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 Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:36 pm
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The Flood
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What was first perceived as a weather based dream soon transformed into a full scale waking nightmare. Disturbed awake by the rub on his shoulders, Isikoro looked about his room with a bleary gaze. Aphismet had just woken him, he could remember that much, and the man had scuttled out before much else could be said. He said something that was just beyond his range of hearing, and Isi was left to blink and wonder why it was so frigid in his room. He looked about and was surprised.
Everything was wet. Droplets pattered against the articles of his room, falling in torrents from his ceiling. Little puddles pooled in the dips of the hardwood floor and everything, his furniture, his walls, his possessions, glistened with the faint grey morning glow. A gust of wind threw itself against his window, snapping him into consciousness more quickly than he would've liked. Something was terribly wrong.
And at first, he placed the weight of the blame entirely on Eiry.
"EirdirSCEOL!" he screamed, his voice raising into a shot as he tried to clambor out of his damp bed, "Eirdirsceol! What have you done?!"
Peeling himself out of his wet blankets, Isi stood in wet socks on a soaking floor, and it was with a terrible foreboding feeling that he realized the responsibility for this terrible nightmare wasn't at all the fault of his ward. It was something else, and, looking outside his weather beaten window, he finally understood just what was happening.
"A storm..." he breathed, tottering to the window to look on in horror at the water swollen landscape about his property. The marshlands in which they lived were entirely bloated and overflowing with the water spilled forth from the relentless storm. It hadn't stopped storming since the beach festival held by the Lab, not a moment relented the torrents of rain and shrieks of wind. Before he went to sleep, Isikoro remembered hoping, praying, that the storm would let up in the dead of the night. But it didn't, which led Isi to believe that this storm wasn't natural. Then, like a cold splash of water in his face, Isi understood.
For some time, he stood, staring at the flood rising around his home, and the tears welled up in his stormy eyes, "Oh...Zave, no..." he blinked and felt the rise of heat in his cheeks, "Oh no, god, no..."
From elsewhere in his house, his terrible sense of horror was echoed in the form of a hideous banshee shriek. Isikoro spun on his heel, knowing full well what kind of hurt could instill that kind of scream, and he started for the door, stumbling as his weak legs threatened to give out from beneath him.
"Eiry? Eiry!" Isi shouted, pulling open his door to a swell of water that swept into his room, "s**t, s**t, s**t, s**t!" Still in his damp pajamas, he fumbled and lumbered to the wet stairwell that led up to the attic, Eiry's bedroom, while Aphismet, in a daze, stumbled past and raced downstairs. Soon following was a terrible cry from the chef, and Isikoro felt his gut sag. He needed to get to his ward first. Slipping on the wet floorboards, Isi wrenched his weakening body up the ascent and pushed past the door that led to a most terrible sight.
Wilted underneath an indoor rain, hugging several water logged ledgers to his chest, was Eiry, his face twisted into a ghoulish mask of anguish. His fine collection of books, gifts he had received from friends and family, his prized collection that he had taken the years of his short life to build up into a comforting barricade of literary fodder, were victims to the terrible leaks that fell like rain in Eiry's abode. Of the entire house, Eiry's room was the weakest, the most worn, directly underneath the old and peeling rooftop with little to protect him and his belongings from the full force of an intruding storm. Slow were the movements that brought his red misty gaze to lock with Isi's, and they were full of unfathomable pain.
"...n," he struggled to make any sound that wasn't a scream of horror, but words, which were usually so fluent to his speech, failed him. He choked and garbled and hiccuped, and no amount of gagging would throw up a phrase loud enough to express the sorrow that was flooding his system. Instead, he stared at Isi, his wings flickering and coughing to stay alive, hissing with each drop of water that seared their ghostly fire, and he extended hsi arms a bit, to show the terrible drowned state of his most precious books.
Isikoro lurched forward, his heart, although breaking for his ward, gave him strength enough to stomp across the attic landing to his ward. "Oh, s**t, I know, Eiry, I know, it's ******** terrible and there's nothing we can do right now, it's still raining...s**t...We...we have to find Aphi...Aphi will know what to do." But when he tried to move and pull his ward along after him, Eiry refused to move, slumping forward like a wilting sapling sprout, sickened and hungry. Isi, already swimming in a literal and metaphorical flood of feelings, ironed his face, his panic and slowly dawning realization changing into a fit of rage. "Eiry, come on! Come on, now is not the time to be so ******** melodramatic, they're just books! What's important here is you, you and me, and Aphi and Riv, we need to get to them, got it? Just pick up what books you really can't bear to leave behind and we'll do our best to save those ones okay, but you can only carry what you can hold."
With every bit and piece of his body feeling as heavy as an entire ocean, Eiry struggled to follow Isi's fiery directions. He looked back at his collection of books, their papers dripping and wet from where they laid about like slain soldiers on the battlefield of the attic, and he looked down again to those he had in his arm. His complete collection of tales from Edgar Allen Poe, and his set of Shakespearean plays and poems, along with the set of gold leafed books from his brother. With his eyes leaking floods of their own, Eiry finally willed his floating body up from the ground with a sputtering of his wings that made him wobble and drip when he tried to move forward. Isi was already moving before him, having trouble walking himself with knees that threatened to give out from beneath him at any moment.
Behind him, the ghost raevan had trouble prying himself from his destroyed shelves of treasuries. He tried not to look back, but despite his efforts, he found his gaze drifting back to another book that he might be able to carry or save. But Isi pressed him on, beckoning him to the stairwell with a face that was clearly at the breaking point between forced composure and absolute anguish. Eiry drifted slowly from his attic, a storm-turned eddie of soggy books and precious memories, towards his distraught and forlorn family.
And when they left their old plantation home, Isi upon Aphismet's back and Eiry with his arms cradled with books, they all knew that they were leaving something irreplaceable behind. What they didn't know, was that it would be their entire homestead.
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:46 pm
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Breaking the Bad News
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Aphismet hung up the phone and sighed deeply, covering his eyes with a hand. He knew this wasn't going to be good news to Isi, although really it could have been much worse... At least they wouldn't be left destitute, since the insurance settlement would be enough to afford them a home again. But breaking the news... hm. With another sigh, the chef turned to find his brother sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. A few short steps brought Aphi to the closest bed and he sat on the edge of it. Rivener was out to work, Eiry was elsewhere... It was just them. "Um, Isi. How are you holding up?"
With a glare that could've withered plantlife, Isi glanced to Aphi. They boy had been as tense as he possibly could since the destruction to his ex-plantation home, and he had reached a new level of grumpiness. Sleep was something Isi only achieved when he exhausted himself to the point that he could do anything but and proof of his stress hung underneath his eyes in deep bags. He wasn't coping well, and even just trying to get him to talk was a task, so when Aphi approached, it was the first time in a while that someone had actually decided to wrestle him for answers. He didn't look too pleased with being accosted. Giving a slight twinge of his nose, making an effectively threatening snarl, Isi acknowledged his brother's presence with a voice that could've cut through ice. "Fine," he said, a default reply.
Aphismet sighed and just looked down to the ground between them, frowning lightly. He was glad Isi didn't force an adult face with him, the boy could be himself around his brother and that's how Aphismet wanted it... But he also wished it wouldn't always be so hard to deal with the young man. "Listen, I just got off the phone with the insurance people." There'd be no point beating around the bush. Nothing Aphi said would soften this blow. "...They tell me the damage to the house is... ah, very extensive. The foundation's cracked in multiple places. Water seeped through the walls on the main floor and damaged the structural integrity. There was actually a short circuit while we were here, and part of the living room got burned, though nothing too big... Anyway, the point is they're writing it off as a Total Loss, recommending demolition, and offering us the full coverage amount so we can buy a NEW house."
