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 Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 12:09 pm
Who: Laurel, Vesna
Where: A shopping center in Durem
When: Early afternoon
Weather: Sunny and warm; Enough for a light jacket
---It all started with an innocent round of spring cleaning. Oliver had finally grown tired of seeing the pile of winter coats laying around his room and started sorting them into boxes. The weather would be quickly warming up soon and he wanted to be ready.
"Hm? What's this?" He muttered, peering at a pamphlet that had fallen out of the pocket of a jacket he was folding. Setting the jacket down, he picked it up and gave it a once over, before noticing the number written on the back. It took him a moment to put it all together and was soon running across the hall to Laurel's room.
"Laurel, listen!" He announced, tossing the pamphlet toward him. "I can't believe I lost something so important like this, but you've got to call that number!" Laurel, who'd been fiddling with his phone when Oliver dashed in, hopped up into an upright position and stared at the pamphlet. Not knowing quite how to react, he slowly turned to stare at Oliver.
"O-okay? But... Who does it belong to?" He asked, clutching his phone."Oh, uh-" Oliver stammered, biting his lip in thought. "A Raevan I met before you were born! Her name was, er... Vesna! She gave me that number to give to you when you arrived, I just forgot all about it until now."Laurel's ears swiveled into an upright position. Oh! Another Raevan? That changed everything! He was always up for talking to and getting to know more Raevans! He grinned and eagerly dialed the number.
"I hope she picks up!" He chirped, holding the phone up to his ear. It'd be so cool to meet someone new, espescially if they knew his dad!
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:12 pm
Vesna's phone was always charged and close to hand- she used it for everything, and for a raevan who couldn't be photographed, she had an extremely active Instagram account. It always buzzed with notifications, or texts from Eden, but it rarely rang, so when it did, she was almost startled. "Da- Lorenzo!" she said, thinking of the only person she knew who was old fashioned enough to call, and fumbled for the phone.
"Mysterious number..." she said, pursing her lips as she looked at the screen. "Should I answer it...?"
There was no one in the room to give her an opinion one way or the other, save for Buddy, who simply yawned. Ever since December- well, ever since October, Lorenzo had been busy. Busier. She had taken this in stride- it couldn't be helped, and she didn't need him as much anyway now that she was a whole year old- but she still missed him sometimes. A little. But his schedule didn't seem like it was going to get less busy anytime soon, so she had simply learned to improvise. She liked to think that now she was a whole year old, she was mature and responsible enough to imagine the kind of sensible advice that an adult like Lorenzo would give, even if he wasn't around to give it directly.
She put on her best Lorenzo impression now, telling the empty room, "Vesna, you should let it go to voicemail first, in case it's a vengeful death god or a telemarketer or stranger danger!!" and then immediately picked up the call. "Hi! This is Vesna, what's up?"
Just because she could imagine mature advice in her head, she thought, didn't mean she had to follow it. She wasn't that grown up.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:27 pm
Laurel waited as patiently as he could muster while the phone rang and glanced up to Oliver every now and then. What if she didn't answer? Maybe she was busy? He leaned forward, listening intently, and beamed when Vesna's voice came over the line.
"Hi, Vesna!" He cheered, bobbing in excitement. "My name's Laurel and I-"
He looked to Oliver, briefly caught without words, and took a breath.
"I'm a Raevan! My dad gave me your number, he said he met you?" He continued, pursing his lips. "Like a year ago? I wasn't here yet so I don't remember."
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 1:57 pm
Considering that "like a year ago" was the span of Vesna's whole life so far, not counting the hundreds of years her soul had been drowning people in a marsh (which she didn't, and which Lorenzo, frustratingly, did), she had some difficulty recalling. Furrowing her brow, she tried to think of a guardian she met whose raevan she hadn't. Claire had Lorin... And not Duncan... Or Yves... Or Ian...
Well, there was only one other way to make a Raevan, but she couldn't imagine-- though it had been a while since she'd seen...
"Cesc?" she murmured to herself, naming the only other adult that she could think of that she'd known for almost a year who had her number. That couldn't be it, right? He was old, but he wasn't, like, have a kid old, even if raevans grew up fast. She tried to imagine a tiny pink raevan at the other end of the line. The mind boggled.
