#🌙 ic ›› NOT SO INNOCENT ANYMORE.

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❝ it’s only dinner. ❞   her eyes are tracking him back and forth across the flat from where she’s sat at the foot of the bed, pulling up the zippers on her ankle boots. layla has seen this man take on  ancient gods  and far worse odds than this. he handled them better.   ❝ she isn’t even my family. she’s a family friend. we only have to stay until we’ve finished our food. ❞

starter call        ♡        @luneheir​.

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”Does this make you feel like you’re on the right path? Was this worth it?”        ♡        @undecimusor​.

         ❝ yeth. ❞   or, for those that don’t speak layla with her mouth full, yes. this was, in fact, worth it. she’s never met a problem she couldn’t tackle once she’s had a second to mull it over with hawawshi. if there’s a time constraint on this, then it’s not been made clear - it’s not like the world’s gonna end, right? she sits perched on a desk, feet swinging lazily just an inch above the ground as she finishes off the last few bites. this man, who claims to be a doctor in an unspecified field, is looking for something; an artifact shaped like a blue box, apparently, which is a new one for her. he doesn’t know what time period it would have been from, when it would have been found, if it’s been found... she’s really not got a lot to go off of. but that’s never stopped her before.    ❝ ... i think i have an idea. ❞

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         ❝ so, how exactly do people find you?  if they need you. ❞   layla hasn’t been very far inside this world of heroes before. being married to one helps but her life with marc feels very different from the things she’s seen in the news over the last decade. 

starter call        ♡        @nightmdic​.    

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         layla gently lifts the golden collar from its case.  she’s listening for the sound of any alarms she might have overlooked, but it seems to be silent in the penthouse. she breathes a sigh of relief and eases the artifact into a little velvet purse for its own protection before it’s shoved into her bag. she quickly reaches to shut the case, without breaking the glass, and then she’s turning to find an exit. she needs to be out of here before richard arwell  or any of his fancy friends  shows back up for yet another night of wild partying. 

promised starter        ♡        @dereiserne​.  

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" do you believe what they're saying about me? "        ♡        @giftshopped​.

❝ no, i don’t. ❞   layla doesn’t know what to believe anymore, but she’s starting to figure it out. steven’s first appearance  ( asking around at the dig site, desperate to see some inscription they barely understood, claiming he’d been sketching it for years )  had really thrown her for a loop. it would have been easy to dismiss him as unwell; some of her colleagues already have and they’re beginning to wonder about her. but it just hasn’t sat right with her. he had been so earnest and, to be honest, staring at that inscription makes her feel weird. it twists her stomach into anxious knots like she knows there’s something very, very important about it - but how can she know that? how can he have been sketching it? nobody had laid eyes on that symbol  for over three thousand years  until that reporter managed to snap a photo of it and got it published. steven had shown up the very next day. not enough time for him to have thrown together the literal hundreds and hundreds of sketches he’d shown her on his phone. she knows he’s had a history of some kind of sleep disorder, but now he’s hearing voices and seeing things - americans and giant bird mummies. it sounds exactly how it’s being treated. that’s why he’s here, in a hospital, with a psychiatrist overseeing his new medication regiment. she half expected him to be in a facility but apparently he’d fainted, so they felt it best he remain at a hospital until they were sure he was physically fit enough for proper committing. she’s not gonna let that happen.   ❝ steven, listen to me. that temple... my father spent his entire life trying to find it, and understand it. he kept a journal and... i found your name in it. ❞

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         ❝ ... marc? ❞   oh, this is fucked. one hand has a khopesh pressed to his throat, the other is taking down the hood of her cloak. he always could sneak up on her. enhanced senses don’t seem to have helped. she adjusts her grip on the handle of her weapon but she doesn’t remove it from his neck yet. she’s still furious with him.   ❝ so you’re alive. you’ve been alive. do you have any idea how worried i’ve been?  what are you doing here? ❞

crescent starter call        ♡        @mnkngt​.

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         ❝ you were gone.  i found ways to manage. ❞   it’s just that one of those ways turned out to be bizarre, and dangerous, and mind bendingly similar to the reason he left her in the first place  ( she just doesn’t know that yet ). layla doesn’t take her eyes off the road, unwilling to see the look on his face. she can already feel how unhappy he is through the tone of his voice. he doesn’t get to be unhappy with her; it’s her province to be unhappy with him after everything he’s put her through. mal has been there for her. sure, it’s been in a somewhat creepy and very confusing way, but at least she’s had someone. 

my baby liking my starter calls cause she’s the best        ♡        @giftshopped​.

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         ❝ i came to ask you about this. ❞   layla withdraws the puzzle box from her bag just far enough for him to see it, to recognize what it is. the last thing she needs is the wardens sniffing around. this man had been arrested for stealing the artifact from a wealthy collector  ( the same one she’d successfully stolen it from hours later )  but she suspects he’d been the one to find it. that means he’s the one that might know something about hamunaptra. 

promised starter        ♡        @giftshopped​.