The information could've had the same effect as a cannon blast against Isi, although its effects weren't immediately visible to the eye. It was a slow and gradual kind of explosion, passing in slow motion it seemed, until finally Isi jerked up straight in his seat, looking as if he were about to explode in place. For a boy who had been orphaned before, a home, nonetheless his first and only home of rememberance, was more or less, his metaphorical church, a castle or monument. Simply said, it was more than just a house. To hear that it was essentially destroyed, scheduled to be demolished, was like hearing that his world was going to be blown up beneath his feet. A sinkhole seemed to open up in Isi's stomach, and his already tense body began to shake with anguish. "You're telling me that our home....MY home...Is going to be pushed over like it's a house made out of cards? Nothing more than that?! It's just going to be blown away?! That's STUPID!" Yanking himself up from the seat, Isi stormed away from the bearer of ill news. There wasn't much room for him to storm around in, their motel room was small at best. He wobbled to the window, grabbed the cheap plastic blinds and threw them against the glass, making a loud racket as he passed by and came to stand further away along the wall. He spun around on his heels then, holding himself steady against the wall as he looked at Aphi with a sense of betrayal, "That's ******** up!"
Aphismet could only watch helplessly, clearly wearing his heart on his sleeve as the younger Delaran raged around the room. Aphi's brows were tacked up in the center, his lips pressed together to enforce his silence while Isikoro took his just reaction, causing as much racket as the boy could. When Isi spun around to face him though, after ranting about how HIS house, not just THEIR house but HIS, was going to pulled down, Aphi tried to remain strong, brows dropping back into a severe line. He knew it wasn't his fault, his failing that the house had flooded... But Aphi still felt like this was his failure. As though he could have done things differently and saved them from this. "...I know, Isi, it is stupid and ******** up. But to fix the house we'd have to rebuild it completely. It'd be too expensive, we can't afford that. ...I'm really sorry, there's nothing I can do."
For those few painful moments while he still digested the information, Isi was, utterly and completely placing all the blame on Aphismet's shoulders. He looked at him as if Aphi himself had planned the foul weather, had somehow instigated the oldness of the house and raised the waters to flood their bottom floor. Isi was red, his face contorted into an ugly mask of rage. "You don't get it, do you? You don't understand what that house is to me! That's my house, that's where I belong! That's where I was brought and that's where I want to stay! It's the first thing that was actually MINE, something that's a part of me, and you're just talking on about it like it's not important, like it didn't mean anything, like it can be replaced! WELL, IT CAN'T. You can't replace a place! You can't replace that house and everything in it, and I mean EVERYTHING, you can't replace the sounds, the smells, the way the light highlights the walls, the memories! You can't replace that! You just CAN'T. And it's going to be gone? All of it? Just gone, like that? And you don't care! You just...They just...!" Frustration became the clog in Isi's throat. He choked for a few moments, unable to get out any more words. He slapped a palm to his forehead and gave a passionate yell through his teeth, as if the noise would dislodge the lump in his throat. But it didn't. Instead, Isi slumped against the wall, and let his weak legs buckle out from underneath him, the friction of his back against the wall guiding him into a crumpled knot.
Aphismet turned his gaze down and kept it there, accepting all of his brother's bile without saying a word. He knew Isi didn't mean all of it to sound as harsh as it was, he knew Isi didn't hate him as deeply as it sounded. The yell was the last of it, followed by Isikoro falling to the floor. Aphi remained seated for a while, calming himself down... He needed to be the rock, and that couldn't happen if Isi saw how upset and near-tears Aphi himself was. The chef swallowed thickly and finally moved, slowly inching over to kneel beside his brother, unsure if his presence would even be welcomed at this point. One soft hand placed itself on top of the dual-colored hair, patting consolingly. "I do care. Of course I do. That was my home too, my first real home. You think I want any of this to happen? Please believe if there was anything I could do to stop this, I would do it. Tell me, Isi, what you want me to do. What CAN I do."
Underneath Aphi's hand, the boy quivered, angrily staring out from behind messy bangs at the man who dared touch him. For some time, he stared at his with nothing but ire in his eyes, but slowly, over time, Isi was melted by the somber look in his brother's eyes. That's right...Isi remembered that this man, although not related by blood, was his brother. There had never been a time when Aphi rose a hand against him, shouted at him, or threatened him. He was always patient, understanding and kind, always looking out for him even when Isi didn't realize it. This was another one of those times, and here he was, raising a hand against him, shouting, and threatening the man who agreed to be his brother. With his eyes softening while his face remained hot and red, Isi stared at his brother and gave a long wet sniff. The next movement he made was a series of awkward shuffles that landed him underneath the arm that patted his head, and, still bearing his teeth like an animal, Isi pushed his head against Aphi's shoulder. "This is stupid, this is all stupid, and I hate it. I don't know what to do. That's why I hate it. I don't know what to do about our home."
Aphismet couldn't deny the relief he felt at feeling his little brother cuddle up like that. Thank goodness he doesn't really hate me now, the chef thought. He continued petting Isi's head, but wrapped his other arm around the boy's shoulders, hugging him tightly. "...It's normal to hate it. It's okay to feel powerless about it. I don't know what we can do either..." He knew he'd have to broach the subject of looking for a NEW home, but perhaps he could leave his poor sibling a few moments to recover from this shock. Aphi would just rock lightly and call "Shhh, shhh" until Isi's sniffles would calm down.
Sinking into a secure grip in Aphismet's arms only reminded Isi of their staggering loss. For a couple moments he sat there, quiet and small, face scrunched up into complicated knots and folds. His brother's words did little as he tryed to reign his tired self back into control and before much time had passed, the anger welled up again. Clenching his fists tight, he gave another loud scream in his closed mouth. "I don't want this to happen! I just want to go back and everything be normal again. This is STUPID, why can't the house just...There's nothing we can do to save it? Nothing at all? Damn! That's so stupid! THIS is stupid!" Isi gestured at the cramped motel room with his free arm before he returned to wringing his grip on his shirt, threatening to rip the fabric. He moved away from Aphi to stare at him with tired eyes, still burning, "Aphi...! What about Eiry?"
Aphismet frowned, though thankfully Isi wouldn't see from where he was currently hiding. The boy only looked up at the end, and Aphismet blinked in confusion... "Eiry? What about him?" The chef had been at work most of the time, or on the phone with insurance and contractors, or trying to deal with his own problematic Raevan... He hadn't known what problem Eiry was having exactly.
"He's panicking! Do you know what he's doing right now? He's trying to hide from Fletcher. Fletcher's followed him, trying to get him to do something about the house, and there are so many other ghosts here. They've all been murdered or they died choking here in the hotel. They're bothering him too, and Eiry's already devastated about his books. He's a mess and I can't find any dead things around here for him to eat! There's nothing here in the city, because everything is kept so god damn nice and watered." Isi bunched up the fabric of his shirt into a firm grip. "At the marsh it wasn't so hard...I could find dead plants for him anywhere. And now we're here in this god damned place!"
Aphismet's grip tightened on Isi without his express consent. The chef's jaw clenched with stress and he closed his eyes, trying to calm down and keep a level head. Isi wasn't trying to make him feel worse, he was only concerned, but-... there was only so much pressure Aphismet could take, and he could feel himself quickly approaching the edge. He forced his voice to be calm when he spoke. "Isi, I don't know what we can do. We CAN'T do anything about the house. I don't know how to help Eiry with Fletcher. What we CAN do is get out of the hotel... The insurance money from the coverage on the house is enough for us to buy something smaller than we're use to, so we can try and hurry to find something. In the meantime we might be able to move into the Lab instead, Eiry is comfortable enough there, isn't he? So we can go to the Lab and bunk there until we find a new house. As for plants... We could drive back to the swamps if Eiry needs food. Or he could do like Rivener and eat human things, until their food source becomes regular again. Alright? I'm sorry, Isi, that's the best I can think of for any of this."
Caught tight in the firm grip of Aphi's arms, Isi, for the first time, didn't complain at being held so close. He bit his teeth hard together, waiting until his jaw ached to speak again. He didn't want to say what he was about to, but there was nothing else to be said. All of his displeasure had already exploded out of him, he had already complained about everything that was pinned against him. There was nothing else to say except, "....Fine. Just...If I can't have the house....Then I want to have Eiry safe. Let's get him away from this place, it's terrible...Whatever just...Do what we have to do, let's do that. I just...I don't even care anymore. I'm just so angry, I don't even care."
