play with me
for @d20bigbang, check out my partner seb’s songs here | word count: 7k, chapters 1/3 | read on ao3
PLAY WITH ME - Track by Track Commentary
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Fig and the Sig Figs 2.9M subscribers
Rock stars Fig the Infaethable and Gorgug Thistlespring of Sig and the Sig Figs talk about the surprise new album featuring Gorgug back in the band as drummer once again! While apparently a one-time deal, Fig and Gorgug explore the themes of loneliness, friendship, and adventure in new album PLAY WITH ME.
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[Video description: A fantasy youtube video featuring Fig the Infaethable and Gorgug Thistlespring, members of the band Fig and the Sig Figs. They are both sitting on stools with a white backdrop behind them. They appear to be in their late twenties. Text has been edited over top of them that reads, “FIG AND THE SIG FIGS: PLAY WITH ME - TRACK BY TRACK COMMENTARY.”
Fig waves and says, “Hi! I’m Figueroth the Infaethable. Your favourite archdevil and bard.”
“And I’m Gorgug Thistlespring part-time drummer and full-time barbarian artificer,” Gorgug smiles slightly only to be elbowed by Fig. Gorgug doesn’t seem to be affected much and bumps her shoulder affectionately. Fig pushes him off and he spins slightly in his chair. Fig catches on and the two start spinning in their seats.
As they come to a stop they smile and, in an off-tempo but clear attempt at unison, both say, “And we’re Fig and the Sig Figs!”
They laugh as they realize their offbeatness, and Fig takes over saying, “And we’re here to tell you all about the inspiration behind our newest album - oh and of course…” She turns to look at Gorgug expectantly.
Gorgug sighs, fondness clear despite it, and says, “And I’m back! For one album only though Fig, I mean it this time-'' End Description.]
PLAY WITH ME
[“Well,” Fig says. “The album is about us - I mean most of our albums are about us at least a bit, but this one is kind of a tribute to our friendship and the people we are because of each other. And before we had each other…” She trails off for a moment, and Gorgug easily picks up the beat.
“Fig you might think has always been cool - and she has! But in middle school, she found out she was a tiefling and I’d always been the odd one out - the only half-orc at my middle school. So we were both really lonely. What I remember really clearly was just wanting someone to sit with in class.” Fig and Gorgug laugh a bit at the end.
Fig reaches over and ruffles Gorgug’s hair as she says, “And of course Gorgug and I became closer friends because I kept crashing his barbarian classes and sat next to him, covering for him when he didn’t know the answer.”
“But yeah, before we met in Aguefort we were both really lonely,” Fig continues, “I had gone from being a cheerleading wood elf to the daughter of a devil and Gorgug had spent all of middle school being the odd one out - everyone thinking he was about to snap at any moment. In reality, we were pre-teens who just wanted someone who understood what was going on. And then we found that with each other. What our friendship is began before we even met, and that’s where we start here.”]
TRACK ONE - GROWING PAINS
By the side of the school, waiting for the end of the lunch bell to ring, a 13-year-old girl with tiny horns starting to poke out of the top of her head is sitting on the grass, her knees pulled up to her chest as she listens to music on her crystal. Figueroth Faeth - although the name is a work in progress with her dad not being her dad and her mom refusing to tell her who or where her real dad was - is by herself, blasting rock music to nothing but the chain link fence between her and the school she was stuck in and the rest of town.
Figueroth’s not the type to sit alone by herself blasting music and dreaming of a life away - nowhere specific except the anywhere but here mindset. But when her horns started coming in and the pink tint to her skin started taking on a new meaning, the sweet cheerleading wood elf who was friends with all the kids who were the middle school equivalent to popular was dropped all the way down the social ladder.
