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 Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:14 pm
It was raining. God friggin' damnit, it hadn't been raining when she'd left the Nest after calling in the reinforcement of Winter's assistance in looking after the kids! Raven hated the rain. Actually, that wasn't the best word for it. She absolutely detested, loathed, and felt enormous amounts of animosity towards the mere semblance of the idea of getting wet against her will. And yet, here she was, getting wet, knocking at the door to the store.
God friggin' damnit.
"Jan! Jan, open the door! I'm getting wet!" Raven snarled, glaring at the unopening door. She was wet and unhappy about it. If she'd only thought to bring her key with her... she had one still, didn't she? Damnit, why hadn't she thought about that? "JAN!"
Where was that girl?!
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:27 pm
True to form, Jan was up to something she probably shouldn't be up to unless she thoroughly enjoyed the idea of being lectured. Which she didn't. And hell, who was going to lecture her in her own home? No one! That was bloody well right.
So she could spend all day just sitting here, staring at the ro--relic, alternately tapping or pushing it with her pencil until--oh. Okay. That shouting? Outside? Through the din of the pouring rain? Sounded almost like someone was shouting for her. But she hadn't opened the shop today, hadn't given anyone who purchased from her shop her address (though given that she lived directly above it, she really had no right to be surprised if disgruntled customers managed to find her), and was fairly certain nothing other than severe anger would motivate anyone to brave weather like the current disaster outside.
...Enh. Maybe someone really needed a hand.
Shuffling to the window overlooking the street, Jan pressed her nose against the misting pane and looked cross-eyed down at the slowly becoming thoroughly sopped figure below. Hm. Relatively tiny, black haired, huge, piercing voi--cripes. She hastily threw up the window and stuck her head along with half of her body out over the street and into the torrent. "RAVEN!" she shouted down, "WE'RE NOT OPEN TODAY."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:32 pm
Oh, she was going to get it. "I KNOW THAT!" Raven snapped up at her friend. "I'm WET. Let me IN, Jan!!" she shouted, more than a touch frustrated at this point. Being covered in moisture did not do wonders for Raven's personality, truth be told. "I've got something I need to talk to you about," she muttered more quietly.
It was... embarassing to have come to the conclusion that she needed to enlist Jan's help in deciphering the secrets of this rock. Statue. Relic. Thing. but Jan was more used to these sorts of things, being who she was and all that. So here Raven was, looking for assistance from someone who WOULDN'T OPEN THE DOOR, DAMNIT.
Come to think of it, Jan was probably just goofing off again, ignoring what she was supposed to be doing. This happened when Raven or someone wasn't around to keep tabs on the other girl, wasn't there to keep her on task. So it was probably a good thing Raven had shown up today. "I FORGOT MY KEY!" she called up, in hopes that Jan would actually come downstairs so they could talk. Or something.
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:44 pm
Chewing on her tongue thoughtfully, Jan nodded to herself wetly - yup, forgetting a key would usually cancel out one's ability to get into someplace locked. "In a minute~" the girl sang, letting the window fall shut with a thunk before skittering to the backstairs with a hop-skip-jump sort of jumbled up pace. Her relic remained on the precarious brink of her desk, tottering somewhere between the (relatively few yet still neglected) forms required for her more serious job and the much more numerous files for her other endeavors. She wasn't worried about it falling and breaking or anything. She'd already been through that part.
Once reaching the door to the shop (though first stumbling through it in the dark, not bothering to turn on the light for fear of the impatience wet tended to induce in her friend) Jan fumbled it open and scooted to the side to allow raven entrance as opposed to her customary tendency to block a doorway with arms outstretched in greeting. Something told her that 'hug' was not a word raven was liable to understand at the precise moment. "Hi, what's up?" she asked, flipping her own soaking hair over a shoulder. Her tone was the sort of fluid greeting one friend drops to another, not necessarily a real question, just the beginning of whatever endeavor shall unfold.
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:49 pm
Being out of the continuing wet improved Raven's mood exponentially and then some. "I need your help. I have a... thing. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it." Unlike the wand, there hadn't really been anyone to explain exactly what this little thing was supposed to be, what Raven was supposed to do with it.
"...and I need a towel."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:25 pm
"I don't sell towels," Jan quipped, already heading back up the stairs to indicate the levity of the comment.
Something that Raven couldn't deal with? Could hardly be domestic, in that case. 'Cause hey, this was Raven, you know? Raven I-deal-with-all-of-Jan's-problems-because-she-forgets-how-to-tie-her-
shoelaces-and-then-she-forgets-to-wash-her-socks Raven. Whoo boy. What made her friend think she was best equipped to deal with a problem? Probably the job description. Ew. She hoped it had nothing to do with zombies - no offense to her predecessor of course, but that kind of situation never seemed to end well for those in her office.
"I've also got a toxic waste disposal set up next to the compost heap," she announced, rummaging through the bathroom for something remotely fluffy. She failed to indicate both where she would have a compost heap and why exactly it would exist in the first place, living in a second story flat as she did. Re-emerging from the bathroom, "This... 'thing'," insert hand quotations, "The kinda thing that can be so dealt with?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:59 pm
"It's a rock. Or a statue. Or a relic-thing. I'm not actually sure," Raven grimaced slightly. How to describe it? "Two figures. Winged... creatures. Holding each other." One lighter than the other, both with strange types of wings, unlike those Raven was used to thinking of. "And I don't know what it is, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I was hoping you might have some idea, given that you're a little more on the up-and-up than I am with these kids of things."
