look inside | dahlia

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

Rhys sighed and stared at the glass of whiskey in front of him, it was too early in the day to drink the entirety of it at once though not that anyone would particularly notice. It had been one of the most interesting weeks of his life and his usual routine had been entirely disrupted. The bar he frequented along with other Curse Breakers had a hole blown out the side and Interpol and other agencies had been sniffing around asking questions. That only seemed to add to his suspicions of the woman he had encountered, or the local magical authorities would have handled it instead. But he hadn’t said anything, and they’d parted ways since he still did have work to do and the bank was eagerly awaiting their treasures now that all of its Curse Breakers that had gotten stuck in Britain were able to travel again. He’d sent word to Dahlia, knowing she preferred Egypt, and it would give him a chance to catch up since he’d been at home for months now.

The small “apartment”, if one could call this single room that, was usually reserved for Curse Breakers coming through to work. It had enough space for a small fridge, a small couch, a small bed and a small table with two chairs and a window. At the moment Rhys sat at the table where he had been sipping whiskey despite it not being lunch time yet and he’d spread out various books and materials to prep for his work. It’d felt like yesterday since she sat across from him at the bank and introduced herself to him, it had been a pleasant surprise though they’d only worked together for just over six months while her training had been handed off to another Curse Breaker while he was in London. She’d met his other siblings at this point as well, though he didn’t know how often they were in contact. It felt good to escape, the past few weeks had been eventful and draining in every way possible.

Max had given him an earful at Zombie Island and then just over a week later Jamie had given him her own lengthy opinion. Not to mention despite all that he’d still seen Maria, which had left him very confused. So far Adrian had left the topic alone, but he hadn’t quite sought him out either. Rhys drank more whiskey as he carefully read a page in book of Egyptian runes, despite all his years he always reviewed this since he always ended up injured while he was here in one way or another and would have liked to avoid it for once. His attention shifted when he heard the door open and he looked up to see blue eyes looking at him, it hadn’t taken her long to get here at all. ”It wouldn’t kill you to knock.” He asked, tone a bit annoyed.

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

The goblins had given her a damn earful about her ‘vacation’ that she had been forced to take whilst the entirety of the UK was under quarantine. While it was great that they weren’t effected nearly as much as the rest of magical kind, their choice to single her out as one of the only Curse Breaker trainees to get locked out was asinine. What else was she supposed to do? All of her instructors, or at least the ones willing to train her, were stuck inside the country. Dahlia knew that the real reason for the goblins’ irritation was because she had been sitting on a hoard of gold pulled from a crypt in Turkey. It was one of her first solo jobs, her observer having left her a week prior to the lockdown to return to England, while she finished up the paperwork in Turkey. And then everything was locked down. Apparently the proper protocol was to ship the goods to Gringotts via post, but there was no way she was going to do that and then take the fall in the off chance everything was lost or stolen. She didn’t trust the bank nearly enough yet, just like they didn’t with her. Until they figured out that she wasn’t going to run off with the lot of it, they would only be doing exchanges in person with her. Even if that meant waiting months on end.

Because of her supposed insubordinate behavior, her training wasn’t to resume until the start of the next calendar year. As if giving her a longer vacation was a bad thing in her eyes. She had gotten paid after the end of the five month lock-out, and now she was ready to kick it back and relax for the holiday season. Somehow the bank thought that was the perfect way to get back at her. All she did was play up how awful she felt she was being treated, and how it wasn’t fair. They ate it all up, and off she went with a free month and a half to do what she wanted.

Fortunately for Dahlia, it was starting off in the most exciting manner possible: a letter from Rhys to meet him in Egypt. She had barely been in England long enough to do anything useful, or to contact any friends (of the few she had), before she received the letter, so she threw all of her stuff back in her bag and set back off. She took every chance she could get to go to Egypt these days, especially when the bank was content with shipping her off to the furthest, most remote parts of the world to do their bidding. Meeting her brother there would be easy enough, and she sort of knew her way around the area reserved for Curse Breakers, having visited once or twice in the last year.