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         ❝ i’ve had enough gods to last me a lifetime. ❞   between khonshu and ammit,  and all the rest of them,  layla is balancing enough deities. she might not even completely believe him - after all, she’s never been able to see khonshu with her own eyes, so why should she see this norse one? if he’s here about the sky shifting, he’s gonna have to go somewhere else for answers, because she barely understands herself.

starter call​        ♡        @godoutcast​.

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Marc sits across from her. Everything is over. Harrow is defeated, Ammit is locked away again. He's not dead. But now he's told Steven the truth he thinks he can tell her. "You asked...what happened that made me lose control over everything. It...uh, my Mom died. About two months before you found us again. I thought I'd be fine with it. Y'know, she and I weren't ever gonna be close again. But..." He trails off, tears trailing down his cheeks. Nope, he isn't ready to dig that deep into it. But he can mention it. It's a start.        ♡        @giftshopped​.

         their situation is complicated.  layla is a forgiving person, but it’s still taken her some time to forgive marc for what he kept from her. she is learning to trust him again  ( feeling that she can still trust steven helps )  and clearly he’s learning to trust her too, in a different way this time. he’s trusting her with something real. she doesn’t want to downplay how important that is, but she also doesn’t want to overwhelm him, so she listens in silence and does her best not to ask any questions. she leans forward when she hears his voice breaking, his words fading into pained silence, and she takes his hands.  she’s good at this part.  her fingers brush over his skin.   ❝ marc, i’m... sorry. ❞   she wants to know so much more but this is him, finally being vulnerable. she can be patient if he’s really ready to take these steps.

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         ❝ i’m impressed you stayed at it for that long. ❞   his stamina had him working in that trench for nearly two hours longer than anyone else. layla had long since tapped out by then, but she’d kept occupied with cataloguing and storage until he was finished. now they’re sitting together by a campfire. she’s gotten used to generally colder temperatures after living in london for so long, but she still feels the need to tuck a blanket over her lap; it’s comforting. a thermos cap full of coffee, smelling strongly of cardamom, is cradled between her hands. steam curls up and dissipates into the chilly night air.   ❝ i think we’re ahead of schedule. ❞

starter call        ♡        @runaljod​.

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" can you move? "        ♡        @healingsorcery​.

   can you move?  that’s a really good question that layla is incapable of answering for at least a couple of minutes. it hadn’t been the longest fall and the pain isn’t as bad as she had been expecting but the fear... that’s pretty rough. falling has always been scary to her. there are some childhood memories  ( and hospital trips )  associated with that fear, and even as an adult she can’t shake it. it twists her stomach in knots when she’s climbing, when she’s driving over a bridge, and when she’s riding roller coasters. not that she doesn’t love the adrenaline rush that kind of sensation brings. she shouldn’t love it, not nearly as much as she does, and it’s going to get her killed someday. just not today, thankfully.   ❝ yes... yes, i can move. ❞

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         ❝ thank you for helping me with this. ❞   layla shuts the car door. that’s the last of her boxes from the old place. her old place, his old place, their old place. she doesn’t like calling it that but she’d better get used to it.  she doesn’t live here anymore.  this part of her life is over. mercy’s friendship is the biggest support she could ask for now.   ❝ i was thinking i would put his things into storage. ❞

starter call        ♡        @mehrcedita​.

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         ❝ don’t even think about it. ❞   layla might not be a trained fighter but when she puts her fists up, it’s clear experience has taught her a thing or two. the doctor is somewhere behind her  ( last she saw, sprawled on the floor, clutching at his chest and gasping about one of his hearts not working )  and she’s staring down two vaguely humanoid-shaped beings with decidedly non-humanoid features. they’re responsible for the state that fez is in, no doubt about that. this appears to be their ship - crashed, out of power, and broadcasting a distress signal - and it had been their weapons that he’d attempted to drain the power from... only to have some pulse of energy  backfire  at him via his sonic. she’s not nearly as smart as the doctor, but she’ll bet whatever happened was done on purpose. so she’s not letting them anywhere near him.

starter call        ♡        @undecimusor​.   

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☕️        ♡        @mehrcedita​.

        ❝ what?  oh, thanks. ❞   layla keeps her eyes on the road but she accepts the offered thermos from mercy. it’s open, another thoughtful thing, so she can drink straight from it without issue. straight, strong coffee - it’ll keep her awake, but that’s not accounting for taste. their jeep bumps over rough terrain and she makes a face at the slosh of the hot beverage. 

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☕️   for   your   character    to    bring    mine    a    beverage        ♡        @timesense​.

         ❝ thank you, river. ❞   layla accepts the mug of hot cider with a faint, almost  apologetic  smile. she regrets snapping at the archaeologist upon seeing her on board the ship but their past history has definitely made things tense. river had still intervened and saved her life, and agreed to help her track down the certificates she’s searching for. apparently, the man who had originally had this ship built in the early 20th century had hidden papers authenticating his collection of stolen antiquities somewhere inside of it. good fortune the ship still operates for little cruises up and down the thames. she sips her cider and wrinkles her nose.  this tastes super weird.  it’s not bad, but she’s never been much of an apple person, and it’s not nearly spiced enough for her taste. had it been given to her by someone that hasn’t been her rival for as long as river has, maybe she’d have controlled that reaction completely - but the best she can do now is rein it in and finish the drink, to be polite.