In the defense of Fig’s former friends, she’s apparently the daughter of a devil. The first week or two when her new reality had been setting in, Fig had even practically agreed with the helioic human cheerleader who said if Figueroth stayed on the cheerleading team and sat with them she would be dragging them down to hell with her. Fig’s currently a few more months along and is now pretty sure that was one of the worst moments of her life, but she can still see their reasoning. Everyone at her perfect innocent bullshit pure school thinks she’s evil incarnate and has done a pretty solid job making school as close to hell as possible - one of Fig’s former best friends had said she just wanted Figueroth to feel at home. With everything topside like this, Fig thinks her mom should stop blaming her for wishing she could see what things were like down below every so often.
So now Figueroth sits alone at lunch, and during all recesses, and leaves school property as soon as the bell rang - sometimes earlier if her classmates are being especially cruel - and she finds herself splitting her time between the only two music stores in Elmville and letting her mom believe she is still friends with the kids taunting her and that quitting cheer was her own idea. And it had been, mostly, after her pom poms had gone missing for the second time and she almost broke something when she was dropped out of a lift too soon.
Most kids don’t want to be evil. Fig hasn’t found herself anymore interested in evil as a practice than she was before her horns grew in, though recently she’s decided to start embracing the person everyone seemed convinced she was. Last week she threw out her boy band posters and while she wasn’t completely sold on the new types of music she was trying out, she liked the yelling and crashing. Her mom had shut down her attempts at throwing stuff around and screaming, but blasting other people doing that is above board for now. Fig thinks her mom is a little scared of her rebelling one step too far and the both of them are being careful to toe the line.
Fig is making it work! She is. She is. She is embracing her horns that hurt like shit, and not letting her asshole classmates get to her as much anymore, and she had found music that seemed to get how she was feeling even if no one else did. And in between the chain link fence with her back to the brick school wall, Figueroth doesn’t cry at all as she sits by herself while everyone else at her perfect school for untainted normal students spend their lunch laughing and playing games and not thinking at all about how long they can hide in the bathroom during class before a teacher counts it as skipping and gives out detention.
She only needed to make it through another few months - her mom wanted her to go to Aguefort next year, but Fig personally felt like Sandralynn shouldn’t get a say. Gilear certainly didn’t and the only thing that made Sandralynn any better was that she hadn’t said anything terrible about her genealogy where she could hear at least and had kicked out Gilear when he started saying that bullshit. But her mom had wanted the perfect little elf girl just as much as Gilear, and well screw them both. If Sandralynn hadn’t cared that Fig was half demon she should have said something, she should’ve let her know instead of leaving Fig to google pink elves for years growing up.
Fig was tired of being a little miss perfect, it was time she found someone else to learn how to be since no one bought pink and pretty when it came with horns and a tail. Perfect didn’t pay and Fig was in the market for something that worked for her for a change.
/
On the other side of town, in a slightly smaller school called Oakenshield Middle, in a cramped and slightly too bright bathroom hid a too-big Gorgug Thistlespring in a bathroom stall he didn’t quite fit in. Gorgug had been hiding in the bathroom for the last ten minutes of his afternoon class and was just checking his crystal now for the time. His teacher seemed to be slightly afraid of him which was terrible but since this was the third teacher in three years Gorgug had given up on asking his parents for help and had resorted to hiding in the bathroom where the other kids couldn’t call him to stupid to his face or ask him when he was going to go crazy with rage and attack everyone. Since the teacher was scared of him he had up to thirty-five minutes before another student was sent to the bathroom to find him and Gorgug planned on spending it all thinking about how he really couldn't have been the only student his size and was he really that big or was the bathroom just small?
Gorgug was a half-orc. He was the only half-orc at Oakshield Middle. He knew he wasn’t the only half-orc in all of Elmville because he’d seen other orcs and half-orcs around. Just none he knew. And none that his parents knew. And he didn’t mind being the only half-orc around, except no one at school seemed to want to spend much time near the only half-orc around. Luckily! Gorgug was naturally shy and so his lack of friends was dealable and he was mostly fine with sitting by himself and listening to music. Even if it would be nice to have someone to sit and listen to music with. Gorgug checked his crystal for the time again. There were still fifteen minutes before he needed to head back.