It didn’t take long to arrive, and she immediately made it to secret room utilized by her coworkers whenever they were in the area. She didn’t even bother to knock on the door, having bypassed the security charms already, and pushed it open to see Rhys slouched at the table with a glass of whiskey staring back at him. His welcome, if she dared to even call it that, was snippy at best, and clearly he was having a shitty day.

“Full moon is in two and a half weeks. Don’t start on me now,” she fired back. Her bag landed on the floor with an audible thud, causing a cloud of dust from the floor to form around it. Or maybe it was sand. Being able to tell the difference was hard, at times. Dahlia quickly grabbed another glass from the kitchenette, if it could even be called that, and parked herself at the table across from Rhys, pouring more whiskey into his glass before filling hers up to the lip. “You didn’t get fired, did you?” she asked, though that was almost impossible unless you stole something from the bank. Or died. She took a long swig of the whiskey, almost coughing as it burned down the back of her throat. As much as she liked drinking, she disliked doing it in the middle of the day and for no good reason. “Because if you did, and you need someone to finish your job, I’m on suspension for pissing away time in France the last couple months. Like they would have allowed me to do anything on my own to begin with.” Dahlia scoffed and rolled her eyes, before finishing off the rest of the glass and pouring it until it was full again.

rhys alexander greyback ● 780 ● what if it all turned out fine by jhova

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

Rhys had known Jamie the longest, seven years now followed by Adrian and then Max. Dahlia he had known almost a year and half and he’d found a sibling who was perhaps the most like him in temperament. It intrigued him as much as it irritated him, now he was beginning to see why Cas had always felt that yanking him by the collar of his shirt or hitting him upside the head had seemed like reasonable solutions when he was in training. She entered, dropped her bag and very quickly took the seat in front of him also with a glass of whiskey. At least she didn’t give him the same comments or looks about his drinking, for that he was most appreciative. ”No.” He commented in blunt tone, ”Not that they would.” Losing Jasper and Renfri in the same year was a huge loss for their more senior ranks, they wouldn’t get rid of Rhys on a whim not that he’d deserved it for anything recent. Rhys didn’t flinch when she told him about her suspension, he knew about it. While he’d been stuck in London he’d still been at the bank catching up on paperwork—legal and other reports and such. And the goblins had mentioned it.

”I’m aware.” Rhys drank more of his whiskey and closed the book he’d been reading. They would get to studying later, since it wasn’t an urgent job he’d been allowed a great deal of flexibility on the timeline which worked well with his plan of escaping anything and everything back in London at the moment. ”The goblins like to tell me whatever they think will annoy me. As if your attitude is somehow my problem.” Rhys had never had the best relationship with them, but what Curse Breaker did? And they assumed since they’d found out that Dahlia and Rhys were in fact siblings that whatever overlap they might have had in their demeanor or approach to things was either inherited or taught to her by Rhys. ‘Did you hear what your sister did?’ Which wasn’t new in terms of he did have other siblings and with recent events he was sure there was more talk about him for once. When she refilled her glass, Rhys finished his own and grabbed the bottle back to refill his own.

”You better not be here to drink all my whiskey.” He shot her another annoyed look. When they started working together, he’d been his usually brooding self as he was with his other sisters or other new Curse Breakers. If anything, she should worry when he was being too nice—either he was drunk or cursed in that case. ”I’ve had enough attitude from your sisters before I left—I need this more than you.” Rhys slumped back in his chair, he was tired as usual. But more so since he didn’t sleep well in general but typically not alone, though he’d never admit that out loud.

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Of course he knew about the suspension already. He was technically her trainer, though that depended on what the bank wanted. She had no idea if this would change anything going forward, considering she was supposed to be back in London with him for the next job when lockdown happened. Dahlia clicked her tongue when he mentioned that the goblins tried to hold her situation over him like that. He wasn’t wrong – it wasn’t his problem. The suspension was ridiculous and completely between her and the bank. She’d bring that up with the goblins when she got back. Apparently they liked watching humans get angry, taking pleasure in their misfortune. She would make sure to give them a piece of her mind.

