SETTING: resistance base, sometime post-Calendora
The sun had finally set behind the resistance base, just hours after their return from the once lost ancient city of Calendora. Most of everyone was tired, irritated at someone or something, or just wanted to be left alone to sort out their feelings. Everyone except Rocco, who took no notice of everyone’s energy levels.
He did locate Talmage in the spare bunks of the resistance alone; he was strangely enough staring into a small hand mirror at himself, idly tapping and inspecting it and letting out audible noises of frustration every now and again.
Rocco glimpsed Talmage’s reflection as he approached, and then briefly part of his own face came into view in the mirror. Instantly, Talmage’s eyes locked with his in the reflection.
“Oh, hey, Talmage!!” Rocco’s usually jubilant voice cut through an otherwise silent room. Then he paused.
“Wow, you really do look a lot like him.”
Hold up, why the hell was Rocco showing up in--
"Agh!!" he startled, hiding the small mirror between his legs. Rocco was so loud, how had he not heard him come in? Talmage looked back at the intruder, a scowl on his face.
"Did you come here just to tell me I remind you of your shitty brother?"Rocco’s ears twitched at Talmage’s biting comment, but he immediately tried to re-orient himself.
“Oh! No, of course not!! I came to ask you ... how you’re doing! After all that crazy stuff that happened in Calendora! There’s so much I didn’t hear about that time traveling you did. And meeting a time god!! That’s like, super cool ... I wish I could have traveled back in time ...”
Rocco trailed off, seemingly distracted by the idea of time travel. He felt Talmage’s glaring eyes on him and glanced back down at the pink tiefling.
“Well ... now that you mention it ... maybe we should talk about what happened at the gala? We’ve been so busy that I haven’t really sat down to figure out the whole family thing ...”
Scratching his chin, Rocco put the other hand on his hip and thought hard.
“Hey wait, does this make you my step-brother or something???”
As tempting as it was to ramble on about his experiences time traveling - which, god did he want to - Talmage was a little occupied with figuring out how if he could cheat his new mirror into working more than just once a day.
But the quick topic change had him clenching his jaw.
"I mean." He turned his head away from Rocco, a weak attempt to hide his annoyed expression. "I don't know. do you feel like my step-brother?" His question was bitter and sarcastic. Obviously they weren't brothers. This didn't mean anything.
Rocco shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. "Well ... I kinda feel like everyone is family now! Like everyone in our main group, you know. But as far as like, the brotherly brother stuff goes ... well, maybe only a little. I mean, I grew up with Hector, and that came with all the stuff a brother gets, you know?"
Ugh, god. A family.
"Right," Talmage said curtly, ignoring Rocco's sweet declaration of their familial status. "Brother stuff." He let out a short laugh, amused at the ridiculousness of ... all of this. Brothers. Really? "BROTHER stuff," he says again, irritated, and throws his hands up.
Rocco tilted his head at Talmage curiously. He couldn't tell if Talmage was upset about being referred to as his honorary brother, or if he was more upset about Hector now being his familial blood brother. Or something else entirely different.
"I think you would have been a great brother to grow up with Talmage!"
"Yeah, well," he started, not really sure how to respond to the compliment. Who knows what kind of a brother he would have been. that was the problem. Talmage fiddled with the mirror once more before moving it to his bag, out of sight.
"Sorry you got stuck with the boring one. Did you, like ..." he trailed off before making a disgusted noise. "Was he even fun to be around?"
Rocco giggled and rubbed the back of his neck. He thought of what Hector might say to that comment, something like you would worry about something so trivial as being 'fun'. He'd probably add on some things about how it didn't matter if you were well-liked - because the world was a dark and terrifying place for tielfings like them, and that nobody would ever love them enough. So why worry about being 'fun'?
Rocco shook his head at the thought, ignoring the way Hector used to psychoanalyze every conversation with him. "He was fun in his own way...if you listened to him and heard what he had to say about stuff, he was generally easier to be around." He hesitated, suddenly recalling a moment from his youth with Hector.
"Actually one time, Mr. Graves took us to this museum, and somebody was being like, super rude to me ... Mr. Graves had gone to get us some sandwiches from the cafe, and this group of teenage boys came and started yelling at me, calling me a "freak" and stuff ... you know how it is ..." Rocco trailed off, realizing he didn't need to belabor the point to another tiefling.