Wilma and Digby Thistlespring were practically the best parents anyone could ask for. They loved him and always listened and wanted the best for him. Gorgug remembered being little and how much he loved family jam sessions and sitting in his parent’s workshop watching them tinker. But, the older Gorgug got and the harder school became and the anger he seemed to feel always underneath his skin the more out of place he felt even at home.
Where was he, the adopted half-orc who wasn’t as smart and kept breaking things whenever he moved that no one seemed to want to be near, supposed to belong? The bathroom in Oakshield Middle Gorgug was hiding out in was too small and smelled but he didn’t have to worry about being called on in class and never knowing the answer or walking around the track listening to his headphones so clearly alone while everyone else played pick up bloodrush on the field or hand games with their friends by the benches.
When he was younger, it was a little different. His parents had homeschooled him at first and he still had fond memories of when he wasn’t slightly too big for the tree and living in a treehouse all the time felt like he was living in one of the storybooks his parents read to him at night and he didn’t accidentally slip into a rage every time something went wrong. His mom was insistent that he just had a bad case of puberty.
Next year Gorgug was set to go to Aguefort Adventuring Academy - his parents thought it would be good for him and there would probably be more kids like him there. He just wasn’t sure if he was cut out to be an adventurer when he was the kid who hid out in the bathroom and had to listen to music when everything got to be too much. Gorgug just had to hope there was an adventuring party that wanted a not too bright half-orc barbarian hopeful - maybe, if he was lucky, there would be someone who wanted to make a friend as much as him and wouldn’t mind Gorgug as he was.
And. And maybe he’d learn to get things under control enough so that he could start singing songs that weren’t just to keep him from proving everyone right and going into a rage and ruining everything.
TRACK TWO - DADDY ISSUES
[Gorgug and Fig spin round and round in their stool, trying to see who can get faster. Fig starts to gain speed only to slide off her seat and fall on the ground. Gorgug stops to look at Fig and raises an eyebrow at her. Fig drags him down with her. There's a quick cut as the camera adjusts to Fig and Gorgug, now sitting on the ground. Fig grinning brightly, and Gorgug still looking dizzy from the spinning.
Fig turns to Gorgug, “It’s Daddy Issues right?”
Gorgug blinks at her.
“The song,” Fig clarifies, laughing slightly.
Fig turns back to the camera and actually looks just a little bit embarrassed, “Daddy Issues is, as I’m guessing our older fans will know, one of the first songs we ever released. Our friends convinced us to rerelease it when they found out we were thinking about doing an album about our friendship, since. Well, it was a strong uniting factor.”
“In my defense,” Gorgug says, “Fig had way worse daddy issues than me and also had mommy issues. In Fig’s defense, we were in high school.”
“Says Mr. Are you my dad?” Fig shoots back. “Don’t try to hide it, we didn’t know our bio dads and it’s nice to know where you come from and why stuff happens the way it does. And it’s really hard when everything’s changing and you don’t know why!”
Gorgug nods along, a satisfied smile creeping over his face, “True, but at least I didn’t try to name the band Daddy Issues when those issues were on their way to being resolved by the end of freshman year and the bands still going.”
The camera cuts suddenly as Fig lunges at Gorgug.]
In a little hallway, partially forgotten and tucked away and a little constructionally confused - more parts of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy than you might think follow these odd rules due to the nature of an eccentric principal who combined space, time, and high school - two freshmen sit with their backs to unused lockers slowly and painfully attempting to write a song. The air is slightly stale and the hallway smells faintly of The lockers have several pieces of graffiti, the most recent appearing to be logo designs. There’s fire and a bass guitar which remain consistent.
What changes from design to design is the text that should say the name of their band.
The taller of the two freshmen is a half-orc, he has green skin and just-peeking-out tusks coming in. His name is Gorgug Thistlespring and he’s not even hiding in his hoodie for once, not needing the comfort of it and its nice gentle weight as he sits alone with his first-ever best friend. It instead lies just within range as he angrily head bops and taps his recently acquired drumsticks against the vinyl floor, his first-ever best friend calling out passionate “hell yeah!” s next to him.