“If you didn’t want me drinking it, then you shouldn’t have called me here,” she shot back, ticked that this was suddenly her fault. If they drained the bottle, they could find another one. It wasn’t like Egypt was devoid of all alcohol. And they were sitting in a Curse Breaker safe house. The odds of there being a bottle or two of booze wedged under a floor board or behind a false wall panel were unbelievably high. Rhys alone probably had a couple bottles tucked away in here, and he was barely in the country for work.

He added that he was drinking because of something he had talked to Max and Jamie about before leaving, and that made her pause. What sort of petty, sibling squabble could they have had to make him like this? It didn’t really make sense. Dahlia wanted to ask him what he had done to manage the wrath of the two younger Greybacks, but bit down on her tongue to stop from sounding accusatory. That would only piss him off more. And he had called her here for a specific reason, not to be chastised for getting in an argument with children. “What happened?” Dahlia asked carefully, leaning back and folding her arms in front of her.

rhys alexander greyback ● 336 ● song by artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

The Curse Breaking community, or circle, was a bit close knit. A few individuals kept their distance but otherwise news tended to travel fast. When someone was injured, they would know, even if they didn’t know the details or when other things happened. He remembered when he’d been injured and suddenly Renfri was at the hospital when he had woken up along with is sisters. Rhys had always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling that could drink with him and now that he knew he wasn’t sure if he liked it, it meant less whiskey for him. ”I said just not all of it.” A smartass as always. If she wasn’t his younger half-sister he might have yelled at her the way he did other trainees but she also hadn’t made the simple mistakes such as falling down a shalt where Rhys could let her sit for an hour or two and help ensure she never did it again. He set the bottle back on the table and drank a large amount from his glass.

Ever since he’d left London, he’d found himself in a foul mood. As if it were the day or two before the full moon but without an outlet and without an end. She asked him what happened, and he wasn’t sure if she was just prompting for information or really didn’t know. He really didn’t know how much his siblings talked to one another though he knew Max and Jamie were close. Rhys paused before speaking, to consider how to answer such a question. ”The girls don’t agree with some of the decisions I’ve made in my personal life.” That much was true. ”Though I don’t see how its their business in this case. Either way, its not a problem anymore.” He had told Max that he would stop seeing her and he had, for a time. That last full moon had been…eventful and then he’d come here and there was no obligation to ever speak to her again.

Rhys glanced back at the small mess of documents on the table, he picked up a thin folder that contained less than ten pages inside. It wasn’t terribly detailed, but the job wasn’t a big one either. It was a docket outlining what artifacts they were looking for and any known information on the tomb, etc. The rest they would research on their own. He pushed it toward Dahlia. ”You’ll need to review this. We’ll go Tuesday morning or whenever we finish the whiskey. Whichever comes first.”

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Whether she drank some or all of the whiskey that he had was just semantics. Dahlia liked hard alcohol just like her brother that much had become clear in the last year and a half. She wanted to blame him for it, mostly, but she had been like this before coming to England. Not that he knew that. According to some of the other Curse Breakers, they were similar enough that it was scary at times. She hoped it was, since they shared a father. She was pretty sure that she was her own person more than not, though the rest of her coworkers saw her mostly with Rhys around her. Even if they weren’t related, there surely would have been parts of his training that would have worn off on her. That was only expected between teachers and their trainees. The same could be said about her drinking habits, though in this instance they only inhibited each other to drink more than the other. It was all in good fun though.

She was glad she had asked her question in the manner she had, because this was starting to sound a lot worse than she thought it was. If Jamie and Max both disagreed with him on something he was doing, then it couldn’t have been good. Dahlia agreed with Rhys on a lot more than those two did, mostly because she felt the same way he did on some things, and also because she had to be around him more often than either of them did. Not that she tip-toed through a lot of the arguments, but there was a line she had to draw where neither of them could cross or else it could get bad. Whatever this disagreement between Rhys and the younger Greybacks was, he seemed to think it wasn’t a problem anymore. The drinking said otherwise.

