of cryptid."

[firstofitskind]

"... Ex-Covenant, really?" Liam couldn’t help but snicker.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You're not Thirty-Six and you're not really a cop, that kinda limits their options," Verity said, snickering.

[firstofitskind]

“I am ex-military, though. And I’m from a different reality entirely,” Liam pointed out. Which he’d told her siblings about, at least, that time they’d visited Fandom.

That information not making the rounds was surprising, unless they were holding on to it specifically for the purpose of having an edge in the betting pool.

[arboreal_priestess]

Antimony absolutely was. She also had her money on neither 'cryptid' nor 'ex-Covenant.'

"Sure, but you don't seem military in the way we think of it," Verity said. "You don't act like a soldier."

[firstofitskind]

Suppose it depended on whether aliens counted as a form of cryptid or not!

"What does your Uncle Mike think, do you know?" he wondered. He'd been witness to what Liam had done in the warehouse, after all, and given the (wildly inaccurate) conclusion Dominic had jumped to...

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh, I didn't ask," Verity said. "I just know that he and Aunt Lea have entered in separate bets, so whatever it is, either he didn't tell her or she didn't agree after meeting you in the hotel."

[firstofitskind]

"Huh," Liam said thoughtfully. "Anyone tried running any of their guesses past you?" Not that she would have said anything, but if someone thought they could get some information out of a reaction...