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[.:In Which Friends Are Called:.]
Quote: Quinn had fallen asleep on the couch for awhile, while Addie played quietly at her feet. The toddler eyed the phone every once in a while, wanting Quinn to call Caoi and Arkie, but knowing that she would be in supreme trouble if she messed with the phone by herself.
After about an hour, Quinn awoke with a snort and fumbled for the phone, pressing a button to illuminate it's screen so she could check the time. It was 10am. which was a much friendlier time for making phone calls. Yawning and stretching, she sat up and looked down at Addie. "Do you still want me to call Caoi? We don't even know if there is trouble. She's probably fine. Out surfing or something."
Adelaide regarded Quinn stoically. "Call, mama. Call."
And so she did, searching through the list of numbers in her phone until she found the appropriate one. She dialed and then waited.
One ringy ding. Two ringy dings... Akina Tokuwa It was the morning after Sei and Dustin had come over to talk about all the insanity that had passed. When the house was once again empty, Caoimhe and Gristla curled together in the middle of the living room floor. They were desperate to be reminded of one another, to feel the bond that had once pulsated so strongly between them.
The phone rang.
Caoimhe nudged Gristla.
Gristla nudged back.
Caoimhe kicked her in the side.
Gristla swatted Caoimhe in the forehead, shooting her a few feet away.
"Fine," Caoi grumbled, crawling on her hands and knees toward the phone. "I'll get it this time." Inching over to the cordless receiver, Caoi knocked it out of the cradle. It clattered to the floor and Caoi let out a sharp curse. After a few more bobbles, she lifted the receiver to her mouth and let out a gruff, "Hello?" It was not friendly. Quote:
Wincing, Quinn held the phone away from her ear as she was greeted with a loud clatter upon pick-up. She waited through the muffled fumbling on the other end until she heard a familiar voice, made more so by it's gruff tone. "Uh... hi. Um, this is Quinn, Addie's guardian, and she wanted me to call you to see if you guys were ok."
Addie had come over to Quinn while she spoke and at this barest of pauses, she pulled the phone from Quinn's hand. Ignoring the glares her guardian gave her, she exclaimed, "Water Puppy?! Bad black, Puppy. Bad black. You ok? You need Addie to pro-teck you? Addie come. You be safe. Where you at? You be Puppy for Addie?" All of this was said in practically one breath, with hardly any room for Caoi to reply.
Quinn just watched the exchange with worry-tinged amusement. She was pretty sure that everything was ok. That she'd just had an asthma attack and that it had scared Addie. That everything else that had happened had just been a delusion brought on by lack of oxygen.
...But there was Sati. She seemed to think something was wrong. And that strange paper. And her charge's insistence that danger had come and that she had somehow warded it off. So she waited and watched, wanting reassurance. Akina Tokuwa In spite of herself, Caoimhe smiled. For one, she was getting much better at not dissolving into a pile of vomit each time she interacted with a child. For two -- Addie was awesome. Not only was she pretty much a death dealer, but she liked to run around naked and bother people. Clearly a kindred spirit.
"Hey, Addie," she said, rubbing at her eye with the back of her hand. "Good to see you and Quinn are okay." It hadn't really occurred to Caoi to think about the guardians of others. Hers had been attacked and blinded; that was all she could handle at once. Now with the hope Sei had given her to be rebonded, she felt as though she had the capacity to actually worry about other people too.
The water puppy thing kind of went untouched. "I'm at my house. Sei and Dustin were here yesterday. They might come back. You're welcome to come too, kid -- just let me talk to Quinn for a second?" Caoi waited, tapping a finger on the side of the phone. She needed to see if Addie or Quinn had found the weird paper. It was a link that others might not have thought of. Perhaps the younger Fa'e were being spared in all this madness? Quote:
Addie dropped the phone in Quinn's lap without a word, and disappeared into her room. The Foxlady picked it up, looked at it uncertainly, held it to her ear and said, "Hello?" Akina Tokuwa Caoimhe wiped at her eye again, tugging at the tangles of curls at her head. She needed to shower. Badly. Ever since the attack, she had been so out of it that she had totally forgotten. Wrinkling her nose at the oil in her hair, Caoi perked up when Quinn came to phone. "Hey, it's cool if she comes over. You too. My guardian is here, but some weird stuff happened. Probably best to talk about it in person." A yawn broke, and Caoi stretched up, lifting her arms above her head. She came out of it with a sigh and continued talking, "I live in the pale blue house at the corner of Seashore and Mangrove right on the eastern edge of Gambino Isle. It's not as far as the place I had my party at." Caoimhe continued the directions as best she could, filling it good scenic routes as she spoke.
In the next room, Gristla lifted her head and glanced toward Caoi. She quirked an eyebrow, but the selkie Fa'e waved her away. "Oh, and one more thing -- a lot of the Fa'e woke up with a weird paper in their hand last night. It has a riddle on it. Could you see if Addie got one? If she did, bring it." Gristla stood now, arching her back into the air. She made slow careful strides to the place where Caoi sat on the floor, and then laid down beside her, resting her massive head on the girl's leg. Out of habit, Caoi stroked the space between her ears and waited for Quinn to respond. Quote:
"Seashore and Mangrove, right, right," Quinn muttered as she wrote down the instructions Caoimhe gave. "Oh! The paper. Yeah yeah. We got one of those. I showed it to Sati this morning, but she didn't know what it was. I'll bring it."
It was then that Addie came back out of her room, naked accept for a trash can lid that she had managed to tie to her middle like a breast plate, and dragging a heavily laden bundle in one hand and her blankie in the other. "Ready, mama. Let's go."
Quinn chuckled and then said into the phone, "We'll be there in a bit. Give me a call if you need us to bring anything. Talk to you then." She hung up and turned her attentions back to Adelaide. "And where do you think you're going? You're not even dressed! And what do you have there?"
Addie looked at Quinn in puzzlement. "I too dressed!" she exclaimed, indicating her make-shift armor. "And this my stuff. I need it. For troubles." She was so serious, that Quinn decided not to argue with her.
"Well, ok. But you have to at least put pants on. I'm not taking you all the way to Gambino wearing only a trash can lid."
Addie pouted, but stomped off to her room to comply.
Addie had only been in her room for a moment, when she stuck her head out and said, "No forget to call Ark Ark." Quinn nodded and dialed the only number she had for him. She didn't know if anyone would answer, but she would at least make the effort to see if he was ok. If Sati and Caoimhe were any indicator, something wide spread had happened to the Fa'e and their guardians. It was Quinn's nature to want to mother hen them all.
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