His first-ever best friend is Figueroth Faeth, a tiefling girl always equipped with a battle bass. Fig has neatly polished horns and a sharp, bright smile and knows more about rage and hurt than she should have to.
This little getaway when they should almost definitely be in class (as this is the period they take Intro to Barbarian, a class only Gorgug is enrolled in but one Fig rarely misses) is something new they’re trying out. Fig skips class all the time and Gorgug has hidden away from lesson plans and scheduled learning, but this is different. They aren’t trying to get away really, there’s just something they’d rather do for once and they have someone to do it with.
Fig and Gorgug know how to hide in bathrooms and the fastest route to the class exit. Fig and Gorgug - the two members of the budding band currently tentatively named Daddy Issues
“I’m just saying,” Fig says to Gorgug, “It’s something we have in common.”
Gorgug looks over to her as he leans back onto the lockers, he picks up one of the drumsticks he’d left in front of his crossed legs when he finished his little improvised jam and fiddles with it to have something to hold onto. Gorgug wears anxiety like a second skin, in the little forgotten hallway, he’d almost seemed to have shed it. Here though, it slips back on as he swallows an unformed sentence back down, doing his best to search for the right words. “I don’t know,” Gorgug says, thinking. He almost goes to put it in his mouth before remembering his tusks that only seem to get bigger every day. He’s gone through two pairs of drumsticks already and hasn’t been able to put aside his embarrassment to ask his parents to reinforce them so he can chew on them yet. “I just don’t always want to, um, have them.”
“My dads are a demon who never cared to get to know me and Gilear I don’t think those are just going away,” Fig points out. “That’s kinda fucking you up for life material.”
Gorgug snorts, a little startled. He loosely taps his drumstick on his other hand and focuses on the repetitive moment for a bit as he gathers his thoughts.
“My parents are really great,” Gorgug starts slowly. Fig opens her mouth, face already clear in question but stops when she seems to notice that Gorgug’s reached for his hoodie, sliding the warm heavy sleeves back on. Instead, she slides a little closer along the vinyl floor until she’s next to Gorgug and makes sure to look back ahead, so neither of them has to struggle through making eye contact when they aren’t ready for it.
Gorgug tries breathing deeply as he attempts to get his thoughts in order. His head feels heavy like his tusks are making him off balance and will pull him all the way to the ground. His hair’s fallen in his face again, but he can’t even be bothered to move it away. Still, he can see the side of Fig’s legs and a little bit of her hand, her wrists covered in bangles and bracelets with band names. Fig’s brave, and just being near her always makes him want to try to be a little brave too. And... If Gorgug ever feels like all he is is anger he knows Fig’s near him and she can make him insanely angry sometimes, but she knows how to use her anger and he wants to try that too.
“Okay,” Gorgug starts again, his hands shaking a little, “My parents are really great. They just...When I play music with my parents, the point is to sing my problems away. I feel like they don’t always know how to help me, and it’s not their fault! There’s just...there’s no one waiting with the answers for why I’m like this. But I want those answers! And I don’t want to name the band after the answers I’m missing that I’m trying to find, because who will be when we have those answers? I dunno.”
Fig nods, slowly, and Gorgug turns his head a bit to try to make out her expression. Fig’s fists are balled up, tight, and she’s staring straight ahead at the old busted lockers with all the band names they’ve gone through in the past few weeks since they found this hallway. “The worst part about finding out I was a tiefling is that I was the only one,” Fig says. “And then I met you, and you. You get it, Gorgug and I think I just want something that talks about how we got here. And my parents…”
She pauses, but Gorgug reaches out, hesitantly, and puts a hand over hers. Fig closes her eyes. Gorgug’s always been in awe of Fig, and he’s still in awe now. Of how much she trusts him and all the other bad kids. Fig’s the coolest person he knows even with her bangs pasted to her forehead from sweat from when they’d been jumping around and jamming out and her kind of ugly beat-up leather jacket that Fig swears there’s a story behind, and Gorgug’s pretty sure there isn’t, and her hand shaking in his.