She tipped back the rest of her glass and left it empty this time, since he apparently wanted to drink more than she did today. “If it’s not a problem anymore, can you elaborate?” she dared to ask, though if he had called her here, she assumed it meant that he wanted to talk about something other than work, which he was trying to do. “I’ll help with the next bottle if you tell me what’s going on,” she repeated. “No judging from me.”

Dahlia glanced at the paperwork he pushed across the table, flipping through the pages quickly. It seemed like any old job to her. “And I’m here on personal time, technically,” she reminded him, since her suspension wasn’t going to be lifted until the New Year. “But if you keep me out of the report, it should be fine…” Not everything they did always ended up in those end of job write-ups. If that was the case, they would have been sanctioned by multiple magical governments by now. And maybe non-magique ones too.

rhys alexander greyback ● 488 ● Midnight Thoughts by Yasumu

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

They could blame Rhys all they wanted for Dahlia’s attitude and approach to things and he’d admit that it left him somewhere in the middle between proud and irritated most of the time. At least it gave him some proof that when people commented on his ‘crankiness’ he could say it was inherited and his other three half-siblings simply had not inherited it. The trauma in his life had played a part in it, naturally, but this was just who he was. The benefit was having someone to work with that understood him a bit better if not faster than others, at least minus old friends like Renfri who having known Rhys since he was eleven would have that insight. Either way, he still chose (as best he could) who knew what about him and there was still much his sister didn’t know about him despite all they had shared up to this point. Now, what she’d heard from others he couldn’t control but he was sure it had to do with his bachelor lifestyle and penchant for always having a drink in his hand.

After his conversation with Jamie, he’d been grateful that the incident at Zombie Island had not included the both of them. With Max’s approach and Maria’s constant provocation of things—Rhys had seen wars started over less. And he hadn’t need the both of them teaming up on him. Dahlia asked him to elaborate and he paused, opting instead to drink more of the whiskey in his glass. Though, maybe it would help to have her insight as technically an outsider of this feud. ”I’m sure one of them will bring you up to speed at some point.” He said, draining his glass and reaching again for the bottle to refill it. ”I was seeing someone, it wasn’t anything serious. Ran into her at the Halloween event the school does every year—Max was working. She has some….history with Max and Jamie from when the tournament was going on and she was at the school that year.” That was the gist of it, though he’d left out some elements he didn’t want to get into just yet. His personal life had been painfully on display that day. ”So Max found out and wasn’t too happy about it. But like I said its over now anyway.” It was over, at least he kept telling himself that despite what everything else in his mind seemed to be telling him.

Rhys nodded, he remembered. ”I know, still don’t need you unprepared if you’re coming with me.” He placed the bottle back on the table and looked at her again, she didn’t need any more trouble to her name being such a trainee, but she did need the experience and Rhys didn’t mind the company. ”As far as the bank knows you’re on vacation.” He shrugged casually. It was an easy job so he wasn’t worried about liability—at least other than his own. ”Besides, every time I’ve gotten injured has been here so I prefer to not go alone.” Rhys admitted, he hadn’t really talked about those experiences much though he probably should have if only to caution her. Though he thought about how he’d almost been hexed into nothing just over a week ago at the incident at the bar, maybe that was his brush this time. "I'll give you a cut of whatever I get paid for this."

