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Private RP between Elst and Aoi (Roots of the Cosmos) and Banning, Rugovin, Misha and Timka (Graficcha).

Location: Elst's nursery home
Time: After work, after sunset, a calm 9 p.m.
Weather: dense clouds in the dark, pressured heat
Red, if you want to join in, just let Rhian sneak by, she's invited too.

This is the day of all days, oh yes. Maybe now this tangle will finally be resolved, once and for all. A certain Duke sure is hanging onto the last shred of his nerves...

Previously on DeLonghy Chronicles:
During the collective owner meeting, Banning encountered an apparition of his past, finding a tangible trace, a feather, on the scene. Aoi picked up on this, and decided to invite the man over to his home to finally talk this over. Banning accepted, and is now on his way to clear up this entire deal.

Rhian had long ago decided that Aoi and Elst's home was her secondary one. After all, she had spent a fair amount of her proto-hood in the Gardens, and visited quite often during her current stage, as well. So it didn't bother her in the least that she was dropping by, unannounced, and technically sneaking in since she wasn't using the main entrance. Instead, she was more interested in the emotional storm that was gearing up around her. Her antennae twitched this way and that, picking up the various strong emotions in the Gardens today. Oh, was that Banning? Best to stay out of his way, he seemed to be in a very dangerous mood... her antennae twitched, instead, toward the house, and VinVin's steady presence.

He seemed... sad today. Sad and scared, and all in all in very sore need of a hug - something which Rhian was more than willing to provide. Once she'd made it into the gardens, she made a beeline for the house, skillfully staying out of Banning's sight and senses - though she knew Aoi would know that she was here, and through him Elst, too, but surely they wouldn't begrudge her presence, not when VinVin needed some comfort and they were too busy dealing with the raging firestorm of paranoia and anger that was Banning.

Once she was close enough, she flared up her source a bit to make sure that VinVin knew it was just her, before darting over to him and wrapping him in a hug. "Hello, VinVin," she said, her voice low and soft, filled with a mixture of her concern for him and her own pain at Lauss' absence. "It's going to be okay, I promise," she added, locking his gaze into her own blue orbs. "Come on, talk with me for a bit, hm? That way you don't have to think about what's going on out front for a bit. No use getting more worked up, right?"

Here was something she could do that was useful; something that wouldn't remind her of Lauss every five seconds... a welcome duty, helping one of her kin with his own pain and allowing her a chance to not think of her own woes for a short time.

Darkness. Silence. Two words fit to describe Aoi's setting, hidden within his room. It had been nearly eight hours since the floramancer had sealed himself within his room, weaving little bits of magic to block out all outside sensory input. After closing his door, shutting out the outside world, Aoi had chosen a cushion from the many he owned, set it upon the floor, rested himself on it, and thought. Hours of isolation, meditation, often did him great amounts of good; it calmed his body, rested his mind. Exactly what he'd wanted for today. The ultimate moment of the efforts he'd undertaken for so very long. A calm body, a rested mind, were indeed needed today.

The previous day, he'd come to Vin, and told him simply, yet gently, that the ruse had to end. That it was time to finally enlighten the brother that the Mimicker had avoided for ages. The announcement was taken at first with grains of salt, furious anger, tinted with sadness, followed with admission and even, eventually, guilt. Aoi knew that there was the slightest glimmer of gratitude, as well.

Elst was much his usual self, however worried he was for the sake of the parties meeting today; he worked on preparing a simple, but nice spread for the occasion, a pitcher of his sweet tea, little tasty sandwichy things and nice crackers with rather refined cheeses and spreads to put on them. There wouldn't likely be much eating, but it couldn't hurt. They eventually all ended up arranged on the coffee table in the living room where Aoi planned for the talking to occur. On the end tables next to the couch, the grey Essentic had earlier made sure there were bowls of dates, other dried fruit, and an assortment of nuts; he knew the Mimicker had a liking for them. The little details couldn't hurt either.

Whilst the ashen Alter had cut off of physical sensation, he had kept his telepathic lines open, so to speak, and at this level of tranquility and concentration, he could easily sense Banning as he entered the Nursery grounds. He waited, however, till he knew the man had arrived at the door, and silently he stood, stretching slightly. The time had come, after all, and as the Essentic opened his room door, the room felt the first light it had seen in hours when the warm sunlight from the rest of the house flowed in. The Essentic made quick work getting to the door, and opened it to greet the man outside. "Welcome to our home...come on in."

And the closing of a chapter began.

"Hmmn? ... oh, yeah. I heard about that..." Not much else to say, Vin was quite certain more had been said about thematter than should, and Rhian didn't seem to be really into having a pointless talk with him about 'that' topic either. He'd only be able to tell her to suck it up, if not in such crude words. Truly though, there were more terrible things than unexpected goodbyes. At least he wasn't dead, right?