“I’m here,” Gorgug says, voice soft.
Fig nods, “Yeah. Yeah, I know. My parents - I’ve told you - They all just make me so mad. I’m the kid, you know, but sometimes I feel like if I wasn’t there Gilear would be even more lost than he already is. And why should I have to be the one to reach out to my mom? She kept my whole other dad from me! Do you know what it’s like to find out that you have horns coming in and no one there to tell you how to take care of them and you were supposed to live forever and have all the time in the world to fight and make up with your parents but no one can really give a straight answer on that anymore? So. I’m mad all the time. And no one knows what to do with a bard overflowing with rage. I wanna sing songs and cast magic, but...barbarian class is way better with you, who I actually like.”
Gorgug squeezes her hand, “I like you too. You’re...you’re my best friend Fig.”
“I’m your best friend?” Fig asks, surprise clear in her voice.
Gorgug is even more surprised by her surprise. Who else could it be but Fig? Fig, who gave him a pair of drumsticks and decided that the weirdo in the hoodie who she framed for stealing backpacks was the best option for her rock band. Fig, who comes and crashes his barbarian classes and never makes him feel alone. Fig, who even when she has no clue at all what to say makes Gorgug feel like he doesn’t have to worry if he lets his anger get the best of him.
“Fig, of course,” Gorgug says and Fig must hear something in the way he says it because the tears that she was trying to hold back burst out of her and well, Gorgug’s never been the best at feelings and can’t help it when he joins in. “And, uh, obviously I don’t completely know where you’re coming from but. My parents are great - and they love you, by the way - but they don’t know how my tusks ache all the time or how to really help me when I just want to scream! Sometimes I just want to scream and I actually want to break all the shit in my room, except when I break shit on accident because I’m too big for them I just feel so terrible and. And I’m scared that one day I’ll scare them. Your parents are supposed to understand what you’re going through, and they empathize with me for sure. It’s just. Maybe it’s not always enough!”
“It isn’t!” Fig chimes back, her voice getting louder even through her tears. “That’s it, who gives a fuck if they try if it doesn’t help! Last year was fucking, fucking terrible do you know how much I cried in the bathroom?”
“Ha, uh, I spent a lot of time crying in the bathroom too. It’s better now it’s just….there was no one like me.”
“It made me feel like I was going crazy at first, not knowing what was going on.”
“Most places I feel like there’s no space for me. I don’t really know how to talk to all of the other half-orcs in class and the folk at Oakshield Middle were scared of me.”
“Scared of you? But Gorgug you’re...you’re the coolest, kindest most rad dude I know.”
Gorgug snorts, the sound gross through his tears and his anger, “They didn’t really care to get to know. But, um, but Fig it’s never like that with you. When I’m with you I know I belong. You’ve never really made me feel like I’m out of place.”
Fig nods at that and smiles at him, wet and warm and her eyes still a little mad and squeezes his hand, “Gorgug I don’t think anyone knows me better than you. I’ve never met someone that gets it as you do.”
And well, Fig always says the right things, see? Gorgug clears his throat, trying to get his words back. “Remember when you first cut class to crash Intro to Barbarian and talked about rage? I want to get there. I think I want to get to a point where...where the rage listens and it helps,”
“Gorgug, Gorgug I’m always fucking down to rage out with you. Well, not the way you rage out, but we can definitely destroy some shit and. And, fuck it, no comes in here it’s our hallway so we get to decide what we do with it,” And Fig shifts over and stands up a bit, her clunky boots squeaking on the vinyl floor, letting go of his hand for a moment only to offer it again as she pulls him up to stand next to her. Gorgug stands up and tilts his head as Fig slides off her leather jacket and cracks her knuckles.
“Uh...Fig?” He asks, scratching the back of his neck as he looks down at her expectantly.
Fig blinks up at him before grinning, “Gorgug, I bet you could make a serious dent in the lockers if you hit them.”
Gorgug balks, “What - Fig we could get in trouble for that.”