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Dahlia was sure that one of the others would ‘bring her up to speed’, but she also wanted to hear it from Rhys first. His account, from the sound of it, was going to be wildly different from what the other two had of the situation, because he didn’t think he had done anything wrong here. From the little that she knew of it, she found nothing wrong with what Rhys had been doing. His relationships were between him and whomever. The same could be said for the girls. Whatever had happened then wasn’t really indicative of this girl Rhys was seeing now. People changed. “Was she from my school, or Durmstrang?” Dahlia asked. If it was a Beauxbatons girl, she could see where there could be problems. One hint at there being werewolves and the Beauxbatons students would have been looking down their noses at the Greyback girls. Though it wouldn’t make much sense if she changed her tune in less than a year, just to be with Rhys…

“It’s not like it’s impossible to have both,” Dahlia mused as she glanced into her empty glass. She wondered what position she would be in if she happened to suddenly have a person of her own. Everything she had done the last few years had been completely absorbed by work, and there wasn’t much left for personal time. She certainly wouldn’t like her siblings criticizing her choices either, considering they still didn’t know each other that well. Rhys was probably the only one that would have any say in whether or not she was making good decisions. “They’ll probably come around to it at some point. I wouldn’t push it to the side, unless it was like, super casual.” At that point, it really wasn’t worth the effort.

Rhys wasn’t wrong – it was better to go in pairs on jobs. Solo jobs weren’t just boring, but highly dangerous, and she already disliked the idea of having to do them someday. There really wasn’t any telling what could happen when on your own, and having to brains to problem solve between traps and cursed objects was better than one. “I don’t need it. Even though I’m suspended, they’re giving me more for holding on to the last job for so long,” she explained. It was strange how the bank got angry that she refused to travel into England, but were fine with paying her more for keeping everything safe. They valued money and treasure a lot more than they did her time. She supposed that was because her position as a Curse Breaker wasn’t permanent and that she most like was going to end up dead one day because of it. “If you really want to give me half, spend it on more whiskey. At least it’ll be put to use.”

rhys alexander greyback ● 470 ● Me & My Dog by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

It was hard to explain a situation that Rhys himself didn’t quite have the full background on, though he had enough to know that it had all not been ideal. If he’d been with some other girl and Max came across them arguing it wouldn’t have turned into such a scene and the follow up conversations with Max and Jamie would not have been needed as well. He still felt rather defensive about it all and despite the bad blood he still wasn’t sure why he was the bad guy here. Maria was a fling. They weren’t dating and there was no commitment, and he would always side with his family. So, what was the big deal? ”Durmstrang.” He responded, though if Dahlia had a maternal cousin that he met at a bar one day….well then life has a funny way of throwing things in Rhys’ direction. ”She was uh—close to Elias.” Again, not a lie. But how does one just blurt out these things?

”I didn’t know exactly who she was when we met, it was just a chance meeting at a bar.” On the one year anniversary of their half-brother’s death. Though he often wondered what he might have done different if more thorough introductions would have been made. He had been rather drunk, so would it have mattered to either of them? And then of course, the veela charm, there was no fighting that in such a state. Rhys shrugged. He wasn’t sure if it was worth the battle that would come from trying to integrate Maria into his family’s life in the same way Lily was because of Adrian. She might have been a bit of a wild child, but Lily was easy enough to get along with and she cared about Adrian and they all saw it. ”It wasn’t anything serious. And not worth fighting your sisters on.” He commented, drinking more whiskey.

She didn’t want part of his cut for working, which was fine by him either way. It just seemed fair to share it if she was going to help with the work while having someone to watch his back while they were at it. The situation that had gotten her suspended was something that Rhys had found a bit ridiculous, but the Goblins were greedy and their own boss didn’t do much to fight them in these scenarios. Plus, she hadn’t run off with the gold so what was the big deal? To her next statement he could have toasted her, finally a sibling that understood that piece of him. ”Your donation is appreciated.” He drank more from his glass, this was his third one maybe now but aside from the burn in his throat he didn’t feel it. ”So, any other plans for your “vacation”?”

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Things were starting to piece together now. If this girl was a friend of Elias’s, then there was probably a bit of apprehension and left over feelings about everything that happened. She wasn’t really keen on getting into the finer details of that, since it was clearly still raw for Rhys. Jamie and Max didn’t really see the part of their brother where he was sort of consistently with one woman or another. She personally found it sort of hilarious at times. “Right. Not anything new there,” she commented to help validate his feelings on the situation. The girls weren’t that far behind in age, but there was still a level of understanding required to get what Rhys was going through. Experience, maybe?