"I don't really remember either, actually," she admitted, settling for telling the truth. "Happy birthday, though!!" She knew some bottles took longer than others, thanks to Lorenzo's copious notes on raevans, even if a year seemed like a very long time. "I hope your dad got you something cool. My dad got me flowers when I was born! Er, my guardian did anyway." Thinking back to that time, she remembered how hard it had been adjusting. It took a long time for them to settle everything between themselves, and the trouble it took just to convince Lorenzo to be her dad, let alone be her dad in public-
"Oh!" she said, the memory of the Dad Debacle causing her to recall someone else. "The other dad!! Your dad's got pet rats right? Rat dad??"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:12 pm
Despite Vesna's murmuring, Laurel had heared the name and furrowed his brow. Cesc? He'd never heard of that name before. Maybe they were another Raevan he hadn't met yet? He puckered his lips and debated asking, before the conversation continued.
"Oh, it's okay! Thank you!" He said, grinning. "Um, my dad gave me a sweater when I came home! It was really cold out because it was November. Flowers sound super neat, though! There are some outside my house right now and I really like them!"
Truth be told, he'd only seen daffodils and a few blooming trees so far, but he was told that there were plenty of different flowers to see. The idea of going out for a walk and getting to see them all thrilled him, honestly.
"Rat dad? Yeah, yeah!" He exclaimed, looking to Oliver as he seemed to balk. "We've got two rats, Gibbon and Marbles! Do you know them?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:31 pm
"Oh, so you've been born for a while then! Happy late birthday!" Vesna amended. "This is your first spring though, right?? I remember waiting for it to be spring. I've been through, like, every season now and spring and summer are definitely the best. I'm trying to go out and enjoy it as much as I can, now that I know this for a fact." Although she supposed, fall had been sort of spoiled by all the chaos that had happened with Lorenzo, so there were other factors involved there. The chaos in her first spring had at least been fun chaos- chasing down a fel essence thief was cool.
"I've met... Gibbon??" Vesna explained. "He was, like, pretty dead, but not so dead that Lorenzo couldn't bring him back. It was a could thing he could, because your dad seemed super freaked out about having an undead rat! They're not that scary, though, they're mostly..." She furrowed her brow, trying to remember the phrase that Lorenzo used, "Plagued by unkind misconceptions due to years of stereotyping in the media. Anyway, my cat's undead, and sometimes it's a hassle, but we still like him fine." She patted Buddy absentmindedly and he rolled over on the couch. "Oh! Lorenzo's my guardian, by the way. He's a necromancer, so he brings a lot of peoples' pets back to life and stuff. He didn't bring me back to life with magic or anything, but I guess my soul was one of his clients, so that makes me, like, his client by proxy. He knits, so I have some sweaters from him, too. They're kind of nerdy, but it's the thought that counts, I guess. I tried to get him to knit Buddy a sweater, but he said that Buddy doesn't feel the weather like we do."
She racked her brains, trying to remember more useful facts about her encounter with Rat Dad, such as his real name. "Your dad said your essence was, like... a feather right? That's pretty cool! My essence was just a jar of weird water, so none of my powers are that neat."
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:02 pm
Laurel swayed back and forth happily. He liked knowing that he was talking to a Raevan who had already been through the things he'd yet to experience. Getting advice from someone older and wiser than him was very important to him. He'd have to remember that spring and summer were the best and enjoy them as much as he could.
"Um... Dead?" Laurel asked, his gaze turning to Oliver again. He searched his guardian's rather stunned expression and continued to listen to Vesna. Words such as undead, stereotyping, and necromancer were completely lost on him, but they weren't things he couldn't ask about, right? He shrugged.
"I have a cat, too! His name is Barrel and he likes sleeping on my face at night." He replied, nodding to himself. "Hey, uh... I don't know about a lot of the stuff you're talking about. What's a necromancer? Client? Undead?"
"Laurel," Oliver interrupted, his cheeks flushed red. He felt that he'd have a lot of explaining to do later. He cleared his throat. "Why don't you see if you could meet up with Vesna sometime?"
"Oh, right!" Laurel agreed, nudging the phone closer to his ear. "Hey, Vesna? Do you wanna hang out sometime? I haven't met a lot of Raevans yet, but I'd really like to make more friends!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 5:24 pm
Vesna hesitated. She hadn't ever met someone who didn't at least get the gist of what a necromancer did. She was undead, and she had known it since pretty much the day she was born, and that and everything attached to it were part of her normal life. She knew, logically, that it was weird for other people, and even if nobody had ever told her that, the looks that Lorenzo got when he showed up pretty much anywhere in a dark cape with a mask were enough to clue her in. But...
"Ummmmm... Don't worry about it," she decided. "And sure! If you wanna hang out sometime, that'd be cool! I can ask Lorenzo, or, um, meet you somewhere? I've been doing a lot of stuff around town lately. Oh! I live in Durem. It's pretty cool here! But I have grandparents that live in Barton and stuff, so I can get around if it's not convenient for you. I don't really know where you live?"