“C’mon, we already covered them in spray paint no ones gonna miss a locker door - oh go for the one with just the logo we can hang it up in your garage!”
And Gorgug’s never been very good at saying no to Fig and he is mad, he’s mad at the way people treat Fig and the way they treat him and for once he’s not scared of hurting Fig if he starts to slip and lose control because Fig has spells aplenty and could probably take him out with a hit from her bass and he trusts her so...he doesn’t try to sing his parents calm down song as he feels himself start to burn up with rage. Fig points with one of his drumsticks at the door she wants and Gorgug breathes out and curls up his fist the way Porter showed them in class to keep from hurting their hands and he throws his arm forward and punches through the metal of the door.
“That’s so sick, oh my god, Gorgug that’s so cool wait - can you get your hand out?” Gorgug lets Fig finagle his hand out and the messed up locker door off and he can’t help but laugh with her at the sight of it. The logos all messed up so he’ll have to repaint it but...he feels good. Maybe everything the other barbarians have been saying about hitting stuff to release anger is true, after all. Fig is beaming and he’s beaming back and then she opens her arms up, expectant.
And Gorgug leans down and swallows her up in a hug because she’s his best friend.
“Fig, you’re really amazing,” Gorgug says as they both laugh and sniffle in their hug and it echoes out a bit into the empty hallway, surrounding them both.
TRACK THREE - WALLFLOWERS
[“All of Aguefort was crazy - I teach at Aguefort and on some level, I know nothing has changed and everything is as crazy as when we were students. But to be honest, these kids seem way more competent than we were.”
Fig laughs at that, “Are you sure about that? Aren’t you supposed to look at kids and wonder how they do anything when you become a teacher?”
Gorgug frowns at that, “My kids are really talented! You’ve met them, they made me bring you in to sign things when they heard we went to Aguefort at the same time.”
“Yeah,” Fig says, smirking now. “Your Artificing 101 students who you only told you went to school at the same time as me, not that we were in the same adventuring party or band or whatever. I wonder if any of them will show up to our Elmville show. Those kids lost their minds when I told them a story of Gorgug in his high school days. You know you still go from party animal to wallflower now, but you were even more extreme about it in high school.”
“Yeah,” Gorgug says, sighing. “You wrote a whole song about it.”
“You helped! You sing on it,” Fig shoots back.
“Well yeah, because it meant a lot when I was a kid knowing I had Fig the Infaethable, guard dog of all time watching my back when parties got to be too much,” Gorgug says. Fig smiles at that and punches his arm gently.
“Aw Gorgug! How’d you get so soft in your old age.”
“We’re the same age!”]
In a busy home at 69420 Spell Jammer Lane with no parental figures to be found, ample amounts of illicit substances and over energetic teens, a slightly more grown up Fig Faeth weaves between bodies and ducks under stray projectiles as she makes her way further into the party in search of her missing best friend. She’s got a hiding spot in mind but she’s fresh out of spell slots and has to take the long way.
It’s easy to find Gorgug even when he’s trying to tuck himself away in the middle of one of Ostentatia’s parties. He’s the biggest guy around, after all. Fig might have lost him despite that, but only for a moment while she was trying to flirt with Zelda’s friend Antiope (keyword try: Antiope was cool and hot but didn’t believe Fig when she said she was going on tour soon, which. Fair.). Last she’d seen him he’d been in the kitchen, showing Zelda how to play the drums by banging on her kitchenware and they’d both been very cute and gross.
Tucked away, trying and failing to hide with his hood up and his shoulders slouched is Fig’s favourite person. She thinks she can spot earbuds tucked behind the back of his ears. For the most part, his hiding spot half in and half out of the little hallway closet seems to be successful considering everyone’s passing him by. Gorgug never makes it all the way through a party, not that Fig and Gorgug and the rest of the bad kids have been to that many parties with the whole oh most of us are considered losers and then stuck in jail part of freshman year. And then the few that they did go to tended to end in fights and/or property damage with Aguefort parties being a fuckton of superpowered teenagers cramming under one roof to get drunk. But for the one or two that had ended without any major incident, Gorgug ended up ducking out early.