No, it was indeed a much, much better idea not to go there.

"Yes, he's here..." Allowing the realisation to settle in made the mimicker's wizened feathers sink even lower, pressing against his scalp, his voice going dry. "Not long now."
What a terrific comfort.

~

Inside, both miss Longway and Misha perked up at the sound of the doorbell, united in antsiness about the same issue for once. Timka sure was relieved to hear Aoi slinking out of his room, and immediately felt somewhat guilty about hiding behind what she very much considered her adopted son to face her employer under these circumstances. Casting Elst a somewhat anxious glance, she didn't appear to be able to make up her mind just yet and ended up trundling on the spot for a while, the tip of her tail indicating her inner coflict. Misha got up from his staticity on the couch and with swift strides joined his younger sibling at the door.

~

At the door, Banning was making the short wait until someone responded to his signal into a brief moment to count to ten and calm his nerves. Surprisingly enough, it worked better than he had expected. Numbers at least kept him from spiralling deeper into that senseless mantra of questions. The answers would come now, soon.

Just as Aoi and Misha arrived and opened the door, he took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, in doing so managing to look a good deal less threatening than he could have. At least the worst acid had gone from his hawkish gaze by the time he looked up at the floramancer, his host for tonight. He nodded calmly at the welcoming, and without further delay took the first step up and entered, taking up on the no-nonsense invitiation to do so. Just the way he liked it.

"Good evening..." For now, he sounded mellow enough, despite being unable to keep a faint trill out of his voice. His attempt to mask it with a subtle clearing of his throat didn't really help much to combat that.

"So..." ahum. Amazing, a DeLonghy who didn't quite know what to say. Feast your eyes, this is a rare sight. "I believe... there were some things you were going to clear up today. Here and now."

"Ah, excuse the butting-in, but I suppose 'here' will be the salon, if you don't mind, sir." Misha piped up somewhat awkwardly, and convincing himself that Banning wasn't here as his mistress' employer but as a guest, and as a friend in need, took the liberty of ushering them through the hallway to join Elst and Timka. The duke made no move of retaliation to this, gave no sign of disapproval. If anything showed on his face at all, it was an unusual lack of composure, like a reclusive child appearing at the first ever birthday party its classmates invited it to, and now had no idea how to properly carry himself on this strange occasion. he had been here before, that certainly wasn't the problem...

In the living room, Timka greeted him with a soft 'hi there', blurting it out before she could formulate a greeting that would sound less 'amongst-buddies'. What could she do, the man looked quite lost coming in like that, and her motherly instincts sure didn't discriminate based on social status. Banning's only reaction was a short nod, and briefly meeting her gaze before looking away again, doing the same with Elst.
Let the fun begin...

Rhian hugged Vin again, a soft smile on her face - just for him. He needed her more now than he had ever needed her before, and today she was going to be there for him, and worry about herself later.

"Come on, Vin-Vin, let's find somewhere to sit and be comfortable; it will be a little while I'm sure," the flutterby said coaxingly, rubbing his back fondly before stepping away and taking hold of his hand instead.

"I know you can't relax, but you're not alone, and you're just going to have to deal with me being here," she added primly, bug blue eyes staring up at her dear friend and relative. "We won't be seen out here since they're all inside now; no need to keep hiding."

So saying, she looked around for a comfortable place to relax (as much as one could) for a little while. Once she found a likely spot, she tugged on the older Essentic's hand gently and gestured to it, a bench she remembered sitting on with her Mama during their stay here.

"Here, Vin-Vin. Let's sit down there, okay?"

Perhaps the impossible wasn’t so impossible, today.

As Aoi approached the others, he thought through in the back of his mind, what had eventually led to this day. From Vin’s first appearance here, to the gradual encouragement for him to stay, to when Aoi first discovered the tie between the Mimicker and the Duke…tumultuous it all had been, and yes, Aoi had kept it hidden from the man for quite some time, but all for what he’d hoped was the best outcome. He’d felt it just wasn’t quite time to bridge that gap, that the time just hadn’t come for it…Well, today, the time had come.

Leading to today, the ‘coincidences’ had finally piled up high enough to dam off the Duke’s skepticism, and the subject would finally be breached. Aoi had, earlier on in this chapter of events, always sensed a barrier around the man, impermeable to this subject, unwilling to open up and accept help. But Aoi sensed that wall no longer. For the first time in his life, Aoi actually sensed…openness from him, a willingness to cooperate and accept this intrusion. And the question was asked.

How did we find out, you ask? Why, from the source himself.

Aoi took a deep breath, sitting down as he implied Banning could as well, if he wished. “Well…he told us.” He knew the Duke was anxious to finally stop being led around, so there it was, flat out and honest.

He told us.