“They’re your sisters too,” she corrected him. This whole thing didn’t need to be a ‘them versus him’ ordeal, because she viewed it as more of a misunderstanding than anything else. What Rhys did in his free time didn’t need to be criticized by those two, and he also needed to learn how to handle things when they were brought up by Max and Jamie. Again, if she knew the actual details of what happened she would be able to give more insight, but it seemed like it was said and done with for the time being. Running off to Egypt for work was probably the best thing Rhys could have done in that situation, despite how it looked.

What a great question that was. She really had no idea, to be truthful. The last few months had been spent doing all the real vacation kind of things, and now all she could do was the same but in London. It was almost worse this way, because she was in trouble for no good reason. “Drink, I think. I really want to get back to work, to be honest. I feel like I’ve barely done anything this year to get closer to finishing my training.” Everything kept getting bumped back further and further, which was fairly typical in her experience. Starting the training two years late was only the tip of the iceberg with her career. There was always something trying to get in the way.

rhys alexander greyback ● 369 ● song by artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

The only downside to having a sibling work with him was that his coworkers tended to talk a bit too much about him to her. It was a bit out of his control but it more consisted of ’did you brother tell you…’ and so his bachelor lifestyle had been quickly revealed. Though he didn’t know how much Jamie, Max and Adrian knew about it. Rhys tried to keep his personal business under wraps, they knew Deva since she was also a close friend of his and Jamie had met her at school since they’d been in the same house. Still, he couldn’t help but give Dahlia a look at her comment, as much as he’d never admit it out loud, she was right. And she was also right that despite the unique family dynamic they were still siblings. He shook his head, that night was still vivid in his mind. ”Honestly I’m still not one hundred percent sure what happened between them when they were at the school. But, I don’t plan on seeing her again when I get back to London anyway.”

He didn’t mention that he’d told Max he was done with Maria before Halloween and in fact he’d seen Maria right before coming here. He didn’t mention that actually kind of missed her and hated sleeping alone. That wasn’t going to help his case. Rhys drank more whiskey, shaking his head as he put the glass back on the table. ”I think I’m just not used to be on the receiving end of a lecture.” He was the oldest brother and tended to have an opinion on what all of them were doing though he didn’t tend to pry. The last one he’d gotten into a heated discussion with had been Adrian regarding Lily, though that had been partly out of fear as well.

Rhys chuckled, of course—drinking. Apparently the Greyback’s favorite pastime. If he had any doubt of their relation her penchant for whiskey, her quick attitude and blue eyes were a dead giveaway. ”I think excluding the suspension the time still counts.” At least that’s what he assumed, this year had been rather different than any he had worked. ”If it makes you feel better Renfri said you did good work with her.” Well, her words were more along the lines of ’unlike you, your sister isn’t an idiot.’ But he chose to paraphrase. ”And she’s not one to lie to me.” Their friendship stretched fourteen years now and she was someone he wholeheartedly trusted and when Rhys had been pulled to do work in the Crimea and some other jobs where he couldn’t take Dahlia she’d taken over. ”There’s plenty of work now that we can travel again.”

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

Dahlia still didn’t understand why they had to make it their problem when Rhys had been oblivious to whatever had happened in the past. That was well over a year ago now, and holding onto grudges for silly kid stuff was dumb. Which was the pot calling the kettle black, but she also didn’t have the chance of running into any of her old school ‘friends’. They were too busy being snooty and traveling the world in style, while she was turning into a filthy mutt once a month and getting dirty in ancient tombs. She should have never gone to Beauxbatons to begin with, even before being turned, because she simply didn’t fit in with their image there. Hell, she didn’t even want to be like them either. Durmstrang or Hogwarts, from the little she had learned over the last year, would have been better in nurturing her school years. She would have been able to meet siblings at either, and probably would have been happier.