Aphi's lips tightened into disapproval, but he couldn't very well ask Isi to suddenly be alright with all this. They'd pack up and go to the Lab, and like Isi said they would do what they needed to do. Find food for their Raevans, find a new house to live in... Aphismet could only hope that whatever cloud of misfortune had befallen them would lift soon. If Isi never made peace with having to move, it was just something Aphismet would have to learn to deal with. "Alright then. Let's pack." He slowly got up, pulling his brother along to the closest bed so they could start on their task. Maybe keeping Isikoro occupied would dull his pain for a moment. That was certainly how Aphi would be keeping his own sanity intact. He began pulling their suitcases, readying for the move. They'd check out as soon as possible.
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:47 pm
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Penitentiary
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Entering in the hotel was probably the equivalent of entering a penitentiary for Eirdirsceol Etul Delaran. For a while he stood outside, arms heavy with the books that he refused to put into makeshift luggage or into the arms of his family members who offered to help him, staring up with squinted eyes at the cheap blinking hotel sign. Aphi promised that they wouldn't be staying for long in the place. He said it with a hopeful smile, something that Eiry didn't entirely trust. What he did hold onto, though, was his gut feelings, and his gut feelings were not good with this place. They were not good at all.
He could already hear the distant tortured screams inside, the kind of haunting remnants of lives that ended too suddenly to be easily washed away, the kind of screams that no one else could hear.
It was only because Isi got so angry with Eiry that he turned red in the face that Eiry finally willed himself inside the building, and while he was guided through the halls, he did his best not to accidentally stray into any walls, or even take a gander around the place. There were ghosts that he could see, pressing into existence like the light's reflections off a hand or a face might press through plastic wrap, that meandered around the building's premises, otherwise not bothered by the people who constantly filtered in and out through the labyrinthine passageways and rooms. It still bothered Eiry, though, because he knew that he would soon attract attention, like he did at the old marshlands. It was an uncanny certainty that they would notice his ability, be drawn to the small part of Eirdirsceol that was tainted with the same ethereal essence as them. It was only a matter of time until they would begin to seek him out.
Not to mention the little boy who followed him from the old plantation home. Fletcher, the boy whose ghost would usually appear in times of trouble to vaguely warn the Delaran family, had followed Eiry from the flooded home, seemingly stuck on trying to get Eiry to turn back. There was little else for the minty raevan to do but shake his head at the poor ghost, because, as things often were, they were out of Eiry's control. There was nothing that he could do to help Fletcher and the other ghosts of the plantation home, save let them know what was going to happen. But warning them of the destruction that would eventually come to their damaged homestead, would be the same as forewarning them of an inevitable death. If their place of residence was destroyed, they would have no place to haunt, and if their grief was unfulfilled, as ghostly griefs predominantly are, they would be lost to a place far terrible than the mirrored plane of the living. They would be trapped in someplace far darker, far lonelier, and far quieter. Eiry couldn't bring himself to tell them that. So, he tried his best to ignore Fletcher, who, over prolonged periods of ignorance, began to grow more and more desperate and bothered in his visitations. Instead, he tried to watch over his family.
While the separate family members took to their separate corners of their cheap hotel room, to wallow in their sudden sorrow, reeling from the blunt slap in the face that was the devastating effect of weather, Eiry chose to float immediately outside the hotel window and out into the parking lot, dreaming of the somewhat safety that would lie in the measured out parking spaces. Behind him, in the very room they occupied, a dead woman lay on the bed just behind where Isi sat with his head in his hands, an empty medicine bottle near her hip.
Even in the parking lot, though, where Eiry floated for some time in the dwindling drizzle and haze, his wings tucked about his head, and his arms wrapped about his shoulders, he could find no escape. There were bodies littered in the streets, raising up onto their elbows and staring at Eiry, noticing him as he noticed them. They were quiet though, which was a blessing compared to those in the hotel, who had met untimely demises in disgusting circumstances. They were different. Had Eiry not been in a so distressed state of mind, he might have approached the ghostly remnants, chatted with them and sought their stories, like he had done with the ghosts that milled about the old Delaran place, but those ghosts there were more or less kind. Odd in their ways, and a bit disturbing with their sad ends, but the ghosts of the plantation were an approachable lot. Those here at the hotel were of a different breed. They were confused, and the confusion made them violent if they weren't already a energy solely devoted to malice. They sought energy from Eiry that he couldn't give, energy that was already drained from the time spent grieving the loss of material items and the instability of the family around him, nonetheless the perpetual bothering of Fletcher.
It got to a point where Eiry could no longer float about in aimless daydream, and the books that he so often buried himself within when he had no desire to deal with the world, offered no solace to the ghosts that pressed through and pestered him, asking him questions that he could not answer. Fletcher would be everywhere he looked, seemingly getting closer every time that Eiry blinked or looked away.
"Why? Why me? Why?" they would ask, a constant cacophony of sound that rattled Eiry to a desperate state of madness, so that he would mull about and mutter, as if he were trapped in a crazy house. What bothered him, though, was that he was asking the same things as they, but softly and under his breath, a dull repetition in the hollow of his head, "Why? Why me? Why us? Why? Why?" He would think it whenever he remembered the damage done to their home and the faces of his grief-stricken family members. He felt more like a ghost in this place than a raevan.
There was no one else to turn to, either. He was driving himself mad with his loneliness, looking longingly towards Isikoro, who was livid and sensitive to anything that might disturb him from his quiet anguish at the sudden displacement. He thought instead maybe to turn to Rivener, but he was quite firmly locked in a shell of despair concerning much more than the loss of their house. Aphismet, the dear fellow, was already spreading himself far too thin for Eiry to be begging him for anything, and he couldn't imagine anything but strain and stress if he were to ask for anything from the man. Eiry had only one familiar face left to turn and that was the face of Fletcher, whose very visage did nothing to help Eiry's deteriorating case.
In fact, it drove him mad, and he did nothing else at the hotel, he didn't eat, he didn't sleep, and he hardly talked. All he did was float about like a bubble in a puddle of mud, just waiting for someone to make him explode.
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:53 pm
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:53 pm
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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:54 pm
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Settling
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For the first time in all of Isi's seemingly long years, he had only moved twice. He had moved out of his home, left alone to the orphanage once his parents realized that they couldn't keep up with his needs when his disability began to show in earnest. The second was when Isi was adopted by Old Maasi, a elderly woman who, within a month of his being there, lost all semblence of sanity. This would be the third.
Standing in the front foyer of the house, Isi scrunched his nose at the house's interior. He couldn't stop himself from comparing this place to his plantation home, every difference, every misplaced doorway, every spin on the rooms and every weird color or change in the wood. It was bothering, the newness of it all, and it prevented him from stepping forward. Without waiting for him to move, Eiry passed through him, leaving a distinct chill. His raevan was holding a cardboard box of books and things, and he rushed through the home, searching for the sanctuary that he would call his room. Ever since the hotel, he had been acting oddly, fearful and possessive, quiet and subdued, though it looked like it would all come to pass soon. The relocation of the Delaran family was already improving his mood, and Isi would never know what kind of horrors that Eiry had seen in the hotel, figments of fog left behind by the miserable souls locked in the guest rooms. Eiry, with a beat of his wings and a wiggle, moved up and passed through the ceiling up to the second floor.
Sanctuary.
Eiry had not slept the entire time that they had spent at the hotel, and he knew that he sorely needed it, but now that he was in a place of safety, he couldn't bring his weary eyelids to close. His red eyes were wide and looking about, curious about the new structure and surroundings that would make his home. This was the first time that he would move and he didn't know what first to do. He knew he had to unpack, explore, check the corners for left over spirits, and memorize what room was what, but he didn't know what order to do them in.