If there was ever a time where the idea of words echoing within was appropriate, where mental noise could be temorarily deafening, this was such an instance.

The only response from the Duke at that time was nothing but a soft intake of breath, like someone with a more than a little concern taking note of a particularly sizeable syringe in the doctor's office. For a drawn-out moment, Banning sat there, stiff , gaze locked inward where the gears turned and wheeled into overdrive. There was no doubt now, no doubt. Ditch the scepticism, trash the disbelief and the doubt, he was not here to cast them all aside as filthy liars, he would believe them, because if they spoke the truth, they could prove it.

Proof. He needed proof. The one question screaming the loudest was forever 'how'. How was it possible, how could he live, after all this time. And why. Why now, why so long, what took him, what kept him away, if he was here? Rhian claimed he was hurt, he was weakened, why did he stay away from him instead of seeking help, seeking shelter? Was it that hard to trust in his competence, was his security too leaky, did he appear too weak, what, what was the reason?!

As the thought floundered about and the tension rose after that blunt but honest statement, Banning poignantly held his breath, until he realised in a pang of rationality that if he did not blurt out some words now, he would likely choke on himself. Giving himself the time to breathe again, with a short series of weak, quite exasparated gasps he sorted through the mess of questions that lay jumbled about in his mind like a dropped deck of cards, and picked out the one surfacing most readily.

"Where is he."

Banning almost threw it out, like he had just coughed up his heart to give it to the one he desired, now, without delay. The signs were clear enough, the cold sweat, the shallow breaths, eyes wide, brows furrowed in uncertainty.
Pleading, urgent. No holds barred vulnerable. I need to know, now, this instant. Where is my brother, please, I beg you. I need to know before I lose my mind over this, I'm not ready, I will never be ready.

"Please." With tears-in-eyes politeness he asked the floramancer, implored him. Please.

__~

Outside, deceptively closeby, for all the miles and miles of distance that still lingered between them in a metaphorical sense, Rugovin sat on the bench quietly, sharing a soft embrace with Rhian still. Her gentle humming soothed him, did wonders to quieten the turmoil within him, settle his raging heart into stillness once more. Thinking about it for a moment he realised he'd rarely felt this out of touch with himself, with the body he resided in, to submit himself to simply listening to her, waving aside all disoncerting thoughts and caustic emotions like they were but smoke. Thanking the young butterfly in his mind more than once for giving him this shred of peace, petting her with his large hands slowly, he lost track of time for a while, however short.

For all his obliviousness, it hit the Essentic all the more piercingly when without forewarning, something pulled at his heartstrings with undesired, unexpected force. His feathers flared, body and expression going tense, a few distressed clicks uttered like a chatter of teeth at a sudden chill.
Never before had he felt anything quite like this, but it was familiar, achingly familiar. He was being called, needed, he shouldn't be here anymore, not with her, not with anyone.

There was only one place where he was required to be now, only one whose beckoning could reach him now, a single signal to be followed. Th moment he recognised that sharp pain deep within his core however, Vin flattened his feathers again, clenched his teeth and growled softly.
No.
NO.

That deception he wouldn't stand for. He wouldn't be lured out like this. He wasn't THAT desperate, Essentic or not he would not come running like a lonely, neglected pup at the first hint of a call his 'master' gave. Let HIM come, if he truly wanted this reunion. Some kind of a big brother he would be if he gave into this childish urge to respond to that one measly half-hearted inept invitation, out of sheer neediness. He was above that, always had been.

Banning hadn't quite known what he'd been expecting when he asked. Perhaps a vague avoidant response, something metaphorical, unwillingness to reply or ignorance over his brother's exact whereabouts? The man was so used to intrigue and being lead around into mysterious protocols, to avoid even the slightest sense of clarity in the ominous figures he sometimes dealt with, that he hadn't exactly counted on this kind of frightening simplicity.

Right now, right here, was that truly what he wanted? Mere minutes ago he had denied himself hope, now he was being made to face a choice-that-was-none with such an enormous lack of information that his processor was visibly failing him. At every other turn his logic met gaping holes of questions to be answered, but there was no time to ask them first. A more than emotional pressure urged him forward, like a train departing now, and not in five minutes, to take him away from the safe station of rationality and overview to a destination he feared only because of his unpreparedness.
But he was going there, with or without answers.


Not far from the couch, miss Longway had been watching the two of them exchange their sparse words. She wasn't sure why she found this rapid succession of tense pauses and to the point sentences so disconcerting, though in the back of her mind she could tell this was going much too fast. This was nothing like how she knew her boss, who rather talked people into their grave, or, at least, let them talk themselves to death, before moving onto the next subject. With an uncomfortable expression, her ears lowered to her dyed hair, her tail curled around her leg to stop it twitching around madly, she quietly pressed herself into Elst, her tall and solid support, hoping at least he would stand sturdy, immune to this awkward feeling of wrongness.