Regardless of her mixed emotions on the whole thing, this was still Rhys’s personal business and what he did shouldn’t have mattered to them. Unless this girl had done something horrible to one of them. But she felt like he would have told her that, if it was the case. “Why not? You’re free to do what you want,” she shrugged, before finally reaching back across the table to grab the bottle of whiskey. Topping off her glass again, she decided to take this one a little slower.

“It’s still up to the bank,” she added after finishing her sip. Even if all of her trainers, Renfri included, gave her glowing reviews, she was sure the goblins would find some way to dock her a few months. It meant that they wouldn’t have to pay her the full salary for just a little longer, after she forced them to cough up what they owed her for the months she was locked out. And would they earnestly listen to a former Curse Breaker? The bank treated them like tools. Once they were broken, they could easily be replaced with a newer, sharper version. Each of them had varying degrees of strength, and some became dull and broke earlier than others. Renfri had done her time, so Dahlia liked to think her input would mean something. But it was hard to tell. “I’ll take anything I can get. So wherever you need me for the next six months, I’ll be there.”

rhys alexander greyback ● 416 ● Lovers Mask - Remixed by Theophany

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

It was nice to have a sibling on his side in this case though he knew that Dahlia didn’t have the full story. And he wasn’t sure it would be a good look if she found out that he’d withheld information in some vain attempt to get support. Even with his stubbornness lying wasn’t something he like to do. Rhys let out a sigh and paused, looking out the window pretending he could see anything behind the old and grimy glass. ”There is another thing.” He spoke as picked up his glass again and he leaned back in his seat, slouching a little bit. ”She’s a cousin of Elias’—but on his mother’s side.” He quickly added. That had been word he’d focused on when she’d yelled it at him the morning after. But how could he have known? Besides, in his mind Maria had started all this. She’d been the one that walked over with the shots of whiskey and then the bottle they’d finished.

It wasn’t a good look, not an ideal scenario at all. But maybe it made more sense to her why their sisters had been so upset. Though Max had brought up how Maria was the same age as Jamie and while correct on that note he still hadn’t seen what the big deal was. He was sure that age gaps existed between plenty of people in relationships or arrangements otherwise. But he supposed it was just an attempt to get him to stop by comparing her to his sister. Rhys drank more whiskey but didn’t finish off his glass as he might have liked. One needed to pace themselves after all. Absent-mindedly he swirled around the remaining amount of amber liquid around as he looked at the material on the table. It was an easy job, but he always tried to work under the assumption that he was missing something and to not get too comfortable. Cas had taught him to be wary and not just rush in, one needed forethought and a plan.

She was willing and able, a better attitude than some of these trainees who really belonged behind a desk sorting files and worrying about dust on their shoes. ”There’s plenty of work to do since we were all stuck in Britain.” Rhys sat up in his chair and placed the glass back on the table and picked up the thin file that Dahlia had looked through a while ago and laid it open, underneath were still random notes and pages strewn about. Simple job, simple artifact. Curse and traps expected but the tombs of this period, he New Kingdom, had been excavated extensively. There weren’t many surprises left in the Valley of the Kings. ”This one should be simple. You can take lead if you feel up to it. “ It would be good experience for her even if it could be uncredited. It was his own teaching style, let them try things and that way they built some confidence and if they needed help he’d be right there.

[dahlia jade leloup]

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“Oh,” Dahlia gasped, her hand immediately going up to her mouth to cover it. As if that would retract the reaction she let out. She didn’t mean for her surprise to come out in the manner that it did, but it was sort of a hard thing to not be expressive about. There was no way that he could have known that beforehand, right? It seemed like that would be a big no-no if Elias was still around. “That had to have been a surprise.” She wanted to test the waters, and that was the only way that she knew how to do it without making it look like she was being judgmental. Now everything was starting to make a little more sense with their siblings. Aside from whatever other issues that this girl had with Jamie and Max, of course.