Aphi was downstairs, busying himself with the kitchen and the meal that would be forthcoming, Rivener had retreated to his room, and Isi was stuck in the doorway, refusing to step into the home. Eiry, on the other hand, had discovered which room had nothing but his things, a room on the second landing which was a small comfortable size and he retreated inside. Setting his box of books on the floor, he lifted up and peered at the place that was destined to be his room. It had a small window, a twin sized bed underneath it and pressed tight to the wall, while, on either side, were empty bookshelves that Aphi knew Eiry couldn't live without. There wasn't much else furniture, besides a desk, and a few floor lamps to light up the corners of the room, but that was good. It meant more space for Eiry to build contraptions and sprawl out on the floor, a book over his head.
Eiry meant to put down the box and begin organizing his books by author, color, and publishing date, but the moment he saw the bed, he couldn't push the thought of testing it out from his head. Slowly, with fiery wings flickering, he edged forward and met the bed. He patted down the mattress, which still didn't have any blankets, but the softness of just the mattress was enough to fill his body with heaviness. Eiry crawled forward onto the bed, lying his body down upon it, and within moments, his limbs lost function, and he fell asleep with his face pressed against the mattress, overwhelmed with sleepy relief.
Isi still stood in the foyer, unable to make himself move forward.
Aphi was practically yearning for the new home, desperate for the peace of mind that it would bring. He had been pushed to the limits in terms of stress and there was nothing but questions and instability for him then, trouble and worry that Isi couldn't understand with his young standpoint. There were details he didn't know about, things he didn't bother to think of, the adult to-do list that escaped him. He only knew what he observed and what he found was that as soon as they got to the new home, worry began to evaporate from the man as quickly as dewdrops in the morning sun. Though, there was still the bother of Rivener. The raevan was just as sullen as ever, gloomy and in despair, a mood that rubbed off on Eiry whenever the younger Sigel attempted to accost his brother for comfort or company. His mind was elsewhere, bothered by something else more predominate than the loss of the house and their possessions. Isi was sure that everyone else's reactions to the situation didn't do anything to help. Rivener was already in the house, fled up to his room while Aphi skittered about upstairs, organizing everything that he could.
Isi decided that he hated moving.
But his emotions had no impact on what was going on. What's done was done, the movers that Aphi had hired had already constructed cardboard box pyramids in all the appropriate rooms, and he had little input on what came to pass. At least, he thought offhandedly, the family would be okay. Eiry was alright and getting better now that they were away from the hotel. Aphi was slowly but surely beginning to relax. Rivener was being his usual selfish and sullen self, but Isi knew that he, too, would come to adjust. Perhaps, later, when the sun set and there was nothing else but the strange new house breathing over them, they could attempt to watch a movie. Isi knew where his few saved DVDs of horror movies were, packed in his backpack of things which was the only thing he was able to really carry since his arms were bound to the crutches on his arms. Perhaps Rivener would come down and watch it with him. Perhaps Aphi would make some kind of finger food dinner, something that they could eat while they watched the movie, and Eiry would reluctantly join them, hungry for family and willing to watch a horror movie if anything.
Perhaps...No, not perhaps. They will pull together again into a family.
Sucking in a deep breath, Isi sighed and planted his crutches forward, swinging himself into the house that would eventually become his home.
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Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:52 pm
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A Call from the Hospital
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Life in the new home wasn't quite what it used to be like in the old plantation home, but Isi tried his best to make the most it. He stormed about the hallways, trying to determine a new route for all his usual morning duties and habits, and it took a few days to get into a kind of pattern. It was in the middle of the afternoon, one of the weaker parts of the pattern that the home bound boy was trying to muddle through, when he heard the ring of the home phone, which sounded a lot closer in this more close home than it did in the vast space of the plantation place. Isi, hobbling without his crutches against the wall, careful that he didn't make any marks on the new interior painting, made his way to the kitchen where the main land line was located. He picked up the phone, but before answering it, moved himself with his elbows along the length of the counter until he could see himself at the island corner.
About halfway there he pressed the "on" button and said offhandedly into the receiver, "Hold on, hold on. I'm sitting down." It was a regular occurrence whenever he picked up the phone, a few precious moments of silence while Isi sat himself down at the nearest counter top or chair. Once stable, Isi pressed the phone to his ear and glanced to the other side of the kitchen as Eiry, still wilted like a drowning plant, floated through with an empty cardboard box in his arms, remnants of their moving efforts.
"Hey," he said, "Isi here." Then he grew silent.
Eiry turned towards the noise, watching as Isi picked up the phone and went dead silent. He had been busing down leftover boxes as he finished unpacking his personal belongings upstairs, ferreting them away in the garage. Most of the day was spent like that, in dumb mechanical steps, until one thing stopped him: Isi's face. There was something in the sudden paleness of Isi's face, the stretch of his frown and the raise of his brows, that stalled him from floating onwards towards the garage to put away the box. It was mesmerizing to watch, a growing panic that exploded from dread to rage, and with it, a terrible ear-piercing shout. Eiry's pointed ears flinched.
"He WHAT?!" Isi shrieked, and with that, he was up and stumbling away from the counter, scrambling on wobbly legs for the house keys and his wallet. He shoved past Eiry who remained dumb and limp in the doorway.
"What bothers you so?" asked Eiry weakly, steadying himself and the cardboard box in his arms from the awkward shove. He followed after Isi as the boy crawled on the walls towards the front foyer.
"We're coming there right away," said Isi firmly to the phone, and he threw the phone away onto the couch in the nearby living room. Lurching towards his crutches, he applied himself to his helping aid and then turned a terribly frightened and gruesome face to Eiry, who mirrored his face in perfect wonder. He kicked his feet into his sandals and growled, "Eiry, get your jacket, we're going to the hospital."
Immediately, Eiry's gut dropped to the floor beneath him with a nearly audible plop. He felt his breath leave him in a weak and shaky, "Why?" nearly too afraid to ask for anything more than that. He dreaded the answer.
Isi kicked open the door, turning back to give Eiry what could only be described as pure horror, "Rivener's been shot."
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Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:53 pm
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Rage and Worry
MSN RP with Aphismet
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There were many times when Isi defied the slowness in his naturally weakened legs, and this just happened to be another one of him. He was moving nearly as fast as Eiry was, who was sliding along the wall, peaking into other hospital rooms in search for his brother. When Eiry gasped ahead of him and vanished into the wall entirely, Isi knew they had found Riveners room and he threw himself in with such force that he had to catch himself against the wall. "Rivener!" Isi called, his voice high and cracking with shock, "Rivener, what the hell happened?! We got the call!"
Eiry, who pushed himself through the wall at the first sight of red and black, moved over to Rivener's bedside, his wings erect and trembling. He was struggling to keep himself from crying, while, at the same time, fighting to keep himself from twisting his face into a gruesome mask of rage and anguish. "Brother! Brother mine, who dare broke and rendered your body so? Who would dare? Brother!"
Rivener startled at the sudden racket, turning his head towards the door to find the rest of his family. Eiry and Isi both looked distraught, of course, the minty Sigel rushing to Riv's bedside while Isi hollered from the doorway. Heaving a deep sigh of depressed acceptance, realizing that this was only going to be the first of a wave of obnoxious, unwarranted concern for him, Rivener let his eyes slip closed and settled back into the groove of the bed. "...The one who broke me, Eiry, I've already taken revenge on. I don't know his name, it was just some a*****e with a gun." He figured this would answer Isi's question as well: he'd gotten shot, of course. "Aphi's out in the hallway," Riv added, knowing it wouldn't get the two to leave, but half hoping it would. Let Aphi deal with all the sympathy and the worry and all that. Riv turned to stare out the window again, feeling hollow and heavy.
