It's Almost Like I Live Here

"It seems I'm out of the loop," Valentine had said, earning a gulp from Ashmedai. He wasn't really used to his dad being all... chatty.  "I want to know about the kid, I want to know about Rhys and you know what? Fine, I want to know about these pirates. Why the hell not. Let's make this a day, hm?"

Ashmedai had to resist the urge to sigh when his father explained that he wasn't going to be able to get more drunk while they were talking. He was already coming down off of his inebriated state and to be honest it was kind of a bummer. Not that he wanted to pass up the opportunity to brag to his father, but the risk involved was the if his father didn't approve, Ashmedai would know right away.

He didn't really have a choice, though, did he?

Ashmedai settled, "Alright," he said warily, suddenly sounding his actual age. "Where should we start?"

Ashmedai intended to give him just the highlights. He didn't need to know everything.

"So, after Imperium- ya know- stopped, I went away for a bit. I came back, learned that Mom was dead, did some soul searching, ended up in a short-lived pack of an ex-Abaven member, Tyranis. That was a joke, typical for someone who came out of Abaven... uhhhh...."

Ash's eyes searched the imaginary space in front of him as he searched his memories. After that...

"I left and kind of took up piracy. Sometime between that, Rhys popped in. Made a name for herself. Sometimes she's with us, sometimes she's off. That's kind of the nature of the band. You name it, we've taken it- including hearts which inevitably led me to having a litter with another member of the band. We call her Lust. Remind me to never bring her around anyone in our family. We're better lovers than mates so- uh- yeah... free agent still. But we raised the litter right, they're all grown up more or less."

There was so much Ash could say, but he was trying to just hit the cusp of it.

"Uh- in the main portion of the band, there's always Lust, Envy, Wrath- Rhys, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Gluttony. The leader is called Balance, but I killed the last Balance, so I guess that's me now. Everyone calls me King, though. Wanna be our new Pride? The current one pisses me off." Ashmedai tried to make a joke, but it didn't work out too well.

"In the rotation, we keep Humility, Compassion, Temperance, Chastity, Patience, Charity, and Diligence. They get swapped out a little more, though, mostly keeping our relations good after the main seven of us go and wreck everything."

That was... a lot and Ashmedai wasn't the best at having linear conversations.

"You still following?" Ashmedai asked.