Hm, wrongness wasn't quite it, though. Not the situation was wrong, but the fact that this was happening now, only now. Never had her employer given any sign of how deep this ran into his heart, that this matter was even a part of his reality. She wasn't all that surpised to find she felt quite remorseful suddenly, for having allowed this to drag on for longer than necessary, and for not having taken things into her own hands. How naive HAD she been, honestly believing that a man could go as far as Banning had simple because he was 'some sort of bored nobleman'. By the time she's started to believe he was just a little bit mad she hadn't felt it was that strange, it was just how she'd always known the Duke. Live and let live, can't do anyone any harm, right?
No, the man was more than just her boss, and she'd let him down, for almost a whole year long. They'd all kept their distance from him simply because of who he was, who they believed he was, hiding behind the distance he created and using his reluctance to connect as an excuse to not reach out to him either. Only school kids do that, adults are supposed to know what they want, what they need.

Now, before her eyes, the man who paid her bills was slowly, and ever faster, going to pieces. Her employer, her slavedriver, but beside all that, her friend. It wasn't like him to rush things. When asked to cross a river he would take his time to survey how to tackle the problem, but in this case he was flinging himself into an ice cold nordic stream, fully clothed, without as much as bothering to check how far the other bank is. Be careful, sir, don't drown, that'd be horrible.
Holding back a soft whimper, Timka snuggled ever deeper into Elst, waiting for Banning's next action.

This time, the silence didn't last as long as the ones before. His responses were coming quicker as his inhibitions were being worn down at a rapid pace.
You can lead me to him? You can really do that? Then bring it.

For just a second, the usual predatorial sharpness returned to Banning's eyes when he gave a sharp nod, lips pressed together thinly, but as soon as he had made his answer clear, his gaze wavered again, being dragged back into fretful doubts and nervosity. No, he wasn't ready for this, he never would be. What strange warped dream had he woken up into this morning? Nothing fit anymore, this was all wrong, it made no sense, and it had to. But not right now. He'd never forgive himself if he walked away from this today.

When Aoi rose and made for the exit -thank god, at least that didn't mean he'd somehow failed to notice someone else in the room-, he followed, jutting up on his feet tensely and striding after him. The only reason why his gait wasn't wobbly was the way his tension compensated for jelly-knees, but his hands sure were shaking, his breathing unsteady and hastened.

Both Timka and Misha trailed after him with their eyes, but only the bunny got himself to move, closing the line much like he and Aoi were prison guards accompanying a particularly sorry case to death row. He glanced back at his mistress and Elst briefly, communicating that he got this, before leaving the two of them to themselves.

__~

Outside, things were going quite differently. Considering Banning had come here with his brick wall up and was now ready to face his demons, in a matter of moments his elder brother had somehow managed to turn a wary acceptance into a fortress of old grudges shooting out of the ground, as if a red button had been pushed. It was unlikely that he could rationally control this, as Vin had never been able to let reason win over his feelings, not these ones, not in forty years.

He knew it was time, it was overtime, the game should've ended long ago, but the two key players had refused to touch the ball left lonely on the field. As often as they had enjoyed a good ballgame as children, such memories now hung inbetween them, and neither of them had been able to bear the pain of looking back at the pictures. Had they done so, they might have realised that beyond the wall, the other was looking right back, waiting.

He needs to.

Yeah, NOW you need to. NOW and not ever before, NOW you need to now that you're being lead by the hand and pushed into initiative.

The old parrot didn't even know why this was kindling his anger, he couldn't reason through what was putting fuel on his fury, igniting his rage against fate, but it did, and it hurt, and it would surely make him do things he didn't want to do. As much as his temper flared, now his fear surged, his helpless despair filled him up, drove him into action before he let things come too far.

First of all, he pushed Rhian away. In the conflict of not wanting to harm her and intending to gently nudge her aside, and part of him wanting nothing less than to throw her off him like a rabid bull, he gave her a somewhat rough shove, standing up and stepping away, taking his distance from her. His crest was raised high, his every muscle fighting against its antagonist to hold his stance, and yet, in his pale eyes there was nothing but regret when he looked at her.

"You should... you should go now."

His tone was soft, hushed, his voice almost trembling to mirror the way his body was shaking slightly. It's alright Rhian, thank you for your help, for your support. But if you stay near me now, someone is going to get hurt. Don't make me do that, it's the last I thing I want to happen.

"He's coming, now. Get out."

He simply didn't know how else to communicate this, he had no room in his head for words now, not with the flames licking at his self-control, and this suffocating cloud of darkness creeping up to him from behind shrouding what he loathed to see behind a safe veil of grudges.
He would turn around now, and face it. Alone.