Isi stomped over to Rivener's bedside, pushing Eiry away and through to the other side of the bed. He was awkward and clumsy with his crutches, equal signs to his worry and anger. He loosed one hand from his forearm crutches, letting it slip back into his elbow as he waved and pointed at Rivener as if he were going to sentence him to a time-out, "What the ******** were you thinking?! Guy with a gun?" the boy shouted, "Why the hell were you even around a guy with a gun? What kind of stupid s**t did you get yourself into Rivener? God! You can be so stupid sometimes! Don't you realize that you not only have gotten yourself in deep s**t, but you could've gotten the rest of your family into trouble too? Those kind of sick bastards don't care about anything, Rivener! They could come and kill Aphismet and I in our sleep just to get back at you! Those kinds of guys are sick, and you just "took care of them" like you're doing a ******** load of dirty laundry? I thought you were smarter than that Rivener!"
Eiry, in the meanwhile, couldn't hold himself together any more, and as he was pushed to the side, slipping through the bed and wobbling to the other side, he gave to blink ghostly tears onto his pale face, "For all the world, might I have bequeathed mine own power to you, Rivener, so that you might've let fly that bullet through your manly breast as easily as one might bound through air!"
Like with Aphi, Isi's every word slashed Rivener open like a blade, though this time the Scorpion wasn't raw from the shock of having survived. He managed to hide the pain behind a mask of careful uncaring neutrality, keeping his red eyes angled out the window. Eiry was within his field of vision, crying, and this the Sigel tried to ignore as well... He just wanted them gone. He wanted them ALL gone, he wanted HIMSELF gone, he couldn't deal with any of this anymore. That hollow, heavy feeling was getting worse, and Rivener's shoulders sagged in response. "I know," he said quietly once the young human stopped yelling. He meant it for Eiry too, and he showed this by briefly glancing at the green Sigel. "I know." What else could he say. It was too late to take back anything he'd done, and he doubted he would take any of it back anyway. Being yelled at wasn't going to change anything, it only made him feel worse, but Rivener knew he deserved every harsh word. He didn't try to defend himself: surely Isikoro wasn't done screaming.
"You always think about yourself, don't you? You never think about anyone else unless it means something for you! Now look what you did! You went and got yourself torn up and now there's a BULLET HOLE in you! You think that nobody cares, Riv? Do you think that we just don't care at all about what you do to yourself?" Isi's face was red, his teeth clenched tight, and with a frustrating prod at Rivener's chest, the boy finished his tirade with a growl, "You have a family, Rivener, a family that would do anything for you, a family that tries everything to keep you happy, or keep you safe, and there you go, just parading about like an idiot with nothing else better to do than give us ulcers and unnecessary hospital bills! Dammit, Rivener, we care about you, and I hate...I HATE...Seeing you like this! I hate all of this! I hate this room, I hate this place, I hate hospitals!" And with a terrible growl, Isi clumsily shoved his arm back into his crutch and hobbled away from Rivener's bedside, going instead to find Aphismet. The boy was pale, and underneath all that anger was something else, an easily discernable fear. "Aphi!" the boy called, his voice audible from
the hallway, "When can we take Rivener home? I hate this place! He should be home with us! Not in this dump!"
Eiry was left behind, his face deathly white, and his cheeks stained with streams of tears. He was drifting closer to his brother, and with the gentle lay of his arm and tuck of his head, he gave Rivener a gentle and awkward one arm hug. His shoulders were shaking and as he gave his brother his comfort, he tucked his own wings tight to his back. "Brother, I entertained thoughts of the worst when I heard tell of what ill fortune set itself upon you in the form of a bullet. I'm just....I'm so glad you're not dead, Rivener, my heart aches to...Rivener, I'm so glad..." the minty Sigel crooned, his red eyes still blinking tears that fell onto Rivener's hospital gown.
Rivener let Isikoro go on, though it was becoming harder to pretend nonchalance about all this. It's true, Rivener WAS selfish. He didn't WANT there to be a family that waited and cared and worried. If only that damned stranger hadn't missed, Riv wouldn't need to listen as the short human laid into him like that. Everything was such a pain, so pointless... There was nothing good to climb out of this hole to find anymore. Riv's head hung lower with every scathing word, until Isi left the room to yell at Aphi. Eiry, quite conversely to his guardian, didn't say anything bad at all, simply hurried to cuddle the dark Raevan and croon his relief at Riv's survival. A relief the Scorpion didn't share in the least. He raised his free arm and patted at Eiry's back more out of reflex than anything, red gaze still angled out the window. "I'm alive, Eiry," Rivener said in what he hoped would be a reassuring tone... It came out hollow and insincere, barely veiling Riv's disappointment in the fact.
Aphismet was about to make another phone call (It took a good five or ten minutes per, either because Aphi chatted a bit with the person, or because the chef needed a moment to compose himself before dialing again) when his brother yelled for him. The loud voice in the hallway earned a severe glare from a passing nurse, but it did catch Aphismet's attention. He jogged nearer and sighed, lips drawn tight. "He has to stay here for a while yet, Isi. They need to keep an eye on his wound until it's healed enough that it's not risky anymore. ...Or so they tell me. He can't come home." Not yet anyway. "I'm glad you came, I know this isn't your favorite place." The chef smiled sheepishly upon seeing the pallor in his brother's face.
"I hate this place, I want to get out!" Isi snapped, unable to hide his terror, he glared at any nurse that walked by, daring her to come over and reprimand him for his high volumes, "Rivener's so stupid, I can't....God..." and, in front of his brother, the younger Delaran choked back on his words, his eyes growing misty. He looked up at Aphismet, his cheeks hot, "Why is he so stupid?"
Edging himself so that he lay on the very edge of the hospital bed beside his brother, Eiry kept himself there, underneath the resassuring pat of his hand. He tried to compose himself, and, once he was able to speak again, he swore quietly, "I'll do whatever you need, Riv, if such aid would assist you in your recovery. I want you home." Then he lapsed into silence, just hoping that being there for his brother would somehow get through to him and heal over the wounds of the mind. Brotherly connections were supposed to do that, right? Eiry hoped that his was still strong enough to do just that for Rivener.
Aphismet sighed and walked over to Isi's side, wrapping up the crutch-dependent young man into a big hug. "I don't know, Isi. I don't know why he does these stupid things. C'mon, being all upset isn't going to help him get better any sooner. You should go home, okay? Thanks for visiting him, but I know you're going to be upset if you stay here... I'll keep Riv company and I'll bring him home as soon as possible, I promise. Alright?"
Rivener kept looking out the window, even when Eiry offered everything in his power to help. It was nice of the younger Sigel, of course, but there was nothing that could be done. Rivener's body would have to heal at its own pace. Rivener's heart on the other hand, who knew if that wound was ever going to close. Eiry would be sad, devastated maybe, if Rivener died... The Scorpion couldn't help the guilt. Just one wave of sadness, it'd be better in the long run, he told himself... But out loud, he spoke very differently. "Thank you, Eiry. There's nothing you can do for me, but thank you." Hollow words, as the heavy, chest-constricting feeling grew worse still. Lying to his own brother...
Isi nodded his head, immediately grasping at the opportunity to go back home and away from that awful place. He leaned his weight onto Aphi, breathing tightly as he calmed himself down enough to make the journey back to their new house. Even if Rivener was here in the hospital, even if Aphi would spend many days and nights here too, Isi didn't want to be within these white walls. He wanted out. So, turning away from his brother, Isi started down the hall, "I'm going back home by myself. Eiry will want to stay here sometime more, and you can take him back home when you drop by to get clothes or whatever. I just need to get home right now. I don't want to be here. I'll see you later, Aphi." As he walked away, crutches forced to support his body, he slumped hs shoulders and glanced into Rivener's room. "Eiry, come home later. Rivener...You get better quickly, okay?" he said, and with that, the boy was out of the hospital.
Still lying with Rivener, Eiry refused to leave his side. He would stay there until Rivener needed something, a glass of water, an open window, anything. He nodded at Isi as he left, and instead, he chose to stay with Riv, his own eyes dropping closed as he fought to stave away the burn from the tears. He hoped that he would be of use somehow, perhaps the longer he stayed here, he might actually get a chance to be useful to Rivener.