She didn't technically have permission to go out on her own, but Lorenzo had never explicitly told her not to, and he wasn't exactly present enough these days to notice. It wasn't like she was doing anything bad or dangerous, anyway. She was just going out and exploring sometimes when she couldn't arrange to meet up with friends or babysit or something. And since she'd started babysitting, she had spending money anyway, so there was no need to involve Lorenzo at all.
She thought Laurel sounded pretty young, and her mind flashed back to the first time she met Aina. "It's getting warmer out, so maybe we could get popsicles or something? I didn't know I could eat them for a few months after I was born, but they're really tasty- they turn your tongue different colors, too!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:09 pm
Laurel fidgeted excitedly. She said yes! This was going great! He looked to Oliver, beamed, and gasped.
"Durem? My cousin goes to school there!" He exclaimed, looking to Oliver in shock. "I've never been there before, but I'd like to see what it's like!"
"Well, we could go there if Vesna's free later today." Oliver said, smiling. "I could bring my work to a cafe like we usually do while you two hang out, how about that?"
"Ooo, yeah! That sounds good!" Laurel agreed, turning his attention back to Vesna. "Would you be free to get popsicles today? My dad said we could come by later!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:42 pm
Vesna grinned. "That sounds great! I usually go to Sugar Stars- it's an ice cream shop in West Plaza, but they have a great selection of popsicles, too. I'll text you the address, and you can text me when you're leaving, okay? See you then!!"
She hung up her phone and sent the address to Laurel, then set the phone aside and looked at Buddy. "Guess it wasn't stranger danger," she said, and, as an afterthought, put on her Lorenzo Impression to say: "But you can't go out until you finish all your homework!!" and bent back down over her Russian textbook.
After her homework was successfully finished, Vesna got her things together and headed out to Sugar Stars. She didn't see any raevans around, so she got a bottled water and waited outside and people-watched. Her conversation with Laurel was still weighing on her mind, and she felt a little anxious knot form in the pit of her stomach. She knew that the first impression people got of her changed how they saw her- probably based on their conversation, Laurel would think she looked really weird. He didn't even know what necromancy was, and if Rat Dad (whose name she still couldn't remember) explained on the way, he might be even more weirded out. What if he was scared of her??
She took a deep breath, shaking her head. She didn't even know what he looked like yet. It was too soon to be worrying about first impressions, right? It would be fine!
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 8:12 pm
Luckily for Vesna, Laurel had completely forgotten all about asking what necromancy was. He was far too focused on the fact that he was meeting someone new. He'd thrown a sweater on the second he'd gotten the text and followed Oliver around the house until he'd gathered everything he needed to do work. However, as they approached the exit before Durem, Laurel realized that he'd completely forgotten about texting her when they were about to leave. He pulled his phone out and sent a quick message.
Quote: HI VESNA!!! Dad says we're close by! Probably five minutes!! See you soon!
In truth, it took them about ten minutes to find a parking space by a local cafe before Oliver let Laurel go out on his own, but once free to go, the Frei, cell phone clutched tightly in hand, scanned the buildings for the Sugar Stars sign. Being alone in a town like this was a lot different than being left by a park, but knowing that he wasn't too far from where Oliver was made it easier. In fact, he kinda felt like he was getting the hang of being on his own. Maybe they needed to do this more often.
He'd been hovering for at least a few minutes when, from the corner of his eye, he saw the familiar shape of a ribbon. Sure enough, that ribbon was connected to a Raevan, and he grinned from ear to ear.
"Hi! Are you Vesna?" He called, hovering toward her. If this was her, his father's description of her was off. He'd said that her hair was black, but her hair was clearly red, just like his! He didn't think it was worth fussing over, though, and kept that to himself.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 8:56 pm
Vesna looked up and waved. "Laurel?" she asked. She was a little taken aback- first she had imagined him as a little pink raevan, and since he seemed young, she had still been sort of imagined him to look like Aina or Lorin- this was an extremely large raevan.
She noticed his little ears right away though and grinned- that was pretty cute, and she resisted the urge to ask to pet them. First impressions!!! she reminded herself. With that in mind, she greeted, "Nice to meet you! Thanks for coming out all this way- I hope that the popsicles'll be worth the trip!"
She craned her neck around, but she couldn't see any guardian with him. Since she had started babysitting, she had become more aware of those kinds of things, even if Laurel seemed like he could definitely handle himself. "Did your dad manage to make it?" she asked. "If not, I can buy you a popsicle! Well, I mean, I can treat anyway, of course." She was the older raevan, so she should treat, right?? That was the Mature and Responsible thing to do.