She took a hurried gulp of her whiskey to try and cut what she felt was tension in the air. Tension that she may have caused. There was no telling if Rhys was getting the same vibes, but the last thing she wanted to do was start laying into him the way he said the other two had already done. Everything surrounding the Greybacks always ended up in surprises, and she was starting to get used to the ridiculousness of it all. The fact that there could be more of them out there too was insane. She was sure that the ones she had met probably thought they were the only ones too, before bumping into the rest. And now there was this girl, who was related to Elias on his mother’s side, and could probably be considered some sort of extended family. But she wasn’t sure. Family was a tough thing in general, and she really only had the other Greyback kids to be her family anymore. Someone had made sure of that…

It was good to see the conversation drifting towards work though. They needed a middle ground, and it would also do well to get Rhys’s mind off of the other topic. She took another sip of her drink as he slid the file back across the table. “I can take point,” Dahlia agreed. The last job she had been on before the lockdown was supposed to have her in the lead, but the amount of traps they had to weed through made that impossible for her. She felt like she was ready for a complicated tomb like that, but maybe this one would end up being better for her. “Have we been in this one before? Or just near it?” They all blended together after a while, and the naming conventions of the tombs was horrid. She wanted to have a word or two with the head non-magique archaeologists about how terrible their schematics were. Locating certain tombs sometimes was a pain.

rhys alexander greyback ● 477 ● Fake Happy by Paramore

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

template by punki of adoxography

Your façade can't disguise

The fact that you're in misery

November 16, 2025
dahlia jade leloup

Rhys waited for the anger, the lectures. He'd gotten the surprise he expected but nothing more than that. Still, he paused a moment, and maybe she needed to process what he had just revealed to her. It seemed to bother Max and Jamie a great deal--among the other reasons they greatly had disapproved of his behavior. Though he had tried to rationalize it with him himself, he would have been greatly bothered if one of his sisters had been seeing someone he didn't approve of her even like all that much. It hadn't helped stop him from seeing her again though all the way here in Egypt, he still couldn't stop thinking about her though it was only of the many heavy thoughts he'd brought with him here. The seer's words still floated in his head often and had cost him a great deal of sleep, if sleeping alone hadn't been uncomfortable enough already. "I'd never met her before." Rhys admitted, and he certainly would have remembered meeting a part-veela and a woman that attractive in general.

Rhys didn't say anything for a moment. There was so much he'd been able to talk to his sister about over the past year and a half that he hadn't been able to talk to the others about. It had been a bit of a relief, and he thought about Sienna's words about carrying it all on one's own when your family wanted to help. Perhaps it was because Dahlia was closer in age to him and had seen things almost as horrible as he had, things that he wasn't going to explain to an eleven-year-old at the time. 'Your children look lovely.' The words had been spoken warmly and with a smile, and yet they haunted him daily. Rhys wasn't sure what else he could say on the topic of Maria, so he let out a sigh. "I know they worry about me." Mostly, it was his work and especially the last time he'd ended up in the Hospital. "I'm sure they just want me to find a 'nice girl' to settle down with and not risk mortal peril every time I go to work."

But there was still work to be done, so the focus, thankfully, shifted back to that. Dahlia gladly agreed to take the lead, and he was happy to give her a chance. She was competent, and he'd been thankful since it meant the other Curse Breakers and goblins would not be looking at him whenever she messed something up, seeing as they were related, but he was also proud as an older sibling would be. He was happy of all their accomplishments, whether it was Curse Breaking, dragons, potions, or academics--it did well to redeem their name. Usually, during the second year of training, the trainees were given a chance to practice leading an excursion, though they were never alone, and Rhys or someone else would step in if needed. It wasn't a bad thing to do so, but always a learning experience. "This is a new one, but shouldn't be that much different than the other tombs in the area." Rhys explained. "You can expect to find similarities if they're from around the same era, but that doesn't mean you don't keep an eye out." He warned, it was the easiest mistake a Curse Breaker could make. "This will be a good experience for you, even if it's not on file." Her suspension was unfortunate, but it wasn't something even he could argue on her behalf.