Aphismet nodded at Isi... How unlucky for them all. This year had been horrible for all of them so far. The chef truly hoped that things would look up soon. "I'll bring Eiry back later, then. Be careful Isi." Aphismet only walked his brother a few steps before letting him go on his own: there were still calls to be made. The white-haired man peeked into the room for a moment before he returned to his chore, smiling sadly at the two brothers cuddled on the bed.
Rivener stayed quiet, pretending he'd fallen asleep. Isi called out his goodbye, announced Eiry would be staying for a while, and Aphi walked away to call more people. If Rivener pretended enough, maybe he would really fall asleep and that would be that. Taking a deep breath, the Scorpion closed his eyes and tried to drift off.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:12 am
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:15 am
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:21 am
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Thank you Brother
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Aphismet A large package was left in front of Eiry's bedroom door this morning... Rivener's Note Merry Christmas Brother! I didn't want to get you more books again, I wanted to try something different. I know you don't like machines much but you're doing better lately, so I thought this one might be okay for you! It's an old music player, and I got you a few old discs of classical music to go with it. Come ask me to show you how it works if you have a hard time with it... I hope you'll like it! Nothing goes with books like classical music, right? 
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:26 pm
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Christmas for the Delarans
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Christmas was an event that even Isikoro looked forward to.
Despite all the recent trauma to their family's living style in the past couple months, what with the moving and the relocating and all the grump in between, they had managed to pull together for the wintertime celebrations. Isi was sure that they didn't believe all the gunk that went behind the holiday, but any excuse to overindulge in food, and not just any kind of food, but Aphisphet's cooking and Isikoro's baking, was something that the Delaran family wasn't going to overlook. Outside it snowed in suburban Durem and inside, the Delaran family hustled about and moved around each other on the main floor, while old time Christmas music was broadcasted by Beauregard the flying red whale. Their small pets and animals had been restored to their home and were sanctioned off to their own special areas. Shalbriri, Eiry's demon sheep, took dominion over the basement with Eiry, and Poe often drifted in between his and Rivener's room to play with Blood. Now, they were at their own meals, recently set in place by Eiry who enjoyed tending to the pets. While he sat on a stool pulled in from the kitchen area so that he could sit at the counter and do his mixing and preparing, Isi watched Aphismet hustle about and crouch over his own food makings in the kitchen, while Rivener drifted about in the living room, non-so-chalantly picking out wrapping paper from the work station that Isi had been wrapping presents at not too long before. Eiry was holed up in the new basement, having made that into a sort of studio for himself and his projects, and there was no doubt that he was working on some elaborate gift or trap that would be discovered later to either the Delaran family's good fortune or irritation. For the moment, Isi breathed in relief for the momentary reprieve of his minty sigel's antics.
Settling into the new home had been a more or less chaotic experience, but once it was done and over with, Isi was able to walk in the halls without his shoulders stiff and pinned by his neck. He finally felt like he was walking in his own house instead of someone else's. Eiry had taken easily to the surroundings, though he still moped and whined about their distance from the marshes. Isi hadn't noticed it before, especially since they were around the marshes since the moment Eiry was first brought into the plantation home, but Eiry looked truly at home in the mist and marshes and when he was taken out of that environment, he looked misplaced. There weren't many ghosts in this place, and while that was both a blessing and a curse to Eiry, he still mentioned in mournful ballads that he longed for his ghostly companions. He hadn't any other friends to really call on, save the precious few that he had made as a raevan, but even those relationships were seldom tended to. Isi made a note to himself to force Eiry out of the safe boundaries of his home more often.
Soon, they would be eating dinner together, all four of them, Eiry and Rivener too, and they would be together. And Isi, who was the least ready for a new place out of all of them, was finally feeling like this house could be home.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:47 pm
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:48 pm
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A Cold Bitter Morning
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Isi wasn't prone to waking up early during winter mornings, as the cold did nothing but intensify his need to stay in bed until the late afternoon, but when Rivener came to his bedroom, carrying Aphismet in his arms, comatose and unresponsive, Isi got up more quickly than he ever had before. He didn't even bother to change out of his big pj shirt and loose plaid pajama bottoms, both worn down to a comfortable softness that Isi soon forgot when he followed after Rivener into the bedroom across from his. Hobbling and slamming into the door frame before he propelled himself to the bedside where Rivener deposited the comatose man, Isi tried to grasp just what was going on, his sluggish mind straining to keep up with the speed of the situation.
"What happened?" Isi had asked, before Rivener gave him a quick and hurried explanation. There wasn't much to be said, and the starting news was backed by Eiry, who floated up through the ceiling, scrambling up through the floorboards to press a disturbing news article into Isi's hands where he came to a sit on the bed beside Aphi's body. The news was all too dreadful for any of them to properly swallow, and Isi had to be broken out of his spellbound hypnosis with the sound of Eiry stifling a worried gasp.
"This is..." Isi began lamely, but he couldn't continue to what he had to say. The boy looked up at the others, knowing that the worry he shared was synonymous with the whole of the Delaran family. There were people they knew and cared about in that facility, and not one of them, not even the most important one of them, had gotten through to them with a comforting call. They were alone, cut off in the dark, but it couldn't be as bad as what those who were missing had to suffer in the cold of the ice bound Lab. <******** hell," Isi muttered helplessly, looking to Aphi. The man was pale and shivering even in sleep, gasping whenever his breathing sped up in the depths of his sleep. Isi put his hand on his forehead, surprised by the cold and grimy feel of his head beneath. Pursing his lips together, Isi edged off the bed so that he could pull the covers out from beneath his body and tuck them over his form.
"Eiry," he said, as Rivener left the room to take control of his thoughts elsewhere in the house, "Get me some water and a moist towelette. And my cellphone. I'm going to try and make a call."
Eiry, on the other hand, drifting near in fretful circles, clung onto the book he was reading in the morning before he was startled by Aphismet's terrible wail and mumble when he found out about the dreadful happenstance at Lab 305. It was J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and while it was entertaining to him then, it was only comforting to him now because it was a familiar and welcome shape that he pressed tight to his chest. he didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen next, but he knew that he had to be there for his family. There were still traces of guilt in his gut, bubbling and gnawing at his insides, from the terror he had put them through nearly a year ago, a memory that still haunted him, and he dared not do anything contrary to his family again.
So it was with a quick skip and a bound, that Eiry sped throughout the house to get whatever it was that Isi wanted, anything to help Aphi, and something more, when he brought up a glass of milk for Isi to enjoy while he waited for Aphi to come to. It wasn't much, but it was something, but still Eiry yearned to do something more. He couldn't sit by and idly wait on orders while others scrambled about desperately trying to do something to aid them all.
When Eiry handed him the cellphone, he was determined to help Isi in anyway he possibly could, and he meant it.
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 2:41 pm
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Calling Zeke----------------------------------- Storei Isi nearly choked on his rush to get a mouthful of words out of his throat and into the phone receiver. "Zeke! Zeke are you there?" he asked pathetically. He was sitting beside Aphi on the bed, his hand on the cook's shoulder in a motion of comfort. The cook had since passed out after having tried every phone number and line at the Lab with no luck, and Rivener had deposited him here in his bedroom on the bed for Isi to watch over. The reality of the situation was only presented to him when he investigated the cause, and it was something that he could hardly believe himself, but the pictures and the chaos was real enough. There was only one more person Isi could think of calling that Aphi had yet failed to call and that was Zeke, the interesting individual who flitted about the Lab whenever Isi stepped in to offer himself for a day of work and chores, and even when he was moping about the Lab while it served him as a make shift home. He hadn't spoken much with the man, a casual conversation here or there, but never an in depth and close meeting. Still, it was enough for Isi to rely on him for honesty, to feel comfortable enough to call him and demand in a cracking and nervous teenage voice, "What the ******** is happening at the Lab?! Do you know anything? Anything at all? Who's in there?"Ravina Loki Once he hung up with Jez, Zeke turned on his heel and began the quick walk to the hall and ultimately his Raevan's bedroom. However, as with Jez's sudden call after he had finished his call with Anita, he didn't get more than a step away before the phone was ringing and alerting him to another number he couldn't place. He didn't hesitate and stopped dead in his tracks, pushing the button and putting the phone to his ear.