It’s not that Gorgug isn’t a party guy, because every party they go to ends up with a legendary Gorgug story - Fig’s favourite is probably the one after the Bloodrush team destroyed Hudal and everyone crammed onto Fabian’s ship and...well it’s not a well known story because Gorgug made her and Fabian promise not to talk about it anymore. Gorgug just tends to spend the first hour of a party half in a rage and everyone knows that the life of a party is a friendly drunk barbarian.
Tonight he’s made it most of the night, and with the loud music from the speakers across the house and the shitty band in the backyard and people tucked away in the living room cheering as they play some party game or another even Fig can understand the need to be away for a moment and she loves staying at the forefront of every messy highlight of a party. She squeezes past two kids making out that she’s pretty sure are druids based on the plantlife she’s pretty sure wasn’t there before and almost trips over the carpet before she makes it to the closet Gorgug’s carved out as his hiding spot.
Fig knocks gently on the door that’s only half closed, showing just a slip of her best friend hiding behind it. For someone so big, Gorgug’s pretty excellent and cramming into small spaces and not being seen. Gorgug lifts his hoodie up to see her, and Fig finds herself surprised by the goofy grin on his face. He props the door open a little more and Fig recognizes the invitation and ducks into the closet, beaming back at him. The closet is even sweatier than the rest of the house, but Gorgug’s still wearing his oversized hoodie. “You look happy,” Fig says, poking Gorgug’s side.
Gorgug nods back, his posture seeming to relax in her company, “Mhm, nice night.”
“The bloodrush team was looking for you - I think they wanted you to throw some of them into the pool for some cannonball competition.” Gorgug pauses at that, before reaching up to grab an earbud out from where it’s gotten tangled up and passing it down to her. He had another growth spurt this month and if this keeps up Fig’s gonna have to get an extension cord for when they share headbands, but for now it manages to just reach. She’s not even the shortest of the Bad Kids, but Riz is so short that he gets away with hanging out on Gorgug’s shoulders and Gorgug only lets her get away with that when he’s drunk. She squints up at him...maybe tonight, if he isn’t sober by the time they leave the closet.
She hums along as she listens to his music. It sounds like one of his chill, laid-back playlists. The type they listen to at the end of band practice when they’re lying on the ground, too tired to move anywhere at the moment. Fig’s been an extrovert all her life, she thrives on energy and attention but as she watches Gorgug slowly release tension in his makeshift hiding spot she thinks she understands him a little better. Fig leans onto the back of the closet wall and slides down to sit on the floor, Gorgug flops down next to her and rests his head on her shoulder as the music plays. Fig had closed the closet door behind herself when she’d stepped in but she doesn’t feel cramped, they just seem to fit right together even when they’re squished up.
“You okay?” Fig asks after a while, once the playlists finished, pulling the earbud out and passing it back. “Wanna get out of here?”
Gorgug hums for a moment, his hands fidgeting with his drum sticks that he always keeps in his back pocket before nodding, “Yeah. Let me text Zelda and then we can get some fresh air.”
Fig waits for him to send off his message and then she grabs his hand so she doesn’t lose him again and leads him through the crowded hallway. Even though Gorgug’s got almost a foot of height over her, people seem to know that she’s the one to make way for. They wave at Kristen and Tracker in the living room sitting in each other’s laps, Fig whoops for Adaine as they pass her accidentally making fun of one of the AV kids in the kitchen and Gorgug goes through his little hoot-growl back and forth with Ragh and Fabian as the bloodrush team carries Riz - who shoots them a thumbs up - back into the house, leaving the backyard empty.
It’s almost weird to be at a party where everything’s going right. Things are starting to wind down and there hasn’t been any major fight or magical interference or impromptu quest giving. Professor Aguefort’s out of town for the weekend, so that might be it. The two of them wander down to the pool, tripping and laughing quietly as they go. Gorgug plops down first and drags Fig down with him.