"Oh!" she realized. "Have you ever eaten anything? What do you eat? When I tried popsicles first, it was super hard for me to choose, since I didn't know what flavors were. It's still kind of hard to explain what they are... And I only know popsicle flavors and tea flavors, really! Like, if you asked me what spaghetti tastes like, I'd be like, you know," she shrugged, "Cherry and banana flavor??"
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:32 pm
Laurel grinned. Yay! He'd found Vesna, and he'd done it all by himself! This was a moment he felt he could be proud of.
"It's nice to meet you too!" He cheered, hovering right up next to her. There was a part of him that really wanted to touch the flowers on top of her head, but he kept his hands glued to his side. Maybe he'd ask permission later, after they had popsicles.
"My dad? He's uh..." He paused and turned quickly to point down the street. "At a cafe down there! He decided to do some very important work while I came here to meet you! I've got my phone in case I need to talk to him."
He produced the phone from his pocket and wiggled it about. It was a very plain silver smartphone in a clear case and he was very happy that he hadn't broken it yet, like he'd done to the old house phone the day after he was born. He placed it back in his pocket shortly thereafter and tapped his chin.
"I think my dad gave me a few dollars?" He said, pursing his lips. He patted his sweater and rummaged through the pocket again, before tugging a ten dollar bill out and showing it to her. "There it is! He said I could use this, but I'm not sure how."
At the question about eating, Laurel's brow furrowed. Did she mean eating like how his dad ate or eating like Raevans did? He decided that the latter was probably the answer.
"I have! I eat the weight from stuff." He replied, before gasping and clapping his hands together. "My dad likes tea! Can I try a popsicle that takes like that?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 8:27 pm
"Okay!" Vesna said. She felt like Laurel's dad was some kind of teacher, although she couldn't fully recall- it was a far cry from Lorenzo's profession, but they were both pretty bookish occupations.
"Weight!" she exclaimed. "So does the stuff you eat float away after? What kind of things do you eat? It sounds like it'd be kind of bothersome sometimes, but it's also kind of like a superpower or something, right?" She lifted up her own phone and said, "I eat reflections-- check it out!" Taking a selfie of them, she turned it to Laurel and showed him the picture of empty scenery that emerged. Even the passersby in the background were gone.
She waved a hand reassuringly as he fretted about buying something. "Don't worry! I can handle ordering for you." As for flavors, she listed off the scant tea-flavored popsicles they did have. "Mmmm, let's see... There's chai, bergamot, and matcha, but I think chai and matcha are a little too flavorful for us to eat. If you want a tea flavor, I'd go with bergamot." Bergamot was a strong taste, and she didn't know if Laurel would like it right away, but it was better than risking him getting sick eating a popsicle that was too thick. "I also like their starfruit flavor! Have you ever seen a starfruit? They're so cute, when you cut them open, they actually do look just like stars!" She'd had the starfruit flavor a few times recently, so she looked again at the menu. "Maybe I'll try something new, though... I'm kind of curious about Strawberry Breeze and Coconut Lime."
Since it was only April, the line was pretty short. "We've gotta wait here until they're ready to take our order," Vesna explained. "Do you definitely want bergamot?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 7:18 pm
"No, the stuff I eat doesn't float away!" Laurel laughed. He found the idea of that happening funny, though. A floating bookcase, floating dumbbells, floating lamps, his house would look ridiculous! "But, like, uh... It gets super light? I think the word my dad used was styrofoam?" He paused, trying to recall if that had been the exact phrase and nodded. "Oh, and I can eat a lot of stuff! I prefer big things, though, like heavy metal things and sometimes rocks."
He watched Vesna curiously as she lifted her phone. He'd never taken a selfie before or been included in one, so he really didn't know what she was up to. However, when she showed him the picture and explained, his mouth split into a grin.
"That. is. SO. COOL!" He exclaimed, looking behind them and back to the phone. "There's no one there, it's like a magic trick! You made us disappear!"
Chai, bergamot, matcha? Laurel's brow arched. He'd never heard of those things before. His dad usually just opened a drawer, pulled out a tiny sack on a sting, and dropped it into a cup. There was no mentioning of different kinds or flavors, and admittedly, that made him a little nervous to try them. He pursed his lips.
"Uh... Can I try starfruit instead?" He asked, tapping his fingers together anxiously. Since Vesna had said she liked the starfruit flavor, it had to be safe to try that, right? It was always better to be safe that sorry!
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