"He-" Once more Zeke barely got the first syllable of 'Hello' out before he was being hit with another fearful tone. What's more, again questions were thrown right at him, all of which sent him through a loop. He really have to expect them all, but with how he was feeling, it only felt like he was having a hard time dodging fast obstacles.
"Who is thi--" He cut himself off. It didn't matter who it was (though the voice sounded familiar, there may as well be plenty of foreign voices coming through his phone before the day was out) and instead he shook his head and dove into the heart of the matter. "I-I-I don't know what's going on," he said in that rushed and shaky tone, trying hard now to keep those nerves and touch of worried madness at bay, "all I know is what the news was saying: the Lab's iced over, boiling water froze on contact with it, and there's potentially two people inside plus some developing Raevans." One of which has a reptile for a soul, he remembered, and once more felt his stomach give a sick flop.
It's gotta be just the outside. Just the outside... Storei Isi grit his teeth, suffering through the silent pauses that were Zeke's inhales, only a few seconds long but much longer than Isi could bear to wait. He tried his best to keep quiet, trying vainly to distract himself by looking around his brother's room, which still had a few packing boxes huddled in the corner. Once his gaze landed back on the comatose man beside him, though, Isi couldn't help but interject and bark while the man on the other side of the line tried his best to reply. "This is Isi! I'm trying to figure out where Alex is, or the doctor! Aphi here has had a near break down over what's going on, he's passed out and if I can just figure out what's happened to Alex, then maybe I can placate him or something. It's terrible not knowing where she is! If she's in there...." Isi had to pause as he digested the rest of the information Zeke was giving him, scary details about the situation the Lab was in. If this was anything like what happened when the Lab exploded...Isi had to hold his breath, staving his thoughts off from the thoughts of the unborn raevans tucked in their cases. "Two people...If it's not you and I....It could only be Dr. Kyou and Alex...Or maybe Lazarus..." Isi felt the information given to him did nothing to sate his worry. His grip tightened on the phone and he had to keep himself from looking at Aphismet's face, affixed into a haggard sob that refused to melt away when he was unconscious. Isi's voice dropped down into a whisper, <********, are you going over there?" Ravina Loki "Isi!" Okay, he knew who he was talking to now, and the fact the boy was something of a part-timer at the now iced off building was a relief to him. It was also a help he could put a face to the name, but nothing in his body relaxed. What's more, upon hearing Aphi had passed out as well as finding out even the teen hadn't heard from Alex herself, he began to pace again.
"I-I haven't heard from her either, he began, and quickly paused, realizing how fast his words were coming out and forcing himself to dial that back. "I tried calling her multiple times but each time it went straight to voicemail." Zeke swallowed as everything he was feeling became lodged in his throat in a hard lump, leaving his mouth feel cotton dry and making his voice crack. "Y-You two haven't heard from her?"
He didn't know the details of his sister's break up from Isi's sibling, just that it happened, but even if the separation was hard and painful to bear, he just knew Alex would treat them as among the first she would call in the time of any crisis. It's just how she was. Again his mind drifted to the 'what if she's in there' question and he had to force himself to keep moving - both in body and in mind. No stopping, and again, she was the face of the Lab. She was probably taking calls left and right and would get to his messages soon enough. Just...Just had to be patient and not lose his head.
"I'm holding out hope she's just swamped with a billion calls. I'm in Durem and they have this on Special Report, so everywhere else has to be informed by now." But still, he couldn't be sure and had no way to separate fact from fiction. He didn't know when Alex went in on the weekdays and, given the breakup, there was no way he could ask Isi what time she left either. "I-I've gotten a couple just now myself, so that just has to be the case." He grasped to that idea and didn't want to let it go. It was logical! It made sense! It just...It just had to be the case!
Despite that constant assurance and repeated telling himself, the words did nothing to stop his maniac pacing and soon enough rapid, over-exaggerated swings of his free arm and hand were thrown in too. Only Isi's haggard whisper made the veterinarian make a pause, just because it seemed like the boy knew him quite well even though they had only had passing 'hellos' after all this time.
"I...I am." His voice dropped and matched the teen's, almost like this was now a huge secret and taboo among them. Zeke turned on his heel just in time to see that lady reporter come back on screen, live at the scene and standing before that barricade of police cars and white wooden horses stamped with the Gambino police department's logo. "Th-They have a blockade set up down there and probably all the way around the Lab. I don't know how close I could get but..." His voice trailed off as it broke again and filled him with cottonmouth. He had to let Isikoro fill in the blank, but he was sure the teen was sharp enough to know the words even if he had been able to complete them. But I have to try. Storei Thoughts, aimless and scattered, tried to pull themselves together in Isi's head, shouting strands of advice that he couldn't understand. Biting his lip, he switched ears with the phone since he had pressed so hard to the other ear that it was stinging and red. He rubbed at his earlobe, trying to think of something intelligent to say. "She hasn't called us, we haven't heard anything at all and I don't know when it was last that she and Aphi talked," he didn't like the sound of his voice when he said that, shaky and desolate, already convinced of the dark and morbid. Isi knew, just like everyone else who knew the recently bonded and even more recently broken relationship between Aphi and Alex, that she would have called them first in an emergency like this. She wouldn't leave the Delaran family, especially Aphi, in the dark during a trying time when it would be her first instinct to call them, to pacify their worries and tell them what was going on. Something had to have happened to her, something had to have happened in the white bound building that was Lab 305. But what could have choked out enough ice to cover the entirety of the Lab? It was a haunting question, one that Isi couldn't convince himself to think straight about. It had to be something unnatural, it couldn't have been just a freak accident of weather, and perhaps it was, like the explosion in the Lab, linked to a raevan. It had to be that. Isi's gut rolled beneath his ribs, making him curl over onto his lap, as he brought up the raevans that he knew, raevans that were on file, that could possibly be responsible for the ice over.The ice rose raevan was the first that came to mind, a cute and quiet little thing, that was born near the same time that Eiry was. And beyond that was...was Roux. But he was gone away, far away, with Chloe, Isi's friend from distant childhood, his only friend really in the place that was their Orphanage. Isi didn't want to think more than that and he wiped it all from his mind. It didn't matter who did it, not now. What mattered was that the people inside the Lab were safe from harm. But how could they get inside if it was frozen solid? Of course...Something that wasn't solid. Isi turned to Eiry, who was pacing nearby, hugging a book to his chest and looking out of sorts as he tossed his head from the couch and then towards the doorway he last saw Rivener. "Zeke," he said, after a time that he had been quiet on his side of the phone, breathing with difficulty as he tried to calm himself down, "If you're going to the Lab, perhaps Eiry can help you get there. He can go through anything solid, he can get you past the authorities. He can get you to the Lab."Ravina Loki Zeke felt his gut clench again as Isi said those damning words. He didn't blame the kid for not remembering, but it still made him bite his tongue behind his lips in frustration.
"It's okay," he said in a soft tone, hearing the hollowness in Isi's voice and not wanting the teen to immediately fall to those dark imaginings. "It's not your fault you don't know. L-Like I said, she probably got swamped with phone calls before she was able to call anyone herself." Logic, logic, logic.
As he paced, Zeke finally remembered what Anita and Jez had asked about this perhaps being done by a Raevan. As he had told Anita, the only one he could recall having ice based powers was Zul, but now that he was going back and forth and recalling, he remembered he was in fact mistaken. Zurine had an Ice Rose for her Essence but he felt that it couldn't be her as much as it couldn't be Zul. Perhaps if the Lab had been covered in a mass of ice roses, but instead it was a castle.