"Well, anyway, they kept harassing me, and I was kinda young, like maybe only 6 or 7, and Hector was supposed to be watching me, but he had gone and wandered off to look at some boring old paintings, and suddenly these kids grabbed me and hung me upside down! I was like really scared, and then out of nowhere Hector shows up and spooks them! He did some kind of magic thing, maybe a cantrip? His voice boomed and sounded a thousand times louder and the walls started shaking, and Hector's eyes were glowing like fire!!! Not that I knew what it was at the time. The bullies got all scared and booked it! I think I remember seeing one of them wet his pants, he was so scared!! I bumped my head pretty hard because, well, he scared them off so fast he couldn't catch me or get them to drop me safely. But it's not the first time, don't worry!"
Rocco smiled at the memory, a warm expression on his face.
"He may not be fun, and he might not be very good at showing affection, but he's always stood up for what was right."
Rocco flopped down on a nearby bed and sprawled out on it, stretching his limbs.
"I mean, apparently he joined the circus for a while, so I guess he had to be a little fun, huh?" Rocco grinned at the idea of seeing Hector perform in the circus. "What did they say his act was again? Did he even have one, or did he just sell tickets ... would have been pretty funny to see him perform something though. He does know quite a lot about magic, you know.”
Talmage was surprisingly quiet during Rocco's story, only contributing misplaced noises of amusement here and there. (Especially at Rocco being dropped on his head.)
"So he ... stood up for you a lot," he said distantly, before returning to a more familiar tone. "Wait, so if he knew so much about-- Did he just, teach himself?"
Talmage suspected that Hector was one of those infuriatingly gifted, self-taught types - but any chance that he had someone helping him along the way would at least boost his confidence a bit.
Rocco sat up, crossing his legs on the bed.
"I think so? He was always reading books and stuff about magic. He never really wanted to be at school, but he was still very smart and obviously excelled in most of the bookish stuff. And it's not like Mr. Graves or anybody we knew was teaching us magic ... I think he just developed a talent for it and taught himself."
Rocco paused, looking at Talmage quizzically. "Kinda like you, Talmage!"
Talmage was ... fucking annoyed. 'Kinda like him?' Nothing like him!! Apparently this guy had access to actual books on magic? Which, in retrospect, Hector probably took them from his dad's company or whatever. He was briefly overcome with the usual jealousy he had towards the Greylocks' upbringing.
"Yeah. Sure," he said through tight lips, tired of arguing against that comment. "Exactly like me."
While he didn't always pick up on the mood in the room, Rocco could recognize annoyed behavior when he saw it (thanks Hector). He looked at Talmage, and for every thing he saw in him that looked like Hector, he saw something else that wasn't Hector. The words wouldn't come to him, though, and he feared making the situation worse by trying to apologize, or tell Talmage that he was better than Hector - which was true, but he'd definitely told Talmage this same thing before and it hadn't actually made anything better. He desperately wanted Talmage to see the things about himself that set him apart from Hector, but he also deeply wanted Talmage to come to terms with the fact that his brother was alive and was, in fact, Hector. Rocco knew Talmage had been actively avoiding talking about this with anyone.
Man. Talmage never even got a very good look at the dude. He was ... tall. Tall and ... broody? And smart? And protective? And mean? Those didn't feel like good qualities. So why--
"Only, I'm sure I'm way cooler and fun and probably got invited to way more parties," he clarified, trying to exaggerate his jealousy in a funny way and definitely not a pathetic way.
Rocco grinned, again, thankful that Talmage seemed to understand that he was definitely cooler than Hector. Definitely.
"Talmage, I've had more fun with you and everyone else than I've ever had in my entire life with Hector. And I've only known you guys for a few months!"
Anything that sounded pathetic in Talmage's brags completely missed Rocco's radar, fortunately for Talmage. Rocco rubbed his feet and rocked back and forth playfully on the bed a little, happy at the thought of having real friends.
"Yeah, Hector was NOT popular at school, like you might imagine. It was hard enough being a tiefling at Arkardia ... and also to be really smart and near top of the class. He definitely didn't make a lot of friends, not that he was trying."
Talmage shook his head instinctively at the second round of kind words, somehow not anticipating them even after what he had just said. He grunted a noise of acknowledgement as his face grew warm.
"Did ... the teachers like him? I mean, if he was getting good grades ..." Talmage shrugged.
Rocco sighed, brushing his hair back with his hand.
"They would have liked him better if he wasn't always talking about, you know, magic, which was illegal. It's not illegal to talk about it, but it didn't earn him any bonus points on tests, that's for sure. But nobody could deny his brain and his talents, so it's not like they could flunk him on purpose. Dad would throw a fit, and, well, he's kinda a big deal around the Vale. I think they always worried he'd end up, well, doing something like he did. Run away from home chasing after people who believed in magic. Maybe only one or two had any sympathy for him, but that's a lot to expect from a Vale school. He definitely resented everyone."