The bands packing up as Fig leans over to look into the pool. It’s mostly free of debris which feels like a win for Ostentatia. Fig and Gorgug had been doing some paperwork for their band - they actually have an agent now, something Fig is still a little in awe of - and couldn’t make it to the last party, but according to Riz, the pool floor had ended up covered in swords, axes, bows, and anything else you could think of. “Hey,” Fig asks, a giggle escaping her as she turns to look at Gorgug, tugging on the hand she’s still holding in hers. “Do you think you could skip one of your hand axes here?”
Gorgug had been leaning back on his spare hand as he stared up at the sky - Gorgug was a big night sky guy - but looked over at Fig’s question, “I’ve thrown rocks into rivers before. It can’t be that different right?” He’s got a big dopey grin on his face, and once again Fig wonders how anyone is ever scared of Gorgug. Gorgug’s the kindest guy in the world, and he’s her guy too which makes him even cooler.
It takes them a few minutes to scrounge around for a forgotten piece of weaponry after Gorgug remembers he left his hand axes at home. Fig manages to dig a dagger out from underneath a rough-looking lawn chair and she waves it in the air and jumps up, Gorgug cheers at her by the pool and lifts his arms up for the catch. Accuracy’s never been one of Fig’s skills, but in an empty backyard at the end of a party with her best friend she’s riding a high and she squints before tossing it over Gorgug’s way. It ends up falling short and Gorgug dives for it, blood rush practice paying off. He slips and slides along the tile around the pool a little before jumping up back to his feet. He waves it and Fig pulls out her crystal and whoops and winks, giving him a burst of bardic inspiration as he lines it up to skip it.
“Hey Fig,” Gorgug says as he flicks his wrist and tosses the dagger, “Parties are always more fun with you.” The dagger skips five times across the length of the pool before plopping into the depths and they both stop for a moment as they watch it sink. “Huh, nice.”
The two of them meet up where the dagger dropped. “So,” Fig says, “Are you gonna get that?”
“It was your idea though.”
“But you skipped it!”
“C’mon, don’t you want to take a late-night swim in the pool?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Thistlespring?” Fig raises an eyebrow and goes to shove Gorgug. She’s not very successful and as she goes to try to move him she ends up slipping on the wet tile by the pool slides and starts to fall back into the pool. Fig shrieks as she falls and Gorgug blinks, stunned, before reaching out after her. He manages to grab her hand only for Fig’s falling force to tug him into the pool along with her.
They sink to the bottom, and Fig can see Gorgug’s hair floating up, his white streak stark in the water reflecting the dark night sky. The surprise on his face is clear, even underwater, and Fig can’t help laughing as water bubbles up around her face. She has to kick back up to the surface for more air and paddles over to the edge of the pool to hold onto the side.
Gorgug breaks the surface of the water a moment later, and Fig can just make out a satisfied look on his face as she swipes her wet hair out of her eyes. Gorgug easily swims over to join her. He’s got a natural knack for any type of athletic thing, but he’s especially good in the outdoors. Her favourite of his skills is his navigation, Fig has a bad habit at getting lost and has no shame in using Gorgug as her human fantasy google maps.
When Gorgug makes it to the side of the pool he holds up the dagger in his spare hand like a trophy.
“Nice job,” Fig tells him before reaching over to steal the dagger and scramble out of the pool. Her wet clothes provide a bit of a drag, but not enough to beat the adrenaline running through her veins at the idea of a race. She manages to make it almost to the back door of the house before Gorgug tackles her onto the ground as they wrestle for the dagger.
A throat clears above them that they tune out, only to be followed up a few seconds later by a Birkenstock to their sides. “What do you have there?” Kristen asks them from the doorway, Tracker and the rest of the Bad Kids looking as if they’re holding back laughter behind her.
“Um,” Fig says. “A dagger?”
Gorgug breaks out into laughter half on top of Fig, which only sets Fig off and she barely manages to push him off as they laugh up at the sky as their friends fish the dagger out from between them.
Gorgug was right, earlier. Even when a party is just the two of them, it’s always more fun with him by her side.