A little was an understatement. A little was a big understatement. Jan knew things because of who she was, what she did. Which meant she had to have some clue, right? Because if Jan didn't know, Raven would be utterly and completely lost in this case. Which didn't sit well with the girl. "Oh. And I have a wand too."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:06 pm
Balking for a bare moment - a moment she knew Raven would catch, so she wasn't going to bother to hide - Jan thrust the towel out to the other girl before walking decisively over to the desk and rummaging through the piles of paper that had managed to fall over and conceal her rock since the brief soujourn downstairs. "You tried to sell either of 'em?" she asked off-handedly, "If someone bids a lot on eBay, it's usually a sign in favor of keeping."
Ah, there. Hefting her glorified paperweight out of the mess and belatedly stepping between Raven and the desk (perhaps in a half-hearted attempt to conceal her procrastination), Jan held it out in front of her with a flick and flourish of wrist. "This the kind of rock we're talking about?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:14 pm
The hesitation well noted, Raven rolled her eyes. "The wand I get. It's a long story. No, I haven't tried to sell them on eBay-- that would require actually knowing what it is. But yes, that kind of rock." Somehow, the girl wasn't surprised to find that Jan had one too-- in fact, that supposition that Jan would was what had brought her (in part) to Jan's doorstep so quickly. Otherwise, Raven would've gone zombie-hunting first in an attempt to not let Jan know that she couldn't figure the puzzle out on her own.
Fishing the statue out from her purse, Raven held it up. "What are they, then? Since you obviously know something, Jannie."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:18 pm
Sticking her tongue out at the nickname - it always made her feel so childish! (for a moment pretend that you are Jan looking out at the world rather than the world looking at the rather obvious tendencies of Jan) - she rolled her shoulders and sort of half sat down upon the desk, tossing the rock in the air once, catching it - and barely - with a mind not to do that again, thank you very much. Right. That thing about lack of hand-eye coordination. Had to keep that in mind or she'd break another toe.
"They're called 'Aduthule'," she said offhandedly in the manner of the expert bullshitter. "It means 'twin souls' in some elvish dialect."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:27 pm
"And?" Raven prompted. There had to be more than that. If that was all there was, Raven might as well have not gotten wet. The towel was comforting though, something warm(ish) and dry(ish as of now). Towels were useful. Good to have around.
Twin souls. That made sense, that fit. Because the pair-- both pairs-- did seem to have that connection, that matching, those differences. Twins. Twins who were the same and yet different, two souls-- or perhaps one soul split in two...
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:31 pm
Something in the back of her mind began to kick, scream and tear at her hair at increasingly steady intervals. Ah, right, host manners. Jan flipped a blanket off the back of a nearby chair and tossed it to her slightly less sopping friend. "They're sorta... physical representations of opposing concepts," she went on in, sounding far more confident in the idea than she actually was - it was still toying about like mad in her head. "Not sure if they're part and parcel of the concepts themselves made manifest or whether they've just been assigned certain roles to play by some bigger power-that-be out there."
A pause, c**k of the head, purse of the lips, "Where'd you get it from, anyway? FedEx?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:05 am
BLANKET. Blanket was GOOD. Raven liked the blanket. "Where'd you get yours?" she shrugged. "And... hm. Physical representations..." That was intriguing. Not a fleshed out idea, but... intriguing. "Do go on." Raven wanted-- no, needed to find out more. Because without more information, Raven knew she couldn't succeed in possibly taking care of the little rock. Relic. Thing. Things? Plural. Twins. Right. That's how it went.
Not that it seemed Jan could tell her much more-- the other girl probably was as confused as Raven herself was. After all, it wasn't as if anything were particularly clear about these... things. Things. Relics. Souls. Whatever. >>;
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:41 am
Grrr. Fine. If she was going to be ambiguous, Jan had every right to return the favor - and she being the one who obviously knew more (even if it wasn't all that much more) than she not only had the reins, she had the option of lying through her teeth. But heck, this was Raven. And Jan wasn't malicious. Just a little crotchety.
"Filched it from a museum," not entirely the truth but close enough, with only a little bit of an exaggeration tossed in. She hadn't taken it without consent, after all... "Apparently there's not a whole lot known about the little buggers," she brought the rock back towards her chest, tapping it against her chin rhythmically, "Origin, purpose, nothing besides the polar opposites thing has been so far established. Beats me as to why they're tossing these things out to the public, but from what I hear-tell it's got something to do with... enh, the higher powers again. Random ordinance. Not so much with the human selection as the divine - or whatever you want to call it."
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:45 pm
"Why are they giving these away, that's the real question," Raven muttered. After all, it didn't seem prudent if these things carried some sort of power. Who knew what others could or might do with them? At least Jan was somewhat good at taking care of things-- probably due to the fact that she enjoyed playing with the cute cuddlies. Some people though, were absolutely unfit to carry out the duties of taking care of another being.
And yet, if it really was the work of the higher powers or whatever you wished to call them... then perhaps there was a method to this madness, although Raven became increasingly certain with every passing day that there really was no reason to the strangeness that happened. Ah well. Either way it didn't matter, right? Everything worked out...
"So... what are you supposed to do with them?"
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