Rocco watched Talmage for a moment, feeling simultaneously excited but puzzled by Talmage's sudden interest in Hector. He sure is asking a lot of questions ... that's fair though, Hector is his like, blood brother technically now ... and he probably wants to know as much about him as possible! To get to know him better. I would want the same thing, if I were in his shoes.
"I'm glad you want to know more about Hector, Talmage!" Rocco suddenly exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I think it's our best shot of convincing him to see our side of things, and maybe even bring him over to the resistance! The more you know about him, the better it will be for recruiting him." Rocco grinned big, flashing his pointy teeth at Talmage, cheekily.
Talmage nodded slowly. He was little irritated that hearing this shit didn't make him hate the guy any more - just sort of feel ... bad. Ugh.
Rocco's exclamation made him jump, snapping him out of his weird funk. "I-- Yeah, sure. right." Talmage was honestly still pretty doubtful of him jumping ship and tagging along with their group instead. Hector sounded stubborn and bitter - that's not the kind of person you can just convince to side with you.
After agonizing for a moment, he spoke up again.
"Did he ever-- God, this is stupid. He never, like. Mentioned me, right? You never heard anything about a pink guy?" And why would he have? It's not like Talmage had any memory of a purple guy-- except, no, that's not entirely true--
Rocco shook his head, looking a little puzzled. "No, he never did. I don't think he knew anymore than you did. And I'm sure I would have heard about it if he did have another brother. He'd be over the moon to have a brother who actually was good at magic."
Fine, of course. Whatever. He expected that. Regardless, Talmage's sour mood settled back in. He didn't even seem to notice Rocco's blatant dig at himself.
"Well, if we DO recruit him, he can't join the circus again. Since, you know, he was so bad at it the first time."
Rocco almost held back a giggle, almost worried Hector might suddenly appear out of the shadows and yell at them both for taunting him.
"Yeah, I'm not sure they would be happy about him rejoining after all the trouble he's caused. I don't think Professor Gwynfor is very happy with him right now and definitely wouldn't trust him, even though he has big magic potential ..."
Rocco scratched his chin again, trying to imagine Hector at the circus, wearing the silly leotards they all wore for their performances.
"Have you ever asked Luci about Hector? He seemed to know him pretty well ..."
As he asked this, he suddenly had a bizarre, almost conspiracy theory-level thought, as he sometimes did. Sucking in a big breath of air, he blurted, "WHAT IF YOU GUYS DID KNOW EACH OTHER BUT SOMEBODY ERASED YOUR MEMORIES WITH MAGIC!!!"
Talmage's mind fired rapidly. He always had so many fucking books, ohhh carry them for me, he's the WORST, I didn't like his speeches, Wyn listened more than others, and then, right at the end, the reminder that, despite all that, Luci and Hector had still-- apparently--
"They--" He pinched the bridge of his nose as Rocco exclaimed his conspiracy theory, then he gestured weakly without actually saying anything.
"... First: maybe. I guess. I don't know how we'd ... confirm that. Second: Luci hated Hector. That's all he's really said about the guy." A pause. "But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try to get more embarrassing stories out of him."
With a cautious glance around the room, Rocco took in a big, serious breath, and then let it out with another mischievous grin.
"Well, I do have a few stories that ARE pretty funny ... like the time I spilled my lunch tray on his pants because I tripped in the lunchroom, so it looked like he wet himself at school and EVERYONE made fun of him for the rest of the week ... Oh, and another time Hector lost the local spelling bee in 2nd grade because he didn't know how to spell 'camaraderie' and the other kid got the word 'precocious' and won ... he got SO mad after that. And then there was the time he was doing this big speech & debate tournament and he got second place because he didn't present his evidence at the time the judges requested it, so he lost on a technicality ..."
Rocco's cheeks flushed at the memory, feeling his brother's shame through secondhand embarrassment.
"The more I think about it, the more I understand why Hector was so mad about stuff all the time. He was always second-best in everything and a lot of the time it was at least a little unfair. Like even at Arkadia, he tried to run for class president one year, but I think Vivienne beat him out by a huge margin. His slogan was pretty bad though. It was like, 'Enact the auspicious insurrection' ... That was really embarrassing for him ... he really went quiet after that."
"OK, I feel bad about this, but promise you won't tell anyone?" Rocco leaned in close to Talmage, his voice at a loud whisper.
"Hector used to dress up as a dragon every Halloween. But he also dressed up when it WASN'T Halloween!" He sat back, looking proud of himself with this sick burn.
"I won't tell a single soul," Talmage said with grave seriousness, planning on telling literally the next person he encountered that wasn't Rocco.