"A couple calls I took," he said somewhat suddenly, "the people who called asked if this could maybe have been done by a Raevan. The only two I know who have ice Essences most likely couldn't have done this." Not solely as a matter of personality, but also power. A Frei covering an entire building in a few short hours? They'd wear themselves out and probably have been collapsed at the scene and found by now. This was an assumption of course, but beneath the churning and turning, Zeke felt like this gut feeling was correct.
"S-So I think--" He fell silent as Isi interjected, listening with widening eyes as the teen spoke of his Raevan. Eiry...Eiry...He remembered that name and seeing the Raevan it belonged to from what felt like eons ago. And he could help get into the building? Zeke felt a glimmer of a smile tug at his lips but it fell as he caught the news and their replay of the firefighters with their hot water hoses. The camera crew got a great shot of the water freezing into ice on contact and Zeke felt his heart sink again. The idea was a great one on paper, but there were always going to be certain kinks in a plan. The one he was thinking of was much too important to him to risk.
"The fire crews blasted the building with boiling hot water, Isi, and it froze on contact." He pulled his eyes from the screen to the way that lead to the hallway. He remembered what had happened during the sudden temperature drop at the beach party and knew that even if he could go down there, Anya herself wouldn't be able to get too close. The cold, the wind, the ice... Since this was very much looking like it wasn't natural, that fact about his Raevan was especially pertinent. This unnatural ice could be a one-hit KO to his heat-loving Frei and the vet bit his lip as that frustration took a larger hold. He wanted to help - desperately so - but he couldn't put his Raevan's life in any danger.
"Your idea could work, but my own Raevan can't handle cold for long. She..." 'She's the virus' was on his lips, but he bit that back. He wasn't sure if Isi knew of that detail, but even though it was the reason why she couldn't take the chill he wasn't about to add anymore stress on the boy. Now wasn't the time. "She just can't last very long in the cold, and if boiling water freezes on contact...I don't even want to imagine what going too close or even in there would do to her." That was just too cold, would add to the potentially injured count, and he wouldn't leave Anya by herself during this, no matter how well behaved she generally was when on her own.
But even if that was the case on his end, it didn't mean the idea Isi had wasn't still viable.
"I think you're on to something, th-though, so don't drop that." Eiry could get inside. Boiling water couldn't melt it, but if the Raevan could get through solids... "If Eiry can get inside and have brought me along with him, then it's possible for him to get everyone out, right? He can probably do that a lot easier without having me to worry about, especially i-if it's just as solid inside as it is outside." Everyone had their limits, even Raevans, and even if Eiry could get everyone stuck inside out with him and have gusto to spare, Zeke wanted all the Sigel's energy and strength to go toward those trapped and them alone. Storei Isi knew the details of the ice-covered building, the way that ice seemed to freeze and suck the heat out of everything that touched it, a backward and ravenous vampire-like effect, but he had no idea what kind of effect it would have on his raevan. There seemed like there was nothing that could stop his raevan so far. He would drift through walls, through earth, through trees, through people, through any household object, anything of solid matter at all, and that alone was reason for Isi to hope. There wasn't anything that Isi could rationally think that could stop Eiry...But then he remembered Rivener. Rivener could sink his ghostly venom into Eiry, make him sick, and tear him out of his insubstantial state. But what exactly triggered the effect was beyond Isi's simple thinking mind. There was one other, like Rivener, who could hold Eiry down when he was intangible and that was Zul. There was that time during the virus outbreak, a terrible and nightmarish wakening that stopped Eiry with the clasp of ice around his wrists. That was Zul, though, a raevan, and Isi didn't bother to think it through that perhaps it was more than just the raevan who stopped his ghostly sigel. All Isi could think about was that chance, that slim and feather-weighted chance that Eiry could break in and get to the precious people inside. "If you can't bring your raevan inside as well, that's fine, leave her in the car, or something, if you absolutely have to have her with you," Isi said, clutching onto the phone as if he were clutching onto a literal life line. He tried to bring up images of Zeke's raevan, a lavender haired girl, who unsettled Isi when she adjusted the legs on her head. She seemed sweet besides that though, from the few brief glances he had of her. He couldn't remember why she didn't like cold, though, for the life of him. He pressed on, "If you can just watch Eiry from afar, track his progress so that he's not alone in case anything happens, then that's all you can do. But still, we have to try, anything to get to them before they die of pneumonia or something worse!" By this time, he had gained Eiry's attention and the ghostly sigel floated closer to him, sewing both his lips and his brows together with worry. He gave a slow and quiet nod, his bright red blood eyes intense with the purpose he was slowly coming to realize that was being heaved onto his shoulders by his panicky guardian. Isi locked his eyes with the red gaze of his raevan, nodding at him as he spoke with Zeke on the phone, weaving some kind of plan, "I'll send Eiry over with my cellphone, he's hard to miss, but just in case you two don't find each other, you can call to find where he is. Meet up with him, and try to get inside, just watch over him as he tries. If anything happens, if he gets inside, or if he doesn't, call me. Alright, Zeke? You need to call me and tell me what's going on!"Isi looked down to his brother beside him, the white-haired man who was still locked in a fitful faint. "I need to stay here and watch over Aphi. I can't leave him alone.
But Eiry will come in my stead. Please, watch over him."Ravina Loki "I can't leave her home and I won't leave her in the car either, and that was the parent-side of the guardian speaking, "but I can do that!" He'd drive as close as he could to the side of the barricade that was closest to the Lab. That was his plan all along, but he could also keep an eye out for Eiry. Not hard, especially as the Sigel in question was a prominent green. Yes...he could do that, for sure, but as Isi snapped about death and pneumonia Zeke simultaneously flinched and got an idea.
"If I'm outside, I can tell the police or someone that there could possibly be more people than they think in there. Plus, that way, I can also field anymore calls that come in and give more information back to those who called me already. If all the lines are dead inside the Lab, then we'll need someone outside to keep everyone up to date and the news just won't cut it."
As he spoke this idea, his voice evened out for the time being and became firm. This was a plan, this was in motion, and while when the call ended he'd quickly go right back to being a nervous wreck while getting everything ready and leaving, for now he felt like he had something solid and something that could work within reach. It'd just take some time to get down there, but once more his mind was a whirl of ideas, possibilities, and the plan at hand.
"I understand." Zeke said as Isi entrusted him with his Raevan's safety. It wouldn't be hard to watch the Sigel, though the barricade would be a physical challenge to get by. However, he would do his damnedest to make sure this all went okay. It had to. For everyone inside, no matter who they be. "I promise I'll keep you informed of whatever goes on. I'll watch over Eiry and how about I come pick him up too? You're in Durem too, right? I'm sure he wants to get everyone out as fast as we do and traveling together would make it just that much easier on everyone." He didn't give Isi any time to reply to that idea, because to Zeke it was spot on and just made everything flow much better. What's more, his nerves were forcing their way to the calm the formation of the plan had brought. "Have him look out for a silver Aston Martin. That'll be me, and the car shouldn't be that hard to spot, but I'll also blow the horn when I get there."
He looked at the tv again and finally shut it off. Time was wasting - time that shouldn't be wasting - and now that they had a plan, they had to put it in motion as soon as possible. For that to happen, he had to get off the phone.
"I'm going to get everything together now, okay? I'll be out the door as fast as I can and getting down there as fast as I can. Remember, it's a silver Aston Martin that Eiry should keep an eye out for, but for now go take care of your brother, Isi, and I promise I'll keep you posted." Storei "Eiry doesn't like cars...But he should know how to handle it by now. He will be outside," Isi said after giving the man his address, but after that there wasn't much else to say. He tried to gape a few moments, summon some words that would be appropriate to say, but even bidding him goodbye felt like he was saying goodbye for once and for all. The boy managed to swallow despite the thick layers of spit in his throat. "Find them," he said, and that was the last he said to Zeke. There was a click, and the phone call was done, and Isi handed over his cellphone to Eiry, unable to tell his raevan goodbye. "Be safe." ----------------------------------- |
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